EPISODE TWO:
TWO BROTHERS AND A SHIP
Sam felt the heat in his hands. It was like a warm, pulsing heartbeat, always there, always reliable. It had saved his life many times, especially in the past few months. Caine had attacked the power plant twice in the past week, but he and the others had managed to fend his twin brother off both times, albeit barely. It had been mostly thanks to Edilio, his soldiers, Dekka, and Brianna that they had been able to defeat Caine. Sam had done nothing but manage to graze Diana, Caine’s on/off girlfriend, with one of his lasers, rendering her incapable of fighting anymore.
But now, as he waited in the cool shadows of the power plant, listening for any signs of his brother, Sam was all alone, with only his powers to help him if Caine happened to find him. He was not afraid, even though he knew Caine would probably kill him; Sam knew it had to happen eventually.
One day - maybe today - they would face each other and fight until one of them either died or surrendered. Sam had no intention of surrendering to his sadistic, sick-minded brother, and he knew Caine felt likewise. It would be a fight to the death.
Sam paused as he heard the faint brush of feet against the linoleum floor not far away and knew that Caine had found him. His heart skipped a beat in anxiety for the fight he knew was coming. It couldn’t be much longer now. He tensed his shoulder, ready to whirl at the slightest hint of an attack.
“Where are all your friends, brother?” he heard Caine say, and, turning, he saw his dark-haired brother standing casually, hands in pockets, a few feet away, looking cool and collected.
Sam eyed him for a moment and then answered, “This is between you and me, Caine; they have no part in this.”
Caine gave an amused smirk. “Then why are they always the ones that stop me, not you? Every time I’ve tried to take over this plant, Dekka, Brianna, Orc, or Edilio and his soldiers have stopped me…not you, Sam Temple.” He pointed at Sam, a feral grin playing about his lips.
Sam knew his brother was trying to get him riled up, so he forced himself to stay calm and not play into Caine’s game. He would fight his brother on his terms, not Caine’s. “How’s Diana, by the way?” he asked casually.
Caine’s face darkened and Sam knew he had struck a sensitive chord. “Fine, no thanks to you,” Caine snapped. “Your laser barely touched her, anyway; she’d have to be very weak to be too grievously injured by that wound, and Diana’s not weak.” But even so, Caine’s voice was shaky, betraying that everything was not fine, as he claimed. Sam wondered how badly hurt Diana actually was. Either way, he had turned Caine’s game back on himself and gotten his brother riled, while Sam was still feeling calm.
Without warning, Caine lifted his hands and Sam felt himself being lifted high into the air. A giddy sense of weightlessness seized him and he was briefly terrified of falling; in his disorientation, he forgot that he could still have shot at Caine from the air. His brother lifted him higher and higher until Sam was several hundred feet above the floor of the power plant. Sam held his breath, knowing that Caine would probably let him drop in a moment. He knew such a fall could very easily kill him.
Jerking to realisation, Sam aimed quickly at Caine and fired the green light from his hand, wanting to kill his brother so that if Caine dropped him, they would both die instead of just Sam. At least then, with Caine out of the way, Edilio, Astrid, and the rest of the townies would have more of a chance in the on-going war against the Coates Academy kids.
Caine dove out of the way of Sam’s laser and Sam expected to start dropping at any moment, but to his surprise, Caine kept his grip on Sam and he stayed suspended four hundred feet above the ground, heart pounding wildly with adrenaline. He fired blindly at his brother again and he heard a loud curse from Caine as he tripped and stumbled to the ground whilst trying to avoid Sam’s laser.
Still, Sam stayed where he was.
But then, suddenly, he was flying through the air towards the nearest wall. Arms flailing as Sam tried to stop himself but then realising it was useless, he closed his eyes tight, waiting for the impact. It came half a second later.
The air whooshed from Sam’s lungs as he slammed into the wall. There was a second of numbness, and then Sam’s body exploded with pain, causing him to cry out in agony. He started to fall backwards, free of Caine’s grip, but then Caine caught him again before he fell five feet. Sam felt limp and dizzy, the blood roaring in his ears and black dots swimming over his vision; he had no strength to try and hold his head up after the painful impact with the wall.
