James Winter: Beginnings

  Chapter Four: The Guardians

  James woke up not by his own will but by the persistent and seemingly perpetual blaze of heat burning his wrist. At first, he thought it was a dream but as if to prove that it was not, the burn increased, sending jolts of heat through his veins and he woke up with a jerk. He sat up on his bed; at first his vision was blurry and sluggish from sleep.

  His eyes lightened and saw the man from yesterday, what was his name again, oh Rognard, clutching his hand painfully and taking in deep sharp breaths.

  ‘What happened?’ James asked instead of ‘Good morning’. He really doubted if he and this man will be on “Good morning” terms ever.

  ‘Nothing’ Rognard said, ceasing to rub his hands. ‘I just came to wake you up, I’ll be sending you on a tour and I need to get to work also so…’

  ‘I get it’ James snapped. ‘I’ll hurry’

  ‘Good, the others are ready already.’

  ‘Fine’

  Rognard left the room, wincing as he closed the door with his hands. What happened to them? And what happened to James’ own hand? James raised his arm and shifted the Transformat where the skin had burned to reveal nothing at all on his skin. Not even a brown burn mark or a scar, but the watch had burnt him badly.. He touched it gingerly and pain coursed through him immediately He let out a breath of half surprise and half pain.

  He shifted the watch over the ugly burn mark. This Transformat had some secrets to unlock; unlocking the case back on the plateau was just the beginning.

  He showered and dressed quickly and went downstairs to meet Seli and Leo already ready, sitting in the couches in the sitting room.

  ‘Oh good, Rognard is almost popping his head’ Seli breathed a sigh of relief.

  They got into the car and Rognard embarked on the tour, moving through winding roads and highways that Rognard called veins and arteries. Seli and Jones seemed to be catching on to this cells thing pretty well but Leo and James were still convinced they were all going mad.

  First, they went into a library where they roamed around, Seli promising the books that she would buy them. She then asked Rognard if cells had money so loudly that Rognard almost slapped her mouth.

  ‘Yes they do’ Rognard whispered, looking around like a child in mischief.

  ‘Oh, can I borrow some?’ Seli said sweetly. ‘Please’

  ‘No’

  ‘Pretty please with a cherry on top, hm?’ she coaxed and slightly coerced Rognard into promising he would give her money later.

  They saw many sights that could be seen in the real human world. They went to the Liver, where they were told that the cells there produced sodas, beverages and juices with the help of a main, special ingredient called “nutrients” and supplied them to cells all around the city. And they got a lot of profit out of it. They also had several laboratories for the development of atomic weapons and nuclear bombs with metabolic energy sometimes. And they converted harmful substances in the human’s diet into useful materials and made bile for the Small Intestine.

  ‘We even supply the platelets with protein, you know,’ their hairy tour guide had said. ‘The Liver is a really productive Organ. You should get a job here.’

  And the cells! They were nothing like that alien stuff, James had thought they would look like They didn’t have scales and tentacles and extra eyes and that stuff. They were just like humans, they wore clothes (imagine if they didn’t) and did all human things. James was simply awed. All those years he had looked in microscopes and seen some unintelligible uninteresting squirmy things on a plate, and here he was really witnessing their world in 3-D, another world entirely.

  They however, turned down Rognard’s offer to show them the Kidney, which was like the garbage disposal company of the city, after he had said that the a tour with the Kidney required that they board the vessels( that’s what they called vehicles around here) that transported the urine(liquid, sometimes grinded waste) into the… you know where your pee goes, to observe the process.

  So Rognard decided they would instead visit the Heart and the Brain, and then later on, the Lung, which supplied oxygen and carbon dioxide to the whole city, which they actually used to make food. Unbelievable. James had to taste some of the stuff.

  At last, they reached they drove into a wonderful gold plated gate to a huge parking lot. James got down and the others followed. James looked up and saw wonders.

  A towering building loomed above him and engulfed them in its shadow. It was so tall that James couldn’t see the roof from where he was standing. It bathed in the glory of the sunlight, Two guards where standing on either sides of a metal, yellow gate, carrying long guns.

  ‘This’ Rognard began as he stood by them. ‘Is the Heart, the most protected, most important and most wonderful building, or as you humans call it, organ in Nemo city, and any city at that…’

  ‘Whoa!’ James breathed. ‘So in there is some kind of machine that thumps and beats?’ he asked, thinking of how his heart beat, and thinking if cells had hearts themselves…

  “No” Rognard answered. “Humans feel that thumping and thudding noise because there is a lot of activity going on in the Heart. And because the routes to the Hearts are very busy, thus, the pulses.”

