The scene dissolves to a picture of the embryos being soaked in the Quarum, then removed and placed into large glass containers where fluid feeds them through tubes. The whole process looks like an assembly line. Many of these containers encompass a large room, filled with embryos at various stages of development.
“The scientists decided to take their task one step further. They decided to replicate the energy produced by the Levin gun into a newer weapon, a human weapon. Researchers were able to duplicate the amount of energy needed to produce the destructive power, but it took several more years before they developed the Quantum Stream, a current of force embedded in every atom of the human body.”
The picture changes to show a group of scientists trying to map out the path of the Quantum Stream on a simulation of the human anatomy.
“They had to carefully choose the exact placement for this power. Too much in one area of the body led to the embryo bursting into blue flames, while placing the components of the stream too far apart caused the cells to collapse, deforming the subject, which then had to be killed. The first batch to be subjected to this experiment took to the Quantum Stream better than expected. A year after their birth they began military conditioning, cognitive realignment training, and emotional therapy, however word had leaked to the Nuceirans about what the other two cities had developed. They had been kept in the dark about the altered development of the soldiers since this was against their principles and beliefs. Nuceira sent their troops up to the Dormitories to destroy the installation, as they saw it as an insult to creation.”
A burned-out complex appears on the screen; the once beautiful white buildings are destroyed to rubble.
”A warning had gone out to the complex after the first strike against the gates at the entrance. Of the two hundred children that had been successfully constructed, only four survived the assault. Four children who have been hidden from the world…thought to have perished in the flames.”
“You’re one of them, Meg,” Quin says, appearing unexpectedly at the top of the ladder wrapped only in a towel. “Or should I call you Trea? That is your real name.”
He climbs the rest of the way up, kneels down in front of me, and removes the tablet from my hands as the screen goes black.
“It’s not true,” I whimper, as his wet hair drips onto my legs.
I suddenly feel chilled, even though the barn is stifling hot.
“I wasn’t sure it was you until we were in Terrance’s room. As you were lying across his chest and your ponytail flipped over. That’s when I noticed the three small dots at the base of your hairline.”
I instinctively reach around to my neck, searching for marks that I already know are there.
“I’ve had them forever…they’re just birth marks,” I stammer, trying to think, trying to make sense of what I’ve just seen and heard.
Quin turns his back to me, lifts up his wet curling hair and points to his hairline at the base of his skull. There sit five identical marks, same width, same height, same placement, and same dark color. But Devlan said there were only four. How can I believe anything at this point?
I bolt from my spot, wanting to get as far away from him as possible, but he grabs my legs as I try to run past, bringing me down hard onto the loft floor. Flipping me over, he grabs my hands as I try to fight him off, but he is much stronger than I am. He places his weight onto my legs and eventually gets my arms pinned above my head. Tears are pouring down my face, and anger is surging through me. I feel my right arm heat up, acting as if a weapon will be thrust into my grasp.
“Stop, Meg, stop,” Quin says to me in a calm voice. “I know how you must be feeling.”
I don’t stop wiggling my body as I try to dislodge his grip on me…on reality.
That’s when I notice the wound in his chest, the hole that was blasted through his torso and out his back. The skin has sealed itself over the gash, scars stream outward in a radial pattern, but no blue light, no Quantum Stream like mine.
Quin follows my gaze to his chest. He takes his left hand and begins to remove the strap on my right arm. I fight some more as I don’t want him to notice the difference between our scars, but I’m overpowered. He slides the sleeve off of my arm and examines the river of blue that courses down my arm to the two small entry points in the palm of my hand.
“How?”
“Levin gun backfired.” My voice sounds shaky as I speak.
I’m both angry and scared, not sure which emotion I should allow to take over.
Quin looks back down at his chest.
“Then why does my injury not look like yours? That was a Levin gun he shot me with,” Quin begins to protest, voice rising to the point of anger.
“Devlan removed the safety features on the gun I used. Those features must have been enabled on the one back at the house.”
He releases me from his grip and
