Alasla: The New Age

Chapter Five- The Secret

"Um. Yes, alright," Ralph angled his head. He was planning on bringing her with him now anyways, hearing what kind of place this is. But he still wants to hear the secret if it's related to the Government.

"My name is Eve," She breathed. "And I'm one of the Targets."

"The Targets?" Ralph echoed.

"The Government is a complicated organization. They have ancient secrets that would threaten their power once revealed. And the Targets are people that are either related to those secrets or people with the power to reveal them. I'm not sure about my case... But as you can see, I'm trapped here. That was the purpose. I've been confined in this islet for sixteen years now, and I'm sure they're planning on making it my whole life."

The wind raged above them. Ralph sensed a distinct feeling of unease as he glanced up to see a stormy overcast looming over the sky. His hair ruffled wildly in the wind, but he hardly bothered to sweep them from his face as he thought over Eve's words. Might have Forrest been a Target, too?

"But what have you got to do with the Government?" Ralph asked, twitching a pinch of random grass beside him between his finger absent-mindedly.

When he was answered by a very helpful shrug from Eve, he finally decided to ask the question he's been holding ever since Eve's face came to light.

"If you don't mind me asking, uh, are you a girl or a boy?" He questioned carefully.

Eve laughed aloud, giggling with a glimmer of interest. She winced down to a stop as a hint of red hue seeped through her cloth.

"Well that's definitely not the first time I've been asked that question," she smiled weakly. "I'm neither. I'm neutral. You could address me by 'she', though."

It took a few seconds for the information to settle into Ralph's mind. A neutral? A person with no gender? What?

"We shouldn't waste more time here," Says a grim Eve. "The commotion caused by the slaves would soon be coped with, and we will be found. Once that happens we'll have no chance of leaving this islet."

Ralph bowed his head in agreement, just as he was about to stand up, a spasm of pain shot across his torso.

Eve inhaled in fear. Ralph watched in dizziness as his blood splattered over her. He looked down and saw a blade glimmering through the cold daylight, sticking out from his chest.

Fear shuddered through him. Had the Stone's trial got him? Had he not passed over this final challenge? Is he finally going to join all of those dead souls that had fallen under the Stone's curse?

There was a full minute of silence with Eve watching, utterly wordless with shock, and Ralph waiting for his life to burn out.

Except it didn't. Even the pain had started to fade. As if he didn't just get fatally wounded through his lungs.

Now he looked at it clearly, it was a spear. Thrust through his body from behind. He turned around and spotted a stupefied soldier between the archway and the door behind them. He's got a small, tipped nose and pink-shaded lips. His bronze hair covered his forehead, his pale grey eyes takes on a hunted look as he trembled. His left-hand clutches the door frame, while the right is still frozen in the pose of throwing the spear.

Then Ralph suddenly realized with joy and amazement that it was the Stone's power that saved him. The Stone of Plague must have power that allows his tissue to heal faster, therefore saving him from this strike. And if that's the case... It means that he's passed the Stone's trial, and he is officially a Stone User now!

With this in his mind, he pulled out the spear from his body. It still hurts, the pain didn't grow any less, but he watched as the wounded skin slowly reconnected, mending themselves together until it looked as good as new.

Smirking to himself, Ralph's gaze shifted up to the guard that threw the spear. He cringed away and tried to dart behind the wall. But it took two seconds for Ralph to catch up with him in swift, wide strides and sent the spear plunging back into the bottom of his neck, killing him in an instant.

Behind him, he heard Eve's muffled scream. He glanced back curiously, his face still covered in the young guard's blood.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Ralph said as he dropped the spear along with the boy's body. "I'll explain to you later, let's get out of here first."

Eve opened her mouth, her eyes on the dead body. But she closed it at the end, shaking her head. Ralph couldn't comprehend what she wants, but he can't help noticing the tenseness and the flinch of Eve's that weren't there before when he carried her again. This time Ralph had her on his back as he raced through the architecture under Eve's guidance. He took care of the few guards that got in their way until they finally came back into the open beneath the cliff they were on minutes ago.

With his shoes hanging on his fingers he lets the freezing seawater grace his feet. Eve tottered up beside him, tip-toeing through the coral pieces that occasionally sweep up on shore.

"The island's cargo ship would return around midnight," Eve said, shaking out the sand clumps that formed between her toes. "We should hide somewhere till then, and leave this place on their ship after they unload."

"Are there any safe hiding spots around here?" Ralph asked, Eve pointed at a rocky cave beneath the cliff. So they headed over and settled in the warm, humid space. They had some small hermit crabs scuttling around from time to time, as well as sea cockroaches, which Ralph disliked plenty.

Ralph explained to Eve about his Stone, and how he thinks he managed to survive the attack. They sometimes chatted, sometimes kept silent as the guards that were sent to search for them trotted past. But they were never found thanks to the multiple layers of boulders that overlaps before their secretive hideout.

After several hours more of waiting in the cave that gradually grew even warmer than before, Ralph found himself nodding onto his shoulder as queer sleepiness encased his mind.

The last thing he sees is Eve collapsing onto the floor. Confusion flooded into his head, breathing in, he finally perceived the unnatural scent that had been here unnoticed for at least a minute.

The word sleeping gas registered in his mind, and he knew no more.