A loud bang on the door brought me back to reality. A man walked in with a tray. He is well built. He carried a Taser and has the hardened look of a war veteran. He was wearing a navy blue blazer, tan khaki pants, and a striped tie. His chin was unshaven and his eyes were a cold blue. His posture showed he wasn’t a lazy man. He stood with his back strait and his chin jutted out.

“Breakfast” he said, obviously annoyed. He thrusted the tray at me and walked away to the door, paused, and turned around.
“My name is John.” He said. His voice was strong and stable, he was used to speaking to large crowds.
John walked away and slammed the door shut so hard my bones rattled. My breakfast was made up of toast, orange juice, an apple and scrambled eggs. I thrusted the food down my throat hungrily like a pig. Just then a woman walked into the room. She was slender but fit. Her nametag read Annabeth. She is wearing a lab coat with a few pens in the pocket.

“Hello Iggy” Annabeth says, “You can call me Anna.”

“How do you know my name?” I grunted.

“Can I come over?”

“Uh, yeah sure”
“What are you doing?” I warily asked.

“This wont hurt a bit.” She whispered as she jabbed a needle into my arm.

Then it all went black again.


I woke up on an operating table in what looked to be a lab. I was strapped to the table with rough leather straps. There were needles and what not in me and there are a bunch of cages on the walls around me. There was a table cluttered with chemical concoctions that made me sick. There was a table next to me with surgeon tools. A rattling from one of the cages made me realize that all of the cages were filled with mutant forms. Except for one.

That one said Iggy.

“Hello Iggy” a man said walking in to the room, “How are you?”

“Oh, I'm fine” I spurted sarcastically, “I just love being locked away in strange places.” The bitterness in my voice made the man tremble. Then again, I am 6’3” and I weigh 200 pounds.

“We want to help you,” he said, leaning in with a grin, “I know where your mother is.”

Right then rage kicked in and I tore the straps off of the table. Then I took a scalpel and cut the man. Then I reached into the doctor’s pocket and took his I.D. card and his wallet.

“I’ll help myself,” I said to the man. I used the I.D. card to go through the door. I looked around and saw a guard on duty twenty feet away from me. Walking up behind him, I covered his mouth with one hand and karate chopped his adams apple with the other. It is a very effective move. Kills instantly and silently. Then I leaned him against the wall and took his belt. On the belt there was a can of mace, a Glock 17, ammo, and a Taser.

I walked down the hall to the door marked EXIT.

“Finally free” I thought.

Ya, O.K.

Why wouldn’t I be alarmed? The door might have a camera aimed at it from the outside. As I pushed on the door, I thought of it disappearing into thin air. Then I pushed my hands… into nothing. “Were did the door go?” I put the thought aside as I ran to a car. I decided try something new and picture the car keys in my pocket. Then I opened the car door, and drove onto the highway.

I pulled into a Motel 6 and rented a room for two days. I payed with money from the doctor’s wallet.

“Enjoy your stay,” the clerk said, greedily counting my money. He handed me a key and I walked into my room. Then I decided to try and test my powers. I pictured the TV turning on and the shades closing. Both of these things happened. Thinking of dinner, I thought of a ham steak appearing on the table. I dug in. The TV was tuned to the news and as I mindlessly ate my dinner, something the on the TV caught my eye.

“This just in, crazed killer Iggy Greenwell is on the loose. If anybody knows where he is, please contact your local police.”

How did they know my name? Will they find me?
I put those thoughts aside and decided to go to bed. I decided to lie down for ten minutes, but I couldn’t. So I got up and walked to the kitchen for a snack. Thoughts in my head were filled with my mom’s mouthwatering chocolate chip cookies. Then my thoughts ran short.

Mom.

I still needed to find her. I nearly forgot. Then I jumped into the bed and suddenly my eyes became very heavy. Sleep came at last.

