by Nguyen,Peter
The bullets starts to hit the walls and I quickly hold up the machine gun towards the corner. I wait for an armed man to walk by, but no sign. The shooting continues and I start to feel this adrenalin just pouring into my veins. I try hold the gun steady but the gun trembles in my arms like they always do.
“How are we going to get out of here?” I shout.
“We’ll just have to fight our way out.”
A soldier comes running around the corner and just when I’m about to pull the trigger, Rylan empty his bullets into the man’s chest. My hands are shaking and I release a heavy sigh, as I wasn’t the one who took a life. How am I going to be any useful? I have never killed a person in my life.
“Hazer?! What are you doing?”
“S-sorry I just caught off guard,” I say. I can’t let Rylan know I’m not willing to get my hands dirty, but I also can’t let them kill us.
Another man comes around the corner and his eyes meet mine. My heart is thumping like drum, hands sweating, and I can’t aim straight.
He aims at me.
“HAZER!” Rylan yells as he immediately shields us from flying bullets. It ricochets off the blue transparent surface, causing ripple effects on the barrier. I know it won’t hold for long, but I can’t do it. I can’t end another person’s life.
I aim for his legs. I slowly press the trigger and the bullet penetrates his knee. He screams in agony and drops to the floor.
Rylan swiftly aims at the man, ending his life without hesitation. He killed the man with such ease, as if it’s his second nature. I can’t do this I say to myself.
“What are you doing?! Aim for the chest!”
“I never kill anyone before,” I yell over the loud shooting.
Faye suddenly grabs my gun, snatching it out of my hand and says “I got this.”
I nod.
Faye points the gun at the corner with a sharp pose. The fury in her eyes, remind me of the girl I knew when I first meant her in the woods. The lone soldier who black mailed me and the one I betrayed in order to save my mom.
We wait for a few seconds and suddenly a small medal cylinder is thrown in, landing a few inches away from where I’m crouching.
“What is that?!”
It clicks and releases red fumes. I quickly cover my nose and mouth, as Rylan kicks the can back into the corner. Another one flies in and releasing its intoxicating smoke.
“W-what is this!?” Faye coughs, dropping the gun and falling on the floor. Rylan begins to cough and gags for air. I can’t hold my breath any longer, this can’t be happening. I take a small whiff of air, and the smoke begins to choke me. My throat feels like its closing in and my lungs feel like its being sat on.
Just when I’m about close my eyes, two men in a black gas mask walks up to me, grabbing me towards the wooden stairs. Everything feels so out of place as it my mind is being drifting off. The walls are so blurry and I can’t seem to grasp what is real and what’s not.
“Bring them in the kitchen.”
I know its Seth’s voice but his voice echoes in my ear, reminding me it’s still hard for me to stay concision with all the unsteadiness. The two men carry me down the steps and walk me into the kitchen where three chairs await. The drop me down on the wooden chair and as I look up, Seth takes out a pistol, smiling at me.
XIV
The thick ropes around my wrist starts to burn as the men tightens them like snakes constructing its prey. They sit the Rylan and me to wooden chairs in front of the counter while the two soldiers are both grabbing Faye’s arm.
Seth walks over to Rylan, swinging his bulky fist and slamming it into my brother’s face. I can hear his knuckles collide into Rylan’s cheek bone as he spits out blood. Rylan doesn’t even attempt to use his ability to defend himself.
“D-don’t break a nail,” Rylan chuckles.
Seth swings again and I can almost feel it in my stomach as Rylan grunts. “Leave him alone!!” Faye yells.
Seth looks over to Faye and then smiles. “You can drop the act now. The plan worked.”
“What is he talking about?” I say.
“We used her to get to you,” Seth Laughs. “You really think she was on your side this entire time? Man you kids are so stupid!”
“Faye?”
“Hazer it’s..”
“Shut up,” Seth grabs Faye by the wrist and holds up her hand. I notice the ring on her middle finder has a small red light blinking. I realize that’s how Seth found us.”
