The Search for the Eoz Potion

3. General Drawde

General Drawde walked through the cold, quiet control center with one of the directors at his side. A tall man with serious eyes, the General walked with intimidating footsteps that echoed through the room. While everyone was on their best behavior in Drawde's presence, this was in fact how things normally ran, the operators focusing silently on the work at hand. The director would tolerate nothing less.

Drawde's thinning black hair was combed neatly straight back and didn't move. His body was large and muscular. His arms, folded tightly across his chest, threatened to burst through his dark green uniform. All of the other workers in the room wore variations of the same outfit, dark green with three purple stripes across the chest. The control center director's was a lighter shade of green with thinner stripes to indicate her rank.

They walked up and down the rows of tall, clear tables with screens in them. There were workers standing silently at each station (chairs were a luxurious distraction which they could not afford) dragging their fingers across the screens to direct the Human Robots throughout the garden.

"Are the extended range bracelets working?" the General asked the director.

This was the purpose of his visit, to inspect the success of this new technology.

"Yes, sir," she informed him proudly, puffing out her chest as she spoke. "Look."

The director stopped walking and pointed to one of the screens. General Drawde peered over the operator's shoulder at the screen that showed the view from a soldier on the ground in the Welcoming Forest. On the screen they could see exactly what the soldier was seeing, the branches and trees of the forest moving quickly by him as he searched. The operator dragged a finger to the left across the screen, and the soldier turned left. He dragged upwards, the soldier went forward. It was as easy as playing a video game.

Without emotion, the General nodded his approval and walked silently over to the door of the control center. From the doorway, he looked over his shoulder to the director who had resumed her rounds, checking on the workers as they directed the soldiers through the forest they had once been unable to reach.

"Let me know once you've found them," Drawde said dryly.

****

The carriage was still racing through the forest, but the horses showed no signs of tiring. The wind whipping through their manes energized them as they ran through the night with the patience of marathon runners and the speed of sprinters. They were not typical horses. Hailey and Claire had been able to tell that much as soon as they'd seen them pulling the giant carriage with such ease. One of the horses was three times as strong as a horse in the real world. So while the carriage was harnessed to four horses, it was being pulled with the power of twelve.

Inside, Zack was kneeling down in front of one of the younger Searchers tending to a small cut on her knee. He moved slowly and with care, but also with an urgency the little girl didn't notice. Before she even realized it, Zack had treated and dressed the wound and moved on to the next person. Hailey and Claire watched him, replaying in their heads the conversation they'd had with Dr. Hampton and wondering if in fact Zack was the other Searcher he had told them about.

It had come up because after he had explained all about the Eoz potion, Claire asked Dr. Hampton how he knew this would work. She asked if he had ever found it when he was in Yllop.

"Never found it," Dr. Hampton had told them with heavy eyes sunken into his tired, puffy face as they walked down the hall from his office back to Faith's room.

"Have you ever heard of anyone who found it?" Claire asked. "Have you ever sent anyone else in to find it, or are we the first?"

They had made it back to Faith's room where she still slept, alone. The doctor was standing in front of her bed as he ran his stubby fingers through his thinning hair. Claire waited patiently for an answer while Hailey sank loudly into a vinyl chair by the window.