The next morning I went to the mall and got a coffee and a muffin from Dunkin Donuts. I paid using the money from the doctor’s wallet. As I ate my breakfast I organized my next plans. First was checking out the army surplus store. There I bought a jacket, boots, and camo pants. I also bought a basic supply kit which included one canteen for water, a roll of duct tape, a tarp, eight batteries, a flashlight, fast drying glue, a survival knife, and a MRE (meals ready to eat). Then I walked to the barber’s for a haircut and had them dye it black. From here I went back to the motel and changed into my new clothes. I stuffed my old things into my bag, checked out of the motel and cruised onto the interstate.

About 3 miles out I noticed a black pickup truck following me. Without any plans to go anywhere, I pulled off the next exit hoping to shake whoever was following. The pick up continued to follow even closer. I began to get worried when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the man I the passenger side pull out a deadly looking weapon. Without thinking I sprayed the glue around the outside of the mace, taped the trigger down and timed my throw to hit the open sun roof of the pickup. The mace flew perfectly and then dropped into the sunroof and started spraying everywhere. The gunshot from the man’s weapon knocked him back into his seat. I sped up ahead and pulled off to the side of the road. I watched the driver jump out of his door hitting the ground like a ton of bricks.

As he hit the ground, a cloud of mace billowed from the truck. To my surprise the truck kept moving forward. The passenger popped his head out the sunroof. It looked as though he was carrying a shotgun times two. I began to quiver as my ears picked up the sound of a chamber being loaded. Then for no apparent reason I began to think a boa constrictor. A split second later I herd a horrifying scream. The truck veered off the side of the road. As it rolled by me I saw the passenger being suffocated by a very large snake. I faced forward with a satisfying grin plastered on my face.

I decided to pull to the side noticing the fuel gauge on empty. Carefully I began to imagine myself filling the gas tank. After a few minutes the car was full. The pick up truck wasn’t stirring and the cloud of mace cleared out. So I decided to take a peek inside. There was an odd silence filtering through the air. The inside of the car was just about average except for a pistol holster. They were home to a Colt .85mm pistol. I looked up when a bone crunching punch sent me into the air.

“ I forgot about you.” I managed to say while sucking in shallow breaths and pulling myself to my feet. “I’ll give you 3 seconds to get out of here! One, Two,” CRACK! I cheated. Jumping into the air I head-butted him in the jaw. While he fell to the ground I grabbed the gun from him and pulled the trigger square between the eyes. Quickly I moved to the truck and saw a computer with untraceable server. Perfect. Now I can research without being traced. Sirens were blasting in the background and getting louder. It was time to move along before they spotted me.

Back on the interstate thinking I was in the clear, I heard sirens and saw the blinding lights that emitted from a police car. Wanting to get away from the mess earlier I didn’t pay much attention to my driving.

The policeman took his sweet time coming up to my car window. “Good evening sir.”
“License and registration please.” The policeman says coldly.
“Sure” I said handing him the papers. He took them back to his cruiser and did the necessary checks. Coming back to me he handed the papers back and told me everything checks out. Confused as why he pulled me over, I gladly accepted the papers and drove away. As I drove my stomach produced a loud rumbling sound.
“I better find somewhere to get food.” The next exit had a McDonalds, which I stopped at and realized I had no more money. So I quickly conjured up a credit card to get food.

Inside the restaurant I ordered and paid for the meal with the card and sat down in a booth with windows looking out towards the road. The food was gone in seconds. Note to self, make sure have plenty of food in pockets. Making things appear from my mind took a lot of energy from my whole body. As I was getting up to leave, two me in black suits and dark colored sunglasses were heading towards the door. Not sure what to do, I sat back down. The men came closer and took a seat at a table near the booth I was in. Even though they had sunglasses on I could sense their eyes burning through me. One of the men casually left the table for the counter. My senses went into overdrive at this point. We were the only ones in the restaurant. My mind went frantic as I heard a slide go back.

