Powerless: In a world of superpowers, what happens when you have none?

by Niall McCreanor

  Philip broke his lesson, checking with the boys that they understood what he was teaching them. He asked them questions to make sure all the information he was throwing at them, although complex, was being absorbed. When he was happy that the boys understood what they were being told he moved the conversation away from his father’s role in the war and went on to explain the policy history that in turn caused the war. It was in teaching the boys about the war that he revealed his true opinions on world politics.

  “The war was very basic in its composition. There were two global factions, each representing one of the world’s two superpowers; the old faction and the new. You know these factions as The Old World Alliance and The United New World. The United New World faction preached that all men were free and were to be treated so, irrespective of whether a person had an ability or not, the Old World Alliance faction had a policy of embracing the evolutionary leap to further the human development.

  Nations aligned themselves accordingly with their government policies. There was a third class of countries, neutral in all matters. These countries did not adopt a new name for their alliance, but maintained neutrality.

  The Old World Alliance outwardly had a policy of treating all individuals the same. The appropriation of wealth was to be divided out equally between the inhabitants of countries allied to their cause. People who lived in the countries of The Old World Alliance were told that they were living in paradise and given propaganda touting the evils that lay in The United New World.

  The Old World Alliance preached that the people in the lands of their foe were living under a corrupt and a moralistic regime, rife with crime, and did not know what freedom was or what it meant to be free.

  The Government of The Old World Alliance ruled with an iron fist and was to be obeyed at all times. Anyone who openly questioned the government was interned and never heard from again. Everyday crime was low here, as the atrocities inflicted on the citizens were not seen as crime, but law. Large criminal gangs had influence on the streets and with certain members of the Old World Alliance. The alliance used people with abilities to create a super-human army and used the threat of war against anyone who stood in their way.

  In contrast, The United New World actually employed the freedoms that were preached by its adversary, creating a capitalist policy in terms of economic matters. This created a very clear and evident class system, where the rich would only get richer and the poor would get poorer.

  If a person were to look at how The United New World applied policies, it would seem the perfect system, but a person delving deeper could see how these policies affected the lower and middle classes; these people might take another point of view. As the United New World allowed people to protect their abilities, they did not have the military strength that their archenemies had. What they lacked in military manpower, they made up for in economic terms.

  Through education and self-advancement, the people were of superior intellect and were much stronger financially. This meant they had fewer soldiers who embraced their powers for the purposes of war. They were able to rectify the gap through investing in technology that would level the military playing field.”

  Philip paused again, allowing the boys a moment to take it all in and considering the weight of the information himself. He thought over what was being said to the boys and thought that his views were a reflection of the idolisation of his own father, considering how he was moulded by the war and the things he had seen and how in turn that affected Philip’s own development; making him seemingly distant from outward emotion. Composing himself, he tried to stick to the black and white of what happened; at least his own interpretation of it.

  “It is hard for anyone to remember who fired the first shot in the war, but both sides knew that the conflict itself was inevitable. The war started as many do; a war of economy.

  The United New World first imposed sanctions upon the countries that aligned themselves with The Old World Alliance. They would trade only with themselves and neutral countries.

  It was strongly favoured that neutral countries only trade with the United New World, to which most did as they saw The Old World Alliance to be too authoritarian and brutal towards its own people. These sanctions allowed the United New World to grow in prosperity and become the predominant world power.

  Smaller members of the Old World Alliance saw prosperity in the polices that were being adopted in neighbouring countries, allowing for better infrastructure, health care, education and economic growth.

  These smaller members did not see why they were handing over their nation’s resources to be dictatorially ruled. Some of these countries reached out to The United New World to ask to help to break the chains of tyranny imposed by the Old World Alliance.

  The United New World had a policy of helping smaller countries to move away from the Old World Alliance’s control and to align them with their own viewpoint. However, these policies would only be fully enacted if the country that wanted to realign itself had large, if not substantial, natural resources that could then be traded to the United New World as a dowry for freeing them.

  As countries began to move away, The Old World Alliance tightened control on smaller member states and engaged in mass propaganda to maintain power. Events escalated and eventually the economic war evolved into all-out war.

  This was a war that neither side could win, nor could afford to lose. War raged for an age; each side cancelled out the other, as the abilities of one side was countered. After fourteen years of fighting and destruction, a truce was drawn up, and from that time to this, the world has known only peace.

  As the next generation of children grew up, it became clear that they all would benefit from the leap in evolution and that all the kids had developed an ability of some sort. This generation also grew up knowing only war and it was this knowledge that led to the signing of the peace treaty.

  The treaty forced The Old World alliance to improve their human rights policies and discontinue any desecration of the human form in the name of advancing the human race. The treaty also enacted policies by which the United New World would trade openly with the Old World Alliance to increase the balance of economic wealth and prosperity. Both sides opened their borders and allowed relatively free movement between the two governments’s controlled areas. The treaty held the balance of power between governments and the power that they shared was finite, to say the very least. This balance of peace would hold true over the next two generations, right up to the current day.”

