“A Demon?” I said in a rather concerned tone.
“Think about it, the Demons are such a fascinating race. Sure they waged war on our planet but look at us now!” she said zealously. “We won the war, the Demons are scattered, and the New Generation has superpowers.”
“Sure, you have a point…”
“I could maybe one day shift into a Dragon, even a Titan, and use that awesome power for a good cause like rebuilding our planet.”
“That’s all well and good in theory, but I feel like that kind of power changes a person. Earth-born animals seem fine but we don’t know anything about the biology of Demons. Turning into one of them could be risky.”
“I agree,” Cora added. “Power has the potential to corrupt; my parents told me that once.”
“Well when you meet someone who exemplifies your case, let me know,” she said confidently. “Trust me. One day, we will all have mastered our powers, and we’ll be ones conquering new worlds. And unlike the Demons, we’ll be successful.”
“Hey now, I’m excited for that day as much as you are. I just hope we keep our values if and when we get there.” I wanted to change the subject. “So Aelia, what’s your power?”
She laughed. “Well if you think shapeshifting is amazing…”
“Oh, go on. What is it?”
“I believe she’s a pyrokinetic,” Mark said.
“Wow, who’s this killjoy,” Aelia said, slightly annoyed.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Mark apologized. “I did not realize you were creating an aura of suspense.”
“Are you sassing me you hexadecimal piece of shit?” Aelia replied angrily.
“Whoa calm down,” I interjected. “Aelia, you’re a pyrokinetic, care to demonstrate?”
She sighed cheerfully, as if she had no doubt I would be incredibly impressed, and held out her hand. A small flame erupted from her palm, and began to burn peacefully above it.
“God said ‘let there be light, and there was light,'” she said with a sense of presentation in her voice.
“What’s that from?” I asked, admiring the fire.
“Some book my parents used to read,” she said sullenly. “They died years ago, but they used to read it to me when I was little.”
The glow from the flame lit up Aelia’s face, and I jumped back when I saw that her eyes had turned completely black.
“Um, Aelia,” I said carefully, “your eyes, they’re - “
“Oh, yeah I know,” she said casually. “It’s a side effect of this power. I can’t sustain a flame without this happening,” she said, pointing to her eyes.
She then made a fist, dissipating the flame. The black color in her eyes faded, and she once again looked human. I couldn’t help but think that those eyes made her look a lot like a Demon, and having had a close call with one not long ago, I was a little wary.
We continued to walk in silence for a few minutes. Everyone was on their guard; the tunnel was very wide and had several dark corridors extending out towards either side. The Southern Gate was some unknown distance ahead of us, but we marched on. Every so often, the lights would flicker, but never go out completely.
That is, until after about an hour in the tunnel.
I estimated the exit to be only a few hundred feet away at this point. That’s when the lights wavered again. Except this time, they would not stabilize and the intervals of darkness seemed to grow longer and longer. Finally, the light shut off completely and I stopped in my tracks. I could no longer hear the others’ footsteps, the low hum of some distant generator fell quiet.
“OK, I can see,” Aaron said, breaking the eerie silence. It took a few seconds for his eyes to calibrate to the environment. “Follow me.”
“Not everyone can see you Aaron,” I said.
“I can, I’m in your head,” Cora said. “Don’t worry, just your vision.”
“OK, let me…just…transformmmmeeeeoowww,” Lynn’s voice became high pitched then trailed off. She had evidently shapeshifted again into an animal that I assumed could see in the dark.
“So Lynn’s a cat,” Aelia said casually. “The rest of us are going to have to be extra careful. Ironically, I can’t conjure up a larger flame in this darkness, it’ll attract too much attention from whatever’s lurking in these tunnels.”
“We’ll be OK,” Rachel said.
“Just warn me if something’s coming, alright?” I requested.
“Will do,” Aaron said. “Let’s keep going.”
We walked on for a while, hearing the sound of scuttering footsteps echo in the darkness. I hoped that whatever was out there was as blind as I was, and especially that we wouldn't run into another Siren.
