by Lucy Adler
Corey checked his watch.
It was 4:21. Only nine minutes until the rest of the guards were going to wake up.
He paced around the room again but knew there was nothing they could do from there.
“We gotta figure out how to --”
He was interrupted as the door to the lab below suddenly swung open. He and Daria quickly dropped to their knees. The windows started about two feet from the floor, so they were able to get low enough to peer over them while still being inconspicuous.
Dr. Reston entered the room, followed by two men hauling a third between them. He seemed only half-conscious, his feet dragging as they held him under his arms and carried him forward. The last person to enter the lab was Angela, who shut the door behind them.
“Just lay him there,” Dr. Reston said, pointing to one of the long tables pushed off to the side.
The two men tossed the other up and let him fall clumsily onto the metal surface, his head bouncing once as it landed with a thump.
“Aaron!” Corey whispered.
Meanwhile, Dr. Reston had walked over to one of the refrigerators on the far side of the room. He reached inside and pulled out a rack of test tubes, maybe twelve total, each filled with a reddish-brown liquid. He carried it over and set it down on the table next to the one where Aaron was lying.
“You should consider yourself privileged, Mr. Barrymore,” the doctor said as he walked away again, back toward the fridge. This time, he opened one of the cabinets beside it and pulled out a pair of gloves and a syringe.
“You’re about to be the firs- no, I’m sorry, the second sleeper to be cured of their sickness.”
He finished slipping on the first glove with a snap.
“I guess that’s not quite as impressive, is it?” he said with a frown.
The second glove was now snug around his other hand and the doctor set about filling the syringe from one of the vials.
“No one remembers second place, do they?”
He slowly drew the liquid up until the syringe was nearly full, giving it a little tap and a push at the end to remove the air bubbles. Then he stepped closer to Aaron and placed his hand on his head.
“Oh well. I suppose you’ll have to congratulate Mr. Livingston for beating you to it.”
Jake?!
Daria and Corey looked at each other, their eyes locking in stunned confusion.
“What’s he talking about?” Daria whispered with a fearful urgency.
Corey opened his mouth to speak, then left it hanging as his face suddenly turned white. He looked terrified as he leaned back against the low wall beneath the bank of windows.
“What is it?” Daria asked, feeling even more worried now as Corey closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.
Just then, they heard a groan from down below. They had momentarily forgotten about Aaron lying on the table, the needle poised above him. As they peered back through the window, the doctor was just completing the injection. The last drops of the reddish-brown liquid vanished from the syringe, then he extracted it from his neck.
“There!” he said with a satisfied smile. “All better!”
Then he placed his hand on Aaron’s forehead.
“Welcome to the New Humanity, Mr. Barrymore.”
23
Month: 3 | Day: 20 | Year: 60
JAKE
“You’re kidding, right? How is that a plan?”
“Trust me, it’s the safest way to get you inside.”
“As a prisoner? That doesn’t sound safe.”
“As a subject,” Corey corrected him.
“Yeah, still not buying it,” Jake replied, twisting up his mouth and shaking his head.
“I’ll bring you in as part of my research. They’ll let me run some tests on you, which will all be harmless, obviously. And before there’s any chance of them shipping you off to one of the hospitals, we’ll have this Daria girl out safe and sound.”
Jake still seemed unconvinced.
“Look, I’m not gonna lie. It won’t be comfortable. You’ll be in a dark cell with not a lot of food. That’s just how it is. But you’ll be within range to translocate as soon as the timing is right.”
“And how long do you think it’ll take?”
“Less than a week, for sure.”
“A week?”
“Less than.”
Jake gave him a skeptical look.
“They’ve changed my schedule for the next couple of weeks,” Corey explained, “so I won’t be there everyday. We’ll want a day or two to make sure getting you inside goes smoothly. Then a few days to work out the right moment to make our move.”
Jake crossed his arms, looked down at the floor, and paced around the living room in the cabin.
“You can do it, mate,” Max encouraged him.
Aury seconded the sentiment. “Easy peasy!”
Jake paused in front of the windows, looking out at the mountainside in the light of the setting sun. The sky was on fire with red and orange streaks extending like flares from the horizon as day slowly gave way to night.
He remembered the first day they met, in that queue outside the Examination tents. He had never felt like he had the greatest memory, because he really didn’t. But when it came to her, he never forgot a single moment.
“Ok. I’ll do it.”
_______________________
Month: 3 | Day: 29 | Year: 60
“This is going to hurt, kid.”
Corey flicked his eyebrows and made a silly face as he turned his back to the other scientist in the lab.
“Whatever,” Jake replied coldly, keeping up the act.
“Your arm, please,” Corey said as menacingly as he could.
Jake rolled up his sleeve and he carefully inserted a needle, drawing some of his blood over the next few seconds. Then Corey hooked him up to a machine via sensors attached to various points on his head, chest, and arms.
“Let’s get some readings on this animal,” he said casually, for the benefit of his lab partner.
