So, for an assignment in LA, we got to write short sci-fi stories after reading Frankenstien. Because everyone on here loved The School For Lost Children, I decided to write a little excerpt from my full book for the assignment. Unfortunately, the limit was 8 pages, so I couldn’t add as much as I wanted to :’(

But, hopefully you like this short excerpt of my full book: Nightshade. 

Thank you!

~

I know what you’re thinking: Did I just drive an armored van containing a faulty EMP generator into the front of a power plant, causing New Vegas’ entire power grid to black out, resulting in a twelve-mile power outage for gosh knows how long?

Yes. Yes I did.

What? Don’t look at me like that. You’d do the same thing if you were running for your life. Besides, that was just a distraction. It was nice enough to give my friends a head start on the escape plan. Only now I was trapped in a car with the enemy surrounding me on all sides.

My eyes darted from left to right, my sweaty hands still clutching the steering wheel. This may be an armored car, but nothing lasts forever. I can’t just hold down the fort here; they’d find some way to destroy it. And once that happens, I’d basically be dead.

I ignored their commands to come out with my hands up, and instead frantically racked my brain for a plan. But between the fire, smoke, the constant spray of bullets against the car, and my own panic, I had nothing.

So, I did what I normally do; act recklessly with absolutely no idea what I was doing. I jerked the wheel hard to the right. The tires squealed and I winced, but I kept at it, the car lurching forward. Already, the men outside were responding, talking on coms and reloading their guns. With one massive jerk, the car jumped over cracked pavement and burning wood, and leapt onto the asphalt. I pumped the gas pedal with all my might and sped forward, making sure to take the chain link fence out as I went. 

Oh, and I should probably say this before anything else: I have no idea how to drive.

So, that would probably explain why I got a series of honks from other cars as I drove from one side of the road to the other, barely avoiding collisions. My hands shook as I twisted the wheel violently over and over. It felt like I was playing an arcade game, only if I crashed, it truly would be GAME OVER.

I winced as a deafening screeching and crunching sound came from behind me as the armored van grazed against another car, spinning me out of control again. How I wish I’d stolen a helicopter instead of a van. At least there was no traffic to run into other than your occasional pigeon.

The van was gaining speed now, racing down a long road that wound through the desert. I yanked the steering wheel hard to the right, nearly tipping the car over as it rolled on two wheels before coming down with a heart-rattling thump. A quick glance in the rearview mirror revealed no pursuers, yet—but that doesn’t mean they won’t come.

I checked the GPS on the dashboard, and relaxed a little bit. I was nearing the rendezvous point, which was the city of New Vegas, the capital of gambling down here in Nevada. Vincent and the others should be waiting for me in the city. . . unless they were caught by the psychopaths at the Facility.

My blood went cold at the thought, but I quickly cleared my head. Okay Oria, you’ve got this. I thought to myself as I continued to floor the pedal. As long as they were able to stick to the plan, everything should be fine.

I could see the city now, the lights twinkling in the otherwise moonless night. I figured I couldn’t keep weaving in and out of traffic in town, and I certainly couldn’t afford to be in a car wreck, so I managed to smoothly pull off to the side of the road.

And when I mean smoothly, I mean I hit a tree in the process, and spun twice before I managed to slam the  brakes.

I took a wheezing breath, my eyes wide and wild as I pried my hands off the steering wheel. I did a quick check to make sure that nothing was broken. Relaxing a little bit, I reached into the backseat for the backpack I had managed to salvage from the disposal pile at the Facility. I slipped a strap over my shoulder, then hightailed it out of the van.

And that’s when I saw a familiar looking face staring at me from an incoming car.

My bare feet stomped over the concrete and over to the adjacent car, which had parked by the side of the road. I knocked sharply on the glass, swearing I would kill the person inside if he was who I thought he was.

The window smoothly rolled down, and Vincent’s face peered out. “Hey officer,” he said in a weak voice. “I know I was driving sixty miles per hour in a twenty mile per hour zone, but in my defense, my friend is sorta in a pinch with the government, and is currently surrounded by military personnel holding her at gunpoint.” He jerked his thumb towards the back seat, where I could see the outlines of other people. “Her friends and I decided to go rescue her. So, can you cut us some slack?”

My cheeks burned red and my eyes flickered with fire. “Vincent . . .” I said, barely keeping my temper in check. “What the heck are you doing here?”

