ZaVeraid Trilogy: Awe

by Alexa Hoffman

  Suddenly I heard walking outside my prison. A voice mumbled, and suddenly a door just materialized and opened up my cage. The person walked in.

  I gasped when I saw who it was.

  It was the new police officer, Betty.

  “Ah!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, “It’s Betty! Liz! Carmen! It was Bet—” I was cut off as Betty put the “make you do nothing cream” on me and I instantly went slack.

  She picked me up roughly and none to kindly dragged me off in to the utterly dark hallway.

  Chapter 7

  I saw nothing for what seemed like hours. The only thing I barely felt was my feet scraping across the floor. I was dragged around countless corners, up and down countless ramps and stairs. I barely knew which way was up or down, let alone left or right.

  Finally we stopped in a small room. It was circular and the walls, from what I could see of them, were very smooth. The floors, ceiling and walls were all made of rock. There was a bed in the middle of the room, and that’s where I was laying only moments later. The whole room smelt of death and decay. There was a pile of what looked like animal fur off to the corner of the room.

  There were more people in the room now. They were talking intently, and because of my minimized senses I could only hear bits and pieces.

  “What if she’s the one…? We can’t do this to her” said an old rough manly voice.

  Well, that one has my back, I thought hopefully.

  “… no choice! If we don’t do this…” Betty said, apparently the leader.

  There voices got softer and I knew I had no way of hearing them anymore. My mind was swirling around the information I had heard. I looked around the room once more, able to see just a smidge better because someone had turned on the light. I saw the pile in the corner again, and what I saw scared me to death.

  The pile was filled with dead, bleeding animals. There also seemed to be humans in the pile as well. On the top, however, was the thing that scared me the most. It was Goldie, the black puppy, and the yellow puppy, dead as a rock.

  My eyes grew wider as I stared at the pile. I couldn’t scream because the “make you do nothing cream” was working still. I tore my eyes from the horror. Please be a dream, please be a dream! I silently hoped, even though I knew this was all too real.

  I looked at the ceiling, thinking nothing worse could happen, but I thought too soon.

  “GET THE KNIFE!” Betty shouted furiously, “we’re doing this NOW!”

  “B-b-betty,” one of the guys said, “I… this… uh… you shouldn’t be doing this.”

  “Just give it to me Jim!”

  “Uh, yeah… here…”

  Betty turned to me, “Are you ready to join your little puppy-dogs now?” She lifted the knife, and aimed.

  Time seemed to slow down. I wonder if this always happens to someone that’s getting ready to die, I thought to myself. The knife started a slow descent to my heart when I felt a burning sensation in my stomach. It felt like a warm ball of wind was billowing around in my body. Suddenly, the wind rushed up to my arms. I felt a burst of energy, and I could finally move again. I went to grab the knife. As my hands were outstretched, I felt the wind flow out of my hands like a river, and slam into Betty’s chest with what looked like the force of a train.

  I jumped up and waved my hands at the other two dwarf sized people in the room just to scare them. I saw a key around Betty’s belt. I grabbed them as fast as I could and busted out into the hallways.

  There were so many tunnels that I just had to choose randomly, and fast. I was desperately trying to find Carmen and Liz, but I didn’t even know where they were, or even if this one key would unlock there cages. I was running but had to slow to a walk. My energy was draining and I felt faint. I stumbled though one more tunnel and into a room.

  I saw clear cages lining the walls. I immediately thought of Goldie, and the pups dead on the pile.

  Wait a minuet, I thought hazily, losing more strength every second, there were only two puppies dead on the pile, not three.

  I heard footsteps urgently walking toward this room and I knew I didn’t have much time. I looked up and down the rows until I found the beautiful gray puppy with the white feet in a cage. I clumsily jammed the key into the lock.

  I heard a successful click and the cage door swung open.

  It must be a universal key, I thought.

  The puppy, glad to see someone familiar, jumped to the ground and yipped with joy.

