Hello again! Sorry I've taken so long to upload anything... i've been lazy, sorry! Anyway, to everyone still reading this, thank you! I appreciate you all so much!
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Ch. 7~
My head bobbed up and down with the motion of the car as it sped along the deserted highway. An endless landscape of green flashed past, too blurred by our motion to see properly. We had been driving for a good twenty minutes already and, from the look of this highway, we were only getting started. Theo's eyes focused steadily on the quickly passing asphalt, Jinx's head bobbed to the music in the passenger seat up front, and I sat between Kain and Levi in the back. My head was comfortable against Kain's arm, but my seat belt was still a bit too high, and dug into my collarbone despite the fact that it had been strapped with a child safety clip to lower it so it was across my chest instead of my neck.
Jinx had wanted me to sit in front at first, until Theo had pointed out that I was actually about the height of a seven or eight year old—a fact that made me red with frustration. At that point Jinx grudgingly agreed that the back would probably be safer, and rode shotgun.
A question had been nagging at the back of my mind for the entire ride, and I finally turned my head on Kain's arm to look up at him.
"Kain, Why are we driving and not using that teleporter thing?"
"No particular reason. We just enjoy driving, besides, I'm not sure how you would handle the portal." Kain answered, his blue eyes softening as they wandered from the window to my face.
"First timers usually get sick." Levi elaborated.
"Oh." I said, turning my head straight again. Kain patted my head softly, my eyes twitching closed slightly with each touch.
Theo turned a bit in his seat so I could just see his profile. "I'm sorry if you didn't want to drive Luna… it's actually still about an hour til' we get there."
"Oh, I don't mind driving. I just wanted to know, I was kind of surprised you guys even had a car." I said, looking down and folding my hands neatly in my lap.
"It's one of the only vehicles that is easy to register and is inconspicuous on roads like this one." Jinx explained, turning around to face us in the back. "Plus we just like cars." She added with a grin.
I grinned back at her, settling back into my seat. The first spatters of rain began to hit the windshield, and soon a whole chorus of raindrops thundered around the car.
We crossed a few rivers on our way into the city, and more than our share of small lakes. The others took turns explaining things to me, like how we were actually in Washington State, about two hours outside of Seattle, and that much of the area around the Cascade Mountains was all nature reserve land owned by Jinx's friend Leo, and that was where we lived. The government now was a lot like parliament, made up of a board of representatives. But unlike parliament, these officials were not voted into power, but rather placed there by the real super power of the country, the church. This information shocked me.
"But, religion is supposed to be separate from the government!" I exclaimed, not believing what I'd just heard.
"That may have been true in your time, Luna." Theo explained, a hint of sadness in his voice. "But after the apocalypse, religion became one of the only things holding society together, and from there it grew into the main pillar of our social structure and our government."
I supposed that made sense. People must have had nothing to cling to in those times, and with only faith and hope to turn to, religion had taken over. Gaining back the power it had held in times long past.
The car grew silent again, save for the drum of raindrops playing in the background, and I yawned. The sound of the rain combined with the rhythmic motion of the car was very soothing. It had been a very long day already; maybe I would rest my eyes, just for a bit... I allowed my heavy eyelids to drop closed, welcoming the darkness.
"Luna." A voice near my ear startled me back into awareness.
"Hhnnn…?" Oh… had I fallen asleep? I blinked and stretched out my arms, taking in a big breath, and filling my lungs to the brim. My right side was warm, and I looked over to find that I had fallen asleep leaning against Levi. A pair of gold eyes smiled down at me.
"Welcome back." Levi said, "We're almost there so perk up."
I flashed a little grin at Levi and leaned forward to see out the window, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. The rain was slowly dissipating, and the sun was setting, staining the puffy rain clouds pink on the western horizon. I looked farther ahead and spotted a dark shadow against the pink and orange of the setting sun. It was a hazy skyline, dim and shapeless at first, but growing ever clearer as we approached. The distant outline of the Space Needle, which I had never before seen in person, rose to meet us as we rolled closer to the city, the setting sun cutting through the last of the rain. Hello Seattle.
Kain, Jinx, Theo, Levi, and I strode down the crowded streets of Seattle... which was very different now... It was nearly night time, and because the buildings were widely spaced I could see a fair portion of darkening sky, which was surprisingly void of light pollution from the city, allowing a few early stars to shine. The buildings seemed to be piled on top of one another, but somehow managed to retain a graceful, flowing quality despite their size. The architecture was a mixture of old-world gothic and gravity defying structures that stretched beyond my imagination; I even saw some pre-me style buildings from my own time.
