Paul ducked into a room as four guards ran past him. He was so thin and scrawny compared to the strong men running around with guns looking for the electric intruder. He headed up the stairs as the coast became clear. Once he got to the main floor, he saw two guards still positioned outside the stairway, talking on their walkie talkies in the dark. They looked at him, their hands near their guns just in case, though clearly they had pretty much judged him as not being a threat. The further up you go the less the people must know what this plant really does! After all, for all they knew Paul could be a shape shifter like Lynn. I need to get out of here!
“The thing’s still down there. It’s coming this way!” he yelled at them.
The guys looked at one another. One grabbed him, and the other nodded at his partner then headed down the stairs.
“We have to get out of the building. I heard them say the intruder might have a bomb, and if so, then … ” Paul lied, nervously rambling off all kinds of useless data he knew the guard could never understand. “ … we could approximately end up in 42,895 untraceable pieces.”
The guy looked unsure and tried to talk to someone on his walkie talkie. “I’ve got a kid here who said the building is going to explode,” he was saying.
“I’ve got to warn the main office, my mom works in there!” Paul lied again.
It was believable though, half of East and West Applegate worked here. The guy looked at Paul for a long moment then let him go and started back on his walkie talkie, deciding he had better things to do than babysit. Paul scattered off, not looking back. Ahead he saw an exit.
* * *
Donna
Donna was falling awkwardly. Not like she had before where she could land on her feet. She was tumbling in the air, feeling like she was drowning, though how she knew what that felt like was beyond her. She fell and fell and fell, and because she was so light, she was falling more slowly than normal. She looked above her and saw the sky through a half built ceiling made of pipes and things. She hit the floor, and though she had no strong pain, she felt what must have been this electric body’s version of an awful headache come on her as her vision strained for a moment. It was going back and forth from normal to her electric vision uncontrollably. She closed her eyes, wanting it to stop.
After a couple of minutes, she opened her eyes and she could see normally again. Still feeling like her electric body had been thrown for the loop, she willed herself back to being normal again; feeling the heat evaporate inside her, replaced by the heaviness and coldness of being human. She looked at her hands. Her body was sore and numb, like she’d been running for weeks. Yet not a scratch was on her. Donna slowly stood up, feeling like a baby deer standing for the first time, and looked around.
She was in the new construction site that was being added on to the power plant. It was just tall stone walls right now, really tall, five or six stories high tall. The ground under her was still dirt, filled with mountains of giant pipes and ditches and building equipment. The half built ceiling let the dim birth of sunrise shine through certain parts of this place, while other parts were enclosed in darkness and shadows, making her feel like she was in a torn up graveyard. She searched in front of her but didn’t see a door, and she didn’t think her body could turn right now to look further. She was in too much pain.
She looked down at herself and felt terrified. All she was wearing was her bra, torn up pants and running shoes; everything else had disintegrated. Then her situation again rose from a ten to a one hundred when she heard someone else inside this tomb with her. She ducked and hid, shaking and covered in dirt, behind one of the giant human sized pipes that was halfway into the ground.
Then she heard sounds of things around her being thrown around, and she felt fear like no other when she saw a giant stone-like thing being thrown against the wall so hard it shattered. Whatever was strong enough to throw it was clearing a path to come toward her.
* * *
Paul
Paul felt like the sun was his enemy. Its slow rising was revealing his staggered figure running through the open fields, with only coldness as his company so far. The biggest bang of relief swelled up in him as he made it to the three houses in between the woods and the power plant. Already in the distance, he saw Rebecca, like an angel with her tiny fairy-like body and red curly hair. She stepped out of the trees and ran toward him, meeting him in his arms. After feeling her close to him and knowing she was ok, the next moment all the adrenaline left his body and he fell to the ground.
“Paul!” she screamed. “Paul, are you ok!”
He felt someone help his limp self up and turned and saw Spencer. Rebecca got his other side and they started walking into the woods.
“Where’s Donna?” Spencer asked him.
* * *
Donna
Donna heard another big thing being thrown and tried to move but found she was frozen where she hid. Turn! she told herself. Turn! You have to turn! She knew with how weak her body was she’d never be able to run fast enough unless her body was changed and lighter. Turn! Please turn!
The pipe in front of her was starting to be torn from the ground and lifted away. Her fear, which was paralyzing her, started to quickly change tactics and obey her mind. She felt her body start to fall asleep and she took off, running toward another pipe thing, not sure she’d be fully transparent by the time she hit it.
Luckily her transformation was just in time as she passed through, and she heard a roar as something from behind came after her just as fast as she was moving. She got to the other wall in a second but hit it hard instead of going through it. She felt pain, and looked at her transparent weakly glowing arms and tried again. No! She wasn’t going through. She tried again for the third time and felt the pain as if her hands were solid and hitting something hard even though she was still electric. No, no, this isn’t right. Why aren’t I going through this wall? Please! Please body! Go through!
