The Wheel that Saved Zyka

The city in which the Palace stood was right in the centre of the little country, about the size of little old France, which was wiped out of existence maybe about hundred years ago. If you would ever look on the map of this era, you would only see blue water in the place that quaint country was. The Second Flood was a disastrous time for the entire world. But it was a blessing for Prince Atlas's country, back when his grandfather was King.

When rest of the world was buried in wet mud, King George found a piece that had drifted from what people might have called Atlantis. It was an ordinary wheel. But that Wheel changed the country of Zyka. Because when the Wheel came into his quarters after the maids had finished cleaning it, the grandfather was over the moon. The Wheel sparkled in the lights. It was made of pure gold.

And then came a day when King George had a son, a gangly little boy named George the Fifth. When he was eighteen and stubborn, he demanded that his brand new car be fitted with this Golden Wheel. He was a Prince after all, and the Grandfather was quite the softie. There is no use for the Wheel to be sitting idle anyway.

And so, George the Fifth got the car built and named it Gilda (cars should always be a she). Everyone loved it and his school mates—half of them girls—wanted a ride now and then.

One night, on a trip with his soon-to-be bride Alia, the car ran out of gas. But George didn't realize that because the car kept on moving until he dropped Alia home and returned to the palace and to his bed smiling like an idiot.

Prince George's car assistant proceeded to clean the car and check its health when he discovered something astonishing. Not even a drop of petrol was found in the gas tank! Then however did the Prince ride all this way without stopping?

He reported this to the King right away and said it was most perplexing. The first thing the Prince did was run to his car in pajamas to find the entire stable staff crowded around the Golden Wheeled Chariot.

The King was there too, all groggy and eyes puffed from not getting enough sleep. That very day, the King and the Prince went on a ride on Gilda…without gas in it.

And it worked perfectly!

After a few weeks, they figured out that this Wheel wasn't any ordinary wheel. When you spin it, you don't spin air, you spin live crackling energy, thousand times more powerful than normal electricity. This was the energy that had run the car.

But it only worked when those of Royal blood spun it, for it was their duty to provide this unlimited energy to the kingdom.

Zyka boomed in the next decade and by the time the King's name was George the Fifth, Zyka was the most technologically developed country in the solar system. They had energy for literally anything and everything!

All the King had to do was spin the Wheel for five minutes every day at 7:00 A.M. to power the whole country for a day. On some days when the King was feeling happy, he spun it for almost an hour.

