The RUSH

I strode through the snowy road across the Light Train platform deck, carefully dodging people as they bustled around for our next up coming holiday, which was Christmas. Quickly running up the stairs to my family’s apartment, I ran into Grayson King, my best friend and who lives a few doors down from me.
“Hey, Adria,” he said stopping me on the stairs. “Where are you going in such a big hurry?” He gave me one of his killer grins and I smiled back while my stomach did a little flip.
“I have to go get Christmas lists from Calixte and Tannis then go get my Mom some groceries for Christmas dinner,” I said. I looked at what he was wearing; a black leather jacket with a tight white T-shirt underneath and jeans. His black windblown hair was nicely combed and I couldn’t help but say, “Diana’s lucky!” Diana was in our group of friends and the three of us have been friends since we were five. They had been dating for almost three months and I could just imagine Diana’s face when she sees Grayson tonight. Part of me was jealous of Diana, but they have always been a little more than friends whileto me, Grayskn had just been a friend. I winked at Grayson and saw him blush just before I passed him and ran up another flight of stairs to the apartment.
Calixte was waiting for me inside our apartment, with her list in hand. Her bright red curly hair was loosely draped on her shoulders and her green eyes were wide with excitement. Calixte hated her name, so our family and pretty much everyone who knew her called her Cal. She reminded me of myself when I was little. I loved my name, Adriana, but it seemed too much of a mouthful so I shortened it to Adria. I took my boots off by the door and put them inside the closet.
“Hi, Cal,” I said hugging Calixte tight.
“Hey,” Calixte said squeezing me back. It was nice to have a sister so close to your age that you could talk to her about things and she would know exactly what it was like and understand.
“Mom!” I called out to the house. “I’m home!”
“Thanks, sweetie. I’ll be right down,” Mom answered from upstairs. I sat down at the table with Calixte and she handed me her list.
“What’s Mom doing upstairs? She hardly ever goes up there,” I asked Calixte. And it was true. My Mom never went upstairs because her bedroom reminded her too much of my father. Mom could never bear it because she always ended up crying and then laughing and saying, “Just look at me, I’m a mess.”
“She’s getting ready for her date tonight,” Calixte answered simply.
“What? Since when does Mom have a date?” I was shocked.
“Yep. She met this guy at work a few weeks ago. Keldon Sterling, I think is his name. Anyway Mom told me they’ve been talking and yesterday he asked her to go on a date. He got the whole shebang set up to ask her. Red roses, chocolates, everything. So that’s why she’s upstairs,” Calixte explained. I smiled.
“I swear. I don’t hear about anything that goes on in this family, but good for her,” I said. I looked back to Cal’s list and I smiled again as I scanned the list and caught a few things like a phone and a new pair of boots. My eyes filled up with tears when I got to the bottom of the list. In Calixte’s thirteen-year-old handwriting, it said,
I want Daddy to come home.
Even though Calixte was thirteen, she still held onto the thought that my father was going to come back home. He had left two years ago, heading to fight in a war half way across the world. Six months ago, an army official came to our door with a yellow slip in hand. Calixte had been the closest one to my father and she ran into her room, shut the door and didn’t come out for two days. Calixte didn’t want to follow the thought of knowing that my father was dead.
I put Calixte’s Christmas list down on the table and hugged her. I felt something wet on my shoulder and realized that Calixte was crying. A fat tear rolled down my cheek and I found myself crying too. I squeezed my eyes hard and let the hot tears stream down my face. We let go of each other and just a moment later, Tannis came bounding into the room with his Christmas list. Like the rest of the kids in my family, he didn’t like saying his entire name and so we called him T. He had brown spiky hair and bright green eyes with specks of yellow scattered through out them, like the rest of our family.
“Okay, I finished it!” He proclaimed. “Whoa, what happened to your eyes?” Tannis said stepping forward to look at my face.
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” I asked.
“I don’t know. They’re all black,” Tannis said.
