The Lost ( A Sequel To The Forgotten )

Code Crackers

If you've read any of my other books, you know that I like changing my writing styles. So... change of scenery, anyone?

A few days pass, mostly uneventful. Cass wakes up soon after the "building on the hill" incident. No hard feelings from or to her. Ray doesn't change much, but "Dr." Rolly says he's getting better. I stand and feel skeptical as Ray sings his colors.

We all look at ( or try to eat, in Ray's case ) the code. We look at only the capitals. It's just a bunch of letters. We look at the message backward. No luck.

One of the more interesting things that we do is set up a base. We move into the place where Ray resides, due to its lack of trees. We collect branches, leaves, grass, and a lot of bug bites. Our "home" isn't even close to finished. We have a few large, sturdy branches lined up to form the beginning of a wall. Eventually, we'll put large leaves on the top as a roof. And even though our line of sticks doesn't look like much, we're proud of it. Because everything has to start somewhere.

And then there's the matter of Tarna's training. I only lived at The Hideout for a few weeks, and during my stay, things weren't exactly normal. So I never experienced true life there.
Apparently, they trained a lot. With their abilities, and with the non-magical part of them. We never have any free time, but I'm not complaining. We get a lot done. And that pretty much brings you up to date.

"Oof!" I'm pushed to the ground, strong hands on my chest.
"Watch the machine!" I cry in protest.

"Sorry." Tarna says, not sounding very sorry. Her hands move so that she's not touching the machine. While her hands move, I swing my legs up to kick her off. I land a hit on her stomach, and Tarna tumbles off of me. I scramble to all fours and pin Tarna. This is part of a training procedure that focuses on all fours. If an enemy gets you down, you need to be able to keep fighting. That's Tarna's explanation. I usually reply that if an enemy got me down, I would send a barrage of shadow-shards their way and get to my feet while they ran. Tarna usually ignores me.

We wrestle for a while more, until Tarna ends the session. I stand on my two beautifully working legs and head to our water source to wash off. Our water source is a pond near the base. After I've gotten the dirt off of myself, I head to a log where my copy of the code always sits. Rolly is there. He glances over at me.

"Oh, you're done. That means it's my turn." He sighs. I feel bad for him. We all know that Rolly isn't the strongest in our group. But no one cares, except Tarna. His smarts make up for his lack of strength, but Tarna argues that when someone is coming at you with a weapon, your brain isn't going to fix anything.

"Yeah, you're up." I say. He sighs again.

"Okay. If I don't come back..." He shivers. "You can guess what happened." I smile in apology as he jogs off. Then I sit down and stare at the code.

Capitals. Try the capitals. No, we already tried that. Every other letter! Yeah, that would- No, we've done that too. I'm thinking too big. Think smaller. I stare at the code.

gFtiShrHet
sDdaCraIyl
nRpuAavBtwLha
pHtSoi
rCtUhFep
sUpYaKtIha
iOitTs
mEbjEeePniWefAahYtpShe
jUtkGhsDem
oVstFeyIad

Capitals. It has to be something with the capitals. They're in there for a reason! I stare, willing my eyes to see something. Maybe I copied it wrong. Yeah, I was in a rush. I- Wait! I look at the letters, an idea in mind.