The Static Scream
The blue light hit the car hard. It shook and
smelled like fire. Jax yelled and pushed me
down. Finn just stood there with empty eyes.
Then the armored figures told him something,
and he pointed his gun at us.
Everything went crazy fast.
"Get down!" Jax shouted, grabbing his gun. A
shot went off, then something heavy hit the
car door. They were shooting at us. We were
trapped and easy to see. I was so scared. My
plan didn't work, and now Jax and I were in
danger.
But while this was happening, I saw
something move quickly near Finn. It looked
like the air was wavy, and there was a quiet,
high sound. It went away fast, but I saw it.
Something strange in the middle
of danger made me curious.
The armored figures kept shooting, their guns
breaking the car. Jax shot back, but his gun
wasn't strong. We were stuck. I thought fast
and kicked the broken car door open.
"Get out! Now!" I yelled at Jax, getting out
myself. We had to hide.
We jumped behind a big, old tree. The energy
shots hit the tree, sending pieces of wood
flying.
"What are those things?" Jax asked, putting
more bullets in his gun. He was losing.
"Government," I said sadly. "And that… that's
Finn. They're controlling him."
Jax looked shocked when he
saw Finn was a slave.
Another shot hit the tree, closer this time. We
couldn't stay there. "We need to move!" I
shouted, already changing into my wolf form
and running into the woods. I was faster as a
wolf.
Jax waited a moment. He was slower as a
human. But I sounded worried, and the
armored figures were dangerous, so he
followed, running through the bushes.
As I ran, I remembered that quick movement
near Finn. The quiet sound… it was like…
static. Could it be a mistake in their control?
That small thought gave me a little hope when
I felt like giving up.
Thinking something might be
wrong with their system was like finding
something to hold onto when you're falling.
We lost the armored figures in the thick
woods. They were heavier and couldn't move
easily. Jax, surprisingly, could run well. We
finally reached a small, secret cave I
sometimes used. We were both out of breath
and scared.
"What… what was all that?" Jax asked, leaning
against the wet cave wall. His face was pale,
his eyes wide.
"They know I know something," I said quietly
but fast. "About the chips. They're not just
watching us, Jax. They're controlling us."
He looked at me. At first, he didn't believe me,
but then he started to understand. He had
seen Finn, his neighbor, acting like a robot. He
had felt how strong their guns were.
"You said… you had proof?" he asked, his
voice rough.
"Yes," I said, my mind working fast. The data
on the tree bark… it was still in my hiding
place. Going back there was too dangerous
now. But the broken screen… I had saved a
small piece of it.
The small piece of data felt very
important, like it could tell us something bad.
I reached into a hidden pocket in my ripped
clothes and pulled out the small, broken piece
of the screen. It was scratched, but a tiny part
of the memory was still there.
"I got a little bit of data from one of their
machines," I explained, giving it to Jax. "Lyra
helped me read some of it. It talked about
sounds… how we act…"
Jax looked at the broken chip, his eyebrows
together. "I… I don't understand any of this."
"We need to find someone who does," I said
firmly. "Someone who knows about their
machines. And we need to find a way to fight
back." I remembered the static near Finn
again. A mistake. Maybe we could use it. It
was a small chance, but it was all we had.
Just then, Jax grabbed my arm hard, his eyes
wide with a new kind of fear. "Elara," he
whispered, pointing to the cave opening.
"Look." Standing in the shadows, hard to see
in the dim light, weren't the armored figures. It
was a group of werewolves. Their eyes
glowed blankly, but each of them had a small
red light blinking on their heads, like Finn. And
leading them was Elder Bram. His face was
usually kind, but now it was calm and scary.
Bram's voice, not warm like usual,
echoed in the cave. "Elara… you can't run from
what's best for us. Come join us. Be… happy."