by Erin Rickman
Did other exohumans (or whatever they are) have this ability? If A-jax didn’t have this ability was there others here that did? Was the DNA manipulated to achieve the shapeshift? I had many questions that required answers. However, right now was not the time, I had to speak to Atlas. Even though this all seemed surreal, I couldn’t argue with A-jax when Atlas’ wolf figure was staring back at me. I wasn’t sure how he would be feeling right now; it’s not like turning into an animal was an everyday occurrence. However, I did know that I would be terrified, so the need to talk to him now more than ever was overwhelming.
‘I need to speak to him, tell me how,’ I demanded, the stress filling my every pore.
‘If you require something from me, do you not deem there is a more conventional manner in which for you to ask? I understand you are mourning the loss of the late Mr Fiesta, but manners exist in all realms.’
‘Please, A-jax,’ I begged. Clearly, he didn’t understand the urgency of the situation.
Atlas was circling his pod, his dark coat standing out against the white interior. I watched as his head pulled back, letting out what I assumed to be a howl. Even as a wolf, he was beautiful. His bright green eyes stood out against his jet black fur, which shone under the harsh pod light. He looked like he would feel amazing to touch, silky smooth almost.
‘Shapeshifters take the mindset of the very creature in which they form, if he is a wolf, which I perceive to be a lesser developed species, the barrier you are trying to overcome should be an effortless one. You must concentrate, think about the information you wish to get to him and the importance of doing so, when you feel such project it towards him. His mindset is simpler, so do not over complicate it.’
Upon A-jax’s instructions, I attempted to contact Atlas. I felt the urgency to communicate with him, and using that I pushed my thoughts towards him. It was not an easy task, but I could feel his barrier, so I pushed harder, attempting to jump over the mental wall.
‘Atlas, are you okay?’
I felt nothing, my attempt was futile, or so I thought.
‘B?’ He stopped mid-motion, dead in his tracks with his paw raised. It seemed my communication took him by surprise.
I felt a wave of relief wash over me, my eyes tearing up at the sound of his voice. I had been trying for so long to reach him, and now I finally could. I had missed him so much. I couldn’t control the overwhelming emotions possessing me. I placed my hand on the glass, looking over at him.
‘Oh my god, Atlas. I’ve missed you so much.’ I started to cry.
His head snapped towards me, as his eyes looked me up and down. If he were human, I imagined that it would resemble a look of confusion. In his wolf-like figure, Atlas had cocked his head and pointed his ears. He was almost puppy-like.
‘I’ve missed you too.’ He then paused, turning to walk towards the glass. ‘What on earth is going on? How can I hear you?’
That’s when I filled Atlas in on Kenji, myself, A-jax, Hector and all that I couldn’t tell him in the last few weeks. I left out the incident with my mother; this was not the time to mention her. I didn’t want my grief to take away from the happiness provided by our reunion. Although I was fully aware of my feelings towards his absence, I had never really had time to reflect on how much I relied on him. Although I always considered myself independent, the situation we now found ourselves in had me thinking I was anything but independent. Maybe I was before and the predicaments we now faced in light of our capture and experimentation had changed me. I concluded that I didn’t want Atlas for my happiness; I needed him for it.
‘If this were under any other circumstance, I would be excited at the idea we all have different abilities; it’s like living in a comic book.’ His form was now laying on the floor, facing the glass with his long black tail wrapped around his body. ‘But do you not realise that if we are declared dead, no one will be looking for us? While Van Wick has kidnapped us, I have held to the belief that we are being looked for by people. Now, the one shred of hope I had at getting out of this hell hole is gone. Not that my mum would be sober enough to find her face and notice I was missing, but your’s, Hector’s and Kenji’s family would look for you guys. Then, if they looked for three, they would find Maze and me.’
‘I know, but, we can do this Atlas, we have some amazing abilities, and if we do this right we can get out of here. We need to figure out our abilities and use them to our advantage.’
‘Point taken, B.’ I didn’t like that the usually happy Atlas was so cynical, it just goes to show how much hope he had that someone would break us out of here. ‘But, there are some things we can’t do on our own. Do you realise your mum and dad are sitting at home, mourning the loss of their daughter?’
My back went up; I didn’t want to think about my family. It was too painful to imagine my home without my mother in it and even more painful to imagine that my father was mourning his daughter and wife. If I thought about the situation too much, then I was hit with overwhelming grief, something I was trying to avoid by ignoring the matter at hand. If I accepted that my mother was dead, I would get lost in an abyss of grief which would be impossible to escape.
‘I don’t want to think about my family right now, Atlas,’ I was starting to get angry. ‘Just drop it.’
‘No Blaire, think about it. We are not getting out of here. Unless you have another power up your sleeve, maybe you need the motivation.’
