Chapter 2

Carter was back in a flash of lightning. I saw the flash of light and ran back to the hideout. When I got closer I realized Carter's clothes smelled of smoke, and his blonde hair had turned black. He sat down Madelyn and Liam who were both coughing really hard. Madelyn's and Liam's usually brown hair was also black. All 3 were breathing heavily and coughing. Everyone else was inside the Hideout. 

"What happened?" I cautiously asked while examining everyone for burns.

"I couldn't use my super speed because it would have created a vacuum that would have decimated the fire," Carter coughed. I noticed Carter had a 3 inch wide burn that stretched half way down his left leg, it had burned through his black pants. 

"It doesn't look like you'll be running until this heals," I softly explained while looking at how bad it was, "It looks like its second degree, you'll need to leave it alone while it blisters so you don't get an infection."

Carter nodded and I looked at the other two. Madelyn was fine, no burns, just a tiny cut on the top left of her forehead. I walked over to Liam. I could tell was in a lot of pain. He was breathing through his teeth and had his hand over his left shoulder. "Hey, Liam, you need to let me look at your shoulder," I said calmly while out reaching my arm towards him. 

"I'm fine Carla," Liam said quietly, he tried to get up but winced in pain. 

"No you're not, let me help," I insisted. He sighed in agreement and I walked to him and pulled his hand off his shoulder and gasped. Calmly, trying not to alert how bad his shoulder was I said, "Keep your hand off of it until I get back, I need to get someone to help."

"I can help," Carter said as he stood up.

I stopped and pointed at him, "Sit back down, you need to wait for that to heal."

I turned and ran down the cave, shouting for help as I ran. Cleo and Kathy met me about a quarter of the way down the cave. "What's wrong? Is everyone okay?" Kathy concerningly asked. Paige stood a few feet behind them, she did not seem happy.

"Liam's shoulder has 2nd and 3rd degree burns and has a dislocated shoulder, I don't know how to fix it. He has a deep gash among the burns. I'm going to need a needle, some thread, a wrap, and some gauze," I listed everything really fast and almost incoherently. They seemed to understand because they started rummaging through all the boxes of stuff we had collected over the years. They made a pile of the things I listed in the center of the floor.

I pieced through the pile, that was everything I needed. I spun around to look towards the cave entrance when I heard Liam screaming. Paige was nowhere in sight. I ran as fast as I could out of the cave, and spun the corner where Liam was laying on the ground and Carter was on top of him. Liam, still screaming, was struggling to push Carter off of him. I ran over and started trying to pull Carter off of him. Carter shook his shoulders to knock me off of him and I fell backwards.

"Shut him up before someone hears him!" Nathan yelled as he came spinning out of the cave, Cleo was right behind him. When Nathan saw what was going on he ran over to the other boys and tried to pull Carter off.

"Nathan, stop, I'm just trying to tie his arm up," Carter yelled loud enough for us to hear him. I ran back over and ripped the tourniquet off of his arm.

"Hey!" Carter yelled.

Madelyn ran over and quickly tore off her sleeve and balled it up in Liam's mouth, "Liam this is gonna hurt, you're gonna need to be quiet."

I looked over at Carter, "Tourniquet goes on after we reset his arm back in the socket. He was screaming because his arm is dislocated."

Carter stared blankly at me and then at Liam.

"Carter, come on I need you to hold him down," Madelyn yelled.

He snapped out of his daze and helped Nathan hold Liam down.

Madelyn sat by Liams head and held it down with one hand on his forehead and the other covering his mouth. "Liam, brother, this is gonna hurt a little for a few seconds," Madelyn reassured, "Only a few seconds of pain and then you'll be okay." I had a tight grip on Liam's wrist. I quickly and firmly pulled on his arm. Liam screamed through the cloth and Madelyn's hand. Then in one quick movement, I pushed Liam's arm bone under his shoulder-blade, and directly back into place. The screaming stopped and his body went limp. Liam had passed out.

"Carla is he okay?" Cleo asked, she had been holding onto his legs.

"If he's not then its my fault," Carter disappointingly said as he placed his head in his hands, "I didnt get in there fast enough to grab him. The fire started and he broke the door and one of the supporting beams was weak from the fire and landed on his shoulder."

"He's going to be fine everyone, it's called vasovagalsyncope. He passed out because of a rapid decrease of heart rate and his blood vessels relaxing. It's completely normal," Madelyn explained in relief. Everyone stepped back a few feet from Liam so he had some air. He woke up a few seconds after Madelyn finished talking.

"Excuse me," He threw the sleeve at Madelyn who was sitting on the ground a few feet away, "That hurt a lot more than just a little." Liam laughed and started to stand up.

"Sit back down," I said as I stood up and walked over to him, "We still need to fix that."

He nodded and sat back down.

