Inside the Sandy Van
“Cameron, it looks like trouble has caught up to us.” Dr. Wilson said as he glanced behind him with the mirrors on the van. “There’s a helicopter heading our direction and fast.” The older man said as he urged the van to move faster down the street. Although they didn’t have to worry about the disadvantage of other cars being in the way due to the road being nearly clear, there was another issue at hand with the surrounding area open without a place to take cover. With the helicopter quickly making its way towards them, he knew that trouble wouldn’t much further behind it.

“I’m surprised how quick their response time is, especially after being out of commission for so long.” Cameron said with a hint of surprise which was quickly dismissed as his attention moved towards the situation at hand. How many were after them and who all were with them. He knew without a doubt that the hawk faced Sanders would be there along with a few of his men but what of Team Bravo. Would Pearson grant them permission to join in on the first real confrontation or was the team grounded and sent to their rooms as a parent would do to a child. As vehicles started to appear in the mirror, he knew that there wouldn’t be much more time before he received his answer. “If I remember right, the clearing will end shortly as the road makes its way into a thicket. It won’t be much but it’ll be better than staying out on open ground. See if you can make it there before we are stopped. I hope the preparations you made beforehand with Garret will work out because that will be our only chance to escape with everyone because I doubt Josiah will be able to transport us all in time especially since he is quickly tiring out after all we have done.” After receiving a nod of understanding from Wilson, Cameron entered the middle compartment and opened the first compartment and grabbed a small box with a switch on top. Preparation was the key to success and Cameron made sure to have a backup plan in case a situation such as this arose.

~.~

As she listened to the older man and the man that seemed to be nicknamed Stretch talk, Jenna could feel herself wanting to interject into the conversation but without knowing exactly where she stood, she wasn’t as confident as the others to speak up but instead listened to what everyone said and started to make sense of it all. Giving a slight nod towards Sam as she spoke about not trusting them based on the words, Jenna wondered who she should trust. She knew, or at least hoped, that she could trust the others that have been thrusted into the situation that they found themselves but when it came to Carter and the team he worked with compared to Stretch and ragtag team, she wondered who she could really trust. You’re supposed to trust the government and with that ideology she felt compelled to put her trust with Carter but the talk that Garret brought up about the former team led her to believe that the situation was much messier on who exactly was the team based on good. However her attention was quickly adverted as the sound of pain came to her attention as she saw that the previously sobbing woman seemed to injure her head.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jenna asked with a slight reassuring smile, hoping that she would be able to calm woman down whom seemed to be taking the situation the hardest, at least outwardly. Jenna’s expression quickly changed as she got a better view of the woman and with her head cocked slightly to the side, she spoke. “Wait a second. Don’t I know you?” Jenna said as she tried to figure out where she saw the woman before. “Oh wait, I kno—woah!” Jenna exclaimed as the van was suddenly nudged to the side. Knowing that the nudge wasn’t something normally seen in driving, she spoke up to the rest of the group. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Trouble.” Josiah said with a shake of his head and opened the door behind him before quickly grabbing ahold of the side of the door frame for balance as the van was hit again, this time with more force. “How many?” Josiah asked as he saw Cameron already in the compartment, with the box already out of sight.

“There’s a chopper in the sky and I believe three SUVs but I doubt that will be all. I have a feeling that reinforcement won’t be too far behind.” Cameron said allowing Josiah and Daniel to pass him to retrieve some items within the compartment before making his way towards the back. Yet another strong thud was felt again, this time with a second, lesser hit from the left side which Cameron knew meant that there was another vehicle on the other side now.
It was showtime.

Cameron only hoped that the van was able to make it into the thicket. “Listen, I know we haven’t had much time to get introductions out of the way and show that we’re the ones to be trusted an all but they have guns and Supers like us mostly likely with them—“

“Yeah, I can feel Arron and Ben’s power amongst them.” Daniel said yelled from the compartment.

“Alright, besides the obvious guns, we have a man that can control your emotions while the other is able to create a rock hard shell so be careful. I’m not going to lie and say that everything is going to be alright, it’s dangerous getting in the middle of a heated battle like this. Don’t be stupid or heroic and keep your heads down and head towards the thicket. That will be the safest place until—“ However before Cameron could finish speaking, the van was hit again, this time causing it to lose control and swerve before tipping to its side. With the back door ajar and light streaming in from the headlights of the SUVs, Cameron quickly stood up in a daze but didn’t take a moment to hesitate as he knew that he couldn’t waste time. With Garret and Daniel quickly following behind, Josiah paused just enough to urge the toppled over Supers to the thicket before following the others.

