Awaken (13 page)

More families timidly approached, adults and kids, all asking what was happening.

“I think it’s just a power outage. Probably an underground line blew a fuse. It’s pretty common,” Justin said, trying to keep people calm. He grabbed my arm and slowly led me away from the group while neighbors continued to introduce themselves and joke that it took something like this to finally force them outside. I glanced back at them over my shoulder and grinned at the sea of faces, huddled together and whispering as if they discovered something rare in the ray of their beams. As we walked down the street, we passed other groups of people. One porch had lanterns lit around the edges and people sat on the stairs, talking and laughing as if they were routinely out enjoying the night together. Justin tightened his grip on my arm and we picked up our pace. He checked his phone before he slipped it into his pocket.

“So, you’re a runner, right?” he asked me.

I nodded and when we turned the corner, he let go of me.

“It’s time to prove it,” he said. He broke out into a sprint and I raced behind him, across the street and through an open yard. We came out onto another sidewalk, this one as dark as the last. I chased after him, down the wide open street and passed blocks of empty space, lit only by a cluster of flashlight beams shooting through the air like trails of comets. The crisp night air brushed my skin and filled my lungs. Running outside was different than running on a machine, where my steps just follow each other. Now my feet were pushing off something hard and solid, and it kicked up my speed. We turned and ran through an alley between two high office buildings. Justin halted to a stop so suddenly I almost ran into him. He aimed his flashlight at a Dumpster parked along the edge of the building. Hiding behind it was a young man, maybe fifteen. He squatted low to the ground. Justin shined the light on his face, white as a ghost.

“Let’s go,” he said, and the young man stood up without question. Justin grabbed his wrist and used something in his hand to deactivate a tracker bracelet the boy wore. He threw the bracelet in the Dumpster and turned to me.

“Turn that off,” he said, nodding to my flashlight, and the three of us ran through the alley, our feet echoing around us and splashing through dirty puddles. My eyes had adjusted well enough to the darkness to see my way. I could hear sirens approaching in the distance. The boy was panting now and starting to slow down.

“We’re almost there,” Justin said over his shoulder to encourage him. The moon and the stars cast a soft light and guided us down the street and past hovering shadows of homes. We ran to the edge of another neighborhood where the freeway was blocked off by a metal fence, and Justin and the boy cleared it with one leap. I jumped up and managed to get one leg over the top. Justin grabbed my waist and pulled me over the rest of the way.

He set me down and we picked our way through a thick barrier of plastic bushes, and I gashed my leg against something sharp sticking out of the ground. I could feel warm blood slowly trickle down my leg but the adrenaline shut out any sense of pain. We jumped out onto the shoulder of the highway and headlights sped toward us. I stared with shock as a vehicle pulled up next to us. It was Justin’s car and it was completely empty.

“Get in,” he demanded. The young boy dove into the back seat and I dashed into the passenger side. Justin slammed his door shut just as two policemen sprinted out of the bushes we had run through just seconds before. They shot at the car, bullets ricocheting off the windows. I screamed and ducked down in my seat, squeezing my eyes shut and covering my face in my hands. I felt the car accelerate and heard Justin laugh next to me. I glanced up at him through the slit between my fingers.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, my breath coming out in sharp gasps. Justin barely looked winded.

“Sorry, but it’s the same thing every time, they just shoot those stupid guns at my car.” He laughed again and I tried to find the humor in the situation. I slowly pulled my hands off my face and the boy in the back seat sat up as Justin shifted gears and the car sped down the highway. I pulled sticky strands of hair out of my face and felt drips of sweat rolling down my neck and chest.

Justin pressed another code into the keyboard. I understood what he was doing now. He somehow had the ability to shut down the electrical power grid in the neighborhood. Turning it off provided a diversion so the boy had a chance to escape.

“My car’s bulletproof,” he said. “All cars are these days – bulletproof, fireproof, but cops still shoot their guns because that’s all they know how to do. I just think it’s funny.”

I looked back at the young boy and noticed flashing lights behind us.

