P.O.V: Brannon Harmon.
“Hey, what’re you doing up so early, or is it late?” Keira asked, sitting down beside me and laying her head on my shoulder.
It was one o’clock in the morning and, since I couldn’t sleep, I was sitting on the lawn- thinking about my family, and what they were doing right now. Keira had a short, black, pixie like haircut that reflected her bright green eyes. Keira’s family was a Gate Keeper family, meaning that an entire family lives at either one or two bases, and they live there their entire lives. I met Keira from a mission that she was on five years ago, and I fell in love with her. Keira left the Gate Keepers to stay closer to me for a couple years. When my mother died three years ago, I agreed with Keira to join the Gate Keepers. Keira and I were both Missionaries, but we went on some of the bigger missions, which resulted in me getting on the Order’s radar. My base was in North Carolina, hours from Florida. I got to visit my father and sister every once in a while, but only for a few days, and Keira has always came with me. But now, I only know where my sister is at, and I’m not even really supposed to know that. When you get on the Order’s radar, the Gate Keepers take your family into separate bases and most of the time, they don’t tell you which base. But since I had an old friend help me move Elizabeth to his base, I know where she is.
“Nothing, just thinking.” I sighed, wrapping an arm over her shoulder. “What’re you doing up this early? You don’t have a shift, do you?”
lately, all the Missionaries have been helping the Guards, taking shifts with them, changing places completely. My other two Commanders, Keira being one of them, and I have decided that we would be taking extra precautions since the last Council meeting. We didn’t want to end up like those other bases. We’ve never been one off the big bases, but we’re really small if you’re counting how many Missionaries and Guards we have.
“No, but I do in a couple hours.” she murmered against my shoulder. “They’re fine, you know.” she added.
“They’re both going to be just fine, and so are we.” shs said happily.
I opened my mouth to say something when we both heard a loud, audible thud coming from the wall that breaks and opens up for people to come in and out. But there was nobody even close to the wall. After sharing a quick glance at each other, we both jumped up and went to inspect the wall. Some of the Guards had beat us to it, and were trying to figure out what had made the noise.
“What was that?” I ask nobody in particular.
“Not really sure.” Jimmy said, jogging up to us. Jim was an eighteen year old kid that I’d grown to liking. He had dark blue, spiky hair and dark brown eyes. Jim was human, like most people in the base, but he had more of an aim with a bow and arrow than I could ever dream of having.
There was another, louder thud comming from the wall, and most scary- a bit of the wall actually cracked. That’s when it started to click in my head what was about to happen.
“Back up!” my voice was low and cracked from fear. “Back up!” I yelled just as three more cracks ran among the wall. People were starting to wake up and come outside, trying to see what was going on. I managed to grab Keira and push her out of the way before the wall exploded. I felt myself go flying, and unfortunately, into a large boulder.
“Brannon!” I thought I heard someone calling my name, but my mind was to fuzzy to recognize the voice. The back of my head felt like it had been shot and my vision was fuzzy and things were swaying. I felt someone grip my arm and shake it, yelling my name.
“Brannon? Damn it, answer me!” Keira yelled. My sight began to come back to me, and I realized that Keira and Jimmy were kneeling in front of me. Keira’s face was covered in dust and mud, her night clothes were a mess. Jimmy’s hand looked mangled and was bleeding. How long had I been sitting here? I looked past them to see men and women in black suits covering their body from head to toe except for a bit of their face. The Order. Jimmy gripped my arm with his good hand and pulled me to my feet, looking worried.
“I’m fine,” my words were slurred together, making it almost impossible for even me to understand.
Keira pushed Jim’s hand off and put my arm over her shoulder, and put my other arm over Jim’s shoulder. They practically carried me behind one of the buildings, Jimmy almost getting shot by rogue bullets. They sat me down behind the building, and I immediately tried getting to my feet. I felt intensely dizzy and stumbled, but after a moment, I could stand with only a slight pounding in my head. The three of us ran back to the front of the building, shocked at how bad things had just gotten.
“What in the living fuck?” Jimmy gasped, looking at the horror scene unfolding in front of us.
I glanced over at Keira, and we both knew what was happening. The Order was shooting at people and, as I realized in shock, they were starting to light these little round balls. I didn’t realize what they were until they went off. One of the people from the Order lit one of the small balls and threw it into the doorway of our main living building, where everybody sleeps, and five seconds later, fire erupted from inside the building.
