The Doomsday Device (Teen Superheroes Book 2) (6 page)

Movement in the hallway caught my attention. I saw Brodie falling back past the door with one of the creatures on her back as another one attacked her from in front. I climbed over the bed, focused on creating a blast of air and slammed it into the creature’s head. It went sideways through the wall.

I didn’t know how many of these creatures were in the house, but there was a chance we were getting the upper hand.

Then the lights went out.

Chad set fire to the ceiling. I understood his intention. We could not fight if we could not see what we were up against. I pursued the creature into the next room as I heard a fire alarm sound. It was not a back-to-base alarm. The fire brigade would not attend unless someone dialed 911.

The creature that I had smashed through the wall had ended up in the living room. Now it scampered up onto the wall and into the recesses of the ceiling. It was so dark in here the visibility was reduced to a few feet. I could hear fighting going in the hallway. It sounded like Brodie was involved in a full pitched battle. I heard another blast of flame from Chad. An inhuman shriek erupted from the room behind me. Maybe that was another creature on fire.

A sound came from the ceiling above and behind me. I formed a blast of air – a focused ball of wind – and fired it at the ceiling. It punched a hole straight through the roof and into the night, but missed the vampire.

Something slammed into me from behind. It was like being hit by a truck. My face hit the living room table and I tasted blood in my mouth. The hissing creature grabbed me and threw me across the room. I hit the wall and slid to the floor.

I tried to form a shield, but I could not focus. What was going on with my powers? I could not make it happen. Within seconds the creature had leapt across the room like a giant frog and landed in front of me. It picked me up effortlessly as I tried to create another ball of air.

Its breath was terrible. Like rotten meat. I punched it hard in the face and it laughed. I struggled to create a shield between me and it, but nothing would happen.

“Come on!” a voice yelled from the hallway. “We only need the boy!”

The vampire gave me a last look and threw me across the room. I hit my head. Stunned, I lay there for several moments. I could hear the fire spreading. Something collapsed in the building. I heard the distant roar of a vehicle.

I have to get out of here
, I thought.
I have to move.

I rose unsteadily to my feet. Where were the others? Someone appeared in my field of vision. It was Chad.

“Quick!” he said. “They’re getting away!”

He dragged me out of the building and into the night. The cold air snapped me back to wakefulness. I looked back at the house. It was completely alight now. All of our possessions – what there were of them – were inside the burning structure.

Chad held up something in his hand. “I was able to grab the book.”

The book. The one containing all the addresses.

But where were our friends?

“What about Brodie?” I gripped Chad’s arm. “And Dan and -.”

“They’re gone!” he said. “They were thrown into a truck and taken away.” He looked into the night. “We’re the only ones left.”

Chapter Eleven

“They’ve got a head start on us,” Chad said. “But it’s only a couple of minutes. You need to create a flying platform so we can catch up.”

That was easier said than done.

In my mind I created the flying wedge I had formed a hundred times before. I saw it perfectly; an arrowhead of shimmering air that would support us as we soared up into the sky. I had made it so many times it even had its wings angled upwards to aid it in flight. As a flying machine it truly was a thing of beauty.

But it would not come into being.

We stood in the dark with the house blazing behind us as I focused on creating the flying machine.

Nothing happened.

“What’s wrong?” Chad asked.

“It won’t happen,” I said. “I’ve been having some problems -.”

“On the airplane,” his eyes shone with realization. “When the bomb exploded -.”

“I couldn’t create a shield,” I admitted. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Could you have told us?” he asked angrily. “You’ve put all of our lives at risk.”

“There hasn’t been time -.”

“Forget it!” he snapped. “We’ve got to go the old fashioned way.”

“You mean -.”

Moments later we were in the campervan barreling down the road. We reached the highway. The night was still and dark. I saw an animal scurry off into the roadside scrub. A car drove past us. Probably some late night partygoer from the city.

