Caped (Book 1): The Burdens of Fate (28 page)

Alvin
offered to give Michael and Iris a lift back
but Michael insisted he could make the flight. We got a good laugh about him
being slightly inebriated and ending up in Cuba or some place and that sparked
up a whole other conversation, but it all eventually ended.

Alvin
took me home and we ended it with a kiss. Yes,
definitely doing this again some time.

–
5/31
–

Kaylie Horn
-

Just as an update, there are three more
confirmed nocs at school. One is Rob Rosado, who's got heightened senses; eyes,
ears, the whole shebang. Second is Jamie Boyd, who actually sits next to me in
my third period chemistry class, she's a pyro, a group of kids caught her
lighting a cigarette before classes today in the parking lot. Then there's Sade
Ramsey, who sneezed last week in her math class and accidentally pushed
everyone's desk away from her. She ran out the room crying, and we still don't
know if she has telepathy or magnetism but she isn't talking about it.

People talk, obviously, but nobody's said
anything to their face… that takes balls. I mean they still have friends, and
thank god people are smart enough to realize they're still the same people. But
there will always be people threatened by us. It's definitely scary. Knowing
that one day it'll be me.

Back on-topic; I guess I felt the need to say something
because mom and dad keep pressuring me to stay focused on school. I am! I still
do my work and struggle in class. Albeit I've never been one to write about
tests and stuff in here, that already takes up too much of my life, I'll stick
to the gossip. And besides, when given an option, let's be honest, flying
islands with super geniuses, hackers breaking into area 51, and gun ranges, are
far more exciting than anything in this town.

I don't have to hide my ability from them, and
even though I don't have to hide them at home I know it makes them
uncomfortable when I use it.

I’m a reminder of just how crazy the world's
gotten and I don't think they want that. I know I don't, but I can't hide from
myself. I can't ignore this ever present feeling continuously reminding me who
I am. It's real. Their worries are
real,
my fears are
real, but most importantly... that smell coming from the kitchen is real. I'm
off to dinner, lady! Byee!

Edward Otep
-

I guess you
can consider today full of epiphanies, it's not too often those come around so
I try to cherish the moment. Clarity is something the mind never tires of, and
ever since that time traveling messenger slid that tablet across the floor
clarity has faded in and out like the morning fog, continually causing me to
wonder just how we were going to make this work. How random strangers from
around the country will come together and take on this monolithic task.

The Kaylie
from the video, as rushed as she was, spoke of each of us like close friends;
almost as a second family. We've been trying to recreate that, falsely, in
fact. We're not a group of friends. We're not here to make nice, watch movies,
and play games. We were given a job to do. It doesn't matter who hangs out with
each other, all that matters is trust. And I trust them.

Not because
they're close friends I've known all my life, or because they have years of
professional experience; they aren't and they don't. They're ordinary people,
and I trust them because we all know what's on the line. We know that if we
falter in our efforts, it's over. Humanity is over. And there's no restart
button for that.

–
6/6
–

Dennis Shaeffer
-

There was a rapid knocking on the door that
jolted me awake, it paused for a moment before continuing only to stop again a
few seconds later. There was the faint pop of a jumper downstairs followed
immediately by shouts from Raphael.

"Dennis!" he hollered, "You're
not picking up your phone or answering your door. Everything alright?"

Of course it was, except for the fact that he'd
just come barging into my home. I hadn't answered the phone because my phone
was dead, and at three o'clock in the morning what sane person would be ready
to answer the door?

I was starting to like the quiet routine of my
old life, just working and hanging out with the wife. After a couple weeks away
from such madness the mind starts to categorize it as that
other
part of
life. I saw the news and heard the reports, and in the back of my mind I knew
that I was a part of it all. But the open speculation with co-workers, the
stories you hear about their family and friends, everything started to seem so
tame. Regrettably, I started to enjoy the world for what it was.

Every day I am awarded such a luxury there are people
sleeping on cold concrete and wondering why they aren't fortunate enough to be
granted an ability that could lift them out of the slums. Children dying from
hunger and preventable diseases so far removed from society that the words Los Angeles and Chicago
mean nowhere near as much to them as the words
clean water
or
vaccination
. Yes, I settled back into the happy routine of my old life and
almost forgot about the millions more who will never be so lucky.

Raphael grabbed me by the collar and immediately
jumped us to just outside of Nena's room where a sudden heavy disorienting feel
swept over me.

"The feeling will ease up after a couple
minutes, just do your best 'til then," remarked Julius, who was standing
beside Raphael and Yuri.

"She wanted everyone to be here to see
this," said Naim, standing on the other side of the doorway with Luis and
Telan, his hand resting on a television they'd ad hoc their way into working.
On it was a live feed of an apartment complex somewhere in Atlanta, and I'd have thought it were a
picture if not for the frequent cars that whipped past.

Through my daze I could see the faint flashes
of a tiny million explosions popping about in her room, like fireflies only
slightly smaller, but steadily growing in number. Nena sat on her bed, sitting
on top of her legs. She was down to her bra and panties but you could barely
see her form through the growing number of flashes. You could definitely hear
her heavy breathing, an exhausted sound with hints of pain.

Then came a whisper, like a ghost speaking
softly in our ears. An eerie sound that made the hairs on my neck stand up. At
first we thought it was Yuri playing a joke, but it wasn't.

Nena gave a quick loud moan that was
immediately followed by more having breathing. Every couple of seconds she
would repeat the processes, and with each moan the room grew brighter.

A line of static danced up and down on the
television screen, followed shortly by a second and a third. Luis whacked it
once to clear the picture, but to no avail.

