The Others –
I brushed a bush of thick dark hair away from my face as I waited for the green power light of my computer to click off. Outside the house there was the soft tread of tire as a car rolled down the street on the wet pavement. The sound of rain was barely audible through the shutters of the closed window. The sound of the car we replaced with the clicking of locks and the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs outside. Then there was a knock on the door.
“Hello? Visitor’s this late at night?” I heard my mother say as I heard the metallic click of the door opening.
“We are looking for a Kade Harris?” Their voices were deep, they were asking for me. Adrenalin started to rush to my head and I took that as an immediate sign to get out of there, now. I threw the window open and grabbed purse and one of my wooden swords off the wall. I pulled the scissors out of my desk drawer and cut a whole in the mess screen before jumping through, kicking something off the desk by accident.
“She’s down here!” I heard on of them call as I heard clumping as they pushed past my mother and came running down the hall.
“She’s getting away!” was all I heard before jumping into the garden and vaulting over the fence into the alleyways behind the house.
I dodged around garbage cans as I ran down the slick alley. The rain poured down on my head and I pushed my self faster, avoiding the headlights of the car as it tried its best to follow me. I moved to the left, but not enough, a piece of scrap metal nicked my leg as I failed to clear a pile of garbage.
“Hey, you there, stop running!” I heard someone call from an open window on the passenger’s side, I kept running. I took a sharp left and the car missed my move and lost sight of me. Only a few more blocks, I thought to my self. A motivation for my lungs that felt like fire; two figures in black appeared before me. I stopped and held my weapon before me; the men snicker as they pulled guns. Two shots to the right, I ducked but one of them grazed my shoulder, leaving a small gash. I placed my hand on the pavement, it was cement, perfect. I dug my hand into the ground; pavement crawled up my arm, coating my skin. The men didn’t look the least bit surprised by this, none of these people would. I charged forward, knocking them over, and then I kept running.
I turned down the last street, my feet already to frozen with cold and raw from running. I sprinted down to the third door and slid to a stop. I balled my back to normal hands into fists and pounded in the door with all the strength I had left.
“Jarin, get your butt down to this door and open it for me, Jarin, I swear if you don’t open this door, I’ll…” I screamed, as a very, very tired looking Jarin opened the door. As soon as he saw me, the sleepiness in his eyes melted into confusion and rage.
“Holy *, Kade, what happened to you, get inside,” he said, ushering me through the door then looking around before shutting it. I stumbled in the door and wandered to the kitchen. I sank into a chair and flopped my head on the table, now giving my self time to catch my breath.
“Okay, what happened?” he asked looking over my injuries and rain soaked tank and shorts.
“They came to my house, my house, to my mother. They asked for me, so I ran,” I said, pointing to the stuff I had dropped by the door.
“Well, I’ll be right back,” he said as he left the room and moments later returned with some bandages, a few towels, and a bottle of cleaning alcohol. I pulled a towel around my shoulders and poured cleaning alcohol on another, using it to clean my cuts and then bandaged them as Jarin threw some food on the stove.
“Who do you think it was?” he asked as he set a plate of scrabbled eggs and bacon on the table; he sank into the other chair across from me.
“I can’t be sure, I don’t think it was the Infernos, they had compact guns and nice cars. I think it may have been the institution,” I said.
“Great, how did the institution get your name and address, I think we need to go see Tarek, he’ll know what to do,” Jarin said, pushing the plate forward. I grabbed one of the forks off the table and took a small bite of egg, then another, just then realizing how hungry I was.
“Okay so that’s settled.”
“What’s settled? I can’t go home, they’ll find me there,” I said in between bites.
“Okay, so that’s why you can stay here then we’ll go see Tarek in the late morning,” he said, I nodded and placed the fork on the now empty plate. His stood up and placed the plate in the sink before I followed him upstairs.
Outside the rain was still falling against the window as we entered the one bedroom.
“Sorry, I can’t make more comfortable accommodations for you, I guess you could have the bed,” he said, I smiled weakly at him.
“Don’t worry about me,” I said.
“Well that’s kind of hard when you show up at my house rain soaked and injured, I mean I saw you standing there frozen with cold and fear, and I swear my mind shut down,” he said, I sank down in the corner and rested my head against the wall. I was dead tired and yet I didn’t sleep a wink. I just lay there in silence for several hours before the quiet seemed to be too much. I stood and looked around the familiar room. Jarin was asleep near the wall and the digital clock read 6:37am. I walked down stairs and pulled my cell out of my purse. I flipped it open and sent and dialed my home number.
