Wolf Heart

Chapter 57

Planet: Eteran, First Insurgency Compound

First Insurgency War

RAYAN

It rang in his ears with the sirens he ran from.

Data poured into the portable screen in front of him while the world blurred and his throat tightened with water bubbles. He sniffed through the congestion, fighting to read what the Insurgency gave him to break. Victory through desperation, and the question remained of how long it'd take the First Insurgency to cross the line.

He wiped his cheeks to stem the tide of his failure while James screamed out for help and he ignored him, turned on him, and shot him. He pressed his hands against his stomach to stifle the vomit stirring in the surface while he tried to catch his breath and fight for his ideals.

I'm just a coward.

He used a cloth to wipe his inability off his face as the streams of data beeped out sections of interest for him. He pulled it closer to the edge of his boots to try and peek past his own tears and fought for the patterns within the words. His fingers danced along the keys, but he wanted to paint a picture.

Knives dug a line through his heart while James reminded him of what he failed to do.

'You're the reason my sister is dead!'

If only I had just—

"Rayan?" Aaron asked from the door to the cold room.

He snapped his head up from his arms, where Aaron stood in the light with an appraising gaze around the room. "Well... this wouldn't be my first choice to do my codebreaking," he admitted with a smile. "Seeto wants to talk to you, but if you're not up for it—"

"I'm fine, Aaron." Rayan swallowed the rest of his tears and closed the portable screen and tucked it into his arms. "I'm getting close to something. I'll be there in a minute, I just need to figure one more thing out."

Aaron nodded and left him in the dark.

His attention faltered once more to James.

So long, and I thought you were dead.

Who he faced on the catwalk in the evacuated base wasn't James, and it never would be.

Vengeful ringing plagued his eardrums, and he rubbed his ear out of habit, then sat back down and returned to his work. But... there's something that's been bothering me since that day. Mom said she can't explain it — and never directly answered my questions. Unscrambled words. Unscrambled shapes. Rayan ignored his drumming brain which overpowered Mom's voice, but he pushed through. Rayan leaned closer, almost to the truth yet far out of his reach. I'm still missing something.

James' anger immolated his heart, but he fought for change.

He pulled up every pandemic report and every listed quarantine.

But, she did make one thing clear. The Sanctum's divided. I don't think she quite knew the scope of what's going on. Her rage echoed through Eastpoint's despair with the Strike Forces creating a noose. Yeah, I remember... she was on vacation, she didn't even want the Forces in Eastpoint. But after some Insurgency movements nearby they put them in Eastpoint and saddled Mom with the command.

He scowled and dug his fingers into his scalp. Elites... just cogs in the machine — nothing more than old weaponized experiments... experiments?

He gazed at the codes, then rolled through the scrambled patterns. None of it usable to paint a picture, until a name caught his eye.

'You don't always need to fill your world with flowers,' James instructed in the art of his own world. 'Make them mean something. Make them have weight. Less is more.'