The perfect world

Part 6: Zack gets captured

Once Zack and Jessie stand in front of their high school, they exchange their phone numbers.

'Look, It's better for us if you keep calling me Jessie, alright?', Jessie says.

'Alright! Let's go then!', Zack exclaims running towards the school.

As they enter high school, they notice that the teachers standing in the hallway before class starts have all a stress reliever on one of their ears. So the distribution has already started, Jessie thinks as she passes by with Zack.

The next month, nothing bad happens. They have sessions to find out if someone has powers twice a week. During those sessions, the teachers are controlled by the government and make the students do some weird exercises. Like running as fast as you can from one place to the other. That's how a teleportation power would supposely activate.

At school, Jessie changed a bit her behaviour. She smiles and talks more to Zack and even did a group project with him. That surprised everyone in Jessies class, since she usually does group projects alone.

Friday, Jessie and Zack arrive together in high school and go take their seats in their classroom. Zack turns to Jessie and says :'Look, Jessie, whatever happens, don't do anything stupid, okay?'

'Huh why?', Jessie answers, confused. What the heck was that? What kind of stupid thing isn't she supposed to do?

Zack doesn't say anything and listens to the teacher who had just entered the class room.

'A new law was announced yesterday by the government. You all are now allowed to go anywhere without a mask, but you still are not allowed to show love and affection in public spaces.', the teacher announces to the class. Everyone in the class cheers and takes their masks off. Is it a way to try to calm down the rebellion?, Jessie thinks to herself.

Later, they are having a math lesson with Mr Porter, when suddenly the door bursts open and two men in blue uniform enter the class room. One man has a big mustache and is small and skinny, probably in his thirties and then there is a tall and muscular man who has no beard but a long scar that goes from his eye to the end of his cheek. He is bald and glares at everyone like he is ready to kill.

As soon as those two weird people enter the class room, everything goes silent. The silent is so loud...

'Zack Martens, you're coming with us. You have been accused of hiding a power and not wanting to work with the government.', the officer with the scar says.

'Oh, alright then.', Zack says, calmly. He looks completely calm although the situation he is in should be scaring him. Jessie tries to stop herself from crying by looking at her classmates. Everyone seems to be surprised, except for Hannah, who looks guilty. She's biting her lip so hard that her upper lip is bleeding and she's looking down on her desk. Her usually brown braided hair is hanging loose on her shoulders and she has dark circles under her eyes, like she hasn't gotten any sleep in days.

The officers take Zack by his arms, like he's some kind of criminal, and get him out of the classroom.

The lesson continues but all Jessie wants to do is to run after Zack. She wants to defend her only friend of whatever he gets accused of.

As the ring finally bells at the end of the day, everyone gets out of the classroom.

They're all talking about what kind of power Zack might actually have. IF he has a power, of course.

Once Jessie arrives in the town she lives in, she spots Hannah walking slowly. Jessie already knew that she lives in the same town but what the heck has been going on with that girl? Jessie takes a deep breath and decides to have a chat with her.

'Hannah, wait! I need to talk to you!', Jessie shouts. Hannahs reaction is the last thing she expected. She just starts running as fast as she can with her backpack.

What a coward, Jessie thinks as she starts running after her. Hannah is leading her to the part of the town that is abandoned. The people that used to live there all moved out to the city at some point. There are broken windows on every house and trash bags lying on every corner of the road. Some bags are torn and there are some pieces of garbage scattered all over the road.

Hannahs backpack suddenly slips of her shoulder and falls to the floor. Hannah wants to pick it up, but Jessie is faster and gets it before her.

'Here.', Jessie says and looks Hannah in the eyes. 'You know, I just wanted to talk to you. I don't bite.'

'Alright then. Let's go there.', Hannahs voice is shaking as she points somewhere behind an old house.

They both are now standing behind the house, and Jessie is about to say something to interrupt the silence when suddenly Hannah yells that she is sorry and starts crying.

'Huh? What are you even sorry for ? Jessie looks at Hannah, confused.

'I was the one who told the officers about Zack. I'm sorry, but my family was being threatened.', Hannah says, hastily.

This feels like a hard slap in the face to Jessie. She couldn't believe it. Hannah used to ruin her school days, now she ruins her whole life? Jessie is about to slap Hannah in her face when suddenly an important question pops up.

'Wait, who threatened you?', Jessie asks, hoping that the answer isn't what she thinks.

'Uh...this might sound crazy but Frederick, you father, threatened my family. I'm part of the rebellion, like Zack, and your father said that he would make my family pay for my actions. When I asked Zack for help, he told me to accuse him of hiding his power so my family would be saved. Zack lives in the basement of the rebellion, he doesn't have a family. I'm the hacker in the rebellion. I help them discover secret informations of the government and I also help spreading the flyers on the internet.' Hannah looks now at Jessie.

Jessie feels dizzy. Her legs are shaking and she can't believe it. Her adoptive father is far worse than she ever thought. Zack is part of the rebellion and apparentely, he hid his power from Jessie but decided to tell Hannah?Why do people keep on hiding things from her ? Damn this stupid world!

Jessie has already had enough of this. She turns away from Hannah and starts running towards her house.

'Wait!', Hannah shouts, but Jessie ignores her and continues running.

To be continued...