Madelyn walked over and grabbed the needle and thread from my hands. "Your blood sugar is low," she told me, "You're kinda shakey, you should eat something. There's some jerky in my bookbag."

I nodded, "Thank you." I walked over and sat back down where I was sitting before. Madelyn stuck the thread through the needle and started stitching up Liam's arm. His face wrinkled up every time she stuck the needle in to make another stitch. A few minutes later Madelyn said she was finished and walked off to wash her hands in the ocean.

Kathy walked over to Liam and sat next to him. He smiled at her and she started to check the stitches and burns. Kathy looked at her pockets and put her hands in all her pockets like she was looking for something. "I can't find my pocket knife," She confusingly said, "I just had it."

I stood up and walked over to her. I reached in my thigh holster, pulled my knife out of it, held onto the blade, and handed her the knife with the handle pointing to her.

"Thank you," Kathy said as she picked it up out of my hand.

"Your welcome," I said back as I walked back over to my spot and sat down.

Kathy took the knife and started cutting Liam's long sleeve, black shirt at the shoulder just above the top of the burn. She carefully set the knife down and pulled the sleeve off of his arm, trying not to let it touch the burns or the stitches. She grabbed a water bottle from the pile of stuff I brought out and started to slowly pour it down in arm. He seemed relieved. After that, she put the gauze over all the burns and the cut and then wrapped it up. Cleo handed Kathy a sling made from duct tape and Kathy thanked her. "Just because it's back in the socket doesn't mean it's okay to be running around with your arm flying around. It's still unstable," Kathy calmingly said as she helped him put his arm in the sling.

I looked around at everyone, looking for Paige who was missing during this entire thing. Nathan was chilling by the entrance to the Hideout, Carter was messing with some small sticks on the ground, Madelyn and Cleo had already walked back into the hideout, and Liam and Kathy were still sitting together. I slowly stood up started to walk down the beach. I walked along the water zo it would just barely touch my black boots. Eventually, after about 5 minutes of walking, I found a decent sized rock laying on the beach half in the water and half on the beach. I slowly walked up to the rock and laid down on it. The moon was full, and the stars were out. They were so bright in the sky. I laid there and named all the constellations I knew in my head. I thought about how the sky might look in America, is it the same? Can you still see Orion and his belt across the night sky? I hoped that I'd find out soon. I had been laying there for at least a half hour before I heard a sigh come from beside me that made me jump so hard that I fell off the opposite side of the rock. Laughter suddenly broke from the other side of the rock. I stood up to see Carter sitting and laughing so hard he could hardly breathe.

"Stop it!" I laughed as I threw a twig in his direction and horribly missed.

Carter kept laughing, "You're aim is terrible."

"You're so mean," I giggled.

"You're laugh is cute," Carter happily grinned.

"Awe stop," I laughed, "My face is going to look like a tomato!" 

"Your face has looked like a tomato since you dramatically missed throwing a stick at me. I think it's sweet," Carter laughed. 

I smiled and shook my head. I could feel my face getting warmer, knowing that I was blushing just made my face get redder. "Thank you for lightening the situation," I thanked.

"That's not why I said it Carla," Carter cheerfully explained.

Cleo and Liam came walking towards us. "Hey Carla, we want to try another boat design and we need you to make it," Cleo asked, "Are we interrupting something."

"We were just hanging out, you weren't interrupting anything," I turned towards Carter, "It'll only take a few minutes for me to make it, do you want to come with us?"

"Yeah I think it looks cool when you make stuff," Carter paused, "You don't do it very often."

I nodded and we all walked towards the cave. Paige was standing in the doorway, obviously irritated. 

"While you've been frolicking on the beach we have worked our butts off to get everything ready to leave," Paige angrily boomed, "Get your head out of your rear and actually do something productive for once!" She was in my face and yelling.

"Excuse me but where were you when Carter came back with Madelyn and Liam? Where were you when we were fixing Liam's shoulder?" Cleo angrily snapped.

Cleo stepped infront of me to get between me and Paige. Carter chimed in, "Umm, Paige. Incase you don't remember, it was Carla's idea that saved Liam and Madelyn. It was Carla's idea to leave the island. It was Carla that set up council with the Commander, it was Carla that actually went to said council, and if I'm not mistaken, you can't build a boat big enough to hold 30 people in less than 5 minutes. And last time I checked the only thing you do around here is gawk at my brother and try to boss people around."

"Yeah an idea that dislocated Liam's shoulder and a council that obviously didn't help persuade the Commander," Paige snapped.

I turned away as a tear ran down my face. I wiped my face and turned back around.

"I'm alive aren't I?" Liam said, "I'm grateful for her idea, sure my shoulder is a little messed up but it's not a big deal."

At this point I was bawling like a baby because of the stress and criticism from Paige. Carter turned around and told me that Paige is just being a butt nugget.