He had gotten the ludicrous idea that I was unmotivated to leave, I wasn’t. I wanted to get out of this hell-hole more than anyone. He was the one thinking hopelessly. I wanted to hug him, inform my family that they no longer had to grieve over me and have the option to eat more than toast. He probably just wanted to find a lampost to pee on.
‘Atlas,’ I warned, ‘do not test me right now.’
‘Is there something you’re not telling me? You said we had to be pushed emotionally for our abilities to trigger, what did they do to you?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
I was starting to consider dropping the connection so I wouldn’t have to have this conversation with him. However, I hadn’t learnt how to do such a thing yet. If I had to have a conversation with him about it and admit it, then it would be real.
‘Did they hurt your family? Was it your dad?’
‘No, Atlas-’
‘Your mum?’
I couldn’t take his questioning anymore. Why couldn’t he understand I didn’t want to talk about my family? I was trying to avoid tearing my life apart. I wish he would just listen to me and stop forcing me to explain a situation I had no desire to delve into.
‘They didn’t hurt her, I did.’ The thoughts left my head before I had the chance to stop it.
Then the tidal wave of guilt hit, it was so overwhelming it took the breath from my lungs, knocking me back. I had killed my mother. If it wasn’t for Atlas’ incisive nagging to help find our friends, then I wouldn’t be here right now, and she would still be alive. He gave me no choice; I had to follow him or lose him. If I knew that at that moment, I was picking between him and my mother, then my preferences may have been different.
‘If I hadn’t followed your crazy idea, she would still be alive. Sure, Van Wick ordered the slitting of her throat, but I basically handed him the knife. If I had just ignored you—’
‘This is not your fault, this is not mine either, Blaire,’ he declared, frustrated at my train of thoughts. ‘We were doing what’s right and trying to save our friends.’
‘Yeah and look where that got her and us. She’s dead, and we might as well be too! Her death is your fault just as much mine. Her murder was utterly useless, uncalled for and cruel. Therefore, we have to get out of here; her death cannot be in vain. If I’ve had this ability triggered by her then by god am I going to use it to make us safe. I cannot have my father and brother thinking that they have lost us both.’
Atlas’ ears went back, like a dog that had been scolded and knew he had done wrong. I knew
that he would now take this burden on as his own. I almost wished I could take back putting part of the blame on to him, but it eased my guilt. Therefore, I decided not to say anything further. I didn’t want to make him feel how I now did, but I wasn’t going to take back a sentence which was both truthful and served a purpose as my coping mechanism. At this time he realised his attempts to comfort were futile and only causing further anger, so he decided to change the subject.
‘I’m a wolf, and I have no idea how to change back.’
‘Technically, you’re a shapeshifter. Maybe try thinking about what it is to be human, you need to remain calm and not let your rage overwhelm you.’
‘Anger control advice from you? That’s like getting female advice from Kenji, pretty useless.’
I watched Atlas closely, his eyes shutting and his ears raising forward. The change that followed happened just as A-jax had described a controlled shift would—in the blink of an eye. Atlas had returned to his usual human self. He didn’t hesitate before walking over to his bed, clearly exhausted. I watched him for a while, but it didn’t take long for him to lull into a slumber.
I was starting to come around to A-jax telling the truth, after all, everything he had told me so far had proven to be right, the advice he had given seemed to work. Therefore, in order to learn more about our shared ability, I spent my time talking with A-jax about mastering my telepathy capabilities.
✽✽✽
I woke up; the pain in my head was beyond anything I had felt before. I wasn’t sure if it was the constant fighting of the grief or the four voices I had swirling around my head. Hectors, Atlas, A-jax’s and now Kenji’s thoughts were loud, all the sounds mashing together in constant noise. It was like having your headphones on full volume, so loud I couldn’t make out the voices. I thought back to what my father would say when I had my music up loud, ‘you will end up with tinnitus’, and I certainly believed that this was how tinnitus felt. I let out a loud groan as I clutched the sides of my head.
‘A-jax, I can hear everyone, how do I make it stop?’
I wasn’t sure if my thought had reached him, it was hard to propel it when I couldn’t even concentrate on my inner voice. The noises became louder, and the sounds were on the brink of making my head burst, through the sounds I heard a faint voice. It was A-jax’s.
‘Concentrate on my thoughts, Blaire.’
He repeated it over and over again, and I zoned in, listening to his voice. Eventually, everyone else’s thoughts subsided, and all I could hear was him.
‘What happened? I could hear everyone.’
‘From my knowledge, there are other telepathics who possess the ability to apprehend many thoughts at once. Personally, I do not have this capability; I can simply selectively communicate with an individual being at any one time. It appears you each maintain a variation of a skill I possess.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, ‘I thought you only had telepathy?’
‘No, telepathy is just one of my many abilities. It appears you can communicate your telepathy with multiple people at once; this is a rare skill to possess within the telepathic talents. I can also control the elements, like your companion Kenji. I have produced brief conversations with him, and I have determined I approve of him the most. We are very alike.’
