The Blue Burn

    Prologue     It's 2040, but to see our world today? You might be wondering why the wild wild west vomited all over everything we know. Well, here's a quick recap of the events that shaped this "John Wayne" filtered version of our reality.      First, there was a catastrophic explosion that sent shock waves around the entire world. This wasn't your ordinary explosion either, it actually only demolished about 4 city blocks worth in the general area where the explosion occurred. Crazy, right? Well, you don't even know the half of it yet. So the shock waves of this blast was more like a ripple that traveled completely around the world. Traveling through everything and everyone. Everything electric or battery powered, stopped working completely. No electricity, no cars, no phones, nothing.      Then people started getting sick, like really sick, a lot of dying. From there it's kind of a jumble of what happened next. As you can imagine, there was massive panic. There was looting, riots, kidnappings, murder. Crime rate soared like never before. Crime lords were crawling out of the filth they came from and started self proclaiming their domains. People had to pretty much resort back to the wild west ways. Your horse and your pistol were now your two best friends.      They worked up an elixir, a "cure", for this illness nobody knew much about. They were calling this illness the "Voxir-Virus", or "Vox" for short. The elixir was hard to get out to the masses due to transportation limitations and the constant crime occurrences.        Everyone that was surviving or who wanted to survive had to find their place and fall in line, or not. Some found theirs a little more easily than others. Which brings me to one more weird factor of the mysterious explosion that happened almost 6 years ago. Ever since the explosion and the shockwave that rippled around the world,  there are some people who are experiencing some odd changes, within themselves. Strange abilities, like super-powers. Some people have them and some don't. Some know and some don't. Some have already mastered their newfound abilities, while others are just now getting started... PRESENT Madalyn     A thief in the night, creeping like a cat on the prowl. Each step placed with precision, careful to not make even the slightest wrong move at the wrong time. The stakes are WAY too high this time around. There is too much on the line if this doesn’t go EXACTLY as planned. "Deep breath in." I inhale softly. "Exhale out." my breath rushes out silently, "Just like you did the other night with the briefcase full of Elixir Maddy." Talking to myself might not be the best indication that I'm of sound mind, but I assure you it actually does help.     My mind can't help but wander to how it wasn’t always like this. But that’s also because it didn’t HAVE to be like this before… Before everything went to s**t. But I guess there's no reason to waste time thinking on the “what if's”. All of that is long gone now. All I can afford to think about now is the NOW. Keeping my eye on the goal, the prize, if you will. It's all pieces of the puzzle that will get me to my main goal, saving Sebastian.      I can feel my heart as it races while I try to control my breathing, keeping myself as quiet as possible. Making sure to not give off any impression of my existence even being in this place. This horrible, God forsaken place. I can feel the vein in my neck protrude with every thump of my heart. Resonating inside my ears, its almost the ONLY thing I can hear. God, its so quiet in here. Aside from the creepy occasional drip sounds coming from a nearby leaky pipe, my heartbeat is virtually the only sound in these abandoned tunnel systems.     Occasionally, I have to commend myself on how easily I slid into this role after everything really hit the fan. All those years of gymnastics and dancing have really helped me be so agile and light on my feet. I have managed to deceive even the most perceptive. It is almost as if everything in my life has led me to this very moment. Preparing me, molding me, shaping me, into this…. I don’t know. Criminal?     Almost doesn’t even seem real at times…     None of that matters now, call me what you will, label me whatever you want. I know in my heart that what I am doing is the ONLY way and the ONLY answer. I have always and will always do what is necessary if I must, no matter what that entails. It's almost been 6 years since that awful day, and my little brother isn't so little anymore. He's 15 now, but I won't stop until I've found him and I've brought him safely out of that wretched human trafficking world.  "Hold on Sebastian. Your big sister is going to find you." I reassure myself and hope my words find him and can bring any sort of comfort his way.       I take a deep breath as I quickly and quietly make my way through these tunnels. I'm actually becoming one with the dark, moving as though the air around me is part of me.  "I dunno Tommy... Are ya' sure Boss is gunna' be meetin' us out down here?" a squeaky voice filters through a nearby vent, showing me that I'm exactly where I need to be.     Closing my eyes, honing in on my focus, and centering my thoughts, I take slow controlled breaths. A familiar warm sensation begins to flow through my body. It begins inside my chest and makes its way up through my arms down into my fingertips. It flows down into my core and down into my legs, all the way to the tips of my toes. Once I feel the warmth rush up into my head, I exhale and my eyes open.  "Let's rock n' roll boys." a sly smirk creeps across my face. I am ready.     What happens next is something I am only just now getting familiar with. Something comes over me and it's as though my body is one with the environment around me. It's as though I don't even have to think or question how to move or how to stay undetected. I've always been very graceful and acrobatic from all those years as a gymnast, but this is something completely different. And this warm buzzing that radiates inside of me is like nothing I've ever felt before, not until recently anyway.     With an indescribable ease, I slip through the vent and into a dark corner at the back of a storage room of some sort. There are two voices coming from the center of the room, but there are crates blocking my view of them. "Just sit tight Ray. Our instructions were very clear, I assure you. The telegram with the Boss's seal said specifically here and specifically what package to bring. You want to see it for yourself?" Tommy tries to calm his dim witted partner, Ray. He pulls out a folded up piece of paper with a broken wax seal on it and pushes it towards Ray. Ray gives it a look over and then just shrugs. "M'Kay, Tommy. Well, I reckon' it havin' ol' Boss's seal, it's gotta be legit." "It is, it is Ray. You have nothing to worry about." Tommy slides the paper back into his back pocket. "M'Kay Tommy. I trust ya. It's just... I dunno'. This here 'Lixir droppin'....'nd these here creepy ol' tunnels? Kinda weird for Boss kinda stuff. Ya know?"     While these two busy themselves with their chatter, I slyly make my way over to the briefcase they had laying beside a large boulder that the two of them were sitting on. These two aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but to snatch this decent sized briefcase up and make it out of here without them noticing? Even I might have to get a little creative here.      Slowing down my breathing, I center myself. Focus on exactly what it is that I want.  I want that briefcase.  I want to go absolutely undetected.  I don't want them to see ANYTHING. "uh... Tommy? Did ya' blow dem lamp thingys out or sumthin'?" "What the hell Ray? Did you forget to put enough oil in those lanterns so they would stay lit long enough for us to be out here?"     There's my cue. I glide over to the boulder and grab the briefcase. Yikes, heavier than I originally thought it'd be. But I guess 100 doses of this Elixir stuff, plus all the padding that keeps them from breaking, can pack on some pounds before you know it. Come on Maddy, just grab it and go. You have no idea how long this "Mind-Trick" stuff is going to last.      My thoughts return to the task at hand. Both ding dongs are walking around with their arms out like a couple of Frankenstein's. They're jabbering about no lights to see anything like a pair of scared little girls. If I wasn't so set on this task, I think I'd be rolling on the floor laughing at these two stooges.     I choose to make haste.  oh, and one more thing....      With a smooth slide of hand.... Got it! Thanks Tommy!     And then I am off. Quietly I slide right back out the vent I came in through and make my nimble way back into the tunnels. I couldn't help but chuckle when I got a little ways out though. I could still hear dumb and dumber back there scrambling around, knocking crates over, and arguing over who got stepped on first.     As I made it back to the hidey-hole entrance to the tunnel system, I grab my black sling pack and carefully empty the briefcase of it's Elixir tubes and transfer them into my sling pack. I ditch the briefcase in a nearby burn barrel, along with the telegram with the Boss's seal that I snatched out of Tommy's back pocket. It's amazing what you can forge when you really want something. It also helps when the receiver of that forged document isn't the brightest crayon in the box too. With a swift flick of a handy dandy tavern matchbook and the help of the kerosene I smothered the barrel in beforehand, my evidence starts to make a nice warm fire.      Walking away, I feel the heat from that fire barrel less and less as I get further away. Almost like the fleeting of that warm burn from inside. It has made it's way back into my center. It too, slowly dissipated. As if my chest was a sponge, absorbing all the warm burn back inside itself. Then, closing it up until it is needed once again. I am still not exactly sure what is happening to me, why this is happening to me, or what all the hell I can even do with this... power. But what I do know, is that it is helping me get closer to finding and saving Sebastian. I also know nothing actually happened to the lanterns in those tunnels, but after I focused on what it was that I wanted, I didn't want them to see anything. I made it happen. Or at least I made those guys believe or see, or not see, whatever I wanted. I know I have much more to learn about this... power.     If I must admit.....I think that I might be enjoying this.     I slide up my hood over my head and prepare for my next stop. My arranged meet-up with the Boss, The Hunter. Little does he know that I've arranged to sell him some Elixir, his very own stash of Elixir. At a cheaper price, so it was a bargain he couldn't refuse. Don't worry, I'm not getting ripped off, and I am most certainly not stupid. It's not the coin I am after. It's him I am after, The Hunter. He is the one behind all these human trafficking rings. He is the one behind the kidnaping of Sebastian. First I'm gonna make him talk, and then...     I'm gonna make him pay.