The Last World

Run! The word sank in as a command. “Run!!” It seemed louder the second time, much clearer. It was dark, the whole world around me was covered in darkness, my eyelids too heavy to lift themselves. I tried to move but seemed glued to the ground. The scent of moist soil and grass braced my nose one more time, the sense growing in itself. I licked my dry cracked lips, they were sore and I could taste the blood from them. My head pounded so hard, making it difficult for me to ponder on what happened, if at all I was alive, where was i? where was everyone? My eyes flew open as my heart sent itself flying at the thought. “Adam!” I let the scream escape my mouth even before I realized it. Chapter one. It was yet another day like all of them before, at least that’s what I thought. For an O like me, life was pretty much simple, less interesting and complicated. I had to live by the same routine, hang around a certain kind of people, not that I wanted to but because I was a misfit, no one, absolutely no one wanted to hang around an O like me, unless of course they were a loser, a fellow O and they were only a few of us. At Mistletoe Academy I could count all O’s with one hand, there was Kira and I from senior class, the junior from 4th grade with orange hair. “Adam the bus arrives in five, we need to go!” I screamed to my twin brother as I walked to the door. Adam was everything I loved in this world, unlike every other ABLE (as we called them) kid out there, he treated me like his equal, I knew I wasn’t, I wasn’t even close to been his equal but he loved me, maybe even more than I did him. “Take care of your brother Sky.” My mum said as she handed me both our lunches. My mum was an ABLE, both my parents were. My mother was an ALPHA but she looked more of an ACE, she had a soft side to her to her, most ALPHA’s didn’t. she talked less and observed more, she smiled almost always. She never used her powers, at least not around me, or it never just called for it. “like he needed me.” I teased as I packed the lunch away “baffles me too, why mum thinks you are of much use to me.” Adam teased as he rushed down the stairs, “you are nothing without me Sky, I am thy creator.” He laughed. I was for sure nothing without him. The ride to school was always a bother. On days Adam didn’t go to school, I forged sick, or I trekked to and fro school. Moving on a bus filled with ABLE’s who couldn’t crush or make me, or even know my thoughts wasn’t a plan, never. I couldn’t stand them staring at me while they jacked and linked into each others thoughts and gossiped about an O who even if she wanted to couldn’t sense nothing but silence. Eyes preyed on me as I walked behind Adam, its not something I wasn’t used to but it felt new everyday, feeling their eyes pierce into my skin and knowing their mind spoke ill about my disabilities reaped the soul out of me. I always took the window seat, my twin brother the passenger’s, protecting me, always. Am sure he heard the mind conversations all the other ABLEs had on the bus about me, but not once did he speck of it to me. I remember in fifth grade he fought with Robert parker about some mind comment he passed on me and we didn’t go to school for a whole month because he was on suspension. I didn’t blame the head teacher for taking such a drastic measure, if I were her I would have expelled him for leaving a fellow ABLE almost half dead. I always took my classes with kira, regarding the fact that it was just me and her and miss Velvet in class everyday made my life a little enduring. We shared a lot of things with the ABLEs but not our learning space. They unlike us used mind linking for lessons. No talking yet the lesson was on, how intriguing. Miss Velvet despite been an Able was the teacher for the disabled, us the O’s. she wasn’t the best but she was all we had. We had no special abilities, it was miss Velvet’s duty to teach us to survive. How to protect ourselves. We did take sciences and mathematics like the other kids but we also took material arts, not like the other kids did it, they had the physical abilities, not me and kira. The Alphas were known to be the strongest. The turned fire to ice and vice versa. They were known to be fireproof, they never burned but could burn, all with their bare hands, they had remarkable strength as well. They also jacked into the minds of others, made them do things they wanted them to do, but the law stopped them from such a practice. The Ace on the other hand had hands of ice and the sight and smell ten times that of a lion. They saw before anybody else could, they froze things with their hands, even their minds. Just like the Alpha’s they were strong but not stronger. As for me and kira, we did what we could, we were weak, the weakest, all it took was for an Alpha to poke me in the chest and that could send me crashing into the ground. I was only good with a bow, and an arrow, I could shoot one after the other, even four in one second, I never missed my target, well it took years of practice but I eventually got there. Kira could throw an axe like on one I have ever seen before, not that I had a chance but she was the best at it. That’s all we had, arrows and axes. I strolled to the cafeteria at lunch, kira in my company. We finally spotted Adam after collecting our food and sat with him at the table. Kira’s interest in my brother was undeniable, she talked less around him, ate less, she was too shy, maybe a little too shy for Adam’s type. “Are you coming for the game tonight at Bob’s?” Adam asked, his eyes on kira, forcing her to look up from her tray. Adam always spoke out loud to us, he couldn’t link our minds even if he wanted to. “Are you coming?” kira directed the question to me immediately. “No,” I wanted to go, I knew very well I wanted to watch Adam play the finals. “I have to cook dinner tonight.” I lied. It wasn’t the dinner that kept me away. It was the thought of having been the only one cheering out my brother’s name loud like at the last game. “you should go.” I quickly added. If Kira was going to win my brother over the least she could do was be the for him. If not for her then for me. “I…I can use some soccer tonight.” Kira shyly said, looking at me most of the time than at Adam. “That woul…” My words got stuck as I suddenly felt the ground shake. It was like a light pat, like someone shaking you out of sleep then it