James Winter: Beginnings

Something hurt James from the inside. Something was present in his blood, flowing through his veins. And it wasn’t supposed to be there.

  Then pain came, increasing itself a thousand fold every second. The Transformat began to heat up, to the extent that it began to glow an eerie red. The pain spread to James’ head, and for a moment, the world went black, James could only see Jones, lying helplessly on the ground, stay starry eyed at the ceiling. That image seemed to trigger the thing in James.

  Then it really exploded.

  It was a kind of force, an invisible force. It erupted from James-no. It seemed to erupt from his Transformat.

  Suddenly, the Germs were lifted off their feet, crashing into the walls around the room or falling bone-crushingly on the ground. All around James, layers of years of sedimented dust rose like water vapour. The light bulb above him flickered.

  James realized he was screaming, so hard.

  Yetu got a very terrible amount of the force, since he was closest to James. He now lay flat and unmoving a few centimetres from James’ leg. He was quite dead.

  Every Germ that James could see had been hit. The hot pressure on the Transformat died down, and James’ pain was fading, so was his scream. His head ached and throbbed, his breathe was hot and his body shivering.

  James expected Singar to be dead, since he was as equally close to him as Yetu was when the force of power began. But he saw Singar rise a few feet from him and dash towards the exit, a small briefcase in his hands. A second later, he disappeared.

  James wished he could summon the same power he had released and knock Singar down, but he couldn’t tap into it again. He had no idea how it had come to him or how he had done it. But had he done anything at all? Maybe it was the reaction of the Virus with the Transformat that had done that.

  Now he felt silly thinking it was him who did it. What was he, some superhero? No.

  He wriggled his hands in the ropes. They fell off his wrists. He gasped, staring at his hands like they had spoken. The thing that had happened earlier had probably loosened the ropes off.

  Jones moaned, snapping James into reality. He quickly undid the ropes around his legs and knelt beside Jones.

  “Oh, Jones,” He said, staring at his cousin’s lifeless eyes as he clenched his face. “I’m so sorry for this. I’ll get you home, I promise.”

  He scooped Jones up onto his shoulder and headed in the general direction of the door, where he had seen Singar pass.

  He passed his hands over the wall until he felt a bulge. He twisted it and opened the door. The light in the hallway wasn’t much, but because he had been in darkness for too long, it stung his eyes. He felt like a vampire.

  Jones moaned again, as if the light disturbed him, too. With a pang, James realized Jones had been in total darkness fro, what? At least five days. It was all he could do not to start screaming and tearing his flesh in the light.

  He was in back in the hallway of the Liver’s Laboratory again. This time, however, he could hear sirens all around the Organ. The Guardians had arrived, and if they saw James with Jones, there would be a long list of questions, which will eventually lead to Jones being taken to the hospital, and then the doctors will realize he was human, then busted.

  So James had to trek carefully. He needed to avoid the Guardians and get Jones to a safe place, then rendezvous with Leo and Seli and get the ‘ell outta Nemo’s body.

  How he was going to d that, he didn’t know.

  He decided to search for a back door. He had just turned a corner when he bumped into someone. He tensed, his heart rate grew quicker. He was just contemplating whether he should knock the person out or run when his vision cleared a little more and he saw Cornie standing in front of him, looking just as psyched, with her hand instinctively on her gun’s butt in its holster.

  “Cornie!” James hissed, relieved.

  “James?” she whispered back. “What are you doing here? I went to your place but no one was home and”

  “Cornie, I really- wait- how did you know my place, I didn’t tell you.”

  “You live with Mr. Rognard, right? Everybody knows his house.”

  “Oh. Right.” Maybe that was another reason why Singar hadn’t tried to kill James himself. If he was that well known and highly respected in Nemo City, then a three teenagers mysteriously vanishing under his care would have led to some raised eyebrows and chin scratching. But if the teenagers died in a mistake with some Germs or some homicidal Medicine, well, no investigation there...