Justin checked the rearview mirror but he looked more amused than concerned. The car accelerated and I sucked in a sharp breath when a sign came into view that said fREEWAy ending.

“Um.” I pointed to the sign. Justin looked at me and grinned.

“This is when things start to get fun,” he told me, as if the last half hour had been dull. “You don’t get claustrophobic, do you?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” I answered. I had no idea what he was talking about.

“How do you feel about water?”

“Water?”

Just as I said this, the highways converged into a two-lane road and signs warned that the beach was straight ahead. I clung to the grab handle above the window and braced myself when I realized we weren’t slowing down. The car flew off the pavement and fell with a heavy thump on the sand and we all lurched forward in our seats. Thrashing ocean waves crashed straight ahead. The water looked gray in the headlights and the waves spiraled and churned like they were threatening to crush us.

Justin reached under the steering wheel and punched something with his hand. The car reacted by vibrating. In a few seconds, the wheels stopped tumbling over the sand and we started to glide. I screamed as our car hit the water, but we didn’t sink – we skidded and rolled over the surface of the curling waves. The waves broke over the car with such a loud crash I swore the windshield was going to snap in half. I could hear the boy cheering in the back seat and Justin had a huge smile on his face, his dimples standing out. I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe I lacked the necessary testosterone levels to be enjoying this.

The car rolled and dipped like we were on a roller-coaster ride as the waves threatened to flip us. I screamed again as we were tipped violently from one side to the next, like a ship caught in a storm, but we somehow managed to stay above the waves.

“How are we doing this?” I yelled.

“Hold on,” he said. Justin kept his foot on the accelerator. I turned to see two pairs of headlights behind us. I watched with shock as the police cruisers skated onto the beach after us. I looked out the front window and the car was settling on smooth water, past the breaking waves. We were heading out to sea. The boy in the back seat spoke up.

“I’ve heard cars can do this,” he said. “But I’ve only seen it in the movies.”

Justin nodded. “I prefer driving on the ocean over the road any day. No stoplights.” I tightened my lips together and glanced back at the cop cars, which looked farther behind now but were still chasing us.

I turned and blinked out the front window like I was trapped inside a dream. We were well beyond the beach now and the tide was calm. We slid along the surface of the ocean as smoothly as if the car was gliding on ice. The light from the moon and the stars made the water glisten a metallic yellow all around us. I couldn’t see the coastline anymore and wondered how well engineered these cars were for water travel. I hadn’t told Justin I couldn’t swim.

A minute later he took his foot off the accelerator and we started to slow down. I looked over at him.

“What happens when we turn around? They’ll be back there waiting for us,” I pointed out, as if he didn’t think that far ahead.

“I guess we’ll just have to drive to Asia,” he said. I opened my mouth to argue but instead my voice caught halfway up my throat.

We were sinking. Water slapped the side of my door and splashed against the windows. Panic flooded through my chest and squeezed my lungs until I couldn’t breathe.

Justin gently caught my head between both of his hands.

“Maddie, look at me. This is supposed to happen. Just breathe.”

Breathe, I thought, yes, breathe while I still can, before I drown.

“We’re fine,” he said. His face was only inches from mine and his eyes were sincere. “I know what I’m doing.”

“We’re sinking,” I said. My breath came out in gasps. “We’re sinking and I can’t swim.”

“You don’t need to swim, this car works underwater.”

The boy in the back seat cheered again and clapped his hands. Justin let go of my face and I watched with disbelief as the moon and the stars disappeared and we were enveloped inside a pitch-black ocean current. Everything was quiet. I waited for the car to explode, for the windows to leak, for the oxygen to run out. But nothing happened. Justin leaned forward and turned off the headlights. The engine made a knocking sound and he told me it was adjusting to the water.

“The engine,” I whispered, “works underwater?”

We continued to sink slowly into darkness so black I couldn’t see an inch in front of me. I listened to the water bubbling and gurgling around us as if we were floating in the stomach of a giant. I could hear Justin’s breath, and the boy shift in the back seat. A faint siren passed overhead and a slow ripple lightly rocked the car back and forth.

