I was apprehensive to climb inside, but I wanted to know more about these strange people.
As I entered the hole it was dark and smelled like dirt and rain water.
Elliot hollered at me inside.
“Stay where you are! When I get inside I’ll light a torch so you can see!”
After Chad climbed in, Elliot appeared. He reached toward the hole in the wall on the side of us and pulled out a thick wooden stick with what looked like grass tied to the tip. Then, he dug in his pocket and found a small stick that’s used to create fire. Once he had a fire going, he led the way deeper into this mysterious cave.
Under the flickering flames of the torchlight, I noticed strange drawings on the walls. The pictures were of people doing various jobs under giant lights that hung over their heads. The further we walked into the cave the more the drawings started to evolve. There was one picture of a man with a large helmet on his head pointing to a giant moon. The moon reminded me of Equinox.
“Here it is,” Elliot said.
We came to a slab of granite rock that looked like a type of bed. Elliot brought his torch closer to the wall to review the last drawings. What these drawings revealed almost made me faint. The barbaric scenes of torcher were too much to look at.
“Did this torture go on back then?” I asked.
“This isn’t torture, although it looks like it, but yes all of these drawings are from reality.”
“If this isn’t torture than what is it?” Chad asked.
“You wanted to know why we no longer had chips in our eyes, didn’t you? Well, this is why. We cut them out.”
Chad and I were frozen.
“The only way the elders could’ve escaped and remained hidden was if they were off the grid. In the underground, when they first decided to leave, they knew this would have to happen. This was just a minor sacrifice they would have to make for their freedom.”
“But the pain. How could you live through the pain?” I said holding my hand to my eye.
“They are living and so am I.”
I looked at Elliot and tried hard to imagine him with a chip in his green eye. Somehow he looked robotic and emotionless with one, but he was no longer a savage. He was like me. Is this how I looked?
Chad put his hand on the top of his head with a dreaded look on his face.
“Oh no. They aren’t going to make us do this are they!?”
Elliot laughed loudly.
“Eventually yes.”
“What!?” We yelled at the same time.
Elliot shook his head still laughing.
“I was trying to make a joke. At least, I don’t think they will do this to you. Since you are outside of the grid there would be no reason to.”
We both took a deep sigh of relief.
“Well, thank you for your creative history lesson. I’m starting to get claustrophobic. Can we go now?” I said.
Over the next few months Elliot showed us the Providencian way of life. We learned how to work and create with our own hands. I spent time with the women and they showed me how to cook and sew clothes. They also showed me how to weave colorful yarn into my hair. Chad learned how to hunt and he and Elliot would spend hours in the forest some days. On these days I wished I was a boy.
I thought about Mia a lot during this time. It made me anxious not to know what was happening back at home. I doubted that she was able to continue pretending to be me. Eventually, she would have to go back to her normal self, which meant that I was missing and the Authorities could be looking for me. I hoped that she wasn’t in danger. The law was taken very seriously in the Equinox and what we did could’ve put us in prison for a long time. I wished there was a way to communicate to her and my mom to let them know that we were okay. In spite of not having our powers, we were actually okay.
Job appeared to be more accepting of us and even invited us to dinner at his house a few times, but on most nights the three of us would lie in the field near the oak tree –I in the middle and Chad and Elliot on both sides – and talk about our homes. Each time, I would look over at Elliot and his eyes would already be there looking for mine.
One night when Chad was asleep, Elliot came to my window.
“Let me show you something.”
I followed him throughout the stillness of the village and into a tent with the worldGlasscarved in wood hanging on the front. We walked toward the back and he led me to a place in the far corner of the room. He bent down and pulled a lever from the floor revealing a set of stairs going into the earth. He gestured for me to climb them.
I started climbing and then he followed. Once we reached the bottom I was surprised at how high-tech this basement appeared to be. There were all sorts of glass weapons stored behind glass cases. Each case had a built-in touch screen where a person would place their palms for access.
“I am the only one who can open these. I created this on my own. It’s all based on heat and palm prints. Only my father knows about this place.”
Elliott walked over to a podium further away in the middle of the room with another glass screen on the top of it. He placed his palms on the surface and there was a loud hiss coming from the ground. Suddenly, a large blue and green glass sword rose from the ground that was propped up on glass prongs.
Elliot’s face lit up at the vision of it.
“Wow, did you make this?”
“Yes. It took me two years to make sure the glass was strong enough. The surface is completely smooth. Here take a closer look.”
He grabbed it from its resting place and placed it carefully in my hands. The handle had ridges deep enough to rest each finger comfortably. I inspected the craftsmanship and was impressed with the intricacy of the design. Near the handle was a small inscription that read E.M.
“Are these your initials?”