I flipped my tray at the man still sitting and it hit him on his right shoulder. Before he could react, I quickly dropkicked the table so it caught him in the gut knocking the breath out of him. The shifty looking guy at the counter pulled his weapon and began firing towards me. Looking for cover, I heard the firing stop and realized his gun must have jammed. I saw this as an opportunity to take him out. Using what was near; I grabbed a chair and slammed it on his head hitting him on the neck knocking him unconscious. Remembering the other man, cautiously I turned around. Silence. “Where’d you go?” I questioned to the empty room.
My answer was a numbing blow to the gut. I attempted to rebound by putting the man into a chokehold. He shoved me out of the way so I couldn’t choke him. I decided to run into him and knock him through the glass. We landed in the parking lot. Fortunately for me I wasn’t cut. Unfortunately for me there was another man who put cuffs onto me when I stood up. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make the cuffs disappear. “Time for a family reunion” he said chuckling. A SUV pulled up and was I thrown in and we sped away.
The drive to the unknown area was excruciating. It was the middle of summer and they had the heat on with the windows closed. When we got there I was forcefully yanked out of the car, sweat dripping from my face. They brought me to a room, threw my backpack against the wall, and then took my belt and put it on the backpack. They then proceeded to chain me spread eagle to the wall. I tried to use mind powers but they wouldn’t work. It was as if the room had some sort of energy sucking field. The harder I tried the weaker I felt. As I felt of my powers dampening a light switched on. To my surprise my mother was there chained to the opposite wall like me.
“Iggy! Are you ok?” mom asked with nervousness in her voice.
“I’m good mom. How are you doing? Did they hurt you?”
“No, but we need to get out of here somehow.”
“Mom don’t worry, you won’t believe this but someway I developed these crazy mind powers. It will help us get out of here.”
Mom smiled. “So you finally figured it out.” I tried to respond but was quickly cut off by an enormous figure entering the room. For some reason as the figure moved closer I sensed a familiarity.
He looks like the man in the old picture mom has. The man came closer. Staring at me he coldly said, “You, I’ll deal with in a minute. But first I need to speak with her.” He spun on his heels and faced my mother. The man inched closer and whispered something into her ear, which I could not make out. Paused for a second and gently stroked her face.
Then it was my turn. Not sure what to expect I tensed up getting ready for a fight. As he walked towards me I quickly glanced at my mother. Her face was pale and had a somber look. He stood inches away from me just staring. Then he leaned in and whispered a few words that I still have nightmares about. With that he swiftly moved towards the door and turned the lights off as he left. After a few seconds of silence my mother spoke with a quivering voice.
“What did he say Iggy? Please tell me.”
“Mom is it true? Is he really my father?”

After a cumbersome conversation with my mom I learned three things. One, all of my mom’s side of the family has powers. Two, I will gain more powers, and eventually lose the one I have now. Three, mom didn’t tell me about the powers because if I was more like my father I would have become a hunter, just like he is now.

Running those thoughts through my head made me think of an odd theory.

“Mom, what are your powers?” is asked.

“Well,” She explained,” I can go through objects, create fire with my hands, and I can see through walls.”

“Did you tell dad about these powers?”

“Only that I can see through walls. Why are you asking me this?”

“Because, what if this room only blocks the powers he knows we have.”

“Iggy, what are you saying.”

“We might be able to escape. All you have to do is go through the chains that your in, heat mine up so they break, then go through the door and open it from the outside.”

“Iggy, that’s genius!” She said. “I try it.” And with that she proceeded to go through her chains, melt mine, and go to the other side of the door and open it. On my way out I grabbed my things, put my belt on, and threw the backpack over my shoulder.
We walked down the hall to a door and put our ears against it to hear if anybody was behind it. We didn’t hear any thing so we walked through. We ended up in a large courtyard and made it a priority to find a place to hide.

She hid in a tree and I hid in an inset in the wall next to the door. We got into our spots just in time because three sentries walked by, guns at the ready. They wore green fatigues and helmets with their ranks written on the side. They seemed calm which meant our escape was still unknown. We sprinted down the courtyard until we reached the wall that blocked the outside from the inside. I climbed first and was on the other side in no time. When we were at the base of the wall she said she would go once I reached the top. I didn’t know how good of a climber my mom was, but I became very scared once I heard the noise. You might know this noise. You probably have a name for it. I do. I call it a siren.



“Get down here!” the guard screamed.

