All Light Will Fall Read Free Page A

became a medicinal drug. It could
eradicate diseases and reduce aging. The ARTIKA science division used it for
cellular reconstruction and genetic modification. Nowadays, no one experienced
a natural birth. Under ARTIKA, couples went through a selective breeding
process to decide the outcome of their offspring. Eye color, height, speech,
skin color… every detail was sorted, matched, and analyzed before birth.
    After the launch of selective breeding, technology
revolutionized. ARTIKA built machines, robotic sentinels and other advanced
weaponry. With halos, they created hovercrafts and laser shooters, id guns and
nano-explosives. It seemed like we were fighting a war again, but all was quiet
on the home front. The only hostilities within Helix City were the terrorist
attacks organized by the Defiant.
    I watched Fern from behind. The room felt cold all of a
sudden, like the shadow of the mysterious they had entered. “I wonder if
there are people on it,” I whispered.
    “On what?” Fern asked,” Plymouth 2?” I nodded. “There’s no
life on it. It’s just a giant mass of light, kind of like the sun.”
    I stepped closer to the halo-screen. “And you believe them?
Everything they have ever told us, you believe it?”
    I could hardly see her face. All was dark but the bright
flashes of the halo-screen around her. “Of course I do,” she said plainly. “Why
wouldn’t I?” Her answer was so final, so sure. Had she not any thoughts herself?
Had she not any curiosities herself?
    “Turn it off,” I uttered.
    She glanced back at me. “What for?”
    I moved around the couch and reached for the remote. Fern
was quick and snatched it before I could get to it. I grabbed ahold of her.
“Give it to me!” I snapped.
    “Corrine, let go! I had it first!” We wrestled to the floor.
I didn’t know where the sudden violence had come from, but I was determined. I
wanted to break the damn thing, throw it at the halo-screen, and shatter them
both to pieces.
    “What in God’s name is going on here?”
    I rolled off of Fern. Mother yanked me by the shoulder.
“Have you lost your mind?” she snapped.
    I stumbled back into the couch and dropped the remote. “I
didn’t mean to,” I panted. Fern stared up at me from where she was huddled on
the floor. She looked startled. “I’m sorry.” My head was aching again. The room
seemed a bit blurry too. I needed to lay down.
    “Corrine?” Mother whispered. I ignored her, stumbling out of
the living room and back to bed.

CHAPTER TWO
VALOR
     
     
    The following day, I barely left my room. Mother was worried
that I was sick. She brought me a glass of water and scanned my id marker.
According to the reading, I was in perfect health. Still, things were strange.
My body felt twisted, like it was changing, like it was waking up from a one
hundred yearlong sleep. I thought about the bombing often. I could hear it, the
people screaming and the sirens. I could feel the heat of the fire too, and the
smoke all around me.
    It took a visit from Ellis for me to regain some sense. He
came to the house a week after the incident on Marx Avenue. I stood at the
front door, watching the snow fall. A figured appeared in the dark rouse of
smog. At times, I imagined it being my father. I dreamed of him rising through
those gray clouds on his way back to us. Ten years had passed since his
disappearance. He had left without a word. Sometimes I would think of him, but
he was nothing to me now. Nothing but a phantom of the mist.
    I opened the door for Ellis before he could knock. He burst
into the apartment with a smile bright as day. That was so like Ellis.
Regardless of his scarred forehead and being covered in snow, he still found
something worthy of a smile.
    I helped dust the snow from his jacket, then led him into
the living room. “Where’s your mom?” he asked.
    I smiled. “She went out. Why? Are you avoiding her?”
    “Of course I am. She’ll