Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 14: Back Road

“PUT ME DOWN!” I screamed loudly.

“Shut up, freak!!!” A man said as he found the pacifier clipped to my dress and shoved it in my mouth.

“I warned you!” I said around my pacifier as I touched his body with my hand and pushed a charge of magic into it. I didn’t have time to think about ley lines or technique; I did it by instinct.

That’s when all Hell really broke loose. He fell like a sack of coal, but his momentum carried us forward. I tumbled across the floor, and my head hit the tile floor hard! I wanted to cry and could feel some tears begin to stream out of my eyes.

“Oh my God, someone call 911!” A lady screamed.

“That baby’s a Mergent!”

“Someone, get that baby! It’s a freak of nature!”

I looked around at the unfriendly faces for a second before I picked myself off the ground and began running as quickly as I could back down the hallway I’d come. People tried chasing me, but I ran between the legs of the adults and around mothers pushing strollers, and I was sure I was putting the mile time from the other day to shame. ‘Caireen, is there any way for me to move faster?’ I asked.

‘You already are. You need to find your Mommy.’

‘Duh!’ I said.

Fortunately for me, I spotted Hannah not far from me. “Hannah!!!” I cried! When I got close to her, I leaped into her arms.

“Oh my God, I was so worried,” she said as she caught me and hugged me tightly.

“We’re not out of the woods. Where’s Mom…?”

“That girl has her; come on!” I heard a voice yell.

“Run, Hannah!” I told her.

Suddenly, the world seemed to almost freeze in place as more things happened at once than my brain could process immediately. First, I noticed that Hannah’s eyes changed colors to a green almost identical to mine. Then, before I could even gasp, she began glowing green like a glow stick… Finally, she shouted, “You won’t hurt her!” A shockwave of green light flew out from her towards the mob chasing us.

‘What the Hell?’ I screamed in my brain.

Hannah staggered a bit, then she sat down suddenly while barely holding onto me. Luckily Mom and Grandma were right there by then. Mom asked Grandma, “Mom, can you help Hannah?”

Grandma nodded while Mom picked up Lily. Grandma put her shoulder underneath Hannah’s arm and began helping her move down the hallway. I ran alongside them as we retreated to the parking lot as quickly as possible. As we made it through the doors, I thought we might just make it away safely without any other pursuit… but that wasn’t to be.

We had just about made it to the car when a dozen men began running towards us with ski masks over their faces. “I’ll take care of this,” I told Mom.

“But…”

“We’ll never make it past them, even in the car. I’ll take care of it. Get Lily strapped in and Hannah in there. Leave the door open for me to jump into.”

Thankfully my mom decided not to argue and just started doing what I’d told her.

As the crowd approached, I found six lines for a blast right in front of them and let loose. A green ball of energy flew from my hand and struck true about eight feet in front of where they were. A sudden explosion nearly knocked me to the ground! The blast was terrifying, and a vast crater formed in the asphalt where I had aimed. All of our pursuers were blown backward and lay still on the ground. Car alarms blared all around me, and windows were shattered all around the crater. I only caught that with a glance as I turned to jump into the car, closed the door, and screamed, “Go!”

Mom sped away with screeching tires. I clambered into my car seat, and Hannah shakily latched the straps for me. “Are you okay, Hannah?”

“I think so. I’m so glad you’re okay!!!!” She said, and there were tears in her eyes.

“Mom, drive to Grandma’s as fast as you can.”

“Why there?” Mom asked.

“I’m hoping she’ll let us borrow her car to buy a little more time. Then we need to get back to Los Alamos as quickly as possible. Hannah will have the EPC all over her if we’re not careful!”

“That’s fine,” Grandma said. “We’ll put your car in the garage to try and kill a bit more time.”

“Won’t they be watching the road to Los Alamos?” Hannah asked.

“Probably, but we’ll take the back road through Jemez Springs instead,” I suggested.

Mom nodded and pulled through the streets as quickly as she could without getting pulled over.

I pulled my purse from the space it was kept, pulled out my cell phone from where I had left it that morning, and dialed Dad. “Daddy!” I practically shouted in relief.

“Sofia? What’s wrong?”

“We’re in trouble… Someone tried kidnapping me, and I used magic to take him down. Some Sanguis Primum types tried to grab me, but I escaped to Hannah, who chose that moment to emerge herself… She used some sort of energy to blast at the people following me, which made a huge blast to knock them over.”

“So, you got away?”

“In the parking lot, there were more, so I used my magic and blasted a spell in front of them… it might look like a bomb went off,” I said, embarrassed.

“Where are you now?”

“We’re heading to Grandma’s to trade cars for hers and leave her there.”

“Which way are you planning on coming home?”

“The back way,” I said.

“I’ll see if I can get some friends to help you. Be careful.”

“Okay, talk to you later. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

“Dad’s going to try and get us some help,” I said as Mom pulled into the driveway. Grandma had a garage opener in her purse, used it to open the door, and was in her car quicker than I believed she could be at her age. She pulled it out, and we parked our car and switched out the car seats before jumping in her car. Quick hugs were exchanged, and Mom took off quickly.

“Are you okay, Hannah?” I asked as we drove. I was glad she didn’t seem to be going through an immediate burnout like I did.

“I think so. People and a lot of objects have these weird glowing auras around them now…?”

I nodded, “You definitely emerged too! And you nailed those guys; thank you for that!”

“You’re welcome, Sofia, but I couldn’t let anyone hurt you. When I saw those guys coming to attack you, I felt something pop inside and… it’s weird.”

“What’s weird?” Mom asked.

“The last week, Sofia has mattered to me because she’s been like my little sister, but now she seems different. I really don’t think I can describe it…?”

‘She bonded to you,’ Caireen said with a gasp.

‘What do you mean?’

I felt her sigh. ‘It means I have to share you with two other mothers now.’

“WHAT?!?!” I screamed aloud.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Mom asked, frantically looking around.

“You’re fine, Mom. Keep driving.” I said, not wanting to mention it.

“You know what it is?” Hannah asked.

I nodded, “Do you?”

“I think so… sorry,” she said.

“What, it’s not like you could help it?” I suggested, “We’ll talk about it when we get home.”

“If we get home…?” Hannah said nervously.

Mom took a back route through Rio Rancho to Bernalillo and then down the road to San Ysidro, where we would turn. Just before she made the turn, my phone rang. “Hello?”

“Sofia, it’s a good thing you went the other way. The news is showing a group of Sanguis Primum has set up roadblocks the other way to catch the suspects in a heinous terrorist attack.”

“Great, nothing on this route yet?”

“Not mentioned on the news yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Unfortunately, one of the ‘features’ of Los Alamos for the government is there are only two ways in and out. You might try and disguise yourselves if you can.”

“Doh! How come I didn’t think about that?” I said, annoyed. “I think we’re going to lose service here, Dad. Hope to see you soon.”

As soon as I hung up, I changed everyone’s clothes. Lily and I were now in frilly innocent-looking onesie rompers that showed the edges of diapers. Hannah’s outfit was altered into a Gi, and Mom’s into a business suit. Mom and Hannah’s hair colors also got changed to dark brown. I left mine alone for a while. I was prepared to make a shield around the car if we were attacked.

“Why am I wearing one of your uniforms?” Hannah asked.

“Well, would you prefer a cheerleading outfit?” I asked.

“No…” she said thoughtfully. “I think a sweater and jeans stick out less, don’t you?”

I sighed, “That’s why I had you wear that. It’ll make your clothes stand out and not your eyes.”

“Oh.”

Mom drove down the twisty road through the Jemez Pueblo and the Mountains. In Jemez Springs, we spotted the first sign of trouble: a long line of traffic seemed to be running into a roadblock. “Hannah, can you get a bottle for Lily and me?”

“Now?” She asked.

“Now, I’ll look more innocent,” I said with conviction. “Then act like you’re napping.”

