Rebellion (Zero Series) (2 page)

Frost and I made our way through the winding slums
toward the large square. We arrived and got about halfway through the crowd
before it became too dense to move anymore. About five minutes passed and two
big lights flashed onto a balcony that hung off of Poseidon Tower, Kraken’s
base of operation in the center of the city. It used to be the central power
hub but once Kraken took over, they cut power off from the rest of the city and
kept it all for themselves. Hades emerged and he looked even more terrifying in
person. He was close to seven feet tall and had jet black hair. He had a slick
goatee. His eyes were a piercing green color and his face was very sharp and
harsh to look at. He wore a sleek gray suit and a royal blue tie. A microphone
rose up in front of him and he began to speak, “People of Marsh City. We have
forced order upon this cesspool of a city, but I think that you forget who is
in charge. I know you have become complacent in your pitiful lives and I have
decided that I will demonstrate my authority in a public setting by executing a
scientist named Pipes. Think of this as a demonstration of my ultimate power.”

I immediately recognized the name. Pipes was a member
of the Insurgency who worked with my parents. He disappeared after the fall of
the Insurgency and nobody saw him since. We thought that he had fled the city,
but I now saw that Kraken had taken him prisoner. I knew that Pipes would never
give up any information that would implicate anybody in the rebellion. I was
just worried for his safety. He was dragged out to the balcony by two guards.
He was beaten and bloodied. He had endured years of torture only to be executed
in front of people who knew him.

“Some of you may not know who this is. This is Pipes.
He was a lead scientist in the Insurgency. We gathered him when we defeated the
rebellion and he has proven to be a steel trap. He has kept the answers we want
in his head and now his brain will be available for you all to see!” Hades said
angrily. As he finished, he pulled out an antique revolver and shot Pipes in
the head, point blank range. Pipes was no more. A gasp rose from the crowd and
scattered screams became audible. I felt a rage building inside me. I began to
shake with anger and felt the ground rumbling. Frost noticed my power starting
to emerge and put his hand on my arm to stop me. I couldn’t help it. I shot a
force blast towards the balcony and in an instant, it crumbled. Hades was
already clear of the balcony, but a handful of guards were taken down with the
rubble. The crowd parted and I saw Hades gaze turn to me. His stare terrified
me. I immediately felt fear wash over me. I had revealed my spike after years
of being so careful to hide it. Hades fired his gun at me but an ice wall
sprung up in front of me. Frost had revealed himself as well.

“We need to go! Now!” Frost yelled.

We took off in the opposite direction and snaked
between the buildings. After every turn, Frost made an ice wall to gain us some
time. “Where exactly are we going?” I yelled.

“I have an idea. Just follow me,” he yelled back.

We continued through the city. We reached the city
limits and broke into the area surrounding the city. For about a mile around
the city, there was no vegetation. It was a mini wasteland until a wall of
forest sprung up. We came upon a large pipe in the ground and Frost said, “In
here.”

“In the sewer pipe?” I asked.

“Yeah, just trust me,” he replied.

We ran into the pipe and finally slowed down to a
walk. I felt bad. I had blown both of our covers in a moment of carelessness.
“Frost, I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s fine,” he said in an annoyed tone.

I grabbed his arm to stop him, “No it isn’t fine. I
ruined everything.”

“I’m just surprised at you. After years of being so
careful to avoid detection, to avoid repeating what happened to our families,
you reveal our powers in less than one minute to all of Marsh City and more
importantly, to Hades,” he said almost yelling.

“I know. I’m sorry. I knew Pipes and after all these
years seeing him like that was bad enough, not to mention that his brains were
splattered all over the balcony,” I said leaning up against a wall.

“Look, I’m sorry I got upset. I know it must have
been hard for you to see that,” Frost said finally calmed down.

“What do we do now? We can’t go back to the city.
They will be looking for us I’m sure,” I said.

“I have had a backup plan for a few years. That’s why
I brought us here,” he said. We continued through the tunnel and it led into a
large room. There was a large computer as well as many boxes full of scientific
technology. I looked around and asked, “What is this place?”

“This is the home of the Insurgency. Our parents
spent a lot of time here. I stumbled upon it when I was just wandering around
out here. I guess Kraken never got the location of this place and it just
stayed untouched. We can stay here and we can work on those cases of notes in
your house,” he said.

The notes. I had forgotten about all the information
we left behind. “How are we going to get those footlockers back?” I asked.

“We can sneak back into the city at night and
retrieve them,” he said, “We will have to disguise ourselves so Kraken agents don’t
recognize us. I think there are some extra clothes lying around here.”

“Let’s take a look around and see what we can find.
We will have to set up a place to live among all of this hardware,” I said.

“I already have. I have been coming out here a couple
times a week ever since I found it,” Frost said.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me that you found this
place?” I asked.

“I didn’t know how you would react. I mean look how
you reacted to Pipes’ death. I had no idea how you would respond to being in a
place that your parents spent a lot of time,” he replied.

I hadn’t thought of that. It made sense that he would
consider that when he decided to not tell me.

“I guess that makes sense. Thanks,” I said.

He nodded and walked over to a mattress and plopped
down on it. I started looking around the room. It was incredible. The ceilings
were higher than you would think being that it was in a sewer tunnel. The walls
were held up by large steel beams and there were lights hanging down all over
the area. The floor was a large metal platform that separated the hardware from
the stone floor by a few feet. There was a large computer that sat against one
of the walls with a workstation next to it. On the workstation there was a
strange glass tube with a metal holder and a keypad next to it. I figured that
it must be some sort of test tube that manufactures technology. I could take a
look at a later time. I walked over to the living area that Frost had set up to
see what he had brought to the cave. There were two beds, a small bathroom and
a small stove. “Is there more than this?” I asked him.

