Derailed - 8. Gods Plan

Chapter 7

The roads had all but completely smoothed out and Seth was somewhat able to hold himself together by this point. He sat up, still holding his head between his legs and taking deep breaths. I scooted myself up behind him and began rubbing his back, trying to offer some comfort.

We seemed to be stopping more and more often as traffic picked up the closer to the tower we got. It almost got to the point where it seemed like we spent more time waiting for traffic than we actually spent moving. I stretched out my legs, beginning to feel them cramp up. I don’t think I had ever had to sit still for much longer than a few minutes before. Living with Corbin, you were never really allowed to sit too often. If it wasn’t keeping parts of the station clean, or doing repair work on the trains, it was doing some kind if educational work that Andrea had made for us. Corbin felt our time would be better spent running drills than reading Shakespeare; I remember they would argue about it all the time.

“Being able to quote lines from “Hamlet” isn’t going to help them when they have guns pointed at them by a swat Team.”

He always seemed to argue the same point over and over again. Corbin had been raised in hiding. He was one of the first to be forced into this life of running. He had only gotten to second grade when his family was killed. He had escaped with the help of a man named Dante. He had freed Corbin from a prison facility they had created especially for children. Corbin didn’t talk about it much, but he described it as a school within a prison. You go to school behind a barbed fence, live behind a fence with guards looking down at you from a watchtower.

Dante, with the help of a few others, liberated the school and took most of the students underground with them. Years went by and most of the original members of Dante's team left to try to make it on their own. But Dante stayed behind and cared for all of them. He took care of all of them as if he was their father. Corbin said Dante was a true leader who dreamed of a free colony where the government didn’t reach. Years later, when Corbin was 17, Dante’s vision came true when he set out to create Xaven. Most of the people he had freed decided to go with him, but Corbin volunteered to stay behind to continue his work. He helps to free other infected and sends them to join Dante, until the day when it would be safe for us to return to the rest of the world.

In my opinion, this was the same as hiding. It was a coward’s way out. Why are so many willing to run when their rights are taken away, but so few are willing to fight to get them back? Nonetheless, it was Corbin’s choice to stay, as it was mine and all of ours. Let the others run to their perfect little world, away from everyone else, and hide. We’ll stay and fight.

I looked over to see Corbin in a corner, catching some quick sleep, which made me feel a sense of happiness for him. He never seemed to get enough sleep; he was always up late, making sure everything was running smoothly. I sat here and watched him for a little while longer. For once he seemed peaceful, not worried about us knowing enough to survive a combat situation with the military, or about the next mission, or whether or not we would live to see the next day.

I was just about to doze off myself when I felt a sudden jerk and the truck stopped. A few seconds later I heard the engine cut off and the truck’s vibration stopped. As well, the change in movement seemed to bring everyone back to life. They began reanimating themselves. I stood up and stretched my legs, which had all but completely fallen asleep. I began shaking them, trying to regain some feeling in them before I tried to walk. Seth bolted for the door eager to get out of the metal nausea-inducing cage he had been trapped in for the past half hour. I let out a small inaudible laugh to myself at the sight.

A few seconds later we were all standing by the door. As it opened, I expected to see a burst of sunlight rush in and blind all of us, but surprisingly, when the doors opened there was no blinding light to greet us. Instead, as I hopped off the back of the truck, it looked as though everything had been cast into darkness. I looked around confused and somewhat dumbfounded. It was like we were in some kind of eerie twilight.

“How long were we in the truck!?” I asked. “It can’t be getting dark already,” the confusion obviously sounding in my voice.

“Relax. It’s not getting dark. When they say ‘living in the shadow of the tower,’ they really mean living in the shadow.”

Tim walked up and pointed behind me. As I turned, the sight literally took my breath away and knocked me back on my ass. A massive black wall reached up further than I was able to see. You could crane your neck all the way back and still not see the top. It stretched almost infinitely to both sides as well. It was like staring at a black wall that split the world itself in half. I could see a multitude of flashing lights and different images appearing on different parts of the wall, one of a women modeling some kind of flashing silver dress, another of what looked like an action movie of some kind. The largest one though, that seemed to dwarf all the other images, was of an older, somewhat worn-looking man in a military uniform. He had a crooked smile that almost looked sinister, with a flag waving behind him. Under the image were the words:

“ELECT GENERAL MALEBOURNE AND TOGETHER WE’LL PROTECT THE WORLD FROM THE INFECTED THREAT”

I could see thousands of flying vehicles whizzing in and out the building, some leaving one part and entering another part. Some leaving the tower all together, destined for other parts of the city. The sight itself was overwhelming. The structure completely blocked the sun’s light from touching all that surrounded it.

