by Huth, Jacob
“Yeah, just a second,” he said opening the truck door. He pulled out a canteen and handed it to me. I unscrewed the lid and took a swig. The cold water was refreshing. My mouth had been as dry as a desert. The water was like a torrential rain soaking the sandy landscape that was my mouth.
“Thank you,” I said, “Is there any news on the rebellion? Did Synapse and Vine make it back?”
“They all made it back. The army of spikers have already established a base camp and taken some action against Kraken. I better radio in that you are alive,” the soldier said.
“We can give you a ride back to the city,” said the other soldier.
“Actually,” I said, “Hold off on radioing in. It may be to our advantage if Kraken thinks I’m dead. It would be really helpful if you could just take me to the edge of the forest outside the city.”
“Why there?” the first soldier asked.
“I have some gear hidden out there,” I lied. I didn’t want to disclose the location of Sanctum to anyone other than the people who already knew about it. “You guys should just go about your normal routine after you drop me there. I’ll make my presence known very soon.”
“Fair enough. Don’t wait too long, though. I don’t imagine that Kraken will wait too long before going all out,” the second soldier said.
I nodded and entered the truck. The two soldiers entered as well and started the engine. We drove for a while down the abandoned highway until the forest came into view on our right. I found myself thinking back to when I was a kid. When I was ten years old, I didn’t have many friends. I just preferred to be by myself most of the time. I would go climb this one radio tower that looked out over the wall and to the forest. I dreamed of being able to go see the dense expanse of trees for myself. I wanted to go live with nature. Life in the city was hectic and didn’t make much sense to a kid. I wondered what the ten year old me would think of what I was doing. I wondered if young me knew about the horrific things I would see, if he would change his mind about wanting to go outside the walls.
The truck screeched to a halt at the edge of the forest near Sanctum. “This is your stop,” the driver said.
“Thanks for the lift,” I replied climbing out of the truck.
Before I closed the door, the soldier in the passenger seat said, “Everyone will be glad to see you. We sure are.”
I smiled and closed the door. The truck drove off in the direction of the city. I waited until they were out of view. Once I couldn’t see their vehicle anymore, I entered the tunnel that led into Sanctum. We hadn’t been in there in a long while. The main room was musty and covered in dust. I clicked on the heavy switch and the overhead lights flickered to life. It was exactly as we had left it. I started rummaging around through the cases of armor to see if there was anything similar to my other set. I found a few pieces that resembled my original set. This one didn’t have a hood, though. I figured that stealth didn’t really matter anymore. People knew who I was and what we were fighting for. I reentered the main area and started thinking that I wanted to live here permanently after this was all over. Jet and I could live here in peace and we could be close to the city at the same time. This wasn’t the time to think about that. I had to get back to the city and help the army. I exited the tunnel and looked up at the sky. The clouds had begun to form in black clusters. Some areas were beginning to merge and become a large sheet of blackness. I focused and flew into the air as fast as I could. I soared through the sky and came upon the city walls quickly. I saw a huge fire spreading in the western quadrant of the city. Explosions and gunfire filled the air around it. I shot into the city block in which the skirmish was occurring. I crashed into the ground in the center of the fire. A shockwave emanated from me and pushed the fire away. The flares died out a few feet off the ground as I stood up. I shot force blasts at the Kraken agents crushing them under the pressure and flinging them in every direction. The rebels stared at me in awe.
“Zero?!” I heard a familiar voice yell. I turned my head and saw Flare staring at me. She was wearing the welding goggles that she took from Sanctum. “You’re alive?!”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” I said as she ran up and hugged me. She looked different somehow. I could see some of her veins through her skin on her arms but they weren’t normal. They looked like fire coursing through her body. Her eyes had become a yellowish orange.
“You noticed the veins?” she asked.
“Yeah I did. What happened?” I asked.
“Synapse brought the healing serum back and Flint synthesized it for us just in time. Our bodies were starting to change. Frost’s is a little more drastic than mine. You’ll see soon. Jet is going to be so happy that you’re alive,” she said.
“Let’s get back. We need to get a plan in place,” I said.
“Yeah let’s hurry back,” she said running off toward the greenhouse. I rose into the air and followed her overhead. While she ran, an orange glow emanated from her body in a trail like fashion.
The city looked so different. In just a few days most of the city had become war torn and degraded into a far more unlivable state. Even the richer area of the city looked to be downgrading in quality. The Echelon, the rich area of the city near Poseidon tower, had a large amount of the buildings either boarded up or partially destroyed. It was sobering to look at what I once knew and see it in a state of complete disarray. We came to the block that the greenhouse was on. I landed right behind Flare as she walked up to the door. I started wondering what had happened to Frost. If Flare had changed like that, then how drastic had Frost’s change been?
I approached the trap door that led into the bunker below the greenhouse. Flare pulled open the hatch and we descended down the stairs. The bright fluorescent light hurt my eyes when I walked into the main room. “Hey everyone, I have a surprise!” Flare shouted.
