by C. S Luis
“What’s happening to us?” One among the group questioned. His youthful face was wrought with worry and illness. The same uniform covered his fragile frame, but his patch was a blue- the rank of a civilian.
“They used it against us,” Another uttered choke back a painful gasp then fell dead.
In the moment of chaos and uttered confusion Quinn stepped forward. The black leather of his uniform with the color rank of red wrapped around the upper right of his arm and collar. I had the same markings on my white dressing attire, the letter numbers, Q541 were also tattooed to the lower back of my neck like a barcode. I felt over the markings when I reached to touch the lower part of my neck subconsciously, the texture of the letters made me quiver.
“If we’re to save what’s left of our civilization we must never return to earth, we must separate…” Quinn said.
“Who put you in charge?” another challenged.
“As the last ranking officer and last military official, I’m taking charge. What are you?” Quinn faced him, the other straggled back unable to stand, unable to challenge him, then dropped, coughing violently, blood dripped down the side of his lip. He said nothing else wiping at the side of his mouth. The others cowered and dared not challenge Quinn.
Above the blue skies mimicked earth’s own beauty, but there was something different in this realm, a darkness.
There was laughter from above and those that remained glanced up. A figure flew over them, and when they caught sight of his form they moved back. He came down with a thunderous drop. I recognized who he was as he rose to glare at all of those surrounding him. They pushed away clearing a path for him.
Quinn seemed to be the only one to challenge him.
“Leave earth? Leave earth! Have you all gone mad? Cowards!” he scolded them. “You want to run from it? Tell me, where will you run? Where?”
“It’s killing us,” another uttered.
“It’s looking for something? Just as we were,” Quentin said.
“It only wants to destroy us; it seeks nothing else,” Quinn said. “Everyone of us who’s come into its path has met it with death. If not the white coats, this thing hunts us.”
“That’s why we must leave. Let the humans deal with it. They unleashed it,” another said.
I observed them cowering. Quentin was the only confident brute. I wondered if he was hiding something. He laughed at their display of weakness.
“It wasn’t the humans who unleashed it,” Quinn dared to say. I dreaded what truth he would reveal. Quinn blamed only one person. “This is your fault! You brought the plague upon us! You did this to us! Those crystals, they destroyed everything! They changed us!”
Quentin stepped forward. He grabbed Quinn by the throat, hoping to extinguish his life.
“Those crystals give us hope! They saved us!” he corrected him.
He found me cowering behind him and threw Quinn aside. He grabbed a hold of my arm before I could flee.
Quinn rose at once. “Don’t! Leave her. She’s my wife. She has nothing to do with this. You want to punish someone? Punish me, but leave her alone.”
Quentin flashed him an eerie smirk. “She has everything to do with this. She’s the last,” Quentin whispered. “And she’s a half-breed created by the white coats to control us!”
The others listened attentively.
“She’s the only one to survive the poison of the white coats.”
The others gasped in agreement, Quinn gazed around him as his brethren seemed to take Quentin’s side.
“Why?” he sneered over at me. “What makes you so special? I lost my wife, all of us here have lost loved ones, but you…you survived their poison.” He gazed deep into my eyes. I found swirls of purple and red hue in his eyes.
“Could the dark plague want you?” he whispered to me before shoving me away. He took a few steps; the others cleared a path for him.
“Whose beloved has survived? Anyone? Have you considered this, brethren?” He turned to the others. “Maybe it’s her it wants. She is the only one to survive…”
“NO!” Quinn yelled.
He pointed into the group, another dropped dead. Quentin laughed. “We keep dropping like flies…is this what you want? The extinction of our species? Sacrifice her to the darkness, to the shadow of your nightmares, and maybe, just maybe, he’ll spare you all.”
No one said anything.
They feared him. Quinn rushed to my side. He held me to him protectively.
Quentin turned to me and Quinn: “Your son is an abomination to our kind, maybe you’ve been spared, because of it....”
I wasn’t surprised he knew I carried a child, or the fact that he knew it was a little boy. Quentin turned away.
“Do as you wish with the time you have left…” Quentin grimaced and laughed. “My brother will find you and deal with all of you, including your accursed offspring.” He laughed. I trembled in Quinn’s arms.
Quentin leaped into the sky, his laughter fading away…
I drove up the street. The only other way to see if Claudia was alright was to go to her. I sat in the car at a distance. It was around 8:27 pm when I spotted a vehicle driving up the street. At first, I didn’t recognize the car then, realized it was the new guy. The hottie that had chased Claudia up the stairs at Milton. There was something different about him. I knew it immediately. John was one of the good ones. He could protect Claudia.
John pulled up the side of the street in his silver Jag a distance ahead. He hadn’t seen me crouched down on the front seat of my car watching him. I was better at this then Claudia, but John had that strange watch. The one that protected his thoughts.
He sat in the car for a moment. He was texting something. I gazed up and caught sight of Claudia by the window of her bedroom. It was amazing how easily Claudia was distracted by John Slater, and he by her. They were perfect for each other, they fit just right.
John got out the car and raced across the street to the house. He neared the oak tree and sized it up.
I smiled, I was a pro at concealing myself from others. There was a disturbance I had sensed from the aura in her connection to others. I swore I sometimes thought of myself as Professor X from the X-Men, being able to connect with others through mental links.
Right when I met her the current and energies coming from Claudia revealed something different about her. Claudia was the source of power. I meant to text her again, but apparently, Claudia was busy with lover boy. She needed that. John Slater would protect her, so I wasn’t too worried. I spotted another vehicle, through my rearview mirror. I was watching John and Claudia, and this guy in the car was watching them as well. He had binoculars in his hands. What the hell? Wait, was that Dr. Müller, Milton’s school principal? He wasn’t a real principal. What was he up to? He was spying on Claudia and John, no doubt. It worried me.
After a few minutes, John Slater climbed the big oak tree up to get to Claudia’s window. He did it with an amazing quickness, it was unnatural to climb a tree the way he had. No human could possibly perform such a movement. He was quick. I suspected Claudia was the one to give him his energy and his strength. He disappeared through her window. I smiled.
“Have fun with Romeo, Claudia,” I whispered. “He’s quite a looker…”
Dr. Müller’s car soon drove passed me and I was able to escape unseen, giving Claudia some much needed privacy with the hot John Slater.
22
In Her Room
John
* * *
Joseph had not returned from his date and that was a relief. His text was the only thing I got when I arrived.
Joseph: Where are you? You working?
Me: Yeah…
