A couple of hours later the two boys stood at a Greyhound bus stop, wearing some clean clothes they had gotten from a nearby store. Max wore a backpack filled with the few things he had brought from his house, things like his toothbrush, some extra clothes and some… other stuff, which had been really difficult.

 

 “Ok, you should be in Amarillo in like… nine hours, that’s where my closest safe house is, remember how to get there once you’re actually in Amarillo?” Chase questioned

 

“Yeah” Max shifted uncomfortably, he was not completely comfortable with the fact that he was going to be sharing a bus with a bunch of strangers for nine hours while he was being hunted and still didn’t know how to control his powers.

 

What if he went boom again? No, he told himself, from what he understood that wasn’t how it worked… he desperately hoped

 

“But what if I get into some trouble?” Max asked once more shifting his weight

 

“Oh right! Here!” Chase said reaching into his own backpack, he pulled out a small little circular very technical device with a little button in the middle, and handed it to Max “If you get into trouble, if they find you, hit that button and I’ll be there in an instant”

 

“Thanks,” Max said taking the device and stuffing it into his pocket

 

And with that Chase was gone in a gust of wind

 

And so, heart pounding Max handed the bus driver his ticket, as he tried to comprehend what was happening to him. In less than forty-eight hours his life had been torn to rags. And now he was leaving the place that he had called home for the past three years. He was just leaving it all behind.

 

He had a window seat on the bus, thank goodness, and as the bus left and started on its way, the pit in his stomach only got deeper. But it wasn’t necessarily because of what he was leaving, but because of where he was going.

 

Chase ran off too soon

 

Call Max stupid, call him an idiot…

 

But he wasn’t going to Amarillo.