Jacks mind wandered as they road on.

He unconsciously kept thinking back to being next to that camper in the Bass Pro parking lot. Flashes of the tornado he had whipped up kept running like a movie in his mind. Bryan’s words still swam in his head.

Did I go overboard?

The scene of one of the men that he had pinned in place by his hand flashed in his mind. Slowly he watched the man screamed in pain, projectiles ravaging his body as he slowly stretched out further and further with the wind. It was quite obvious the man had several dislocated joints and torn ligaments. The thoughts disgusted Jack, shaking his head he tried to remove them from his mind. Failing to do so, his mind shifted to the scene they were leaving the gang behind, when he killed the russian.

He didn’t see the damage he had caused, he knew he would have lost it in that moment if he had looked. It would have endangered everyone I had broken down just then, he told himself. It wasn’t out of cowardice, he thought. I had to do it. It wasn’t murder, it was self defence. But did I really have to dismember the guy like that? Where did that even come from? Jacks head swam with questions and images, a single tear fell down his cheek. Anxiety was gripping his mind like a vice.

“Jack!” Sara called out, “Jack! You are going the wrong way! We’re supposed to go left.” Sara quickly called to Rachel and Bryan to stop. She easily turned her bike to chase down Jack who was now almost a block away.

“Jack! Snap out of it!” Sara yelled, concern clear as a bell in her voice. Grabing a small rock from the ruble strewn street, she launched it at jacks head.

“Ow, shit. What was tha…” As Jack looked around, he realized he was no longer with the group. Quickly Jack looked around in near panic searching for his friends and brother. The sight of Sara’s concerned face brought him back from his near panic attack.

“You know you shouldn’t do that when you’re riding. We’re almost to the mountain road.” Sara said. Seeing his confusion Sara tried to mask her concern and continued, “Your eyes, they are rimmed with gold light again.”

Jack was suprised at her words, without trying he had tapped his power again. How? He thought. I didn’t even feel the ice.. His thoughts started to wander again as he realized how vivid it all was, like he was standing there now.

“Stop it! We’ve gotta get you turned around and back to the group.” Sara scolded as she noticed his eyes closing again.

Jack could tell by her tone that she meant business. With a nod, he started to turn around his bike and carriage. With the ruble strewn street this was easier said then done, abandoned cars and broken concrete littered the street. Some cars were burnt to the ground while others had been flipped like a hamburger. Once turned around, he and Sara quickly made their way back to the intersection Rachel and Bryan were waiting for them at.

“You okay there little brother?” Bryan asked.

“Yea just thinking too much.” Jack replied. In an attempt to cease any questions, he jumped in with his own. “Sara said we’re almost to the road. How much further once we reach it?”

“Well once we actually hit the road I don’t really know. It depends a lot on how fast we ride and with the ups and downs it’s going to be hard going. The good news is that if we are still followed, we’ll be able to spot them and deal with them accordingly before they report back to whoever they are with.”

Jacks eyebrows rose in surprise at her words. “We’re being followed? And I didn’t even notice? I haven’t seen a single sole the entire ride!”

Bryan frowned at his brother, knowing his actions must really be bothering him. He was normally the better of the two of them at knowing their surroundings. With Jacks magic, Bryan didn’t even think he was in the same league anymore. But he had missed it. “It’s true,” He started, “We have passed about fours significantly large groups at other shopping centers. Most looked like they fortified themselves into larger stores and where trying to wait this whole thing out. One had bikes with carriages like ours posted out front, probably for supply runs. But there are people walking behind us as well. I’ve seen three different people twice each since we broke breakfast.”

Jack was shocked at his own complacency.

He had missed it all.

There will be time for processing later, he thought, now I need to get us safely to the mountains.

Closing his eyes, Jack focused on bringing his power alive once again. I should have been doing this the whole time, he chided himself. Opening his eyes, he was happy to have his second sight come to his call for the first time without the meteor being in the sky.

Quickly, he scanned the immediate area for life. Stray animals where abundant, especially in the homes and businesses’ that lines the streets. Small and large, they huddled around mass’s that Jack didn’t recognize with his sight yet. They’re eating, he thought. All the people that didn’t wake up…

Jack got a sinking feeling in his gut that almost made him loose his breakfast. Focus, he told himself, that’s not what I need to find. Pressing his sight further, he found what they had been talking about.

Three people, fanned out with their intentions focused on him and his friends. “Found them,” He announced. “They are pretty clever to. If what you said is true, it looks like each take a different street and they shift to keep us in the middle so they know when we make left of right turns.”

“You know what’s been bothering me about it? How are they keeping up with us? Walking versus us on the bikes, even with the carriages we should have outpaced them long ago.” Rachel asked, truly confused at their stamina.

“I don’t know but let’s go a few blocks forward and il keep watching them to find out. They are all stopped at intersections right now so they can communicate where we are.” Jack said.

Quickly they all set out down the road until Jack noticed something new and called stop.

Jack laughed out loud at the people following them, “There riding scooters, you know, like the kids toy.”

Bryan laughed along, but the girls still held serious faces.

“What on earth is so funny about that? I’ve seen kids in my neighborhood on those, they could catch us couldn’t they?”, Rachel asked.

It was Jack who’s laughing subsided enough soon enough to properly explain, “Ever ridden one?”

Rachel’s eye brows where up, half from confusion and half irritation and the scowl returned to her face, “No”

“Well I’m surprised they have tailed us this far. You see, one small rock in the front wheel and you go flying… Trust me, I know” Jack replied with a smile. “There is no way they could keep up on this road your describing.”

Seemingly pacified for the moment, Rachel nodded and proceeded to ride on.

