Ataxia

Chapter 3

Des

I did exactly as Andy said because I was anxious and fearful for my life. I didn't go anywhere near the windows as if they were the black plague and didn't touch any communication devices besides the TV remote. I spent my time watching Stranger Things to take my mind off all this stuff. It was probably about half an hour later when Andy came home. And when he did, I felt so much better because I now had protection from whatever terrifying monster that might come through my front door.

"Hey, Andy," I said and waved a little when he entered the living room. He smiled warmly and easily and entered the kitchen, turning on the coffee-maker.

"Would you like any tea?" He asked as he was going into the pantry to get the tea bags.

"No thanks," I replied. "I prefer coffee. So, yeah." Andy didn't reply but started up the machine and put the tea bag in the little slot and placed a mug under it. As he waited for the machine to make his beverage, he came to sit beside me on the couch. "Are we gonna talk about what you wanted to talk to me about?" I said irritably, twiddling with my thumbs, a nervous habit I had. Kind of like playing thumb war with my own thumbs.

"Yes," he said, taking a rooted breath. "This is gonna seem out of nowhere, but what do you remember from your history class?"

It was an odd question. What did my history class have anything to do with me being sick? "Well, I remember how our government was formed and about the overthrowing and political parties and that George Washington was the first President and Abraham Lincoln set the slaves free and was the fifteenth President, I think."

"Sixteenth," Andy corrected me. "But as you know about our world government, there were many overthrows from political parties and they formed together to become a stronger government. But the first and sixteenth President aren't very important in this conversation."

"Oh," I simply replied. Why wouldn't these great Presidents be in this conversation? In my opinion, both were pretty awesome.

"But anyway, do you know why those political parties were overthrowing their governments and monarchies and dictators and leaders some decades ago?" Andy asked. I still wasn't following, but I could understand what he was saying, at least.

"Well, yeah. Vaguely. Didn't they start forming those political parties and rebellions because the government did something wrong like treating their people unfairly? Mr. Lebhan didn't describe why those parties overthrew the governments very well. He just said that they were treating people unfairly and those parties wanted to make a difference. It almost started a war."

"No," Andy shook his head wistfully. "It did start a war. But it's not known to the public at all because the government wanted to keep them blind from what they did."

"Then why do you know it?" I asked with suspicion in my tone.

"I'll explain that soon. Just a minute." He assured me. Somehow, I didn't believe him. If this was a secret war and it wasn't made public at all, how does he know about it? "What the government did was try and get rid of this awful disease that started seemed a lot like the flu virus. But after it died down for a couple years, it came back, but in a different form. The disease is also spread by water poisoning. They started calling it SDS, which stands for Supernatural Disorder Syndrome."

"Do I have S.D.S.?" I exclaimed, on the edge of my seat.

Andy grimaced and nodded quickly. "I'm sure of it."

"Then how do you know if I have it?" I interrogated. "Seriously, how do you know about the war and all this history stuff? The Internet? Do you work for the government or something?"

"No," he said. Andy averted my eye contact. "I know about the war because I have SDS."

I looked perfectly fine on the outside but on the inside my brain was freaking imploding. How did he hide all this secret stuff from August and I? How did he hide the fact that he had a life-altering disease? "That's ... that's heavy," I nodded, staring forward and also avoiding his eyes. "So, uh, can you tell me more about this SDS thing?" I was still staring straight forward. "Like, the effects of the disease thing?"

"Yeah," he said as if he was out of breath. "SDS is not a normal disease. In fact, it sorta makes the human body evolve faster and better. And usually when someone is affected by the disease and gets over it, they develop natural antibiotics to repel it. But for SDS, it's different. Instead of antibiotics, it integrates this odd attribute into the chromosomes and sorta creates a human 2.0. You're usually smarter, more athletic,

think differently, et cetera. And ...," Andy swallowed, blinking as he stared at the floor nervously. "Have weird ... abilities."

I turned over to him, looking at him straight in the eye this time. "Abilities? What are you talking about?"

Andy swallowed again, taking another deep breath. He seemed really uncomfortable on the subject. "Um, well, the simplest way I can put it is superpowers." He glanced my way, smiling a little lopsidedly. "Superpowers, Des. You have superpowers."

My mind came blank for several minutes as I tried to process with new information. Powers? Like Spider-man and Captain Marvel and Martian Man-Hunter? It was all very confusing, but eventually I muttered a really quiet "huh" before Andy spoke again.

"I know it sounds crazy and like I'm making this stuff up, but you have to trust me, Des. This is amazing." He took my hand and patted me on the knee. "I mean, powers, Destine! You have real, actual superpowers."

I grinned weakly to show him I understood. But it felt like my brain was buzzing. How can someone even begin to process that they are superhuman?

***

After we explained everything to August after she got home, she didn't seem too surprised. "I already knew all of that," she shrugged.

Andy and I exchanged befuddled glances.

"Wait, how?" Andy asked.

"Seriously, guys," she grinned a little, almost giggling. "How do you think I knew you were in trouble, Des? I only got Andy so you could tell him about your glowing fingers."

"But how did you know?" I asked again.

She looked a little smug. "Wasn't it obvious? I can read minds, guys. I'm an ataxia, too."

I freaked out a little after she said this. Okay, a lot. "August Karoll Whiston!" I yelled. "How in the world could you keep that from us! Being an illegal ataxia is kinda important, ya know!"

She shrugged again as if it was no big deal. "I mean, Andy kept it a secret from you your whole life. I knew from the beginning. You guys were so blind to the hints that I was a mind reader. How do you think I'm so good with animals and I have such good grades?"

A look of disgust and disappointment came over my face. "You cheat on your tests to get good grades? Why couldn't I get that power? I have a C+ average."

"That's what I don't really like about it. I can't control what I read. It's like a giant antenna and I can intercept every single thought around me up to a mile."

Okay, that did kind of suck. "We need to get you two somewhere safe." Andy said, making me jump about ten feet in the air. I forgot he was there. "I'm going to take you guys to a facility where they take care of people like us. So I need you guys to go pack your things because we are leaving right now."

"Okay," August said without hesitation and immediately got out of her seat and trotted upstairs.

I looked up at Andy uneasily. "Andy, do you know what will happen to us? Because, to be honest, I'm really scared. The government is trying to kill us. What if they do?"

Andy replied with a great sigh, "I'll try my best to protect you. But if I'm going to be honest, Des, I can't say for sure if you and Aug are gonna be safe."