Adaru was hoping Faith was in a better mood the next day, but she was still mad at him when they were eating breakfast.
And their mother didn’t make things any better.
“I want you to do your best this time Adaru. I know you are going to show them what a great gymnast you are,” she said. “Don’t waste all the money we spent on your classes!”
It was the same speech she had given him for the last three years. It didn’t matter that Adaru had stopped going to those classes more than a year ago because there was no more money.
“And you, my dear, I want you to be as lovely as you are. Tell, has anything odd happened to you? Please tell me you can move things with your mind,” she said to Faith while she was combing her hair.
Adaru didn’t know if he should tell mom about Faith’s dreams. It would be great news for her mother. Faith could be their ticket to Alpha Zone One and to a better life if they could prove her dreams were coming true. But it could also have been a coincidence, he thought. It had to be.
“She cannot be one of them,” he thought. “ Dad would be disappointed.”
It did not count much because he didn’t know if their father was ever coming back.
Her mother always wanted to live in the zone. She had heard stories about how life in the zone was better.
“No need to worry about food or money. They give it to you! You just live leisurely with a margarita in one hand” she told them constantly.
Adaru only needed to look around their apartment to realize that anything could be an improvement. The walls needed a repainting. The broken windows had not been repaired and he swore the cobweb at the corner of the ceiling was getting bigger.
“I know you will get us inside the zone. Our lives are going to be better!” she said to Adaru. “This will be the last Evolution Day we will spend outside the superhero city!”
“And be inside the cages like monkey or any other beast,” Adaru thought.
Adaru hated Evolution Day because it was the day society celebrated those who have by rubbing it to those who have not, he thought. He also hated living in New Haven because it was just next to one of the four alpha zones in the North America Republic. Adaru would have given everything to live thousands of miles away.
Alpha zones were only permitted for people with an ability lived. Nobody could enter the zone any other day, but on Evolution Day, people from New Haven, and sometimes from states as far as Canada flocked to the zone to get a glimpse of the people living within the gray walls.
Faith was grumpy. She didn’t talk at all during breakfast. Their mom continued talking about how great it would be to live in the zone, but Adaru knew he had no chance to pass the auditions.
He was supposed to be picked up by Jade in 15 minutes. He said he was going to wait for her at the corner to save Jade the climbing of three floors. In reality, he wanted to stop hearing his mother’s dreams that will never come true.
“Just be sure to not miss your audition,” she said. “It is scheduled to be at two.”
“I won’t,” he said while he hugged Faith. “See you there.”
Faith grabbed his arm when he was pulling away. When he turned, he faced her green eyes that were looking at him intensively.
“Promise you will come back with us,” Faith said. “Promise.”
“I will come with you,” he said.
He was surprised that he had some fear in his voice.
He got out and waited at the corner for Jade to pick him up. He smiled when her family’s van turned the corner. He stopped doing it when he saw Joe and Nathan were on the back. The car parked near him and Jade got out. Even though Adaru felt his face turning red, he could feel some disappointment he was not going alone with her.
Adaru said hi to Jade’s parents and climbed on the back seat. He was crammed in space with Joe next to him. Jade sat at the other side of Joe. Nathan had moved to the third row of the car, were the trunk should had been.
“So is everybody ready to go to the super hero city?” Jade’s dad asked.
“Yeah,” Nathan, Joe and Jade said. Adaru only smiled.
“Do you think we will see people flying?” Joe asked Adaru when they got on the highway.
“You should have asked how he was and also about his family,” Nathan said.
“Sorry,” Joe said sheepishly, looking down. He got silent for ten seconds. He then stared at Adaru again. “So how’s your family?”
“Good,” Adaru said. “I will see them at the zone before my audition.”
“Good,” Joe said and Adaru knew he didn’t pay attention to his answer.
“So you think we will see people flying?” Joe asked again.
Adaru smiled. Joe was fourteen, but he acted like if he was seven.
“They are not many flyers, but there are a lot of psychics,” said Jade’s father. “Alpha Zone One has the biggest population of psychics in the entire republic, even though they are rare.”
“That’s not true,” Jade said. “And the correct term is Sensorial. They are not so rare. Only Physicals are less rare than them.”
“How do you know so much?” her father asked with a smile looking through the mirror.