Caine lowered Sam swiftly so that that he was at eye-level with his brother, and Caine sneered gleefully. “You were really stupid not to bring your freaks, brother,” he said, pushing Sam’s shoulder, which caused Sam to lurch backwards in the air dizzily. He groaned as his head continued to swim, and Caine laughed. “You might have had a chance if they were here,” Caine continued, “But as it looks, I guess you won’t be the one walking out of here alive, now, will you? I hate to kill you, Sam - I won’t have much competition once you’re gone.” Caine sighed in mock despair. “But I think I’ll find a way to muddle through, somehow.”
Sam lifted his hand and fired his light at Caine weakly, but his brother flung him sharply to the side as he did so, causing him to miss by a wide margin. “Oh, Sam!” Caine laughed. “You’re going to have to do much, much better than that, brother!”
And Caine slammed him into another wall, making Sam black out for a moment as his body shrieked with terrible pain. He let loose a yell of agony, not caring what Caine thought of him.
Caine just laughed again, obviously enjoying himself.
Sam tried to fire at his brother, but Caine kept shifting him in the air, never giving him an opportunity to aim properly.
Caine lowered him down again and asked devilishly, “So what did you tell Astrid, Sammy? Did you tell her where you were going? or did you lie? Again.”
Glaring with all the strength he could muster at his twin, Sam snapped weakly, “I didn’t lie to her! I…I said…that I was going for a walk.” The memory shamed him and it angered him that Caine had brought it up, but he hadn’t truly lied to Astrid…had he? He had only wanted to protect her. And she would have tried to stop him if he had told her he was going to fight with Caine! Sam needed to do this! It had to be settled, once and for all.
“Well, that’s not exactly a lie, now, is it?” Caine said, echoing Sam’s thoughts and grinning like a shark. Sam flushed red, humiliated. “At least I tell Diana the truth,” Caine went on, winking at Sam. “She was very supportive, too, unlike your precious Astrid. What a pity, hmm? I can already imagine what she’ll do when I drag your body into the town square…Cry? Try to hurt me? Ha! That’ll be fun to see!”
Rage blossomed within Sam and he fired laser after laser at Caine, who merely flung him out of the way, continuing to laugh like a maniac. “Caine!” Sam roared, desperate to kill his sadistic brother but unable to do so much as free himself from Caine’s telepathic grip.
“Yes?” Caine asked sweetly.
And he dropped Sam.
Sam barely registered that he was falling. His mind seemed to stutter, as if it couldn’t process what was happening, and, battered as he was by his previous poundings, Sam had no strength to even try to stop himself from falling.
When he hit the ground, it was as if every bone in his body had shattered on impact. Sam fell unconscious almost immediately, unaware of Caine walking up and kneeling down before him, his dark eyes running carefully over Sam’s face. A dark stream of blood flowed from Sam’s mouth, coursing down his chin and neck before dripping a drop at a time to the dusty floor, pooling underneath Sam.
A smile tugged at Caine’s mouth as he examined his twin.
After a moment, he stood and rolled Sam over, his brother’s head lolling against the ground on a broken neck. His arms fell against his body haphazardly, advertising the broken bones within. His legs were equally useless.
But when Caine put his ear to his brother’s chest, he still heard the slow, thin lub-dub of Sam’s heart, and he hissed in displeasure - Sam wasn’t dead yet. Honestly, what did it take to kill him? Caine wondered. He didn’t want to end Sam’s life with the knife that was in his pocket - he had committed enough murder in the past few weeks - but seeing his brother’s body so broken and useless sorely tempted Caine to end Sam’s misery.
Caine was surprised at the flicker of humanity that had stirred within him, but Sam was his twin brother, after all, whether Caine liked it or not. And he didn’t. Caine looked down at Sam and saw the resemblance in his brother’s face to his own, for even though they were fraternal twins, they still looked quite a lot like each other. Could Caine really kill his own twin brother?
Hesitant, Caine reached into his pocket and fingered his knife, sliding it open and running his finger lightly along the edge of the blade. He pulled it out, heart hammering in his chest and his fingers shaking as he clenched the knife tightly, looking down at Sam.
