INSOMNIAC

Chapter 14

The sky was falling. Rocks, leaves, branches, pieces of buildings, anything you could possibly think of was raining down on them, causing the inhabitants of Paradise to flee in a chaotic mass of bodies hitting and shoving each other in a futile attempt of escape. The first explosion was 5 minutes ago, and about 10 seconds have passed since the most recent one. Verity was clinging desperately onto flying Alvin, who was racing to the exit with two children in his arms, and Verity clinging helplessly for her life. Loki was at the exit already with many children and adults, waiting for Alvin to arrive. He had zipped passed everyone the second the first explosion went off. Tamara stood in the middle of the alarmed crowd and was using her power to throw as many items off their course before they hit the people. Alvin was getting as many people out as he could, but it wasn't going to be enough. Verity had already seen so many people lying lifeless in the road, having been unfortunate enough to be in the way of the falling debris or the explosion itself. Many children were in clusters, and they were Alvin's main focus. He dropped the children lightly with the others and landed for Verity to clamber off his back. As her feet touched the ground, Alvin shot off once again to retrieve the children. Verity and Loki were both in shock. Their temporarily shared house was one of the first to be destroyed. The exit to the city was closed, as it usually was, but they stood huddled with the other people who were there already there as close to the gate as possible.

The alarm system started blaring, and the exit doors started opening slowly. The group huddled inched closer to the gate, but as soon as the gate was fully open, chaos broke out once again. Loki and Verity backed farther into the group out of fear. At the gate, were thousands of policemen, if you wish to call them that, and each was armed with a gun pointing directly at the large group of people. They easily outnumbered us, and they each had some sort of glowing green device in their hands.

"Surrender yourselves for containment, and give up all weapons in possession," a loud voice said on a speaker from the other side of the wall. The people on the Paradise side of the wall all started whispering, and Tamara stepped forward.

"You're looking for a fight that you can't win," Tamara said icily. "Leave us in peace while you still can." The army readied their guns by adjusting their stances from defense to attack, and the silence that followed was thick and tense. After what seemed like hours, the first move was made. Tamara held out her hands, and a soft green light seeped out from the flesh in her hands. The rest of Paradise saw this as a signal, and every able person braced their powers for a fight. Alvin made his way through the crowd and took his place next to Tamara.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He called out. If the circumstances were different, Verity would have laughed at how childish he sounded, but now was not the time. Verity braced herself, and was about to shoot beams of electricity at the army, but was stopped abruptly by a harsh noise reaching her ears. With a harsh cry of pain, Verity fell to the ground, her hands over her ears in pain. The sound seemed to worm its way into her brain, splitting it into a million pieces. Her mouth was open, with screams she couldn't hear erupting from her throat. Loki had fallen to the ground next to her just moments before and was already passed out. Verity could feel her consciousness slipping away from her, but she forced herself into the waking world. Through blurred eyes, she could see dim figures picking their way through, and she only realized the figure above her when it was too late. She heard a voice from what seemed ages away and felt a hard blow to the side of her head. This time she blacked out instantly, and all that accompanied her was the awful sound.

-

Bright white light was the first thing she saw. Neither the beep, beep, beep of the heart monitor nor the shuffling of doctors caught her attention. Only the harsh and bright white ceiling. The doctors shuffled around, taking blood pressure and prodding with needles. Verity's mind started to process her current position, and she realized that these weren't doctors after all. They were scientists. She lifted her head slightly to get a better look around the room, only to be pushed back down onto the bed by firm hands. Verity started struggling, kicking her legs out and pulling her wrists from the straps tying her to the bed. After about five minutes of struggling, the scientists gave up on trying to restrain her and left the room. Once all of them were gone, Verity examined her restraints. They were thick black straps, connected by a buckle. The buckle was atop of her wrist, so Verity couldn't reach it with her slim fingers. Verity tried to create a small spark of electricity in her hand, but failed miserably. Nothing happened, not even a small spark.

Verity laid her head back in defeat, and once again her gaze was set to the painfully white ceiling. However she got into this mess, she was sure that it wouldn't be easy to get out of it.

-

A man wearing an expensive-looking leather jacked paced outside an office. The label read 'Dr. Gerald Kane' and had the title 'Head of Surgery' underneath it. The man had been pacing for roughly 20 minutes and was starting to think that it was a bad idea for him to have come here. After what had seemed like hours, the door finally opened. A neatly groomed man stepped out. He had gelled hair with small spectacles.

"Sorry for the wait, sir. Had an important call," he said smoothly.

"Of course, Dr. Kane. Business in booming from what I've heard about your new freaks." Dr. Kane smiled and pointed to a door on the opposite side of the room.

"I'm assuming that you'll want to pick a fresh batch of them?" The man nodded and followed Dr. Kane through the door. Inside, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of cells, each one containing one person. They walked down the corridor, the man observing each prisoner as he walked past. After a couple of hundred cells, he came to a stop next to one.

"I want this one," he said, pointing to a boy with dirty blonde hair. He turned around, and his eyes fell on a boy with golden hair. "This one too."

"Any others?" Dr. Kane asked. "You usually choose more than that." The man shook his head.

"Only these. I'll be out with the truck, as usual."

"Of course," the doctor said. He reached out and shook the other man's hand. "Nice doing business with you, Mr. Glover."

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