Gifted Connections 3

I had to smile at the contradiction that was Troy. He was all poetic and sweet when the other guys weren’t around.

I mocked glared at him and bent down to throw my peanut butter packet at him. I never said all that, but I feel like, since we haven’t had all our normal distractions, it was nice to get to know more about you guys.

I’m sure we can work something out, Jace said with a smirk.

I was somewhat mollified.

I used to suck my thumb until I was seven, Noah said with a straight face. That’s why I had to wear braces for a few years.

I examined him and did notice that his teeth were extremely straight.

I slept with my Teddy until I was eight, Jaxson teased.

I got kicked out of school three times when I was ten for fighting, Troy commented in a pacifying voice.

I don’t like odd numbers on the volume of the television or radio. Jace smirked.

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, Drake said in a humoring tone.

I groaned. You guys are so lucky I won’t throw rocks. Fine. Fine. I get it. Leave me in the dark.

They all laughed at me. I knew they were teasing me.

We should probably get going. Remy chuckled. Let’s get back before it gets dark.

.

Chapter 11

The sun was setting when we finally reached the mountains, close to the facility. I almost whooped with excitement.

The idea of a hot shower, warm food, and a comfortable bed was foremost in my thoughts. My feet didn’t get any blisters today. I must have broken my boots in completely, but they still hurt. In fact, my whole body hurt. After last night and my early rendezvous with Remy, I was exhausted.

I looked forward to seeing my siblings, Patrick, and Nadia, too. I was eager to find out how the last three days had been for them. I really hoped Paul and Will didn’t want a briefing tonight, because I was over this training exercise.

“The finish line,” Jaxson said with excitement.

We were so close I could almost taste it.

“Not quite,” a self-satisfied voice said from behind us.

I nearly cursed when I saw a group of six guys come out of the woods around us. How we didn’t see them was beyond me. We had grown lax the closer we got to the facility. We had stopped talking to each other with words and began talking aloud once more.

From their haggard appearance, I knew they had to be the group that had set out yesterday with Spencer and James. I had foolishly assumed that they had been at the cave this morning and not a different group entirely.

Three of them had riot guns trained on us, loaded with bean bags. They weren’t lethal, but they packed a hard punch. If we were hit with one, it would count as a hit and a capture. The other three had tasers trained on us which also counted as a capture if hit.

“Come on guys, really? Just six of you at this party?” Troy casually brought up his hands.

The two guys closest to him had no time to react as the barrel of their guns melted before their eyes. The other guys jumped to action, and Drake soon had a force field around us as the bean bags bounced off the shield uselessly to the ground. They all looked at each other and tried to charge the force field. To no avail.

They were thrown back with such a force that they landed on their rears. They looked even angrier as they went to charge at it once more with the remaining gun and tasers.

Jace glared at the guys closest to him and soon they were crying uncontrollably. The other three looked at each other in confusion. Jaxson was able to cast an illusion of mountain cats charging the rest of the group. The rest of the guys took off in the opposite direction screaming.

“Well that was easy,” Noah said cockily.

Jaxson laughed but the other guys looked wary, so I took my cue from them and started looking around us.