Terror

Chapter One

The sky hung heavy and dark, a blanket of clouds that swallowed the stars. Only a distant fire near a large pond at the heart of Sunny's campground cut through the blackness. Its flickering glow casting shadows across the snow-dusted ground. This was just a small oasis inside the frozen wasteland known as The Bubble.

Jason kept watch while the others slept, his gaze moving over the trailers outlined faintly in the firelight.

The weather had finally started to warm, which was a small mercy that let everyone shed their heavy coats. Jason wasn't a weatherman, but he guessed it was around ten degrees Celsius, almost pleasant compared to the months of brutal cold.

Back when the adults had still been around, sunlight had seemed fearless, unthreatened by shadows that now stalked their world.

Now, as Jason sat before the fire, surrounded by chairs and faint laughter drifting nearby, he sighed.

Life continued in this hellish place somehow.

"You can't just sit out here waiting for your housewife to return," a teasing voice called.

Jason looked up to see Scarlett approaching, her swollen belly visible beneath her coat. He jumped off his feet, offering a chair, but she smirked and waved him off.

"I'm pregnant, not in a wheelchair."

"I'm not expecting—," he began, then caught himself.

"No, I'm expecting," she said dryly, pointing to her stomach.

It had been six months since the discovery. Someone in The Bubble was pregnant—a mystery, and a miracle. As it turned out, that someone was Scarlett. Despite her condition, she was still as sharp-tongued and striking as ever.

"I have to pee a lot," she said with a smirk. "But, I don't vomit anymore, which is fantastic."

"Ah..." Jason muttered, shifting uncomfortably.

"Would you like me to explain all the other strange changes with my body?" Scarlett asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, no!" he rushed.

She laughed.

"What rank is it?" he asked.

"High," she said simply.

The ranking system had been Scarlett's idea. It was a way to measure the strength of each mutant's power just by a touch of her hand. Only two people ranked at the top: Jason and Greyson, his twin brother.

Aside from them, the only others who could be considered high-ranking were Ashley or Divina.

"You can't tell anyone," Jason whispered.

Scarlett rolled her eyes and smirked. "Relax. I wasn't planning on shouting from the rooftops that my mutant baby is plotting to crawl out of my stomach."

It took him a moment to catch her sarcasm.

Despite months of division between Sunny's and Simcoe, an uneasy peace had held. Tension still flared between Greyson's plans and Ashley's presence, but for now, no one was fighting.

"It started kicking at five weeks," Scarlett continued. "That's earlier than normal. But the weird part? I can do things I couldn't do before. I'm still a low rank, but..."

Jason frowned. "What kind of things?"

"I went to grab a towel once, but it flew into my hand instead," she said. "You remember how I used to hear the voice? It's quiet now."

Jason's pulse quickened. This child might be their salvation. Or their destruction. Maybe it could stop Ashley before she turned their fragile peace into another massacre.