Young Writers Society

Papa reached into the black pouch he kept tied around his waist, before pulling out a colourful piece of paper that was folded into a tiny square. He unfolded it, and Ren watched the red and yellow blobs expand into a poster. Culinary Arts.

With a cheery voice, Papa explained. “I saw it at the bus stop the other day. Just thought you’d be interested.”

“You pulled me aside for this?” Ren’s eyes were wide. He clamped his jaw shut, noticing it had fallen open. “The way you were acting, I thought somebody died!”

“Do you ever think I’m too hard on people, Sher?”
The girl blinked at her in confusion. “You’re about as hard as you need to be.”
Then, her eyes shone, swimming with something – admiration? Distance? A daydream? “I mean, seriously, you’re nineteen and all these guys you keep seeing are twenty-something. You gotta have something to keep them all in check.”
Aruna shrugged. Maybe she was right. Shereen was often right about these things. The little cartoon girl on the cherry soda can was stuck in a wave.
Turning back to her desk, back to her work, Aruna began to sort out her papers. She had a lot to think about, especially before the next council meeting. Her black binder, with all its notes, was a sprawling mess and she needed to set it right. On the wall beside her desk, there was a small yellow post-it, with the words ‘Call Dad’.
Aruna pinched it between her fingers, looked at it for a second, and then slipped the note into the pocket of her coat.

The decommissioned ferry they all lived in loomed large against the grey sky. Waves lapped gently. The sounds soft and familiar in his skull. Ren walked, head slightly bowed, putting his hands in his pockets as he silently appraised his siblings, who were filing in over the ramp.
Dinners were usually with everyone. Papa insisted.
Fluorescent light, though dim, burnt his eyes at the first glimpse. It came from the single lamp right in the front of the ferry. Ren looked up briefly at the other empty spaces in the ceiling, whee lights had once been. All removed. They didn’t need them. And some of the siblings with Type-C mutations had irritated eyes if there was too much light in the room.
His siblings’ shadows bustled on the dark green sides of the ferry, like the impression of a thick forest.

“Why would we freak out?” Thomas asked, a smirk starting on the corner of his lips. Before he could go on further, Ren interrupted.
“Because I melt a lot.” Ren rolled his sleeve up to the elbow. He squeezed the muscles of his forearm, raising it into the air. With a deep exhale, he melted the flesh all down from his first to the crook of his arm, sending it in a sort of expanding motion that flashed the white of his bone. Then, just as quickly, he drew everything back in and pulled down his sleeve.
Thomas’ face looked a little green.

When an Agitator leapt up, seemingly flying in from her side, she was prepared. Aruna’s exoskeleton shot out from the elbows, forming two sharp blades. She spun around, knocking the lizard-like creature off balance. Defensive maneuver accomplished, she immediately aimed an uppercut – right to a spot just above the Agitator’s triangular chin. The elbow blade cut its stomach. Its tendrils sparkled to life, and Aruna pivoted, and leapt backwards to avoid them. She reached out a hand to balance herself on a rusting satellite disc.
The effort was piecemeal. Again and again, the Agitator got up. This was why they had a kill-on-sight policy for these things. The second strike, Aruna sliced off one of its tendrils. A risky move, but worth it. In the confusion, she leapt over it, and one of its own tendrils slapped against its own body. It convulsed, emitting a high-pitched shriek. Then it fell off the roof with a thump.
Like an iguana.

“And besides,” Ren chuckled. “Who are you to talk? Your whole life is a stunt.”
“Ten out of ten? Or are you one of those judges who gives an eleven?”
“Glad to see you’re still full of yourself.”
“My pleasure.”
Aruna sighed, looking up. Weird. There was nothing up there but darkness and the occasional satellite. Ren glanced upwards too, just to check.
“The moon should be full tonight,” she remarked. “Wonder why we can’t see it.”
“Oh. The jetty usually covers it up. Yeah.”
Aruna hummed non-commitally. She side-eyed him for a moment. Neither of them talked further about the battle. “Guess I’ll see you at the college tomorrow. I’ve got some business with your mother.”
Ren perked up with interest. His mother? A wave of guilt washed over him; he’d forgotten she was there with them tonight. Craning his neck, he could just about see the small, prim, and dark silhouette walking a few steps behind Papa.
As Aruna walked away, she took her hands out of her pockets and evened her steps into a confident stride.

The High Street was dimly lit. Ornate black lamps were often broken, the glass shattered and the bulbs stolen, but the residents had hung bulbs from their own roofs, so there was still enough light for them to toe their way. They had only one destination, despite the handful of offerings in Ayer Pedang at night. They pointedly walked away from the small night market that had popped up on the main square of the High Street, instead veering off into a row of shophouses, nearly all of which were closed. Except for the hardware store.
When they walked in, the old lady with the hair rollers glanced up from her newspaper. Her lined eyes recognized them, and she looked down again. She was reading the Ayer Pedang Bulletin, and not the MZ Daily. Sometimes she seemed to have been reading the Ayer Pedang Bulletin forever.