“Seriously, another accident? What’s going to happen this time because of it?” Jenna said as she groaned to a standing position. She could feel a cut on her right arm and scrapes and bumps on her and although she felt extremely sore and in pain, she knew she was lucky not to be severely hurt. As the sound of bullets rang, Jenna instinctively ducked down as she wondered what the next course of action would be. Escaping seemed to be a good idea at the moment, which is if the group was able to find a way to escape the two groups without being seen. The thicket seemed like a good idea to escape to as she wondered if it would be safe to venture in that direction.

Despite the action surrounding the sandy van, Adam didn't have a very good idea of exactly what was happening until he felt the repeated impacts. From his position at the back of the van he wasn't too sure about exactly what his captors were saying, but an inkling did leak through to him: they were under attack. Adam found it ludicrous that suddenly prisoner and captor were on the same side, assailed by some unknown forced that somehow managed to be more intimidating than the men in SWAT gear that had kidnapped him. He also understood that there were more 'supers' among the people in the van -in fact, at this point he suspected that there wasn't a single occupant without powers- as well as among those slamming into the vehicle. A rising sense of worry clouded his thoughts.

However, his thoughts were quite suddenly interrupted by the upending of the van. After a bit of chaotic tumbling, in which Adam saw nothing but felt a great deal of pain, he fell to the floor in a spray of sand. The sudden appearance of light, blindingly brilliant after his extended stay in the darkness of the vehicle, only heightened his confusion. From his daze he didn't really comprehend what the others were saying; in fact, he only started to register sight and sound when the clashing of bullets against still shocked him out of it. At first, he was skeptical. He had never seen a firearm in his life outside of movies and a few police officers. It took a moment to occur to him that he was very likely going to die. When that realization struck him, he released a terrified bellow along the lights of "uuuuuh!"

In response to his panic, the sand within the van suddenly exploded outward, creating a cloud of dust around the vehicle's position that could momentarily throw off the shooters' aim. Into this cloud Adam rushed, still afraid, after the others that had left before him. Like them he headed for the thicket, subliminally hoping to find protection amid the brambles. During the rush, he dimly felt a sharp pain in his left calf, like a bug bite, but ignored it for the time being.

Vida looked up at the girl that started to talk to her. She wasn't sure what to say to the girl, she seemed somewhat familiar in a sense. Though... if she had been living in the city there was a high chance that at some point she had seen her at work or just passing by, then again they were on the same bus so she might just remember her from then. The girl started to say something like how she remember her, but before she could finish the van was hit. Vida caught herself before she went face first into the floor. An improvement! The van was struck over and over and each time Vida was able to keep some form of balance by having her hands and knees on the floor. "Ah Ha" she exclaimed excited by her amazing skill.

"Uh.. No.. no. no, no, no! AHH!" She scrambled to keep herself fixed in one spot, but it was impossible now with the van turning on it's side. She slammed hard into the side of the van that was now the floor. She was sure something had to be cracked or broken, but to her surprise the pain melted away quickly. She looked around now to the others finally getting a good look at them all around her. They looked mangled laying in a pile from the wreck. That images didn't last long as people started to get up and make a run for it. "I can't stay" She said out loud getting up to follow the others. When she stepped through the door to see the outside her eyes tried to focus on the lights to see what they were. Then she heard it. The sound of a gun and a bullet connecting to a nearby object. "EH!" She hid back in the van not wanting to leave the safety of it's walls. "Scary, scary, scary.. why so many scary people? Why are we being shot at? I don't know.." She put her hands on either side of her head since it felt like it was going to explode.

Gathering up her courage she peered outside again just in time to see the girl that had spoke to her earlier disappear into the thicket. "No... wait!" She didn't have time to think about her next move. The people shooting at them were going to kill her if they got her and if she stayed they would get her for sure. She bolted out of the van and ran in a dead sprint for her van companions. The adrenaline pumping through her veins kept her from feeling more than bee stings as she ran away. "Don't leave me!" She yelled clearly not wanting to be left behind.

