A&D Book 1: Amulets & Demons (Editing Slowly)

Chapter 14

Adrian's POV

We spent the next week traveling through the woods, staying relativity close to any roads we could find. During the day we walked, and we worked on whatever hee-bee jeebys those Amulets gave us during the night.

It was Jace's idea, that we should work on using them in case we need them. It was actually a good idea, I got really good with mine. I could control my head thing, and even create a little ball of fire in my hand.

The others seemed to be doing well too. Allani could lift up several stones at once for several minutes. Katilyn stopped randomly blasting into the sky (that was a legitimate problem for a while) and could knock us down if she really tried. Sarah, who's Amulet turned out to be water-centric, could lift up water bottles and fling them at us. Everyone was doing so well with their Amulets. Except for Jace.

When we were training, Jace was encouraging the rest of us or lying silently on the ground, head tucked between his legs. I don't know if he didn't want to train, or if he just couldn't, but it was completely unlike him. Ever since then, I was keeping a close eye on him at all times.

A little after noon on the seventh day of hiking, we saw border patrol. I mean, if you could call it border control.

All it really was was a tollbooth-looking thing with a bunch of middle aged men inside, looking as if they had nothing going for them in life. To the left of... that, was a dulled-out sign saying, "Welcome to Canada!"

"So, what's the plan?" Sarah asked from behind me.

The five of us were crouching in a bush (don't take that the wrong way), taking in what we had to get around to get to Canada.

"I don't know why we haven't gone already," Allani said, to my right. "Why can't we just sneak along there to get past?" He continued, gesturing to a large concrete building, possibly the break room, on the close side of us.

"That would not work." Katilyn said, not taking her eyes off the scene. "There are men back there with guns that would, as you say, 'turn us into ground beef'."

She was right. There were three or four men back there, and those guns would rip us to shreads if we tried to confront them.

"Let's fall back and come up with a plan, guys." Jace said, between his teeth.

We all backed out from the shrubbery, and started the trek back to our camp a hundred yards away.

*****

"You sure you're okay with this?" I asked, placing a hand on Jace's shoulder. He had his hands wrapped around his legs, his head on his knees.

He looked at me with a confused expression and said, "Yeah. Why'd you ask?"

"It's just that, I've noticed that you've... um... You've been looking kind of... sick." I had no idea why I couldn't spurt that out, it was completely unlike me.

Jace let out a quiet laugh and said, "I'm not sick, man. It's just that I've had a-" He suddenly bit his lower lip and closed his eyes. He stayed like that for a few seconds, before opening his eyes and continuing. "Sorry about that, what I was trying to say is that I've had a bad headache for the past few days. Don't worry about me, just make sure that nobody screws up."

"Whatever you say, cheif," I responded as I walked to the others.

"He's ready," I told them.

*****

"Please, sirs, please!" Sarah cried from down the road. Dirt splattered her face, and she was dragging a limp Jace with her.

To be honest, it wasn't the best plan. It was all we had, though, so we kind of had to do. We even had them walk a mile down the road just to make it believable.

One of the guys in the tollbooth looked up, and the freaky guys with the guns ran out to the front.

She dropped Jace on the ground next to her, and she proceeded to pass out next to him.

The gun men ran out to the two of them and checked the two out. After 30 seconds or so, the picked the two up and carried them into the big building.

Katilyn, Allani, and I were sitting in the bush the whole time, watching the scene unfold. I mush admit, Sarah was pretty good acting all, 'damsel in distress' like. As for Jace... he was actually passed out.

We waited for ten minutes like that, waiting for anything to happen. It did eventually happen, as a car pulled out from behind the building and set off from where they came, the scary men in the car.

One the car had gone a reasonable distance, we hopped out of the bush and made our way to the building. When we reached the door, a large thump was made on the other side, and a squeaky sliding noise on the floor.

After some shuffing, Jace opened the door like an attendant and said, "Your suite, sir."

I stepped around him and into the surprisingly small room. The space was sparsely decorated, a table and 4 chairs (one of them was shattered, who knows why) the only furniture there. The tiled floor had tiny cracks everywhere, and the cream-colored wallpaper was peeling noticeably in several spots.

The coolest thing in the room, by far, was vending machine on the back wall. It was chock full of snacks, Twinkies, Oreos, and Skittles only being a few of delicacies. There was a fridge too, but it probably only had a stale soda.

Allani, who was the prime form of a sugar magnet, immediately ran over to the vending machine, almost tripping over one of the unconscious guys. Oh yeah, there were two unconscious guys in the middle of the floor.

Allani carefully inspected the vending machine, and smacked out a rythum on it. You know, that 'bum ba da ba bum bum, da dum' thing? Yeah, he did that.

After he did that, ALL of the candy poured out. Everything. Just dropped out. Don't know how, don't know why. It just happened.

"Allani?" I asked, eyeing all of the candy piled at the bottom of the vending machine.

"Yeah?" He replied as he flipped open the bottom and let all the candy spill out onto the floor. He grabbed a Snickers bar from the ground and started devouring it.

"I'm seriously considering taking back half of the bad things I've ever said to you."

He nodded his head slowly and said, "Cool story bro. We should probably pack all of this up." Little bits of chocolate flew from his mouth as he talked.

"Already ahead of you." Jace and Katilyn were both kneeling, trying to shove as much stuff as possible into their bags.