• City of Eden
    The year was 2117, and we had found a paradise.
    It was years after the “End War,” a war in which the majority of the worlds military forces were in conflict. Much of the fighting was in the major cities, so to reduce the risk of civilian casualties, all of the civilians were evacuated to space stations on the moon or orbiting the Earth.
    For years, the war seemed to drag on, but it was over soon. The use of the Solar Bomb, a bomb 20 times more destructive than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 10 of these bombs were used, and the war came to a grinding halt. Everyone rejoiced that the war was over, and were anxious to go back to their homes on Earth.
    But due to the number and power of the Solar Bombs, the world had become a large orb of deadly radiation. Scientists had calculated that the levels were phenomenally high, and it would be at least 2 thousand years before they would return to a safe level.
    So the leading powers decided that the best idea was to colonize nearby Earth-like planets, that had been recently discovered by Astronomers, and all of them within a few light-years from Earth. The civilians and the survivors of the war were divided into groups, and each group was assigned to a different planet.
    I was born a year before the end of the “End War,” and my parents and I were assigned to the group going to planet Matana, 2 light-years away. It took the ship 5 years to reach the planet, which 3-quarters of was covered in lush jungle. Once we had landed, it took an additional 2 years to establish the colony, which was named Eden. But the leaders should have realized, that every paradise has it’s dangers.
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    The day was warm and humid, but I felt an ice cold chill travel up my back. In the colony, there shouldn’t be anything to fear, but I couldn’t shake the growing feeling of unease that had been growing for the past few days.
    “Hey, Aron,” called my friend Samantha. “You coming?”
    “Yeah,” I said, putting my unease in the back of my mind. “I’m coming.”
    We walked through the colony’s central park towards the vacant lot on the south side. This was a place that no one really cared about; it was one of the old Medic hubs from the early days of the colony, before the hospital was set up. It was still in good shape, and it proved to be a really good hiding place for me and my friends.
    Once we arrived, I saw my friend Cain sitting on one of the old sick beds. His clothes were heavily wrinkled, as always.
    “Doesn’t it creep you out that you’re sitting where someone possibly died?” asked Samantha, sitting down on an old crate.
    “Not really.” replied Cain.
    “So did you guy’s here what happened?” Samantha asked, changing the subject.
    “How couldn’t I?” I asked sarcastically, leaning against the cold metal wall. “The Death Squad is getting more and more daring.”
    The Death Squad was a group of “Rebels,” one might say. Their leader, Hasatan, was a person that for any group to show superiority, that they should do so through war. He and his followers had been sabotaging the Eden colony, trying to overthrow the leaders of the colony and take control. From there his message was clear; wage war on the other colonies for resources and power.
    “If they keep this up, “ said Samantha. “A lot more people are going to get hurt.”
    “It’s not like he cares,” scoffed Cain. “To him, anyone who gets caught in the cross fire is just as disposable as an old shoe.”
    “Do you think the leaders are going to try and reach a peaceful agreement with him?” asked Samantha.
    “Probably not,” I replied. “They could try, but it won’t work. Some one needs to stop him now, before it becomes a full blown war.”
    “And who do you think would do it?”
    “I would.” I answered.
    “What!?” The look on both Samantha’s and Cain’s faces was one of disbelief and shock. I had anticipated this reaction, actually.
    “You’re joking, right?” asked Cain.
    “No, I’m not.”
    “How would you even try it?” asked Samantha. “You’d be going up against people who are trained to fight and kill. It’s basically suicide.”
    I knew she was right. I was stupid to think that I could take on the Death Squad and win. But I had a secret, something that I hadn’t told anyone, and it was what would give me the upper hand.
    “You want to know how I’d do it,” I asked them, to which they nodded. “I have a secret. I’m going to tell you, but you guy’s have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone, understand?”
    “You got it.” Answered Cain.
    “Promise.” said Samantha.
    “I have a gift,” I told them, feeling the butterflies in my stomach. “I’ve done research, and I’ve discovered that it’s a rare gift, something that only a few people have, and others say that it doesn’t exist.”