  “Cornie, what’s going on, how did the Guardians know there was anything happening here?”

  “Well, first, a certain vessel driver called the Brain and told us ‘James Winter’ had just gotten off his vessel to ‘save the Kidney’ then we got a distress call from some Kidney workers telling us a crazy vessel driver had refused to let them off the vessel because there was trouble there-“ Her eyes shifted to Jones’ limp body. James tried to get her mind off him. He didn’t feel like explaining anything at this point.

  “I see, “ he said. “And you haven’t seen Singar leave this Organ?”

  “Singar? No.” Cornie relied. “James, who is that?”

  Guess he had to explain after all.

  “Uh, my cousin. Singar held him hostage and-“

  Cornie suddenly froze. Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened with horror as she stared at Jones.

  James didn’t understand why a first. Sure, Jones looked very hurt and beaten. But he dint look that bad.

  He frowned and looked at Jones once again, and he understood the panic.

  He had completely forgotten that Jones was bleeding. Real, red human blood.

  He knew Cornie was going to scream, so he immediately clamped his hand over her mouth. He felt the hot air as Cornie’s scream was muffled, but he looked around anyway to make sure no on had heard.

  “Cornie, calm down, “He whispered. Please do not scream, okay. I know this must look weird and out of place, but you’ve got to trust me and please don’t scream.”

  Slowly, Cornie nodded. James removed his hand.

  “He’s human,” she registered. James could see she was struggling not to turn and run. And he understood. What if you’re there with your friend and discover he’s a god? That is what it must’ve looked like to Cornie.

  “And he’s your cousin, so it means... you’re human, too?”

  She was smart. James nodded. He didn’t see any point in lying now. “Yes, we are, but we won’t hurt you. So, please, just listen to me.”

  Cornie looked stricken, horrified beyond measure, but she nodded, anyway.

  “Good, Cornie,” James said, knowing it must take every bit of her power to be still standing here. “Now, do you have any means of transportation- a helicopter, vessel, anything?

  Cornie nodded again, her eyes still glued to Jones’ body. “A Guardian vessel,” she croaked. “You go and hide at the door side. I’ll move it and wait there, then you get in and I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

  She seemed to have caught on to the plan quickly than James formulated it. In fact, she had completed the plan for him. James was glad he had her on his side.

  “Ok.” James agreed, and Cornie spun around and sprinted back from where she came. James followed more quietly, and hoped Cornie wouldn’t rat him out.

  He hid himself between the wall and the door and waited for Cornie, resisting the tempting urge to drop Jones for a while. The dude was way too heavy for James. But he did not. Anything might happen in these few minutes, and he had to be ready to run or to, er, well, there wrent many options apart from running.

  James risked a peek out the glass door. He saw several Guardian vessels(that’s a police car to you) parked clumsily all around the Kidney’s compound. Several Guardians were scattered about, talking urgently amongst themselves whilst media cew members took shots of them and he Organ, though nothing interesting had happened... yet.

  A few feet away from James, a Commander was barking orde
rs at a group of Guardians in their black battle suits with long, offensive guns. James recognized some of them from the Brain. And this was bad. These guys were from the MAL groups. They were hard core.

  The Guardians quickly shuffled themselves into a long cue, and on the Commander’s orders, begun to march towards the door, guns held at the ready, with the Commander at the lead.

  James slinked out of sight. Where the heck was Cornie?

  He was just about contemplating Plan B when a vessel’s engine roared into life. James took another peek.

  A black Guardian vessel was bounding across the Kidney’ s compound towards the assembled Guardians. The poor Guardians had to jump out of the way as the car broke into their line, stopping g abruptly before the door.

  The window was rolled down. Cornie’s serious face glared at James. “Get in, NOW,” She warned, but James had already taken the hint.

  He run out of the Organ as best as he could with an elephant weighted human on his shoulder. He opened the back door and practically threw Jones inside in his haste and quickly jumped the bonnet of the car and sat in the front seat.

