[scifan] plantation 02.5 - daphne Read online

  “Daphne, no,” he said taking both her hands in his.

  She stared at them, his hands, as if she saw them for the first time. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

  “I’ve thought about it,” he went on. “I’m not good at being close to anyone. You and I worked

  better when we were friends. The only commitment I want in my life right now is to the Saviors and the fight against the invaders.”

  “You don’t want to be with me,” she whispered in sad disbelief.

  “I don’t want to be with anyone,” he said. “I’m not proud of the way I act sometimes and I’m not

  going to subject you to this kind of behavior anymore. I’m sorry, Daphne.”

  A thought entered her mind as she listened to him and try as she might, she couldn’t shake it off.

  “I should have never helped rescue her,” she said under her breath.

  Damian locked his eyes on hers. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing. Everything,” she said lowering her eyes.

  “Well, that narrows it down,” he said.

  Daphne got up. “You will regret this day,” she said.

  “I know,” he said seriously.

  “No, you don’t,” she said. “But you will.”

  With that she stormed out of the tent before he had time to notice the dampness on her cheeks.

  Daphne walked aimlessly under the stars until she reached the library in Lost Town. She was

  not sure what prompted her to visit the half-destroyed building in the middle of the wilderness.

  Lost Town was the only proof in the district that there had ever been human civilizations on

  Earth before the alien invasion. Left in its spot for reasons unknown while everything else around it got erased, it too was slowly being swallowed up by the surrounding woods.

  Daphne stepped inside the library building through the half-open door. Books were scattered

  everywhere as usual. On shelves, tables, desks and on the floor. This was the place where most

  Saviors had picked their names leafing through the pages of a book or other. Including Daphne

  herself.

  She scanned the shelves for a moment, her mind wandering off to her painful realizations. She

  couldn’t get Damian’s words out of her mind. It’s not fair to either one of us, he said.

  “It’s definitely not fair to me,” she thought. “It’s not fair when you love someone more than he

  loves you.”

  She picked up a book from a shelf absentmindedly and started leafing through it. It was an

  illustrated guide to gardening. She stared at the illustrations for some time: the young tomatoes and the thriving begonias, the yellow roses and the summer squashes smiling under a bright sun. Then she

  turned a page and came upon a snowy hillside.

  “That can’t be right,” she thought and before she knew it, her eyes hazed over and the white mist returned in her field of vision. Her knees trembled a little as she entered the battlefield again. It was white with frost and ice and she felt the bitter cold on her fingers and nose.

  “I have to get out of here,” she thought but found herself walking through the rubble of the fight.

  She didn’t recognize the faces at first. She saw young, capable men in military uniforms firing shots at an unseen enemy. She lingered in front of a fighter until she was absolutely certain he could not see her.

  Then the sky went black in a split second. Blood-red fireballs started falling all around

  exploding as they touched the ground. Daphne looked for cover but every time she thought she found one in the form of a tree or wall, it disappeared instantly.

  A red light flashed in intervals revealing vicious images of an atrocious fight. Bodies were

  hurled up in the air, then cut in half. Severed heads rolled on the ground and blood spurted from deep wounds like in an apocalyptic night terror.

  Daphne brought her hands to her eyes, instinctively trying to block out the horrific images. “This is not real,” she repeated to herself. “My visions are out of control.”

  The rain came as expected. It had not failed to appear in any of the battle visions of the last

  days. Daphne opened her eyes slowly. The scene was quieter now that the rain was washing off the

  fires and the blood.

  When Freya showed up, she didn’t think about her too much. It was a nice change that she was

  by herself and not drooling all over Damian like in previous visions. Freya raised her hand and

  gathered the rain around her like a powerful waterfall. Daphne could not understand how she did that.

  Freya hurled the water at Daphne who was too stunned to react. The water covered her body and

  face, entered her nostrils and caused her lungs to gasp for air.

  She let out a shriek just before the water evaporated into the dark sky. Freya took a step closer bathed in a white light. Daphne’s eyes opened wide when the light got near her and entered the pores of her skin drenching her soul and spirit with a new feeling of euphoria.

  “What is this?” she thought when, in the same breath, she was stricken down by a lightning bolt.

  She felt her skin melt away and her limbs go numb. She saw Damian’s face, pale and terrified. “Save me,” she muttered before he disappeared.

  Daphne’s body began to dematerialize blending in with the surrounding mist.

  “I’m dying,” she thought right before the vision was abruptly lifted off her eyes and she fell

  forward to her knees.

  3

  Daphne would never forget what Damian told her or his cold face when he announced his

  decision to break up with her. She would forgive him in time but she would never forget. Even if he came back begging her to forget what he had said, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. You can only expect so much of those you hurt.

  Her recurring vision had been of great concern to her even though she hadn’t decided yet on how

  to interpret it. Those were some powerful images and she was afraid that every time they would get a bit darker until she would not be able to take it anymore.