Caine knelt slowly, putting the point of the blade against Sam’s heart. He was trembling so hard he could barely keep his grip on the knife, and after a few moments, Caine realised he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t kill anyone, even his greatest enemy, in cold blood. He was too weak. Feeling queasy, Caine sat back, running his fingers through his hair in agitation. Why couldn’t he kill Sam? Why was it so hard? He wanted to kill his brother!
….Didn’t he?
Caine didn’t even know anymore. He closed his eyes, struggling to control his laboured breathing. He could hear Sam’s breathing too, only his was shallow and barely audible; Sam’s body must be working very hard to keep circulating the blood through the badly broken bones and damaged organs…the damage that Caine had caused. He bit his lower lip, wishing that none of this had ever happened. He wished he had never met Sam and that the FAYZ would just go away. Caine wished as hard as he could, over and over, hoping for some miracle when he opened his eyes.
He stiffened in surprise when he felt a warm, heavy breeze blow through his hair. Caine then froze, wondering if Penny, the mutant with the power to create illusions, was somewhere in the room. And if so, what game was she playing at? If not…
Caine slowly opened his eyes. Smooth, well-worn slats of brown wood met his eyes instead of the dusty, greyish linoleum floor of the power plant. Caine jerked back, his hands slapping against the wood as he did so. They were warm to the touch, like they had been out in the sun for a long time.
The sun. It was shining directly overhead.
Dazed, Caine gazed up at it for a split second before the light began to hurt his eyes, and he dropped his gaze, heart pounding.
“What the…?” he heard a voice say. Sam’s voice.
Shocked that his brother had woken up, Caine looked at Sam, only to be shocked all over again, a tingle running down his spine. Sam was sitting a few feet away from him, perfectly and one-hundred percent okay, like their fight had never even happened. He had no broken bones, no bruises, no nothing. In fact, Caine realised as he continued to gawk at Sam, it was as if the FAYZ itself had never happened! Sam wasn’t gaunt and unhealthily skinny anymore, and he no longer had the pallor and wild look of a starving person. Actually, Sam looked…healthy. Normal. Like a surfer from California.
I’m hallucinating. Penny’s doing this, Caine thought wildly, convinced that the little Asian mutant was toying with his mind, for whatever reason. What else could it be? He raked his hands through his hair again, the blood roaring in his ears. But when Caine brought his hands back down, he started in surprise. His hands looked…normal. They weren’t covered in the red, lacy rash anymore and they definitely weren’t as bony as they had become over the past few months. They felt stronger, he realised, as he curled his hands into fists. Like he had never been starving at all.
Like the FAYZ had never happened.
“Where are we?” he vaguely heard himself ask. If this was a hallucination or a dream, Caine never wanted to leave.
Sam stood up, looking with an awed expression out at something behind Caine. He watched his rejuvenated brother carefully, knowing he had to be dreaming; Sam should be dying from the wounds Caine’s powers had given him, not looking like he had before the FAYZ had ruined their lives. It was bizarre, to say the least.
He waited breathlessly for Sam to reply.
Sam blinked a few times, and then he looked at Caine. Sam seemed to be surprised by what he saw, for he said, “Caine, you’re…you look…normal!”
“So do you,” Caine shot back, dazed. “You’re supposed to be practically dead! What…Sam, what happened?”
Sam looked down at his hands and jerked in surprise. Then he put his hands to his abdomen and then his arms, looking shocked. “I’m not…” His voice grew sharp, accusing. “Caine, is Penny here?”
Caine stood up, surprised at how easily he was able to do so. He’s forgotten what it was like to move so quickly and to feel so strong. Excited, he bounced on his feet a few times, loving the feel of the strength in his body; he hadn’t felt this good since before the FAYZ started! He laughed in delight, exhilarated. If this was a dream, it was the best he had ever had.
“Caine!” Sam snapped.
Caine looked up at his brother and started to reply, but his answer died in his mouth as he saw their surroundings for the first time. He and Sam were surrounded by water. On all sides. And the wood beneath them? The deck of a ship. A fairly small ship, or so it looked to Caine, but like one made in the 1700s, like the ones he had seen in his American History textbook back in school. But this one was black and…strange - the front of the ship (Caine forgot what it was called) curved upwards and formed the graceful head and neck of a black dragon, and the dragon’s wings curved alongside the sides of the ship. A large, square, purple sail waved above them, snapping in the salty breeze.
