I thought about what had happened during the remainder of the day. I mean, it's just something you'd see in fiction, books, comics, shows, movies etcetera. It doesn't happen in real life. But it is. I was going to undergo an experiment, and after said experiment I'm going to possess an ability.
Mr. Wren spoke about how the EI will develop around your personality. What kind of abilities would we get? David would get something explosive with sheer attack power. Evan would recieve something more support based and psychic. Erin might get something explosive similar to David. Elaina? Maybe something innocent like healing? She's pretty clueless about most things so there's a possibility she doesn't even realize she has a power.
And then there's me. What ability would I have? What kind of a person am I? It's a question I never wonder, but when I do I can never come up with an answer. There's nothing special about me, I'm not interesting or have any great qualities about me. I feel like I'm just a narrator to my friends' stories.
As I walked home I felt at peace. The streets were empty and the hum of cars was but a faint whisper in the distance. The buzzing of street lamps switching on built up this calm atmosphere, and I finally understood.
I closed the front door to my house and slipped my shoes off, placing them beside the door. The hallway was long with a staircase on the left hand side and a door underneath it, leading into the kitchen. To the right was the living room where the noise of the news filled the room. Then, at the end, was the dining room where we ate our meals.
I entered the living room, sitting down on the grey, comfortable and soft sofa. My younger brother, William was sat on the other side of the sofa. He was only a year younger than me but was very shy and timid. He often secluded himself in his room or just sat and watched TV down here. He isn't much for being social.
"This is one of the newly built stadiums for the upcoming Evolution games. We've been hearing many questions about what the Evolution games are, exactly, so Jack has invited the chairman of the company creating the Evolution games to explain. Over to him," The reporter finished speaking and the screen changed to an elderly man in a black suit sitting at a desk.
"Greetings. I am the chairman of the Evolution Initialization project and will explain to you what the Evolution games are. You see, our researchers have been hard at work and developed a drug which speeds up the evolution rate of a human it is injected into. When it fully kicks in, they are granted a permanant ability that forms from their personality. With these abilities, teams from schools will enter combat against each other to eliminate the other team's 'ace'. Whoever eliminates the ace first wins. Simple. But the truth is, we have found out how to make superhumans in real life,"
I looked over to my brother. He seemed astonished by the news, jaw dropped and eyes wide. My mother walked in, smiling at me as she did.
"Rio, did the man at school tell you about the Evolution games?" She asked.
"Yeah, he did. I'm going into the experiment next week, wish me luck," I smiled at her. We were a close family, but I'd never expected her to sign me up to something as dangerous as literal superhuman fights.
"Good, good. Anyways, I'll make you some dinner. What do you want?" She asked.
"Oh, I'm fine. I'm going to go up to my room," I stood up and half-jogged upstairs, closing my bedroom door and laying down, staring up at the white ceiling. I had no clue what to expect. I'm not fit for any of this. Sure, I often have the best grades in the class, but I'm not prepared to stand in front of millions and shoot flames from my hands or whatever they want me to do. I can't.
The room's walls were a dull, dark grey colour. A single bed sat in the corner of the room, farthest from the door. Next to it sat a bedside table with a small lamp and book with an alarm clock on top of it. To the right of the bed was my desk with a laptop sat on it with the screen closed and a group of homework folders, project folders and test folders from my years at school.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
My door peeked open and my mother stepped in, waving her hand. She had a kind face and greying hair. She had been supportive of me all my life and gave me any opportunity for fun she could get. She was a great mother, but she had done something terrible to me that will mess with me my entire life.
"Is something the matter?" She asked me, stepping inside.
"Yeah," I turned over so that I couldn't see her.
"What is it? Do you wanna talk?" I heard her approaching my bed.
"It's just that I'm not ready to do something so big like that experiment. In fact, I won't do it. I don't want to be some superhero in front of people, I just want to be a normal person with a normal life!" I yelled at her, turning over to see her.
"I... I didn't know. I thought this was a good opportunity-"
"It's not!" I cut her off, furious at her. She looked sullenly down at her feet before I stood up.
I sprinted out the room, slamming the door shut and running down the stairs. I quickly slipped my shoes on and ran outside into the cold night, afraid of what would happen to my normal life. I don't want this. It's wrong. It's not what I want. It's what they want. It's always been what they want.
I slowed to a stop as I realized how far away from home I was. I wasn't paying attention to where i was going, I just kept going. I spotted the clothing shop close by, which was closed for some strange reason. The gym was right next to me, and through the window I could see a woman and man running on the treadmills.
Letting out a sob, I slumped onto a wooden bench just next to the gym. Birds sung to each other in the forest behind the town and the occasionaly passing of cars reminded me that there are millions of other people just like me. Hopeless. Lost. Unsure of what to do.
I stood up, wiped away my tears and turned around, ready to go back home, when suddenly a black van roared down the road and breaked hard, skidding and swerving across the street and stopping just next to me. The shock from this sudden van made my heart leap and my body stumble. I fell to the ground as a wave of dust lapped over me, ruining my clothes.
"He's here," A deep voice siad. Suddenly, a person wearing black leather and a black bikers helmet, despite being in a van, stepped out, holding a pistol in his right hand. "Get in the van," he said calmly, pointing his pistol at me. I felt my heart stop for a second from pure fear. I was being held at gun point by a van driving biker.
"Who are you?" I yelled in shock, crawling away from the man. My head hit the bench I had been sitting on earlier, causing the world to spin suddenly. The man yelled commands but I couldn't hear as everything went blurry. But my instincts kicked in. If I couldn't fight then I should...
Run! I stood and sprinted in the vague direction of where I live. It'd be safest there where there are lots of people around. I heard an ear-splitting BLAM and blur flew past me, causing a deep ringing noise to echo through my ears. The constant ringing noise ached my brain, causing me to trip and stumble. The black leather biker was beginning to catch up, but he was slow for an adult. I could escape.
I scrambled to my feet and ran with all my might, heart pounding, feet and legs sore, arms pumping. I ran around a corner, another BLAM causing my ears to ring. I tried to lose him in the maze of houses, but he still followed me. I finally reached my house, opening the door and slipping in just as the biker rounded the corner.
I took a deep, long sigh of relief as my mother sprinted into the hallway.
"What just happened? What were all those bangs?" She yelled furiously. I'd never seen her like this, not since her and dad split up.
"Some guy was chasing me. He had a gun. I think it has something to do with the EI Games-"
"Oh no, we're calling the police straight away," She interrupted me, pulling out her phone and dialing the police quickly. She spoke quickly, so fast she had to repeat stuff to the operator. "What did he look like?" She asked me.
"Full black leather suit and black motorcycle helmet," I told her. She nodded and repeated what I said into the phone. After a couple more minutes of speaking into the phone, she hung up and placed it down on the side.
"You irresponsible child! Do you know how worried I was?" She approached me, hand raised. I was expecting the feeling of a hard slap against my cheek but instead recieved a warm hug and my mother's tears soaking my shoulder.
"Don't ever do something like that again," she sobbed.
"I won't, I promise," I promised to her. We hugged and then took me to the dining room.. She gave me a meal which I ate greatfully, hungry after everything that happened.
"So I guess you were hungry, huh?"
But that was just the beginning of my new life as an EI. Even when I don't possess the EI, I will still be hunted down. My life is changing.