Cayden's Crusade

What Really Happened

We were gathered on our bunks now as she dismissed us from the classroom.

Hindi pa rin makausap nang maayos si Cassius na takot na takot. "Clovis, what really happened? At sino yung kaaway nila Sir? Sabi ni Cassius di daw tao yun?", Zinny asked.

Clovis started to tell what really happened. "Sir Samuel was teaching and supervising me with setting up of the lures while Cassius was looking at us. Then, I heard Orielle on the walkie-talkie saying about a mutant. Sir Samuel ran towards Cassius who did not notice anything as the mutant that Orielle was referring to approached behind him. Tapos, tinulak ni Sir si Cassius kaya siya ang nakagat. But, he did not give up that easily. Nawalan siya nang malay after a few minutes of fighting the mutant with Orielle."

Tumigil siya sa pagsasalita. "That mutant, nakakatakot siyang tingnan. He looked intelligent enough para matutung makipag-away pero everything sa mata niya spells evil. And that sound na ginawa niya, it was familiar". He shuddered as if he remembered something scary.

We all fell silent. Then Zinny broke it with a comforting voice directed to Cassius. "It's okay, Cassius. Orielle found a cure and stable na ang condition ni Sir Samuel".

Tumango lang si Cassius.

I'm sure of it. It was not the cure that was inside the syringe but Orielle's blood. But why? I spent my whole night thinking about it.

The next morning, I immediately went down to check on Sir Samuel. Orielle was there, still sleeping na nakasandal sa upuan. Sir Samuel was still unconscious. Pagbalik ko sa taas, gising na rin si Holden, nagluluto.

"They're asleep", I told him when he asked about them.

Nagising na rin ang iba at nagpunta sa mesa. Nobody talked as if pinapakiramdaman ang bawat isa. A few minutes later, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Where is Cassius?", she asked. She was calm now.

"Andoon pa rin sa loob", sagot ni Naila.

She knocked on the door first before going inside. We all went quite as if trying to hear what she was saying though we heard nothing. Then, we heard Cassius saying sorry over and over again in between sobs.

We heard the sound of a slap. Then Cassius silenced. She went out the room after a few minutes and went down, back to Sir Samuel's side. Cassius went out the room for the first time and followed Orielle down to the classroom.

We looked at one another, confused at what just happened.

My hunch that Orielle did not inject the cure just solidified more the next day as we heard Sir Samuel shouting. When we went down, Cassius and Clovis were already pinning Sir Samuel down the table as Orielle injected more of the red liquid.

She did not talk to us about Sir Samuel's constant shoutings at pagwawala. She would just stay by his side but it did not slip our notice everytime we visit them that she get paler and paler each day.

Not until the fifth day. She walked to us, followed by Cassius. She asked Holden to cook half of the food supply. Kahit na nagtataka, Holden did not question her and proceed with cooking.

"I talked with Cassius and we're planning to go outside to get the case", she started. "It won't be long before the poison take over so I need to get the case before that happens".

"So it's not the cure?", Zinny asked.

"No, it only slows down the effect of the poison", she answered. "That's why transformation haven't started yet. Tommorow, we will go out so I need you to take care of him while we're out. There were few syringes left so I need you to make sure he's injected every few hours. That's all I ask of you, and I hope it's okay with you". She looked at us expectantly.