Gone Yet Living | A Short Story

ii | The Last

A week passed and everyone decided to meet one last time before we all part ways.

I parked my car in front of a small house close to two buildings. When I got out, I knew that it was now or never; we need to stop the Cult from killing more people.

I approached the door reluctantly and gave a sharp knock. I looked at the window above the wooden door and its potted plants. As I looked around, I can remember the first few days we discovered our powers; we were afraid. Our powers were uncontrollable.

Then on a rainy night, a stranger took us into this house and treated us. He also taught us how to use our powers for good.

The wooden door opened, interrupting my thoughts and revealing a young girl who looked like she came from school.

"Hello Natalie," I said. "Do you happen to know where your dad is?"

"Oh," she replied nonchalantly like she was practicing her lines. "He's there along with the others like always."

I nodded. "Thanks." Then I went past her and froze as I looked around. The space of the house was cramped. The living room had a brown leather couch, a small table at the center and a television to top it all off.

I looked at the dining room. There was a table with chairs around it. They were disarranged, suggesting that some people were sitting there. Not far from the dining room were the stairs, which were positioned at the far corner of the house, and a door which led to their small garden.

Their secret base of operations were there too.

I didn't notice Natalie looking at me. "What are you waiting for?"

"No-nothing, really," I replied, snapping out of my thoughts.

She sighed in reply and sat down on the couch and held the remote control to turn on the television. I too sighed in relief and headed to the door.

I stepped out into a small garden with patches of grass and a toolshed standing alone on the garden. I went for the keypad next to the door and typed in the code, trying to remember the numbers that he gave us. 3-9-0-1-5-8.

Then the door opened, revealing a platform that led to the base. I stepped on it, allowing the artificial intelligence to recognize me.

"Ah," came the robotic voice. "Welcome back David. Going down to base. . .now."

At that moment, the platform rumbled and then began its descent.

When I saw our base of operations, I could do nothing but marvel at the futuristic designs. Everything was just like how they left it: the monitors were all off, the tables had nothing on top and the gadgets and all the other apparatus remained untouched. Most importantly, everyone was there. I could see everyone else: Xander, Mika, Niko, and John. They looked at me as I came to the ground.

When I did, they didn't greet at me or talk or anything. They just stared at me with grim expressions like they knew that very hard times were coming ahead of them, which of course, was completely normal in our superhero lives.

But this day wasn't normal and everyone in the room knew it. I just felt sorry that their lives were just going to get so complicated that glares couldn't express the full feeling.

"We need to talk," I finally said. "We have a lot to talk about."