The Twisted Future (Teen Superheroes Book 4)

by Darrell Pitt

  ‘Are you saying you don’t believe me?’

  ‘It does seem strange that the Liber8tor sensors cannot pick up the creature.’

  ‘The sensors couldn’t pick up Henry either.’

  ‘That is true.’

  Dan wondered where Henry had gone. Probably back to his cell in the laboratory complex. ‘Were you able to find out anything more about the Japanese during the war?’ he asked.

  ‘Ferdy has an enormous amount of information about Japan during the war. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh—’

  ‘No, I mean the Japanese on his island.’

  ‘Unfortunately not.’

  Dan finished his drink and went to his room. The chamber was designed to house four Tagaar warriors, but Dan had converted it into a home away from home. The other bunks had been stripped, now holding televisions and gaming equipment. He considered playing Zombie Attack Squad, but decided he didn’t feel like it. The last thing he needed was a reminder about monsters and the living dead.

  He read for a while before turning in. Another light remained on in the corridor all night. Chad always teased him by calling it his nightlight, although they all found the crew quarters claustrophobic as there were few windows around the ship.

  Closing his eyes, he doubted he would sleep at all, but found himself opening them again several hours later. He wondered what had awakened him. Usually he slept all night. Maybe the others were back.

  ‘Axel?’ he called. ‘Hey guys.’

  There was silence, but a shadow moved across the hall. He went to the door.

  ‘Brodie?’ The hall was empty. ‘Who’s there?’

  No answer.

  ‘Ferdy?’

  Ferdy’s voice came back immediately. ‘Yes, friend Dan.’

  ‘Is anyone else aboard Liber8tor?’

  ‘The only ones aboard Liber8tor are Ferdy and Dan.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Nothing is certain, Dan. It is possible that an inter-dimensional singularity has opened up, allowing an alien from another dimension to invade the ship.’

  ‘Uh, how likely is that?’

  ‘One chance in several hundred billion.’

  ‘I think we can rule that out.’

  A sound came from the galley. Dan asked Ferdy to turn on all the lights both inside and outside Liber8tor. A metal pipe lay in his bedroom. Retrieving it, he crept down the hall. An elevator and metal ladder led up. Dan chose the ladder, but used his mind to send the metal pipe up first. Nothing attacked it, so it carefully climbed to the top, peering about. He saw the table, storage compartments, freezer, ovens and benches—but no-one else.

  ‘Henry?’ he called. ‘Are you here?’

  Silence.

  Then Ferdy’s voice came from the loud speaker system. ‘There is no-one else on board the ship, friend Dan.’

  ‘You also said there were no monsters on the island!’

  ‘The Liber8tor sensors—’

  ‘Screw the Liber8tor sensors!’ Dan snapped. The tension was really getting to him. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.’

  ‘That’s all right, friend Dan. Fear is a difficult emotion.’

  ‘Do you...I mean, do you still feel fear now that you’re...’

  ‘Now that Ferdy’s consciousness is contained within the Liber8tor computers? Yes. It is an irrational feeling, but it doesn’t make it any less real.’

  ‘Uh...which means?’

  ‘Ferdy understands how you’re feeling.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Dan felt a little better. He poured himself a glass of water and sat it on the bench. From the freezer, he pulled out a selection of freeze-dried packets that all looked like they belonged in a lab.

  ‘We’ve got K’tresh and B’klah and Gar’kah,’ he said, reading the labels. ‘Ferdy, can’t we just order out for pizza?’

  ‘The nearest pizza shop is several thousand miles away.’

  ‘Really? There’s not one on the island?’

  ‘If Dan is making a joke—’

  The room went dark: the lights, the computers, even the emergency signs above the doors. Dan found himself in pitch black darkness. It was like being inside a cave, a deep cavern miles beneath the ground, and without a light. Dan dropped the food packets. They made a clattering sound and he almost jumped a mile. He had laid the pipe down when he first entered. Now he tried bringing it to him, but couldn’t do it without seeing it first.