  The footsteps grew nearer. I tried to run away, but my energy left me. My knees buckled and I fell to the ground, skinning my elbows and banging my head.

  A second set of footsteps appeared suddenly and I hear shouting, so loud that I recognized the voice at Jim, the guy who didn’t want to kill me. I heard a gunshot and saw the gray and white puppy dog fall to the ground. I also heard a gunshot, and saw a little figure out of the corner of my eye fall to the ground. Jim. I thought.

  The last thing I remember is being picked up, and carried out back into the tunnels.

 

  Chapter 8

  When I woke up, my head hurt terribly, and my hands burned like they were stuck inside a volcano. I was surprised to find that I wasn’t back in my cage, and I was still alive.

  I looked around and saw I was laying on a comfortable bed and was hooked up to what looked like an IV cord. The IV, however, was hooked up to a bag with blue liquid in it, not clear.

  I sat up, and immediately felt like someone dropped a piano on my head. I fell back down on my pillow and breathed in deeply. The walls to my room were white, and suddenly I thought that I was in some sort of infirmary.

  I tried to remember what happened to me after that strange guy picked me up, but no matter how hard I tried, all I could remember was a deep darkness. I thought back to when I blew air out of my fingertips.

  Am I some type of mutated freak? I thought to myself, what’s wrong with me?

  I heard footsteps outside the door. Someone knocked

  “Come in?” I said, not knowing what else to do.

  A guy around the age of twenty walked in the door. He was wearing a t-shirt that said Anything is Possible with a little guy on top of the moon below the writing. He was wearing blue jeans and old sneakers. His hair was down to his ears, and it was pitch black. He had light orange eyes, which I thought was strange.

  “Hello” He said in a voice that sounded like he knew too much for his age.

  “Who are you? Where am I? Are you a good guy? Where are my parents? Where’s my dog? Why did this happen? Why me?” I couldn’t help it. I had been through so much the past two days. I broke down in front of a stranger. I, Sam Hillman, broke down and bawled like a two year old. Every time I took in a shuddering breath, my head felt like glass shards were ripping it apart. As hard as I tried I couldn’t stop crying.

  “Listen, you have to settle down,” The guy sounded scared, “You have to control yourself!”

  I couldn’t. All of the water in my body must have been draining out. I felt dizzy. It felt like I lost the drain to my tears and it was just flooding. Black smudges appeared in my vision. I started shaking. I couldn’t stop. The guy was freaking out, he held me down. He whispered something in my ear and I stopped crying.

  His voice sounded like music. The melodic tune of his words rebounded across the inside of my head. The voice was the only thing I heard. It was like it swallowed my whole being. I was ripping apart from Earth, going into a dark void of nothing. I felt myself shaking again, but this time the guy was shaking me.

  The voice left my head, leaving me tired and helpless.

  “Don’t fall asleep, whatever you do, stay awake!” He said.

  Sleeping sounded perfect right now, a way to get out of this mess. I started to close my eyes…

  “DON’T YOU DARE!” The guy yelled quietly in a gruff voice.

  I snapped back to reality for probably the first time since my brake down.

&
nbsp; “Just look at me, and stay awake.” He said again.

  I did what he said. I looked into his light orange eyes, and stayed awake. After a few minuets, I looked away, knowing that I wouldn’t fall asleep when I had so many questions to ask.

  The guy let go a huge sigh, “I thought you weren’t coming back…”

  “Coming back from where? Wait. First, who are you?” I asked.

  “The name’s Warren, what about you?” Warren asked.

  “Sam… and isn’t a warren a maze?” I asked, after I remembered learning about warrens in school.

  “Yeah, real name’s Thomas, but I switched it to Warren after I moved.”

  “So, how was I almost ‘lost’?” I said going back to the question before.

  “Um… remember when I said something in your ear?”

  “Yeah” I said, remembering it very clearly.

