Chapter Two: The Arch

I accepted the promotion, or death sentence depending on how you look at it, and I was off to the Arch in a week. Henry at my side, I sure made an impression when I first got there.

I stepped my transport, and immediately asked to see the tech we were being sent here to perfect. I was told that I couldn’t do that, and I said: “I swear to whatever god you worship I'll rip out your spine!” Suffice it to say, I was locked in my room until the next day.

I was woken up by the woman who I would hate my entire life. Jennifer Quentin. The woman poured a bucket of cold water on me, and dared me to rip out her spine. I wanted to take her up on that challenge, but Henry told me not to.

“Would you like a look at the weapon?” She asks us, and we accept. She leads us into a room with a giant window that looks out into a room with a man in a tight-fitting, white suit of armor.

“Where’s the weapon?” I ask. Jennifer rolls her eyes at me, and I grind my teeth. Her air of superiority reminds me of the girls I used to go to school with that always made of me for not being like them. What does she want me to be? A quiet, non-combative girl? Someone she can step all over, and I won’t complain? She thinks she’s so much better than me, and I hate that.

“That suit is the armor, girl.” I glare at her, and she smirks slightly. She wants me to be angry, but I contain myself. I need to focus.

“Anna said that everyone who’s tested it so far has died. It doesn’t look like much.” Henry says. “What does it do?”

Jennifer looked at the man wearing the armor before using the walkie-talkie on her shoulder.

“Go ahead, grunt.” She says. The man hesitates for a moment, fear in his eyes. “Move, before I kill you myself.”

The grunt jumps at the threat, and turns towards a wall with a target dummy on it. He positions himself before pressing a button on one of the suit’s gauntlets, and a bright, neon blue light engulfs him and nearly blinds Henry and I. Even through the glass, I can hear the man screaming. The light completely distorts his form, and I can’t tell where he is.

I close my eyes tight, and the blinding light stops. When I open my eyes, the man in the room is on the ground, and blood is gushing out of every orifice in his body. He struggles for a moment, but quickly goes still. I look at the target dummy and notice that it was destroyed in the giant blast.

“At least it works.” Jennifer says, and I wonder how heartless she really is.

Henry immediately jumps into action trying to figure out how to fix the very lethal drawback of death. Apparently, the suit is supposed to convert light into blasts of energy. I know nothing about engineering and mostly just secure him the supplies he needs, and add in my thoughts. Occasionally, I give him an idea of what to do and he has a “major” breakthrough that leads to a slightly less painful death.

One night, I realize that, unlike basic training, we’re allowed to call our families. As I make it to the phone that’s in the main lobby, I catch a glimpse of a conversation that Jennifer was having with someone else. Someone I didn’t know.

“How’s Manny?” She asks. “Put him on the phone please.” Her voice isn’t the same domineering, screech I’m used to. She loses all of her insufferable vainess on the phone with these people. It almost seems like she cares about them. “Hi, buddy. How’s school? Really?! That’s my little brother.” A little brother?

Her conversation goes on for a little while longer, until she finally wraps it up with a thousand different “I love you”s. Then, she leaves the room. I silently move to the phone, and start dialing our home phone. The line rings for a while, then, she answers.

“Hello?” Ellie says.

“Ellie?” I hear the smile in her voice next.

“Ela! My goodness, I thought you couldn’t call home when at training.” I smirk a little. She’s gonna love to hear this.

“That’s because…I was moved to a new division.” I say. “But, shhh, don’t tell anyone. It’s super secret.”

She giggles. “Alright, Ela. Oh! There’s someone here I want you to meet.” She moves the phone away from her mouth and starts to call someone named Leroy over. “Ela meet Leroy. My boyfriend.” Excuse me?!

An unstable voice takes the phone with a voice crack. “he-LLO! Sorry, puberty.”

“I understand.” I say with an undertone of murderous intent. Who is this guy?! I leave for two years and some random man thinks he can have my sister?! Just wait until I get home. “So, young man, what do you plan on doing with my sister?”

“Uhm?”

“What kind of job do you have?”

“I work at the repair shop down the street-”

“Uh huh. Put Ellie back on the phone.” He does that immediately, and Ellie is still giggling.

“You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“Nothing you can’t fix. Look, Ellie if he ever-”

“He’s not gonna hurt me Ela, he’s not like dad.” As I’m about to retort, I hear something crash in the other room. “What was that?!”

“I gotta go, Ellie. Talk to you later?”

“Talk to you later.” I hang up the phone, run to the sound, and see Henry standing over the armor with shattered glass on the floor.

“Henry, what the hell was that?!” I shout.

“Ela, I solved it! The armor isn’t gonna kill anyone!” He says delightedly. I look him in the eyes and see honest happiness. The next day, we have Jennifer in the testing room with a dummy and a grunt on the other side of a window. Surprisingly, the grunt doesn't die, and the dummy is gone. Jennifer was impressed with what “we” did, and made an arrangement for some special ceremony. 

I was getting ready for it when Henry came knocking at my door. I open the door and he’s standing there with the Arch armor and an embarrassed smile on his face.

“Henry?” I say.

“I think you should wear the armor.” He says. “You were such a good help with it, and I would feel kinda bad if I wore it like Jennifer said.”

“I don’t think I could wear it.” I say. “I’ve seen too many people die in that thing.”

“Ela, please. It would mean so much if you wore it.”

“What do you mean?”

He looks around nervously. “Look, my family wants me to be the best, to show that we’re better than everyone else. If I wear this, they’ll take that as a sign that I’m just like them. I don’t want that.” He says. “If I walk up there with this armor, everyone will be looking at another Tremor that did something extraordinary. If you go up there, they’ll see a woman who came from the poorest parts of Winquix, joined Haven, and came out better than ever. It would show the entire sector that people that aren’t like me have a chance at this too.”

“Henry…”

“Ela, please. If not for me, then do it for Ellie. She would get to see her big sister in this piece of tech that could change the world.” He tempts me with those words, and I sigh. He’s right. A sectran walking up there with that armor would only enforce the invisible wall between us and them, but me, I could make a difference by just standing there.

“Okay, I’ll do it Henry.” A big smile spreads across his face, and he hugs me tight. A warm feeling crawls into my chest as I feel his breath on my neck. I shove him off, politely. “Now, leave. I need to get ready.”

Henry leaves with a skip in his step, and I’m ready in no time at all. We load up the transport, and we’re off to Winquix. During the ride, Jennifer is giving us dirty looks. I guess she doesn’t like me wearing this suit.