Keira put a hand over her mouth, and Jimmy was shaking his head in shock. People were running out of the building, some even on fire, trying to get away from the blaze. Some had grabbed weapons and were fighting the members of the Order. So this is how they’ve been taking down bases- in the dead of the night, with guns and bombs. That can’t be how they’re taking down the bases, that would rely too much on chance. Even with surprise on their side, they have no idea the type of mutants and weapons we have on the base. Unfortunately, I found out, and I wish I hadn’t. Keira ran at one of the Order that was pointing his gun at Keira’s older sister, Christine, and as she grabbed his neck, her eyes turned an unnatural blue and the soldier screamed, holding his head like it would explode, his eyes rolling back in his head. That’s usually the reaction people have to Keira’s powers. Keira can, literally, make somebody go insane at her touch. And no, I’m not just saying that because she can get insane at times. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two men walk through the now blown- up- wall. One of them looked to be in his forties, but I couldn’t see too much of his face because he was in the dark. His hair- what he had left of it, anyway- looked slick black, like the younger man’s. The younger one I could see much better, and I knew exactly who it was. Rafe. Everybody knew who Rafe was, even people who have nothing to do with the Gate Keepers of the Order. Rafe is Da Kenshi’s oldest son, and known for, not only being a Blood Bender, but for having his father’s old- and extremely deadly- devilish, if you will, powers. Everyone- Gate Keeper or not- knows the type of powers that Da Kenshi and Hamado’s family is rumored to have. Though all Da Kenshi can do is Blood Bend- which is dangerous enough- his son is rumored to be able to actually control a mutant’s power, to steal it from them, and use it against them. But that’s just legend, nobody can actually verify if that’s actually true. Though everybody knows what Rafe looked like, the only thing know about what Da Kenshi looked like was that he had a scar on the right side of his face- mostly because rarely anyone ever saw Da Kenshi’s face and lived to give a description. The sight of Rafe sent chills down my spine. I ran at one of the soldiers who had drawn his weapon on Dane, our first in Command, and ran my shoulder into his stomach. We were both thrown into the dirt, each trying to get a weapon of any kind. He got to his gun before I could even get to my feet. Jim grabbed his hand that was holding the gun and twisted it so far back that I heard a loud, terrible cracking noise. The man instantly dropped the gun and let out a yelp. I looked away from Jim, knowing what he was about to do. There was another, horrible cracking noise- but I wasn’t naive enough to believe it was his other hand. I looked back at Jim, with slight disgust, and noticed the dead soldier at his feet. Jim had always had a huge hate for the Order, and didn’t mind killing them when the chance presented itself.
“Oh please, get off your high horse Brannon.” Jimmy scoffed at me, throwing me the soldier’s gun and I caught it easily.
I turned away from Jim and fired the gun at a soldier to my right. There was barely any of us left now, maybe around a hundred, and it terrified me, knowing that this was how I could die. I don’t know how long the fight went on before I realised three things. We were losing. And we were losing fast. Rafe and the other man had gotten into the battle now, and I noticed that both men were Blood Benders. I didn’t want to know who the other man was, I didn’t want to think of that. And most horrifying? They had stopped trying to kill the remaining Gate Keepers, and started to restrain them with Black Metal handcuffs. Officers and prisons use Black Metal to restrain mutants, and they’re never accessible to the public. So how the Order got ahold of that much Black Metal, I’ll never know. I was so caught up in watching the scenes in front of me, I was stupid enough to forget where I was. Someone hit me with the but of a gun in the head from behind, and I went sprawling on the grass, struggling to get up. I felt a soldier grab my hands and roughly shove them into Black Metal cuffs. My stomach dropped and my head started pounding like my heart had suddenly relocated to my brain. That’s always been my reaction to Black Metal, though everyone’s reaction to it is different- sometimes depending on what type of powers they have. I looked to my right and saw Keira, Jimmy, and many others forced onto their stomachs and their hands pushed into cuffs. I tried kick off the soldier, try to get free, but all that got me was a kick to the face. The soldier holding Keira pulled out a syringe filled with a dull blue liquid and plunged it into her neck. Her eyes grew wide and after only a moment, her eyes closed.
“Keira?” I yelled at her, scared that the liquid might’ve been a poison of some sort. But my worry was quenched when I saw her chest rise and fall easily.
They plunged a syringe with the same blue liquid into Jim’s neck, with the same reaction. I felt a cold metal pierce my skin and liquid seep into my blood. My reactions and movements slowed down immediately. I tried to keep my eyes from closing, but whatever liquid they put in me was strong. My eyes dropped and I quickly fell into unconsciousness. The last thing I heard was a rough, older sounding man saying,
“Load ’em up.”
ns 15.158.61.48da2
