by Grayson Crew
I hear voices in the stairwell. Footsteps, heavy and quick, get louder.
Someone tries to open the door, but the shadows hold it shut.
Bullets are fired at the door, but the shadows hold it in place.
“Please forgive me,” she says.
“For what?”
“For what I have to do now.”
“What are you going to do?”
"You need to use your power or they'll take you away. They'll make you a breeder. Please forgive me."
The shadows step away from the door. One more round of gunfire and the door flies open.
Shattered Glass
Three guards step in but pull back when the shadows step in front of them. One of them calls for backup on a static radio.
Guns raised, the guards step forward slowly, facing off against the shadows.
The darkness in Jael's hand thickens and spreads, drawing the attention of the guards.
The shadows lunge forward, overtaking the three of them. I hear them scream.
"Stop!" I scream to Jael. "Stop them!"
The guards drop dead on the floor.
"More will be here soon," she says.
I'm staring at the dead bodies, at their broken necks. She did this. She killed them.
Jael killed them.
"I don't want you to do this," I say.
"I don’t have a choice.”
"You’re not a killer. Please don't do this!"
More guards are coming. I hear them running down the metal stairs. They flood into the room, a gun pointed at each of us. Behind them I hear a girl yelling.
"Let me through!" She screams, "He'll listen to me."
Then I see her brightly colored dress.
Jael steps forward, darkness spreading from her palms like a wave. Within seconds she plunges the room into complete darkness.
"Turn on your sights!" Screams a commander.
"My sights are on!" Another shouts back.
A spray of bullets fires into the air. Someone screams. I drop onto my stomach and cover my head.
"Hold your fire!"
Something cracks. Another scream.
"Where's the exit!"
More bullets.
"Stop firing!" That was Ana.
"Ana!" I shout. "Stay low!"
Then comes the light. Inside the glass wall a thick ray builds in intensity. It's so bright I can't see anything else.
"Shoot her!" Screams someone
"Hold. Your. Fire." Screams another.
The room heats up within seconds. Sweat beads on my brow as I cover my eyes with my hand. I hear the sound of glass cracking.
"Back out! Seal the exit!" I hear feet trampling around the room, trying to find an exit they can't see. I jump up to keep from getting trampled. More glass sounds like it's cracking.
The light dims. Slowly, it starts to normalize. Parts of the glass wall have melted from where the beam of light was. Cracks are spreading from the melted sections, branching out like a web.
Then rises the static of the Whispers and Hiro.
She has to awaken you.
What?
The cracks get larger, slicing through the thick glass. In any moment, it could break and the water will rush in. Jael's going to drown us.
Someone fires again.
Bullets spray across the room and hit the glass.
Millions of beaded shards fly through the air as the window shatters.
The King of Tides
Closing my eyes, I take a last breath and wait for the wall of water to rush in and pulverize us.
Seconds pass. It's silent. Nothing. No water. My hands are in front of me as if to deflect a blow, but the blow isn't coming.
"The fountain gave you powers too," I hear Jael say.
I open my eyes. In front of me, just at the touch of my fingertips is a wall of congealed water.
The guards that are still alive retreat. I hear the door slam and the hiss of it being sealed. Red lights start flashing and alarms wail.
Jael approaches the wall of water, feeling for it until reaching it.
"This is you," she says.
The water starts to tremble.
"Help me!" I cry out to her.
"I can't."
My hand shakes as it stays pressed against the liquid wall. What happens if I let it down?
What happens if I move?
Ana steps beside me.
"You need to get out of here," I say.
"The guards sealed the door," she replies.
The shadows are still in here with us.
"Jael," I say without looking away from the wall of water, “the shadows listen to you. Make them open the door. Get Ana out."
I hear the sound of the door being rent from its hinges. The shadows toss it into the congealed water.
"Now get Ana out," I command.
Ana steps in front of me, standing between me and the water, her eyes looking straight into mine. I look to the water.
"I leave when you leave,” she says.
"Let go when the Whispers tell you to,” Jael says, “If they want us to live, than we'll live.”
I want to say something back, but don't know where to even start.
"They're telling me to leave now,” she continues, "If I don't listen . . ." A Shadow comes beside her and guides her out of the room.
I hear the sound of her footsteps getting farther away.
