After Mother Maria and Master Klots realized I wasn't pleading help for myself, they managed to listen to what I have to say and offer help. Master Klots pulled Anne off my back and took her to the camp himself.
I lie on the ground, staring up at the crumbling ceiling above. This campsite is heartless, similar to the slavery grounds back in Zarta. Worn blankets and torn up canvas sheets lie on the cold, hard ground. They attempt to support a few hundred fourteen-year-old soldiers, gathered together with several of their friends. I am alone. That's because I such few close friends. Not to mention the only one that happens to be stationed in Madrade is currently receiving "treatment," and is no where to be found.
"Mel!" a voice exclaims. Startled, I quickly pick myself up and look around. "Mel, get ovah heuh!" I hear. Again? I think. Quickly, I rise up from the dusty, tiled floor and search for Mother Maria. I glance towards the door and notice her signaling her to come over.
Once I make it through the crowd, I meet her outside. The middle-aged woman stares at me in the sunlight. Her short, plump frame makes it difficult for her to get around. "What do you need help with?" I ask her. She begins making her way down the dirt path that leads to a building about a hundred feet away. I await for her to respond as I follow her.
"Yo friend Anne," she begins. I look at her, and immediately become deeply concerned once again. I remember her helpless face next to me, and her shaking body on my back. This has all been happening too fast. I can't keep up with all of these constant problems.
"Yes?" I finally respond. She opens the door to the two-story building and I enter after her. "Master Klots took 'er in tuh treatment. But someone aught tuh tell us what she's talkin' 'bout, 'cause I think she's goin' insane or somethin'."
My heart drops. I look at her, puzzled. "What do you mean?" I ask Mother Maria. We continue making our way down a long hallway to a room near the end. "She hasn't stopped talkin' 'bout you and somethin' tuh do with weird dreams since she woke up 'bout forty minutes ago." she responds. She takes a good look at me. "Speakin' of you," Mother Maria begins. "The heck is goin' on with yo eye?" A short adrenalin rush occurs in my body as a touch my right eye. "Oh," I say. "Um... I-"
My sentence is cut off by Anne, who screeches "Mel!" from the room. In a way, I'm thankful I didn't need to come up with a logical explanation for Mother Maria's question, but I am also worried sick about Anne. I know we're brainwashed. In fact, I still haven't figured out how to stop it from getting worse. But since Anne and I managed to get off of the ground this morning, I haven't remembered what we were brainwashed to believe. And my head still aches heavily.
Relieved to see that Anne is alive, I quickly head towards her and sit next to her cot. "Mel..." she says with a shaky voice. A piece of me dies inside in result of watching my friend lie terribly sick next to me. "Are you alright?" I quickly ask. She looks at me, and shakes her head.
"What happened to her?" I ask Mother Maria. She looks over at Anne. "Doctor said she got some kind uh allergic reaction to the brai- I mean, um... the medicine." Mother Maria responds. I begin feeling a bit angry and offended. You mean the brainwash? I think.
Anne and I have a conversation for a little while to calm her down. Apparently she had been panicking ever since she woke up due to vivid nightmares about plane crashes, getting chased by wild dogs, and a bunch of other horrifying events. She only confused me more, but I guess my presence calmed her quite a bit. I observe a few bottles of medicine on the counter along with some tools. A doctor sits in a chair at the corner of the room and watches over the two of us for a while. Once Anne finally manages to go back to sleep, I decide I better ask the doctor an important question.
"How long will she be here?" I ask. The doctor looks at me for a while. "Heck, I don't know. I don't even know what to do for her." the young man responds. He's clueless? Really? He can't even help my friend? Is Zarta really so pathetic that they can't even hire one real doctor?
"What do you mean?" I begin. "Aren't you a doctor?" I ask. The tall, lean man looks around the room while still sitting in his chair. "Um, yeah?" he responds once he finally looks at me again. I shoot him a horrifying look. "Typical Zartan genius." I say. Obviously offended by my remark, he doesn't struggle to state his response. "I'm from Danovak, you little idiot." I step away from him. "Not trying to tell you how to do your job, man." I say. "I was just hoping you know how." He continues staring at me. "Well don't expect your friend around for the rest of this short trip."
-.*.-
Disappointed, I head back. When I return to our temporary designated sleeping room, Master Klots, a Mother from Priston and the officer begin setting up the motion sensor screen. Oh no, I think. They're introducing us to their plans.
Once the equipment ready, the motion sensor screen begins acquiring a signal. The live satellite image map opens, just as it did early this morning. It displays a live image of our campsite. Master Klots uses hand gestures to signal the image to begin moving through the path outside of this shelter. "Tomorrow I'm calling the Pristoni government." the Mother from Priston begins. It didn't occur to me until now that I'm not just dealing with Zarta's problems, but Danovak and Priston's too. And I'm not just surrounded by Zartan slaves anymore, but also ones from two other failing countries.
The Mother clears her throat over the increasingly silent room. "We've hired top officials in Priston to hack security systems surrounding the military bases." she begins. Top officials? First air crafts, and now this? Priston must know it's way around money. "The officials were brainwashed too." a boy chuckles. A few people laugh, but his idea actually gets me thinking. Maybe Zarta isn't the world's real problem... Priston's the country that's actually screwing a lot of things up. Maybe they're not just breaking the treaty but also being blamed for theft.
"It will be much easier to reach the military bases without getting caught." she says. The officer points to several devices buried in the ground shown on screen. Thick woods surround the military bases. "About half a mile in front of the entrance in each base is a verification system, used to make sure that only workers at the base can access the buildings and surpass the security system." she tells us. "The hard part about this process is that the verification systems not only need a correct code entered, but also a fingerprint scan. Our officials back home have figured out how to hack into the verification system so that in can all be disabled."
She goes on about how once we make it in, we'll need to execute all of the workers by using small explosives that will be flown in through another aircraft overnight and then break the circuit board. The power system is nothing fancy. Then the Tri-Retaliators' men will disassemble and break any of the military equipment that is held there.
I look around the room, and everyone seems to be confused as much as I am. Execute? I think. Are they innocent? I can't remember. The more I think the more my head hurts. All I can think of is the world "brainwash" and how the Nolegians are our enemies.
"There's only one problem," she begins. The woman struggles to speak, then looks over to Master Klots. "Alright." he says. "I know this is hard to hear. The verification system can only be shut down for about thirty seconds. We've tested it, and no one can figure out how to hack the system for more than about half a minute without losing signal. Its really strong, so it will eventually reboot. Therefore, we wont be able to know how long the security system will be down. And when its set off while the system is on, a small um... explosion occurs."
He sighs. "Okay, this is war. You are all soldiers. You know how this works. Some of you can't survive this mission. And on many of this missions to come after this one."