Chapter Four: New Life

A few weeks later, Grace came for me. She came with her "grandchildren,” which felt weird because they were all older than I was.

“Hi,” I said, wondering if I needed to use honorifics. But I was older than they were, according to the future.

“You’re alive!” She was a lady with the quirkiest personality I’d ever seen and one of Grace’s favorites because, apparently, she acted the opposite of me. This was told to me in confidence, of course.

“Yes, unfortunately,” I quipped, and she placed a hand over her mouth in horror, as if I said something worth being lynched for. I wouldn’t know because I hadn’t exactly been active for the past 50 years.

“Lay off, Rebecca. He’s technically our grand uncle.” A man of maybe 23 years old spoke, his prim and proper manners evident in his words. I wanted to get to know them more and see the people that came from Grace. They probably wouldn’t believe it if I told them about the antics Grace always got up to, so I decided not to.

She needed to maintain dignity anyway.

I was discharged from the hospital and placed in the care of the Argentinas. Apparently, my sister married a man with the surname of Argentina.

“Can you tell me more about this world? I’m woefully ignorant,” I say to Rebecca, laying it on thick. Elijah, her prim and proper brother, reminded me of those sorts of people who became valedictorians and class presidents. His humongous glasses did nothing to help his image.

The future was fucked. Things were different, but not the good kind. While we walked, Rebecca almost stumbled into a ditch, which would have been terrible. I pulled her back almost immediately.

“You almost died,” Elijah nagged, and I wondered what could kill a person in a single pothole.

“You may not know this, but there are creatures of death and destruction lurking underneath the city. We’re only walking because you wanted to see the city. But the New Liberty Front isn’t safe. We’re hedged in on all sides. Not to keep us in, but to keep them out.” Grace wasn’t making sense to me, but I nodded, still listening.

“Rebecca will explain everything to you once we’re home. My son is on his way to pick us up,” Grace explained, and I just nodded, my mind elsewhere. There were too many missing pieces of the puzzle, and I needed to find the part that fit, or I’d stumble continuously, not amounting to much and not being anything but a burden.

“Okay,” and we were suddenly in the air. In the space of a second, I left the ground and was floating at least five meters above the ground. It was downright unreal.

“Get ready for the kicker!” Rebecca exclaimed excitedly, and I was too overwhelmed to match her excitement.

A telephone booth materialized out of nowhere, and Grace walked towards it. I couldn’t hold her back, even if I tried.

“Insert Coin.” The voice from the other end of the receiver said:.

Grace did so while I watched. Maybe she wanted to call her son, as she said.

“Citizen No. 546321, verified. Have a good day.” And the telephone booth dematerialized.

“What was that?” I said, my words hanging in the air. I was painfully curious, but no answers were forthcoming.

While we floated in the air, I suddenly felt solid ground, and I looked down to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating. I wasn’t. There were cobbled stones, and people were moving to and fro.

“That’s the veil." It shields this world from undesirables, the beings that spawned after the phenomenon. They are pretty powerful and chaos-filled. So, it’s safe to say that avoiding them by all means is the way to go,” Rebecca explained, and I nodded as we walked in unison. She had bright green eyes like my mother, but her childlike excitement was infectious.

True to her words, the world suddenly split open, and I could see people of all colors moving to various destinations and cars stuck in gridlock. The giant billboard above the sky read, Welcome to the New Liberty Front, and I swallowed. The world was massive. There were towers scraping the skies, winding staircases, and elevators that seemed to appear and disappear at will.

The sights and sounds were overwhelming, but I didn’t shy away from them. I took them in, basking in their glory.

It was a world exploding with discoveries, and I couldn’t assimilate things as fast as I wanted.

“Hold your wits about you; we have professional thieves that would steal the clothes off your body if given the chance,” Elijah explained, but I didn’t care one bit about it.

“Did you see that? A man flew past me just now.” I screamed, and some people turned towards me, shook their heads, and kept walking.

“Ah, sorry. Did I say something wrong?” I looked at Grace, who smiled in a motherly way, and patted my head.

“After the phenomenon, certain people awakened abilities to fight the evil that spawned. Two in five people have abilities like that. It’s evolution’s way of balancing the scales,” Rebecca winked at me, and I was glad that Grace had grandchildren. They were older than me, yet they didn’t treat me like I was a child. But they didn’t know I was younger, so it didn’t matter anyway.

“The phenomenon—what is it exactly?” I asked, but before Rebecca could respond, a giant contraption came whirling towards me, and I shielded myself, bracing for impact.

It never came.

“I never should have named you Saul; you act like a downright devil!” Grace chided a man who looked about 45 years old, and he ducked his head in guilt.

“I take it, that’s your son?” I asked drily, letting out a chuckle. I didn’t blame her for getting angry; the contraption looked downright monstrous. A mishmash of gears and mechanical parts slapped together.

“Welcome home, uncle,” Saul said to me, intensity burning in his eyes.

I swallowed.

Grace truly birthed a mad genius.