“Oh! Anna—” Caleb began to say before he cut himself off.
Caleb was too overtaken by his own delusions to notice that while Anna was approaching him, she wasn’t doing so in a happy or joyful manner, she was actually running at him, a sword in each hand.
Anna was in front of him before he could even process what he was seeing. Her face depicted a fury that Caleb could never believe was meant for him. In his mind, she looked like a goddess of vengeance.
I wonder which poor fool is her target, he thought. Oh, Anna, always so—
Before he could think any further, Anna raised her broken sword and brought it down with as much force as she could muster.
It wasn’t only strength; it was also an amount of “sharpness” that she had never used before. In fact, her sword never even touched her target, only the conceptual energy that surrounded it did.
Caleb looked at her with admiration, never once thinking that he could ever possibly be her target. Even as he stopped feeling his left foot and as a he began to feel an excruciating pain through his left calf. It wasn’t until he hit the ground that he finally realized what had just happened.
Part of Caleb’s mind finally began to make sense of things and realized he was actually in danger. He reached for his book, hoping that it would help him in some way, but it didn’t, it was silent.
Unbeknownst to Caleb, the book was spent, it would never shine again. The book was created for one purpose and one purpose only. Even the energy that it had at its disposal was calculated, there was no room for error, but of course there wouldn’t be.
Using pure survival instinct, he tried to crawl away from Anna, only to feel sharp objects dig into his shoulder. The pressure on his shoulder and that the sharp objects dug deeper. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted to his knees.
He was frantic. This wasn’t like when he fought against Eric. He no longer had help and someone who was supposed to be his friend was only causing him pain. Then he felt a sharp pain assault his other shoulder, the pressure now holding him in place.
He slowly turned his head back, trembling as he did so. When he laid eyes on the person holding him down his sense of despair grew deeper.
“No, no, no, no,” he began to mumble. “My friends, mine, why?”
His mind was a mess. In front of him was Anna, who had just attacked him and caused him to fall, though he still didn’t know what she had done, he only felt the pain on his left calf.
And behind him, behind him was Alex, with an expressionless face, as if in a daze himself. He used his stone-covered hands to hold Caleb in place. His arms trembled as he barely held back the violence that he wanted to inflict upon his captive.
Still shaking, Caleb turned his gaze back to Anna. Seeing that she now had his full attention, raised her broken sword and pointed it at his neck.
“Where did Eric go?” Anna asked, her lips trembling.
----------
It was impossible to hide it for long, especially when Lydia and Connor began to openly interrogating people in the middle of the middle of the dirt roads that had been formed through repeated use. It was even harder to hide when they began to drag people into a currently unfinished prototype building.
The people they dragged away were those that once protected them. Not all of them were taken, only some. Others ran away in fear of what might happen, but oddly enough, they were ignored, leaving the people that observed confused.
It quickly became clear that they were only after specific individuals who just happened to be in the previous security force. It didn’t take long for people to begin speculating.
Lydia had asked the people she interviewed to keep quiet and not mention anything of what they had told her, to anyone else. But when the interviewed people stopped doing what they were doing and gathered to see what was happening, they thought that it no longer mattered and shared what they saw and experienced.
Connor and Lydia were passing by, dragging a young man who was kicking and screaming to be let go. He constantly shouted stuff about being of the only ones that knew what had to be done.
At first, the gathered crowd made uncomfortable faces, believing that none of what they had done was bad enough to be detained for. It wasn’t until a child, tired of being ignored by the crowd, shouted that he saw one of them hand the madman the knife he used.
Though in reality, the child was lying—not intentionally, but he was. He did see a man of Asian features hand the knife to the madman; it just wasn’t the man that they were currently dragging into the building. At the time of the event, he was tired and hungry, the fact that he was still alive was a miracle, seeing clearly was asking for too much.
The crowd’s attitude quickly shifted, not because they blindly believed the child, but because others, who had seen who it was that handed the madman the knife, began to speak up. They quickly associated the leader of labs and those that were being taken.
----------
Connor narrowed his eyes toward the crowd as he pulled the struggling young man. He had been nervous at the beginning. Not nervous to do what he had to, but nervous to stop those that interfered.
In his work, it wasn’t odd that people would behave irrationally once cornered. This didn’t only apply to the targeted individuals, but also to the people that gathered and observed. They would quickly form an opinion and either make things worse by trying to help the target or make it worse by trying to help him and his team.
The gathered crowd was still making opinions and judgements, but they did it slowly and orderly. The most interference he had encountered was from an older man who asked him for an explanation and refused to move.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
It wasn’t until Lydia explained that the man might be related to the madman incident, that the older man nodded and made way.
Even when the crowd’s opinion turned favorable, they still didn’t do anything to interfere. The last of the targets had been hiding inside the crowd and instead of them grabbing the target themselves, risking injury and making it worse, they instead opened up, allowing easy access.
It wasn’t uncommon, in fact it was incredibly common for people to think that they helped by taking matters into their own hands, when in reality they would most likely just complicate things.
“Weird,” Connor said as he and Lydia left the main crowd. “The crowd’s too organized,”
“Huh?” Lydia turned her head, taking a second to process what Connor had said before thinking it over. “You’re right but isn’t it better like this?” she asked, turning to look in front of her.
Connor shook his head and stopped talking, seemingly letting the topic go. Internally though, he couldn’t shake how odd it was. It wasn’t just this, it was everything. People just seemed to adjust way too fast.
Connor, Lydia and the last target, entered the building, moving as quickly as possible toward the center of the room, where both Stella and Marcus were busy with their own tasks.