She had no choice. Her heart was racing and her body was blinking like a flickering light bulb on speed. She was trapped. She turned around and absolutely froze at the sight of who was behind her. It was Ryan. The world stopped …
Ryan Applegate stood only a few feet away from her. His shirt was ripped and his blue eyes were wild. He looked like he was going to rip her to shreds alive.
Chapter Eleven
Spencer
Spencer dragged Paul a couple feet into the woods. “Where’s Donna?” he asked Paul again.
Paul looked like he had been through hell; he was full of sweat and his hair was a mess. The skin around his eyes was sunken in and red, like it might wither away. He had a giant patch on his neck where a wound must have been, and his clothes were absolutely wet like he’d been dowsed with hot, sticky water.
“You two,” Paul started weakly, “You two need to go in case they come here. I’ll wait for Donna.”
“I’m not leaving!”
“You mean she didn’t get out with you?” Spencer asked as Rebecca was speaking.
“She could still make it out. She, she has to make it out,” Paul rambled, not sounding the least bit reassuring.
* * *
Donna
Ryan’s shirt was ripped. His muscles that at one time had looked so attractive to Donna, in this moment looked deadly hard, strong, and bulging. It was like an animal was looking at her, not a human being. She was about to scream, but some inner part of her stopped her from revealing her voice to him. Whispering that he didn’t see her as Donna, but as an electric person glowing too brightly to recognize. She ignored that logic, it wasn’t making sense to her now.
She turned to run, but felt him in front of her before the next second had passed. He grabbed her shoulders. Electricity visibly began pouring into his arms, zapping him, making his eyes only rage with more anger as he threw her across the building site. She fell through a cement tub big enough for a human to walk through and landed inside it. That was only the beginning …
* * *
Ryan
Ryan’s shirt had ripped further as he crawled over the pieces of wall to get to the intruder. He was bleeding from a nail that had punctured him, and then when he’d picked up the trespasser, he’d felt an electric shock painful enough for him to throw the guy somewhere.
The guy had fallen right through, literally through, a bunch of the giant pipes that hadn’t been put into the ground yet. So now he’d have to find him and somehow drag him back to base while being shocked, without all the ambulances and police outside the plant seeing. This should be fun.
Ryan took off his shirt, knowing he’d be able to use his senses better; they felt alive and more animal than human, wanting to hunt. Every bone and cell in his body was fixed on stopping this intruder. A real mission, finally, and right in his own town.
He heard movement, and as he threw pipe after pipe that lay in his path, all of a sudden he smelt the flesh of a human nearby. The trespasser was back in his human state. Ryan moved more quickly, knowing now that all he’d have to do was weaken him. Then he could drag him back to the plant as a human. That is, after finding the discipline not to finish this right now.
* * *
Donna
Donna was human again. She hadn’t meant to turn back; after going through a couple of tunnels transparently, all of a sudden she turned back out of exhaustion. Her body couldn’t do it, didn’t want to do it. She was running on empty, and a monster wearing the face of the boy she had once considered her best friend was coming after her.
Tears were in her eyes as she struggled to stand, hiding behind a piece of wall, breathing heavily, and trying to find strength. Any other time she would have had to fight her mind in order to turn back to being human, and if she had wanted to turn electric, all she would have had to do was be afraid, but now she was just a human girl. Her hurt body could not summon all her power. Whatever thing Ryan was that was coming after her, she knew he was going to kill her. The way he’d thrown her, his strength and his roar, the sounds of him searching for her now … He was a ferocious beast, and she a weak, scared little girl who wanted her mother.
She closed her eyes again, praying she’d turn. Pushing her brain to. Trying and trying and trying and only feeling her dense body in answer. She was hearing all kinds of things crashing and being thrown around her. Ryan’s footsteps were like elephants, shaking the ground as he got near.
She closed her eyes and tried to turn electric again. Praying to God she’d transform. Then, right as she saw his shadow coming upon her she pushed her body as hard as she could and felt her molecules bounce and heat up inside, allowing her to go through the piece of wall she was leaning against. She ran through a big pile of stuff he had just made when clearing a path to find her, her body still weak. He was going to have to clear another path to get to her again. She’d have to escape before then. She saw far in the distance a bright space in between the great half built walls with more light shining through it. A way out!
She ran, hearing him behind her, but then she heard nothing at all. Why wasn’t she hearing the sounds of a path being cleared? She kept running; she had to use her light electric self to get to that exit, he was behind her so she had to … Then he was over her, at least fifty feet high in the air. Jumping, no, soaring over her and landing on the wall. Sticking to it like something from a vampire movie or a comic book or … no, this was different. He was more animal. His posture was almost canine. She stopped in her tracks, deeper in shock than she thought she could go. He looked at her again with that hard, determined face, and she ran the other way.
He jumped down onto her, knocking her to the ground, roaring again in pain as he struggled to hold her down. A sick déjà vu hit Donna, making her insides scream. Even though she was electric, her deep human instincts to survive seemed to burst to the surface from out of her core. She grabbed onto him as he was squashing her, kicking and sticking her electric nails into him, watching electricity pour into his body over and over again.
