Cando and the Delinquents of the Directorate

Glowing blue eyes peered at me through a fringe of curly blonde hair. Glimmering teeth with slightly elongated canines grinned in a way that promised trouble. Then with an excessively late reaction I flinched and fell off the bed I had been laying on.

"Woah, mate." An interesting accent exclaimed. It sound slightly Australian but with an element I couldn't place. "I ain't gonna hurt ya, ya know?"

My eyes flickered up at the tall character standing over me. Silver information floated around the boy.

Cando Brawnist.

Gender: Male

Age: 17 years

Height: 6'2"

Weight: 193 lb

Criminal Record-*disclosed*

"Yo! Mate!" Fingers snapped in front of my face and brought me back to my situation. "They told me what ya are. Pretty light-walker are ya? Back from the perminate void? They fixed ya eyes, did they?"

His face came in close to mine and I had to fight the urge to back away. His vibrant eyes flicked back and forth as if he were looking for something. With a sudden jerk he pulled back. "Aye!" He cried in triumph. "Them little sparks in ya eyes! Artificial and all-seeing! They tell ya you're blessed?"

I pushed myself to my feet, but almost fell right back down. Black dots flashed across my vision as the world spun.
"Yeah." My voice cracked. "Where am I?"

Cando blinked as if the question was surprising. "Didn't ya eyes tell ya?"

Pain shot through my head and I fell back onto the bed. My eyes were starting to burn again and I would have cried if it were possible. "No." I grunted through the pain. "My eyes haven't told me anything."

Cando crossed the room in a quick stride and sat down beside me. "They hurting ya?" His voice softened with concern. "I'm sorry, mate."

He reached into one of the many pockets attached to the tan cargo pants he wore. "Here." He held out his palm holding what looked like a priceless pearl. "It's pretty strong, but if ya don't ask where I got it I'll help ya get through the hilusionations."

Squinting back the burning I pushed his hand away. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need anymore weird alien drugs in my system."

Cando laughed and popped the pearl into his mouth. "Chill mate. I was only kidding with ya. It's justa mint to help with the pearly whites." He grinned with teeth brighter than my past, present, and future.

I shook my head. I knew Cando's type back on Earth. Slightly hot headed, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Once the pain in my head reduced a bit, I took a look around the room. Pale grey walls covered with an assortment of posters. Some depicted... spaceships? Maybe some sort of flying boat-car hybrid? The rest were mostly of half naked girls. They looked human for the most part, as did my new roomie. The only distinct difference were the eyes. They glowed like a cat's eyes in the dark. It was beautiful, yet completely terrifying all at the same time.

Other than the decoration overkill on the walls there was a bunk bed made of a dark metal. The top bunk was draped with swirling blues, while the lower bunk was forested with varying shades of green.

With a fluent, graceful jump Cando was on the top bunk, his eyes matching the shifting blues.

"Top's mine, mate!" He smiled wickedly. "If it bothers ya, I'll fight ya for it."

From his flexed arms, which were twice the size of mine, and the grin on his face I knew he spoke the truth.

I held up my hands in defeat. "You'll get no arguments from me."

"That's right, mate!" He grinned. "I won't."

I walked over to the green bed and sat down. With my elbows resting on my knees I pressed my palms into my eyes. My head ached and I felt the urge to throw up. I was back from the dead and thrown into a foreign word.

I looked up at Cando through eyes that weren't mine. "You never told me where we are?" I gestured around the room and towards the door. "What's outside of this room?"

Cando looked towards the door and shrugged. "We're at the Directorate's camp for troubled teens or as they like to call it Resurrection. I'll show you around tomorrow when your first day officially starts."

I stared distancantly through the door then turned back to my roomie. "First day?" I questioned with a sick feeling. "First day of what?"

Cando smiled with his wolffish teeth. "Boot camp. The Directorate is turning us into their soldiers. Rumor has it they're making an army."

I yawned as a drowsy haze fell over me. "Why do they need an army? Is there a war going on?"