    “No offense,” said Cain. “But can you just cut to the chase.”
    “I have Telekinesis,” I told them. “Which means that I can move and manipulate objects with my mind. I don’t have to touch them, but I can move them just about anywhere.”
    The look that they gave me was a blank, unbelieving look. I realized that I would have to show them; actions speak louder than words.
    I quickly scanned the room, looking for something that I could use my ability on. I saw an old steel oxygen tank propped in a corner, and decided that it would suffice.
    I raised my hand toward it, closed my eyes, and concentrated on moving it. I cleared my mind, and pictured the tank rising slowly into the air, and then hovering there.
    “What are you do-” started Cain, before a scream came from Samantha’s mouth.
    I opened my eyes to see Samantha and Cain staring at the oxygen tank in the corner, which was floating a few feet in the air. Their eyes were wide and their mouths hung open in shock, and they stayed like that even as I set the tank back on the ground.
    “Now do you believe me?” I said.
    They nodded. Then I noticed Samantha’s face. There was this expression on it that I couldn’t identify as either nervousness or unease.
    “What’s wrong Samantha?” I asked.
    “Well,” said Samantha, her fingers fidgeting nervously. “I…I also have a secret. It’s something that I’ve also kept from telling others.”
    “What is it?” Cain asked.
    “I think I’ll show you,” she said. “Like Aron did.”
    She grabbed a twisted piece of metal that was laying by her foot, and held it against her arm. It took me a few seconds to realize what she was going to do with it, and before I had any time to react, she swiftly drew it across her arm.
    “No!” exclaimed Cain as a small stream of blood trickled down her arm. He stepped forward to help her but she held up her hand to stop him.
    Samantha placed her other hand over the cut, and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breathes, and removed it to reveal no sign of injury, like it never happened!
    “How did you do that?” I asked.
    “I just picture the injury healing,” she said, wiping the blood off her arm. “And then it just…happens.”
    “That’s what happened when I levitated the oxygen tank,” I said. “I imagined it floating in the air, and it just does.”
    “Well,” said Cain. “Since we’re on the topic of secrets, I have one too.”
    “What is it?”
    “From what I’ve read,” said Cain, shifting in his seat. “It’s called ‘Remote Viewing.’ It allows me to see what others are doing without actually being there.”
    “Prove it!” exclaimed Samantha.
    “Why?”
    “We had to, so you have to as well.”
    Cain sighed, then rubbed his hands together and closed his eyes. Samantha and I waited for a few minutes, and then Cain opened his eyes and stared at us, his eyes slightly cloudy.
    “So who’d you view?”
    “Your Mom,” he said, looking at Samantha. “She’s working in the laboratory, but on what I wasn’t really able to see.”
    Samantha’s eyes widened as she heard Cain describe what he had been able to see.
    “I take it he got it right?” I asked.
    “Yes,” said Samantha. “My Mom is working on a project right now, but she can’t reveal what it is yet. I was planning to tell you guy’s, but obviously, Cain beat me to it.”
    So we talked about when we had discovered our abilities and how we had discovered them. We then discussed how we could use them to fight against Hasatan and his Death Squad. We decided that the best way was to practice using our powers for a few weeks, and then taking on the Death Squad.
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    It had been five weeks since we had revealed our secrets to each other, and the talk of the Death Squad had been growing more worrying. We decided that it was time to make our move.
    The night we decided to go, I was in my room packing all the supplies I thought I needed. I grabbed a flashlight, some food, and filled my backpack with a few dozen spare clothes. From what Cain had “viewed,” the Death Squad’s camp was a half a mile north of the Colony, easily accessible in one night.
    I suck out of my house and slipped quietly to the old medic hub, the place where we had decided to meet. When I got there, I found my friends, both with packs on their backs, waiting for me.
    “You ready?” I said.
    “Yep.” answered Cain, tossing me a long metallic grey object.
