The Next Generation (FIRST DRAFT)

Chapter 18

“What do you mean they had Ben?! What were they doing with him?!” Talon shouted.

    “Woah, woah, woah. You need to chill out man,” Dawson said. “I don’t know what they were doing to him, we just saw them carrying him on a stretcher down a corridor we’re not allowed to go into and we want to know more. So we did a bit of snooping and figured out the whole shebang.”

    “Did you find out what that is they were taking him into?” 

    “Actually we did.” Brayden said. “They apparently sort you guys by physical risk and your friend Benjy or whatever, was classified as a midrisk.”

    “What is that supposed to mean?”

    “From what we can tell, low-risks like yourself are put here because they cannot get out of here with use of their powers,” Dawson explained. 

    “Yeah, and mid-risks can get out of here, so they put them in special made cells that they can’t get out of,” Brayden continued.

    “Well, what about high-risks then?”

    Braydon and Dawson exchanged worried glances. 

    “Well,” Dawson started. “From what we’ve heard, they’re the ones that cannot be contained, no matter how hard we try.” 

    “But there’s only like one or two of them so there’s no need to worry,” Brayden added nervously.

    “But between you and me,” Dawson said, leaning closer to tell Talon quietly. “These people are so powerful that if they were to ever wake up, they could blow a hole through this entire base, taking out everyone in it, all in a matter of seconds.”

    “Hey, that kinda sounds like Lucy,” Talon said without thinking.

    “Wait, you know one of them?!” Brayden exclaimed.

    “Well, based off of your description and what I know of her powers, I think so.”

    “What can she do?” Dawson asked. 

    “She can manipulate matter, meaning she can make it float, make something disappear by dispersing its atoms, or make something entirely new out of nothing but the air around us. 

    The two guards looked at him, astonished. “That’s a high-risk if I ever saw one,” Dawson said.

    “Yeah, you’re right,” Brayden said. “That’s a kind of person that no cage could contain.”

    “Well, what do they do to the high-risks?” Talon asked.

    “They don’t allow them to wake up,” Brayden said.

    “Pump them so full of sedatives that not even the apocalypse would wake them up,” Dawson added. 

    Talon looked crestfallen. “They do realize that when they wake up, they’re going to be furious, right?”

    “If they wake up,” Brayden said.

    “‘If’ is good,” Dawson added. 

    Talon looked down at the floor. He was worried. When everybody ended up breaking out of here, which would happen, Talon could guarantee it, he was worried how Lucy would react. Talon predicted that if such a thing happened, she would probably destroy everything in sight, living or nonliving. There would be no stopping her rampage. 

    Suddenly, Talon heard a noise from down the hall. It came from the last cell on his side. Looking through the bars that divided his cell from the next, he was able to look down the hall, he saw a girl, looking to be close to the same age as the fire girl that they had picked up from the burning building. She was African american with elven facial features, a petite frame, and long black hair worn in tiny braids down her back. Her eyes were large and almost black in color. She was trying to break through the bars in front of her by using what looked like frost breath, then using her foot to try to kick it down. Brayden and Dawson exchanged looks.