A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse

I rolled her onto her back then pulled Emily up into my arms where she clung onto me still crying her little heart out. I wanted to know what happened, but it was obvious that neither were in the condition to tell me anything.

I looked up at Megan helplessly only to catch sight of the television which was working again. The screen still showed the blue skinned twisted, but the blue skinned twisted"s attention seemed to have been drawn to something behind it. As I was familiar with the area I knew that the direction it was looking was roughly towards my house.

I wasn"t about to believe it was just a coincidence. More likely it sensed the mana being used over here somehow. I had no idea, but if we had somehow drawn its attention, we needed to leave now. I could shoot a lightning bolt now, but only when I was concentrating hard without any distractions, and as per the blackened marks on the back wall, the damage it inflicted wasn"t that great. Definitely not something I wanted to use to protect myself.

I had some other methods, but it would be best if we avoided the fight, if we could.

"We need to leave." I told Megan.

Megan followed my gaze to the television then nodded, it was nice that she was pretty smart herself. Megan grabbed Emily out of my arms so I could slide my arms under Calidia and pick her up in a princess carry. I shifted so her head leaned against my shoulder. The body ability showed its worth as I lifted her into the air, without it I knew Megan and I would have had to work together to lift her. She wasn"t heavy but I had seriously lacked any kind of physical strength before my body ability upgraded me.

Together Megan and I rushed out of the door. I figured we would take my car. It was a older jeep, but it still ran well, but Megan headed straight for Michael"s truck a year old Ford F-150 with an extended cab. Apparently she had his spare set of keys.

We laid Calidia down on the back seat then Megan pushed Emily into my arms before running to the driver"s side.

I almost argued with her but stopped myself. I am a good driver, no accidents or speeding tickets, but we were running for our lives. That wasn"t the kind of driver we needed right now. Megan was an evil demon behind the wheel. The rules of the road didn"t matter to her in her quest to get to where she was going as fast as possible, it didn"t matter if it was a store with a huge sale across town or the convenience store around the corner because she had a craving for a candy bar.

I hauled myself up into the pa.s.senger seat then buckled up. I would have liked to buckle Emily up as well but she was still balling her eyes out and the only place I could put her was in the back seat with Calidia. So I held onto her tightly.

It was as Megan was backing the truck out of the driveway that I realized there was something else wrong with Emily. It had been subtle and I was distracted so I didn"t notice it earlier. It wasn"t so subtle now and I had calmed down a bit as we started to drive. Emily was mutating. I could feel the mana swirling around inside of her chaotically. Perhaps that was part of the reason she hadn"t calmed down yet.

I focused on her inner s.p.a.ce for a moment then tried to pull some of the mana from her like I had her father. As she wasn"t far into her own mutation it worked fine, the excess mana gushed out of her and into me like a d.a.m.n had broken. There was a lot more of it than I had thought there was but it still wasn"t too much for me to handle. After a moment the remaining mana in Emily settled down so I left it alone. I expected the mana to form a mana core and ability cores like it had with her parents but once the mana had settled down nothing happened. A few moments later Emily quieted down then fell asleep.

"Problem?" Megan asked me her voice tense.

"Emily was mutating." I replied looking around to see Megan was tearing through the housing development in the opposite direction than the corner store the blue had been at.

"Is she awakened now?" Megan asked.

"No." I replied shaking my head. "Once the mana calmed down it didn"t do anything."

Megan was silent as she kept driving a look of concentration on her face as we sped through the little residential streets. I was incredibly thankful that the houses around us weren"t finished and no one lived inside.

Megan"s phone started to ring from her purse. I reached for her bag then fished around for her phone. Glancing at the screen to see Karen"s picture. I was surprised to see the name was set as "Traitor". I frowned, I had always thought she and Karen got along pretty well. I might have been underestimating how much Megan disliked Courtney.

Megan s.n.a.t.c.hed the phone out of my hand but didn"t say anything as she blushed embarra.s.sed while unlocking the phone then tossing it back to me.

"h.e.l.lo?" I said answering the phone.

"Daryl?" Karen asked over the phone as if she was unsure it was me.

"Yes, weren"t you and the others supposed to be going to the haven?" I asked.

"We were but the tunnel collapsed before we reached it. Why are you answering Megan"s phone?" Karen asked.

