Free The Quest by Adrian Howell Page B

should be out in an hour or so.”
    It took two hours, but we finally cleared the forest, stumbling out onto a lonely asphalt road that ran along the edge of the trees. Beyond the road was farmland as far as the eye could see.
    “Hey,” I said cheerfully to Alia as I set her down, “we made it.”
    “Never again, Addy,” said Alia, taking several deep breaths. “No more forests for me.”
    I asked Terry, “How far to the settlement?”
    “A few hours’ drive,” she replied. “We’ll catch our rides here.”
    It wasn’t difficult. After all, who wasn’t going to stop for a pair of ragged-looking children alone on the road? Hiding everyone else just inside the trees, Terry picked the two smallest and used them as bait to take the first three cars that came our way. Within half an hour, we owned a shiny silver sports sedan and two rugged SUVs. Their former drivers and passengers were quickly relieved of their money and portable communication devices and were left on the road to hitchhike home. No doubt they’d soon report their cars stolen, but we only needed to get to the nearest town.
    Terry drove the sedan, followed by Candace in one SUV and Steven at the wheel of the other. Terry had ordered me to drive the second SUV with Rachael inside to hide Alia, Steven and myself, but when Steven haughtily insisted on driving, I obliged him in order to avoid another argument.
    Rachel sat in the front with Steven, while Alia, Patrick, Laila and two others joined me in the back.
    “I really don’t like that boy,” Alia complained into my head.
    I chuckled. “What’s to like?”
    The trip was short. Terry found us a mall just inside a largish town.
    Not wanting to attract attention, Terry sent only Heather and Candace inside to do our shopping because they were the least filthy and weren’t wearing pajamas. Even so, any casual observer could see that they had been through hell. I feared they would be stopped by the mall’s security on suspicion of something or other, but our luck held. We had taken a decent amount of cash from the cars’ passengers, and the girls soon returned with clean clothes and shoes as well as desperately needed food, water, milk and diapers.
    We ate ravenously in the cars. Then, using wet towels, we wiped ourselves as clean as possible and changed into less conspicuous attire.
    “You’re on foot from here,” I informed my sister.
    Abandoning the vehicles in the parking lot, we walked half a mile to a bus station where, using the remainder of our cash, Terry just managed to get everyone onto a cross-town public bus.
    Terry was probably the worst off in the low-profile department. With the exception of her pirate hook, Terry had lost all of her left-arm attachments including her decorative prosthetic hand. For the present, she had removed her hook and settled for being a conspicuous amputee, drawing an occasional sidelong glance from other passengers as we rode the public bus to the other side of the town.
    “Just another few miles,” said Terry once we got off the bus near the end of its line. “We’ll walk from here.”
    That drew quite a few groans from our party. At this point, there was nothing “just” about another few miles.
    “Rabbit?” said a man’s voice that would have made us jump if we had the energy. “Well, I’ll be darned!”
    We turned to the voice, which belonged to a blond middle-aged man wearing a dark pinstripe suit.
    “Merlin!” cried Terry, and I hoped that was his call sign and not his real name. “It’s so good to see you!”
    Terry jogged over to the man, and Alia and I followed.
    “Welcome back, Rabbit,” Merlin said pleasantly, shaking Terry’s hand. “I see you brought guests this time. We sensed some psionics heading our way and got worried. It’s dangerous to walk about with open powers these days, you know.”
    “I’m sorry, Merlin,” said Terry. “It was unavoidable.”
    “I can imagine,” said Merlin, glancing at our crowd. “New