Distraction, Please

It happened on the school bus, actually. I had no idea what Rex and Chris needed from some random kid. But, apparently, Ty and Garrett needed a bit of back-up. Hence the reason we were there.

“This better be good,” I whispered to Claire, sitting beside me.

“That’s the tenth time you’ve said that, and I already said it would be,” Claire growled back, “I get that you traveled twenty light years to be here, but hold your horses! If we can distract enough people, then the boys and Kinney can read their minds. We have to find out what’s going on in the basement of the school, and this is the only way. The scans we’ve been doing in the building haven’t turned anything up. And, a few of the kids we think have been down in the basement are riding on this bus.”

“What am I here for?”

“You’re here to think up some kind of distraction. We can’t blow our cover here. That would limit our effectiveness. We’d accomplish nothing. Not to mention, no one knows you. So you create a distraction, disappear, and nobody ever sees you again,” Claire explained for probably the tenth time.

“Do you have memory loss problems or something?” Claire questioned a moment later, one eye brow raised.

“Actually, yes,” I replied, turning to scan the other teens sitting around us in the bus.

“Why do we need to distract the kids?”

I’d forgotten already. Apparently, some of the effects of the Thousand Year War were still with me. Being a Regenerate isn’t the easiest, sometimes.

“Because they’d realize someone else was in their heads rooting around if they weren’t focused on something else. Especially the most important kid we need info from. We know he’s been down there.”

Claire’s irritation was becoming evident. She swept her caramel-colored hair behind her shoulders, pretending to check her backpack again to prevent my questions.

The bus stopped, and another boy got on. Instantly, I could sense him; he was telepathic. That’s why they needed a distraction. Mainly so he wouldn’t realize they’d be looking through his mind, but also since they might have to pull some stunts to read everyone else’s minds in a few split seconds.

Wait. Am I repeating myself? All this information is hard to keep track of.

I tried to focus, concentrating on remembering what was going on. It was hard without my phone and all the songs I had on it. I decided to remember my favorite, and went through it in my mind.

As long as I didn’t have another attack of PTSD again, I’d be fine. I took a deep breath, the nervousness of knowing this was the first time in a while I’d been in any field ops gripping my heart. I felt the adrenaline coursing my veins, my heart pumping.

I took a deep breath, concentrating and shutting off the excess flow of adrenaline. My heart slowed, and I continued to focus on my song.

Meanwhile, the kid had closed his eyes, trying to snag a cat nap before the bus arrived at the school in less than eight and a half minutes. My mind kept track of the distance, the ever-changing speed of the bus. Acceleration, deceleration, the current time, the distance from the school; I wanted to watch, but at the same time not.

Ty, Garrett, Rex, Chris, and Kinney were communicating in private telepathy, and I think they had started scanning. Early morning traffic was light as the bus wound its way near the city center to the high school on the other side.

The boy settled towards the middle of the bus, slouching down in his seat, tossing his backpack down beside him.

I could feel that he was tired. Rex was sitting in front of him, angled toward Kinney across the aisle and a few rows up.

I could feel Rex begin prodding carefully through the dozing boy’s mind. I think he thought he could pull it off if he was careful enough; but the boy would be more sensitive in his sleep—especially being a telepathic.

Slowly, the boy was becoming more aware. I could feel him. Any second now, he’d awaken with a start, and instantly Ty, Garrett, Kinney, and Claire’s cover would be blown.

“Distraction, please! Anytime now would be great!” Claire hissed at me, knowing I was still unable to use telepathy.

I was frozen. Rex’s mind inched closer toward discovery by the mind he was invading, and I couldn’t move. I was terrified, unable to think.

“OLIVIA!!!” Claire growled, kicking my left shin hard, “ANYTHING?!?!?!?!”

Finally, my head cleared and I scrambled over Claire. I about fell on my face tripping over her backpack that had been resting at her feet—that caused a decent half-distraction.

Running toward the back of the moving vehicle, I got everyone’s attention as I turned around.

Giant white wings started to morph from my back. Muscle’s rearranged, bones changed. I leapt upwards, holding myself still with a force field. My wings were reaching full size and, even not fully spread, would still be wider than the bus was.

The bus was travelling at sixty miles an hour but it still felt in slow motion. Glass exploded behind me as my wings contacted the back wall of the bus. Metal warped, bent, and finally ruptured outward, shredding and freeing me. I spread my wings fully as I dropped my force field and my wings caught the wind, sucking me straight up.

I readjusted, swooping back down to level with the back of the bus. I strained every muscle, trying to reach the blown-out rear of the bus again. I had the attention of everyone. From the front of the bus, I could see Chris flash me a thumbs up—mission success.

Obviously, the bus driver slammed on the breaks not too long after that. Gaining altitude, I barely cleared the back of the yellow vehicle as I rocketed on ahead and started soaring higher into early morning sun.

In the east, the sun was slowly rising, casting magnificent orange hues across the scattered clouds. I took a deep breath, air easily filling my lungs, exhilarated by the thrill of flight.

I grinned uncontrollably, my nervousness from earlier gone, and a song back in my head. I hummed along as I swooped low and soared high, banking back and forth for the fun of it as I headed for the open country and the extraction chopper. It was a beautiful spring day, and the sun warmed my wings. Summer was on its way.

This was fun, and I was on the road to a full recovery.

***************

[]

“You could have just asked,” the boy commented, leaning back against his seat and closing his eyes again.

No one said anything.

“The name’s Ryan, by the way,” he said.

The boy opened his eyes again and looked over at Kinney.

“What’s your name?” he questioned, hitting on her.

“Kinley. Kinley Erics,” she said, unyieldingly flat.

“You wanna hang out sometime? Seems like you and your friends could use a little help.”

Ryan shut his eyes again and leaned back again, hands behind his head.

The others just looked at each other as sirens wailed nearby, growing closer to the halted bus.

Excerpt (snapshot, really) from a book further on in my sci-fi series I’m working on. Haven’t really on Prose for a little while, but I haven’t forgotten about Red Riding Hood.