“Hello?”
“Mom? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Besides being worried about you. Who were those men? They looked official? Did you get in trouble with the law?”
“No mom, it’s nothing like that.”
“Then what is it, I want answers, now.”
“Just trust me mom, I can’t tell you who they were, but you need to know that they weren’t from the government, they came from a place called the institution and they were after me. I can’t tell you why, but you’re not safe. Don’t trust anyone and if you can get away from the city, don’t tell anyone where your going.”
“Kade, I really don’t like this, tell me what’s going on, where are you?”
“Mom, you can’t know what’s going on; it will just put you in more danger, don’t worry, I’m at a friends house, I’m safe, just get away, I’ll call you later,” I said then snapped the phone shut.
What is really going on? You should know. We are the others, humans with ‘special’ abilities. The abilities all turn around the same, manipulation of the things around us. My ability is to cover my body with whatever it is I touch, the pavement for an example. An extra skin of titanium is wonderful for the deflection of bullets. Jarin is one too, same with Tarek and the others who call themselves Others. The institution is an organization that has been after us for a while, Tarek is an expert on avoiding them; he’s been doing it for almost ten years. We call ourselves the others because that is what we are, different from the rest of the world.
A few things you should know about Others. None of us can fly or shoot laser beams from our eyes. We aren’t like the superheroes you read about in the comic books. Kryptonite can’t hurt me, but plenty of other things can. Like I said earlier, we use the things around us. Take Jarin for another example, he’s our attack guy. You light a fire with a match or there is a nice tree growing near by, he’ll use it against you. Jarin uses the elements, earth, wind, fire, and water to his advantage. Tarek’s skill lies in the manipulation of sound, which if you get on his bad side, really stings. There are more in our gang of Others, more than you would think but we are still a small minority. There are two other girls and three other guys.
The Infernos are our enemies. There aren’t like us, they are your normal type of gang. They take our gifts are a weapon, but since we wouldn’t join them, they take us as a threat. They come to us with one choice, join or die. As far as I know, none of us have joined, and they have two Others dead. The Infernos are still after the rest of our heads.
I looked up when I heard creaking on the stairs, it was Jarin.
“Let me guess, didn’t sleep at all?”
“No, not a wink,” I said, placing my phone back in my purse.
“I wouldn’t either if I just found out the institute had my address, I mean just think about what other information they could have on you.”
“You’re really not helping…”
“Sorry…” he said, walking across the room to the counter. I saw him open the door of the refrigerator and from over his shoulder I could see there was very little food in it.
“Sorry to impose on you,” I said.
“It’s okay; I’d have to go shopping anyway. Uh, lets go out for breakfast.” I nodded as he tossed a coat to me. I threw it on and followed him as he grabbed his keys and went out the door.
I took another sip of my ‘StarBucks’ coffee and turned the corner on to a deserted street. To my right there was a stair way down to a locked down. I held the lock between my hands and moved the pieces until it clocked open in my hands. I unwrapped the chain and threw the door open; Jarin and I walked inside before closing the door behind us. We walked through a few hallways, seeing that we had walked in the back door.
“Hello?” the familiar voice of Tarek.
“Hey, we got some news you’ll want to know,” Jarin said as we walked into the common room. Tarek placed the lump of metal we was holding and ushered us to the old wooded table that stood at the other side of the room.
“What happened?” he asked, looking over what I was wearing.
“People from the Institute came to Kade’s house,” Jarin said. Tarek’s eye went wide and encouraged me to continue from the beginning.
Minutes later, Tarek sat back in his chair and folded his hands across his chest.
“Okay, so why don’t you go take a shower and changed, I’ll contact the others and Jarin and I will figure out what our next move is, I think Kimmy is in the back room, tell her to come out here,” he said, I nodded. I stood and walked into the back room. The compound had small areas for each member to sleep in if they wanted to; the areas also contained some of our personal belongings.
“Hey, Kimmy!” I said, as I walked past a small Latino girl who was lying on a bed with her arm over her face. She opened her eyes and sat up.
“Oh, hi, you look like you had a rough night,” she said.
“You could say that… Tarek wants to see you,” I said as I walked across to my area. I pulled out some clothes and walked into the shower area.