That’s when I heard the low moaning.
“OK, guys, I know what you’re think - “
“There’s a little girl out there and we have to save her!” Rachel exclaimed.
“Rachel - “
“I’m kidding,” she laughed, much to my relief.
“It’s probably lurking in one of these side paths,” Cora said. “Its toxin is weak, judging by the fact that none of you are affected. So long as we keep moving forward we should be fine.”
And we did just that. But even so, the constant, dull moan was extremely unnerving. On top of that, we began to hear screeching, growling, and also scraping, as if something was dragging itself across the walls of the tunnel. The air was damp and foul. I struggled to breath, and prayed that I wouldn’t have to end up running. This wasn’t the first time I was stuck in a total darkness, but that didn’t make it any less painful.
I was a little startled when I bumped into Aaron, again.
“Hey what - “
“Shhh.”
“What is it?” I whispered.
“It’s some kind of creature wandering around the tracks ahead of us,” Aaron replied quietly.
“Oh no, there’s another,” Cora added.
“Meow,” Lynn cried quietly, confirming what their report.
“It’s the Swarm,” Aaron said as he came to this terrifying realization. “There’s gotta be at least a dozen now.”
“Hey, I got this,” Aelia said, stumbling her way to the front of the group. “Ready to burn some Demons, just point me in their direction.”
“No, you can’t,” Rachel warned. “The light and heat will attract even more of them and that’s the last thing we need.”
“I detect a total of 53 life forms in our relative proximity,” Mark said. “I suggest stealth tactics.”
“Agreed,” Lynn said. “But they’re right between us and the Gate, how are we gonna get past them?”
“I would use my Orb - kill them quickly and quietly - but I can’t see a thing,” Rachel said disappointedly.
“Maybe you can still use it,” I said, coming up with an idea. “Can you make a wall in front of us?”
“Probably…”
“Like you did back at the doorway, just bigger.”
I heard Rachel take out her Orb and morph it as I requested. It was relatively silent, so I assumed it was levitating in front of us. After a moment, I heard soft thuds as it came in contact with the walls of the tunnel.
“Make it smaller, don’t need it scraping against the walls. Aaron, can you see through it?”
He hesitated. “I…yes, yes I can.”
“Brilliant.” I said, quite proud of myself.
“Now what?” Cora asked.
“Rachel, keep the wall floating. Aaron, get in front and push the wall as me move forward. Everyone else follow behind, got it?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah.”
“Yep.”
“OK.”
“Meow.”
We inched closer and closer to the gate. I reached out my hand and felt the cool surface of the Quantum metal as it paved our way through this darkness. My plan was that we would simply push our way to the gate unseen, then dispatch of the Demons once we were within melee range quickly and quietly.
“W
e’re a couple yards away from them now,” Aaron whispered.
“Good. now let’s - “
A sudden, blood-curdling screech came from the darkness behind us, followed by the rumbling of what seemed like hundreds of inhuman footsteps.
“Oh shit, what do we do?!”
“PUSH FORWARD!”
The wall quickly accelerated, shoving the dozen or so Demons in front of us towards the Gate. We ran behind it, and after a couple seconds we heard a loud thud, coupled with the disgusting squelch of the creatures getting crushed between the wall and the gate. I could hear the other Demons, they were almost upon us now. When we reached the end of the tunnel, Aelia lit a flame, and Rachel retracted her Orb, making it shrink back into a small sphere. An unholy amount of blood was splattered on the Gate. I felt sick, but held it together. I could see Rachel was also exhausted from manipulating the Orb for so long.
“Open the gate!” I pleaded.
“Going!” Cora yelled, running to a crimson-stained keypad on the doors and typing in the code.
The Gates shuddered and began to open at a ridiculously slow rate.
“We’re not gonna make it!” Lynn cried. She had shifted into a human again, shaking as she aimed her gun at the oncoming storm of Demons. It was then that Aelia stepped forward and extended her palms towards the Swarm.