  “Go.”

  Cornie’s hand had just closed around the car gear when a crackled voice issued from her Guard-Cell (kind of like a walkie-talkie for only Guardians o communicate).

  James looked into the rear-view mirror, and saw the Commander speaking into his own Guard-Cell. On either side of him, Guardians had their guns trained on the vessel, ready for a command to shoot.

  “Cornie,: the voice called out through the Guard-Cell. “Cornie, don’t b stupid. You do not even know whether this guy is a criminal or not, yet you’re about to accompany him out of our custody? Don’t let him get in your head.”

  The voice paused. Cornie didn’t reply nor did she move her hand, which had frozen on the gear.

  “Cornie, I trust and like you, but if you do not hand over James Winter to me, I will hunt both of you down and I will strip you of your badge and your honour, and I’ll brand you a Germ!”

  That was the short cut of saying, you’re dead.

  The Commander had spat the words so forcefully, James wouldn’t have been surprised if specks of spit flew out of Cornie’s Guard-Cell.

  He glanced at Cornie. Fear had replaced the loving warmth in her eyes she usually had. James understood. Being a Guardian meant everything to Cornie, mean life itself. And if she was called a Germ now, that meant that next time she saw a Guardian, she was going to die. Her decision was going to affect either James or her. If she surrendered James over, it was the end for him. If she refused, she was a refugee and Wanted Criminal No. 1

  James caught her eyes, and it was as if a silent conversation had been made. Cornie looked away from James, and she pulled the gear.

  Cornie did something smart. James didn’t know how she did it, but the tyres rotated on one spot for about a minute, throwing clouds of dust into the air and into the eyes of the Guardians. They coughed and yelped and fell back.

  Soon, a huge fog of dust had swallowed James’ vision of the Guardians. Cornie changed the gear again, and they drove off with a sudden burst of speed that was pilling up in the tyres during her trick.

  The Guardians shot, but James knew they were shooting blindly. None of them could really see what they were shooting at. They just hoped they would get a direct hit. They wished.

  James was confused. Cornie was heading straight when they should be heading back towards the gate. But the vessel sped on, and the wall opposite them was hurtling into view.

  “Uh, Cornie-“James wanted to say “Have you lost your mind?” but suddenly, Cornie drifted right sharply, creating a C in the sand, then she shot forwards again and crashed open another gate. Of course! The Kidney had a back gate!

  They tore into the streets. The Kidney slowly receded from view.

  The Commander kept on shouting unintelligible words through the Guard-Cell, until Cornie rolled the window down and chucked it outside. She must’ve done it either because she was tired of the Commander screaming like a bad tempered coach, or because she also knew they could track them down with the Guard-Cell at the Brain.

  Anyhow, Cornie was the hero of the day, James felt like giving her a great kiss.

  He glanced at her, quite sure she was gonna break down and cry, but strangely, Cornie was keeping the tear dam locked.

  “Where to?” She asked.

  “Uh, the Heart. Gotta meet Seli and Leo.”

  “Humans, too, I guess”

  “Hm-m. Look, Cornie, thank you for this. I owe you one.”

  “T’was nothing, James. Besides, I know whatever you’re going to do, it’s to save the city, so no one would call me a Germ after they see I did what I did for a good reason.”

  James was glad she hadn’t added, Right?

  He relaxed in his seat and allowed his eyes to try and catch he whizzing sights.

  “So how did you become, you know, a smaller version of a human?” Cornie asked. There was hesitation in her voice, like part of her didn’t really want to know.

  James told her. She deserved an explanation. He held up his Transformat on his wrist. “It’s this thing-called a Transformat. I don’t know what it does really, but I’m sure it’s responsible for us being cell size.”

  Cornie nodded, sparing a curious glance at the Transformat. She fear James had seen in her eyes a while back was slowly washing away.

  But the job wasn’t done. What was Singar up to now?