Sky of Dust: The Last Weapon (19 page)

One by one
,
we trickled back to our apartments.

Dad and I
were the last two to leave
the destroyed ball room.

Tonight’s a
ttack had left a lot of images
building in my head that I just could not process. The images of all the people kept creeping up in my mind. I tried to shake them away and think of something else
,
but it was no use.

We walked back in silence, too exhausted both mentally and physically to even speak.

Dad opened the door and let me in first.

A wave of nausea swept over me
,
and my head pounded. I had tunnel vision
, and
I closed my throat as the metallic saliva started to build up. I opened and closed my door behind me and threw myself over the toilet and let it all out.

I flushed the toilet and grasped the side of the sink to keep myself steady. I looked in the mirror
and saw the terror on my face. I was only a kid. How could this happen to me?

I slowly tried to strip off my tattered tuxedo
,
but I had no strength. I turned on the s
hower
and climbed in
, letting
the hot water slowly cover my body.

I turned off the water and let the heat melt away my tight muscles. My mind replayed what had happened over and over again. Then I realized there was nothing more we could have done. We tried
,
and we had stopped the Guards when no one else did.

With the small boost of motivation
,
I was able to finish taking off my tie and shirt. I stood up and dried off, making sure to get into some sleeping clothes this time.

I climbed into bed and tried to keep my mind busy, but nothing seemed to work. Then I remembered Abigail before all of this happened
—h
ow happy she was, and how we were finally able to connect. I focus
ed
on these memories, and soon I dozed off to sleep.

Just like the morning before, I woke to the opening and closing of the door.

I slid out of bed and put on some appropriate clothes. The wet tuxedo I wore last night still lay in a puddle of pink tinted water. It reminded me
that
what happened was real.

I opened my door
,
and to my surprise everyone was already here. They sat around the table, holding cups of a brown liquid that smelled bitter.

“
Hey
,
”
I croaked weakly.

Then I noticed Jason sitting next to Abigail.

“
What are you doing here?
”
I asked
in an unintentionally rude manner.

“
Jason is part of Cell team
,
”
Dad replied for him.
“
He has been for a while. In fact, he was the only one who stayed
after
last night.
”

Jason and
I held eyes for a moment. Another person I could not trust on the team
.

Peter and Casey sat next to each other. Peter looked a bit nervous, and appeared like he was trying to avoid being close to Casey if possible.

Casey was zoned out, just looking at the table, not making a sound or the slightest movement.

“
Well, it’s just the
seven
of us
,
”
m
y dad announced.
“
President Reeves said she could provide the drop off and extraction
. B
ut once we are in
,
we are on our own.
”

“
Great
,
”
Jason mumbled. Abigail shot him a nasty glance.

Dad ignored him.

“
We have about two weeks, maybe a little more, to get all of you in shape
,
”
m
y dad continued.
“
You will be taught how to fight, think on your feet, and how the enemy thinks. You will have to memorize everything about the Renatus HQ for us to be successful. This is to protect our home, and
,
for most
of us, it’s a little more personal.
”

“
I recommend we train out in the wilderness training area
,
”
Jason suggested.

“
No, that would be a waste of time.
”
My dad debunked the idea.
I admit it gave me a tinge of pleasure.
“
We will be in close corridors. We need to use each of your abilities to get through. In a confined space
,
it’s not about numbers. The building is not heavily guarded from within
;
it’s mostly staff. The hardest part is getting in. If we can get the Renatus President to listen
,
then maybe we don’t
have to
worry about the leaving part.
”

We all looked at each other and nodded. We were going to do this. We each had our own reasons, although I
did
not know what Jason’s reasons were.

***

Over t
he next two weeks
,
we woke up around five in the morning and returned home around ten each night. No matter how hard the training was, no one complained.

We spent the first part of the morning studying maps and diagrams of the Renatus HQ and its defenses. It would have been difficult for me to focus
,
but luckily I got a new watch so that mellowed me out a bit.

After that
,
we
were taught
the
Guards
’
battle techniques from my dad. After spending about twelve years in the Guards
,
he was well versed in combat. He taught us the weaknesses in their armor, like how they
couldn’t
really turn their heads.

After a short lunch break
,
we trained with our abilities, trying to find different ways to use them. Unfortunately for me
,
I would need to be in danger to really benefit from mine.  We learned how to control
them, using them
only when we needed to so we could use it more often.

Sometimes Casey would head off and do his own thing when we were training with our abilities. I imagined he resented us more for having abilities
and being left out
, but he would think differently if he actually did
have abilities
.

“
What you must learn about your abilities is that they never stop evolving
,
”
Dad told us.
“
You just see the tip of the iceberg. Some never realize their full potential. I started off just going invisible for a second before I realized that I was not actually invisibl
e—
I was actually moving around. I was just ending up in the same spot. Then I started to move inches, then feet, and finally any place that I could visually see.
”

“
Didn't they spot you in the Guards?
”
I asked him once.

