After Impact: After Impact Trilogy, Book 1 (4 page)

The young man pivoted and made a few steps towards the habitat. As he did, the footage shook.

“What the—” was the last thing he said before the video feed cut out.

The audio feed, however, remained. The young man screamed and cried. Then the audio feed ended as well.

What the heck was that? Did they run an expedition without telling anyone? And who is this young man? I don’t recall seeing him in the habitat. He would have to be awake…

Avalon was still thinking when she was startled by the sound of chatter outside the door. Quickly, she snapped out of that folder and onto the current task at hand just as her colleagues returned. Her heart pounded as another person emerged from behind her teammates. Natural bronzed skin dressed in purple scrubs with a mop full of curly blonde hair could, only be one person—
the President’s son!

Avalon’s mind raced as the President’s son entered the room.
What is he doing here?
Did he notice anything?
None of the scenarios her mind envisioned ended well.

“You finished training in a day!” Skylar shouted with astonishment.

“No— in six hours,” Xin corrected with a tinge of jealousy.

“Are you a
prodigy
?” Brody asked.

Avalon smiled as Brody mispronounced the word prodigy. Brody provided much needed comic relief, often unintentionally. He had a kind, salt of the earth heart and polite manners.
With Brody hailing from a wealthy established family in Virginia, I wouldn’t expect anything less
.

Skylar bristled at the compliments Avalon received.

Kael walked up to Avalon and extended his hand for a shake. “Don’t be shy. My father has told me all about you.”

Avalon had trouble listening to the words coming from his mouth as she stood frozen in her steps. The warm sensation flying through her hands as her cheeks turned redder than the tomatoes she used to help pick with her grandmother distracted her from what she wanted to say.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kael,” he said in his New England accent.

“Nice to meet you,” Avalon said.
He may be an Accipio but he seems friendly. Of course, appearances can be deceiving.

“I am conducting inspections, but I can see that everything is in good hands here. Keep up the good work,” he said with a dimpled smile which sent a shiver through Avalon’s spine.

With a wave and one last glance towards Avalon, Kael exited the room.

Skylar and Avalon sat in silence for a few moments before Skylar blurted out, “Can you believe he talked to you?”

“Yeah….” Avalon answered stretching out the syllables.

“Ugh. You just don’t know how lucky you are,” Skylar said, staring off into space.

Avalon shrugged and smiled before taking her lunch break. Her overprotective father ensured her inexperience with being the center of a boy’s attention. So Avalon relished in the flutters in her stomach when she thought of Kael’s smile.

Someone tapped Avalon on the shoulder as she stood in line to get dinner that night. Avalon swirled her neck around to see Ilium. Avalon smiled at Ilium, while gazing behind him to see where Kael sat.
There he is!
And then her smile turned into a slight pout as four buxom girls sat down next to him.
Figures.
He can have any girl he wants—of course he wouldn’t be interested in a Fulcio.

“How did your first real day go?” Ilium asked.

Avalon snapped her attention back towards Ilium. She thought of telling him of Elena and that crowd, but thought better of it. He could have had a bad day. No need to burden him with details.

“Well, I think it went pretty well. Thanks for asking.”

“She’s being shy,” Brody said. Brody was a little bit ahead of them in line but still listening to their conversation.

“Really?” Ilium asked, glancing at Avalon with a simper.

“Yeah, she is fast as lightning man. She finished training in six hours,” Brody said.

Ilium wore an expression of amusement mixed with admiration.

Avalon took a bite of her toast. It wasn’t that bad. Then she looked at Ilium and decided to ask him a question which had been on her mind.

“Can you tell me some more about Dexter?”

“Sure,” Ilium said. After he took a sip of his smoothie, “What do you want to know?”

“Well… what was he like?”

Ilium looked upwards as he remembered. “Cool kid. Quiet, smart.”

Avalon nodded. “What did he look like?”

“Whoah now. I don’t look at dudes that hard. I guess he was average height if that’s what you mean,” Ilium said.

“He had brown hair and brown eyes,” Skylar added.

“Why do you ask?” Ilium asked looking at her intensely.

Avalon broke her eyes away and answered, “No reason in particular. Just curious.”

I think Ilium knows more than he is letting on. But I won’t press him in front of other people.

Instead, she sipped her water and surveyed the room.

A strange sense of unease washed over her. She looked to a table where Elena and Viggo sat.

Why is she talking to him?

All the quiet chatter in the cafeteria ceased. Avalon turned her head around. Six men entered the room wearing long purple robes. They were obviously members of the Council. But why would everyone stop their chattering?

The group of six moved in unison, and they stopped square in the middle of the cafeteria.

All six looked eerily alike. Their heads were shaved bald, and their eyes were icy grey.

“Yesterday a disturbance occurred in the cafeteria,” the one in the middle announced.

No one moved.

“As you know, you are constantly being monitored, not only by the guards but also by cameras,” he continued.

“We cannot have such dissonance and discord in such a small habitat. It will not be allowed.”

All eyes were on the Council members.

“Those Compatios, or any of you really, would do well to know that those smartwatches attached to your wrist are more than fun pieces of metal which allow you to videomessage. They track you. And they cannot be removed.”

As the one in the middle spoke, the other purple robed men stared blankly into the crowd.

They can’t be removed? They didn’t attach themselves into the skin. They weren’t implants. I don’t see how they couldn’t be removed.