“Never!” I retaliated, climbing further up the wall. Iggy must be so worried right now, I need to get over the wall. I climbed further up only to realize there were guards at the top of the wall, waiting for me to reach the top. They grabbed my arms dragged me back to the main building and into my husbands office. I couldn’t use my powers to go through their hands because they had such a tight grip on me.

“Hello Tina” he said, very happily.

“Hello James” I spat back at him.

“You need to learn when you can’t escape.”

“You should learn when to leave your ex-wife alone.”

“Why don’t you sit down.”

“Why should I.”

“Because you and Iggy will die if you don’t listen to me.”

“Iggy is long gone from here.”

“That can’t be true, we locked you both in a room that disabled your powers.”

“We know, but we got out.”

“You need to be taught a lesson.”

“What do you mean.?”

“You should have figured it out by now.”

“Whatever your going to do to me do it now.”
“Tina, any last words.” He chuckled, pulling a Colt .85mm from his desk.

“You will die. That’s a promise.” I said. James walked back to where he was standing before. He loaded one bullet into the chamber, pulled the hammer back, aimed at my forehead, and fired.
___________________________________________________



I ran once the siren went off and I was safely in the forest that surrounded the building. Thoughts were shooting through my mind as I ran about where my mom was. I probably ran for a mile before I stopped to check what things were in my backpack. I still had my canteen, the flashlight, eight batteries, a tarp, duct tape, the glue, the knife, and the MRE. On the belt I still had the Glock 17, ammo, and the Taser. I zipped the backpack back up and set up a shelter for the night. My guess was that it was about four o’ clock.

I gathered some small logs and make a lean-to. Then I duct taped the tarp onto the lean-to so the rain wouldn’t come in at night. After that I made a fire pit and made a fire using some flint I found while looking for some firewood. I made a spear out of a sharpened stick and used it to kill a wild chicken. I cooked it over the fire and then ate it all. I sat and drank some water and thought how my mom was doing. For all I knew she could be dead. Then I lied myself down and began to think. Not about how I was going to save my mom. I thought about how I was going to kill my dad.

“YOU’RE A FREAK!” James yelled. I let the bullet go straight through my head. I used the moment of shock to my advantage. I burned the guards who were holding me and then sent a fireball at James’ desk.

“How was that.” I yelled over the sound of burning wood. He tried to run to the door but I threw a ball of fire at him. He ducked and sprinted out the door and down the hall. I ran after him but more guards came and I had to burn all of them to escape. Unfortunately they grabbed me and brought me back to the burning office.

“Time to feel our pain.” Said one of the guards I burnt. He threw me at the burning desk and slammed the door shut. My clothes quickly caught on fire so I started to roll on the ground. I melded through the floor and ended up in a lab. There was a shattered window on the far left wall. I ran to the window and then went through it. I saw smoke rising from the forest and headed towards it. “It must be Iggy” I thought. I reached the “camp” and saw him sleeping in a make-shift lean-to. I woke him up and he must have thought I was someone else because he kicked me halfway across the forest floor.

“Sorry” he said, “I didn’t know it was you.”

“That’s ok” I managed to get out, picking myself off of the ground. I looked at my stomach and saw a red boot print swelling up on my left side. He helped me up and said we should take turns watching out while the other on sleeps. He offered to go first so I lied myself down and fell into a deep sleep.


Taking the first watch was really boring. Though its better boring than it is exiting if you’re in our situation. The night was uneventful so as soon as Mom woke up we left for a better shelter. We found a cave about ten miles away from our first site. So we set camp up there and made a good fire. We talked and I learned how she escaped the lab place and found me. I thought it was cool. She thought she got lucky. We both laughed at how we perceived the event and talked more over a cooked turkey. We lied down and tried to listen to each other but we knew we couldn’t pay attention for one second. I fell asleep so my mom took the watch for the night.

I woke up to a screetch louder than a bomb explosion. My mom was on the ground clenching her side in agony. She said to run but I couldn’t move.

The screetch came from right behind me. I turned slowly and saw the horror. The creature was one of the mutants form the lab. But this wasn’t just any old mutant.
That was my dead brother.
To be continued…