by Nye, Laine
The guy at the back of the van cocked the gun that was still pointed at Steve. “If you kill him I will kill every one of you in that van. You will all die.” Brad said to the guy with the gun. This was the second time in young Steve’s life that a gun had been pointed at his head.
“You hear that Jeff?” Brad yelled louder. You are all about to die. Tell this creep to remove the gun from Steve. Tell him now.”
Then Brad started lifting the van higher and he rose with it, staying even with the back doors as they went up.
“You’re running out of time Jeff.” Brad yelled. Then he saw Jeff making his way to the back of the van to look at Brad. It was the first-time Brad had seen him up close since the night in the college parking lot so many years before.
“Let him go, Jeff.” Brad said quietly.
“No.” Jeff responded. Then; “Kill him Frank, then kill Brad.”
Brad went ballistic. In a second, he had dropped the front of the van down while heaving up on the back of the van. Everybody in the van were suddenly falling toward the front. They tumbled over each other and the seats. Two of them slammed into the front windshield cracking it. Brad dropped the van face down to the ground which of course, further jumbled all-of the bodies together. Then he picked the van up even higher than he had it before and dropped it again. Several of those inside were now groaning and gasping for air. More than one person yelled out or groaned out; “Get off me.” The front of the van had been equipped with two large upright steel bars and three cross bars by Jeff himself. Which meant that the damage to the front was minimal.
Brad rose-up high enough to stand on the bumper of the van and look down inside to see what had happened to the passengers and to check on his son. The group were trying to untangle from each other and climb out of the tight area they were all jammed into at the front windshield, dash board and seat well. His son was still safely tucked into the rear of the van and still rolled up inside the carpet where Brad knew he would be safe from the collisions against the pavement. Brad lifted the van back into the air again always keeping it nose down. He left it hanging that way while he began to lift Steve, carpet and all out of the rear using his g-force. That was where he made a tactical error.
Jeff had recovered enough from his fall inside the van that he was-able to untangle from the others and right himself. He had managed to hang onto his gun during his three falls and collisions with the ground and with the others in the van. He looked up at Brad who was standing on the rear bumper using his gravity control to lift his son free of the van. Jeff stood on the back of the driver’s seat and aimed up carefully at Brad. Brad did not notice as he was so intent on lifting his son out after which he was going to let the van crash nose first into the ground again. A loud bang told him of the firing of a gun inside the van. He felt the bullet tear up through the left side of his chest. A rivulet was plowed into his skin starting at his upper stomach and travelling all the way up to his shoulder where it ricocheted away from him after hitting his collar bone. His position to the van would have been the same as the van sitting on its wheels and Brad laying on a hospital gurney behind it with his feet touching the rear bumper.
He kept his concentration up while he grabbed his chest with his left hand. The pain was setting in after a momentary numbness. Blood was flowing freely from the long gouge in his skin. He did not give up. He had Steve almost half way out and wasn’t going to quit now.
There was another shot. He took the round in the far-left side of his chest also tearing upward because of his position. This bullet did more damage as it did not exit but went in deep. He groaned in pain and frustration. He was so close. The g-force was waning; His concentration was broken. The van was slowly dropping back to the ground and Steve, who was still in the carpet fell back inside the van. Brad dropped to the ground fairly-quickly as the van touched nose down, then slowly tipped back onto its wheels. Brad lay behind the van holding his chest as he slowly tried to regain his g-force ability. All that energy that was pumped inside of him and because of his injuries, he was still failing to use the gravity as his weapon.
Before he could start pulling his son out of the van again, the doors were shut, the van was started and thrown into gear. Burning rubber spewing off the tires causing much smoke. That, and the exhaust hit Brad full in the face as the van sped away. The van accelerated rapidly, ramming into some cars and swerving around others as Brad went up on his right elbow and reached for the van weakly with his left hand as if trying to draw it back to him. His vision swam in front of him and he collapsed back to a prone position. He had lost his son.
The occupants of the van were not unharmed, but they were able to continue, Jeff determined. Jeff thought that he might have a broken nose. He was bleeding heavily. Dan had reinjured his bad arm for the second time that day. Frank was holding his right arm tightly. He felt that his shoulder might be dislocated. Josh had a concussion from slamming his head into the dash board and then almost immediately after having somebody’s head smash into his knocking him back into the dash board again. Adele made no sound, but he looked to be in pain.
The van shot down the road at high speed. With all the cars on the highway stopped to watch the bizarre events playing out in front of them, the road was clear. The van was able to escape into anonymity within a few minutes. The license plate was a California plate stolen by Josh. The van could not be traced back to Utah or to Jeff.
Brad was in and out of consciousness. He groaned from the pain. He groaned for his son who he had just lost. “Please. No.” He said quietly to himself. Then he was out. The multiple witnesses were running to help him after they put their cells phone cameras away. Many people raced to call 911. The highway was jammed up for miles each direction when the police and paramedics finally arrived.
