by E S Richards
Feeling upset?
Asher looked around. There was that voice again, almost as if it came from right beside him but Asher could tell by the conversations the other children were having that none of them were speaking to him.
Meet me back at the school area after lunch.
Things were starting to get really weird. Asher couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going crazy. First he hears a voice talking to him, now the voice is wanting to meet with him. Shaking out his head slightly Asher looked around the room, begging to make eye contact with his sister. The fact she was settling in so easily now made him feel a bit jealous, his first proper day in the warped settlement was not turning out like he had expected it.
Making his way back to where his classes had been held that morning Asher regained his seat on the ground and waited. He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, whether the voice in his head had been real or he was just imagining things, but he couldn’t resist going back to the school area to find out. Every time someone walked past he looked up at them, disappointed when no one came over to join him.
“You know classes are over right? You don’t have to come back until tomorrow morning.”
Asher looked up to see his teacher standing over him, two of his four arms placed on his hips, the others hanging limply by his sides.
“Yeah,” Asher mumbled, “I’m just waiting for someone.”
“Your sister?” The teacher asked raising one eyebrow. “She’ll have gone back to the farms for work.”
“No I –”
“Asher!”
Turning his head swiftly to the right Asher was surprised to see Cyrus strolling towards him again.
“I’m sorry I kept you – shall we get going?”
Asher climbed to his feet slowly while Cyrus and his teacher exchanged pleasantries. Now things were really starting to get weird. How could Cyrus have been the one talking to him in his head? Unless this was all a coincidence, but even Asher thought that was a bit farfetched.
He felt nervous around Cyrus and realised it was probably down to him being a Gen 4 mutant. Although Cyrus was yet to exhibit any forms of what Asher would call typical Gen 4 mutant behaviour, that didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding something terrifying up his sleeve.
The two of them walked along in silence. Asher had no idea where Cyrus was taking him and he worried about what was going to happen. He still didn’t know the settlement very well and he had learnt from his time in the safe haven how foolish it was to immediately trust anyone.
Cyrus kept making strange noises under his breath as they walked, occasionally mumbling to himself just quiet enough so Asher couldn’t work out was he was saying. When the man drew to a halt at a set of tree stumps towards the outskirts of the settlement Asher nearly crashed into the side of him, Cyrus spinning around so suddenly.
“Why don’t you take a seat and tell me about yourself Asher? We didn’t really have time to get to know each other yesterday, everything was about your friend, Cain.”
“There’s not much to tell,” Asher mumbled taking a seat on one of the tree stumps and trying to rack his brain to remember the story the three of them had come up with. “Our camp got raided and we just wandered around for a bit, trying to find somewhere safe to move to.”
“Did you find it scary out there?” Cyrus probed him, leaning forward and putting his hands on his knees.
“Uh, kind of. But I was with Zahyra and Cain so it was okay.”
“Yes, interesting pairing those two. A Gen 1 with a Gen 4. And then there’s you – a Zero. Had you always known you’d fail to develop a mutation?”
“What do you mean?”
“Never had any suspicion you’d develop something to change your generation number? Never wished you could be more advanced in any way?”
“Err, I –”
“Look, let’s cut to the chase here Asher. I know you’re not a Zero.”
Asher’s mouth dropped open as he sat on his tree stump, staring at the council member sat before him. How could Cyrus possibly know that he wasn’t a Zero? The only people who knew about his true generation number were Zahyra and Cain, and Asher knew for certain neither of them would have said anything.
“No neither of them said anything, they have kept your secret don’t worry.”
“What?”
“Oh Asher,” a smile broke out onto Cyrus’ face. “I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out already. I can read your mind. I can hear everything you’re thinking. Everything everyone is thinking. But the more important point is that from what I experienced earlier – you can read my mind too.”
“What? No I can’t!” Asher fumbled, bewildered by what Cyrus was suggesting. “I don’t read minds.”
“You heard me earlier didn’t you? Telling you to meet me in the school area after lunch. How can you explain that if you can’t read minds? I never said that out loud, I only thought it.”
“But –”
“What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell us yesterday. Your branding must be fake. I find it hard to believe you developed this mutation – telepathy we call it – after your tenth birthday. I know your sister and your friend Cain were lying too. So there’s no point trying to keep secrets from me. She’s the Zero, not you, isn’t she? I haven’t quite figured out what Cain’s mutation is yet, he keeps quite a closed off mind... ah? Oh? Oh dear, he has the MATH mutation?”
Asher’s mouth dropped open again; did Cyrus really just hear that from inside his head?
“Yes I did. You should really learn how to keep track of your thoughts like I told you earlier. I heard you mention the safe haven, what do you know of that place, why were you...”
Cyrus trailed off as he heard everything spinning around Asher’s head once the safe haven was mentioned. Asher cursed himself internally and fought against his thoughts, struggling to put up some invisible barrier against Cyrus, block him from finding out too much. He focused on building a brick wall, categorising the thoughts that were in front of it – the side Cyrus had access to – and the thoughts behind the wall that he knew Cyrus could never find out.