I laughed. “Oh, that’s just my mascara,” I said getting up to get a towel. Once I was in the bathroom, I got the towel damp and rubbed around my eyes. When I came out, Mom was in the living room trying to get her shiny silver high heels on her feet.
“You look nice,” I said. Mom had on a navy blue satin dress that hung to the floor and at the top was a V-neck neckline. A silver jeweled broach was pinned at the middle point of the dress and Mom’s earrings and shoes matched the broach. Her brown curly hair was put in a braided bun behind her head with a silver clip that matched the broach on her dress.
“Thank you. I haven’t pulled this dress out in years.” She smiled, did a small twirl in the living room and then grabbed a black bag off the kitchen counter as well as a piece of paper. She gave the paper to me and I looked at it just to see that it was the grocery list.
“Cal and T, there’s leftover’s in the fridge or you can call the food service. Adria, honey, thanks for going shopping and kids don’t forget to give Adria your Christmas lists,” Mom reminded everyone as she was running around doing last minute things.
“T, I don’t have your list yet,” I said.
“Oh right,” Tannis said getting up off the couch, with the paper in hand. He threw it to me but since it was paper, it floated slowly right to the ground and fell in front of me.
“Really, T?” I asked raising my eyebrow.
“Yep, really,” he said with a grin. I rolled my eyes but grinned back and picked the paper up. Looking over the list, it was mostly names of video games and the new TouchPlay game system.
“Oh gosh,” I muttered to myself.
“Adria, here’s some money for you to buy the presents with and then just get some things for you and me and then get the groceries.” Mom flopped a wad of cash on the table. I looked at her as I thumbed through the cash. I was mostly seeing one hundred dollar bills.
“What?” she asked. “I’ve been saving.”
There was a knock at the door and Mom practically ran to it but slowed down so she wouldn’t fall. She opened the door and that was the first time I saw Mr. Keldon Sperling. He had black hair that was nicely combed and bright blue eyes. He was tall and skinny but not as skinny that he had the appearance of a stick. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand and he offered them to Mom. She took them gratefully and then called me over. I got up and she handed me the flowers.
“Put those in a vase, would you please?” She asked.
“Sure thing,” I whispered. I wasn’t too comfortable with people I’d never met before. I had to give Mom props for this guy. He was good looking and he was all dressed up in a tux. More props. I laughed at myself for judging who Mom was going out with. It almost seemed like I was the Mom and she was my daughter.
I put the flowers in a vase and set them on the table. When I came back out into the living room, Mom and Keldon were gone and Calixte and Tannis were watching T.V.
“Hey, I’m going to leave now but I have my slide screen with me so just call if you need anything,” I told them.
I got a ‘yep’ and ‘okay’ from them so I slid into my boots and went out the door with the lists and money in hand. Shoving the money into my jean pocket I made my way down the stairs and out into the night. It had started snowing so it made my journey more difficult to get to the Light Train deck.
There were a few people already on the platform waiting to board and I recognized one of them as Forrest Taylor. Forrest was in my level at school and I had a few classes with her this year. I was making my way to go talk to her but someone approached her from the other side, and took her hand. The boy was McKay Falcon, another person in my level. They walked off which left me all by myself in the snow and cold. I pulled my jacket tighter around me and rubbed my hands together.
Suddenly my whole body started to shake. I thought it was just me being cold but everything was moving. I started to fall but grabbed a telephone poll near by and hung on. People were running everywhere and a few people screamed. All the roads were cracking and houses were falling to the ground. The telephone poll I was holding on to started to fall and I tried to move but my foot was wedged between the pole and a chunk of ice.
The pole swayed back and forth, wires tugging fiercely on each other. Four wires snapped and fell very fast, with electric shocks coming off ends. I pulled and pulled on my foot but it was no use. I pushed myself up against the pole, hoping the wires would swing by me and they did. Except for one.
The wire snagged on my jacket and sent a strong electric current up through the fabric. My body felt all tingly and I remember shaking uncontrollably. My back felt as if it was on fire and I’m pretty sure it was. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as I fell down backwards, but I was still shaking. I couldn’t hear, see or feel anything. Then everything went black.

