by Noah Porter
Okay, I reply.
Dolts, you’re still talking to the whole group of us…. Wait, Ben, you kissed Sarah? One, when? Two, why the heck are you thinking about it right now? says Arcya.
I didn’t wait to figure out how to read people’s thoughts when not purposely directed to you, immediately mentally blocking the conversation.
It kinda worked, but the voices drifted in and out, sounding amused at some times, shocked at others. I step into the room which Matthew points at, trying to pretend that I’m not doing something that I shouldn’t be doing. I strut in confidently.
Tone it down, says Matthew.
I walk more normally. As we walk up to the container of serum, which is very tiny, Penelope covertly picks it up and replaces it with a small container of her nutri-things that she took from some of her dispensers.
Nobody sees her, but when we start walking up to the papers, there’s a door made of lasers. Matthew taps in a few numbers and steps in, having us trail him.
My heart immediately sinks to my feet. It’s Twyla, sitting in the room, with a dozen armed guards.
Penelope gasps before shutting her mouth abruptly.
She’s the infiltrator who poisoned the serum, she hisses in my head and I barely stop myself from reacting.
“Ah, General Dunnen,” says Twyla, smiling. “Need the papers so you can make more serum?”
“Yes, of course,” says Matthew. “These privates are here to help. Deaf and illiterate, you see. Can’t understand a word of what we’re saying, and won’t be able to read the documents. They’ll just receive a few thought-messages and that’s how they obey.”
“Of course. Guards, step aside. General Dunnen requires access to the plans.”
The guards step away mechanically and I walk forward, picking up the plans and trying to control my racing heartbeat.
Where now, I say.
Just follow me, replies Matthew.
I quickly follow him out of the room, with Penelope right behind me. When we’re out of eye and earshot of everyone, I send a thought-message to Matthew, asking him if I can hide them yet.
Not here. The cameras can see us. Just hand them to me.
I nod and, when we’re out of the way of the cameras, he stows the plans away.
Group update, I say in the thought-message group.
Arcya, Aria, and soon to be Penelope, Sarah, and Matthew are by the escape exit with me, says Lily.
We had to knock out a few people covertly and had a few issues, but now the bomb’s in prime position, Arcya adds.
Ben, what’s the situation? I ask.
Having some technical issues.
Chapter 8
My heart sinks to my feet at those few words.
Almost there, says Matthew.
I follow Matthew and we reach the escape hatch quickly, crouching down with Arcya and the rest of them.
We’ve got the programs shut down for good and the ship programmed to fly in five minutes, says Ben.
I inwardly cheer.
Wait.. we have company, says Ben. Don’t wait for us. Escape and we’ll come when we can.
I kick at the wall in frustration. Such an idiot. He really thinks I’m going to leave him behind? A glance at the others’ faces proves they have the same reaction.
Heck no, says Arcya. We’re on our way.
We each grab a parachute (and Arcya and I grab one extra each for Ben and the dude from Penelope’s crew).
Follow me, says Matthew. We all set off on a sprint, turning every few seconds in the maze that’s Tieryl City.
We finally burst through a huge door and see Ben and the other dude surrounded.
“The loyal superhumans conquering the renegades.. the others turned traitor as soon as they were able to,” spits Twyla, looking totally deranged with a lopsided hat and a sneer. “Your plan may have worked for a few of the un-loyal traitors, but see these people? We’ll still win! Supremacy of the best humans.”
That’s when a well-placed bullet from Matthew whips through her arm and all heck breaks loose.
I knock out two or three of them before coming up against Twyla.
“You could’ve been with us,” she says. “Join us and live.”
“Nah,” I say as I punch her jaw and she loses consciousness. “I’ll pass.”
There’s still a good twenty other superhumans to fight, and it’s a whirlwind.
A muscular man approaches me next, taking out his knife. I’m fully focused on him, dodging, parrying, and attacking when I can, until I’m grabbed by behind and wrestled against the wall. Two superhumans on each hand, one on each foot, and the muscular one with an evil leer.
“Let’s see how long it takes her to change her mind about being renegade,” he says, pulling out an even longer knife. “The pretty, pretty girly. What design shall she have? Zigzags, stripes, polka dots?” His singsong voice makes me want to vomit. Almost lovingly, he runs the blade down my arm, slicing it open.
I scream with pain, staring with shock at the blood gushing out of the wound.
He looks at the blood on his knife with disdain before rubbing it on my clothing. “Filth goes with filth.”
I look around, desperately searching for anyone who could help me. Penelope lies on the floor, motionless but with no other signs of injury. The dude who works for her is still fighting, and manages to get three or four more of the other superhumans before he falls and is viciously set upon by a swarm of them.
