Authors: M.A Casey
I spent most of the night in Zeke’s room, feeding him
the soup Mum had made us and watching him sleep. I had only been in my
room for about two hours when Emin woke me for our meeting. Tonight we
met in Zeke’s room as he refused to miss out on what was happening and we
refused to let him move. Because there was no sound proofing, we had to
be more careful than usual.
We all accepted that we had no other choice than to
produce the chemical strain that Spencer wanted. In fact, I was pretty
confident it wouldn’t be that difficult considering what we had discovered in
the last day or so. Dad was suddenly distraught.
“You are not to be involved Hayln,” he said shaking
his head. “It’s one thing to have you all caught up in this, but I will
not have the creation of this strain on your head. You have to be in the
lab, but you will have to find something else to keep you occupied. I
will not let you work on this.”
No one argued there was no point, and there wasn’t
much more we could say so we went back to our rooms. All desperately
needing some rest.
After a restless night, I woke to another day being
held hostage in my own home. I had laid awake most of the night thinking
about Dad. I wanted to help lift some of the burden he had decided to
carry on his own, but I knew nothing I said would change his mind.
I showered and got dressed and went to Zeke’s
room. Mum was there checking over his wounds. His chest looked
worse, if that was possible. He must have seen the expression on my face.
“It’s just the color changing in the bruises,” he
assured me. “Apparently I am healing very well.”
I looked at Mum for some confirmation not wanting him
to pretend for my benefit. She helped slide his t-shirt back on.
“He still needs some rest, but he really is doing
quite well.”
“Hayln is a wonderful nurse,” he commented lightly.
“Well just make sure you are resting,” Mum said
sternly although I could see she was putting it on. “I will send Emin up
later to help you in the shower,” she said with a grin as she left the room.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face.
“I wish I could see that,” I teased.
“Do you think I should make him wash me?” Obviously
deciding to take advantage of the situation and make it worse for Emin.
“Absolutely,” I said killing myself laughing.
“I don’t think I have seen you laugh like that in
ages,” he mused.
I sat next to him on the bed brushing his hair from
his eyes. “There hasn’t been much to laugh at lately.”
“True, so what are your plans today?”
“Since Dad won’t let me help him, I might do some work
on my project. I have some new ideas since reading Dad’s notes.”
“Your project?” He suddenly sounded particularly
interested.
“Yeah, I have being working with brain cells, trying
to restimulate dead ones.”
“Really? Do you think you can do it?” He sounded
quite surprised.
“I have already done it once actually – it just wasn’t
permanent.”
“Wow, that’s pretty incredible Hayl’s. What did
your Dad say?”
“He doesn’t know, no one does – I didn’t want any
extra pressure. That seems pretty silly now though.”
“Well thank you for telling me,” he smiled sweetly
like I had just given him a present. “Now don’t let me stop you from
saving the world. Besides, I have a sponge bath with your brother to look
forward to.”
I leaned forward to give him a kiss, lingering a
little longer than I had expected to.
“I’ll come back later to check on you,” I promised.
“I will be waiting – tormenting your brother,” he grinned.
“Have fun,” I said as I left to grab some breakfast.
When I got to the kitchen, I noticed Dad and Emin
weren’t there yet.
“Where are the boys?” I asked Mum.
“Your father is already in the lab, and I think Emin
just got up,” she said buttering herself some toast,
“How was Dad?” I asked concerned.
“Very quiet, I'm not sure I have ever seen him so
torn.” Mum sounded just as worried as I was. There must be a way I
can help him.
I played with my cereal bobbing the pieces in the milk
when Emin came into the kitchen. A grin spread across my face from ear to
ear.
“What’s up with you?” He asked.
I shook my head deciding to leave it as a surprise for
later. He brushed me off quickly to find something to eat. I was about
to go out to check on the rabbits when the doorbell rang. We all froze
and looked at each other.
Ian came to the kitchen quickly.
“There’s a girl at the door about his age, tall,
blonde, attractive.”
“Tasma?” Emin suggested.
“You have to get rid of her,” Ian said. “Davis
will be watching, so nothing crazy, please.”
He seemed genuinely concerned about what might happen
to us if I stepped out of line. I looked at Emin.
“I like this girl Hayl’s, please be nice.”
I thought about what he had in store for the rest of
the day and knew I would take it easy on him.
“Quickly,” Ian said rushing me to the door. “I
will be right behind the door listening.” Again I thought I saw in his
eyes that he didn’t want anything bad to happen. Maybe he wasn’t as
barbaric as I thought he was.
I opened the door trying to look as normal as
possible. It was Tasma, and she seemed happy to see me. She looked
even prettier outside the dim lights of the Sweat Room.
“You must be Hayln,” she said happily.
“Yes, and your Tasma right?” She seemed surprised that
I knew her name.
“Yes, I wasn’t sure whether Emin had mentioned me,”
she said shyly. “That’s why I am here actually, have you seen him? We
were going to catch up a few days ago, but he didn’t call,” she seemed
embarrassed that she had to explain herself. “It’s just not like him
that’s all, and he isn’t answering my calls either.” She paused, “don’t
tell me, I sound crazy right?"
“No not at all,” I tried to put her at ease. “He
had to leave quite urgently with my mother. One of our relatives is ill,
Mum was going to go on her own, but he thought she might need some help.”
“He's so sweet,” she sighed. I suddenly got a
small taste of what it might be like for Emin when Zeke and I are together.
