Infamous - Jessica Ussery (best beach reads of all time TXT) 📗

Chapter 1

Oh my head…what happened?

I thought as I regained consciousness. My whole body ached and constant ringing filled my ears. My vision, blurrier then ever; all I could see was shades of red, orange, and yellow. I continued looking around, shaking my head and breathing really ragged. Then suddenly it hit me and my eyes and ears were good as new. I gasped at the scene. Fire surrounded the place, buildings demolished and burned, cars upside down or blown up, and people…people burned to the bone and scattered everywhere. Screams sounded and I looked up to see helicopters flying through the sky. One of the beams of light spotted me.
“Hey, you down there” the voice on the bull horn yelled to me. I looked straight at him, through the blinding light. “You need to evacuate the area,” they told me. I quickly took the hint and staggered towards a direction, a path clearly shown to me. My left leg was limp and my right arm was bloody and burned; a large metal piece sticking out of it. Seeing the blood… smelling it, almost made me faint. But I resisted and kept on, running up a small steep that was on a bus. I ran on top of it and into a parking garage when a beeping sound distracted me. I took my good hand, grabbed the phone from my pocket and answered it.
“Hello” I asked my voice cracking.
“Elaina, are you okay?” It was a voice of a scared woman, probably in her mid twenties. I looked at the caller ID and recognized it to be Lisa’s.
“Lisa” I exclaimed. I was running to the edge of the parking garage trying to find a way to get to ground. “Lisa, what happened” I asked crying out as I saw a little girl lying still on the ground, her legs burned off and her eyes…they didn’t have any life in them whatsoever.
“There was a large explosion downtown of the city; took almost half of it down. Elaina, please tell me your fine” she said, her voice filled with more worry then me.
“I-I’m fine, Lisa, I think I was the reason for the explosion” I said, words falling out like a waterfall. “I think I caused it.”
“What-” but before she could answer a large car fell from the roof above me, almost crushing me in the process. I screamed.
“Lisa, I have to go I’ll talk to you later, bye” I said closing the phone and stuffing it back in my pocket. I ran everywhere, looking for any sign of an exit when I saw a large pipe going across the parking garage to another area. I clenched my jaw and walked to it, trying to ease the pain in both arm and leg. I started with my good leg and slowly brought up the bad one. I limped across the pipe, the smell of bodies burned increasing.
When I got to the other garage I stepped down and walked a little ways when I was hit with a powerful bolt of electricity. My knees buckled and I fell to the ground.
My breathing softened a bit and the drained feeling left. I opened my eyes and got up quickly.
“What” I asked questioning what had just happened. I was struck by a terrible amount of electricity, why wasn’t I dead? I shook my head and kept going, the limp was now gone but my arm still hurt like hell. I ran to the edge and looked down, part of the floor had fell to the ground but only the other side making it look like a dangerous slide or whatever. I slid down it carefully but lost control and rolled hard into the ground. I screamed in pain as the metal piece went in deeper. I glared and got up and staggered to the streets where many police men, paramedics, and firemen were running all around. Many stretchers were used for the injured and the dead.
“Why did this happen to me” I heard a woman scream as she was bending over a dead toddler. You could only tell by its size, the rest was completely burned off. I gulped and kept on, then spotting Lisa across the bridge.
Lisa was my partner in crime; my best friend. We did everything together, even did some time in jail together. She was a few years older and before the Quarantine, was a professional singer and guitar player. But that was five years ago, she doesn’t even know how to play anymore. That’s what the Quarantine does to you…drives you crazy, makes you forget important things in your life.
“Elaina, over here” Lisa yelled waving to me. I nodded and ran to the bridge where people also ran. But as soon as I stepped one foot, electrical currents took the flowing water and killed mostly everybody. But not me, I was never harmed. The People were dropping like flies and then more wires fell and lashed out at me. I dodged and could hear Lisa calling my name and when I was off the bridge, I fainted on the spot.

