CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel (12 page)

New South City in Northern Allegiance

Long sinewy muscles
strained against the
metal restraints. Rennold growled, bearing his clenched teeth as he struggled
to get free. He
looked at the needle the
technician held with the tube at the end to collect this month’s sample. It
looked even bigger this month than it had last month.

The technician eased closer to him slowly and he continued
to struggle against the heavy duty restraints, his muscles tensed. The band
squeezing around his arm felt sinister and inhumane as it made his veins bulge
despite his protest.

The gag in his mouth prevented him from yelling to let them
know how angry and resentful he was for being treated like a lab rat. The gag
was relatively new, having been added to the regimen after he’d torn flesh from
a technicians arm, three months ago. Since then it had been added to the
protocol for the monthly blood sucking and bloodletting procedures he was
forced to endure.

The two way mirror hid her from view, but Ren knew his
mother Kim was watching. In the room away from his judgmental eyes, tears slowly
ran down her face. When she saw him afterwards she knew the evidence of her
crying, the puffy eyes, the red cheeks and nose would still be evident. Even
after all these years, coming here with him and having the tests run and his
blood taken still upset her.

All these years and still there was nothing. They were no
closer to an answer. He was different, forever changed, and she knew why.
Knowing this did nothing to control the anger or the outbursts caused by the
raging levels of testosterone and serum that coursed through his veins. She’d
been convinced to receive one of the earlier doses of the same controversial
serum given Stella and Stephen while she was pregnant with him.

She’d met Zura and Johan years ago as part of a select
group of would be parents who’d volunteered to help understand a life changing
serum and to allow their children to receive the first benefits. It was a
second round of studies that had been abandoned a generation earlier. They’d
all been found and recruited by Dr. Claudia Lima.

Mave came into the picture soon after, talking about how
important Rennold was and why it was important that he be protected. The years
had gone from a bad dream to a nightmare once he hit puberty and even more
hormones flooded his body, but Mave seemed to have some magical power over Ren.

Whenever she was around him, he changed and seemed to stop
fighting everything and everyone as much. She wasn’t sure leaving him in Mave’s
care would be the best thing for Ren, but nothing else had helped so far.

As Kim peered through the glass she saw her son’s eyes get
that wild animalistic look again. They were done taking the blood for this
month, but no one wanted to let him out of the restraints. She would have to go
in and soothe him first.

She prepared herself mentally for the unpredictable
reactions she witnessed each month. Some months it was easy as soothing and
going home and in other months they both left screaming and in tears. It could
take twenty minutes sometimes, but if she didn’t go in, he might really hurt
someone. He’d gotten so strong and his anger could become so extreme, if he
really knew his strength he would be out of the restraints already.

Ren’s eyes softened when he saw Kim walk through the doors
to the lab. He slowly stopped struggling against the restraints and she could
see his tensed muscles relax. He hated being tied down like an animal, having
his blood taken and having them give him shots to see if it would help calm
him.

For more than five years he’d been coming here every month
and nothing had come of it. Nothing. He was ready to be done and try something
different. He hoped Mave could help. He was nervous about the ceremony and even
more nervous about leaving home without his mother for a month.

Since his change, he hadn’t gone anywhere without Kim. She
was his safety net when he got overwhelmed and his natural survival instinct of
fighting kicked in. He might not be able to get back to calm without her and
could wind up killing someone this time.

Kim ran her hands over his blond hair, saying nothing. She
wished she’d never agreed to the trial, but it was too late. There was no going
back. Whatever was in him was there. It had already fully integrated into his
system years ago, the doctors had told her. All they could try to do now was
manage it.

She nodded her head to the man behind the two-way mirror to
release the restraints. They unlocked and Ren shot out of the seat. He looked
at the mirror and threw up his middle finger before grabbing the tech’s chair
and hurling it at the glass divider.

“You bastards! Come in here when I’m not restrained! You
think you’re so tough when you have me tied down!?” he yelled through the
shatterproof glass. He grabbed his uniform shirt, pulling it over his head as
he stormed out of the door.

“Ren, they are just doing their jobs. They’re trying to
help,” Kim said.