I ran the extra brush I had there through my wet hair and pulled it into a lose bun. I straightened my green and white sweater as I entered the room where Kimmy, Jarin, Tarek, and two other members, Carmen, and Andrew all sat.
“Stephan and Darius couldn’t make it?” I asked as I sat down; naming the last two members of the group.
“No, Stephan has school and I couldn’t get a hold of Darius,” Tarek said.
“He’s probably still asleep and hung-over, last night was wild!” Kimmy said, half excited, half sarcastic.
“Well, ignoring that, you all know about the current situation, so this is what we’re gonna do – don’t give anyone your names, you can wear disguises of you want, but be carefully, keep your Other life and your public life completely different,” Tarek said, “Kade, you especially need to keep a cover.”
“I know, I know, I’ll uh… I’ll go see Arrow about a fake I-D,” I said.
“Great, are you okay with all this?”
“Yeah, it’s just, my life has just fallen apart and now I have to try to put the pieces back together,” I said, rubbing my hand over my sore temples.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay, we’ll all help you get through it,” Jarin said, draping an arm over my shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
“Thanks,” I said, leaning my head on his chest.
I took the little laminated card and looked over it.
“Okay Ms. Copper Killeen, here is your ID and license,” Arrow said as he handed me a few more things.
“Copper?”
“Yeah, I played up your eye color to make you look more exotic,” he said, handing me contacts that gave me eyes a purple tint.
“Alright, thanks a bunch Arrow.”
“And remember, you don’t know who I am, I don’t exist.”
“And neither do I,” I said, he smiled as I turned around and left.
I closed the door and threw my stuff on the bed as I walked into the compound.
“Hey Kade,” Jarin said as he walked over to me.
“Actually, I’m Ms. Copper Killeen,” I said.
“Copper, like the metal?”
“Yeah…”
“It’s pretty, so I was thinking, we need to sneak back into your house and get your stuff,” he said. I raised an eyebrow.
“Sweet! I’ve never broken into my own house before,” I said and followed him back out the door.
I ducked behind a garbage can across from my house.
“There…” Jarin said and pointed, I followed his finger to see a black car with darkened windows. The institution was watching my house.
“The back door, the screen for my window should still be open,” I said, he nodded and we headed to the back. I stood in the garden and looked at the screen as Jarin came around. I lowered my self into the room and headed to the closet. I pulled a duffle bag out and stuffed a bunch of my clothes and belongings into it. I walked to my desk and pulled my computer and some disks into a case and lowered my stuff out the window.
“Kade, someone’s co…” Jarin started to say when the door flew off its hinges and two men in official looking suits; both with gun; burst into the room.
“You broke into my house, you tried to KIDNAP me, and now you destroy my room? You are going to PAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I yelled and pulled a round-house to the first one’s head. He pulled a hand up and knocked my lag aside sending a jar up to my hip. I turned and landed another below his ear. The second one sent a round right as Jarin pulled my through the window. We ducked as bullet came through the window and broken glass showered down on us.
“Hey you okay?” Jarin asked, I nodded and stood only to find my leg stiff and painful. I rolled my jeans up to find a huge bruise that stretched from my ankle to my knee, Jarin pulled my onto his back.
“Let’s go!” he said and took off running around the house. Jarin is pretty strong for a lean 19 year-old, and my being a relatively light 17 year-old, but carrying me and my stuff he was obviously using wind to make the load lighter. I head the clicking of doors as the men got into the cars but I didn’t hear the sound of the car as it followed after us. I looked back to see the car bolted to the ground with tree roots.
“Jarin, have I every told you how much I love you?” I said, he just laughed and continued to the base.
I nearly straggled Jarin with a hug once we were safe inside the base.
“You do not know how much I owe you,” I said.
“For what?”
“Uh… I don’t know, for taking me in when people attacked my house, or maybe for throwing me on your back and rescuing me from the same people who attacked my house, Jarin, you just saved my life,” I said.
“Well I owe you too,” he said shrugging and setting me down in a chair.
“Andrew, you still here?” Jarin called. A boy with shaggy platinum hair poked his head out from around the corner.
“Yeah?”
“We require your expertise here,” Jarin said, he walked over to us.
“What can I help you with?” I pulled on the leg of my pants, he gimmicked.
“Okay… uh… you have some swelling so let’s get this elevated and I take a closer look,” he said, talking to him self. I pulled my leg up to rest on another chair and Andrew started to poke at it.
