by Cooper Eaton
“Thanks for helping me escape.”
“No problem, anyone would do it for the good of the rebellion.” She said without breaking her staring contest with the wall behind me.
I didn’t really care that she didn’t seem to acknowledge my presence, although it was weird how emotionless she was.
Just as things were becoming unbearably awkward several men and women shuffled in. They were all older, so I assumed they were some sort of leaders.
Combined with their the new arrivals there were about eight of us in the room.
Damian quickly addressed them completely forgetting me. “Thank you all for coming. I know you each having very busy schedules. However, this is a matter of vital importance. As you all know the test is over and Dark is about to do something extremely dangerous. According to new intel, he has some sort of device. We think it some sort of nuclear weapon, but we aren’t sure. All we know is that we have to stop it. Our plan is to have Felicia escort the package to the meet. Once their, her group will disperse amongst the crowd gathered for Mr. Dark’s big announcement. He invited citizens from Trinity, and their coming by the hundreds. We believe his true purpose is to test his new weapon on them. John,” Damian said turning to a man near the front. “I need your group on standby and ready to deploy. If things go wrong, I don’t want your team in harm's way, but if we are successful, we’ll ll need reinforcements ready to evacuate the package.
"Sir, yes sir," John responded formally.
Damian continued. “As for the rest of you, I want your groups on standby as well. However, keep your teams well clear of the possible blast radius. Felicia, your team will be in the direct line of fire if we are unable to disarm Dark’s weapon, are your soldiers prepared?”
“Sir, my team is ready and willing to lay down its lives in the fight for freedom.” She responded completely emotionless.
"Alright, thank you for everything you do. We'll be monitoring closely, and if things go awry, we'll hopefully be able to send in an evac and get you to safety." He paused, and she nodded curtly once more without emotion. He turned back to his audience and continued. "Alright then, if their are no questions, this meeting is adjourned. All we need now is the commitment of our package.” He said as he turned towards me. “The rest of you are free to leave. I would like to brief William alone.”
Everyone got up and exited the small colorless room except for Josh and Felicia. Damian walked over and put a shoulder on my hand before he began speaking. “William, what I’m about to ask you is going to sound insane. But I would ask that you hear me out. Will you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Let me start by saying, I know how much you’ve suffered. I know how much you’ve watched people around you suffer, including your parents. And I know that you don’t want that life for yourself or those close to you.” He paused looking into my eyes to see what emotion he had evoked.
All I could think was: how does everyone know so much about me?
Damian continued. “Earlier when I was speaking to the commanders, I mentioned a package. This package, as we called, it is actually a person and we'd like for that person to be you.
I immediately cut him off. “What! That’s a nuclear bomb! You want me to get close to a nuclear weapon? No way, you're insane!”
Damian rebuffed. "If this weapon takes out as many people as we think it will, it will take out the Capital as well as all of the surrounding cities. Furthermore, Damian has invited arch judges, as well as the overseers, and the code makers. Don't you see what I'm saying? If Dark is successful, then there will be no one left to oppose him. Things are bad now, but if Dark seizes power things will drastically spiral into oblivion. ¶I see where he's coming from, and I want to help, truly I do, but I'm not about to give up my life so that I can stop Mr. Dark from killing people I've never met.
Josh, seeing that I was torn, spoke up. “Will, I know this is a tough decision, but you should think about those around you. If Dark takes over no one will be free. You parents, your friends, anyone you love. If you don’t do this, we’ll all suffer.”
Suddenly memories began fluttering through my mind. Images of my loving parents hugging me before I left for the test, Jessica helping me walk to the infirmary after I got the crap beat out of me at the pool party, Jessica saving my life multiple times, Jessica’s sweet smile, Jessica’s tender laugh, Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. Images of her stunning endless green eyes took over my thoughts. I can't let Mr. Dark keep her from me. I have to save her. If I don't, I'll never be able to live with myself.
“I’ll do it!” I responded rashly.
Damian, Josh, and Felica all looked at me like I was crazy. Damian broke the silence. “You don’t even know what we’re asking of you yet.”
"I'll do whatever it takes," I replied boldly, partially hating myself every moment.
"Awesome, that's what I like to hear," Damian said sounding very, please. "Your task is simple. You'll be escorted to capitol square where Mr. Dark will be holding his announcement. If you can get their safely, you'll need to get close to Dark. Then you'll need to cause a distraction. If you can get him distracted Felicia and her team can sneak in and steal the nuclear device. After that, your only focus will be to escape. You must get away from Dark as quickly as possible, or he'll kill you with his black magic. What do you think?"
As Damian talked, I became more and more anxious. I’m gonna die! My hands had begun to shake just thinking about what I was being asked to do. “Why would he be there?” ¶“Why would who be there?” Damian asked.
“Mr. Dark, why would he be there if he was about to set off a nuclear weapon?”
"That's the one thing we're not sure about. We hope that what we're doing is right, but we don't know what he's planning to reveal to the thousands of people gathered. All we know is that we need to be there to stop it, whatever it is. Will you be there with us?"
"Yes," I said weakly wishing I could take my words from the earlier back.