It seems to be a losing battle until the door slams open and an inpouring of at least fifty superhumans come in.
A tall woman shrieks with indignation when she sees Penelope motionless on the ground.
“Attack!” she yells, and the superhumans holding me scream with terror when at least ten of the new superhumans attack them.
The muscular man is still holding me against the wall, though, seemingly oblivious to the people attacking him. He runs his knife down my leg this time, and I scream in an agony of pain.
I see Ben down one of the other superhumans as the man runs his knife down my other arm. He’s one of the last people standing, and the others are quickly being knocked out by the new group of superhumans.
Ben stands there, motionless for a split second, before launching himself at the man attacking me. Others join him, but they all stop suddenly when the man holds his knife to my neck.
“Stop attacking me or she dies,” he growls.
I gasp, sending out a thought-message to everyone. Just kill him! I’ll be fine!
He presses the knife closer and closer to my throat before I feel a thin slice. The knife is beaded with blood. I’m sweating bullets and my sweat mixes with my blood.
“Don’t do it,” I manage to gasp out before he exchanges his knife for his hand and moves his knife closer to my heart.
Not again! You’d think two times would be more than enough for these people, but no, they always strangle you. My train of thoughts moves too fast for me to recognize more than one thought, which I manage to communicate to Ben.
“Ac-achill-es…” I gasp out before sending a thought-message instead.
Ben, shoot his hands! They’re his Achilles heel!
His eyes widen with understanding as he rapidly draws his gun and shoots the guy’s hands. The superhuman instinctively releases me and I slump to the floor. Everything goes strange and dizzy then, but I vaguely see the man being attacked as my vision dims.
Black dots begin to appear in my vision and the world spins around me. Want to know how it feels?
Imagine you’re sitting on a kid’s carousel, but it’s about twenty times faster than the normal speed and it won’t stop no matter what you do. Yeah.
Ben leans over me, gently picking me up. Then the dots turn into a lattice, until the darkness takes me over.
Chapter 9
I wake up feeling oddly refreshed, but when I open my eyes, I totally freak out.
I’m in an enclosed chamber. I can’t move because of this strange liquid surrounding me.
>
My eyes widen. The entire chamber is filled with liquid. I am going to drown. Worst possible death ever, except for maybe being burned alive or being suffocated.
Everything outside of the chamber is a blur because of the weird liquid, which is kind of a gel and kind of a solid but still remarkably like a liquid. (That probably makes no sense. If you try to look through it, it’s almost solid. You can move through it like it’s liquid. It’s sort of jelly feeling when you move through it, though).
I prepare myself to suffocate, taking one last deep breath- wait. I can breathe through this stuff. What the heck is happening?
Through the gel-liquid-solid (Geliqid? Guidsol? Gequilid? What do you call it?) I can faintly see people.
There’s a nurse, Ben, and the rest of my group (except for Penelope). Huh. Where is she? Must be working on the antidote some more.
Everyone is crying, except for maybe Arcya. I can’t really tell through this stuff. Ben is studying my face, like he’s trying to capture it in his memory. He’s just about to turn away when I force myself to carefully move my hand through the weird material and wave.
He starts to smile, and when I press my hand against the edge of the chamber, his smile broadens. He puts his hand against the edge of the chamber, too, saying something that is so oddly distorted I can’t really understand it. (Before you ask, I’m not going to try to translate, because it sounds like ‘mgahi ireasp blabaih’, it’s that muffled and weird).
I cup my hand around my ear, shaking my head. His eyes open wide in understanding, and he vigorously nods before turning and saying something to the nurse.
The nurse quickly turns, taps a few buttons on a box, and the gel slowly begins to drain from the chamber, replaced with fresh, cool air. I take a deep breath of it, savoring it while I wait for my release from the.. thingamabob.
She taps a few more buttons and the chamber spits me out on the ground.
“Hi,” I say, and Lily looks at me tearfully. “Uhhhh. I’m alive?”
“No duh,” says Arcya, punching my arm lightly after helping me stand up. “Seaweed brain, giving us such a scare like that.”
Aria walks into the room with a blotchy red nose and, at the sight of me, literally attacks me with a hug and begins crying.
“You.. total.. idiot!” she exclaims, even as she’s bawling.
“Yup, that’s me. Sarah Sindile, the total idiot, who just saved the world!”
“We helped too,” says Matthew, and Arcya looks at him admiringly.
Hmm. I’ll have to watch THAT ‘friendship’.
Suddenly, everyone (including Arcya!) is swarmed around me, hugging me.
