Unity

Chapter 4 - The Soldier

April's POV

I settled into my morning workout, stretching out my stiff muscles. Yesterday's intelligence mission had really taken it out of the whole team. The rest of my comrades were still sleeping off the tension. There was nothing like a late night retrieval to test the nerves. Missions like those aren't normally very physically challenging, but the mental strain is a lot more exhausting.

My best friend - and leader of our team - had ended up back in the hospital after the mission. He landed badly on an already fractured collarbone, causing the bone to break completely. That was a sight I wouldn't soon forget, white bone poking through his tanned skin. I shuddered at the memory.

Something in the air around me felt off. No one else seemed to be able to feel it, but everything seemed to emit a strange level of static electricity. Lacey brushed it off as my Talents being over-sensitive, but I wasn't so sure.

I finished my stretches and pushed myself straight into a high intensity workout. My movements started off stiff and clumsy, but improved as I got back into the rhythm of training. My muscles easily recalled every motion and I found myself slipping into a peaceful state, with nothing in my mind except the numbing burn of exertion.

oOo

There was definitely a rise in the level of electricity in the Lab after my workout. The air felt thick, like a brewing thunderstorm, but that was impossible we were both inside and underground. My Talents must really be going haywire. I headed to the communal bathroom and took a cold shower – the Lab heating had died months ago and no one had been bothered to fix it. There was more importing things to consider.

Since today was my off day I didn't have to bother with the heavy, unflattering uniform worn by militants. Instead choosing a pair of khaki-green jeans, a dark green t-shirt, brown leather jacket and my worn brown work boots - plenty of pockets and more than enough room to conceal my weapons. Comfort and practicality, the only things that mattered with fashion these days.

In the Lab centre the spike in electricity was even more noticeable. The computers zapped me when I brushed past and the more delicate equipment was being affected. Lacey – the head of intelligence - had ordered me to leave the Lab.

"Patrol the streets or something," she'd snarled when I disrupted her navigational calculations.

With a sigh I had collected my weapons and climbed the rickety ladder out into the fresh morning air.

oOo

The city mornings were always beautiful. The sunrise sparkled off the rows of abandoned high rises and office buildings, washing the city in muted shades of orange and pink. Mornings like these made it all too easy to forget about the war raging around us.

I'd made that mistake once, a few months ago. All of my weapons had been safely stored back at the Lab for routine maintenance. Needless to say, I was virtually defenceless and trapped in the middle of a full-scale invasion. Luckily there was an entrance to the tunnel system close to where I had been, or I wouldn't have survived that encounter.

Even the air out here felt charged. My hair stood on end and the open air just seemed to amplify the effect. I pulled my hair down from where it was steadily beginning to levitate. There was definitely something going on. Talents weren't responsible for things like this; I had no control over electricity. If the city burned down, maybe I could blame my Talents then, but this was just weird.

One of the old streetlights sputtered to life. Okay, that wasn't normal. The streetlights shouldn't work, they had been disconnect from the power supplies months ago and replaced with high-powered spotlights. With a bright flash the ancient globe burst, shards of glass falling to the ground around me.