Evolution

Chapter 17 - One Small Army

Tyler’s POV

When I awoke I was lying in the same hospital cart I was on when I went through the extraction. The sun shined brightly through the curtains across the room. I looked around, the room was plain, but vaguely familiar. I struggled to lift my head off the cart. My head was pounding, and I was finding it surprisingly difficult to move. It took me a while, but I managed to sit upright and get a better look at my surroundings.

The room was near completely empty. Besides my cart there was just a small plant in the corner of the room and a ceiling fan that had been turned off. I was in Aiden’s small mansion of a house with absolutely no idea how I got here. The last thing I could remember was being injected with something my one of Scorpio’s scientists before everything went black. I could remember vaguely hearing voices and that was pretty much it. I knew I wasn’t dead, but how I managed to survive was a mystery.

I tried to move my legs but they wouldn’t cooperate so I found myself rolling off the cart and on to the cold, polished, floors. Crawling, I made my way to the door wincing at every slight noise I made. I had a killer headache. I arrived at the door tired and out of breath as someone opened it. It was Autumn. Her face lit up in surprise as she saw me lying on the cold floor.

“You’re awake!” She beamed. “Why are you on the floor?” she asked bending down to help me up. She threw my hand over her neck and lifted me onto my uncooperative feet.

“I can’t walk.” I frowned looking down at my bare feet. Staring at them made me realize I couldn’t even feel the ground I was walking on. “Autumn I can’t feel my legs!” I said a little more frantically. What was wrong with my body? “I need my legs! I won’t be the same without them, I already lost my pow—my powers. . .” I trail off in defeat as memories of the extraction start flooding back to me. I was powerless. How could I stop Scorpio from overthrowing the government and building an Evolutionary army without my powers, let alone my legs?

“It’ll be okay.” Autumn said calmly pulling me down the hallways. I didn’t need my telepathic powers to know she was telling me that. I almost laughed at how my feet dragged limply across the ground with each step she took. I had to brace on the wall to keep myself upright until we entered the living room where everyone was sitting. Travis and Lauren were on the couch flirting, Aiden was rustling through papers, and Kenzie was playing with her hair. They all looked up when they saw Autumn lugging me into the room. David immediately jumped up and helped Autumn lay me down on the couch next to Kenzie.

“What’s wrong, can you not walk?” He asked looking down at my legs. I just shake my head and sigh. I felt so useless.

“I’m sorry bro.” He replied. I knew he meant it but it didn’t make it any better.

“What happened?” I asked. I was supposed to be dead by now, but here I was laying on Aiden’s couch. “How did you get me out of there?”

“We paid someone to switch the death serum you were supposed to be given with something called Tetrodotoxin. It’s a drug that that lowers your heart rate until it becomes undetectable.” He answered.

“Thank you.” I say in almost a whisper. I barely knew these people and they had risked so much to save me, twice now. I pinched my lower thigh hoping it had regained feeling. It still was numb and immobile. “Why can’t I use my legs?” I ask looking over at Aiden who was still searching through a bunch of files that laid across the coffee table. He rummaged through a couple more papers before finally finding what he was looking for and then answering me.

“Well, I’m not quite sure. . . Either it’s a side effect of Tetrodotoxin, or something went wrong during the extraction. Lucky for us they stitched up your head once they finished the extraction or else we’d have even worse problems.

“Worse than me losing my powers?” I sighed.

“Well about that. . .” Aiden trailed off. “I’m not sure your powers are completely gone.”

“They’re not?!” I said unable to hide my excitement.

“If your partner were completely gone, I’m not sure you’d be awake yet. On average it takes about 24 hours to recover from the dose you received and you recovered in only eight. That means you still heal at the pace of an Evolutionary.” He explained going through some more papers.

“So what does that mean?” Kenzie asked. I was wondering the same exact thing.

“I’m not sure. It’s possible that your healing powers weren’t affected.”

“Well then what about my legs?” I asked.

“Like I said, I’m not sure. Maybe you suffered some brain damage during the extraction and it’s messing with your nervous. It could be that the damage is to severe to be healed. I also have another theory.”

“Which is?” we all asked in unison.

“I think you still have your powers, they’re just not working on full capacity, but hopefully with time, they’ll go back to working like normal.”

I just nodded trying not to get my hopes up because until then I’d be essentially powerless, and more than likely in a wheel chair. If only my parent were here to help me. They’d know exactly what to do. My thoughts trailed off as I thought about my parents. They were gone forever, and it was my fault. . .

“What’s wrong?” Kenzie asked noticing the change in my demeanor.

“Nothing. I was just thinking of my parents. . .” I trailed off.

“I’m so sorry.” She said placing her hand on my shoulder. “I just wish we knew why that psycho wanted your powers so bad.” She huffed. Then I remembered the whole world domination plan Doctor Odaire told me about.

“I know exactly why.” I said.

It took me a few minutes because everything was still a bit fuzzy but I managed to explained everything Doctor Odaire said to me.

“Oh my god!” Autumn gasped when I finished. “What are we going to do?”

“We could tell someone the government.” Kenzie suggested.

“No one would believe us. If anything they’d lock us up and send us to Scorpio.” Lauren interjected. She was right. We sat there in silence for a bit trying to think of a solution until Aiden finally spoke up.

“I have something I need to show you all.” He said standing up and motioning for us to follow him. Obediently, we all got up and followed him down the hall. David and Travis helped drag me along the way.

“First things first.” Aiden said opening a door to a room full of medical equipment. He stepped inside and pulled a wheelchair out of a closet in the corner of the room.

“So you just keep wheelchairs lying around?” I asked as David and Travis sat me down in the chair.

“I like to be prepared for anything.” He answered walking back out of the room. Once again we followed him, but this time I was able to wheel myself. We came to the end of a hallway to a door with a thumb print lock on it. Aiden pressed his thumb down on it and a green light appeared on the screen. The door clicked and opened revealing a spacious room full of file cabinets and computers.

“Whoa!” David exclaimed as we entered the room. Aiden walked across the room to a computer screen and began to tap on different icons. Before we knew it a projector turned on projecting a huge map on the screen. Scattered across the map were hundreds of blue dots stretching from Florida all the way to Tokyo.

“What is it?” Kenzie asked, her eyes full of shock and awe.

“A map. Each one of those dots is of an Evolutionary that I’ve managed to track down over the years. This map is our key to stopping Scorpio.” He boasted.

“It’s like a small army!” I said wheeling myself closer to it to get a better view.

“Exactly.” Aiden said with a smirk. “A small army.”

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update! I've been kind of busy lately! Only three more chapters left now!! If you liked the book so far go ahead and click that little star, and leave a comment too!!