Like a machine, he just squeezed her tighter and tighter as she pushed more electricity in him, neither one of them willing to give up. His eyes, an unholy blue and in deep pain, seemed to tell her he’d never lose. Was that also another one of his powers? No, the unspoken threat was a lie.
After another ten seconds of being tortured by her electrocuting him, he let go and rolled off. She crawled away from him frantically, getting up and seeing him lying there; his chest bulging, his stomach going up and down, and his tan body sweating. Donna herself was ten seconds away from turning back into a human. She had pushed so much energy into him and she had never done that before. Now she felt almost empty.
Her vision switched again, without her wanting it to, turning the already dark place into a black and blue mess. Before she could begin to panic, her eyes were pulled in the direction of the construction equipment left in the middle of the site. Inside the dark machines were millions of the little electric currents screaming to her. Letting her know they were just as alive as she was, alive and trapped. A new energy seemed to come over Donna, and before she had thought it through, she was running toward them. Needing to be nourished, she grabbed onto the first big thing she could reach. Its electric current raced to her as she willed it out of the machine. It flowed into her like she was a living battery, making her body lighter, taking away her feelings of weakness and exhaustion. She kept growing brighter and brighter till all the energy stored up in the machine was gone. It was a part of her now and at her disposal.
She pushed her vision back to normal, barely trying this time. She needed to get out of here. She turned back to the only way out she had been able to see. Ryan lay in front of it, already slowly catching his breath and starting to get up. She’d never make it past him running. She turned back to the construction machines, moving quickly. She wasn’t sure what she was doing, but right now their energy was her only ally. She climbed up on the tallest bulldozer-looking-thing with a huge crane on it, knowing that her time to do anything would soon be over.
Ryan was almost on his knees now, recovering. What do I do now? The bulldozer was off, with no key in it. Still, maybe she could use it as a shield somehow if she could just turn it on. Her dad would know how to start this thing without a key. Gosh, why wasn’t she smart like that? She pushed her mind, a fresh wave of panic and will to live breathing into her.
She made herself see in her weird electric way. Again everything flashed into a black and blue darkness. The energy in the machine’s battery was slowly moving and clustered together like thousands of ants stuck in a cage. She could suck them out into her, but she had energy already. She needed this machine. It was big and strong and powerful, just like the beast who was trying to kill her. She looked at the dark blue keyhole to start the machine and placed her hand on it. She knew enough to know that all the key did was allow the car to start up. Maybe she could do that on her own. You have to do this, Donna! She pressed down into the machine, her hand slightly going into it, and started to have the energy suck out of the battery toward her.
Time was going by fast, and she didn’t have time to concentrate, but she had to. The cluster of energy sang out as it happily moved in a string approaching her, lighting up the machine on its way. She moved her hand away before it could meet her. Now all the energy could do was feed the machine, and it did. Donna heard the machine turn on and she pushed her vision back to normal.
Donna jumped into the bulldozer’s seat and started to move her foot on to the gas, looking up with her normal vision again. Each time the change jarred her, making her feel shaken. She saw Ryan moving from his knees, and for a minute, Donna couldn’t move. His body looked like her Ryan; the boy who had bought her running shoes when she couldn’t afford them. Who ran with her every school day, the one who had been the first to ever kiss her … but then he looked up. All of her memories and wishful thinking that he could be that boy were torn away from her like a limb being ripped off.
Seeing her in the machine sent him roar
ing loathsomely, a warning to her that he wasn’t hurt nearly badly enough to let her pass. His muscles bulged, and his veins stuck out as he began to move his body in a crouching position. Taking a final deep breath, seeing her death in his mutilating eyes, Donna’s mind screamed at her. You can’t let him get you! A piece of brick that his hand was gripping shattered into dust. Donna would be next. No!
She slammed on the gas, driving toward him and running him over. The machine was feeling like it was going to flip as Ryan struggled underneath it. Next thing Donna knew, it was slamming into part of the wall as she exited the building on it, the sunlight blinding her. The big crane finished the wall off, knocking it in half and causing it to crumble over behind her.
Ryan was beginning to stand, even after being run over, as the wall crushed him. Donna kept going straight ahead toward the open field, needing to get away, far away. Though after a minute her fear whispered like a devil that Ryan was behind her. She looked into her rear view mirror at the pile of broken wall that had buried him. She was free. Did I … did I kill him? She turned her head to look back, unable not to. The pile was still, desolate, but then after seconds of no movement a hand burst from the top of the pile like in a zombie movie, making Donna jump in her seat and look forward. She had to get out of here fast.
My God, he’s invincible! Couldn’t the machine go any faster? Donna could probably get further with her electric speed but she wasn’t ready to leave this machine yet. Somehow she felt safer in it.
* * *
Danny
Mr. Applegate seemed utterly calm as the entire plant scrambled to get everything back up and running. A virus had gone into all their systems, erasing everything. All they had to go on for security were communications through cell phones and radios. A scary looking Kent stood over Danny’s computer chair arguing with Mr. Applegate. “I can have fifty of our best agents and a 102 out there in two minutes and—”
Shock Me Page 18