I woke up to the sound of a TV, "Everything within the span of 400 miles had-" I tried to open my eyes but quickly closed them again as the rays of light from the window to my left pierced my retinas. "Scientists are baffled as to the cause of this-" I rubbed my eyes before getting up from the bench seat and stretched my tense body. I did not sleep well.

Looking to my side, Arielle sat up, leaning back on her hospital bed, and was looking at me. "Morning," I said. "Morning," she replied with a forced smile.

It pained me to see her like that, "How are you feeling now?" I asked hesitantly.

"Better." I nodded.

I can't comfort her. I should just shut up.

Noticing my discomfort, she tried to change the subject, "Listen to this, they're saying that the world ecosystem was sent into a frenzy yesterday. Apparently, large mammals around the world are going crazy, and the flora in our ward and those around us is dying on a large scale. Scientists have no idea what is happening. I think it could be a biological weapon being tested."

She seemed to be interested in what they were saying, which made sense as she was very passionate about the sciences, I didn't really care, so I just nodded. I was thinking about work. We didn't show up yesterday because we came with Arielle to the hospital, where she was treated for her injuries.

I stayed the night with her and sent Bryan to order some supplies for me and prepare our apartment to bring Arielle back today. He didn't come back, so I figured he stayed the night over there. He would probably show up soon.

My thoughts were disrupted by another interesting piece of news, "Yesterday at 1 am local time, the French minister of foreign affairs was killed in his home in what is suspected to be a targeted bombing. Authorities suspect the French terrorists Volonté des Gens to be responsible. This occurred following the public outrage that ensued when links between the Minister and transnational terrorists that have been known to target French civilians were revealed by an anonymous whistle-blower."

I sighed. The world was going to shit. Just two weeks ago, the massacre of ward 106 had taken place. Thousands of protestors met and clashed with law enforcement, where they were all gunned down.

This event further sparked more violence across the country as public outrage was higher than ever before. Hundreds of thousands of protestors from across every ward stormed The Capitol as every ward was put into complete lockdown and martial law was declared.

The news of what unfolded was suppressed. Little was known publicly, but what was clear was that another massacre had taken place, as those who took part went missing, and those related to them were silenced.

The few last remaining legitimate underground news sources estimate the total death toll of these events to be around 400,000, but no figures or any information about the events was released besides the announcement of the declaration of martial law. There had been no other statements from the Pentagon.

While the majority of the wards had opened back up, the wards around and including The Capitol were still in lockdown. Nothing was going in, and especially not getting out, not one person, not one signal—total radio silence.

It was at this time when Bryan had come into the room. Quickly he approached Arielle and hugged her. "Hey." She responded weakly with a self-deprecating chuckle, "Hey."

They embraced each other in silence for a little while before Bryan opened his mouth, "You have no idea how worried I was. I don't know what I would do if I-"

"It's ok, I'm ok," Arielle comforted him while patting his back dearly. The thought that the roles were reversed caused me to chuckle. Who was supposed to be comforting who here?

I had some things I wanted to do today, and we had a couple of hours until Arielle would be released, so I left them to themselves. Bryan would do a much better job of comforting her than I could.

Exiting the hospital, I found myself in the central district of our ward, a highly developed urbanised area. It was a cold winter morning, but the sun shone brightly through the clouds, illuminating everything.

Despite being so early in the morning, it was bustling as the populace kept moving forward with their lives. There were people commuting to work, students on their ways to school, and so on. Looking at this scene of everyone going on with their lives, you would not think that our country was in the midst of an insurrection.

But something was off. Some of the people that I passed by would give me weird glances. It was like yesterday. They seemed… uncomfortable? I couldn't understand it. Could it be that my awakening had caused this?

From what I had observed, from an outsider's perspective, there had not been any changes to me, I looked, smelled, and otherwise was the same I was before the fact, so I stopped thinking too deeply into it.

Yesterday after admitting Arielle, I sent Bryan to order some supplies I thought we would need over the next few days. The supplier was someone we knew well, as we regularly did business with him, and we got along pretty well on a personal level.

He was an old African American man in his 50's who had ties to the insurgents and engaged in the illegal arms trade. Whatever you needed and could not acquire legally, you could acquire illegally via TJ.

I made my way to TJ's place; hidden in a back alley in the central business district, there were large metal doors leading into an old warehouse-like building fully covered in graffiti, if you weren't in the loop, you would think it was abandoned, but this was his hideout and where he conducted business.

Knocking on the metal doors, they soon opened, and two large, sturdy men came out from within. The one on the left was about to speak when the one on the right, Michael, held his arm out told him, "It's ok, he's with the boss."

I knew him well, and we were on a first-name basis. I nodded and made my way inside with them in the lead.

"I have to say, I'm surprised Callum, what happened?" TJ asked with a chuckle when he saw me arrive; he then got up and began to pour two drinks

"Some trouble came up, and I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. Do you have what I asked for?"

TJ smiled while listening and handed me a cup. After I took a sip of it, I immediately spit it out onto the concrete floor, "What is this shit? It's disgusting," I said while wiping my lips.

He burst into laughter and took the cup from me, and downed it in one go. After a couple of seconds of what seemed like his savouring of the taste, he licked his lips with a smile, "Never gets old," and then continued while walking away, "yep, everything's ready, Michael will bring it to you."

Facing him, I nodded, "How much do I owe you?"

He swatted at me with his hand and said: "Don't worry about it." I nodded again.

"Just be careful out there, Callum. It's looking like a full-scale war is inevitable. I've received word that the insurgents are preparing themselves for something big. Ward 108 will undoubtedly become a battlefield."

I raised my eyebrows. Although it was obvious what was coming, everyone seemed to want to believe otherwise. "What should I do?" I asked.

"Take your friends and leave to the 10 wards, or if you can, leave the country entirely. The independent wards on the southwest coast will likely be the only ones that can escape the war that will engulf the rest of the country," he replied with a self-deprecating smile.

I nodded, "How long do we have?"

TJ crossed his arms and huffed loudly, "I don't know, you should leave within a month's time."

-

After exiting the hideout with the items I ordered stuffed into my jacket, I took a moment to process what TJ told me.

If what he said was true, which I had no reason to believe otherwise, then I had to change my priorities. It was not a good idea to stay in 108, which was about to become a battlefield. I would relay what he told me later to Bryan and Arielle and decide what to do while talking it out later.

For now, I had a couple of hours before Arielle would be released, so I wanted to go and do some more experiments on my newfound powers.