‘You’re not wrong, you both have the people skills of a broomstick and the emotional range of a stone.’ I agreed.
‘Blaire, you asked a question, will you allow me answer it?’ I assumed he took my silence as his cue to continue, ‘Your companion Atlas can shapeshift, this is not an ability I possess but is closely linked with the skill to communicate with any being. In your head, my thoughts are in your native language; in my head, they are in mine. This ability is one I share with shapeshifters. Therefore, I can only assume it has mutated in him.’
I took in the information he was giving me. So, there were no other exohumans here; all our abilities had been derived from A-jax. It was becoming harder and harder to argue that his world was nothing more than a fantasy. It was becoming clear that he was right; whatever was happening to us was very much linked with his DNA. However, I wasn’t ready to utilise facts he had given to argue that other realms, wizards and warlocks existed when aliens didn’t. I glanced over to him, looking at the electric blue handcuffs.
‘What do the handcuffs do?’
‘If a being has the powers of teleportation, they block such a power. We utilise them when making an arrest, and by coincidence, I had two in my possession when the big hairless human abducted me.’
I snorted. ‘What are the odds, eh? One for you and one for Maze.’
‘I agree, rather unbelievable. Your companion hasn’t taken too well to them; she looks like she needs a cleanup. I never understood how your kind reacts to trauma.’
Truth be told, I still didn’t understand how ‘my kind’ reacted to trauma as it was different in everyone. I didn’t even know how I responded to shock; I supposed the method I was building was to ensure I felt better by blaming others. Although Atlas had forced me to admit my mother’s death and accept the overwhelming guilt, I refused to acknowledge that it was my fault alone. The anger I could displace onto others through blame allowed momentary relief from my grief. Not the best trait to have, but everyone has their flaws, I suppose. Kenji could be mean, Hector could be needy, A-jax is emotionless, Atlas could be manipulative, and I could be unaccepting.
‘If you are able to hear all thoughts at once, with practice you may be capable of acting as both a sender and receiver. Therefore allowing your companions to communicate through you.’
‘Sender? Receiver? What am I, a telephone tower?’
‘I am aware of your mundane object, the telephone, but at which point in time did your kind become proficient enough to develop this into large scale architecture?’
I side-eyed A-jax from across the room. I was debating on explaining the concept of a mobile phone tower to him but decided this was a conversation for another day. My list of human concepts to educate him on was quickly growing.
‘How do you suggest I use my brain as the centre point of communication then? If I can do this, it means we could formulate a plan to get out of here.’
‘Well, I would imagine this is rather self-explanatory, but I will spell it out for you if I must. Simple logic would suggest instead of concentrating on one voice, you focus on all voices and filter the messages between the assortment of the selected humans. Though, this will be very taxing on your energy supply.’
I was going to quip back at him to explain that I wasn’t a robot, but I was starting to get the impression that A-jax was straightforward in his wording—he took blunt and direct to a whole new level.
At this, I spent my time concentrating. I wasn’t sure how I was going to create a communication ring between the group if I couldn’t even choose when to block people out. However, it was the best chance we had to formulate a plan undetected and get out of this hell hole.
I decided to keep it simple at first. I spoke with Hector and Atlas separately to explain the procedure; both agreed it was a move worth trying. After that, I spent the time bouncing messages between the two of them. Although I was relaying the communications successfully, I could still only concentrate on one person at a time. I had to dip in and out of their thoughts to transmit the information. I was unable to process all their voices at once, unlike I had accidentally done when I was woken from my sleep by them. Creating a communication ring was proving to be harder than I thought, and as A-jax had said, it was very taxing on my energy supplies. It was unsurprising that when I went to bed, I fell asleep almost instantly.
Chapter Eighteen
November 2024?
I admired the waves as they hit the shore, sparkling under the setting sun. It was beautiful, the way the orange beams bounced off the water and illuminated the sands, giving them a soft, golden glow. I felt like I was at peace, like nothing mattered, and in that moment, nothing did.
�
��Do you want another strawberry, B?”
I turned, the vision I landed upon was just as beautiful as the scenery around me. I stared at him; butterflies were fluttering around my stomach. Everything about him was perfect: the messy style of his black hair, which was lightly tousled in the wind; the glow in his green eyes with the brown birthmark; the light stubble; and that smile. My god, his smile.
I grinned, taking the berry from him. “Yeah sure.” I took a bite, it was sweet, juicy and danced along my tastebuds. “Delicious.”
The picnic laid out in front of us, courtesy of Atlas, appeared to be one set for royalty. The picnic had been packed with every single one of my favourite delicacies. Atlas had always been so thoughtful.
“I love it here,” I stated. “It’s so calm, so beautiful.”