  The teenagers continued admiring the Heart. Rognard looked at them impatiently.

  ‘This reminds me, you have to get a job.’ He said it as if he had wanted to get on with it for some time.

  ‘Excuse me?’ James said blankly.

  Rognard just roared with laughter.’ You can’t expect to live under my roof for me to feed you, can you?’

  ‘Work where?’ Leo asked.

  Rognard began counting off his fingers. ‘Well there are the platelets, who repair damaged organs or buildings and stuff. More like your human firefighters, the Librarians, the Doctors… and even the vessel driver, or you could work as transport cells!’

  ‘Vessel drivers?’ James asked.

  ‘That’s bus driver to you’ Rognard answered.

  ‘The Heart…’ Seli said dreamily.

  ‘Uh…’ Rognard started but Seli cut in.

  ‘I’m working in the Heart’ she justified.

  Rognard looked peculiarly grave. When Seli wanted to do something, she wanted to do it and won’t be stopped.

  ‘Me, too!’ James and Leo chorused.

  ‘No’ Rognard said. ‘You can work somewhere else. In the Brain, for example, it’s the second rated organ and it’s more boyish.

  ‘Plus, I need my space’ Seli batted her eyelashes at the boys.

  ‘Seli, you run over to the guards in front of the gate and tell them Rognard Lyan sent you to participate in the Test.’ Rognard instructed Seli. Seli jogged off happily to the gate.

  ‘Now you guys get in the car and let’s go’

  The road to the Brain was heavily guarded with road stops and Guardians, that’s what the police men of this place where called, though, if you wanted to refer to all of them- firemen, guards and all, you called them Leukocytes. Rognard seemed to be a highly respected man in the cell world. Leukocytes saluted him and allowed him permit to pass whilst another man had to shove different colours of verification cards up the noses of two doubting Guardians.

  ‘But I work here every day!’ he said in exasperation.

  ‘Never seen you before’ one Guardian said and his partner shook his head agreeably.

  Rognard entered some gates drove through a pair of huge, gates with half of a large symbol engraved coloufully on either side of the gates, so that when the gates where shut closed, the symbol completed to be a wavy, woozy, white brain with flaming red jets of fire circling it all around, like atoms and molecules. It was quite fascinating, especially when the flaming jets of fire seemed to be throbbing and burning with life.

  Beyond the gates stood a huge building, half as smaller than the Heart, which meant, very huge building. On it s roof where the words; The Brain-The Daring To Protect. Underneath those words were brown words; Cerebru
m One. MAIN HEADQUARTERS.

  It was exactly like those pictures of brains James had seen in his science textbook back at school. It looked like a gigantic white baseball.

  A guard tensed at the doors when Rognard was leading the boys through it, then he suddenly relaxed into uneasy and nervous manner and said. ‘Oh, Mr. Lyan. It’s really nice to, er, see you here, um… Miss Theodora is expecting you…’ he flushed when he realized he’d forgotten to salute and saluted with embarrassment.

  Rognard ignored all of this. He checked his watched impatiently. ‘just take these two to the Test room and make sure they are tested, all right?’

  ‘Yes sir!’ the guard said and saluted. ‘C’mon now, kids,’

  Rognard headed up some wooden stairs whilst the Guardian led James and Leo through a corridor.

  ‘Um, what’s the Test room?’ James asked as they passed a room called City Monitoring, where cells where typing on high-tech computers or passing files to each other or simply chatting and laughing. Immediately after that room was the Neuron Distress call Department.’

  The guardian pointed to that room. ‘That’s where they get Neuron calls from damaged tissues or Organs and immediate Bacteria attacks. You might get a tour of the place later, when you’re done with your tests.’

  “What is the test?”

  The Guardian smiled.’ You’ll see.’

  They approached a black huge door, where a Guardian asked for their names and scribbled the on a notepad. ‘Follow me, please.’ He said, and James and Leo entered a wide and spacious hall. Hundreds of cells where sitting on chairs in rows and columns, all of them fixed their eyes on a woman standing on a raised platform. James noticed she was leaning heavily on a crutch.

  ‘Sit down.’ The man told them. They found empty seats next to a girl in a black top and skirt.

  ‘Hi’ James said as he sat down by the girl and Leo sat by him on his right.

  The girl turned and seemed to be caught up in some moment. She stared at James for what seemed like forty five minutes, the she shook her head vigorously. “Oh, hi. I’m sorry. My name is Cornie Belevard. New recruit.’ She held out her hand. James took it. ‘James Winter. New recruit too, I guess.’

  ‘Do you know what area you’ll be put in?’ Cornie asked.

  James tried to make sense of the question, but all he got was like a static television screen. ‘Um, no.’

