Mason

The car came to its first blockade after about five minutes. Our parents had instructed us to get on the car floor while they draped several blankets on top of us. The bins on the floor were moved to the seats, and we waited. When it was our turn, I heard the window roll down.

"Afternoon, Officer Plait," my father greeted his coworker. I had met him a few times, and he was an overly friendly man.

"Afternoon, Sergeant Lee," he greeted. "As protocol I do have to state your intended destination, license, papers, number of passengers in your car and names of passengers, and where you are traveling from."

"Of course, Officer." The shuffling for information and answering questions began to wear on my knees, hands and curled back. We tried to remain as still as possible as the back windows rolled down to allow access for them to see in the back. "It is just me and my wife, Emery Lee. We are on our way to pick up our two kids, Sunja Lee and Mason Lee from Oakridge High School."

"And the trunk is filled with what exactly? Awfully a lot of stuff to pick up your kids, Sergeant."

"The kids' school was asking for donations for the children's hospital since they were running low on supplies. We thought that we'd drop it off while we swung by to pick the kids up. No need to stop by twice," Mom chuckled to him. "You know how kids are about waiting til the last minute to tell you things."

"Can't say I disagree with you! Waylen waited til the last minute to tell us that he needed to bring cookies to his school party today. That was last night at nine o'clock!" he said with a chuckle. "I literally had to run to the store and grab some. It wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't have to do these roadblocks, I tell you! Damn muties ruining everything." Our parents let out a nervous chuckle, as did he. A slap hit the inside of the car, making me nearly jump from it. "Anyways, you all are free to go. Tell those kids of yours I said hello. When things clear up, we need to get back together again. Angela keeps asking when you all are going to come over for dinner. See you all when you come back, Sergeant. I'll probably still be on blockade duty."

"Of course. Take care, Officer. Tell Angela we'd love to have you all over as well." The windows rolled up, and we all sighed in relief. The car rolled on, and after a few minutes, I felt the blankets coming off my back. We sat back on the seats in silence for several minutes. I tapped Reese's shoulder.

"We need to talk about what happened earlier."

"What about it?" she waved her hand, like everything The Overseer had told us was unimportant. Like our quest was optional.

"I think we need to do it. She said you knew why this was all important. The Overseer told us where to go and who to talk to-"

"'Talk to.'" She rolled her eyes. "Say I want to help this 'Overseer.' What exactly are we going to do? We can't just stroll in there." She gestured dramatically before swinging on me. Her finger pointed at our parents. "And don't say, 'we tell them.' They can't be involved even if I agree to help."

"Why are you so adamant on them not knowing?" I throw my hands outwards.

"Why are you so adamant on doing this quest?! We are kids and technically fugitives by tomorrow." Her movement is sharp like daggers.

"They are our parents, Reese. They will know what to do. They can help us!"

Her eyes narrowed with four canines peeking over her lips. "Cause you haven't seen what I've seen throughout the years! The night before we got all this I saw-"

She stopped but I urged her on. "Saw what?"

Her face fell, her lips turned downward so far that it might as well have looked permanently stuck. An overwhelming amount of sadness hit me that my eyes began to water. I don't know how I could understand her through the tears, but I could visually see the soulless eyes, gaping mouths, animal parts dismembered from the body and every one of them were kids no older than nine or ten. Then it was gone as her hands fell to her sides unmoving.

I tapped the seat next to her to get her attention but she remained fixated on the scenery. The plan was to travel to our cousin's house in the next state over, away from Washington. Away from the Academy that took mutants like us in. I understood now why she did not want to go and why she wanted to run away.

"Sunja," I whispered just above the soft jazz music our parents turned on, which was to help lighten the mood. To act like everything is normal and we were just going on vacation.

Her eyes met mine through the window before she slowly turned to me. Her words cut me off first, "I don't want that to happen. Whatever I'm seeing up here, I don't understand it or what it means. But if we leave far away from all of this then... maybe it'll stop."

"So what? Just keep running until you hit the east coast? What then? What if it doesn't stop? What if the organization spreads to every part of the world? Where are you going to run to then?"

"I don't know! I don't know." Her eyes watered and her hands were shaky as she signed. Her head fell into her hands as her body shook silent tears. I gripped the seat as I sighed to myself, staring at the GPS in the front seat. The car slowed down due to evening traffic.

I just don't want anyone I care about to die.

The voice rang out in my head again. That same feminine voice that had cried out in pain earlier that day was here again. My parents stirred in the front and glanced in the rearview mirror. Our mom looked at us from her passenger seat, her hands intertwined with our father's.

"No one is going to die," she informed us, like she held all the answers to our questions and knew the future. But that also meant she heard the voice as well since I knew no one had spoken. Unaware of my side eye to Reese's shock face, she turned back to the front.

"How did?-I didn't- How?!" Reese's hands were shaking, her voice practically screaming. They can hear my thoughts. Why can they hear my thoughts?! Why is it so loud?! Stop! STOP!

The car jerked to a stop, the car following close behind us swerved into the next lane, narrowly missing us but hitting another car in the process. I roughly grabbed her shoulder, shaking my fifteen year-old sister to snap out of it. Angry voices yelled from outside, pointing at our car with fists. Our parents exchanged a look before the car lurched forward, speeding away from the incident.

"Reese, look at me. It's going to be okay," I informed her.

"That was Reese?!" our mother exclaimed, whipping her head to look at us. "What the hell- I didn't mean to say that!"

She breathed heavily through her nose with her eyes closed, a technique that always seemed to calm her. I responded on her behalf, "Yes. I think she can speak verbally in our minds."

"We can discuss this all later when we are out of trouble," our father stated from the front.

Red and blue lights lit the evening sky behind us. Our father muttered a curse word in Korean before quickly turning a street corner, barely sideswiping another vehicle in the process.

"Careful!" our mother shrieked as he sped down the street, dodging other cars and making illegal turns.

"Honey, I do this for a living. I know what I'm doing."

The car swerved into a tight street before taking another turn into an old parking garage, he immediately killed the lights as he drove up to the second floor and parked next to a car that had a tire missing. There were still quite a few cars around despite it almost being completely dark. Our father motioned for us to get from the windows as we waited. One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes passed by before he deemed it safe to sit up.

"Okay, talk. You two are clearly not telling us everything," our father's harsh tone ordered. I looked to our mother and she too was inspecting us both with a hard look. The two were twisted in their seats while Reese and I had our heads hung low. I glanced at Reese but she was not even looking at me, instead she was staring into her lap and playing with her fingers.

"Like I said, Reese can speak through our minds. And uh, somehow transfer emotions? I'm not quite sure either and I don't think she knows either," I explained slowly. My eyes shifted between the two, my shoulders shrugged. "That's all I know, unless there's something Reese needs to add."

Our attention turned to Reese. Her body was tense momentarily until she shook her head quickly. I was not sure if it was because I was going to mention the quest or if there was something more, more that not even I knew. Whatever was bothering her, she moved away and towards the door with closed eyes.

Our father sighed, watching her for a few seconds before glancing at the two of us. "I'll get some food out for dinner from the back."

The plan to head to Washington tonight was postponed, and we decided to lay low and continue tomorrow morning.