Thirteen Forgotten Worlds (Seam Wardens Book 1)

by Brant Williams

  So, while it was intended to be a punishment, the end result was our getting to spend time together and getting to know each other better.

  And we definitely took advantage of that time. There had been quite a bit of life that had happened between when we were kids and now. We were both eager to hear it all.

  The last Thursday of our punishment, we were assigned to clean the bathrooms next to a large practice facility. These bathrooms were particularly rank, so talking was needed to distract us and keep our minds on something other than the smell of urine and body odor.

  While we cleaned, I discovered that Alexa, despite being able to master complicated martial arts moves, was completely unable to dance. She also hated ranch dressing with a passion to the point that she could hardly stand to be in the same room with someone eating it.

  She also told me all about growing up with the Seam Wardens and what her teenage years were like. Surprisingly, they were not as different from my own as I had thought. It turned out she went to a public high school with a few of the other Seam Warden kids — it was up to the parents how they wanted to handle it. Alexa had run cross-country as well as track, just as I had. She had gotten straight A’s and multiple scholarship offers, but always knew she was going to be a Seam Warden.

  Also, like me, Alexa had hardly dated anyone in her life. I was surprised to find out that she had, however, gone out a few times with Logan, but that had stopped after a few dates.

  “All he did was talk about how awesome a musician he was,” she said. “That got old in a hurry.”

  For the first time since I had known him, I was glad to hear that Logan couldn't stop talking about himself.

  On our last three days of cleaning duty, we were assigned to clean bathrooms away from the Cadet areas. These, at least, were in a rather isolated section of the headquarters where there were mostly storage closets and supplies, so they didn’t get a ton of use. We had four bathrooms we had to clean before we could be done for the night.

  “Tell me about your family,” I said to Alexa while we scrubbed, wiped, and mopped. “I remember meeting your mom and dad as well as your little brother. And his name was…” I thought for a moment before remembering it. “Dennis.”

  Alexa smiled. "That's right," she said. "You have an impressive memory, especially considering that when you first came here you couldn't even remember who I was."

  I shrugged and grinned sheepishly. “In my defense, there were some seriously extenuating circumstances.”

  “True. What do you want to know about my family?”

  “I want to know exciting things that have happened since I was here. So much time has passed. I remember your mom was in the Diplomatic Department and your dad was in Special Forces."

  “My mom is still in the Diplomatic Department," said Alexa, "but Dad's no longer in Special Forces." She paused and thought for a moment. "I guess it must have happened not too long after you left."

  “What?”

  "His accident," Alexa said. She took a deep breath as if steeling herself to tell me something that was still painful to think about. "He was wounded while on a mission. His leg was so torn up that they almost had to amputate it."

  “That’s horrible,” I said. “Did he have any enhancers?”

  "Two," said Alexa. "But that was just enough to let him keep the leg. It was severely mangled and never did heal right. To this day he walks with a limp, and his leg gives out if he tries to run. He was essentially forced into a very early retirement from Special Forces. So, he stayed at home to take care of my brother and me while my mom worked. He didn't have to. He could have worked in administration or something like that, but he wanted to do something that mattered to him. If he couldn't use his abilities to save the world, he was going to put all his energy into being the best dad possible for us."

  I thought about that for a minute before responding. “While that sucks for him that he got hurt, that must have been awesome having your dad around so much,” I said.

  I would have given anything to have had my dad with me growing up. Uncle Mike had been very kind to me, but I always wondered what my life would have been like if my parents hadn’t been killed. Where would I have lived? What would I have been like? Your parents play a huge role in determining what you experience and shaping who you are.

  Who would have I been?

  "It was wonderful," Alexa said. "I learned a lot from him. He taught me a ton of things that I would have never learned if I hadn't had him around so much."

  “Like what?”

  “Like all my fighting and weapon techniques. I had a huge head start on everyone because my dad taught me how to use the weapons and trained me pretty much every day. He also taught me what it was like to be loved unconditionally. We didn't always agree on everything, and we butted heads plenty, but I always knew he loved me no matter what."

  “You have no idea how lucky you are,” I said.

  The sound of a door opening interrupted our conversation. We had the bathroom door propped open while we cleaned, so it had to be the next door storage closet opening. But the strange thing was that we hadn't heard anyone approach. We should have heard someone coming down the hallway long before they could have opened the door. Apparently, we had ninjas in the headquarters.

  I poked my head out of the bathroom and saw Spencer closing the door of a storage closet behind him. He jumped when he saw me.

  “Holy crap, you scared me!” he said and put a hand over his heart.

  Alexa joined me at the door. “Hey, Spencer,” she said. “What are you doing down here?”

  “I was just taking inventory,” he said. He saw our clothes and the rubber gloves we both wore. He smiled. “Punishment duty?” he asked.

  “You guessed it,” I said. “When we got back from California, Reid and Abby were waiting for us. I have no idea how they figured out where we had gone.”