  Cornie sighed. ‘I know. It’s very hard to just guess. The examiners are real unpredictable and they say the tests are as easy as chewing bile. What are you really good at?’

  James thought, ‘I’m good at pretending to understand what you’re saying. But was saved the trouble of answering when there was a sudden burst of static, and the woman on the raised platform spoke.

  ‘Welcome. Young ladies and gentlemen. My name is miss Dome, and I am the lead trainer for the Guardians. You are all here to be tested and fitted into your various fields of expertise and my colleagues and I will do our very best to place you where you rightfully belong.’

  James wondered why she placed so much emphasis on the word rightfully.

  Miss Dome continued. ‘If you’re very smart, we could put you in the science and Research department. Tough and brave? We could make you a Guardian, where you’ll gradually-with much skill and effort, make your way to being a Macrophage or Commander.”

  James thought he heard some of those names before in school. The phagocyte and lymphocyte and macroface or whatever where some kind of protectors of humans against diseases, or Germs.

  ‘Without further ado, you will now proceed to the waiting room, where you shall be tested accordingly in the Test room. Good luck.’

  Another burst of static was followed by scraping chairs and shoes as cells walked to the waiting room.

  Everybody relaxed as they entered a small white room but immediately began to raise tension as they talked nervously about which kind of tests they would encounter. Then a man that James and Leo had seen at the door burst into the room. ‘Ok. Settle down. I have your names here so when I call you, you will make your way through this door to the Test room. Alright?’

  ‘Yes. Sir’ everyone murmured nervously.

  ‘Ok. First name is…Ben Diva.’ A pale faced, scrawny boy made his way uneasily around the others to follow the man into the unspeakable horror in the Test room.

  After some minutes, James turned to Leo. ‘What do you think is going on?’ he asked his friend.

  ‘Tests, duh’Leo said.

  ‘What kind of tests?’

  “Dunno. Don’t be scared James.’ Leo said, trying to sound brave.

  “Yeah, right.’ James laughed. ‘You’re almost peeing in your pants!’

  Several minutes later, the man’s head poked out of the door and said; Stardom Leonardo!

  ‘Good luck, bro.’ James said as Leo disappeared into the Test room.

  Another several minutes later before the head said; Winter James! James walked to the door slowly. The man with the notepad smiled. ‘Don’t worry. It’s actually quite a brief and painful-less test. Quite fun, come to think of it.’

  The Test room was dark and felt judging. Don’t examination halls feel like that? A blue light shone light from the ceiling and created a small blue circle on the floor. A young woman in a long white coat and black work skirt sat in a chair in front of a control panel littered with screens and buttons. She looked up when James approached.

  ‘Stand here, please.’ She said in a bored voice. She had probably said that a million times today.

  James stood in the direction she was pointing at, in the blue lit circle. The man handed him a gun and showed him how to hold it. It was black and about seven millimeters long. James stared at it till the man said;’ it’s a dart gun.’

  The woman jumped from her chair. 'Ok. She hit a green button on the panel, and a bulls -eye board appeared a good fifty yards away form where they were standing, also illuminated with blue light. ‘When I give you the signal, your task is to press the trigger and direct the dart exactly to the small red spot in the middle of the board. Your score will depend on how close you came to hitting the red spot.’

  James nodded and pointed the gun at the red spot. When the woman said fire, the world consisted of only him and that red spot. The Transformat burned against his wrist and sent something coursing through his veins. He felt like he was controlling a shooting game character. Like something had taken over his mind. Maybe someone in his family was a soldier, and it had been passed down to him. The thing controlled him to press the trigger, and the dart came out slowly.

  James saw the bullet in slow motion. Whether it was his imagination or the two cells beside him could also see it like that, he didn’t know. The bullet spiraled and twirled slowly, until it hit the bulls- eye board exactly on the red dot.

  The man gaped gawked from the bulls-eye board, to the shooter, but the woman wasn’t impressed. ‘Beginners luck.’ She muttered and brought out more bulls eye boards. James hit all of them in one swift motion. When he finished, even the woman was on the verge of fainting. Even he was shocked at his spontaneous success. He had never held anything like a pistol in his life before. How the heck was he able to direct a dart into the very heart of a bulls- eye board fifty meters away? He remembered the way the Transformat had burned him when he was going to shoot. It had somehow helped him. He was turning to go when the examiners stopped him to look at his score on a screen. 10/10-Passed. It said.

  The man nodded to him. ‘Congratulations boy. You’ve got a good thing going, keep it up.’ The woman nodded beside him vigorously.

  He went to the waiting room to wait whatever they were going to do next when he met Cornie again.

