Of Solar And Dark (2018)

24 [E]

Edward Kenning

Around us, the world is painted in black. A screen dug out into the dashboard reveals the direction that our vehicle is travelling in and though the display is attractive with a winking light slowly traversing a dug out path, I can't stop thinking about something else.

"You've been quiet for a while now." Martha remarks as she steers the vehicle onto another route. I shrug, a little hesitant to answer. As the silence starts to sound defeaning, I decide to finally answer her.

"I've been thinking."

"Yeah?"

"About... everything. About what you said about our father, about being a weapon without knowing it. I'm just wondering why my mother- if she's even my mother kept it away from me for so long. She always acted like she couldn't care more or less." I begin to pull at a thread fixed along the side doot with my nail, jerking the white string out of the material it has been woven in.

"We don't have parents, Ed. She's just... someone our father or whatever you want to call him hired." Silence ensues before Martha continues to speak. "I never had a mother. I only met our father this year when he decided to connect with me."

"Did you actually believe him when he told you about all this?" There is a bitterness that swells along the tip of my tongue when I realise that our father didn't choose to connect with me or Teddy.

"It was strange. He didn't tell me at first. I was out on a scouting mission to substitue for our lack of Scout and that was when he first caught me. It took me a while but I eventually realised that it wasn't a real scouting mission. He just hacked into the database and forged a file."

"What hapened?" I ask curiously.

"More of those missions happened and everytime I went out, I bumped into him. He eventually cracked and told me everything. I hated it at first and I- I was unable to really believe it." Martha's body shakes as she exerts a larger amount of pressure on the wheel. I notice the way the colour leaks from her face as her words tremble.

"That must have been hard coming from our father himself, huh?"

"I suppose so. I took some time to think about it but it eventually hit me- I needed to know what I was, exactly. I wanted to find out if I was even..." Martha's voice trails off into an insipid drone of syllabus.

"Even real?" I suggest, feeling the thread give way underneath my nail. Pulling along the string, the fabric sewn along the side begins to give way.

"Yeah. If I was a Solar or Dark or whatever." Martha's voice is hollow but written all over her face is a sadness that says otherwise.

"What are we, really?" I laugh but my tone reflects the emptiness in her words. In the end, neither of us knows what we are. Created in a research lab, dubbed to be a weapon and dangerous to Atlanta and everything that existed in the planet's orbitary.

"He was smart, you know?" The silence cracks as Martha starts to dig into the open wound.

"What do you mean?"

"I meant that he was, like, crazy intelligent. You could hear it in the way he spoke, in the way he carried himself. You could see it through his... research outcomes."

"You mean us." The string snaps.

"That's what I mean. The first time I talked to him, I was stumped, you know? I could never get used to the terminology he used. To his intellect. And then I found out about what I was and- and I know I told you I hated it at first." Martha turns to glance at me but I refuse to meet her gaze, pointedly turning my eyes towards the sky outside instead.

Deciding that being within listening range was just as well, Martha continued, "But after I got over the nasty shock, I was impressed. I know that we're bad and a threat to society but I couldn't help admiring the effort and intellect that went into making us, you know?"

"We're here." Refusing to engage in entertaining Martha, I knocked against the window to draw her attention towards the view ahead.

A gigantic building was mounted within a visible border- a fence that stood tall and rang on for miles. Interlaced along the tip of the fence were cameras tracing our every move and lasers ready to send a red beam of light through any tresspassers.

"That's strange." Martha's face scrunches up with confusion. Grateful for the change in subject, I jumped on that, "What's strange?"

"There are supposed to be guards lining the border. They're all gone."

That's when the noise breaks out- a terrible scream of siren that wails through the air, slicing it. Lights visible from inside the building begin to shine and flicker, casting a red glow along the building's exterior.

"Oh good Galaxy." Martha groaned, killing the engine and shoving open the car door.

"Why? What's happening?" The repeated flash of red is blinding and the noise causes me to slap both hands over my ears. A tight feeling starts to crawl along my chest as I catch figures inside the building running and scattering in all directions.

"It means that someone knew of our plan and wanted to sabotage it. We need to split up right now! You go get Ellie and Kirk while everyone's in the midst of chaos and I'll wait for the Fighters!"

Despite the urgency interweaved in her instructions, I am unable to move. My feet are rooted to the ground as I stare at the gigantic building, transfixed and too shocked to twitch a muscle.

"What are you doing?! Go!" Martha gives me a light shove foeward which is enough to send me scrambling through the entrance and I am soon racing along the hard-packed earth, racing towards the entrance. Except when I pull hard against the door, it doesn't open. The door isn't locked and it isn't controlled by technology from what I can tell so why can't I unlock it?

I pull against the handle, growing desperate but it doesn't budge. Anxious, I race to the next closest entrance- a door attached to the side of the building but like the first, it doesn't give in to my forceful tugging.

That's when it hits me.

The entire building is on lockdown.

Word Count: 1087 Words

A/N: I don't have much to say... so let's cut to the usual! Feedback is encouraged and appreciated! (: