by Huth, Jacob
“I do know that but I thought you would be able to muster something up over the years,” she said.
“I just have a feeling that if I let someone get too close, I will lose them just like I lost my family,” I said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. She leaned in and kissed me. I felt a calm wash over me. In this moment, I had her and she was safe.
I felt my eyes getting heavy. The amplifiers drained my energy after such extended use. I leaned against Jet and began drifting into sleep. I listened to the sound of her breathing. It was rhythmic and soothing. After a minute, I was completely out. When I finally came to, I felt refreshed. I slept better than I had in a long time. I placed my hand on my neck where the nail marks had been but felt nothing. There were no marks and the pain was gone. That stuff that Pan gave us was magic. I had only expected it to numb the pain but it completely healed the wound. I enjoyed the opportunity to just relax. I knew that it wouldn’t last. Once we began making moves on Kraken, we would have little time to rest. I rolled over and looked to see if Jet was still in the bed, but she was up already. It didn’t surprise me. Jet always was a morning person. The first time I met her was in the early morning. We were twenty two years old and had never crossed paths. I usually spent my time with Frost and Flare and didn’t branch out to meet other people. I was friendly with people around my part of town but only on appearance. Many of the Marsh City citizens were wary of with whom they made friend. Kraken implanted agents in the city who posed as normal people and would sell out people who had contraband or were harboring spikers, or people with gene spikes. I was out getting a loaf of bread and a new canteen from Still. He ran a small shop that sold normal items, but also banned items. He was very careful about who he sold to. He gave a secret signal to some people that he trusted to use when they wanted to buy restricted items. I stopped in to his shop, purchased my items and slid them into my bag. As I was leaving, I saw someone sitting on a crate in the nearby alleyway. She was making something out of metal wire and string.
I walked over to see what she was doing.
“What are you making?” I asked as I approached.
“A hook,” Jet replied.
“A hook? What for?” I asked.
“I dropped a credit in the sewer grate over there and I need to get it back. This metal wire will attract the magnetic tracking strip in the credit and I’ll be able to pull it up,” she said.
“That’s a good plan. Do you need some help?” I asked uncharacteristically. I normally would never talk to someone randomly on the street but I was stricken by her beauty.
“Actually yeah I could use some help,” she said finishing the hook.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
“I need you to lift the sewer grate up enough for me to slide the hook down to reach the credit,” she replied.
“Sure thing. I’m Zero by the way,” I said.
“Jet,” she replied. We walked over to the nearby sewer grate and crouched down. I gripped the grate and lifted it out of its slot. She slid the hook down and within a minute, she had retrieved the credit. She pulled the card out of the hole and I saw the gold gleam. The credit system in Marsh City was classified by colors and grades within those color classes. There were bronze, silver and gold, bronze being the lowest and gold being the highest value. In each color, there were three different classes. In the bronze, the three grades were five, twenty five and fifty. In the silver, the grades were one hundred, one hundred fifty, and one hundred seventy five. The gold classes were five hundred, one thousand and twenty five hundred. The credit she pulled out was worth twenty five hundred. I obviously had a surprised look on my face because she immediately said, “It’s my dad’s credit. I’m on my way to pick up medicine for my mom.”
“What kind of medicine?” I asked.
“My mom has a chronic disease that eats away at her antibodies and immune system,” she said.
“You’d figure that some doctor could give her a gene spike that could help her,” I said.
“I wish but my dad works for Kraken,” she said casually.
I almost turned and just started walking away. She sensed my tension and said, “I know what you’re thinking but he only works for Kraken to get enough money for advanced medicine. We don’t condone what Kraken does.”
I was still skeptical. “I see,” I said, “I bet it’s hard to keep relationships with people when your family is so closely tied to Kraken.”
“You have no idea,” she said, “I hate to ask, but could you come with me to pick up the medicine? Today’s shipment is larger than normal and I won’t be able to carry it all myself.”
I was hesitant. Did she know that I had a gene spike? Was it a trap? I figured that if I got into trouble, I could use my power to get out of it. “I can help,” I said.
“Thanks. It’s not too far away from here,” she said. I nodded and we set off. We made small talk the whole way about the city and who we were. We approached the medical facility and entered through the sliding glass doors. There was a woman at the desk wearing a typical all gray Kraken uniform. We approached the desk and the woman looked up.
“Hello Jet,” she said, “Prescription card please.”
Jet handed her a black card with a neon green stripe on it. She placed it on a touch pad and the green stripe lit up. Jet then handed her the gold credit. She smiled, handed the card back and pressed an intercom button. “Order seventy seven pickup,” she said into the box. After a few minutes, a mechanized cart rolled out with two medium sized boxes on it. We each picked one up and turned to the door. We exited the facility and made our way into the streets.
“How far is your home?” I asked.
“Not far,” she replied. We walked for a few minutes until we came upon a nicer home that only Kraken members were allowed to reside. Jet pushed the door open and we entered the sitting room. Her mother was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. She looked up and a smile crept across her face.