He just smiled and told me that he was really careful
,
and in battle everyone just cared about staying alive.

In about two weeks
,
we had greatly increased the time we could sustain our abilities and worked on different strategies that used each of our skills.

For instance
,
Abigail could throw Peter into the enemies
,
and Peter
could
then cause a distraction while we ambush
ed
them.

That's pretty much our answer for everything
,
actually.

None of us
“
evolved
”
our abilities like dad had hoped for, but he said it could happen at any time
—t
hen he would ramble on about how cool it was when he first found out.

The
majority of our time was spent doing physical fitness.

Dad told us that it did not matter if we got close and could not
even
hurt our enemies.

He also said if you can't run fast and for a long period of time,
then you would probably die. I kind of wished I had taken Coach Roach's morning runs seriously.

In two weeks
,
Peter and I put on quite a bit of muscle. A little bit more for me than him.
Casey still looked the same, but it appeared that he was able to lift more without adding any more mass.

Mary and Abigail focused on cardio fitness since Abigail did not need more strength and Mary
insisted she would never get close enough to hit someone.
Mary slacked while we were at the gym, usually chatting with some guys before dad would go and track her down.

We ended our days in the Armory
,
where we trained with an assortment of weapons.

Abigail got some lightweight gauntlets that could break through concrete.
She tried her hand at shooting
,
and
,
let's just say
,
Peter is lucky he can stop bullets.

Mary, of course, focused on guns. Apparently she
was
the best shot in the base
,
so it seemed kind of cheap that she just focused on guns. She always bragged about how great her parents were to let her taking shooting classes and how more parents should be like them.

Peter was a decent shot
,
but what really made him deadly was the fact that he had no fear. He could get close to you with a spoon and kill you. Well, that's what he claimed until he tried to attack Jason and ended up in a head lock. Apparently
,
thick skin still bends. So in the end
,
he focused on knives and some hand to hand.

Jason was fluent in every fighting technique
—
of course
—
as well as my dad.

As for me, I even surprised myself on
how
well I could handle a weapon. Dad said I
took
after him. When it came to guns
,
I could hit the target ninety percent of the time
—
a hundred if I slowed down time.

With blades
,
I was able to get in close using my abilities to avoid being hit and plan where to attack.

The same was true for my hand to hand skills.

As long as I stayed in my own little
“
slow
”
world
,
I was almost untouchable.

So in the end
,
I trained in everything about equal
ly
, but I
spent
more time
on
hand to hand just so I could go a few rounds with Abigail. It was cute watching her lunge at me in slow motion, only for me to side step and catch her before she fell. She would get so annoyed
with me she would stomp
off to practice shooting.

Even with the grueling hours and nonstop training, it was the happiest time of my life, considering what had happened and where I was headed. I felt like I was part of a team. I trusted these people. Yes, I even got a bit
closer
with Jason.
I still was not sure about Casey though.

“
It's creepy
,
man
,
”
Peter told me one day
referring to Casey
.
“
I lock my door at night and jump when I hear something move. I wish they would
just
move me somewhere else.
I hear him at night talking to himself. I can’t make it out but he says, ‘family’ a lot.
”

About two weeks afte
r the Independence Day incident
,
we
were
finally told that we would be leaving in a week. One of the contacts within the Renatus HQ had informed President Reeves that the Renatus President would be located within the building in a week. The contact made arrangements for a
“
cargo plane
”
to drop supplies off to the Renatus HQ.

Once we found this out, the weight of the situation became real.

Dad told us to rest and relax
,
to let our bodies recoup from the training, but told us we should try to get out a bit and warm up.

Five days before our scheduled departure Jason, Peter, Abigail, and I were playing ball in the wilderness training area that my apartment overlooked while Mary watched.

Jason was showing off as usual and
threw
the ball way
too
far.

“
I'm tired of chasing the ball
,
”
P
eter complained.
“
I'm not a dog.
Can you go get it?
”

“
Whatever
,
”
I replied. I really didn't mind
;
it was exercise.

I walked in the direction the
ball
had flown, not sure where it actually landed when I came upon a large tree that was separate from rest. I started to admire how healthy it looked despite being underground without natural sunlight.

I heard a bird chirp from somewhere in the branches,
so I started to walk around to catch a glimpse of it.

“
Ahh!
”
a
girl yelled.

I backed up fast and looked down. I had accidently stepped on a girl
’
s hand.

“
I am so sorry
,
”
I began to ramble.
“
I was not p
aying attention. Are you okay? I
can get someone to heal you if you need.
”

The girl looked up with pretty green eyes and tilted he
r
head like she did not understand.

I recognized the girl from the party a few weeks back. She was the one who danced with Peter
,
and then I
saw fighting later
.