∆∆∆
Nancy Cooper was once again glued to her television with a gaping mouth. This time, her shock was even deeper than it had been before. The news reports had yet another series of cell phone video- shots. This time she could clearly see Steve’s father Seth on Greenback Lane while he stood on the back of a van that was standing on its nose; Except that it wasn’t touching the ground. It was hovering about fifteen feet off the ground and she watched as the van was slammed into the ground a few times. While Brad stayed well above it stationary in the air until the van was back up where he was.
“What’s with this family?” She whispered to herself.
The pictures then showed a carpet lifting from the back of the van straight into the air. There was a head sticking partially out of the rolled-up rug. A person with dark brown hair. Nancy was sure that it was Steve even though she couldn’t see his face.
The videos then showed Seth floating back to the ground looking injured while the newscaster explained at that point the unknown individual had been shot twice. The van came back down and tipped onto its wheels barely missing the inert form of Seth Collins lying there on the ground. The van took off burning rubber, sending out smoke. The videos stopped being shown beyond that moment then were shown again in slow motion. The newscaster was explaining that it wouldn’t be long before the police would know the identity of the person laying on the ground who seemed to be causing all of this to happen. Then of course, the footage of Steve and his mom running across the roof of the store were also shown once again depicting the similarity between these two events that were only days apart from each other.
Nancy watched until they stopped showing the video shots.
“What am I supposed to do?” She whispered to herself. “I am involved with the nicest and strangest family on earth. What do I do now?”
Then her mom burst in.
“Wasn’t that the father of the boy you have been dating I just saw on T.V.?”
Nancy looked up at her mom. She had taken a picture of the Collins family and showed it to her mom the day before.
“Yes Mom. That was him.”
“Who are these people, Nancy? What have you got yourself into here
?” Her mom demanded.
With tears in her eyes she shook her head slowly looking back at the T.V.
“I don’t know.” she uttered very quietly.
“I don’t want you hanging around their house anymore young lady. You need to steer clear of them. You hear me?”
Nancy burst out crying and said, “I hear you Mom.”
Her mom came the rest of the way into the room and sat down on Nancy’s bed taking her hands in her own.
“I’m sorry that you got involved with these people Nance. But I can’t have you running around with people that are breaking the law, floating all over the place, picking up cars and crashing them and everything else. This is the strangest thing I have ever seen, and I am just so afraid for you. I Love you and don’t want you to get hurt or get dragged into this mess.”
“I know, Mom.”
Then Nancy left the chair and sat on her mother’s lap like she did when she was a little girl and cried hard. Her mom cried with her. They didn’t move for a long time.
Charlene was getting a few last-minute things before going to the hospital to see Brad. She had been called by a charge nurse who had looked at Seth Collins’ I.D. so she could find out where next of kin were to notify. She had seen the news videos also.
She grabbed her purse walked down to the dining room where the door to the garage was at keeping her head averted from the carnage in the living room as much as she could. Still, in her peripheral vision she could see the form laying in her living room and could see the blood on the one wall she could see and on the floor. A sob caught in her throat; Not because of the horror of what she was seeing.
“My poor son.” She said to herself. “He did this to protect me, but they got him. My poor son.”
She went into their garage. The door was open. Someone reluctantly stepped into the garage. It was Nancy.
“Was it Steve they had in the rug?” She sobbed the question out with shuddering breaths.
“Yes. I am afraid so.”
“I didn’t know your husband could do the same things that Steve does.”
“No one knows Nancy. No one was ever supposed to know.”
Nancy nodded her head, still crying.
“Was he kidnapped?”
“Yes. I’m on the way to the hospital to see my husband. He’s been shot. Do you want to come?”
“My mom says I need to stay away from you guys.”
“And yet, you came.”
“I shouldn’t have but I’m worried about you guys.”
“Do you want to come? Or not?”
Nancy had conflicted expressions on her face matching her conflicted thoughts.
“Nancy, I have to go now. Coming?”
Slowly, Nancy shook her head. And stepped backward out onto the driveway.
“I’d better not.” She said. “I hope you find Steve. He’s the best guy I’ve ever known. I’m going to miss him.”
“Well after we get him back, you can see him again.”
“I don’t know if I will be able to.” She sobbed. I Just don’t know.”
She turned to leave but Charlene had been walking toward her and now she caught Nancy’s arm and turned her around giving her a big hug.
“We want you to come back when everything calms down. Don’t forget that.
Then Nancy walked across the grass to her car which was parked in the road.
Across the street, Charlene could see their nosy neighbor parting her drapes and looking out. Keeping an eye on the drama. Like always.
Chapter Six
“He’s been dreaming, I guess.” The nurse told Charlene. “He keeps demanding that someone please get it out of him. He can’t take the pressure anymore. That is what I heard him saying since he has been out of recovery. Any idea what that means?”
“No.” Charlene lied. “No idea. Is it typical for people to dream like that? Talk in their sleep while they are under the influence of an anesthetic?”
“It doesn’t happen in my opinion. Something is really bothering him deeply aside from getting shot.”