“Who is your friend Jet?” she said in a weak voice.
“This is Zero. He helped me get the credit back after I tripped and dropped it in a sewer grate,” she said.
“Well thank you for helping my daughter,” she said, “Not many people would give the time of day to someone whose family is associated with Kraken.”
“I normally wouldn’t,” I said, “but I could see that she needed help and didn’t mind lending a hand.”
“That’s very kind. I am Ruby,” she said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I replied.
“Here is your medicine,” Jet said having pulled out one of the hypodermic needles from the box. She put the needle in her mother’s arm and injected the bluish liquid. A look of relief washed over Ruby’s face. Whatever was in the medicine was obviously the highest quality available since Kraken hoarded all the best resources. I noticed she got a dead look on her face.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’ll be fine. The first treatment in each batch makes her nearly comatose. It basically shuts her non vital functions down so the medicine can rebuild and protect her immune system,” she said.
“How long has she had this disease?” I asked.
“Almost fifteen years I think. It’s hard to remember when she got it. It seems like she has had it forever,” she replied, “She is going to be out for a while. Do you want to go get some food?”
I felt strange. I had just met her but I wanted to go. “Yeah I’m pretty hungry. I know a place we can go,” I said. We left her house and went to a small bakery that I knew of. It served some of the best food I had ever had. I don’t know how they got their food to taste so good with the bland ingredients Kraken allowed them to have. Jet insisted that she pay since I helped her and refused to let me hand the money to the owner. After we ate a few pastries each, we walked out into the street. We stood on the side of the road and leaned against a wall.
“Do you have any family in the city?” she
asked out of nowhere.
“No. My parents died,” I said.
“Oh I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked,” she said.
“No it’s alright,” I said, “There is no way you could have known.”
“Can I ask how they died?” she asked.
“They were scientists who were part of the rebellion and were killed in the ambush,” I said.
“So do you live by yourself?” she asked.
“Yes. I had to abandon my house for a while when Kraken was ransacking houses right after the end of the rebellion but I went back and have laid low since then. Kraken thinks I am dead so I avoid any trouble or confrontation with guards,” I replied.
“They think you are dead?” she asked.
“When they came to my house and I wasn’t there, they registered me as deceased. I guess they figured it was easier than trying to find some kid of rebellion scientists,” I said.
She just nodded. What could she say? What did I expect her to say? Something down the street caught my eye. It was a pair of Kraken guards checking citizens for contraband. Kraken guards were ordered to do random searches to halt any movement of illegal items. A sudden fear washed over me. I remembered that I had a small bottle of metal pellets in my bag, which were illegal. Kraken officials said that if enough force was applied, the pellets could kill someone. I used the metal pellets to distract guards so I could pass streets undetected. “What do I do?” I blurted out.
“About what?” she asked.
“I have contraband in my bag. They are going to arrest me and throw me in one of their work camps,” I said. I was trying to act more worried about the contraband but I was really worried that when they realized that I had a gene spike, they would kill me. They were talking to a man about five feet away from us. Jet suddenly moved towards me and began kissing me. The guards approached us but quickly moved along when they caught a glimpse of us. They obviously were uncomfortable by two young people embracing in public. Once they were gone, she pulled her head back and said, “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” I gasped, still surprised by the kiss, “If it weren’t for you, I would be in jail.”
“Well, I guess that makes us even now,” she said.
“Does this mean we can’t hang out anymore?” I asked laughing.
“Not at all. I like hanging out with you,” she said leaning back against the wall. We both laughed and after a while, I walked her home. From that day on, she spent all her free time with me and the others. During the beginning times of the Insurgency, it made me feel better to think of the peaceful days I spent with Jet.
I got up from the bed and entered the main room. Flare was sitting on a crate manipulating fire. She was wearing a new pair of gauntlets. Jet already had made a new pair it seemed. How long had I been asleep? Flare was making the fire change into different animal shapes. She stopped when it was in the form of a deer. It began prancing around the room as she controlled it and made it run around the floor. It ran to my feet and disappeared. I looked up and Flare was smiling at me.
“Well look who is finally awake,” she said.
“What time is it?” I asked groggily.
“I think a more appropriate question is what day is it?” she replied.
“What day? How long was I asleep?” I asked in a concerned tone.
“Five days. A lot has happened,” she said.
“What did I miss?” I asked pulling a chair up.
“Well, Jet told me about the other night. How you told her you cared about her,” she said slyly.
“I figured it was about time. Jekyll put me on the brink of death. In the moment that I thought I was going to die, the only thing I thought of was Jet,” I replied.
“Better late than never,” she said.
“I guess so. What else went on?” I asked.
“Jet made a few more pairs of gauntlets, Pan raided a small military convoy and got us a year’s worth of ammunition. I don’t know how he did it. He backed a large truck up to the entrance to Sanctum and once we unloaded it, he drove it five hundred feet away and did something to the engine and it exploded,” she said.
