Sanitized

Chapter 36; Return

I heaved a sigh, and drowsily jumped onto the couch after a full meal.
"What now?" Isaac asked, "I mean every one of our friends are back, what are we supposed to do?"
"I guess free everyone else?" Elliot said, unsure of himself.
"That's not possible." Tres said, "The ink connector can only get one person at a time. And the Octarian Army has pretty much sanitized the entire population of Inkopolis. And they've already moved south, north, west, and east. We can't stop them easily. There are too many of them in too many different places."
Elliot sighed, and the rest of us looked around expectantly, assuming that someone might have a hopeful idea of what to do.
Everyone was awake at this point, and the unsanitized were all extremely drowsy and tired. For some reason, Isaac was the only recently unsanitized person that seemed pretty awake. Every unsanitized had their heads rested on some sort of surface, and every other person was just tired. I was still wet from my swim, and had been enjoying the rest of my morning until we came across this subject.
"What can we really do?" Evelyn said, moving her long bangs behind her shoulders, "I know that it already took enough effort to get the rest of us unsanitized."
"This is ancient technology too, I don't know if we can really mess with it." Marina said.
I looked over at Phoenix, who was someone I hadn't talked to too much. She looked gravely scared, and was looking out to us like she was already planning our funerals.
"Do you guys remember who sanitized you?" Elliot asked all of us.
All of us gave a certain confirmation that said that none of us had remembered who or what had sanitized us. Everyone, except for Phoenix. I knew Phoenix as Opal's childhood friend, the person who had helped her go through half of her Octarian life's existence freely. Phoenix spoke up and said, "I remember the process for sanitization."
We all looked at her quickly, while the whole room quieted in hopefulness.
"I was a major general back in the Octarian army, so they shared all of their secrets." Phoenix said standing up, "They have an entire underground facility, Kamabo Co., where Opal and Elliot escaped from, and where they placed a mass production of mind-controlling ink. Because the ink was still in its first stages, Tres and Steven were able to easily escape from the ink, by the splat of an enemy's ink. They've upgraded this ink, and it's almost impossible to free people from it."
Everyone was intently listening to her calm and convincing voice, that carried throughout the room, almost entrancing everyone into listening to her. Something about her, just made you know that you could trust her.
She tried to take in all the attention, and calm herself, as she was having a hard time explaining it to us. But I understood.
There is no way to free those people.
No way except the ink connector, which can only get one person at a time, while the Octarian Army sanitizes by the thousands.
"There is nothing to do, except make sure that they stop..." I said, almost finishing her speech. She nodded somberly.
I got very lucky with this timing, you know, the timing of my in-sanitization? I knew that there'd be a lot of people who wouldn't be getting their families back, and a lot of those families wouldn't even be remembered or commemorated.
"I don't truly remember who sanitized me, but I don't think it was a single person, I think it passed through me like a disease." Phoenix said.
"I think I kind of remember who sanitized Opal..." Steven said, slightly blushing.
Opal looked at him surprised, "I think I do too"
"It was an inkling girl, who was unsanitized, and under her complete own control." Steven said.
"There are inklings who have freely sided with the Octarian Army, and have pledged loyalty to them." Phoenix said, "I remember that from when the ink was still in the stages of development."
"So there are people who aren;t sanitized, yet are still helping the bad guys?" I asked.
The room seemed to flinch at the bluntness and oblivity of the question.
"I don't think there are any bad guys here Faith, it's not like a movie, there has to be a logical reason they're doing this." Evelyn said.
"I think she's right." Paxton said, "I pretty much know everyone in Inkopolis, no one I know would do this for no reason."
Paxton brushed his bangs to the side and kept his normal bright physique. He smiled brightly at everyone in the room, almost hypnotizing them with his soft and kind magenta eyes.
"Yeah, I mean, there has to be a reason, no one would ever do this if there wasn't one." Isaac said, smoothing out his tentacles with his hand.
"I mean Octavio is pretty terrible, but I really don't think he's in charge of this, it's thought out too well..." Marina said, patting Pearl on the head, who grasped her tightly.
Pearl was obviously very tired, and was the only person who was not introduced to field work. She struggled to keep her head up, and to stay awake, so she grabbed onto Marina for support.
"I mean, Octavio took control of my mind, but not through sanitization, and it was also for no apparent reason." Callie, my mentor said.
"He's just a power hungry buttface." Marie said.
Marie must have been very tired, because she usually keeps her composure, and at the most is sarcastic. Everyone seemed kind of off.
"And we destroyed that telephone back at Kamabo Co, underground, so we don't know who's running everything there" Elliot said in defeat.
"Well, there was Octar, this one person who kept leaving me letters, and was in control of the inktolings underground, when it was just me, Tres, and Isaac." Opal said, "But he was shot..."
"So they are willing to kill..." Tres said, putting her hand on one of her arms, cautiously. Elliot looked at her scaredly, and put a hand on her back.
Isaac looked at her, confused, and then looked away quickly.
"He also said, indirectly, that he wasn't in charge." Opal said.
"I never got to meet whoever was in charge, so I have no idea who it is." Phoenix said, "I got letters also, but they addressed me as, "Human"."
"I think I might have gotten one of those letters, by that giant meteor that struck down in the road in front of us when we were on our way to Flounderida." Tres said, "Remember that?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"I forget what it said, because it's been a while, but it also addressed me as, "Human"" Tres said, confused by her own words.