  His heart pounding, Dan slowly made his way around the bench. Where had he sat the pipe? It’s here somewhere. His hands slid over the cold tabletop. Where is it?

  Clink.

  Dan’s heart exploded in his chest. Something was on the other side of the table! Something alive! He could hear it breathing!

  Where was the pipe? Where had he—?

  The lights snapped back on and Dan stared in absolute horror—at nothing. He was alone in the galley. No monster. All was exactly as it was before the lights went out.

  ‘—then it is a funny joke,’ Ferdy finished.

  ‘Ferdy,’ Dan said in a strangled voice, ‘what made the power fail?’

  ‘The power has not failed.’

  ‘Everything went off! You stopped speaking and I was standing here in the dark!’

  ‘Ferdy has no recollection of those events. The third king of England was—’

  ‘I don’t care if he was the third king of Pluto!’ Dan yelled. ‘The power failed!’

  ‘There is no record of the power failing.’

  ‘Check the Libr8tor sensors! Double-check them. I was here alone, but then something else was in here too!’

  ‘If you are referencing the Schrodinger’s Cat hypothesis—’

  ‘Forget Shoddy Ring’s Cat! Just check the sensors!’ Dan tried to calm himself. ‘Has anything entered the ship in the last few minutes?’

  ‘There is no record of anything entering or leaving the ship,’ Ferdy said.

  But Dan had stopped listening to him because now he was staring at his glass of water on the table. Now he understood the sound in the darkness, the clink that had set his hair on end.

  The glass had been turned upside down.

  And it was still filled with water.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  A strange calm overcame Chad as he fell. Perhaps facing imminent death focused his mind; he had to instantly form another raft of heat beneath him and it had to do it now. He created the raft—a massive surge of heat exploded under him—and then built the cold platform over it.

  Their descent slowed but did not stop. They fell past a skyscraper. Chad knew they were lucky; they would have slammed into it if they had been directly over the building. He focused on making the raft of air hotter. And hotter.

  They slowly ground to a halt. Chad looked across at another building. Many of the windows were broken, but on this level he saw a rough looking woman staring out at him in amazement. He forced a smile and focused on ascending.

  Reaching the top of the building, Chad angled them towards the roof. He still couldn’t work out how to land, so he shielded Brodie’s body with his own as they plowed into the roof where he lay, shaking uncontrollably. He couldn’t go on. He was shaking so hard he couldn’t even stand.

  Someone muttered his name.

  ‘Chad...Chad...where are you?’

  ‘Brodie?’

  She was half draped over him. He gently laid her on the roof. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

  ‘Not well.’

  He examined her shoulder. It was charcoal colored, and looked terrible with dark green pus flowing from the wound.

  ‘I feel so weak,’ Brodie said, her eyes unfocused. ‘I can’t move...’

  ‘You’re going to be okay,’ he said. ‘We’re both going to be okay.’

  Chad lifted her up again with a renewed determination. He had stopped shaking now. Brodie wouldn’t last much longer. He would get her to a doctor or die trying.

  He created another raft, lifted Brodie and he leapt
onto it. This time it was easier and he felt a sense of renewed confidence.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he said.

  The raft carried him away from the building. He concentrated on pouring the speed on and this time he zoomed across the city with the wind tearing at his hair. He glanced around to see if another missile had been fired, but the sky was clear.

  He was lower than he had been on his first flight. Maybe the missiles are only activated when they detect movement at a certain height. He hoped he was right. Increasing speed again, he passed New Jersey and Plainfield.

  Looking behind him, he saw a clear blue sky—except for three tiny dots on the horizon.

  Not again!

  He went faster, glancing back occasionally. The dots were larger now and they looked different to the missile. He spotted a building among others that was still in one piece.

  Now for the hard part, he thought. Landing.

  He slowed and within seconds was directly over the roof. He gently lowered himself, but instead of coming in at an angle, he decreased the heat of the raft beneath him.

  Slowly, slowly, slowly...

  Touchdown.