“GET DOWN!” she screamed.
We did as she ordered and not a moment too soon. Just as I turned around and ducked, I felt an insane amount of heat on the back of my neck. A strong, hot wind roared throughout the tunnel. I risked a glance. I could only open my eyes for half a second before the heat and brightness became too much. All I saw was an intense red and orange light all around me. When her assault finally subsided, I slowly rose to see the aftermath of Aelia’s firestorm.
There were hundreds of corpses littering the tunnel, most of them covered in patches of flame. Blood and organs were splattered on the walls and pooling on the floor. Aelia turned and again had those black, lifeless eyes, a trail of blood running down from her nose. She then lost consciousness, but Lynn caught her before she hit the ground.
Chapter 6
The gate opened completely and sunlight flooded in. We ran out into the crisp, fresh air, taking deep breaths and sighing in relief. I no longer felt sick, but was still a little shaken from what I’d just seen. I surveyed the landscape, and saw that we were close to some body of water. The ground was made of this light brown, powder-like material. I picked up a handful of it, and the small particles flowed out of my hand, scattering into the wind. We were surrounded by large rocks, and about 100 feet ahead of us was a body of water. Waves crashed onto the shore, making a calm, soothing sound. White birds were flying overhead, dotting the light blue sky.
“What is this place?” I asked curiously.
“It’s called a beach,” Rachel answered. “I’ve been to a place like this during one of my hunts.”
“What are we standing on?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of sand.”
“I mean, I’ve heard of beaches. I just didn’t imagine it like this.”
Aaron and Cora had carried Aelia out of the tunnel, but she was still unconscious. They gently laid her down against a hill of sand.
“She’ll be fine, just needs some rest,” Aaron stood up and took in the view. “Beautiful, isn’t it friends?”
“I don’t suppose there’s any way we can stay here?” Cora asked hopefully.
“I second that motion,” Lynn said. She glanced at Aelia. “You sure she’ll be OK?”
“Well, that fireworks display was taxing for her, but she’ll recover,” Aaron answered comfortingly. “But until then, we’re gonna have to stay here.”
“No argument from me,” I said. “Mark, is it safe?”
“Besides us, and a few animals, I sense no other life forms in the area.” he answered. “This seems like an ideal location to recuperate until Aelia wakes.”
“And when she does?” I inquired.
“Philadelphia,” Rachel said confidently. “We go to Philadelphia and finish what Cora’s parents set out to do.”
“Agreed,” we all replied in unison.
As the other’s settled, I walked closer to the water to admire the view. The morning fog had begun to clear, and exposed more of the landscape on the horizon. The image that was revealed proved a stark contrast to the aesthetic waves crashing onto the shore. I saw the skyline of a city in ruins. I’d also heard stories of skyscrapers and towers standing tall and majestic in the days before the war. At night, their lights decorated the sky, and people came from near and far just to stand in the presence of these mighty structures. Now, they had been reduced to rubble. Only a few structures were left standing, and none of them were taller than a couple stories.
“Manhattan, I think they used to call it,” Rachel walked up next to me.
“I wish I could’ve seen it.” I remembered back to my dream when I was in the city. I didn’t feel like a resident as much as I did a tourist, like I didn’t belong there. “I wish I lived in a great city like this one.”
“We’ll live in a better city,” she said, staring at the ruined city. “We’re young. We’re powerful. We’ll rebuild.”
“That’s what everyone keeps saying. That we’ll rebuild,” I echoed her words.
“Or,” she turned her head up towards the sky. “Maybe we’ll just…build something new.”
I saw a glimmer of hope in these words. We stood silently on the shore for several minutes. For a moment I felt like I was in another world, one that didn’t have Demons or anarchists or sanctuaries. I wanted to stay in this place forever, but it hurt me more than anything to know that I couldn’t. My trance was broken by Mark’s robotic voice.
“Hello! Sorry to interrupt but I believe Aaron is looking for you.”
I sighed, both out of exasperation and relief. “What does he want?”