Far away in the distance we saw a vehicle moving away from us at high speed. It turned off and changed direction.

“Where does that road lead?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Chad said. “I think there are some abandoned properties down there.”

“There are.” I remembered. On occasion I had flown around this area early in the morning before people were out of bed. There was an abandoned homestead and airfield. It had not been used for years. “They must be taking them by plane somewhere.”

“Are you sure?”

“No,” I said truthfully. “But using a plane would be the fastest way to escape.”

“Okay.” Chad pushed his foot down even harder on the accelerator. “We’ll do it your way.”

We sped through the darkness in silence. One part of me was worried about what might be happening to the others. The other part of me wondered how all this came into being. And then there was the whole business about the vampires.

Vampires were real.
Really
real. How had they survived all these centuries without being discovered? And who had planned this? And what on earth would a bunch of vampires want with a group of super powered kids?

Chad turned off onto the side road and now he increased speed again. The vehicle was bouncing badly all over the road. A hub cap flew off one of the campervan’s wheels. We were moving at a terrible speed. He needed to slow down otherwise we wouldn’t survive the car journey.

“We need to slow down,” I yelled.

“Do I tell you how to drive?” he yelled back angrily.

“No, but -.”

I spotted a row of lights in the night. As we came up over the crest of a hill I realized we could see the takeoff lights for the airfield. A plane – some sort of cargo plane – was starting to taxi down the runway.

“There it is!” I yelled.

“I see it!”

Chad braked. Swerved. Accelerated again. The campervan hit a dip in the road and flew straight up into the air. It hit the road again. I heard something snap on the underneath of the vehicle. Somehow it kept moving.

The transport was directly ahead of us, but accelerating away at high speed. Chad slammed his foot down on the accelerator and we tore down the runway after it. I glanced over at him. If I’d known he was such a good driver I would have let him take the wheel more often.

We were getting close now. Fifty feet. Twenty feet.

“What’re you going to do?” I yelled.

“Ram it!” he yelled back.

“What?”

He shot me a look. “We’ve got to stop it now or we never will!”

He seemed to urge one last piece of energy out of the van and it accelerated again. We drew ever closer to the tail of the transport. A couple more feet. Ten feet. Five feet. I gripped the door and waited for the collision.

It never happened.

The plane lifted into the air, out of reach and began to rise up into the night.

“No!” I screamed.

Leaning out of the window, I focused on creating my flying platform and then in the dim headlights of the campervan, I saw it form next to the vehicle. Drawing back, I pushed the door open.

“What are you doing?” Chad asked.

“My powers are working again!” I said. “I’m going after them.”

“Not without me!” he said.

I leapt through the door of the campervan and landed nimbly on the invisible platform. Whatever had gone wrong with my powers before had subsided. They were as good as ever. I steadied myself on the flying wing.

“Hey!” Chad’s voice came from behind me.

I turned around just in time to see him leap from the door of the vehicle. I caught him nimbly on the edge of the wing. Our van – our beloved campervan – skidded sideways, hit a ditch and flipped over the road. It burst into flames as we soared up into the sky.

“Are you insane?” I asked.

Chad could have been killed. There were a dozen things that could have gone wrong. My powers could have failed again. He might not have landed on the wing. The van could have flipped before he had a chance to make the jump.

“You think I’m letting you have all the fun?” he asked.

Fun? This is fun?

We rose higher into the sky. Within seconds we had caught up to the transport. It was only a matter of time now. We drew close to the side of the plane. I focused on forcing the side door open. Raising a shield, we landed nimbly inside. The interior of the aircraft was eerily silent after the racket of riding in the van and the ascent into the sky.

We slowly made our way up the centre aisle of the aircraft.

The interior was empty. Stripped of all seating. Even the lighting had been removed from the ceiling. Chad looked at me in confusion. We arrived at the flight cabin and pulled open the door to confront the crew.