“I just find them fascinating. The Zone One has the biggest population compared to the other zones in the republic, but the Genetics are less common,” Jade said proudly.
“I just wish I was one of them. I could use my mind to make myself float!” Joe said excitedly.
Adaru looked through the window. It was a cloudy day but there were patches he could see the sky. They went through the city until they arrived downtown and to the entrance of the gate. New Haven and Alpha Zone were divided by a bridge over a 3-mile wide canal that was mostly pavement. At the beginning of the gate the traffic stopped. It was going to be a long commute because every car was inspected by the authorities.
Adaru could see a lot of people walking, which was unusual since the celebrations were not near the bridge they were crossing. When the car was getting closer to the entry gate, Adaru could hear voices that sounded angry.
Then he saw more people on the sides of the streets and he realized there was a protest happening around him.
“What is going on daddy?” Jade asked nervously.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he said. “They are just the remaining of the people who don’t like the world is changing.”
Adaru could see dozens of men and women shouting. Some even had signs that say “when did being a freak became better than normal?” He also saw another sign that read “God will punish those who adore false idols.”
“Who are they?” Joe asked. Adaru was ashamed to know the answer to that.
“They are called The Humanists,” Jade’s father said. “They are the only remnants of the hate groups back when people were afraid of anyone who had an ability.”
“Are they dangerous?”
“Not like they were more than 20 years ago. They mostly do these kinds of protests. They can only face us, the poor people who have no ability.”
“They are so many of them,” Jade said.
“Believe it or not, this is an improvement over what people faced some time ago. That was really scary,” Jade’s mom said with a sad voice.
After an hour of cars slowly moving inches over the grey bridge, they finally crossed it to get to the zone.
It took about half an hour to get to the park and another twenty minutes to find a parking space. When they got to the park, the festivities already had started. The trees were decorated with balloons of different colors. People were eating and others were running between booths just to see someone use their ability.
Joe and Nathan were amazed by a man and a woman who appeared to create fireworks out of their hands. A man next to them was juggling eight objects of different sizes, but without touching them. The objects floated in a circle above his head. The man smiled and put his arms behind his back while people laughed and clapped.
“Do you think he could fly?” Joe asked after being amazed for some minutes.
“He must have a blue ID bracelet,” Jade said behind him.
“What?” Joe said.
“You see the bracelets some people are wearing?” Jade said pointing to people who were entertaining crowds. “Those are ID bracelets and mean they live in the zone and describe what they are. If it’s red, they are Physical. If the bracelets are blue, then they are Sensorial, which some of them can make things fly with their mind.”
Joe’s eyes got big with amazement. He ran to get near the man juggling stuff to see what kind of bracelet he was wearing.
“It’s blue!” he said with glee.
Adaru walked away from them to get deeper inside the park. He was trying to be alone to hide he was not comfortable being in the zone, but Jade didn’t know that.
“Come with me! I want to see something a cousin recommended me,” she said.
She took them to a booth where a girl younger than Faith made them sit on a bench. She then lifted the bench with them on it. When she putted them down, Jade asked where she got her shirt. Adaru looked away not wanting to hear their conversation.
After, they went to see a thin man in a clown make-up and multicolor-suit making animals in the air with water from a nearby fountain.
“Come on,” she said smiling and grabbing him by the arm. “The show is about to start.”
She led him to the plaza. It had a stage and people surrounding it. A plump woman was about to speak. There was no microphone, but when she spoke, everyone was taken by surprise by how powerful her voice was.
“TODAY WE ALL COME TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE EVOLUTION DAY!” she said and people clapped. “IT’S THE DAY WE RECOGNIZE THE NEXT CHAPTER IN HUMAN EVOLUTION. TODAY, TWO DECADES AGO, THE FOUR ALPHA ZONES WERE CREATED SO PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL ABILITIES COULD COME TOGETHER, AND UNITE TO MAKE A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL THE CITIZENS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
“IT HAS BEEN TWENTY YEARS OF PROGRESS AND AMAZING NEW CHANGES. WHY, IT WAS ONLY THIRTY YEARS AGO THAT THE FIRST PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL ABILITIES BECAME KNOWN.
“THEY WERE CALLED SUPER HEROES BY SOME. BUT THEY WERE ALSO CALLED MONSTERS, ABOMINATIONS AND FREAKS BY OTHERS.”
