The Evolved Ones

Written by Anne Caitlin Ong

    I wake at the sound of the alarm clock ringing. For a while, I lie still, waiting for my mom to come in and drag me out of bed. Ten minutes pass, yet she does not arrive. That is when I remember. She is dead, and so is my father.

    I get up, shower, and dress for the day. I walk downstairs to the library, where my tutor is waiting.

    Before I go on, I should introduce myself. My name is Ryk Stephenson. I am sixteen years old. Ever since my parents died, which was about a year ago, I have been in charge of their company, Stephenson Industries. Thus, I was not able to go to school and had to be tutored at home.

     As I enter the room, my tutor looks up from the book he was reading. “You’re late,” he says seriously. Then he smiles. “Who cares?”

    I can’t help but grin. My tutor is none other than my uncle. Uncle Neil is my father’s younger brother. He is in his early thirties, and he became my guardian last year. Honestly, I kind of like him better than my dad, who never spent time with me. Uncle, on the other hand, is constantly taking me out on field trips and vacations.

    “Sorry,” I apologize. “What are we doing today?”

    Uncle Neil closes his book and stands. “We are going on a really long field trip.”

    I perk up. I do love field trips. “Where?” I ask, hardly able to contain my excitement.

    “Oh, just somewhere,” he says vaguely, his eyes glinting. “You have five minutes to pack your stuff. Get to it.” He waves his hand dismissively.

     “Aye, aye, captain,” I reply. I then leave to do as I am told.

____________________________________________________________________________

Twenty minutes later, we sit in the car. Nobody speaks until I break the silence. “Uncle, where are we going?”

He stiffens slightly at my question. “We are going to Lab One.”

I am confused. “What’s Lab One?” The name sounds familiar, yet I cannot put my finger on it.

Uncle Neil takes a deep breath. “Lab One is the most important research facility that we own,” he explains. “That is where we conduct our highly confidential and important experiments.” He pauses, obviously debating whether to continue. “It is also the last place your parents were before they died in that car crash.”

“Oh,” is all I could say. We spend the rest of the trip staring out the window. I watch the scenery change from the city, with its tall buildings and factories, to the calm, peaceful view of the countryside. I gaze at the greenery happily, glad to be away from all the hustle and bustle.

Finally, we arrive at Lab One. Outside, it looks boring. Several white buildings scattered to form a circle. The centers, as my uncle called them, were tall and clean-looking.

A scientist, judging from her white lab coat, stands by the entrance. She hurries to us as we get out of the car. My uncle greets her. “Hello, Dr. Sanders.”

Dr. Sanders smiles. “It’s been a while, Dr. Stephenson.” She notices me. “Who do we have here?”

“Dr. Sanders, this is Ryk,” Uncle says. “He’s Ricky and Mara’s son. Ryk, this is Dr. Marge Sanders, the head of Lab One.”

Dr. Sanders directs her smile at me. “So this is the famous Ryk Stephenson. It’s nice to finally meet you.” She offers her hand.

I shake it. “The pleasure’s all mine.” As I do, a girl comes running towards us. She stops next to Dr. Sanders.

“Casey,” the doctor scolds. “Don’t run.”

“Sorry,” Casey apologizes. She catches me staring at her and meets my gaze. Her eyes are as blue as the sky. “Hi, I’m Casey.”

“Ryk,” I reply. When the introductions are made, Casey and her mom, Dr. Sanders, give us a tour around the lab. It was amazing. The equipment is awesome and extremely complicated. Carefully preserved experiments float about in their cases.

We walk from one wing to another, before finally settling in the conference room, a large white room with a long table and chairs. A projector sits on a table, unused. We talk about the company: the projects we are planning to launch, the problems that we should fix immediately, and the like.

Then suddenly, the room explodes. Well, more accurately, the table and chairs get thrown as a well-hidden bomb detonates. I am saying my last prayers when I realize that I am not in the conference room anymore. I am in a car, the one we used to come here. I am sitting on the driver’s seat. I step out of the car, dazed. How did I get here?

“There you are!” I hear Uncle Neil’s voice. He stands a few meters away from me.

“Wait, how…” I trail off, unsure about what I want to say. “How did I get here?” As I speak, Dr. Sanders and Casey appear out of nowhere. They now stand in front of me.

My brain tries to process everything, but fails. I black out.

When I open my eyes, the first things I see are big brown orbs. They glow in the darkness.

