Things to know before you start reading:
Spark: An evolved part of the brain giving those in possession of a spark to do amazing abilities such as telekinesis and teleportation to name the common ones. The abilities that people can have are limited to not being able to change your body or alter the elements (wind, water, fire, earth)
The Institution: A school for people with sparks. Its goals are to build its numbers and eradicate all humans without a spark in order to evolve humanity.
Nowhere: An underground facility that houses some of the most elite fighters around. They use engineered enhancements in their body that multiply their already amazing strength and agility. Them and The Institution are at war with each other.
At the time Corruption starts Nowhere has invaded The Institution. (Tail end of the 1st book) The story starts backtracking very early into the battle with the twist being Lazarus as the main character instead of Laura.
I'm sure there will be a lot of questions with a lot of you not reading the previous book. This being the first chapter I'm wondering how well it flows and how well it keeps interest. ALSO! I'm trying to pay attention to tense, so let me know how well I did or if I need to be more observant still. This is a bit longer of a read and I thank anyone who reads it. I hope to get a good amount of feedback as well.
Chapter 1
“Lazarus! What happened to you?” Laura asked.
“Bianca. I found her cowering in her office. She put up a better fight than expected.” He let out a sharp cough and slid down to the floor.
“Lazarus, are you going to be ok?”
“I have to be. I do not have a choice,” he plainly stated with his normal cold tone.
She smiled weakly at him.
He let out another cough and put his arm around his torso. His chest was clearly causing him pain.
“Your ribs are broken, you need medical attention.” Laura leaned in to try to help him to his feet only to have him push her away with his other hand.
“I told you. I will be fine. Now go, the rest is up to you.”
Laura swallowed hard, her voice was shaky. “I’m going to finish this. For everyone that’s been hurt by this dreadful place.”
“I trust you to follow the plan accordingly.”
“Don’t worry about me. Just don’t die,” her tone sounded cheerful but didn’t hide the fact she was scared for him.
“Now go!” Lazarus cringed in pain as he gripped his chest.
Laura nods and continues down the hallway to the elevator.
She was out of Lazarus’ view so he listened quietly until he heard the elevator door open and close.
She was out of Lazarus’ view so he listened quietly until he heard the elevator door open and close.
After the set of sounds he let the image of his injured self fade away to show him leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed.
Lazarus smiled to himself about how smoothly things were going so far. The memory trickled into his head about the events leading up to him waiting for Laura, as he knew she would eventually make her way to the third floor. He didn’t have to wait for very long before Laura happened by. Not so long before he fought Bianca, who turned out to be a joke. Being one of The Five he showed her no mercy and killed her swiftly. Before her final breath he had gotten the information he desired from her.
With Bianca dead and Laura off to fight Yang, Lazarus could go to the new Institution and destroy the two remaining leaders.
He was positive that Laura would be able to kill Yang; he may give her a little trouble but nothing that she couldn’t handle. After that, it didn’t matter if she lived or died. He had filled her head with enough nonsense that even if she lay in a pool of her own blood she would die happy thinking that the devastation of The Institution would never again befall anyone else.
Lazarus frowned at her lack of knowledge on what was really going on. She had no idea the magnitude of what was set in motion that day.
Lazarus pushed off the wall with his shoulder blades and directed his gaze downward at his long jacket. He took a moment to smooth out the wrinkles from the front of his jacket before sprinting down the hallway.
He already knew Nowhere had blasted a large hole into the building and ran in the direction of it.
Just ahead trees became visible through the gap in the building. As he got to where the floor ended he slowed down to a casual walk.
Looking into the near distance he saw that to get where he wanted he had to jump farther than what was humanly possible. Lucky for him, he had taken the opportunity to learn a spark ability some years ago that would work perfectly for this situation.
Lazarus took a moment to recall the memory of him torturing a fellow Institution member. The man had already unlocked his spark, but had a personality disorder that was preventing him from learning to control it. Lazarus knew he would serve no purpose to The Institution and snuck into his quarters to inflicted pain upon him until the right personality made its way out. Once he had the right one, he extracted the hypothetical means of how to use levitation.
Lazarus had discovered long ago that abilities were learnable and you weren’t stuck with what you managed to get out on your own or stumble into.
He made the link when he witnessed Yang unintentionally mimic his cold-fire. Putting two and two together wasn’t hard to figure out. It also wasn’t a hard choice to keep that sort of information hidden. At the time he made the connection he already felt the way he did about how pathetic The Five and their Institution were. There was no way he would help them intentionally on something so monumental. Years later it was eventually revealed what he already knew, which caused him much disappointment.
Lazarus was very careful on how he got the information out of the man with the personality disorder. When he was finished he used a fork from the Auto Chef to stab him deep in his jugular.