  She would have loved to share her fears with Damian but he had never shown the slightest

  interest, when she confided in him, in what he deemed as supernatural garbage.

  Daphne worked through her doubts at improving her reflexes in fight simulation. She engaged the

  three fastest Sliman in the software and used her knives to pin them down as they were charging at her.

  “This is child’s play,” she thought and then went pale as the image of the invincible Sliman in

  her vision returned to the stunned retinas of her eyes. What if they truly existed, those vicious warriors, silently biding their time in some dark corner of the universe?

  Gloomy premonitions were not new to her. She’d had them before and she had learned to reign

  them in and squeeze out their very essence which she would then use to better understand her own

  powers. But she couldn’t remember having the same vision so many times in a row before.

  The vision was a bit different every time but the main elements remained unchanged: Damian,

  Freya and the flood, not always in that order. And now death was added to the mix. Her own death.

  She switched off the simulation software just as a second wave of Sliman was getting out of the

  gates to meet her. Fighting shadows and specters in an alternative universe didn’t seem that important right now.

  She left the building with roaming thoughts filling her head. “Simulation can be dangerous,” she

  thought. “It’s supposed to help you learn how to deal with the enemy but it can have the opposite effect. It can make you forget the real enemy.”

  She shook her head at the sight of Damian wandering aimlessly in the area between the Kitchen

  and the Armory. Dam
ian was right about one thing, she had a tendency to overthink when action was all that was needed of her.

  She thought long and hard about going over to him and starting a conversation. They did have to

  organize the next meeting together but maybe it wasn’t a good idea to approach him first. It might be better to wait for him to call her. But after all it was not her fault that there were things that needed their joint attention or that they so often had to work together. She made up her mind to take the first step.

  His features hardened the moment he saw her approaching.

  “Hi, Damian,” she said doing her best not to let his reaction get to her. But then she realized that it wasn’t because of her that he got annoyed. It was because she had caught him red-handed.

  “Why are you spying on Freya?” she said stealing a glance at the girl who was hosing down two

  big trash cans on the side of the kitchen building.

  “I’m not,” Damian said. “And lower your voice.”

  “Either that or you’re truly interested in trash can cleaning,” she retorted.

  “How are you?” he said in a softer tone.

  It was so obvious he wanted to change subject that it was almost painful. Maybe it would be

  best if she dropped it now but she couldn’t. The fire inside her chest needed air to grow.

  “If you think you will ever get her away from Finn, you are sorely mistaken,” she said between

  her teeth.

  It took him a long time to answer and when he did, what he said was the last thing she would

  have expected of him. “Stranger things have happened,” he said.

  “So you don’t deny it,” she said in shock. “You want her. That’s why you broke it off with me.”

  “I said no such thing,” he said with a sigh. “Just give it a rest, Daphne. You’re driving me nuts with your fabrications and your delusions.”

  This was probably her chance to tell him to go to hell and walk away. “What do you see in

  her?” she said instead.

  “Peaches and roses and the moon with all the stars,” he said in a mocking voice. “It’s all in your head,” he hurried to add.

  Freya walked around the front of the kitchen returning the trash cans to where they belonged in

  the back of the building. Damian took Daphne’s hand in his and forced her to follow him toward the combat ring.

  “We’ve been friends for a long time, Daphne,” he started saying as they went past the Armory.

  “Ever since we met as two of the first free humans four years ago. I’m sorry I can’t be who you want me to be right now but, please, respect my wish and stop inventing motives for my decisions.”

  “Don’t give up on us,” she said in a voice so low she couldn’t be certain if he heard her.

  He paused his gait and turned to look at her.

  “There’s only one thing I care about. The safety of these facilities and the people living inside them. That’s all. Until the day comes when we will have to risk everything including our lives.” He shook his head as if trying to clear it of some dark thought. “I don’t want to talk to you like that,” he went on. “I care about you. But you have to give me space. Right now it’s all I ask for.”

  She didn’t say anything. What was there left to say?

  “I think it would be best if we stayed away from each other for a while,” Damian said and

  walked away from her.

  Daphne stared at his back and his wide shoulders. It felt like the first time she could really see him. Her stomach became sick, as if a spider had crawled inside her making her insides churn.

  “Enough,” she whispered to herself. “I’ve had enough of this.”

  She returned to the kitchen with a new determination and went inside. She spotted Freya with

  Tilly in the back scrubbing and washing down counters but pretended she didn’t notice. She walked straight to the fridge and opened the door having no idea what she was looking for. She could feel Freya’s eyes on her back.

  “Is there no lemonade left?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tilly said.

  “There’s some lemons in the basket. Why don’t you make some lemonade? I could use a glass

  after all this scrubbing,” Freya said with her usual half-indifferent half-sarcastic tone that Daphne could recognize anywhere.

