Chapter One
Adapting
"Time to wake up!" I called from the kitchen.
I was 16, but I'd had to take on the role of mother to our family of orphans. It had only been 2 months since the world had been attacked. 3 weeks into rebuilding, we'd learned that it hadn't only been New York that had been effected. We were just the only state with reported infected humans.
I'd read my moms notes again and again, looking for answers. Reviewing how our natural genetic codes had been different from normal. Not exactly rare, just different. Whatever it was that had made us different had become a prison for each of us.
I had my ice, whether it be crystalline arms or wings that I could form at will. Leo had his shadow. A solid, separate entity that was made of pure darkness. Amber was a constant fire hazard, burning the house when her emotions spiked. She was working on controlling it. Mariah and Justin were fairly together, considering they had lost their parents in the chaos. They were twins, but they couldn't be more different. Mariah was the pure type, worried about being alone with any of the guys. And Justin could only be described as a skater. Baggy clothes were his style.
The five of us had started living together after I'd killed Mother. We had no one else, having all lost our families.
Ryan still had his dad, though he still spent most of his time with us. His dad had trouble accepting Ryan's new abilities. Not that any of us couldn't understand. Even some of us had trouble as well. But at least Sadie and Kelsey could blend in with normal people, having abilities over the mind, rather than physical or elemental.
Jason also spent a lot of time with us, leaving his rich parents to let others think he had died in the chaos. They were too superficial to admit that their son was part monster. Kyle was the only one from the hospital that had found us after Mother was dead, leaving 4 others that we still didn't know. I did worry about them, but it wasn't like when we could find anyone online. And everyone in New York knew who we were, so they could easily find us if they wanted to.
Nathan, Mr. Monroe, also spent a lot of time with us. It was nice having someone dependable around. He had basically become the father figure of the group. And while I still kept up the strong act, I felt certain that he would accept me even if I did fall apart. I was growing quite fond of him, but Leo would have flipped out if he ever found out.
School hadn't started in any public sense, though I doubted we would be welcome even if it had. Families went so far as to cross the streets just to avoid us.
"What's for breakfast?" Leo walked into the kitchen.
"Bacon" I stated, focusing on the stove.
With the parasites gone, we weren't quite so limited with what we could and couldn't eat, though the others only really ate meat. But at least we could eat properly cooked meat. Raw meat had been way to slimy and would freeze much too quickly. But thanks to my control exercises, the food only froze after I'd swallowed. Meaning I could properly enjoy the flavors.
"Sweet" Justin walked in after Leo.
They were both still in their pj's; Leo wearing just a pair of black sweat pants and Justin in a white t-shirt and orange sleep shorts. Leo had recently cut his hair, though he still kept it long. And now it grew in black, rather than him having t dye it from brown to black. And Justin only cut his hair when it got past his ears.
"Is Amber awake?" I asked, moving 3 more slices of bacon onto a plate next to the stove.
"I'm up" Amber walked into the room, her fire red hair whiled from rough sleep. Clearly she had one of her nightmares last night. Her pink tank top and gray sweat pants were wrinkled and got more holes in them each night.
"Where's my sis?" Justin asked, watching the plate of bacon.
"Mariah is in the shower" She said, taking a seat at the wrap-around table in the center of the kitchen.
I took the plate to the table "You can share this, the rest that I cook will be Mariah's."
I turned back to the stove, doing my best to ignore Leo staring at me. It was a common feeling, occurring every time we were in the same room. When everything had happened, during our brief kiss, Mother had said that he loved me. It was nice at first, knowing that the guy I'd been crushing on since I was 12, had feelings for me as well. But things had changed. I wondered if things had changed for him as well, since he hadn't made a move in the last 2 months.
I snacked on a piece of bacon, thinking back to how things had been before. I'd had black hair like my dad and fair skin and hazel eyes like my mom. Then, on that Monday before December 21st, when the parasites had infected us, all of us began to have new looks. Mariah had helped me cut off most of my hair as snow-white hair was growing in. And my hazel eyes were now ice blue, while my fare skin was extremely pale. If I wore blue lipstick, I would probably look like a corpse.
I wasn't the only one who looked different. Amber had always had red hair, but her green eyes had slowly turned red, as had Nathan's brown eyes and hair, though his was a darker shade than hers. Jason now had silver hair and gray eyes, and Sadie used colored contacts to make her now white eyes look like her original brown. Kelsey and Leo both had black hair and eyes, while Ryan had originally had blue eyes and black hair, he now had short blond hair and pale yellow eyes. Mariah and Justin looked relatively normal, with dirty blond hair and blue eyes, but Justin loved stretching his black, bat-like wings. Mariah only used her white feathered wings when she needed to go somewhere fast or she felt threatened.
Unlike the other 3, Mariah helped around the house. I had gotten used to waking up early, and making sure that everything was ready for everyone else. I cooked, cleaned the floors, and took care of any repairs, but I couldn't do dishes or laundry. I had gotten to where I didn't always freeze the water and clothes, but the heat was impossible for me to handle. Which also meant that my showers were what everyone else would call ice cold. Amber couldn't even shower at all, using her fire to clean her body and non-flammable dry shampoo for her hair.
Mariah stepped into the kitchen, a towel keeping her damp, waist-length hair off of her red, long sleeve blouse and black dress pants. She looked everyone over carefully. Even after 2 months, she still had trouble relaxing around any of the guys.
"Good morning" I smiled over my shoulder "we have bacon." I brought 3 more slices to the plate.
"Good morning" She nodded to me, sitting in one of the mismatch chairs.
The wrap-around table could seat 4, before becoming a counter, but my parents had only purchased a 3 chair set. So, before society began reinforcing the use of currency, we'd helped ourselves to some new chairs and a table that fit against the wall that had at one point had family pictures hanging. I'd had to take them down until I could be emotionally healthy again. Inside I was still an open wound, hidden behind a smile.
Most of the damage that the city had suffered had been superficial. Broken windows, crashed cars, a few walls broken. But the streets had large holes, spread all over the country, and buildings that were more than 2 stories high had become dangerously unstable.. The worst damage, though, had been the people killed. At least 1000 confirmed dead, and several thousand still missing, just in my city alone. I knew that my dad had been killed, but even 2 months later, I had no way of knowing what had become of my mom. At this point, I could only assume that she had died.
Mariah sat next to Amber, closest to me. When everybody had moved in, a lot of things had to be readjusted. I'd given Mariah my room, so she would have privacy from the guys. Amber and I shared my parents rough, though the bed had caught fire so many times that we'd finally switched to extra durable futons. Stocking up for the next fire. And 2 twin mattresses, took up the living room floor, along with 2 couches. Leo and Justine used the mattresses, and the couches were for when any of the others chose to stay the night.
Power had been restored after the first month, but there was no TV services and internet was spotty at best. Very few cell phones worked, while the people worked on repairing the cell towers. The guys, however, had found a means of entertaining themselves with video games brought over by Justin or taken from stores.
Mariah read a lot, though I had often seen her with a lost look, staring out one of the windows. Amber was rather versatile, open to either books or games. But 2 hours out of everyday, she would join me in the experiment room, and together we would do the exercises that I'd used to do with my mom. Each day she gained better control of both her emotions and her fire. She had a lot of physical potential, when she wasn't accidentally burning the furniture or the hard-wood floors.