"I don't think that any of the rest of us have gotten those letters either though, and no one has any for evidence right now." Marina said.
"Yeah, I would certainly remember any letters that weren't fanmail." Marie said.
"Most of my letters I keep, but I don't remember getting any either..." Callie said.
"I just put most of my mail into junk mail anyway, I mean, it'd be way easier if they had just emailed it." Pearl said.
"True." I said.
"But they don't care if it's easy, they just want it to be inconspicuous." Phoenix said.
"It's too bad really, Peyton and I had an entire new website created, they should have reached you guys through that." Paxton said.
"That would definitely not be inconspicuous, but speaking of Peyton, where is he? And Serenity too?" Marie asked.
Everyone shrugged, and I then realized that I had remembered who sanitized me.
" I think I remember who sanitized me." I said quietly, among all of the now intermittent conversations.
"Really?" Phoenix asked. The second she talked, the entire room started staring at me.
"Umm, yeah. A little at least. It was an inkling boy, who wasn't sanitized who had help." I said, fidgeting with my fingers.
"I think I know who our culprit is..." Isaac said.
All eyes were now looking at him, as he calmly set down his cup of water.
"Serenity." he said, "It's pretty simple. Who hasn't been here? Who has been the only one not showing up in these places?"
I nodded, "He's right. I do remember. She was the one who helped the other boy sanitize me."
"I can second that, I think she's the one who sanitized me too." Callie said.
"Me three." Marie said.
"I think she's the one who showed up on the beach with me and Steven." Opal said, blushing.
Steven nodded and said, "As much as I don't want to believe it, it's true."
"She was just the one helping though! There was a main inkling, who was he?" I said.
"I don't think we'll know until later, but for now, we've got ourselves a lead." Isaac said.
"Guys, we've got to be careful. The Octarian Army is now using real human guns." Elliot said.
"They shouldn't do too much damage, right?" Callie asked.
"Wrong." Tres said quietly, lifting up the sleeve on her sweatshirt, revealing a large bullet wound.
Elliot looked at her sadly, and then, pointed to a bullet wound on his leg.
"It's true, they were badly injured. I had to fix it all up, but just because I'm here doesn't mean I can fix any wound. I'm still only 16 after all." Evelyn said.
"So you're a doctor?" Steven asked her.
She nodded maturely.
"You're very polite for someone who's 16. I'd even say that if you were 17." Marie said.
Evelyn was a tad bit shorter than the rest of us, and a bit skinnier, and had the structure of a child too. I knew she was only about a year younger than me, but I still couldn't have seen more age difference between us.
"Well, we've got everything sorted out, no not shared info. Correct?" I said.
"Sort of..." Steven said quietly, looking downward, and fidgeting with his fingers.
"Spill." Marie said.
"Well I-I-I don't know if I can, I mean, it's not entirely my decision. I-I-I also haven't really worked things out completely." Steven said, blushing madly, and barely managing to get out his words without stuttering.
We all looked at him and he said, "It doesn't really concern the battlefield, so I should probably tell you guys later..."
"Same with me..." Tres said looking downward.
"OOOOOOOOO! Drama!" Callie said in a songy tone.
"Stop that." Tres said, as if her happiness had evaporated, while also blushing madly.
"Wait..." Callie said, "OH MY COD! I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT! I KNOW WHO IT-"
Marie put a hand over her mouth quickly and said, "I'd shut up if I were you."
Tres stared at her menacingly angry, "Don't you dare."
"But still!" Callie said, laughing.
Tres at this point was blushing even harder, her cheeks completely pink.
"You're obvious though!" Callie said, pointing to Steven, "But it doesn't matter! It's still ador-"
Marie put her hand over Callie's mouth again, and said, "I'd shut up if I were you."
They were both blushing madly, and staring down Callie while she laughed.
I looked over at both of them confusedly, obliviously wondering what the heck Callie was talking about.
The rest of us were as confused as I was.
"Anyway," Steven said, "What's our plan?"
"I'm guessing that we should split up, and protect the other places from getting sanitized, and some of us should infiltrate their base and find Serenity, and some of us should take down the mass production." Phoenix said.
"Sounds like a plan." Opal said.
"Great, who should go where?" Isaac asked.
"Phoenix should definitely go to either get Serenity, or do something at the base." Paxton said.
The rest of us nodded, and Steven said, "I think Elliot and Tres should take a break, especially because they've been working so hard. And, knowing Elliot, they probably didn't get much sleep, and starved themselves. Besides, they can probably stay at base and do the work behind the screens with Marina."
"What? No, you don't have to-" Tres began, but was stopped by Opal saying, "No, we insist that you guys take a break."
"Okay.." Tres said, "But if anything goes wrong, we'll be there."
Elliot nodded and said, " Thanks guys..."
"Phoenix and Marie should go down to the base and attempt to stop production. Callie and Paxton should go to stop the spread, along with Pearl and Evelyn, who will go to different bases. Steven and Opal should attempt to find Serenity. And finally, Faith and Isaac should go to figure more out about who's in charge, and such." Tres said.
"Sounds good." Cappy said, finally speaking.
"Oh wow, we didn't even know you were here." I said.
"Yep, I heard everything. Oh, and you all should stop staring at each other dreamily."