Radiation/Issue 5

This is Issue 5 of Radiation.

Issue 5
With a hard push, Nathaniel Jones was in one of the four cells, located in Tonopah’s main hall. The keys sounded loud in the quiet hallway, where only Nate breathing hard could be heard. Gene locked the cell and walked away, not saying anything to Nate. “I’m gonna break out.” Nate yelled as Gene walked away, not looking back. “I’m gonna break out, and you know it!” What Gene was concerned about at this moment, was the whereabout of his family, along with Nate’s children. While Gene couldn’t stand Nate, he did like Graham Jones. He was Sarah’s boyfriend, so Gene respected him. As he walked up the stairs to the lobby of the main hall, where Janine was currently sitting, treating Kenny’s wound, he thought about how to contact his family. He quickly realized that is wasn’t possible. All communication was down, and it was only a matter of time before the electricity went off. Infected people had surrounded the main hall, leaving the survivors no hope of leaving in near future. Besides Janine and Kenny, Lisa and Lawrence Crick were in the main hall as well. Lisa was the receptionist of the main hall and police station in Tonopah, while her father worked with sales. A small company selling bookshelves was located in the main hall. Lawrence Crick had been an employee for that company since it began three years ago. “How does it look?” Gene asked, sitting down in the dark couch, in which Lisa and Lawrence Crick was sitting as well. “We will not get out anytime soon.” Lawrence muttered with closed eyes. Gene nodded, not expecting anything else. “How many is out there?” Kenny asked, sitting in the reception with Janine. His bleeding arm getting treated by Janine Leth. “At least fifty. Probably more.” Lawrence muttered. “No way we can fight them off.” Gene got up from the couch, and headed towards the barricaded door. He looked through the door spy, seeing infected people trying to breach the door. There were, as Lawrence said, at least fifty. They would have a hard time if they should fight them off.

As Janine got up to get some painkillers for Kenny, she felt something. Just like an intuition. Like she knew something. She itched her eyebrow, and grabbed the pills, ignoring the feeling. “Thank you, Janine.” Kenny said with a smile. “Really.” Janine didn’t respond, due to the feeling. She had never felt like that before. She wasn’t in love with Kenny, it wasn’t that. She already had been once, and that didn’t went well. “Janine?” Kenny asked, looking worried at the dark haired woman. She managed a smile, as she gave Kenny two painkillers. And she felt it now. She really felt it. As her fingertip touched Kenny’s palm, the feeling was clear. She didn’t fully understand what it was, but she knew something. Something about Kenny that he didn’t know himself. “Janine?” Kenny said again. The feeling didn’t stop, even though she didn’t touch Kenny anymore. Now she knew something about herself, and this was clear. Way more clear that what she felt about Kenny. She knew about the Wanium, though she didn’t know that it was called Wanium. She knew what it did to people, and she knew that she could see what ability people had. It was just an intuition she had. She knew it. “Are you okay?” Kenny asked, now looking very nervous. “Yea...” Janine said with a pale smile. “I’m fine.”

At the hospital knew Math about the abilities as well. He was currently standing in a small room with two beds and a sink, talking to Dominique Coolidge. The black man was standing with a friendly grin, arms crossed, as Math asked him questions. “Have you felt any difference since yesterday?” Math asked, keeping his eyes focused at the paper he was holding. “I have.” Coolidge said. He was known for being a man of few words, and sometimes it could feel like it was too few words. Math disliked Coolidge, but since this was his job, he got himself talking to the black man. “Like what?” Math asked, now looking at Coolidge. Instead of telling Math the difference he had felt, Coolidge smiles and turned to a glass of water, placed on the sink. Math looked at the glass, as Coolidge focused. After a minute, Math began to feel stupid and took a deep breath. “Mr. Coolidge...” He said, but just as this happened, the glass broke and the water spilled down on the floor. Math was standing there, looking at the broken glass. “You can... emit sonic waves, huh?” Math asked surprised. “Seems like it, doesn’t it.” Coolidge said, patting Math on the shoulder. He then left the room, leaving Math looking at the glass.