by Francis Tint
He hummed as he navigated through a few screens on the computer. “Just enough,” he said as he pointed to a map. “This is quite a remote area, with nothing there really.”
“Why would he be in the middle of nowhere? What sort of emergency could it be?” asked Julia.
“Can you zoom in there?” requested Rachael. “That looks like an abandoned warehouse.”
“He must be there,” suggested Corey. “We should check it out. It looks suspicious.”
“Here’s the torch gun and ice gun,” Zach explained. “Not just virtual this time. Also, Rachael, please carry this communication device for me, so I can remote in.”
“Thanks, bud,” said Corey. “Let me send Blake a text and hopefully she can meet us there.”
Strange rumbling noise woke Tylor up. He noticed Blake had already been up with some beverage in her hand. “Fancy some wine?” she offered.
“It’s not our wine,” Tylor proclaimed.
“Relax. Look at their wine cabinet. They have so many. They probably won’t even notice if one’s gone missing.”
“Do you hear that noise from outside? It seems like someone’s fighting. Or is the owner back?” He stepped toward the window.
Blake stopped him and turned his head just as he was about to draw the blinds. “It’s just the wind, honey.” She handed him a glass of wine. “You’re not going to let a girl drink by herself, huh?” she said and proceeded to kiss him on the lips.
Tylor was feeling slightly apprehensive of the whole situation, but he deliberately blocked out his suspicion. Just enjoy the moment, he told himself.
Click-clack-click-clack. The doorknob started to rattle violently. Blake immediately ran toward the door.
“We should leave, Blake. It must be the owner. Maybe there’s a way out at the back,” Tylor said.
“No,” she insisted, “whoever’s on the other side of the door is not friendly. They are our enemies. Come, help me barricade the way in!”
“Our enemies?”
“Yes, Tylor. Our enemies. They are evil spirits.” Bam! The door burst open. Three humanoid spirits and one imp-like creature materialized in the room. All four of them were outlined with glowing tremor. They stared directly at the couple, seemingly ready for a final showdown.
Blake hid behind Tylor as they backed up against a wall, beside an indoor water hose. “Who are you? What are you?” Tylor roared.
The spirits started to mouth unintelligible spells. The couple was put on high alert, carefully spotting any enchantments that might materialize. The small imp on the right started to approach Tylor with a strange magical artefact.
“Seriously! Get away from me!” Tylor yelled. The imp walked closer toward him. Wham! He flung it violently to the floor.
“Use this!” Blake passed him a baseball bat. Tylor immediately swung aimlessly before him in an effort to ward off the remaining three spirits.
Their enemies did not give up. The amber spirit started to conjure up some electric sparks. It began mouthing some chants, and lifted its hand to direct the sparks at them.
Swoosh! Tylor sprayed water at the spirit. Showered in water, the amber spirit succumbed to electrocution from its own sparks, and dropped prostrate on the floor.
“Take the gun from the red one,” urged Blake manipulatively.
Holding the bat before him as a guard, Tylor fearfully approached the red spirit. It spurted out flame from the gun in an attempt to scare him off. “What? Something wrong with your aim, huh?” Tylor teased. He ducked the flame attacks, and knocked the gun off of the spirit’s hand.
“Now,” Blake said with a malicious tone, “aim at the blue spirit and fire.”
“Is Tylor in trouble?” asked Blake, who got there right in time as the others arrived at the abandoned warehouse.
“He hasn’t picked up his phone or responded properly to our texts,” replied Rachael.
“We traced his phone to this place,” said Corey.
“What would he be doing here?” Blake inquired.
“Not entirely sure. That’s why we’re here. To make sure nothing’s wrong,” Julia responded and passed Blake her ice gun. “Look. There’s his car.”
They approached the car and tried the door handle. The car was unlocked.
“Oh my god,” exclaimed Rachael. “This is one messy car.”
