Bio-Shock

Staring out the car window, I watched the trees blur by as we made our way through a more dense part of the woods. Myself, and two others were in a car on our way back to a camp we worked at. Jared was driving, and Korrey sat in the passenger seat in front of me. I was alone in the back seat, just how I liked it. The throbbing bass from my headphones as Excision blared made the trip more bearable.

I'd been friends with Jared for a few years but only met Korrey just last year. I don't know when our "friendship" changed, but since Jared showed up he'd become, dare I say it, obsessed. Needless to say, I wasn't terribly happy to be in the car right at that moment. I rested my head back and closed my eyes, letting the crazy rhythms and pulsating bass lines soothe me.

A few seconds later I opened my eyes. I couldn't relax even with my music. Something inside me wouldn't let me.

I glanced behind and saw a dark shadow gliding along the road behind us. I turned fully around, just to be sure I wasn't seeing things. That's when a sliver of moonlight cut through the dense foliage overhead and extremely briefly illuminated a sleek black car following us.

I knew it had to be following us because I had seen it a few hours earlier. Anything on the vehicle that might've been any other color was black. The windows were also blacked out.

"Guys." I said before even pulling my headphones off and turning back around in my seat. "Someone's following us."

"What do you mean?" Jared said lazily before checking the mirror. His car's dashboard lights giving his face a ghastly green glow.

"Exactly what I said."

"I don't see any car."

"Stop."

"Why?" This time it was Korrey.

"Listen." I unbuckled and reached forward to shut off the radio. "I hear another engine. An electric one." As soon as I shut off the radio the slight whine I ignored before became all the more distinct, and the only thing the other two boys did was look at me in disbelief.

"Stop the car!"

"What the heck Logan?"

"No." Jared said firmly. That's when a jarring crash sent me tumbling into the radio.

"What was that?" I heard through a haze of pain. The top of my head felt like it had just been electrocuted. Jared was the one who asked. Korrey looked terrified.

"Believe me now?" I felt myself mumble.

"Ya, but I'm not stopping."

"Logan." I looked up at Korrey to see him staring at something in front of me. "Your hand."

I glanced at my hand to see it sparking against the broken radio display.

"Oh no.." I pulled my hand away and tendrils of electricity desperately clung to me arcing out to stay connected with me until I hit the backseat and it winked out, my outstretched hand feeling tingly and warm.

The car died in the same instant. The fogginess and pain disappeared as well. My carefully kept secret was now out.

Jared was frozen in place as the car rolled to a stop. Korrey was looking at me in fear. I did the only I could. I stumbled out of the car and ran into the woods.

The black car had stopped behind us and I heard two doors open up as I hit the tree line, but I didn't stop to see who got out or if they even had good intentions. They didn't seem concerned with the stopped car though, because two very powerful beams of light carved into the woods. For a minute or two everything was blur of me tripping and stumbling through the forest as the two lights followed me. I took a hard left and I heard someone yell out.

Eventually I ran out of energy, and flopped onto the soft ground. Controlling my breathing, I tried to stay as quiet as possible. The two lights cut overhead as my seekers came closer and eventually stopped somewhere nearby.

"Where did he go?" I raised an eyebrow at this.

"You tell me. You're the one who can see in the dark." This one was a female, and she didn't seem happy.

"Maybe he fell off a cliff?" There are no cliffs around here.

"There are no cliffs around here dummy. Maybe he climbed a tree." The lights then started scanning trees in the immediate vicinity. As long as they kept looking up... then my pocket vibrated.

My phone! My ringtone blared through the quiet and both lights converged on my location.

I pulled it out and checked who just got me killed. It was Jared. I declined and slowly stood up, hands raised.

"Don't suppose you're friendly?"

The two people that approached were both dressed in pitch black, three piece suits. "You gave us quite the chase, but at least you gave up." His eyes glowed lightly from behind the flashlight and I saw a dark box-like shape strapped to his back. They both had a badge with a triangle in silver on their belt, cut through the triangle was a lightning bolt.

"Just don't try anything funny." The woman spoke. "You're coming with us."

Into your unmarked blacked out vehicle? No thanks. I forced any remaining electricity I pulled from the car into my fingers, which I wiggled a slight wave at my would-be-kidnappers, and let it blast. The resulting web of energy rippled out and caught them both in the chest. Their flashlight blew up in their hands and they flew back into the darkness of the forest.

With a slight chuckle I trotted off after them. On the way, my eyes had started adjusting to the light level so I saw some charred and half missing trees as I wandered forward.

I found the woman first, tangled in a smoldering bush with holes in her suit. None of them, fortunately, revealing anything. Her eyes were closed, but her chest looked like it was still moving. Rustling in the bushes behind her revealed where the man was back on his feet and moving to bring the black contraption from his back.

"Mind telling me what that is?" I spoke to the man while I knelt and brushed aside the woman's jacket to reveal a gun strapped to her belt.

"How about I show you." His voice creaked and cracked, then he coughed. He swung the box around and two handles folded up to let him hold it like a mini gun. The front just after the second handle split into four boxes that started glowing.

"That's neat." I grabbed the gun and ripped it off before I barely registered a bolt of lightning rip out from the contraption and slam into my chest.

The world upended as I flew into the dark and slammed into a tree. Something in my back cracked, ending all feeling from the hip down. The only reason I wasn't screaming in pain was because all I could feel was the electricity from the bolt coursing through my veins and rushing to fix my spine. I sat up as the man approached again, weapon pointed at me.

Feeling was starting to return to my legs ever so slowly, but because it was too slow I didn't strike him with the same energy he did me. I watched him approach. Well, I might've done more than watch.

"I think you brought the wrong weapon to fight me." I went to aim my gun at him and noticed it was gone. "I think you're outmatched, and out gunned." I chuckled at that one. He didn't.

"How are you still alive? That blast should have killed you, and if not then the impact against the tree should have." He stopped in front of me and pointed his lightning gun at my head.

"I'm a bit more resilient than that." Now I could feel my feet completely, and I had plenty of energy left.

Standing up, his glowing weapon followed, and his face was a mask of fear.

I raised my hands in mock surrender, then clapped them together. The air around me electrified, and a single bolt arced across the air in a flash and slammed him in the face, but instead of him flying off, he froze. My web of pure energy kept him trapped in place. I stepped closer and it only intensified. The aura of energy followed me.

Pure terror was frozen on his face as my finger touched his forehead. I drew everything back into me, and he collapsed.

"What are you?" He barely got the words out he was shaking so violently.

"I could ask you the same question."

I took his weapon and it turned back into a square box with a single leather strap to let me carry it on my back.

"Freeze!" The woman seemed to have regained consciousness, finally.

"And you're going to stop me with what?" I made a gun with my fingers and sent a bolt flying into her face.

"Pew Pew." I blew the smoke off my finger gun, and stalked away.

Whether she lived or died couldn't care less. These last few minutes proved I can't run forever. I guess I have nothing left to lose.

My fingers, still tingling with pent up energy, sparked along the edge of the box until it felt the symbol from my attacker's belt. A triangle with a lightning bolt? That's probably a good place to start.