“It’s kinda weird, isn’t it... being this close to the enemy? It’s almost as if you’re standing right in front of them, staring them in the face. Hehe I guess in a way, we kinda are, if you think about it. We’re right here, only a few yards from them, right under their noses and they still can’t manage to catch us breaking the rules. Well, they haven’t managed to yet, anyway.” I heard Tim chuckle to himself at this thought.

“Alright everyone, let’s move out. Adrian, I want you to grab the truck and bring it to the back. We’ll wait about an hour and load everyone up.” Adrian got back in the truck and drove it to the back of an old brick building. It was odd seeing it here. All the buildings seemed to tower above it. It looked like a piece of history in the midst of all the new technology that surrounded it, like it just didn’t fit in with the rest of the scenery. It was old and it showed its age by a few shattered windows and some missing shingles on the roof. It looked as though at one point it had been a very beautiful building to behold, but now it looked neglected, as though it could fall over at any given second. I swallowed hard as we approached the ominous-looking structure. We climbed a set of wide stone steps leading up to two large and very old looking doors. They looked as though they belonged more on an old fashioned castle somewhere in Europe rather than what was probably the oldest remaining building in a buzzing metropolis. Each door had very intricate and detailed images craved into them. The image was that of a long haired man standing before a large group of onlookers. He had his arms outstretched, as though he were attempting to embrace all of them at once. Behind him, rays of light seemed to burst out of dark clouds and light up the world. Each door had a very large brass knocker that resembled a ring going through a lion’s mouth. Across the top, the words “Let All Those Seeking Sanctuary Find It Here” were carved in a fancy type of lettering.

But as grand as the door was, that was not what caught our attention, but rather, what sat right next to it. As we climbed the stone steps, there, in a small folding chair, sat a little boy, looking as though he were asleep. Despite all the noise and chaos of the traffic above our heads, and the massive, constant barrage of advertisement, he seemed to be as peaceful as possible, as if he were in his own perfect little bubble, protected from the outside world.

Corbin walked up to the large door and grabbed a hold of one of the metal knockers, but the moment his hand grabbed the steel hoop, we heard a small voice speak up.

“No need to knock; he already knows you’re here. He says to go ahead and come on in.” We all turned to see the once-sleeping boy now awake and staring at us. We wouldn’t have even noticed that he was speaking if we weren’t so shocked by the sudden movement from the once placid boy. He spoke so softly and quietly, almost as if he was afraid to speak to us. He was now uncurled, sitting in the chair. He had an almost vacant look on his face. It was like looking at someone who was in the middle of a very deep daydream. He stood up and walked over to the large stone door. And for the first time I was able to get a decent look at him. He was dark skinned with a very wiry frame; a boy who looked like he was in serious need of a good meal. If I didn’t know any better, I would think a stiff wind would be able to knock him flat over onto his back. He moved with a sense of lethargy, as if someone were sleepwalking, his eyes still only half open.

He reached out and took the hoop from Corbin's hand and with great ease pulled the bulky wooden door open, which seemed to awe everyone else as much as it did me. I wouldn’t think that someone as frail looking as he would be able to swing it open without putting any real effort into it.

“Uhhhh, thanks,” Corbin said, not fully sure how to react to the show of strength, and he stepped through, into the church as, one by one, we all followed behind him. As I got closer, I saw the boy finally open his eyes fully for the first time as I looked up and starred directly into them. Immediately I froze where I stood and felt a cold chill start from the base of my back and run up my spine until it hit the back of my brain and gave me brain freeze. His eyes were an icy blue color, almost white, and as I stared into them I began to have a sense of unrelenting exposure wash over me. It was as if he was reading my very thoughts, but not just the ones I was having at that very moment, but rather, everyone I had ever had. It was as if he was pulling each and every single secret I had tried so hard to keep hidden, my love for my best friend, my fear of my own powers, my anger with Mark, they were all his for the taking. The more I tried to pull away from his gaze, the harder his eyes would pull me back. As they began to pull my life story from my head, the more his eyes began to change from the almost solid white to a pale greenish color; they soon became recognizable as the color of my own eyes and their shape changed to a slightly more round shape until I realized, they were my very own eyes staring back at me! The eyes of truth. In them I saw my own life reflected: my childhood; the first night in the tunnels; the loss of my mother; the years spent with the others; everything up until this very moment; all in an instant. And then everything became fuzzy. The eyes began to take their original shape, but I was still getting faint images, as if they were trying to communicate something vital to me the last thing I heard sent the shiver in my head back down my spine... a blood curdling scream throughout all the confusion.

