Chapter 103: Music to My Ears

Code’s POV

64:37:04… 03… 02…

It all happened so fast. The shock of seeing Scar impacted me more than I would’ve liked. I hadn’t even processed that he name-dropped ‘Zeris’ instead of ‘Crow’ until after Cliff was lying in a puddle of his own blood, dead in the center of camp. Deep breaths… take deep breaths… I need to calm down.

As I worked to do so, everybody was deathly silent, a different spread of emotions portrayed on each person’s face. The only noise presently trumping my breathing was the birds chirping in the trees surrounding us. Scar had proposed a question to everybody, including myself… I heard it, but still… I didn’t know what to do. A voice then spoke, and it wasn’t mine.

“S- Scar…” stutters Ember, transferring her conflicted gaze from Cliff’s limp body to Scar. “How did you know Crow’s real name?”

“I’ve been silently waiting outside the camp for a little while, not too long, though. I was kind of eavesdropping on the conversation and heard the name come up. It wasn’t difficult to put two and two together…. Crow was only a placeholder name after all,” he replies with no indications of malice in his voice, which alone… is frightening. He has just killed a man... how is he able to talk so calmly to us?

“I see… that makes sense,” says Ember, her tone and body language not as composed.

“Are you-” begins Forest, and Scar promptly turns to face him, sending a shiver down Forest’s spine. “Cliff... Cliff mentioned that one of us remembers their past life. As… recent events have shown… that person is obviously you… am I correct in assuming so?”

My ears perk up.

Forest makes a good point... by revealing that he has powers like Ace… it only makes sense that Scar has been hiding them from us this whole time, right? But… why? Why not tell us about this stuff earlier?? He would’ve been our greatest weapon against Zeris. We could’ve planned around him! Is this why he banished Ace? Because he didn’t want anybody that could even remotely oppose his abilities close to him? Was he scared we would react the same way and hold a trial for him if he unveiled his powers, too?

“And what if it is?” prompts Scar, raising his weapon toward Forest. “Is it an issue if I do?”

Forest quickly raises his hands in front of his chest, “No… no, I was only asking a question. I have no quarrels with you, Scar.”

Wearing a serious expression, parts of Scar’s face still glow a prominent silver as his eyebrows appear to knit closer together. Blood drips off the glass blade as the few seconds between Forest’s response and Scar’s following words feel like hours. Waiting to see how Scar reacts, I can only hold my breath, manifesting the image of numerous potential futures.

“As expected of you, Forest,” finally says Scar. “You’ve always been reasonable, good with your words, clever too. As for my memories… as you’ve already figured out, yes… I do remember my life. How did Cliff know?”

“Zeris… Zeris told him. He… Cliff, I mean, he said that Zeris never mentioned who it was...” answers Forest, his voice trailing off as a slick gleam of sweat perspires on his face and neck.

Scar brings a hand to his chin, peering down at Cliff, “Zeris told him? Hmm, interesting. I suppose I should’ve kept him alive a little longer… what else did Cliff tell you?”

Pressurized to answer back-to-back questions, Forest struggles to keep his voice steady as he regrets speaking up in the first place, “To be honest, we heard two different stories from Cliff, and I couldn’t genuinely tell you which one was real and which one was fake. But both stories maintained a few constants. For one, Ace killed Blue by utilizing his fire powers. And second, Ace was with Zeris; the two apparently acted as partners. Sky can also confirm this. The rest of his stories… pretty much contained facts that contradicted one another.”

“So not only did Zeris rope Ace into his schemes, but Ace took his first life… he sure has changed a lot in a short time considering how he acted during the trial. Oh well, Cliff seems just as useless dead as he would be alive, although beating the truth out of him wouldn't have hurt. And Forest… you’re sweating like crazy. You can relax,” says Scar, his voice as emotionless as ever.

Wiping up the sweat on his face with his shirt, Forest awkwardly chuckles.