That’s when Ben, who had been watching quietly in the corner, comes up to me. “Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I reply awkwardly. “Uhm, so how have you been doi-”
He stops me by kissing me, and I completely forget that there are people watching, I probably look like a total mess, and I’m most likely still covered in that gooey stuff.
All the people in the world could’ve watched and it wouldn't have mattered to me. The only one I was paying attention to was him.
He breaks away after a while, smiling.
“Wait, they’re finally together?” says Aria.
“Yeah, and it’s about time, too,” mumbles Lily under her breath.
“So Ben did actually kiss her before?”
“Uhh, I think it’s time to go,” says Ben as he picks me up and begins sprinting out of the room.
Everyone chases us (except for the nurse, of course) around the hallways till we all run out of breath.
“Where’s Penelope?” I ask after the general hilarity has died down.
“In a coma,” replies Matthew grimly. “She was knocked out pretty hard. You were both in a medically induced coma to help speed up the healing process.”
I nod mutely. Another thought strikes me.
“The antidote to the plague?”
“Dies with her if she dies,” says Aria softly.
“Then it’s very, very lucky for you that she’s not dead,” says Penelope, striding into the room and looking as good as new.
“Penelope!” I say. “You’re alive!”
“Oh, a very nice morning to you too,” she says.
“You’re alive!” Ben says in a falsetto, attempting to mimic me.
“Hey, technically, you should be dead, too,” says Penelope to me. “But yes, I’m alive. I’ve been awake for a day or so now, but figured I should wait to appear until she’s been brought out of her coma, too. That way everything good happens on one day.”
“You did a good job hiding from us,” replies Ben.
“I was working on the antidote to the plague and I think I’ve found it,” she replies.
I gasp before grinning. “Of course you did.”
The future suddenly looked a whole lot brighter.
“What’s next, replacing the NutriDispensers filled with serum with the antidote to the plague instead?” asks Ben.
“No,” says Penelope.
I look at her, mystified.
She continues, “That already happened. My spies? Well, as soon as I developed it, they took their planes and started to change it out. There are only a few left.”
I grin more broadly.
“And Tieryl City?” asks Ben.
“Exploded after all of our troops left,” replies Arcya with a smile. “My explosives did the job.”
“So what now?” I ask, hardly believing this has all happened.
“We rebuild the world,” replies Penelope.
“Oh, naturally. We wouldn’t do something totally crazy and probably impossible,” I joke.
“Oh wait, we already have!”
“With help of other countries and a whole lot of hard work, it can happen.”
“Yes, I’m sure it will,” I reply.
Epilogue
-Eight years later-
Before you ask, we did rebuild the world after about three years.
The zombies that were still alive? They became perfectly human and helped us rebuild it. For getting the population back up, all the people in Arcya’s village willingly relocated and, as is apt to happen, married and had many children.
As for Arcya herself, she hasn’t changed a bit, still being as stubborn as ever. She is happily married to Matthew and has one mischievous little girl whom she named Sarah, after me, and an adorable baby boy, Brad. Elder Manoiv, now aging, lives with them and helps to keep their children under control (although he does alternate between spoiling the kids and being too stern with them).
Lily is thriving as a scientist, helping Penelope to discover more medical cures. She also has a boyfriend, Liam, who was a volunteer from what was formerly known as Australia to help rebuild Murlyn. I think the wedding bells will come soon, and am crossing my fingers for that.
Aria got married, too, to a man named Joseph. He was one of the superhumans from Tieryl City and he’s absolutely perfect for her. They have three little girls (Maddie, Rebecca, and Theresa) and two little boys (Thomas and Walter). All of them are sweet, sassy, and of course (it goes without saying!) cute.
Penelope never remarried and is working with Lily to come up with a bunch of cures for diseases. She also runs a home for orphans and has plenty of orphans to deal with, which she loves.
As for me?
I had my happily ever after and married Ben (who is still handsome, funny, helpful, and makes time for me, despite our seven kids). My oldest, Mariella, is sweet and takes after me in that she loves writing. My next oldest, Jacob, is a regular prankster and makes me lose my wits with all his jokes- but he makes up for it with his kindness and generosity towards his siblings. Kylee and Kara are twins, adorable as all get out, never leave each other’s sides, and get along great (most of the time). The babies of the family, Camden and Christopher, are a boy-and-girl set of twins. They’re just babies, so they don’t have too much personality, but they’re very happy babies.
A
ll in all? Life is pretty good.
You’d never tell what had happened with the disasters and the apocalypse if you saw Murlyn now. The greenery is grown back, the buildings patched, and life goes on as normal.
I finish my third and final journal with a sense of satisfaction and a thirst to make a difference.