“Uh….” was all Caine could come up with.
“You got that right,” Sam said grimly, striding over to the side of the ship. He put his hands on the railing and peered out at the wide, empty waters around them, acting as though he was looking for something. Caine knew what - land. But everywhere he looked, his gaze only met water; there was no land anywhere in sight. Caine was stuck out in the middle of the ocean with his twin brother, his greatest enemy, with no land anywhere around and probably not much food either. Caine’s shoulders sagged. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a great dream after all… But at least Caine hadn’t come into this place starving; that was one good thing about this hallucination.
Sam suddenly whirled around, looking angry. “Tell Penny to knock it off, Caine! This isn’t funny anymore!”
“I don’t even know if Penny’s here!” Caine snapped back. “I haven’t seen her in almost two weeks; not since she ran off with Computer Jack. And even if she was here, what point would there be in doing this to us?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said angrily. “But then, I don’t see the point in half the things you and your stupid Coates clique do. Tell Penny to quit it and let me die already!”
Caine’s eyebrows shot up. “You want to die?” he asked in shrill disbelief.
“As long as I can take you with me,” Sam said murderously, glaring at him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Caine retorted contemptuously, crossing his arms over his chest. “We had a fair fight and I won it. Winner takes all - that was our deal.”
“Fair?” Sam snorted. “It’s hardly fair when I can’t even aim at you because you’re flinging me through the air and slamming me into walls! I-”
“You had your chance, Sam!” Caine shouted, getting angry. “You could have killed me back in our first fight, but you let me live. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s yourself! You could have gotten rid of me long ago, but you chose not to!”
“You’re my twin brother! I didn’t want to kill you!”
“You think that matters to me?” Caine hoped Sam wouldn’t hear the hesitation in his voice, and to his relief, it seemed that Sam didn’t, for a brief spasm of hurt crossed his brother’s face, which surprised him. Had Sam really hoped that Caine would actually care about him? Feeling uncomfortable, Caine tried to stuff his emotions farther down, but wasn’t completely successful.
“It should,” Sam said, eyeing Caine flatly. Caine suddenly realised that Sam now looked deflated, as if his last hope had just been stolen away.
Caine bit his lip, unsure.
Suddenly he saw a flash of green light from Sam’s hands and he ducked instinctively, heart pounding in his chest so hard he was afraid it would burst out. “Hey!” Caine barked angrily, landing hard on his side. Sam’s laser burned a quarter-sized hole through the ship’s railing and continued on until it hit the water and fizzled out of existence.
Caine scrambled to his feet, furious. “What was that for?” he shouted. As if he didn’t already know.
“Payback for the power plant!” Sam replied, raising his hands to fire again. Caine decided not to let him have the chance. Even faster, he raised his own hands and unleashed his telepathic power, aiming right at Sam, intending to throw him far out into the ocean and maybe if he was lucky, Sam would drown.
Sam’s eyes widened briefly in alarm as Caine grinned devilishly.
Something invisible and rock-solid slammed into Caine’s chest, vaulting him off his feet and flinging him hundreds of yards out over the ocean. Terrified and stunned, Caine released his powers, forgetting all about Sam in his panic. As he quit using his powers, he began to plummet towards the waiting blue ocean. A hoarse cry tore from his lips just before Caine smashed into the water, hitting his back hard on the waves. Underwater, his body arched with pain as an internal fire spread throughout his back and on through his entire body, rendering him totally and completely helpless for a few moments.
Then the shock of the cold water finally brought him out of his stupor and he realised that he was sinking fast. Frantic, Caine began to swim upwards, but he couldn’t go very fast; he felt really heavy and he didn’t know why. The blood roaring in his ears and his lungs screaming for air, Caine fought hard to get to the surface. It was still so far away!
Caine began to hyperventilate. He couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down, and the more he struggled, the faster he sank, but he had no control over what he was doing anymore; it felt like someone else was commanding his body, not him. But one thing he knew that he, Caine Soren, was definitely doing - he was screaming Sam! Sam! Help me! in his mind, over and over and over again…
Sam could barely make out where Caine landed. It was just a faint white smudge, the foam of the ocean where he hit, far out on the horizon. Momentarily stunned by what had just happened, as well as confused - had Caine meant to use his powers on himself? - Sam just stared out at the waters for a moment, head cocked to the side.
