Evan gasped for air, pulling himself out of another nightmare. He sat up in his bottom bunk while his eyes adjusted to the darkness. There were a dozen other grey-green bunkbeds in this sardine container of a room. He ran his fingers through his hair and blew his anxiety out through his nostrils.

  Dead spiders clung to the bottom of the top bunk’s mattress. Bleeding light from an exit sign made them look like balls of red twine. Will I be like these spiders; a dead form stuck in a forgotten place?

  The top mattress depressed with a squeak.

  Blink poked her head over the side of the bed frame above him. Her hair dangled down, blocking out the red exit sign. “Can’t sleep?”

  A stiffness grabbed Evan’s throat. “Uhm... Not really.”

  He hoped that the distress in his dreams didn’t manifest in sleep talking or anything marginally embarrassing for her to have heard.

  “Want to see something cool?” She whispered.

  Evan smiled. He didn’t know how she made him feel like he wasn’t in control of himself. A supernatural kind of control, but not that of Affliction. It was in her smile.

  “Sure,” he said.

  She slipped out of the top bunk and lilted upon her bare feet. Evan threw off his blanket and matched Blink’s hunched walk out of the bunkroom. They made their way down one of the hallways, past a console where Rowic slept face first in his keyboard, then past arched corridor to a door with a keypad.

  Blink turned to Evan. “Wait here.”

  A swirl of radiance flashed around Blink, and she disappeared right in front of a startled Evan. Moments later, the door popped open. Out slinked the girl, who motioned for Evan to keep following.

  He hesitated.

  She rubbed her temples for a moment and (before he thought to object) grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

  The concrete room spanned like an ocean of grey with little orange lamps that dotted the space like fireflies. Evan was a mouse below the high ceiling. Two metal doors bisected the roof from one side to the other, big enough to welcome in the Moon (if the Moon had been visible). Dozens of crates were scattered across the floor, and at the center of the room was a row of airships. They were various shapes and sizes reminiscent of soda bottles, garbage cans, and flying saucers. On the right were guardrails and the roaring waterfall. Blink guided Evan left, past most of the pilotable heaps of metal, to an airship that was in far better condition.

  She said, “I know you already saw the ship earlier, but you didn’t really get a chance to explore it.”

  It was true. Between waking up half-dead, socking Vihn, being teleported around, and rushing out to see his father’s dreadful interview – Evan hadn’t had much time to see the fullness of the ship, but he didn’t find it necessary to complain about any of that to her.

  She led him around the exterior of the deep blue machine.

  It resembled a bird, its folded wings slanted up into the air, meeting downward into a beak like cockpit; like it was pecking for seeds. The body was a box-like carriage with two side doors. It was the color of deep night, that shimmered orange where the lamps hit it. Ad Astra was sprayed on its hull in white letters. Additionally, a hatch clung to the roof, and another below the ship, both leading to small-automated gun turrets.

  “The whole thing turns from dark blue to bright orange when it gets sunlight.” Blink twisted on the tips of her toes. “What do you think?”

  Evan had seen plenty of airships while living in Dogma Isle and traveling across the country with his parents. He’d never been in a military interceptor like this, but he’d seen them up close as escorts. Ad Astra dripped water from multiple points, and was scarred across its hull, yet it sat there with more life than some of the people Evan knew. He didn’t have the words to explain how he felt about it, and only managed, “It’s really cool.”

  Blink sat at the end of a crate facing the city, propped herself up with her arms, and stretched her legs straight out in front of her. She bent her head backward to Evan. “Had you ever been in one? Before… uh, everything?"

  “Uhm. Maybe once, or twice. But never like this.” Evan shrugged. Everything was a long list of events.

  She said, “First time I flew on one was when Daniel crashed it. It didn’t even lift off the ground.” She rolled her eyes and puffed a collection of hair out of her face. “Took me a while to get comfortable riding in it again.”

  “Is that why everyone keeps calling Daniel, ‘Ace?’”