  ‘Did you do well?’ she asked, biting her lip.

  ‘Yeah. Ten out of ten,’ James replied, craning his neck around Cornie to look for Leo.

  ‘Wow, you’re really good aren’t ya!’ Cornie exclaimed and punched James’ shoulder playfully.’I wouldn’t be surprised if you bec
ome a Guardian.’

  ‘What did you get?’ James asked, now looking at Cornie. She lowered her head. ‘Six.’

  ‘Well that’s good too!’ James smiled and tore away from Cornie’s beaming face as he saw Leo sitting near a big boy.

  Leo had eight and was awed to hear that James got a clean ten, but frowned when James told him he suspected the Transformat had a thing to do with it.

  ‘Your girlfriend’s really cute though,’ Leo said to James, smirking annoyingly.

  It took James a minute to realize Leo was talking about Cornie. ‘Quit it, Leo’

  ‘You were stuck to her like love glue.’

  ‘She was badgering me’.

  ‘I heard you telling her how good she was.’

  ‘I did that because she was all down that she didn’t do better-‘

  ‘Stardom! Winter!’ a male voice boomed from the door again. ‘You’re up!’

  James and Leo exchanged confused looks. There was another test?

  The examiner led them through yet another room and separated them. James to take the left corridor and Leo to take the right. As for the examiner, he stood far back and when James looked back, he said. ‘Good luck’.

  James supposed he was meant to go into the corridor until he encountered something. The corridor was dark, lit blue at regular intervals. He approached a glass door and shifted it aside. Now, he was in a horizontally long but small room, like a small train station. Directly in front of him was a control panel with a screen and a virtual keyboard beneath it. He blinked at the panel, until the glass door shifted closed and a computerized female voice issued from the panel in a sing song voice. ‘Hello fellow recruit. This is the Mathematics Test of Admittance. The rules are easy; solve all of the math equations that will be displayed on this screen in the given amount of time correctly. If you type in a wrong answer, the robots at your either side will kick you and throw you out of the room. Same treatment will occur if your time ends before you complete all questions. Start.

  James now noticed the white bald robots on either side of him, camouflaged with the white wall so well that James did not see them when he entered the room. They seemed static, like some statues, but as he began to answer questions on the screen and got one wrong, they both took two steps towards him, their hands stretched at him.

  The math equations were outrageous. What the heck was 2x +12x =4(16) ok. He knew that but what the poop was 98lop+Xinscon=U(2)??

  He just sighed and tapped in a bunch of impossible numbers. He barely had time to look at the robots before they clamped their cold metallic hands around both his arms and threw him out of the room all the way to the examiners feet.

  When he recovered from the stars swimming around his face, he heard Leo crash onto the floor in the next corridor. ‘No fair! I had nine out of ten!’ he heard Leo yell angrily. But James could see he was smiling. He looked up at his own scoreboard which was on a screen on top of the corridor.

  “Seven out ten!” he said and Leo punched the air in victory. “Told ya I’d beat you.”

  They walked back to the waiting room where Cornie raced to James immediately with puppy eyes.

  “What did you get?”

  “Seven”

  Cornie looked a little disappointed for a moment, but then as quickly as it came, the look shifted into a radiant beam. “I had eight out of ten. Anyway that’s the highest because the examiners put a very advanced equation at question nine and ten.”

  “Really?” James thought for a moment. He refrained himself from blurting out loud: How the heck did Leo have nine out of ten if nine and ten had been almost impossible questions? Oh, and by the way, Leo wasn’t an exact whiz at math…

  He walked over to Leo who was talking to a boy in brown, pajamas-like clothing. As soon as he was about to ask Leo how he passed the test, a new Guardian burst into the room holding a clipboard. He looked very authoritative with his bulging muscles and bald, shiny head. He did not say ‘silence’ but every Recruit was paralyzed like the man had just sprayed a tongue killing gas at them.

  He looked around the room briefly, and then began to talk with a deep voice.

  “All right, I trust you have all taken an exam and at least passed one of them. I am here to put you in the particular according to how well you did in an exam. I will take with me the new Guardians, that is, the new phagocytes and lymphocytes. When I call your name, stand by my side.”

  “First name is Andrew Martholomew(I know, what a name),” a tall boy got to his feet strongly.

  “Abigail Joshua”… and on and on until he reached the last two names. “Leonardo Stardom” and “James Winter,”.

  There was an uncomfortable silence when he mentioned James’ name. The man even looked up curiously. James pretended he hadn’t seen a thing as he stood by Leo and, Cornie, who had been among one of the first names to be called.

  The Guardian straightened. “Well, that’s all. The rest of you stay put whilst you, follow me.”

