The Storm of Apocalypse

Chapter One: Part One [3]

As she walked in, the warmth of the fire from the fireplace greeted her. She was welcomed by the teenagers that were just like her---special, but she barely knew any of them. They shook her hands and exchanged names. They all looked familiar. She believed they have encountered each other often while they were in the school. The two other men were Valtor and Renie; whereas the driver of the car was Cyan. And there were six of them in total; three men and three women.

She was brought by Arlette to the living room where they occupied the sofa. Cyan tended to her wounds and in one rub of her fingers, her wounds sealed like there were no wounds on her skin. Cyan then left them to go outside. Vinceo sat by side and Arletted settled on the chair just across her. The others were busy preparing their dinner in the kitchen. The aroma of the stew broth they were cooking filled the house, which also made her stomach growl.

"There are six of us now, last week it was just me and Cyan."

"How did you know we're in danger?"

"After we left the island. While Herozoan was building its power back, I took the chance to wipe your memories and gave you all different lives. At first, I monitored you all every day, until it became every week, once a month, and then seldomly. I was too late to find out that one of us was missing or dead. I looked for answers and I ended up under the radar of Herozoan. It's back and they have been tracking us. Before I could even realize we were in danger, many of us were already gone."

"I thought wiping our memories would keep us safe?"

"It was, Mycenia. But they have a new way of finding us and I don't know how. I gathered the survivors one by one and so far I haven't gotten any answers."

"So what are we going to do now?"

"We're going to find the others and bring them here. Once we gather everyone, we will end Herozoan. This time, they will never have a chance to come back."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Excuse me for a while. I think Cyan is onto something."

Arlette left the room. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She felt Vinceo's hand hold hers and gently rubbed the back of her hand. Her gaze turned to him and he gave her a smile that gave her comfort. She moved closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. She stared at the dancing fire of the fireplace. And silence filled the room. She dove again to her memories. She relived the time when she was at the school where she met new kids just like her.

Her first week was bad. Every day, for five hours they went to physical training without using their abilities. They jog around the oval for hours under the scorching heat of the sun. Face an obstacle course that would test their endurance, skills, and mind; and teach them how to fight.

After the physical training, they would settle in their classrooms for three hours to learn about science, math, history, values, and many more that helped them understand the world better. And another three hours to enhance their abilities. Her implant was turned off after she was isolated in a room where she was needed to complete tasks. Once done, her implant will inhibit her abilities and she could take her dinner and rest in her quarters.

Every night, she would cry in her room seeing the bruises, wounds, and scrapes she had. Her whole body throbbed in pain and she couldn't do anything to relieve it. Her roommates would often complain about her sobs and groans. But she didn't mind them and cried herself to sleep.

The following weeks got better, eventually. Her body got used to the training and she had fun. She became better, stronger, and faster; and her psychokinesis also improved. She was surprisingly good in every aspect of the training. Well, she had to become better. She can't afford to fail like others who were sent back to their isolation room and never came back.

Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. She made friends, and enemies, and by and by, she fell in love with a man named Vinceo. The day they met was still vivid in her mind. She was eighteen. While she was speeding through an obstacle course race, as she climbed up a tree and balanced herself through a slippery branch, a wind blew a branch and knocked her off. She fell and she didn't have the powers to protect herself. The next thing she felt was the excruciating pain when she got a fractured leg.

She cried and called for help. She couldn't move and was paralyzed by the pain. She was alone and that frightened her more. But when she heard footsteps and the rustling sound of dried leaves being crushed, she felt relief. It was Vinceo who rescued her. He gently asked what she was feeling. When he figured out she had a broken bone, he didn't hesitate to carry her back to the camp. Ria, a teenage nurse who can heal, fixed her.

And that was how she met the love of her life; the person who helped her see the good things in every bad thing that happened to her.

"Hey...where did you go?"

She snapped back to reality and realized Vinceo was staring at her. He held her left hand and gently squeezed it. She smiled and put her other hand on it and rubbed his fingers.

"I...I was just thinking of the past."

"That's the effect of having your memories back again. You will slip from present to past and vice versa and you can't control it once you have stimuli. It's hard to relive the memories over and over again, but will be easy soon enough."

"Do you know what I was thinking?"

"No."

"Us. The first time we met."

He smiled, carefully pulled his hand, and patted his lap. "Come here."

She rested her head on his lap. She lay supine and stared at his face, trying to memorize it. He caressed her cheeks and played on her hair.

"We have three years to catch up now."

He nodded. "We'll make sure to have that three years once we end Herozoan."

"Yeah. Right."