The people who were shouting were now quiet. The accusation did not go over their heads. They knew she was talking about the Hunt that ended with hundreds of people dead. Adaru thought about the Humanists and he wondered how many of the attendants used to think like them.
“FEARING THEM WAS UNDERSTANDABLE. HUMANITY WAS GOING THROUGH A CHANGE. A CHANGE WE HAVE NOT FULLY COMPREHENDED EVEN TODAY. OF COURSE, IT WAS BIZARRE SEEING A KID WITH THE STRENGHT OF TEN MEN. IT WAS BIZARRE HAVING PEOPLE MOVING THINGS WITH THEIR MINDS.
“BUT WITH FEAR CAME WONDER AND CURIOSITY. WE WERE AMAZED THAT THINGS WE ONLY HAD SEEN IN COMICS, CARTOONS OR IN THE MOVIES HAD BECOME REAL. AND WITH THAT WE KNEW PEOPLE WITH ABILITIES WERE NOT A CURSE, BUT A BLESSING.
“OF COURSE THERE ARE DANGERS. THAT’S WHY THESE ZONES WERE CREATED, SO PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL ABILITIES CAN TRAIN IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AND CITIZENS CAN BE SAFE.
“BUT TODAY WE ARE REMINDED THAT WE ARE ALL CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC, AND THAT WE ALL ARE GOING TOGETHER TOWARDS A NEW STAGE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION!”
With that, the crowd cheered again.
Adaru had to look at his phone. It was almost one. He had to start moving to the hall room for his audition.
“I’ll be right back,” he told Jade.
“Audition? Go break a leg and impress them!” she said with a big smile.
The hall was a brown building at the north-side of the park, which had become the most crowded area. He saw small children weeping with their parents. There were obviously nervous for their first audition.
Auditions were the time people could show off if they had an ability and be given visa to live in the zone. It was a three-day event where out of thousands of people dreaming of a better life, only dozens would see it coming true.
Adaru was happy that he would be one of the thousands going back to New Haven at the end of the day. It felt he had less pressure. He knew he wasn’t special and he was fine with it. Still, he wanted to show them what he could do. It was a matter of pride for him.
Inside there was an indoor stadium with bleachers surrounding it so everybody could see the auditions. People were already waiting nervously for them to start. When he found his mother and Jade, he cringed when he saw all the makeup Faith was wearing. Her cheeks were white and her eyelids – and almost everything around her eyes – were black. Their mother really wanted people to notice her eyes.
Those eyes, however, showed anger.
“There you are Adaru!” his mother said. “Here are your clothes. Dress up and go show them why we deserve to live in the zone!”
Adaru looked at Faith who mouthed “help me.”
He walked to the changing rooms. He saw a man yelling at his son that he must pass the audition, ignoring his tears. He saw a family of four in knees praying.
If you had to pray, then that meant you knew you didn’t have what was needed to pass the audition, Adaru thought.
He changed to a white shirt and tight trousers and waited patiently for his time. The arena was divided in four stations, each one doing a different audition. Adaru had signed up for a Physical, meaning he had to show he had more strength, speed or agility than others.
When the auditions started, the noise became deafening with parents encouraging their children and protesting when the judges failed them. Adaru decided to wait at the dressing rooms for his name to be called. In past years, he had realized that looking at other people’s auditions only made him more nervous.
Finally, his name was called.
While walking, Adaru couldn’t prevent himself from looking at the other auditions happening at that time. In one corner, a boy was trying to read someone’s mind. By the look of the man sitting in front of him with his arms crossed, he was failing. In the opposite side, a man with a blue suit was making things disappear with the sleigh of his hand. A man with a Sikh turban laughed. He came near him and made a dove appear from his left ear. The people laughed, except the man with the suit.
Adaru was surprised to see a young girl playing a violin. It was pretty music and he saw the judges smiling, but they didn’t look like they were impressed.
The Physicals auditions were being held at the southeast corner. Adaru saw there were the uneven bars, a balance beam and enough space for him to do cartwheels. On the side, four men were sitting next to each other.
Adaru had to face these four judges who would decide his fate. He knew already the main judge because it was the same man every year.