Just as she felt as though she would begin to understand the circumstances controlling her life, those circumstances were forcibly jumbled by the impact of vehicles against their would-be rescuers. She'd seen it before in movies, but was unprepared for the reality. The action star was always able to keep the vehicle on track, no matter who was trying to run him off the road. He always managed to foil at least two or three of them, sending them careening off into the ditch with impressive explosions and stock screams. But this was no movie, and their driver was not a professional stunt man. Her mind engaged from the first nudge, but she had nothing to use. Her captors were unpredictable, and without her tools she could not hope to be of any help.

The brief struggle for control ended when the van was taken off its wheels. Sam tried to keep her balance, but the interior of the van rotated without warning. She bounced off of the roof and landed hard. She heard sharp cracks and pops, people yelling. For her, the world stopped.

"Head to the thicket." was all she heard before the rush of blood drowned her ears. The sting she'd felt earlier receded as she went into shock. There was a strange wonder in it; how everything else seemed so far away now. Her vision swam as she struggled to maintain balance.

Head hurts, she mused. Not much time.

The gunmen would never be able to target them through the cloud of sand, and if Sam had had her wits about her she would have known that. She certainly would have had the presence of mind to retrieve her notebook from between the seat cushions. Instead, she scrambled through the open door and wound her way through to the thicket.

---

Sunday, 11:44

The blurred vision is what was so sickening. Ester's eyes slowly crusted open, as she was in an emergency hallway, the blinding lights hurting her vision more. Ester moaned, and moved her head from side to side. 'Ma'am!' The nurse on her right said. 'Ma'am, oh thank god you're alive!' Ester's whole body was aching badly, and she didn't know why. 'What the hell happened?' Ester said. The bed soon stopped and Ester was propped up. 'What happened?' Ester asked. 'We found you on the side of the street. An Accident happened.' The nurse responded. 'No... No I gotta go...' Ester muttered. "Ma'am!" The nurse said sternly. 'You need to stay here.' Ester grabbed the metal railing of her bed. 'No. I need to go!' She said loudly. 'You stay here, i'll be right back with painkillers.' The nurse said, walking out of the room.

'Holy Shit..' Ester muttered, quickly taking her hand off the rail. 'Need to go...' She muttered, climbing out of her bed. 'Need to get out of here... Holy Shit I need to leave.' Ester noticed she was still in her clothes, and ran off. Ester soon noticed that she was back at the sight of the crash and took a gander at it. Ester sighed and ran off, leaving the crash sight behind.

1 WEEK LATER, 11:30.

Ester sat in her apartment home, her head ringing like crazy. 'Ice Queen Est, Ice queen!' She muttered, gripping her kitchen table slightly. 'I gotta sit down...' She thought, making her way to her couch and flopping onto it. Her head ached like crazy. 'Am I sick?' Ester asked herself, feeling her rather hot head. 'No... Something a little worse...' A Male voice suddenly responded. Ester quickly jolted up. 'What the hell... GET OUT!' She yelled. The man suddenly vanished in the blink of an eye. A Male hand suddenly landed on Ester's mouth, and a needle in her neck followed after. 'Shhh...' The man said. 'Shhh... I'm not the enemy...' Ester's vision and consciousness began to fade, and soon enough, everything blacked out.

---

Ester soon heard voices, her vision coming into motion. She soon jolted up and noticed she was in a toppled over van. The sound of guns firing and yelling rang in her ears, and disoriented her. 'What...' She muttered. 'What, what's happening?'. She slowly made her way out of the van and into what looked like a dust cloud. 'HELLO?!' Ester yelled. 'Where am I?' she asked herself as she kept close to the van, but noticed silhouettes of people moving towards a thicket. 'Wait for me!' Ester said loudly, running towards the thicket and the other people. Ester felt a sudden chill within her, she just felt... cold. 'Shit... It's freezing, Ester said, holding her upper arms and moving quickly towards the thicket.

When Pat heard, his mind immediately went to thoughts of police arriving and freeing them all from this van. The thought of his time being kidnapped finally ending felt a bit surreal, he had actually grown to like his captors a little bit. Pat even considered shortening his victory jig while Stretch and Co were carted off to prison. Then the van was hit for the first time and Pat realized things weren't going to be that simple. Pat managed to hit his head on the side of the van when it was hit the second time. After that, all Pat remembers is waking up with the van on its side and everyone running out the back.

As Pat struggled to his feet, he tried to remember what that one captor had said they should do in this situation. The hit on his head had left him with a lovely bump and a pounding headache. It was no migraine, but it still dulled his mind enough that concentration was difficult. Let's see here the man said to... run for the thicket and not to do anything heroic. For some reason I don't think the latter will prove much of a problem. Pat wasn't sure why everyone was leaving the relative safety of the van to run towards a thicket because their captors instructed them to. But it was better to be an idiot with the group than to be alone in a battlefield, so Pat reluctantly ran after them.