  Chad was so thrilled he wanted to burst into song. He checked Brodie. She was breathing, but unconscious. A distant sound cut the air. The three shapes weren’t missiles, they were those rotor ships he and Brodie had encountered at Times Square.

  He found a set of stairs leading down. A line of glass blocks ran down one wall; they must have looked quite fashionable once. Now they were covered in green mold. Through them he was able to make out the rotor craft, flying tight circles over the area.

  Someone cleared their throat. Chad looked around to see a teenage boy peering up the stairs at him.

  ‘Are you the flying person?’ he asked.

  ‘Uh, yes.’

  ‘Come with me.’

  The boy started down. Chad followed him. This kid might know where to find Doctor Bryce.

  ‘We know about you,’ the boy said. ‘My name’s Joshua. The Manhattan faction was able to get a message through.’

  Bless you Robin, Chad thought. She must have sent news of his mission.

  Chad followed the boy to the front door. The droning of the rotor craft continued for a few more minutes before they disappeared behind distant buildings. Joshua led Chad to a residential house a few blocks away. Entering through the rear, Chad found himself in a neat kitchen.

  A man appeared. He had a long white beard, but his hair was thinning on top. His clear blue eyes examined Chad.

  ‘You’re the time traveling boy,’ he said.

  ‘We need your help,’ Chad said. Brodie weighted a ton. ‘She was bitten by—’

  ‘I know. Bring her through.’

  Minutes later Brodie was on a hospital gurney in a makeshift surgery. Modern medical equipment had been installed in the art deco home, looking strangely out of place. The doctor gripped his shoulder.

  ‘Sit down, son,’ he said. ‘Get some rest.’

  Chad didn’t argue. He felt exhausted. The doctor gave him some tinned meat and he devoured this, but he had not slept properly for days. His legs were so shaky he was ready to collapse. By the time Chad finished eating, his eyes were closing. He lay back on a lounge.

  The sun was low in the sky when he woke. It was almost dark. Joshua was gone and the rest of the house was silent. A chill went through him. Was Brodie safe? Maybe this whole thing was a setup. Maybe he’d walked into an Agency trap.

  Footsteps approached, the door from the hallway eased open and a head peered through the gap.

  ‘Brodie!’ he yelled.

  ‘Hey Chad.’ She peered at him shyly.

  Chad ran to her. He gave her a hug and pulled back to stare at her. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were puffy and she looked pale and drawn. But she had never looked more beautiful.

  So he kissed her.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The next morning, Dan asked Ferdy to run a complete check of the ship’s sensors while he checked the Liber8tor’s external doors. They were firmly locked from the inside. Nothing could have entered the ship—and yet it did.

  ‘The ship’s sensors show nothing out of the ordinary—’ Ferdy reported.

  ‘Great.’

  ‘—but Ferdy has been able to find evidence of a power loss to the ship.’

  ‘So I wasn’t imagining it,’ Dan said.

  ‘Correct.’

  I knew I wasn’t crazy, Dan thought. Something was on board the ship and the same something turned the glass over without spilling a drop.

  ‘Ferdy,’ he said. ‘I’m going back to where I found Henry. I think he may have hidden there overnight.’

  ‘Do you think that’s wise? What if there really is a creature roaming about on the island?’

  ‘There is a creature,’ Dan told him. ‘And we need to keep Henry safe from it.’

  He packed a bag with food and water. He also put in some metal bars from a Liber8tor storage locker. They might be valuable weapons if he encountered the monster, assuming he was able to fight a creature that was able to move through locked doors.

  Cutting through the jungle, Dan returned to the buildings he had found the previous day. Climbing down to the lab, he picked up some papers from a bench and stuffed them into the backpack. They were in Japanese, but Ferdy could translate them. Then he cautiously started back to the cell, passing the moldy growth on the wall. The smell was so bad it was almost gut-churning. How could Henry stand to be down here?

  ‘Henry?’ he called. ‘Are you there?’

  The cell was empty.

  Damn, he thought. This would be more difficult than he expected.

