rise of the saviors

by Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons

  Working in the garden for a few minutes here and there has been a lifesaver for me the last two days. It helps me get rid of some of the stress that’s been piling up in my body.

  “I still can’t believe Doc is gone,” Tilly says. “Sometimes I dream about him being alive and when I wake up, I can’t tell if it was only a dream.”

  “I know. I have them, too.”

  “I don’t know how we keep going, how we don’t just cry all the time.”

  I take her gloved hand in mine and stare deep into her eyes. “Grief takes time. When we slow down, we will cry together. I promise, Tilly.”

  Tilly plants a kiss on my cheek. “Tell me honestly, do you think we’ll find Rabbit and Scout?”

  “Of course, we will. And soon.”

  “I believe you,” she says seriously.

  “Hey, girls. How is it going?”

  We turn to find Ella watching us. Ella without her makeup on is a rare sight. Add to that the fact that her eyes are reddish and, for a moment, all I do is stare at her face. I quickly recompose myself and ask her if she wants to join us.

  “I was actually hoping to have a word with you, Freya,” she says. “If you have a moment.”

  I glance at Tilly to make sure it’s fine.

  “It’s okay, go,” she says. “I’ll finish up here.”

  Ella and I walk to a bench by a pine tree and sit next to each other.

  “Is everything okay?” I ask.

  “I don’t think so.” Her voice trails off and becomes barely audible.

  “What’s happened, Ella?”

  “It’s Finn. I think his feelings are changing.”

  Her confessional tone makes me feel awkward. Ella reaching out to me can mean only one thing: she thinks she can pump information out of me.

  “Let me stop you there,” I say. “Finn and I have never discussed you or your relationship. If you think I have some insight, I don’t.”

  Ella senses my discomfort because the next thing she does is place a hand on my head and briefly stroke my hair. “I don’t want you to tell me anything,” she says. “Finn is your friend and I wouldn’t want to put you on the spot like that. I was hoping you would help me.”

  “Help you how?” I say, even more confused.

  “Put a good word in for me. Let him know that I love him. And that I’m sorry.”

  “Haven’t you told him yourself?”

  “Of course, I have. But he needs time and I will give it to him. I’m returning to the space station.”

  “Ella, forgive me, but it’s obvious that something has happened between the two of you and I don’t want to get in the middle. Especially since I don’t know what I would be defending you against.”

  Ella lowers her eyes. “I did something I’m not proud of. And he would have never known if I hadn’t told him. I hope he will give me some credit for that once his anger cools down. You know him better than anyone. Finn doesn’t hold grudges.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” I agree.

  “Anyway, that’s all I’m asking of you. Don’t let him forget I love him. Can you do that for me?”

  “It’s up to him, Ella. If he doesn’t mind me bringing it up, I will. I only want what’s best for Finn. And I’m in a world of trouble myself in the love department.”

  I can’t believe I’m telling Ella this. I haven’t told anyone. I’ve even avoided thinking about it.

  “You and Damian?” she says curiously.

  “Never mind,” I say as I get up. “The truth is our conversation might prove completely meaningless if we don’t figure out our strategy fast. We could all be dead by the end of the week.”

  Her face goes paler. “Finn told me. He’s convinced the end is near.”

  “Let’s hope it will bring a new beginning for us.”

  Ella gets up and throws her arms around my shoulders. It takes me a second before I do the same. “When we meet again, we shall be truly free,” she says before she walks away. Strangely, I do hope we meet again.

  *

  DOCTOR ARMAND SOUNDS FRANTIC as he races through the charts he has created with Ava’s genetic information. “She evolves constantly,” he says. “I have recorded three gene mutations during her brief stay at the hospital. And those are just the ones I was able to locate.”

  “How is she?” I say.

  “In and out of consciousness. When she speaks, she insists her body is going through some shut-down process.”

  “Triggered by what, Doctor Armand?”

  “Well, she says it was triggered by the wrong thought in her brain.”

  I try to imagine what it must feel like to live inside Ava’s body. “Do you think she’s losing her mind?”

  “It’s hard to tell. Sometimes she sounds completely lucid and the next moment things get quite mystical.”

  “Mystical?”

  “I’ll explain that some day. More important, Freya, is that her genes are a map for genetic evolution, human or otherwise. She could hold answers regarding the concept of immortality.”

  “Ava is not the only one who’s getting a bit mystical, Doctor Armand.”

  Armand laughs. “I never said mystical was a synonym for crazy, did I?”

  “That’s the impression I got.”

  He gets serious. “The more we know, the harder it will be for them to harm us. Any luck getting that DNA sample?”

  “No, not yet. Keep me posted on Ava’s condition.”

  “Will do.”

  The feed is cut off and I turn to Kroll who’s been sitting beside me the whole time. “What do you make of this?” I ask him.

  “Do you really want to know?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “I think Ava is the first footprint of the new breed the aliens are trying to build. She’s one step closer to their vision. You and your mutation are but a doorway they need to walk through. Ava is the end game.”