“Don’t defend them mom. If they were trying to help, they
would have helped by now. Instead they still just treat me like a freak after
five years. Five years of getting my blood drawn every month by rude imbeciles
who treat me like an animal,” he yelled the last part, turning his head back
towards the mirror so he was sure they’d hear him. “Five years of having them
give me drugs like a lab rat and nothing to show for it! Nothing!” he yelled.
Kim stopped and stepped back from her son who was raging again.

He huffed, then looked at the fear in her eyes. She’d done
this to him. She thought she was helping but she’d ruined his life. “I wanna go
home,” he said more quietly. “I need to get out of here. This place makes me
crazy.”

***

Perhaps the Awakening
Ceremony would help.
Mave had been trying to convince Kim to let Rennold go through it since he’d
had his first incident at thirteen - the incident that had forced him to
undergo testing. The same testing that hadn’t found any solutions in more than five
years. At almost nineteen he was just a couple years from being an adult and
possibly being condemned as unfit for society. Ren was afraid of what that
meant.

He’d lost so much from his earlier life and already had to
change so much of his life to accommodate the effects of the serum that lived
in him. They’d moved across the country to where they could get better access
to the treatments, even if they weren’t working. In a fitful rage over what
seemed a minor argument now, he’d hit his father. The blow to his chest sent
him to the hospital in cardiac arrest. After that, Kim knew he couldn’t
continue living like he was.

He’d left his father and that damaged relationship and all
of his friends to live in New South City. Ren had stopped attending regular
school at fifteen when medication couldn’t control him and he’d had to finish
his studies with private tutors and online courses.

Now his mother thought he would suddenly be able to
function without her, around other teens. Though he hoped she was right, he was
still scared he might lose it. Scared she might be wrong.

Antarctic Research Center

By midday the
service craft arrived with the special menu items and serving staff for the
Gala to be held that evening. The pastry and dessert staff had already prepared
a mouthwatering display of delicious treats, leaving the kitchen open for the
other courses. They’d spent one night on the ARC and could now return on the
same craft that had brought the others to finish with the rest of the party
preparations.

Soon
the great hall was buzzing with energy as people flew around the room setting
up for the evening’s gala. There was a team in the large kitchen prepping the
food, stacking dishes, organizing silverware and napkins. Another team was
working in the great hall setting up tables for the party and putting together
the dance floor that was stored onsite for the annual event. After the first
two years of having it brought in, they’d purchased their own that stayed on
the ARC for future parties.

A
group from the decoration team was busily hand-making centerpieces from fresh
cut flowers and ribbons in spring colors for all of the tables. Outside the
wall of windows that lined the external walls of the great hall there was the
reminder that they were still in Antarctica - ice sculptures being finished. Stella
looked around the room at all of the activity. She couldn’t wait for the party
to be over.

There
weren’t any other kids on the ARC besides her and Stephen so these parties were
always filled with boring talk of the weather, literally, and what people were
planning to do when they got back home. Of course, everyone was just going home
to do more work. It might be slightly different work, but it was still work
related to this work and Stella found it nauseatingly boring.

Stella
was searching the room now for Ms. Ida. Ms. Ida had been coordinating the Gala
as long as Stella could remember. With all of her colorful eccentricities, she
was a breath of fresh air to Stella. She was from Northern Liberty and was full
of spunk considering how old she must have been. Stella guessed she was pretty
old, at least fifty. She also spoke with a beautiful accent that Stella had
gotten pretty good at emulating whenever she spoke to her long enough. 

Ms.
Ida never just wore the uniform. She always added handmade, knitted, and even
crocheted accessories like scarves, leg wraps, arm bands, neck grabbers, and
even ear piercers. Sometimes she’d show up wearing all of them at once. She
said when she came here she needed everything, just to stay warm.

Ms.
Ida always made her something special and she was the one person Stella
actually looked forward to seeing and talking to during the Gala. The one year
Ms. Ida hadn’t come, was the year Stella turned thirteen, and also the year Ms.
Ida’s mother had passed. Since then, Stella always liked to check and see if
she was there when everyone was setting up. She had something for her this year
too, picked up from the science camp campus gift shop. She knew Ms. Ida would
love it since it was as colorful as she was.