  James and the other selected Guardians followed the man out of the room through some twisting corridors, past a shooting range where a couple of people where testing their shooting abilities on a bulls-eye board, and finally, entered into a small classroom. It didn’t seem like the classroom was in use for years- chairs and tables were scattered unceremoniously all over like two drunk cowboys had just had a brawl in here.

  The man sat on the edge of the teacher’s table whilst the Recruits just stood in the middle of the room nervously.

  After a moment, he smiled and said, “At ease lads. Grab some seats”

  The tension in the air immediately evaporated, shining relief into the classroom. The Recruits sat on chairs (if they were not broken) and tables. Leo and James relaxed their butts on two clean tables. When, finally, everyone was seated and quiet, did the man speak again.

  “You are the freshest Guardians of this fine city. Very soon, some of you might actually become Commanders and Army Trainers…hey, you could even become Macrophages.”

  There was some hidden discomfort and uneasy eagerness at the mention of this positon.It was like everyone wanted to be a Macrophage but didn’t want the guy standing by them to know in fear of embarrassing themselves. James figured Macrophagism(THAT’S NOT A WORD, KIDS,) might be a rather high ranked position.

  “It’s possible,” Commander Josh said, also noticing the uneasiness. “If you put all your effort in it. That means tireless training and fearless risks! But today, however, we’re not gonna do any training. You all are either tired or a little scared or simply not ready, but tomorrow, we will start vigorous training with me as your personal trainer. So brush up on all your fighting moves, your shooting accuracy, and your un- ebbing bravery. We will meet in this same classroom tomorrow at six o’clock sharp.”

  James couldn’t help but think, sheesh, that early?

  “Class dismissed,” everyone almost run out of the room before Commander Josh could change his mind. When it was left with only James and Leo to get out of the room, they heard the man shout James’ name. “Come over here, Winter, got something to tell you. Now you run along, Star, Winter will be there in just a mo’.”

  It took Leo almost a minute to realize Commander Josh meant him by ‘Star’. He nodded dumbly and walked out of the room.

  “James Winter,” Commander Josh said James name with enormous satisfaction, like James was some giant burger. “I saw you shoot back in the exam hall, mister, there is a tinted glass around the ceiling of that hall where Commanders can spy on new Recruits, and I’ve got to say, you have got style and skill.

  ‘Uhh, thanks,’ James said casually.

  ‘What I’m trying to say is, if you do very well and pass all the training tests here, you could be promoted to maybe a Commander or phagocyte or whatever. Bottom line is, in these times, we need Guardians like you more than ever.’

  James thought for a moment. Something Commander Josh had said had been tugging him. ‘In what times, sir?’

  Command
er Josh did not answer the question but switched to another topic entirely. ‘Oh, and give your friend, Star the message, too. Don’t know why I sent him away. Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow Mr. Winter. We’ll be having both intellectual and combat training lessons.’

  James nodded and said, ‘Yes, sir’ and turned to leave at a measured pace, wondering if he should have saluted as well. He would probably get lessons and tips from Seli. She’d be bursting with knowledge by now.

  Rognard picked them up at exactly five o’clock pm; apparently that was the time of closure for Leukocytes in the Brain. Seli, however, was in the car already and, James was happy to see, she had piled books in all sorts of sizes on her lap, so that only her head greeted to he and James when they got into the vessel.

  ‘So, how was your day?’ Rognard asked as soon as the car begun to drive out of the Brain’s broad gates. He seemed to be unusually, uncharacteristedly cheery. James darkly wondered why.

  ‘Oh, you know, we didn’t do any tedious work. Just took the test, which we passed as Guardians, and were told to come back tomorrow at six sharp.’

  ‘I see,’ Rognard said a little absent mindedly, like he was really not listening to Leo.

  ‘So, who was your new leading trainer?’ he asked as he broke into a highway.

  ‘Oh, Miss Dome,’ Leo answered again.

  ‘What?!’ Rognard spluttered. Then he swerved the car so suddenly and abruptly that James and Leo were thrown off and crashed into the car door, whilst Seli’s books toppled over and smacked James in the neck, knocked Leo in the head.

  James had opened his mouth to say something when another driver honked behind them and yelled something James couldn’t here but was sure it voiced his thoughts pretty well.

  ‘Umm, sorry,’ Rognard said as he descended the highway and rolled onto the flat road. ‘So, Miss Dome how is she?’ he asked again quietly.

  ‘She’s fine,’ James answered since Leo refused to answer anymore. ‘She’s leaning on a crutch but she seems okay.’

  Rognard nodded. ‘I see. Miss Dome. Real stubborn.’