“It fells like there is a crack in the bone as well as some swelling, thus the bruise, how did you get this?”
“I kicked a guy and he hit my leg, is there really a crack?”
“Yeah, but I think I can do something about that…” he said as he held a hand over my leg. I felt a warmth as the bone knitted its self back together.
“Sorry, I can’t do much about the bruise because it’s already there, although the bone and whatever was bleeding seems to be healed,” he said. I unrolled my leg and stood.
“Takes Andrew, you saved me weeks!” I said, he smiled and pated my head.
See as I said, having these gifts were helpful, Andrew could manipulate bones and such. All of us had different gifts. Like I said earlier, I manipulate substances, Jarin manipulates the elements, Tarek sound, and Andrew bones. Kimmy has technology so she can hack any system. Carmen could manipulate gravity, which was really cool because she can make it heavier or lighter and in area range she wanted. Stephan and Darius were brothers, but Stephan could manipulate electromagnetism and Darius could change and enhance memories.
I shoved my bags under the bed and plugged my com in.
“Hey so I know you’ve had a rough day but I was thinking, maybe we should go out and test that fake ID,” Kimmy said as she walked over. I shrugged.
“Okay, let’s see how well I can pull off Copper Killeen,” I said and pulled out a change of clothes.
I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the purple tinted contacts that were in my eyes. I threw my hair over one shoulder and turned to the others.
“How do I looked?” I asked Kimmy. I was standing out side one of the hot spots in town, The Hallow, with Kimmy, Darius (who finial decided to show), Stephan, Tarek, and a bored looking Jarin.
“Very nice, Ms. Killeen,” she said. We walked up to the door; the bouncer looked us up and down before letting us pass. Inside the lighter were off a music pumped in the air. The sent of sweat and alcohol hang heavy in the air. We all spread off in different directions, Kimmy dragging me into the center of a large dance group. We dance with a few different guys for a while before going off to find the others. Tarek and Jarin were chatting with Carmen who had just shown up. Stephan was neat them talking with a few girls and Darius was off somewhere, probably dancing or drinking with some girls. I sat down next to Jarin and turned to the bar tender.
“What can I get you?”
“The Special, one for both of us,” Kimmy said, leaning over me.
“Can I see some ID?” he asked. I slowly pulled my new ID from my bag and handed to him. He glanced at Kimmy’s then took a long look at mine.
“Copper…” he said, I nodded, “An exotic name for a very exotic woman,” he said with a smile as he handed it back to me. He turned around and then returned with our drinks. I glanced at mine then turned to the others to join in on their conversation when suddenly there was a bang and the back entrance to the club burst open.
“The institution?” Carmen whispered.
“No, the Inferno…” Tarek said, shaking his head and lifted a hand, “Five I want you to run and find Darius, meet up back at the base.” He counted with his fingers and when we reached five we all shot off in different directions. Jarin and I shot through the crowd to the front Stephan appeared next to me and we found Darius within minutes. There was a scream to my right as a large man pushed through with a gun. I grabbed at my neck, looking for the small metal pendant that hung there. I closed my fingers around it and signed in relief as I felt the substance crawl over my arm. The grabbed at his gun and tore through it easily. He rushed at me only to me side stepped and ran smack into Darius’ open hand. I saw his eyes go wide before the returned to normal. He stood up and looked around, clearly confused by the lack of memory, a curtsey of Darius. I pushed Jarin out of the way as anther man came at him, this one getting a broken nose from me. We kept running from there until we were outside.
I turned to the corner to find an empty car; I pulled on the door hand to find it was locked.
“Stephan!” I called, he nodded and with the flick of his hand the doors sprang open. He slid into the front seat and used his powers to turn the car on and clicked it to drive. I jumped into the front as Darius and Jarin slid into the back. The moment the doors closed, Stephan wheeled away full speed. He turned down several streets, barely avoiding on coming traffic and arrived at the base within minutes. The lock on the door was broken.
Darius was the first to run inside. A member of the Inferno was waiting for him and grabbed him, placing a knife to him neck.
“Don’t move!” Tarek yelled. The rest of us came into the room to find him, Kimmy, Carmen, and Andrew in the center, several armed Infernos surrounding them. From out of the shadows the leader of the Infernos, Leon, emerged.