  She realized she had nothing more to say and left the kitchen. She had her answer. Freya was in

  the dark about Damian’s intentions. But that could change at any moment.

  Just before lunch she returned to the kitchen and waited for Freya to come out. She felt

  something that resembled pity at the sight of the small girl who could not find her right place among the Saviors. The girl with the unique aura undulations and the disturbing appearances in her

  daydreams as of late.

  Daphne wasn’t sure she had a right to do what she had planned but she didn’t know what else to

  do either.

  Freya did not welcome Daphne showing up out of nowhere. It was no surprise. Daphne had

  never been easy on Freya. Part of the reason was that something about Freya gave her the chills. That girl was no ordinary human.

  “Relax,” Daphne said before Freya could open her mouth. “I’m not here to lecture you. I just

  want to talk.”

  Freya would never buy that. But Daphne didn’t care at that point.

  “It’s safe to say that you hate Damian, am I right?” she said using her sweetest voice.

  “Of course I don’t hate him,” Freya said slowly. “I don’t hate anyone. At least not anyone

  human.”

  “Not even me?”

  “Daphne, where is this going? I really want to shower.”

  Daphne placed both hands on Freya’s shoulders and stared into her eyes. “I noticed you didn’t

  answer the question,” she said.

  “I don’t hate you, Daphne.”

  “That’s nice to know. Really. Maybe now you know it, too.”

  Daphne felt a little jolt in her stomach, the one that always told her she had engaged her subject.

  Freya nodded and her eyes went blank. It was as if she was being stripped away of her memories,

  perhaps the very core of her being. It pained Daphne to do this but she could not stop now.

  “Your dislike of me comes only from my association with the person you truly hate,” she said

  slowly dragging every word out to make its effect more powerful. “The person that really stands

  between you and your self-esteem. Damian.”

  But then she lost concentration betrayed by her own doubts. It was only a brief second but

  Freya’s instincts were strong enough to alert her of what was going on. She swept Daphne’s hands off her shoulders.

  “What are you doing?” Freya said. “You’re not allowed to hypnotize me without my consent!

  This goes against everything we have agreed on.”

  Daphne laughed. She was getting to be quite the actor. “It’s just a joke, Freya. I didn’t really

  think you’d fall for it.”

  “A joke? Do you see me laughing?”

  “You’re too serious. That’s the whole problem with you. Lighten up, Freya. Life’s too short.”

  She turned to go before Freya had a chance to sense what was really going on behind the façade.

  She headed for the forest to seek shelter among the shadows of the tall trees.

  She stopped in front of a small branch lying on the ground. She closed her eyes and directed a

  short wave of mind energy at the twig that shivered for a tiny second before breaking in two.

  “Nobody can say I didn’t try,” Daphne said and shrugging her shoulders she returned to the

  camp.

  4

  Daphne stood by an old oak tree with branches reaching for the sky right where the clearing

>   blended with the forest. She watched the training sessions as she tried to catch her breath after having run alongside Rabbit. Boy, that little brat could sprint like his beloved cheetahs for miles.

  She liked training out in the woods and never missed a chance to watch Damian in action but her

  eyes were trained on Finn now. A strange idea had entered her mind the night before and even though at first she had rejected it, she now started to entertain the thought once again. She asked herself what it meant, that desire to understand and succumb to one’s fate.

  She had the dream again. Enough times now to know there was truth in it. Unless she had

  completely misunderstood the message, she was going to die. Sooner rather than later. But she wasn’t certain yet. There could be missing parts that would reveal themselves in time. She would not panic but she would start preparing.

  When Finn left the group in search of a challenging climb, Daphne grabbed him by the elbow.

  “I knew you’d go looking for trouble,” she said as she pulled him behind the trees and out of

  sight.

  “Huh?” Finn managed to say. “What are you on about?”

  “I need to talk to you,” she said, earnestly glancing into his eyes.

  Finn nodded and followed her further into the forest. Daphne didn’t stop until she was certain

  their friends would not discover them.

  “What is it, Daphne?” Finn started as they plopped down to the ground.

  “I need your help,” she said.

  “Okay. Why all the secrecy?”

  “Because it has to stay between us obviously,” she said a bit irritated. Finn had a knack for

  asking superfluous questions. “Nobody can know,” she went on. “Especially not Freya.”

  “You’re not going to try and get me to do something that would upset her, are you?” Finn said

  raising his eyebrows.

  “Gosh, no. You think I’d be talking to you of all people if that’s what I wanted? I know you’re

  her loyal puppy.”

  “If this is your idea of asking for help…”

  “Crap, you’re right. Let’s start all over.”

  She had to play by his rules. She was the one who needed help after all.

  “It’s about me,” she said. “And Damian. And the fact that I will probably die very soon.”