I tugged at the hem of my shirt, taking my nerves out on my clothing, my tail twitched nervously behind me, but my ears were pricked forward curiously. My eyes flickered all around, taking in everything they could. The clothes people were wearing were the equivalent of punk in my time, a period Jinx and the others called 'pre-apocalypse' or 'P.A.' anything from that time was lovingly nick-named 'pre-me'. Clever right? Apparently there was a huge nuclear war years after I was sucked forward in time, leaving much of the world devastated, after that the rate of mutations in human DNA increased, and a new species emerged, Gifteds. Apparently, like in my case, the 'gifted' mutation had existed before the war, but only became the dominant trait after the nuclear interference. Now nearly everyone in this world had special abilities.
For some reason there were a lot of redheads and blondes now—Theo said the population had 'bottled-necked' or something, whatever that meant. In contrast, there weren't many people with black hair like Theo and Levi. The two boys must have been used to the gawking, because they didn't so much as blink at the stares they received from passersby, who sometimes went as far as to whisper to each other and point at the jet black tresses. I also suspected the twins got stared at because they were absolutely gorgeous... but that could have been just me. As for myself... I was a downright spectacle. I had dark hair, dark eyes—another rare feature—and at 5'6'' I was almost a foot under average height, which was 6'3'' for girls and 6'8'' for guys. Needless to say, there was a lot of gawking, I felt like a blonde person in Japan.
I kept behind Jinx to avoid the hoards of business commuters walking home, peaking out from behind her to see the spectacle that was modern window shopping. Seamless panes of glass stretched far down the street, housing all kinds of shops. My eyes greedily took in the brightly colored sweets of a candy store, the shocking purples and greens of a punk boutique, and the rich creams of a bakery. A warm, sweet smell wafted over me, and I inhaled deeply. I looked ahead to see a street vendor selling candied nuts; the scent of slightly burnt sugar and salt was intoxicating. It was then I realized we hadn't eaten dinner yet, my stomach sat like an empty shell under my ribs. I looked away from the vendor. Later, I told myself, I would think about food later.
The wide avenues gave way to a bustling plaza, an old world fountain roaring at its center. A speck of gold light caught my attention as it floated in front of my eyes. I raised my hand and caught the little orb on my finger, then carefully cupped my hands around it. It was smooth like a stone, and pulsed warmly under my fingers. I looked up at the sky, wondering where the light had come from. Far above the plaza my eyes met a spectacle, a soft gold light illuminated the city in the form of glowing spheres hanging all over the sky. They were a lot like street lamps, but only in their function, for they were much more elegant than the towering poles I was used to. I decided the spheres most closely resembled a twinkling swarm of fireflies hanging weightlessly over the streets. I looked down to find that Jinx and the others had gotten ahead of me, and I clutched my little orb to my chest, hurrying to catch up. As we continued walking I noticed that the gold orbs were floating everywhere; lighting everything from sidewalks, to the very tops of the buildings. Upon closer inspection of the skyscrapers, I found that there were walkways laced in between and along the sides buildings, so high up they that looked as thin as needles.
I tugged at Theo's sleeve. "Theo, what are those things?" I asked, pointing up at the lofty walkways.
"Those are skywalks, they're very handy on rainy days. You can get between all the buildings without setting foot outside. Or you have the open skywalks." He pointed at a nearby one that bordered the edge of a building forty stories up. "Those are more like bridges architecturally speaking. The city has these all over, it's like having two levels of streets." I gawked at Theo, the city was huge as it was, but two levels of streets?
"Keep up you two!" I looked up to see Jinx standing up ahead, waiting next to Kain and Levi with a hand on her hip. I ran to them, leaving Theo chuckling behind me as he tortured Jinx with his relaxed pace.
We were getting farther away from the shopping district now, and into a sketchier part of town. The lighting here was scarcer, and the neon signs were no longer the pinks, blues, and yellows that dominated in the shopping district, but more reds and dark, flickering purples. I opened my hands a centimeter, and peeked at my little gold orb, then, quickly deciding a course of action, shoved the speck of light into my pocket. My shoes tapped on the cracked and abused pavement, echoing off of the dark buildings on either side of us. A tingle crept up my spine, and I turned my head to glance behind us… nothing. I quickened my steps, and kept very close to the rest of the group, feeling gazes that didn't exist trained on my back.
