"Visionary!" shouted President Weatherford, shocked. Valerie shot away as soon as she heard him shout. "Guards, hurry! She must be terminated before the ability sets in!" Valerie jumped off the stage and stumbled to the ground, then took off sprinting through the mass of confused children towards the copper sidewalk. She didn't have time to look for Thomas, but she assumed he was very worried. She made a mental note to somehow find a way to contact him after she was safely hidden. One of the guards lunged at her, but she rolled to the ground and ran across the road, the hovering cars barely missing her.
Valerie could hear President Weatherford in the distance, shouting. "Everyone remain calm! Do not panic! The Visionary will be apprehended and terminated by morning!" She sincerely hoped his assurances were simply assuring lies. She was also starting to feel an ever-increasing ache in her side, but she knew she had to either run or face termination. She ran along the big, winding alleys in between silver, glinting skyscrapers. The guards chased tirelessly after her, due to them physically training their bodies for years.
They sprinted through streets, causing quite the uproar. Hardly anyone could hear anything over the honking of annoyed drivers, particularly one very annoyed man driving a white van.
Eventually she came to a closed off wall with only a small, thin crack on the side. She squeezed herself through the crack, and sat down, breathing rapidly. The guards cursed behind the wall, not slim enough to fit through. "I suppose we'll have to leave her and get some Pilots to do airborne searches," grunted one of the guards.
"Are you sure?" asked the other.
"Oh, come on, Briggs. You know the Pilots have never failed before," insisted the Guard.
"Don't forget that one time a few years ago," warned Briggs.
"Special circumstances were involved in that case," retorted the Guard, waving it off. She saw Briggs shrug through the crack. "Okay, then."
Valerie heard their retreating footsteps as they trudged away, echoing out of earshot.
Looks like I'm officially a known fugitive, thought Valerie. It was then that she noticed a glint of silver in a nearby trash can. She grabbed the edge of it and pulled it out, revealing it to be a discarded man's Silvers jacket. "I could pretend to be a boy," she murmured to herself. "I could just wear the hood all the time. I doubt anyone would suspect anything." But then, she thought. I'd have to make sure I only went out in public during the free time apprentices have. She briefly remembered the stories her father used to tell about the times when he was a Detective apprentice.
"And so, during my free time," her father had said. "I would hide, invisible, and just watch the city go on all around me. It was very relaxing."
"What time was your free time?" the six-year old Thomas had asked curiously.
"Oh, I got off training at around four," her father had replied. "My orders were to be back at the Detective Training Center by eight, though."
That's it! thought Valerie. I should pretend to be a Detective apprentice boy. Maybe I could also somehow contact Thomas during his free time! She checked the garbage can and, sure enough, the silver sneakers, pants, and T-shirt a boy wore had been stuffed inside as well. This was normal, because everyone threw their Silvers in the trash on the twenty-eighth of every month, in case of deadly germs. New Silvers were always delivered on the twenty-eighth as well.
Valerie quickly changed, leaving her old Silvers behind in the alleyway. She put up her hood and walked out into the city, hoping to find a safe place to sleep. Night was falling, and Washington City always turned into a huge spectacle of lights as the sun set. All of the silver buildings and roads glow with a luminescent blue light, providing the light that night shift Guards, Detectives, and Officers need to continue working.
As Valerie walked casually down the street, her plan worked perfectly. Every passing resident of the city never suspected that she was the now infamous runaway Visionary, Valerie Frostwell. The most they would do was to simply glance at her for a moment before running off on whatever trivial errand they needed to run.
As soon as she was sure that she had walked at least a few miles away from her old hiding place, she found another alley and curled up in the corner. I wonder how my parents feel, thought Valerie. Are they ashamed? Worried? Most likely the latter. Suddenly, a desperate feeling of loneliness swept over her. She decided that she would try to contact Thomas as soon as she could, and fell asleep.
She woke up in the middle of the sidewalk. "What the," she said aloud, standing up and observing her surroundings. It seemed to be noon, and she was surrounded by construction sites. How does this make any sense? she thought. This looks like the construction of Washington City, but how? Nobody just randomly travels through time in their sleep. A man was hiding in the shadows of one of the only finished silver skyscrapers, watching the construction carefully. I wonder what he's here for, she thought. I'll go and ask him. She walked straight up to him, and noticed that he was wearing normal clothes; jeans held up by a black belt and a leather jacket over a battered and stained T-shirt. Not Silvers. I suppose this is the time before the Silvers law was passed, she thought. He looked like he was in his forties, and he still watched the construction intensely.
"Hello," she greeted him awkwardly. "Uh...how are you?" He made no reply. "Hello?" she waved her hand in front of his face, yet his eyes never moved from the construction site. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed. "Maybe he can't see me! So is this really a dream? It sure doesn't feel like one. It feels too...real." Then, realization hit her. "Oh, right, I'm a Visionary. This is probably some kind of prophetic vision or something." At that moment, a tall, bald, muscular man walked up to the first man, looking slightly annoyed.
"Paul," began the bald man. "Have you decided where yet?"
"Not yet," retorted Paul angrily, his gaze never shifting from the construction. "And keep your voice down, we don't want the construction workers to hear. Just stay in the shadows until I figure out exactly where." The bald man retreated into the shadows, leaving the man to gaze rather creepily at the construction sight. Suddenly, Valerie's sight started to fade away.
"No, not now!" she exclaimed, trying to stay asleep. "I need to know what they were planning!" Her vision completely faded, and she woke up to a thin, black, whiskered face staring at her. The black cat mewed happily as she blinked her eyes open. Valerie sat up. Wow, she thought. I think I just had my first Visionary vision! But what did it mean? She glanced at the cat. "And who are you?" she asked. "Maybe a stray?" The cat stretched its forelegs out and rubbed against her side, purring loudly. Valerie chuckled. "Okay, you can stay with me, if you want," she assured the cat. "I think I'll call you Shadow. It's a generic name, I know-but it still fits you." She picked up Shadow and headed out of the alley to find out how to contact Thomas, and maybe get him to deliver a message to her parents. Shadow followed alongside her, purring happily.
YOU ARE READING
Visionary
Science Fiction[CURRENTLY ON HOLD] January 1st every year is the Ability Ceremony. As soon as kids reach the age of thirteen, they are scanned and their Ability is observed by the President of the United States. However, there is only one ability which is potentia...