One by one, my friends entered the room and each had a look of surprise and relief washed over their faces. Jet came in and broke down in tears. She ran over and threw her arms around me. “They said you were gone!” she cried.
“I almost was,” I said hugging her back.
“Our patrols say that Tartarus was destroyed,” Flint said from behind me.
“Yeah I kind of tore the building apart,” I said shaking Flint’s hand.
“It’s for the best. The cons of that facility far outweighed the few scientific advancements they made,” he said.
“What of Armageddon?” Frost asked entering the room.
I turned and saw what had happened to Frost. His eyes became a swirl-like mixture of blue and aqua. He had the veins showing like Flare, only his were and icy blue pulsing through his skin. His nails looked clear like they had become shards of ice as well. The strangest thing was that there was almost a mist coming off of him. It was kind of like when something gets taken out of a freezer and the heat of the air is causing the steam. “I know,” he said, “It’s a little shocking. What happened to Armageddon?”
“He went with the building into the black hole. He almost took me with him,” I replied pulling up my armor exposing my scar.
“Ouch,” he said, “Well at least he is taken care of. We need to work on a plan to get Hades taken care of.”
“Let him rest for a minute,” Jet said.
“No I’m fine,” I said, “Frost is right. We need to get after Hades. Since Tartarus is gone, I have a feeling we have them on their heels.”
“Pan is out on a surveillance run right now. When he gets back we can start working,” Flint said. Everyone was dispersing and as I turned to go to my room, Synapse tapped my shoulder. She and Sky were standing behind me.
“Thank you again,” Sky said.
“I was glad to help. I know that if I lost Jet, I would do anything I could to get her back,” I said.
“There is no way I’ll ever be able to repay you. You’ve got my help whenever you need it,” Synapse said.
“Good,” I said shaking her hand, “We are goin
g to need it.”
“Speaking of which, I think I have an idea on how to get into Poseidon Tower,” Synapse said.
“Let’s get everyone together when Pan gets back and we’ll go over it,” I said. She nodded and took Sky’s hand to lead her out of the room. Jet and I went down the hallway to our room. I slipped off my boots and sat down on the edge of the bed. I ran my fingers through my sweaty hair. Jet opened a footlocker on the other side of the room and pulled out a rations case. The print said “mix” on the side of the case. She came over and handed me the case which I discovered had a granola mix inside. I didn’t realize it until just that moment, but I was starving. I had eaten hardly anything in the past few days. I started eating the granola ravenously. I realized halfway through that I probably looked like a wild animal.
“That food isn’t going anywhere,” Jet said.
“I know,” I said with my mouth full of food. I swallowed the granola and said, “After what we have been through in the past few weeks, you never know what your last meal could be. You’ve got to enjoy them all.”
“We are going to have so many more meals. We are going to win this,” said Jet.
“That’s surprisingly optimistic of you,” I said.
“The moment you walked through the hatch, I knew we were going to win. We all thought you died at Tartarus but when you came back, we knew that you can survive and will help us win,” she said.
“I almost didn’t make it back, though,” I said.
“You did, though. That’s all that matters,” she said leaning against me. The intercom that ran through the entire bunker buzzed and whirred to life.
“If you guys can hear me, meet in the war room. Pan is back,” said Vine through the little box.
“We better not keep them waiting,” Jet said springing to her feet and running out of the room. I admired her. Before I went to Tartarus, I didn’t know if she would be alright. After her mom died I knew it would be tough but it would only get worse if Flint or I died. Now she seemed like she was a new person, like she was ready to fight the entire Kraken army by herself.
I walked slowly down the hall to the war room. The door was slightly ajar and I heard chatter inside. It sounded like everyone was in there already. I wondered if Pan knew I was alive. “Is everyone here?” Pan said.
I pushed the door open and said, “Now we’re all here.”
He looked up in surprise and starting chuckling. “Well, well. The indestructible man returns. Good to see you my friend.”
“Not indestructible. Nearly, but not totally,” I joked.
“Well you being alive definitely helps our efforts,” Pan said, activating his computer terminal. He activated the holographic panel in the middle of the desk. A digital 3d model of Poseidon Tower sprouted up and the buildings that surrounded it followed.
“Synapse said she had an idea on how to infiltrate the tower,” I said.
“Let’s hear it then,” Vine said.
Synapse stood up and walked to the side of the table. She approached a computer terminal and took control of the map. “Alright, here’s my idea,” she said. A red square surrounded the lower quadrant of the tower. It enhanced the section and enlarged the area. The image now was that of a large steel door. “This seemingly impenetrable wall is not a wall. It is a cargo door. Hades and the elites haven’t left the tower in a long time. They started running out of supplies and have initiated secret shipments of food and other things in the dead of night. All we have to do is find a way through that door and once we have control of this area, we can move our army in.”
Pan rubbed his chin, scratching his beard. “How heavy is their security during these exchanges?” he asked.
