Static

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Blake's Point Of View

Ben came with me, I could use him a lot more than I could use Mark. We had left him and Wasp with Imogen who had sat up as soon as I'd crawled out of the hiding spot with Ben. It pained me to leave her, to not be there when she woke up. She'd think I'd left her for dead. But I knew she'd be fine, Wasp was there, he could help her if she went under again.
"Dude, I only have a few more screams left in me." Ben called from behind me. I was jogging for the door of the storage facility but he seemed content with a fast walk.
"What do you mean." I asked, swinging open the door and thundering down the stairs, my steps echoing in the metal hall.
"I mean, even my curse doesn't last forever. It's a lot of power for me to use, if I use it too much, I loose my voice. I can tell I'm getting close." I ran my hand along the railing as I took the steps with lightning speed until I reached the first landing that led to the Mess Hall.
"Rest your voice. Don't talk unless you have to. Let's just get this over with." I muttered, clasping my hand around the metal handle that was slick with blood. I didn't want to think that it could be Imogen's. I'd already nearly spent her life, I didn't need any reminders of how close she was to never setting fire to the dark again.
I swung open the door and didn't think, I just acted on instinct. I let my genes, my DNA, do what needed to be done. I wouldn't let my morals get in the way, they never have before, not when I'm fighting for something worth killing for. That's what Order was after all. You fought the bad guys no matter the cost because they were the bad guys. They deserved death and the rest of the world's innocent people deserved justice. We had to be the heroes to get it for them.
I reached to the wall and tried for a new magic trick, begging in my mind for the particles of the metal to collapse and shift until they were at my command I could make them do anything. They wouldn't just drip to the floor, they would be my arrows, my bullets. They would be fired without guns but they would cut the air just as fast. I could do this, why not, right?
I locked my gaze onto the stampede of Monitors just now rushing into the building and I pulled a hunk of metal from the wall, letting it drift in mid air until I had directed it out in front of me where it could shield Ben and I from the open firing of the monitors.
"Woah." I heard Ben whisper in awe behind me. Same, I thought, shifting the boulder of iron until I had a glassy smooth sphere the size of a Volkswagen Bug orbiting in a small circle out ahead of me.
"Stop! Hold your fire, don't shoot!" The voice was cold. Colder than even the purest of evils. I used to never think that, whenever I heard that voice, I thought of warm vanilla sugar, of moonlit walks on a beach somewhere on the West coast. I used to think of tag at midnight and truth or dare under bunk beds. Oh how those happy memories pained me now. I can't ever remove it from my memory entirely, it had been a part of me for so long. It will always be there, haunting me, beckoning me to forgive it. But I won't, not now and not ever. I can't. Not after what she did.
    The voice belonged to Alice. Alice Green. The traitor, the monster, the backstabbing cheat, the liar, the master puppeteer, whatever else you wanted to call her, the title was well deserved. I was not necessarily shocked, I had expected that I'd run into her at some point.

And the she shot me.
almost.  The bullet whizzed past my ear.  A warning.  It didn't faze me.

A small part of me had hoped she would flea, track down her little sister, Bethany, who was still all alone at Order. A new kind of pain drilled into my heart when I thought of the mess Order must be in. The facility must be destroyed or raided by now, owed to Alice of course. What would that mean for Bethany? I hadn't thought of this in a while, maybe I was just telling myself there would be time to dwell on those thoughts later. But it was always later. Never now, never the right time. There were so many things, so many half plotted plans and abandoned schemes running through my mind that I had forgotten about Bethany, about Order and the people I had called friends that I didn't warn.
    I had thought they wouldn't believe us if I'd told them a mole was selling Order's secrets. No I hadn't, actually. I had agreed with Alice when she had persuaded me that our cred wouldn't earn us any willing to listen ears.
