Cayden's Crusade

Her Advise And Her Name

The joy of our win against the armies died down as we still can not succeed with the CER exercise.

"Why does it have to change every freaking time!", Aloutte said angrily.

"Why don't you ask her?", Cassius said referring to the girl. "She was the one who's been at the control room everytime we do this stupid exercise."

We were all frustrated. Everytime we check the replays and redo the exercise, everything changes making our reviews useless. And we only have until tomorrow afternoon to do it right.

"You know what, I'll just go home and have nice sleep and wait for whatever punishment our teacher will give us", Chava said, frustrated as well.

"We should not give up", Zinny said.

"I already did", Naila said. "It's not working. Whatever we do, it just keeps on getting more difficult."

She stood up, followed by Chava and walked away.

" I'm sorry guys", Aloutte said as she walked away too.

Everyone started to walk away until me and Zinny were left. Zinny looked at me with apprehension. I smiled at her. "It's okay, Zinny. Go home. I'll just stay here for a while and think".

"Don't stay too late, okay. Maybe we can do better tomorrow", she said, hopeful. She got up and gave me a hug before she walked away.

I stayed beside the table thinking what to do, but nothing comes to mind.

"Cayden", a voice called.

I turned and it was her who called me. She knows my name! Somehow, that realization lessen the frustrations I am feeling. No, it took all of my frustrations away.

"Follow me", she said.

I followed her to the right side of the complex. She opened the door and we were inside another control room.

"Sit", she instructed.

I sat beside her, the only other chair available inside the room. "You're only goal was to get the case and reach the extraction area in 2 hours", she said. Hindi siya tumitingin sa akin. May mga buttons siyang pinipindot sa control system.

I was able to study her face more. Her very beautiful eyes, her cute nose and lips. Her face looks serious, but still beautiful.

"You can actually complete that in less than two hours", she said.

Kumunot ang noo ko. "Paano, with those dwellers, almost all of our time is spent fighting them".

"Correct. If you're not fighting them, do you think you can complete the exercise successfully!", she asked.

"Yes, we can-", I stopped as I realized what she was trying to say. "You're saying we should not fight them?"

"Yes and no. Fight them only if there's no other way. As much as possible you should always be moving. You can avoid them, let them chase you, take some detours, whatever. As long as you keep moving towards the extraction area."

She pressed another button. "Watch this! They are the new graduates, you can learn from them",she said.

The screen came alive as I saw ten rangers in a desert. It was the same exercise we have, but more difficult if compared to the obstacles we have. Still five groups but only two member per group. Each if them ran as fast as they can, they did not stop even if a dweller is coming at them. The case, they would throw it at each other and catch it if the dwellers are too much to handle. They seem to know each other so well, with only a shout, one would throw the case to deal with some vipers as fast as possible while the other catches the case and continue running. The other teams do the same strategy as well. They reached the extraction area in just an hour.

"Wow", I said.

"As you observed as well, they would rather face the vipers than the isopods which is a smart choice since it doesn't block their path",she said. "The isopods, as big as they are will block your path and just waste your time since you will have to go around it."

And in that time, I got hope. Hope that we can still do it. "How come Sir Samuel or you did not tell us about it before?",I asked.

"I was assesing your skills with your weapons, they need to improve first. And I was only satisfied till now", she explained. "That strategy is useless if you can't use your weapons well".

I was about to say thank you but she already went out the door.

"Orielle! I found it!", it was Tarquin running towards us.

"Orielle", I said. "That's a beatiful name".

She smiled at me. And it melts my heart including the jealousy that Tarquin knew her. "Thank you".

"Hi", Tarquin said to me smiling.

"You're late", Orielle said to Tarquin.

"No, I'm not. I still have a minute left", Tarquin said grinning as he showed his wrist watch.

"Lucky you", she said before she turned to me. "You can go home now". Then he grabbed Tarquin and walked away.

"Bye, Cayden", Tarquin said before laughing at something that Orielle said.

I gave them a fake smile. I know I should not feel this way but I hated that she was with Tarquin now. I wanted her with me. And besides, I thought she was bullying Tarquin, how could they become close?

I composed myself, repeat over my head what I should do. Go home and tell them the strategy.

They were excited when I told them.

"But how did you learn about it? ", Zinny asked.

"Orielle helped me", I told them.

The were confused. "Orielle who?"

" Orielle. Our other classmate. The Girl at the back", I answered.

"Really, so you're friends now? ", Zinny asked excitedly.

" Bakit ngayon niya lang sinabi yan? ", tanong ni Cassius, still not believing kung sino ang tumulong.

I told them the reason she gave me when I asked her the same question.

" I'm sorry we gave up", Chava and Naila said.

"Me too", Aloutte said.

"It's alright", I told them. "We still have the morning to practice this strategy tomorrow."

Everyone's spirit lifted up." We Yankees can still do it!"

The next morning, we did our last practice. And we did it! We followed the same startegy that Orielle showed me. When we did the final exercise by the afternoon, we finished it thirty minutes ahead of the scheduled time. Prof Samuel was satisfied.

We wanted to thank Orielle for helping but she's not there anymore when we got out of the CER.

"Since you lots was able to pass this exercise, this means that you are now ready for your hands-on lessons", Prof Samuel said. "You can do whatever you want for now. See you on Monday".