Heroes and Villains
(Out Of Time #2)
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 novel 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 novel, which uses British spelling and grammar.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Chapter 1
March 8, 2014, three months
after Out Of Time #1
Eighteen year old Scarlett Shortt was tired. She’d been pedalling away at her station for six long hours with no sign of a break. Her legs hurt, her back hurt, even her brain hurt. She needed a rest. She knew she’d be penalised if she stopped cycling altogether, so she slowed down to reach into her bag for some water. That should keep her going.
“Worker! Pedal harder,” a manager shouted before she’d even managed to reach the zip.
She bit her lip, nodded her head obediently and did as she was told. “Yes, sir, sorry sir,” she said through gritted teeth.
Scarlett shot the man, who was wearing a tailored grey uniform, a smile in an attempt to win him over, but it didn’t work.
“I don’t know what you’re grinning at worker. You’re not here to enjoy yourself, you’re here to create energy. Now get on with it.”
Her blood boiled with rage as the rude man turned his back on her and strode off in search of his next victim: a young girl of around 12, who was pedalling away on a cycle next to her mum, dad and two brothers. The sheer misery on their faces was replicated across the Holdforth Workhouse, where row upon row of 1,500 slaves were forced to spend long hours on exercise bikes creating energy to fuel British homes. There were at least as many people toiling away on the floor above.
Technically, the slaves were referred to as workers because the government claimed they were doing this in return for a roof over their heads, but as the scheme was compulsory and the conditions and pay were so poor, the so-called work amounted to little more than slave labour. Everyone worked 14-hour days, the food was dire and the living conditions grew worse every day. The cruel bosses, who Scarlett had learned were referred to as ‘Guardians’, were the worst. They would prowl the workhouse barking orders, demanding that everyone worked harder and crushing people’s spirits.
Scarlett winced as the Guardian who’d berated her approached the young girl.
“You!” he yelled at her. “Your stats are down; let’s see a bit more dedication so you hit those targets.”
The bedraggled girl, who had limp, mousey hair and rags for clothes desperately tried to pedal faster. She was too weak to be working so hard and within a few seconds, she keeled over at her station and collapsed on the floor. The Guardian didn’t bat an eyelid, he simply tutted and walked away.
Scarlett was furious. Did this bully gain some kind of sick pleasure from picking on children who could barely stand never mind defend themselves?
“I’ll show him,” she thought.
She looked from the man to a large pile of boxes he was strolling past. She willed the containers to move, determined to make them topple over and knock him to the ground. Suddenly, more than ten of the heavy boxes fell onto the Guardian and sent him crashing to the floor with a scream. One of his workmates rushed to help him.
“Are you OK? What happened?”
“I think so. I don’t know.” The Guardian stared around in confusion before narrowing his eyes in anger. “These boxes fell over. Which idiot stacked them so carelessly?”
Scarlett put her head down and kept pedalling on her bike, which produced energy that was transformed into electricity.
“That was you, wasn’t it?” a voice in her head said. “You used your telekinesis.”
It was Scarlett’s friend, Neelam Nori, who was working undercover at the workhouse with her in a bid to free the poor slaves. Neelam was positioned across the other side of the floor, around 100 feet away, but she was able to communicate with Scarlett by using her telepathy.
“Neelam, you don’t understand,” Scarlett protested. “He was bullying me, then he started on a mere child.”
“That’s no excuse, it was still reckless behaviour. We’re undercover here and we’re not supposed to risk exposing ourselves.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, but we’ve been at the workhouse for three days now and I’m sick of it. When are we going to put a plan into action and break the slaves out of here?”
“Soon, I promise. When Dylan and the others think it’s the right time to act, they’ll be here to take care of the final stages.”
“But we have no idea when that will be.”
“Nope.”
“Can’t you use your telepathy to get in touch with them?”
Scarlett was feeling impatient and frustrated.
“How many times do I have to tell you? My powers only work when I’m close to people. There’s no way I could reach all the way back to the house to have a mind chat with Dylan and…”
Suddenly, Neelam went quiet.
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s here.”
“Who? Dylan?”
“Yes!”
“Talk about a coincidence. Where?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see him or properly mind link with him, I can only sense his presence. Can you spot him from your side of the workhouse?”
Scarlett kept pedalling as she subtly peered around at her surroundings. Two young men were stood by the main entrance chatting to a couple of Guardians. It looked like they were dropping off a delivery of water cooler bottles. A second glance told her that they were no ordinary delivery men: one was her friend, Jay Ryder, and the other was the leader of their group of superheroes, her boyfriend, Dylan Nicolson.
“Neelam,” she said through their mind link. “I see them!”
“What are they doing?”
“Delivering water by the looks of it.”