    I ground my teeth at the thought. She had been playing me since the very beginning, even when we were little, always making sure I took her side, always making sure I agreed with her every word. How did I not see it sooner? Why did the truth have to wait so long to come out to the point where it hurt to the point of nearly killing me. And here I was, my vision guarded by an iron ball I was ready to heave at the bad guys when that voice came back, the voice that will taunt my dreams forever. It stopped me in my tracks as it always had, making me second guess everything, making me worry the path I had taken was the wrong one. How could one girl have this much power over me? Was it simply because of our history? I didn't know the bonds of friendship could last through even the most unforgivable toils.
    I dropped the ball of iron and as it contacted the floor it melted away into a puddle on the tile floor that reached up to my ankles. I looked straight ahead, right where I had been before, with a new kind of fury in my chest.
    Her golden hair was tied back in a pony tail and the cruel beauty of her complexion was exposed. She wore the same camo clothes as the monitors only she appeared to be unarmed. She had only stopped the firing of the monitors by holding her hands in the air and shouting. Typical Alice, always getting what she wants.
    Her grim face split with a sly smile that for a moment returned me to the days when she would dare me to do something she knew I didn't want to, but being the stubborn kid I was, would do anyway. She would flash that smug grin whenever she got the chance, making sure I knew that she'd won yet again.
    "Blake! Oh it's so good to see you! I was worried I would have gotten here too late and missed all the fun!" My expression didn't change, her lighthearted tone didn't phase me. Not on the outside at least, but on the inside I was breaking down.
    "I must say, I've never seen you do a performance quite like that before! Did Imogen teach you that one?" She asked, taking a step foreword, her boots clicking loudly in the otherwise silent mess hall. The bodies of the girls and their splattered blood remained untouched by the tables.
    I bit the inside of my cheek, this was not ok, she couldn't get inside my head again. But she wanted to talk, she wanted to get something from me otherwise casual conversation was an unnecessary part of my execution. If she wanted information from me, then I would trade her for the same. An apple for an apple if that was the game she wanted to play.
    "Nice guard dogs you got there." I said, gesturing to the monitors behind her who stood eerily still with their rifles still poised at my head. "Do they fetch too?" She chuckled a little and it nearly seemed real. Who knows, maybe in a different life Alice could have been a remarkable actress.
    "I'm the alpha around here." She began, walking over to me, stepping through the puddle of liquid metal like the thing she was worried about most was her shoes getting ruined
    "Without me, they'd be lost, have no one to guide them. But without them, I'd be solo, I'd have no pack to do my dirty work." I waited for one of the monitors to snap back to sanity and fill Alice with lead once they realized how easily manipulated they were. But nothing like that happened, to my disappointment. I guess I'd have to do it myself.
    Alice was about a yard away, her right ankle casually thrown over the other with her arms crossed. She cocked her head to the side as if to examine me and her ponytail swayed behind her with the movement.
    "Loose your shirt on the way here, darling? I hope that bug of yours is alright. I have a little gift for her." The venom on her tongue made me shiver. Alice had a talent for getting in people's heads with just her words and the way her eyes pierced even the most guarded souls.
    "Imogen is no bug."
    "Imogen now, is it?" She asked quizzically. I didn't give her a response and she didn't give me time to say one.
    "Are you two that buddy-buddy now? Your not trying to replace me, are you?" I felt a flame ignite in my gut. Who did she think she was talking about me this way? Talking about Imogen like she was some kind of creature that didn't deserve to be called human.
    "Nothing could ever replace you, Alice. Your the worst villain I've ever had the pleasure to meet." Alice pursed her lips and studied me even more. I flinched under her gaze and she laughed.
    "Not as funny as you were back then, I'm disappointed in you, Blake." I've had enough of this useless chatter, we were getting no where and I had a feeling that's exactly what Alice was hoping for. She was tearing open old wounds to make it easier to sneak her poison back in.
    "What do you want, Alice?" I asked, taking a step back from her. She didn't move, just stood there, looking me like a hawk looks at a mouse right before it plucks it from its nest.
    "Same thing you do."
    "And what's that?"
    "There's so much to choose from."
