Colorblind (The Soul Light Chronicles)

by Aaron Slade

  Adam and I looked at each other when we heard the low bumps of footsteps upstairs. Seth opened the basement door.

  “Are you awake down there?” He came running down the stairs. His eyebrows raised into his disheveled blonde hair.

  I looked to the window to see if I could see what part of the day it was, but the scarlet gleam from the perimeter made it difficult to determine. I missed the outdoors’s open air and sun. It had been days since I had gotten to enjoy the freedom outside of four walls.

  Seth told us that his mother had gone across town to run a few errands. This was perfect, since we hadn’t told her about our impromptu rescue mission. We didn’t know how she would react to us going to get Evee, so we avoided telling her.

  Adam informed Seth that he could teleport through the shield. Seth went wide-eyed in utter shock.

  “So what’s the plan once we get to Evee’s house?” Seth asked. His tone suggested that the hard part was over.

  “We’re just going to grab Evee and get out of there,” Adam said. “It will be simple and quick with my ability.”

  We spent the next few hours preparing to bring Evee back to Fallon. We decided that the trip would be easier if Seth didn’t go. Adam had never teleported more than two people other than himself at a time, and he didn’t feel comfortable doing it. Seth felt excluded, but he kept in mind that he would be helping us when we went to the prison.

  “So what are we going to do if Evee’s father is there?” Adam asked.

  I wanted to think that Colonel Ford had enough to do without babysitting his daughter. Fallon was on lockdown, so I hoped he would be busy. “Just don’t let him grab onto you. We’ll make this as quick as possible.”

  Our heads snapped up when we heard the front door close.

  “My mom must be home,” Seth said.

  Seth’s mom waddled down the stairs seconds later. “Something is happening in the town.” An urgent look swept across her face. “The town is rioting. A big crowd of people are standing outside of city hall.”

  “Why are they rioting?” Seth asked.

  “Fallon’s been on lockdown for a few days now. People have been attacking the perimeter all day, but it’s no use.” She stood at the bottom of the staircase, winded from running. “Families need food and supplies, and all the provisions and shipments are sent to the Military Base.”

  “Are they going to let Fallon starve?” Adam asked.

  The question startled me. There were fourteen thousand people living in Fallon. That many people starving to death was a horrendous plan– even for the Military.

  “I don’t know, but all the Military patrol units are gone,” Mrs. Grindle explained. “There are no soldiers in the city at all. People are saying that they left sometime in the night.”

  The soldiers were gone? If the town was short on supplies and food, I could only imagine the violence that would begin without them. Panic and fear were strong weapons.

  I was curious about the town’s fate, but Evee ranked higher on my list of priorities.

  Mrs. Grindle left to see what little provisions she might be able to scrounge up in town. We had enough food for a few more days, but she worried it wouldn’t be enough. I thought it best that she not be around when we rescued Evee. Adam and I were ready to leave for the base as soon as Mrs. Grindle left the house.

  Adam and I stood in the center of the basement. We wore black shirts with our hoods up in an attempt to blend in on the Military Base.

  “We’ll be back before you know it, Seth,” Adam said. He placed his hand on my shoulder the same way he had countless times before. Adam looked me in the eye. “We’re going to get her back, and when we do, we’re going to expose the Military.”

  “I know.” I wasn’t going to give up again.

  Adam closed his eyes, tightening his grip on my shoulder, and the basement disappeared.

  When I reappeared, it felt like I’d run head first into a glass wall. I opened my eyes, seeing the transparent, red wall in front of me. I looked around, trying to figure out where I was exactly. As I stood up my head started spinning, and I fell back to the ground. A splitting headache throbbed in my forehead.

  I was somewhere on the edge of Fallon city limits, still inside the barrier. I pressed my hands against the translucent shield to see if I could fight my way out, but it was no use. Where was Adam? Why hadn’t this worked? I put my head up to the shield, cupping my hands around my eyes. All I could see was endless miles of desert.

