The Power of Five Oblivion

Lohan to hear the actual words. They couldn’t go back.
    “Matt…”
    “Keep going!”
    Matt could have been answering Lohan. He could have been talking to himself. Without a moment’s hesitation, they continued forward, crossing the empty space, horribly exposed in the open, with nowhere to go, nothing to guide them. Lohan had never been anywhere so completely dead. There were no birds in the sky. Even the insects seemed to have abandoned the few roots and creepers that still covered the ground. There were just two of them, Matt and him, jogging forward, arm in arm, waiting for the two bullets that would bring them down.
    They came to a track, defined only by the vehicles that had left their tyre prints. It might quite possibly have led to the airstrip – but they couldn’t follow it now. As Lohan glanced back, two things happened. The first of the soldiers emerged from the rainforest, saw them and shouted to the others. And, at the same time, a jeep suddenly appeared, bursting out of the undergrowth and racing towards them, with two men in the front and two in the back. All of them were armed.
    It was over. Lohan stood where he was, his face covered in sweat, his chest heaving. He was ready for death. In truth, he had never expected to live long, although he couldn’t have imagined that this was how he would finish his days, shot like a dog in the middle of Brazil. He turned to Matt. Could the boy have one final trick up his sleeve? But Matt didn’t even seem to be aware of the danger he was in. The jeep was getting closer. It would reach them in seconds. More soldiers were stepping out of the rainforest, appearing as if by magic, forming a long line.
    But then, at the last second, Matt stepped forward. He seemed to have briefly shaken off his illness. As Lohan watched, he raised a hand and simply pointed at the jeep. The driver and his passengers might have thought he was greeting them. But the result was devastating. It was as if they had hit a brick wall or as if a huge fist had punched the jeep from beneath them. With no warning at all, it rose into the air, spun forward and crashed into the ground. The bonnet and the front windscreen crumpled and both the driver and the man next to him were killed instantly. Another was thrown out and lay still. The last was buried underneath the jeep, which had ended up on its back with its wheels, still spinning, in the air. There was a brief pause and it burst into flames. Matt lowered his hand and looked away.
    The soldiers who had come out of the forest had seen what had happened. They stopped in their tracks and began to chatter excitedly among themselves. It was impossible to hear what they were saying but their eyes stared in fear and disbelief. Then they simply turned round and fled. They had decided they weren’t going to take on this devil boy, who could destroy a vehicle and kill four men simply by gesturing with one hand. They vanished into the rainforest. Once more Matt and Lohan were alone.
    “Get me a shirt,” Matt said.
    Lohan nodded, then hurried forward, approaching the burning jeep. The man who had been thrown clear was dead. He had broken his neck when he hit the ground and Lohan wasn’t going to waste any tears. He dragged off his shirt and carried it back to Matt. He had also grabbed a water bottle and a gun.
    “How far do you think it is to the airstrip?” Matt asked. He had made the destruction of the jeep look simple, effortless. But it had taken a huge effort. He was swaying on his feet. Lohan handed him the water bottle and he drank greedily, only remembering at the last moment to hand it back while it was still half full.
    “It can’t be too far,” Lohan said. He drank the rest of the water and threw the bottle aside. “Let’s just hope the plane’s still there.”
    “Yes. Be careful…”
    It was all Matt could manage. Lohan took his weight once again and they followed the tyre tracks back into the rainforest, glad to leave the empty space, the great scar, behind them. The jeep had cut across diagonally towards them and the path it had taken led back to the airstrip. After a few minutes, they saw the wire fence through the undergrowth – only the narrowest strip of vegetation had separated it from the wasteland. And the plane was still there. Lohan felt a huge surge of relief when he saw it sitting in its place beside the control tower.
    There were four armed soldiers on guard.
    Matt couldn’t deal with them. He was