  “I’m confused. Isn’t creating alien babies the end game?”

  “Perhaps I should explain better,” Kroll says. “The new world will need both aliens and human mutants. There is no guarantee those new aliens will adjust well to the Earth’s environment or how much longer the older ones will live. The human mutants will ensure the safety of the young ones and offer guidance should the older alien generation perish.”

  “So this is what the plantation system has been about? Create mutants, select the most powerful ones, then brainwash them and turn them into mentors for a new generation of aliens?”

  “That is what I believe. The Sliman are, of course, security through the whole process and possibly some form of mutant laborer to help build a new world once the breeding begins.”

  “It makes sense,” I say as Kroll’s suggestions sink in.

  Kroll puts his index finger on his lips and motions with his head that there’s someone at the door. I turn and see Marisa watching us.

  “I’m sorry for the interruption,” she says.

  “No problem, we’re finished here.” I turn off the screens in the control room and walk Marisa to the meeting area.

  “Are you settled in yet?” I say, not quite sure how to start a conversation. It’s the first time Marisa has approached me since she came to Spring Town and I don’t really know a lot about her.

  “I’ve tried to distance myself from everything that has happened,” she says. “I’ve tried to be an observer like Eric wants me to. But I can’t keep quiet anymore.”

  “People here talk freely. You can say anything you want to say.”

  She crosses her legs and rubs her ear, trying to make a decision. “I came to tell you that you should not be suspicious of Eric,” she says. “Eric is a good man and he will help you any way he can.”

  I push myself further back in my chair. “Eric knows many things that he shouldn’t know.”

  “Why shouldn’t he know those things? He was taken in by people who understood the world when he was a boy. He, himself, understands the world. And the aliens.”


  “He also understands technology. He knows about things we don’t even know and we have people here who are brilliant scientists.”

  “And you think that’s odd.”

  My touchpad buzzes in my pocket. I take it out to check the message. Finn has called a meeting at the training ring. I’m not sure if he means the two of us or everyone and there’s only one way to find out. I lean over to touch Marisa’s hand. “I have to go,” I say. “Don’t worry. I know I can be suspicious but it pays to be cautious. We are living in dangerous times.”

  “Eric is like you,” she says.

  “Like me?”

  “I always make this mistake.”

  “Marisa, what are you talking about?”

  “I tell myself to keep my distance and then I just open my big mouth.”

  I take her by the shoulders. “It’s okay. We are all friends.”

  She nods. “Eric escaped from the plantations. That’s all I know.”

  I sit down again. In an instant, things start to make sense. How Eric showed no real surprise when he witnessed my energy fields, how he knew to look for things like protonic gases, how he understands the methods the invaders use to intimidate and control.

  “You did well to tell me,” I say to calm down a worried Marisa.

  “Please, don’t let him know I told you. He’s so private.”

  “Why would he want to keep that a secret, Marisa? He should be glad there are more people like him. We’re all plantation fugitives.”

  “I already said too much,” she says standing up.

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry. I feel better knowing his past.”

  She smiles sweetly. “If you can keep secrets, then there’s one more thing you should know.”

  A thought crosses my mind. “You’re not afraid of Eric?”

  “No. You don’t understand. I’m not afraid of him, I’m afraid for him.”

  There’s no point pushing this any further. I’ll have to find a way to get Eric to admit he’s a fugitive without involving Marisa.

  “And the other thing I should know?” I remind her.

  “Some alien DNA can evolve, adapt. It’s a rare trait from another species the aliens mated with long ago way out there in the stars.”

  “Okay,” I say. “All species can adapt and evolve.”

  “This gene allows them to do it in one lifetime,” she says. “During a single life even.”

  “Great,” I say. “Another handy ability for our enemies.”

  Alarm flashes onto her face. “Oh, no. The aliens don’t like this gene they carry. It’s very rare that it happens, but whenever one of them evolves, they are killed immediately or they are hunted.”

  I am utterly confused. “What exactly does this have to do with the here and now?”

  Now she turns red. “I was wrong to come.” And like that she is gone.

  18

  The feeble river close to Spring Town was diverted soon after we started setting up the camp to provide us with water, leaving its once muddy bed now dry and cracked. Eric sits on the river bed with his hands on his thighs.

  He knows I’m there before he sees me. “Are you looking for me?”

  “I am,” I say. “Do you mind joining me up here on the grass or would you rather we sat down there on the dirt?”

  “It’s not dirt,” he explains.

  “What would you call it?”

  “The persisting dream of a once blossoming life.”

  How did he go from a man of few words to this babbling being who insists on talking me to death?

  “I guess I’ll join you in your dream then,” I say as I plop down next to him.

  “You should know that there is great energy hidden in all things,” he says stealing a glance at me.

  “I’ve come to you with a question.”

  “You intend to drag me out of my internal musings and heartlessly throw me back into the desolate truths of the apocalypse.”

  I remain silent trying hard not to blink. “Are you going mad or do you just need a little jolt of my hidden energy?”