Corey opened the glove compartment. “There’s his phone. That’s why he’s not picking up.” He reactivated the phone and checked the system. “Strange. There’s no record of him sending the text messages.”
“See,” Rachael said. “I told…”
“Yes, you did tell us so. Anyhow, I guess if he’s around,” Julia speculated, “there’s only one place he could be.”
The group approached the entrance of the warehouse. “Hey, I’m picking up all this strange noise and signal through the system. Do you guys hear anything weird?” Zach asked through the device attached to Rachael.
“Nope,” replied Julia, “just the sound of the farmlands and gentle winds.”
“Well, it might be just the connection. Be careful guys. Full attention.”
Blake swung open the gate, and stepped into a dark cavernous space. Streams of red fluid were flowing across the floor. “Guys, do you think that’s lava? It’s getting awfully hot here!”
She waited but heard no response. She looked around and discovered she was all alone, trapped in the strange cave in the blazing heat. Where had they gone? She cocked her gun and was on full alert. Sweat was dripping down her face.
A lava beast appeared behind her, shooting out flames from its hand. She retaliated using her ice gun. The frost and blaze neutralized each other. They continued their assaults, landing occasional hits at noncritical body parts.
Blake studied the beast’s firing pattern. It followed a somewhat systematic sweeping motion, without regard for defending its legs. As the creature flared out another blaze, Blake ducked low and swept her leg, tripping the beast on the floor. She mounted on top of it, pointed her ice gun right at its head.
“Slow down!” Corey yelled, trying to chase after Blake who had disappeared into the warehouse space. He took a few steps into the darkness, and lost sight of Blake. He called out her name again, but there was no response.
He heard an evil shriek behind him. He turned around and saw an automaton approaching him, laughing malevolently. Quickly, Corey darted out electric sparks. The automaton ducked derisively without countering the confrontation.
“Corey!” Rachael cried out. “Stop!” She repeated as she ducked left and right, dodging the sparks he’s shooting out. “Zach,” she spoke to her communication device, “what’s going on?”
“Something’s affecting his senses,” Zach responded. “I don’t think he sees the real you. Where’s Blake and Julia?”
Rachael looked around and found the two fighting. “They’re firing their weapons at each other. Oh my god. What’s happening? How do I stop this?”
“It must have something to do with the interference I’m registering. We need to find a way to counteract it.”
“Will a huge source of sound waves work?”
“Possibly.”
With that, Rachael took out her phone and blasted her most recent pop music playlist before Corey. He was stunned by her action, and subsequently retracted his attacks.
“What happened?” Corey asked. “I saw a robot.”
“Somehow your senses were altered. You were shooting sparks at Rachael,” Zach explained.
“It looks like what’s affected you also got to Blake and Julia,” Rachael urged. “They’re fighting each other”. She pointed at their two friends.
“We need to stop them now!” Corey exclaimed. “Blake’s about to execute Julia!”
“How do we stop this?” Rachael asked.
“If this is all related to the interference I’m registering,” Zach suggested, “there must be a device around that’s causing it. Search the area.”
The duo looked
around the bare warehouse space. There was no disguise at all. A device with a flashing light was hanging on one of the corners of the room.
“There!” Rachael pointed. Corey immediately discharged sparks at the device. Instantly, Blake and Julia regained their senses, right before Blake pulled the trigger.
“This must be some freaky illusionist power,” Zach explained virtually.
“How’s Rachael immune from all this?” Blake asked.
“Maybe some residual nanorobots still remained deep in her system,” Julia speculated.
“So I am actually a superhero!” Rachael joked.
“Tylor must be trapped under the same spell,” said Corey.
“Hopefully we’ve stopped it by destroying the device,” Rachael suggested.
They reached the other end of the space, and found a locked door. Julia rattled at the doorknob but to no avail. “Tylor, open up!” Julia yelled.
“Step away,” Corey instructed, and proceeded to kick open the door.
The group found Tylor in an unfurnished space, disheveled and bleeding from his foot.