He also never changed his outfit. Adaru always saw him with a navy-colored suit, a bowler hat, white gloves and his thick trimmed mustache. He was short and a little overweight. Adaru even remembered his name.
He was Horatio Bellingham and he was going to tell him he was not good enough to be in the zone.
Again.
“Mr. Sepien, you have a minute to show us why you should be accepted into the zone. This is your fourth test, therefore, it will be your last opportunity. Do you understand?” Bellingham said with his deep voice.
“Yes,” Adaru replied. He neglected to say “thank God.”
“Then, show us what you can do,” he said.
He took a breath and afterward, he ran. After some distance, he jumped and did three cartwheels in a row. He made a jump, twisted his body and did two spins in the air before he landed.
“Wow, I didn’t know I could do that,” Adaru thought.
The crowd was impressed and they let him know with their screams. Adaru did another cartwheel and he got in the balance beam. He made three flips without losing his footing. He then did a back flip to land on the mat. People were cheering.
He ran to the uneven bars. He grabbed the lower one. He spun two times and he swung to the second one.
He saw the room spinning and he smiled. He jumped and twisted his body. He believed he had rolled four times in the air and his body had done a 720-degree turn. He landed on his feet and stared defiantly to his judges.
This was Adaru’s best performance. Three judges stood up, and clapped. Bellingham was not one of them.
“It was impressive,” Bellingham said. “But I have seen better.”
That comment stung Adaru. He felt insulted.
Before he could think twice, he started running toward the men. They thought he was still showing off, but they got nervous when he didn’t stop.
He did two cartwheels, but he was too close to them. All of them with the exception of Bellingham moved to the side. Adaru jumped over Bellingham and did a flip with his legs extended. He looked up just in time to see Bellingham’s surprised eyes before he landed.
And the crowd erupted. Adaru had not felt that adrenalin rush before. He knew he didn’t pass the test, but he was happy with his performance. He saw that Bellingham was clearly mad at him. Adaru was lucky his ability was not to kill anyone with his eyes.
“Impressive, Mr. Sepien,” he said, already recovering from the fright. “But not good enough for the zone.”
People started booing the decision, which was a small victory for Adaru. He made a reverence and he went back to the dressing room. The clapping continued until he was deep inside the hallways toward the dressing room.
“That was quite a performance,” he heard behind him.
He turned to see a Hispanic man smiling at him. He had a round face but he was tall. He was slim and Adaru could see his badge on his brown shirt and a red bracelet on his right wrist.
He was a resident of the zone and worse still, he was a cop.
The man wanted to shake his hand but Adaru pulled away. The teachings of his father had not been forgotten. He went inside the dressing room and the man followed.
“Shy huh?” the man said. “I sure hope you are not anti-ability. That would be a shame.”
“I am more against shaking hands with someone I don’t know. Especially if it could be dangerous for me,” Adaru said.
He also thought “freak”.
“That’s pretty wise,” the man said smiling. He pulled up his left sleeve so Adaru could see his hand was severely burned.
“I’m strong but I will not tear down your arm,” he said. “My name is Nate Custos.”
“Nice to meet you sir,” Adaru said while shaking his hand, but still not returning his smile.
“A pleasure to meet you,” Custos said. “Was your last name Sepien?”
“Yeah.”
“Any relationship with Joseph Sepien?”
Adaru froze in terror after hearing his father’s name.
“No sir. I have not heard that name before,” he lied.
“Oh, well. It just that it sounded like an odd last name,” Custos said smiling. “You did a pretty bold thing out there.”
“Well, it wasn’t enough to get me into the zone,” Adaru said nervously while he changed as quickly as he could. When he did, he whispered an “excuse me” and walked past the man who was still staring at him.
When he got out, he faced an attractive woman with brown hair tied on a pony tail. She was putting a sort of headphones on her head. She smiled when she saw Adaru.
“It’s not nice to lie,” she said.
That made Adaru more nervous. For some reason, he thought the woman had noticed it as well.
He hurried up to the stands to find his family. They had moved to another area of the stadium. He ran to find them in another room deeper into the hall. Adaru was thinking that if they knew who his father was, they all could get arrested. Adaru was nervous because of his father “other activities,” that paid for the apartment and he knew his mother used part of it to pay her drinking habit, could be the reason they wanted to talk to him.