“Water. Why?”
“I have no idea… oh, of course.” Scarlett remembered that Dylan possessed the power to control water, so this must be part of his plan. She didn’t have a clue what that plan was, but she knew she could trust him to have something fool-proof up his sleeve. He wasn’t one for taking uncalculated risks.
At that moment, the Guardians pointed to a clear space to Scarlett’s left as if giving directions and Jay and Dylan made their way over, each carrying a bottle of water under their arm.
“Shall I put them here, sir?” Dylan said politely but firmly to one of the Guardians.
“Yes, that’ll do. Make sure the
y’re neat and well stacked.”
Scarlett stared straight ahead as Dylan and Jay worked, determined not to give away the fact that she knew them. The pair made several more trips until there were 20 bottles piled up in the space, then Dylan placed his hands on his hips and turned to one of the Guardians before speaking in an unusually loud voice.
“Well that’s it. All the bottles are stored neatly now. Let’s hope they don’t fall over and spill, because that would be a disaster.”
As he gave a nervous little laugh, Scarlett noted that he was speaking in a weird fake fashion. She wondered what he was up to, then as she glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye, she realised Dylan was staring right at her.
“Scarlett, break the bottles now,” he said. “For God’s sake! Can’t you take a hint?”
“Whoops.”
She lifted the bottles into the air and slammed them against the wall, causing them to smash open. Water came gushing out everywhere and Dylan used his powers to masterfully control it and swish it in the direction of the Guardians, who were now running towards them.
“What the bleeding ’eck is going on here?” one of them said as he lunged towards Jay.
He didn’t stand a chance of catching the 17 year old though because Jay used his power of super speed to run out of the way. Within seconds, he had darted around the room, grabbing seven of the men and dropping them in front of Dylan one by one.
“That’s all of them,” he said.
That was Dylan’s cue to manipulate the water into a solid cage of water around the men, which he swiftly turned to thick ice. Satisfied that he’d made it strong enough to hold them for the time being, he turned to Scarlett and gave her a smile. It was good to see him after several days apart, but she couldn’t help shaking her head in frustration.
“I had no idea what was going on for a second there.”
“Well, it’s nice to see you too.”
Dylan, who was 6ft with green eyes and wavy dark hair, laughed and Scarlett rushed forward to give him a quick hug.
“Wow, am I glad to see you,” said Neelam, who had dashed over from the other side of the workhouse.
She glanced at the angry Guardians, who were trying to break out of their frosty prison. They were banging on the bars and trying to snap them in vain.
“Let us out,” one man said as he grasped at the ice. “Yowch! That’s freezing; my hand almost stuck to it.”
“That’s the idea,” Dylan said.
He turned to Neelam and Scarlett and gestured towards the slaves, who were still working, afraid to stop to see what was going on in case they were punished.
“We have to get these people out of here.”
“But there are more than 1,500 of them on this floor alone,” Scarlett said.
“I know. That’s why help is on its way.”
Dylan looked towards the grey wall closest to them in anticipation. As if on cue, it started to shake and reverberate from the sound of what Scarlett recognised to be lightning and laser blasts. Huge cracks appeared under the pressure and the concrete crumbled away to reveal a 20-foot wide hole in the wall.
“Yes!” Jay shouted as their teammates, Lucy Watts, Aaron Watts, Alex Connor and Isabella Paletta ran into the room.
Lucy had the power to create lightning, her brother, Aaron, threw laser balls and together they’d used their skills to blast their way through the wall. The group dashed over to Dylan, Jay, Scarlett and Neelam.
“Hi,” Lucy said. “So, what now?”
“First, I need Isabella to time freeze these guys,” Dylan said, pointing to the Guardians in the ice cage.
“No problem,” Isabella said. The 17-year-old redhead was the newest addition to the team and her time-stopping powers were still limited. “I’ll need Scarlett to help me pause that many people though.”
Scarlett was telekinetic, but she’d recently developed a new ability to control and enhance other people’s powers. She took Isabella’s hand and gave her a boost, allowing her to freeze a group of people in time instead of just one.
The Guardians, who were still protesting and trying to burst out of their cell, suddenly stopped still in the middle of what they were doing. With their hands in the air, faces contorted in anger and mouths wide open, they looked like an angry sculpture.
“Nice work,” Dylan said.
He wasn’t prepared to waste another second standing around chatting and started shouting out orders right away.
“Now, Aaron, Jay, Alex and Neelam, you get everyone from this floor out of here. Alex, do you remember what we planned? Once you’re outside of the building, you teleport the slaves away in small groups to a variety of new locations; try to keep any families and friends together.”
“No problem,” said Alex, who had the power of teleportation.
