by Nguyen,Peter
“Let’s just forget about it. We’re idiots,” I laugh, hoping to calm this down.
All of a sudden we hear a loud medal slam outside.
“GUYS HE’S HERE!”
I peek out from the front desk and the pod has landed right outside the school. The Cylers are surrounding it.
“Guys we have to do something!”
“Relax, Rylan can take care of himself,” Chris says.
The pod suddenly opens and the creature around him flies in the air. Their bodies slam against the building, enough force to knock them unconscious. I quickly help Carter up, as do Arraya. We help Carter outside and can hear all of the Cylers just snarling and growling.
“You guys ready?” says Rylan.
“The helicopter should be able to land safely over there.” Chris points at towards an area with less tress.
“Isaac? Isaac stay back” Vera hesitantly points her gun. Isaac looks completely different. He has jet black eyes and his teeth are sharp as the other Cylers. So if you get it scratch or bitten you’ll become one of them? I look Carter and he stares at me with a concerning look.
Rylan holds out his palm and the barrier knocks Isaac back. He quickly gets up and Vera open fires.
BANG! BANG!
The bullets penetrates the Cyler’s head causing them to immediately clasps
“Come on guys we have to go!” Alex shouts.
Arraya and I help Carter walk pass trees as we run towards the tall abandon buildings. Vera and Rylan walk behind us as they try to slow the things down.
“In here!” Chris kicks down the large door.
We carefully set Carter down on the red carpet. Chris shines the light around the hotel lobby and it looks safe for now.
Carter begins to grunt from the pain on his shoulder. He’s breathing so rapidly as if he can’t catch his breath.
“Carter you’re going to be okay” Array whispers. She wipes her tears and places her forehead to his. Carter closes his eyes and places his hand to her cheeks.
“How are we going to get to the roof?” I said.
“The power is off. The only way up there is the stairs” Chris looks at Carter with concern.
“Then I guess we’ll have to take the stairs” I said.
I quickly help Carter up but he stops me.
“Just stop man. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I can carry you.”
“Even if you do it won’t stop me into turning in to those things.”
“I’m not going to leave you here.”
“Guys I can’t hold this force field forever” says Rylan.
There’s no way I can leave him I said to myself. I already lost so many people my mom, Mr. Rivera, and Kaleb.
“We need to go now” says Chris.
Rylan reaches for his nose and we all can see he’s just barely holding on. I look back at Carter and I grab his hand.
“You’re my brother for life. I’m not leaving you, ever.”
I pull Carter’s arm on my shoulder and Array helps me. Rylan let’s go of his barrier. Vera begins to shoot at the Cylers and we all rush to the stairs.
I turn back around as Chris opens the door to the emergency stair.
BANG!
“We’re going to make it!” Arraya says
“I can’t believe you guy,” Carter coughs.
We help Carter to the very top of the stairs as everyone shoots the horde of Cylers below. He starts coughing up bloods as we reach the 20th floor.
“Carter just hangs on,” I say.
The air around me feels like it’s thinning as I’m using all my strength to keep my Carter from falling down. I help Carter up the stairs and the higher we go the more I just want to rest, but I can’t. I have to keep going for Carter.
“We’re almost there. The helicopter should be waiting for us.” Chris says .
Arraya lets go of Carter for a moment and kicks down the door and we’re now on the roof. The chopper’s wings are starts to spin as Array and I help Carter on it.
“You can see so much from up here” Vera says.
Chris helps everyone else on the helicopter.
I turn around and notice Rylan doesn’t look like it’s his interest to get on board.
“What are you doing?” I try to yell louder over the chopper’s wings. “I’m not going,” Rylan shouts.
“Are you crazy?”
“If I go back, then I’ll never get see her again. This is my only chance.”
“Kala!?”
Rylan nods.
Seeing the hunting ground so far, Rylan will never last a day by just using his abilities. I have to help him and besides I owe him.
“Then I’m coming with you” I say.
“I’m going with him. You were brave down there Arraya and everyone back home would be proud even you your dad.”
Arraya nods as she wipes her tears. “Be safe Hazer.”
“I will” I turn towards Carter.
“There might be a cure for all this,” I say.
“Just be safe man,” says Carter.
“If you’re doing this, know you won’t be coming back into Capa with welcome arms.” Chris interrupts, “Here you’ll need this” Chris hands me his assault rifle. “Good Luck.”
The helicopter rises, leaving me and Rylan on the roof top. I wave to Arraya as they disappear into the dark clouds.
“I’m guessing you have a plan to getting down there right?”
“Yea but you’re going to hate it,” Rylan grabs me towards the cliff.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He pushes us off the building and we fall. My heart starts to race as the cold wind rushes to my face. My stomach rises as I feel I’m going vomit. I want to scream, I want to scream so loud to the top my lungs. Rylan’s eye begins to turns blue as his pupil contract.
Just when I’m prepared to hit the ground and breaking every single bone in my body, we suddenly stop. My feet are about an inch away from the cement.