In the Midst of the Gunfire
“Of course they’d choose to leap out of the van with guns ablaze.” Aaron said as he gave an uneasy, disapproving shake of his head as he watched his former comrades pile out of the tipped van. Although he couldn’t see Dr. Wilson as of yet, he had a feeling that the older man wouldn’t be too far behind. With the van slamming to a stop, he allowed Sanders and the man sitting in the passenger seat exit the vehicle before him as he carefully observed the new Supers.

“Did you see them?” Ben said as he took a careful count of the group as they made their way towards the thicket not too far away from the van while the two groups kept themselves occupied with each other. Out of the center of the danger, Ben hoped that none of them were too seriously injured throughout the incident, knowing that it probably won’t help them in their case in gaining the Gen. Charlie’s trust.

“Yeah, you’re probably our best bet on going after them. I’ll stay here and help Sanders out with these guys.” Aaron said exiting the vehicle. Taking a deep breath in preparation of what was to come, he felt an itch start to form seconds later that grew stronger in intensity and consumed his whole body. Although he described the itch to others in comparison to having the worst rash he ever had along with chicken pox while in the midst of being bit by a swarm of mosquitoes, he though the intensity of body consuming itch seemed to reach the point of actually being painful. However as he watched the composition of his skin change and scale like protrusions started to form, Aaron knew the discomfort was worth the outcome. As the painful itch started to subside, he could feel the itch concentrated around his hand start to grow until the pain started to focus on the tips of his finger and as the pain started to grow, he watched as his transformation continue as his nails started to grow. Although his nails only grew a few inches, it made up in it’s sharp edges and the thickness and strength.

As Ben made it about halfway towards the thicket he saw Dr. Wilson scramble out of the van, his age obviously catching up to him especially after the fiasco he had been through. As the older man hobbled towards the tree line, a familiar voice broke his voice as he looked toward his prior comrade.

“It’s been awhile Aaron? How’s the girlfriend?” Josiah said in a taunting voice, emphasizing the mistake he already knew he made.

“Wife” Aaron said as he prepared for an oncoming attack coming from any direction.

“Oh yes, I never did get an invitation to your wedding. What a shame, especially after knowing each other for all these years.”

Hidden Within the Thicket
“Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. What are we going to do? What’s going to happen…”

Repeatedly mumbling to herself as she ran, Jenna kept her eyes focused on the ground and on the person running in front of her as she averted her eyes from the scene that was taking place as she knew that doing so would send her into a deeper panic than she already was. As the tree line approached her, she was surprised to see that she made it in one piece and without tripping and falling as she entered the thicket. Away from the heat of the battle, Jenna slowed down to a walk as she made her way a little deeper into the forest, glad to find that there were no blackberry bushes or other sharp bramble in the way as she made her way with the light from the moon. Although they were not far from the road, they were far enough away from the ruckus that was happening that she felt a little better.

“What are we going to do?” Jenna said looking at the others knowing that they were probably too far away to run for help, although at this point she wasn’t sure what kind of help would be able to help her in this situation. “Which group can we even trust? I don’t even know.” Jenna said as she looked around at the others as she wondered what their thoughts were on the situation at hand. “If any of you could make us invisible or teleport us like that one man, that would be perfect right now.”

~.~

“At his age I shouldn’t be doing this.” Dr. Wilson said as he started to make his way towards the thicket just as he saw the Charlies head towards moments before. With the others involved with the TSP, Dr. Wilson knew that it was up to him to handle the new recruits and stop Ben before he tried to find them as well. Looking back towards Cameron, he gave a small nod of understanding towards the man which was reciprocated shortly afterwards. If things became too hectic, Dr. Wilson was glad to see that there was a backup plan already being set in place if the situation called for it and by the way things were going between his team and Sander’s men, it seemed unavoidable. He only hoped by the end of this that the Charlies would be with them so that they wouldn’t have to head back to the city and try to retrieve them yet again. Once was more than enough for him, especially since his roles wasn’t supposed to out in the field but rather back at the base. “:My back is going to be killing me tomorrow.”

