The Children of New Earth (7 page)

“The shield can’t take anymore!” Cora called out. “It has to recharge!”

“We don’t have time for that!” Rachel said, morphing her Orb.

She created the semblance of a wall in front of the opening to give me a safe way through, but the anarchists’ attacks destabilized the structure, disrupting its shape. She was forced to retract it, and swore aloud, though I couldn’t hear what she said over the gunfire.

Out of options, I forced myself to calm down. I put my back against the cold, rocky wall and shut my eyes. Slowly but steadily, the noise died down, and both my heart rate and breathing relaxed. When I opened my eyes and turned my head, I could actually see each and every bullet floating through the air. A streak of blue lightning had just passed the doorway and was still moving rather quickly. Within a few seconds it reached the wall. I instinctively shielded myself from the blast but then saw the eruption of rock happen in slow motion. Each particle hit me with a light touch before bouncing towards the ground. My only other obstacles were a laser beam cutting across my path and a few dozen bullets. I cautiously reached out my hand, taking one of them between my thumb and index finger. To my surprise, there was very little resistance. When I let go, it remained stuck in space where I’d left it. Then, with a deep breath, I stepped under the laser and through the field of bullets, brushing them aside as I did so. Once I was on the other side, I felt drained of energy, and released my hold of time. The deafening sound of metal colliding with rock came roaring back, startling me as I jumped further away from the opening.

The others quickly turned their heads and stared at me in shock, the strange animal included. It let out a mild roar and slowly stood up on its hind legs, shifting into a more humanoid shape as it did so. When it completed its transformation, I was amazed to see that it was Lynn.

She opened her pack and removed a small, egg-shaped device. She threw it down in front of the doorway and urged us to move back. After a moment, it erupted in a cloud of white dust, covering the entire entrance. Then, Lynn took out a remote and hit a small, blue button. The dust instantly solidified and formed a solid barrier between us and the anarchists, silencing the sound of gunfire.

Rachel sighed, both relieved and overwhelmed. It was strange seeing someone usually so fearless and calm act nervous. I then turned to Aaron.

“You killed her,” I said. “You killed that girl.”

“She murdered our parents, our friends back at Sanctuary. And she would’ve done the same with us.”

Somehow, this didn’t put my mind at ease. Back in the chamber I probably would’ve agreed with him, but now - being out of danger and thinking clearly - I wasn’t so sure. The others remained silent.

“We need to keep moving, friends,” Aaron pointed down the tracks. “While we still have the lights.”

“Agreed,” we all answered in unison.

I thought of my journals, and how most of them were filled with empty pages. The past few days had given me plenty to write about. I reached for one of them in my backpack, and flipped through the clean, white sheets. I then decided I would record my experiences, though I was missing one crucial thing: a writing utensil. Decided that perhaps this wasn’t the best time to ask for one, I continued to walk, praying that the lights wouldn’t go out, and decided to become acquainted with our new allies.

“Lynn, I don’t believe we’ve met,” I said politely. “I’m Thran.”

“Oh, hey there,.” she replied. “Yeah, it’s odd we haven’t met, since we’ve been on the same platform all this time. Aelia and I have been practicing our powers a lot lately.”

“Really?”

“Yep. As you saw earlier, I can turn into different animals. The one you saw was called a ‘cheetah’. I saw one out on a hunt and soon after learned to shift.”

“But what about your clothes and any stuff you’re holding?”

“It took a bit of practice but I soon learned to make any matter in my immediate proximity part of my new form,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, I recently figured out how to shift into a bird.”

“No way.”

“Yes way.”

“You mean you can fly?”

“Well for now I can glide, but with some practice, yes I should be able to fly.”

“Amazing.” I said, truly astonished. “Can you turn into anything else?”

“Well, we keep a cat in the Sanctuary so I’ve learned to take its shape.” she said. “But besides that I’m still discovering new forms.”

“But how do you learn to take new forms?”

“All I have to do is observe something for a while, could be a few minutes or it could be days before I’m ready,” she explained. “I could even turn into a Demon one day!”

“A Demon?” I said in a rather concerned tone.

“Think about it, the Demons are such a fascinating race. Sure they waged war on our planet but look at us now!” she said zealously. “We won the war, the Demons are scattered, and the New Generation has superpowers.”