    "Pick one."
    Alice considered this for a moment but after she ran a hand through her ponytail I was already fed up with her stalling. Just as I was about to confront her about it, she came to her conclusion.
    "I can't pick just one so here's a few, normality, a sense of belonging, a legacy, and freedom." I squinted at her.
    "I can already get all those things! Once we take down the zone, people like us will be free, we will be treated normally, finally find somewhere to belong, and we will leave whatever Mark we want on history. Why did you betray us, Alice? You could have had all those things." I finished, exasperated. Ben shifted in the puddle of metal behind me and I realized I had forgotten he was there. Alice's face harden, all trace of playfulness gone.
    "You really thought thats what would happen? Gosh, your so naive." She put a hand to the bridge of her nose in frustration and took a shaky breath.
    "People like us, with variations, we'll never be normal as long as we can do these things! We'll no longer be government weapons, we'll be kidnapped, bought, and sold for independent criminals and heroes without our consent. We're too valuable, to mixed up. That will never change, we won't belong anywhere. If we ever want to, we have to get rid of these curses inside of us." She was shouting now, letting me know that there was more to this story that I hadn't heard. She continued and I let her, to afraid of the power she had. She could give one command and I'd be gone.
    "Forget about freedom, Blake. You will never get it until you cure yourself. I already did, I am free! I'm trying to help everyone else and your making that extremely difficult. I can help you, and we can end this. There is a way to extract the variation from our DNA. I can show you."
    "Tell me about it." I said, urging her to continue. She was feeding me information, letting me know everything that I needed to know before I killed her. And she wasn't holding back, she really thought our powers were curses and she wanted me to believe it too, to be back on her side. But her tricks won't work on me ever again and I'll make sure this is the last one she ever plays.
    "It's a procedure. I'm not sure how it works, monitors in the infirmary worked it out. They extract the portion of your DNA that's cursed and they bottle it, making you normal, making us normal. But the power, they discovered, can be transferred by injection into the bloodstream of another ordinary person."
    "And that's what the pills are, the ones that took away our variations temporarily when we were taken here." I intervened, so lost in thought, I nearly forgot that it was the enemy I was conversing with. Alice nodded and explained that it was a special technology that devolves into your skin and enters your capillaries that way. It sounded like a sci-fi movie, like something from a fantasy. Variations can be removed? But that was what had always made me special, made me different and powerful. Why would I want to take something like that away. Clearly Alice thought it was a charity she was doing and I think those with variations and were brought up in the zone would agree. They'd been taught that they were cursed, that what they could do didn't make them special, it made them dangerous, threats to everyone they loved. They had to think that, otherwise they'd want to escape. And even though I'm sure they all hated the place, I think the reason they stayed here for as long as they did was because they were worried of the harm they could cause. They didn't want to start wars or murder loved ones and they thought that the zone was the only way to keep from doing that.
    After a long while of considering these things and Alice waiting patiently as I did, I had my response. There were ways to protect those with variations, to make sure they would never be slaves or weapons or whatever else people wanted to use them for. Riding them of what makes them special and unique, that was not the way.
    "Your dead to me Alice." I said through gritted teeth. The fury in her eyes eased and that easy smile only the devil could wear came back to her face. She took a few steps back until she was in line with the monitors.
    "I was afraid you'd say that. Take him out." I barley had time to comprehend what she had said before I was thrown backwards through the mess hall door and I landed hard against the back wall of the stairwell. The door slammed shut but not before I saw Ben give a wink and a sad smile through the closing crack.
    Bullets dug into the thin metal wall in small indents but they stopped abruptly and all was quiet.
    I sat in stunned silence for longer than I should have. Then slowly, without taking my eyes off the near-holes in the wall, I slid up the wall until I was standing, still leaning heavily against it.
    "Ben?" I said in a hoarse whisper. In a daze, my vision blurred, I felt my way back to the door and it took a couple tries before I could open it. When I did, I had to jump back to avoid being hit by-