Cando shook his head. "If there is no one here knows anything about. They don't tell us anything."

My eyes drifted up to the strange light built into the ceiling. Unlike the other lights I had seen this one was full of a black liquid that somehow produced enough light for the whole room. It looked like the swirling black hole that I used to watch back on Earth. Earth? Where was my home? Would I ever make it back? I could remember falling several stories from my school's window, but I couldn't remember how I had gotten here.

I blinked and found Cando sitting at a metal desk that produced a sliver glow on its surface. "How did I get here?"

Cando glanced over at me and shrugged. When he didn't respond I continued to think aloud. "I fell out the school window. I died. And now I'm here. But how?"

I got to my feet and began to pace back and forth. "My father would have given me the traditional space send off. So my body was sent into space and somehow ended up here? On another planet? But this isn't like any planet near Earth? So I'd have to be really far away, but a ship only built to carry a body wouldn't get very far. So how..."

I looked around the room. There weren't any windows, but I need to see the sky. I need to know if what I was thinking was right.

I ran to the door and tugged on the handle. I half expected it to be locked, but it swung open easily. A wide hall with doors on both sides stretched out in front of me. A blue hue was cased across the floor from the liquid lights above me head. I couldn't see a way out, but I need to see the sky. I needed to know where I was.

"Mate wait!" Cando ran to door as I started down the hallway. "They told me ya wouldn't be ready until the morning!"

I heard him run after me, but it was already too late. I was already too far away from him.

The dorm was a maze to blue glowing hallways and closed doors. It never seemed to end. I took turn after turn, but everything was the same. I didn't seem to be getting anywhere until I turned into a hallway that was a bit brighter than the last. A shining doorway that led to a wide room beckoned to me from across the hall.

With Cando on my heels, I ran for the opening. I needed to see the world outside. I needed to know where I was. I plowed through the doorway and stopped so abruptly Cando slammed into my back causing me to stubble a few steps further.

A glass dome rose from the soft carpeted floor letting the outside world surround me. I was in some kind of lounge with low glass tables and plush, black sofas.

"Ow, mate." Cando grumbled as he picked himself off the floor. "What do you think you're doing?"

I couldn't listen to him lecturing as my eyes sparked. Information flew at me from every direction.

The Directory. Silver flashed across my vision at sickening speeds.

Home of the Directorate. Government of Vanquador.

Ruler of the Lands and Creator of the Laws.

Director Luvender. Head of the Directorate since 2997.

History flicked too fast to comprehend as I felt myself drift across the room.
The words carried me to the edge of the dome. A city of white glowed beneath me. I could see the top of skyscrapers that rose twice as high as any building back on Earth and peaking through the cracks were roads of dull, glowing roads.

Glow Paths. My eyes told me. Use prohibited since the creation of antigravity travel.

"Yeah..." I mumbled aloud. "Cause that's not weird at all."

I didn't see any evidence of antigravity travel in the bright city below me. In fact the whole city looked hollow and lifeless. Nothing seemed to move or live.

Silver messages have me leaning against the glass. My head felt like it was on fire and sparks continued to erupt from my artificial eyes. I felt my mind begin to lose it. But I still needed to see the sky.

I scanned the bright blue and through shifting cotton clouds I saw it. But it wasn't what I was expecting. There was a strange hole in the sky just like the black hole back on Earth, but this hole wasn't black; the hole tainting the perfect sky was a blinding white. I gapped up at it as silver information flicked in front of me.

The white hole. Thought to be on the other side of a black hole.

Appeared in the year 2002. Worshiped by some and feared by others. Seen as a sign of hope or a sign of doom. Other forms of life have been known to appear out of the white hole in gleaming rockets. First light-walker appeared in 3056 on the 12 day of the 4th period.

Since that day there have been 4,352 light-walkers to come out of the white hole. Light-walkers have been used as worker for a number of different jobs, for example over 200 light-walkers have been sold to pleasure houses and over 2,500 have been put into various labor camps. All light-walkers are privileged to a keeper and are not considered government responsibility in the court of law.

