Tethered Twins

Jill Blackwood

Jill looked at the computer terminal in front of her and smiled. “Your system really was remarkably easy to hack. When all this is over you should give me a job,” she joked.

“If you ruin Tobias then I will give you anything you want,” replied Mr King. “but what exactly have you done?”

“It’s simple really. Tobias hijacked your network and is using it to broadcast a sound wave to any cell phone he wants,” said Jill.

“So can you stop it?”

She looked at him and winked. “I already have,” she pulled out her phone and called Grace’s number.

“Hello?” answered Grace.

Yes! Finally a hello! thought Jill and then realised she hadn’t said anything. “I’ve got good news.”

“Jill?” said Grace. “What the hell happened to you? You can’t just leave the base without telling anyone.”

“There was no time. How is everything there?”

“It’s bad. Tobias has taken control of Emmie and he tried to make her kill her father.”

“Oh my God. Is everyone ok?”

“March has checked Emmie’s father and he still has a pulse. One minute he was trying to cut his own throat and the next minute his eyes turned brown and he dropped to the floor. We’ve checked around and all of the orange eyed people in the area seem to be back to normal.”

“Perfect!” said Jill. “Can you guess who did that?”

“Hmm, was it Emmie?” joked Grace.

“Very funny. I’ve stopped the signal now so Tobias can’t take control of anyone. All you need to do is get Emmie out of there. March should know the technology better than I do. Is he still with you?”

“Yes, he’s fine. We’ll get Emmie out now and do what we can with Tobias. Nice work Jill,” she hung up.

“It’s over. We stopped Tobias. Frankly I thought that would have been harder,” she smiled at Mr King. “I’ll take that job offer now.”

Suddenly the computers behind Jill started to kick into life and began buzzing loudly. The lights on them flickered quickly and she could hear the loud hum of a thousand fans kicking into overdrive.

“This isn’t good,” she looked at Mr King and saw that he hadn’t moved. Her eyes were drawn to his face and she saw his eyes flicker to an orange tint. So not good!” she repeated.

--<><>--

Emmie Keyes

The darkness around me filled my head with thoughts of my father. He had done truly horrible things but he didn’t deserve to die in that way. No one did.

As I tried to remember the good times we’d shared, before he became obsessed with avenging my mother, I saw a light appear. “Dad?” I said with hope in my heart.

Before I could go to the light I saw another light appear next to it and then another and another. Lights started to flood in, first one by one and then ten by ten and even more after that. It wasn’t long before my entire field of vision was clouded in a flood of light and the darkness had gone completely.

What is happening? I wondered.

I fought my way forwards and looked through one of the pools of light. I could see out into New York City. It was the morning there and I could see hundreds of people in Times Square. Yet they were not walking. They were simply standing on the spot without so much as flinching. I tried to move the body I was in but it was held in place and refused to move.

I jumped through more lights and saw similar things all over the world. Birmingham, Tokyo, Africa, Europe, America, everywhere I jumped I could see large groups of people not moving. The times when I could see another person’s face there was another constant; orange eyes.

“What have you done Tobias?” I asked.

I tried to find my way back to Rex or Rufus’ light so I could see what was happening but there were too many lights and possibilities. I’d jumped through what seemed like a hundred lights and could not find my way back home. My body was there but my mind was trapped in this maze of lights and other bodies.

I made one more leap and ended up in the body of an elderly Chinese lady on the Great Wall of China. She had a small stall that sold postcards and souvenirs. From her perch you could see for miles down the Great wall and it was the same as everywhere else. Hundreds of orange eyed people stuck to the spot. “I will find you Rex,” I said as I tried to jump back.

Something was stopping me. I tried to pull my body backwards but I couldn’t return to the lights. I tried to move the Chinese lady’s body but it was also stuck in place. My mind was trapped in a body that I could not control. All I could do was watch and wait.