“Oh my god,” Julia expressed. “Why is he still hallucinating?”
“Something else must be causing this,” said Corey.
Catching sight of his friends, Tylor backed up to the wall. “Who are you? What are you?” he roared.
“Tylor,” Rachael yelled out. “It’s us!” She repeated, hoping her voice could snap Tylor out of his illusory state. She approached Tylor gingerly.
“Seriously! Get away from me!” Tylor yelled.
Rachael blasted music from her phone, hoping the same trick would work on him. As she placed her phone close to his ears, Tylor flung her violently, knocking her unconscious on the floor.
“Rachael!” screamed Julia.
“Let me gently knock him down,” suggested Corey, as he charged up his powers on his hand.
“Be careful,” warned Blake.
Corey lifted his hand at Tylor. Just before the sparks left his fingertip, Tylor sprayed water at him, causing his power to recoil at him.
With Corey down, Tylor approached Julia with a metal bar in his hand. She fired her weapon aimlessly in the air in an attempt to fend off Tylor.
“What? Something wrong with your aim, huh?” Tylor teased, and knocked the gun off of Julia’s hand.
He then switched his focus at Blake, aiming the gun at her. She stepped back, tripping over and falling on the floor. He pointed the gun right at her.
“Tylor, wake up! It’s me, Blake!”
At the sound of her voice, Tylor stopped his approach, visibly looking confused. He paused motionless before Blake, lowering his gun.
“I know you can fight this. I trust you can do this!” Blake repeated.
Tylor looked directly at Blake, and she knew at that moment her words were reaching his mind. A long second passed without any action from either party. The room was filled with tense silence.
Tylor smiled. “I will not be tricked,” he said maliciously, and lifted Julia’s gun at Blake.
The shot was discharged.
CHAPTER SIX
Traitor
Seated in a common room of a clinic, Zach stared intently at a block on the table. Why couldn’t he repeat what he had done before? He could’ve sworn he hadn’t imagined it.
A man materialized out of thin air behind him. He tapped on Zach’s right shoulder. Startled, he shrieked and turned to his right, but found no one.
“I know it’s you, Dyl,” said Zach in an annoyed tone.
His friend Dylon appeared sitting in the chair across from him. “It never gets old.”
“Would it hurt you to be a little more humble? Everyone knows you have mastered your skill.”
“You will soon as well. Don’t beat yourself down.”
“I don’t get it. It’s just so frustrating. I stopped my photo frame from shattering when I accidentally knocked it down that night. Why can’t I repeat it with a simple block, sitting right before me?”
“They did say it’s easier to manifest our powers on objects with emotional attachment.”
“But look at you. You can teleport anywhere, anytime you want. What’s the point of my telekinetic power if I can only use it on objects I have an emotional attachment to? On a stupid photo frame,” Zach whined as Dylan regarded him intensely, listening to his story attentively. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Of course I believe you. But you just need to be patient,” Dylan responded.
“I need to get stronger quickly, so I can leave this place. They killed my parents and trapped me here. Do you know how messed up that is? Once I control my powers, I will get my ass out of here.”
Many patients had thought the same but had failed. Dylan listened patiently as Zach repeated his story. Most Capacify patients had joined the program somewhat “voluntarily”, deceived by the promise of greatness, but Zach claimed he hadn’t. He said his family hadn’t been desperate for money. They had built their wealth by selling an encrypted social messaging app. But wrong place, wrong time. One day, his parents had decided to visit their impoverished hometown neighborhood and had witnessed an abduction by Capacify. They had killed his parents on the spot, and had since forced him to join the program. Dylan was skeptical of the story, but listened respectfully regardless.
A nurse walked around to pass out pills. They each received their prescribed dosage. An idea sparked in Zach’s mind. “Hey, are you up for a challenge?”
“What is it?”
“You see the stack of paper the nurse is holding underneath the medicine tray. Do you think you can pull just one piece out without anyone noticing?”