The prototype building was a warehouse, large enough to fit all the excess supplies they had begun to accumulate. It was completely constructed using wood. The carpenters had begun to branch out, not only making boards, but also plywood and structural lumber.
Though the finished products were still unsafe, and the very warehouse they were currently in would probably have to be demolished, which is why it was chosen.
Stella was attaching extra restraints onto two other people and the chairs they were tied to. Marcus was preparing the only empty chair in the room, also attaching more restraints.
They had prepared the chairs and restraints beforehand. They weren’t for a “just in case” scenario, they were specifically made for the three people that they had brought in.
----------
For over an hour, they had conducted an interrogation that had brought little answers. No matter what questions were asked, the two men and one woman, refused to answer. For some reason, they made it clear that they knew the answers to their questions but refused to answer.
Stella lifted her head, once again looking at the woman in front of her. “Why are you targeting Eric?” she asked, her voice still seething with barely contained rage.
The woman didn’t answer.
Connor shifted in place, making enough sound to remind Stella that he was there and that he was willing to do what was needed.
Before they began to search for the three currently bound people, Connor made it clear that they might not be willing to cooperate and that there might even be otherworldly stuff involved. If that were the case, they might need more extreme measures.
Stella vehemently refused as memories began to swell in the back of her mind. She reminded him, that measures like torture rarely worked and that they might just give false information.
Connor on the other hand, had a different, even more drastic idea in mind.
“We already know that Caleb is behind this,” Lydia said, emerging from behind Stella and focusing on the other two restrained people. “People saw him handing the madman the knife, and others saw him in the forest, messing with magic circles. I just want to know why.”
“You don’t have to worry, we’re the good guys,” one of them said, his eyes conveying certainty in his words.
“Yeah,” the second man added with a smile. “Just trust in your best friend, Stella.”
Stella frowned. “What does Eric have to do with this?” She glanced between them, genuinely puzzled. “Isn’t he the target?”
All three of the captives made faces full of disgust. The woman even spat. “He’s not your friend, he’s not supposed to be here,” she said, spitting once more after she spoke.
“Your best friend is Caleb, it was always meant to be him,” one of the men said, his expression showing clear determination.
“Yes, we’re just making things right. The way it’s supposed to be,” the other man added, his belief unshakable.
Stella took a few steps back. The certainty with which they spoke was not normal. They firmly believed what they were saying. She wasn’t an interrogation expert, but what little she did know told her that the people in front of her were telling her the truth, or at least what they believed to be the truth.
It was so unnatural that it made her doubt herself.
No, she thought to herself. I barely know Caleb. Eric, and probably everyone else has interacted with him more than I have.
Her thoughts flashed back to the time she spent at labs, and no matter how much she searched, her interactions with Caleb were basically nonexistent. Every time she needed one of the tools that he was in charge of, somebody else would go as she was usually in charge of planning.
Even now, their interactions were few and far between, and they hadn’t really interacted much since their initial meeting.
When they first met, he seemed normal. Lydia had described some desperate attitudes, and she had observed some of them during recent encounters. But the difference between the man she first met and the man who appeared to be responsible for what was happening, was completely different.
She made a note of what she considered to be an abrupt change in Caleb’s behavior and shook her head lightly. With a light shake of her head, she dispelled any creeping questions and faced the three once more.
“Why do you think Caleb’s my best friend?” she asked slowly, raising a hand as soon as one of them tried to interrupt. “And why is it so important that I am?”
“He is your best friend, and it isn’t important,” the woman answered, her gaze firmly on Stella. “It doesn’t matter how you feel about it.”
“What’s important,” the man beside her continued, “is what you two are going to do together.”
“W—”
“You’ll save the world,” the remaining man said, stopping Stella from even asking the question.
Connor, Lydia, Marcus and Stella exchanged looks, though the look that exchanged between the couple carried a deeper meaning. The couple could more or less guess the dangers that awaited in the future.
World were merged, that meant that there could be other people or even other species that are hostile. There were also other humans from earth that could be hostile. Then there were the incursions. They knew that they were currently in the first wave of incursions and someone like Ratsvalch was already here, many more like him could arrive. And last, but not least, the monsters were getting stronger.
That meant that when he said they would save the world, it could be anything or maybe it was everything.
Suddenly the door to the warehouse swung open. The first to enter was Anna, with Alex following closely behind, as he dragged an unconscious person behind him. Rage was evident in both their faces.
----------
Deep in space, around the edges of the newly rearranged galaxy N24-895, a crack appeared. It started small, as a barely noticeable tear in the protection that enveloped it. Suddenly, a surge of power rushed through, followed quickly by another, and then another. Some of the powers were similar, but most were unique.
The rush of power did not stop, and the crack grew wider with each passing moment. Just when it looked like the crack would continue to grow forever, it stopped.
Unauthorized incursion detected!
Beginning containment.
Please hold.
----------
Somewhere within galaxy N24-895, a light shone, and a body fell.
Eric opened his single eye and that was all he could do. He tried to lift himself up, but the weight he felt was immense, pinning him in place. His body was wholly incapable of lifting it, even with his new stats. He then tried to breath, only to realize that he couldn’t, his lungs refused to work properly. Panic quickly began to set in.
Desperate, he strained to lift his gaze, hoping for something—anything—that could help. But the only thing he saw was a pitch-black darkness, interrupted only by the occasional shining light and the rough, uneven rock surface beneath him.
As he closed his eye, passing out due to the combination of lack of oxygen and the accumulated fatigue, a giant looming shadow took over the rocky surface that was directly in front of him.