CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel (27 page)

New South City, Northern Allegiance

The humidity hung
thick in the Spring air outside of the aircraft as it pulled into the old
private air field. The suffocating heat was a sharp contrast to the cool dry
air of Antarctica. It had already descended over the historic city and summer
was still more than a full month away. The transporter slowly coasted into the
private station in New South City in the southern part of Northern Allegiance.

Most of the passengers had managed to get a
few hours of sleep and now, finally in New South City, they were the last ones
leaving the transporter in Northern Allegiance. 

The plane had barely come to a still hover
when Zura stood up, feeling antsy after the trip. She’d stayed up and watched
her people get off at the different stops, knowing many of them would have to
leave their homes and families and return before even the Festival of Fireworks
in July.

At least they’d get the World Memorial
Holiday at home with the kids but the Festival of Fireworks was one of the
biggest celebrations around the world. This year they would be on the ARC and
aside from possibly holding a small party inside, there would be no celebrating
this year.

Zura loved the holiday. The concept had
originated in what was then the United States of America a few hundred years
before. The story that had been officially sanctioned was that the people in
that country had lit up the sky in celebration of having an overabundance of
tea, which represented prosperity, and being able to share the outpouring of
that gift with what was then Britain who helped found The United States.

Every year on the anniversary of the
founding of the World Consensus on July fifteenth the world was lit up in honor
of the abundance that would come from a united world where everyone worked
together.

People would gather in large groups in all
the regions and the party of the year would happen.
They would miss the
celebration this year.
Zura looked over at her twins. Stella was starting
to wake but Stephen was still snoring. He hadn’t even stirred since they’d
stopped. How Stella had slept beside him, she had no idea.

“Hey, mom. Are we finally here?” Stella
asked, gently opening the shade to look out. Zura nodded. She was clearly still
deep in thought. Zura had been like this since the UniCorps and the World
Consensus representatives left.

Outside the craft, blackness stole the sky.
The hour was late and Stella couldn’t wait to get home and into her bed. She
looked forward to seeing her Aunt Edela who would be arriving in two weeks.
Stella wondered if her older cousins and Aunt Leif would make the trip too, at
least for their birthday party. Stella turned her thoughts to the party and
poked Stephen. She needed someone to talk to and everyone else was preoccupied
with work.

Stephen moaned and turned his head. It was
obvious he was tired. He hadn’t slept the night before at all, trying to get
everything he could from the isolated ARC system. She nudged him again. He
would have to wake up anyway since it was time to get off the aircraft. She
could see the lights from hovehicles in the distance. Usually their family
needed a large one but this year her parents had only brought back the bare
minimum and a regular van would be enough.

“Stephen. Stephen. We’re here.” Stella said
again, almost shoving him to get him awake.

He finally opened his eyes. He looked over
at Stella, then around the craft. His eyes swam as he tried to focus. He’d
slept hard through the long ride back. He looked over at his parents who were both
up and trying to get ready to get off the craft. Neither of them could sit
still for very long. They were always like this by the time they got to this
point in the trip.

Stella was ready to talk but she could tell
Stephen wasn’t quite ready to listen. She hadn’t been able to sleep much since
their visit to the staircase. There was something about the clanging and
scratches that would wake her up out of sleep, afraid. The clanging would begin
and then the sound of metal scraping against metal would pierce her dreams,
driving her awake. She hadn’t told anyone about it but hadn’t been able to get
past it either. She was glad to be going home and away from the ARC, if only
for six months.

Stephen rubbed his eyes and let out a big
yawn with his arms stretching over Stella’s head.

“You know you snore like a race horse,
don’t you?” Mave said, coming up from behind Stephen as he twisted in his seat
to get out of his seat belt.

“I was wondering where you were. I was
afraid I slept through your getting off,” Stephen said through a yawn while at
the same time ignoring her comment.