Instead, all we saw was a computer automated system. The flight cabin, like the rest of the plane, was empty.

No sooner had I realized this than the bomb located in the hull of the aircraft exploded, ripping the aircraft apart into a thousand pieces.

Chapter Twelve

Brodie awoke to find a trail of drool running down her chin. She wiped at it absently as she wondered about her alarm clock. Had Chad stolen it again? He had done it three times this week already. He was such a practical joker. Once she had awoken to find it snowing in her bedroom and Chad standing in the doorway laughing his head off. He thought he was
so
funny, but mostly he was just a pain in the ass.

Now she realized the rest of the furniture in her room was also gone. For some strange reason, she was lying on a camping bed. It was the type the army used for long term outdoor engagements. The rest of the room was empty apart from two other camping beds currently occupied by Ebony and Dan. The walls of this room were made from concrete. The door was metal.

The events of the previous day came rushing back to her.

Holy hell
, she realized.
We’ve been kidnapped.

For one long moment Brodie thought they had been taken by The Agency, but she quickly dismissed the thought. This didn’t seem like The Agency’s style. And then there was a strange symbol on the door. It looked like a rifle superimposed over an image of the planet. Brodie had never seen it before, but it looked too militaristic for The Agency.

So who had kidnapped them? Vampires. She remembered the comment that Mr. Jones had made when he visited.

“Staying out of sight has kept mods alive for centuries…Mods are humans that have been modified…”

So vampires were a type of mod that had stayed hidden for centuries. Did that mean werewolves and ghouls and other creatures of the night were also a reality?

She shook her head.

Impossible.

But she had super powers and that was possible.

So vampires were real.

But what would they want with a bunch of super-powered kids?

A sound came from the door. She noticed there was a slot at the bottom and it now slid up slightly and a tray appeared. It appeared to have sandwiches and a squat jug of water on it. As she went over to retrieve it, a tiny eye slot moved across at eye level.

“There’s some food and water,” a voice said. “I’d advise you to accept it gratefully and not cause any trouble.”

The voice sounded young. She wondered if it was one of the vampires.

“Why have we been brought here?” she asked.

“All that will be explained later,” the voice said. “Just be grateful you are here.”

Be grateful -?

Brodie had never felt less grateful in her entire life.

“You have a strange way of treating your guests,” Brodie said. “Attacking them. Kidnapping them. Holding them prisoner.”

She looked through the slot and saw the eye was blue. It appeared to be a boy aged seventeen or eighteen.

“Are you a vampire?” she asked.

“Me?” The boy reacted in surprise. “No! I’m not one of those freaks.”

“Then why are you working with them?”

“We’re not.” The boy paused. “Anyway, I can’t talk to you. Not yet. Not until you’ve had everything properly explained. Until you fully understand.”

Brodie doubted she would ever fully understand or excuse what had been done to them. Still, now was not the time to debate it. Food and water had arrived and the first rule of survival was – survive!

“It’s not poisoned,” she asked. “Is it?”

“Hell, no,” the voice said in surprise. “We don’t want to hurt you, but there’s something I want you to promise.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t try to escape,” he said. “I know you have powers, but do not try to escape.”

Brodie said nothing.

“Can you promise?” the boy asked.

“What’s your name?”

“You have to promise.”

“I don’t make the decisions,” Brodie said. “I’m here with my friends.” A groan came from behind her. “It sounds like one of them is waking up.”

“Jason,” the boy said. “My name is Jason.”

“Thank you for the food and water, Jason,” Brodie said.

He did not reply. The eye slot slid back into position and Brodie picked up the tray. It was Ebony who was slowly coming to life. She was rubbing her head and wincing at the light. She sat up.

“How do you feel?” Brodie asked.

“Like death,” she groaned. “Which is probably not too surprising considering a vampire tried to make me his eternal beloved.”

“Now that’s doubly weird.”

“What is?”

“I think that’s the longest sentence you’ve ever said.”