The Search for the Eoz Potion

26. Found

It was getting late and General Drawde was becoming impatient. He had sent word to the Prince that they had been held up, but he still worried about upsetting him further. The same two Human Robots were still guarding his quarters. The three of them filled the room with silence as the soldiers stood stiffly on either side of the door and Drawde obsessively reviewed the security footage from the day of the earthquake, right up until it cut out. He was desperately trying to find the best way to spin Tellis's escape for the Prince. Unable to come up with anything and tired of waiting on the soldiers, Drawde pushed through the guards, left his room, and stormed to the front of the transport. He angrily pressed a few buttons on the wall and the large door rose open. The General stormed out into the tunnel to see a group of five soldiers working on the transport.

The tunnel was dark and damp. The soldiers had set up a tall pole on a tripod with a bright light on top that shined out in every direction. The tunnel stretched out into the darkness in front of and behind them. Drawde's boots pressed firmly into the dirt as he stomped toward the soldiers working on the transport.

"What is taking so long?" he demanded.

One of the soldiers stood up to address the General.

"The internal wiring was compromised, sir. We should be done soon."

"I've led this army better than anyone else ever could have," Drawde said as the Human Robot stood still, listening. "If you think you're going to get in the way of that, you're wrong."

He pushed the soldier aside and he fell to the ground. Drawde himself got on his back and slid under the transport to investigate.

"If this is some kind of sabotage," he shouted from underneath the vehicle, "you'll all be headed to the Master Spirit for -"

Before he had a chance to finish, however, something came crashing through the roof of the tunnel just behind him.

The soldiers instantly pulled out their weapons and formed a line in front of the General who slid quickly out from under the transport and stood up. He pushed his way through the line and looked toward the site of the crash. On the ground in front of him, he saw a boy. When the boy realized he was not alone in the tunnel, he jumped quickly to his feet and began to run. Without wasting a second, all the soldiers aimed their batons and began shooting clear blasts of what looked like ice. One of them hit the boy and covered him briefly with a white glow and he fell to the ground. After waiting a minute to make sure the child was fully incapacitated, the General walked slowly to him as the soldiers maintained their position in order to gaurd against a possible future threat. When he was halfway to the child, Drawde stopped and turned back toward the soldiers.

"Back to work."

The General approached and stood over the boy who was frozen still, but breathing, stunned, but still alive. General Drawde walked around and knelt down slowly by the boy's head. He identified him instantly as a Searcher, it was always easy enough. All he had to do was look in the eyes. To Drawde, every Searcher had the same fear, the same, in his view, misguided hope. His eyes pierced through the boy's.

"What is your name?" the General demanded.

The Searcher was silent.

"You can speak," Drawde informed him. "Your body has been neutralized, but you can still talk. What is your name?"

"Evan," the boy said.

After he had left Tellis and Hailey in the cottage, Evan took off running. He was hoping to make his way back to the portal and go home, but did not know how to get there. So he just ran. He didn't realize it, but he had gotten turned around and was actually heading in the opposite direction from the portal. He had passed around the northern border of Capital City and was almost to the Yllop River when he happened upon an unmapped field of quicksand and fell through.