Children of Chaos

Chapter 32

I feel invincible when I emerge from the shattered cell, the power of the necklace fueling my adrenaline, and I run. I use the power freely, blowing down doors in my path as I run down unfamiliar halls, creating mini twisters that destroy walls, blocking any Forces guards from getting too close. I unleash the power of the stone recklessly, and it continues to wreak havoc and chaos in my wake, even without me consciously controlling it, just like it did on the ship when I created that first twister.

Eventually, when the initial burst of excitement and freedom wears off, I realize that I'm still hopelessly lost in a prison complex, with no idea where I am or how to get out of it. I remember that Janab might be here too, and I start backtracking to get back to the cells to search for him, who at least might know what planet we're on.

I turn around in the hallway I'm in and force my way back through the magic still spinning in my wake, but even my self-created chaos is too much to navigate back through. To my left, a group of Forces guards break through a fallen wall panel and point at me. I rush away, throwing another gust of wind that circles into a twister, causing another blockade in the hall and spreading storm clouds in both directions.

As I run through the halls and narrowly avoid being caught up in flying debris from my winds, I'm reminded of the memory of my mother's death, consumed by her own creation as she tried to escape the Tybarans herself. Terror replaces my tiring adrenaline and confusion then, as the gravity of the situation finally catches up to me. I push through the next hallway into a room the door hasn't been torn off of yet, and sink to the floor.

I don't know where I am. I'm surrounded by enemies at worst, and those that consider me a threat at best. My one remaining ally is likely in prison as well and I can't communicate with him. My friends are either hurt, dead, or at the very least never going to trust me or help me again. I am not on Earth. I'm not even in the solar system. And no matter how hard I try to get back, life will never be the same.

I don't know why it hits so suddenly, right now. Maybe it felt more manageable before because I was surrounded by Bekah, Sofie, Willow, and Alexis, and we were all sharing the same new experience. We had Keptana, Magra, and Evana leading us, and even though we didn't fully trust them, it helped to have adults who knew what was happening, to teach, protect, and mentor us. It's like the training wheels were removed far before I was ready, and I've crashed into things I wasn't even looking for on the path ahead of me.

I try to think on the spot to find a plan forward like Janab did, but even dubious short term plans stop short at the dead end of infinite uncertainties. Maybe I make it out alive, but then what? How do I find out where I am, and how do I get to a place where I'm not a wanted criminal? In the best case scenario, I find Janab and he helps me escape, maybe we even find Keptana, Bekah, and the others, and I can explain myself and Gerna's hand in it all. Even if I make it that far, we're back to square one, being five human children out of their league with no idea who to trust.

For a few minutes, the soul stone allows me to sit quietly in the eye of a hurricane, shaking in the overwhelming terror of endless outcomes, until it reminds me that I don't have the time to fall apart as shouts pass by the room, chased by a gust of wind and thunder that rattles the door. I blink, and a little red light blinks back at me from a computer panel in the wall across the room. I start, feeling at the data chip still in my jumpsuit pocket.

We were born to fulfill a purpose, an experiment of magic. Let's see if it amounted to anything useful.

I struggle through alien prompts, but eventually I find a port to plug the data chip into, and it opens on the screen. Even though the software it opens on is in an alien language, Keptana has translations of every file in English, as much of it was written on Earth.