  Blink laughed, “he hates that name. He used to brag that he was the best pilot out of Federation flight school, but not anymore. He’s a nice guy though.” She waved at a crate next to her.

  Though Evan typically avoided conversation, some internal force tugged on him to talk more. He sat on the neighboring crate and was struck by a surprising view of the city. Firefly lamps floated across the terraces, giving warmth to the spread-out darkness. The market below continued to sizzle with the sound of grilling food and almost smelled good (when factoring out the sewage). Evan was reminded that what was cooking might be something less than desirable, but he’d be deceiving himself if he said the smell wasn’t tempting. Across the terraces, a guitar twang was met with light laughter and conversation. Even down in the lowliest places, there was still beauty to be found.

  “Pretty, huh?”

  Evan nodded. He thought about how many thousands there had to be in the city, and Daniel’s explanation still hadn’t satisfied him. “How is this possible? Like, Vihn and Rowic talked about the city defenses and stuff, but how can so many people willingly live in this place? How can they make it here and survive?”

  Blink leaned forward, her arms dangling over the guardrail. “We have to. Every day we make it is another day we prove the Feds wrong.”

  “Wrong about what?”

  “About life. People in the Federation are taught to fear anything less than perfection. But here, we take all the good, and the bad, and make something new out of it. Fear just holds us back.”

  He found himself at a loss for words again. It seemed in his life that the bad trumped good every time, fear was the only thing that kept him alive in the past, and there’d never been room for failure. Pondering it was depressing, so he changed the subject.

  “How long have you and your brother been with the Blood Red Army?” he asked.

  “Ah. Three years or so. When our powers manifested, our parents dropped us off at some douche’s apartment, and then he sold us off to the rebels for heroin.” Blink’s enduring smile wilted, but she shook her head and the brightness returned to her.

  “You didn’t choose to join?”

  “No, but we chose to stay. That’s what matters. Not like we could go back and finish high school, anyway.” Her fingers traced a gap in the crate’s side.

  She was certainly about Evan’s age; they could have been classmates. Sadly, not everyone had a politician for a father who could cheat the system, like Evan had. “School’s probably worse than a heroin addict anyway,” he said.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Hah!” Blink blurted. “Twitch always says that. Maybe you two are the twins.”

  Evan grinned, then realized something. “Wait, you and your brother both got your powers at the same time?”

  Blink nodded. “Yeah, but he got his five minutes sooner.”

  She jumped up and led Evan on a walk across the landing platform, past significantly less impressive ships. “What about you, Evan? What’s your story?”

  “Well… Vihn kidnapped me and now here I am.”

  “Here you are!” Blink opened her arms to the sky. “So, you and I are alike, being kidnapped and sold off to the evil rebels, just to find out they’re the only people we can call family.”

  Evan didn’t know how he felt about that last part. He had a brother and father already, and he still viewed the rebels as just a means to help his real family. But he couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth, so he settled for a shrug. A sobering thought crawled into his mind. Why was Blink giving him this attention? Surely there were other people she’d connected with more if this was her family. She’d given her whole attention to a new guy, someone who she didn’t know, and for what? What had she been doing before he’d arrived? Waiting around for the most awkward, quiet, son of an enemy to come into her life? It seemed too simple… But Evan hoped it wasn’t, that this was a genuine interest that she showed in him. That here he might have found someone else in the world who’d want to know him, spend time with him, make him feel wanted.

  “Hey!” Blink shouted, catching Evan off guard, and draining his building doubt into the pit where his other fears and anxieties hid. “I didn’t get to see your power yet, let’s go!”

  She pulled him out of the hanger and through the tunnels again, which seemed arbitrary since she could have probably teleported them at a whim.

  “Why walk anywhere?” he asked.

  “Oh man, yeah you’re right, then I wouldn’t have to talk to you!” she giggled, and Evan did too. “Come on.”