Somehow, again, he managed to make me laugh while I'm literally crying. I smiled and turned towards where Paige was; she wasn't there anymore. I looked back at Carter who had looked for Paige too. I shrugged and grabbed a branch off a nearby tree and set it in the middle of the cleared path. I crouched down beside it and rested my hand hovering above it. Carter, who was now sitting on a rock beside the cave was talking to me while I was making a boat, "So if you can manipulate and multiply the atoms of sticks and stuff couldn't you do that to people too? Which would let you heal people the way you can heal yourself."

"My body heals itself, I have no control over that, I have control over moving, creating, and destroying atoms," I explained, "I've never been in a situation where I'd have to heal someone by multiplying the cells in their body."

"Don't you study the molecular structure of stuff when you 'read' them so you can then mimic them. What if you did that to a superhuman? Couldn't you then change yourself to have their powers?" Carter asked. 

I looked over at him, "I have no idea."

"Watch out if you say that too much you might start sounding like the Commander," Cleo laughed as she brought out the prints for the boat, "This is what you're trying to create, okay?"

"Okie dokie, I've got this," I laughed, "I've done this 14 times already."

"You've failed 14 times, don't forget the failed part," Paige said from behind me with a snarky attitude.

"I'd enjoy to do something without you barking down my throat, if you are miss patty perfect then why don't you just fly everyone across the ocean?" I shouted angrily. I stood up and faced her direction. 

"You know what Carla," Paige said as she marched up to me and got in my face, "You are 100% unneeded for any of this to work. Cleo asked you to do this so you wouldn't feel like a third wheel to those whose powers actually matter. If you weren't here the only thing that would be different is the more air we can breathe."

"Unless you can push a boat out of your rear in 5 minutes I don't think so," Kathy said. She was standing up against the entrance to the cave. Nathan was nowhere in sight. 

"Just because you're stressed doesn't mean you can unleash on your friends, that's not how this works. That's not how we work. Now can we act like civil humans and actually get this done and tested before sunrise?" Carter angrily snapped back.

"Paige you're no better than anyone else here, stop acting like you run this show," I said before I turned back to the stick. I looked at the measurements that Madelyn had written. I concentrated on the stick, and within a span of a few minutes, the boat was finished. I stood behind the huge wooden boat that I had just grew from a two foot stick. Paige was messing with a twig on a nearby tree, obviously ignoring the fact she was just being a brat a few minutes ago.

Liam grabbed the rope we had used to pull the boats into the water with his right hand and tied it to the front, "Cleo!" He called out, "You're needed."

Cleo, who had just ran into the cave for a few seconds to grab water, came barreling out of the cave's entranceway. "Wow that's bigger than usual," She said in amazement as she walked up to the boat and knocked on the wood, "It's denser than usual too."

"I used the measurements that Madelyn gave me," I argued.

"I wasn't heckling you, I'm saying it looks like this one might work," Cleo calmly stated after turning to look towards me. 

Nathan was the next to come out of the cave, he looked at the boat in amazement, "Woah."

Paige instantly stood up to join him but I took a seat on a nearby rock. I was exhausted. Carter took a seat next to me, "I think you should try to heal Liam's shoulder," He pondered, "I think now should be a good chance to see if you can do that." 

"I don't know, I don't want to mess up and hurt him," I said while running my hand through my hair, "If I hurt him worse I'll feel terrible."

"Then fix my burn," Carter said quietly as he bumped his burnt leg up against my knee. 

"You're body does the same thing mine does, it heals itself, it's almost completely healed already," I said as I pointed to his burnt leg. 

"It still has blisters, you can try to fix them," Carter explained. 

"No, if I hurt you I'll seriously never forgive myself," I said as I looked at my black combat boots, "there's no point anyway."

"Come on just try," Carter said. 

"No, I'm not going to risk hurting you," I sternly voiced as I stood up, "I'd never be able to live with myself if I ever hurt you." I shook my head and walked down the cave, but accidentally bumped into Paige who was walking a lot slower than me. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you," I sincerely apologized. 

"Whatever Carla, you never see past your own nose," She snapped. 

I rolled my eyes and tried to walk around her when she grabbed my arm and spun me around to face her, "I was talking to you, you're being rude."

"Leave me alone, I'm not dealing with you right now," I demanded as I tried to pry her hand off my arm. Nathan was standing behind her, and she hadn't noticed yet.

"Make me Carla. You won't do anything but cry like you always do," Paige laughed. 

I shook my head and threw my open hand onto her shoulder. Then, for the first time in a week, Paige's feet touched the ground. She stumbled a bit, "What did you do? How did you..." She started to hyperventilate, "What, how, when did you learn..." Paige fell backwards and Nathan caught her head just before it would've hit the ground.