Sara looked after her then back to Jack. Jack caught her eye and smiled at her with a shrug and continued on riding himself.

Jack tried to stay more alert as he road, not wanting to be caught unaware again. His second sight was becoming easier for him to maintain little by little. Jack kicked himself for not thinking of this sooner and wasting time dwelling on things he can’t change. The quiet riding provided time for Jack to test his senses, pushing his awareness out searching all around them. He found that at one time he could be actively aware of any possibility of danger with in a two hundred foot radius. Jack could push further, but at that point he felt the drain on his power was to much to sustain it for any long period of time.

What amazed him where the differences in energy flow from manmade to natural objects.

Riding along he quickly noticed that wooden doors and fences had only trace amounts of radiance and larger concrete and metal modern buildings where devoid of any energy at all. Jack felt himself sliping from his awareness and sorted those thoughts away for another day to debate, he knew there had to be some sort of significance to it.

As jack reestablished his awareness perimeter, he detected something large directly ahead of them. Before he could through his senses further, the call from Bryan confirmed it.

“Something is blocking ahead,” Bryan called out as the group approached a jack knifed tractor trailer in the middle of the road. Out of caution he brought the group to a stop. Bryan cautiously got off his bike and held his AR in a ready position. Slowly he peeked around the corner of the trailer, finally getting a clear view of the road on the other side. What he saw suprised him. “The street is clear up all the way up to what looks like a wall, can you tell what it is Jack?”

Jack joined Bryan next to the trailer and closed his eyes to help focus. He could still use his second sight with them open, it just helped when he was studying things out the range of vison for his eyes. Try as he might, Jack couldn’t get a detailed reading in his senses. Something was... weird. Looking around himself he tried to find a way to get a better vantage point. The other side of the trailer was out, that put him in plain view of the wall. Jack took in his surrounding with his sight again and knew he was going to need to get higher up to try and see behind the wall. Focusing on that fact he thought of how his magic could help. If only there was a way to get up there, he obsessed to himself.

All of a sudden, with his eyes still closed, he felt his view rising in the air, the sudden feeling of no longer being on the ground almost made him loose his concentration and slam back toward the ground. Ground. As he thought of it, it made him look down. What he saw finally made his concentration snap, he was looking through a gold mist down at the top of his own head. The realization barely hit him before he slammed back down to his body.

Opening his eyes, Jack took a deep gasping breath as he simultaneously fell back to the ground in a heap.

Bryan quickly knelt next to his coughing brother, concern marked his face. Sara came running as well but Jack was already lifting his hands to wave them both off. His head ached but it wasn’t bad enough to keep him down.

“I’ll explain later, but I have to try that again, hold on.” Jack blurted. Quickly he sat down, taking a quick sip of water that Sara offered, then closing his eyes and trying again.

Jack couldn’t help but be ecstatic, if this was the spell he thought it was, it would be huge. Beyond huge, he could easily scout ahead, find enemies, check on the others, find safe areas. This was he and Bryan’s ticket to safely making it home. If he can get it to work.

With his focus renewed, Jack quickly slipped into his sight. He tried to capture the feeling he had, lifting up out of his body. Jack pictured himself floating, just below the top of the trailer. Nothing happend. Knitting his brow and pulling on his power, he let it fill his mind. In a sensation he could only describe as odd, he could feel it collect around his brain and somewhere in his chest. Picturing those two parts of his body floating up he could feel it taking hold. He rose again, this time at a controlled pace. He knew now was not the time to experiment but he couldn’t help feeling excited about it. He brought himself up to the top edge of the trailer. Moving forward was easier than up.

Up ahead a blockade came into view. Cars stacked side ways three cars high stood pressed into the center of cars still on their wheels. Beyond the top of the stack, Jack could see the top of another car so he had to assume there were even more stacked to reinforce the first row. Wedged around and inbetween the cars was various scrap metal from sign posts and fallen traffic lights. Jack couldn’t help but be impressed by it all, it obviously had taken a lot of time and manpower to create.

Letting his senses spread out, he found that all the streets as far as he could sense had similar blockades. All along the blockade Jack sensed a presence of people spread thinly around the perimeter. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the blockade linked up to buildings and houses, all walk ways in-between had been similarly blocked. Whoever was inside had created a fortress of sorts, the precision in which everything was built was what bothered Jack. They must have a mage to, maybe a few, he realized.

Shrinking back to his body felt strange. Opening his eyes and coming back to normal sight, Jack also realized that his powers must be growing, after all that he still wasn’t drained of Magic.

“Looks like a Fort.” Jack said, opening his eyes to gaze upon his companions reactions.

“Alright, how big is it? Can we just go around it? We’re not far from the base of the road.” Asked Rachel.

“As far as I can tell the blockades are up for at least 200 feet each side. By how much work went into it I’m sure it’s much larger. By luck or other means we’ve managed to head straight for the center of the south wall.” Jack replied.

“We could go around it but I’m sure they’ll see us and the carriages. With our current luck that means they will come after us in an area that they are familure with that we are not.” Jack relied, quietly coming to a conclusion in his mind.

“You want to go through it don’t you?” Bryan accused.

At that, Jack nodded with a grim smile. Well, It would at least be nice to meet who did such a great job building that monstrosity, he thought to himself. “Yep,” Jack finaly contended. “Besides, it’s probably our best chance at losing the scooter crew behind us.”

Everyone just nodded silently and started to peddle. By now everyone, including Bryan surprisingly, was learning to trust Jacks judgement. They knew if it was really something he had decieded that there was no way of talking him out of it otherwise, no matter how crazy it sounded. But each felt confident in Jacks growing abilities, knowing he could easily protect them from just about anything.