I felt a hand on my shoulder finally pull me back and interrupt whatever kind of hell that was. The force of the break caused me to fall back into the doorway of the church. My heart was pounding, my hands were clammy and my hair was now matted down with a thick layer of cold sweat. I could feel a couple of loose beads running down from my hair, down the side of my cheek, and I felt as though I could barely breathe. My lungs felt as though they were filled with ice cold air. I breathed out and saw my own breath. From behind me I heard someone speak with a very heavy Irish accent. I looked up to see the owner of the unfamiliar voice and the one who had just in time pulled me back to reality.

I saw a fairly old man with only a few hairs atop his head. His lack of hair caused his head to reflect light almost as well as a mirror. He looked to be around his late 50s; he had a very warm and pleasant smile about him and a presence that seemed to just calm you.

“Aye, you don’t want to go doing that for too long, sonny. It’s driven a couple people mad already, it has, and I reckon your friends will be needing you in the right state of mind. Least for a li’l while longer anyways,” the man said, as he reached out a hand to help pull me to my feet. I took his hand and felt his large meaty fingers close in around me. He was a large man who was only a few inches taller than me. This combination almost gave him a dwarf-like appearance.

I looked around to see Corbin, Mark and Seth all staring at me with expressions that were a mixture of fear, worry and confusion. I hated that, once again, I had everyone thinking there was something wrong with me. It made me feel like they felt I couldn’t handle myself and was a threat to the mission. After a few minutes, I finally spoke up.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine guys. Just a little shaken up is all,” I said, even though I was lying through my teeth. Something about what I had seen still bothered me and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t put it out of my head. The scream I had heard right before the connection was broken... there was just so much pain I couldn’t imagine anything horrible enough to make someone cry out like that. It sounded like pure torture.

“’Course you’re all right. You still had a few moments before any real permanent damage was done. A few minutes and you’ll be right to go, I reckon. I am sorry though. You’ll have to forgive Jeremiah. He ain’t exactly the best at keeping his power to himself. He mostly tries to keep his eyes closed so to avoid any direct eye contact, which can... well, you saw for yourself; it drives people mad, it does. I’ve had a right hand full with him ever since he arrived here a few weeks ago. Oh right I s’pose I should be introducing meself. The name is Father O'Sully. I’m the priest here and I’m guessing you would be the ones comin’ to pick the guests up.”

“Yeah, we’ll be leaving here shortly. We just want to wait a little while before we load up and leave, otherwise we’ll be hitting rush hour traffic and the faster were able to get out of the city the better. And thanks again for hiding them out till we could get here,” Corbin said, as he shook the priest’s hand.

After the pleasantries were exchanged, Father O'Sully lead us up into the chapel of the church where the seats were filled with the refugees. All were disguised as normal church goers. I looked around at all the faces. It was mostly made up of small children and I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were orphaned due to the current situation. The thought of all of their families torn from them made me begin to think of my own situation and how similar mine and theirs are. I looked over and saw Jeremiah sitting with a group of kids all around his age, which was about 11 or 12, I guessed. He was sitting on one of the benches with his arms folded and his head bowed down. In that position I couldn’t tell if he was praying, or simply trying to keep from causing any damage, or maybe he was doing both, or praying that he no longer hurt anyone. I wasn’t sure how much I believed in prayer, or God and religion for that matter. I would like to believe it works, but when I looked at the world and all these parentless children sitting in here, all praying for things in their life to get better, it made me question all that much more. If God was listening, how could he ignore all their voices praying to him?

I looked again over to Jeremiah and couldn’t help but wish I could do something to help his situation, but no matter how hard I tried to think of something, nothing came to me. I looked to the pulpit to see Mark flipping through the pages of a bible, shaking his head. I figured he wouldn’t be much of a believer, as logically as he views things. It was then that the idea hit me like a Mack Truck. I quickly ran over to sit with the group of kids surrounding Jeremiah. If God couldn’t answer his prayers, maybe I could.

“Hey Jeremiah,” I said, as I sat next to him on the bench. His head was still bowed and his eyes still shut tight. Without thinking, he almost looked up, but before he fully met my gaze, he quickly shot his gaze back at the floor and closed his eyes yet again.

“Sorry ‘bout earlier. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble,” he said, making sure to keep his sight directed at the floorboards.

I said, “I know it was an accident. Besides, you and I have something in common; we both have issue when it comes to control of our power, so I know what it’s like to cause some accidents. I once blew up an entire lab.” I was sure that if I had been able to see his eyes, they would have grown as wide as humanly possible.