“Sure, you have a point…”

“I could maybe one day shift into a Dragon, even a Titan, and use that awesome power for a good cause like rebuilding our planet.”

“That’s all well and good in theory, but I feel like that kind of power changes a person. Earth-born animals seem fine but we don’t know anything about the biology of Demons. Turning into one of them could be risky.”

“I agree,” Cora added. “Power has the potential to corrupt; my parents told me that once.”

“Well when you meet someone who exemplifies your case, let me know,” she said confidently. “Trust me. One day, we will all have mastered our powers, and we’ll be ones conquering new worlds. And unlike the Demons, we’ll be successful.”

“Hey now, I’m excited for that day as much as you are. I just hope we keep our values if and when we get there.” I wanted to change the subject. “So Aelia, what’s your power?”

She laughed. “Well if you think shapeshifting is amazing…”

“Oh, go on. What is it?”

“I believe she’s a pyrokinetic,” Mark said.

“Wow, who’s this killjoy,” Aelia said, slightly annoyed.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Mark apologized. “I did not realize you were creating an aura of suspense.”

“Are you sassing me you hexadecimal piece of shit?” Aelia replied angrily.

“Whoa calm down,” I interjected. “Aelia, you’re a pyrokinetic, care to demonstrate?”

She sighed cheerfully, as if she had no doubt I would be incredibly impressed, and held out her hand. A small flame erupted from her palm, and began to burn peacefully above it.

“God said ‘let there be light, and there was light,'” she said with a sense of presentation in her voice.

“What’s that from?” I asked, admiring the fire.

“Some book my parents used to read,” she said sullenly. “They died years ago, but they used to read it to me when I was little.”

The glow from the flame lit up Aelia’s face, and I jumped back when I saw that her eyes had turned completely black.

“Um, Aelia,” I said carefully, “your eyes, they’re - “

“Oh, yeah I know,” she said casually. “It’s a side effect of this power. I can’t sustain a flame without this happening,” she said, pointing to her eyes.

She then made a fist, dissipating the flame. The black color in her eyes faded, and she once again looked human. I couldn’t help but think that those eyes made her look a lot like a Demon, and having had a close call with one not long ago, I was a little wary.

We continued to walk in silence for a few minutes. Everyone was on their guard; the tunnel was very wide and had several dark corridors extending out towards either side. The Southern Gate was some unknown distance ahead of us, but we marched on. Every so often, the lights would flicker, but never go out completely.

That is, until after about an hour in the tunnel.

I estimated the exit to be only a few hundred feet away at this point. That’s when the lights wavered again. Except this time, they would not stabilize and the intervals of darkness seemed to grow longer and longer. Finally, the light shut off completely and I stopped in my tracks. I could no longer hear the others’ footsteps, the low hum of some distant generator fell quiet.

“OK, I can see,” Aaron said, breaking the eerie silence. It took a few seconds for his eyes to calibrate to the environment. “Follow me.”

“Not everyone can see you Aaron,” I said.

“I can, I’m in your head,” Cora said. “Don’t worry, just your vision.”

“OK, let me…just…transformmmmeeeeoowww,” Lynn’s voice became high pitched then trailed off. She had evidently shapeshifted again into an animal that I assumed could see in the dark.

“So Lynn’s a cat,” Aelia said casually. “The rest of us are going to have to be extra careful. Ironically, I can’t conjure up a larger flame in this darkness, it’ll attract too much attention from whatever’s lurking in these tunnels.”

“We’ll be OK,” Rachel said.

“Just warn me if something’s coming, alright?” I requested.

“Will do,” Aaron said. “Let’s keep going.”

We walked on for a while, hearing the sound of scuttering footsteps echo in the darkness. I hoped that whatever was out there was as blind as I was, and especially that we wouldn't run into another Siren.

That’s when I heard the low moaning.

“OK, guys, I know what you’re think - “

“There’s a little girl out there and we have to save her!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Rachel - “

“I’m kidding,” she laughed, much to my relief.

“It’s probably lurking in one of these side paths,” Cora said. “Its toxin is weak, judging by the fact that none of you are affected. So long as we keep moving forward we should be fine.”