After
looking around from the door for a minute she still didn’t see her. Ms. Ida
might be in the kitchen, but Stella wouldn’t be able to find out. The staff,
Ms. Ida, and her parents had banned both she and Stephen from the great hall
and kitchen until party time a few years ago.

It
was after the incident when Stella and Stephen were twelve and tried to sneak
cupcakes out of the kitchen. Instead of making a clean escape, one of them, Stella
always denied it was her, knocked the perfect cupcake pyramid off the counter
along with a tray full of cookies shaped and colored like animals in the
Antarctic. Stella still thought everyone had overreacted. Besides, now they
were nearly sixteen.

Even
outside of the great hall the ARC was buzzing with activity. Zura was heading
down towards the great hall looking for Stella. She’d barely seen her since she
got back and she knew Stella would be looking for Ms. Ida. Unlike many days
when she might only pass her family, today Zura was passing people from her
other teams on the ARC. Some of whom she hadn’t seen in weeks. 

There
were two maintenance teams, an engineering team, collection team, a
classification and preservation team, a health unit, a special operations team,
and a team who worked with each Region to monitor ground and submantle
activity. There was also a team that Johan managed that did some other research
and collection work related to embryonic research and sustainability as far as
she knew, but they rarely participated in anything.

During
the Summer months the ARC had close to a hundred people working on it. Most of
them were off that day to rest and prepare for the celebration. Usually a
representative from UniCorps came but this year they declined the invitation. They’d
elected to instead come to the larger semi-annual year end meeting happening
the following week. It would be the last important meeting of Zura’s team
before everyone left the ARC for the Winter. 

Zura
was relieved with their decision to not participate at the gala. It would have
ruined the party if they came, considering the pending news. She tried to push
all of that out of her head for the time and reminded herself that she couldn’t
do anything about it now.

As
Zura rounded a corner with a split she nearly collided with Stella. “Oh, there
you are,” Zura beamed. “How’s my star child?” she asked putting her arm around
Stella.

“Hi,
mom. I’m fine. I was just seeing if Ms. Ida was around. Have you seen her? Oh,
how are you? Ready for the party?”

Zura
shrugged. They hadn’t had a chance to talk to Stella about what was happening
and she needed to tell her before she heard it from Stephen. “I haven’t seen
Ida. You heading back to your room now?” Zura asked.

“Yeah,
I’m tired. I was up too late last night. We were having so much fun mom, we
didn’t want to go home so we stayed up as long as we could together. I met some
of the most nine people ever and we are definitely all going to keep in touch. Well
at least some of us, I guess,” Stella said before being interrupted.

“What’s
a nine person?” Zura asked confused.

“Mom,
cool, light, fun, peps. Anyway, there were people from all over the world - the
Liberties, the Allegiances, the Eastern Way, and even Australia. That’s where my
number one new friend is from. Her name is Alexis and she is absolutely, well,
she follows her heart. They even had an old pump on the campus, like the ones
we learned about in school.”

“Take
a breath honey,” Zura laughed.

“Okay,”
Stella smiled, “I breathed. So the old pump was right in the middle of the
courtyard and it was so cool. I threw a rock in just to see how far down it
would go, but I couldn’t really tell. Oh, and I even made a few guy friends too.
I mean we’re just friends. They were great to hang out with. Wait, I got you
something Mom. I think you’ll like it. It’s totally antique type vintage. You
know, old. You won’t believe it. It was in the section with educational
materials of the campus shop. They had some really old things in there. They
even had a whole special section of just old stuff to look at. We couldn’t buy
it since it was just a display. I can’t believe people had to live like that in
the 2000s. I think I would have just died.”

Zura
walked along with her daughter, just smiling and listening. She loved to listen
to Stella talk, even if it meant she didn’t get more than a few words in. At
least today she was talking to her. Stella had shut both Zura and Johan out
when she left at the start of the week. She was upset about having to go to
camp, but it seemed she had gotten past that.

Stella
opened the door to her room just enough to look in. She shrugged as she opened
it the rest of the way. “Sorry, I kinda just dumped everything in once I got
back. Stephen wanted to show me something but I told him I didn’t want to do
anymore science stuff, not today. Besides, I was going to look for Ms. Ida. I
should probably see him and at least see what he wanted. Ugh. Did I mention I
am not in love with science, mom? Why doesn’t Stephen have to go to art camp or
music camp? So not fair.” Stella flopped on the bed dramatically.