The tests and monitoring lasted about two hours that afternoon, then Corey escorted Jake back to the guards who kept watch outside the dungeon-like holding cells beneath the facility. Just before they rounded the last corner, he whispered something to him.
“Not long now. Maybe a day or two. Stay strong.”
As the guards came into view, he changed his tone again.
“We’re done with this fellow for today,” he said as they walked up.
“Sounds good,” one of the guards replied. He grabbed Jake roughly by the arm and waved his wristband in front of the door lock.
Jake glanced back at Corey one last time and they gave each other a shallow nod.
_______________________
Dark, damp, and pretty stinky, too. It was definitely a prison.
Jake tried to get comfortable in the corner of the cell, the same corner where he sat most hours when he wasn’t being ‘tested’ or ‘examined’. There was no bed or any other furniture, only a toilet and a sink. Corey wasn’t kidding when he referred to him as an animal. That’s exactly what sleepers were considered.
It was also the same shadowy corner where he was sitting the first day Dr. Reston had paid him a visit. The day they exchanged their warnings with each other over the future. Over Daria.
And just as that moment came to mind, as if on cue, Jake heard the metal door at the end of the hall open with a clank. Then footsteps.
“How are we this evening?” a voice said from the darkness outside his cell. It was Dr. Reston.
“I’m not sure how we are,” Jake replied with a cheeky tone, “but I’m just fine. Thank you for asking.”
He could hear the doctor laugh, then the sound of keys jingling. One of them clicked and jostled in the lock, then the cell door squealed open.
“That’s good,” the doctor said as he stepped inside. “Some people find the accommodations here a tad... restrictive.”
“Pfft! Hardly. You guys shou
ld rent these out for holidays, seriously.”
Jake was finding it difficult to deal with Dr. Reston. But it wasn’t his imposing presence or his ominous prognostications. It was the fact that Jake knew he could subdue him if he wanted to - but he knew he shouldn’t. Corey was supposedly making sure he was on a mega-dose of Sendrax while he was there. Which, of course, he wasn’t. So he still had his powers, but he couldn’t act like he did until they extracted Daria. Not fully, at least. He couldn’t help allowing his eyes to glow, just for a second, the last time they met.
“Why don’t you want the best for your friend? You know, her time here is almost complete. She’ll soon be going back into the world to make a difference for humanity.”
It had made it easier for Corey to get approval to bring him in as a prisoner and test subject if he told the doctor the truth - that Jake knew about Daria’s unique gifting.
“Making a difference depends on your perspective,” Jake replied.
“Now, on that we can agree.”
Dr. Reston reached into his pocket and pulled out a small case. Jake only caught a glimpse of its outline in the faint light that backlit the doctor. But he could hear it open with a snap.
“And that is why,” he continued, “we have been helping your friend to see things more clearly. To change her perspective.”
He took a few steps closer to Jake, until he was standing over him in the shadows. Jake felt his hand touch his head and tip it to the left.
“And that is the same gift I’m going to give you. Perspective.”
As soon as he finished his sentence, Jake felt a sharp pain in his neck. He wanted to recoil, to fight back, but he could already feel the needle inside him. The shot lasted mere seconds, then the doctor released Jake’s head and walked back to the door of the cell.
He stepped outside, then slammed it shut and locked it again.
He paused for a moment as Jake remained seated in the darkness, holding his neck and wincing in pain.
“We’re still calibrating the dose, so the effects could take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks to set in. But trust me, they’ll set in.”
Jake’s mind raced between pain and fear, and his body struggled to keep up. He felt weak and dizzy, even though he was already sitting.
Then he heard Dr. Reston’s voice one last time.
“Welcome to the New Humanity, Mr. Livingston.”
_______________________
Month: 4 | Day: 2-3 | Year: 60
He stared at the ceiling.
His left leg felt a little jittery, like it wanted to walk or run. Anything, except sleep.
Jake sighed and rolled over, again. He had been tossing and turning for...
“Three hours?!” he whispered to himself as he checked the clock on his nightstand. He sighed again and pulled the blankets over his face.
His mind was replaying Dr. Reston’s words: “Trust me, they’ll set in.”
Was that what he was experiencing? What had the doctor given him? It sometimes took a few days for the effects of Sendrax to wear off when a new sleeper was extracted. But this was a single shot, and the only drug that Jake had been forced to take in a very long time. It had been four days now. How could one dose still be effecting him?
One dose of what, though?
He knew he should have told Corey the very next day, during the fake ‘tests’ he was running on him. And each day after, he knew he should tell him. He should tell all of them. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
What if Dr. Reston was right? What if this was some miracle ‘cure’ for sleepers and Jake was about to lose his...
He didn’t want to finish the thought, and he didn’t have to. Despite the wrestling going on in his mind, he felt a distinct drowsiness begin to wash over him.
A few minutes later, he was sound asleep.
_______________________
“I always sleep so stinkin’ good at the cabin!”