If you don’t listen . . . than what?
Ana puts her arms around me.
What am I supposed to do?
If she doesn't leave now, she'll drown.
"You need to leave. Fast," I tell Ana.
"And you?"
I don't know.
"Get into the stairwell; I'll come behind you. Be ready to run.”
For a moment she doesn't move, then she plants her feet, "I can run as fast as you."
Let go.
And then what?
Let go, now.
I'm not ready!
The wall of water starts rumbling. I'm losing control.
Let go!
I drop my hand.
As quick as my hand falls, Ana and I have turned and are bolting for the exit. Behind us, the wall collapses.
Water roars into the hull.
Wrath of the Sea
I push Ana ahead of me.
Climbing the stairs, water rushes into the stairwell, filling the stories below us before rising.
Cold whitewater catches up to our heels. There's no way we can outrun it.
I slam my shoulder into an exit and pull Ana through with me. The water rushes in with us, sweeping us off our feet and carrying us to the end of the corridor.
Red lights flash in and out as we race past. Ana is clenching my hand with both of hers.
My body slams into a wall as we're carried around a corner. The water level is rising.
Something catches my pants and pulls me under. I lose Ana.
The fabric rips and I'm dragged along again. The corridor tightens. I push my way under a doorframe, putting me into a stairwell.
Ana is above me, grasping for the railings as the water rises.
Fumbling against the pull, I swim and pull my way toward her. The ceiling is getting closer. I grab her arm.
Rising faster, we're suddenly sucked under and forced through a doorway. On the other side, our bodies are slammed against metal rails.
The water rushes around us and falls over an edge and into the ocean only a few feet below. We must've been forced out onto a deck.
"Hold onto me!" I shout.
She wraps around my waist.
Arm over arm, I pull sideways along the rail until we're able to get on our knees.
There's a ladder going up. Ana climbs first, then me.
She's almost a story above me when water comes crashing out of a porthole in front of me, knocking me off the ladder.
In the air, I feel my legs slam against a rail, but it doesn't stop me. I keep falling.
&nbs
p; Alone
I’m plunged into the sea, getting pulled under and rolled in the churning current.
I swim to what I think is up, but maybe it's sideways or down.
Stroke after stroke, I push my way away from the hull and the swirling current.
I'm so disoriented that the only way for me to know what direction is up is to see where I float.
I wait, then feel my body start floating toward what feels like I’m going down, but I know I'm not. So I swim that direction.
Within seconds I'm bursting through the surface, smelling the salty wet air as I breathe in.
I look for Ana, call out for her. Diving under I look for her, but don't see anything other than an endless blue.
Maybe she’s still on the ship. She was far enough above me.
A wave from the wake pushes me farther from the hull until the ship passes me. Far ahead is the silhouette of peaking mountains.
Bobbing in the wake the ship trails farther and farther away. I watch for a lifeboat to be dropped, for a helicopter to come and search for me, but nothing comes.
The Endless Sea
My eyes don’t leave the ship until it’s nothing but a gray dot on the horizon.
The water is warm and calm, with smooth, rolling waves. I feel like I’m back in the Facility, preparing for laps. I have the same mix of fear and comfort.
Comfort to be in the water, away from the harshness of the Facility, but fear in what lies beneath. I think of the Chumming.
I’m not sure what direction the current is pulling me, maybe toward the mountains, maybe away from them. Fear seeps deep into me as I look at the distance between me and the land.
They say the horizon is seven miles away, but that’s when the surface is flat. The mountains could be seventy miles away for all I can tell.
I’m so tired.
For a moment I think of swimming down so far that even if I try to come back up I won’t make it, but I shut that thought away and lock it up.
Looking at the sun glistening like diamonds on the water, I remember the light on the lake at Dovehaven. I remember Cliff diving with his spear to catch our day’s dinner.
My heart feels lighter and strength builds in me, enough to start swimming. I swim steady to keep my strength and imagine that Cliff is here with me, pushing me to keep going.
I imagine searching for Ana in the ports. Even more, finding Jael.
Stroke after stroke I swim in rhythm to a metronome of rolling waves. My throat burns from salt and my lungs burn from exhaustion. I keep going.
I see something coming from the horizon. Then I hear a muffled roar, like an engine.
