The sun was almost hiding once more, late afternoon. It was quiet for the moment. All of the excitement stood behind them. A brief reprieve from the chaos. It often seemed as though it would never end. A continuous struggle forced to repeat in great frequency. When the calm came, it could be felt through the entire group.
Despite their group being no larger than when they started their journey into Atlantis, it felt bigger. In fact, they were short one to have the original count. Yet it felt almost unmanageably large. Too large for anyone to hold together. Everything seemed ready to fly apart. No one knew what held it all together. They just kept going forward.
It wasn’t even the presence of their newest friends that kept everyone quiet. It happened naturally. Everyone had their own problems. Something kept their thoughts elsewhere. Only a few stayed vigilant, keeping them ahead of their pursuers. A couple of skirmishes interrupted the pace, quickly handled.
Appearing next to Yumi, Chiharu leaned a little towards her. “There’s someone moving ahead. They’re coming in our direction.” Her eyes slid back towards where she sighted the figure.
Motioning to Nerine, their transport slowed down. “Can you tell who it is?” She looked head over the front of the truck even though her sight would never find anything, not at such a distance.
“No, it’s just movement right now. They’re using the forest to avoid being seen.”
“There’s a lot of these forests,” she commented. They already had to deal with ambushes from anything that obstructed their sight. It made everyone paranoid the moment they saw another if there would be an attack. “Alright, Miss Nerine, please avoid the forest ahead.”
“I understand!” The vehicle responded to her request pulling to the left and increasing speed. They had less of a need for moving straight with the spire in the Capital on the horizon as their signpost. They couldn’t be lost with it in sight.
Yumi leaned over a little to Chiharu, while watching ahead at the forest moving to their flank. “What are they doing?”
“They’re moving to intercept. They spotted us.”
Her eyes went down briefly. Then she pushed back looking at Saki. “Saki, we’ve been spotted. I need you to handle it.”
She nodded in silence to Yumi. Checking with Chiharu, she received the location pointed out. Immediately disappearing, her wake made the truck rock a little. Saki seemed like a person driven and hardened. A different look was in her eyes since talking to Yumi. She handled most of the problems before they became ones. Nothing would stand between her and what her eyes locked upon.
Opening the window into the driver’s seat, Yumi poked her head through. “How are you feeling? How much longer can you go before you need a rest?”
“I’m fine,” she insisted. Nerine tried to motion with her body to dismiss any concern for her well-being.
Yumi’s eyes narrowed a bit. “I know you’re trained for this and a soldier, but you’re still human.”
The way Yumi said it made Nerine turn her head back. She tried to hide her surprise. “Thank you for your concern, but I can keep going.”
“You don’t need to push yourself to breaking. We still have more than a day’s travel. You’re going to need to be able to act when we reach the Capital.”
Nerine could see the insistence of an immovable wall out of Yumi. She would press the issue until she relented. All she could do was face forward. “A couple of hours.”
“It’ll be getting dark by then, sounds like a perfect time to rest.” A bit of a smile moved through her lips as she pulled out. Yumi glanced back at Chiharu. “What’s the word?”
“There was something briefly, likely her attack, but it’s been silent since.”
Yumi looked over at the forest again. It didn’t make any sense. “If Saki dealt with the problem, she should be back by now.” Thoughts immediately went to the worst cases. It was all just speculation, but it was possible to have run across someone Saki could not defeat.
However, before any plans could be made, Saki appeared to dispel any worry. “Found someone.” She threw back her hand pointing with her thumb. The figure Chiharu tracked surfaced from the shadows of the trees.
Haruo appeared.
Chapter 231 – Silent Progress
Loaded up and moving again, they all surrounded Haruo. Everyone sat in a circle almost as though he was in for an interrogation.
“Weren’t you with Yuki and Ayumi?” asked Yumi, needing to confirm it.
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He nodded. “Until a couple hours ago.”
“Hey man!” shouted Seiji. He patted him on the back genuinely glad to see another friend. Everyone seemed to be returning. “It’s good to see you’re still in one piece!”
Haruo glanced at Seiji. ‘He’s a lot like Yuki. Overly familiar.’ It was something he tried to get used to dealing with since meeting Yuki. His caution in dealing with others left him with no way to deal with people like Yuki and Seiji.
“Sorry again for attacking you,” Saki inserted, clearly bothered by her mistake.
“You attacked him?”
“Yes, Seiji! Shout it louder, why don’t you!” She received a penetrating look from Seiji. “I didn’t know it was him. Chiharu spotted someone, we assumed it was another of those Omega people.”
He stared Haruo up and down. “You don’t look harmed. I’m impressed you took her first strike. She’s pretty ruthless.”
“I was holding back! I wasn’t using my full strength! I wouldn’t have hurt him.” Seiji grinned at her. He teased her. “Give it rest.”
“Haruo,” opened Yumi, she had the most important question that everyone had on their mind, “Why aren’t you with Yuki? What happened?”
“We were ambushed.”
Everyone looked a little bothered by the short answer. A lot could be extrapolated from the answer, but they needed details and real information. Haruo’s brevity couldn’t pass this time.
“By more from the Omega Division?” He agreed with Yumi. “Are they still out there?”