“Well, well, well, it seems we have you all now. And again, I give you the same choice, join us or die,” he said as two other people appeared behind him.
“The answer is the same as before, none of us will join you,” Tarek said.
“That is just too bad; you know on our side, you wouldn’t be alone…” the two stepped out of the shadows to reveal a boy and a girl.
“Allow me to introduce the special unit members of Inferno,” he said and with a waving hand motion stepped to the side. The girl had long hair that shown sliver in the dim light. She held a hand and one of the metal bars resting in the corner of the room seemed to spread and jump to her hand. She held it lightly before disappearing and then appeared behind Leon.
“Isn’t she something?” Leon said, placing a hand on her shoulder, “Name’s Anne, she manipulates molecules.”
“And this one here, Lior, has control over energy,” he said, motioning to the tall, heavily tattooed boy. With a single motion the people surrounding us move off and gathered on the railing that covered the walls. The truth came to me; Leon was setting up a fight of Others vs. Others. Tarek grabbed Kimmy’s arm and lean her over to us, Carmen and Andrew followed.
“Andrew I want you to stay out of this, you’re much too valuable to lose; Kimmy you are to protect him at all costs. Darius, Stephan, and Carmen, I want you in backup, and Jarin and Kade, I want you both with me in the front,” he said no one argued. I turned around to face then enemy.
“You ready?” Jarin asked, standing by my side as we flanked Tarek.
“I don’t know, but I know that I’m glad it was you I was with,” I said, with a smile.
“Yup, Kade, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said and we prepared for one of our biggest fights yet.
The moment Anne and Lior rushed us, Jarin and I dropped to the floor; Tarek let out a supper-sonic scream that was enough to force them both back. I placed my hand on the ground and covered both arms with cement while Jarin pulled out the lighter from his pocket and lit it; pulling the flame into his hand. Anne was up first and she rushed at Tarek first who pushed with another sound blast. Jarin and I took off on opposite sides of Lior. He looked around and focused on one of the electrical outlets as balls of energy flowed out and swirled around him. I waved his hands and the ball flew towards us. I deflected one off my stone arm to find the stone didn’t dissolve the shock all the way. I fell as the shock ran through my body.
“Tarek!” Jarin called as I got to my feet. Tarek nodded in understanding as he came to cover me. Darius ran to my side as I worked to fend off Anne. I pushed her back and it seemed I was winning when I noticed the bar she called earlier, but too late. She called for it and I waited to feel the rod in my side when I felt the splash of blood on my skin. I opened my eyes to see Darius standing in front of me, the metal sticking out of his chest. Stephan let out a deafening cry of rage and he and Carmen charged Anne. I fell to the floor, Darius’ dead weight for my already weak legs to handle. I pulled him to my chest, tears falling down face. He smiled weakly up at me as Andrew ran to my side, Kimmy behind him.
“Kade, I can’t heal him, he has already lost too much blood,” He said. Darius pulled a hand up to my forehead. Images of him and Stephan and of our gang flowed into my mind. When he lowered his hand I nodded in understanding. With one final smile he closed his eyes and moved no more.
“Oh God, Darius, please wake up,” I said, Andrew took him from me as Kimmy helped me to my feet. I pushed past her and locked my gaze on Lior. I rushed at him, covering my self in titanium. Lior sent another ball at me and I paid no attention to the painful shock that ran up my body and pressed Lior back. I don’t remember how many times I hit him until Jarin and Tarek prided me off him. I screamed and tried to get out of Jarin’s grasp but he just rapped him arms tighter around me.
“Kade, Kade! It’s over, stop!” he said.
“But they killed him, I have to…” I said, he pulled me away.
“Kade, it’s okay, it’s over,” he said, again and the world faded to black.
The sound of wind rushing by the window was the first thing I heard when I came to. I sat up and looked around. Tarek was driving with Kimmy in the fount seat. I was sure that Andrew and Carmen had gone home because it was only Stephan and Jarin I the back with me.
“Darius sent me a mind message before he died, he really loved you, Stephan, we really did,” I said, starting to cry again. Stephan nodded and looked out the window again. Tarek dropped us at our backup base. Jarin helped me out of the car and I stood outside as the rain started to come down.
“Tonight we lost a lot,” Tarek said, “But that shows we need to fight back, the Others are here to claim their place in this world!” he said as he placed out a fist. We all stacked ours on top. The Others were here to stay.