“Yes. The “M” stands for Manley, my family’s name. This sword represents strength and faith. It’s made of glass so most people would assume that it’s too fragile to use as a weapon, but that’s where faith comes in. Although faith may seem small and weak because there’s nothing visible to confirm it, it is still the most powerful force that moves us. Without faith we’d have no reason to fight for truth; no reason to live.”
I was floored by his wisdom. For someone so young, he seemed to know a lot about things that only the first generations would know.
“That’s something that we Equinoxians could use more of,” I said offhandedly.
I inspected the sword for a while, then placed it back into his hands.
“Why are you showing me this?”
He paused a while then looked into my eyes.
“I trust you.”
He began to walk toward me with a look in his eyes that called me to him. We were an inch away from kissing, when we heard a sound coming from above.
“We should probably go,” Elliot said nervously.
I nodded, but felt the wind leaving my sails.
When we got to the shop floor, I noticed all the glass objects that were stored on the shelves.
“Did you make all of these?”
“Well, most of them yes. There are two other men who help me. There’s a furnace in the back that we use.”
I looked around at all the beautiful glass items that looked so intricately designed and then I came across one that made me stop in my tracks. Elliot noticed my sudden change in emotion because he asked me what was wrong.
“This object. What exactly would you use this for?”
I held it up for him to see.
He hesitated.
“Oh that’s a vial. You can put anything in it really.”
Chapter 9: Firefly
“Anything?” I said.
“Yes. Why?”
I didn’t know if I should say anything about Job’s vial or the other hundreds of vials we found in the barn that night. Elliot said he trusted me, but I wasn’t exactly sure if I trusted him.
“It looks like there’s something on your mind, Sa
ge.”
I looked at him seriously.
“I’m sure you could put anything in here, but what it’s really meant for is…blood.”
Elliot’s eyes widened. He looked around to make sure no one was there to hear what I said. Then he grabbed me by the shoulders and looked at me dead in the eyes.
“How do you know about that?”
“One night a few months ago when we were captured we snuck out to the barn on the hill in search of an antivirus to get our powers back.”
“Wait!” He whispered and took me back down into the basement.
“Now, go on.”
“When we got into the barn we heard a man screaming in pain. Later, we found out that it was your dad. We looked through everything in the room and found the vials in the cabinet. We took your dad’s vial with us. That night using his blood, we found out,” I paused.
“You found out what?”
“We found out that your father has all three powers.”
Elliot’s gaze lowered.
“What did you do with the vial?” He asked with his voice lowered.
“Chad still has it.”
Elliot rubbed his face in frustration and began to pace back and forth.
“Elliot, please tell me the truth. Is there an antivirus?”
He stopped pacing and looked at me.
“What do you think?”
“There has to be.”
“Of course there has to be!”
I paused.
“Then what is it?”
He approached me and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“Think about it, Sage. Why else would we want to preserve our blood?”
“The blood is the antivirus?”
Elliot nodded then sighed.
“Once the virus is admitted into our system it destroys our natural blood. We have to keep a sample of our true blood just in case we may need our powers back.”
“Why get rid of your powers in the first place?”
“It’s the only way to live naturally. The elders don’t want to be anything like your people; the people who betrayed them,” he snapped.
I sighed.
“Then why save the antivirus?”
“For our protection.”
“Protection from what?”
“From your leader and his army of super police.”
I lowered my brow.
“You’re talking about the Authorities? I know they can be scary and dominating, but how are they a threat to you? As far as I know, no one in Equinox is aware that Providencia exists,” I said.
“That’s where you’re wrong. They know we exist without a doubt. What they don’t know, is where we are. At least I hope they don’t. Lately, I’ve noticed our security increasing around the border of our village. I think my father suspects that we’re being watched.”
I felt my stomach drop immediately. If they were being watched, then the Authorities might’ve found me.
“We have to get out of here. Chad and I might’ve brought them to your village. If you want your people safe, please help us escape.”
“How could you have brought them to us? You’re off the grid.”
“But we still have this.” I pointed to the chip in my eye. “Who knows what they can see. Sometimes I wonder if the Authorities can see everything.”
He scoffed at me.
“Only God can see everything.”
I tried to ignore his statement, but it started something inside of me that made me question what I believed to be true. Up until that point, I believed that we were the most powerful creatures in the universe, but here was someone who believed otherwise. In fact, he was willing to risk his life for it.
Although I wanted to go deeper into these questions, I had no time. We needed to escape Providencia before the Authorities found us and sent us to the pen.
“Help us. Please. We need our powers back,” I pleaded.
Elliot turned away.
“It’s the only way that we can defend ourselves against them.”
He paused for a while.
“If they find us here what do you think they’ll do?”
I placed a soft hand on his cheek.
“They won’t have mercy.”
