Rise Read online

Her smile was tight this time. Not giving in the slightest. “Classified.” Was all she said. I didn’t push any further as she finished her examination of sorts.

  When she was done Dr. Caroline reached behind me to unhook the chords. “Your body is in super healing mode right now, so you might find yourself short of breath, perhaps a little tired. I’ve boosted your cellular regeneration levels, but your body needs the rest of your energy to continue healing fatal wounds. When you get home, the system will help you master the skills you’ve gained.”

  “Wait.” The gears in my brain began to turn, finally having caught onto the whole thinking aspect of the problem. “What skills? I’m an IT major. I work with technology. What am I, a super hacker now?”

  She laughed, but I could tell a bit of it was forced. Maybe I hit too close for comfort or something. “You were killed by electricity, so your initial ability comes from that element.”

  A billion questions flooded my mind, so many that I felt overwhelmed, and it was enough time for her to move on, even if I didn’t want her to.

  “I’m your mentor. You can come to me with any questions. Just make sure the system can’t answer them for you first. I’ll activate the terms of service for you now. Read through them carefully. It’s not legalese. I’ll wait while you familiarize yourself with them.”

  I might have been mistaken, but her tone sounded like she understood the confusion, like she sympathized with all the information coming at me at once. But that she was also busier than I could fathom.

  Considering she too would be on borrowed time, I guess that made sense. I wanted to know how long she’d been here and was about to ask when my vision was flooded with script.

  Second Chance Organization

  Terms of Service

  1.You (hereto after referred to as the “SC Agent”) must perform the tasks as set out for you.

  2.There is no right of appeal by the SC Agent. All SC Headquarters Decisions made are final.

  3.The SC Agent must satisfy their own alibi should the need arise. The SC organization will not be responsible should such a measure be required.

  4.Only discuss SC with fellow cleared SC Agents.

  5.Do not get caught in the process of completing any SC Tasks.

  6.Do maintain your life as it was prior to entry into the SC program as best you can.

  7.Compensation is based on the type of task, and quality of performance. This will be delivered in the form of experience gained (allows you to progress in the organization’s ranks and your personal skills), and in monetary compensation.

  Violation of any of the above can result in warnings, punishment, and even termination of the Second Chance Program.

  She was right. It was straightforward as hell. Blunt even. No tact there. What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

  The thin plastic water bottle Dr. Caroline gave me before I left the hospital weighed heavily in my hand. I couldn’t even bring myself to drink from it. Didn’t water conduct electricity? What if I took a swig, and electrocuted myself all over again?

  Everywhere I turned, symbols and writing popped up in my peripheral vision, taunting me with information and numeric references I didn’t know how to interpret yet. Despite the good, weird technology wielding doctor’s lack of reassurances, I felt a tingle of excitement. Electricity. It had said electricity, hadn’t it?

  Ability: Electricity

  “Thanks,” I murmured out loud, realizing belatedly that it probably wasn’t the best idea. The voice in my head, or the words in front of my eyes, didn’t respond further. So, I guess my power was electricity.

  What even the fuck did that mean?

  Late afternoon cast long shadows between buildings, keeping the concrete cold. It was a longer walk to my share house than I would have liked. Even though I didn’t feel quite steady on my feet, I needed the fresh air. Although the irony of the levels of pollution in the city wasn’t lost on me. Fresh wasn’t exactly the right word to describe the air around here. Maybe I just needed to clear my head amidst the comforting smells of smog and sounds of traffic.

  Yeah, I’d go with that.

  My cell phone felt heavy in my pocket as it rang, yet again. Probably Mom checking in on me. She always worried. I was the youngest, the last to leave the nest. Now I lived in a big city, more than two hours away from her and if she didn’t get frequent updates from me, she panicked.

  What would she have done if I hadn’t entered this Second Chance thing? What if I were just dead?

  I shivered again, irritated at myself for not bringing a thicker coat. But then I hadn’t expected to be out this late. Instead of my usual layered hoodie, all I had with me was my track gear. I pulled my flimsy University of Pennsylvania jacket around my shoulders while I clutched the bag the doctor gave me. Discharge paperwork made the life-after-death portion of my day seem like a dream. It said that I didn’t need to check in with my GP. I wasn’t sure I could ever see my GP again.

  Callibrating…

  The eerie word streamed across my sight, the echo of the voice in my head; it made all of this so dream-like. All I’d done was sneak in an extra track practice.

  Here, between the tall brick buildings, sunlight didn’t quite reach the street level. The stench of exhaust fumes, cigarettes, and fast food littered the air so much I could practically taste it even breathing through my nose. I’d call Mom when I got home. Or maybe my brother, Davin.

  Even the TOS made little sense to me. Why on earth give me this life, but threaten to take it away if I disagreed? That was some fucked up shit there. It left me wondering if I really did die.

  Death occurred at 12:40:22pm eastern standard time.

  Revitalization followed at 12:42:42

  The little green man on the pedestrian sign hopped to life but I barely noticed at first. 12:40:22. I legitimately died. Was dead, in fact, for two minutes and twenty seconds. I shook myself, barely setting a foot onto Spruce before the little man told me to stop. I lagged behind the throng of people who presumably didn’t have a doomsday computer in their heads.

