by E S Richards
She wondered what the building had been in The Before Time. It looked like a place where rich people would gather together, share their wealth and swap stories and plans to make the rich richer. She had read about those types; the people who were already better than most of the rest and yet only tried to increase their own wealth rather than aiding others. She thought it was selfish, but many told her it was simply how things were done in The Before Time.
She took in the rest of the building as Cain climbed up two flights of stairs. When they stopped it was only because part of the staircase had fallen away in front of them and Zahyra worried about them already being up so high. If the building collapsed any further they would surely be killed in the rubble, their whole journey amounting to nothing.
Cain shook his head at Zahyra’s questioning; reassuring her that none of the buildings had shifted at all in the time he’d known them. Zahyra didn’t take much confidence from his words but moved over to a long bench in front of one of the windows anyway and sat down. It was covered in what must have once been expensive cushions but were now moth eaten and dirty. Still she cleared a patch for Asher to join her and relaxed as her brother rested his head against her shoulder.
“You two should get some rest,” Cain spoke from across the room. He was organising the weapons and supplies they had lain down, making sure each gun was correctly loaded and ready. “Zahyra I’ll wake you in a bit to take over the watch, okay?”
Zahyra could only manage a mumbled response before her eyes drifted closed. The adrenaline from the night faded quickly and her muscles relaxed into the once soft fabric. Asher’s breathing soothed her and very soon hers matched his, the two of them snoring softly beside each other.
A gun cocking woke Zahyra. Checking her timekeep she realised she had only been asleep for a little under an hour, her body trying to reject consciousness and bring her back to sleep. As her eyes scanned the room though she spotted Cain staring out of the window, the cocked rifle resting against his shoulder. Carefully Zahyra removed her brother’s sleeping form from her and lay him down on the cushions, moving over to where Cain was crouched.
“What is –”
Zahyra stopped herself, seeing the safe haven’s red band wandering around below their building. There were six men and women from what Zahyra could see, but thankfully they didn’t look like they knew where the three of them were hiding. Instead they were simply scouting the general area; poking their heads into ground floor windows and checking down alleyways. Zahyra was glad Cain had made them move upstairs, the safe haven unwilling to venture any further into any buildings.
“They don’t know we’re here?” Zahyra whispered quietly to Cain who had relaxed his grip in the rifle slightly.
“Doesn’t look like it,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I was almost dozing off when the first one came into view, scared the life out of me so I went for the gun. They’re too afraid to go into the buildings though, I think they must know this is the heart of mutant territory.”
“We’re in the heart of mutant territory?” Zahyra repeated, slightly louder than she had intended to. She was shocked Cain had led them to such a dangerous area and raised an eyebrow in demand of an explanation.
“I knew the safe haven wouldn’t come into the buildings in this area,” Cain rebuffed, still looking out of the window. “And I also know the mutants didn’t use this particular building. It’s the safest place we can be, trust me.”
Zahyra shook her head in annoyance, wishing Cain would share more information with her about decisions like this. Regardless though she realised she did trust him and even if he had told her about the mutant territory beforehand she would have willingly followed him into the area, his knowledge far surpassing any of hers.
“So what do we do now?” Zahyra whispered again, managing to implement more control over the volume of her words.
“Just wait. If I know the type of mutants that live here – and trust me I do – they won’t keep themselves hidden for long.”
Zahyra swallowed as she processed what Cain was saying. There was about to be a confrontation when the mutants met the safe haven, one that Zahyra was very glad she wouldn’t be in the middle of. She had seen first hand what both groups set out to do and she didn’t agree with either of them – a part of her hoped they would both wipe the other out and leave the three of them to remain in the city in peace.
Cain eventually placed the rifle on the floor beside him, satisfied that none of the safe haven’s soldiers had spotted them. Then he and Zahyra shuffled down slightly so they were barely visible through the window and watched as the soldiers continued to survey the area below them.
Many of the soldiers had moved out of view but they were all gradually replaced by more entering from the other side of the street. Zahyra estimated there were more than twenty all together, more than Cain had killed late last night, or early that morning, Zahyra’s brain was still weary from lack of sleep.
Just as she thought the safe haven were about to make it through that part of the city undetected a loud shout sounded from one of the buildings opposite them and several mutants jumped down from the windows, some starting out on the same level Zahyra and Cain were watching from. At the noise Zahyra looked over at Asher and was relieved to find him still asleep, the events of the night before having completely drained him of energy.
Returning her eyes to the street she saw more mutants exiting from other buildings in the area. There were some even coming from the buildings they had passed to reach their hiding place and Zahyra breathed a sigh of relief at having passed them undetected.
Once all the mutants had gathered Zahyra looked down at an incredible face off. The safe haven’s red band had regrouped and set up ranks at the far end of the street, their weapons drawn and their soldiers standing in perfect formation. At the other end – almost directly below where the three of them hid – the rogue advanced mutants stood mostly unarmed, aside from one holding a pistol and a few others wielding broken pieces of wood or metal.
The mutants looked disorganised and unprepared, yet something about the way they stood made them appear more confident to Zahyra, the safe haven’s soldiers trembling slightly in their formation.
Nothing happened for a long while, a silent stalemate drawing out between the two sides. Both Zahyra and Cain held their breath in the window above the street, waiting anxiously for someone to make the first move.