“Stella,
I am so glad you are home. I missed you,” Zura said, closing the door and
sitting down next to her. “I do need to talk to you too.”

“What’s
going on?” Stella said, forcing herself to be quiet.

“We’ve
been working almost around the clock here this past week,” she started.

“And
that’s different from normal, how?” Stella asked, smiling at her mom.

“Okay,
maybe that’s true. We discovered something in our data that we are going to
have to report. It’s a big issue and next week all the reps from the science
divisions of both UniCorps and the World Consensus are going to be here. They
would be here anyway, but it is going to be much more intense. What we are
about to report to them, is really big and they aren’t going to like it.” Zura
stopped to let that much soak in.

“Well,
what is it?” Stella prodded.

“Let’s
see, how do I explain this? The ground is getting weaker. Our pumping of gas
and emissions into the earth over the past almost fifteen to sixteen years has
caused a sort of fracturing of the earth beneath the ground where the holes
are. It’s kind of like veins splitting off and they seem to be drawn towards
existing fault lines, where earthquakes are already likely to happen.”

“So
does that mean we are making more earthquakes?

“Not
exactly. Or, at least, not completely. It does mean that the more we pump the
more veins are made and the more pressure there is on the ground where the
earth is being pushed to the side. There is only so much room to wiggle before
something has to give. We’re already starting to see the effects with increased
tremors and the migration of sea life away from the most effected zones.”

“What
do you mean?” Stella asked sitting up suddenly more interested.

“What’s
happening below the surface is impacting where sea creatures are giving birth,
which impacts where other sea creatures go for later feedings. It’s just a
nasty web and we are pretty certain that the earthquake in Southern Allegiance
happened as a result of this. In fact, I’m pretty certain the increase of all
these smaller earthquakes are because of this.” Zura looked at Stella while
rubbing her temples. She knew Stella would see it in the simplest way.

“We
stop the pumping and then we’ll stop the splitting, right?” Stella said, just
as Zura had anticipated. It should have been that cut and dry.

“Yeah,
basically, that’s what would need to happen. However, it isn’t a guarantee but it
would be the best start,” Zura said looking down. In reality, it wasn’t quite
that easy.

“What’s
the problem then? Start with shutting down the pumps,” Stella said as she
studied her mom’s tired eyes and the bags hanging over her cheeks.

“I
wish it were that simple Stella. That we’d just turn off the pumps tomorrow. Unfortunately,
I don’t think our funders are going to simply say, ‘turn it off’ without having
a way to solve the problem in their favor.”

“In
THEIR favor? What about everyone else? Everything else? Excuse me, but what the
hell? They can use dad’s idea!”

Zura
could see herself in Stella at that moment. She could see the heat rising
around Stella’s neck before Stella spoke, her temper beginning to flare.

“Stella,
watch it,” Zura warned.

“I
am watching it mom. I’m watching as someone tries to destroy the world, again,
and everyone is too scared to say something. Again! Ugh. What? The water crisis
and ten percent of people dying wasn’t enough? Let’s shoot for twenty this
time!”

Zura
chose to let her rant. She had every right to be mad.

“I
know you’re upset Stella, but there is one more thing. This is classified
information. You can’t share it with anyone outside of the core science
research team – that’s me, your dad, Mave, Rupert, and of course Stephen. That
means no one else on the ARC, no other family, friends, no one else can know
what we’ve found.”

“It’s
a secret?” Stella asked incredulously. “Of course, it’s a secret. Okay. Well
what can we do? I see what the problem is, but who’s working on the answer?”
The fire had risen to Stella’s face.

“We
are looking at some options, but for today, let’s not worry about it since
it’ll be up to UniCorps and the World Consensus to decide which direction to
take. I just wanted you to know and to find out from me. There’s nothing we can
do right now.” Her mom stood up and took a deep breath.

“So,
what did you bring back for me?” Zura asked plastering a smile on her face, but
she couldn’t hide from Stella the worry and concern that were imprinted on her
brow and inside her head.