“Yes.” The lack of more details made the situation seem worse than Haruo intended. He could see their eyes shifting around already concerned about their next attack. “They aren’t in the area.”
“But you won?” Yumi had trouble getting a clear picture of what happened with Haruo in the ambush. He held back so many pieces she wasn’t sure what happened. It seemed at the very least he survived, somehow. However, she guessed they might never know what happened. “But why did you remain behind? You didn’t fight together?”
“No. It was Ayumi’s idea.” Glances went around the circle. He confirmed some of their fears. Things continued to look worse for Ayumi. Unfortunately, none of them knew anymore of what she planned. Haruo could tell they had their suspicions about Ayumi, just like him. “There’s something else. Yuki agreed with her without questioning her.”
Saki nearly jumped up to her feet, but stopped herself. “Yuki wouldn’t do that! He’d want to stay behind and do it together, not wanting you to fight alone!”
“Yes, I agree. Ayumi is planning something that she wants us out of the way.”
The quiet one of the group, Simonides held his words to try to be more of an observer and not press his new relationship with the teenagers. However, he needed to add his point of view. “We still don’t know if they’re the real Eudokia or not.”
“Does it really matter?” barked Seiji, having trouble controlling his emotions. His friend was in danger and he couldn’t do anything. The helplessness carved away at him.
Yori nodded, previously in thought. He lowered his hand from his chin. “No, he’s right. We don’t know what they’re planning. It’s going to be difficult to even speculate on their plan without knowing if it is the real Eudokia.”
“Correct, it comes down to motive. If we understand their motive, we can make plans, but we don’t know who they are.”
“How’s that going to help?”
“You don’t know the real Eudokia as well as I do, but she is intensely loyal to Atlantis, but above all else to the late King.” Simonides thought back to the times he met her in the Capital after her new posting. “I only saw her a few times, but it was clear to see in her eyes. When she was with the King, he was the only one in her eyes. I’d say in a way, it probably blinded her.”
Yumi started to follow where they were going. She stepped into the discussion. “And if it is not the real Eudokia, they probably have something different in mind with Yuki than the real Eudokia.”
Simonides nodded with the conclusion. “Because of that, an easier guess is that someone is faking her appearance to take advantage of her position and Yuki Hayashi’s important to their plans. He’s extremely powerful, if he truly is the heir of the King. The power he represents in the wrong person’s hand could be devastating for Atlantis.”
“But Yuki’s never met Eudokia before. What would they gain from pretending to her? They could have said anything.”
“It’s likely Eudokia is important to their plan just like he is.”
“Seems like a lot of work for something that could easily collapse.”
“Yes, that's why I said it’s the easy answer. I’d prefer not to believe Eudokia is capable of treason, but it’s more likely given the situation that it is the real one.”
“But you said she had an intensity to her,” reminded Yori. He was sure of the direction Simonides was leading them. “Something that intense can make you do things that you normally wouldn’t and justify them very easily out of a sense of loyalty.”
“That’s what I fear. I can only imagine how hard it was on her with the King’s death.”
Yumi realized it as well. “You think his death sent her over the edge.”
“It’s a powerful emotion, loss.”
Seiji scratched his head a little annoyed with all of the talking. Everyone was making leaps he couldn’t follow. The last little bit he understood clearly enough. “I don’t get what most of this has to do with anything. But you’re basically saying she’s angry over this King’s death?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that, Seiji, but yes.”
“How does that help us? You’re assuming she’s the real one, not some fake. We still got those Omega guys out there hunting us.”
“He’s right.”
Simonides was at the same dead end as the other. He gave the whole thing days of thought with no answer. None of them were any closer to understanding the truth. The only thing they could do was follow her tracks.
“Besides, I thought she just wanted Yuki to be King and the other guys didn’t want that to happen.”
“It’s not that simple, Seiji,” reminded Yumi, “The way she’s going about her actions don’t make sense for that. Removing us from the situation makes it harder for her to achieve that goal, not easier. She must be planning something else.”
“How much of that matters?”
He didn’t seem to get it. Yumi didn’t know how else to explain to him. “If we don’t know what her real objective is we can’t move to counter her.” She thought about what else she could say to him.
Seiji shrugged. The plans didn’t really matter to him. He had a very clear sight on things from his view. “She’s still going to the Capital with Yuki. Whatever she’s got planned is in there. So even if we don’t know what she’s doing we know where she is going.”
Simonides could agree with Seiji on that assessment, but it went deeper. He worried about once they got to the Capital. “The problem is the Capital is vast with a deep underground. Millions of Atlanteans live in the Capital. It’s going to be easy to lose her if her goal is not the King’s Palace.”
“We have to start somewhere, right?”
“The wrong plan is worse than no plan?” It wasn’t a sentiment that Simonides could easily get behind. He looked around at the teenagers. They all seemed to have a similar look as Seiji. It appeared their course was set. He wasn’t going to convince them.
Yumi shrugged a little with a bit of a grin, seeing how troubled Simonides looked. She was used to dealing with Seiji a little already. “It’s worked out for us so far. Now that we’ve got Haruo back all that is left for us is to rescue Yuki and end this all before it gets any more out of control.”