Don't Look Back! Part 2

Chapter Three: Promising

"Lucy?" Following the sound of the voice, she moved her head, careful and slow. Everything hurt as if she'd been hit by a truck. The eyes open, her sights fell onto Stephen, who lay on the bed next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Mhm, you?"

"Me too, what did they do?"

Aching, Darian rose from the bed next to theirs, "Nothing nice" He rubbed the back of his neck, jumping back at the sight of blue lines on his skin. "What is that?"

Lucy sat up as well, staring at him, then at herself as Darian pointed at her hands. Blue lines everywhere. "Cool" she whispered, looking at them. Her gaze fell onto Stephen. "Oh, you don't have any"

That's okay Stephen answered, but Darian heard not a sound. Lucy on the other hand nodded.

Maybe they gave you something else.

Shocked, Stephen sat back, staring at Lucy, then at Darian. "Did you hear her speak?"

"No"

"What?" Lucy blurted out, alternating her glance between the two of them. "That's not possible, is it?"

Can you hear me? Darian said in his head, but neither of the others reacted. "Doesn't work for me" he stated.

"This is cool" Lucy sat still, her hands placed on her lap. Can anyone hear me?

Hello?

Her eyes widened as she turned around to see if anyone else in the room had heard the voice, but both Stephen and Darian shook their heads at her questioning expression. Who are you? Where are you?

"How are you guys feeling?" John entered the room, a tray with cups on it. "Here, have something to drink" He handed each of them a cup and waited until they gulped it all down, then took the cups back and dropped the tray onto an empty table. "Welcome home. Stephen and Lucy, you will be in Group E, Darian, we placed you in Group C, you are older and I think a bit more advanced" His hand flew through the air as he pointed to different doors behind him. "See the colors? Red is A, yellow B, Blue C, purple D, and Orange E. Follow your colors and you'll find your new beds and rooms. They will guide you to wherever you need to go, you will see what I mean soon"

"You mean the symbols?" Lucy inquired, her eyes fixated on the circle that decorated the middle of the orange door.

Darian gazed at the doors, but he saw no more than the colours, and, judging by his glance, so did Stephen when he looked over. Shrugging his shoulders he returned to watching John as he nodded.

"Yes, well done. The two of you see anything as well?" His glance shifted from Stephen to Darian. "No? That's okay, it comes with time. Then let's go"

The three rose from their beds, Lucy and Darian hugged goodbye for the moment, and Stephen by her side, Lucy stepped through the heavy orange door into another hallway that led to a small room with four beds in it.

Sitting on one bed, a girl looked up, smiled and returned to her book without losing a word.

Another boy, short blond hair, and a bright grin, sprinted towards them. "Hey, I'm Thomas, delighted to make your acquaintance"

Lucy cheered as she hugged him. "Hello, I'm Lucy, this is Stephen. Have you been here long?"

"A few weeks"

Together, the three of them walked over to one of the windows, sat onto a table and glared outside, at a projection of what the world used to look like before the apocalypse. One after another, they exchanged their stories from before they had arrived at WICKED.

"My sister is out there somewhere" Thomas said, staring at the trees that swayed in the breeze.

Lucy shifted her weight whenever they moved, imagining how it felt to have the wind brush over her skin. "My mum too, but my brother is here"

Their eyes fell onto Stephen, who sat in silence. "My mum too" he breathed, playing with the rim of his shirt.

In the meantime, John had returned to his office, prepared his files and waited for a call.

"Report on the newcomers, how are our three prodigies doing on their first day?" Ava Paige sat at her desk, glaring at the hologram before her.

John walked to and fro, pinching his beard as he spoke. "They mastered the first test without issues. Both siblings produce the shimmer as expected, Stephen does not, but he speaks in his mind, and the girl can hear him. They are currently testing their memory and coordination skills and later we will see if they can produce any more powers" He stepped over to his desk and pulled a pile of notes from it. "Both sibling show a high concentration of antibodies and an unknown virus, none like we have seen before. It might give us more insight if we get to do more test on them"

"So, they are promising. Let them settle in first, they have endured enough for two days" Ava rose from her desk and approached the hologram. "Train them well, they will be of great use to us" With those words, she pressed a button and the hologram vanished. A satisfied smile on her lips, she reviewed the files of all three children. If they showed such strong powers so early on, maybe they could perform far more advanced deeds than initially anticipated. Going over the notes and videos John had sent her, she wrote down notions, focusing on the aspects of the children's personality and acting that stuck out the most.

After everything had found its place in a folder, she called an assistant who then brought the folders to the children's ward where the present doctor and another scientist, responsible for the tests and sequences checked it for doubts and then proceeded to incorporate it into the children's daily plans.