So it was that five minutes later, we pulled up to a roadblock of a county sheriff officer and some Sanguis Primum volunteers. The volunteers seemed to have been deputized and were all looking at vehicles. “Looks like you got your hands full, ma’am, the officer said while looking around the car with a flashlight.”

Mom laughed, “At times, it feels that way.”

“Where you coming from?”

“Las Cruces, my oldest had a tournament there today.” She nodded towards Hannah, “It always amazes me how tired she is after her adrenaline wears down. Anyway, I heard there was some sort of Mergent problem the other direction to town, so I decided to play it safe and drive this way.”

He nodded and shined a light at me in the car seat. I could feel it somehow, even though I had my eyes shut. I hoped I looked like I was sleepily nursing on my bottle. “Cute daughters,” he said, “Yeah, we’re keeping an eye out for a couple of dangerous Mergents here. Have you seen anything suspicious on your drive up?”

Mom shook her head, “It’s been a quiet drive until we ran into this checkpoint. I hope you catch the Mergent filth you’re looking for.”

“Me too,” he said, “go ahead and move along,” he said.

Mom drove away, and I waited forty seconds before I dared breathe. She moved through the small town and sped away at the limits down the highway to Los Alamos. “I can’t believe that worked,” Mom said.

“Don’t get cocky, Mom; they’ll probably have another guard looking out at the guard station going into Los Alamos. Hopefully, Dad at least was able to help out with that...” I sat in the car and watched the steep cliffs and forest go by. The snow from last week was still around, and it was beautiful. I noticed I still had half a bottle of milk left and nervously nursed the rest. I never once felt sleepy as we continued up the mountain. It was at the Caldera entrance that we hit another checkpoint - this one an EPC run checkpoint that seemed to have hastily been put into place.

“I have a bad feeling about this one, Mom. But, play it like we did the last one. If they get suspicious, gun the engine and don’t stop until we get to Los Alamos.”

Everything was going well until they ran the license plate and discovered it was registered to Grandma, “Ma’am, we need you to step out of the vehicle. The Mergent scum in your car are to be taken in.” He said as he leveled a pistol at her. I activated the shield spell and said, “Go, Mom!” At the same time, I also fired spells at the cars they had and obliterated their transportation.

The next fifteen minutes of my life were the most terrifying moments I had ever experienced! Mom drove like a crazed lunatic through the switchbacks down the mountain and into town.

“There’s a helicopter up there!” Hannah cried out halfway down.

As I tried to see from my limited view, I saw a blue electrical pulse flying toward us. Fortunately, my shield stopped it and the energy dissolved. My shield seemed undamaged, but I felt it was slightly weaker. Fifteen or so shots of that or a few more powerful blasts would probably knock my shield down! Then, just as I was getting ready to shoot off a spell attack, Hannah rolled her window down and sent another of those bright green balls of energy at the helicopter. The ball exploded against the rear of the helicopter’s engine.

“They’re really not going to like us,” I said.

“Oh my God, I didn’t mean to!” Hannah said.

“Hannah, it’s okay. They would have done much worse things to us.” I told her as it went down, “Besides, some of them probably made it off and are just going to deal with broken bones.” I doubted all made it, but they weren’t too high above the ground when they crashed...

Finally, the lights of the town came into focus, and we could see flashing police lights waiting for us. Fortunately, they were Military Police vehicles, and I was eternally grateful as they welcomed us into town and then asked us to step out of the car. Dad was standing there beside one of the chief security officers.

Mom grabbed Lily and me out of our car seats and launched herself at Dad in a hug. “Get in here!” I told Hannah as she looked sheepishly around.

“Mrs. Hammerstein, is everyone alright?” He asked.

Mom sniffed her nose and nodded, “Mostly, I have two poopy babies, though.”

I hadn’t even noticed.

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Kudos’ Button to like if you’ve enjoyed it! It would make my night to see some comments from readers as well! I know up to here in the story has been a lot of character/relationship building. Things take off quite a bit more from here in the storyline for Sofia! Please let me know what you think!
If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.