by Jakob Farrar
And that's when it all happened. Suddenly, she seemed to become a magnet. Wherever she stepped, pipes flew up from the ground, bursting around her. Kitchen utensils and gardening tools flew through peoples' houses at her. Cars flipped up in the air around her. Lamps and mailboxes crumbled to the ground as if crushed. She stopped in the middle of the street, screaming as more and more destruction happened around her, almost creating a vortex. But things only got stranger.
Come to me. That strange voice again. Phoebe could barely hear it over the sound of the carnage around her mixed with her own screams. But she heard it. She looked up. At the end of the street were two figures, one tall and one shorter, who only came up to the shoulders of the tall figure. The tall one had long, brown hair and wore all black. The shorter one had very long, black hair; obviously a girl. She wore strange clothes; it was obvious that she wasn't from Sector Three.
The man she easily recognized. It was the person from her dreams last night. But who was the girl? What was going on?
As destruction continued the happen around her, she began to hear police sirens sound in the distance. She began to panic, breathing rapidly.
Phoebe, the voice said again, calmly. His calm voice was a very stark contrast to the deafening noise that surrounded her. Don't be afraid.
It was almost like he was speaking into her mind.
That's exactly what I'm doing, he said. Phoebe felt a swell of panic. Again, don't be afraid. You can control this. Just focus on what you're doing. Focus on every object and put everything in its place. This power is yours; you are not it's.
"I have no idea what's going on," Phoebe said aloud.
I know you don't. And, quite frankly, I don't either. But if you come with me we can figure out together. You will be safe with us, I promise. Safer than you will be here, anyways.
Phoebe took a deep breath, closing her eyes. Just calm down, the voice said. She could feel everything begin to slowly drift to the ground around her. You're doing well. Phoebe slowly stood up, shaking, her eyes still closed. Keep it up. Phoebe opened her eyes. She saw what had happened. She saw all the wreckage around her. Fear began to rise in her again. Stop, the voice said, look at me. She looked up at the man in black and took one slow step towards him. She could hear voices behind her. One voice stood out from the rest. Her father's. Him screaming at her to come back. Threats and curses. She took a deep breath and continued walking, then jogging, then running towards the end of the street. She ignored her father and ran towards freedom.
Phoebe ran forward at a speed that seemed almost impossible. She caught up to the two figures, panting as she stopped in front of them.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"My name," the man said, his mouth actually moving. "Is Byron Peters. I'm the one that's been speaking into your mind."
"I'm Ashley," said the girl bluntly.
"Do you guys mind telling me exactly what is going on?" Phoebe said.
"Trust me, that will come in due time," the man, Byron, said. "But first I'm afraid we have a job to do."
"A job to do?"
"Exactly. I believe you saw a man getting taken off in a helicopter earlier. We need to go get him."
"Why?"
"He is of particular interest to us."
"Us?"
"Myself and Ashley. And you."
"Who says I'm going with you? I don't even know who you are," Phoebe said. She was finding it difficult to trust these two. This Byron did, after all, look a lot like the men that had come out of the helicopter earlier.
"That's a fair point. I'm sure you would rather go with them," Byron said, pointing to the police cars that were beginning to arrive on the streets behind them.
"Look," said Ashley, "We don't exactly have a lot of time right now. What's happening doesn't make a whole lot of sense, not even to me. But we need to go now."
"Alright," Phoebe said as the police cars approached faster. "But I need you to tell me one thing first."
"And that is?" asked Byron.
"What exactly was I doing? How did I do that?" Phoebe pointed to the wreckage in the middle of the street that she had caused.
"That's easy," Byron said, smirking. “You’re a Ferrokinetic
Chapter Three
Escape
Mark’s eyes opened lazily, a hundred questions flying through his mind. What had happened? Had anything happened? Was everything he had experienced simply been a bad dream? Mark went to wipe the sleep out of his eyes, but was unable to. He frowned, trying to pull his arm forward. Suddenly, all traces of sleepiness vanished from his mind as he desperately tried to move his arms, then his legs, only to find out that he couldn’t.
Mark looked around, finding himself suspended on a wall in a very dimly lit room. The room was very symmetrical, four blank gray walls illuminated by small lights in each corner were all that Mark could see. Panic flooded his mind. He was unable to fight against his restraints.
“Where am I?” he screamed. “What is this?”
Suddenly, the wall opposite him split open. A man walked in and stood a few feet away from Mark. He said nothing, but instead studied Mark. The man was short and a bit overweight. He had a balding head, but gray hairs occasionally sprouted from his crown. A white goatee grew on his face, and he wore thin rimmed glasses that seemed to hide his eyes. He wore a suit, and a small badge on his waist told Mark that he held some sort of authority. The man carried an air that strengthened this suspicion. He stood as if he were looking down at Mark, even though Mark would have been taller than him even if he weren’t suspended on the wall.
“It’s been a long time, Mark,” the man finally spoke. His voice was deep and echoed off the walls of the room. It too carried an air of authority.
“Who are you?” Mark demanded.