“Scarlett, Isabella and Lucy, follow me up to the second floor where we’ll free the rest of the workers.”
The three of them nodded, then raced after their leader as he made his way towards the stairs. The teenagers were familiar with the layout of the building because they’d been here on a mission three months ago.
As they pushed their way through the crowd of workers, who were now racing towards the hole in the wall, Scarlett noticed they looked as scared as they were happy. The idea of escaping into the outside world must be strange for them after being locked up for so long.
In less than a minute, they reached the heavy blue stair door. Dylan led the way through to a flight of cold, concrete steps, only to be blocked by three Guardians, who were racing down from the floor above.
“What the hell is going on?” a tall, skinny, dark-haired man said. “We heard crashing noises and the sound of an explosion or lightning or something.”
“Who are you?” a shorter man with a Cockney accent asked. “And where do you think you’re off to?”
Dylan didn’t need to shout any instructions on this occasion. The group knew exactly what to do. Isabella froze one of the Guardians to the spot, Scarlett used her telekinesis to fling another against the wall, while Lucy took out the third one with a devastating lightning bolt.
“That should keep them out of our way for a while,” Dylan said. “Come on, let’s get upstairs.”
When they reached the next floor, he pushed an identical blue door to find it was locked. Scarlett nudged Dylan aside and opened it by moving the lock mechanism with her mind before kicking it open.
As the four of them raced into the huge open space, which was as cold, grey and uninviting as the one downstairs, Scarlett mind lifted two Guardians and bashed them into the corner of the room.
“That’s two down, and from what I can see, four more to go. You can spot them by their angry faces and boring uniforms.”
“That and the fact they’re running towards us,” Lucy said, before leaping into action.
She zapped the nearest one with a lightning bolt, while Isabella froze another in time. Two more men were running towards Dylan, so Scarlett ran to his aid, but he already had the situation under control. Because the human body was made from 60 per cent water, he could lift and move people with his power too. He whooshed both men into the air, then threw them into the corner, where they hit the wall before slithering down to the floor on top of the men Scarlett had taken out.
Hundreds of amazed-looking workers stepped down from their machines, which included huge contraptions like hamster wheels along with the same rows of exercise bikes as downstairs.
“Who are you?” a woman in her early twenties said.
“We’re here to free you from this dump,” Dylan explained. “Follow us and we’ll take you to safety.”
“Can we trust ’em?” a dishevelled teenage boy said. It looked like he’d been wearing the same beige tweed trousers and shirt for the last few years.
“Do we have a choice?” asked a brunette to his left. “I’ll take anything over being a government slave.”
Dylan stepped forward and stared at the crowd with as mu
ch authority as he could muster. “You can trust us, I promise.”
Scarlett hoped he’d got through to this bunch, so they could get out of here as soon as possible. It wouldn’t take long for the government to send reinforcements and she didn’t want to be around when they arrived.
The boy nodded his head reluctantly. “OK, we’ll come with you.”
“We have to move quickly,” Dylan said. “It will take ages to get everyone out of here down the stairs. Lucy, do you think you could blast a hole in the outside wall?”
She shook her head. “That’s way beyond my capabilities, I only managed to do it downstairs because I had Aaron’s help.”
“Scarlett,” Dylan said. “Fancy having a go at boosting Lucy’s powers?”
While Scarlett was happy to help, she knew Lucy could be awkward at times, so she didn’t want to rush in and help her in case she dented her ego.
“If she’s OK with that.”
Lucy nodded, so Scarlett took her hand and concentrated on enhancing her abilities. The blonde 17 year old stared at the wall with determination, lifted both her hands, then let rip with the most powerful lightning the group had ever seen. The room filled with flashes of light and the deafening sound of tearing concrete and metal as her electric bolts ripped a hole in the wall. Dylan dashed over to the gap to look outside. He needed to create an escape chute, but he couldn’t see any water anywhere.
“Scarlett,” he said. “I need you again.”
“I’m becoming rather indispensable, aren’t I?” she laughed.
Dylan usually needed water to be present to use his powers, but with a boost from Scarlett, he could conjure water and ice out of the tiniest droplets of moisture in the air. She dashed over to take her boyfriend’s hand and helped him create a huge ice slide, which ran from the hole in the wall down to the ground below. At 20-foot wide, the slide was big enough to help all these people to escape.
There was no time to waste, so Scarlett raced over to the workers and pointed towards the wall. “Travel down there quickly and calmly and our friends will be waiting when you reach the bottom.”
She, Lucy, Dylan and Isabella helped the workers down the slide to safety while their friends took care of everyone once they reached the concrete grounds below. Scarlett could see Alex teleporting back and forth with groups of people, creating a signatory flash of light every time he vanished and reappeared. That always happened when he used his power.
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 1