I followed Elliot out into the village where night was falling into a deep darkness that shrouded us. We made our way up the steep hill to the barn that houses the powers of so many. The operating room had a hint of a chemical scent that made my nervousness more intense. I looked at Elliot, who was searching through the cabinet of vials, and felt a sense of regret. I wished I had never gone with Chad on this journey. Maybe if I didn’t go, Elliot wouldn’t have had to put his life in danger by helping us. If I didn’t go, my leaving wouldn’t hurt so badly. And to think, just a few months before I was mourning the loss of my powers, but now I was beginning to mourn the loss of this pure town.
“Here they are. The lifeblood of Chad and Sage,” he said reading the words on the vial.
He handed me Chad’s vial then began to open mine.
“You have to inject this back into your bloodstream. The cells will begin to replicate and start to replace the dead cells caused by the virus.”
He used a syringe from the instrument desk and emptied the vial inside of it. I sat on one of the glass tables.
“Hold out your arm.”
He began injecting my lifeblood back into my veins. I could feel the warmth from the blood pouring through me. I felt a sudden rush of energy that almost made me leap from the table. I threw my head back in delight.
“Once the blood reaches your entire body you should be back to normal.”
“I already feel like I am.”
“Not yet. It takes a little time. Try to relax. Here is an extra syringe and needle for Chad.”
I took it from his hand then we heard loud sounds coming from the town square. We immediately ran outside to see what was happening.
Once we made it down the hill, it seemed like the entire village was out and everyone was looking up.
There were hundreds of fireflies darting around in the air making loud humming sounds. Some flies were crashing into each other.
I saw one fall to the grass and picked it up. I brought it close to my face to inspect it. I saw that the fly had tiny machinery inside of its body. It looked mechanical like someone had built it using equipment.
I started looking for Chad to see if he was out. Elliot was tending to the townspeople to keep them calm. Finally, I saw Chad standing near a family looking up at the chaos in the air.
“Sage! I was beginning to worry when I didn’t see you out here. Where were you?”
“I’ll explain in a minute. First, take a look at this.”
I handed the firefly to Chad to see what he thought it was.
“What kind of firefly is this? It doesn’t look real at all,” Chad said.
Then, after looking closer, his mouth dropped open and a grave look crept into his eyes.
“What is it!?”
“This isn’t a real lightning bug. It looks like a lightning bug drone from the Equinox!”
I paused to collect my jumbled thoughts.
“Well even if it is, there shouldn’t be anything wrong, right? I mean they use firefly drones back home just to light certain areas.”
Chad shook his head.
“I can’t believe you’ve never heard about the fly drone conspiracy. They aren’t just used as a light source; they’re used to spy!”
My mind was going a million miles a minute. How could I have not thought about this sooner? I knew that lightning bugs had gone extinct after the apocalypse, but it never dawned on me that the ones in Providencia were mechanical.
I looked up at the flies that were now buzzing around the village. One firefly flew down and hovered in front of my face. I could tell that it was trying to scan my eye, because there was a faint red beam coming from it.
“Sage, close your eyes!”
I immediately closed them, but
the fly was using its teeth to pry my eye open. I grabbed the bug with my fingers, pulled it off of my eye, threw on the grass and stomped on it.
“What do we do? I’m sure the Authorities already know that we’re here,” Chad said.
I put my hand on his shoulder and led him aside into an alley where no one could see us.
“I have the antivirus. It’s our blood. There’s no time to explain.”
I pulled Chad’s vial and the needle from my pocket and opened it.
“Here. This needs to be injected back into your bloodstream,” I said.
While I was preparing the needle, Chad began asking me questions about how I came across the antivirus.
“It was him wasn’t it? He helped you find it.”
“I told you there’s no time to explain.”
I aggressively stabbed him in the arm with the needle.
“Ouch, Sage!”
“Sorry.”
“You were with him all night weren’t you? I can’t believe you would do that. I know they started being nicer to us after a while, but he’s still the enemy!”
“Look, we don’t have time to argue about this. We need to get out of here before the Authorities find us and put us in jail!”
As I turned to walk away I bumped right into somebody and jumped back in fright. It was Elliot.
Chad’s face turned deadly.
“I think we’ve been trapped. The Authorities are spying on us and God only knows for how long. You can hide out in the basement of my glass blowing shop until we find out what to do next,” Elliot suggested.
“Thanks for the offer, but there’s no hiding from the grid Authorities. Once we’ve been tracked, all they have to do is teleport to where we are. Our only option is to run,” I said gravely.
Elliott looked at me helplessly. I could tell that he wanted to protect me, but had no idea how. At that moment I wondered what his power was. It was a shame that he was forbidden from using it, because we could’ve used an outsider’s help; especially since he didn’t have a chip. I felt like convincing him to get his antivirus and come with us, but I knew he wouldn’t. I thought maybe I’d return someday, because I might not have anywhere else to go.
Then I thought about what was happening back at home. Mia. Oh no, Mia. If they knew where I was, then they would’ve realized that Mia was an imposture.
Lovers of Babel Page 22