Avalon tugged against the watch to see if it would budge
.
After several attempts, it did not budge. The thing had formed a solid circle of metal, which could not be undone.

“They can also be used to inflict pain, should the need arise. We do not wish to utilize our influence this way, but as you all know peace must be maintained at all costs.”

The other five robed men repeated the words, “at all costs.”

Then the man in the middle decided to provide a demonstration of the power for good effect. A chorus of cries emitted from those in the Compatio sector.

“Consider that punishment for the disobedience of Michelle yesterday.”

With a wave of his hand, the cries diluted. Blood trickled from the ears of the Compatio people. Their ear comms had emitted a blaringly loud noise.

“Consider this your warning. Farewell,” the robed man in the middle said as the six of them sauntered out of the cafeteria.

Avalon, Brody, Ilium, and Skylar turned and looked at each other in shock.

“What the heck just happened?” Avalon asked no one in particular.

“Just grab your tray and sit down,” Ilium told her. Avalon did as told and sat down at a table.

“Seriously. What was that?”

“We can’t say much because everything they said is true.”

Avalon leaned over to Ilium and whispered, “My father did not plan on a dictatorship or plutocracy. It was supposed to be a democracy.”

Ilium did not answer her, but instead sipped his smoothie. The others ate quietly as well.

“Did you know that the smartwatches had that capability?” she whispered.

Ilium subtly shook his head.

Avalon pivoted her gaze towards the table where the Compatio sector sat. All of them were in pain, holding napkins to their ears. Tears formed down their faces, but they dared not yell out.

“You’re going to have a lot of patients in the morning,” Avalon whispered to Ilium.

“Meet me later,” he whispered back.

Avalon caught the hint and ate the rest of her meal in silence as she added Council to her list of things to avoid in the habitat.

Ilium and Avalon entered the storage room. Ilium memorized the hours that the janitors would visit the room. It was a relatively small place filled with shelves and tons of large cardboard and metal boxes. Robotic vacuums and other objects were spread around. One wall was made from the side of the mountain. His main reason for selecting it was that it was safe from the purview of the cameras.

“So, tell me what I want to know,” Avalon said as soon as she entered.

“You are quick to get down to business aren’t you?” Ilium smirked.

“Well you don’t have much time either. You have to play cards with Raleigh tonight.”

Ilium sneered.

“I do believe I detect jealousy in your tone. You are more than welcome to come join us,” Ilium said.

“Jealous?” Avalon laughed. “Tell me what I need to know so I can leave.”

Ilium took a step towards her. “You are correct. The Compatios have been coming down with a virus.”

“I knew it,” Avalon said. “But how?”

Ilium shook his head. “I don’t know. I have a theory that it is related to the substances in their blood.”

“What substances?” Avalon asked with alarm.

“Well, as a side project, I randomly collected some blood samples on people shortly after they woke up. It is totally unauthorized, and I could get in major trouble if anyone discovered I used precious resources like this—”

“They won’t,” she quickly reassured him.

Ilium let out a breath and then continued, “Well it turns out the Compatios have antibodies to a virus. A virus they should have been protected from via the universal shot. However, the shot doesn’t cover this virus.”

“Does it affect anyone else of a different sector?”

Ilium shook his head. “Not so far. I have only seen it in the blood of Compatios.”

Avalon tried to calm herself. They were trapped in an

enclosed space, with filtered and occasionally recirculated air. She was pretty sure it was in her imagination, but she felt the room was getting hotter by the minute.

“Is this virus deadly? How does it spread?” Avalon blurted out questions as fast as she could think them.

“The answer to the first question is it appears to be deadly. The answer to your other question is that I don’t know how the virus spreads, or even if it does spread. I performed a rapid RNA and DNA sequencing of the virus using a cultured sample from their sputum. The sequencing perfectly matches across all four patients. All females from the Compatios sector.”

Avalon sat down on a box in the corner. “A deadly virus. We haven’t had anything like that in decades.”

Ilium nodded. “Indeed.”

“What could bring a virus like that back? In an enclosed space?”

“Now you are asking the right questions.”

Avalon sat and pondered. “Sounds deliberate.”

Ilium nodded his head in agreement. “Indeed.”

Avalon rose up with balled fists to her side. “Who would do such a thing?”

“I don’t know,” Ilium replied.

“Why aren’t all of the Compatios sick at once?” Avalon asked.

“I don’t know. It could be, like the common cold, everyone who has exposure doesn’t necessarily develop signs or symptoms.”

Avalon chewed on a strand of her hair which had fallen loose from her ponytail. “Have you notified the President or the Council of any of this?”

“Yes. The President says to just keep him informed, as though there is nothing to worry about. However, he also told me not to tell anyone about the quarantine.”

“Something doesn’t sound right about that. For example, how do we find out who patient zero is? Or if we should quarantine them?”

“Who would deliberately infect the Compatios? And why?” Ilium asked.

Avalon wanted some more information on Dexter. And while they were sharing, she decided to share what she found out about Dexter going outside.

“No one ever mentioned someone going outside before,” Ilium said as he struggled to take in everything.

“It was marked confidential. I am pretty sure no one was supposed to find out,” Avalon said.

Ilium ran his hands through his hair.

“This is all just so crazy,” Ilium said.

“Tell me about it,” Avalon said.

Avalon looked down at her watch to read an incoming message.

“I am sorry, but I have to go. Maybe we can meet tomorrow?” he asked.

Avalon nodded and she headed to the President’s office.