  At the end of the tunnel were several floodlights that Blink switched on. A huge collection of scrap metal, barrels, and paint cans surrounded a wall colorfully painted with a giant mural of dozens of faces. They were all made in different styles as if painted by more than one person. Evan recognized seven of the faces, the members of Phoenix One. For the people Evan didn’t recognize, they had quotes – events, and dates written around them with dripping paint like shimmering halos.

  “This is the family.” Blink pointed to the people Evan recognized, “That’s Cranston, Vihn, Rowic, Nyla, Daniel, Twitch, and me.”

  Evan tried to connect the other faces to someone else he might have seen at the base. “Who are the others?”

  Her smile softened. “The others haven’t made it as far as we have. So, we write our favorite memories about them, and dates of when they joined, to when they left.”

  The words made more sense now that she’d explained it. One face was of an older man. His halo said, “To prove he was the fastest man alive, he decided to beat us in a race to heaven. See you on those golden tracks. – Ronald.”

  There were only seven faces awaiting their halos, surrounded by twenty with circlets painted above their heads.

  “I’m sorry,” Evan said.

  “Hey, it’s ok,” Blink replied, “they fought the good fight. Now their struggles are over, you know? We just gotta do our part to keep their legacy moving.”

  So many people had died and continued to die. The more Evan saw the faces of the rebels before him, the more he realized he had been a coward hiding behind his wealthy father. He wondered if the bartender’s face should be up there, or perhaps he wasn’t technically a member of this team. If Evan died, would they paint him up there?

  Evan mulled on that for a moment. Despite the sadness he felt, the art was still breathtaking. “Who painted them?”

  “My brother and I, Cranston, Nyla, Daniel… aaaand all the others. It’s been a family project, you feel? We all added a little part to it.” Blink turned to Evan. “I need to get something really quick.”

  She flashed away and almost instantly reappeared with a set of ear pods, and a small phone. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and shook her head. Finally, she smiled and offered an ear pod to Evan. “Do you like music?”

  Evan’s eyes lit up. He’d lost his phone and all his music back at Hazard Station and longed to hear something again. He nodded to her offer without hesitation.

  They sat on barrels, facing the mural. The ear pods rung with the soothing melody orchestrated from an adaptive A.I. First, it hummed with vibrant tones, stagnated by a low bass. Then another melody joined in with the first. This time, it was a slow counter symphony, laden by strums. The music waned and descended into alternating beats and swells. The song was a collection of their feelings all woven together.

  Blink closed her eyes and swayed her head to the rhythm.

  For the first time in a long time, Evan felt peace. He felt safe. It was like the world melted away, and he was back on that beach with his father. But this time, Blink was there too. He hadn’t felt this way about another person before.

  As he admired her, the paint cans trembled, the wet pigments licking up underneath their thin lids. Evan tensed his muscles and turned away from her and the cans became still.

  “What’s wrong?” Blink asked, plucking out her ear pod.

  Evan shook his head. “Sorry, it’s nothing.”

  “I see.” She smirked mockingly. “That's fine mister tough guy, just keep on brooding and not talking about your feelings.”

  Evan relented. “Ok, ok. I don’t like using my Affliction. I don’t have any control over it, you know?”

  “You don’t like using your powers?”

  Embarrassment hit Evan. She’d used her powers ever since she got them, but he’d done everything he could to hide his. He wanted to open up to her, to someone, and despite his apprehensions, she did seem genuine. “My story is… weird. My father… He adopted my best friend and did everything he could to keep our Afflictions a secret. I grew up having to resist my powers so I wouldn’t get arrested, and so my family would be safe too.”

  She sighed. “Hey, I get it. Trust me, a lot of us have a… past.” She waved a hand across the mural. “Most of us take on new names once we go underground. Names we choose, because we aren’t our past, or our families. We’re us.”

  It was a great idea, taking on a self-identity for oneself. “Why do you and your brother only go by Blink and Twitch? The others seem to go by their normal names.”

  “Who said those aren’t our normal names?”