“I thought he would have called though,” she said
still not totally sold on my story.
“Well he left his mobile here, but I don’t have his
charger, it went flat after the first night.”
“Can’t he call from your relative’s house?” She
questioned.
I suddenly realized I wasn’t very adept at this.
“We haven’t heard from them since they left, things
have been pretty full on there. We are expecting to hear from him in the
next day or so. If you like, I can let him know you called over.”
She thought about that for a moment.
“Thanks that would be great. Do you have any
idea when they will be back?”
Wow I thought to myself, this girl was pretty keen on
Emin. “I’m not sure sorry, but I know he will be happy to hear that you
called over.”
I smiled at her hoping that this would satisfy her, I
wasn’t sure if I could keep lying to her and I didn’t think I was particularly
convincing.
“Really?” She sounded pleased. “Thanks
Hayln, it was nice meeting you.”
“You too,” I waved as she left and then closed the
door.
I looked at Ian. “How did I do?”
He shrugged his shoulders, and we walked back to the
lounge room, Emin and Mum had joined Davis to watch us on the monitor.
“Well?” I asked, hoping someone thought I was
convincing.
“You’re a terrible liar, but she bought it, so whatever,”
Davis said.
I was after Emin’s opinion actually, but he had gone
quiet. Mum and I followed him to the kitchen.
“Do you think she’ll understand?” He asked
apprehensively.
“I’m pretty sure you won’t have to worry about
that. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s quite into you,” I confirmed.
“You think?” He asked a little excited.
I looked at Mum confused, wasn’t he watching this girl
swoon on our front porch? She laughed to herself and started making him
some toast. It was strange to see Emin like this.
“You’ll be fine, trust me.”
He seemed to take me at my word then, so I grabbed
some rabbit food and went outside. They all looked fit and well, even our
little test subject. I grabbed Patch and put him down on the grass in
front of me, then held the food above his head. He sat straight back and
reached for the food, just like we had been training him to do. I tried
several more times and each time he carried out the same actions. I felt
strangely satisfied that we had trained this little rabbit to perform this
trick. I wanted to show Zeke but knew that it could wait until he felt
better. Besides it was time to head back to the lab.
“Hey Dad, how’s it going?” I said as I took my seat at
the bench beside him.
I watched him as I pulled together my work. I
don’t ever think I have seen him look so, so despondent. He managed to
look up to acknowledge my presence but didn’t say anything. I worked
quietly, and it wasn’t long before Tyler arrived.
“How’s Zeke?” He said, taking his seat by the window.
“Mum said he’s doing well considering, although after
Emin helps him shower it might be a different story.”
Tyler laughed out loud obviously finding the situation
as amusing as I did.
“How’s the strain coming along?” Tyler asked. I
was surprised to hear Dad answer, I didn’t think he was paying us any
attention.
“We’re making progress, you can tell Spencer it should
only be a day or so.” He sounded frustrated. Tyler seemed to notice
as well and didn’t say much after that.
I had plenty of ideas for my research after the last
couple of days so I got to work straight away. It didn’t take long before
I made a few breakthroughs; I was immensely pleased with myself. With my
new outlook Dad had provided me, I was quite optimistic I would be successful
in restimulating the brain cells permanently. Tyler must have been
watching as he came over to where I was working.
“You’re not working with your Dad today?” He asked
quietly.
I looked at Dad for his guidance, but he simply nodded
without looking up. I knew he trusted Tyler, and I realized then so did
I.
“Dad doesn’t want me to be responsible for this
creation and what it will be used for,” I answered simply.
Tyler understood but didn’t say anything. I
remembered I had a few questions that I wanted to ask him, and I thought now
was as good a time as any.
“Could I ask you something?” I said a little
nervously.
He still didn’t say anything just nodded that I could
proceed.
“Well I was wondering about your enhanced abilities
actually. What you can do and what you have learnt.”
I waited to see his reaction; I was worried he might
not want to talk about it. I really wanted to know more about what was
possible, and who better to ask than the only other person in the world like
me. After the last few years with Spencer I was sure they would have
tried to find out everything they could about his abilities, and maybe that
could help me to. I looked at his face now, and his brown eyes seemed
more at ease.
“I have been dying to talk to you about this for ages,”
he said with a familiar smile on his face. He moved to the other side of
me with his back to the camera. “Just look like you are still working
alright.”
I nodded and started writing in my notebook while he
talked.
“Well obviously my abilities for science were improved
although still not to your level.” I held back a smile as he continued.
“And I am strong – I mean,
really
strong.” I remembered when Tyler grabbed Spencer’s arm before he could
hit me yesterday. He rubbed it afterwards as if it really hurt.
This was intriguing, and he must have sensed my interest.
“They make me train a lot in the gym, it’s actually
pretty hard for them to find something I can’t do. Weights, running,
cycling, swimming none of them faze me. That’s why I don’t do sports at
school, it could draw a lot of unnecessary attention to me.”
He seemed pretty impressed with himself, I could tell
he would have loved to show me some examples if we were in any other
situation.
“Anything else?” I asked quietly still pretending to
do my lab work.
“Well yeah, my senses.”
I hadn’t been expecting that, it made me stop and look
at him.
“What do you mean your senses?”
“You know, sight, sound, taste, smell - even intuition
to a degree,” he said. I must have still looked confused because he kept
explaining.