The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League (17 page)

IT WAS BLACK.

No light.

Kiranda Till sat back and closed her eyes to listen to the rhythm of the truck. It bumped along the same way it had for the last few hours.

She tried to stretch her arms out either side of her, but they were stopped at elbow width. They had confined her in a box or container of some kind.

She took a deep breath.

The air inside her prison was hot and stale.

She rubbed and her calves and her knees. They ached from being unable to stretch for more than a day.

She knocked her head against the side of the box in frustration and felt the heat in her fingertips.

The box was made out of some kind of glass, fireproof glass. How did these people know who she was or how to find her?

Kiranda had been living an adventurous life in Java since she caught the boat over from Bali.

Originally the plan was to forget about powers, The League, Ian’s death and Athan, but her holiday just seemed to get longer and longer. At first it was about drinking away her sorrows and partying all night, then it became a thrill-seeking venture and she would climb the mountains and trek through the rainforests. Not long after this, she left Bali on a little fishing boat and crossed the straight to Java and began her journey through Indonesia exploring everything it had to offer.

It was when she was exploring a volcano near Bandung that a sixteen-year-old girl named Nadya approached her.

Nadya was a student from the local high school, and she had been hiking at Tangkuban Perahu with a school excursion. She had been watching Kiranda during the hike, and after a while she approached her and asked, in quite good English, who she was and why she was so different to other people.

Of course Kiranda was a little shocked that someone had suggested that she was any different to anyone else, she had not summoned fire in a while, and was very discreet about being Post-Human. Nevertheless this suggestion peaked Kiranda’s curiosity about the young girl.

Nadya had invited her to stay with her and her family for a little while.

Kiranda had no plans, so decided to meet Nadya’s family and was readily accepted by them.

It was during this period that Nadya and her family taught Kiranda how to speak a little of the local language, and she in turn helped them improve their English.

Nadya and Kiranda became firm friends, and would always go exploring the villages around the city of Bandung and Tangkuban Perahu together.

It was on one of these adventures to a tea plantation that Kiranda showed Nadya her ability to summon fire, and this led Nadya to believe that she had a special ability too.

She was too young for Post-Human abilities to be fully developed, but all the same she was able to feel when Kiranda was near, or when her emotions were heightened, especially when the tongues of fire erupted from her palms and licked her fingers.

Kiranda and Nadya bought an apartment in Bandung a year and half later and began to experiment with Nadya’s ability.

They went on long train rides to Jakarta and Surabaya to walk the streets and try and detect any other Post-Humans.

For a while this was fun, and they were almost convinced that her power was only a connection to Kiranda, but one day, on the streets of Jakarta she stopped dead in her tracks and dropped her can of soft drink onto the sidewalk. Kiranda had to shake her to get her attention back.

Nadya said that in that building was a man who was able to manipulate lead. He had kept it a secret all his life, and Nadya knew this from outside the building. She couldn’t even see him.

This confirmed for the two girls that Nadya did have a Post-Human ability.

They never spoke to the man in that building because Nadya said he was very old, but they had been inspired to create a group of individuals that could use these abilities to make the world a better place and Kiranda brought her experience to the table.

Kiranda’s plan was to recreate The League with none of its failings.

Together they began to trawl through crowds of people looking for Post-Humans that could join their group.

That was when they encountered a young man with silicon bones named Gilang, he was extremely excited about creating a crime fighting force. It just so happened that his family also owned a warehouse that they could use as headquarters.

Once again Kiranda took on her alias, Furnace. The League may have died, but her team was strong, and getting stronger.

It was shortly after that the PHC showed up and killed everyone and burned everything.

Now Furnace was in a glass box in the dark.

Her bones rattled against the floor of the glass case constantly. She knew she was in a vehicle traveling to some unknown destination.

It really did feel like the bumps and potholes of a road, especially a typical Indonesian country road.

Since Kiranda had woken up she had been filled with panic, feeling her body banging up and down on the smooth hard floor.

The edges of the cube were curved, and she couldn’t feel any holes bigger than a rough texture on the ceiling that could have been pinhole sized hole for breathing.

If she used fire to try and escape from this cell she would suffocate herself or burn off all her clothes, which would not be ideal, because she wanted some shred of dignity when her captors finally revealed themselves.

Kiranda woke a second time in the glass cube, this time it was still, and outside she could hear voices, male voices. They had a mix of languages.

“Hello,” she ventured. It sounded like her voice was a reverberating murmur in the tiny space, there wouldn’t be any chance she was heard.

“Wake up!” A voice outside the glass case chimed in muffled tone. “Time to wake up PH scum!”

Another voice. “Watch it, this one blew the shit out of that warehouse when we put bullets in her mates. Don’t wanna get her riled up. Damage the merchandise…”

“Still scum…” the other said.

One of the voices outside was definitely an Australian, the other could have been American, she couldn’t quite tell through the thick glass and the dark panels of the truck.

Where is Nadya? Was she dead?

The four of them had been followed back to the warehouse when they were attacked. Kiranda had thought they were members of a local gang that they had been trying to get rid of.

But then she saw the people in uniforms, khaki with badges, like the military. Then there were the guns; not like the ones Indonesian gangsters had, ones that looked like they were military issue, but unlike any she’d seen on TV.

There was a crunch and a squeal of metal.

The big black tarpaulin was thrown back off the glass box that held her and the sunlight blasted her body like a warm spotlight.

It was hot and it was bright, she couldn’t see anything through her squinting eyes, everything was white.

“Eh, she’s Asian too! Did we get the right one?” a voice said in the bright haze.

“It’s her. That’s Furnace, I’ve seen her picture. Vietnamese or something it said.”

“Will she speak Australian?” a figure asked.

“English, you idiot. Australian isn’t a language.” The other Australian replied.

