Out Of Time (Book 0): Super Unknown
Page 1
Super Unknown
A prequel to Out Of Time
By Donna Marie Oldfield
Text copyright © 2014 Donna Marie Oldfield
All Rights Reserved
Cover artwork copyright © 2014
Nicola Malena
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the author.
This novella is a work of fiction and any resemblances to actual events and people – either living or dead – are completely coincidental.
British edition: This is a British novella, which uses British spelling and grammar
Table of contents
Super Unknown
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Out Of Time – Free Chapters
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Super Unknown
Prologue
December 6, 2010
Andrew Harper pretended not to notice his French teacher, Mrs Rowbotham, as she dashed past him in the school car park. He and his friend Luke had made her life a nightmare for the last two hours of the day, so he was too embarrassed to look her in the eye as she skulked past looking downtrodden and generally fed up with her life.
“Well, at least that’s over for another day,” the 16-year-old said to Luke as they walked out of the school gates.
The two friends were in their final year at St Cuthbert’s School in Carby, Yorkshire, where they’d spent the afternoon driving Mrs Rowbotham to despair with their inability to grasp the basics of French verbs. With just six months to go until their GCSEs, the teenagers still didn’t have a clue, but that was mainly because they spent much of their time mucking about. Wasn’t that what most normal teenagers did though?
“Tell me about it,” Luke said. “I hate French, I don’t know how I’m going to remember anything come exams time.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it, mate. Who needs French, or any of the other subjects for that matter?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s easy for you to say with your try-out for the Carby Rhinos rugby squad.”
Andrew blushed. As proud as he was of his upcoming trial, he felt uneasy about the way everyone was bigging him up like he’d landed a place on the team already. It was an incredible amount of pressure.
“Let’s see how it goes, yeah?”
“You’re so modest,” Luke said as the pair turned the corner at the end of the road. “Ah, it’s hard to think that I used to be better at rugby than you.”
“You never were.” Andrew laughed.
“I so was, remember that time my team thrashed yours in year nine? I won player of the year.”
“Ha! You so didn’t deserve that. You only beat us because you floored me with a dirty tackle.”
“It was a fair and square manoeuvre.”
“It was not!”
“Yes it was, you’re just a sore loser.” Luke pushed Andrew onto the grass verge between the pavement and the road in jest as he protested.
“Yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” Andrew said as he grabbed his friend’s leg and pulled him to the ground.
“Don’t make me repeat it,” Luke squeaked as Andrew slapped his back and stood up again.
“I’d like to see you try.”
And with that, Luke jumped up and charged at Andrew, sending him sprawling back to the floor before grabbing him in a headlock.
“My bag!” Andrew shouted. “It’s gone flying into the road, you muppet. Let me go.”
“Nah…” Luke laughed.
“Let me go. Now!” Andrew said as he flung his arm back and shrugged his friend off. He darted out into the road to rescue his black and purple backpack before it got squashed by the oncoming traffic. But as he went to run back to the safety of the pavement, a silver Audi came speeding round the corner and right towards him.
“Andy!” Luke shouted. “Run!”
It was too late. The car hit him head on, sending him flying into the air before he came crashing down onto the bonnet and rolled to the ground with a thud.
“Oh my goodness, oh my word, oh what have I done,” said the female driver, who had come to a stop 10 metres down the road. “I didn’t see him,” she sobbed as she stepped out of the car. “My kids were arguing in the back and I just didn’t see him.”
She walked over to where Luke was kneeling over Andrew’s body in the road. A crowd of at least 10 bystanders had already started to gather round.
“Is he OK?” she asked.
“What do you reckon?” Luke said. “You just hit him with your car – of course he’s not OK. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I told you, my children…”
“Ah save it, lady. Tell it to the police.”
“Please don’t…” she started to say, but then her face went white with shock.
Luke turned round to see what she was staring at and he couldn’t believe his eyes. Andrew was now sitting up and glancing around the street. He looked completely unscathed.
“Dude,” Luke said. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” Andrew replied. “I think so.” He patted his arms, chest and shoulders as if looking for bruises or broken bones. “I feel absolutely fine.”
“But that car hit you.”
“I know, but I honestly feel OK.” Andrew climbed onto his knees and pushed himself up to a standing position. “Look – I’m alright.”
The crowd, which had now grown to 20 or so people, gasped.
“I’m just lucky, I guess,” Andrew said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“I’m not so sure,” the women driver who had hit him said. “I think I should take you to the hospital to make sure you don’t have internal injuries.”
“Why? I’m alright.”
The crowd were whispering and chattering furiously now as they began to speculate how Andrew could possibly be walking away from such a lethal, head-on collision.
“Please, for my peace of mind,” she begged. “I couldn’t live with myself if I let you go now and you took a turn for the worse.”
Andrew sighed as he realised the woman was right. “OK,” he said as he strode over to her car. “I’d better ring my parents on the way and let them know what’s happened.”
