The Golgotha Initiative

Chapter 12: Kiko

The teacher before Sensei was called Sir, and he hurt us. He bent our fingers back when we didn't hold the weapons right. He kicked our shins when we didn't place our feet correctly. When Caleb back-talked, he threw him into a wall and broke his arm. We learned fast: this grip, this stance, no talking.

When Caleb screamed, slumping against the wall like that, his arm twisted at an angle arms shouldn't be in, Sir left. He walked out of the dojo and stayed in his office while we rushed over to Caleb. I was eight, and had just finished reading The Red Cross' official first-aid handbook, but I didn't trust myself to set a bone.

"¿Amigo? Te puedes vivir, ¿sí?"
Eric gripped my hand. I stood in the middle of the dojo, staring.

"He sleeps," Logan said, English more thickly accented than it is now.

"He's unconscious," I corrected.

"Because it hurt," Ave added.

Carefully, Logan bent down and lifted Caleb up. Ave helped by holding his broken arm up, gently, so gently. Everything was tender and quiet. I clung to Eric as we caboosed the procession, following Caleb and his pallbearers. They put him on his bed and the four of us stood around it, looking at him, waiting.

"I'll go get Matron," I said. When Ave broke her leg jumping off the cliffs by the beach, our teacher at the time had called Matron, who got Compass to send in a doctor. No one replied so I went out.

I tiptoed past Sir's office and into the kitchen. Matron wasn't there- I checked the pantry where she sometimes hid from us just to be sure- then left. Logan, Ave and Eric were standing in the hall.

"Wha-"

Logan brought a finger to his lips and I stopped talking. He pointed to Sir, in the office, whistling. I didn't understand. Then Ave looked at me, eyes steel, fists clenched.

Ninja are silent, and we made no sound as we entered the office. No sound, as Sir glared at the intrusion, as Logan stepped forward and pushed his chair to the ground. No sound from Eric as he pummeled Sir's stomach, as Ave kicked his rib cage, as I set the desk on his outstretched arm. The only noise was from Sir. Vomit, the cracking of a rib, sharp screech of pain.

I look down at my body, bruised, bloody, broken, and I'm glad. This is the body of a monster.

"Oy, Kiko-chan."

Caleb?

"What happened to you?"

Why is Caleb here? And why is he holding a puppy?

Frick. I must be hallucinating.

"Kiko? Are you... can you hear me?"

Shakily, in a voice that bends. "Ca- Caleb-kun?"

"Kiko!" He grins. "Okay. Kyle has this code- he unlocked the room. But it's heat-sensored or something, I don't know exactly, but as soon as you step out this dog has to go in."

"Guards?" I croak. "Are there-"

"We took care of that. Come on!"

I take a step forward. My leg wobbles and the knee almost caves in, but I take another step, and then another, and then-

"Good!" Caleb says, reaching out his arm. I grip it. "Now on three, I'm going to pull you out the door and push Fido in."

"Fido?"

"The dog. One... two... three-!"

I leap out, stumbling into Caleb, who catches me. The dog- a labrador retriever- sniffs the blood in the cell.

"Hullo," Caleb whispers. "It's been a while."

"Uh... yes..." Still off-balance, I lean into his arm. He doesn't seem to care about the dried blood flaking onto his clothes. And then I notice- there's a battle axe strapped to his back, throwing knives, in his belt, and he hands me a taser.

"I know it's not exactly standard ninja protocol. But it's easy to use even when you're injured. Let us do the fighting, but just in case..."

"Sakaki-san."

I look up. The taser clatters against the floor. "Sensei?"

"Hai. You're too weak to walk. Ossey-san-"

"On it." Caleb snatches up the fallen taser and hands it to me, then hoists me on his back. And we're running.

"Baahir and Ave got Logan," Caleb explains. "He's on the other side. We're going to take the elevator to the top floor, then blast out the roof."

"Elevator?"

Sensei answers, jogging next to Caleb. "A central system that would be Compass' greatest weakness except for the insane level of protection surrounding it. Baahir, however, has clearance down to the seventh level. If we climb the elevator shaft to that point, we can make it out.

I try to focus but I'm so tired. "How did you open the cell?"

"Kyle has a virus that can temporarily halt the security systems within a limited range. North is an enormous base, so breaking you out of the cell will register as a minor glitch. They'll double check, of course, but instead of security cameras all the cells have heat sensors because it takes less manpower to monitor."

"Okay," I mutter, bumping against Caleb's back. Some of the blood on him is mine, but some of it isn't. "Is Eric alive?"

"He's with Kyle," Caleb says. "Not sure if that's for tech support or because they're fu-"

"Baahir and Ave are getting Logan," Sensei interjects. "Ossey-san, don't be crude. Ninja fight with swords, not words."

"Plus, we can hear you," pipes up a small device I hadn't noticed in Caleb's ear until now. "Hola, Kiko-chan."

I grin, and the motion feels fantastically surreal. "Hola, Eric-kun."

There's a rush of static and Caleb jerks his head. "Kyle, turn that thing down." I'm guessing he does, since I don't hear a response.

We're rushing through a wider corridor now, stark white except for a streak of blood, a man slumped into a tiled corner. His knees are curled into his chest as if he's sleeping. There's a door next to him, and when Sensei pushes it open we burst into a holocaust.

The stench hits me first, a colossal wave of it, permeating my nose and lungs and skin. Blood pools at the torsos of uniformed guards and sinks into their hair. There's a splatter above me, striated by a shuriken someone impaled in the ceiling. Blood, everywhere, skidmarks across the floor and fingerpainted walls.

"It's not exactly a rose garden," Caleb remarks. "But the fight was epic."

I dry heave.

"Whoa there," Caleb says. "Alright?"

"The elevator is in the next atrium over," Sensei says.

I slide off Caleb's back. My hands splash in a blood puddle, knees bracing against the floor, and my whole body retches. We haven't stopped, not since that day with Sir. Nothing has changed. Sir broke Caleb's arm so we broke Sir and since then we just keep breaking.

We are monsters. This is what monsters do.