Turns out traveling from the west to Atlanta is a lot harder than I thought.
I'd been traveling for a while already when I finally reached a road marker welcoming me to Montana. Great, because I needed another reminder of how far I was from Brandon. It would probably take me months to find him at that rate.
I sat down on a rock on the trail and relaxed. I looked up at the sky, listening to the birds chirping. I was about to close my eyes when I heard a whizzing through the air. I turned to see an arrow shooting towards me. I blocked my head defensively and prepared for the worst.
Of course, the blue aura appeared once again, and the arrow bounced off harmlessly, flew several feet vertically, before landing at my feet. I picked it up, staring at it, before walking in the general direction of the shooter. Crouching with a bow in his hands and a bewildered look on his face was a boy with glasses that seemed rather familiar. He was staring at me with wide eyes. Suddenly, it snapped into my head. He was the guy from the school, Brandon's friend.
"What was your name? Cameron or something?"
"Larry. And you're the one traveling with Brandon. Where is he?"
"Why did you shoot an arrow at me?"
"Because you looked dangerous. If you saw a stranger hanging around one of your favorite hang out spots, I'm fairly sure you'd want to drive them out somehow too. Where's Brandon? I have to talk to him."
"Brandon was separated from me. Last I checked he was being dragged off for torture by Kronos' men."
He sighed and shook his head. "Every time I want to talk to him."
I looked at him. Apparently he and Brandon went far back. He would understand some of the things that Brandon had done to me, and most likely want to help him. I thought that travelling with him would improve my odds of finding Brandon. "If you really need to tell him something, why not come with me? I know approximately where he is and, together, we can save him."
He put his hand to his face. "Ugh, I have to do so many other things, though. I have things to make, things to sell, people to fund. I don't have time to go after one guy when there are dozens of others waiting for their orders."
I looked at him for a while. Then, I proceeded to punch him in the face. He stumbled, rubbing his nose, snarled, and raised his own fist. I stood calmly and watched the blue aura shine and bounce him back. He again looked curiously at the aura as it slowly faded into my skin. "You seem curious as to this new power. Brandon himself said that it was something never done by any Eye user ever. Can you really pass up this research opportunity?"
He sighed. "I guess not. Maybe I will come with you. Beats working on the machines, I guess."
He grabbed a backpack resting against a tree and started to walk into the distance. I followed him closely behind.
"So, where are we going?"
"Atlanta."
He stopped in his tracks and turned to me slowly. "Seriously? Georgia? You realize that's almost across the entire US."
"Yep." I walked ahead of him while he gaped at me. Eventually, he started running to catch up to me. We walked for the rest of the day in silence.
As night came, I made a fire and we sat there, warming up. He looked at me, as if trying to decipher something, as if I were a puzzle that he was having a hard time with. "What?'
"I'm trying to figure out how the Eye could extend its effects so that it could protect you, but that you would not be able to use it."
"You understand the Eye?"
He nodded. "More than a lot of people. It's such a peculiar phenomenon, but it's also so familiar."
He blinked and opened his eyes. One of his eyes was still green and serious, but the other was white, unfocused, strange. I looked at him. He smiled, blinked again, and his eye color had returned to normal. "I learned how to use this from my mentor, Linus. However, rather than using it to kill, I decided to use it for research purposes, and what I found was astonishing." He waved his hand. "Eh, you probably don't want to hear it."
"No, keep going. I'm curious."
He seemed surprised, as if no one had ever asked him to talk about it before. "Well, it's complicated, you see..."
________________________________________________________________________________
I sat in the center of the room, bleeding, waiting. My Eye couldn't work properly here, and I was barely able to keep myself in a sitting position.
The door opened and S walked in, smiling. "Welcome back to this little place. I suppose you missed it?"
"Not really."
"Well, that is too bad. This is where you will stay for the rest of your short life. Now then, let us begin."