As he felt himself building the wall inside his mind he also felt himself start to gain access to what was going on inside of Cyrus’ head. He could hear the older man digging around, rummaging in his thoughts for the truth about the three of them. Asher tried even harder to keep the truth from Cyrus but he could hear him finding out more and more.
His heartbeat began to increase as the strain became too much for him: thinking about what he didn’t want Cyrus to find out only made it harder for him to keep those thoughts hidden and soon enough Asher knew he wasn’t going to win their mental battle.
Letting himself relax he put his head in his hands and tried to stop himself from crying. Cyrus knew everything now; they were going to be kicked out of the settlement for sure. They would never let him stay there knowing he was a Gen 6 mutant, not after the way they acted around Cain.
Well congratulations, Asher.
Asher shuddered as he felt Cyrus speaking to him inside his head. The man was sat directly opposite him, why couldn’t he just speak out loud instead?
Come on Asher, it’s more fun this way. And like I say, congratulations are in order – it looks like the safe haven has made you into a telepath like me. I wonder why it’s only just started now; perhaps it needed something to trigger it. In which case it’s lucky for you that I live here – you could’ve gone your whole life wondering what mutation you’d eventually develop.
“You’re not going to kick us out of the settlement because of it?” Asher spoke out loud, uncomfortable with speaking telepathically to Cyrus. Although he knew the man heard all of his thoughts anyway, he just wasn’t ready to make the commitment of trying to properly break his way into Cyrus’ head.
No, I’m not going to kick you out. And you should really try speaking this way Asher; it’s not so bad. It’s quite refreshing for me actually, after only being able to listen in to
other people.
“Do you listen to people all the time?”
No, not all the time. The noise is deafening if I do that. I can teach you how to tune people out if you want, otherwise you’ll find yourself developing one hell of a headache.
Asher shrugged at Cyrus’ suggestion. He wasn’t sure whether he could trust the man, so agreeing to spend more time with him didn’t seem like the wisest decision.
“Asher,” Cyrus spoke out loud for the first time in several minutes. “I’m not going to tell anyone. As far as I’m aware, your mutation doesn’t create any problems for our settlement. Even if you are apparently a Gen 6 telepath, I don’t see any difference between you and me – maybe you can hear thoughts over a longer distance or something and that makes you more advanced, I don’t know. But the mutation we carry is not a dangerous one. You’ll come to realise that soon enough Asher. You and me: we’re not the typical advanced mutant.”
Asher breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like a massive weight had lifted from his shoulders. Letting the truth about his mutation be known was a refreshing thing, especially to someone aside from Zahyra and Cain. It also relaxed him to know that all his mutation consisted of was telepathy. He had been so nervous he was going to turn into an aggressive monster and try to hurt people. Being able to read minds was a very welcome relief, something he knew he’d probably be grateful for one day.
“Your companion Cain is the one who worries me,” Cyrus continued.
“He’s not dangerous I swear.”
“From what I’ve heard in your mind Asher, he can be. You have to understand that I don’t feel comfortable allowing him to be in our camp.”
“No I swear – he has control over himself. He only gets angry when he wants to.”
Cyrus paused for a moment and cocked his head to one side.
“That’s a lie, Asher. I can hear what you’re thinking. I now know that he’s lost control of himself before. How can I trust someone like that? There are young children here. Innocent people who have truly fled a life of danger to find one of peace.”
“That’s what we’ve done too!” Asher tried to argue against Cyrus, doing his best to come up with a reason why Cain should be allowed to stay. He couldn’t bear to think about what Zahyra would do if Cain were told he had to leave. That would mean all three of them leaving the settlement and heading to who knows where. Please let us stay in the settlement, he begged Cyrus telepathically, please let us stay.
“I’m sorry Asher, I’m going to have to take this to the other council members. We shall vote on it, but I’m afraid I find it very unlikely that he’ll be allowed to stay.”
With his should-be closing statement Cyrus made to stand up from his tree trunk and walk back into the centre of the settlement. Asher panicked, desperately trying to think of something that would work in Cain’s favour.
“Wait!” He called after Cyrus, who had already put a fair bit of distance between the two of them. The older man stopped at Asher’s call and waited for him to jog up behind him.
“I can listen in on him,” Asher continued. “I’ve got this mutation now, why don’t you let me use it? I can listen to Cain’s thoughts; I can tell if he’s close to having a breakdown. If that time comes then I’ll tell him to leave, to go away and break down somewhere far away from here. Please? You have to at least give him a chance, let us prove that he’s not a typical advanced mutant, just like you said about me and you.”
Cyrus seemed to think on Asher’s proposal for a moment, running the pros and cons through his mind as Asher tried to listen in. Cyrus was unfortunately much better at blocking Asher from hearing his thoughts than he had been, so he had to wait until the council member finally spoke out loud.
“Okay.”