“Really? You must be pretty powerful to be able to do that. I’ve caused a couple people to stop speaking. One time a man was trying to hurt my Mama and then he looked into my eyes and I seen all the terrible things he’d done and after he seen them all again, he fell to the ground and stopped speaking. He wasn’t dead, though. I just figure that he musta not been able to handle seeing all the pain he had caused people. My Mama said that my power was a gift from God, cause I could make people reflect on all the things they had done in their life, whether they wanted to face ‘em or not.” I noticed a tear escape his eyes as he began to speak about his mother. My experience in life told me that he had lost her not too long ago.

We sat there for a few moments, not saying anything to each other. Seeing him cry made me think back to the times I had spent with my own mother. I thought back to her smile and all the times she would play with me when I was little. She was the closest person to me in the world. I remember when I was 4 and would watch her use her powers on some of the refugees who were brought underground. A lot of the time we would get to them right after a major raid happened; a lot of people would be killed, so a lot of the people brought in had just lost a family member or other loved one and they would sometimes be to the point of hysterics. My mom would go and lay her hand on them and, almost instantly, they would become calm and their crying would stop. My mother’s touch could sooth emotional pain just like a mother would sooth a crying child. I remember seeing her help people and I remember thinking I wanted to be just like her and be able to help people. I felt a tear escape my eye as well and wiped it away with the sleeve of my shirt. Finally, Jeremiah looked up at the statue of the same man who was carved on the door. Only now he was hanging up by nails on a cross, looking down on all who sat there on the benches. Wiping the last of his tears away, he finally spoke up again.

“Do you believe in God, Cameron?” At first I wondered how he’d come to know my name, but then I realized that he obviously must have learned it during our connection. Then I began to think of just how much he knew about me. He now probably knew more about me than anyone else on this planet. The thought almost made me weary of him, but then I figure that it would be pointless to try to avoid him now.

“I figured you would already know that,” I said, giving a slight smile. Still staring up at the statue, he gave a slight smile also.

“No, not really. I just get a few glimpses of your life and thoughts, but I’m not really sure what they mean.

“Well, I guess that I’d really like to believe there is one, but then I look at where all of us are right now and then I just... I just don’t know what I believe in anymore.” I looked at him, the smile still on his face as another tear ran from his eyes. It was such a strange mix of emotion to see on someone’s face, but somehow he managed to pull it off.

“My Mama said that God has a plan for all of us, that we’re all right where we're supposed to be and that you may not always be where you want to be, but sometimes you’re where you need to be. Maybe you’re there to learn something, or maybe you’re just there to help someone in need.”

It was right then that I remembered what I sat down here for. I reached in my pocket and pulled out the sunglasses Mark had given me earlier. I reached over and held them out for Jeremiah to see. He looked down at my hand with a certain curiosity in his expression.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing down at my hands.

“They’re sunglasses specially designed to block out light, but I want to see if they possibly might work to help you gain better control of you power.” I held my hand out further so he could take them. He rolled them back and forth in his hand until finally he looked up, his eyes still closed, but I could now see even more tears escaping from underneath his closed eyelids. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to never be able to look at someone in the face, to have to dodge glances at all times. Constantly worried about hurting the ones you care the most about. With one last tear, he shakily put the sunglasses over his eyes. But I could still see through the lightly tinted lenses that he still had his eyes closed tightly. I stood and pulled him up to stand with me.

“I think you need to open your eyes to see if they work,” I said, somewhat laughing.

“I can’t. I’m afraid I’ll hurt you if I do,” he said, the fear sounding through his voice.

“It’s OK, I’m not scared. I think I’ve seen all you really have to show me,” I said, trying to reassure him to try. “Besides, I have a lot of faith in the guy who made these. He does really good work.

With one final deep breath, the boy slowly began to open his eyes. I held my breath, and for the first time since I was little, I prayed that they worked, not for my sake, but for his. Neither one of us made a noise as his eyes fully opened. The exact moment he looked me in the eyes, a bright white flash emitted from his eyes, but the second they were about to reach my own eyes and put me into the trance, the glasses reacted and instantly darkened themselves to their darkest shade. We stood there, with him for the first time being able to look me, or anyone else for that matter, in the eye. I could no longer see his abnormal blue eyes behind the now pitch-black lenses. Instead I saw my own mirrored reflection.

