“Well I guess we weren’t seeing things,” she said with a smirk.
“I guess not,” I said. “I think we might need to wake Tamoia and everybody else up as well. They all might as well find out at the same time that this happened.”
“I think you might be right. It would beat having to explain the situation over and over again. Plus, they might can do the same thing that we can.”
“You think so?”
“We won’t know unless we get them to touch another person so we might as well wake them up now and see.”
I nodded as we headed over to the sleep area. “Aye! Everybody wake up!”
Everyone who was asleep started to moan and mumble as they rubbed their eyes and got up. None of them looked too happy about the situation but this was important so I’m sure that they would all understand and get over it.
“This better be good,” said Tamoia. “I’m on the last shift and I know that it’s not time for me to wake up yet.”
“Me and Tysim can shoot electricity through our hands,” said Dezzie excitedly.
Everyone stared at us in disbelief before Tamoia spoke up. “You guys can what?”
“Shoot electricity from out of our hands,” I said speaking up. “I realize how crazy it sounds but it’s true. We tried it twice just to be sure that we weren’t crazy and seeing things.”
“But how?” asked Ahshay. “I now that we all evolved in these past few years but that was just to adjust to the world is so that we could survive. But this...this is...”
“Far fetched,” interrupted Dizzie as he looked from his sister to me as if we belonged in a mental institution.
“We know it sounds crazy but let us at least show you before you write us off as being nut jobs,” said Dezzie as she looked at her brother. “Besides, we always knew that we had some power that laid deep in us so we can’t knock it if this is what it is.”
Tamoia nodded her head and I reached over and placed my hand on Dezzie’s shoulder. A few seconds later a bolt of blue electricity burst from out of my hand. I heard gasps and when I looked back at everyone I saw the surprised look on everyone’s faces.
“B, b, but how is that possible?” asked Tamoia.
“We’re not sure,” said Dezzie.
“I bet this has something to do with the power they are afraid that we will unlock,” said Rahz excitedly. “I knew that if we united with more people that we would start to unlock our full potential. I never thought it would be anything like this though.”
“Yeah, I knew that but I never expected the powers would be shooting electricity out of your hand.. Did you?” ask Tamoia.
Rahz shook his head. “No, this is not what I expected. At least not from reading the notes that they have written down. So I doubt that they expect this as well which may be a good thing. What were you two doing when you discovered that you could do this?”
“We could do this after we were talking. Getting to know each other a little better really,” I said. “We weren’t doing anything special.”
“So y’all were just talking?” asked Rahz as he raised his brow as if he didn’t believe us.
“Yeah, we were talking and when he reached over to touch my shoulder the electricity came,” said Dezzie.
“You sure you two aren’t just attracted to each other and that this just isn’t a heightened reaction?” asked Breyrian with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he would say something like that. He wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t but now wasn’t the time for jokes. “Brey, I know you like to crack jokes and everything but now is not the time for that okay? We have to figure out what this really means and if it means anything at all.”
“Oh, it means something,” said Tamoia. “Stuff like this just doesn’t happen. We’ve been a group of five for a while and nothing like this has ever happened to anyone of us before. We didn’t even know to look for anything like this.”
“And we’ve been a group of four for a while and nothing like this has ever happened before. And we’re all close,” said Ahshay as she looked at all of us.
“I told you that I think it’s because we are in larger groups,” said Rahz. “But, like I said, I never thought it would be anything like this.”
“I have an idea,” said DIzzie.
“What is it?” asked Tamoia.
“Well, they got their spark by talking on their shift and bonding together right?” asked Dizzie.
“Right,” said Dezzie.
“Okay, so maybe when each one of us does our shift and talk to one another we can find out if we can have this power to or is it just these two,” said Dizzie.
“That sounds like a good idea,” said Dezzie. “I guess Tysim and I will finish our shift and if we discover that we can do anything else we’ll wake you back up.”
“Alright,” said Tamoia.
“Good night Tysim. If you learn that you can fly make sure that you tell me first,” said Ahshay.
I laughed. “If I learn to fly you will be the first one to know.”
She nodded her head and went back to her sleeping bag. I went back to where Dezzie and I were sitting during our shift and leaned my head back. Of all of the ways I thought my life would go, this was never one of them. I thought I’d finish school, get married, and have some kids. But now, I was just lucky to make it through the day. None of that seemed likely now. Besides, I wouldn’t want to bring kids into this type of world anyways. Not when they could get killed just for their skin color or experimented on to suit the needs of others.
“What’s on your mind? Your kind of quiet now,” said Dezzie.
“Just thinking about how much things are different now. How my future will probably be nothing that I thought it would be,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. I wanted to be a teacher but I don’t think that will be possible. Not until things change,” said Dezzie. “But you know the whipio kids still get taught. They still learn things, whereas melanin kids, or at least the ones that are left don’t. They just have to suck it up and try to survive not getting captured. It just seems unfair.”
“It is unfair but hopefully we will unlock some power and this will go in our favor. So that way they can get educated,” I said.