The first sound Jakob made since their abductors teleported him into the van was a loud, deep, "umph" as he was thrown up against the side of the van as it tipped over. He felt its frame bend as his full weight was thrown against it, and he was sure he would have broken a rib or two - if he wasn't a freak made of stone, that is. As it was, Jakob could barely feel a thing. He wished he could feel the pain, if only to confirm that, besides his outward appearance, he was still human.

As soon as the gunfire started, Jakob snapped to attention. No stranger to a firefight - although he was never in one of this intensity before - Jakob was able to keep his wits about him and he discerned that, as far as he could tell, there weren't any bullets impacting the van. It seemed only their abductors were firing. He didn't fault them for it - after all, whoever was out there couldn't be too concerned with their safety, having knocked the van over without a second thought - but Jakob wasn't about to stick around and offer assistance to the men who'd held them hostage. Just as he grabbed the back of the van to pull himself out, a cloud of dust billowed out like a smoke grenade. Unable to see, but grateful for the concealment, Jakob couldn't tell if all the other hostages had made it out. He decided that hanging around to find out wasn't a smart idea, and went with the group heading for the thicket, his heavy strides thumping the earth, leaving deep imprints in the dirt and grass out in the woods.

The gunshots still ringing in his ears, Jakob had trouble understanding what the other hostages were saying. They were obviously unsure what to do, and they hadn't moved much farther than the thicket their captors had urged them towards. He had to focus intently to hear and understand one of the women as she asked the group what they were going to do, and who to trust now that they were out in the open, and on their own, for the moment.

Jakob didn't want to draw attention to himself since he was still trying to conceal his affliction, but he knew he had to break his silence now that they were on their own. He was still wearing the heavy, over-sized hooded sweatshirt and his work gloves, so he thought no one would see his face or hands, at least for the moment. Speaking to the group for the first time, he asked, "Is anyone hurt?" He waited for their responses before he continued, "It might be best to head further into the trees, if we can. I don't know who will come after us, but I don't want to make it easy for them." He realized if they did head deeper into the trees that if the police arrived, they would have the same trouble finding them as the others would. Jakob kept the thought to himself - he didn't want the police hauling him in and taking pictures of the "stone giant," so if he could keep away from them, he would.

Ester jumped at each shot that was fired. She was scared, definitely. Some strange people have kidnapped her and she had no clue where she was. Deeper into the thicket, Ester’s body felt like an ice cap. She was freezing. ‘Why the hell am I so… God damn cold?! J-esus…’ She said, holding her arms together. ‘It’s the… Middle of May!’ Ester soon noticed a few other people within the thicket, in front of her. ‘Oh thank Christ I’m not alone…’ She muttered. Thinking about it, Ester saw silhouettes of others running towards the thicket. She was unsure whether or not she passed them; But Ester brushed the feeling off. Grabbing a tree branch, Ester slowly made her way down a steep hilling. Suddenly, a sharp, freezing pain struck Ester’s left palm, on the branch she was holding onto, and immediately she tumbled down.

Ester landed flat on her back, still holding onto the now broken tree branch. Ester quickly turned her head to her left palm. Ice… Ice of all things covering the branch, it was ice. Ester wanted to scream, but couldn’t. It was like the freezing feeling inside of her took her ability to make noise. ‘Jesus Christ… Oh my god, what’s happening to me.’ She thought.

Branches lurched across her field of vision. She could not keep her head straight, giving them all the appearance of leafy giants, looming over her, mocking her predicament. The sound of voices seemed so distant, despite their immediate proximity. She stumbled over a root and slammed into the tree to which it was connected. The pain in her shoulder did not immediately register; the sensation of falling and the branches spiraling out of control overhead were all she could take in. Disjointed images of blurred faces and the murmur of panicked discussion faded into oblivion as she clawed at the trunk of the tree, trying to regain her footing. She tried to speak, but managed only a weak moan.

In the moments which followed, Sam could not remember how she had gotten to this strange place in the woods. There were unfamiliar faces surrounding her and she knew she was in trouble, but for that moment, she did not know why. As she struggled to her feet, she searched for the memory which was meant to be attached to her pounding heart, but found only confusion. She found herself thinking of other things -trivial, irrelevant things- instead of her current situation. Why was it so hard to concentrate?

The first tentative steps were shaky as her shattered equilibrium threatened to throw her to the ground again, but she managed to lay hands on Jenna's shoulders. From there, she seemed to be searching for something. The placement of her hands was too specific to be coincidental.

"Tracking," she slurred. "Got to find it."

