By Brayden Yin
Luke sat in his apartment. He was hot. He lived in an old tenement on an empty lot. For now. Luke was a mutant. He had a superfast heal factor. That was the only reason he was still alive. Without it, he would be lying in a ditch somewhere, dying. But, he reminded himself, without it, the men in suits never would be after him. He was on the run. The men in suits were coming. Luke packed up his things. A small radio, his sleeping bag, a change of clothes, and a flip phone that he doubted worked anymore. His parents were killed by the men in suits. He never knew them. But he knew he had to survive. He cautiously looked through the peephole for people, then he strode into the hallway. His friend Hubert was waiting outside. He was also a mutant. But his powers were not physical like Luke’s. Hubert had telepathy.
Luke found a car parked outside the tenement. The SUV was jet black with the symbol of the Ministry of Mutant Destruction on it: it was a creepy, all-seeing eye with an otherworldly, reptilian look. The men in suits were near. Hubert said “Ooh, a convertible!” Luke was about to contradict that when the top of the car tore clean off. “NOW it’s a convertible. Luke was 22 and Hubert 20. They both came of age for driving, but they didn’t have licenses. Luke drove. He drove like a madman. Weaving in and out of traffic and running half the red lights he came to. The Ministry of Mutant Destruction was coming. The only safe place was overseas. They were a couple miles from a boat launch when the arrow on the fuel gauge pointed to “E”. They would have to walk.
They were in a Massachusetts town called Jericho and they had a boat. Hubert had used his telepathy to trick the yacht owner into borrowing it for a few dozen years. The yacht was loaded with food that would last for a year, and a lot of fishing equipment.
When they launched the boat, a squad of black cars sped down to the boat launch and leapt into a waiting speedboat. The steam powered yacht was no match for the speedboat. Luke floored the gas while Hubert rummaged for a weapon. He found a loaded paintball gun which he fired. A wall suddenly flew up where there wasn’t half a second ago. The paintball slammed full force into the speedboat. The speedboat wobbled dangerously for a moment, then capsized. Hubert and Luke sighed in relief. They were safe at last.