  It was easier to walk home. I didn’t have to pay attention, just let my feet walk me there, doing my best to ignore the flashes of script constantly inundating me with information.

  I was so focused on paying attention to my steps that I didn’t see the man until it was too late. He barreled into me, swearing at me as I fell to the ground, and felt the skin on my knee scrape even through the fabric of my jeans.

  Today was turning out to be superb.

  And they say sarcasm doesn’t pay. It sure as hell brightened my day.

  Pushing myself back up, I barely made it to the opposite side of the road in time. The hot air of the vehicles revving past me sent goose bumps up my legs. I just wanted to get home and collapse, to get home and try to make sense of this. Perhaps if I fell asleep, I’d realize this was all a bad dream, but the throbbing graze on my knee made me sincerely doubt that was the case.

  Electricity. How was I going to use electricity as a power? That didn’t even make sense, did it? I frowned, wondering how this whole system worked. Implying it was a program meant there had to be a hub somewhere. But who ran it, and what was its actual purpose? Thousands of questions flooded my brain.

  Electrical Skill Affinity

  Please wait until you are somewhere quiet, and out of visual range of anyone not in the SC program before activating the tutorial. Failure to comply will result in punishment.

  Well, then. I guess that told me. So, it could hear my thoughts too?

  Anything projected without a specific target is subject to interpretation by the SC system. Please note that thoughts are permitted, but any actions that could damage the success of the operation will result in dire consequences.

  Oh great, I could think my own thoughts then.

  Please note that thoughts are permitted, b
ut any...

  I only just managed to stop the growl building in my throat. This was going to get irritating very fast if I couldn’t figure out a way for it to stop reacting to my thoughts. Given the amount of script it was throwing at me, and the strange soft electric voice it projected into my thoughts, avoiding what it told me was difficult.

  There had to be reasonable explanations for this. No one was ever “discovered” on the news as having electrocuted an entire building or whatnot. This whole electrical power thing was likely way overinflated. Though Dr. Caroline hadn’t seemed like the type of person who would exaggerate that much. Maybe I could bring our electricity bill down to zero. I laughed at my own joke, but the system didn’t seem inclined to respond.

  I glanced down at my knee to see if I was bleeding, but noticed it wasn’t hurting much anymore. Stopping, I flexed it, but it didn’t even hurt like stretching skin normally did. I’d have to check when I got home.

  Finally, I made it to the section of row houses that were mostly cheaper rentals. You could tell that by the way their facades weren’t quite as nice as the ones a few blocks closer to campus. Where the window panes were chipped with no sign of care in recent years, and the metal banisters going up the outside stairs flaked off, revealing rusty spots all over them.

  The huge double doors that led into the hastily-converted apartments I called home boasted a deadlock, but the doors jangled so loosely I was pretty sure the locks weren’t effective. Each floor resulted in a three-bedroom apartment. The clothes washers and dryers were in the basement, along with a storage unit for each floor. While I wished I lived on the entry level so I could strategically avoid carrying groceries up stairs, I was sort of glad we were on the second floor. It wasn’t as high as it went, but at least it would make it more difficult for people to steal our shit if they bothered to break in.

  I trudged up, my energy slowly ebbing. Though I was kidding myself. I’d felt zapped ever since I died. Funny that.

  The door to our apartment jangled almost as much as the main entry door, and I realized I’d forgotten to check the mail, which wasn’t all that typical of me. I’d get the mail later.

  Each apartment had three bedrooms. One was a master suite, and the other two smaller rooms shared the general bathroom. I had the smallest room, and therefore the smallest payment per month. Considering I also had the lowest paying work, I thought that was a good thing. Mom and Dad couldn’t afford to pay my board; they were barely afloat as it was. With three other siblings, I’d learned to use the hand-me-downs and make do with what I had a long time ago.

  The living area, as usual, was full of geeky tech crap. Motherboards littered the workspaces, our TV even lay in pieces, and I swore it was functional yesterday. It was probably Orion tinkering as usual. Speaking of Orion, how the hell was I supposed to explain all this to my best friend?

  Pushing the thought aside, I passed the kitchen, surprised to see Jacob in there.

  “Hey, Dare. Mail for you,” was all he said before turning back to whatever website he was browsing on his tablet, while he sipped at his late afternoon coffee. He worked the nightshift at an IT support place. Coffee around four p.m. was just asking not to sleep otherwise.

  “Thanks.” I picked up the three envelopes, frowning at them. Jacob had the master suite, and he was actually working on his postgraduate in engineering before diving into his masters. Hence, he could afford the higher rent.

  I headed to my room, plunked down the bag the hospital gave me, eyed my stack of ramen that I kept in my room, and threw myself down on the bed. Shitballs.

  What had I gotten myself into?

  As if in response, the SC program booted up in my vision, again.

