PROLOGUE

The rumbling sound of thunder disrupted the sky as two figures sprinted through the pouring rain. A cat hissed while darting out of the way as two young boys sped down the alleyway, panting heavily. The taller boy turned around quickly, grabbing the other boy who had tripped, to his feet. They continued to race forward, taking a sharp turn to the left which led down another

alleyway. The boys nearly reached the end of the other alleyway, when the younger one stopped, bent over, and started panting hard.

“I...need...a break” he said, trying to catch his breath. The other boy rushed towards him and put both his hands on the younger boy’s shoulders respectively.

“Tobie” he panted,

“I’m tired too but...we need...to keep going!”

He brought Tobie’s face up to look at his, and added,

“We have to keep going. Come on...nearly there!”

He gave Tobie a little encouraging squeeze on the shoulder. Tobie let out a loud reluctant sigh but continued on.

The boys raced on for about another ten minutes, but the older boy caught sight of figures far in the distance ahead of them. He grabbed Tobie’s arm and pointed towards a skip. Tobie nodded and jumped into the skip with the other boy jumping in after him.

“River-” Tobie started to say a bit too loudly, but River shushed him by quickly putting his finger to his lips.

“’Kay... it looks like plan B time” River whispered to him.

“Carl’s guys are coming in the distance. You know what you gotta’ do, okay?”

“But if we hurry,” Tobie whispered back, his eyes wide,

“We can quickly dodge them and-”

“No!” River said.

“We don’t have time now. They’ll see us! We gotta’ do plan B.”

“But I-” Tobie started to protest.

River grabbed Tobie’s shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Bro, we discussed this. We don’t have time to go over it again!”

Tobie drifted his eyes towards the trash around them sadly, as they both heard the distant voices get closer to them.

River shook him gently.

“Tobe come on, please. We can do this. I believe in us okay?? You know where to go. I’ll meet up with you soon!!”

Tobie looked up at him, his eyes wet, then said,

“You promise?”

River nodded quickly.

“I promise! Scouts promise!”

The voices outside the skip got louder.

“When I say GO, you go, got it?”

Tobie nodded sadly.

“And remember what I taught you!”

River squinted his eyes at the little opening in the skip, where he noticed about ten armed men. One of them was ordering some of the others to go in different directions. Four men were left standing outside the skip looking around them.

River quickly looked towards Tobie, mouthed the word ‘go’, then instantly pushed open the skip lid, diving towards the men. Tobie jumped out quickly, then ran as fast as he could from the skip. He looked back towards his brother with tears streaming down his face, as he continued to run off in the opposite direction.

With amazing speed, River raised his right leg up and around, clockwise, sweeping his leg, kicking the guns out of the men’s hands. He followed by planting a side kick into one of the men’s stomach, making the man lift up off his feet and flying backwards. River ducked as one of the men cursed out loud, swinging his fist towards him. Then River swept his leg around on the ground knocking the men onto their backs, but one of them got up quickly and lunged towards him...

Tobie continued to run in front of him, wondering if River was okay and wished he could go back and help him. After a few minutes more, he looked up, and then easily jumped incredibly high onto a steel pipe. When Tobie reached near the top of the pipe, he searched around him for a few seconds, then easily leaped a distance to a dilapidated four-storey house across from the pipe. After briefly searching around again on a ledge he landed on, just down from the slanted roof, he jumped down from the eerie-looking house, landing perfectly on his feet. No sooner had he straightened himself up, he gasped as his peripheral vision noticed one of Carl’s men grab him from behind.

The man was trying desperately hard to inject Tobie with a long needle, but Tobie easily released himself from the man’s grasp. The young boy faced the man and grabbed him, then shoved the man, making the man fly backwards towards a wall. The man hit his head hard on the wall, then slid down it towards the ground, then lay there with his eyes closed.

Tobie sprinted away quickly, but was met with another one of Carl’s men.

The man stood about ten feet from Tobie.

“Easy now...” he said, putting up his hands like he was backing away.

“You’re just a young boy with nowhere to go. Do you think the public will accept you?”

Tobie glared at him.

“You’ll be a threat, a freak”, the man continued to say.

“People will fear you, or want to kill you...”

“Like you?” Tobie retorted.

“We just want to help you,” the man replied in a patronizing tone.

“You LIAR!!” Tobie spat back.

“With your abilities, you can help us help so many people.”

Tobie narrowed his eyes and said,

“I’ll help people, but not under you, and you don’t help people.”

“I also know you’re tryna’ stall me...” Tobie added through clenched teeth.

Tobie sprinted towards the man, and the man quickly retrieved a needle from his pocket. He went to jab the needle at Tobie, but Tobie grabbed the hand holding it, twisting the wrist and

snapping it. The man cried out in pain grabbing his broken wrist with his other hand, as the needle dropped to the ground. Then Tobie jumped high over a bunch of large overgrown bushes.

River panted, glaring at the men lying unconscious around his feet. A footstep behind him swung him around, but before River could react, a long needle was jabbed hard into his side.

“Shit!” he muttered, looking down at his side, before falling to his feet.

The man pressed a button on his walkie talkie and spoke into it.

“Sir, I got River...”