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Chapter 9

They and a caravan of soldiers trailed along the desert, Farah taking point. Micah and Ulises brought up the caravan's rear, Oberon walking along just ahead of them.

It was now daylight. The whole base was relocating, except for the Infected. Various soldiers in Farah's unit had volunteered for the grisly duty of ending their misery. Micah tried not to think about it. There was another base four klicks away, however no signal from them had been met with yet.

Micah felt severe anxiety. Ulises was in a similar state, but anyone else other than Micah wouldn't have been able to tell. He reminded himself that Ulises carried the shield module; his comrade was now on his way to the center of the caravan, as per his orders.

"Trust your instincts," Micah had told him. And your own, too, he reminded himself.

"Micah."

"Yes, Doctor," Micah answered.

"Pfaw! Call me Oberon, please!" He then cleared his throat and walked closer to Micah. "Your device."

"Yes? What about it?"

"What are your plans, exactly?"

Micah explained.

* * *

"BIO-WEAPONS! CACHE!"

Micah saw the signal from Farah, then used his own broken piece of mirror to signal to his comrade. Ulises raised the shield.

Micah stopped time.

He worked at dismantling the bio-bombs within the under-desert facility, as per Farah's orders. No sign of the enemy. He had noticed some work had already been done on one of the cylindrical weapons.

"Ulises," he uttered out loud. He resumed time.

The thick dust in the room began moving again.

His comrade had also appeared.

"Woah," Ulises said, behind him, having ported one metre away from Micah. "Don't do that, sir."

"I did nothing, except neutralize one of these already," Micah replied, turning to look at him. "Looks like you're not even halfway done with one."

Ulises tapped his shoulder. Micah jumped. His comrade was now to the left of him.

Micah looked back around the room. Every bio-weapon was now laying in harmless pieces.

He looked back at Ulises. He had his arms folded, and was very proudly grinning.

"Amateur," Micah told his cocky comrade.

They finished, then used their devices to port to Farah, outside.

"Reporting in, ma'am," Ulises stated.

"Okay?" she said as she turned to face them, looking at her watch. "Y'all were gone for seven minutes. Did you even go in? I wanted a little more than a quick recon."

Micah realized their error.

"Ahem. The bombs were already neutralized," Micah lied.

"Completely dead on sight, ma'am," Ulises quickly added.

"We checked and triple-checked," Micah said.

She stared at them for a moment. "Huh. Well. That's good then." She took a drag from her smoke. "Any sight of the enemy?"

"No," Micah replied, genuinely relieved to say it.

"So, we move on," Farah announced. "Retrieve the shield, Ulises. And thank you, both of you, for your work. Resume your positions." She saluted them. They returned it.

"That was a close one," Ulises told him afterwards, out of Farah's earshot.

"Hello!"

They both jumped as Oberon ported before them.

"Great job in there. Woo! You are professionals," he said.

"I'd appreciate if you'd stop... spying on us, Doctor," Micah told him. "You're still in our dimension. Remember that."

But Micah knew nothing could really stop him, unless they confiscated his device. He noted the future possibility to himself.

"I do apologize," Oberon answered. "I have news. I thought you'd be the better one to tell Miss Farah. We do not want to go to the new base."

"Oh?" Micah said. "Explain."

Oberon pulled another device from his pocket. It was thin, rectangular in shape, and reflected the sunlight, but its color was dark, like a black mirror. Micah had never seen him use it before now.

"I've finally traced a signal from them," Oberon continued, "but it's not what we'd consider... communication." He tapped at his new device, its top plate now lit up brightly, despite the Sun's glare.

"Hmmm," Ulises started, approaching Oberon. "You've been holding out reconnaissance tech from us. What is that damnable thing, anyway? What else are you hiding?"

"Absolutely nothing, you damnable twit," Oberon spat back. "I've withheld nothing from you of what this smartphone tells me."

"Smartphone?" Micah asked.

"Oh it's a common tool in my reality," Oberon explained. "Everyone has one. It can do everything for you if you tune it just right..." He tapped more commands into it.

Screams. Horrible, guttural, liquid screams erupted from Oberon's device.

"Turn that shit off," Ulises said over the noise, clasping his hands to his ears.

Oberon ceased the comminique and slipped the device back into his pocket, its screen off.

"And it won't stop," he said. "As I said, Micah, we should not go there."

"What the devil was that," Farah said, running over.

"Demons," Ulises said.