Adventures In Posthuman Childhood

Introduction

The Kids

Seth peeked around the corner. The nurse was preoccupied playing with her laptop. She was having another one of her midnight chats on Skype. Seth rolled his eyes. In about thirty minutes, when she was mistakenly confident that she was the only one awake, the nurse was going to be topless and panting.

Maybe that was the sort of thing that other adolescent boys fantasized about, but Seth's sex drive had been chemically neutralized. The doctors said it was a necessary safety precaution. Let's just say that the last time Seth had some "personal time", he almost burned the research facility down. Passion -- especially the intensity with which a teenage boy could produce it -- and pyromancy were a dangerous combination. 

Seth turned to motion to Trina, who was watching over the others. Trina made a hand gesture and then pressed her finger to her lips, signifying to the other children to, "Stay here, and be quiet." Silently, she joined Seth by the wall.

Her and Seth were the oldest out of the bunch. From the beginning, Seth had adopted a "big brother" sense of responsibility for the younger kids. "They're our responsibility, because no one else understands them. All we have is eachother." Seth hold told her; he was a good guy. Maybe a little too emotional at times, but it was something so alien from her own state of being that Trina admired his sense of solidarity. 

If it wasn't for Seth, she would have left the others behind. Trina had always been a loner sort. She had been accused many times of being cold hearted. In fact, she was...

Trina placed her fingers on the edge of the wall, taking a peek. She frowned.

"That's pathetic." She mused, in reference to the idiotic grin on the nurse's face. "At least she doesn't have her tits out this time." 

Seth grinned. "But that's the best part." He took no pleasure from the of gawking at the nurse's chest, but he did enjoy agitating Trina. He thought she looked the most beautiful when she made those little faces of disgust, or agitation. He was the only person she allowed to tease her. Anyone else would have ended up a block of ice. 

Trina grimaced. A thin layer of frost spread from her fingertips, making a tiny spider pattern on the wall. "Can we focus, please?" She punched Seth in the arm. "We have to get over to Sia's room. Lucas said that this is our only window." 

Lucas was the group's probability magician. Sure, all of his predictions were based on math, but the way he crunched the numbers was wholly magical. The only problem with Lucas was that he got so wrapped up in the numbers that little tasks, like zipping up his fly, escaped him. "I don't interface well with life." He had said once. He was painfully dorky, but what ten year old isn't? His social skills were a bit underdeveloped, but his ability was nothing short of amazing. 

Sia though, Sia was the key. She was the youngest member of the group, and Lucas's sister. Only seven years old, but she was by far the most powerful. While Lucas could read people and things based on their patterns, Sia could understand them based on their "essence". Lucas made stunning guesses, but Sia knew. The problem was that Sia was also so deeply immersed in her own world, a wonderful world that was too strange for others to understand. 

People automatically assumed that this was a tragic flaw. That Sia must be experiencing a quiet sort of hell, locked away in her own head. Truthfully, it was more like existing outside of time and space. Sia was far enough removed from reality to observe its true nature. Her power was unlimited, but it did take quite some time to interpret her readings. That's where Edgar came into the picture...

"We have to go. NOW." Trina nudged Seth. "You're not going to get all morally superior on me, right? I have to do this... even if I'm sort of going to enjoy it."

Seth huffed. "Let's just get this over with. Okay?"

Trina frowned again. "You're going to feel all guilty and sulky later, aren't you?"

"Will you just shut your trap and do it already?" Seth grit his teeth. Yeah. He was definitely going to feel guilty and sulky about this later.

Trina step out from behind the wall. Her hands glowing an eerie shade of icy blue. She froze the nurse solid before the woman could even comprehend what was happening. Seth and Lucas ran ahead, over to the room where Sia was being kept. Seth's hand burned with a ghostly flame. Lucas pointed to the weak spot of the locking mechanism. Seth melted through it with his fingers. The door opened. 

A small pug ran over to the door. Seth nodded at the dog. "Edgar. Is Sia ready?"

The pug responded telepathically, "Yeah. She's calm too. She feels confident right now."

Edgar was an empath. When he first discovered his abilities, he was horrified to find that he had switched bodies with his dog, Mr. Puggles. He didn't develop the telepathic speech until it was too late. His parents, convinced that their son had lost his mind, donated Mr. Puggles to the children's hospital. Later, after developing his telepathic speech, Edgar ended up in this research facility with the other "gifted" children.

Due to his powers, he was able to interpret and translate Sia's visions. 

Seth moved to Sia, who was sitting upright in bed. "Edgar, tell her I'm gonna pick her up, okay?" Edgar gave Seth the nod of approval. Seth lifted up the small girl and carried her out into the hallway.

"We should go." Lucas chimed in. "We have approximately ten minutes before the lab tech who is monitoring the live feed gets back from the bathroom. It might be fifteen, but It's likely he only ate one chili cheese dog for lunch."

"That's friggin gross Lucas." Trina scrunched her face. 

"Is it?" Lucas asked a bit surprised. "How can facts be gross?"

Trina rolled her eyes, "Let's get out of her. This concludes the easy part of our break out." She cracked her knuckles. 

Playtime was over...