---

Any sort of hint of safety had been good enough for Adam in the heat of the moment, but now that the adrenaline was running on short supply he was starting to realize that the deadly flight of gunshots would likely at all be hindered by a jumble of thorny vines. Plus, now that he was wading through the prickly pants, he was starting to get the idea that he didn't want to be in here, either. Of course he had no clue who was trying to kill him, but if they were anything like the psychos in the movies, they'd be firing indiscriminately into the brush. If that happened, these briers would offer about as much protection as paper. Fortunately, though, it looked like only a few more meters until he was free of them and could start running again. A growing pain in his calf, however, made the option of a panicked run seem less and less feasible by the minute; he must have snagged his pants and leg on part of the thicket and gotten pierced by the thorns.

Upon exiting the brambles, he found himself with a few of the people who had been in the van with him. He arrived just in time to see a brown-haired woman tumble over the edge of a nearby slope, broken branch in hand. In the split second before she vanished, he was momentarily dazzled by sunlight glinting off some sort of coating on the branch. Before he could run over to see how far the slope went, he was overcome by a searing pain in his lower leg. The agony forced him onto his knees, and as he probed the wound he found blood running freely. He tensed, scared and hurt, not only by the wound but by its implication: if he could not run, the murderers on his tail would catch him. When a nearby man asked if anyone was hurt, he was the first to reply. "I think...I've been...pricked or shot or something...can someone help?" Focused on his own problem, Adam didn't notice the man's unusual appearance.

Vida made her way through the thicket with the others. The adrenaline flowing through her veins was enough to keep her from feeling the pricks of the branches on her bare legs. Her eyes stayed locked on the people that escaped the van with her. She didn't want to be outside at night all alone. It didn't scare her as much as unnerve her to be stuck in solitary. It was one of the reason why she had her cats with her in the cats. As she was running she noticed her vision starting to blur and a cold feeling sweeping over her body. Sweat billowed on her brow though. She was cold, but sweating. Everything was starting to become fuzzy all around her. As her adrenaline at it's limits already?

She was still conscious enough when the group stopped to halt herself. The strength in her legs gave out sending her to the ground. She laid there for a moment before she pushed herself up on her hands and knees. Her stomach was killing her, her body was shaky. She could feeling the itch on her back becoming stronger now. It bubbled up into a burning sensation. Then she felt it. It felt like bugs under her skin crawling to get out. Her stomach convulsed and she threw up what was left in her stomach from dinner. The bugs kept moving in her back. Vida reached to her back to feel where the bugs where. To her shock her finger slipped over one hole in her back. Her hand instantly removed itself and went back to the ground. "Shot.." She said to herself. "I've been... I've been... I've been.." She started to hyperventilate. Six. There were six bugs. No. Bullet wounds. The blood could clearly be seen on her tee-shirt. Her mind raced after realizing what had happened to her. Was she going into shock? Was she going to die? She stared at the pool of vomit that was under her. Sweat dripped back her face as she stayed there thinking.

'Alright... Jesus, Alright I got... I got this...' Ester said, slowly making her way up. Her vision blurred, she was freezing, this was getting too dangerous. Ester pressed her hand on the ground, and immediately the ice pooled out, infecting the ground were it touched. 'No shit... Stop, stop, stop!' Ester said, her vision getting worse. Is this it? would Ester die of hypothermia? This question rushed through Ester's mind, but she brushed it off. She had no time for silly questions like that, all that matters right now was getting to the other people. Was it the needle that Josiah pulled on her? or was it something else? Ester didn't know, but she felt like shit. Ester's vision was the worst though. It was getting... bluer, and bluer. it look like her eyes were covered over in frost, and the coldness added onto it. Ester quickly stuffed her hands underneath her armpits, hoping that it would warm them. All she needed to do was get closer to the others, and hopefully not get killed. Ester quickly rubbed her eyes to clear her vision, and stuck her hands under her armpits again, getting up and hoping she would find someone.

His headache had subsided to a manageable throb by the time Pat made it through the thickets. He could still hear bullets ringing out from behind him, but with the sandstorm and some dumb luck, none had found him. Pat was still a little upset at the decision to leave the van, if one gunmen got lucky and sprayed this thicket they would all be dead. As Pat finally cleared the brambles and scanned the group he realized that may have already happened.

