We Are Broken

Part 1…Discovery
Life is a mystery. That is one thing we know for certain. Scientists are always coming up with endless questions, forming hypothesis and theories to try and find an answer, except there never is one true answer, just the best placed one which wins. I used to believe in science, I was going to become a doctor one day, but I have seen to many strange things to be certain of anything anymore. Life to me has and will always be a mystery.

Santiago Liberto 2024








Chapter 1
Cora
October 2006
Cora inhaled slowly as she cautioned herself to open her eyes. She was on a highway, a sign to her right told her she was somewhere in between San Antonio and Austin. The scene she was now witnessing was one of devastation; fires sprawled across the tarmac, leaving their mark on the painted white lines. Whilst smoke flowed across the highway, rolling off the leftovers from an over turned truck. As she took it her surroundings it became clear she was enclosed in an impenetrable bubble of fog, which forbid her to see no further than five metres in front of her. Around her she heard feeble sobs and strained cries, screams from a male she could not identify sent a chill running across her skin. The solid beat of her own heart attempted to probe her reassurance as she proceeded calmly through the chaos, driving the smoke gently to the side as she walked, she respired quietly and as per usual the bitter air she expected did not come, but her lungs instead welcomed fresh gusts of clean oxygen. She turned her head swiftly trying to get a sense of what had happened and the whereabouts of the injured people as she rolled her fingers around her clammy palms. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of a darker patch among the smoke, a shriek emitted from this area and in one fluid movement Cora scrambled towards it. As she approached she saw a boy bordering on manhood stooped low towards the ground, he was clutching his hands to his chest as though attempting to conceal them from view. Cora flinched as his face was reflected black from the fumes clinging to his skin and he was wheezing repetitively from the smog which seemed to be impacting his control over whatever he had stowed in his hands. The smoke seemed to split here and she counted eight bodies slumped on the tarmac, most of who seemed to be unconscious.
Where was she?
Cora spotted another guy at the other side of the highway he tried to get up, heaving on the leg which wasn’t sticking out at an odd angle, but pain tormented him too greatly and he buckled, falling prostrated on the ground. She glanced across from him to see the only other conscious person, a young girl, who must have been about eight and was equally injured, tears silently streaming down her bruised face. Another body was not much further along from her, spread like an eagle on the concrete.
“Please Sean,” Cora heard a weak voice cry, “just stop!”
“No!” a shrill scream.
Cora’s vision flew back to the first guy just in time to see him double over, in a second darkness seemed to grow from his hands and swallow up his whole body, “I have to make it better!” He cried.
Cora struggled with her conscience, her heart desired to fall forward but her head pulled her back.
“Sean!” the guy with the broken leg spoke in almost in a whisper. “You have to control it.”
“I am in control,” he whispered, his speech beginning to break. He fell silent for a moment and then inch by inch like a dysfunctional robot his arms were forced wider. Cora ran back, preparing herself, she couldn’t help him, not yet.
BANG.
The last thing Cora saw was the tarmac ripped from the ground whirling towards her, as the whole sky was overwhelmed in darkness, cutting off the sun. Cora closed her eyes to go home.

She sprang up, panting as she felt the sweat slid easily down her face dropping into pools on her lap. She stared around at the spinning room, clutching at the sides of her bed as if she lay upon a cliff top and she rocked herself forcefully back and forth until her breathing rate started to decrease and her mind had stopped screaming as well as ceasing to flash images of dead bodies through her head. She gulped, playing her usual game of attempting to release the abhorrence of what she had just witnessed. She threw the bed covers off her and placed her head firmly in her hands to massage her throbbing temples, she was angry with herself, she should have got used to this by now.
The dreams had always been horrible. Twisted frightful nightmares, she would wake in the middle of the night screaming for someone who wasn’t there, night after night, her previous carers had stated that she had got no sleep at all but when she had tried to rest fell into a world of demons. That was when she had realised that they weren’t dreams at all.
Cora got up and wandered over to the mirror and saw to her dismay her hair was drenched in sweat and lay firmly plastered to her forehead. She smoothed it back and forced herself to smile, although it turned out more like a grimace. Even though she had woken up her stomach still felt as though it was twisted in a knot, she knew this was going to be hard. Unlike the other circumstances this instance concerned people and not just any people, the Liberto’s; it had finally happened or was going to happen. There was only one way she could sort this out even if she didn’t like to imagine the consequences.