Damian put a hand on my shoulder and led me away from the other two. "Listen, William, I know what we're asking is difficult, but we both know what you can do. You have the gift. You need to use it to your advantage. Try to stay calm and remember what's important. You can do this; I know you can."
“Thanks. I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be…”
Chapter 21: Game Time
This is awesome! We'd been given hover bikes to ride for our mission, and they were awesome! The bikes were light and responded to every touch. Cornering was insane! If you turned hard enough, you'd drifted through the air, gliding effortlessly around sharp corners! There was no need to break, because the bikes handled everything you threw at them with ease!
Skyscraper buildings rushed past in a blur of color. People, trees, dogs, everything moved so fast. The wind whipped in my face bringing with it the freshness of the capital. I felt completely free.
Cold, hard pavement looked up at me from below, and the sharp, beautiful blue sky looked down from above. However, neither seemed to matter much at the speeds I was traveling. This is incredible! I could feel the growl of my engines grow louder as I revved back the throttle stick! Wow!
I let off the throttle, but instead of quieting the motors, they seemed to increase in volume! What the? The sound increased in volume almost as if something was approaching! What is that? I looked over my shoulder and was met with a shocking sight!
Hover Disks! They were right behind us, and they were closing fast! Disks were legendary! Only the richest of the rich could afford a disk. They’re insanely fast and have tons of mobility! Disk racing is one of the most popular sports, it’s incredible!
Felicia’s voice from my earpiece brought me back to reality! “William, I need you to listen to me. Are you?”
"Yeah, yeah, go ahead," I said still enthralled the glorious feats of human engineering catching up quickly.
"We've got to take evasive action or those disks will kill catch us
in seconds!" She shouted through the earpiece with a sudden fear in her voice.
“What are you talking about? Why?”
“Those are government disks! They're here to kill us! You need to follow me and try to make yourself as hard to hit as possible! If you get hit with one of their orbs, you’ll be immobilized, and fall to your death! If you can’t evade them, you will die! Let's move!” She yelled and wrenched back on her throttle!
I followed, but couldn’t resist a look over my shoulder! The disks were now practically on top of us! A voice from the lead disk’s megaphone boomed. “Stop, or you will be treated as hostiles! Stop now, or you will be terminated!”
If we are caught, there won't be any way to save anyone, but more importantly, I'll be dead! I really don't want to die, but if I surrender now, I'd know I'd either be locked in prison for the rest of my life or sentenced to death. I have to keep going!
With those thoughts pushing me onward I pulled back on the throttle as hard as I could. I felt a slight jolt as the hover engines hit their highest range! The engines in the front and back began to scream in protest! I was barely keeping up with Felicia darting in and out of buildings that lay in our path! I thought for sure I was about to meet my maker when I heard Josh come in over the coms. “Felicia, I’m behind the disks with the part of the troops you requested stay behind for backup. Permission to open fire?”
“Fire, fire!” She yelled desperately.
“Zing, zing, zing!” Ray bolts!
Suddenly ray fire was flying everywhere! I glanced back, to see the battle, but to my horror, all that greeted me was a rogue disk had slipped away and was zooming towards me!
“Buzz, buzz, buzz!” The disk began to fire with its orbs of immobilizing electricity. The orbs whizzed past me and took out a rebel who’d been escorting me!
“Ahhh!” he screamed over the coms and fell off his bike rickoshaying with the ground at well over a 100 miles an hour!
The impact was too quick for me to see, but I assumed all that was left was a bloody streak on the pavement below.
The disk continued to fire as two of my other escorts slowed down to try and shield me from the incoming orbs. Another man was shot with a heart-wrenching scream! "Ahhh!”
I can't do this! I can't let these people die for me! At this rate, we'll all die! There's no escape!
As if sensing my thoughts Felicia yelled, “We're almost there, just hang on!” right as she turned back my other escort who had dropped back to shield me was hit! “Ahhh!” he screamed before tumbling to the ground towards certain death.
Now it's only Felicia and me! Josh appears to have distracted the other disks with the rebels he has command of, but it isn’t going to matter, the one disk that slipped away is aiming right at me! This is it!
At the last possible moment out of nowhere Felicia threw here to bike in reverse and flew backwards right at the disk that was about to fire! She flew under the disk attaching something to it’s underside! Just as it let loose an electricity bolt, the entire disk was yanked backwards!
It's being dragged away! Felicia did it; she saved me!
But I can't stop for her. This is my moment; I have to use her distraction and get to Mr. Dark! I twisted back on the throttle to keep going, but nothing happened! I had no power! I looked back only to realized that my rear engine was on fire! Flames and smoke trailed my lifeless machine. The bike shuddered as if it finally realized what had happened. The last shot from the disk connected! I can’t believe it! I’m powerless to change my fate!
The ground rushed up to greet me! I pulled desperately back at the directional stick while throwing the front engine into reverse in an attempt to slow down, but I couldn't!
As I flew out of the downtown area, I saw a large crowd of people gathered! My bike was headed right for them, and their was nothing I could do! This is it! I'm going to die, and I'm going to kill 100's of people on accident!