“Of course it is. Who cares anyway, as long as the U.S guys are sure it’s the one we are after.” The other voice finished.

They were both Aussies.

Who are they? And what do they have to do with PHC?

It was then that Kiranda began to remember something Brad had told her when they were operating as The League in Melbourne.
Don’t leave a trace. The PHC are the ones we run from.
People always fear what they don’t understand, and people in power are always afraid of greater power
.

Were these Australians PHC?

Kiranda’s vision began to clear and she could make out more and more of her surroundings through the glass cube. There were people in different kinds of uniforms and some in t-shirts and shorts, also another big glass case like hers, with someone inside.

It had to be Nadya.

“Nadya!”
she screamed, but her voice must have been a tiny squeak outside.

The man closest to her glass cell glanced at her and smiled, which made her whole body tingle with the goose bumps, the kind of goose bumps she felt before everything burned.

She was trapped and they were quite confident with the cage she was in.

“Little plane ride for ya sweet heart.” The tall blonde man said with a smirk. He was one of the Australians that she heard before. “Then they might get you a bigger box.”

He was in an old blue shirt covered in sweat stains and a pair of jeans with a hole in the knee, and he was holding an AK-47.

That was not a Government Issue weapon, it was old, and exactly like the ones gangsters in the outskirts of Jakarta would use.

This guy had to be hired muscle, and probably thick as three planks.

“They are takin’ you freaks to Melbourne.” The man smiled and gave her a wink. “Apparently you are useful to the big guys. None of my business, but I reckon something big is going down. See those dudes in the uniforms,” He gestured across the tarmac, “DPHR troops, makin’ the world a safer place for real people like me.”

He was very casual, like he was surprised to even be there.

DPHR.

Department of Post-Human Relations.

She knew what it stood for, but she called them Post-Human Collectors.

She frowned and screwed up her nose. “So they are behind this.”

They are taking her to a place she hasn’t been back to in many years.

The thought of explaining herself to Athan was not good, she missed him, and she hoped like hell he was out to save her.

She had walked away and broken his heart, why would he care now? The League was dead.

Hours past in the heat.

She watched helplessly from her cube as different people rushed around going about their business.

They were in an aircraft hangar she decided, it was big and open with a few desks and big crates, as well as the two glass cases, one containing her, the other holding Nadya.

The obnoxious Australian guy had changed shifts with an American in the DPHR uniform, and this man said nothing to her.

She had decided that these people had hired the Australians because they were local mercenaries that could get to the destination faster than the DPHR unit that had now taken over. It was sad that Australians were living in Indonesia as mercenaries. She guessed they must have been those ex-military guys that get discharged for being a bit trigger-happy, or not following orders. These kinds of people were all over the world, clinging to lives of violence because it is all they knew.

A bald man in a dark blue suit approached Nadya’s glass case and took some photos with his mobile phone.

He confidently strolled over to Kiranda’s cage and smiled.

“Furnace, I presume? I hope you don’t mind our kind of hospitality, it’s not as hot as yours, but at least you can look around and pretend you have an escape plan.” The bald man laughed, took out his mobile phone and aimed it at her.

An American, and he didn’t look like a military man.

“Don’t mind me,” he said as he fiddled with his phone, “but my bosses like to know that we are getting the work done. It’s how we demonstrate our aptitude at taking care of business. Like these guys…” he turned the phone around and there was a picture of one of her team, laying dead in the warehouse, then there was a photo of Gilang, also dead, full of bullet holes. “We aren’t proud of our work Miss Till, but we do what we do effectively, that is why the public still don’t know who we are.”

“Let
her
go!” Furnace demanded, pointing towards Nadya.

The man in the blue suit just smiled and put his phone back into his pocket.

“That’s not an option, Miss Till. You and your friend are hot property. See what I did there?” He laughed at his own humour. “You start your merry journey in an hour and I know for a fact that there are some very important people waiting to meet you, Miss Till. And some fun toys waiting for your little friend, she’s worth a
lot
to these people, so you try and keep her spirits up, okay?”

“Who are you people? We’ve done nothing wrong!” She pleaded.

“Good bye, Kiranda Till. Have a good flight.” The American said grinning. He turned on the spot and marched away to the big opening of the hangar.

Tears began to burn Kiranda’s eyes, she felt utterly helpless.

Being trapped here, with her best friend unconscious in the glass case not far away, it reminded her of the night she had first lost control of her powers and burned her family home, and her family.

She was that scared girl again.

“LUCAS AND ASSOCIATES,” Athan declared, as he marched across the room.

Brad, jumped out of his chair and looked at Athan in surprise.

Belinda had been sitting at her computer in the bedroom space, and hadn’t noticed him step out of her body into the space behind her.

Brad glanced at his friend before walking over to a computer console to begin his search.

“Where did you get this, old boy? You took awhile. I thought the trail might have gone cold.”

“Andrew Campbell. He’s the last one, and I don’t know how long he’ll be breathing either. He’s got a plan to run away with his family on a tour of Australia till the heat is gone.”

“Well, he’s probably safer than the rest of us, Sleepwalker, especially if the PHC have their Seeker.” Brad reminded him.

“Seeker?”

“That’s the name I’ve given to the young girl from Indonesia, the one who can detect the presence of Post-Humans.” Brad said, shrugging as he typed into the search.

“Lucas and Associates came out of the blue with money and power and they’re pushing some of the tech that Dan was experimenting with in China.” Athan declared.

“Leave a surprise for me! I do like a sense of mystery when I’m doing this searching…” Brad half smiled and shook his head.

Brad scanned through some pages of text on the computer screen. He seemed very absorbed in his research so Athan sat quietly on the lounge and closed his eyes for a moment to relish the fact that he no longer had a headache.