  Second Chance Program

  Initiative of the Second Chance Organization

  Tutorial Program - Electrical Skill Affinity

  It is recommended that you take this tutorial as soon as possible. Being recruited into the Second Chance Program is an excellent opportunity. The future of humanity is up to you.

  Oh great. No pressure there then. The future was up to little old me. We were all fucked if that were really true.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and figured now was as good a time as any. Plus, it had the added bonus of delaying the opening of my mail.

  I closed my eyes to get a better look at the script on the dark backdrop of the inside of my eyelids, and mentally chose to move the tutorial forward.

  The same feeling of vertigo I’d had upon sitting up in the hospital spread through me, like I was floating while watching a screen. Perhaps an IMAX experience, or even virtual reality or something. But certainly not what I’d been expecting.

  And far more lecture-esque than I’d wanted. I slogged through enough of those a week, couldn’t this be a bit different?

  Second Chance Program

  Electrical Skill Affinity

  Product: Mental Direction

  Initial Designation: Runner

  Correlation: Electrical/Space/Time

  Maybe if I just kept quiet in my head, it’d think I understood everything it was going on about. I really hoped so, because I was confused as could be.

  Suddenly, my head slammed into my pillow, and I couldn’t move my legs or arms. The pressure against my chest made me gasp for air, and for a moment, I thought I was actually going to suffocate. Which would be so typical for me. Ha ha, you’re alive! Nope, now you’re dead. Again.

  Except I didn’t. I couldn’t open my eyes, but it felt like I was moving on a rollercoaster I couldn’t see. If I thought about it, that made it even scarier.

  It took me a few seconds to figure out that the scene being shown to me was from earlier that day. From my electrocution to be precise. I could see myself standing on the corner, dressed just as I was now in my running gear with my jacket slung over my shoulder. I was watching the sports car as it careened out of control, could see the people running from the scene.

  The bright green of the vehicle mesmerized me like a pinwheel, hypnotizing as it jumped the curb so much faster than I backpedaled. My mind screamed at me to move faster, but all I did was step back too slowly. The car side swiped one of the three electricity poles that hadn’t yet been buried.

  I experienced it again. Blinking slowly as I looked up and watched the poles fall, their cables ripping from their mounts. Flailing electric cables hissed with power as they plummeted down on top of me. The searing pain running through my body as it electrocuted the life out of me.

  The image paused, right as the electricity hit me allowing the pain to linger. I could see myself lit up, forks of power cascading through my body, through my brain, leaving a Lichtenberg scar down my left side. It glowed blue before turning bright red. I’d not even noticed it before the doctor mentioned it. Smoke emanated from the soles of my shoes and drifted into the wind. Damn it, I’d need to get another pair. I hadn’t even noticed that gummy feeling wasn’t just my legs.

  All I could think was how did they film this? How was it that they had this perfect vision of me in that situation? Furthermore, if they could see it was about to happen, why the hell didn’t they stop it?

  The image spun in front of me, singling out different aspects of my body, attaching markers to my fingers, to my brain, with long explanations I needed to process and work through. Initial extraction points, compounded ability potential, designation determination. The words swirled in my mind, threatening to overwhelm.

  The whole time my body was filled with that first instant of electric shock.

  Then the movie of my demise continued. Electricity spread through my body, activating what appeared to be a switch at the base of my brain stem. An infinite amount of possibilities ran through my mind as I watched just how I’d died, as I accepted the fact that I had to have died, because there was no other explanation for it.

  The system does not make errors. Y
our cells and body were revitalized at 12:42:42. You have entered Second Chance.

  A knock at the door startled me enough that whatever gravitational force had confined me to the bed let up, and I opened my eyes, able to blink the current vision away. Damn it. All I wanted to do was learn what it was I could do so I didn’t accidentally, I don’t know, fry my roommates. Unless this was a nightmare, in which case I’d like to wake up now.

  Jacob stood outside my door, his head stuck in a book as usual, a purse to his lips. “Hey, are you okay?”

  I looked up at him. He rarely came to check on me. So I lied through my teeth. “Sure I am. Why do you ask?”

  He shrugged and raised his gaze to meet mine. “Just saw a video of an accident that happened around midday. The picture makes it look like you, or at least what you’re wearing. I was worried.”

  He smiled, but I could still see the concern in his eyes. He’d promised my older brother he’d look out for me. Davin was out at the University of Pittsburgh, insisting he needed more space from our parents. He spoke with Jacob all the time, and they always got together in the summer.

  Analysis complete. Target is not a member of the Second Chance program. Please limit contact or risk punishment.

  Define fucking punishment, I thought at it, irritated.

  Fucking punishment is not an option. Please rephrase inquiry.

  I had to stop myself from speaking out loud. Say what now? Define punishment.

  Incomplete parameters.

  I managed to swallow my sigh, not wanting to worry Jacob more than he already was. Define punishment within the bounds of the Second Chance program.

  The Second Chance program reserves the right to terminate your contract should you be found in breach of its TOC. This includes, but is not limited to, revealing the nature of the program, your missions, or the fact that you should be dead. Please read the TOC in full for more information.

  I wasn’t going to anyway. I grumbled at it before trying to soften my irritated expression.