Is Forest cracking under pressure? Is this a test from Scar? I understand that Cliff wanted to kill Scar, but with what I just saw… Scar could’ve just knocked the guy out. He didn’t need to kill Cliff…

“With all due respect, you just killed somebody twice my size. I believe I’m entitled to be a little frightened… a little shellshocked... but once again, I assure you that I have no issues with you, Scar.”

Scar huffs to Forest’s carefully articulated words, “Don’t sweat it. I suppose the average person would react similarly to such a display of power.”

Now that I think about it, Scar hasn’t ever been fazed by any of us dying, has he? With this new development, there’s a lot about Scar I need to unpack, but many of his actions could probably be explained much more clearly now… especially his plan from the other day. He knew he was never in danger, and if Scar wanted to whittle down the herd a little without showing blame to himself… he’s succeeded at that, as Ace and Zeris have taken the frontal blame for everything. In fact, Cliff was the only one that has called Scar out, and Scar didn’t waste any time getting rid of him.

As I got lost in my thoughts, Scar scanned the line of faces, locking eyes with each of us, including myself. After doing so, he walked over, sat on a nearby stump near the fire, and proclaimed while pointing the tip of his blade toward us, “From here on out, I’m taking control. Listen closely. I’m leaving at dusk tonight for the maze. Trust me when I say... this camp is no longer safe. That timer over there indicates exactly that, right? We’re pressed for time, which means we need to get moving. My goal is to defeat Zeris and escape this place. Anyone who has any issues with my plan, come forward now. If you don’t, and I find out later… you’ll regret it.”

Stolen story; please report.

Hearing his declaration, a lump instantly swells in my throat while my chest tingles in discomfort.

No… shit! He can’t just walk in like he owns the place and boss us around! We have the tools and the equipment! Hold your positions, everyone… we retain the knowledge!

No, we don’t… he overheard me talking to Cliff. And if he listened as early as I mentioned the name ‘Zeris’, he knows all about the beacons and map model! Everything was going perfectly, everything! If Scar didn’t show up when he did… if he just… damn it!

“Code…”

I was suddenly hooked out of my thoughts when I heard my name coldly spoken. Gazing in his direction, Scar was already staring right at me, his eyes dull and his face frowning.

“As I said, if you disagree, come forward now… Code. I can see it on your face, and I also saw this look on your face yesterday. You resent me, don’t you?”

“I’d advise you to speak your mind now. You won’t die. I see no benefits in killing people unless I feel obligated to do so. Cliff wanted me dead, and obviously, I can't die just yet,” says Scar, his menacing silver gaze so fierce that even though he was seated, it felt like he was looking down on me from the heavens above. My life was in his hands, and yet…

“We need to stay here… we have to stay here!” I declare, terrified at how Scar will react, not daring to look away from his icy glare.

After a few seconds, he says, “I never said you couldn’t stay, did I? Like last time, I won’t attempt to stop anyone who chooses not to follow my command. However, I will say that I won’t be able to protect you from Zeris. You heard what I said earlier about the camp being unsafe, right? You’ll be throwing your life away if you choose to stay.”

“What makes you so sure?” I ask, taking a breath to gather my thoughts and theories. “I already doubted this… but you never searched for me yesterday, did you?”

“Wrong, I did look for you, just not as extensively as I said. I was also telling the truth about waking up and not seeing you, but I ran into some trouble after that.”

“Trouble…” I start, and then I remember something Scar mentioned earlier. “You said Zeris was close. Did you actually run into him after all?”

“Yeah… I fought him.”

His fear suppressed in light of curiosity, Hunter pipes up, “You… fought Zeris? And you walked away from that battle without a scratch on you?”

“Not exactly. It was a back-and-forth fight. We both sustained injuries, but with our abilities, our bodies can heal much faster than an average human. Look at this,” says Scar, lifting the bottom of his shirt to reveal a fresh scar across his midsection.

Behind that, a collage of older scars overlapped and blended into one another, different shades of skin painting his body. My mouth gapes open.

Just how many battles has he fought??

