Meridian | The Second Life III [COMPLETED]

24 - Cold Case

- E V A N -

The sun peeks through the clouds as morning falls on our tower. I could hear the wind clearly from inside, and it's howling. Today would be a cold winter day. We'd been brushed with a small bit of sleet last night, though that's ended by now. For the first time in a while, we'd all seemingly slept soundly.

For some reason, I'd woken up early. I'm not sure why; nothing had happened up here and I'm exhausted. I grab my knife, sharpening it to pass the time. This last week has been nothing short of chaotic, to say the least. Even with all the mayhem, I still have one question: What the hell was Nikita doing?

These bastards clearly had a masterfully detailed plan of attack, but I'm still scratching my head figuring out how Nikita plays into it. It's a question I'll probably never get an answer to, either. Cross and Aubrey are AWOL and Chuni is the only one left.

A knock on the wall behind me grabs my attention from sharpening my knife. I turn around quickly, seeing Nick standing against the wall. Everyone else was still sound asleep. "You have a second?" He asks, exhaling.

"Yeah, uh," I answer suddenly, unsure and setting the knife down. "What's up?"

Nick walks in, sitting across from me on the couch with his eyes on the floor. He looks up at me, breathes out, and extends his hand. It takes me by surprise as his hand floats above the table.

"I'm tired of it," he states, answering my unasked question. "I'm tired of holding anger. I am genuinely fucking exhausted, Evan."

I exhale in shock, reaching out and shaking his hand. "Th-thank you," I stutter, nodding my head. "What made you change your mind?"

He sighs, leaning back on the couch and staring at the ceiling. "After the attack, Caden and I fled towards Battery. I-," he stutters, clearing his throat and steadying his breath. "I saw a sicko. I... I think it was Kemora."

My eyes go wide as my breath escapes my lungs. Fuck.

"They were both there, so Aniya's uh," he sighs, losing the tempo of his speech. "Um."

"I'm sorry man," I stammer, hanging my head. "I should've never-"

"It's not your fault," he interjects, holding back emotion with an impressive poker face. "We don't have many people left. Hell, there are only four of us here."

"Yeah," I sigh, nodding my head. Fuck, if I could change what choices I made...

- ~ -

"I got a radio frequency booster from a scavenging run," Blake explains. "Just a plug-in with more channels. That's where I heard the message."

Zach claps, pointing at Blake as a eureka moment seemingly happens. "That's why I didn't hear it!"

All the while, we've had some questions for Blake. Most of the dots had been connected, but he still has some information we needed. He agreed that we should be on the same page here, so it's time for some talk.

"Sorry about that," Blake regrets, before continuing. "It said 'Hundreds. Stationary. In Harlem.'"

"And you disguised it as a scavenging mission to not raise alarm," Catey adds.

"In hindsight, it seems obvious it was bait," Blake sighs, trying to stay still on the couch. "But I had to do my due diligence. I never could've known what was actually happening."

"And he's just mind-controlling them?" Caden asks, confused. "Chuni?"

"Yes," I answer. "No clue how it works, but it's from the same lab that had the replicator."

"Hold on a second," Zach states, standing up and walking to the radio deck. He points to a part. "Is this extender the one you gave me before we left the same one you used?"

"That's right," Blake answers with a slight catch in his voice. "I figure you can put it to better use than me."

"Do you remember the frequency?" Zach follows, seemingly going down a rabbit hole in his head.

"Uh," Blake stops, squinting as if to remember. "I think it was around 9.64."

"Christ," Zach sighs. "That's low power. No wonder I couldn't hear it."

"As I said," Blake admits. "I didn't want to panic people. Sorry."

"No, I'm not," Zach stammers, scratching his head. "This is just... really weird."

"Could you translate for those of us who don't know shit about radio waves?" Caden laughs, crossing his arms.

"9.64kHz is extremely low power," Zach sighs. "If they were baiting us with the Harlem thing, why did they put it on such a low frequency? You absolutely need an extender for that. Blake, had you not found that we would've never heard it."

The room falls silent for a moment as we all think. Zach has a point, this is weird. "Holy shit!" Eagle exclaims, breaking the silence.

"If we had to have that part, and they needed us to take the bait, then they must've planted it!" She concludes, wide-eyed.

"In conclusion," Blake mutters, leaning back frustrated. "We got fucking played."

Ding!

A lightbulb goes off in my head as the timeline becomes clear. In the Apollo, the scavenging plan was there, showing our routes. "Which is why we found the missing scavenging plan in the Apollo," I add, Eagle pointing at me and nodding in response.

"Now that's a fucking plan," Rivian laughs nervously. "They've been coordinating for weeks now. What other tricks do they have up their sleeves?"

"The fuck are we gonna do?" Zach mutters as the gravity of the situation sets in for all of us.

"When Chuni and I were fighting in that office," Blake sighs. "He mentioned that if humans die, the Earth will live. Evan, you were around him before the Battle. Do you have any insight?"

I jolt from the callout. "He's always been a psychopath. During the battle, he just wanted to kill everyone, not incorporate. It's pretty on-brand."

"So," Nick starts. "We've got a murderous psychopath with an army of sickos that wants to end human life. He's been planning our complex demise for at least a month now with flawless execution. This is great."

"Chuni's gonna die," I state, looking at Nick with a nod.