Embers & Ice

Chapter Ten

"You know you don’t have to sit alone anymore,” said Zac as he slid in beside her at the table in the breakfast hall, his tray stacked with the same steaming gray goo they ate for breakfast. “We’re friends now.”

Hunter rolled her eyes at him. “Really, I wasn’t aware.”

“You’re funny,” said Zac, shoving a spoonful of lunch into his mouth. “So what punishment did they give you for your little spat this morning?”

“I saw Dr. Wolfe.”

Zac’s eyes went wide. “Ooo. Creepy guy, isn’t he?”

“That’s an understatement.”

Chantal sat down beside Zac, her blond hair pulled up high in a twisted knot. She looked exhausted.

“What happened to you?” asked Zac.

“Show and tell,” she grumbled.

“What’d they make you do?”

“Convince a trained hypnotist to take off his clothes and dance the Macarena with a sheet of glass between us.”

Hunter’s mouth dropped open. “That’s your power?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“How did you know you could do… that?” She scooped food onto her fork with no intention of eating it. Her stomach growled against her will.

“I told my ex-boyfriend to go jump off the Eiffel tower. And…”

Hunter felt suddenly queasy. “He did?”

Her jaw ticked. “The Agents caught me soon after I started stealing cars and clothes and going off the rails, but I really wish it was the police instead.”

“The Agents would get you even if you were in prison, Chantal,” said Zac. “That’s how Marcus got here. He was arrested for stealing computers he wanted to use for a gaming competition, because he’s a Technopath and he’s pretty much a legend in the geek world, or so I’m told. The Agents came to him in prison and offered him a ticket out of his sentence.”

“Yeah, and he practically signed the consent form,” said Chantal.

“I know,” Zac chuckled. “What an idiot.”

Zac then proceeded to showed her the bruise that was forming from when one of the guards caught him mucking around and slugged him in the ribcage.

Hunter stared at the other poor kids surrounding her and wondered how long it would take before she looked like them – colorless and sick and drained. Years in this place would be enough to drive anyone mad, and Hunter had only been there a day. They have so much potential and they’re stuck here, in the best years of their lives.

Suddenly something occurred to her. “Hey, guys, why are there no adults here with powers?”

The grin on Zac and Chantal’s faces disappeared instantly. Neither of them looked like they wanted to answer.

“They uh… it all depends on the situation.” Zac stared at his plate as he spoke and his oily curls covered her view of his eyes. “Some of them survive for a while, but others…”

“Just tell her Zac. She’s gonna find out sooner or later.”

“Fine.” There was no humor in his gaze anymore. “There’s no adults because no one gets to live past their twenties. Their bodies start to die.”

“But… how?”

“How do you think? All of the testing, the constant chemicals jammed into our skin, the filth in some parts of this place… it’s not good for kids in such a weak state. There’s no sunlight or good food, there’s just… sickness and gloom and death. We don’t have any fun here Hunter. Even if you’re the happiest, most optimistic person in the world, the cold eventually sinks into your soul.”