“I hope so,” she said. “So are you absolutely sure that you want to go with us to whipipo headquarters? I will need to try and walk you through everything tonight. Because, as I said. It’s no cakewalk. And we’re not ones to make mistakes. So I wouldn’t want you to slip up on your first trip.”
“I told you that you can teach me what I need to know.”
“Well are you ready?”
“Yeah, I’m ready,” I said as I pulled the notebook onto my lap. “This right here is where we enter by this window. Nobody is usually in the hallway and it’s the place where they keep the files and everything at.”
I nodded in understanding.
“Okay, so we always take one file each that way they won’t really notice that their missing. And we’ve been this for a while now and they don’t seem to notice much. Although, we always treat it as though we can get caught though and you should as well. Anything that we find will be useful. Doesn’t matter what it is. Stay on your A game and no matter how tempting it may seem do not try and read the files right there. We want to be in and out as quickly as we can. Got it?”
“I got it. Do you guys uh...do you guys ever try and look for the melanins that are being experimented on?”
She shook her head. “No, no we don’t try to save them just yet. The whipipo are always with them so it’s next to impossible to try and save one. But, we’re trying to think of a plan to help them out of there from the torture.”
“Any ideas?”
“Nothing solid as of yet. It’s always a lot of them in those rooms. There’s no way to get them all out and save them in enough time without getting us all exposed. Besides, we’ve seen what was in there and it’s just gruesome. I don’t know how we would be able to save them all even if we co
uld.”
“What if one of us creates some kind of distraction and the other ones save them?”
She shook her head. “Nah, too risky and not all of them are going to leave the room and they more than likely will have security check out the distraction.”
“Well, it was worth a shot,” I said as my eyes began to get heavy. “Is our shift almost over yet because I know that I’m getting tired.”
“Yeah, we have about five minutes left and then we can switch,” she said. “I’m getting tired myself.”
“And to think, I used to do this alone. It does feel good to have someone to speak to though. Even if we accidentally turned into some freaks.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right about that. You can go lay down and I’ll wake up the next crew. And by the way, I’m glad that you guys decided to join us. It feels good to be around new people.”
I smiled brightly. “No problem. I’m glad that we joined you to. Good night Dezzie.”
“Good night Tysim.”
Chapter 7
“Tysim! Tysim! Wake up! I gotta power to!” yelled Ahshay.
I rubbed my eyes and looked up at her and she seemed real excited. “What’s your power? Is it the same as mine?”
She shook her head no. “I have a different power. Guess what it is?”
“It’s too late for guessing games Ahshay,” I said. “Let me guess, you can fly.”
“No, I wish,” she said sounding a little disappointed. “I can move stuff with my hand. I can move stuff with my hand and so can Rahz. It’s really cool.”
“You both were talking and you touched each other and found out that you can move things?” I asked suspiciously. I knew that Dezzie and I’s story was far fetched but this one seemed as if it were missing a few details.
“Yeah,” she said quickly.
Whenever she answered quickly, that meant that she was lying so I raised my brow at her to see if she would tell me the truth.
“What?” she asked innocently.
“What were you really doing Ahshay?” I asked curiously.
She glanced at the floor quickly and then back at me. She was trying her hardest to avoid eye contact but I knew that she would break sooner or later. She never could keep up with a lie. It was her biggest flaw.
“Okay fine you got me. I was...ugh...we...uh...we kissed,” she said.
I looked passed her at Rahz who looked a little nervous but then I looked back at my sister who looked as if she were about to die from embarrassment of the moment. As far as I knew, this was her first kiss and as mad as I wanted to be I knew that she was growing up and I unfortunately couldn’t stop that. No matter how hard I tried. But I didn’t even really think that Rahz would be her type. But, then again I never thought about what her type would be. She was my sister and I didn’t want to think about her with boys. We never even had that conversation because it wasn’t that many melanin boys around anyway. “So how do you feel about that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she then dropped her voice, “this was my first kiss.”
I smiled. “I know. And to think it got you a superpower. All my first kiss got me was a cut lip.”
“A cut lip?” she asked confused.
“Yeah, she had braces.”
We both laughed when Tamoia waked over towards us.
“Hey Ahshay, can you demonstrate what you can do for us?” she asked as she looked between the both of us.
Ahshay looked at me and then back at Tamoia. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it. I mean, considering what sparked it last time.”
“Oh yeah, you never said what sparked it last time. We assumed it was just touch like how Dezzie and Tysim’s did,” said Tamoia.
I watched as Ashay blushed and didn’t think that she would tell Tamoia what really happened. I know that she was easily embarrassed and this would be hard for her.
“Um, we were kissing,” said Ahshay.
I almost laughed but knew that she would be embarrassed about it. I saw Tamoia glance back and forth between Ahshay and Rahz and try to make out what was going on between the two of them.
“Dezzie, what is the one rule that we established early on,” said Tamoia as she squinted at the both of them.
“You said that we are not going to get involved with people in the crew. But the bad thing about it is, we can’t help who we like. And all we ever see is each other. And she’s a nice person,” said Rahz as he smiled at Ahshay.