“Please warn me if you’re ever doing that again” I said while trying to catch my breath.
“We better start moving before they see us” Rylan says.
We start to run out of the apocalyptic city and towards the trees and back into the woods. Rylan suddenly stops and looks at his watch.
“What is it?”
“Devah should be that way” Rylan points the west.
“Are we walking there?”
Rylan pulls out a small white remote that is in a shape of a circle. “If we walk it’ll take a week.”
I look to Rylan confuse to what he has on his mind.
“I took this when I was in Greg’s office. If he found out, well let’s just say Hunter knew his way around the air vents.”
“Can’t he just disguise himself I mean he is a Mirage.”
“It doesn’t work like that. He may be deceiving the people around him but he can’t the cameras,” Rylan says.“The car is only a mile away from here at Capa’s safe house.”
“A safe house?”
“Yea it’s hidden in the forest of the Cyto Field. It was built for our Realm Leader Greg in case of an emergency with the experiment going on ten years ago.”
“Why would they create such a place especially in the Cyto Field?”
“When the serum first came out, we didn’t know exactly what it would do to potential subjects. They were afraid the injection would mutate us in horrifying ways just like the Cylers. Now it’s abandon. I’m guessing there should be food and weapons, so we should head there now.”
“Even if injection didn’t work, how would one house care for everyone in Capa?”
Rylan doesn’t reply.
“Because they weren’t going, were they? Greg was going to abandon his own people? Then again this is the same man who injects infants with toxic serums.”
“Let’s just say the longer you been a Redeemed the more they’ll want to replace you. Their afraid of us rebelling against them so after I get Kala I’m going to let her de
cided where to go next.”
XI
I follow Rylan into the forest and still feeling paranoid as I keep looking around to see if there’s anyone is watching us. I don’t even know if Rylan and I can fight those things if they showed up again. The sun is almost up so we’re more visible than ever.
I notice that the dark grass is getting taller as we pass the pine trees. The trees start to remind me how me of home, during our youth years. Those were the year where we didn’t have to worry about war, but all of that change these last months. I try to calm myself, thing that Carter will survive and I have nothing to worry about.
Rylan tells me to stop as we reached an open field where the dark tall grass doesn’t look dangerous in anyway. Rylan puts his hands out as if something is there.
“What is it? Is there something there?”
“There is a large amount of radiation here. We’ll have to walk around it.”
“You can see it that?”
“Yea, it’s one of the perks of being a Barge.”
He walks around the field and I quickly follow him.
“So how does this work? Does the injection choose your powers you get?”
“You ask a lot of questions, you know that?
“I just want to know what would happen if a person does survive the injection.
“Look, becoming a Redeemed doesn’t mean you got it over with, it means the military now use you for their own desire, exposing your freak of nature.”
“Why don’t you guys just fight back, I mean do they fear you?”
“If we fight back, then it’ll cause an up rise in our territory. Besides, the military keep things in order and we wouldn’t want to change that.”
“So what exactly is your ability?”
“I can create barriers around me and others. The more I hold the shield the more blood I’ll lose,” Rylan starts to slow down and looks at the trees that surround us, “One day,” he says.
I didn’t know what he meant at first but then he tells me he wants to live here. “You want to live here?”
“Every experiment or war freak well eventually ends up here.”
“Look I know that you don’t see me as a brother but you don’t have to be alone in any of this,” I say.
“Hazer, it’s way too late for this. The Rylan that mom told you about, the one who she thought knew, he died a long time ago. Just be happy that you at least got a chance to spend a childhood with her.”
Rylan walks ahead and I can’t help but think about all things he had to go through all these years. Being strap to unknown chairs with needles injecting him, left to right. I really want him to know how this hurts me because I’m the reason he had to go through that. I know words can’t make up the years we have lost so I have no choice but to stay quiet as we keep walking in the woods. We finally pass the radiated field and all I want to do is just go back home.
“So are you able to use abilities like Kala’s?”
“I would probably bleed to death if ever using anything beyond my nature.”
“Is that why they give specific missions base on your gift?”
“See you’re learning. It’s not easy being what I am. Everywhere I go people will see this mark and act like I’m some sort of savior.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“The fact is there is no promise we will bring them to a better future when that’s nearly impossible to achieve.”
“Looks like it’s about to rain” I said looking up at the gray cloudy sky.
As we keep walking, I’m so prepare for the shower rain to just pour on us but there wasn’t any, nor was there thunder. It was quiet to the point where I realize there aren’t any crickets, flies or a brush of wind. The woods felt forsaken, as if we’re in a different world.
“So did mom ever talked about me?”
“She always tried to avoid the conversation.”
“Figures what mom wants to remember a son who she abandoned in cold sight.”
“That’s not true. She loved she was never able to forgive herself ever since.”
“I don’t believe it. She could have kept us both hidden. She could of done more but she didn’t. She handed me to death, keeping you.”
“But you’re not dead. You survived and that what we hoped for,” I say.