  “Well, I sent you to Verania. It’s a place in a whole other light column.”

  “So, you expect me to believe that there is a whole other world in some sort of light column? Really, I’m not that dumb.”

  “You’re the one who shot air out of your hands.

  I stayed silent, wondering how he knew when I was in a room surrounded by rock.

  “I’ve been watching you and your friends since you guys were just little kids living in Rockville.” He said, voicing my thoughts.

  “You mean you know Liz and Carmen?” My hopes were rising.

  “Yes, I’ve been working on a plan to save them from the cages, the Tranel haven’t sensed their powers yet.”

  “Whoa… English please!” I asked totally confused.

  “We, the ones with powers, are called the ZaVeraid. We are descendants from a place called Verania. The reason I thought I lost you is that once you’ve been transferred completely to Verania, there’s no getting back. Or, at least, the way to get back was destroyed by the Tranel.”

  “Who are the Tranel?” I asked before he moved onto another subject.

  “The Tranel are a race of dwarf-like people with a lifetime job of getting all the ZaVeraid off the planet, no matter the costs. They have no powers, but are strong. They also are immune to one type of power.”

  “What are the powers?” I asked.

  “The powers,” Warren said, continuing, “are wind, where you can control the air; transfer, where you can send people to different light columns, and talk to people from different light columns; lightning, where you control electricity; fire, where you are fire poof, and can control fire; speed, where you can go around the world in a day if you wanted; Intelligence, where your extremely smart, they are the ones who invent amazing things; and water; where you can breathe underwater, and control it.”

  “So,” I said trying to understand, “you have the power of transfer, and I have the power of wind?”

  “Yes.”

  Lost in thought, my gaze drifted back to the IV and the blue liquid, “What’s that for?”

  “You only had a bit of power, since you are only twelve years old,” Warren explained, “When you had the outburst in the room, you used so much power so fast that it drained you. That’s why you lost consciousness when you were in the animal laboratory. If I don’t put the Seratil, the blue liquid, in your veins, you will lose your power forever, and die within twenty-four hours.”

  “Why would I have died?”

  “A ZaVeraid’s power is like a second heart, or brain… it’s vital for your survival. The power regenerates, and starts in your appendix. Normal humans are related to us, but they don’t have any power, and therefore no use for their appendix.”

  Warren started to get up, “It’s time for me to go, I have things to do.”

  “Wait!” I said urgently, “I-”

  Warren cut me off, “No more questions. You need to rest. It’s only been a day since the incident, you’re still healing. I’ll come back tomorrow and see if I can get you out of that bed and into fresh air. I have some remarkable things to show you.” He looked really excited, like a kid waiting to brag about a new toy he has.

  He didn’t even let me comment on his horribly agonizing sentence. What’s he going to show me? Are there more ZaVeraid here? Where is here? Oh jeez, so many questions I forgot to ask! I thought.

  I rested my head onto the soft pillow and suddenly was exhausted. That whole conversation just totally wore me out.

  Then a realization hit me, what about my family? What about my friends? What about me? I flipped over on my stomach, and started to cry.

  Chapter 9

  “Rise and shine!” Warren’s voice busted into my dreams, where I was a normal person, going to normal school, hating normal homework, just like before.

  Shouldn’t my dream be the reality, and reality be the dream? I thought. I sat up. My heart was aching, aching for my mom, my friends, and my pets.

  “Hurry up, showers in the room to the left. The clothing you need is in the bathroom on the counter. Meet me outside in a half an hour. Don’t be late, and I wouldn’t dazzle yourself in all your girly things either.” Warren quickly said.

  I stood up and, after stumbling and regaining my balance, looked at Warren determinedly, “I will not do anything until you answer my questions.”

  “I thought I did last night,” Warren sighed.

  “No, in fact, if I remember correctly, you cut me off.” I answered, getting angry.

  “Fine, what’s your question? I’ll answer it to the best of my ability.”

