by E S Richards
He spoke as if Asher would become insane, lose control of himself completely. He was reminded of Cain in that statement – how Cain’s mutation made him lose control of himself and go into some manic rage. Asher thought that was scary, but even then Cain knew how to control himself so maybe he could teach Asher to as well. He quickly realised it was the not knowing that made him most afraid about what the future would hold.
As he heard Zahyra grumbling from across the room Asher opened his eyes again. Cain was waking her up and that meant there was something that was about to happen. Swallowing hard and promising himself that he wouldn’t let the Gen 6 mutation take over who he was Asher rose to his feet and crossed the room to be with his two companions.
“Hey little man,” Cain smiled as Asher sat down next to him, “how’re you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Asher replied. “I don’t err, I don’t feel any different.” He wasn’t sure whether Cain was asking him about his mutation or not but decided to answer to that anyway, just to make sure everyone understood him.
“Asher,” Cain looked over at him with a more serious expression now. “You don’t need to worry about this mutation okay? We’re both here to protect you and we’re going to go to a place where mutations don’t really matter to anyone anyway, no matter what they are. You’ll be safe.”
“Where are we going?” Asher asked immediately, ignoring the rest of what Cain had said about him. Although he was aware he needed to watch out for any signs of his mutation appearing, he didn’t really want to talk about it.
“We’re going to a warped settlement,” Zahyra said from the other side of him, finally pulling herself up into a sitting position and leaning back slightly against Cain.
Asher smiled at Cain putting an arm around his sister but then furrowed his brow at what she had said. “What’s a warped settlement?”
Cain took the conversation back over from Zahyra and explained to Asher what he had told her a few hours before. Asher listened wide-eyed. He had never really thought about what happened to people born with deformities and his mind went into overdrive thinking of what kind of mutants they would find there. Cain explained that all three of them would be safe there, even with their various brandings. It sounded like the warped settlement let pretty much anyone in.
“So we should let them think that I’m a Zero?” Asher asked after Cain’s explanation, his question causing a pause of silence between the three of them.
“I think, for the time being yes,” Cain replied. “No one has heard of a Gen 6 mutant yet and until we really know what it entails it’s probably best to keep it between us.”
“But –” Zahyra cut in, “I think it’s also probably best we don’t tell anyone you’re a Zero either. These camps may accept a wider range of mutants but we still don’t know how they’d react to a Zero. At the beginning at least, until we get to know the mutants in there, I think we should all try and keep our generation numbers and the details of our mutations a secret. Agreed?”
“Yeah alright,” Cain agreed with her. “Let’s just play it by ear.”
Asher nodded silently; still nervous about where they were going. He didn’t like that they all had to keep themselves hidden from the truth but even he knew it wasn’t wise to go about shouting your mutation, especially with a ranking like the one he now carried.
Cain pushed Zahyra off his body slightly and moved over to pick up the rucksack he had brought with him. Pulling out three bottles of water he handed one each to Zahyra and Asher and then began digging around in the bag for some food rations. Only then did Asher realise how hungry he was, his stomach grumbling as the first drop of water sloshed around in the very empty crevasse. That was one thing he was going to miss about the safe haven at least; three full meals a day had been a luxury he’d hardly ever been used to.
The dried meat Cain presented him with instead of safe haven bread and stew was salty and brittle at first, but the more Asher ate the more he enjoyed it, savouring every last bite of the stick. He recapped his water bottle still two thirds full and rolled it back across the floor to Cain to go back in the rucksack. Even with his short experience out in the desert he knew he was going to need water more out there than he did inside.
“Do you think there’s any point scavenging for food around here before we go?” Zahyra asked sucking on her fingers after her piece of dried meat.
Cain shook his head. “I think it’s better to just get out of here while we can. So far I don’t think any other mutants have realised what happened down below, but I don’t fancy waiting around here until they do.”
“What?” Asher piped up at Cain’s statement, unaware of whatever had happened. The look that Cain and Zahyra shared told him it hadn’t been pleasant and he scurried over to the window after noticing Zahyra glance that way.
The sight that met him down below knocked the breath out of Asher and he let out a flurry of deep coughs as he took in the scene. The whole street was littered with bodies, there had to be more than twenty of them, some of them killed in weird ways but most lying in a puddle of blood from a gunshot – something Asher was now all too familiar with. He pulled away from the window and spun around to face his sister.
“What happened?”
“It was the safe haven,” Zahyra started, quickly moving over to take Asher’s hand when she saw him start to tremble at the mention of the facility. “They didn’t find us don’t worry, but they did get into a bit of a fight with the mutants who live in this city.” Zahyra paused, wondering whether to tell Asher about the magical stick that could stop mutations but thought better of it.
“Neither the safe haven nor any advanced mutants are around here anymore,” Cain took over from Zahyra in a reassuring voice. “But it’s best we get moving just in case – we don’t want to be in this city any longer than we have to.”
Asher paused for a moment then squeezed Zahyra’s hand. “Okay, let’s go then.”
