We'll never make it ☠️

Part 6 of Dead End! Dedicated to ◦•●◉✿ 𝓑𝓵𝔁𝔁𝓲𝓲 ✿◉●•◦. Enjoy!

“Why’s it so dark?” I whisper to Chase. I can’t see anything. 

“I don’t know.” He says. “Where’s Erica?”

“Right here.” She says, right beside us, making us jump. “This is where I leave you.”

“What?” I exclaim.

“You guys need to pass the test. Find a way to get to the Gleaner castle.” She says. “See ya.”

There’s a POP! Then nothing. 

“Did she just teleport away?” I ask Chase.

He sighs. “I think so.”

“Can you teleport us somewhere?”

“The only place I can teleport to is the Reaper school.”

“Why?” 

“That’s the only place I remember.”

“Oh...then what do we do?”

“Try to figure out where we are, I guess.”

I reach a hand out, and I’m surprised when it hits a wall. 

“I think we’re in a room.” I tell him. “There’s a wall right here.” 

“Wait a minute, where are you?” He asks. He sounds farther away.

“Right here.”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am, I’m holding your hand.”

“No you aren’t.”

“Chase, what are you talking about? I’m right here.”

I pull on his hand, and nearly scream when I realize I’m holding a fake arm.

“What happened? You were right here!”

“Calm down, just...walk towards my voice.”

“That seems like a bad idea.”

“It’s okay.”

“Can you conjure a flashlight, or something?” He doesn’t say anything. “Chase, are you there?”

“Sorry, yeah, hold on. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

“It’s fine, just hurry. This place is freaking me out.”

There’s a loud SNAP, then a weak beam of light appears, and moves around the room.

“Are we in a mall?” I wonder.

It looks like an abandoned store. The floor is covered with dust and dirt. Broken racks and mannequins lay everywhere. There are empty racks scattered around, and tables and chairs lying on their sides. There are puddles of water everywhere, which is pretty weird. In the middle of the room, there’s a huge fissure running all the way across the room. Chase is on the other side of it, where there’s a big door with EXIT over it.

“How do I get over there?” I ask him.

He moves the flashlight around the room. “I don’t know. Now would be a really good time for you to get your teleportation power.”

“How do I do that?” I say, walking around carts to get closer to the middle of the room.

He frowns. “Your powers usually start working when you really need them to. But you can’t choose which power starts working.”

“So I have to wait until I’m in danger? Can I just jump and hope I fly?”

“No.” He says quickly. “Don’t do that, please.”

I sigh, stopping a couple feet from the edge of the fissure. “This is a dumb test.”

“Yeah. I think-”

A low rumble cuts him off. It’s coming from the hole. The ground seems to tremble.

“What is that?” Chase shouts over the noise. “Get away from there!”

I stumble back. The whole room is shaking now. Bits of plaster from the ceiling fall to the floor, and I try to dodge them. 

“Ari, get back!” Chase yells.

I glance over at him, and my eyes widen. Creatures are crawling out of the fissure. They look a little like humans, but they have metal parts. The first one to crawl out has half of it’s face covered with a metal plate. The spot where it’s eye should be is red, and I nearly scream when a laser shoots out of it. I drop to the ground just in time, and it melts a bar that was above my head. Oh my god.

“Ari, GO!” Chase screams.

I scramble up as it shoots again. More creatures crawl out. Some of them have metal arms, which they aim at me. Bright green goop shoots towards me, but I duck just in time. It sticks to the wall firmly. 

This would be a great time to get a power. Preferably force fields.

Other ones have long hair that has daggers tangled in it. They start throwing them at me, and I barely dodge them. One scrapes my arm, and I wince, gritting my teeth. I hold a hand over the cut to try to keep it from bleeding.

I duck behind a tall rack, then peek around to see how Chase is doing.

Half of the creatures went towards him, and he’s trying to keep them away. He’s using his telekinesis to push them back in the hole, but they keep climbing back out, and going towards him. He won’t be able to hold them back long.

The creatures on this side are looking for me, and kick stuff around as they walk around. They walk stiffly, arms either straight out in front of them, or flat at their sides.

I rip off a piece from the end of my cloak with my teeth, and wrap it around my arm. At least it stops the bleeding.

 What do I do? I’ve got to go help Chase.

I push hair out of my eyes, but freeze. My hair is black, and straight, just like Chase’s. 

Wait. Please, please, please tell me I didn’t just shapeshift. That has got to be the most useless power I could get right now.

But I did. I look in one of the puddles of water, and see that I look exactly like Chase. Great.

I look around the rack again. They haven’t found me yet, but they’re getting closer. Well, one is. This one has a half metal face, with the laser eye, the daggers, and also the arm gun. It shuffles towards the rack, kicking broken pieces of things out of the way. 

Suddenly, I get an idea. I focus on the creature's face, trying to make myself look like it. I glance into the water, and grimace. It worked, but it’s terrifying. I look like a torn up robot. 

