Young Writers Society

When we got back to base, Cole took out a guitar for the first time in ages. It wasn't his; this one was an old, beat up acoustic, not his sleek electric. I watched him pluck at the chords, the melody wasn't one I recognized, and his hands were shaking so bad he had to stop a few times to place his fingers correctly. The waves of anxiety coming off him were so strong I could almost see them in the air.

"Thye should have been back by now."

I was so wrapped up in watching him play I startled a little at the sound of Cole's voice. "I know what you mean. They were only a bit behind us, weren't they?"

"I think so." Cole puffed out a sigh and flopped back against the couch, forgetting about the song he was playing. "I'm not sure."

Almost as if she had been waiting for that moment, Natalie rushed past us.

"Hey" I stood up as she passed. "Is everything okay? Where are the others?"

"The building exploded. We haven't hear anything from them."

That was all it took for the ground to heave under my feet and send me crashing back into my seat.

"What?" Cole sounded breathless, like he'd been punched in the gut.

"We're sending out a search party now." Natalie's voice was strained "You stay here with the children. Don't do anything unless I send someone to get you. Do you understand?"

Cole and I both started to protest, but she cut us off. "Do. You. Understand."

Cole clenched his jaw, and I nodded. Natalie left us without another word. I waited until the sounds of her footsteps faded all the way away, then hopped up and glanced over my shoulder at Cole.

"You weren't planning on taking her seriously were you?"

"Have I ever?"

I nodded. "Good point. Let's go."

At this point, we knew the layout of the base almost by heart. Soon we were climbing the ladder up to the surface level. When we climbed out, Jinx was there waiting for us.

"You heard?" He asked.

"Yeah." Cole said. "You had the same idea?"

Jinx nodded. "Thought you guys would want to look too, so I figured I'd better wait for you."

Cole folded his arms"Smart. So are we going to get moving anytime soon?"

"Calm down, we'll get going now."

"Wait a minute!" I stopped them before they could dart out the door. "What's the plan here?"

"We don't have time for one." Jinx's voice was so full of forced patience it was a little annoying.

"So, we're just going to go out there, without knowing what we're going to do or where to look first, and just hope we stumble on them before someone finds us and we die. Alright, sure! Because going in with no game plan worked so well last time!"

Both boys stared at me with raised eyebrows. Jinx held up his hands. "Okay, okay, geez. We'll think of one on the way, okay?"

"Okay."

Cole moved to the back of the warehouse toward an oddly shaped lump of shadow, some kind of tarp. he snooped around it, and I heard him say "Yes!"

Jinx let out an impatient breath. "Are you guys coming or not?"

"We are," Cole assured him. He pulled the tarp away, and there they were, like they'd only just finished driving Cole and me here. Two sleek motorcycles. "But while we're at it, we should probably get ourselves a ride."