    I caught the object in my hand and looked at what it was; it was a Gateway Assault Rifle; a semi-automatic weapon, it weighed about 2 pounds, and was about 3 ½ feet long. We needed them possibly to take on the Death Squad, but mostly for whatever dangers we encountered in the jungle. We walked silently out of the colony, taking the north route, the road illuminated by the two full moons that orbited the planet.
    We had been walking for about an hour, and already our feet hurt. The night was cool, and the jungle was filled with the sounds of its nocturnal inhabitants; the high pitched squeak of the Glow Frogs; the whistling of the Silver Twirlers; the low thrumming of the Rock Newts.
    “Are you sure you know where we’re going?” asked Samantha. “We’ve been walking half the night, and my feet hurt!” There was a hint of frustration in her voice.
    “Yes, I am!” snapped Cain, irritated by her complaining. “And about your feet; you’ll have to deal with it! Out here, they’re the least of your worries.”
    Suddenly the nighttime noises stopped. Cain and Samantha stopped bickering and a chill ran up all of our spines.
    “What’s going on?” asked Samantha, fear evident in her voice. I put my finger to my lips, signaling her to be quiet, and Cain and I grabbed onto our Assault Rifles.
    We stood on the empty road way, straining our ears to see if we could hear any movement. All the while, a nervous tension hung in the air around all of us. I swore I could feel my heartbeat throughout my entire body, and I was sure that my friends could hear it as well.
    Suddenly, something crashed through the trees in front of us. It swooped low towards us, causing us to drop to the ground.
    The thing made another pass at us and it was then that we got a good look at it: it was about 10 feet long, and looked like a cross between a wasp and a scorpion. But by then Cain and I had our weapons up. As the thing came toward us, we fire a few rounds at it. A few hit it in the wings, and it came crashing to the ground.
    But it wasn’t finished. A few seconds after it hit the ground, it rose to its 8 legs and raised its stinger tipped tail and started to circle us. I knew that we had to save our bullets, cause we had 3 extra clips each. I began quickly scanning around for something to use. I saw a large boulder that was about 3 feet away from me. I had to use it, or we were in a lot of trouble.
    “Keep it busy.” I said to Cain, who nodded. Cain released a spray of bullets at the thing, drawing its attention away from me as I focused my power at the boulder. All my practice made lifting the boulder pretty easy.
    As Cain kept the thing occupied, I moved the boulder over the thing and released my telekinetic grip on it. The boulder landed of the creature’s body, crushing it’s exoskeleton, killing it. But the body was suddenly subjected to a series of massive nerve spasms, causing the claws and tail to thrash violently around.
    As we tried to jump out of the way, one of the claws thrashed in my direction, and caught my right calf. The next thing I knew, I was on my back, pain ripping through my leg, and I screamed out in pain.
    When the limbs finally stopped their spasms, Cain and Samantha ran over to help.
    “What was that thing?” asked Samantha, as she held her hand over the wound. I could already feel the laceration closing up, but it was still painful.
    “It was a Night Stalker.” I said through gritted teeth.
    “Why is it called that?”
    “Cause it’s nocturnal,” said Cain. “And they have a tendency to stalk their prey.”
    It took a few minutes for Samantha to heal my wound, and then we were on our way.
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    It took us about 15 minutes to reach the Death Squad’s camp, which we first observed from a nearby hilltop. It was the exact way that Cain had seen it with his gift; it was a jumbled collection of small metal buildings, all surrounded by a large fence made of welded sheet metal. There were plenty of buildings, most of them obviously served as barracks for the troops, a few were used for training, and there were three large buildings that I was unsure about.
    “Wow, this place is big,” commented Samantha. “But where do we find Hasatan?”
    “Not sure,” I said. “Cain, can you-”
    “Way ahead of you.” he said, closing his eyes. Samantha and I waited a few minutes before he opened his eyes again.
    “So which building is he in?”
    “That one.” he replied, pointing to the building in the middle.
    “Alright,” said Samantha. “We know where he is, but how do we get in?”