Nena's heavy breathing was replaced by a loud,
long stream of incomprehensible wording, a paragraph of words ending with deep
moans before repeating the process. The lights grew brighter until you couldn't
distinguish one tiny explosion from another and Nena's form was lost within.
The soft eerie whispers had turned into ghostly wails that raged out of her
room and through the halls.

The lines of static on the screen danced about
and grew until the image was lost completely. The lights, wails, and noises, grew
to overwhelming proportions, and the halls began to groan under the stress.

Without warning it stopped, leaving only the
sounds of Nena exhaling and the static on the television screen as company. The
image appeared in its original state, which drew everyone's attention, followed
by a large violent explosion that knocked over the camera and clouded the
screen in dust and debris.

From Nena's room came a loud deep gasp,
followed by the sound of splitting flesh; down to the bone, as if a dozen giant
surgical scalpels carved lines across her skin. She winced in pain, and let out
a soft scream that almost sound pleasurable.

We were terrified, all of us, but didn't dare
approach without consent. There was silence as Nena lay on her bed in a pool of
her own blood. The moment passed and all we could hear was her continued heavy
breathing. She picked herself up off the bed, brushing her blood soaked hair
out of the way and began to approach us. The deep open wounds closed themselves
like zippers until all that remained were drying trails of blood.

"Okay, so I'm a little rusty. That worked
well enough. Back to changing the world, shall we?"

In all the commotion I'd ignored the feeling of
the time stream shifting, a good thing considering how jarring it is. But it
had changed.

She had Yuri retrieve the audio recording
equipment so could give my last performances as Citizen One. With the
adrenaline wearing off my body was back to realizing just how tired it actually
was, but given the circumstances I'd have been a fool to say anything. It was
time to work. Time to change the world.

Jeffrey Allen -

Did anyone feel that? Everyone felt that! I'm
sure they're shaking in China.
I woke up screaming, that shook me to my bones! My bones, child! I thought I
was a gonner, too much crazy shit going on nowadays to think otherwise. I sure
hope everyone's staying safe out there...

@ArtofMiller -

#Whoa! #EXTEME #shaking in #ATL, anyone know
what the hell just happened?

@Anjow1220 -

On the top floor of the Bank of America Building,
can't see anything. Almost shit my pants! #ATL under attack?

@PhillyD -

Hey Nation! My dogs are barking up a storm,
what’s goin on?! And has anyone been outside, the birds are going crazy! #ATL
#Earthquake? #LoveYoFaces! #StaySafe

@R_Seeman -

I think the entire city just woke up, no damage
but everyone sure as hell is startled. Ten bucks it's a fuckin #noc! Stay safe
#ATL!

@Kapo_3xotique -

Great, my house
gets totaled in #LA, and now #ATL is trying to kill me. Fuck, man, leave me
alone!

@Magical_Noc428 -

Not again! Come
on, Chicago was
just a couple weeks ago, can't something major happen overseas for once? Are we
really that fucked up?

Edward Otep
-

Another dream, haven't had one of those in a while:
My hair was a shaggy mess and my clothes hung off me like they were making me
uncomfortable, perhaps after far too many hours wearing them. Sure looked like
it.

I pulled around the corner of my suburban
development just in time to see a faint blue flash of color spark from my
living room window. I'd missed him by moments.

I walked through the door to a dark and empty
house but I knew what to expect the moment I turned on the lights. The
disarray, my furniture out of place, if in one piece at all, and again, the
fresh blood soaking into the rug I'd thrown over the previous blood stains
because I was too lazy to ask Ivan to stop by. How ironic that my last day
would so closely mirror the first. Only this time there's no tablet, just two
very large bottles of liquid and a piece of paper waiting on my desk.

I skimmed over the writing and wouldn't bother
with the items again until I'd showered and dressed. I have time, but not much.

I sit down at my desk with a cigarette and a
pen and write in this very book. I stare at my watch, place the book in my
desk, mix the two liquids together, shake it, and then drench my body in it. I
am nervous and shaking, recanting the long nonsensical phrase written on the
paper. I stand facing the door, waiting for my assassin to barge through.

The door launches from its frame and in walks
the burning man covered head to toe in rich orange flames. He is calm and quiet
as he approaches, while I feverishly continue to recant the phrase to myself.
Nothing is happening and I struggle to hide my growing fear.

He stands less than an arms length away from me
and my skin slightly sizzles from the heat but my pride won't dare let me show
the pain. There is a moment of silence as our eyes meet, and then a bright
flash. My home, everything that is mine, scatters to the wind in a violent
eruption of smoke and fire.

But it isn't the last of what I see, it
continues on for twelve more hours. Back to Infinity Isle where they wait,
poised and ready like dogs at the race, confined to their little cage and eager
for the gates to swing open. My friends stare at the monitors, infrared,
ultraviolet, radar, and sonar; cameras with eyes in every direction until they
finally spot it. Whatever "
it"
may be.

"It's here," says Kaylie, "just
like Otep said."

And then a violent and abrupt return to the
present. My phone rang for the first time and I jumped to attention. Groggy and
overwhelmed with an eerie sense of Déjà Vu, silently hoping the dream was over.
If it could be considered such; was more like a nightmare.

Yet the phone kept ringing, stopped, and rang
again. I knew why yet still I doubted. I picked up the phone, praying to hear
any voice but the one I was expecting. I had no such luck, it was Thomas.

"I hope I didn't wake you," he said,
trying to sound cordial while clearly stressed. I knew what was coming, yet
still wasn't fully prepared to hear it.