Читать книгу MODERN MAGICS - Tianyu (Tony) Zhu - Страница 4

The sun was setting as the Roamers were dismissed from class, their very last at that. Damian and the Roamers and walked out of the classroom. They were done being disciplined -- and tonight, they wanted out. The night set on the Roamers as they walked across campus. Those harsh white lights from the security towers stood as a constant reminder of their entrapment.

Damian stayed up very late that night, holding an empty glass bottle of alcohol he had managed to snatch from one of Bierner’s drawers a few days ago. He then smashed the bottle, which shattered and landed all over the floor. Damian was answered with annoyed and confused groans from neighbouring bunkmates and a slap from the silent room manager, which left his right cheek stinging. After Damian cleaned up the bottle, he put the shards in a plastic bag, while the manager wasn’t looking, and pretended to go back to bed.

A few hours later, when the manager had gone to sleep and all the lights were off, Damian knocked his knuckles against the ground, not loud enough to wake anyone, but enough to get the attention of the ones who were awake. The walls were very thin, allowing the sound to be heard in other rooms.

He heard a knock on the wall response… pause… two knocks… another pause...then three. All the scattered Roamers residing in other rooms were ready.

Carefully, Damian crawled out of the camera views from two opposing corners of the room. Armed with the glass shard, he cut the wires dangling below the camera, and quietly snuck out of the room.

Damian was the first to poke his head out into the hallway. He squinted his eyes in an attempt to see, but it was too dark. In the depths of midnight, with no lights. His surroundings were pitch black.

“Hey! You guys there? ” Damian loudly whispered.

A moment later, Damian was met with a quiet chorus of affirmations from the other Roamers. After everyone had gathered, they opened the door and saw the crescent moon high above them, shining blue light onto the Roamers as they took deep breaths, preparing for the last part of their plan. Not wasting any time, the Roamers quietly sneaked out, further and further away from that wretched shelter until they came to the edge of the campus.

Standing in front of the barbed fence -- their last hindrance from liberty -- the Roamers took out stashed tools and went straight to work. Like alarmed prey, their heads ducked down every time a guard’s flashlight was nearby. They continued to saw, breaking through dozens of assorted tools, mostly broken knick-knacks they’ve stashed away these past few months.

It took longer than Damian had thought, but they had finally done it. It was their first sight of victory: the metal wires succumbed to their prolonged protests and fell down before their knees. Without further hesitation, they walked across the smooth, white concrete, where no student dared to trespass, and onto the coarse dirt, littered with trash and rubble.

The Roamers were about to sneak away further, until they felt something on them - something warm, like sunlight. They slowly turned our panicked heads and saw the harsh, white spotlights from the guard towers all directly aiming down at them. From a distance, Damian saw guards sprinting towards them, all carrying some sort of rifles in their arms.

“Run!” he shouted. The Roamers ran at full speed out of campus grounds.

Bzzt.

Damian glanced behind -- the guards fired at them, and Roamers began to fall limply to the ground one-by-one with tasers sticking out of their backs. The guards filed out of the crevice, and in no time, they caught up and surrounded the Roamers with their better physique as trained security. The hopelessness dawned in the Roamers’ eyes as they became prey in the trap.

“Well I really can’t say that this wasn’t expected.”

A shadow emerged behind the wall of guards and transformed into Bierner’s silhouette. Plastering a cruel sneer on her face, Bierner walked up and grabbed Damian by his hair and stepped on his face until he fell to the ground. She then looked at the other guards.

“Should’ve just followed the rules,” She said, “Rough them up a bit.”

Damian watched in horror as more fell to the ground, twitching and convulsing with tasers attached to their bodies.

Out of nowhere, a feeling churned. A flame lit inside Damian and began to burn brightly, surging energy and warmth throughout his body. It grew fiercer and fiercer until it was scalding hot. The pain was barely endurable, producing tears around the corners of his eyes as his vision became blurry and tinged. He wanted it to stop. He screamed -- a blood-curdling scream so loud he had never heard from himself before, and all fighting ceased. The cloudiness in Damian’s eyes finally cleared, and he saw the guards staring at him in awe with bewildered expressions - surprised enough to make them momentarily lower their rifles. Even Bierner was wide-eyed. It was then that Damian realised that my eyes were glowing.

“A seer eh?” Bierner showed a crooked smile, “How wonderful for you, to be Awakened at this moment.” The devious smile widened as she said, “Lesser.”

She stretched her hand out and a jagged piece of lightning appeared in her hand, showing her powers as an Elementalist.

Then something strange happened. Damian didn’t know what it was, but time slowed down and a voice inside his head whispered, she is targeting your head, dodge to the left and hit her stomach.

Damian did as the voice said. When the bolt of lightning was casted from Bierner’s hand, going at a speed that was almost too fast for the human eye to see, to the guard’s surprise, Damian somehow dodged it. The projectile completely missed, so Damian closed in on her and punched her in the stomach, much faster than what he expected. He watched her collapse onto the ground.

The guards stared at him in disbelief and confusion. One of them yelled, “Open fire!” and lifted his rifle.

Domain wanted to shield himself, but he never got the chance. Something strange happened again: the world faded so fast it made him nauseous. He was so dizzy he collapsed onto the ground again. Then he realised there was no ground, it was empty underneath him.

It was as if Damian entered into another dimension.

When he stood back up onto his feet, Damian started to notice the other people who had surrounded him -- they were all very still, as if time had been frozen. This strange dimension contained a weird orange tint, it was all but silent in here.

Let me help you.

Damian jumped as the mysterious voice boomed through his ears, shattering the quiet. He looked up and saw a bright yellow light, hovering and moving erratically in place. He was about to say something, but he didn’t get the chance. Without waiting for a response, the strange light dove towards Damian. Before Damian could react, it crashed and burrowed into his forehead.

Damian felt as if he was about to fall flat on his back, but in another sudden surge of vertigo, he found himself in the real world again. The guards who had been frozen like statues, finally leveled their weapons, directly pointing at his chest.

He tried to stop himself, but it was as if his body wasn’t even his own. Damian felt like a spectator. The security shot their tasers, and he reflexively braced himself for pain -- only to realise, seconds later, that none of them hit. His body propelled himself forward to the guards, who seemed distraught. Ducking and sliding, Damian swept one off her feet and punched her in the guts. The air came out of her lungs as she fainted. The other guards tried to grab Damian, but whoever was controlling Damian’s body was already a step ahead. Damian’s body jumped onto a nearby pile of rubble and kicked an oncoming guard in the face. As the guard was falling, he let go of his rifle, which Damian quickly snatched and shot another with.

Damian could feel his muscles struggling to keep up. The moves, although impressive, were taking a toll on his own body.

Stop. He thought in his head. The visceral pain was worsening.

Stop . More and more guards fell. He could feel the pain like fire in his bones, the last reserves of air being used. But the voice did not listen.

STOP! Damian yelled. The excruciating agony finally started to fade away as the last guard fell.

Whatever or whoever was manipulating his body like a puppet had finally let go. Damian fell to the ground, cramping and unable to move.

You owe me one . That same voice said callously.

Go to hell. Damian cursed at him, or he would have, if he was doing anything else other than hyperventilating.

The voice chuckled at Damian’s insult. And then, the voice disappeared -- his presence no longer in Damian’s head.

The Roamers stared at Damian in shock and disbelief. They ran into the night, leaving Damian alone in the dark. He wanted to calm them and make them realise that he was still himself, but Damian’s body was unable to even move. Through a piece of cracked glass beside where he fell, he could see his orange glowing eyes turning back into his old brown eyes. The exhaustion pulled Damian into a deep sleep.