“Well, I thought my little explanation to you just seconds ago was explanation enough,” he said with a shrug.

“You idiot!” I hissed, fighting the urge to slap him. “You’re supposed to be escaping with the others!”

“It was my idea,” a voice called from the backseat. A mess of frizzy, black hair popped up besides Vincent. Lia smiled at me, her dark-colored skin almost pitch black in the nighttime shadows. “We couldn’t just leave you behind. Vincent was frantic, and when we heard the explosion, I proposed we should go back for you.”

“Just out of curiosity, what caused the explosion?” Vincent asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I drove into a nearby power plant,” I said, nonchalantly.

“REALLY!?” an excited voice shouted from the backseat. Elliot’s head popped up behind Lia’s, a wide grin stretched across his face. “That was you!?”

I gave a half smile and nodded.

“It was epic! There was a giant BOOM, and we could see the fire and smoke from the escape route! Vincent said a bunch of bad words when he saw it.”

Vincent gave a strangled cough and turned back towards Elliot. “You weren’t supposed to tell her that,” he whispered.

I smirked at him, and he rolled his eyes at me. “Are you gonna stand out there all day, or are ya’ gonna get inside? You have the government of the United States on your tail, so make your decision fast.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and walked around the car, climbing into the seat beside him. Leaning back in the leather seat, I ran my fingers down the dashboard as Vincent drove back onto the main road. “So where’d you get this sucker?” I asked, turning the radio to a news station.

“Stole it off of some campers,” he said.

I looked him dead in the eye. “You’re kidding,” I said, impressed. “I didn’t know you could hotwire cars.”

“I just stole their keys off their table,” Vincent bluntly said. “There wasn’t any hotwiring involved.”

I blew back a strand of my blonde hair and sat back in the seat. “L. A. M. E.”

Vincent glared at me, trying hard not to smile. I ignored him and turned towards the back. “Don’t tell me that you brought the entire gang with you.” 

“I kinda had to,” Vincent sheepishly admitted. “Angel raided the camper’s bag of marshmallows, and that’s when they noticed me casually climbing into their car. I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“Well, I guess while you’re being chased by crazed campers with marshmallows, you’ve gotta make split-second decisions.” I turned back towards the front seat, holding out my hand, palm up. “Pass me one of the marshmallows, Angel. This girl needs her sweets.”

Reluctantly, the eight-year-old tossed me one, then reached into her bag and stuffed three more in her mouth. Elliot made a grab for the bag, but Angel quickly tossed it over to Lia, who giggled and took a handful for herself.

“Angel, be nice and share with your brother,” I playfully scolded. Angel frowned at me, but passed the bag to Elliot, then folded her arms across her lap. Angel and Elliot were the only blood siblings in this squad, but they were totally different. Angel was sweet but sometimes moody, and Elliot was always overly excited about everything we’d do. Angel was the classic blonde-hair, blue eyes type of girl, while Elliot has this bonfire of flaming red hair. When I tell people they’re twins, no one believes me. I’m almost starting to doubt it myself. They are literally polar opposite, on the outside and inside.

I peered towards the very back of the car, where I could make out two other shapes. “How are you two holding up?” I called.

“I’m f-f-fine,” Toby called back, his stuttering worse due to the stress of the situation. “But Asher t-tripped over a t-tree root while w-we were running, and p-possibly sprained h-his ank-k-le.”

Almost as if on cue, Asher gave a small groan, biting his lip and clenching and unclenching his fists. Toby was hastily wrapping the swollen ankle with a discarded jacket, promising Asher in hushed whispers that the pain will die down soon.

I stared at the two sixteen-year-olds with concern. “Do you need me to help out with anything?” 

“It’s fine,” Asher said through clenched teeth, his usual shy demeanor shattered by the white-hot pain. “You don’t have to worry about me. Toby has everything under control.”

Toby gave me a quick thumbs-up before quickly getting back to work. I stared at the pair a second more, before twisting back to the front. Vincent stared ahead at the road, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. 

I tried to think of something reassuring to say, but came up blank. I’m not exactly the most comforting person in the world.

In a burst of static, we were in range of radio reception again. And guess who was on the news?

