400 IQ

400 IQ Power of the Mind

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space , or so they say , the sc avius

Joshua’s spaceship, rattled as it sped through space and towards the unknown. Joshua clenched his jaw against the clattering sound, unbearably loud to his sensitive ears. The monitor beeped, informing him of SC AVius’ parts that had taken a hit when he’d left Earth’s gravitational pull. SC Avius wasn’t complete when Joshua had taken it into space. It still needed a lot of work before it was safe for travel but Joshua didn’t have the time, not with Earth’s renowned intelligence agencies after him.

Joshua watched the Earth in the onboard camera of his spaceship: the blue and green planet, with its solitary moon becoming smaller and smaller. Pressing his lips in a thin line, he tried to subdue the raging emotions that threatened to resurface as his twenty three years on the planet flashed through his mind’s eye. He could recall each and every moment spent on the planet with crystal clarity, recite everything he’d learned about it by heart.

And that was the very thing that had led to his current predicament: he knew too much.

“This was the only way,” he told himself. With one final glance at the beautiful planet, half shrouded in the darkness speckled with bright lights similar to sparkling stars up in the sky, he pushed the lever, and disappeared into the dark folds of the vast space.

***

Twenty three years ago, Joshua Warner, subject0124, was ‘born’ in The Test Center of the Detection of Xenogenics. His first memory, upon opening his eyes, had been of numerous faces bent over him, peering down at him in palpable excitement, followed by loud jeering that had lasted for hours. It was only a year later when he’d learned of his true origins. He was a human yet not. He was an intelligent species created secretly in the labs. By the time he was five, he had already figured out the details of his existence. He knew more about himself than the scientists themselves did. A few experiences had taught him to keep his mouth shut. To keep what he knew to himself because there were people who didn’t like being told what to do.

His country was going to war and the government had demanded the development of biological weapons. This was the reason behind his existence. All the scientists and other intellectual minds had tried and failed to create the intelligent human being, one that was a repository of vast knowledge of unconquerable strategies about warfare, ability to design formidable weapons and possessed farsightedness to take humanity to the new heights of glory. After three long decades, came subject0124, the physical manifestation of all that they had been working to make come true. Joshua’s existence had given the scientists a new hope, buoyed by the success of creating subject 0124, they were more determined to create another of his kind.

Joshua knew that they were going to fail, but he never voiced it.

Joshua’s first five years were spent solely in labs. The scientists studied him, experimented on him and tried to replicate him to no avail. At last, they turned their entire focus on him for he was the only fruit of their decades’ long hard work. They taught him the ways of the world, the cultures and religions that existed. They taught him languages and before he knew it, he’d mastered thirty different languages when the scientists had tried to teach him only ten. Joshua Warner wasn’t just a successful experiment. He had the appearance of an attractive male with two brains and an IQ of over 400. Scientists had tried but failed to calculate his exact IQ level. In the documents, Joshua had an IQ of 400+ and he had the ability to perceive and predict.

When Joshua had hit nine, he’d been let out of the underground labs. On his way out, he’d taken note of the different mechanisms and structure of the labs, the intricate passageways and the security systems, because he knew that he wouldn't be returning to them. There was too much for him to explore in the world and he couldn’t spend his entire life being caged up like a rat to be studied and experimented upon.

Once on the surface, the scientists had let him walk in the vast garden. He’d stepped on the cool ground, and had calculated the percentages of different minerals in the sand that cushioned his bare feet. He’d made note of the hollowness underneath the ground at some locations, and had smiled to himself. Without an entourage of scientists on his heels, Joshua had taken his time studying the plants with his naked eyes. In the labs, he’d been taught through pictures, videos and simulation which didn’t hold a candle to the real thing. The scent of the tree bark, leaves and the silken surface of the flower petals under his fingertips… These couldn’t be replicated in the labs. Joshua had felt the air on his face and had enjoyed its caress on his bare skin for the first time. He’d closed his eyes to the wind whispering secrets in his ears as it passed.

“It’s going to rain,” Joshua had said when Sophia Collins neared. Although she was motherly for a scientist (as motherly one could be towards a science experiment that was being primed for destruction) there was always this calculative look in her eyes. Joshua knew better than to think she thought of him something other than what he truly was but he hadn’t held that against her. He was different.

“I’m sure the weather forecast already knows that.”

“No. It’s going to rain three days from now. At exactly 15:43.”

Sophia didn’t respond as she’d taken that in. Then, she’d crouched down to his eye level and had placed her clammy hands on his bony shoulders.

“How do you know? How did you calculate?”

“You should know the answer by now, Sophia.” Joshua had replied with a knowing smile. “How many predictions of mine have gone wrong?”

None. Sophia had known. She’d forced a smile at him and had turned on her heels without a word.

It was at that moment that Joshua had made his escape from the labs. He’d watched Sophia go over to the guards, and had seen her instruct them to keep an eye on him. She’d then taken the elevator and back into the labs under the ground. Joshua had known that she’d gone to report the other scientists. He’d also calculated the total time it’d take her to reach Dr. Skyler’s office and for them to make it back to him. He’d also calculated the body mass and speed of the guards by studying their physique. They weren’t allowed to shoot him which meant they were ordered to catch him alive and unharmed if he were to ever escape. Joshua had also known that if he were to make a run now, it’d take exactly three minutes for the guards to catch up to him. And if they were to sound an alarm, Joshua would be caught in under two minutes. No, he hadn’t planned to escape from the well-guarded gate or the barbed wire walls. He’d planned to escape from the tunnels underneath the very ground he stood on.

Joshua had nonchalantly walked over to a clump of trees on the far left side of the laboratory’s grounds. He’d walked around and when the ground had made a soft groaning sound under his weight beside a lush shrub, he’d smiled. He’d found a trapdoor.