I sat up gasping for breath in the snow. My ankle seared with pain and I didn’t need to look to know that that it was broken under the telephone pole that was on top of my leg. Snowflakes were slowly falling to the ground and I took in my surroundings. All the earthquakes seemed to have stopped but the damage they did was bad. Houses were crumpled to the ground, roads were cracked and some asphalt was sticking up high off the road. Windows were shattered and a part on the Light Train tracks was broken, and it was hanging down at a slant. A couple people were walking around but no one seemed to notice me. I tried to get the pole off of my leg by pushing it, but the more I pushed, the more it hurt. I stopped and fell back into the snow. My eyelids started to close and I felt another electric surge go through out my body. I quietly slipped into unconsciousness once again and thought that I was going to die there and now in the snow.

A slow but steady beeping lulled me out of my sleep. I looked around to see that I was in a room. A hospital room. A woman sat in a chair by my bed with her head down and an arm supporting her head. She wore a blue dress and I realized that it was Mom. I looked around some more and saw that a T.V. was turned down but it was on the news channel. I watched for a moment to try and figure out what was going on. I saw a remote on the nightstand next to me, so I picked it up and turned the volume up just loud enough so I could hear what the reporter was saying.
“It seems that all the seven continents have merged back together and there have been earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions all over the world. We would have never expected this to turn out but all the continents have merged together like the once were but for what reason we don’t know. People everywhere are struggling but we have found something that is most interesting. In the North America, telephone wires and electrical outlets have been broken and blown by snowstorms. Also many earthquakes and after shocks have hit there as well. Less than one hundred people were killed. For many countries in South America, their cities and houses were all destroyed by fire. In Australia and all the islands on that section of the world, tsunami’s destroyed everything. In Europe, horrible ice and snowstorms attacked and killed hundreds. In Asia, earthquakes came and drove things into the ground, also killing many people. In Africa, winds at 1000 miles per hour put everything there to ruins. And Antarctica has disappeared off the face of the planet. Many people were killed during these horrible incidents but majority of the people survived. Scientists are calling this The Merge and the government has proposed a plan for this new continent situation. The continents will now be known as The Six Divisions and the entire Continent will be known as Vasuda. Each Division is in charge for gathering and supplying the rest of Vasuda with a natural resource. Asia will now be known as Cirocco or Division 1. Europe will be Ujana or Division 2. North America will be Mitali or Division 3. South America will be known as Guban or Division 4. Africa will be Raghnall or Division 5. And Australia will be known as Naif or Division 6 and Naif will be the capitol of Vasuda. This has been David Ninon.” The screen changed to back to the weather channel and I turned the volume down. I laid my head against the pillow and propped the top half of my bed up.
All of the continents had Merged back together and my home was known as Division 3, Mitali. I grabbed the metal bars on either side of my bed, closed my eyes and squeezed. I felt a release of energy from my hands and opened my eyes to see an electric bolt running down both bars to the end of my bed to the main control panel on my bed. It shocked the control panel and sparks flew everywhere. I screamed and jumped and hit my bad foot on the side of the bed. I had forgotten that it was broken and I groaned because of the pain. The heart monitor next to my bed was beeping faster and I tried to slow my breathing.
A minute later, a Doctor came in with a clipboard in his hand as well as a black briefcase.
“How are you today, Adriana Callita Birchwood?” He asked. I gave him a funny look because he used my entire name. He understood my expression and held up the clipboard and turned it around so I could see it. On the front was my picture and next to that was my full name. I nodded my head and the Doctor kept talking.
“I am Doctor Ambrose. We found you last night and you were unconscious with a telephone pole over your leg. As you can probably tell, your ankle is broken,” Doctor Ambrose said.
No, duh, I thought to myself.
“We gave you a few pain killers an hour ago. Do you feel like you need anymore?” Doctor Ambrose asked.
“No, I think I’ll be okay,” I said.