I try to figure out where I am. Guessing from the bed I am laying on, this must be the infirmary. I sit up. “Uncle?” I call.

“Shh.” The noise comes from the orbs. “It’s alright, Ryk.” I discover that the orbs are eyes. I feel a hand touch my shoulder.

I lash out instinctively. I hear a crash. With a start, I realize that I did not push him with my hands, but with my mind.

The lights flicker open, confirming my guess on being in an infirmary. I hear the sound of clapping hands, and a voice in my head says, “Well done.”

I look around for the speaker, yet no one appears to be around, except for the man I just shoved, who is out cold. “Hello?” I say.

The voice comes again. “Over here,” I turn to see Casey leaning on the wall.

Relieved, I move towards her. “What’s going on?” I ask.

She motions for me to move closer. I try, but am pushed back by an invisible force. I look at Casey, begging with my eyes. Help me. She does nothing. She simply stands there, watching my every move.

I push back at the unseen force field. I stay like that for a long period of time, testing its strength. Finally, I decide to start moving. Every bone in my body feels as if it will break any moment, but I push on, inching my way to Casey. After an eternity, I reach her.

Casey takes my hand, giving it a squeeze. I watch as one minute, we are in the infirmary; the next we are back at the conference room, which looks as if the explosion never happened. Uncle Neil and Dr. Sanders sat in the chairs, looking apprehensive.

My head buzzes with questions, but before I can open my mouth, my uncle speaks. “Sit. We have much to talk about,” he says.

A force prods me, and I do as he says, refusing to meet his gaze. “Ryk,” he says, his voice commanding. “Look at me.” It takes some effort, but I force my eyes to meet his.

“Ryk, what I am about to tell you must be kept secret no matter what. Do you understand me?” His eyes search mine.

“Yes,” I answer quietly.

“Ryk, you are no ordinary human. You have abilities that some people can only dream of having,” he begins. “This is because you are part of a different species of humans, a more developed one.” He pauses. “You see, your parents each carried a gene, the evolved gene that allows a human being to gain certain abilities: telekinesis, telepathy, and teleportation. It is a recessive gene, so only a number of people have it. You and Casey are some of them.”

Dr. Sanders leans forward. “Your parents tried to find the origin of this gene, but failed. Instead, they learned something more horrifying, so horrifying that they were never the same again. It was actually the cause of their deaths.” She takes a deep breath. “They discovered the White Lotus Society, an organization that aims to enslave the ordinary humans. They believe that the world was made only for special people, for people like you.”

“So?” I cut in, impatiently. “What do you want me to do?”

She exchanges a glance with my uncle. “We want you to infiltrate their base and take them out.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” I scoff. “I don’t have any powers. Even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to use them. And if I did know how to use them, there must be a lot of them. I will be outnumbered.”

“We’ll train you,” Uncle Neil assures me. “You do have powers. That was proved when you teleported away. Besides, you won’t be alone. We’ll send two more people in with you. Casey’s one of them.”

I look at her. She doesn’t seem afraid at all. “Okay,” I say, not seeing a way out of this. “Who’s the other one then?”

“Me.” A blonde boy teleports into the room. He leans against the wall. “I’m Stephen White.” I study him. He is tall and muscular. His golden eyes gleam, as if waiting for me to challenge him.

Casey jumps to her feet. “Wh-what’re you doing here?”

“I’m part of the team,” Stephen says, grinning. “Cool, huh?”

“Uh, yeah,” she stammers. “Very cool.”

“So,” I interject. “When does training start?”

Stephen’s eyes meet mine, and his grin widens. “Now.” He presses a switch that I failed to notice on the wall. The conference room transforms into a training room. Dumbbells, medicine balls, and other gym equipment fill the room. Targets are pasted on the walls.

“Whoa,” I gasp. The simple room changed into this highly complex room in less than a minute.

“Whoa indeed,” Uncle Neil calls out from the balcony that overlooked the gym. He is with Dr. Sanders and Casey. For some strange reason, they seem to look sorry for me.

“You ready?” Stephen asks. He teleports to one end of the room.

“Uh, yeah,” I reply, unsure what to do.

Five seconds later, a medicine ball comes sailing at me. I manage to dodge, and it whizzes past me. “Ha!” I say triumphantly. I look up and got hit in the face by a smaller ball. “Ow!”