Joshua had been well three miles away from the laboratory when the alarms had sounded. He’d felt vehicles up on the roads and had heard thundering of the guards’ footsteps in the forests surrounding the laboratory as he’d traveled in the tunnel under the ground. He’d done his research before he’d attempted to escape. The Test Center of the Detection of Xenogenics had been built over an intelligence headquarters in the early twenty-first century. The former headquarters had a number of escape tunnels which were sealed off when the Xenogenics team took over. They’d forgotten it with time, but Joshua had been planning.

Three long days later, Joshua had stepped out of the tunnel and into a small town. His face was plastered all over the walls and flashing on the street screens. The scenes that had unfolded in front of him when he’d emerged from the tunnels had hit him hard, taking his breath away. Finally, he was physically on the streets, something he’d only witnessed from the other end of the screens. He’d wanted to stand and study the people and take note of their lifestyles but the clock had been ticking. Joshua had lowered his head and had approached a man with a laptop. It hadn’t taken long for a nine-year old boy to hack on the advertisement networks and take down his posters throughout the country. He’d known that the intelligence would be able to track him to this town, so he’d made haste. By the time elite soldiers had emerged from the tunnels he’d taken, and the army had apprehended the owner of that laptop, Joshua Warner had long disappeared.

Mueller Burton, a farmer in one of the quaintest towns of the state, had lost his wife and son in an accident. They’d been coming back from the market, full shopping bags and bright smiles, when a lorry collided with their beat up truck. His wife had lost her life on the impact while his son had held on only to pass away on the ambulance ride. Mueller had subjected his life to hard work and alcohol. During the day, he worked on the farm and the barn, during the night, he sought solace in drinks. Joshua Warner, a nine year old boy drenched in the rain turning up on his doorstep had been a turning point.

Joshua had done his math. At nine, he’d been able to study Mueller’s lifestyle and his nonexistent interaction with technology. He was the perfect person to hide with and he did so. When Mueller took him in, he didn’t ask many questions. He was desperate to have a family again and having Joshua in his life made him believe that his son was back from the dead. Joshua put up no resistance when Mueller gave him an identity; it’s not like he had any or was present in the system.

The old man himself didn’t have any qualms about taking in a strange little boy. So desperate he was to be given another chance that there were times he’d blur reality and fantasy; there were so many occasions where he talked about his son as if he were Joshua.

“My Corey used to laugh like that.”

“Corey would’ve done exactly the same.”

“That’s what Corey would’ve thought.”

Joshua managed well. Wherever he went, he took care of the CCTVs; hacking into the systems and leaving no traces of interference. Years passed and Joshua settled into his new life. He began helping Mueller with the farm and the animals and even went to school. Despite all this, the government’s shadow was a nefarious presence that lurked in the periphery. They had never stopped looking for him. Sometimes, they got too close and Joshua put distance between them by giving them new leads.

At school, Joshua hadn’t tried to show off. There was safety in mediocrity. Despite his best efforts to go unnoticed, others had begun to realize how intelligent he was. Teachers had praised him for his diligence and quick-thinking. His fellow students had wanted to be close to him. He’d never let them for he always saw, read their emotions and predicted their actions.

Humans, Joshua had realized, were too predictable. They let their emotions guide them and made worse decisions based on their ‘gut feelings’. They didn’t have the ability to think anything through. They did what they ‘felt’ was right. It rarely ended well.

When the others had tried to befriend him or had gotten too close, Joshua had given them the cold shoulder. He’d taken care to cultivate the reputation of being unapproachable and tended to keep it that way. Joshua had thought he was free of having his worth measured and examined when he left the labs, but he discovered that out here was like that as well. Behind every friendly smile were the calculations about how beneficial he could be for them. They’d sought him for their own sakes and none of them had been truly honest towards him. Everyone had something to gain by earning his trust. But he had none to give.

Joshua had kept a distance with Mueller as well. The man had housed him, and loved him—for himself. Deep down, Mueller had always known that Joshua wasn’t his son. Most of the time, he had been cautious of the boy and with time, he had begun to speculate about Joshua’s background. Joshua had studied the man he’d come to call father and knew that one day, he was going to betray him.

And betray he did.

Joshua had never lost sight of his mission. He’d wanted out. Ever since he’d started living with the others, he’d seen how humans could be. He’d realized that he couldn’t live with them as one of them, and started searching for ways out.

Into space.

This thought had him drafting escape routes and designing blueprints for his own spaceship. By the time he’d hit twenty-three, he was almost done. But time wasn’t on his side because that was when Mueller came across Joshua’s wanted poster from years ago; hanging on the wall of some pub he’d stumbled into on a drunken night. That’s when he’d decided to call the government and tell them about the boy he’d been housing for over fourteen years. Of course, Joshua had confronted him and had told him how this was going to end for both of them.

“Boy, I would advise you against it.” Old Mueller pleaded with Josh at the dinner table when Joshua told him that he was going to escape now. Josh released an exasperated sigh and fixed his old man with a disapproving stare.

“You do realize that you never called me by name?”

“I…” Mueller was speechless. He spluttered for a moment before he looked up at Joshua with resolve. “You’re not my son.”

“I never was. Why did you take me in?”

“Why did you come to me?”

Joshua laughed, a heartless sound that made Mueller angrier.

“I had nowhere else to go. No place to call home. I stumbled upon you and you were the best person to hide me from the prying eyes of the government.”

“That’s why you stayed?”

“Yes. But I knew how this would end. I predicted it just like I always predicted the weather and your lottery numbers. You never lost, did you?”

Mueller had nothing to say to that, lowering his head. Joshua smiled. It was not a kind smile.