    I pulled out a pair of Hawk Eyes, electronic binoculars. I looked through them and observed the enterance. I could see two sentries posted, and they carried nothing more than a Challenger Pistol; a small, lightweight weapon; weighed about half a pound, and had a magazine that contained 15 rounds. It was a pretty decent weapon, and in experienced hands, could be quite dangerous.
    “We got two guards at the wall,” I said. “Both carrying Challengers.”
    “So how are we going to get past them?” asked Cain.
    “Well we cant shoot them,” I said. “That would alert the rest of the camp.”
    “So what are we gonna do?”
    “Hey,” I said, inspiration hitting me. “Samantha, you know how you can heal using your mind?”
    “Yeah.” she answered.
    “Do you think you can use it for the opposite?”
    “You mean to hurt?”
    “Well, yeah,” I said. “But in this case, knocking the guards out for a while.”
    “Yeah, I think I can try.”
    “Alright,” I said. “Come on.”
    We crept down the hill as quietly as possible, and stopped a few feet away from the gate. I nodded to Samantha, and she held out her hand, closing her eyes. A few seconds later, the two guards collapsed onto the ground. I signaled them to follow me. We slipped past the gate and slowly made our way through the camp, dodging the few patrols there were. At one point, we slipped into a shack that was filled with a few hundred plastic packages.
    “What are these things?” asked Samantha, holding one of the packages in her hand.
    “I think they’re explosives,” said Cain. “They must be planning to use them on the Colony.”
    “Well, how about we use them to our advantage,” I said. “I saw a few tanks and fuel canisters over by the Armory. And if we set a few off in here as well as those places, it will all end for the Death Squad.”
    We grabbed a few dozen explosives, and the trigger remotes as well. I told Samantha to go and place them on the targets, while Cain and I went after Hasatan. As we went, I crept silently into Hasatan’s quarters. I was surprised that there weren’t any guards, and that made me all the more nervous.
    As I finally made it to the top, I heard someone coming up the stairs behind me. I whipped around, raising my weapon.
    “Whoa!” came a startled whisper from Cain. “Chill dude; it’s me.”
    I immediately relaxed. Cain told me that they had placed all the explosives, and that he had told Samantha to wait outside the camp. I nodded, and together we entered the room.
    It was a large room, with the walls and tables covered with maps and plans for various things, such as strategies and weapons. It was obvious that Hasatan had been doing a lot of thinking.
    Hasatan himself stood in the middle of the room, standing over a large map, his back turned to us. From what could be seen of him, he didn’t care about hygiene very much; his hair was messy, and his clothes were dirty. He wore a jacket with a skull emblem on it: the sign of the Death Squad.
    “So,” He said in a cold, calm voice. “The city of Eden has finally decided to do something about me.”
    “We’re only here to stop you.“ I said. Using my telekinetic force, I flung a nearby table at him. But he swiftly turns around, ducking to avoid the table, and with a quick flick of his wrist, flung a small throwing knife at me.
    I retaliated by using my telekinesis to deflect it, while Cain fired a small burst of rounds at him, and even though he moved away quickly, a few of the bullets hit him. We continued this cat-and-mouse game for a while, all the while he was getting slower and slower, and then we finally had him literally on his last legs.
    “I fear not Death.” said Hasatan in a raspy voice. Then he collapsed onto the ground.
    By now our commotion had alerted some of the soldiers, but by the time they got up to the room, Cain and I had climbed out the window and onto the ground, where we had raced quietly out of the camp and up the hill to find Samantha waiting anxiously.
    “Are you guy’s hurt?” she asked in a worried voice, to which we shook our heads.
    “Come on,” said Cain. “Let’s get out of here.”
    “Before we go,” I said, pulling out the explosives remote detonator. “How about some fireworks to celebrate our victory.” I pushed the button, and nearly fell backwards from the shockwave that resulted from the explosion. The sounds of frantic shouts were the last thing we heard as we left for home.
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    We had been able to make it back home before morning, and we each slept in until 11 am. Our parents never suspected anything, but soon the entire colony was talking about the destruction of the Death Squads camp. Everyone said that it was probably an accident, and a few suggested that it was sabotage. But it was only me and my friends that would ever know the truth.