Once the cops passed over us, Justin revved the engine. He snapped on the headlights and the interior lights turned on, casting an orange glow around us. I could only make out the shadow of Justin’s eyes. I looked out at the water caught in the headlights, but couldn’t see anything other than floating debris flying past us like snowflakes. I gulped and kept my eyes straight ahead.

“This is partly why I wanted you to come tonight. We don’t do the ocean escapes nearly enough.”

I wasn’t sure if I should thank Justin or slap him.

The boy in the back seat leaned forward. “How long have cars been able to do this?” he asked.

“They still haven’t perfected it,” Justin said. “Not for very deep dives anyway.”

I pressed my palm against the cold window.

“Is it safe?” I asked, and closed my eyes to prepare for the answer.

“More or less,” Justin said.

“That’s reassuring,” I said.

“You can’t go too deep, that’s the only thing. The last car I did this with leaked.” We moved through the water smoothly and gained speed. Justin sat back easily in his seat like he did this every day. I was sitting ramrod straight, my hands squeezing both of my knees.

“Are you still scared?” he asked with surprise in his voice.

“Scared?” I mocked. “Of being in a possibly not airtight vehicle in the middle of the Pacific and I can’t swim?”

“I think it’s awesome,” the boy in the back seat chimed in.

“There’s a blow-up raft in the trunk in case something happens,” Justin said. I looked over at him and rolled my eyes. “Although,” he continued, “we’re deep enough now that if anything happened the car would implode from the pressure. So, we’d die instantly. If that makes you feel any better.”

“Tons,” I said.

“Do you ever see sharks out here?” the boy asked.

Justin shook his head. “They’re practically extinct,” he said.

I looked out into the dark abyss, debris still floating past us like confetti.

The tone of his voice dropped. “There hasn’t been a shark sighting on the coast in almost ten years.”

We were all silent as we watched the ocean water drift past us. I remembered seeing documentaries and pictures of what the oceans used to look like, swarming with colorful reef and fairy tale – looking creatures. A few small fish darted in front of us, their eyes curious and bright like glowing stars, reflected in the ray of the headlights. When the ocean floor came into view, it was littered with rocks and sand. There was hardly any vegetation growing; it looked as sandy and naked as a desert.

The wheels of the car met the sandy bottom and our windows slowly rose above the water level. I inhaled a deep breath of relief.

Justin broke the silence.

“I’m going to drop you off down the street, Mark. My friends will take care of you from there.”

He looked at the boy over his shoulder and grinned. “By the way,” he said. “Welcome to the real world.”

We pulled in to the driveway next to a small, one-story home. I recognized Riley walking across the front lawn toward our car. He stood next to a young girl I didn’t know.

We all got out of the car and Riley shook Mark’s hand. I stood up and stretched my arms skyward to try to release the tension in my shoulders. Justin threw his car keys to Riley and he grinned at the young girl.

“Emily,” he said to her, “I owe you one.” Emily’s frown turned into a smile from his attention.

“It’s okay,” she said. I walked over to join them.

“What do you mean ‘you owe her one’?” I asked.

Justin’s grin widened. “This interception was hers, she’s on call tonight. But she let me have it.”

I looked back at the car and considered the past two hours of my life. I felt my mouth tighten.

“You mean, you didn’t have to do this? You just felt like it?” I asked with a glare.

Justin nodded. “I haven’t done a water escape in years. Besides, I like to keep up the practice.”

“How’d she do underwater?” Riley asked. Justin looked over at me.

“She freaked out a little at first but I think she came around,” he said.

Riley smirked. “Dude, I meant the car?” Justin creased his eyebrows and glanced back at the car. I couldn’t help but grin.

“Oh,” he said. “Not bad, a little tough to navigate, though.” I blinked at the car, still shocked I had ridden in it like a submarine.

“What happened?” Justin asked, pointing to the stain on my jeans. I looked down at the blood and felt the ache beginning to throb in my calf. I bent down and lifted up my jeans to expose a deep cut that ran up the side of my leg. The skin was swollen and still glistening with blood.