“All of your answers will come in due time, I promise,” the man replied. “I came to tell you that you do not need to be afraid. No one here is going to hurt you.”
“Where even am I?”
“Somewhere very safe.”
“From who?”
“From yourself, primarily.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You burnt down your home, Mark. You are a danger to not just yourself, but to others as well.”
“I didn’t do that!” Mark yelled. “That was an accident!”
“You don’t need to deny it here. We have no interest in hurting you or punishing you in any way. In fact, we’re here to offer you a chance at a fulfilling life.”
“A what?”
“As I said before, all will come in due time. But there are things that need to be taken care of before we can make that offer. I have simply come here in an attempt to assure you that we have no negative intentions for you,” the man said, turning around. He began walking towards the wall where he had first come in. “We’re going to help you Mark, and in turn you will help us.”
“Stop!” Mark yelled. “You need to tell me more! Who’s we? Where am I? What’s going on?” The man simply ignored his pleas and walked out the door.
Mark awoke to a crash. He again blinked the sleep out of his eyes. He stretched his neck back and forth, trying to get rid of its pounding ache. How had he fallen asleep? He remembered screaming for what seemed like hours on end, and he could feel the soreness in his throat that it had caused. Mark was still suspended on the wall, unable to move his arms or legs.
Mark heard another crash, this one louder, seemingly closer to where he was. His eyes widened as he heard shouts and what sounded like gunshots. What was going on?
Suddenly he heard a loud groaning sound. The wall in front of him began to morph and change. It split apart and the walls peeled back as if they were plastic being molded. Two people that Mark barely recognized walked in.
The first was obviously the man Mark had been hearing in his head and that he had seen disappear outside Sector Two. He shorter than Mark, and was dressed all in black, with long dark hair.
The person be
hind him was a girl with her arm extended outward. She looked about his age, and was tall and thin. Her hair was long and curly, and was a dark blond color. Her bright blue eyes were narrowed in concentration. When Mark saw her he felt something strange. He felt some sort of connection to this girl, whoever she was. It felt as though they had been through something together, or that they were going to. It was almost as if they were meant to.
“I suppose that works,” the man in black said.
“I was trying,” the girl replied. “I don’t understand how this works yet.” The man ignored her and pointed at Mark.
“That’s him,” he said.
“Who are you?” Mark demanded.
“My name is Byron Peters,” the man said. “And this is Phoebe. We’ve come here to get you out.” Suddenly the girl, Phoebe, extended her other arm towards Mark. The restraints on his wrists and ankles folded back on themselves just as the walls had, and Mark fell to the ground.
“Where am I?” he said as he stood up.
“You’re in a top secret facility just outside of Sector Four,” Byron said. “But we can’t stay here for very long. We need to leave.”
“Where to?”
“I have someone in Sector Four we can stay with that I believe will provide us with relative safety.”
“Who?” As Mark asked this, another crash sounded from behind Byron and Phoebe. Byron anxiously looked over his shoulder.
“We really need to get going,” he said. “We’ve offered you a chance at safety and freedom. You can choose whether to take that chance or to stay here.” Byron turned around, Phoebe following him. Mark knew that he shouldn’t trust these people, but his instincts told him otherwise. He had felt something when he looked at Phoebe, and he knew he couldn’t just ignore it. They seemed like a better option than simply staying put, anyways. Mark gritted his teeth and followed them.
As they were walking they were approached by a person in officer’s armor. Mark paused, remembering what had happened last time he ran into one of these people. But Byron and Phoebe seemed strangely passive.
“We’re clear?” Byron asked the person. Suddenly, the officer’s body began to morph and change. The colors on its surface swirled and changed, and the body’s mass seemed to do the same thing. The colors began to rearrange themselves until a short girl stood in front of Byron. She had long, black hair and her clothes were just as dark. Her skin was very pale, and she looked younger than anyone in the group.
“Yeah,” the girl said. “Everyone’s distracted by now. You can still do that mind trick thing, though, right?” Byron nodded. “Who’s that?” the girl asked, pointing at Mark.
“His name is Mark. He’ll be joining us,” Byron answered.
“I’m Ashley,” she said, nodding to Mark as a greeting. She turned back to Byron. “What can he do?”
“We’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure. For now we need to get moving, though.” Ashley nodded and the group began to move again. Mark noticed that Byron’s eyes were closed, but he managed to walk through the rooms and hallways that they were in flawlessly as he followed behind Ashley.
“What is he doing?” Mark asked Phoebe, who was walking in front of him.
“He’s looking through everyone’s minds to make sure no one comes near us,” Phoebe said. “If anyone does he can make us seem invisible by corrupting the part of their brain that translates sight.”
“He can what?” Mark had no clue what any of that meant.
“Byron is a telepath,” Phoebe answered. “He can look into other peoples’ minds and control them.”
“How?” Phoebe put a finger up to her lips and stopped him by putting her hand on his chest. Mark froze and shut his mouth.