My remaining engine in the front blew with a resounding "Boom!" and I dropped from the air like a dead bird! "Smack!" I pushed away from my bike, and we skidded apart with the screech of metal and bone on pavement. "Swwwwiiiiiiiicccckkkkkk!”
When I finally came out of my skid, my body flipped out of control repeatedly rolling and then slamming into a large object! Ahhhh! Everything burns!
Everything was on fire, but outwardly I could only groan because screaming hurt to badly. “Uhhh.” I felt myself gasping for air, but I felt oddly disconnected from the reality of what was happening. I must be in shock. I heard cries from people behind me at the horrendous sight in front of them. The only thing I could focus on was the sky in front of my eyes that I’d been lucky enough to land facing. It really is beautiful. Is this the last time I’ll see it?
And then, suddenly, a tiny bit of feeling came back, and with it an enormous, horrendous burning! Everything suddenly was alive and on fire! My skin felt like it'd been coated with lava! My bones all groaned in protest as I tried to roll over! I looked down over my shoulder only to see most of the skin gone and muscle and bone looking back at me! I must have been going at least 70 mph! How am I still alive?
I knew I was in shock. I didn’t dare look at the rest of my body for fear of seeing the remainder of it. I knew I was in serious trouble, the only thing I could feel was burning sensation coming from everywhere inside and outside my body. I looked over, and to my shock and disbelief, thousands of people were looking back at me! I turned my head the other way, and there stood Mr. Dark!
He gazed at me with a little bit of interest and something that looked like pitty. His feelings didn’t stop him from ripping away a blanket to reveal his weapon!
He then dropped the blanket and slowly approached me. “Look who decided to join us!” He said addressing both the crowd and me. “Mr. William Rose as I live and breath! Although, it seems as though you won't be doing either of those things for much longer. Haha." He laughed at his joke. The crowd, however, did not. Everyone was dead silent. "Could you not wait a moment longer to see what ASTA built?" he asked loudly before changing his tone to only address me. "You could have been here standing by my side! You could have been the one to reveal it to all of these good people." He said gesturing to the people who were all gazing back with confusion, as to whether I was part of Mr. Dark's act or if I had just unexpectedly dropped in out of the sky. A few of the people began to get restless with anxiety and fear and began to back away from my mangled body, however not too far.
Mr. Dark leaned in for a private conversation. “Before I kill you I’d like to show you what I created.” As he spoke, blackness appeared from his hands and swiftly funneled into my brain.
Energy flooded throughout me and miraculously I was able to find my feet! He’s powering me!
Mr. Dark moved towards his cube like device, and so did I. I tried to move away, but he had complete control.
The energy made it possible for me to move but it didn’t take the pain away. In fact it only seemed to increase with every step I took on my battered and bloodied legs. I wanted to turn and run away! I wanted to run as far as I could and try and reach my parents so I could talk to them one last time! I wanted to tell them I loved them! I wanted to thank them for everything they had done for me despite their having to give everything up to do so. I wanted to see the proud looks on their faces whenever I’d won a game. I wanted to see the way they both had comforted me when I’d been sick and helped me figure out my homework as a child. Most of all, I just wanted to see them one last time, hug them, and hear them tell me; everything will be okay son.
But, I couldn’t. I couldn’t move the way that I wanted to, I’d been forced into submission, and so I followed Mr. Dark until he stopped in front of the strange device.
He began speaking to me as if we were learning in a museum, as if this box was an incredible discovery and should be rejoiced over. “This Mr. Rose is a Frequency Connector! This is what we have been building out of the objects you brought to us in your
tests. You thought that the objects you retrieved were only for the test, but in fact they were what we were truly after. You see the test had a much larger purpose than you could’ve ever comprehended. What you didn’t see while testing was that you were actually helping us get all of the parts and plans we needed to build this Frequency Connector.” He looked to me and I just stared blankly back. I wanted to say something, anything to the madman standing before me, but I couldn’t find the strength to make words.
Sensing my questioning, Mr. Dark continued, “You may be wondering; what is a Frequency Connector? And that’s a valid question. As you may have figured out, the colors you see are electricity, however, what you may not know, is that the different colors are the different frequencies people run on. You know that I can control people using the gift that we both have; however, controlling some people is harder than others. You see, everyone runs on different frequencies depending on their level of intelligence. Those with a higher level of creativity are harder to control. The purpose of the Frequency Connector is to change everyone’s brain to the same frequency.” He looked again into my eyes that were completely bewildered. “The Frequency Connector will connect everyone to a frequency that I control, thereby giving me control of all these people and many more across this great land of ours. You’ll never know how much you and your fellow testers have helped me. Without you, I would have never been able to make the device you see before you. Thanks to you, I’ll be more powerful than anyone alive! I will rule the world and I will rule it with an iron fist! My every whim will be accomplished and there will be no more wars. No one will be able to fight me; once I control them all and show them the way to happiness. I will be a god, and if anyone tries to rebel they will be crushed. The only people to live will be the strong. The world will become a breeding ground for perfection. Never again will people look at me in disgust or distaste. Everyone will look up to me, love me and desire to fulfill my every command. I will truly gain happiness!” He began to shout like a madman.
