The boss Guardian flounced off from his team and marched over to a water cooler that Scarlett was walking past. He gave her escort Guardian a nod of acknowledgement
“Hi, Bob. New starters?”
“Yeah, Jack, we’re taking them over to the training suite now.”
“Nice. Put this pretty young thing on my team if you can.” He grinned at Scarlett. “I could do with a bit of eye candy to brighten up my day; that lot are a bunch of losers.”
“I’ll see what I can do if she passes all her tests.”
“Thanks, mate.”
Scarlett bit her tongue as ‘Jack’ walked away. She wanted to scream and tell him what a sexist pig he was, then inform him that there was no chance in hell that she would ever work for a bully like him, but she didn’t, she kept staring right ahead and doing as she was told. That guy had no idea how lucky he was that he’d escaped a telling off from her, and the wrath of her powers.
“Here we are,” the Guardian who was escorting Dylan said. They had reached a large room at the edge of the call centre. “You lot wait in here until the Chief and trainers get here.”
The men shoved the five of them into the room, then closed the door. A second later, it opened again and Rachel was pushed inside.
“But you said you’d let me go if I handed them over,” she protested in a high-pitched voice.
“Yeah, well, we lied,” a Guardian laughed. “The Chief is still angry with you for escaping the last time you were here.”
“No! Please, don’t make me see the Chief...” she started to say.
But the Guardian wasn’t listening. He smirked as he gave her a taunting little wave and slammed the door shut behind him.
“Don’t leave me here,” she shouted as she hammered on the door. “Please don’t leave me…” she whispered this time.
She banged her head against the door, choked back tears, then turned to face the group.
“I’m gonna kill you,” Scarlett said as she flew at Rachel.
She was so angry that she forgot all about keeping her powers hidden and used her telekinesis to fly at their so-called friend.
“How could you do this to us? I thought you were helping us.”
“I was, I am, well, I want to, but I honestly had no choice.” She was speaking quickly and frantically as Scarlett lifted her up into the air. “The guys back at the M-Boyz’s estate said they’d kill my best mate if I didn’t hand you over. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Traitor!” Scarlett said. She dropped Rachel to the floor, then flew down to her level to look her in the eye. “You should have told us, we would have helped.”
“I couldn’t…” Rachel started to say, then she did a double take at Scarlett as though she’d only just noticed her powers. “Hang on a minute, are you flying?” She leaned back from Scarlett in fear and stared around at the group with wide eyes. “Who are you people?”
“I… we… yes, I’m flying and we’re pretty damn powerful people, that’s who we are.”
Scarlett tried her best to look big and strong so Rachel was scared of her. She wanted her to feel bad after the way she’d betrayed them.
“Do you all have superpowers?”
“That’s none of your business,” Lucy snapped.
Lucy looked as angry as Scarlett felt. Scarlett hoped that didn’t mean she’d be blowing the electrics with one of her temper tantrums any minute now. She used to lose control of her powers when she was upset, but she had more of a handle on it lately. She seemed to be over the crush on Dylan that made her hostile towards Scarlett too, which was a relief. She’d hated there being an atmosphere between them. That said, Lucy definitely had it in for Rachel right now.
“Tell us everything you know,” she snapped. “Why are we here? Do they know about our powers?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what do they want from us?”
“They want you to work here. They’re always on the lookout for more slaves, especially young ones like you lot.”
“And you thought you’d deliver that to them gift wrapped.” Lucy was furious. “I thought you were going to help me free my brother, instead you led us straight into a trap.”
Rachel sighed. “OK, I owe you an explanation, but please listen to what I have to say. When we went up to the M-Boyz’s estate, I did that to help you guys. However, those two contacts I spoke to have switched sides since I last saw them and they’re now informants for the Guardians. So… when I went asking questions about your mates, they realised I knew you lot and said I had to hand you over or they’d kill my friend, Emmy. She works here on the 17th floor.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Scarlett said. While she had some sympathy for Rachel’s story, she was still angry with her.
“I don’t know. I panicked I guess. You don’t know these people like I do. I’ve seen the Guardians kill people before for not making enough sales in a day. I was so afraid of what they’d do to Emmy, I couldn’t even think straight.” She looked towards the door apprehensively. “I’m still worried now. They haven’t kept their word about letting me go, so I have no idea if they’ll leave her alone too.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Dylan said in a kind, sympathetic tone.
“Don’t feel sorry for her,” Scarlett snapped. “She betrayed us.”
“She didn’t mean us any harm.”
“Can we stop bickering and work at getting out of here,” Alex said with an impatient sigh.
“Can’t you do you teleporty thing?” Rachel asked.
“Nope, my powers aren’t working in here. There must be some gold worked into the framework of these rooms. Goulden likes to add it to all his workhouses and buildings because he knows it inhibits my powers.”
“Goulden knows you have powers?”
“Yes.”
Rachel nodded her head in realisation as she put two and two together.
“So that’s why you’re on the run from him and that’s how you managed to break thousands of people out of the workhouse in Essex. You’re superheroes.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Neelam said modestly.