Asher let out a deep breath he had been holding.
“But I’m going to listen in on him as well. If I feel like he’s unstable then I am calling it. I’m telling the other council members and he is out of here, got it? You’re lucky I’m even giving you this chance.”
“Yes, yes, okay. Thank you.” Asher breathed deeply, relieved he’d managed to give Cain at least a few more days in the camp. But now he had to listen in on his thoughts, Asher wasn’t sure he was ready for that. Maybe he should just tell Cain and Zahyra what he could do, maybe...
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you Asher, not yet anyway.”
Cyrus cut into Asher’s thoughts.
“You’d be surprised how different people think around you when they know what you can do. If I were you, I’d keep this new mutation to myself for a while, just until you can be sure about it.”
With that Cyrus was gone, striding back into the settlement and leaving Asher to deal with everything he had just learned. He couldn’t believe that he’d figured out what his Gen 6 mutation was. It seemed too simple, too easy to be what everything with his father had been working towards.
Shaking his head Asher started dragging his feet on his way back into the warped settlement. He desperately wanted to tell Zahyra what he had found out but something about Cyrus’ words echoed around in his head. Maybe he was right. Maybe for the time being, it was best to keep the truth about his mutation truly hidden. Even from his sister.
Chapter 6 – Asher
Doing so might actually be a lot easier than Asher had anticipated. As he walked back towards the hut he was sharing with Cain and Zahyra he tried to listen in on other mutant’s thoughts when he passed them. At first he could hear them all clearly, discovering the mundane feelings about how everyone’s day was going, what they were looking forward to and the various nonsensical things that echoed around in their heads.
The further he walked however the more muffled the voices in his head became, until eventually he was met with silence. After getting accustomed to listening to other mutant’s thoughts – even for a small period of time – the silence was overwhelming.
Asher tried to focus on specific mutants he walked past but instead of being able to hear their thoughts he just received weird looks from them. It didn’t take long for him to realise they all probably felt he was staring at them because of their deformities and he slunk inside his hut, embarrassed by what the mutants must think of him.
After that Asher didn’t really have anything to do. He figured there must still be about an hour before Zahyra and Cain came back from their day at work and he wondered what the other children got up to in the afternoon. Cyrus pulling him away had stopped him from getting to spend any more time with mutants his own age. He hadn’t seen any of them as he’d walked back through the settlement though, and he found that rather strange. At his old camp kids were running around all over the place, but then, the warped settlement was far more organised than the camp where he grew up.
It was something of a happy medium, Asher thought, between his old camp and the safe haven. He didn’t imagine he’d find anywhere quite like the safe haven again in his life, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the only part of the safe haven that Asher missed was the technology.
From the very first day when they had entered he had been impressed even by how the doors worked, automatically sliding open at the presence of a little card or press of a button. Even the coloured lights they’d had in there had amazed him. Asher had become accustomed to it all very quickly however, replacing his bewilderment for the technology with a strong curiosity. He’d always enjoyed knowing how things worked. How certain pieces stuck together and functioned in harmony to produce one result. It made him appreciate the smaller things in life; made him understand how everything played its part.
When Zahyra and Cain finally returned Asher was laid on his front on the bed reading a book he had found lying around: Harry Potter. He found it brilliant and grinned to himself as he compared the magical powers the wizards had in the book to the mutations people carried in the real world. He had to believe it was something of a story that had been made up to entertain little children, just like his mother had made up stories
for him when he was younger. It was definitely something he would continue reading later.
“What you got there little man?”
“Just a book I found,” Asher placed it carefully on the floor beside him as he spun around on the bed and answered Cain’s question. “How was work?”
“Tiring,” Zahyra breathed, flopping down beside him. “And dirty.”
Asher giggled as Zahyra mimed wiping her dirty hands all over him and rolled backwards out of her reach.
“I might go and have a wash before supper.”
“Go ahead,” Cain nodded as Zahyra rose from the bed where she had collapsed. “Might as well do it now before you’re too tired.”
“Back in a bit!”
Asher offered his sister a quick one-handed wave as she abruptly exited their hut – or new home as Asher reminded himself he should call it – and headed for the showers. He imagined that like him Zahyra would be missing the safe haven for the showers too, they really were the most incredible and relaxing thing he had ever encountered.
“How was school?”
“Yeah fine,” Asher adjusted himself so he was sat facing Cain, who was pulling his boots off by the door. “We only have it ‘til lunchtime.”
“Just in the morning?” Cain sounded surprised. “What did you do all afternoon then?”
“Oh you know,” Asher shrugged, remembering what Cyrus had told him about keeping the truth of his mutation a secret. He didn’t know why he was already siding with Cyrus, especially when Cain and Zahyra had been with him through so much more and knew him so much better. But there was still the uncertainty about what his mutation actually was unnerving him, so Asher decided it really would be best to stay quiet. If Zahyra found out she’d get all worked up about it, when really Asher didn’t know very much more than he had done yesterday.