was silent again. I eyes scanned the tiles of the cafeteria before searching the faces of the other kids, everybody was minding their own business, eating up their lunch, like nothing happened. I assumed they talked about it in their minds. “Sky?” Adam’s voice brought my eyes back to him. “You okay?” “Yeah” I blinked away from his gaze, “I thought I felt somethi…you guys didn’t..” their faces looked blank, I could swear I imagined it. It seemed none of it happened. “I need to use the bathroom.” I lied, getting up to my feet. I could feel some eyes turning as I walked down towards the door, given the chance, these ABLEs would eat me alive. “SKY!” My feet came to a halt as I felt my heart drop to my stomach. That was Adam’s voice, in pain, in so much pain. I quickly span my head around looking at the table we had occupied, right at the other end of the cafeteria. Adam, he was there but he wasn’t calling for me, he wasn’t in pain. He was saying something to Kira causing her to laugh so hard as she shyly covered her mouth. ‘I must be losing my mind’ I thought as I sighed in relief. I was about to turn away when I suddenly noticed the glass next to the empty table I was standing at shaking. Slowly at first then suddenly vigoriously . the earth below me followed suit. This time everybody felt it because they were all looking at the tiles below them. “SKY!” Adam called out to me as he got to his feet. The shaking became worse, I could see the walls begin to c***k, it was like the earth suddenly went angry, venting its wrath upon our poor souls. Cars were honking outside people were screaming, something they could do in their minds but they were not. Everything was happening so fast, too fast for me to get a grasp on. Someone hit my shoulder as they walked past me, crashing me into the ground. I saw Jordan, a guy that lived next door hold out his hand for a falling piece of the roof. I stumbled to get to my feet but the people running past me made it no easy. The school was falling into pieces, the best I could do was run but not without Adam and Kira. I eyes scanned the area but before I could spot them I fell back to the ground, my ankle hitting the tiles as hard as my left elbow but the pain was nothing I was willing to take right now. I was scared, my heart was racing, pounding so hard against my chest I thought it would explode. “Sky” Adam’s voice was closer but I couldn’t see him. “sky I got you.” His hand found my arm. My eyes quickly found his face, bringing a rush of tears to my eyes. I couldn’t explain why, I wasn’t looking for a reason. “it’s okay, am here now.” he carried me on his back seen my injured ankle wasn’t going to do us any better in terms of speed while Kira held on to my hand. “What’s going on?” I asked as we rushed down the school hallway to the entrance, where everyone was headed. “I don’t know,” Adam explained, “but we have to get home soon.” We rushed through the doors of the school to the parking lot, not that we had a ride waiting but the bus was our perfect chance, if any one was even going to drive it. I could see the bus a few meters away from us when Adam suddenly stopped dropping me to the ground as his hands fell on his side and head forward. “what the hell!” I screamed, “what was that fo..” I felt my heart sink when my eyes rose to everybody else. No one was running, no one panicking, no one screamed. They all just stood, like statues, frozen. Hands by the side, head dropped forward, eyes open, breathe even but no movement. I looked up at Kira and she looked down at me. Leaning against her, I stambled to my feet. Scanning the school grounds and the parking lot at this new out com “adam,” I whispered as I shook him. His body was right before me but it seemed his senses had left him. “adam please wake u…” Suddenly all the empty minded bodies found themselves to the floor, like the little life that was left in them had just been sucked out. “adam!” I screamed as my knees found myself before him and my hands shaking up to life but to no avail. “Sskkyyy” kira faintly called out to me. My eyes drove to her face, her eyes were wide at something behind me. Her finger slowly lifted to point at it and I slowly turned at its speed. A heavy fog was headed right for us, as heavy as a cloud. I didn’t know what it was, or what it meant but I knew for a fact it wasn’t good. I looked across the park to a scream that came the direction of the smoke. It was the 4th grade O. she was running as fast as her small, short legs could carry carry her. She screamed something but I couldn’t make it out. “what?” I asked Kira. “she is saying to run I think.” Kira answered, unsure of the answer. “THE SMOKE BURNS…GO! RUN!” the girl came in louder and before I could even process any of her words the smoke swallowed her, she was gone. “we have to go.” Kira said in panic as she pulled me off the ground. “not without Adam.” I shouted, breaking her grip from my hand. “he isn’t of much help laying there.” She screamed back, “Sky we have to go!” I looked down at my brother, his lifeless body laying on bare concrete as his eyes watched the blue sky, then I looked at the grey thick cloud headed towards then back at Kira. My soul sagged, I didn’t have much choices. “you take the head start.” I told her. “I cant leave my brother here.” “you cant die with him either!” kira screamed, “sky we have to go.” “NOT WITHOUT ADAM!” I made it clear. “fine.” I watched kira break into a run, saving herself, without hesitation, no second thought, she didn’t even bother looking back or asking me to change my mind, she every well knew I wouldn’t, it would have been a share waste of her time. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I felt the cloud grow closer. My thoughts ran back to my childhood. Adam and I fighting over who would take the first room upstairs once we moved Wellington. We fought over everything back then, even when mum labeled our school lunch with our names, we still wanted the other’s. Adam burnt my wrist with the heel of his palm out of anger once, it was then he discovered he was an alpha, like mum. All these years they waited for me to turn, but after fourteen, they knew there was no hope for me. I was an O. My eyes flew open at the pain the smoke inflicted, it was like a thousand needles going in and out of my skin a million times over, even before I could let out my painful scream, my world went dark.