At Asher’s statement the three of them started moving quickly, gathering up the supplies they carried with them. Asher took the rucksack from Cain, leaving the other two to carry the assortment of weapons Cain had brought from the safe haven. Looking around the room to make sure they had everything Asher nodded, smiled to his sister and then slowly began following Cain down to the ground floor of the building.
The effect of the dead bodies down on the street was even worse than it had been looking out of the window. Asher was glad it was dark and he couldn’t see the gruesome details, but the look on his father’s face when he had pulled the trigger hovered around his mind instead, doing very little to relax him.
Cain led them out of the area quickly and weaved through various side streets and alleyways. Asher noticed both him and Zahyra had guns drawn, their eyes wide and alert for any other sign of movement. Asher was glad when the buildings around them became smaller and more spaced apart, indicating they were leaving the city centre.
He didn’t know how far they would have to travel to reach the warped settlement but imagined they would walk through most of the night. In that case he was at least glad for the clothes he was wearing, the safe haven uniform being strong and warm.
They walked in silence for the most part, none of them having much to say or wanting to draw attention to themselves. Asher was quickly positioned between Zahyra and Cain, with his sister bringing up the rear. He knew it was because they just wanted to protect him but a part of Asher still felt like they were unfairly treating him like a child. Yes he was young, but neither of them were aware of what he had been through. His time in the mutant camp had really changed him, added to his time within the safe haven and his discovery about his father.
His feelings about what had happened in the laboratory were very conflicted. He had expected to feel an overwhelming amount of remorse for shooting his father, but aside from the initial shock Asher wasn’t sure how he felt. He wondered whether that was a side effect of his Gen 6 mutation – whether it was stopping him from properly de
aling with his emotions. Maybe he was already becoming more inhumane.
When he thought about Emerson he became a mixture of angry and confused. He wasn’t happy the man was dead, but he wasn’t unhappy about it either. Most of all Asher realised he just wished he had got more answers about himself before it had been too late. The days of playing around on screens answering questions had seemed fun at the time, but Asher was now realising all too late that they had not helped him to learn anything about himself.
He tried to imagine what a Gen 6 mutation would be like. He knew they became more powerful with each generation but trying to come up with a new one seemed almost impossible. He hadn’t really experienced that many either, not in the obvious ways.
During his time as a prisoner in the mutant camp the older mutants had kept what they could do fairly quiet. The other boys however had been more willing to show off to one another, or even use their mutations to punish the less developed boys like himself – or at least, like how he used to be. He thought back to what they had been able to do and wondered whether he would become anything like them.
One boy had been able to change his appearance, taking on the faces of others around him – he had been a Gen 4. Two brothers had been able to heat things up and cool things down to immense temperatures, the burns on his back being a constant reminder of those two, both also Gen 4’s. Super strength and super speed were fairly common abilities within the camp, there were also a few who could fly, create force fields, breathe underwater, turn invisible...
At first Asher had been jealous of these boys but now that he knew he was going to become one of them he shuddered. They had all been so cruel to him, so unforgiving because of something he couldn’t even control. As he marched on Asher realised that no matter what his Gen 6 mutation turned out to be, the last thing he wanted to do was lose his humanity.
He stared at Cain’s back as he walked behind him and willed himself to turn out like him. Cain was strong. Stronger than anyone Asher had ever met before and yet when he watched him with Zahyra he was like the softest person in the world. Asher admired him greatly for this and began trying to copy how he walked; wanting to do anything that would mean he turned out like him rather than one of the mutants from the camp.
He realised that after living all his years without a father he hadn’t really ever had a male role model. His mother and Zahyra had always looked out for him, but he had never really had a man to look up to. Now walking behind Cain he realised that had finally changed.
After another few hours Cain finally came to a halt against a small cluster of four trees. Asher was thankful for the break, his feet hurting him from walking on the now sandy ground for so long, but his ego refusing to let him ask to stop. They’d had a couple of quick water breaks, but never stayed still longer than a couple of minutes.
“Shall we sit down and have some food?” Cain asked resting the weapons he carried against one of the trees.
“Finally!” Zahyra cried out flopping onto the ground. Asher couldn’t help but let out a little laugh as she lolled her head backwards and stuck her tongue out of her mouth in a playful manner. “I was beginning to think you were going to make us walk half way across the country.”
Cain laughed at her remark and set Asher off again as well. Pretty soon the three of them were all collapsed on the ground with wide grins on their faces, the odd giggle still escaping Zahyra every now and then.
Asher looked over to his sister and couldn’t help but smile. He struggled to remember the last time he had seen her so happy and it made him fill up with hope for the future. He knew he would always have her by his side, and Cain too. And as much as he didn’t want to think about it, he knew they would both help him with his mutation no matter what it turned out to be.
“Asher have you got the rest of the meat rations in the rucksack?”