  Evan stammered, “I, well-”

  “Kidding. It’s a long story, but basically, we decided we didn’t want to be tied to who we were anymore. We wanted a Tabula Rasa, you know?”

  “Huh?”

  “Tabula Rasa! Andrea uses the word sometimes. It means: a fresh start, a new beginning.”

  Evan liked that, as pretentious as the phrase sounded, it was cool to have a word for something he hadn’t known there was a word for.

  Blink squinted at Evan. “Hey, do you want a nickname? We could do something like Disintegrator, or Decay. Ooh, or Corrosion. Something really metal.”

  He couldn’t imagine himself with a name like any of those, but he realized he might not need one. “Thanks, but I think I know what you mean already. Evan is my identity, while Evangelos Hendricks belongs to the Governor.”

  “Amen. Well, I think the next step to becoming your own man is kicking off the restrictions and nailing down your powers.”

  Evan sighed.

  “Hey, no pressure, just listen to the music and we’ll see what happens.” Blink popped the ear pod back in and returned to her seat next to Evan.

  She was right. The Federation still had control over him as long as he didn’t use his powers.

  The music flowed through his ears. He relaxed his body. He could feel the atmosphere of the room, the barrels underneath him, then the concrete floor below that. He could feel Blink’s breath. Her chest lifting, her lungs expanding with air. Her heart beating along with his.

  An image flashed through his mind of the Federation soldier he killed back at Hazard Station; their bodies twisted and mutilated because of his thoughts. He shook off the idea, afraid to harm her in the same way.

  He turned to the mural, then to the paint cans: metal silos that encased deep colors. Inside, the liquid lashed against the walls and swirled. Then the paints seeped into the air from the metal shells with each strum of chords, and whirled into great torrents.

  Blink’s face brightened, far more than Evan thought possible.

  The paints – red, orange, blue, purple, green – waved far above the cans like the trees of the forest, swaying along with the symphony as one.

  Evan’s heart raced, his mind along with it. But… he wasn’t passing out and nothing was exploding. Was this freedom?

  Blink’s smile took over his thoughts. But something else was there. Her face flashed into his mother’s, her smile, her decaying body.

  Help! Get away from me! He heard.

  Evan’s mind swam, and the paints splashed against the concrete, sending the colors everywhere just short of Evan and Blink. Fortunately, the mural was spared from the mess.

  “Woah, you alright?” Blink hopped off the barrel.

  “Yeah, I just… Sorry.”

  Blink chuckled. “Don’t sweat it, hero. You’ll figure it out.”

  That doubt still lingered in his mind. He finally asked her, “Why? Like… Why are you doing any of this? Don’t you have… other things going on?”

  She chewed on her lip while staring at him, the warmth of the night teetering on an edge.

  His chest thumped. I’ve just ruined everything, didn’t I?

  She smiled again, snatching the warmth back before it’d depleted, and said, “I think I was where you were once. If I’d lost my brother, I’d do everything I could try and save him too. I guess… I get it. I had a friend who… she’s… She helped me and my brother find ourselves here. It’s worth saving the people we love, and we can’t do it alone.”

  His body relaxed as his doubts were diminished, feeling nothing from her but grounded-ness. Evan smiled, but he knew it didn’t match Blink’s.

  She stretched out a hand to Evan. “Thanks for tonight.”

  “Uh. Yeah, thank you… too.”

  He met her gesture. There was something in her hand. When he pulled away, he found the phone and the ear pods in his grasp. He looked up to her.

  “Keep it, Evan. You could use the music more than me right now. Just promise to give it back, ok?”

  The grandest elation swelled his chest. “Ok. Thank you, Blink. I will.”

  He went to bed that night, putting in the ear pods and starting up the music A.I. again. The sound soothed him, but Evan still couldn’t sleep that night because one thing danced in his mind.

  Did I just make a friend?

  https://www.patreon.com/posts/titan-project-1-123237175?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link