  “A girl after my own heart,” he says laughing. “You have a true understanding for poetry. Violent, I admit, but penetrating in its ferocity.”

  “Is everything a joke to you all of a sudden?”

  “No,” he says seriously. “Nothing is a joke. That’s the whole point. What’s the question you wanted to ask me?”

  “Where were you born?”

  He doesn’t do any of the things I’ve come to expect when I ask someone an uncomfortable question. He doesn’t shift his weight, he doesn’t swallow hard and he doesn’t respond with a question.

  “I was born around here,” he says.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “Why did you think that?”

  “You seem familiar with the place. And quite familiar with the world of the plantation system and the alien tyranny. It couldn’t have been random.”

  “Okay, so now you know.”

  I raise my hands under Eric’s nose. My fingers sizzle with small red and blue sparks. I watch his eyes taking in the sight.

  “Why doesn’t it shock you that I can do magic?”

  “Because it’s not magic,” he says. “And because I’ve seen you do far more than party tricks.”

  I produce a fast energy field and turn it into silver glitter that sprinkles onto the dirt lighting it up like a thousand fireflies on a spring evening.

  “Are you trying to impress me?”

  “It’s time we put all our cards on the table, Eric. If you want me to trust you, if you want to be part of my team, you’ll have to come clean and tell me who you are and where you’ve been.”

  “I get the distinct impression you think you know who I am.”

  “I don’t know who you are or who I am for that matter, but I know you’re like me, like all the Saviors. You have escaped from a plantation.”

  My conclusion doesn’t faze him. “What if I am?”

  “I’ve revealed my mutation to you. I think you owe me as much.”

  Eric picks a pebble off the ground and throws it at the dam that the Dark Legion has built several yards away from where we sit. “I don’t know about mutations,” he says, “but you’re right. I was born in a breeding village and forced into a plantation.”

  “Which one?”

  “That’s of no interest. A better question would be, are you in control of this power you just displayed for me?”

  “I’m better with a receptor, but yes. I’m learning to control it.”

  “A sensory receptor?”

  “I’m sure you’ve seen one before,” I say. “They liked to exhibit them when I was in a plantation.”

  “Is that how you discovered you could do all this? You acquired a receptor and it knew you, so to speak?”

  “Pretty much. Until it was taken from me.”

  Eric searches carefully for his next sentence. “Does that mean you have an alien gene or two somewhere in there?”

  I prefer not to answer that. It’s not a thought I embrace.

  He takes my hands and studies my palms. “Any side effects?”

  “How would you know to ask that question?”

  I see a grin on his face. “I was escaping from plantations when you were a baby. I’ve told you that I know a few things. Will you stop questioning everything I say?”

  He’s right. Almost everybody I know has told me that my suspicious nature can be quite irritating and that I should let things be at times.

  “I can help you, Freya,” Eric says earnestly.

  I shake my head as if I just woke up. “What do you mean help me? How?”

  “With your powers as you call them.”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “I’m quite sure you do not understand.”

  “You can be truly annoying,” I tell him.

  “Get up,” he says. His commanding tone doesn’t sit well with me. “Please,” he adds when he notices my unwillingness
to follow his order.

  I do as he says, not because he said please but because I’m growing curious.

  “Show me how you generate your light.”

  “I call it an energy field,” I say, trying to figure out what he’s doing.

  “Okay. Show me how you generate energy fields as slowly as you can,” he says. “Oh, I almost forgot. Please.”

  “Don’t make me blast you into next week.”

  He grins at my threat. “I’ve not heard that expression.”

  I decide to humor him. With my palms touching each other, I concentrate on my energy until it is slowly shaped into a crystal ball. It’s the first time I’ve been able to sustain that since I lost the receptor, so I’m pretty pleased with myself. I look up at Eric with a silly grin on my face.

  He doesn’t seem impressed. “You’re doing it all wrong,” he says. “Keep this up and you’ll end up killing yourself.”

  “Excuse me?” I say rather piqued by his insolence. “What do you know?”

  “You are using vital parts of yourself to access your energy source. You can get away with it when using a sensory receptor device but not when all you have to rely on is your bare hands.”

  “And here comes the question to my lips again.”

  “How do I know all this?”

  I nod, rolling my eyes.

  “Honestly? No clue other than the fact that, like I told you, my powers of observing and absorbing information are superb.”

  “Is that a mutation?” I say cautiously.

  He shrugs. That’s all he gives me as a response.

  “Let me guess. One more thing you have no clue about.”

  “Tell me, haven’t you been struggling with headaches and sudden lack of energy since you started doing this?”

  “What if I have?”

  “Do as I say, okay? Just this once. If it doesn’t work, you can ignore my instruction forever.”

  “It’s tempting.”

  “Okay. So, just bring your palms close to each other without actually having them touch. Leave at least three inches of space between them so that the field doesn’t turn against you when you use high intensities.”

  I do as he says. Easy enough so far.