Numerical Apocalypse

seventeen

"So, what now?" Theo plopped down next to me, the morning light highlighting his messy hair.

"I dunno." My thumbs flew over my phone keyboard, letting my mom know what had happened.

Lena rest her chin in her hands, swinging her feet under the table. The 6 over her head glimmered. "What if we just go home? We can forget about everything that happened-"

"Forget about Mr. Jim and all the other people we lost?" I asked, looking up from my phone.

"Well." Theo paused. "Jack is definitely worth forgetting."

A shudder ran down my spine, an image of Jack bleeding on the floor flashing in my mind. "I'm not sure if I could forget him."

"That's true." Lena clenched her fists.

"Anyway. We should probably go home and continue with our 'normal'-" Theo wiggled his fingers, making air quotes- "lives. The zombies are wiped out completely."

"Yeah, but what about our weird powers?" I snapped my fingers, a tiny spark cracking to life in my palm.

Theo shrugged.

"I may have a solution for that," a voice said over our shoulders.

Lena and I turned to face Ms. Thana.

"There's an.... organization that specializes in your cases," she said, her 17 shining in the light.

"You make it sound like we have a disease," Theo grumbled.

Ms. Thana raised an eyebrow at him. "In a way, you do. Radioactivity-induced conditions are chronic, and actually have their own branch of scientists devoted to research."

"So you're saying that there's other people like us out there?" I asked.

"With all the nuclear disasters that have happened in the world? Of course."

Theo frowned. "It sounds too much like a science experiment." He stood. "I know for a fact that if I saw someone with cool superhuman abilities, I'd want to research them."

"That's part of what this is," Mrs. Thana explained, "but it's mostly oriented around protecting people like you guys from people with ulterior motives. The human rights activists came down on the organization rather hard in the past, making sure that nothing unethical was or would ever happen."

Lena rubbed her temples. "You're using too many big words."

"Sorry." Ms. Thana laughed. "Anyway, if you're interested, have your parents call this number." She slid a card across the table, then headed for the kitchen.

Theo stared at the small rectangle of cardstock. "Huh."

Lena picked it up, scrutinizing it. The 6 over her head shimmered. "It can't hurt to call, can it?"

I sighed. "I think we should let our parents decide, honestly."

"My aunt and uncle are gonna freak." Theo combed his fingers through his brown hair.

Lena shrugged. "Mine too, probably."

I chuckled a little. "First the number-reading thing, and now lightning emission? Somehow, I can't see my parents being too surprised."

"Oh, hey, the other day I figured out how we got our weird abilities," Theo said suddenly. "I was holding my phone, and it reacted with the radiation." He glanced at Lena. "I could go into detail, but-"

"Don't." She said, focused on drawing something. "I'll fall asleep."

I frowned. "Then where did Lena and my powers come from?"