  Spencer shook his head ruefully. “Never underestimate the snooping powers of the training masters. It doesn’t matter who they have in that position, they always seem to know everything that’s going on. It was like that even when I was a cadet.”

  "Well," I said. "It was worth it. We managed to get the enhancer out of Amy and saved her life. I wanted to say thanks for helping us out."

  Spencer made a hushing noise and looked around as if convinced at any moment guards were going to swarm out of the bathroom and arrest him. "Shhh. I appreciate the thanks, but you can’t ever mention my involvement or I will be busted back to desk duty for a year. This has got to remain our secret, okay?”

  “Of course,” I said. “We would never rat you out after all the help you gave us.”

  Alexa nodded her assent as well.

  Spencer looked around again – as if the first time hadn’t been enough – and seemed to relax a bit. “Did you find out anything about where she got the enhancer from?”

  “Not really,” I said.

  “She got it from her manager,” said Alexa. “We don’t know who her manager got it from. She promised to look into it and let us know.”

  Spencer appeared thoughtful. “That was some nice detective work there,” he said. “If you do hear who her manager got it from, you should come tell me. Right now, you two are in a really delicate situation. The last thing you need is to get into any more trouble. Too much trouble will severely limit which branches of service you can even apply for when you graduate. You’ll be stuck on Monster Control for your entire career and retire with only two limbs left.” He paused and smiled at his own joke. “Let me know any information you find out and I’ll make sure the lead gets followed up on. How does that sound?”

  I glanced over at Alexa and shrugged. “That works for me,” I said, turning back to Spencer. Now that Amy was no longer in immediate, life-threatening danger, I felt less concerned about trying to track down the person who sold the enhancer to her manager.

  Alexa, however, appeared to be more concerned about it than I was. “I suppose,” she said, b
ut I noticed that she didn’t look at either Spencer or I as she spoke.

  "Excellent," Spencer said, clapping us both on the back. He leaned down and put his head between ours. "A word of advice. Finish your punishment duty and keep your heads down for the rest of the year. Once you graduate, you'll have a bit more latitude, but being a Cadet is all about learning how to obey orders.”

  And with those oh-so-encouraging words, Spencer left and walked down the hall, whistling some tune I was unfamiliar with.

  “That was weird,” said Alexa.

  “What was?” I asked.

  “What was he doing in that closet?” she asked.

  “He said he was taking inventory.”

  “Yeah, but these closets aren’t very big. He had to have been in there since before we started cleaning this area. Did you see him with any kind of list that he would have been using for inventory?”

  “No, but wouldn’t he have used his mobile data pad for that?”

  “I suppose,” Alexa said, but she seemed very distracted. She walked over to the door that Spencer had just walked out of and tried the handle. It was locked. She tried her biometric signature, but that didn’t work either.

  “Hmm. It seems to be restricted.”

  “Is that unusual?”

  “Not necessarily,” said Alexa. “There are lots of storage rooms that are restricted…”

  “But?” I prompted.

  Alexa pulled out a mobile data pad, unrolled it, and began to tap on it.

  “How did you get that?” I asked. Cadets weren’t supposed to have personal data pads until they graduated. They were considered too distracting.

  “I have my ways,” Alexa said looking up from the data pad with a wicked grin. She turned her attention back to the screen. “Besides, something here has got my spider sense tingling.”

  I so loved that she said "spider sense." My inner nerd rejoiced.

  There was a click, and the storage room door opened. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. Alexa had just somehow hacked the Seam Warden's security system and remotely opened a door.

  “How is that even possible?” I asked.

  “I’ve learned a trick or two since you left, Pierce Davis.”

  Alexa took hold of the door handle and pulled. Inside we found… a storage closet.

  It was old and dusty inside and smelled strongly of cat pee. That surprised me since I had seen very few cats or dogs in the halls of the Seam Wardens.

  "Do Seam Wardens' keep pets?" I asked.

  “I take it you smell the cat pee?” she said. “And yes, we do.”

  “Why haven’t I seen any in the hallways?”

  “Most people who own pets have transdimensional doors installed that open into a field or some place for the pet to go out, so they don’t have to drag them through the halls to take them to do their business.”

  I guessed that made sense. A transdimensional door was probably a cool feature to have as a pet owner. That would save a ton of time.

  Alexa and I continued to investigate what was in the room but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. The room was filled with old and dusty equipment that was no longer in use. Honestly, the entire place could probably be emptied without losing anything of value.

  The only thing that wasn’t dusty was an old litter box that was the source of the cat pee smell. I picked it up and showed it to Alexa.

  “Lovely.”

  I replaced the litter box, and we went back to cleaning our bathrooms. We worked in silence for several minutes until Alexa finally spoke.

  “I can’t help feeling that we’re missing something,” she said.

  “Like what?” I asked. “That was Spencer. He’s the best Seam Warden I know.”

  “I know,” said Alexa. “But there was something about how he was acting that seemed off to me.”