"She"s busy driving. We are trying to put some distance between us and that blue twisted." I replied. My own phone started ringing so I shifted Emily on my lap so I could reach for it. Glancing at the screen I saw it was Marshal. "Hold up, Marshal is calling." I told Karen.

"Wait!" Karen yelled.

"I"m not hanging up." I rea.s.sured her as I swiped my phone to answer it then placed it against my other ear. "We have Emily with us Marshal, she is fine." I said in greeting.

I could hear Marshal breath a sigh of relief. "Thank G.o.d!" he said. "She"s fine?"

"Yes, she"s fine." I reiterated. I wasn"t going to tell him about her mutation yet. "Where are you guys?" I asked.

"It"s just me." Marshal told me.

"Mesa." Karen replied. "Michael and Courtney are with me."

"Have you heard from Rebecca?" I asked Marshal.

"Yes, she seems to be in Tempe, I am in Glendale though." he told me.

Seemed they had all been dropped off in the valley. Marshal"s location worried me though. Glendale was a lot closer to the stadium. As Megan and I were in Fountain Hills. We would be able to get to Karen and Rebecca before we could get anywhere near Marshal.

"We will try and get to you." I told them.

"Don"t worry about me." Marshal told me, "my body ability jumped to three stars, and I gained two in fire and earth. I will be fine on my own." he explained.

"Alright Marshal, but keep in touch." I told him.

Marshal agreed then hung up.

"What about you guys?" I asked Karen.

"We have some friends who live nearby so we are headed in their direction." Karen replied. "Michael got stronger so we should be fine. How did Emily end up with you?" she asked.

"No idea, but something happened, Calidia is with us too." I told her.

"Alright, let us know when you get closer." Karen told me then hung up.

I put Megan"s phone back in her purse before looking around. We were a ways from our housing complex now with no beings in sight. Hopefully that meant we were in the clear.

I used my own phone to call Arnold. He was the only one who I hadn"t heard anything about.

"Hey." Arnold said as he answered on the first ring.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"No idea. I was trying to figure that out before you called." Arnold replied.

"Did you try the GPS in your phone?" I asked.

"Hold up." Arnold said then hung up on me.

I sighed then looked over at Megan. She was still concentrating on the road and driving way to fast for the road we were on but I didn"t say anything. She spared a moment to glance at me and give me a smile before looking back to the road. I had a lot of things in my head at the moment and no time to think them through. I remembered what Calidia said about bonded, Megan was certainly bonded to me, I could feel her presence, though I wasn"t sure if that was just because she was sitting beside me or not. I was rea.s.sured that the bond seemed to make us feel more for each other, but also guilty that I didn"t trust Megan. Yet it still all seemed to good to be true. I was conflicted about it but I shook my head pushing the thoughts aside. It didn"t matter now and I didn"t have the luxury to think about it until we were safe.

Arnold called me back a moment later. "Hey um I"m in Buckeye!" he told me excitedly.

I had never heard anyone sound as excited as Arnold about being in Buckeye. It was on the west side of the valley making him the farthest from us.

"I know a girl who lives out here on the weekend." Arnold explained. "I"ll call her up." he told me excitedly then hung up.

Did he forget what was going on? Then I groaned, he had just awakened, he wanted to use his new appearance and abilities to impress the girl. I couldn"t blame him. I sent him a quick text telling him to keep in contact then informed him that we were going to look for Rebecca.

"Everyone seems safe so far." I told Megan then relayed what I had heard from everyone.

"Alright, I was already heading towards the 87." she told me. Highway 87 was the biggest road that led to the city from Fountain Hills. I just hoped the traffic wouldn"t be too bad. It wasn"t a zombie apocalypse, but that didn"t mean people wouldn"t become twisted while they were driving. The accidents that would cause on top of a twisted on the highway could make the road impa.s.sable.

I called Rebecca to see where she was. Marshal had said Tempe but Tempe wasn"t small.

"Is Emily alright?" Rebecca asked as soon as she answered.

I rea.s.sured her that Emily was fine before asking about her location.

"I"m at a coffee shop on Priest Drive, take the 202 to Priest then head north." she instructed. I relayed the information to Megan who just nodded.

I leaned back in the chair and hugged Emily to my chest as we approached the 87.