A group of guys passed us, talking loudly; they bumped almost purposefully into Jinx as they passed, then laughed raucously. Jinx lowered her head, her long hair falling into her face as she turned slowly towards the large group of boys.
"Hey, Jack Asses!" Theo called out, stepping in front of Jinx, "What was that for?"
Both groups stopped and faced each other; I peeked out from between Kain and Jinx to watch the scene. The other group consisted of about ten or eleven boys, all of them tall like all the other people of this time, but more muscular than I had seen. All of them were fairly young, mostly teenagers, but they looked more suited to these streets than to a high school. Theo, Levi, and Kain stood taller than most of the other boys, but my friends were of a leaner build. Of course, this didn't stop them from looming over the other group, eyes glinting fiercely. I glanced up at Jinx's face through her hair and jumped back in shock, grabbing instinctively onto the shirt of the boy closest behind me, which happened to be Kain. Jinx's expression was livid, and her eyes were a smoldering black-cherry red under her long bangs. My fluffed up tail twitched nervously behind me, and my ears laid back flat on my head. Kain looked down at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Is this the best place to be right now, Sweetheart?" He asked, sighing slightly.
Oh… Now that I thought about it, it probably hadn't been a good idea. Jinx had just startled me so badly, I hadn't been thinking. I looked over my shoulder to see the group of boys leering at me, they probably hadn't even seen me in the midst of my tall friends, but in my shock I had jumped out from behind them. The darkness seemed to press at my back menacingly, and I turned swiftly, hiding behind Kain.
"What? We weren't hurting anybody." Said one of the larger boys, stepping out of the group and swaggering up confidently to face Theo. "She was in my way is all, and pretty girls should be careful this side of town. Who's the little Neko by the way? Why'd you bring her along, she can't be more than ten." He smirked, running a long, white-fingered hand through his red hair, which was slicked back into edgy spikes.
I blushed, inching behind Kain then hissing at the boy. "Don't be so cocky Carrot-top! I hear being a jerk makes your hair fall out, and I'm not a little kid!" I felt my face grow hot with anger, and my knuckles went white against the edge of Kain's shirt.
"Ooh, kitty got claws." He cackled, tilting his head back and planting a hand on his hip. "I like em' feisty." He added with a cold sneer, his pale, peridot green eyes pierced through me, making my stomach twist with discomfort. I managed to keep my chin high though, and merely narrowed my eyes menacingly. Kain reached out and pushed me further behind him, keeping his hand on my shoulder as if to say 'stay out of this'. I peeked out from under his arm anyway, too curious to miss what happened next.
"Listen, we don't want trouble…" Kain explained, holding his hands out palms up.
"Tough luck. You got trouble, we won't back down from a group of pansies like you." The leader snorted, cracking his knuckles dramatically. I was getting the feeling this was no normal group of young thugs, the more I looked at them the more suspicious they seemed. There were at least ten guys in the group, which was odd for just a group of friends, and every one of them looked like trouble, the kind of person you avoided in a dark alley.
Theo stepped forward, coming face to face with the red-haired boy. His head was a good three inches higher than the bully's, and his pale gold eyes gleamed intimidatingly from under his mess of black hair. "When he says 'we don't want trouble' he means 'back off'. You're the one causing problems here."
"Ooh, tough guy." The boy mocked, his lips curling up at the edges. "Can you back up that act of yours?"
Theo rolled his eyes and turned away from the other boy. "Come on guys, let's go…"
The redhead stepped after Theo, planting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't you walk away from me you Sooty prick!"
Theo froze, his shoulders tensing up with anger.
The other boy grinned maliciously. "Did you hear me, you Stupid Na—"
Before the boy could utter another word, Theo spun around, punching the redhead across the face with a sickening crack so loud that it echoed off the surrounding buildings. The boy stumbled back, clutching his jaw, and looked at Theo with a mix of confusion and anger, as if he was expecting something to happen. Shouts of anger came up from the group of boys, and the tension in the air shattered as the thugs rushed in on our little group.
Ooh, what next? I'll have the next chapter up soon. Don't you worry~!
(('Sooty' is a derogatory term for people from the 'Third Nation'—also referred to as 'nationals' and 'blots'—who more commonly have dark colored hair, skin, and/or eyes. Any of these traits could earn you one of these hurtful names. I'll have more info on the "Third Nation" later on!))