I looked at Tamoia and I could tell that she was debating what to do with this information. When my dad started with the Melanin Underground Warriors he didn’t want any members of the crew to date but, he realized that there wasn’t much he could do. They were adults...and they were spending a lot of time together which meant that feelings got involved, so eventually he gave in. “Tamoia, he’s right. You can’t stop them if they have a connection. We will ultimately spend a lot of time with each other and that will cause emotions to get involved.”
“Exactly, it will cause emotions to get involved and can complicate everything for the whole group,” she replied.
“I still say we should leave it alone. We’re all mature here, and their attraction unlocked a power so it might not be a bad thing.”
She looked at me as if I were crazy and had grown two heads. “Are you really agreeing with this? Or are you just going with this because of your sister?”
I looked at Ahshay and then back at Tamoia. “Our dad was the leader of the Melanin Underground Warriors until he got captured. He finally became lenient with the rule of people falling for each other. He realized that you can’t control people’s emotions. Neither can you.”
Dizzie looked between Ahshay and I. “Your dad was the leader of the Melanin Underground Warriors?”
“Yeah, he was until the whipipo caught him and that’s when our group got disbanded,” I said.
“So your dad is Marshyn?” asked Tamoia.
“Yes,” said Ahshay, “why do you ask?”
“Um, we have a file on your dad. He’s, he’s one of the melanins that was experimented on,” said Rahz. “He was actually one of the first files that we actually stole.”
I could feel my heart rate speed up. It was almost as if no one else was around me. “Can I see the file on my father?”
Tamoia and Dezzie looked at each other with a concerned look on their faces and I knew whatever was in that file had to be bad.
“Are you sure you want to read it? It’s not pretty. A lot of stuff in there is pretty gruesome,” said Tamoia.
I nodded my head. “Yes, I’m sure I want to see it. I don’t care what’s in it.”
“I want to see it to,” said Ahshay.
Tamoia nodded her head and Dezzie walked over to the files and pulled out a thick file. My heart started to race and I could feel my hands shaking. We heard nothing about my dad for almost three years and this was all just new to me because we assumed that he was dead. I could feel all of the emotions running through my body, but there was something that I wanted to know before I read it.
“Is he still alive?” I asked.
Tamoia glanced at Dezzie and then back at me before she sighed. “Yes, from what we’ve read he was still alive. We’re not too sure about now.”
“So, he was alive and being experimented on for how long?” I asked as I took the file from Dizzie’s hand.
“Everything is in the file,” said Tamoia not wanting to give me a straight answer.
I tried to calm my nerves as best as I could as I held the file in my hand. Ahshay came and sat down beside me and I could see the tears beginning to roll down her face. “Are you sure you want to look at this with me?” I asked Ahshay not sure that she was ready to see what was in the file. I wasn’t sure if I was ready myself.
“I’m sure that I can handle it Ty. I deserve to know though. No matter how bad it is, we both deserve to know,” she said.
I nodded my head. I opened the file and immediately was greeted with a pict
ure of my father. Ahshay gasped and I placed my arm around her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. He looked just like I remembered him. Except in this picture he had a defeated look in his eyes. Ahshay picked up the picture and held it in her hands, close to her chest.
“Dad, she softly said as a single tear fell down her cheek.
I smiled down at her and looked back at the file. I picked up the first piece of paper and began to read about what he was put through. “Today we captured the leader of the Melanin Underground Warriors. He is a lot bigger than we thought he was but he is the perfect melanin to experiment on. He’s strong willed, smart, and we feel as if we put him through enough that we will find out a lot about the melanin race. Also now that we have captured the leader, we know that the melanins will fall apart. He was what was holding them together and now that he’s in our possession we don’t have to worry bout them uniting.”
“They had a point, the group did fall apart after dad got captured. They felt like without dad we wouldn’t make it,” said Ahshay.
I nodded my head and kept reading. “The first that we will put him through will be the mind test. We are going to try and break his mind down and see if we can get him to come over to our side. We will start by taunting him about the death of his wife and being taken away from his children. We know that once we break his mind that he will pretty much do whatever it is that we want,” I read outloud and felt sick to my stomach. Why would anybody try to use the death of a loved one to get to someone. But then again, these were whipipo, and they would stop at nothing to break you down. No matter what.
“They threw mom in his face,” said Ahshay, “that’s low. I wonder how he coped with that. Especially since he blamed himself everyday for her death. It ate him alive and I know that this had to be pure torture for him.”
“Yeah, he was broken for weeks after her death. He barely even moved or ate,” I said as my hand started to shake again.
“You can always look at the file later. You don’t have to read it all right now,” said Breyrian.
“I know I don't. But, I want to read it. I want to know what has been going on with him since we last saw him. I mean it was almost three years ago. I want to know. I have to know,” I said as I tried to regain control of my emotions. I had to be strong for me and Ahshay. We both needed this even if it was something that we didn’t want to hear. “You ready to keep going?”
Melanin Wars Page 6