  Philip stopped there, feeling that maybe all this information thrown at the two young boys might have been lost on them. He let out a sigh, releasing the pressure that had built up as he delivered this information and told them to go outside and play, which they were both happy to do.

  Throughout the conversation Philip thought that to some extent Tom was unable to absorb that quantity of information, as his attention shifted from his father to gazing out of the window. Lee, on the other hand, absorbed it like a sponge, hanging on his every word as if searching for answers to questions he was asking himself about his own shortcomings.

  Later that evening Philip returned to the topic with the boys, gently quizzing them to find out how much they had taken in. It was clear from the outset that Lee had an astonishing appetite for information and ability to recall it, as Lee was able to divulge back to him in great detail everything that he was taught by his father. This, Philip hoped, might have been his power, but Lee wasn’t so fortunate.

  *

  Lee brought his attention to the cold cup in front of him and pushed it to one side with irritation, as the real reason for his birthday melancholy came to mind once more. Every year he couldn’t help but recall his own history to mind, as if by retelling himself his own story it could change a past that haunted him. He went through it in his mind systematically, with an eerie detachment that never lasted long enough. He tried to put himself in his father’s shoes as he considered how he felt knowing a
second son was about to be born, but it was near impossible. Imagining that kind of connection with someone, bringing new life into the world. A life that was completely and utterly your responsibility. A life that you would have to love, no matter what problems it caused, who it hurt, who’s life it turned upside down.

  The distant sound of sirens pulled Lee from his deep thoughts. Hearing sirens ringing out and bracing himself for the inevitable, only to see a fire engine whizz past the coffee shop on the other side and not even turn onto his block. Looking at his watch confused and thinking, Why aren’t the cops here? Maybe Jimmy was afraid to call the cops as he would have to explain a lot more than just bruises on himself. Most certainly the cops would question the bruises on Beth.

  Content that he was not going to have to call his father from a jail cell, he picked himself up and went to his family.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Lee joined Tom and Philip for dinner; it was always a welcome relief to him to have them close at hand. Only when he was sitting in a room with them did he have a feeling of belonging, a sense of acceptance that had never been easy for him to come by in the outside world.

  After the dinner was finished Philip disappeared for his post dinner ritual of two laps of the block and, unbeknownst to his boys, a sneaky cigarette when no one was looking.

  Lee busied himself by the sink, working his way through the pile of dishes. Tom walked into the room from the sitting room where he had been rattling through his bags.

  Placing a box on the sink beside Lee, he turned to sit at the table without talking. Lee spied the box and asked, “What’s this?”

  Tom laughed, “Oh, I forgot you don’t have x-ray vision, open and you will see!”

  Lee looked at Tom not knowing if he should be insulted, but before he had time to say anything Tom hastened him, “Go on!”

  Quickly drying his hands, Lee lifted the box and sat at the table opposite Tom. Opening the box to see a dull blade inside, Tom interrupted the process and asked, “Do you recognise that?” Seeing the handle on the old knife Lee knew straight away exactly what was in front of him.

  “Only you, Tom, could make a great present out of something I already own!” Taking the knife in his hand and removing it from the box be continued. “Man I haven’t seen this thing in years. Where did you find it?”

  “I have me ways,” Tom stated and as his brother inspected the knife Tom went on. “Do you remember that day?”

  “How could I forget, I was a kid and you nearly got me killed.” Lee replied.

  Tom acknowledged “Well, if Dad ever knew I think both of us would have been.”

  The incident had happened many years before; Philip bought a cabin high in the mountains, keeping it a secret from everyone except his two sons. This was the place where he would take his boys at the weekends and holidays to train and study. It was also a sanctuary to Philip, a place to go to escape the world after his wife passed. Often going for long hikes himself, he could regularly be found there working on reconditioning vintage muscle cars; buying wrecked cars and totally rebuilding them as he did with his father all those years previously, never keeping them for too long, only long enough to find his next project.

  The education given to Lee would also benefit his brother as the two boys were always at each other’s side. One of the most important things Philip instilled in his sons was the importance of going unseen, both as a survival tactic and also as an everyday tool to be applied to his life. Philip taught the two boys to use and trust their instincts, ingraining a mantra into their subconscious; “Trust your gut. It won't lie to you. If something doesn’t feel right it's wrong.”

  Philip also taught Lee that he was different, special, and if anyone other than his brother found out, this could put himself and Tom in danger; fearing that if the truth got out Lee could be taken away from them and tested as if he were a Neanderthal in a world of homo sapiens, a link to a forgotten past.

  Needing to know if the training regime the boys were on was actually working, Philip brought the boys high up into the mountains and gave them limited supplies.

  He handed them some hunting and tracking gear and looked them dead in the eye as he spoke to them. “It will take you four days to get off this mountain safely; I have given you enough water for two days and equipment to catch your own food. I have installed a GPS tracking tag into each of your coats and an emergency beacon, so if you do get in trouble, activate it and I will come and get you. You are to set up camp here for tonight and start to make your way off the mountain and back to the cabin in the morning...”