  I could just barely make out a figure on the other side of the wall, lying face down in the sand. It had to be Adam. I started beating on the wall to get his attention. “Adam!” I yelled. The wall sounded like glass as I banged my fists against it. It felt cold like metal, and didn’t respond to my touch at all.

  Adam stirred in the loose sand. Somehow he’d been able to get out of the force field, but for some reason I couldn’t. Adam ran up to the wall. His clothes were covered in sand, and he spat piles of it out of his mouth. Apparently teleporting with me had been a rough ride for both of us. He tried talking, but the divide muted him.

  One second I stared at the red-tinted Adam through the shield, and the next moment he stood next to me.

  “What went wrong?” I asked. “Why can’t I go through?”

  “It must be only me that can do it,” Adam said.

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. I relaxed before I got so angry my aura disappeared. “If you can get out, it should work when I’m with you.”

  I thought about how Evee could fly as long as she was holding me. It worked the same way as Adam’s ability. As long as we were touching, he should have been able to get out.

  Adam punched the wall in his frustration. “Well apparently it doesn’t work like that. Wanna try again?”

  I was ready to say no when a breeze of fresh air hit us, and a rushing noise came from behind us. We turned around and saw a gap in the shield. A brunette girl with shoulder length hair stood behind us as the small opening in the barrier sealed. She wore the same black leather uniform as Zana and possessed the same sadistic eyes.

  “How did you get outside of my shield?” she asked calmly. “How did you get outside of the barrier?” She grabbed handfuls of her frazzled hair and pulled as her voice turned shrill. “No one can get through it!”

  Adam and I looked at each other slightly puzzled and nervous. We didn’t have the answers she wanted.

  “I teleported out of it,” Adam said.

  “Impossible,” she growled. She walked towards us. “No one can get out of my force fields. In all my years of working for Zana, no person has ever gotten out.” The more she talked the more unstable she seemed.

  She looked at me. “You weren’t able to get through, were you?” she asked, pointing a finger at me. A vile look formed on her face.

  Before I had time to answer, the girl raised both of her hands towards me, and a scarlet box appeared around me, pulling me into the air a few feet off the ground. I could see the woman talking with Adam outside of the box, but I couldn’t hear their conversation. It looked as if they were yelling at each other. The crazed brunette kept her concentration on me.

  The box suddenly got smaller, recoiling like elastic. My body felt cramped in the miniscule space. For a moment, I thought she intended on taking me prisoner, until the box drastically shrunk again. Sweat dripped down my neck, and a spell of claustrophobia smacked my nerves. She laughed again, which came off incredibly maniacal without sound. Adam’s face blurred through the force field, but I thought he looked freaked. Finally, I understood - she planned to crush me.

  I started struggling to get out, kicking and punching aggressively at the enclosing walls. The shield wasn’t breaking. The cube was small enough that it forced my knees to my chest. I awkwardly maneuvered around so that I could push on two sides of the cubed prison with the strength of my entire body. It shrank again, and I heard a pop in my wrist. My wrist throbbed - broken. My lungs struggled to breathe. The oxyg
en decreased in the box. Would I be lucky enough to suffocate before the lunatic girl squished me? Outside the crimson box I couldn’t see Adam, but the girl was still there.

  She found my eyes and waved goodbye. She tightened her fist in front of my face, and as she did, the scarlet walls compressed again. My body balled up inside the force field with my head between my legs. There was no oxygen left. Thoughts of death and panic crept back into my mind.

  I didn’t understand such an evil act. I could see a light coming from around the woman. She had a bright aura that flared when I fought as if she got pleasure from my pain. It was a dark, forest green. She was just as demented as Zana. I closed my eyes, hoping it would lessen the pain of my body crushing.

  I heard a shattering noise like a thousand pieces of glass hitting the ground. Falling the few feet to the ground, I landed hard. The crazy girl was gone, and so was Adam. I stretched my limbs and sucked in the rich, free air. The muscles in my neck felt stiff, and I held my wrist to my stomach. For a few moments, the outside land seemed foreign.