“It’s certainly baffling,” the doctor said as he checked Andrew over in the hospital two hours later. He turned to the driver, who Andrew now knew was called Jemma. “Are you sure you hit him?”
“Yes,” she said as she nodded enthusiastically. “He flew up about 10 feet in the air. I thought I’d hurt him for sure. Or worse.”
“Hmmm,” the doctor said. He eyed Andrew up and down sceptically. “Wait here a moment, I need to talk to a colleague.”
Dr Henry Riddings confidently strolled out into the hall and down to an office at the other end of the ward. He picked up his phone and dialled a well-used number.
“Hello?” said a voice at the other end of the line.
“Daniella. It’s Dr Riddings up at the Royal Carby Hospital. Is the Prime Minister around?”
“He’s incredibly busy, doctor.”
“This is very important. I think he’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t hear my news right away.”
“OK, I’ll fetch him. I w
on’t be a moment.”
The doctor waited impatiently for Prime Minister Adam Goulden to come to the phone.
“Henry,” Adam Goulden said less than a minute later. “How can I help you?”
“There’s been a development, sir. One that I think you will be very interested in.”
“Go on…”
“A teenage boy was hit by a car in a town near Carby today.”
“And?”
“And he survived completely unscathed. There isn’t a scratch on him. It’s a medical miracle.”
Adam Goulden took a sharp intake of breath to show he was intrigued. “Really. Not a scratch you say?”
“No. I’ve run several tests on the boy and he doesn’t even have minor bruising. It’s like he’s Superman or something.” Adam Goulden fell silent and the doctor could hear him drumming his fingers on the table. “Last month, you asked me to find a way to make your soldiers indestructible and I thought it was impossible. Well, if this boy is as special as he seems, he could be the key.”
Adam Goulden paused for a minute before authoritatively announcing his response. “I’ll send Charlie Walker, my chief of staff, over to collect him. He’s in Carby for a conference, so he should be there within the half hour. Do as he says and tell anyone who asks questions that the boy is being transferred to another hospital for special attention. Can I trust you to help me with this Henry?”
“Of course, Prime Minister.”
And with that Goulden hung up the phone. Dr Riddings walked back to Andrew’s room, where he found he had been joined by an adult couple and two young girls.
“Hello, doctor,” said the man, who appeared to be in his forties. “I’m Andrew’s father, Phillip, this is my wife, Dorothy, and these are our daughters, Louise and Rhianna.”
“It’s good to meet you,” Dr Riddings said as he quickly thought on his feet. He had to get rid of the parents and fast.
“It looks like you have done an incredible job of caring for Andrew – he seems in perfect health,” Dorothy said. “We can’t thank you enough.”
“Yes, yes, he’s doing incredibly well. I am concerned that he hasn’t eaten though. I wonder if the two of you could pop to the shop and grab him a sandwich or something.”
“We’ve just got here,” Phillip said.
“He needs to eat dear,” Dorothy pointed out. “Could you keep an eye on my daughters, doctor?”
“Of course,” Dr Riddings said with a nod. “No problem at all.” He took a seat in the corner of the room and allowed the girls, who appeared to be twins of around 11 or 12, to chat with their brother while the parents went off in search of food.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Dr Riddings stood up to answer it, but the visitor let himself in before he had a chance.
“Hello, Dr Riddings. My name is Charlie Walker – I’m here to take Andrew to the Hayden Hill Hospital, where he can receive more targeted care.” Charlie gave the doctor a knowing wink.
“What?” Andrew said from across the room. “I’m fine, I don’t need special care.”
“I’m afraid that the test results show internal damage, Andrew. We need to move you right away.”
“He’s right,” Dr Riddings said. “Come along now.” He strode over to the bed, took the brake off and started pulling it towards the door.
“No!” Andrew shouted.
“Quickly,” Charlie said. “Take him out the side exit next to this room. There’s a car waiting outside. I’ll bring the sisters.”
Dr Riddings did as he was told and pushed the bed quickly into the corridor, ignoring Andrew’s shouts and screams as he did so.
“Where are we going?” Louise asked.
“I want to wait for my mum,” Rhianna protested.
“Shut up and do as you’re told,” Charlie said. He grabbed them both forcefully by the arms and dragged them outside and to his car, where two burly security men and another doctor were bundling Andrew into the backseat.
“Get the girls in next,” he ordered, before jumping in the front. “Then follow us in the car behind.” He turned towards the driver as Louise and Rhianna were fastened in. “Step on it, John. We don’t want to keep the Prime Minister waiting.”
Chapter 1
“Two cappuccinos and a hot chocolate please.”
Sixteen-year-old Dylan Nicolson gave the pretty, blonde customer his best smile. “Of course, madam. Would you like any cream and marshmallows with the hot chocolate?”
