I followed Livvy’s eye’s, and saw a girl, who looked about 18, with long red hair and sharp purple eyes floating in the air, about 9 feet from the ground. Fire was burning around her violently, and she had a scowl on her pretty face. “Amber, what the hell,” I heard Mattie say from behind me.

“Mattie, make a shelter that can’t be burned. Quickly.” Alric said, and Mattie complied. I wondered who Amber was, however they seemed very powerful. She seemed like a world ending calamity. To think Rose is stronger than her. Well, at least I would think so since they are the founder. I can’t see someone so powerful settling to serve someone weaker. But maybe I was wrong. I wasn’t sure.

A rock-like structure formed around us, as a wave of fire was sent rushing out the girl called Amber. It seemed like only Alric and Mattie weren't surprised by this display. “Livvy, get down, that’s an order.” Mattie said matter-of-factly. Both Livvy and I followed this direction and turned our faces away as well.

“What is Amber doing?” Alric asked, his voice shaking slightly. Mattie shrugged and Livvy looked lost in thought. “She just killed everyone outside of this structure, what is she thinking?”

“Hell if I know.” Mattie said, he looked worried about something.

I looked out of the tiny crack and saw ghost-like things slowly rising up from the charred bodies that were laying on the ground. “Uhm, are you guys seeing this?” I said, “It’s pretty damn creepy.” Livvy pushed me aside, and looked out. Her face went pale, and she went to the corner and vomited. She seemed pretty shellshocked. I looked through the crack again. The ghost thing’s were merging into one. It was pretty gruesome, but in truth, I think there was another reason that Livvy spew chunks.

After about a minute, they became one being, and Amber grabbed hold of them. She came back out a few minutes later, dragging someone with her. That person looked like a total wreck. “Rose!” Mattie exclaimed, dropping the shelter, and ran towards them.

So that was Rose. They didn’t look like much. Their eyes opened slightly, and they tried to stand up on their own, but before they could fall, Livvy was there to hold them up. I didn’t see her move.

I stood up and walked over slowly. Amber let go of Rose and let Livvy take the weight, she pulled a knife from Rose’s pocket, and pointed it at me. “Who are you?” She asked loudly. Arlic came up from behind me and said “Don’t worry, she’s one of us.” With that, she threw the knife at me, and I quickly drew my gun and shot it.

“So that’s why she doesn’t have an ability yet we let her in. Interesting.” Amber said. “How, how did you know I don’t have an ability?” I asked, and she answered with “I can sense the radiation in your body. If you don’t know what radiation has to do with abilities, I’ll explain later.”

“Amber, what the hell did you do to Rose?” Mattie coughed, and looked away from her. “I took the soul’s of all these dead people and merged them into one, and then took Rose’s soul and merged that one soul, which was blank, and merged it with Rose’s, and since theirs was stronger than the blank soul, took control. It’s real complicated, I’ll explain later.” Amber said. She was making no sense.

“Was it worth it? Was it worth all the death Amber?” Alric asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll support you on this decision, but if Rose doesn’t wake up, within the next 24 hours. I will put a bullet in your head.” Alric said, grimmly monotone. Amber laughed and said “Sure, if you can catch me. But I’m confident in Rose. I think we overworked them. Anyway, we need to go. That rock guy and the invisible dude are still here. I would assume that you can’t detect either of them Livvy.” Livvy nodded. “Alright, Mattie, any ideas.”

Mattie scowled at Amber, but said “If one’s invisible, it’s likely that the invisibility is more than just that. It probably makes them completely disappear. And assuming the rock bastard is still here, if Livvy can’t detect him, either she’s just imcompetent, which I highly doubt, or the damn bastard is able to share his disappearing ability with someone else. That’s very inconvenient. We should just get up and outta here.”

“I agree, but where would we go?” I asked, and Alric pointed towards the mountains. “The San Dia’s. We have an emergency base there just in case.” But while he was saying this, in sign language he was saying “What I’m saying is false, I’m worried that they might be listening, but actually we would have to go Santa Fe” I nodded, and said. “So where is it on the mountain?” I was never sure why the leader in New York wanted me to learn ASL, but now I understood. In sign language I was saying “that’s far, let’s just get in a car or something and go to the mall or something. We need to lose these son’s of bitches.”