Fin
A helicopter.
They came back for me.
I start waving my arms wildly and screaming out even though there’s no chance they can hear me. I’ll be lucky if they see me.
The helicopter circles around and swoops lower, hovering over me. A ladder drops a few yards in front of me. I plunge toward it and grab the bottom rung as a wave rolls me higher.
The ladder starts pulling up, dragging me with it. I wrap my elbows around the rung and lock my hands. The sea spirals below me as I sway and spin in the air.
“Pull!” shouts a young man as he grabs my arms and pulls me into the helicopter. An older man in a jumpsuit slides the door shut. The deafening roar of the blades and engine become a dull thudding sound.
I pull myself toward a seat, gripping the fabric as the helicopter tilts to the side. Once we’re leveled out again, I throw myself into the seat and scramble to strap myself in.
“Everyone strapped?” asks the pilot.
“Everyone’s in. Just get us out of here!” replies the older co-pilot. I look to the young man across from me. Must be around my age. His eyes remind me of Violin.
“Name’s Fin,” He says over the pulse of the engine and blades.
“West,” I reply.
“You lucked out bro. We got a tip from a girl on the boat. Said to look for someone overboard. Good thing we got to you before the guards,” he points to my tattoo. “We don’t care about that, but they would.”
“Who’s we?”
“The Movement.” We had a few based in Dovehaven.”
He extends his hand. I take it. He does something like a handshake but I can’t keep up with it. In the movement I see a dove emblem flash through the unbuttoned part of his shirt.
It’s hanging on a gold neck chain. The same symbol as I saw on Hiro, Ana, and the yellow bow.
Where’s Jael? Where’s Ana? Who’s the movement? I almost drowned. I’m alive. The shadows are still here. Jael’s with them? They helped me. I made a wall of water. Jael is blind. She has superpowers? I have superpowers. This is insane. My family is dead. My head starts throbbing. I start feeling sick. I’m flying in a helicopter with a guy who keeps calling me bro. This is insane.
“We’ll have to work on that shake,” says Fin, reminding me that our minds are in two very different places.
I nod.
“You always this quiet?”
I can feel my brows creasing when I look straight into his eyes even though I don’t mean to.
Surprisingly, he seems to get whatever it is I’m feeling. “Look, I . . . I get it. It’s cool. Just give it time.”
I nod, even though there’s really no way to know if we’re talking about the same thing. I don’t even know what I’m talking about. Then it hits me. What he just said about the girl.
I was assuming he was talking about Ana going to the guards to come and find me. But maybe it wasn’t.
“What did she look like?” I ask.
“Your girl?”
“The girl, yeah.”
“Dark hair. I think she was blind. She was looking around all confused, so I grabbed her and asked what was going on. She took a minute, like she was thinking whether to trust me. I guess she decided to trust me.
“Jael,” I say. “Her name is Jael.”
“Was there another girl? Green eyes, brown hair, Portuguese accent?”
“Ana? The chick from the Dovehaven settlement?”
“You know her?” I ask.
“Yeah, she’s part of our movement. She’s hot too.”
I have no idea where to go with that one.
“She was on the ship earlier in the day. Then she ran off somewhere. Haven’t seen her since.”
I feel sick. “Did you scan the water for anyone else?”
“Bro, we scanned every inch, or we never would’ve found you.”
Then I’ll just hope to God that she’s on the ship.
“She’s back on the ship. Somewhere. We’ll probably see her at our headquarters soon.
Is that where we’re going?”
“Yeah. Should be there soon.” He leans in toward me and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Look, bro, I know you’ve seen some crazy stuff. These havens . . . the camps, the auctions, everything . . . it’s bad stuff. But you’re safe now. Promise.”
Your promises aren’t worth anything to me.
Arrival
The sun is setting when the helicopter starts to descend. Through the window, I see mountains, green and jagged like on Dovehaven. Resting between them is a tight clustering city blanketed in hazy air.
Skyscrapers and neon signs sparkle in the twilight. Is this Krung Thep? Hiro might be down there.
Bypassing the city, we fly for another hour along the coast until finally descending over an open field not far from the beach. Descending, I grip my shoulder belt. The helicopter dips forward, then with a jolt, we land.