Cain pulled Asher away from his thoughts and back to reality. He nodded and shrugged the bag off his shoulders, moving it around and pulling out the remaining food. He also handed out the other water bottles, allowing everyone to quench their thirst.
“So how much further do you think it is?” Zahyra asked Cain as she handed her water bottle back to Asher with a smile, thanking him silently.
“Well if we keep walking through the night we could probably get there just after first light,” Cain replied. “That depends whether we want to rest here for much longer though?”
Silence met Cain’s question. Asher didn’t feel particularly tired but his feet were really starting to hurt. The stupid canvas shoes the safe haven had provided him with weren’t doing much to protect his feet from the uneven ground and he found himself longing for cargo boots similar to Zahyra’s or Cain’s.
“I’m happy to get going again in a bit,” he said anyway, reluctant to let his aches and pains get in the way of their journey. Besides, he wanted to be strong in front of Cain, he didn’t want to let him down.
“Ugh fine,” Zahyra groaned next to him. “Let’s just rest for a few more minutes and then we can move on. Since when did you get so tough, eh bud?”
Asher smiled at his sister’s light teasing and moved in closer to her, putting his arms around her. Even in the middle of the desert, in the dark with no idea where he was Asher could still rely on one thing. His family. Feeling Zahyra readjust herself against the tree behind her and put her arms around him in return he couldn’t help but close his eyes and relish the moment. Even if he was uncertain of himself and his mutation at that time he knew he could always be certain of Zahyra. She would always be there for him.
Chapter 3 – Zahyra
After several more hours of walking daylight was finally beginning to break. Zahyra had been hopefully watching the horizon for some time now, knowing that when the sun rose they would be close to the warped settlement – or at least according to Cain’s estimates. It was unfortunately another hour before the wisps of campfire smoke became visible just beyond the treeline.
“So, are we just gunna walk straight in there and ask to move in?”
Zahyra’s question was met with silence to begin with. She had been thinking about it for a while and to her it seemed unlikely any group who lived all the way out here – segregated from the rest of humanity – would be willing to just accept new arrivals.
She had been trying to remember what the protocol was like when she was younger and had moved camps with her parents, but the memories were far too distant now. They were also tarnished by the knowledge of knowing the only reason they moved camps so frequently was so her father could find a contact within the safe haven. Looking back on it she hated him even more for constantly uprooting them from their lives.
“I imagine they’ll have some kind of leader or elders group,” Cain replied after a moment, choosing his words carefully. “I think it’s probably best if you do the talking, I’d say you’re the least... well, you’re less threatening than I am and I think they’d take kindly to a Gen 1, if we have to reveal our rankings to them that is.”
Zahyra was a bit taken aback by Cain’s suggestion at first but as she thought about it her being the one to introduce everyone did make sense. As the warped settlement drew closer they discussed their fabricated back story at length, all agreeing it was better not to mention the safe haven and keep details about their past to a minimum.
When the foundations of the settlement finally came into view all three of them stopped in their tracks. Zahyra wasn’t sure what she had been expecting but a structure this immense had not been on her mind.
Strong walls were strung together out of tree trunks, the tops of which sharpened into spikes not dissimilar to how they had been at the mutant camp where Asher had been taken. Just to the right of them was the gate, made up of smaller logs fashioned together to create a door that could swing open and closed. Through some of the cracks in the wood Zahyra could make out three motorcycles parked near the entrance and a large number of people bustling around inside.
“Are you sure this
is the right place?” She asked Cain nervously.
“It’s got to be, there’s nothing else around for miles. Come on, it’ll be fine I’m sure.”
Zahyra took a deep breath and pushed on the makeshift door, it swung open easily and the three of them walked inside. From what they could already see it was more like a small town or village than any camp she’d seen before. There were securely build wooden huts and even a few older, two-storey buildings that had been modified to withstand the time.
Clear streets were carved through the middle and an area of livestock was grazing casually further down the walls. It took a while for anyone to notice the three of them, but when it happened an eerie silence overcame the settlement.
People, or warped mutants as they technically were – Zahyra already having noticed several of them with deformities – slowed in their daily tasks to turn and look at the new arrivals. A small girl dropped the basket she was carrying and ran off into one of the buildings, returning with who Zahyra assumed were her mother and father. The two adults then started walking towards the entranceway, pushing their daughter back into the building they had vacated.
“How can we help you folk?” The man spoke up as he walked into earshot. Zahyra struggled to keep her face neutral as she noticed his hands. Instead of five fingers on each like everyone else had there were only two, snapping together like pincers.
Immediately Zahyra was slightly frightened of him, wondering what kind of things he would use them for. As the two deformed mutants came to a stop in front of them – the woman’s deformity still unclear to Zahyra – Cain coughed beside her, reminding her she needed to introduce the three of them.
“Hello,” she said quietly at first, then coughed herself to clear her throat. “I’m Zahyra, this is Cain, and my younger brother, Asher.” She pointed to each of them in turn. “We’ve been travelling for some time now after our camp was raided and we were hoping to find refuge here, with you.”