“It’s about Aelia, she’s awake.”
Rachel and I followed Mark to where Aelia was. She was now sitting up, eyes back to normal, but she was shivering. The others were sitting around her, trying calm her down.
“I’m fine. I’m OK,” she insisted.
“What happened?” I asked.
“She saw something,” Aaron said.
“It was just a bad dream,” she retorted.
“What exactly did you see?” Cora asked worriedly.
“I don’t know. It was like a woman. But she was more like a Demon than a human. And she wasn’t trying to kill me she was just looking at me with these intense, red eyes.”
“An intelligent Demon?” I wondered. “How?”
“The Demons are a very primal race,” Cora replied. “It’s unlikely that they made their way to our planet on their own.”
“Are you saying they have a leader? Like, a Queen?” Aaron suggested.
“The Queen…that has a nice ring to it,” Rachel said.
“It’s possible, but it’s just a theory,” Cora said.
“But Aelia just saw something that might fit the description?” Aaron seemed a little nervous.
“We can’t know for sure.”
“Exactly,” Lynn interjected. “We don’t know so let’s not worry about it!”
“Well,” I started. “This only happened because she used her power so heavily.”
“To save our lives.”
“Still, I think we should refrain from using our abilities until we learn more.”
“Learn more how? This has never happened before in the entire history of mankind.”
“I just think it’d be better to play it safe. ”
“I think we need to stop being so goddamn afraid of everything,” her frustration was rather sudden. “I’m going for a walk. Do what you want.”
“Let her go,” Aelia said. “I’m too weak to chase after her anyway.”
“No worries. You just rest up, friend,” Aaron said reassuringly. “In the meantime, what do you say we go for a swim?”
“A swim?” I was caught by surprise. “Everyone's a little shaken up.”
“Exactly!” he said, taking off his backpack. “It’s the perfect thing to calm us down.”
“I think it’ll be fun,” Rachel said.
Cora agreed, but Aelia was hesitant.
“I’m just gonna rest here for a bit.”
“Alright let’s go!” Aaron exclaimed. “Maybe you and Lynn can join us later.”
I walked up to the shore and took off my shoes. I dipped one foot into the water, and found that it was cool to the touch, a stark contrast with the hot sand. I saw the others do the same. Mark hovered over the surface and allowed his body to slightly submerge. Apparently he did not appreciate the sensation.
“This environment gives me no pleasure,” Mark said, rising quickly out of the ocean. “The liquid only seems to irritate my sensors, distort my readings, and inhibit my motion.”
“Well, you don’t have to swim if you don’t want to,” I said sympathetically.
“I’m surprised the water’s so clear,” Aaron asked. “What about all the pollution?”
“It’s been decades since we’ve dumped such large amounts into the river,” Cora answered. “Given time, nature has its own way of purifying itself.
“Well, that’s a lovely thought,” Rachel observed. She was the first to strip down to her undergarments and jump into the water.
Cora, Aaron, and I exchanged glances and followed suit. I waded into the water, and felt its cold embrace climb up by body. I hesitated to go further, even while my friends slowly walked on. I saw the wound Rachel had on her right shoulder. On many occasions she regaled us with the tale of she got it on a scouting mission, exploring an abandoned building. Apparently, the floor gave in and she fell on a sharp rod, which partially pierced its way into her shoulder. With the help of others and after several stitches, she lived through it. It had healed by now, but the scar was still there.
Aaron and Cora were a few feet ahead of me. They looked at each other for a moment, then held their noses and submerged into the water. Upon resurfacing, they both pushed back their hair and cleared their eyes. When Aaron turned around and signaled me to join them, I saw the gunshot wound on his chest; it was significantly faded, but still visible. He was soaked all over, and the water glistened on his well-defined muscles. I walked up to him and Cora, who was standing adjacent. Her skin was white and clear, with no scars or marks that I could see. Her flawless complexion was only further purified by the beads of water running down her body.
The Children of New Earth Page 6