The Four - Book 3

Chapter 2

Aira

Seeing Juris saved me from just about losing it.

He looks about the same since I last saw him, except there's something in his eyes I don't quite recognize. Pain? No, he doesn't look hurt, just confused. He looks at me for a long time, and finally I see it.

Hopelessness.

We both stand there, guards surrounding us, people with brown and gray and hazel colored eyes staring at us like we are their next meal.

But I'm totally distracted as the brown double doors open again.

I gasp so loud people turn and glare at me for a moment until they turn their attention back to the girl who walks in between two guards.

Lana.

Her short curly brown hair covers her eyes, and she blows it away as she walks down the long aisle. I look for a sign of any pain. None, really. Did she make it to the government?

Did she ever get to see Paytah?

Something runs through me that shouldn't. Jealously. She left Juris and I to get Paytah, to see Paytah one last time. Even though she left us like that, I hope she did. 

As she walks closer to us I give her a smile, which must look ugly, because she looks at me with a blank face. She stops right next to me, and takes a long look at the crowd, then back to me.

"He's okay. Looks bad, but okay."

A guard nudges her, but that's all she wanted to say to me. What does that mean? Is she talking about Paytah?

As the doors open, I know she was.

A boy surrounded by two guards is almost dragged in. His clothes are stained a dark red, his hair knotted with blood. There's a fresh bruise on his jaw, along with scattered bruises and scars on his body. He winces at every step, his eyes showing pure pain. He's skinny, his shirt that once fit him now baggy and ripped.

"Shit." I hear Juris whisper. He must be seeing what I'm seeing.

A broken boy.

Paytah.

I wipe tears from my eyes, holding in a sob. Paytah has reached the front and stands next to Lana. We are in a row, facing the man above us.

"Order in the court." He says, and all the mumbling stops.

"Mr. Hanson, please share why we are here today." He says.

Hanson nods and takes a step forward and turns around so he's facing us and the crowd.

"Hello everyone. We are here today for the decision of the elements. Representing the elements will be the four," he gestures to us, "but this decision will not just affect them but the rest of their kind."

I stand there, confused as hell. But it's like Hanson read my mind.

"If you're not familiar with what's been happening, a group of scientists, including me, have always been interested in how elements are, and if humans like us could have such a power. You've seen our world lately. Green grass is turning brown, water is going bad, old buildings need to be burnt down, and dust and ashes need to be removed. We humans cannot fix such a thing, so we got permission from the government to test to see if humans could have such a power, like water, fire, earth or air. With these elements, we could change our world for the better. Or we thought we could," he pauses, eyeing the crowd.

"So we tested it for everyone to see. We dedicated a few states for this test, and put it on tv for everyone to see how elements could change our world. And it did. Those states were successful. Except as time went on the subjects chose themselves to separate. We let it go, mostly because it got the audience who was watching them behind the screen excited to watch. So the elements lived separately for a while, until we worried that we would end up like that. So, we changed that," Hanson gestures at us.

"We got permission to specifically choose four teens to come together after living their lives separately. This was what made everyone in the US watch this on tv, so we went with it. We sent our own people in those states to act like guards, to act like we had elements too. We retested to see if elements could work together. It was obvious that they could, after a while. But what went wrong was the elements there that didn't want elements together. We couldn't control that. We let it play out for a bit, until things got out of hand, until the war. After that, we had to stop, we had no choice."

The room is silent. I keep my eyes locked on Hanson.

"Now that the testing is over, we've come to a halt. It seems like a majority of people don't want element powers, but others do. Some believe it would fix this world, others think it'll be bad and cause destruction. Now that we have a small pile of elements with us, some people don't want them here," Hanson pauses. "they want them gone."

Some people cheer, others don't.

"And some want them to stay, because they can help us make the US better again."

More cheering, again others don't

A test within a test. That's all I can think. I was a test within a test.

And now I'm in the real world.

It's too much to take in, and I know I'm not alone. Juris looks like he's about to faint. Lana stares at Hanson with confusion and hatred. Paytah clenches his jaw, his eyes narrow.

"Kill all of them! They are only going to ruin everything!" Someone from the crowd yells.

"They will save our world!"

"Have them fix everything, then end them!"

Hanson looks at the crowd nervously. If Hanson is nervous, I don't know why I'm not having a panic attack.

"Order in the court!"  It goes silent again.

"It seems we have a split, like we expected. For now, we will place all the elements in our enclosed area that we have made in case of this situation. We will figure it out as time goes. Case dismissed." The man says.

The guards push me a little to turn around and leave. Juris follows, then Lana then Paytah.

First we were captured, used as test subjects. Now it feels as though we are prisoners, waiting for our death sentence.

And the man who captured us in the first place is trying to save us.

I'm so lost in my own thoughts I haven't even noticed I was back in the same vehicle, driving to wherever they are going to keep us until they figure out what to do with us. We get there fast, it must've been a few minutes away. It's a large building, big and brown. There's a lot of land, with picnic tables and open space. As we get closer, I realize all of this is inside a huge glass dome, just like the one I was in with the other elements when I first met them.

Trapped.

And waiting to see if we get to live or die.

******

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