The woman shook her head dismissively and stared past him at the wall.
“Well, I don’t know why I’m bothering being so nice to her,” he thought. “She seems far too rude to leave a tip.”
Dylan turned away to make her order and scowled as the huge, silver coffee machine made a spluttering noise. That was never a good sign.
“Oh don’t start playing up again,” he said as he stared at the long line of customers. “We’re far too busy to deal with this.”
He gave the shiny machine a whack and it whirred back into life and delivered the coffees as programmed. The only problem was, they were all freezing cold.
“Argh!” Dylan thought.
“Is there a problem?” the snooty blonde said. “Only I’m in a hurry.”
“No, no. Everything’s fine. I’ll only be a minute.”
He stared at the drinks. “I need to heat these up double quick,” he thought. He stood so his back shielded the cups from the customers, glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then touched the three mugs. “Heat,” he willed the coffee. “Please.” The liquids started bubbling and within a few seconds, they were hot enough to serve.
“Here you go,” Dylan said as he placed them on a tray and carried them over to the customer, who was glancing at her watch impatiently. “That’ll be £5.97 please.”
The woman handed over a £10 note, snatched her change without saying a word, then took her drinks and stomped over to a table where her two friends were waiting.
“Charming,” Dylan muttered. “I’m so glad it’s nearly 6.30pm, so I can go home.”
He’d only been at work since 3.30pm, but it had been a very busy and long shift. He looked up brightly as he saw his workmate Kasey walk through the front door.
“Evening!” he called. Thank goodness you’re here, so I can go home.” He headed out the back, pulled his burgundy apron off and grabbed his coat. He ran a hand through his wavy, brown hair in a bid to make it look more presentable. “Sorry, I have to rush because I promised my parents I’d babysit Sophia tonight. Is that OK?”
A rather stunned Kasey nodded, realising she didn’t have much choice in the matter. Dylan darted out the door while he had the chance and started pacing home through the streets of Enfield Town. If she realised the coffee machine was broken, she might make him stay late to help out – he also wanted to get out of there before anyone noticed he’d heated those drinks up. He doubted they would, but ever since he’d discovered he had strange powers a couple of weeks ago, he had been paranoid that someone would find out.
He first learned he could manipulate water when he almost flooded the house by breaking the kitchen tap. As the water gushed everywhere and drenched the floor, he had screamed “Stop!” at the sink in a panic. He was amazed when it actually worked.
In the movies, superheroes always came into their powers in the midst of a life-threatening situation, so he was disappointed that his own coming of age was such a non-event. But then again, the risk of your parents killing you for trashing the house is as scary as certain death for a teenager, so, in a way, it made sense that his skills had kicked in at that moment.
Over the last two weeks, he had found that he could change the temperature of water as well as stopping and starting the flow of it. He was only just getting the hang of it really, but he was enjoying learning how his powers worked and experimenting with doing new things. The only worry was other people finding out. He hadn’t told anybody for fear of what they would say or do. He thought
he would either be labelled as crazy or carted off to be experimented on by nosey scientists. He didn’t want that.
“Hi, I’m home!” Dylan called as he walked into his house 10 minutes later. “What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”
There was no answer, so he walked through to the kitchen in search of his family, but there was no one there either. “Mum? Dad?” he said as he tiptoed through to the living room. He pushed the door open slowly.
“Get him!” a voice shouted.
“I’m on it,” said a tall, skinny man in a black uniform, who rushed to grab hold of Dylan.
“What the...” he started to say, but the man put a hand over his mouth. As he quickly looked round the room, he saw his mum, dad and Sophia sitting on the sofa at the other side of the room. They were all tied up and gagged. There was another uniformed man in the room, but this one was shorter and chubby.
“Take him to the garage and throw him in the van,” he said. ”I’ll bring the girl.”
“OK, boss. What about the folks?”
“Leave them, they’re of no use to us. Our orders are to take the kids. Be quick before he tries something – we don’t know what his power is.”
As the thinner man dragged Dylan through the house towards the adjoining garage, he desperately looked around for water he could control in a bid to save himself, but there was nothing.
“Well, this is a useless power,” he thought. “Better try the old-fashioned way instead.” And with that, Dylan stamped down hard and fast on his assailant’s toes.
“Hey, you little…” the man said as he pulled out a gun and whacked Dylan round the head with it. “Don’t you try anything else or I’ll kill your whole family, you hear me?” He shoved him through the door to the garage where a large, white Transit van was parked. He clicked the back door open and pushed Dylan inside forcefully. “Now get in there and stay in there.”
Dylan stumbled to his knees on the floor of the van before noticing three more teenagers sitting near the back – two girls and a boy. Suddenly, Sophia was bundled in next to him and the doors slammed shut behind them, leaving them in total darkness. He listened as the men jumped in the front and started the engine up, before driving out of the garage and onto the road outside.