“Easy peasy.” And he lived by those words exactly.
Without any mobility issue, Zach got up and helped the nurse with the stray piece of paper. “That’s so kind of you,” the nurse thanked him.
“What’s all that about?” Dylan asked.
Covertly, Zach showed him the extra cup of dosage he had snatched.
“What are you planning to do with that?” Dylan asked innocently. Then it hit him what Zach was arranging. “No, dude. You might really hurt yourself.”
“I need all the extra juice to make this freaking thing work. I just need some more push in my system. Trust me. It will work.”
Corey sneaked into the secret fifth level at Hermes. He noticed they were wheeling out a covered body and sending it to a nearby room. The arm slipped out from the cover, and Corey spotted movement in one of the fingers. Intrigued, he secretly followed the associates, and waited until they had left the area to enter the room.
He removed the sheet and noticed an unconscious young man lying in the bed. He checked for a pulse at the neck but couldn’t find one. Maybe the movement he had seen was just post-mortem muscular spasm. Damn, it must be another body from the suspicious Capacify program. Too bad he couldn’t find any more info about the clinical trial other than the mysterious deaths, which he couldn’t even conclusively prove were related to Capacify.
As he was about to leave, he heard the bed wheeling slightly toward him. He approached the body. The arm that had slipped out from the cover started hitting him robotically. It felt like someone in the body was trying to get his attention. He hovered over the body and decided to give a slight electric jolt to the heart.
He waited for a long moment, but there was no response. As he was about to turn around, the body jerked up and Zach started to cough violently. Not able to talk, he gestured at a nearby pen. Corey passed him the pen, and Zach proceeded to stick the pen down his throat. Shocked by the sight, Corey stepped back, just in time to avert the puke purging from Zach’s mouth.
“I can’t believe they thought I was dead. I simply OD’d,” said Zach. He waited for a moment before continuing, “By the way, my name’s Zach. This must be a great first impression. Thanks for saving my life.”
At this remark, Dylan barged into the room. “You’re alive! I thought you died and they're sending you off.�
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“I got my savior right here,” Zach said. Directed to Corey, he asked, “Are you also part of the program?”
“No, I work here. Name’s Corey.”
Dylan then introduced himself as one of the candidates in the clinical trial. “So how are we going to explain Zach’s miraculous rise from death?”
“We’re not. There’s no other option. We need to get away,” Corey suggested. “Many people have died from the program. You guys should leave. Stop helping them with their outrageous scientific conjectures.”
“How?” Zach asked. “We’re locked up here. We can’t escape.”
“I can’t even teleport out,” Dylan added. “They enabled some sort of dampening field around the perimeter.”
“Their field doesn’t work on my powers. I say we get out tonight,” Corey concluded.
They sneaked out the room and headed to the closest window. “It’s the fifth floor,” proclaimed Dylan. “How are we going to get down?”
“Don’t worry about that. Leave it up to me,” said Corey.
“Hey guys, I think I hear footsteps,” warned Zach.
Corey closed his eyes. With glowing ivory hair, he summoned his power to cause the lights in the other hallway to flicker, distracting any potential intruders. “That should buy us some time. Let’s move quick.”
“Woah, that’s amazing,” Zach commented.
Corey attempted to lift open the window, but it wouldn’t budge. “I think it’s locked from the outside,” he speculated.
“We’re lucky tonight, because I just got an upgrade.” Zach concentrated hard at the window and lifted the lock on the exterior.
Corey opened the window and jumped out, balancing himself on the ledge. He then helped Zach out the window. Just as he was about to do the same with Dylan, an associate appeared and fired the stun gun, striking Dylan unconscious. Before the associate managed another shot, Corey quickly closed the window.
“What’s the plan now?” Zach asked as he looked down at the fearful height.
Without responding, Corey held Zach tightly and jumped forward. He summoned wind to carry them to safety. They landed far away from Hermes, but not before a bullet had hit Zach’s leg, reducing his mobility.