FUTURITY

FORCE (Pt 1)

Jason stared at the ceiling and sighed heavily. Was it tomorrow already? Or had it been only a couple of minutes? There was no way of knowing, which made it seem more unbearable.

Rachel's slow, even breaths from the other side of the room were the only sounds he could hear. Jason had tried to move the lock twice but only got a dull headache. There was one thing he could be thankful for, though. Since they'd given him the drug, Jason hadn't had any of his mental attacks. He smiled wryly at the thought. At least one thing was going right.

Rachel yawned and slowly sat up. She pulled her legs to her chest and glanced at Jason. Jason pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed again.

"I wish we knew what time it is," she said.

Jason shrugged. "Me too."

A few silent minutes passed with the longevity of a thousand years.

"My parents didn't have powers, Rachel. Did yours? I mean, your biological parents."

"Dad says they didn't. Why?"

"It seems like they would have if powers could be inherited. Yet, don't you think it's strange that people who are not related by blood have the same extra organ?" Jason asked.

"Like my father, compared to Jude and me?"

"Yeah. Somehow, something other than heredity caused the organs to grow in each of us. But what? I didn't have this organ when I was young. I got into a skiing accident, and they had to x-ray me, and they didn't find anything then."

Rachel yawned again and massaged her temples. "Yes, it's all strange. When Dad started suspecting Jude, and I had powers after Mom died, we got x-rayed to see if we had the organ too. And there they were."

Rachel frowned and scooted closer to Jason. "But as you said, who or what would have caused us to have these organs growing inside of us? And why us? Dad and Leon don't seem to know either."

Jason shook his head. "I can't even guess, at this point." Thinking of Leon, he wondered if the man knew more about the origin of their superpowers than he was letting on. 

"It could be evolution," Rachel said.

Jason shook his head. "This doesn't fit with evolution. According to evolution, evolving spans across generations. And this whole thing is way too fast for that."

"True. I don't think it is either." Rachel frowned and combed a strand of blonde hair back behind her ear. "Maybe . . . maybe, God did this."

"But why?" BANG!

The door swung open and slammed against the wall. Force—the man who'd helped Ian escort them to the lab—staggered through the door.

"Come with me," he said. "Before it's too late." Jason thought his accent sounded German.

They both stood, and Jason struggled to speak. "What—?"

"I'm rescuing you! If you hurry, we can get your other friends." Force turned away and began to rush down the hall.

Rachel ran past Jason. "What about the cameras? They'll see us getting away!"

"I turned them off. The automatons are doing some repairs to the system so they won't know until much later," Force said. He led them to the big glass hall. But instead of going toward the lab, he turned the other way.

"Why are you doing this?" Jason said, running beside him.

"Daniels is going to brainwash you in a few hours. He did it to me."