(This story contains violence and foul language. Reader discresion is advised.)

On their way, Billy started talking about how they needed to try the satellite phone again to call in law enforcement and possibly involve the national guard. Genna stopped and so did Billy once he took notice.

“What’s the matter?” Billy asked Genna before waving her on to continue, “We’ve got to hurry back!”

“Who’s Tom?” Genna inquired.

“We don’t have time for this. I’ll explain when we get back.”

“No, tell me now! It’s time you tell me what’s going on! This isn’t just some search for some typical lost person! I’m not going anywhere with you until you’re finally straight forward with me on what you know!”

“Genna-”

“Who’s Tom, Billy? Two people are dead, and I’m not getting killed without knowing what we’re dealing with. Tell me who that was back there, and what the hell just happened! Who’s Tom?”

“Tom Wiley!” he blurted out, “That was Tom Wiley.”

“The…the terrorist?” she asked mystified.

“Yes, the same. His parents hired me to track him down and bring him back home.”

“He killed his landlord, a bunch of police officers and residents, and destroyed more than half of the trailer park before disappearing, yet you thought it was a good idea for five people on limited information to go out and hunt for him? When were you going to let us in on this fact, or the other fact that it seems like he has mental powers? How do you even know that’s him for sure?”

“His parents told me that he lost those abilities years ago when he was a child. Nobody knew he could do that now as an adult, but obviously he got them back somehow. Reports never said he used his mind. Who would? Who would believe that?”

“But you did know that we were tracking down one of the FBI’s most wanted, didn’t you? You didn’t care about risking our lives, lying as you got that big fat paycheck. You greedy asshole! We trusted you! I trusted you!”

“It’s not like that! Look, I told what I knew, can we head back now?”

Just then, the man suspected to be Tom Wiley charged out of the night, knocked Billy through some nearby brush and against a rock face. With Billy motionless, the attacker focused his attention onto Genna. She didn’t know how he was able to lose Ned and catch up with them, but she didn’t want to spend time standing there to find out. She raised her gun but with a flick of his hand, the pistol’s upper half flew off the lower and disappeared into a woody thicket. She ran away and he pursued her until she squeezed herself through a gap between two boulders, where he couldn’t fit through even when clawing at her with dirty, bare hands. Genna stumbled through the blackness until she remembered that the broken gun still had a functioning flashlight. She turned it on in time to catch herself from falling down a chasm, and instead took her time to carefully climb down.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

A light from a gap above hit Genna in the face, waking her from what she intended to be a nap. After the rush of adrenaline wore off from wandering around in the caves and chasms, the exhaustion caught up with her, so she had stopped to rest. Genna finally found a way out soon after getting up. Emerging out from the darkness and into to the daylight, she found herself facing a flat, barren desert. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, but she wanted to get as far as possible away from whatever was back there.

She walked a good distance through the patch of desert, hoping to find some help or signs of civilization somewhere. Genna thought over the events of yesterday, like how there are such things as mental powers like telekinesis, or how their group was mysteriously brought down with no real casualties. Was that Tom’s doing? As far as she was concerned, his name was Tom. If so, why not kill everyone then, instead of one-by-one? The poor Cartwrights didn’t deserve to go out the way they did.

Genna felt a sudden unease looking out around and across the shimmering, hot, desert horizon. She was totally exposed being out in the open like she was on that patch of flat and cracked, parched earth. Then, staring at the horizon up ahead from where she stood, Genna thought she saw something. It was a glimmer of something heading towards her. It could be help, it could be him, or it could be a mirage. Out of fear of having nowhere else to go if it meant her harm, she hoped it was just a mirage. Slowly, Genna lowered herself flat to the desert floor. The glimmer didn’t go away, so she closed her eyes, and counted to five. She opened her eyes, looked up towards the horizon, and saw that the glimmer was part of what looked like a figure running towards her. She closed her eyes and counted to five again. When she looked again, the figure was gone. She stood back up and, after scanning the way ahead of her, breathed a sigh of relief before continuing to walk forward.

As she walked, Genna couldn’t shake that lingering uneasy feeling. Then she heard the distant approach of hastening steps and heavy breathing from behind her. She turned her head to look back behind herself and saw Tom, still armed with a machete, and clad in breathing gear, quickly catching up. She panicked and burst into a sprint. Genna ran as fast as she could, occasionally glancing back to hopefully see her pursuer starting to lag. No matter how hard she pushed her legs to their limit, no matter how ready her lungs felt close to exploding, Tom closed the gap with every second that passed.