Mel

Melanie’s heart sank into her gut as she watched her sister Yuki’s turquoise blue hair disappear behind the trees as she sprinted into the forest. Mel pressed her back flat against the brick wall of an abandoned warehouse as two security guards raced around the corner, hot on Yuki’s heels. They crashed through the underbrush into the woods, following Yuki.

In the distance the wail of alarms echoed, making Melanie’s adrenalin rush through her veins like a drug. Only minutes ago Melanie, her sister Yuki and two other teens, Viola and Mark, had escaped from imprisonment at The Organization.

We’re screwed, Mel thought as panic started to rise like a wave in her chest. During the break-out the four escapees had been separated, Yuki sprinting into the forest with Mark and Melanie crouching behind the warehouse with Viola.

“Shit, Mel you’re bleeding,” Vi said leaning towards her. Mel flinched away from her extended hand. She looked down and was shocked to see the bottom half of her shirt soaked through with blood. Mel hissed through her clenched teeth as she lifted the hem of the shirt, revealing a cut running diagonally along her side. Her skin peeled upwards at either side, blood pooling and pulsing in the cut.

“It must have been when we climbed over the barbed wire fence. I grazed the top, it cut me worse than I thought,” Mel gasped pressing her hand against the throbbing wound. She hadn’t even noticed how bad it burned until now. Adrenaline was the best morphine.

She couldn’t ignore the paralyzing pain that was burning her side. Cold sweat beaded at her brow and down her back.

“Okay it’s not too bad, I can fix that,” Vi quickly said, bitting her lip. “Probably, I mean. At least, I think I can fix it. I hope I can.” She muttered to herself.

Vi was one of the smartest people inside The Organization. She was a prodigy and a genius who worked in the labs. Vi dropped the backpack that was on her shoulders to the ground, kneeling down next to Melanie. She pulled out a first aid kit from the bag.

“Vi, you’d better pray you can fix this otherwise I’m going to bleed out and we’ll never get out of here,” Mel groaned through clenched teeth. Vi glanced up at Mel, sweat beaded along her upper lip.

“We don’t exactly have a lot of time,” Mel snapped.

“Good news is it’s not deep and I don’t think you hit an artery since it’s oozing instead of gushing blood,” Vi said slowly while she carefully assessed the damage. “You’re not going to like this, but in my unprofessional opinion, I think the best option is for the wound to be cauterized, put gauze over it, and then pull the skin together with ducktape,” Vi said, more confident than she had a minute ago.

What you don’t know is why Melanie and her sister were imprisoned at The Organization. Every person who is in The Organization has an unnatural ability. The Organization is a secret facility that tests and uses people with “super” abilities, a mutation in their DNA. Since she was a child Mel had been able to crate flames with snap of her fingers, and Yuki was a telepath.

“Since you’re the walking talking blow-torch you have to cauterize the wound,” Vi said.

Mel steadied her shaking hands and gently ran one finger along the edge of the wound, letting a small open flame seal the bleeding veins. Blackness swam in front of her eyes and she almost passed out from the pain. She fought against the waves of pain that rolled over her. Her side felt hot and itchy. Afterwards Vi quickly placed quake over it, ripped a chunk of duck tape with her teeth and tried to coax the skin together with it.

Mel collapsed back in the grass, panting as if she’d just run a marathon. Distantly she noticed that the alarms had stopped, but she wasn’t fooled into thinking that they were safe yet.

Mel closed her eyes and tried to figure out a plan, the next step. Yuki was with Mark so she wasn’t alone, but how could Mel find them? They’d ran into the woods and guards were chasing them so that meant Yuki and Mark couldn’t back track and that Mel couldn’t follow them.

She fought to keep the panic at bay that was beginning to crash over her. She needed to keep a clear head which was almost impossible to do with a throbbing burning wound that was literally leaking the life out of her and adrenalin making her head feeling like it was vibrating.

“I don’t know what to do,” she finally admitted tears of frustration welling up in her eyes. She hated feeling helpless.

Vi sat back on her heels, hands clasped in front of her. She shook her short dark hair out of her face. They’d met inside The Organization and had only known each other a short time. Her ability was her genius level IQ and photographic memory. Viola and Mark were long time residents (aka: prisoners) and had helped them during the escape.

Viola’s dark eyes scanned the sky overhead, the summer sun mercilessly beating down on them.

“Let’s hide here,” she suggested. “I don’t think you can run very far in that condition. Mark and Yuki will come back to find us.”

She helped Mel stand. Mel’s arm was looped around her small shoulders, and even though Vi was nearly half a foot shorter than Melanie it helped to lean on her as they hobbled along.

Mel wasn’t religious (how could someone be after the Hell she’d been in for the past three months) but she quickly sent a silent prayer to Yuki, her mind searching and calling for her sister, to make it back to her safe, hoping that someone would hear her.