  The scarlet dome over the town disappeared. The yellow sun hung high in the immense blue. The wind scattered sand off the ground, causing me to cover my eyes. But where was Adam?

  I could only guess that Adam had once again saved my life. I imagined that if Death were a person, he was tired of chasing me.

  Adam’s white aura erupted from behind me. His clothes were completely soaked, dripping water.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  He couldn’t answer at first, shaking from the attack. “Her force field trick didn’t work with me. She kept trying to stick me in a box like you, but I was able to get out.”

  “Where did she go?” I asked.

  “I teleported to the Wilderness,” Adam said. “We landed in a river, I think.” He ran his hands through his short hair, slinging water. “She went nuts when she saw that her ability didn’t work on me. I figured if I took her far enough away from Fallon, then it would break her concentration.”

  “Well it worked,” I said. We both looked up at the familiar sky we had come to miss.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Other than a severe crick in my neck and my wrist, I think I’m fine. It got really cramped there towards the end.”

  The Military would soon discover the absence of their barrier– not to mention everyone in Fallon. Adam and I had to act fast. Adam placed his hand on my shoulder. I was nervous from the previous failed attempt at teleporting, but the residential area of the Military Base came into focus with ease– no headache involved this time.

  We ran behind the nearest house we could find. It would be too dangerous for us to walk out in the open. I ran with my right arm around my stomach as if in a sling. The pain was too much for me to move my wrist as we sprinted. The house we hid behind was number three-ten. I could find Evee’s house from here. We stood in the house’s shadow to avoid being seen.

  Adam eyed my wrist. He must have noticed the awkward way I moved.

  “I think it’s broken,” I whispered. “But I’ll be fine.”

  “We’ll look at it when we get back to Seth’s house,” he said. He studied our surroundings. “All these houses look the same. Which one is Evee’s?”

  I looked for Evee’s house number: three-seventeen. Every yard was freshly mowed, looking identical, which made it harder to determine the right house. I finally found the numbers on the mailbox. There were no vehicles in the driveway.

  “That’s Evee’s house over there,” I said. “Can you teleport us inside?”

  He nodded. “Upstairs or downstairs?”

  “Her room’s upstairs,” I said. This time, I grabbed Adam’s shoulder. I was ready.

  Evee:

  “He’s going to appear right there,” Dad said, pointing at a vacant area of carpet where Casper and Adam would appear soon.

  I’d tried to tell Adam not to come for me, but Future Intelligence informed Dad yesterday that Casper Vance and Adam Howard would attempt to rescue me. Dad cleared out most of my possessions and furniture from my room, so that his plan would go off without a hitch. Something, or someone, pushed him to work harder and longer than ever before, and I feared the pressure would make Dad crack– even more than he already had. Desperate to both protect me and find the flyer, Dad’s rage increased in ways I’d never witnessed.

  “What are you going to do with them?” I asked.

  Dad shrugged. “My orders are to take Adam Howard alive. I don’t care what happens to Casper.”

  My heart sank at the dreadful feeling that his trap would succeed. Future forbid that he would actually kill Casper. There had to be a chance Casper and Adam would be unharmed. Shannon’s future still had to come true. Was this that moment? Would I die today? I still wanted more time.

  Dad assigned a single soldier to guard my real body in the basement while he dealt with the boys. Dad didn’t want my phantom body here, but he knew there was nothing he could do to get rid of me.

  “What’s so special about Adam?” I asked. Zana declared Adam, along with catching the flyer, a top priority for the Colonel.

  Dad kept his focus on his wristwatch, counting down with the second hand. “That’s what I intend to find out in the next ten seconds.” He stood up, preparing himself to attack.

  I thought about leaving the room. I didn’t know if I could watch, but I had to help in any way I could. I wanted to leave this place with Casper more than anything. The whole room fell still and hushed, and only the soft ticking of Dad’s watch could be heard. Tick. Tick. Tick.

  Three… two… one!

