Operation: Helios

Chapter 5

It's been eight hours since we entered Helios. We've been recording every single detail we see. We briefly ate lunch earlier and then continued what we were doing.

"We're moving faster than expected, we might arrive to the village earlier than we planned." Agent Sanders said. "You see that bridge?" He asked us pointing at the rock bridge not too far away from us.

"Doon tayo magpapahinga." Dagdag ni Agent Sanders.

Tinignan ko ang oras, it's 8 pm. Hindi ko namalayan ang oras dahil sa liwanag ng araw, hindi na ganoon kaliwanag gaya ng kanina, it's deep orange, like the color of the sun when it's about to set, the only difference is that here in Helios, it never sets.

When I realized what time it was, that's when I started to feel my exhaustion.

Hindi na kami nagdala ng mga tent, sleeping bags ang mga dala namin. Dito kami magpapahinga sa ilalim ng tulay.

"I've known it already but it's still feels surreal! I mean it's 8 in the evening and yet the sun's still here!" Si Tanya pagkatapos namin ayusin ang nga sleeping bags.

Naka-upo na kaming lahat.

Busy sa pagbabasa ng mga journals sina Kate at Yven.

Si Eiji naman ay seryosong nagsusulat sa sariling journal nito. Kung titignan ko ito ngayon, aakalain ko sigurong mas seryoso pa ito kay Agent Morgan.

Tinignan ko si Agent Morgan na nag aayos ng mga armas, napatingin ito sa akin ng maramdamang tinitignan ko siya. His left eyebrow shot up, probably his way of asking why I was staring.

I was wrong, Agent Morgan is still colder and more stoic looking.

Napatangu-tango ako sa iniisip, dahilan kaya mas lalong napakunot ang noo ni Agent Morgan.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." I said while shaking my head a little.

Nakakunot pa rin ang noo nitong nakatingin sa akin.

He obviously didn't believe me but he decided to shrug it off and continued what he was doing.

"You know what? We should commemorate this moment! We should take a photo! I mean this is our first day in Helios." Si Tanya na naglabas ng camera at hinila ako patayo.

"Ako na ang kukuha sa inyo." Agent Sanders kindly offered.

"What? No! We should all be in the photo. Don't worry I brought a tripod." Sabay pakita ng hawak nitong tripod.

"Hmm. Good luck getting that guy to join us then." Agent Sanders replied with a smirk while pointing at Agent Morgan.

"I'm done!"

Sabay-sabay kaming napatingin kay Eiji dahil sa masiglang pagsigaw nito.

"Where would we take the photo?" Nakangising tanong nito, nakikinig pala sa'min.

"Here in the bridge." Sagot ni Tanya. "But first come here."

May ibinulong si Tanya dito.

"Why me?" Tanong ni Eiji.

"Late ka kasi." Nakangising sagot ni Tanya.

Eiji made a face and started walking towards Agent Morgan. May sinabi ito dito, Agent Morgan then sighed and look at us for a few seconds until he stood up.

"Alright, everybody say... cheese!" We heard the camera's shot, our queue to leave and go back to where we were.

"Hindi ba kayo kinakabahan?" The old man, Osmund asked.

"Saan?" Si Tanya.

"The tragedy took place at the village. That's our destination, it's easy to conclude that we're about to witness more than 300 skeletons of humans. We'll be walking around decayed corpses." He said.

I knew that. But I already witnessed something more gruesome than that, my mother's burnt body.

Natahimik ang lahat. Alam kong alam na nila ito, they just pushed the thought behind their heads.

"We were chosen for a reason. I mean I'm pretty sure our government considered that before choosing us, unless of course if some of us weren't chosen fairly." I said.

I know I shouldn't bring up my suspicions about Osmund being chosen as part of this group but I hate it when people gets to have what they want unfairly.

He's an old man with nothing but an unlikely theory... and money.

The old man smiled. I didn't like that smile. It was a smile of arrogance.

"I guess you could say that our government, no matter how honorable this current regime, is still bound by money, huh?"

"How dare-"

"Calm down, Eiji." I cut him off. Eiji respects the President, everyone does. "His word's are appalling, but he didn't lie."

"I can't allow him to disrespect the President." Eiji.

"But he didn't. The word he used wasn't the President, but the Government."

The old man smirked.

Annoying old hag.

"Let's face it, no matter how honorable our current President is, he still can't force his officials to share the same ideals and principles. The President isn't the Government. The President leads the Government... but he can't chose who will be a part of that Government. That's just democracy. No matter how good our President is, if we vote for corrupt officials, we'll always fail to have an honest government, and it's the same case if it's the other way around." I said still glaring at the old hag. "But don't get me wrong. People like you who benefits from those corrupts, are just as guilty."

The old hag chuckled.

"So who exactly did you pay to put you here?" Si Yven na nakikinig din pala sa amin.

"Hmm, I could tell, but one of you might cry." He said.

When he said one of us will cry, it's either me or Eiji. Only Eiji and I are directly connected to government officials. Eiji is connected to President Beñez while I'm connected to Prime Minister Galvez.

Eiji knew that, that's why he's looking at me.

"How could you be so proud of that?" Si Katelyn na hindi na rin napigilan.

"Oho, hija, I'm not proud of it. I just like being honest, after all, I shouldn't lie to you youngsters, I should set a good example, right?" He said sarcastically.

"You-"

"That's enough." Agent Morgan cut Katelyn off. "If you people have a problem, settle it outside, after the operation. Right now, your time is paid by the Government."

Napalingon ako sa kanya.

None of us spoke again for the rest of our resting time.

I was so exhausted, I fell asleep easily.

That ended my first day in Helios.