The Queen

Chapter 11

"Have you ever seen someone scale the wall that fast?"

"What's her name?"

"I think that's the Special."

"Rae's never scaled the wall that fast without a harness."

All rang out.

Then someone wailed words that forever changed my life.

"No! She can't beat Rae! This is a catastrophe!" I recognized the color of sandy blonde hair. Tina, I think was her name as I could recall.

"Catastrophe is her name?"

I looked down, and saw Rae, Purple and Isaac standing there, arms crossed looking right back at me. They were intimidating, the three of them lined up looking like triplets and all wore the same faces of...pride.

Rae knew she had my attention so she called up, "This is a catastrophe, isn't it? So why doesn't Catastrophe herself come down here and introduce herself to her new fans. I'm sure they are all rave with excitement.

I was still breathing hard, and my mind was still fogged with the climactic trail of events that had just taken place, so with adrenaline flowing through me I slid down the rope, not taking my time at all, only focused on hitting ground as soon as possible. Those rope burns would be inferno later but for right now I needed to talk to Rae.

"What's going on?"

She smiled, "You proved yourself."

"Proved myself for what?"

Purple and Isaac stood beside her sharing the same looks of pride from those of an accomplished Midwife after watching her charge graduate from Education.

"Control. We had to be sure you could control yourself no matter what anyone said. Rowan has been able to piss everyone else off to the point where they socked him right in the mouth. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't lost teeth yet."

He smiled to prove his point. They looked perfect which didn't shock me by any standard.

"All the others?" I asked. "Where are they now?"

The trio looked at one another and when Purple opened his mouth to speak, Rae hit him in the stomach with the back of her hand so as to knock the words out of him. Then she opened her mouth, but was interrupted by Tina pulling at the hem of my shirt.

"Catastrophe, how did you do that so fast?" she looked at me the blue eyes she shared with her brother.

"I-I don't know..." I said, my mind still running wildly and unable to comprehend all that had happened.

Isaac looked down at her kindly and shook her hair, "Shorty I think you better go run along, Mer- I mean, Catastrophe, has some training left to do if she wants to go into the Glass tomorrow."

Tina looked up at Isaac, still smiling, wrapped her arms around his leg and scurried away to go do whatever it is that kids do on Base.

I looked at Isaac and the blonde ponytail that bobbed away and then tried to recall her face back to memory. She and Isaac were definitely related, I just couldn't tell how. They had the same nose, different color eyes, the same shape face but she wasn't built like him. Granted she was maybe 5, so maybe she hadn't come into her own yet, but she still seemed so skinny and he was so solid, like a barrel. Isaac had never explained how they were related and I had assumed that they were siblings, but as she became smaller and smaller a dot that disappeared over the horizon and as a blue dot into the sun, I realized that their features were similar enough to make Isaac...