  Out of nowhere, Casper and Adam appeared, but Dad caught them off guard. He threw a punch through the air, sending a brazen chill of wintery slush directed toward Adam. Casper braced himself, turning away from Dad. The initial blow knocked Adam off his feet, but Dad still wasn’t finished. More subzero flurries fell on Adam, partially freezing his arm in a giant mass of ice against my bedroom wall. When the chaos cleared, Adam’s skin appeared blue, his hair frozen in locks, and his breath unfurled into the arctic air.

  “Casper,” Dad said. “Nice of you to join us.” He sat down on my bed in the corner of the room, gesturing to me.

  Casper closed his eyes, in what I knew was an attempt to control his fear. Dad didn’t attack Casper, but he gave us both an unnerving smile. Something seemed off-balanced about him, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Casper stared into my eyes.

  “You shouldn’t have come. It’s a trap,” I said.

  “Are you alright?” Casper asked.

  I nodded. It was just like Casper to be more worried about me when he was the one in danger. I caught Adam’s eyes, knowing he was my best chance at escape. “He’s keeping me locked in the basement and he’s…”

  “QUIET!” Dad demanded. His vile temper and unrecognizable eyes silenced me. He faced Casper. “I have whole teams of precogs watching the future for me. Did you really think I wouldn’t see Adam Howard teleporting into my house?” He examined Adam frozen to the wall behind Casper, his teeth chattering frantically. “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you, Casper, since you’re defenseless, but your pal, Adam, won’t be returning to Fallon. I have orders to take him.”

  Adam began to panic more, pulling at his trapped arm. “Don’t let him take me, Casper!” Teleporters couldn’t use their ability when something chained them down.

  “Before I take your friend and have you locked up, tell me, how did the two of you get out of Fallon? Was it simple for Adam to do?” Dad asked. “Any comments, Mr. Howard? How is it that you can teleport through that barrier when no one else has ever escaped it?”

  Adam ignored him and tried to chisel at the ice with his fingers, but the thick, frozen sheet didn’t chip or crack. Grunting fiercely, Adam strained every muscle up his arm, back and neck.

  “I don’t know how he did it,” Casper answered. Casper made a hissing noise as he clenched his stiff, motionless, wrist.

  “I’m guessing that ne
ither of you knows what’s so special about Adam,” Dad said. “Do you still think it’s teleporting that you’re doing?”

  For a moment Adam quit struggling, and Casper lowered his guard. Even I wanted to know the truth about Adam. What did Dad know about Adam that we didn’t? His knowledge of extra-human traits was only second to Dr. Alfonz Miller. Adam must be valuable if Dad and Zana want him alive so bad.

  “Evee’s coming with us,” Casper said. Courage consumed his eyes and mouth.

  Dad gave a hardy, fake laugh. “Dear boy, do you not realize you’ve been bested?” Dad glimpsed at me in the periphery of his vision. “Evee isn’t going anywhere.”

  “Maybe if you’d grant her the freedom to make her own decisions,” Casper said. “What kind of monster locks up his daughter in a basement?”

  Dad’s eyes slanted like a rabid dog’s, showing all his animosity and malice. “You’ve lost, Mr. Vance. You’ve lost your family, and now your best friend.” Dad produced a syringe from a black satchel around his waist, uncapping the plastic tip. Adam and Casper both gazed in horror at the Knight. Adam whimpered desperately.

  “Please, Casper,” Adam begged. “Don’t let him take me.”

  Dad stood up and approached Adam, but Casper deliberately stepped in his path. Dad paused, looking down at Casper.

  “Do you really think you can stop me?” Dad asked.

  Casper didn’t budge, and he kept a stern face. “I’m sure of it.”

  Dad took a few more steps forward, and hit something invisible in front of him. His head made a hollow bumping noise against Casper’s shield, but I worried what would happen if Dad found out Casper wasn’t really human.

  “What the fire?” Dad cursed.

  “You’re not touching him.”

  Casper refused to back down, and behind him, a crackling noise sounded. Adam pulled his arm free of the frozen mass, scattering ice chunks on the floor.