Livvy locked eyes with me and Alric, and Alric took Rose. Livvy said, “On the very top, at the gift shop, but then take a quick plunge off the balcony there. It should be right there.” She was signing “Yea, I sense movement, but can’t see anything, and it’s close, so I’ll make sure they go away, and follow those directions, which are obviously fake. See ya, meet me at the Barnes and Noble on this side of town.” She winked, took out a 1911, and slipped away. “I heard everything, let’s go. Mattie, make us a car or something.” Amber came over and said. I assumed she saw us signing. Something in Alric’s ear lit up, and Livvy’s voice came out of it. He took it out of his ear and threw it to me.

I put it in my ear, and said “This is Sophie.”

“They’re leaving, moving quickly towards the mountains. I can’t keep up, but I’m gonna keep following them. Keep doing what we were gonna do. You guys are fine to talk out loud as well.”

I sighed, and relayed this to the other’s while Mattie was busy making a mini-van. Amber sighed and said “Let’s go. And stay on your guard. But first, we need to arm ourselves.” She led us to a far corner of the parking lot, and took a gun from me, at which I tried to swat her away, but she was too fast. She took it and shot the ground, and instead of the dull noise of a bullet hitting concrete, I heard the sharp noise of metal on metal. Amber threw the gun back to me and I caught it and put it into my pocket.

Amber kneeled down and opened a trap door and ordered me to help her, and for Alric to take Rose to the back of the now completed mini-van.

Amber slid down a metal ladder, and disappeared and I followed. When I got to the bottom, my jaw dropped. It was a huge room full of any type of weapons you could think of. AR-15’s, beretta's, grenades. Incendiary bomb’s, rocket launchers, balisongs, swords. Any type of weapon I could think of, and since I was a weapons expert, was a god damn lot, was here, and more that I didn’t recognize.

Amber took a bag off the wall and threw it to me, “Fill it with guns, weapons, or ammo or whatever. I do suggest getting an automatic weapon. But be my guest to be a badass with a bunch of pistols. Amber herself took down four bags, filling one with two beretta’s, a couple of magazines, and about a hundred knives. The second was filled with a couple glocks, a bunch of magazines, and a bunch of throwing knives. The next one was filled solely with 1911’s and magazines for it. The next was filled to the brim with AR-15 rounds.

She slung two over her back, and threw the other two to me. She walked over to the entrance, picking up an AR-15, on the way over, she grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the entrance.

She climbed up, and put down the bags, and took some from me, and I climbed up after her. “What’s this for?” I asked.

“One’s for you, one’s for me, another for Rose, another one for Rose, one for Alric. Mattie doesn’t fight.” She said. I guess that makes sense. She slammed the trap door shut, and welded it shut with her heat. “You know, you’re pretty rare.” She said to me. I looked at her and blinked. “Wh-why?”

“Well, only a few people have been accepted without abilities. And usually their abilities are forced outa them. If it doesn’t come about, it usually kills them. It’s not ideal, but they know that. I mean, I can try and get you an ability if you want.” She said, “I’ll think about it.” I would have to know more about abilities to know if I wanted one.

“Well, that’s fair. To be honest, it would be difficult to make a scenario where you are exposed to a safe amount of safe radiation right now.”

“What does radiation have to do with it,” I said, opening the trunk of the car and throwing the bag’s in there, but Amber took them and gave them to Alric. She got into the car, ready to drive. I got into the passenger’s seat, ready for a damn essay.

“Well, everyone has an ability. Whether it manifests depends on the amount of radiation one is exposed to. Abilities are inherently a manifestation of radiation. But to use it, you would have to be exposed to radiation. How this happens doesn't really matter. For me, it was because I got a hold of a car when I was like 5, and drove all the way to the place where all the atom bombs went off. For Rose, it was because their parents were druggies, and their dealer had an ability, but they had really bad control over it, causing the radiation to ooze out of them. That’s how Alric got his ability. His dad didn’t have control over his ability. It’s very situational.”

Interesting. “How come I’ve never heard about this?” I asked.

“Because we did the research. We shared it with the UN as well. But they refuse to accept it as fact. But they won’t try it themselves for ‘moral’ reasons. That’s probably why. We thought it was something the entire world should know, however, if we did tell everyone, the UN would be on us in no time. And we don’t want that.” Amber answered.

“Oh, the wonders of the United Nations.”