I hear Stephen laugh. Annoyed, I reach out with my mind and launched a dumbbell at him. It does not reach him, making him laugh even harder.

“Try harder!” he shouts, the laughter audible in his voice. He waves a hand and the dumbbell shoots back at me. I duck and use my telekinesis to send it back to him. This time, it reaches him. He catches it. For a moment, it simply floats there. Then, a few seconds later, he throws it at me. I reach out to steady it. I manage to make it levitate for about three seconds before I lose control and it falls to the ground.

I am about to pick it up again with my mind when Stephen teleports in front of me. “Stop,” he says. “That is enough for now.”

I relax, and am suddenly aware of how tired I am. Stephen clears his throat. “Our kind has three main abilities: telekinesis, telepathy, and teleportation. Telepathy is the easiest to master. You simply have to practice speaking through your mind, and sending your thoughts to others. The other two require much more effort, and you must work really hard in order to learn them.” His voice speaks in my mind.

I nod. He then launches into a discussion on the benefits of working out. According to him, it is important because it strengthens not only our physical strength, but also our telekinetic power.

This becomes our routine for the next month. Every morning, we work out. In the afternoons, we practice throwing things, and dodging projectiles by teleporting. At nights, we practice our telepathy, and shielding our minds from unwanted guests.

As time passes by, I feel myself getting stronger and much more skillful in using my abilities. Soon, I am as strong as Stephen and nimble as Casey.

The day for our mission comes much faster than I thought it would. My uncle and Dr. Sanders stand in front of us. “Remember to call if you need reinforcement,” Uncle Neil says.

“Be careful,” Dr. Sander’s says, mostly to her daughter. She wraps her arms around Casey. “Come home, okay?”

Casey nods. “I will, Mom.” She untangles herself from her mother.

When everyone has said their goodbyes, we hop into the car and speed to the White Lotus Base. The building is in the city, the one I lived in. It is huge and gray, basically the same as the others, except for one thing: the huge white lotus symbol etched on the doors.

We sneak in. Inside, it is nothing like the business center it appeared to be. It was actually more of a gym, just like the one we used to train in.

However, this is divided into arenas. People fight in each of them, beating each other up with everything they have. I watch as a bloody person falls, and is dragged out of the arena. I hate it.

We walk the spectators, trying to make our way to the elevators, which will hopefully lead us to the boss’s office. The spotlight shines on us, and we do the natural thing. We freeze in our tracks.

“Well, well, well,” a voice booms. “Look who we have here.” A tall man strides toward us. “Hello, brother,” he says to me.

“Brother? I have no brother,” I snap.

He laughs, his eyes, green just like mine, glowing. “Oh, but we are brothers. I am Jack Stephenson, first born of Rick and Mara Stephenson.”

“They never mentioned you,” I say.

“Of course, they didn’t,” he scowls. “They disowned me because I never met their expectations. They never loved me. I was nothing compared to perfect little Ryk.”

“Dude,” Stephen cuts in. “Okay, so you’re mad but there’s no reason for you to mistreat people or hurt others.”

Jack looks at him for a moment, then springs. He knocks Stephen off his feet. Casey runs to help him. The White Lotus members start to run to us, but I yell, “Stop!” They stop in their tracks.

“Do you really want this?” I shout. “A world of slavery and abuse? A life of evil? Wake up!” My voice gets louder. “This isn’t the way we should live. We were lucky to born with these abilities, and we should use them for good. Isn’t it better to be loved and respected instead of being hated and feared?”

The people seem to see sense in my words. They nod and turn against Jack. They move in on him.

I can see that Jack knows that he is defeated. Snarling, he yells, “Alright! Fine, you win, little brother, but every victory has a price!” Quick as a viper, he takes out a gun and fires at Casey.

“NO!” I scream. I can’t stop it with my telekinesis; it’s too fast. Then, something crazy happens. Time stops.

Everyone is frozen, except me. I walk over to the bullet, and take it. Time resumes as I stuff it in my pocket. Jack disappears. He probably teleported away to a safer place.

I feel the tension fade away. Cheers ring as people celebrate. The former members of the White Lotus surround us. They seem to have decided to join us.

I know that it is not over yet. I know that he’ll be back for me, but right now, I don’t care. These people are free, and the White Lotus Society is no more.

With Stephen and Casey beside me, as well as all the other people, I teleport to Lab One, and to a new life.

The End (for now)