The next morning I surprisingly woke up before Zachary for once. It was nice not to have him leaning over me when I woke up.

I walked over to him. I touched him on the shoulder. His eyes shot open and he sat up. I barely dodged his forehead. Sweat was beading down his forehead as he looked around frantically. When he saw where he was, he relaxed.

"Bad dream?" I asked.

"You could call it that." he answered rubbing his head. I was tempted to nag, but I resisted.

"Well, it's time to go." I said, "Get ready."

* * *

I stood at the end of the same dim hall I where I was escorted to the room where I was experimented on. The thought infuriated me. It also was the hall where Zachary betrayed me.

Would he do it again? I shook the thought away. He was with me now and he was going to leave after we found the files. Then it didn't matter if he told. By then I probably would have fled the country to seek some kind of treatment in Japan or something. Zachary gasped in pain if was ripped away from my thoughts. I looked at him. He held his finger.

"Just got cut." he said. He was tinkering with the control panel so he could kill the cameras so I could travel alone without him having to hold my hand so he could turn us invisible. The fact that he was a head shorter than me made it more awkward.

"I'll try." I said. He rolled his eyes.

"I've lived here for my whole life. I doubt you can do it any better than me." he said. I ignored him and stepped in front of the panel. I readjusted a wire. I looked at a nearby camera as it fell. I looked back at Zachary and smiled. I started to walk down the camera free hall as Zachary stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"My dad was an electrician." I said. He nodded.

I continued down the hall looking at all the doors. I started to think about those times. It was true that my father was an electrician. I used to carry things for him when he would go out on a job. I got so involved watching that I found myself learning what wires were supposed to go where. That was before he had died and I had to go to live with Mom. I was so involved in thought that I nearly bumped into Zachary. The hall had come to an end.

"Where exactly is the file room?" I asked when Zachary caught up.

"Down this hallway." he said. Reaching out to the wall to his left. I thought his was just going to touch the wall, but to my surprise, his hand went through it.

"Follow me." he said. Running through the wall. I looked it up and down for a moment then shook my head.

"Here goes nothing." I mumbled. I took a few steps back and ran right through the wall.

I felt like I had just been squeezed into paper. I began to get the chills. Hot cold, hot cold on and off for a few minutes until I stumbled into a brightly lit hallway. I steadied myself on the wall.

"We took the shortcut." said Zachary breathlessly. I looked up at him.

"Did you do that?" I asked.

"Yep." he answered, "It took a lot of practice but I managed." I shook my head.

"I need a moment before we go on." I said.

"But we're already here." he said. I looked up. File cabinets surrounded me. Whoa. I mouthed.

"Are these files for all the people who've been here?" I asked. He nodded.

"Everyone here and more. Well—except for you of course." he smiled.

"Where would we be able to find you file?" I asked.

"I actually don't know." he said. I rolled my eyes. So what was the point coming here then? I thought. I felt like punching him in the jaw again. Before I could an unknown voice asked,

"Who's there?" that's always the question. I looked around frantically. Then Zachary grabbed my hand and pulled me against the wall. He closed his eyes and I could tell we were invisible. I looked at Zachary, who still had his eyes tight closed.

"If you're after the future files you're not gonna get em'." the voice said again. He rounded the corner toward us. I took a deep breath. He stopped in front of me. He looked right at me. I was worried he could see me. He pointed his gun right to my nose. Zachary had his eyes open and full of alarm but he still managed to concentrate enough to keep us invisible. The guard coughed, the gun muzzle nearly hitting me in the face. He turned and walked out the nearest door. When he left. Zachary and I both let out a deep breath. He let go of my hand. We stood there a moment breathing heavily.

"I can't believe he didn't notice us." Zachary said. I nodded. I stood up strait.

"What are the future files?" I asked.

"All the files of the people that they gave powers to. They're in facilities all around the world." he said.

There are more facilities? I thought. If this kept up, the whole human race would be replaced with the people with powers. I shook my head.

"You must be in those files, let's look for them." I said. He nodded and we split up.

***

I lazily skimmed the aisles and aisles of never ending files. It seemed like we had been searching for days. My eyes were eyelids were drooping. I wanted to fall to the ground and sleep.

"I found the aisle!" Zachary's voice shouted. I almost didn't hear him. He ran to me and grabbed my wrist and dragged me down endless aisles. Then he suddenly stopped. I nearly ran into him. We immediately started to search. All the names had objects in them. Object A, Object B. I went through the whole alphabet. Finally, Object 1.

"I found the file!" I said to Zachary. He raced over to me. I opened up the file folder. The first thing I saw was a picture of a chubby baby. It's big eyes staring up at me. It had Zachary's black hair and was just old enough to have blue eyes. The look of innocence made tears spring to my eyes. Why would someone do this? Ruin a child's life before they would ever be able to remember. A person like that would be pure evil.

I wiped a tear from my cheek and turned the page. A women with an identical look as Zachary's smiled up at me. She was frozen in eternal laughter. Below it said,

Joey Parker

Location: Unknown

Zachary stared at the picture, his mouth hanging open half way. His jaw quivered. He looked as if he was in a trance.

"Joey Parker." he whispered under his breath. Suddenly the door burst open. Zachary immediately snapped out of his phase. He jumped up. He threw an invisible ball at the guards who had just came in, knocking them over like bowling pins.

"We'd better get out of here." he said as I stood up. As if! I thought. I grabbed the file and we ran out the door. I stepped over the guards. We ran down the hall. Guards chasing us left and right.

"Where's the exit?" I asked Zachary. He smile mischievously. He grabbed my hand and we ran through a wall again.