Faye looks at me with tears in eyes.
“What are you people talking about!” Rylan tries to break free but it’s like his strength has completely left.
“Don’t bother, the smoke already neutralized you the moment you inhaled it. You know you just killed two of my best men, you worthless little brat!” Seth reaches for his gun and presses it against Rylan’s head. “Go ahead! Shoot me,” he yells
“And put you out of your misery? Oh death is too rewarding. Experimenting on you will make me more satisfying,” Seth slowly lift gun away and coming back with another fist to Rylan’s cheek.”
I don’t see how we’re going to get out of this, considering the red fumes is still clouding Faye and Rylan’s head. Their abilities won’t help us now and I even can’t think straight. All I can pay attention to is the western armed men going through the cabinets and fridge, feasting on whatever they can lay their hands on. The food supply that was meant for our military is everywhere on the floor as they soldiers make a mess of themselves.
“What do you want with us?” I jerk from my seat, but the ropes are still restricting her abnormal strength.
“Handing you all over to Kraven of course,” Seth chuckles.
“What does Kraven even wants with us?” I ask
Seth grabs the center of my shirt, “You’re in for a surprise then.”
“Sir, it’s for you,” says a man handing Seth a cell phone.
Seth takes the phone and puts it on speaker and I can hear the heavy breathing coming from the phone. “Do you have the girl?”
The voice is deep and had a familiar tone to it. I’m guessing it’s Kraven as I start to remember his voice from Kala’s suicide mission.
“Yes, she’s here a long with two more Redeemed.”
I look at Seth strangely. Did he just say two more? I look over to Faye who is tears right now. She whispers “I’m sorry,” but haven’t got clue what’s going on.
“Good and patient zero?” “There’s no sign of Patient zero, but the Cylers are increasing in numbers.” “Excellent. We’ll meet soon.” “Yes Sir,” Seth hangs up and looks at the three of us.
“We’re bringing them to the Kraven. Put them in the back of the truck.”
“Right away sir,” says the armed men.
Seth walks out of the kitchen, letting the soldiers grab the three of us towards the living room. “Let us go!” Faye starts to thrash her body. She manages to shove one of the troops off of her. As he slams against wall hard, causing some frames to fall off.
“Tranquilize her!” Seth yells.
One man quickly grabs the back of her hair while another injects her in the neck. I try to break free but it’s no use. These men are nearly twice my size and I’m not a Redeemed. Faye starts to breathe faster than normal and before I know it she’s knocked out.
“Let her go!” I yell. The man grips my arm tighter, thinking I’ll break free but unfortunately with all strength I can’t over power these men. They finally open the front door and a spine schilling black truck with men in hazmat suites waits for us.
The leaves glide along the cold breeze as a drop of rain suddenly fall on my cheeks. I can tell it’s about to rain by the gray clouds. I start to remember on days like this, my mom would sit next to me by the window and wait for the sky to clear up. I just want to wake up from all of this, but the more I walk towards the truck the more I realize this is my reality. This is worse than the Capa’s injection; we’re being abducted by another territory in which w
e have no knowledge about.
“I’m going ahead. Make sure you keep them contained,” says Seth as he walks towards Rylan, “Especially this one,” he grabs Rylan by the hair, lifting up his bloody face.
“Go to hell!” He weakly says
Seth grabs Rylan faces and shoves him backwards, causing him to fall to the ground.
Rylan begins to chuckle and I begin to worry for his fate. If he keeps his up, Seth will put a bullet in head.
“You don’t deserve this gift boy!” He presses his boot on Rylan’s neck. “When Kraven straps you down and injects over and over again, I want you to remember my face knowing I’m the one who brought you that to pain and misery. Maybe I’ll keep Kala company once you’re gone,” Seth grins.
“She’s alive?” I ask.
“You better not touch her!” Rylan attempts to get up but Seth kicks him. The soldiers around us laugh.
