The Khalanium Blades

Chapter 16: Korpus

The loud sounds of people talking all at once awoke Ray, who immediately sat up in an erect position when he saw he had been resting on Sarah's shoulder. The girl beside him slowly woke too, and Ray wished she wouldn't see the small stain of drool he had created. "Ew! Who drooled on me?" Sarah asked, looking at him, her face disgusted. Ray turned bright red.

Luckily, the eruption of commotion and people gathering around the cockpit's entrance directed Sarah's focus elsewhere. To Ray's right, Carson was still sleeping, his jaw wide open. The leader smiled as the scene reminded him of Sam, who always was a deep sleeper. Sam! He looked around frantically for his best friend and saw Jane stretching. "Jane, where in the world is Sam?" he asked. Jane's face was showing guilt, and her eyes filled with terror.

"He-" her voice was cut off by a sudden quiver in her voice. Her head hung low. "Lok injected something into him. He went mad, throwing tables and stuff at us. It was like the Hulk taking over but not green. I didn't have much of a choice. I had to leave him there, otherwise he would have stopped us from escaping." She looked up, only to see the older boy in disbelief.

"Jane, you mean you just left him?" Ray's voice mixed with anger and shock. "He's our best friend! Now he's in the hands of Conquest." Jane covered her face. Ray took a seat beside her and said in a comforting way, "Listen. I know it wasn't your fault, and I also know it was a hard decision. But right now we need to find a place to stay. Then we'll rescue Sam."

Jane nodded and stood up. Carson and Sarah joined the two, and they spotted Commander Rook ordering the recruits to sit back down. Once the entrance to the pilot's cockpit cleared out, the man walked to the Specials, his lips forming a small grin. "Well, first I want to thank you personally for defending us back there," he said, patting Ray's shoulder. "I'm sure Rob would have been very proud of you. Anyway, an incoming call from Director Quick himself told us we need to meet him on the planet Korpus."

Though being reminded of Rob's absence hurt Ray, the fact that Quick was alive and well was comforting, and so was the fact that now they had somewhere to go. After taking their seats, Rook stood in the center of the area, both rows of people apparently facing their leader. The soldierly man announced the relieving news, as everyone cheered afterwards. He left the room, and everyone proceeded to discuss everything.

Ray had some thoughts of his own too, and the four spent hours either sleeping or talking. Ray had so much fun endlessly chatting, something he never got to do at school, that he forgot all about eating. His throat was dry, and without argument the teenagers remained silent until water bottles were handed out. "Why were these given so late?" Jane asked, water dripping down her mouth. Ray shrugged, taking a large gulp of cool liquid.

Commander Rook announced they had arrived, and after around fourteen hours above ground, twenty-four were walking down the ramp, one by one, each exhaling a sigh of relief. Ray sucked in the fresh air like it was his last and examined his surroundings. The area in Korpus where they landed was a grassland, filled with plenty of trees and rocks. He loved it and everything about it except that the sun was extremely bright like a laser pointing at his eyes, even though the abundant leaves blocked it most of time.

After everyone realized how pleasant their new base might be, three men revealed themselves out from a random huge boulder. Ray was the first one to notice the arriving men and immediately called Rook's attention. When their faces were illuminated, Director Quick, in between the two escorts, stepped forward to shake the commander's hand. "Good to see you took great care of our recruits and the Specials. Come, we have much to discuss," he said.

"But sir, I think you should be thanking the children. They were the ones who ensured our safety, even if it came with a great loss," Rook protested.

"What do you mean, Commander? Are you saying we lost one of the teenagers?"

"I'm afraid it's true, Sir. It was believed that Sam went mad, since Lok injected him. The boy now remains in Conquest's base, and Rob was unfortunately...burned from a mind-controlled Ray." Rook stared into the director's confused expression.

"I have a ton of questions, but we can discuss it later, once your squad is settled in." Quick disappeared into the approaching crowd of PROTECT recruits. Ray eagerly followed the men into a small forest of some kind, stepping over rocks and dodging drooping branches. He was excited to see where he'd be sleeping, training, or staying temporarily since the watchtower was destroyed. His mind wandered off to a picture in his head where he watched the glorious sun set into the waters beside his friends. The idea vanished in an instant, as his face planted on the ground with a thud. He had tripped over a sharp rock and kept focus afterwards.

Brushing off leaves in their way, the group finally made it to their destination. Ray felt a tint of disappointment when their temporary settlement turned out to be a large campsite. Around thirty white tents, almost triple the size of a normal one were spread out across a massive flat terrain. Trees surrounded the territory, forming a huge square perimeter.

A man stood in the middle of their way, his arms folded behind his back. "Welcome to our temporary encampment for the next five to six days while the watchtower is being repaired," he greeted. "I am Assistant Director Kent of the Alpha Sector, and tent assignments will be given out now." The group started walking towards a man who waved his hands repeatedly it was impossible to avoid looking at him. But Ray, Jane, Sarah, Carson, and Rook were pulled out by Kent and were ordered to follow him for the report.

They walked past tents in a straight row, the soil crunching beneath their feet. Ray was curiously finding open tents, hoping to get a glimpse of what it looked like inside. When he did, he simply saw five wide mattresses, spaced apart in a horizontal line. Two desks were stationed beside the flat beds on both corners, and lamps were on it. Ray later confirmed that all tents were identical to each other all throughout the area.

Towards the tip of the row, Kent led them into a brown colored tent. The first thing Ray observed was that the floor was instead made of wood. A long desk stood in the center with six monoblock chairs around it. Everyone took their seats, and Rook started immediately. He talked about how they were trapped, the spies, Conquest, and the mind control, but stopped at the part before Rob's death. Kent had a small device on the table used as a voice recorder, and he was also taking brief notes on a pad.

"I think the children would rather continue, since they know more than we do from this point," Rook explained. He was staring at Ray as he said it, hoping the boy would understand. Ray did,

but really didn't want to talk about Rob anymore. The assistant director raised an eyebrow, waiting for his account.

Ray sighed, knowing he had to either way. "Ok. Once we were brainwashed and stuff, we were forced to fight Rob, Rook, and all the remaining groups. Us five didn't have a choice, up to the point where Rob's resistance led him to...his death. They forced me to burn him. And I was too weak to fight back." He stopped there, and when he realized he was facing down, he looked up, watching the man's face carefully for his reaction.

Kent held up his hands to his face, fingers shaking. Ray guessed the man had a special connection to Rob as tears started falling. Rook was confused. "What's wrong?" he asked, gawking at Ray at how emotionally shook the man was. The quietly sobbing man slowly put his hands down and started to calm down. He managed to get a few words out.

"Robert was my brother."