“It’s different every night. Our scouts say that some nights they have some of the more powerful elites out there overseeing it but some nights it seems that there is nobody. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t have anyone out there. I assume they have snipers or camouflaged soldiers positioned nearby,” Synapse replied.
“I like it,” I said.
“As do I. I think we should discreetly observe the transactions for a few more nights before we strike. We should try to detect a pattern in their plans. We don’t want to get caught off guard,” Pan said, “If that’s agreeable to everyone, say aye.”
“Aye,” everyone in the room cried out.
“Wonderful. We’ll organize patrols and get our gear ready for one final assault,” Pan said. Everyone stood up and started exiting the room.
“Zero, hold up,” Flint said.
I turned around and he was holding an electronic tablet of some sort. “What’s up?” I asked.
“I recently started using the lab here when I had to work on Flare and Frost. I wanted to take you there and run some tests. Just to make sure everything is normal,” he said.
“Yeah, no problem. Let’s go,” I said. He showed me the way to the lab through the hallways of the bunker. We entered the lab and he pointed to an examination bench. I took a seat on the cold metal bench.
“Remove your shirt please,” he said typing away on the tablet.
“Jeez Flint, buy me dinner first,” I joked. He chuckled and continued typing. I pulled my shirt off and threw it onto a nearby chair. He approached me and placed sticky sensor pads on various places on my body. He moved to stand behind a computer terminal and punched a series of commands into the system. A large, transparent, green screen lowered in front of me. “Please stand up. This is going to give me a thermal reading of your body. Now start to exert some of your power. Let’s start with a low level,” he said.
I bent my elbows slightly and clenched my fists. I began to focus and push some energy out of my body. The familiar feeling of the air around me swelling and fluctuating as I willed it to.
“That’s odd,” Flint muttered.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The air around you should be manipulated but that stayed the same. Your body spikes in temperature and is actually creating energy. This goes against the laws of physics. Energy cannot be created or destroyed but somehow your body is creating all new energy. It doesn’t seem to be limited to what we thought was gravitational blasts. If you are creating energy, then you can manipulate it into any form. This is an unprecedented discovery,” he said.
“How is this possible? My parents inserted the same type of power that fueled the machine that ruined the Earth,” I said.
“I have seen some very old data drives that contained blueprints for the machine. Your body is emanating a different energy type completely. Do you know for sure that the operation that you received was for the gravity machine?” Flint asked.
“They said it happened when I was a baby so I have no memory of it. I had no reason to think that they would lie about it,” I replied.
“I doubt that they lied maliciously. I think that if they lied, it was for a good reason because this energy is very different. This basically means that you are only at the first level of your power. You could conceivably unlock so many more stages and advance even further,” he said.
“How did we not know about this?” I asked.
“I’m unsure. There are a lot of things we still don’t understand about gene spikes. My guess is that the combination of the healing serum plus the use of the gauntlets has allowed your body to handle this power. Try focusing on generating electricity. I want to test this out,” he said.
I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. I tried to picture the purest form of electricity coursing through my mind. I felt the tingle of electricity running from my shoulders to my fingertips. It started snaking all over the outside of my body but it didn’t hurt. It felt energizing. “This is incredible,” I said. My voice was almost digitized due to the electricity.
“I don’t know what to say. This is maybe the most amazing thing I have ever seen,” he said.
I stopped fueling the energy and relaxed my body. “The most troubling aspect of this whole thing is the source of this power. If my parents d
idn’t implant this in me, then I must have been born with it. How is that even possible?” I asked.
“I do not have the answer. We can hope that the answers will come with some more research,” he replied.
I was so disturbed. I had gone through my life thinking that I had been given the power artificially but finding out that I was born with it turned my whole world upside down. The reason I felt the drive to join the resistance in the first place was because I felt like I had been made into a weapon and it was my duty to help. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in. If there is one place you will find answers, it is in Poseidon Tower. They have logs of spiker research and all the information about birthers,” he said. I nodded and put my shirt back on. We left the lab and I walked quietly back to my room. I crawled into bed and pulled the blanket over my head. I thought about my parents and how they told me all through my life that I was a miracle and that I possessed the power to change the world. I was born with a power that transcends physics and science and now, I needed answers. I threw the blanket off of me and I sprung to my feet. I was suddenly enraged that I had been lied to. I was furious that I didn’t know about this power when I could have been using it to save lives. I walked into the war room and found Pan still typing away at the computer. “Zero,” he said looking up, “What can I do for you?”
“I’m going to Poseidon,” I said.
“What?! We aren’t even close to being ready,” he said.
“I have to end this! I need answers!” I yelled.
“Answers about what?” he asked.
“Flint and I just discovered that I am actually a birther and my spike isn’t what we thought it was. I can create energy. My whole life is a lie and I need answers about how I am like this,” I said angrily.
“I understand that you want answers but marching in there guns blazing is going to get you killed,” Pan said.
“I think we should storm the cargo bay tonight and catch them off guard. We will just blow through them and take the tower,” I said. Pan folded his hands and sat quietly for a minute.