Silent Man appeared to have caught a bullet to the leg as well as found a rock monster who appeared to be on their side. One girl was shivering uncontrollably and another appeared to need assistance to remain standing. "Well Stretch," Pat mumbled to himself. "Looks like you got yourself a real crack squad assembled here. We'll be taking the world by storm in no time." Then Pat saw Vida.

It took Pat a moment to remember that she wasn't supposed to be wearing a red shirt. Then he saw the holes in it and started running. As he got closer he noticed the pool of vomit on the ground by her. He also got a better look at her face which caused him to unconsciously think, Seriously lady? You cry the entire time your in the van but now that you've got half a ton of lead in your back you decide to stop? When Pat finally reached her, any thought that he could save her vanished. He could count six holes in her shirt, a death sentence given that they were in the middle of a woods and miles from any hospital. Still, Pat thought of a few ways he could at least try and help her out. First he tried to move her from her current "hands and knees" position to more of an upright sitting position. He doubted moving her would do any more damage and he figured she probably didn't want to spend he last moments staring straight at the former contents of her stomach. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pill bottle, putting two of the pills into his hand before raising his hand to the lady's eye level. He wasn't exactly sure what pills these were, but considering his usual prescription they would probably do something between making her feel very sleepy and knocking her out.

"Here. Eat these, they'll help."

Granted, her diminished capacity did little to aid her search, but the chemical cocktail brewing inside her was more than enough to compensate for the handicap of a minor head injury. The serum was but one ingredient of that cocktail; the others consisted of fear, adrenaline and the sheer will to survive. Sam did not know how she knew they were being tracked; just that they were. It seemed strange to her that she could be so certain about it, but in the seconds that it took her to run her fingers across the device, she recounted the number of times she'd felt that certainty over the course of the last week. To her, it was the same as if she'd already read and memorized a book before she'd even seen it; as if she'd already seen a brand new television show and just didn't remember the outcome, despite her ability to predict who this week's villain was and what his plans were for the "good guys". It was with that level of certainty that she plucked the third button from Jenna's blouse, with that level of certainty that she knew precisely what the device really was and what it was intended for.

"Got it," she said sleepily. "I need a hair pin; something metal. Keys, staple, paper clip...doesn't matter."

---

Hidden Within the Thicket
Shaking her head no in response to the question one man asked about if they were injured, Jenna looked at the chaos going on around her. The young girl she was with in the cell was mumbling about trying to find something and one of the men on the van seemed to be in bad shape as she spoke about possibly being shot. Moving towards the man, Jenna’s face paled as she looked at the blood running down the man’s leg. Crouching down, she could hear the other woman speak about being shot but was glad to hear that another person turned to aid her as Jenna hoped that it would be enough to get the two through the situation, not looking at the situation the woman was in with worry that it was worse than the man was in by the eerily quiet way Pat was acting towards Vida behind her.

“Oh wow.” Jenna said getting a better view of the man injury. “We’ll need to get you—“Jenna started to say as she tried to find a scrap of cloth she could tear to bandage the wound before cutting her words off. Wanting to say that they should take him to the hospital, she knew at the current moment it was impossible since they were wanted people by two groups whom seemed to take their sweet time fighting between each other on who should have custody of her and the others as if they were two parents fighting a bad custody battle with each other over a child.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you to a hospital” Jenna said with a feigned look of reassurance that she knew that both the man and herself wouldn’t believe. But trying to believe that they would find a way out of the situation seemed like a better option to her than giving up hope, even if she was uncertain of this hope she tried to have. Ripping off part of the lower portion of her pajama pant, Jenna looked at the man. Her hands trembled slightly as she looked at the wound but as she looked at the man’s face, she tried to stay as calm as she could, which wasn’t much calmer than she was moments before. “Do you think you can hold still as I wrap it up or would you like me to do it?” Jenna said as someone suddenly grabbed towards her shirt. Looking back slightly startled, she saw that it was the girl, with something in her hand.

“Wha—What is that?” Jenna said as she reached for her hair to see if she had a stray hair pin still on her head after getting ready for bed. Seconds later she saw that she was victorious as she pulled out a hair pin and handed it to Sam.

Sam curled her fingers around the hair pin and gave Jenna the smirk of the victorious; the kind you give when you know you got what you wanted and you know there's nothing that can be done about it. For the first time in her memory, she had the ability to do something about her situation. Of course, with her head swimming from its unexpected intersection with the inner wall of a moving vehicle, she had no way of knowing how shortlived that victory would be.