“We can do some pretty cool stuff,” Lucy said. “And we help people a lot. She’s right, we are kind of superheroes if you think about it.”
“Shush,” Dylan said. “We’re supposed to be keeping our powers secret.”
“Oh lay off it,” Alex said. “She’s seen Scarlett and I use our powers, so it’s pretty obvious.”
“So why don’t you all break us out of here?” Rachel said.
“Because if we get caught using powers up here in Manchester, Goulden will know where we are. There aren’t many superpowered teenagers running round the country now, are there?”
“I guess not, only those ones who blew up Victoria Station the other year.” Rachel’s eyes flew wide open with fear and realisation. “Was that you?”
Dylan was angry. “That was not us. Goulden blew Victoria up. He ordered his men to instigate the whole thing, then we turned up to save people and we did help a few thousand victims to get out alive. We never get any thanks for that, though, we just get blamed for the whole thing because Goulden lied and said we were responsible.”
“Goulden did it?”
“Yes.”
Scarlett wondered if Rachel would believe him because Goulden had done an excellent job of pinning the Victoria Incident on them at the time. However, from the look on her face, she seemed to trust them.
“That does sound like the kind of plan he’d try to pull off; he’s evil enough.” Now it was Rachel’s turn to look angry. “Look, you have to use your powers to get out of here. I don’t know who you are or what you’re up to, but you’re clearly trying to fight Goulden and do some good. You can’t do that if you’re working as slaves in here.”
Dylan opened his mouth to argue.
“I know, I know, you don’t wanna be discovered, but what’s the point of hiding if it means you spend your lives as prisoners in t
his place? Escape now before the Chief gets here. Please! I’ll help you in any way I can.”
“She’s right,” Scarlett said. “We do need to get out of here even if it means exposing our powers.”
“But what about Jay and everyone?” Dylan said. “They are here, right?” he asked Rachel.
“I dunno,” she admitted. “And I wouldn’t hang around to find out if I were you. Listen, these people could hurt you. The trainers can brainwash people and make them compliant somehow. They don’t do it to all the slaves, but they might do it to you and then you won’t even know you want to escape.”
“That sounds familiar,” Scarlett said as she remembered how Goulden had drugged Ethan and Mallory to make them his Super Soldiers. “I’m not sticking around to become some kind of walking slavebot. Let’s stop standing here procrastinating and escape already.”
Scarlett was too impatient to wait for a response from her friends because she’d been hanging around doing nothing long enough. She waved her hand at the door to telekinetically unlock it, then swung it open.
“Lucy, you take out the power to cause some confusion and block the CCTV, Dylan, you stop any Guardians who come at us and everyone else, do what you can.”
“Scarlett,” Dylan shouted in frustration, but it was too late, she was already dashing across the call centre. “Follow us,” he said to Rachel as he, Neelam, Alex and Lucy raced after his impetuous girlfriend.
Three Guardians ran towards Scarlett to block her path, but she flung them all out of the way. Rachel gasped as Lucy threw lightning bolts at the lights, CCTV cameras and fuse boxes, causing all the computers to switch off. She then fired a more precise bolt of lightning at a control box near the windows, which made the blinds roll down and shut out the sunlight so the room descended into darkness.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” one of the Guardians complained.
That was the point of Lucy’s plan. Next, she created small light blasts in front of the group to illuminate their path as they raced back towards the lifts. One Guardian leapt in their way, but Dylan used his powers to hurl him aside and they soon caught up with Scarlett, who was at the elevators pressing the buttons frantically.
“Come on,” she said. “Hurry up.”
She peered across the darkened room and could just make out a large group of Guardians racing towards them.
“Ping!” the lift sang.
Just in time. Scarlett pushed Dylan, Neelam, Alex and Lucy in, but one of the Guardians grabbed Rachel at the last second. Scarlett hesitated as she tried to decide whether to run or help the girl. Even though Rachel had betrayed them, she couldn’t leave her there.
“Go!” Rachel urged. “Please. You’re more important than me and you can make a difference.”
Scarlett looked from Rachel to the lift and back again.
“Run!” Rachel said.
The man holding Rachel reached forward to grab Scarlett’s shoulder, so she leapt into the lift, hit the close-doors button and breathed a sigh of relief as it lurched down towards the ground floor.
“Sorry,” she whispered. Like Rachel earlier, Scarlett had no other choice.
“That was close,” Lucy said.
“I doubt it’s over yet,” Dylan said. “We still have to make it through reception before Alex can teleport us out of here and I bet the Guardians or police will be waiting for us.”
As the doors slid open at the bottom, his suspicions were proved to be spot on. A group of Guardians and security staff were standing in reception with stern looks on their faces.
“You ain’t going nowhere,” a short, podgy one said.
“I think you’ll find we are,” Scarlett replied.
She ran forward from her friends and threw the group of men crashing to the side of the reception, but they got straight back up and started racing towards her.
“Run!” she shouted to Dylan, Neelam, Lucy and Alex. “I’ve got this.”