“The only problem with that is I wish I had never woke up after the injection. Spare me the lecture brother but if I had died I wouldn’t have lived a life filled death and misery.”
“Life wasn’t easy for me either. I had to constantly watch out for soldier who treated us nothing more but street rats. We were dirt poor and I don’t see anything wrong with people treating you as god like figure.”
Rylan doesn’t respond as he keeps walking ahead, unresponsive. I think already said what he needed to say. A few moments late he asks me, “I’m guessing you were the good son.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know the one who follows the rules.”
“Actually the opposite. There were days I drove her mad. One time she threaten to take away our dog Kaleb so I didn’t come for one day, letting her believe I was dead.”
“That pretty cold. Maybe we are twins.”
I laugh, hoping we lighten mood..
“So are you and Kala?” I ask.
“What about us?”
“Are you guys d-dating?”
“We just have been through a lot together. We were both offered for the injection at the same time. We were strap into seats in front of each other and Evers since then she became my closes friend.”
Hearing how Kala basically grew up with him, I can’t imagine how close they are. I’m guessing he’ll risk a lot for her. If getting Kala back we’ll make Rylan happy, I’ll do it. I’ll do it because I owe him that.
It begins to get colder as we walk towards the isolated buildings from afar. I assume they are abandon factories that. I wonder how life played out back then when the continents distances the countries; I could only imagine endless threats that went on and on because the distance made them less fearful to one another.
I suddenly feel a wet drop of rain fall on my cheek. I look up and another one hits my forehead. “We have to find a place to stay a while. Over there,” says Rylan pointing towards a gray small building, pass the tall pine trees ahead.
After we run pass the two trees, the rain starts pouring down on us. We enter the factory through the broken down wall and the whole place immediately sends chills down my spine. I wipe the water off my face as we step deeper inside the dark building. I’m not too sure but I think there’s a person in a Hazmat suit, lying in front of us as we walk around inside the building.
“We’ll have to stay here until it stops raining.”
“You’re not scared of a little rain are you,” I chuckle but Rylan’s face remains serious.
We suddenly hear something move behind us. I quickly take out my flashlight. There isn’t anything there I as I constantly shine the light around.
“Relax it was probably just a rat”
“This place is just reeks death.”
I shine the light in front of us as we make our way towards the dark hallway. One of the lights is flashing on and off, about every 5 seconds. I keep glancing to each corner of my eye, just in case. Rylan on the other doesn’t even look afraid, almost like he is use to this sort of stuff. My legs comes to a sudden stop and I nearly drop the flash light as we suddenly lay eyes on a dark figure at the end of the hallway.
“Who is that?” I whisper.
“Who’s there!” Rylan shouts.
But it doesn’t answer.
We walk closer and I can’t help but notice something familiar about its height and thin size. The person is looking in a different direction so I can’t see its face. Each step we take I nervously grip my sweaty hands around the trigger. I’m so prepared to shoot the thing even if it moves.
“Hello?”
The person doesn’t response but instead we can
hear it chewing on something as we get closer. I look over to Rylan and he’s just as clueless as I am. He reached out to its shoulder and it slowly turns around.
It’s my mom.
She growls and lunges at me. After a second I open my eyes and she snarling behind Rylan’s thin barrier. Her eyes are jet black, cloths ripped and there’s blood all over her mouth and neck.
“Mom?”
“Wait what?!” Rylan exclaims, realizing this is our mother, Patient Zero.
She aggressively bangs against the telekinetic barrier like a hungry tiger. I slowly place my hand on the opposite side of the barrier where her palm is on. “Mom, what did they do to you?”
She’s breathing very rapidly and looks at me with anger. She looks deep into my eyes, wanting to bite me if she has the chance. Surprisingly, her facial expression starts to relax.
“ Hazer,” says Rylan.
“Yea?”
“Those weren’t rats.”
I look behind us and three Cylers are coming right towards us. We have to move now but I can’t leave my mom like this. Rylan pushes the barrier further out, barging her outwards. He then pulls me into a nearby room, locking the medal door.
“What do we do now?”
The Cylers start to bang on the medal door and it seems to be holding them back, for now.
Even though we’re safe, we still have to find a way out. Rylan shines the light to the ceiling and there is an air vent. He looks to me and I nod. His eyes turn blue and the air vent cover breaks off. I hold out my hand and help him up into the vent and then it’s my turn. He pulls me up, using all my strength in order to lift myself up.
“We have to find a way out.”
I crawl behind Rylan as we make through the cramp airway. All I can think about is my mom becoming a Cyler. I blame myself for this.
“It looks clear from here,” Rylan takes the cover off and we both jump down.
We’re in a white hallway with large windows. I can tell we’re on the second floor due to the fact the trees outside start to blow back and forth from the violent wind. At least it has stop raining. Overall this area looks untouched.
“We have to find an exit before those things come back,” Rylan turns off his flash light and reaches to the gun I’m holding.
“What are you doing?”
“I reached my limit and I know what I’m doing.”