It was a man from the safe haven who eventually stepped forward, slinging his rifle around his back and holding his hands up, palms facing outwards. He moved slowly towards the group of mutants, nervousness clearly present in the way he moved.
Once he reached the halfway point between the two groups the man stopped and said something to the group of mutants. His feeble voice failed to carry up to the window and Zahyra had to shake her head at Cain’s questioning look. A moment later one of the mutants glanced around his companions and strode confidently forward, stopping about a foot in front of the safe haven’s man.
The two spoke for a minute, their words still too quiet for anyone else to hear. A deep laugh carried up from the mutant part way through the conversation, warranting another nervous look from the soldier. The exchange didn’t seem to last long and after a minute and a half the safe haven’s man nodded and turned away from the mutant, about to return to his group.
Zahyra and Cain then watched on in horror as the mutant placed his hand on the man’s shoulder from behind and twisted his small body back around to face him. Then he picked up the man by his collar and threw him towards the wall of one of the buildings. Whilst the soldier’s body was flying through the air the mutant watched him closely, and then just as his body was about to impact with the brick something happened and his flesh tore apart into a thousand tiny pieces, not leaving a single trace of him behind.
Zahyra’s mouth dropped open as she saw it happen. The soldier’s body had just disappeared. Separated magically and each part floated away on th
e wind. She was in shock; unable to move when Cain pulled her back from the window, shouts and gunfire exploding from below. She took a moment to bring herself back to reality and then looked wide-eyed at Cain. The man shook his head at her in disbelief and turned back to the window, both of them now watching the war between the two sides below.
The safe haven’s red band had retreated slightly, hiding in doorways and around corners. The mutants strode confidently between them, throwing strong punches and using their mutations to murder the red band one by one. This was going to be a very one sided battle, Zahyra thought, hoping that once the mutants had disposed of all the safe haven’s men they would move away from the area, letting the three of them escape.
The street below them was utter carnage and Zahyra struggled to watch certain parts of the scene unfold. Her eyes fell on a red banded woman, hiding behind an overturned car and fiddling with some sort of stick that was fastened to her side.
From where Zahyra was hidden she couldn’t make out what the woman was holding; it certainly wasn’t a gun and Zahyra fabricated a guess at it being one of the other weapons the safe haven had manufactured. Something that had been kept in the glass cabinets in the weapons bay that Heather had been reluctant to show her. Curious, Zahyra watched the woman carefully as she unfastened the stick from her side and the top third of it began to glow a bright, white colour.
It reminded Zahyra slightly of a magic wand, something she had read about in children’s books and she laughed to herself quietly. When she was little the camp elders had often referred to mutations as a sort of magic and Zahyra now found it ironic that the safe haven would use something similar to fight against the mutations.
As the woman rose and pointed it at a mutant Zahyra watched carefully. A beam of white light emitted from the glowing end of the stick and struck the mutant square in the chest. For a second nothing happened, the mutant seeming unaffected by the contact with the light beam. Zahyra watched as he raised his hand, ready to fire off the shards of ice she had seen him throwing earlier. Then something happened.
The mutant repeated the movement that had worked for him previously and stared at his hands in surprise. The beam of light had completely stopped him from being able to produce ice and as he looked uneasily at his hands the woman with the glowing stick withdrew a pistol from her belt and shot him cleanly in the head.
Zahyra rolled back on her heels slightly, stunned to the point of silence. The red banded woman didn’t stop there either. The three other remaining soldiers from the safe haven moved behind her, their guns drawn as she pointed the stick at the next mutant. They were still outnumbered three to one but the remaining soldiers moved with confidence.
The woman shot beams of light at the mutants and then the three other soldiers shot bullets into their heads with unwavering accuracy. Within a minute all the mutants had fallen and Zahyra looked over at Cain, shaking her head in disbelief at what they had just witnessed.
The safe haven had developed something that rendered all mutations useless. This had to be what they had meant about weaponizing her T128 trial.
Zahyra poked her head out of the window again slightly and saw the four remaining soldiers below. The woman had replaced the stick to her side, the glowing light on it having faded. She was quickly organising the other three, making them gather up the spare weapons and move out of the area.
It was only then that Zahyra realised with a gasp the woman was Heather, her lack of purple band having thrown Zahyra off initially. But there was no mistaking it now, whatever colour her band was Zahyra was unlikely to ever forget Heather’s face, and it was certainly her who was now ordering around the last of her people. Five minutes later the four of them were gone, leaving the street littered with the corpses of mutants and safe haven soldiers alike.
Neither Zahyra nor Cain knew what to say to one another. Zahyra knew in her heart this was the weapon she had overheard Professor Welbeck and Heather discussing. To have such a device in this world would make the safe haven almost unstoppable.
They could now control any and all mutants just with a mysterious beam of light. Zahyra shook her head; combining that with the safe haven creating a New-Wave of Gen 6 mutants she could only guess at what their real ambitions were for the future.
She looked to her brother, who miraculously was still sleeping soundly. How was he going to change over the coming weeks? Months? Even years? Zahyra had no idea how long she had left with Asher until he developed into a mutant she didn’t recognise or understand. The thought of losing him tore her apart inside and she fought against tears as she accepted the only place that would really know how to help him was the one place she had vowed never to go back to. Her world seemed so desperate now, so unforgiving.
With a sob Zahyra shuffled over towards Cain and buried her head against his chest, letting her feelings consume her. How on earth were they going to get out of this one?
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