Creed yanked the weapon from the hands of the nearest soldier, swung and punched him in the face, spun and followed through with an elbow to the throat, a swift jabbed from the butt of the rifle up rendered him breathless. Creed finished him off with a strategic back kick hurling him across the room.
Evan and Cole watched what used to be the front door, having heard the crunching of approaching boots. The first soldier’s black boot had just stepped into view when Cole decided he wasn’t waiting for any more of the enemy to show up. He aimed at the wall and fired three shots in a row. Screams and gurgling sounds proved his instincts correct.
Evan saw the blackness of the night moving, moonlight glinting off the metallic weapons en route to kill. Without thinking, he reached out to the blue light, rolled it in his fingers to angle it most effectively and sent it flying into the team of soldiers.
He didn’t stop to watch the effectiveness of his fire—he already knew by the screams and the scent of burning flesh.
Cole was overtaken by three soldiers. One had him in a headlock and the others were punching him in the gut and sides.
Evan’s glance at Cole took his eyes off his attackers as more poured into the living room filling the small space with what were clearly metahumans. The four boys were facing terrifying odds that just kept getting worse by the second as more soldiers pushed into the melee.
Alik disarmed a soldier, reached out and grabbed him by the elbows and yanked so hard he dislocated both his arms. The guy was screaming, but Evan only saw his mouth open—the place was overflowing with the noise of ruthless violence.
The still-hot tip of a rifle aimed at Evan from the other side of the shredded wall. He could almost imagine the feel of the trigger beneath the attacker’s finger. He knew he had less than a second to either defend or attack.
He decided to do both.
The bullet cut the noise, spinning through the air in slow motion as Evan jumped to the side, aimed a ball of firelight at the soldier and sent the burst directly into the eyes, blinding him instantly.
Evan looked down at his hand in amazement, never having created a blinding flash of light before.
He practiced his newfound skill next on the guys beating the crap out of Cole. Once released, Cole yanked his gun from his back and fired one round in each of the soldiers who’d been breaking his ribs for fun.
Evan saw the blood on Cole’s face from the shrapnel cut was smeared; his green eyes were wild with fury. Evan moved to stand between Cole’s dangerous rage and the soldiers pushing—itching to attack.
The attackers weren’t playing nice.
Having witnessed Evan’s abilities, two soldiers decided brute force was necessary to contain the dangerous metahuman. Like a pair of linebackers, they barreled into Evan and shoved him face-first against the nearest wall before yanking his left arm back up and behind him. Evan let out an enraged scream.
10 The End is Nigh
“Haven’t you heard, little boy?” a soldier sneered loudly in Evan’s ear. “If you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned!” He laughed at his own perceived cleverness, enjoying every moment of the unfair fight.
The other guy’s laughter sounded crazed, but what worried Evan was the itchy trigger finger the crazy guy had as he pressed the rifle painfully to Evan’s temple. Clever soldier must have decided Evan wasn’t laughing politely at his joke and needed a swift reminder of manners.
“Laugh, damn it!” he yelled as he yanked Evan’s head back by the hair and slammed him into the wall for the second time. Evan was pinned and dazed. He found himself dissociating by staring at his bloody smudge on the wall.
“What’s this one’s name?”
“Speak up, genius,” Clever guy screamed into Evan’s spinning vision. “What the hell’s your name?”
Evan wasn’t sure, but the ringing in his ears may have been coming from somewhere in the room. He dipped away from consciousness and vaguely wondered if the others had gotten away. He hoped they had. They deserved to live.
Maybe they could be there for Meg when the time came.
“Your name!”
“Evan,” he managed to murmur through his stinging face.
On the other side of the room Creed was being held down on the ground by four soldiers, one of whom was injecting him with something right into a bulging vein in his neck. Creed raged like a wild animal caught in a bear trap, ready to gnaw off his paw in his zeal to escape. But seconds after the plunger was pushed into place, Creed’s wild eyes, blinked several slow room-spinning blinks.