An hour of practice later, Sam collapsed onto the couch, exhausted, and Elena sank into her chair at the kitchen table, burying her head in her hands as soon as she was convinced he wasn't looking.

He could push his powers out. He could pull them in. Apart from that, he seemed to have absolutely no control over his powers. Sometimes the energy of the light increased, sometimes it decreased. Her LED's—and everything around her—had been every color from red to violet, and outside of the visible range as well.

He couldn't control the level of flux. A couple of times, her calculations showed that he had, but it was a miscalculation based on the assumption that Sam could never push his powers out further than one hundred feet. He could push his powers further if he really focused, really concentrated and put in a lot of effort. He just couldn't maintain it for long.

No matter what she did, she couldn't work out what affected whether the energy of the light increased or decreased. And no matter what he did, he couldn't control where the anomalies manifested. He couldn't differentiate between two objects that were equal distance from himself.

Her head pounded, and she massaged her temples. She wanted to believe the headache was just due to stress, and by her calculations, that was the best guess. But she couldn't shake the terror that the anomalies might be causing her cells to break down already.

Patrick came over to sit by Elena as Sam's eyelids drooped. Patrick's cheeks were bright red.

She squinted at his reddened skin. "Did you get some sun?"

"Been cooped up in the camper like you." Patrick touched his face. "My face feels really warm, though."

Of course it does. Her eyes fell closed. "We've probably been generating a lot of UV."

Patrick pressed his lips together and settled back in his chair. After a long silence, he leaned his head in close to hers and whispered, "Is it going to hurt?"

"Is what going to hurt?"

"You know."

She swallowed hard. She glanced up at Sam and decided he was just far enough away that if she whispered, he wouldn't overhear. "My specialization is in mechanics, not biology. But as far as I can tell, the electrons are going to be stripped from our atoms little by little. It already happens to Sam all the time, that's why we get shocked every time we touch him."

"So we'll die of electric shocks?"

"I don't think so. It should be gradual."

"How exactly will we die?"

She took a deep breath. "About the same way you'd die if you were exposed to a lot of radiation, I think. Your DNA gets damaged, your proteins break down. Your organs stop working. If you last long enough, your hair falls out."

Patrick brought his hand to his head and pulled on a few strands. "So yes, it's going to hurt."

Elena bit her lip. "It's like dying of cancer, but over the course of a couple of days."

His head fell back on the chair back, and he let out his breath. "What did you tell your family?"

Her breath caught in her throat. "Why do you want to know?"

He held up his hands. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to pry. Just, I had a hard time knowing what to tell my little brothers and sisters, that's all. Was wondering what you told yours."

She clenched her teeth. "I'm an only child."

"Sorry. Your parents."

She slammed down her hand on the table, dropping the whispered tone in favor of a shout. "Just drop it, Patrick, okay? My dad died a couple of years ago."

Patrick's jaw dropped, and Sam stared at them from the couch. For a moment, the awkwardness was thick enough in the air to touch.

Elena hadn't meant to say that. She didn't like to talk about it. She wouldn't even tell Michelle. And she'd said it to Patrick.

After a while, Patrick regained his composure. "I am so sorry."

She shook her head. "I'm fine."

Sam shuffled over to the table to where Elena sat. She turned to face him. He stopped short in front of her chair, then put his little arms around her. The room swam, and she returned his embrace.

"Hey." She patted his back. "Thanks, little man."

He let go and sat in the chair across from her on his knees. "It's okay, Miss Elena. My daddy died when I was zero. My mom, too."

Elena blinked against the stinging in her eyes. She should have remembered. Should have been more careful. "I'm sorry, Sam."

He shrugged. "It would be sadder if I remembered them."

"Do you know who they are?"

He shook his head. "I don't know if anyone does."

Elena put a hand on his, and a loud SNAP sounded just before a sharp pain in her palm.

"Ow!" Sam pulled back his hand. "You shocked me.

It wasn't worth arguing who had shocked who. She would have to remember not to touch his hands.

She didn't want to scare him, but he had to know. "Sam, you know how I always say to push your powers in and out?"

He nodded, but still held his hand close to his chest.

"I just wanted to tell you to be careful. Don't pull them in too much, and keep them pushed out as much as you can."

He cocked his head. "Why?"

"Because your powers are very high energy. If you pull them in too much, they'll hurt you and anyone who is close to you."

"Why?"

"Because you're getting more powerful every day."

He pursed his lips, then he nodded. "Okay, Miss Elena."

She smiled, then she shifted in her chair. Maybe Sam's parents had known something about the anomalies. If they could find them . . .

But then, Sam didn't know who they were. The information might be in his record somewhere, even if they hadn't let Sam know, but there was no way they could access it without going through someone who still wanted them all locked up.

"Hey Elena!" Michelle called from the cab. "Navigation says we're ten minutes from my friend's place. Everyone packed?"

Elena sucked in her breath. "We'll get on it." She turned to Sam. "Hey, grab your things. We're going to start driving in a smaller car."

"Why?"

"Because—" She grimaced. She didn't want to scare him, but she didn't want to lie to him, either. "Because we just have to. That's how it is."

"But why?" He crossed his arms and pouted. "I like this motor home!"

Patrick put a hand on his arm. "You already knew bad guys were chasing us the other day, right, Sam?"

He nodded. "I thought we lost them."

"We did, but we just want to be extra safe."

Sam groaned. "Fine. Why can't we get another motor home?"

"Because," Elena said, "Miss Michelle's friend is lending us his car. He doesn't have a motor home."

"Can't we go to Miss Michelle's friend who has a motor home."

Elena sighed. "None of her friends have motor homes."

"How do you know? Did you ask her?"

She resisted the urge to clench her fists. "If she had a friend who had a motor home, don't you think she would have started driving to them, instead of—"

Sirens. Red and blue lights in the rear view mirrors.

"Michelle?"

Michelle's eyes met Elena's in the rearview mirror. They were shiny. "Hey gang."

A hot weight settled into Elena's stomach. "No. You can't give up."

"There's three of them. I can't outrun them. There's no larger forest areas nearby here. And even if we get out of range of these police cars, there will be more. Everyone is on the lookout for us. It's the license plate, the amber alert."

"But if you could just get to your friend's house—"

"Right now, they don't know that I'm going there. I don't want to get him mixed up in all of this any more than he needs to be."

Elena's gaze shifted from the road ahead, to Patrick's terrified eyes, to Sam's confused ones, then back to Michelle. "What do you want us to do?"

"I'm going to hold them off for as long as I can. You three—" her voice cracked— "sneak out of the window as soon as I come to a complete stop. When they search the cabin, it needs to be empty."

"Where do we go?"

Michelle tossed her phone over her shoulder—it flew through the open window and onto a cushion the floor, where Patrick had slept the night before. "That's still navigating to my friend's house. If you can get there, he'll help you."

Elena's throat felt tight, and she had trouble standing up straight. "What's going to happen to you?"

"They're probably going to arrest me. Patrick and Elena, you've got to solve this. That's the only things that's going to make your testimony seem like anything less than insanity. It's the only thing that's going to get me out of prison."

Elena's breaths shook. "But can't I be the one to hold them off?"

Michelle smiled. "They're going to want to talk to the person in the driver's seat." Her smile faded. "Sam, close the curtains. Patrick, grab a backpack for each of you. I'm going to stop in just a moment. Now, get ready to jump."

Elena locked eyes with her for just one more second. "We'll save you."

One last smile. "Of course. I'm not worried about that."

Michelle pulled over to the shoulder and slowed to a stop.