Or did they know about Faith?
His paranoia kicked in. He felt his chest getting heavy and when someone touched his shoulder, he thought it was the police officer again, going to arrest him.
It was Jade.
“Hey, are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said with a voice that clearly showed his nervousness. “I am just looking for my sister.”
“I saw them in line for the Genetic audition. It was a short line compared to the others,” she said pointing to a spot with a crowd.
“Thanks,” he said. “I need to leave with them. Thank you for the ride. I’ll see you.”
He didn’t want to leave her. Especially in that abrupt way, but he needed to get away. He needed to get his family out from the zone.
He ran and pushed people to get in front of the line. His body got heavier when he saw that Faith was sitting in the middle of the room.
The woman had a clipboard and was looking at her sister. She touched her red hair and looked at her neck. She then grabbed her chin and made her look up. The woman stared at Faith’s green eyes. Faith’s eyes always brought wonder and praise from people, but the woman was just cold, like she was studying a relic or a common object thrown to the street.
Adaru’s mother was behind the woman. She was apprehensive, but she was talking like if she was selling merchandise.
“See those beautiful eyes? No one of our family has those eyes. Neither that hair!” she said. “My daughter is very unique. I bet you don’t have anyone like that in the zone.”
“Who is the father?”
“I don’t know,” mom lied.
“Then we don’t know how unique she is, do we?”
“Her father did not have that hair or those eyes.”
“Didn’t you say you didn’t know who the father was?”
There we some laughter from the people seeing the audience. Adaru’s mom was being humiliated and he had no way to save her.
His mom started moving her lips but she got quiet. She looked down, defeated. The woman told Faith she could get up. She didn’t pass the test for being a Genetic, an audition only the most desperate people apply for.
He was hoping their mom had finally given up. They were never going to live in the zone, to Adaru’s relief.
When she, Faith and Adaru got out of the hall, he told them they had to leave. Mom was clearly very embarrassed from what had just happened so she didn’t say anything. Faith only gave him a smile. She was ready to get home.
First, they had to get a shuttle bus that carried them to the entrance of the zone. From there, a rail car would get them to New Haven, back to their normal, ordinary and sad life.
Faith never spoke on the bus or the train. She didn’t ask why Adaru wanted to leave Jade. In a way, Adaru thought she was happy he was with her.
He hoped she wasn’t mad at him anymore. Their mother was clearly in a bad mood though. She started complaining about the judges when the train had left the zone.
“Those judges don’t know anything! Who gives them the authority to embarrass me like that!” she said.
Adaru decided to ignore her. She always complained about the auditions when they came back from the zone.
At least, this was the last time.
When the train stopped, Adaru stood up and asked Faith to give him her hand. They were among the first to leave. That’s why nobody warned them that a group of Humanists were waiting for them.
“Freak lovers!” someone screamed.
“You should be ashamed!” somebody else said.
There were about thirty people, but they didn’t have signs. They had rotten vegetables and eggs instead. They started throwing them to the people who were getting out from the train.
Adaru’s face was hit with yolk when an egg broke near his head. He grabbed Faith’s hand harder. He tried to get inside the train, but people wanting to get out didn’t let them. He didn’t know where his mother was.
“Let’s go,” Adaru said to Faith.
Both of them got out down some stairs, but they were now in the middle of the crowd. Adaru tried to protect Faith, but his body was not big enough to cover her from the eggs and lettuce heads that were hitting them.
“Make them stop!” Faith pleaded.
“Run. They will leave us alone if we get out of here,” Adaru said.
“I want them to leave us alone now!” Faith said raising her head to face the group of Humanists.
Instead, a tomato hit her.
Her scream was filled with anger and pain. She looked down and screamed more. Adaru tried to comfort her when she got quiet. Then she stood up.
“Stop it!” she screamed.
At that time, Adaru felt the floor was moving. It was slow at first, but it was enough to make people stop. Then, everything started to shake harder.
People fell. Car alarms went off and panic erupted. The Humanists who could still stand, decided to stop their protest and flee. The earthquake lasted two minutes. After those two minutes, everybody was on the floor. Only Faith remained standing with her face covered with the red juices of the tomato and her green eyes that were lit with cold anger.
Adaru saw those eyes, and felt terror inside him.
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