The nurse had no direct knowledge about the floating van and Brad floating above it until he got shot. She had been too busy with her nursing duties to have seen anything on the news. She only heard rumors in the hallways. Brad had arrived at the hospital in an ambulance during a very busy time. The nurse also did not know why there were two police officers stationed at the doorway to the room. It made her wary of Brad. She would know why soon enough.
Charlene would have never thought that a day would come when she would have to show I.D. just to see her own husband. She had hoped that the extensive time that he had been using his g-force energy would have diminished the energy level enough for it to stop bothering him. But, to her disappointment, that did not seem to be the case. It had to still be bothering him a lot if he was even dreaming about it while under anesthesia.
The police had interviewed Charlene downstairs before they allowed her to go up to see Brad. Asking her all kinds of questions about how he could have caused a van to float in the air and to slam it down on the pavement over and over. Witnesses stated that they thought it looked like it was the shooting victim who had caused these things to happen. That was why the police interviewed her. ‘Did she know anything about it?’ ‘Well, of course not.’ She was telling them. ‘Sounds too bizarre for everyone to say they had seen such a thing.’ But her bluff was quickly losing any credibility with all the information that was pouring in. Didn’t realize how the new pictures from the highway would be connected to the incident in the store with the upside-down couple running across the roof of the store. She was too distraught. She wasn’t thinking clearly for perhaps the first time in her life. Suspicion concerning her increased at the same rate that their wariness of Brad’s abilities grew.
∆∆∆
Jeff wanted to increase the pressure on Brad more than he had already done. He had asked for the phone number to the Ogden Utah police department so that he could relay to them what was happening in California. The police wanted to know why he was calling them to report such unusual circumstances. He told them that it matched up with some reports they had on file. Jeff remembered the dates when everything had happened; When Brad hurt his whole family over three days. Jeff was put on hold for several minutes. When the reports officer came back on the phone, he said. “I have the files right here. These are some strange happenings alright. Even have some photos that are supposedly the real thing. What is your name and your connection to this case and are you involved in the situation in California?”
Jeff hung up the phone. It would become very difficult for Brad from this time forward. Even after Jeff concluded his business with Steve, Brad’s son, Brad would still have to run from the law. Revenge is sweet, Jeff thought to himself. He had made sure that shooting Brad did not lead to death. He wanted Brad to experience everything that was planned.
∆∆∆
Steve was beginning to wake up. He gradually came to full consciousness and could hear voices having a conversation. He felt very peaceful coming out of the sleep he had been in.
“…Why didn’t you just take her out? All she wanted was one little date.”
“Take her out? She was so ugly that she had to sneak up on a glass of water.”
Steve heard lots of laughing.
“Oh, come on Frank. She couldn’t have been that bad.”
“I’ll tell you what. I wouldn’t take her to a dog fight if she promised to win.”
More laughter.
“Yeah. I know where he’s coming from on this. I know a girl that could gag a maggot.”
“Turn a train onto a dirt road.”
The chortling went on while they enjoyed their cruel speech.
It was time for Steve to fight back. He struggled to get up, so he could target his foes and nail them with high intensity Gravity waves. Than Steve began to realize he couldn’t move. He was trapped in something. His arms were at his sides tightly held there by… a ru
g. They had him rolled up in a rug. All the memories came back to him in a rush as to what happened before he was knocked out. He’d been given an injection. He began to struggle to get out. His head was too close to the rear doors of some car that he was in and his feet were against a seat at the other end. He tried to unroll himself. Didn’t work. Not enough room. So, he began to lift the whole carpet up with his g-force to give some slack and then maybe he could wiggle it open. They were traveling down a curving highway. He didn’t know where he was at and couldn’t see out the back window or he would be too high up and the driver would see him in the rear-view window.
“Hey guys. He’s awake.” Someone said.
“Well jab him with that needle and put him back out.” Someone else said.
There was some shuffling around in the van, then he felt someone reaching over the back seat and suddenly a sharp pain struck his foot. He was bare foot he realized, and he had just been injected again. He fought the drug and kept trying to remove himself from the rug. When he fell asleep, he continued to float for several more minutes, then slumped to the floor of the van again.
“This kid is just a little bit scary. You know?” He heard someone say just before he went fully under.
∆∆∆
Brad woke up from his surgery. Then fell back to sleep an hour later. The surgeon had removed the bullet with minimal damage, but it would be a while before Brad felt good according to the surgeon. Now it would need time to heal. That time to heal would be greatly accelerated by this new ability he had gained from the hole in Palawan.
It was while he was sleeping that Charlene was let into his room. She waited impatiently for him to wake up. Their son was missing. They needed to find him. But Charlene was afraid to tell the police that Steve had been kidnapped. She knew a lot of g-force activity had been going on in their home and out on the highway. She needed Brad’s expertise on this before she dared to proceed afraid that Brad would be detained indefinitely. It was true that the police would be far better at finding their son than they could. But she sensed that their involvement would make it worse for their son. She didn’t know just how much information the police had on her husband. The guards at his door were there because of a wealth of information they now had about Brad’s gravity force ability.