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I’m really unhappy that they aren’t making any more episodes of 4400. I felt like it was getting better and better each season and that having the whole of NTAC with abilities (except perhaps Tom) would have been really interesting. This little story will hopefully carries on from the end of season 4. There will be some new characters of my own as well; after all, there has to be around 20,000 P-Positives now...
Simon could not believe the changes that had taken place in Seattle in such a short space of time. He had heard the chaos occurring in the streets below him, on what had come to be called Doomsday by some, and had immediately locked himself in his room. He had considered himself lucky to be alive. They had found poor Mrs Burkle dead in her room next door so the virus had definitely managed to spread all the way through the building. It was since then that he had been afraid to leave his room. Every day more and more of Collier’s men patrolled the streets as a sign of order and control, but for the most part they left people alone.
He was a slightly overweight man, 38 years old, and had spent his time working behind counters of fast-food outlets. His hair was already showing signs of greying and the paleness of his skin clearly showed the amount of time he spent outdoors (or lack of it).
The news had shown images of American soldiers gathering around the border of the city, and he believed it was only a matter of time before some conflict started. The Government seemed reluctant to start a war on their own soil against people who were originally innocent victims. As long as Jordan didn’t make any move outwards, they seemed quite content for the moment to keep them contained. 20,000 people with abilities would be a force to reckon with.
20,000. That was the latest estimate, even though there were still a few hundred people not accounted for. In the initial few days there were a lot of abilities being used by accident and a few people were killed because of them. This was the main reason why Simon was afraid to go outside. Jordan and his men were gradually interviewing everyone about their powers, but as of yet he couldn’t figure out if he even had one or not. Everyone else just seemed to concentrate on an object or themselves and then something would happen, but he had tried everything and nothing would work. He was afraid that they would find out that he didn’t have an ability at all and then kick him out of Seattle - or Promise City as it was now called.
Simon raised his hand towards his desk and concentrated. He imagined it changing shape, moving across the room, exploding, disappearing, but nothing happened.
“Damn it,” he shouted at it eventually, “why am I nothing?”
It seemed for now his only ability was being able to survive the carnage.
“Good evening Meghan,” he smiled warmly, “what are you doing here so late?” He glanced around the room, “There must be even more flowers in here than this morning!”
“Hi Tom, I’ve just been on the phone to DC again. They still won’t give us access to any of the latest information, and Collier certainly won’t be letting any more people in to help us run this place. It looks like we are on our own for now.” Even while she was speaking, the pen in her hand was slowly lengthening and turning purple.
“How does Jordan feel about us still managing things from in here now the city is effectively his?”
“He doesn’t seem overly concerned. We have better facilities for holding criminals and finding out information - even though we only have access to Marco’s backups. Now everyone here is P-Positive, except you and Diana of course, he classes us as part of his side. Are you going to ever take that shot? Kyle keeps telling you that it would be perfectly safe. Aren’t you the least bit curious?” She placed the now fully formed flower into the vase and reached for another pen.
“Jordan has given me two weeks to decide, and if I haven’t taken it by then he will be ‘escorting’ me from the city. I still need more time to think about it; and no, I’m not that curious about it. Apparently his little two week deadline doesn’t apply to Diana because it ‘wasn’t her fault’.”
“How is Diana anyway? I hear she has been down in NTAC Medical for a while.”
“It is just Doctor Burkhoff being cautious. They don’t want to take the risk of her getting ill with Promicin building up in her system. I was going to go and pay her a visit on my way out to see how she’s getting on.”
“Well wish her well from me when you go, I am going to stay here a while longer and see if I can get Collier to share his list of P-Positives. It would be useful to finally know the scale of what we are dealing with.”
“Will do Meghan, see you tomorrow.”
Tom left the office, leaving Meghan alone with her plants and her thoughts. She needed some more pens.
As it turned out, Tom didn’t even need to go as far as the medical centre to see Diana. As he was on his way down he met her just leaving.
“Ah Diana. Good to see you out of there. Does that mean...?”
“Perfectly healthy,” she replied, “and can’t wait to go home. Maia has had to put up with Marco for the past few days. I hope he doesn’t jump around as much as for the few minutes I was talking to him.”
“Can he jump anywhere now then?” Tom asked.
“Not that I know of. It seems as though he still needs to have a photo of the place he wants to jump to, but he has started carrying a miniature photo album around with him with pictures of all the places he is likely to want to go to. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries jumping to Australia soon!”
The pair of them walked through the NTAC doors and out onto the car park.
“So what exactly did Dr Burkhoff do to you to fix you so quickly? The last I heard he told me Promicin was slowly building up in your body.”