“I got cut pretty good, but I delivered a much worse blow to him. That’s probably why Zeris hasn’t made a move yet… he has to wait and allow his body to recover. But next time, I’ll defeat him.”

As Scar’s words set in, everybody hushed as they processed what he had said and just showed us. Many questions were bouncing around in my head, but I didn’t know how to formulate any of those thoughts into words or coherent sentences. So I waited for somebody else to say something. Scar already knew where I stood… my position was against his wishes. I would rather not say anything now until another person voices a similar stance.

“Since Ace is now working with Zeris, does defeating Zeris mean you’re going to defeat Ace too?” abruptly asks Delta, who had been uncharacteristically waiting and listening all this time. It’s sort of eye-opening to see this side of her… her determination to one day kill Ace is commendable.

“If that’s how it is, then yeah. Ace will have to go down too, and I’ll let you clean up his scraps if you wish,” responds Scar.

Her eyes narrow as Delta says, “As long as the fatal blow is carried out by my hand, I’ll follow you anywhere into battle against those bastards."

Delta's allegiance became visually apparent when she walked over and stood alongside Scar. I was shocked. Scar had literally just killed somebody right in front of us, and Delta didn’t even care. To be frank, although she wasn’t emotionless, Delta also hasn’t appeared to care about anyone who has died except for Grace, and even that seems like an excuse for her to follow through on this hellbent pursuit of vengeance.

Shit… Scar knows so much! If he has his memories, he knows where we are… what we’re doing… the purpose of these trials! And nobody has asked him about any of that! I can’t now… because he knows where I stand, damn it! If only I had kept my mouth shut…! If I only could maintain a better poker face! Out of everybody here, only Ember and Forest have probably thought along a similar wavelength at some point. I have no idea what the two of them are thinking right now! The rest are captivated by Scar’s strength and terrified to disobey or question him.

No matter what contingencies I can conjure up, I won’t be able to steal any sway from Scar… and if by someone in a million chance that I do, he can just kill me to eliminate the problem. I won’t go down without a fight, but I have a grave feeling that I might be out of my league here…

Faith was standing beside me, and she was shaken up, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of the quick turn of events of Scar murdering Cliff... or if she was caught in the dilemma that Scar had forced on all of us. Maybe it was both and a few other things piled on top. Perhaps… she feels indebted to Scar? She did say she could never trust Cliff again… who knows?

As she glimpsed at me, she quickly averted her gaze, for some reason wanting to avoid eye contact.

I say, “Go with your gut, don't worry about me.”

Out of the blue, Hunter walks over to Scar and says, “I’ll join you, but I’m not doing this for you or me. I’m doing it for Falc.”

Scar looks Hunter in the eye and then gives him a meaningful nod.

As proposed by Scar, we seven have been given a choice. I made it clear that I rejected his offer, while Hunter and Delta joined him for personal reasons. Now, there are four left undecided. Sky, Faith, Forest, and Ember. I’m stuck where I am, and any unnecessary moves might trigger Scar.

Considering Hunter just joined Scar, Forest may feel it's necessary to follow suit and do the same, although I wouldn’t chalk him up to be a guy who easily gives in to peer pressure. Like Forest, after hearing Hunter’s reasoning, Sky may also deem it essential to play a part in trying to avenge her two friends. She’s stayed relatively optimistic since I’ve returned, but her usual bright smile is no longer natural… it’s being forced. What Ace and Zeris did is something Sky won’t ever forget, I’m sure of it.

Ember and Faith are complete wildcards, much more so than Sky and Forest. Of the five groups that dispersed two days ago, theirs was the only one that Zeris didn’t toy with. Delta is the exception from their group, as she had previously been involved in the aftermath of Zeris’s past actions when Grace was killed. On the other hand, Ember and Faith have not seen Zeris yet, so where their emotions and loyalties lie is a mystery.

“I won’t go… I’m staying here too,” a voice then says.

Those words were music to my ears... my eyes glimmering with revitalized hope.

Maybe… just maybe, I can turn things around and seize control of the leadership role once more.