Seven minors have escaped authority and are now currently on the run, led by their ringleader, Oria Nightshade. Authorities will not divulge the reason they were arrested, but have said that the minors are highly dangerous. Rumor has it they were the one to have caused the power outage in New Vegas, Nevada. If you have any information regarding the situation, please call 180-589-0723. Again that’s-

I quickly shut off the radio, while Vincent ran his hands through his midnight-black hair. “I guess that means we’re officially criminals, huh?” I said hollowly, trying to smile. 

Vincent scowled at my stupid attempt at a joke. “This isn’t something to joke about,” Vincent snapped. “We’re kids for goodness sake. We can hardly take care of ourselves. Now, we have to take care of ourselves while being on the run constantly.  How long do you think we’re going to survive!?”

The car was silent as Vincent’s words sunk in. A heavy feeling wrapped around us like fog as we realized the reality of the situation. 

“I don’t want to die,” Angel whimpered, snuggling close to Lia, who stroked her hair while trying to hold back tears of her own.

“We’re not going to die,” I said, while Vincent gave me a sideways glance. I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, then addressed the rest of the car. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I told them. “Remember what we just did? We escaped from the armed military! And . . . we escaped together. If we can do that, we can do anything.” 

The car stayed quiet before Elliot spoke up. “You’re really bad at giving pep talks!” he shouted. I made a face while Vincent cracked up. Soon, the rest of the car was laughing, and I sank low in my seat.

“Fine,” I said, tossing my hair. “I’d like to see someone else do better.” 

Immediately Elliot flashed me a devilish smile. “Four score and seven years ago-” I silenced him with a hearty wack to the back of the head. He stuck his tongue out at me, before leaning back in his seat.

Vincent smirked and I turned my nose up into the air. “Fine,” I said. “Next time, you give the pep talk.”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied. “I’ll make sure it’s good enough to write in some sort of adventure novel.”

“You do that,” I said, still annoyed.

Suddenly, a gurgle filled the air, making me jump. It sounded like a dying blobfish, and please don’t ask me how I know that. I whipped towards the back as Toby gave an embarrassed grin. “S-sorry,” he said. “I g-guess all the excitement has m-made me hungry.”

I rubbed my own stomach, now painfully aware of my own hunger. I was in custody for a day and a half before we escaped, and all I got was a protein bar and a glass of water. I was craving hot, greasy, and totally unhealthy food.

Vincent saw my face instantly and gave me an irritated look. “No,” he snapped.

“You didn’t even let me say anything,” I said reproachfully. 

“I can see it in your eyes,” the stubborn seventeen-year-old replied. “We’re not stopping for fast-food.”

“Why not?” shrieked Lia, her shrill voice slicing through the air.

“Why not? What kind of stupid question is that?” Vincent hissed. “We’re criminals. Get it through your mind Lia. People will be on the lookout for us, and I’m sure once our faces are caught on camera, we’ll be deadmen. Do you want to go back to the Facility!?” Vincent’s voice had risen to a crescendo, and Lia shrunk back in her seat.

“No,” Lia whispered.

“I didn’t think so,” Vincent said, mostly to himself. The stress of the situation seemed to have gotten the better of him, and he stayed quiet for the next few seconds.

I wanted to say something to him — I needed to, but Asher beat me to it.

“We need to go into New Vegas,” he said quietly, but firmly.

Vincent gripped the wheel, and I swiveled around in shock. Asher was probably one of the last people to have an argument with Vincent, especially when Vincent was all tight-lipped like this.

“We need to exchange cars,” Asher pointed out. “The campers you stole this from probably got help by now, and I’m guessing they got it from the sickos at the Facility. They must have our license plate number, so no matter where we go, they’ll be able to find us. However, if we steal a different car, it’ll take until morning for someone to notice. Plus, Vincent, no one has had any sleep, and barely anything to eat in the last few days. It’s only a matter of time before you fall asleep at the wheel.”

Vincent glared at Asher through the rear-view mirror, but evidently gave in as he turned onto the exit ramp. We were quiet as we pulled onto the Strip, numerous people filling out of buildings in a panic, the normally party-like stretch of road eerily dark as a result of the power outage. People’s panicked thoughts flooded through my head as I leaned back and listened, concentrating on the voices.

What is happening?

Is this a terrorist attack? 