When Dylan began to protest, Scarlett telekinetically lifted her four friends, opened a fire exit by the revolving doors and flung them outside. Having made sure they had a safe landing, she turned her attention back to the security team and Guardians.
“That was a foolish move,” one of the men said. “We can take down one little girl easily.” The rest of them laughed.
Scarlett glared at the group as she felt steely determination surge up inside her, providing more strength and will to survive than she knew she had in her.
“We’ll see about that.”
She looked around for something to throw. Something that was so heavy it would take them all out in one go, but there was nothing. Suddenly, her eyes rested on a small pillar that was supporting the ceiling a few feet in front of the men. Could she expand her powers enough to move it? Scarlett decided there was no time for self-doubt and threw herself into the improbable task.
“Move!” she yelled as she felt all her rage and anger flood to the surface. “Crumble to the ground now.”
Even Scarlett was stunned when the pillar shattered, causing the ceiling above to cave in around the men’s ears.
As bits of plaster fell past her face, she knew it was time she got out of there. She used her telekinesis to fly at the fire door, before flinging it open and escaping into the street outside, where her friends looked as furious as they were pleased to see her.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Dylan yelled. “I’ve been trying everything I could to get back in there. I thought I was going to watch you die.”
Scarlett wasn’t sure if he was on the verge of exploding with rage, tears, relief or all three.
“I can take care of myself,” she said. “I’m not going to die, no matter what some silly vision of the future may say.”
“Scarlett, don’t be so cocky. I can’t even begin to tell you how angry I am right now. This isn’t like you at all, you know we work as a team…”
“Guys,” Alex said. “Can we finish this later, only I think we need to get out of here right now.”
He nodded at the entrance, where several of the men were working their way free from the rubble and with a flash of light, he whisked them away just in time.
Chapter 9
Alex and the group popped up in Piccadilly Bus Station in the centre of Manchester. He had teleported them into a far corner of the station, behind a grey concrete wall that separated the buses and trams from the adjacent Piccadilly Gardens. Ugly as the wall may be, it allowed them to spring out of nowhere without arousing suspicion, so Scarlett understood why Alex had chosen this spot. Although, as soon as she saw the state of the place, she wished he’d picked anywhere else.
The whole area had changed beyond recognition. It looked dirty, dangerous and downright depressing. The stands in the bus station had been smashed to pieces and the shops that ran down the back of it were all boarded up except for a small off licence. Judging by the dozens of people sitting on the floor clutching bottles of alcohol, it was easy to see why that store was still doing a roaring trade.
An old navy blue bus had been deserted at the side of road. It must have been there some time because its wheels, wing mirrors, bumper and doors had been removed, while most of the windows were smashed or missing completely. Several people appeared to be living on board and two of them were glaring at Scarlett like eagles sizing up their prey.
“Let’s move away from here,” she suggested as she wandered into the main gardens.
There were no better sights to be seen there though; the water fountains had been switched off and the previously pretty lawned areas were now covered in rows of tents. At least a few hundred people were camping there and several of them were huddled around fires trying to keep warm in their woolly hats, gloves and oversized padded jackets. It was apparent to Scarlett that they’d been there for weeks, months or more. These weren’t happy festival goers singing songs around the fire, they were people living here because they had nowhere else to go. They must have really fallen on hard times.
L
ucy didn’t look impressed with their new surroundings. “Nice choice, Alex, land us in the middle of the dodgy side of town.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, every part of town is the dodgy side now except for Spinningfields and I wanted to get us away from there. Don’t be so snooty, Lucy, at least we’re alive, and free.”
“Just about,” Dylan said. “We’re getting nowhere in this place. It feels like we’re always on the run and lost in a maze or something.”
“We kind of are,” Lucy said.
Dylan looked exasperated. “We’re better than this. We run away to Manchester, hide our powers, lose half our team, then we walk straight into a trap and get ourselves captured. It isn’t like us.”
“This is exactly like us,” Scarlett said. “We may have superpowers, but we’re still a bunch of teenagers who get scared and make mistakes. We’ve been duped before…”
“Yeah by Goulden, not some girl we barely know. I think we need some focus and direction, that’s all.” He glanced at his watch. “It’ll be curfew in an hour, we’d better find somewhere to spend the night.”
“Rachel’s hideout?” Alex suggested.
“No way, the police and Guardians might look there and now we’ve exposed our powers, we don’t know who might be after us.
“What about Kerridges?” Lucy suggested.
“Lucy, now is not the time to shop.” Scarlett rolled her eyes.
“I’m not talking about shopping, I’m talking about hiding there. We go in the store now, hang around till closing time, hide in the toilets or remain undetected some other way until they close up, then stay there till morning. It’s safer than being out on the streets.”
Dylan laughed.
“Actually, it’s not a bad idea,” Scarlett said.
“Seriously?” Dylan shook his head.
“Think about it,” Lucy said. “They have clothes we can change into, food we can eat and even beds to sleep in. It’s perfect!”
“Beds!” Alex said. “I’d love to sleep in a proper comfy bed.”
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 7