Elemental

Chapter 2

All I can feel is soreness weighing my body down as I squint my eyes open. "She's awake!" I hear someone say and adjust to the lighting. "Who's there?" I ask as my eyes finally open and see a few girls hiding behind what must be a doorway. "Come out." I say as I sit up. I feel the softness below me and look down to see that I'm touching a blanket, that I'm on a bed. I take in the room and see that it's much nicer than any room I've seen. It's black and brown with highlights of red and orange running through the cracks. What material is this?

"Don't touch it!" One of the girls say as they finally stop hiding from me. "Why not?" I ask and the girl shoves the other one in front of her. "Can't you tell me?" "They say it's best not to touch it until you start mastering your abilities, it may harm you in your current state." "Abilities?" "Harm me?" "I've said too much." She then places a clear pad down, like what the doctor had before pressing a button. She proceeds to leave even as I raise my hand to ask her more questions.

"I see you're awake." Indron or better known as the doctor says through the device. "Video is down at the moment so please bare with me for you'll only get audio." "Why?" I ask as I pick up the pad before sitting on the bed. "You know as well as anyone that the world is dying." "I do." "Humanity truly had no hope until twenty five years ago, when the meteor hit us." "The few astronomers left thought it would kill us but imagine all of our surprise when we found earths elements inside."

"Elements?" "Earth, air, water and fire." "It wasn't as easy as extracting it from it's core, for it needed a host." "We don't have many animals left that aren't needed for our consumption, that is when human trials began." I remember the words from the man in the truck. "You didn't get it right the first time, did you?" "Smart girl." I want to tell him that I'm nearly eighteen but it wouldn't matter to a man who only sees me as a means for his experiments.

"We had many failures at the beginning as we soon realized we needed people younger and who had the right kind of qualifications." "How was I the right candidate?" "You've been exposed to the elements as every other subject has been as well." "What is your intention with us?" "To train you of course, since each of you now posses an element that will restore earth."

"Abilities?" "One of them already told you?" "Yes, you have an ability and as soon as you walk outside, you'll realize what your ability is." "Can't you tell me?" "I prefer a little excitement since I have you all trapped in there like my own game of chess." The pad grows dark and I realize he's gone.

I've now learnt that I have an ability with no idea of which one. I also know that we're trapped in some sort of cage with no way out. "You done?" The girls from earlier enter my room and one of them takes the pad away. "Mellie." "Ellie." They great me, this time with a wary smile on their faces. "Lia." "You're supposed to come outside now, right?" "Yeah." "We'll help you as I'm sure you'll have questions."

They lead the way out as I observe the red silky texture of the dress I'm wearing. One of the perverted doctors much have changed me. "We only got here a few weeks ago." Mellie tells me as Ellie nods in agreement. "You seem awfully close for people who've only know each other a few weeks." "We're sisters." Ellie says and it all makes sense. "How old are you both?" "I'm sixteen and Ellie is fifteen." "Almost eighteen." I say and they halt in their steps and look back at me. "You were almost free."

"What do you mean?" Mellie frowns before walking towards me. "They only take those who are under eighteen." She turns back around and continues to lead the way as I realize that I almost didn't have to go through this. I take in the same material of black and brown coating the walls. I look a bit closer as we walk and see the red and orange cracks seem to be moving. "We're almost there." Ellie says as we walk down the hallway.

We finally stop in front of a solid black door and Mellie opens it. I see light and am happy to not be inside the darkness of the house. They both walk out and I follow hesitantly.

"Wha..t?" What I see isn't just beauty but something out of this world. "That was our reaction as well, we're from up north." "Never could we dream of a place like this." I look at the same black substance that covers the ground. "Lava rock." Ellie answers and I observes the red and orange rivers that run through it. "Lava." "I've heard about it from stories."

"It truly is dangerous to touch or to be around it but our element makes us able to do so." "Our element?" "Look around and take a guess." I look behind me first and see the house we were in is covered in lava and molten rock. It's built up much like a mountain, with rigid glass that must be the windows.

"Turn around." I do as Millie says and I look to the right and see something I've missed dearly. It's a landscape of greenery. The house is much like ours in size but is instead made up off flowers, grass and even trees cover the grounds it's on. "Wow." "It had been awhile since we'd seen anything green as well."

We walk forward and I'm about to step towards the green house when Ellie stops me. "We can't." "You don't understand the rules yet but we must stay at our own house or in the neutral zone." She gestures to the center and it's grey, with an odd bubble around it.

"Why can't we go over there?" "Our abilities will harm the plant life." I don't understand but listen to them anyway. We walk forward instead, into the bubble. It doesn't pop as we step through. "Our abilities are neutralized in here." "Same as the others." Mellie finishes and I realize what's going on as I look to the left and see a metal, steel and stone house with a tornado circling around it.

"That means..." I run forward and stop at the edge of the bubble as I see an ice house with water falls coming from the top and solidifying at the bottom. "All the elements." "Yes." Mellie answers. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Would you believe any of us if we had?" Indron, the doctor startles all of us as he walks towards us. Mellie and Ellie step back as I hold my ground. "You can see each house is for each ability." "This is yet another factor of the elements I didn't take into account at the beginning." "Most of my first subjects died, without being in these conditions."

"I'm starting to understand." "Have you guessed your ability yet?" "Lava..." "I'd have to assume fire." "That may well just be but there are different manifestations of fire." "Ellie here can only provide light and no real heat." "Mellie on the other hand can scorch you with the lasers her hands shoot." My eyes widen at this as I realize how dangerous they are. Am I to become like them?