I couldn't keep up with all the new information much less understand my new situation. My eyes gave me too many answers, but not left me with even more questions.

Pushing back my raising panic and a desperate need to pass out, I spun on Cando.

"Wha..." I looked for the right question, but with so many flickering words in my sight it was hard to concentrate.
"What?" That was the only word I could seem to think of, but I wasn't sure what answer I was looking for.
Cando's glowing eyes softened as he took in my weak state of mind. "What's this place? What did our leader and the scientists do to ya? Gotta a lotta questions, do ya?"

I nodded my head the words around me were still preventing me from looking at my roomie. The white hole was burning straight into my soul, even more than black hole I had lived my whole life under. The white pained me and the silver words confused me. I tried to close my eyes for a chance at peace, but my headache was inescapable.

Cando continued to talk as if I could really understand a single word he was saying. "Like I said before, ya with the Directorate. They put ya in this boot camp the like to call the Resurrection where they're gonna train us delinquents to be good little soldiers. Personally, I don't think that'll ever happen. Really though... there are some crazy cases here. Ya know. Some kids round here been murdering other skanks."

My eyes shot open at that. "Murderers? You mean to tell me that I'm living with a bunch of murderers? What did they do? What kind of alien weapons to you have here? Should I be worried about getting killed within my first day?"

A sudden realization hit me as looked back at the silver words floating around Cando.

Criminal Record-*Disclosed*

My eyes widened and sparked as I stumbled away from my new, and very suspicion room mate. "You said a camp for delinquents." Turned my back to the window and began to inch towards the door that I had come from. I wasn't really sure where I planned on going, but I figured being closer to the exit would help me if I needed to make a quick escape.

I didn't my eyes off Cando. He was a few inches shorter than me, but had twice the muscle mass. His bulky arms could snap my neck in less than a second.

Cando's warm eyes narrowed slightly. My back tensed at the threat.

Wolfish teeth grinned at me. "Damn, mate. Ya die once and suddenly everyone looks like a killer. I'm chill. I ain't gonna hurt ya, the Director wouldn't stand for it."

His comment didn't help to calm my nerves. "Why don't you tell me why your in here then?" I gestured towards his hulking figure. "What did a 'chill' guy like you do to get put in a camp for delinquents."

Cando laughed at my obvious uneasy and held up his empty hands. "I got me some sticky hands. That is, I got where I am for petty theft."

Petty theft? How could I believe someone as big as him would commit such a low-life crime? With this blonde curls and piercing blue eyes, he looked like a crazy kid that could easily kill anyone in his way. Maybe an insane surfer dude that pushed a friend of his board and into a swallowing riptide.

I glanced down at Cando and his goofy grin. "Whatcha thinking now?" My eyes narrowed even farther at his sudden question.

"Ya thinking I'm a crazy, murdering surfer mate?"

My eyes widened. He'd just read my mind! Can the aliens read minds? Do they have superpowers or something?
Cando smiled. "I ain't reading ya mind, mate. I'm just using what the others have told me."

He looked at the ground for a second as if he was ashamed or maybe even hurt.
"They all say the same things. 'Look out for Cando. That crazy surfing rat'll take your head off if your not careful.' But, I'm tellin ya... I ain't ever killed a person..."

My heart broke for my roomie as my old self overcame my new paranoia. "Of course you didn't." I tried to smile, but my muscles couldn't find the right way of lifting my face. "You're probably right... about the whole dying thing making me a little too cautious..."

Cando lifted his head and with it his vulnerability. "We'd better get to the room. Ya not meant to be out here and I'm not lookin for another mark on my record today."

Without another word he turned to leave. I glanced back at the dead city and the hovering white hole. Silver words zipped by promising answers if I could only catch them. I wasn't sure where I was, what I was, or which choice to make next, but I had a cool new roomie. He may have been a little two-faced in a way, but at the time I couldn't help think that everyone was faking who they were to some extent. Maybe that's how people survived life. Maybe I was no different.