  ­­­Once again he reminded his sons, “Trust your gut. It won't lie to you. If something doesn’t feel right, it’s wrong,” and with that Philip left.

  The two boys sat down and began to plan their route off the mountain; they decided that contrary to their father’s wishes they would in fact set off that evening rather than wait for the next day.

  They were keen to impress their father, determined to navigate the four-day trail in two days. Thinking this would evoke feelings of pride in their sometimes-distant father. Lee hoped with this opportunity he would prove himself to his father as equal to everyone else in the world and that maybe with his approval on this Philip might stop treating him as an outcast, different to everyone else, and his shortcomings would no longer become an issue to Philip and to himself.

  They were above the snow line and wanted to get below it before considering camping down for the night. Reaching the edge of the snowline darkness set in and the boys considered stopping, but both were too keen to continue. They sat down to change their socks, which by now were wet from the deep snow spilling over the tops of their boots. As Lee slipped off his boots Tom snickered looking at the socks that were on his feet. Lee looked at him, slightly agitated by Tom’s guffaw. He barked, “What are you laughing at?”

  Tom pointed to the water-soaked socks on his brother’s feet. Lee, looking at his feet, couldn’t help but smile as he had unwittingly worn Kermit socks for the hike. Lee laughed back good-naturedly. “Well, at least they are my lucky socks.”

  Tom reached into his pack and pulled out a thick pair of green thermal army socks, handing them to him with a grin. “I think these might be a little better suited.”

  Lee pulled on his brother’s socks, tied up his boots and began to traverse the mountain. Guided by the stars, they navigated through the woodland with only the moonlight to illuminate their path. Walking most of the night, they stopped only for three hours, when the night was at its darkest, to rest. Finding cover at the foot of a ridge protected from the wind and under the cover of thick foliage they bedded down for a while.

  They arose before dawn and packed away all their equipment and were ready to continue on their way. There were no complications the first day; understanding exactly what to do and where they needed to go. They needed to walk ten hours and then find shelter, allowing two hours for respite and route re-adjustment, correcting any navigational errors they made along the way. While walking they needed to find a water source and a source of food. They found the water easily and decided to source food when they found the best place to bed down.

  By the time night began to fall on the second night the two boys were setting up camp in what seemed like a sleepy wooded area. They found a spot where they would be sheltered from the wind and rain and started to make camp.

  Setting a snare at a rabbit hole in the hope it would provide them with dinner, Tom waited nearby to see if his endeavour would prove fruitful. Lee sat by the fire, poking life into it when he heard a high-pitched yelp. A flicker of remorse set in, knowing what the screech meant. Waiting for the return of his brother he grew impatient, wondering why he was taking so long to reappear with the food. Lee walked in the direction the noise had come from, and after a few minutes he came across his brother on his knees. Lee, approaching from behind, was able to peer over Tom’s shoulder and saw tangled up in the snare was a beautiful snowy coloured rabbit.

  To
m didn’t turn but could hear his brother behind him. With his eyes fixated on the rabbit all he could muster was, “I can’t do it.”

  Lee answered, “It’s suffering, you have to.”

  Tom bowed his head a little lower. “I know, but I can’t.”

  The rabbit tried to kick its legs to get away but the strain only tightened the snare around its neck, cutting in further. Witnessing this, Lee reached across his brother’s shoulder and took hold of the rabbit. Lifting it, he gripped the rabbit around the neck and squeezed tightly. The rabbit twitched to loosen his grip but it only tightened, until Lee felt the unmistakable snap of the rabbit’s neck in his hand. Neither of the boys wanted to take a life but Lee knew to leave the rabbit to suffer in the clutches of the snare would be worse.

  Tom prepared the rabbit; taking his hunting knife out he removed the rabbit pelt. Cleaning out the innards, all he was left with was meat ready to be cooked.

  Lee watched his brother cautiously prepare the meat, being careful to make sure it was clean and ready for cooking. Tom looked across to Lee, whose eyes were transfixed on his hands and the steps being taken to prepare a meal for them both. Tom spoke in an authoritative way that Lee wasn’t really used to.

  “Will you get some wood for the fire. I am not preparing the rabbit for decoration. The sooner we get it on, the sooner we can eat!”

  Lee knew that the process of killing the rabbit stressed Tom who was not used to seeing something die before him. Neither of them were, but Lee didn’t feel the stress over it as Tom did, knowing that it was only by necessity. Lee stood up, wiped the dry dirt from the leg of his pants and casually strolled away to find some dry firewood.

  Tom awaited his return so he could add the fresh logs to the fire to make it really roar for cooking the meat and bedding down for the evening. The longer Lee was gone the more he became anxious for his return. Taking his emergency beacon in hand to signal for his father to come, he heard a twig snap off in the distance. Tom went to see if it was his brother who had stood on it, leaving with a degree of urgency and not realising that he left his knife beside the freshly prepared rabbit.