Oh, yeah. I can read minds. You didn’t know already? Geez, where have you been?  Basically, for the past couple of years, I was in cryostasis sleep, which means I was basically frozen in time.. However, since the idiot people at the Facility didn’t test the pods, I gained the ability to read minds. In fact, everyone in this car has a special power from being unwilling guinea pigs.

“So?” Vincent asked, snapping me out of my trance. He looked over at me as he carefully weaved between cars that were parked at the broken stop lights. “What’s the plan?”

“We should probably dump the car first,” I said. “We can steal something else outside of town, where it’s not so chaotic. Besides, without working traffic lights, the car isn’t much use to us anyway in the city.”

“Where? It’d be pretty obvious to just leave the car on the side of the street.”

“There’s an employee parking lot for the Bellagio coming up,” said Asher. “We can ditch the car there. The parking garage is underground, so it’ll take the government quite a while to realize we switched cars.”

Asher directed Vincent through the roads, reading off a roadmap in the glow of a flashlight. As the van rolled down into the depths of the parking garage, I shuffled in my seat, uncomfortable with the enclosed space.

Vincent pulled smoothly into a spot, and we all shuffled out of the car, groaning as we stretched. Vincent, after making sure there wasn’t anything else useful in the car, locked the doors, before throwing the keys through the half-open window.

“What?” he asked when I gave him a questioning stare. “This ensures that no one else can use it, and it’ll take longer for the people at the Facility to crack it open and prove that we were the ones who stole it.”

“Fair point,” I replied. Glancing around the parking garage, which was lit only by small emergency lights, I turned back to the group. “You guys stay here. I wanna check the place out first.”

“We’ve already split up once, and that nearly killed you,” Vincent argued. “We should stick together.”

 “I’m not going far,” I replied. “I just wanna see if we can enter the casino through some of the employee doors. It’ll spare me from using my powers on any doormen. You guys see if you can crack open any of these other cars and look for other useful items. I’ll be back in five.”

Here’s my main question for you: why the heck do they make parking garages so confusing? Everywhere you look, there’s an arrow that’s trying to point you to multiple places at once, and then you wind up in a place that you never meant to go.

“You look a little lost, kitten.”

My hands immediately snapped up into fists as I whirled around to face the voice. 

“Easy there!” the voice exclaimed. “I ain’t gonna hurt ya’.” 

There was a hiss, and a small flame lit up the silhouette of the man standing in the dark. The cigarette hung loosely from his mouth, bathing his face in a red glow. Orange hair fell down his head in fiery strands, a black fedora perched on top. Brushing out his cream-colored suit, he tapped his decorative cane against the ground as he approached me. No more than nineteen, he gave off a strange feeling of security. 

“You know,” he said, looking me up and down with a grin, “this is employee parking only, and I think I’d remember hiring a cute little gal such as you. What are you doing here?”

“Okay, first of all,” I spat, my eyes steamy, “if you ever call me cute again, I’ll rip your face off. Second, it’s none of your business.”

The man smirked at me. “Okay then, can I at least have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

I glowered at him. “No. Now, leave me alone.” I turned on my heels and haughtily stalked away.

“Oria Nightshade, I should have known.”

I spun around, creating a spray of rocks shooting into the air. “How did you-”

“‘Seven minors are on the run,’” he quoted from the radio broadcast. “It didn’t take me long to figure out who you were. You pull up into an employee parking lot with no reason to be here, seven kids file out of a car, all looking exhausted; it’s pretty easy to tell who you are.”

“So what are you planning to do?” I asked, a new wave of adrenaline pumping through my veins. “Are you gonna call security? Have us all arrested?”

“Nope. I have a different idea in mind.”
“Oh? Spit it out. It’s not as if I can read your mind.” Actually, I can. I concentrated, quieting all the voices outside until only his thoughts were circling around in my head. And, guess what he was thinking?

Absolutely nothing. I couldn’t read his thoughts, no matter how hard I tried. All that came to me were bits and pieces of memories that I could barely discern. They flashed through my head so quickly that I stumbled back in a daze.

“Oria?”

Vincent jogged up beside me, the rest of the gang following behind.Vincent placed his hands on my shoulders, steadying me.  “I know you told us to stay put, but a security guard was walking down the road, and we had to split. The kids are behind me.” 

Just then, he noticed the man. “Who’s this?”

The man smiled, then tipped his hat. “The name’s Ronan Knight. Now, Oria, would you be interested in a job?”