“Do you think we could implement a system to keep track of where all the stuff is each night?” Dan said, as he munched thoughtfully.

Ren looked up with interest. Dan had done a degree in engineering at some point. It wasn’t something he knew much about, because Dan never talked about it. “What kind of system?”

Dan’s eyes widened. “You know, if we could tie little ribbons to them. Colour-coded, maybe. Then we could leave the ribbons hanging outside of the cabinet doors like bookmarks and just . . . pull on them when we need something – “

A clump of rice fell out of Ren’s slack jaw.

She’d been there when Wander left home. It had been a sunny day, the breeze blowing, rustling the trees of this very park. There had been a farewell ceremony, the usual one for mutants leaving the zone, but with added gravitas.

The old man who headed the Bridge family was much shorter than his charge, but he handed them the bokken with no less weightiness to his demeanour. Wander looked thoroughly uncomfortable, fidgeting and glancing left and right, though they kept their head bowed until the transfer was complete.

“I’ve been thinking about it.” Ren tucked his chin, looking away. “I’ve been trying to get better.”
Now Papa looked confused. “Get better at what?”
“Everything. Being a ranger. Being part of the family.”
Being taken in as a baby, and not when he was older and perhaps sworn to some other party first like so many of his siblings, his status in the family had supposedly been unquestioned. Had remained unquestioned for too long, probably. Nowadays it felt like it had become something of a shivering, shimmering fog that could move any moment. Maybe it had always been like that, he just didn’t notice.
“Ren . . . “ The sympathy and surprise pouring out of his father’s voice was too much for him to bear, and Ren sat up.
“Nothing’s wrong, Papa. I just know I have some things to work on. That’s all.”

“Think I’ve got to go to bed, Dad.”
“Oh!” Suddenly her father seemed to be in a hurry. His visor grew large in the camera for a moment as he seemed to lodge his device in between something else to keep it steady. Then he floated his way backwards to pick up something. It was a white card with some calligraphy written on it.
“Happy early birthday, Aruna. I was going to mail this, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t arrive in the post in time.”

Aruna’s mouth went dry. She hadn’t even remembered it would be her birthday in a bit. “. . . Thanks.”

Maybe her father was smiling here, she wasn’t sure. It was just a formality. Something nice, because they didn’t have enough nice things. Dad was generous like that, wasn’t he? Then why was she so reluctant to click the red button?

He looked down at the pair of sunglasses he was hanging from the pocket of his button-up. It was a shirt he almost never wore. It didn’t smack of the Mutation Zone at all – and really, that was what they were going for. Around him, the children were dressed in graphic tees and shorts. Shereen stood some distance away, her short curls framing her face, wearing a yellow knee-length dress. Beside her, Aruna was wearing a similar dress in white – no doubt borrowed from Shereen’s closet. And the sunglasses, she’d gotten from Ren, who’d been loaned them by Nadia.

Speaking of whom. Ren watched Nadia as she stood in a circle of the other siblings who’d had their schedule free enough for the day. She was wearing her favourite bubblegum pink tudung, a blue sweatshirt and jeans. Nadia was one of the few of them who already dressed like she could be Unmutated.

Picking an arbitrary direction to walk in, Aruna headed off, Shereen at her elbow. Seeing that their ‘leader’ had seemingly disbanded them, the rest of the kids finally started exploring the arcade. Shereen smiled.

Aruna stopped at one of the claw machines for a moment, inspecting it from top to bottom. It had a variety of large fluffy stuffed animals, including a tiger and a unicorn. There were also smaller items, like keychains and plastic figurines.

Suddenly Shereen’s hand was on her shoulder. “That one looks cool.” Shereen was pointing at one of the booths with a screen, which flashed with light. The seat before that one had what looked like a boat oar attached to it.

Everything on the street seemed to freeze at once. The two girls with double sunglasses clung onto each other, the comedy of their appearance disintegrating. Knight and Bishop were locked to the pavement, each looking around frantically for the cause of the alarm. Cut off from the Rook family’s main building, Knight and Bishop almost seemed to be two ordinary mutants.
Without their battle suits, would they all end up crowding together in the Rook’s household? Ren was sure they’d be discovered, if that happened.
Before Ren could grab Aruna’s hand and run, a lorry came rumbling down the road, a megaphone from it blasting. “This is the Local Security Unit! The siren was a false alarm! I repeat, the siren was a false alarm! There is no Corrupted activity!”
Ren exhaled. His entire posture went slack. Beside him, Aruna seemed composed as usual, but he could tell she had exited her fighting stance. They could believe the local security units. After all, most of them were run by Aruna’s lab.