I rode a bone sled through the night as the snow finally stopped. The problem with the truck is… They don’t drive very good once the snow gets too high. Twenty miles an hour was lightspeed compared to our pace after the snow got to more than three feet, and the plow could no longer clear the road. I had to stay with the vehicle and, every few hours, shuffle everyone out so I could teleport it up, or it would have been buried in the snow.

Now that the snow had finally stopped, I could abandon them to go rescue Sophie and make our way back. That was what happened when you came up with a plan on the fly, I needed to be around when the hail hit to make sure everything was put away, but I also couldn’t have went and got Sophie during the flood because transporting animals on rafts over hundreds of miles would have been extremely difficult, dangerous, and taken up a large chunk of our time.

I was listening to ‘Come and Get Your Love’ by Redbone as I sang along. “Come and get your love! Come and get your love! Come and… Get your transport truck!” I moved the sled towards the semi truck with a container attached as I checked the back. It was transporting Amazon boxes, but only a tenth of the truck was full.

Heading to the front, I grab the corpse out of the seat and see that the keys are still in. Trying to turn the truck over takes a few minutes as I have to refill its gas. I wasn’t sure what killed the man, if he bunkered down and starved, hoping for the storm to end, or was in a collision, but the truck was still functional. I stored it and remembered where the container was mentally as I made my way to her again.

The bone sled wasn’t my idea, but Alicia’s. It was crazy how smart that little girl was. My two girlfriends were too busy trying to convince me to have sex with them in a cramped truck to think of things like this. I was easily able to get thirty miles an hour just propelling the sled across the ground with my powers. Who knew when I’d feel mental fatigue, but I was rapidly approaching her house, and I might reach it around midnight.

…

Sophia’s Point of View

“GO AWAY!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I heard them still destroying my home. They had gone from trying to get to me to taunting me while destroying my property and killing my animals. “Still won’t come out… Well.” A loud bang came as one of my cats howled before it was cut off by the cat's death. I had gone passed sadness and had become enraged by the situation they put me in.

They didn’t need to do this. If they looked through my kitchen, they’d find more than enough food to tide them over for weeks. They had already killed several of my animals they could take for food; they were doing this for fun, and possibly revenge for the man I killed. “We’re going to kill you, girlie, we’re going to make you pay for what you did!”

Another one of them yelled out as I heard something shatter, and one of them cackled like a villain. I peeked out of my room as I looked toward them and saw that the one who should have been watching my door was distracted, looking into the room the loud crashing noise came from. I jumped out and pointed the shotgun at him, he had enough time to register how fucked he was before I fired and ducked back into the room. *BOOM*

“Jesus Christ, Ricky, no!” One of the men called out in sadness as I just blew away his friend. There was no sadness from me, no shock at the second life I took; it was deserved. They could have left; they entered this home, my home, with the intent to take from me and do me harm; they should expect the same to happen to them as a response. 

I yelled out. “A-and there’s m-more where that came from! Y-you better leave!” I couldn’t help but speak with a shaky voice. I could hear the anger in his voice as he yelled back. “Oh, the things I’m going to do to you once I get my hands on you. You’ll go to heaven and hell at the same time!” I was shaking from fear again. I heard the smooth-voiced man speak calmly.

“You… Keep an eye on the hallway, don’t let her out this time. You go outside and shoot her window out. We’ll freeze her out of that room.” I heard people move, as I knew I was stuck now. I had thick clothes on and some of the dogs stayed in the room with me, but if I needed to survive in hear for more than a day, I’d freeze to death.

The only reason I wasn’t crying was that it would be too cold on my face once the window was broken. I plead with them again. “Please… Why are you doing this? Take… Take what you can carry and leave.” It was quiet for about ten seconds before the man spoke again. “We can’t have that. Unfortunately, you killed two of my men, we need to make you pay for that.”

The window exploded as the man shot it out. I still couldn’t help but flinch as I heard the noise and felt the immediate drop in temperature as the room filled with cold air. The next few hours were hell. It was too cold to sleep, and I was too worried about them ambushing me if I did anyway. I sat in that quiet discomfort, wondering how long I could really last.

I hugged a few dogs close to my body as the gun was pointed at the door in case they tried to sneak up on me. I tossed some of the glass into the hallway so if they did try that, I’d hear them coming. That wasn’t what happened, though. I heard some movement from the bottom floor as a man yelled. “Hello, Sophie, are you here?”

I try to warn him, to tell him there are men inside, but I only hear gunshots. My heart sinks as I hear the gunfire, and I think of rushing out to help him, but a cynical part of me stops me. What if this was another trick to get me out? Right now, I was in a well-defended room, but running out, I would be the one at a disadvantage. Sounds of crashing could be heard as the gunfire cut off, leaving only the sounds of men moaning in pain behind.

“Hey, Sophia, are these goofballs who just jumped me your friends?” I paused again, getting an inkling of recognition from his voice, but not fully remembering where it was from. He asked again. “...Are you here? Sophie, please answer me!” I could hear the fear in his voice as I answered him. “Y-yes… I’m here… Who are you?”

Even from several rooms away, I could hear him breathe out a sigh of relief as he asked. “Hey, I’m gonna assume these guys aren’t your friends. Can I kill them?”