When we emerged from the wall, we were in a parking lot. I searched around. I saw a man getting ready to get into his car. I ran to him.

"Hey, we need your car." I said with all the emotion I had, hoping it would have the same affect on him as it did on Zachary. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Zachary cover his ears. The man took off his coat hood and pull out an ear bud.

"Huh?" he said. I rolled my eyes and punched him in the jaw. He stumbled backwards. His keys clattered to the ground. I grabbed them. His wallet also fell. I shrugged. I was probably wanted by the police already. I snatched it up.

I jumped in the driver's seat I placed the key in the ignition. I took a deep breath. I wasn't the best at Drivers Ed. I turned the keys and the car roared to life.

"Come on." I said. Zachary hesitantly got in.

"Have you driven before?" he asked. I rolled my eyes and pressed on the gas. The car lurched forward.

Out of the rear view mirror I saw the rainbow eyed man in a white van chasing us. I pushed my foot down on the gas. My knuckles were turning white. I was stiffer than usual. The only place to turn on was the free-way. This had changed into the worst case scenario. My whole body started to panic. I was going to crash! I bit my lip. When I was sure that I had no one behind me or in front of me. I turned on my right blinker and coasted lanes. Several cars honked at me irritably.

"Sorry, Sorry,Sorry." I mumbled through gritted teeth. I nearly hit the side. I swerved back into the lane. I opened my mouth in a silent scream.

Zachary was clutching his seat.

"ARE YOU INSANE!" he shouted. I didn't answer. I gritted my teeth and took the nearest exit. My body immediately relaxed. I looked behind us. Zachary screamed. Before I could see what it was about. We plunged into the watery depths of a river.

The front window was cracked and shattered. Water sprayed all over me. I looked over to Zachary who had his eyes closed. I shook him. He groaned. He was clearly unconscious. After a minute or so, we were fifteen feet under. I couldn't see anything. I kicked at the door. It didn't budge. All of the sudden the car started shifting. I couldn't find an air pocket anywhere. The turned upside down. I flipped a few times. After the flip, the car was full of water. I was disoriented and confused. I didn't know which way was up. I felt like I had just been in an avalanche. My foot hit what seemed like a window. I kicked harder. The door gave way. My hands searched for Zachary. I felt flesh. I grabbed it. By the shape and feeling, it was his hand. I pulled him toward me. I was losing air. My head was spinning. I got firm hold of Zachary and started swimming. I felt like it would never end. My lungs started to burn. Something bright at the surface caught my eye. The sun! Finally! I swam faster. I reached the surface. I took a deep breath. It felt really good. It was hard to stay afloat with the extra weight but I soon arrived at the shore. I collapsed. Soon I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was late noon. I looked around. My vision was blurred at first. I blinked a few times. It felt like I had left my contacts in overnight. My throat was sore and my legs and arms ached.

"Ugh." I said as I sat up. It took me a moment to realize Zachary was gone. I looked around. Maybe he'd left when I was sleeping. I didn't blame him. I'd nearly crashed and nearly got him drowned. I sighed and stood up. I wiped the sand from my pants. Frankly, I didn't know what to think of Zachary leaving. I'd better be going before the facility found me. I started to walk away. Maybe I'd hot -wire a car or something.

"Where you going?" Zachary's voice called. I nearly screamed. I spun around.

"Where were you?" I asked, "I thought you'd left." He shrugged and smiled.

"Why would I leave when you nearly killed me and saved my life in the same minute." he answered, "Besides, you put the excitement in life." I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever," I said, "Now we've got to focus on the problem at hand. First of all, I'm really hungry. Then second, we need to find more facilities and try and stop them from creating more people to put in their future files."

He looked at me and said something reasonable, "First, let's get lunch." That sounded good.

***

We sat at a local McDonald's eating a cheeseburger. That made me really glad I stole that guy's wallet. I'd tried to make this lunch free of talk of the Future Files, but Zachary seemed determined to mention something about it. I didn't blame him. I mean, if I was kept in hiding my entire life, I would try to find out who my parents were.

"I wanted to ask you." he said. I looked at him. He continued, "At the facility. How did you work with the wires on the control panel? I mean, it was so fast."

"Well," I started, "I know I don't talk about my parents much, but my father was an electrician. So, well, he would take me on his job calls to hold the tools and stuff wall he worked. I would keep a hard eye in his work. The wonders of electricity just fascinate me. So after that, fixing things was a hobby." he nodded thoughtfully.

"Sounds like your life is pretty awesome." he said after he took a sip of his soda.

"I guess." I said looking out the window. He nodded. He chewed on his straw and looked around the room.

"This is way different than the facilities cafeteria." he said. I assumed he was trying to change the subject. He continued, "Way better too."

I wanted to say something but I chose not to. I just nodded. That probably was the thing that created the awkward silence. I was deep in thought. We needed to save all the people in the facilities around the world. I didn't want them hurting innocent people's lives. Not even of the person wanted it. If there was anymore people that they had given powers to, I wanted to train them the right way. Find their files and tell them who their real parents were. Even if it meant my putting my life in danger. My mom once said I was as stubborn as a mule. She wasn't lying.

I looked at Zachary and said, "We need to find the other facilities. Do you think you can help me with that?"

He opened his mouth then closed it. He shook his head and gave me an answer, "I'm not sure."

I looked down at my drink and thought.

How are we going to find the other facilities? I wondered silently, We have to find them. There has to be a way. I smiled.

"What are you thinking?" Zachary asked from across the table.

"I'm not sure." I said smiling up at him. He looked at me like he was trying to decipher my thoughts. He could try.