He came forward to stand at the railing, squinting out to see where Caine had landed. It was difficult to tell now. What on earth had his brother been trying to do?
Sam suddenly cried out and doubled over in pain as his mind exploded with the words Sam! Help me! He clutched his head, groaning with the force of the telepathic message. Caine didn’t know how strong he was! “Oh, God…” Sam said hoarsely as the message continued to pound into his brain and hammer in his head, making his blood roar loudly and his heart beat faster. The pain drove him to action.
He quickly stripped off his shirt and shoes, knowing they would only weigh him down, and Sam jumped into the water, the coldness of it making him yell. Then he started to swim, thinking, I can’t believe I’m doing this…What am I thinking?!
He was going to save Caine Soren, his greatest enemy and pain, from drowning.
Caine’s eyelids flickered several times. He finally stopped thrashing and became limp, his heavy clothes dragging him further down. Sam….he thought weakly. But he knew his brother wouldn’t come. Sam was probably throwing a party back on the ship, glad that Caine had, essentially, killed himself and that he no longer had to worry about his brother. And after all, why would Sam come to his aid, after all Caine had done? It made perfect sense for his twin to just stay on the ship and celebrate his victory.
It wasn’t that Caine didn’t know how to swim. It was that he was completely and absolutely terrified of water. He could swim - he had forced himself to learn back when he was younger - but the shock of his powers rebounding on him, the pain of hitting the water from such a height, and the heaviness of his clothes that made it harder to swim, when all combined together, made Caine wholly incapable of surviving this on his own.
Caine looked up towards the surface - or, the direction he thought the surface was - once more before his eyes closed and rolled up in his head.
Sam got to the spot where he thought Caine had landed, but the mental messages had long since weakened and ceased, and there was no sign of his brother anywhere. Frowning, Sam searched around, but saw nothing to hint where Caine might be. He hoped Caine wasn’t already dead; the thought made him shudder. Yes, Caine was his greatest enemy and had caused no end of trouble and pain for him during the days of the FAYZ, but now that Sam was faced with the possible death of his twin brother…it definitely made him think.
He held his breath and dove down under the water, kicking strongly. Sam lit a Sammy Sun in his hands and used to it look around for his brother. Once more, he saw nothing.
He swam back to the surface to get air, and then tried again. Sam at least wanted to find Caine’s body, if nothing else. But would he be able to?
The light of Sam’s Sun hit something and he immediately snapped his gaze to it. At first, he couldn’t tell what it was, but then he realised that it was his brother, limp and face-down.
Caine!
Sam dove, kicking as hard and fast as he could. He had to get to Caine in time, he had to! He didn’t know what he’d do if he got to Caine and found him already dead. The thought gave him strength.
Sam reached out and grabbed his brother. Caine’s head lolled limply to the side, his eyelids closed, completely unresponsive. Panicking, Sam stripped Caine of his heavy coat, shoes, and shirt, letting them drift away, and then began kicking upwards, going as fast as he possibly could.
He broke the surface a moment later with a huge gasp, drawing the salty air in to his lungs raggedly and panting with the effort of hauling Caine all the way up. Caine slumped lifelessly against Sam’s chest, showing no signs of still living. Sam shouted a curse out, kicking in angry and scared anxiety. The ship was so far away, and Caine was already so heavy in his arms…Could Sam make it all that way? He knew he had to.
But Caine…was he already dead? Sam hit Caine’s face a few times, not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to wake him up, to see if he could get any response, but Caine gave none. Sam cursed again.
“Caine!” he yelled hoarsely, shaking his brother. Again, there was no reaction whatsoever. Sam shouted to the sky in pure agony.
He flipped his brother onto his back and began swimming, slowly but surely, towards the ship.
Sam was trembling violently by the time he reached the ship almost two hours later. He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t make himself talk. He could barely breathe. His grip on the ladder on the side of the vessel was weak, and he lost his hold twice before he could manage to keep holding on. Caine, motionless and lifeless as a corpse, was still on his back.
Sam tried to pull himself and his brother up, but the moment he did, his body gave a powerful shudder and he slipped down into the water, unconscious.
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