“Sleep well.”
“What?”
“It’s sleep well, not good.”
“No grammar before breakfast, please,” Aury said, rolling her eyes at Julia.
Just then, Jake joined them on the front porch.
“Hey!” Aury greeted him with a tone to match the songbirds in the trees.
“Hey,” Jake replied, his eyes still not fully adjusted to the light. He followed it up with a yawn.
“Did you sleep ok?” Julia asked.
“It’s sleep well,” Aury corrected her. Julia rolled her eyes this time.
“Yeah, totally,” Jake said with a smile, rubbing one of his eyes at the same time. “Who couldn’t sleep up here, right? So peaceful.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“It’ll be interesting to see how Daria progresses. It’s still hard to believe that she not only slept a full night on her first try but that she also had a dream already! Crazy.”
“I know. It’s pretty exciting, actually.”
“I wonder what she’s, you know... capable of?” Aury said in a half-whisper.
“I’m sure it’ll be a while before we see the full extent,” he replied. “But who knows! I’m sure whatever it is, it’ll be pretty cool.”
In the lull that followed in their conversation, Jake let out another yawn. He tried his best to stifle it but it pushed its way through.
_______________________
Month: 4 | Day: 5 | Year: 60
“You’re up,” Corey said, pointing to Jake with his finger then back towards the door with his thumb.
Jake nodded, then knelt down and closed his eyes. He leaned forward on his hands, trying both to focus and relax at the same time. Accessing the powers of the dream-state at the drop of a hat was hard enough. The added pressure of time constraints and the safety of his friends certainly didn’t help.
Not to mention the lack of sleep. Averaging five hours a night wasn’t cutting it. And only getting three last night was almost maddening.
Nevertheless, he focused his mind and tried to connect with the gift inside him. He knew what needed to happen - and so did it. He felt its desire, its will, merging with his own. It began in the quietness of his mind, then sank deeper and deeper into the core of his being, like all of him was uniting in harmony with all of it.
A shadow slowly engulfed him. The wall of the building and the hard ground beneath him began to vanish, as did Corey on one side of him and Daria on the other. Eventually, all was black, except for the silver and gold lights sparkling around him.
Then he rose up and walked. He stepped forward a few feet but not towards anything. It was movement and stillness at the same time. The flecks of gold and silver whirled past him at absurd speeds. Yet the space immediately surrounding him felt like a rock standing amidst rapids in a rushing river. It was as if space itself were passing around him while time stood still.
Then he felt the power inside him settle and he knew its work was completed. The lights slowed to a halt as time and space aligned once again.
He opened his physical eyes and the visions of shadows and stars gave way to a cold metal hall and a pair of locked doors.
But as he blinked several times, trying to focus, he stumbled. He was already on his hands and knees but he lost his balance, falling on his side against the unforgiving floor.
He pulled his legs up towards his chest, gripping them with his arms. He was trembling uncontrollably now and he tried his best to calm his body. It was like an extreme shivering, as though he had been dropped in Antarctica without the proper clothing.
He knew he needed to get moving and unlock the doors but he couldn’t get up yet. He rubbed his legs, then his chest, but he wasn’t actually cold. He breathed in and out, measuring each breath with a count of three, trying to steady his racing heart.
Eventually, after a few minutes, there was peace. As suddenly as the shaking had taken hold of him, it released him again and he was lying on the floor, stretched out in absolute exhaustion. All he wanted to do was go
to sleep.
He fought the desire and got up, brushing himself off and smacking his cheeks a few times to shake off the drowsiness.
“C’mon, Jake, just hold it together.”
He practised his tone of voice a few times to himself, making sure he wouldn’t sound awkward when he let them all inside. Then he cracked open a panel beside the door, revealing the hidden controls for the locking mechanism. He went through the override process, just like Corey had shown him.
After another measured breath and a count of three, he opened the door.
24
Month: 4 | Day: 5 | Year: 60
ESCAPE
The two men lifted Aaron off the table and hauled him out of the lab, leaving Angela and the doctor alone with Brix, who was still lying unconscious in the black and sliver chair.
“So, are you going to explain to me what’s going on with this girl? You let me watch your little show back at the house but I still don’t understand it.”
Dr. Reston was putting the rack of test tubes back into the refrigerator as she spoke to him. He didn’t respond right away as he seemed to be rearranging its contents. She could hear the glass containers rattling and things sliding on the shelves. Then he shut the door and returned to her, carrying a different vial in his hand.
He held it up for her to see.
“Direx?” she asked.
The doctor laughed.
“Hardly,” he said, pulling the vial closer to himself as he gazed intently upon the purple liquid inside. “Remember what I told you? Direx is for the people. This is for those who must lead the people.”
Angela wasn’t sure what to say, so she remained silent.
“The New Humanity is their future,” the doctor said, looking down toward Brix. “The New Human is ours.” As he finished speaking, his eyes met Angela’s with a foreboding stare.