"Kidnap me..." she muttered angrily as she worked to bend the hair pin into the correct shape.

"Shoot me full of tranqs..." The outer casing of the surveillance device popped open under pressure from the edge of the hair pin, exposing its circuitry.

"Bounce me off a wall and chase me out into the woods..." A small spark and a thin wisp of grey smoke signaled the end of the bug's life. She made certain to short the terminals for its power supply, rather than its more important components, just on the outside chance that it could be used in the future.

"How do you like me now?"

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If Jenna had been able to believe in herself, the target of her attempted comfort might have seen past the irrationality of such a comment and tried to believe it too. Without any faith in her own statement, she elicited very little reassurance from Adam. Instead, he focused on remaining calm with deep -if somewhat fitful- breathing, guessing that flying into a panic would only cause the blood to flow quicker.

A spark of hope did alight in him, however, when she tore off a strip of fabric to bind around his wound. He was just prepared to answer her, thankful for the hint of relief, when another young lady grabbed at her. He stared at her, struck dumb, as she demanded Jenna's hairpin and then fiddled with the button she had seized, muttering vengeful phrases to herself. As this happened, he felt the warm, sticky red running down his leg and staining his sock. "Can...can you...?"

Before he had finished stammering out a plea for Jenna's continued help, Adam was silenced once again as tiny grains began to form in his hands once more. A clump of sand materialized in his palm, and without thinking he shoved it onto his wound, thinking it would help. Instead, he nearly cried out as dozens of pinpoints of pain poked onto the tender, lacerated flesh. The bloodied sand fell to the ground, spattering onto the shred of pants Jenna had left behind. Thinking he would try to bind the wound himself, Adam gritted his teeth and reached for it. Before his fingers got close, however, the sand formed itself into the shape of a doll, which picked up the cloth and held it gently against the skin as Adam carefully wound it around his leg. Once the job was done, the little construct dissolved, and its creator released his stored breath. Enough blood had escaped so that the area was somewhat numb, but with luck the makeshift bandage would keep enough from leaking out to make it dangerous.

He looked to the others for direction.

Vida focused in on the warmth that she felt from Pat touching her. He is so warm.. That was her only thought as he moved her to a sitting position. She was finally able to catch her breath, though she felt her chest struggling to rise. One of her lungs was probably popped by one of the bullets in her. Great.. now she wouldn't be able to teach swim lessons any more since she wouldn't really be able to hold her breath to swim. What would she do now? Would she be able to do anything without having to sit down to catch her breath anymore? She hadn't even thought about where the other bullets went. The thought crossed her mind that one of the bullets might have gone through her bladder and she would be one of those people that had to pee in a bag for the rest of her life.

Her thoughts focused back in as Pat held up his hand so that she could take the pills from him. She had never been one to take pills. There wasn't much that she couldn't sleep off. Sleep.. Her body was so stiff, it wouldn't really hurt to sleep. The ground probably felt amazing. She reached her hand up to take the pills, but before she could take them pain shot through her back like a pinball. Instead of grabbing the pills she grabbed onto his hand tightly. Gritting her teeth she could feel the bullets moving again like little bugs reopening and tearing through her healing muscles and organs. Her body clearly did not want the bullets to remain in her. Her vision blurred and her senses went numb. She was going to pass out, she felt it.

No.. instead she could feel her stomach squeeze tightly causing her to vomit again. This time there was a lot of blood. Blood and something shiny in the mess. One of the bullets was out. She couldn't see it though. Her vision was completely gone. All she saw was little white and black dots dancing around. She turned her attention to where she thought Pat was to mumble something to him before she passed out.

"Sleepy... wake.. when-"

Ester just couldn't handle it anymore. She was shivering beyond control, her skin was horrifically pale and she was sure she had hypothermia. Ester was slowly shifting her way forwards, when suddenly, she tripped again. Ester fell front first into the ground, and just couldn't get up. The coldness was numbing her body. Her vision was becoming more bluer as she laid there. Ester felt even colder tears stream down her face. She didn't want to go like this, she really didn't. Ester, with all the strength she had left, lifted her thighs up to her chest, and laid there in a ball like position. She laid there, silently crying. Ester did not want to die, not like this. While others would probably suffer a quick, probably painless gunshot, Ester just HAD to go slowly and somewhat painfully. The cold feeling inside her did start to become painful, like a stinging feeling within her chest and arms.

'Please...' Ester pleaded quietly, the cold tears down her face 'Please, god help me...'