I stand carefully, and shuffle out from behind the rack. The creature near me doesn't even look my way. I shuffle past the others, holding my breath. None of them pay me any attention. 

I get to the fissure, but realize I have no way to cross it. Chase is moving slower, and the creatures are getting closer and closer to him.

I glance down into the hole. It’s deep. There’s no way I could survive that fall. Unless…

Can I shapeshift into an animal? 

I close my eyes, and imagine a bird. The first bird I think of is an eagle. When I open my eyes, I’m an eagle. But I’m huge. 

Oh well. I try flapping my wings, and after a second, I rise into the air. 

I really hope I don’t fall.

I fly over, trying not to look down. I get used to it after a while, and I dive down towards Chase. I land behind him, tumbling to the ground. I change back at some point, which is fine, I’m already here.

“C’mon!” I yell at him. 

He nods, and stumbles towards me. I push the doors open, and grab his hand, pulling him through with me. We push the doors shut. There’s a piece of wood by it, and we shove it through the handles. 

The creatures push at the doors, but they can’t get it open. We sigh in relief. He leans against me.

He has a long scratch across one of his cheeks, and one on his side. They aren't bleeding much, but I still pull off my cloak and help him press it to his skin. While he's doing that, I look around.

We’re in what looks like the lobby of a mall. It’s dim, but we can see. It looks pretty normal. No huge cracks in the ground or anything. It looks abandoned, though. The escalator looks like it hasn’t moved in years.

“Are you okay?” I ask, turning to Chase again.

He nods, trying to catch his breath. “You...you were a bird?”

“Yeah, I can shapeshift.” I say, breathing heavily. I lean against the door, and close my eyes. “What kind of test was that? No school is worth that!”

“It was to test your strength, smarts, teamwork, and resourcefulness.” A voice says.

We both look up. A boy is sitting on a chair in front of us. How did I not see him? He has messy blond hair, and light skin.

“Well, that was incredibly stupid.” I snap. 

He frowns. “How?”

“Were you trying to kill us?” 

“No, of course not. You’re already dead, remember?” 

I grit my teeth, and turn to Chase. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Using that much power for that long takes a lot of energy.”

I nod, then glare at the other boy. “Did we pass your stupid test?”

“You did.” 

“Great, can we get out of here?”

He stands. “Follow me.”

I wrap an arm around Chase and let him lean against me as we walk towards a hallway.

“Where are we going?” I ask the boy. “The Gleaners school?”

“Not yet. We’re going to take a short detour.” 

He turns the corner and stops at the first door. He knocks five times, then kicks the wall.

A girl with frizzy black hair and dark brown skin opens the door. She narrows her eyes at us. 

“Who’s this?” She asks.

“Newbies.” The boy says.

She purses her lips. “You can’t bring just anybody, Jax.”

“They’re different. Trust me.”

She squints at our faces. Chase is still breathing hard. Could she just let us in? He needs to sit down.

“Alright. Fine.” She says. She moves to the side, and the boy, Jax, walks in.

I follow him. We’re in what looks like a food court. There are people all over the room in chairs and booths and some sitting on stairs. 

The girl starts walking towards the middle of the room, towards a big table with people gathered around. I follow.

“Sky.” The girl says when we reach the table. “Jax brought newbies.” 

One girl with long black hair looks up. She has striking green eyes, and tan skin. She’s wearing a black hoodie and jeans.

“Do they know what this is?” She asks, studying our faces. 

The first girl shakes her head. “He just brought them in from the test.”

“Alright. Thanks, Bella.” 

Bella walks off, and Sky comes towards us, leaning back against the table. 

“Who are you guys?” She asks.

“I’m Ari.” I say.

“Chase.” 

She nods. “You guys haven’t gone to the school yet?”

“No, not yet.” I say.

“What did you think about the test?”

“It was stupid.” I admit. “And dangerous. They couldn't just make it an illusion?”

Her lip twitches. “Would you want to go to the school if everything was like that?”

“No way.” Chase says. “That was terrifying.”

Now she really smiles. “Would you want to help find a way to stop that?”

“Yes.” We both say immediately.

“Okay.” She looks at Chase. “I’m going to give you an your boyfriend a chance to-”

I cough. “Uh, I’m not his boyfriend.”

“You aren’t?” She asks, eyebrow raised. 

I realize my arm is still around him. “No, we’re not-I was just-”

“We’re not dating.” Chase says for me. 

I nod in agreement. She looks like she’s trying not to laugh. 

“Sure. Well, would you guys like to be a part of the Outcasts?”

 "What are Outcasts?" I ask.

She gestures to the room. "All of us. We hate the school, and the school hates most of us because we're different. We're trying to make it a better place."

I glance at Chase. He nods at me.

I smile at Sky. "Yeah. Can we join?"

This got rewritten twice. I hope you liked it!