“I wouldn’t do that to you two. Besides, don’t
you remember, my surprise for your birthday? I’ll be in New South City with you
all, at least for a while and I’ll be staying at your place tonight. My
temporary residence won’t be ready until tomorrow. We get one more night
together, in the same building,” Mave said with a bright smile. And the special
surprise for both of you – I want to do that a few days before your party. It’ll
be really special.”  

Just the mention of the upcoming party
turned back on her talkative side.

“Oh, I am so excited. All of my friends are
going to be there and of course yours too Stephen. Who did you invite?” she
said more to herself than to him. She then turned to Mave. “Did mom already
order the cake, it’s gotta be special. I don’t want a regular store bought cake
this year, please. This year is super important and even though I know I have
to share a cake with Stephen, I want to have half of it decorated just for me,”
Stella said feeling suddenly giddy.

“Or even better, we can get two smaller
cakes so that I can finally have my own and it can be super amazing and he can
have his and it can be…well it can be whatever it is he wants. What do you
think about that, Stephen? Finally having your own cake?” Stella paused just
long enough to catch her breath. 

He opened his mouth to answer but she’d
already started talking again. “Oh, and we haven’t even talked about the
decorations and the entertainment,” she said worried. She called out to her
mom, “Mom, what are we doing for decorations and entertainment for our
birthday? Please tell me we can have something good. We only turn sixteen
once.”

She actually stopped talking so Zura could
answer. She waited silently for a few seconds while Zura looked at her with a
blank look on her face hoping she’d do what she typically did, and keep
talking. Stella let the void of silence linger as she waited for Zura’s answer. 

“Oh my goodness, Stella. I am so sorry. I
haven’t booked anything yet. I will tomorrow. I promise,” Zura said looking
tired and guilty. 

The past few weeks had thoroughly worn her
out mentally and physically and even coming home she wasn’t going to get any
relief.

Stella sighed. “I’ll find what we want and
then give you the information to schedule them. We only have a month and our
birthday happens to be at the same time as graduations and unity ceremonies so
we are already behind.”

The look of disappointment that Stella shot
Zura and Johan wrenched Zura’s heart. Every year their birthday turned out to
be an afterthought. After they got back from Antarctica, usually with just a
couple weeks to spare, they would frantically try to pull something off. It
generally wound up being just barely okay but she didn’t want barely okay this
year.

At least they’d been able to leave a little
earlier than usual, even if it was only so that everyone could return before the
weather got worse in Antarctica. Stella now hoped that those two weeks might
make the difference this year.

Zura stood by her seat, trying to avoid
looking at Stella and Stephen. She already felt guilty enough that they hadn’t
done any planning ahead of time, again, but the twins didn’t know that she was
going to miss their actual sixteenth birthday. The most important for any teen.
They would be para-adults.

“We may need to move up the date a week,”
she tried to say casually. 

“But we won’t be sixteen a week earlier,”
Stephen said with his no-nonsense voice. “Usually, you move it back so that you
are actually sixteen at the time of the celebration, otherwise it would be
anticlimactic,” Stephen added. 

“Yeah, besides, everyone is always busy the
two weeks around the World Memorial Holiday,” Stella said with an attitude of,
‘why would you even suggest such a thing?’. 

Zura wasn’t going to tell them the bad news
tonight. There was nothing she could do about it and she was too mentally
fatigued to deal with Stella. 

“Mom, what’s going on? You aren’t telling
us something about that day, are you?” Stella asked, picking up on Zura’s
thoughts.

Dangit
, thought Zura. She needed to
change her thoughts quickly to something else so that Stella wouldn’t pick up
on any more of her thoughts about their birthday. She knew if she opened that
can of worms now, there would be no rest for any of them.

“Stella, honey, I’m just really tired. Let’s
talk about the birthday party tomorrow, okay?” Zura tried to say sweetly. 