  “Questions,” I said correcting him, “First, where are my parents?”

  “Uh… um…”

  “What?” I said getting nervous.

  “Your real parents are dead,” He said getting strait to the point, “they were ZaVeraids and the Tranel found out… I’m sorry.”

  I couldn’t believe it, “Then who are the ones who took care of me?”

  “They are merely a mixture of fire, water, wind. They were put together with the help of speed, and were able to be ‘alive’ with the help of electricity. Your brothers… well, they were made in the same way.”

  “So… my whole life has been raised by water fire and wind?!” I couldn’t believe it!

  “Well… Yes.”

  I held in more tears, “So there are more ZaVeraid here? Where is here, anyway?”

  “We are in a tropical rainforest in Africa. And no, there aren’t any more ZaVeraid here. There used to be but the Tranel caught them. I can only sense five scattered around the globe. I know where Liz and Carmen are, but I have no idea who the other three are. There are six ZaVeraid alive total, you, me, Carmen, Liz, and the three that I haven’t found.”

  I sat back down on my bed. My family is all a complete and total lie! I can’t believe it!

  I started getting angry, “Are you lying about Liz and Carmen too? Are they just fire and water also?!”

  “No. They’re real humans, in real flesh, with real brains. I can even show you a picture of them now.”

  “You can really do that?” I was hopeful that I could see my best friends again.

  “Yes, get showered and dressed. Meet me out in the field. You’ll know where that is when you see it.”

  I thought about what he said about my parents, and before I could get angry with Warren, I stopped myself. Warren was just trying to protect you! He had no choice. So, you can either cry about it every time it pops into your mind, or you can be a strong girl and fight for your dead parents and end this stupid thing!

  I stood straighter and headed into my bathroom to get ready for the day.

  After I brushed my silky blonde hair, ate some breakfast, and found some shorts and a tank top in my drawer, which was strangely filled to the brim with green clothes, I headed for the infirmary door.

  Warren wasn’t lying when he said they were in a Tropical Rainforest. Green surrounded me. Green leaves, green moss, green frogs, green grass, a giant, wet green canopy above me, with water dripping off of it, huge green ferns, green flowers, green, green, green,
beautiful green, ugly green, boring green, way to much green. The infirmary I just came out of was green, and covered with green vines. I figured out why my clothes were green. There was an enormous green building out in the distance, surrounded by acres of fields empty of everything but green grass and some unknown technical objects. Civilization was nowhere in sight, probably miles from here.

  I went to the field, since that’s where Warren told me to go. Water squished under the only pair of shoes that were in the closet—a thick, but extremely light, pair of rubber boots. It was strange to think how they all fit me perfectly. I rounded the corner and what I saw froze my feet to the sodden ground. There was a white tiger, the size of a school bus, snarling at Warren. Its paw was on top of Warren’s chest.

  “H-help,” Warren gasped in between breaths, “It’s… going… to… crush… me…”

 

  Chapter 10

  Holy crap, what is that thing!? I told myself to run, but my feet felt like stone because of my fear. I could only get my self to a fast walk, and I started yelling encouraging things to Warren like ‘you’ll be okay’ and ‘that big giant tiger won’t kill you’ and ‘don’t worry, I’ll save you’ and also many more lies that I thought would just help him stay calm. However, I knew that if I was the one under the giant tiger paw, there would be no way to calm me down other than to get me out from beneath that huge, bone crushing leg.

  As I neared the tiger, I knew I had to summon my wind power in order to save Warren. I took a deep breath, and fortunately that billowing sensation in my stomach started. The warm air was growing, but before it got as big as it did in the tunnels, I forced it up and into my hands. I threw my hands at the tiger, just as I did Betty and…

  WOOSH!

  I saw the air this time. It looked like a foggy tornado flying horizontally at the giant beast. It slammed into its chest, and the tiger fell onto its side, setting Warren free.