“Oh man,” I said, “It seems that he survived for so long for a reason.”
“He is very resourceful,” she said.
“You should have seen his city. It was incredible,” I said.
“What was it like?” she asked.
“Unlike anything you have ever seen. There were buildings in the trees with large bridges connecting them,” I replied.
“That sounds amazing. It’s too bad that it burned,” she said, “Oh by the way, Pan said he needs to meet with you as soon as you were awake.”
“Did he say what it was about?” I asked.
“No but he said it was urgent,” she said.
“I’ll go straightaway,” I said, “Where is Frost?”
“He is teaching Jet how to shoot a rifle in the woods,” she replied.
“Well I’m going by myself then I suppose,” I said.
“You should probably get your disguise and wear your amplifiers just in case something goes down,” she said.
I gathered up my gear and took off towards the city. The sun was going down and the sky was an orange pastel color. The evening would provide a good cover for me while I snuck into the city. I approached the city gate and noticed that Kraken had beefed up security. There were six armed guards stationed at the gates. I sat behind a large rock and tried to think of a way to make it into the city without alerting the rest of Kraken to the fact that I was inside the walls. Night had descended upon me. I sat and pondered how I would get into the city without alerting the guards. As I sat, I remembered that I had the amplifiers. I waited for full darkness to set in. Once the inky darkness covered the land, I stood up and prepared myself. I put my hands in the same position I had when I first took flight. I concentrated on my hands and before I knew it, I was midflight. My hood flew off from the speed I was traveling. I had never seen the city like this. From above, you would never have known what it was like in there. There was a beauty to it from this angle. The light of the houses flickered in the darkness but all were overshadowed by the shining brilliance of Poseidon Tower. I knew that evil resided inside the tower, but I still could appreciate the illuminated glory of the building. I lowered my altitude as I got closer to Pan's base. I passed over familiar areas and became nostalgic. I wanted nothing more than to end this and lead a quiet life. I came upon Jet's old house and landed quietly in front of the door. I knocked lightly on the sturdy wooden door. Pan quickly opened the door and I slipped in. "It's about time. I radioed in for you two days ago," he said.
"Sorry. The amplifiers really drained me after the fight with Jekyll. What did you find?" I asked.
"I can't really explain it. I have to show you," he said.
"Well let's get a move on," I said. We took off from the house and moved through the "What is this?" I asked.
"It is supposed to be an abandoned munitions factory. I noticed some guards lingering around here. Why would guards be patrolling an abandoned factory? I snuck in and found something startling," he replied.
"I have to see," I said. He nodded his head in the direction of the warehouse to signal that it was safe to move. We moved to the door and Pan sidled along the wall away from it. He waved his hand signaling for me to follow him. He led me to a ladder that went to an opening on the second floor. He began up the ladder and I hovered upwards. We both arrived on the catwalk at the same time. We entered the facility and I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what was on the floor. There were forty cryogenic tubes lining the walls all with computer consoles and cables and tubes running from them.
"Go have a look at what's inside," Pan said. I slowly descended to the ground and approached a tube. I put my hand on the small glass window and wiped the ice crystals away to reveal a face. I jumped back and bumped into the computer console. It whirred and the screen lit up.
A profile was on the screen that r
ead:
"Name: Vine,
Gene Spike: Ability to manipulate plant matter,
Threat: High"
Then it dawned on me. Kraken hadn't been killing the spikers they detained. They were freezing them, but for what? Pan climbed down to me.
"I think I found our army," he said.
He found our army. An entire army of spikers to combat Kraken and for the first time, I felt like we stood a chance.
Chapter 5: The Spikers
I looked into the face of the man in the tube. His hair was brown and shaggy. His skin was fair but he had strange thing green lines on his neck. “What do we do with them?” I asked.
“Hopefully we can revive them,” replied Pan.
“Do you mean right now?” I asked.
“No, there’s no way we could get all of them out now,” he replied.
“We need to find a way to figure out who all these people are and what they can do,” I said.
“Let’s have a look around. They must have a log of all the subjects here. I’m sure that they would like to keep track of who they have stored,” he replied. I started looking around the room for a filing cabinet or file box of some sort. I realized after a few moments that it was highly unlikely that they had physical copies. Pan was at a computer console typing away. I approached him to see what was on the screen. It was a file containing a list of all the spikers in the tubes and a profile on each one.
“I think I found what we need,” he said.
“Nice work. How do we get this for ourselves now?” I asked.
“Jet gave me a lot of different technological items she thought would be useful. I brought some of them. I may have a disk we can try to back up this data on,” he said rummaging through his bag. Pan pulled out the disk from his bag. He inserted the small black square into the computer. He entered some commands into the computer and a status bar popped up indicating that files were transferring. When the progress reached fifteen percent, an alarm began to blare in the room. A red light began to flash and cover the room in its crimson hue.