  He called out the boy’s name again as he scrambled up the incline to the jungle above. Once again he was greeted by silence. He navigated through the dense jungle, reaching the boat he had explored the previous day. He searched for footprints, but found none.

  Where had Henry gone?

  Dan continued along the beach, angling inland towards Liber8tor. He asked Ferdy if there were any other buildings on the island. Ferdy told him no. ‘However,’ he continued, ‘Ferdy has been able to identify some caves near the mountain. They could be used as a shelter.’

  Dan thought. Caves were not so different to the underground cell in which he had first found Henry. Maybe he used them for shelter too.

  ‘I’ll check them out,’ Dan said. ‘In the meantime, can you examine these documents and see what you can find on the net?’

  Dan took pictures of them so Ferdy could scan them into the ship’s computer, and left for the cave. It took some time to find. The entrance was a thin crevice caused by rock fall, nestled between some trees on the mountain’s east side. Dan peered in the opening.

  ‘Hello!’ he called. ‘Henry! Are you in there?’

  His voice rebounded about the interior of the cave. Then he heard, ‘Dan? Is that you?’

  ‘Henry!’

  Snapping on the flashlight, Dan entered. It was dry and dusty inside with three separate tunnels leading away. Dan checked for footprints in the fine dust, but he could see none.

  ‘Dan?’

  The voice came from the middle tunnel. Dan followed it downhill. After a minute the ground flattened out and he found himself faced with a choice of two passages. He called Henry’s name again, and received an answering cry from his left.

  It was here that he found a shape huddled alone in the darkness. Henry had pushed himself into a recess in the wall, the book still firmly clenched in his hand. He leapt out, throwing his arms around Dan.

  ‘I come here sometimes to hide from the monster,’ he explained, dry tears on his cheeks. ‘This time I got lost and couldn’t find my way out.’

  ‘It’s daylight,’ Dan said. ‘The monster is gone.’

  ‘I heard the monster.’

  ‘What?’ Alarm bells rang in Dan’s mind.

  ‘It’s here in the tunnels.’

  ‘When did you hear it?’

  A low growl came f
rom the tunnel behind. He spun about, waving the torch. The shadows danced and weaved in the recesses of the walls.

  Then he saw it, a figure darted across the tunnel. Dan tipped the metal bars onto the ground, his heart in his throat. He was scared, but not so scared that he couldn’t fight. He grabbed Henry, pushing the small boy behind him.

  ‘Is there another way out of here?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ the boy sobbed. ‘I got lost—’

  Dan felt a breeze across the back of his neck. ‘There’s a way out behind us,’ he said. ‘Hold my hand.’

  He gave the small boy’s hand a reassuring squeeze and led him along the tunnel. The ground ahead of them was rough underfoot and led upwards. He used his powers to levitate a metal bar behind them as another growl reverberated around the tunnel.

  His torch illuminated a dark shape fifty feet behind. Focusing on the bar, he fired it with all his might down the middle of the tunnel. It slammed into the shadowy form and the figure screamed and staggered. It fell to one side. The shape was double his height, humanoid shaped. Dan could make out little more. At least the creature was not impervious to attack.

  Keeping Henry behind him, Dan continued to slowly retreat up the tunnel. The monster came after them and Dan launched another bar at it.

  The monster screamed again as if impaled. It collapsed against the wall. Holding Henry’s hand, Dan turned and dragged the boy down the tunnel until he spotted a faint glow. It came from the first chamber Dan had entered, where the three tunnels branched from.

  We’re out, he thought. We’ve made it.

  Then the shape appeared in the doorway of the middle tunnel.

  ‘Run, Henry!’ Dan screamed. ‘Run!’

  The boy sped past him as Dan produced another pipe from his backpack. A smell hit him, a strange stench of decay. Then the dark shape leapt towards him and he fired the metal bar into its chest. The monster cried out again and flung out an arm, knocking Dan backwards. He hit the wall, fell and blindly staggered into warm sunlight.

  He turned to face the creature.

  Alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  ‘I’m Marcus, the leader of the South-Eastern resistance,’ the man explained. ‘It’s my job to keep you alive.’