“Very well. Just beep if you need anything,” he said handing me a little box with a red button on it.
“I will,” I said. Doctor Ambrose nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
Mom woke up and when she saw that I was also awake, she ran to my bedside and hugged me.
“Are you alright?” she asked holding my face in her hands.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said taking her hands and pulling them off of my face.
“They called me last night after the earthquake and said that they found you in the snow, unconscious. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I promise I’m fine.”
After my mom left I turned the T.V. volume up when the screen started blinking: BREAKING NEWS. The same reporter, David Ninon, was talking about the Government and their plan for the new situation.
“President Ackerson has said that there will be a Governor assigned to each Division and they will be in charge of their Division and their Division only. Governors will be in each of their Divisions in three days and there will be a big ceremony held in which every one needs to attend. Already in Division 2 there have been problems and the Government has just figured out that some of the people who have survived have special powers, such as invisibility, the power of fire, water, wind and many more. People who have these ‘gifts’ are being confined into camps called RUSH. People without powers are turning those people with powers in and there is already three hundred people confined. There is one RUSH in every Division and rewards are being given out to those who turn people in.”
I turned the T.V. off and sighed. Closing my eyes, I recalled everything that had happened the night before. I cringed as I remembered being electrocuted and having the feeling of not being able to hear or see. There was a quiet knock at the door and my eyes fluttered open.
“Come in,” I said.
Grayson’s face appeared when the door opened. He stepped in and I saw that his left arm was broken and it had a metal cast around it. His face was red with his eyes swollen and he looked very tired like he hadn’t slept in days.
“Grayson what happened?” I asked.
Grayson was quiet for a minute but started sobbing uncontrollably.
“Grayson what happened? Tell me what’s wrong,” I said. Grayson nodded and in between sobs I heard, “Diana…Merging…Rocks…Gone.” I took a sharp intake of breath as the tears rolled down my face.
I didn’t say anything because there was nothing for me to say. One of my best friends had been killed in the Merging and I couldn’t do anything about it. I sat in my bed and cried. I put my hands over my face and cried until there were no tears left to cry. Grayson came and sat down by me on my bed. He put his good arm around me and I cried into his shoulder. After I had calmed down a bit, I turned to Grayson.
“How did you break your arm?”
“It was after Diana had died.” I started sobbing again and Grayson squeezed my shoulder with his hand but continued his story.
“I was running around looking for her and I finally found her under a pile of rocks that had crashed into an electrical fence. I ran over to her but while I was running, I fell and broke my arm from my elbow to about the middle of my forearm. How did you break your ankle?”
“The earthquake started and I started to fall but I grabbed a telephone pole that was close by. My foot got caught in between the pole and a chunk of ice. The telephone pole fell over with my leg under it.” I left out the part where I got electrocuted because I didn’t want to worry Grayson.
“I’m so sorry about your leg,” he said.
“I’m sorry about your arm. You’re left handed aren’t you?” I asked.
“Yeah, but I’ll lean how to write with my right hand for a few weeks. It’s all good,” he said smiling.
We sat in silence for a while before Grayson said, “They’re finding different animals around everywhere. Animals that haven’t been on the earth for a long time. It’s just like they popped up out of no where. Someone found one last night and they said it was glowing.”
“Glowing? Like it was glow in the dark?” I asked.
“Yeah, they can’t get pictures of it because it’s so fast but there were five witnesses saying that they saw one.”
“What kind of animal was it?”
“I think they said it looked like a tiger or something like that. I can’t remember.”
Suddenly, Mom and Doctor Ambrose burst into the room. Grayson stood up, looking frantic.
“Hurry, Adria. Get in the wheelchair,” Mom said.
“I can’t move,” I said. Doctor Ambrose came over to my bed, picked me up gently and set me down in the seat of the wheelchair.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I’ll explain later, but now we need to go,” Mom said. Doctor Ambrose wheeled me out into the hallway, with Mom and Grayson running right behind us.
Once we were in the elevator, Mom turned to me and said.
“They’ve found you.”