Anyone who found the man would figure he committed suicide. The Five would later mask his cover up with one of their own. It was predictable for them to go to any measures so the members wouldn’t view them as weak. A member killing themselves could project the place as harsh and too difficult to handle. That might bring up questions among other members and The Five wouldn’t stand for something like that.
His mouth twitched with only the slightest bit of a smile at the memory and its connected thoughts.
Lazarus walked part of the way back from where he came and turned around. He sighed hoping he would be able to use levitation properly and set his hands ablaze with his cold-fire. He intensified his spark and his hands illuminated brightly.
Knowing it was all or nothing Lazarus ran at full speed to the hole in the building.
When he got to the edge of the hole he dived forward and used his spark to push down. This caused him to float down slowly instead of falling. Unfortunately, due to the speed he ran at prior to jumping he overshot where he wanted to go and he ending up in the tree.
He let out a long sigh being very irritated at being at the top of a tree.
From branch to branch he skillfully made his way down to the ground without anymore levitation. He analyzed the results and regretted never using the ability before. He had put more power into using it than was necessary for starters. That combined with his overuse of speed caused him to be in the tree. He kept a mental note of the outcome in case he got over his bad experience and used levitation again.
Now that he was on the ground he looked back at the place that had been his home for the last six years. A moment of sadness came over him, the life he had before The Institution had been a hard one.
He acquired his first spark power before he even knew what a spark was. It was fifteen years ago and he was only sixteen. He tightened his fist angered by the painful memory.
The battle was far enough away from him now that he didn’t have to worry about anyone from Nowhere finding him. Not that he wouldn’t be able to lay waste to anyone that crossed him, he was just on a strict timeline and didn’t need any distractions.
He hurried through the forest actually enjoying things. It was not because of the peaceful scenery but because he was taking the first step in his plans.
Finally he got to his destination.
Deep in the forest he made a pathway to the main road and hidden a car inside a small shelter he had built over a year ago. Even using his cold-fire it had taken many months of sneaking away to accomplish this.
The car itself had been hidden there over the winter and he hoped that it still worked. He had taken as many precautions as he could think of to make sure that it would still run when he needed it. This included draining all the fluids into labeled containers that were stored in the trunk, and putting blocks he stole from the training center under the car so the tires weren’t touching the ground.
He knew he didn’t have to worry about any repercussions with stealing the car. The Five wouldn’t do anything about it. If they went around asking members about it they could be perceived as weak being unable to keep track of their stuff.
He unlocked the car with its only key, that he kept on him at all times. He let out a long sigh knowing that it was going to take a while before he would get the car drivable; he only hoped he could get it going before Nowhere finished mopping up The Institution. He didn’t want to run into any of them on the way out and be slowed down.
Lazarus pulled on the door handle and opened up the car. He slide his jacket off and removed his mirrored sunglasses. He tossed both items into the driver seat. He leaned in to pop both the trunk and hood.
He went to work using his cold-fire where he could and put all the fluids in the vehicle. The last thing he did was take the car off the blocks.
He wiped his brow after he finished, he would keep his coat off for now, but he missed his glasses and put them on his face.
He moved his jacket to the passenger seat and sat down. The moment of truth, he stuck the key in the ignition and twisted it. The engine turned over and roared with life.
The side of his mouth showed a slight smile on his face at how well all his careful planning had served him.
He put the car into drive and drove slowly through the forest pathway.
The trail was at was difficult to traverse through. Many branches were in the way that had grown since he first placed the car in its resting spot. He let out a sigh when he had no choice but to step on the gas and cause the passenger side mirror to break off of the car.
If he had to guess, it was twenty-five minutes after he left the building when he finally got to the main road. There was no way that Nowhere could be in and out by then, so he was in the clear to take off down the road.
He knew he had to go down the mountain into the valley a few hundred miles south to the location of the new Institution being built. The last two of The Five were down there now with a small force overseeing its construction. He would drive strait there to make sure he got there before news of this building falling reached them. He was still confident that Laura would be enough to kill Yang and that Nowhere would do its thing and wipe the rest of the place out.
Enough gas was stored in the trunk still that he could make it all the way there without stopping for long. If it wasn’t enough, than he had collected a few hundred clicks over the last few years. Who said that being able to appear invisible didn’t have its perks?
A random thought wandered into his head and he wondered exactly how fast he should drive. He didn’t want to drive slow and risk being seen, but at the same time didn’t want to speed and fly off the treacherous road. He decided to just watch his speed based on how the road was.
After a minute of driving he came to the crossroad that led to The Institution. He glared briefly at it as he drove by.
Unexpectedly an explosion went off under Lazarus’ car. His eyes got wide at the realization of what was going on.
The car is blasted into the air and flipped over onto its side rolling down the mountainside until it stopped at least two hundred feet later on its wheels.
i like the way that the end of the chapter keeps us readers in suspense, Bruce!
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