“There is a room that they kept armor in I think.
It’s over on the other side of the main chamber. There is also a shower in the
bathroom. I don’t know how they got the parts for a shower, but they did, and
it is amazing. It is so much better than having to bathe in a tub of cold
water,” he said.

“I’m going to go test that out I think,” I said
walking to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and felt the warm water come
out of the head. It was so refreshing. Nobody in Marsh City had showers. Kraken
confiscated them because they said that it was a luxury that we didn’t deserve.
I stood in the shower for a long time before I was shocked back into
consciousness by the water turning cold. I quickly turned the shower off and
grabbed a towel. I dried off and walked over to the mirror that hung by the
sink. My hair was getting too long. It was black and hung down to my shoulders,
and it was very messy and unkempt. I grabbed a nearby pair of scissors and
started to cut my hair. I cut it down to a short length that kept me from
looking shaggy. I walked out to the living are and sat down on my bed.

“You cut your hair,” Frost said in a surprised tone.

“Yeah it looked gross I thought. Is it almost time to
go back to the city?” I asked.

“Almost. You should go to the armory and look for a
disguise. It may be better to have armor in case we run into trouble,” he
replied.

“Good thinking,” I said standing up. I walked over to
the armory and saw that there was no door. There was just a curtain separating
the two rooms. It seemed a little funny to me that they could make all of the
technology but not a door. I laughed and brushed the curtain aside to reveal
the armory. There were ten dummies around the room that each had different
pieces of armor. Some were heavy pieces and some were lighter types. I mixed
and matched some pieces I found on different stands to create my disguise. My
torso, leg and arm pieces were made of a grey kevlar type material. My boots were
durable but light and made of a strong, black mesh material. There was also a
hood on the torso piece that helped shield my eyes from anybody seeing them but
still kept my visibility high. It was light but I still felt protected. It was
a lot nicer than most of the clothes I had owned in my life anyway. I made my
way back into the main room and found Frost sitting in a chair reading a packet
of papers. He looked up and stared for a minute before saying, “What are you
supposed to be?”

“It’s my disguise. What’s wrong with it?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said closing the packet, “I just didn’t
think you would be dressing up like a ghost.”

“I want to stay concealed,” I said.

“Whatever you say,” he replied. He put on a cloak and
shot a thin sheet of ice over his mouth like a mask. He asked, “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I said back to him. We
set out towards Marsh City under the cover of darkness. I was nervous. I had
never done anything to disobey the ridiculous laws of the city. I tried to stay
as inconspicuous as I could for years. I lived in a small shack, had a normal
job hauling cargo at a local shop, and I only had a few friends who I talked to
on a regular basis. None closer than Frost. We were bonded by tragedy. It was
hard to accept the loss of my parents, but he understood that hardship as I
did. We helped each other as often as needed and learned how to live off of
only the basics. We had a few other acquaintances that we knew from the shop I
worked. There was a girl who worked at the shop named Flare. She chose Flare
because her hair was a reddish orange color. She was quiet but once you got to
know her, she was one of the most caring people you would ever meet. Another
acquaintance of ours was Jet. She worked at the tailor’s shop as an apprentice.
Jet was gorgeous. She was tall and had short blonde hair. She had cutting blue
eyes that were like gems. They were the two people we spent the most time with
outside of work. We kept our abilities from even them. Even though they were
our friends, we didn’t know who we could trust after a traitor caused the
downfall of the rebellion.

We were about halfway to Marsh City when Frost said,
“I had a thought.”

“What’s that?” I replied.

“I was thinking about how we kept our spikes a
secret. What if people we know have gene spikes and just didn’t tell us?” he
asked.

I pondered on it for a minute. That was a good point.
How would we tell? “That is a good question. With the rate that people with
gene spikes are rounded up, I guess that people would keep it secret if they
had one,” I replied.

“What about Flare? Or Jet? What if they have one?” he
asked.

“I don’t know. I have no idea how we would be able to
tell,” I said.

“That’s true,” he said distantly.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Nothing. I was just thinking,” he said.

“About Flare?” I said jabbing him in the ribs with my
elbow.

“Yeah actually. What do you think of her?” he asked.

“She is smart. Good hygiene,” I said.

“I’m being serious,” he said sternly.

“What do you want me to say? It doesn’t matter what I
think. If you are keen on her, then that’s all that matters,” I replied.

“She is great. I guess it doesn’t matter now, though.
We are fugitives,” he said.

“That does complicate things,” I said, “It makes it
hard to have social gatherings.”

Frost laughed and said, “We’re almost there. When we
get inside, we need to move quickly. We can’t afford anymore outbursts like
earlier.”

“I’ll try to control myself,” I said dryly. We came
to one of the gates to the city. There were two Kraken guards, as usual.

“What do we do?” Frost asked.

“I have an idea,” I said. I focused on two rocks and
flung them at the guards’ heads. They struck the guards simultaneously and
knocked them out cold. We ran over to the bodies and knelt down.

“That was nifty,” Frost said.

“Thanks. Put some ice around their mouths and help me
hide the bodies so when they wake up, nobody hears them,” I said.

He put ice around their mouths and we dragged their
bodies to a clump of bushes. We crept into the city and made our way into a
back alley.

“We shouldn’t be too far from your house,” said
Frost.