Three men turned a corner and began walking towards the group. Mark could see that they were all armed to the teeth with weapons for both long-range and close combat. They didn’t look like the police officers he had encountered, though; they looked more akin to Byron, dressed in all black and very mysterious in appearance. Mark’s heart raced as they walked by extremely close to the group. Mark made sure not to make a sound. He held his breath until he felt like his lungs were about to explode. They passed by without noticing any of them, however, and after a few minutes the group was able to move forward again.
“It worked,” Mark said, surprised. Phoebe nodded. “What about the cameras?” Mark said, noticing several of them hidden in corners.
“Byron’s corrupting the minds of everyone watching,” Phoebe said.
“But won’t they be able to see it later on?”
“Yeah but we’ll be long gone by the time they get around to going through this area. We had Ashley create a distraction so that all of their attention would be directed everywhere but where we were.”
“That’s pretty smart,” Mark didn’t know what else to say.
“Byron’s pretty smart,” Phoebe said. “He comes from Sector Seven.”
“Oh,” Mark said. “So he’s a nerd.”
“His being a nerd got you out of there, and it’s about to get us out of here,” Phoebe said. “So far everything he’s done has been almost flawless, so I trust him completely.” Mark didn’t know what to say in response, so he simply continued to follow the group as they made their way out of the enormous building he had been trapped inside of.
Chapter Four
Purpose
“Right out this way,” Byron said, swinging open a door. Mark felt a cool breeze hit his face as he could finally see the sunset in the outside sky. He hadn’t noticed before now how constricted he had felt inside the building, as if simply being inside had built tension up inside him. As he stepped out of the building he felt it leave him. He felt the urge to run free away from this place, wherever he was. The building was surrounded by a large, old fence. While he felt free from his constraints as the group exited the property, he couldn’t shake a very strange feeling. It was as if the group was being closely watched, and no matter where they went or where they hid something would always be watching them.
“There’s where we’re going,” Byron said, pointing into the horizon at a city in the distance. The terrain from where they were to the city did not look friendly. It seemed jagged, covered in rocks with the occasional tree or bush sprouting from the ground.
“That’s Sector Four?” Mark asked. The city looked huge, much bigger than Sectors Two and Three.
“It’s bigger because it needs more space,” Byron explained. “It is, after all, the manufacturing Sector. It specializes in vehicles and modes of transportation.”
“I know, I went to school too,” Mark said sarcastically.
“And your results for the Placement Test were?”
“Two,” Mark said, “Why?”
“I’m developing a theory. I believe there’s something to each of us being placed in the Sectors of our origin. It feels as though someone is trying to keep us apart.”
“Ashley and I both were assigned to where we came from,” Phoebe said. “I was assigned to Three and Ashley was assigned to One.”
“And you were assigned to Seven?” Mark asked Byron.
“I didn’t exactly have the chance to be assigned,” he said quietly.
“It’s time for answers,” Mark said, approaching Byron so that they were walking next to each other. “Where was I?”
“Have you ever heard of the Secret Service?” Byron asked.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t exist, does it? The Secret Service is just a myth. It was just something that stopped once the Nation was established. It’s not real anymore is it?”
“Where do you think you’ve been for the past day?” Byron asked condescendingly. “Believe me, the Secret Service is very real. They are just very good at the secret part of their job.”
“What do they want with me?”
“I’m sure we’ll find out eventually. Now, it’s getting late. We can stop for the night.”
“It’s going to be cold,” Mark said. “Should I start a fire?”
“No,” Byron said, “We can’t risk anybody seeing us. I have a few thin emergency blankets we can use for tonight, but we’ll see about getting better supplies once we’re in Sector Four.”
“Any food?”
“A bit, but not much.”
“You didn’t think about getting that when you were in Sector Three?”
“I didn’t quite expect that I’d have to go chasing down a helicopter now, did I?” Mark could tell that he was agitating Byron. “We’ll live for tonight. But tomorrow we will get whatever we can before we leave Four,” Byron said as he began rummaging through the sack that was slung around his shoulder, pulling out the things that the group would need for the night.
Mark stared out into the darkness of the night, sitting on a flat rock that stuck out of the ground. As far as he could see, there was nothing except the house they had been trapped in. He had heard about the Field that spread out beyond the borders of the Nation, and he had seen it from the edges of Sector Two, but he had never ventured into it at all. It seemed completely empty, with nothing but a few trees spotting the landscape. A small dip in the distance indicated that there might be some sort of river running through the Field. As he stared out into the night, Mark got a sense of the scale of the world he was living in. It was vast and unknown, a place where anything could happen.
“So what happened to you?” Mark jumped when he heard the voice of Ashley behind him.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” he said.
“Shouldn’t you?”
“I’ve been asleep for a while,” Mark responded. “I don’t think I could right now. What do you mean, what happened to me?”
“We all have our tragic backstories,” Ashley said, lifting herself up onto the rock and sitting next to Mark, her legs crossed. “What’s yours?” After Mark was silent for a moment, she said, “Come on, if we’re going to be doing whatever it is he wants us to do,” she nodded towards Byron, who was sitting on a rock behind them with his eyes closed. “We’re going to have to know each other pretty well.