All this time Rylan was right, Kala did survived.
Seth starts into a separate vehicle ahead. A few moments later the car drives off and the men push us towards the truck.
My heart begins to race and my hands start sweat as they open the back door. The troops carry out Faye’s body first, handing her to the men in hazmat suits. They place her gently on the truck floor like a sick patient.
“Hazer,” Rylan whispers.
I look over and Rylan’s eyes are widened as he glances at one of the armed men’s gun. He’s waiting for my response. I know what he’s thinking, but it’s too dangerous. They’re armed and we don’t’ stand a chance. Besides they are all around us and the fact I’m not willing to kill someone will makes things even more impossible. Rylan cannot put his faith in me because I’ll blow it like last time.
I shake my head hoping he would stand down but as an armed man walks over to Rylan and places their hands on him, a pulse of energy expands from his body, causing them to fly off of him. His eyes change to its Redeemed blue from and the ropes around his wrist automatically rips off, letting us know his strength is back.
“Contain him!” they shout.
Two men immediately run at Rylan but he telekinetically knocks them back. I quickly shove the armed men beside me, smashing him with my shoulder. I then head butt him in the face, knocking him out. We might actually get away with this. Rylan grabs one of the man’s pistols and shoots at the remaining soldiers. They dodge most of his firing and attempt to shoot him but the bullets ricochet off of his shield. Suddenly one of the white suit men grabs me, pulling on to the truck. I struggle for my freedom and I can barely breathe as my heart is pounding faster and heavier.
“RYLAN!” I yell.
He turns around and just as he’s about to run towards me a man behinds him ready his gun, aiming it towards Rylan.
BANG!
I look deep into my brother’s eyes as the blue iris fades to back to normal. I barely let out a breath. The truck door suddenly closes and the floor beneath me starts to rumble. I repeatedly bang on the medal doors and suddenly the hard surface dents.
“Did I do that?”
“Rylan!” I yell, but it’s too late. The truck is already moving, leaving Rylan injured and behind.
I turn around and the two men in hazmat suits walks towards me, holding a tranquilizer. “You’re monsters!” I attempt shove them off of me but I feel a sharp piercing to my neck. My mind begins to cloud. I quickly push one of the man and flies back. It’s as if I have superhuman strength that I’m unaware of.
Everything becomes blurry and my muscles are no longer able to support my balance. I fall against the medal doors.
“Y-you’re m-monsters.”
~
“Hazer, wake up!” a hand starts shaking my body and I jerk myself up. “Rylan, where’s Rylan!” I panic. I look around the truck and the men in hazmat suits are sitting patiently at the end of the truck with their hands to their knees. I can’t see their faces behind the black face shield.
I notice the ropes around our wrist are off as they are now tangle together on the floor.
“Hazer what happened?” Faye asks.
“They shot Rylan and left him,” I quickly get up, trying to catch my breath. I quickly run towards the men in white suits. Faye suddenly grabs my arm, preventing me from getting revenge.
“Hazer stop! They will kill you.”
I slowly take a deep breath. She’s right there’s no point. I sit back down against the medal door and bury my hands in my hair. “I can’t believe I let this happen.”
“This is not your fault Hazer. There’s nothing you could have done,” Faye places her hand on my arm.
“I promise, I promise him I’ll help him save Kala.”
“We can still save her. Just you and me,” Faye says.
I look down at my own bare hands and quickly remember the strength that I witness.
“No this isn’t right,” I say.
“Hazer calm down,” Faye reaches for me but I push off of me.
“What did you !?” I yell.
Tears fall down her cheeks as she looks at me with sorrow.
“What did you do!?” I yell again.
“I injected you with my blood!”
“WHAT!? Why would you inject me?!”
Faye doesn’t reply.
“This entire time, you had your memories and you were bringing Rylan and me to Kraven?”