“So how are they?” I asked, but he said nothing. He simply stood there looking directly at me, not moving, not saying anything. “Jeremiah?” I asked once again, worried that something had happened. But right as I got the words out, he reached out and wrapped his small arms around me and began to squeeze as hard as he could manage. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back. I don’t think he could even get the words of what he was feeling out. Deciding to leave him to his new found happiness, I got up and began to look around. I saw Corbin and Father O'Sully off talking in a corner of the chapel. Adrian was over playing with a group of the refugee children. Tim was sleeping on a bench. I finally looked up and saw Seth standing up on a balcony that over looked the entire scene of the church.

I figured I would join him until it was time to leave, but right as I went to leave, I heard Jeremiah speak up again.

“So are you gonna tell your friend that you love him?” he asked, looking at me with all the seriousness of an adult.

“I dunno. I suppose that some day I may, but I’m just afraid he won’t feel the same way,” I said, trying not to sound so surprised at the question.

“Are you afraid that he won’t like you anymore if you tell him?” he asked, not letting the subject go.

“No, he’s not like that,” I said, trying to find the best way to explain my fears in a way that he’d understand. “I’m just worried that it might cause things to be weird between us is all.

“I think you should tell him,” he said, smiling slightly. “You seem to love him a lot and it would be really hard not to love someone back who cares that much for you.”

These words brought a smile to my face as I left and went to join Seth up on the balcony. I climbed the stairs, feeling a sense of comfort that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Everything just felt right. I reached the top and saw him leaning there on the balcony railing. The one I loved. The one in the world who I cared about more than anything and it was at that second that Jeremiah’s last words rang in my head and I began to believe them. Even if Seth didn’t feel the same way for me, I knew, no matter what, he would still always be there for me, because that’s the kind of person he is. I knew what I needed to do and if I didn’t do it now, I may never have the courage to do it again. So I took the last step and approached him.

“Hey I saw what you did for that kid down there, it was really awesome. I mean, you may have changed his life forever. Though I wouldn’t tell Mark; knowing him, he has all this stuff trademarked against distribution.” He let out a slight laugh, his pale blue eyes staring at me. “Hey, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve been crying. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I said, as I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hand and showing him the biggest smile I could manage, to reassure him.

“I don’t get it,” he said, sounding confused. “You’re happy, yet you’re still balling your eyes out? That’s a new one for me,” he said, laughing a little.

I looked one last time into his eyes and took one last deep breath, my heart pounding in my chest.

“I have something I want to tell you Seth and I’m not sure how your gonna take it, but if I don’t tell you, I know I’m going to regret it later and I’m tired of regretting things, I do it so much already and I just... I don’t want to have to regret this, not anymore,” I said, with fresh tears now falling down my face yet again today.

“Sure you can tell me anything Cameron, you know that already. I’ve told you enough times already,” he said, walking over to hug me, his voice now taking a serious tone.

I now felt myself shaking as I opened my mouth to utter the words that had been burning in my throat for as long as I could remember. “Seth, I...”

BOOM!!!!

The moment I went to open my mouth and confess, an explosion of some sort went off by the church doors! The shock wave knocked all the lights out and sent all of us in the church flying against the back wall, as debris flew in all direction and dust was kicked up and blocked my vision. It was hard to breathe, so I took my shirt and covered my mouth and began feeling my way around to find Seth. I stuck my hand out and began waving back and forth until I felt his arm hit mine. We grabbed each other and pulled to each other. I finally got a good look at him. He had a large gash on his forehead and blood was running down his face. I too had a large cut on the calf of my leg. But other than that, nothing fatal.

We both ran to the edge of the balcony, the dust was finally beginning to settle and we could see what was left of the church. It looked like something had blown the entire front wall of the church away and through the dust I saw one lone standing figure in the middle of the aisle of what was once a beautiful chapel. A few seconds later I was able to make the figure out as Jeremiah; he was standing there in what seemed like a daze, complete confusion. My heart was now pounding. What could have caused this? My mind began racing with a thousand possibilities.

A few seconds later a bright light was shown into all of our eyes. It was almost blinding. Then I heard a sound of something being thrown and hitting the ground below. I was able to just barely make it out it looked like three metallic cylinders. A second or two after they hit, a gas began to spray out, once again clouding the vision below. Right before he was engulfed, Corbin ran out and grabbed and wrapped himself around Jeremiah. The gas soon filled the air around us. It was almost suffocating. I had to pull my shirt up over my face yet again as Seth and I held close to not lose each other in the fog. It took only a few seconds for this to clear and when it did, I looked down and my heart no longer beat. It was frozen in place as Jeremiah’s words echoed in my head:

‘You may not always be where you want to be but sometimes you’re where you need to be.’

I looked down, unable to think, as total panic took over. There stood Corbin, cradling an unconscious Jeremiah...

Surrounded by soldiers