Stella looked at her mother, then at Mave
and immediately knew something was wrong. No one was being honest with them.
All the secrets were getting to her. Stella rose to her feet, and walked to the
door. She didn’t want to talk to them about it tonight or tomorrow. If they
weren’t going to be there, why bother talking about it at all?

“Liars,” she muttered under her breath as
she stared out the window next to her.

Stephen got up to stand by Stella. “Stella,
what’s going on?” he whispered. 

She just looked at him then back at her
parents and Mave. “They’re lying,” she said. 

“Oh,” he said with a confused look. “You
don’t think they are going to throw us a party?” he asked innocently. 

“I’ll tell you later. I don’t feel like
talking now,” she said turning back to look out the window of the exit door. 

The pilot spoke to the remaining
passengers. “We should be ready to exit the craft very soon. Since this is the
final stop for the night, we will be parking over there in the hangar and then
letting you out. It’s almost ready for us. It’s a shorter walk to the hovehicle
lot but it means we’ll be moving again. I’ll need everyone to take their seats
again so we can taxi in. Thank you,” she said turning off the speaker.

Feeling defeated, Stella stomped back to
the seats where she and Stephen were. She squeezed past him to take the seat by
the window so she’d have more space between her and everyone else. She couldn’t
wait to get off the transporter, but then realized it would only be to get into
the hovehicle which would be cramped with all of them inside, along with their
luggage. 

The aircraft began to slowly lift up and
glide towards the hangar. The lights of the hovehicles in the lot got closer
and closer and dim lights now felt like high beams as Stella looked out of her
window. She didn’t want to be mad but she didn’t ask for much from any of them. 

Her parents knew this was the one thing
she’d wanted since she was about ten. By the time she’d turned thirteen she’d
already started talking about what her sixteenth would be like. Now, a month
out, nothing had been done.
Nothing.
She felt crushed and betrayed.

Stella waited for her parents to get up and
go to the door first. She didn’t want to be near them any sooner than she had
to be. Stephen watched his sister, searching for the right words to make her
feel better, but he was never very good at having the right words so decided that
sitting beside her, even without speaking, was the best idea. Besides, he had
other things on his mind as well.

Those other things had kept him up all
night. He needed to figure out what he’d been looking at in in the Noah files
and the specimen. He couldn’t figure out what they were specimen of and what it
was related to. Stephen hoped his grandfather, who’d been a highly successful
geneticist before retiring, might be able to help; if he could convince him. He
wouldn’t have much time since they’d only be coming in town for two weeks.

His grandfather, Wilson, had been a key
player in advancing some of the human genome work and had found great success
at the Science Division of UniCorps, helping to found the department before
taking a less demanding role the year Zura had the twins. 

Wilson still dabbled in his work although he
was now at a much smaller private company that was still under one of the
UniCorps organizations. He’d been in the phase down years of his career for the
past six years and soon he’d reach retirement at eighty-three.

He maintained a lab back in his homeland to
continue work on a very small but specific project. No one knew, even his wife Priscilla,
what it was about since he never talked about it. Wilson was sharp as a tack
with a no nonsense attitude, but with a sense of adventure that rivaled men a
third his age.

They would be in New South City, visiting
from Hankura in Southern Liberty in less than two weeks. Then he’d have to try
to sell his granddad on helping him do something his granddad would likely
frown on. Stephen knew he would have to appeal to his sense of adventure.

The voice coming over the intercom felt like
it surrounded Stephen as it sliced into his thoughts. 

“Okay, everyone, the doors will be opening.
Please exit the craft in a straight line. Watch the steps and use the handrail.
We’ve made it this far, and don’t need any accidents,” the pilot said before
switching off. 

She and her co-pilot had been switching back
and forth and it was now time for both of them to rest. The sooner they got the
craft emptied out, the better. As the remaining ten people or so walked down
the steps, Captain Patawa walked back to the rear of the aircraft. She informed
the crew to use the rear door and unload as quickly as possible.