Dellings Secrets of The South

Chapter 24

Dimitri (Next day)

"Head low." Shouted the commander to the nearby pair fighting.

I threw out another punch then ducked as soon as Jess threw one back. He lunched himself towards me, our bodies hitting hard against one another and we struggled, fighting to kick the other off balance.

I wrapped one arm around his neck, attempting to seize him but he just kept moving and making it difficult to have a good grip so I released him, taking a step back when a tall figure walking on my left caught my attention.

A delling.

Since the Katkuma attack, some dellings have been helping out with the training but they usually show up along with the commander. They don't walk up almost thirty minutes late, going straight up to the commander and they both silently and suspiciously walk to a corner on their own.

The delling had his head down, back turned to us as he whispered something I'm sure even the commander had difficulty hearing because he had to slouch down.

It was weird, suspicious looking and my secret-spotting radars were going crazy. But before I could even gather my thoughts on what it could be about I just felt a fist slammed straight against my jaw and I dropped to the ground with a thud.

When I looked up Jess was standing over with a tired but satisfied smile. The knock out seemed to have grabbed others attention because when I turned back to my left I met the eyes of both the delling and commander. I quickly looked away, shaking the dust off myself as I got up to get back into training.

But this was not the end of this. I wanted - or more like needed - to find out what was going on. Sakura telling me that there was civilization outside the wall just fuelled me to get out of this place even more and I could not afford any issues that might delay my plans.

So as soon as the training was over, I helped myself pass the fighting grounds to the lab. I stepped foot inside the cold building and immediately I almost took a step back in confusion.

The place was empty. Nothing but two silver metal tables and some chemical jars rested on it.

"Hey." Alexander walked out of the small room in the back, eyes bright like they usually were when he had news but his mouth closed as fast as it opened when the door I walked in open and closed behind me.

Out of habit, I quickly turned alerted and it was Keanan. His eyes were focused on Alexander, shooting him the strongest death glare I've seen on him.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"The Katkuma was rotting," he shrugged, "it was starting to smell in here so they wiped out everything that might be contaminated. Which ended up being everything. We have new things coming in later." He gestured around the room as he spoke but what stuck out to me was how he never once met my eyes. He didn't even glance my way.

"I thought the Katkumas were in the bigger labs." I said and once again he shrugged. He thought he was slick but he didn't know how I studied his body movement and knew how he overly shrugged and avoided eye contact every time he was lying.

"They brought it back when they were done with their study."

I nodded, eyeing Alexander on the side who was trying hard to not look my way. He was itching to tell me what was going on, but I knew it would never happen with Keanan in the room.

Whatever was going on must've been really confidential, or else Keanan would've told me himself. His life must've been on the line with that one secret and I wasn't going to risk losing a friend. So I needed to find out some other way.

I watched as Keanan walked over to one of the tables and leaned against it to face me. His usual creased coat hung almost loosely around his shoulders. He had lost weight. A lot of weight.

"You shouldn't come around here too much. You're a fighter, you're not supposed to be in the lab section. Your uniform screams that you don't belong here."

"It's not against the rules."

"No, but I'll still get in trouble if I get caught talking to you on working hours. And we all know that they're not very kind with their punishments here."

I did know that, and so did Alexander because he visibly got nervous from where he stood on the side. Once again I nodded.

"I should go then. Tell me when you have a day off or a break."

Neither of them said anything as I walked out the lab and to my surprise, straight onto the path of where my answers could be found.

In a straight line in front of the building walked guards, dressed in uniforms I have never seen before and in their hands were boxes. Boxes I assumed contained what was removed from the lab.

I kept my head down as they passed by, heading away from the other buildings I noticed and as the last guard walked pass I followed behind. With my hands in my pockets and my lips pursed in a ready-whistle in case one of them decided to turn around.

They led me pass the lab sections, to the west. And the more that people started to diminish around us, I had to keep more distance until I was practically hiding behind trees and trying to tiptoe in my boots.

We were far away from any buildings. We were in the woods which was weird because there was nothing on this side. Or at least there shouldn't be, but as we walked closer, I started to think there was, and my suspicions got confirmed when a large, single-story building appeared from behind the trees.

Standing by the entrance was a guard, the size of one of his arms looked bigger than my head. But even so he carried a weapon, a large, sharp, curved blade that could slice anyone in half. Including the guards that now stopped one by one so he could check in the boxes before they continued on inside.

Quietly and slowly I turned around, pressing my back against the tree as I crouched down and contemplated on which route I should take to go back without getting caught.

This looked nothing like the shady business the commanders did at the fighting areas. If one of those guards got their hands on me, I would be as good as those headless chicken they prepared every morning.

Checking for when he glanced the other way, I creeped closer to the next tree then the next and the next until I was finally out of his line of vision and I walked back to the fighting areas. Head low.