Free The Children of New Earth by Talha Ehtasham Page B

On many occasions she regaled us with the tale of she got it on a scouting mission, exploring an abandoned building. Apparently, the floor gave in and she fell on a sharp rod, which partially pierced its way into her shoulder. With the help of others and after several stitches, she lived through it. It had healed by now, but the scar was still there.
    Aaron and Cora were a few feet ahead of me. They looked at each other for a moment, then held their noses and submerged into the water. Upon resurfacing, they both pushed back their hair and cleared their eyes. When Aaron turned around and signaled me to join them, I saw the gunshot wound on his chest; it was significantly faded, but still visible. He was soaked all over, and the water glistened on his well-defined muscles. I walked up to him and Cora, who was standing adjacent. Her skin was white and clear, with no scars or marks that I could see. Her flawless complexion was only further purified by the beads of water running down her body.
    “The water is so nice. what I wouldn’t give to stay here forever,” Cora said, holding her arms out to her sides. She then leaned back, let her legs rise to the surface and, to our amazement, actually began floating in the water. I wanted to ask her how she did it, but her eyes were closed and she seemed so at peace. Aaron and I copied her motions. I gently leaned back into the sea, my ears just barely under the water. Then, after a few brief moments of hesitation, I let the water carry me.
    I was astonished at how serene this was. My ears were submerged so all I heard was the comforting sound of the ocean flowing around me. The sun crept through the clouds, as if some higher power decided to allow this moment of tranquility to reach its full potential. The light was grew very bright so I closed my eyes, trusting my body and the laws of physics not to let me fall. After a few minutes, my skin adjusted to the relative temperature, and with all my senses at equilibrium, I had never felt more calm in all my life. My body was in a state of absolute comfort, and even time became an irrelevant concept.
    Time. I then had a thought that contradicted my earlier statement about limiting use of our powers. I decided Lynn was probably right, and that we were scaring ourselves for no reason. I took in a deep breath, and slowed time by a rather dangerous amount. In this state, an hour for me was about a second in real time. I felt the flow of the water and wind slow, but the sensations were relatively the same. I then allowed myself to relax; maintaining this perception of time was surprisingly easy. Minutes turned to hours, and a steady stream of peaceful thoughts ran through my head.
    For some time, I wasn’t even on Earth anymore, and existence became a distant concept. I wasn’t an entity, but rather a consciousness. My only purpose here was to think, and I could change my mental state at will. Instead of having my brain create a scene based on my senses, I was artificially constructing a reality based on thought alone. A dream would’ve been the best description, but I knew in some corner of my mind that the worlds I was imagining were not real. However, I even forgot this at times.
    When I finally stood back up and returned to reality, I saw Aaron and Cora floating along next to me, with Mark levitating over them. We had just gotten into the water, but I felt like I’d been here for ages. I stretched my limbs and took a few deep breaths before scanning my surroundings. Rachel was a few feet away, practicing her telekinesis on the water. The light from the sun reflected off the ocean and decorated her lightly tanned skin. Her hair was still dry, despite the stream of water levitating in spirals and loops around her.
    “Wow, that was fast,” I approached. “You can control water now?”
    “Amazing, right?” she agreed. “And surprisingly easy. All you do is focus on the quantity of water you want to control, and somehow that volume of