When I woke up I was in the small clinic of the Quarantine; only ten rooms, you’d be lucky if you got one. If you didn’t you would be transported to the medical stations set all over the Quarantine. I looked at my arm and saw it bandaged and so was my leg and my head; which I saw in the mirror across from me. Lisa was sitting in a chair beside me and Ethan was right beside me, holding my hand. I smiled.
“Hey” he said.
“Hey” I replied back, my fingers tingling in my touch.
The rest of the day was uneventful. Except for the fact that Ethan lost Tanya in the explosion; Tanya was Ethan’s baby sister that he cared dearly for, even more than me. But I didn’t mind, I loved Tanya too, it was just sad that she died in the explosion and I was the cause of it. But Ethan didn’t know that.
Ethan was one of the medics that worked in the clinic. That was mainly why I got a room.
I was in the clinic for about a week when the strangest thing happened. I had woken up one day and was drained of life like the day of the explosion. When suddenly the machines in the room started acting weird and then BAM! Electricity was shooting from the machines and into me. Ethan and other medics had rushed in and saw me taking the electricity. And me, well I was yelling in pain as the electricity was shooting through my veins and into my system like it was recharging a battery.
Ethan thought that the machines were broken but I knew it was something else, something different. Lisa called it superpowers and I guess you could say that I kinda agreed with her. And ever since that day I have been practicing and mastering these so called “superpowers”; and I’m getting better, no one could deny that.

Chapter 2

"Hey, Elaina could you do me a favor and use those cool superpowers you have and charge up the battery for the TV? My favorite show is on" Lisa said on the couch of our crib. I rolled my eyes and sighed. Ever since she heard about these powers she's been getting me to do dirty deeds for her like threaten this chick that owed her money to small things like charging the stupid TV battery.
I glared at her and shot some bolts at the battery, charging it.
I decided to practice and set up the dummies shooting more bolts at them as I practiced melee fighting as well. I had just kicked a dummy in the head with the heel of my foot and shot a blast of electricity when Lisa cursed. "What?" I asked.
"The stupid government just sent a box of food at the park. Let's get going before the others open it" she said grabbing her golden revolver that she bought. I nodded.
"I'll take the short cut" I said smirking as I ran off the building and fell to the floor. I rolled as I met the ground and jumped to my feet. Few minutes later Lisa met me and was huffing.
"I hate you" she said glaring. I smirked and we started running off to the park. People were scattering all over the place. The sound of my phone rang and I looked at the Caller ID. It was Ethan. I answered it while we continued running.
"Hey" I said smiling.
"Hey, did you hear about the food drop" he asked. I laughed.
"Yeah, me and Lisa are on our way now" I replied as we turned a corner.
"'Kay, see you later. Elaina, I love you" he said in the most romantic way. I slowed to a jog and smiled.
"I love you too, Ethan. I'll see you in a sec, bye" I said hanging up and catching up with Lisa. She scoffed.
"Aw how gross" she said pretending to throw up. I glared and hit her in the arm. She laughed. "Relax Elaina, you know I'm joking" she said and I merely rolled my eyes.
We made it to the park and everybody was already gathering and looking upwards. I followed their eyes and saw the food, dangling up in the air.
"Shit, Elaina-" I interuppted her.
"I know, I know" I said as I climbed up the pole and jumped to the ledge and climbed some more before I came close to the crate. I shot a bolt at the rope and watched it fall to the ground. I smiled and was about to jump off when I heard screams of terror.
"THE REAPERS" somebody screamed as they all started running.
The Reapers; the worst kinds of villains if their ever were ones. Before the Quarantine, they were once convicts that were locked up tight in Jail. Now that police forces were low here they busted out and now ruled the place. No way out and no way in. They were known for rape, murder, robbery, anything.
But it ends tonight.
I jumped from the ledge and went to the ground immediately going to my feet and throwing bolts at the nearest reapers. One to my left shot at me, knicking me in the arm. I groaned and blasted him away, knocking him to the ground. I kicked the reaper in front of me, sending him to the sky and kicking him again before he ever touched the ground. Even though I'm a girl, I was one hell of a strong one. But I guess that was because of the powers.
I continued fighting until they were all dead. I breathed hard and wiped the sweat from my forehead. Ethan smiled and hugged me tight.
"You did good, your controlling your powers" he said. I smirked.
"I thought you didn't believe I had powers" he only shrugged. People ran back to the crates and tried to open them. Something told me that I should kill the poeple so that me, Lisa, and Ethan could have enough food for months. But I kept strong and resisted the urge. I turned around and sighed, then felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head at Lisa and Ethan.
"Ready to go?" Lisa asked smiling. I nodded. We were almost out of