Alia married George the Fifth as soon as Zyka was promoted to a World Country, she couldn't wait anymore and thus, she became Queen Alia of Zyka and they had a little baby boy of the name…Atlas.

~~~~present time

Isaiah stood under the hot sun and overlooked the soldier formation practice in the Zyka military grounds, a few minutes away from the Main Palace. It was his father who shouted out orders, he was the Chief of Army after all. Sweat dripped on his forehead as he watched the drill over and over again. Sure, fighting was good, Isaiah thought, but I can't go through this kind of torture when I turn 18.

"Are we done for today, sir!" Isaiah asked his dad, raising his voice so that he could be heard above the feet trampling the ground from marching too hard. The Chief of Army turned around to look at his son, a strong boy of fifteen, in a bullet proof suit making him sweat uncontrollably.

"If you can't stand the heat of the battle against West Wintra in a few weeks, my boy, you can get out," Lionel declared before adjusting his gaze back to his soldiers, squinting against the sun. "You will be standing in my position some day and I don't want to hear we lost a battle because of an incompetent Chief," Lionel continued, still talking to his tired son.

Isaiah stepped forward to stand by his side. Lionel was more than double the age of his son, but they were almost head to head. From afar, looking at the build of their bodies, the way they clasped their hands, you would definitely guess that the duo was undoubtedly father and son. "I'll stay until the end, sir," Isaiah confirmed, regretting it the next second.

A few minutes passed in silence between the two before Lionel lifted his right hand and patted on Isaiah's back, "Go on, your time here is over. Meet up with your friends."

Isaiah looked up in surprise after checking his watch, "But, sir, it's only 12:00, the drill doesn't end till 2:00."

Lionel shook his head, still pushing Isaiah away, "I'm sorry, my boy, I don't want to stress you out. These are all old man stuff. You can come over here to get your Blade Combat and Bomb Workings lessons. I forgot it was a Sunday and you're still a young boy, forgive me. Go have fun."

Isaiah couldn't say no to that. He nodded tensely and marched out of the field. Once he was out of the military base, he smiled and ran faster than the crows above him, feeling free.

Brooklyn jumped out of her practice stance when the sweaty boy threw her room's door open flopped into her chair.

She brushed the dust from her hands and turned around with hands on her hips, "Day out with the Chief again?" she guessed shaking her head and letting out a breath of disappointment before sitting on her bed next to the revolving chair.

"Yeah, but he let me off the hook," he stopped revolving in the chair and sat up straight to face Brooklyn, "Let's go somewhere."

She raised an eyebrow, "What about your other friends? The ones from... what was the name again…yeah, Battle Gang?"

Isaiah looked to the side in disgust, "They've gone for that horror movie starring Hash Fleck. I would rather serve time in the military base than huddle in a dark room to see bad acting and useless suspense music."

Brooklyn had reached for a small book on the far side of her bed by now and was flipping through its pages. Without looking up, she shook her head, "Not today, Isaiah, I can't."

"Why?" he asked like any friend who saw another friend busy would.

She looked up, her purple eyes now seeming almost black. "You know about the Raken infestations right?"

The moment she said the word, a cloud covered the sun and the room fell dark like even the mention of it can bring curses upon your luck. Isaiah fell out of his temporary happy mood and listened closely, "What about it?"

"It's growing. First, it was only sightings and a few killings here, in the Main Palace district. But today morning I found a report submitted on the Secretary's desk."

"What did it say?"

"Five sightings each in Outer Palace district, Jowamen and Delis and two in Kira. Ten killings in all. In the duration of just one night…."

"Are you sure these are Raken killings?" Isaiah asked, really not believing it. He hadn't spotted a Raken before…what if this is some psycho human planning it all up to create terror?

Brooklyn fished under the pages of the book she was holding and took out a few pictures. She refused to look at them and when Isaiah did, he had to stop himself from gagging. They were snapshots taken of the ten recent murder victim, all with their throats cut, no torn open and a fluorescent green liquid filled inside each of them.

Isaiah returned the photos. "Probably some killer who has a throat fetish," he figured and Brooklyn shook her head, "No, you can't see it in the photos but I read it in the Royal Report when I went sneaking around the palace. It was only the throats that were torn open…the weird thing is all the cuts were the size of a fist, at the throat."

Isaiah shrugged, "So, the killer must have used the same weapon for each murder."

Brooklyn paused, "Isaiah, what else is the size of a fist?" she brought her fingers together and curled it tight into a fist. Isaiah looked at it, clueless one second and after a few moments, his eyes glazed with knowledge, "No way….the heart?"

She nodded and showed him the autopsy reports all showing that the ten victims' hearts were in fact, missing at discovery.

"What in Zyka…" Isaiah breathed before looking up at Brooklyn, frowning, "This is why you should go to a proper school…and not waste your time snooping around in palace grounds! What are you going to do with all this information? Are you going to stop the Raken, wherever they are coming from? Forget about this Brooklyn," he warned and snatched the book from his hand and pocketed it, "I'll burn this before tonight," he said and stood up to leave, disappointed, angry, but most of all, just confused.

Brooklyn held the knob tight to prevent him from entering, "Isaiah. I'm a Wheel girl, remember? Only you know this and exactly why you should help me. The Wheel helped all of us and is still helping us. Others might have not been able to defeat the Rakens, because they are ordinary. But I'm not, you know that. Don't you think I deserve a chance? Maybe I can save the country from these human killing monsters."

Isaiah didn't move, "The Wheel magic entering you was just a big mistake. If you use your magic to kill the Raken, if that's possible, everyone will know what you are, and they'll trap you and use you. Stay away from this, there are people to handle them." Isaiah pushed her hand away and walked out from her house. "Isaiah, please!"

He didn't turn back, he just walked straight. Somewhere between the paths from Brooklyn's room to his room in the Palace Assistant Living Quarters, he muttered, "You're too precious to lose."

Sam and Kayden had reached the Palace Assistant Living Quarters the night before. Prince—soon to be King—Atlas wished that the Secretary escort them to the room in the Quarters that is closest to the Prison Tower Cluster. The maids were duly surprised to see a lady of such high ranking position escorting two normal—but very good looking—boys to their rooms. They all understood not to mess with the two immediately; they had been ordered not to speak of the two outside the palace by the Prince.

"This is your room," Ryoko said before pointing to the opposite direction, "and this is yours."

Sam and Kayden were holding hands even than and they looked at both their rooms with disappointment. Sam spoke first, "Um..Madam…why two rooms?"

She looked at Sam like she was looking at an elementary kid, "Because you are two people."

Kayden smiled and let go of Sam's hand, "What he meant was that we are used to staying together and it would actually be really cool if we could share a room."

Ryoko shifted her tab in her hands, "Kayden, isn't that your name? You are here to work. Nothing in the palace is really cool. Understood?" she warned and then smiled, switching personalities effortlessly and walking away, nodding at the maids and their daughters.

"Guess we have to sleep like that then," Sam admitted and smiled at Kayden. Kayden laughed and nodded and they locked themselves up in their separate rooms. Little did they know that out of all the rooms in the Palace Assistant Living Quarters, these two rooms, the ones Sam and Kayden were assigned to had something very different about them.

Hidden, in the corners of each room were little black glass circle things wirelessly connected to the computer in Prince—soon to be King—Atlas's bedroom, and that computer showed a 4K image of both rooms under surveillance. The Prince was watching them right now…he had to, they were test subjects for his mission after all and he can't lose sight of them.

Sam and Kayden thought they were hired to work for the stables and clean horses. How wrong they were.