  "Well, Spencer has always been a bit slow to comply with rules he doesn't like," I said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was hiding something, but I don't want to be the one to rat him out. Do you?"

  “I guess not,” Alexa said, but her tone made it clear that unlike me, she didn’t trust what he was up to. I could see her point, but I knew Spencer. Whatever he might be hiding, I was sure he had a good reason for it. Besides, we still owed him for helping us get to Amy and remove her Enhancer. I wasn’t about to repay him by telling the First Warden that we think he might be hiding something.

  Whatever he was doing was his business.

  Training continued at a breakneck pace. Literally. In one of our exercises, I was testing out my speed and ended up falling off a thirty-foot ledge to land on my neck.

  Yeah, a thirty-foot plunge that snapped my neck and severed my spinal cord. I should have been killed, if not paralyzed for life. And for a few minutes, I actually was paralyzed.

  As I fell, I put all my enhancers directly into strength. The stronger I was, the less damage there would be when I hit since my muscles and bones would be able to absorb the impact. As soon as I impacted the ground, I diverted all my enhancers into healing. By the time Reid and Abby could get there to check on me, I was able to stand up and was perfectly fine to continue training.

  But no one would let me. Alexa sided with Reid and Abby who sent me to the infirmary where I was forced to undergo a physical examination that was much, much, more thorough than necessary. I was poked and prodded pretty much everywhere possible. I made a mental note to do everything in my power to avoid this place in the future.

  The following day, I was cleared to return to training. This particular exercise was combat training in an urban environment. We were paired up and given ten minutes to clear out a populated area of all non-humans while not harming any of the humans.

  It was tricky since as soon as you turned a corner, the simulated creatures and humans would come straight at you. That required instant judgment to determine if the approaching target was hostile or not. If you hit any innocent humans or were touched by any creature from the Seams, then you were out.

  I was paired up with Kathryn who would have been my last choice, well, except for Logan who more times than not, wouldn’t even try. Kathryn had finally given up doing her hair and makeup before our early morning runs and seemed to be more rested these days. But she only wanted to be a part of the diplomatic corps and saw Cadet training as a hoop she had to jump through to get there. And, unfortunately, her abilities reflected that lack of drive.

  We were the last pair to go through the exercise. High above, a scoreboard hung from the ceiling showing each team’s score. The record so far was Alexa and Zach who had killed eight and rescued five.

  If it had been Alexa and me, that score would have been doubled.

  Kathryn and I entered the simulated city with our Boom Sticks at the ready. I activated three enhancers for speed and Kathryn activated hers for speed as well.

  I realized with a start that I could somehow feel what she had done with her enhancer. Was that possible? I had never heard of that with enhancers before, but no one had ever had eight enhancers before either. I was kind of in uncharted waters here.

  We moved at double speed through the halls and tagged a family of humans. The scoreboard above lit up showing we had four rescues. It was a great start to the exercise.

  We turned the corner and a Stoki flew straight toward us. I hit the Boom Sticks and sent out a wide wave that knocked the creature out of the air but wasn't enough to stop it. Kathryn followed up with a shock that rendered it unconscious.

  Another score for us.

  Kathryn pumped her fist in victory. I heard the cheers of the other cadets as the scoreboard changed.

  We continued to work our way through the simulated city looking for our next target to save or rescue. At each corner, we took it slowly. We eventually got into a rhythm where one of us would slowly look around the corner and trigger whatever was there – human or not, and then either drop to the floor or dive out of the way while the other attacked. It gave us an extra second to make a decisi
on which was crucial in this exercise.

  With two minutes left, we had killed six and rescued six. That put us at a total of twelve – one behind Alexa and Zach. I couldn't let them beat us. We were a competitive bunch, and victory in the simulations gave the winner some serious bragging rights – at least until the next simulation.

  “Time to step up the pace,” I said. “We need two more.”

  Kathryn nodded. I could tell she wanted this victory as much as I did. It wasn't often she got to be the one bragging, and we were so close to sweet rub-it-in-for-a-week victory.

  I ran to the next corner – nothing.

  I ran through three more – still nothing. If something didn't happen soon, we were going to lose.

  At the next corner, I felt something strange. As I turned the corner, I had the overwhelming urge to stop and spin in the opposite direction.

  I had no idea why.

  I followed my instinct and spun at the last second, narrowly missing a human charging directly at me. If I hadn’t spun out of the way, I would have run straight into him and given the speed I was going, that would have counted as an attack and lost us the contest.

  The charging human targets were the trickiest kind. To rescue them, you had to avoid them for several seconds while they continued to chase you. This was supposed to simulate the need to avoid hurting them while they are trying to attack you.

  I used my speed to move out of the way and circle behind the target. The simulated human turned back to me and charged again. I dodged out of the way two more times, and that was enough. The simulated human stopped attacking, and the scoreboard changed indicating another rescue.

  We were tied with less than a minute to go.

  Kathryn came around the corner once she saw the score change.