The Powered People

Chapter 20

"They took us the room 12, and they told them...what they intended for us to do," A man in a cell not too far away explained. His name was Alonzo, and he had been dragged down the room 12 along with Evian. "As soon as Evian heard she started fighting back. She was flat out refusing. When they tried to rip off her clothes, she punching them in the stomach and slapped anyone who got near her. Eventually, they had to knock her out."

Nolan looked behind him at Evian. She was still curled up in a dark corner of the cell, hugging her knees and staring into nothingness. Her brown hair fell in front of her face. She hadn't talked or anything in about an hour. Just like Mack...

"When she was out cold, the scientists were ordering me to go on her while she wouldn't fight. But...I couldn't do it," Alonzo continued. "I stood in the corner of the room, shaking my head. I didn't say a thing or move at all. I knew I couldn't...take advantage of a child."

"Thank you very much," Imani's Uncle Farley told him. Imani had finally woken up and had been joined at the hip of her uncle since.

"So, they tried to pick her up off the ground, and immediately, she snapped. She was fighting all the guards in the room without stopping for a second. All the way until she got back to her cell, as you've all...witnessed. But...nothing happened to her, no one...took anything."

The adults in the room nodded solemnly and got back to lying around in their cells. Nolan took another glance back at Evian. She was sitting in the same place that she was before. God, how did they turn a girl like Evian into another Macabre, Nolan thought.

"You just learned exactly..." Meg said before her voice droned off. "Nevermind."

Nolan knit his eyebrows as he thought a little deeper. The scientists hadn't just tested on a random patient that Nolan would convince himself was a freak. This was his own sister. This was Evian. The kid who taught him how to swim. Taught him how to take risks. Hell, showed him what he really was.

And what did they do to Evian? They made her angry enough to snap. And after she burned herself out, she retreated to silence.

Nolan's hands slowly clenched into fists. He bit his lip as his cheeks trembled. Squeezing his eyes shut, he took the deepest breaths he could. Slowly, he rose to his feet and turned to face the hallway.

"Y'know what guys," he grumbled. "I've had enough of this crap."

"What difference does it make?" Toby mumbled.

"I'm sick of this," Nolan restated. "I mean, look what they did to Evian. Look what they did to Mack. Look what they did to us!"

Evian hung her head, biting her lip in anger.

"Well, what the hell could we do about it, genius?" Taiga snapped.

"You could freeze someone's head!" Nolan pointed out. "Evie could set someone on fire! Imani could choke someone to death with vines if she wanted to!"

"And you think we're just going to gang up on these guys?"

"Why the hell not?" Evian chimed in, still not leaving her corner. "We could."

"But we shouldn't," Taiga groaned. "There's security here! And we'll all be tortured eventually. Or turned into Macabre."

When groans and protests emerged, she yelled, "Oh, it's true! Don't act like it's not!"

"Shush!" one of the security guards yelled, banging on the wall to get everyone's attention. Everyone mumbled in frustration and turned back into their cells. Evian laid down on the mattress, tired and done. She faced the plain wall as her eyelids got heavier and heavier. What time was it, anyway? Usually, she'd run outside and see how bright it was, or how far away the sun was from the center of the sky. But in the lab, all light came from fixed fluorescent light bulbs and no windows. It could've been eleven at night or just six.

"This is complete B.S., Evian," Nolan mumbled, sitting down next to her.

"I know," she grumbled vaguely in response.

"Just...why? Even Taiga doesn't want to! And she was crazy passionate about everything back at the house! Damn, this whole thing was from her and your ideas..."

Evian rolled around and glared at Nolan. He closed his mouth and bit his lip. Evian turned back around to face the wall again. She stared at nothing in particular. She wasn't exactly awake, but not asleep either.

"You know what we're all like this?" Evian asked, not looking up at him. "We've all given up. I mean, I took risks with trying to get out of the woods, I took a risk doing that stupid recon thing, and I took a risk recusing Toby and all I did was the rope in you! None of this is helping, and we've all picked on it. We learned our lesson, haven't we? And now here we are, lab rats that are just gonna end up with a chip in our necks for the rest of our lives. So what's the point?"

Nolan tried to say something, but couldn't squeak out a word. Instead, he turned around and sighed. Just to let it out, he pounded the side of his cell just once. The clang echoed for a second before subsiding.

"Oh, f-off!" Meg exclaimed. Rolling his eyes, Nolan looked out at the cell block. Other people were taking Evian's example. Imani and her Uncle were sleeping side by side, somehow fitting onto that one mattress. A little down the hall, Robbie, too self-dignified to share a bed, had poor Desmond sleep on the floor next to him. In quite a few cells, two people shared the small space. Had there really been such a surplus of powereds that they ran out of cells?

"Well, of course, dumbass," Meg commented.

"Why aren't you asleep?" Nolan grumbled.

"You're not asleep because you have a lot on your mind."
"Oh, why can't you just get out of my head?"

"I have no choice, bud. I hear everything!"

"But do you have to comment on everything?"

"Hey, I've heard everything you've been keeping in your head. Hell, most of the things you think stay there! And you're not gonna let it if no one talks to you 'bout it. Now listen, I'm gonna be listening to your brooding all night."

"J-Just leave me alone."

Lying down next to Evian, he glared into space, spitefully. Of course, he had a lot on his mind. Like what he put his own sister through by running his mouth to Tyrone before. And how now everyone else was suffering. He couldn't take it. He just couldn't. Knitting his eyebrows, he thought, I'm getting everyone out of here if it's the last thing I do.

"Shut up!" Meg shouted for the fifth time.