And we did just that. But even so, the constant, dull moan was extremely unnerving. On top of that, we began to hear screeching, growling, and also scraping, as if something was dragging itself across the walls of the tunnel. The air was damp and foul. I struggled to breath, and prayed that I wouldn’t have to end up running. This wasn’t the first time I was stuck in a total darkness, but that didn’t make it any less painful.

I was a little startled when I bumped into Aaron, again.

“Hey what - “

“Shhh.”

“What is it?” I whispered.

“It’s some kind of creature wandering around the tracks ahead of us,” Aaron replied quietly.

“Oh no, there’s another,” Cora added.

“Meow,” Lynn cried quietly, confirming what their report.

“It’s the Swarm,” Aaron said as he came to this terrifying realization. “There’s gotta be at least a dozen now.”

“Hey, I got this,” Aelia said, stumbling her way to the front of the group. “Ready to burn some Demons, just point me in their direction.”

“No, you can’t,” Rachel warned. “The light and heat will attract even more of them and that’s the last thing we need.”

“I detect a total of 53 life forms in our relative proximity,” Mark said. “I suggest stealth tactics.”

“Agreed,” Lynn said. “But they’re right between us and the Gate, how are we gonna get past them?”

“I would use my Orb - kill them quickly and quietly - but I can’t see a thing,” Rachel said disappointedly.

“Maybe you can still use it,” I said, coming up with an idea. “Can you make a wall in front of us?”

“Probably…”

“Like you did back at the doorway, just bigger.”

I heard Rachel take out her Orb and morph it as I requested. It was relatively silent, so I assumed it was levitating in front of us. After a moment, I heard soft thuds as it came in contact with the walls of the tunnel.

“Make it smaller, don’t need it scraping against the walls. Aaron, can you see through it?”

He hesitated. “I…yes, yes I can.”

“Brilliant.” I said, quite proud of myself.

“Now what?” Cora asked.

“Rachel, keep the wall floating. Aaron, get in front and push the wall as me move forward. Everyone else follow behind, got it?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“Yep.”

“OK.”

“Meow.”

We inched closer and closer to the gate. I reached out my hand and felt the cool surface of the Quantum metal as it paved our way through this darkness. My plan was that we would simply push our way to the gate unseen, then dispatch of the Demons once we were within melee range quickly and quietly.

“We’re a couple yards away from them now,” Aaron whispered.

“Good. now let’s - “

A sudden, blood-curdling screech came from the darkness behind us, followed by the rumbling of what seemed like hundreds of inhuman footsteps.

“Oh shit, what do we do?!”

“PUSH FORWARD!”

The wall quickly accelerated, shoving the dozen or so Demons in front of us towards the Gate. We ran behind it, and after a couple seconds we heard a loud
thud
, coupled with the disgusting squelch of the creatures getting crushed between the wall and the gate. I could hear the other Demons, they were almost upon us now. When we reached the end of the tunnel, Aelia lit a flame, and Rachel retracted her Orb, making it shrink back into a small sphere. An unholy amount of blood was splattered on the Gate. I felt sick, but held it together. I could see Rachel was also exhausted from manipulating the Orb for so long.

“Open the gate!” I pleaded.

“Going!” Cora yelled, running to a crimson-stained keypad on the doors and typing in the code.

The Gates shuddered and began to open at a ridiculously slow rate.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Lynn cried. She had shifted into a human again, shaking as she aimed her gun at the oncoming storm of Demons. It was then that Aelia stepped forward and extended her palms towards the Swarm.

“GET DOWN!” she screamed.

We did as she ordered and not a moment too soon. Just as I turned around and ducked, I felt an insane amount of heat on the back of my neck. A strong, hot wind roared throughout the tunnel. I risked a glance. I could only open my eyes for half a second before the heat and brightness became too much. All I saw was an intense red and orange light all around me. When her assault finally subsided, I slowly rose to see the aftermath of Aelia’s firestorm.

There were hundreds of corpses littering the tunnel, most of them covered in patches of flame. Blood and organs were splattered on the walls and pooling on the floor. Aelia turned and again had those black, lifeless eyes, a trail of blood running down from her nose. She then lost consciousness, but Lynn caught her before she hit the ground.