“It’s not like that!” Faye cries. “When Rylan led the Havore away, Seth found us in the military vehicle. He saw you unconscious and pointed a gun to your head and I begged him not too. I told him you could be some use to Kraven in order to spare you at that moment. Yes I was told to inject you with my blood and yes I did it partly out of vengeance because you left me in the forest but I didn’t want to be that same girl anymore. The same girl who stood back and watch people die in front of her. I’ve witness so many deaths by the hands of my people.”
“I survived the injection?”
“I knew Seth wouldn’t let have let us go, so played mind tricks on him, leading him away temporarily until you surprisingly awoke from the transition.”
“How can you not tell me this entire time?”
“It was hard and I…”
“Hard? I had tell a girl with amnesia that I was the one who took her memories.”
“Because I fell in love with you,” Faye cries.
“This changes everything,” I say.
“I’m sorry Hazer.”
I lay my head back and I close my eyes. All I can think about is going home and wish non of this ever happened. All of it. I can see myself opening the door and Kaleb runs to me while my mom waits in the kitchen with food that she had work so hard on in order to keep me the three of us alive. I miss that, I miss all of it. Carter knocking on my door and we would hang out like old times. He would probably bring his two sisters along and Garrett would show up out of nowhere.
The rumbling stops and I hear a door open from the outside. Voices can heard from a distances. I realize we’re here and there is no way out.
“I won’t let them hurt you,” Faye says.
“It’s too late for that,” I say.
“If anything happens, I just want you to know how sorry I am for causing you to become like this. Nothing made sense when I woke up in the water tanks and these past few days I learned I can conjure up illusions to point where I can just drift off into whole different world but when I’m with you everything feels real again.”
I place my hands around Faye’s neck, pulling her in until our lips meet. I back away and slowly open my eyes. Faye places her fingers on her lips, shocked.
“Do you feel that?” I ask.
“Y-yes,” Faye says.
“That’s how I felt, fooled.”
I could feel I how much I’m hurting Faye right now but it doesn’t disregard the fact that my brother might be dead and that she had led Seth’s troops to us, faked her amnesia and never told me that I was a Redeemed.
The door suddenly opens and the armed men grab us. “Let
go of us!” Faye yells.
I expected to be drag in some lab as they’re ready to open up my insides and experiment on my organs, but instead I see white dove’s flutter their wings. They soar across the perfectly paved roads and the white buildings around us are all smoothly connected in some way, either with curved stairs or bridges. The bright sun reflects off of structures but the windows are dimmed, making me curious to who might lives in these homes.
The empty streets have only few cars parked on the side of the apartments, I didn’t picture Devah to be such a beautiful place, but the only thing missing were the people. It’s like they all left or disappear form the face of the Earth.
“Where is the other boy?” Seth yells as he approaches us.
“He regained his ability and we put him down sir.”
Seth glances over at me and stares into my eyes with fire. He could kill me in cold blood if he wanted to, but giving me to Kraven as a Redeemed test subject will benefit him a lot more. I smirk back at him, letting him know he won’t be getting the satisfaction from giving Kraven three subjects as he had promise.
“I don’t know think you know what you’re up against, boy,” Seth grabs my chest and pushes me against the truck door. I can feel his warm breath against my face.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“Your nothing but a scum off the streets don’t think that you’re now a Redeemed, you’ll ever be treated as royalty or respect” Seth whispers into my ear before letting me go.
All the blood rushes to my head as my eyes begins to tingle. I try not lash out to him but if I do I’ll get shot down. All I can do is endure his sick comments.
“Grab them; we’re taking them to Kraven now.”
The soldiers grab my arm, forcing us down the black smooth road, which seems to be leading to building in the center of Devah’s domain. The middle building is 3 stories high with a glass dome on top of the roof. Kraven must be waiting for us in there.
From the corner of my eye, I see a catastrophic sighting. The plane that Kala had crashed is now stuck in the higher levels of a tall building. I can see the dark smoke just forming into the sky as the plane continues to burn its fumes.