“To be honest he is not exactly sure. He tried injecting me with some more of the antidote he produced, and then with some raw Promicin, and this morning all the tests show that it’s not building up any more. I guess we will just have to wait and see if I get an ability or not.”
“Well, that’s great news, even though it sounds like a bit of an accident. Are you alright to drive, or do you want a lift?”
Diana shook her head. “That’s fine Tom. I am just going to go home and put my feet up and take the next few days off. I reckon we will have a lot of work to do around here soon and I want to be well rested for when that happens. Hopefully I will be coming back to active duty as soon as possible.”
“I’ll see you in a few days then.”
“Goodbye Tom.”
The time had finally come. They had finally come for him. Two more days had passed and there was still no sign at all of any ability. Panicking he looked for a way out, but the front door was the only one. He had no choice to see what they had to say.
“Simon Rafe, we know you’re in there. Open the door please.”
Like a man condemned he walked over and opened the door. There were three men standing there, the one at the front holding a small folder. The others looked like they were his backup.
“Mr Rafe, as you have seen on the news we are conducting a census of all the P-Positives in the city along with their abilities so we can use them as best as we can to make this city into a paradise. Would you mind if we came in for a moment and asked you a few questions.”
Simon waved them in and over to his chairs. There were only two chairs in the room - he lived alone - so only one of Collier’s men sat down. One stayed by the door and the other stood behind the chair.
“Could you state clearly your full name please?”
“Simon James Rafe.”
“R-a-f-e?”
“That’s right.”
“As accurately as possible could you describe your ability for us?”
This was the most important question, and Simon squirmed in his seat. “I... I don’t have an ability.”
The man didn’t look impressed. “That’s not possible Mr Rafe. We know that every single person left in Promise City has been affected by Promicin, and we tracked down those that hadn’t straight away and escorted them out. You must have some ability.”
“Really, I don’t know what to say. I have tried lots of different things but nothing seems to work at all.”
“If you are refusing to give us information, you will have no choice but to come with us and we will take you to someone who will make you tell us. There is no one person we have met so far who could not tell us what their ability was, after a little persuasion.”
“But, really, I have no idea...”
“Okay, come with us then Mr Rafe.”
For a moment he considered trying to escape, but he had no idea what these men could do. It was unlikely they had very friendly abilities given that they were the ones sent to interview potentially hostile P-Positives. He allowed himself to be led down into the car waiting outside, and down to their headquarters.
Now Jordan had the choice of any of the buildings in the city he had temporarily chosen to use the Police Station for dealing with criminals and security. It was here that Simon was taken. He was led inside and sat down on one of the interview chairs. The room was empty except for the table in front of him and an identical chair on the other side. He had been sitting there a few minutes when a young woman came in with one of the guards he had seen from before.
“Here he is April,” the man said to the woman. “He doesn’t look particularly aggressive but he is refusing to tell us about his ability. See what you make of him.”
“Thanks, Paul. It is much easier working here than NTAC. You bring them all to me!”
She walked over to the other chair and sat down.
“Simon is it? How are you?”
“I didn’t do anything, really! I just don’t have any ability.”
“There is nothing to worry about. Some people are embarrassed by what they can do at first. In Promise City we forgive anyone who is sorry for what they have done.”
Simon didn’t say anything else. He didn’t know what to say.
“Okay, if you want to do this the hard way.” She concentrated slightly. “What is your ability Simon?”
Simon felt a slight tingling in his head. It didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable; in fact he quite liked it. Before he could help himself his mouth started moving.
“I have no idea what my ability is.”
April looked back across to her colleague, who just shrugged.
She tried a different question, “Have you ever noticed anything happening around you that seemed abnormal?”
This time he didn’t feel anything at all, and he didn’t feel like he was being forced to answer anything.
“Erm, not really,” he answered, not really sure what the point of the question was.
April just frowned. She had interviewed a lot of people since gaining her ability, and they never answered in an unsure way like that. She tried one more, “Do you find me attractive?”
“Erm, ah...”
He hadn’t even said any more than that before April got up from the chair and went over to Paul. “Put him down as immune to mind control. It didn’t look like it at first but I can’t make him tell the truth. He wouldn’t have been able to find that out either so I guess he is legit.”
“Looks that way,” Paul reluctantly accepted. “Simon, you are free to go.”
Later on Simon was outside picking up a copy of the paper cursing his own bad luck. Why did it have to be him who had the rubbish ability? Out of all the cool things that people could do, he had to have something that just meant other people couldn’t mess with his mind. If he could blow people up with his brain then nobody would want to mess with his mind either.
At least on the plus side he wasn’t being evicted.