Chapter 156: Heading Back (1)
"Yes, that’s the place where Ren and Kestrel went to," Luther recalled, brightening up at the thought. "Imagine, a whole secret city filled with so many powerful weapons."
He moved his arms wide, pacing with energy from one place to another. "Brandon, once Ren is back, I want to praise him like he deserves. I hope he’ll tell us all the cool stuff he saw. Maybe this means humans can finally fight back and get back what we lost."
Being a leader, Luther was aware that the Empire could gather tons of strong weapons from the newly found place. He felt a rush of excitement, even starting to imagine how people could take back the Polluted Zone.
"How did the Queen react when she found out?" Brandon questioned.
"The Queen? She definitely..."
Luther was about to say that the Queen was super happy; she did say it was good news. But, out of nowhere, he felt super cold, like he got goosebumps all over.
By then, they had walked away from the Tower. It stood high and mighty, its shiny white body behind them in the distance.
Brandon glanced at Luther, his best buddy from childhood. Luther was dressed in a fancy uniform and had a noticeable scar near his eye, looking kind of out of it.
"You remember how you got that scar, right?" Brandon motioned to the scar, speaking softly like he didn’t want to be overheard.
Luther’s face turned serious, with a kind of sadness that seemed like it had been there forever. He’d never forget that because lots of people died back then. During that time when the Polluted Zone grew, he almost lost everyone he loved.
Back then, when everything went bad, everyone who was still around ran into the small outpost. They had no food, nothing really, and were stuck in that tight space for a whole month. He tried to call for help from the Imperial Nexus over and over, but no one showed up.
Even now, thinking about what happened in that post gave Luther chills. It was like a nightmare: his mom and little sister starved, and so many of his friends were made to leave the safe place to fight and didn’t come back. That was when he got the scar.
But, when he later went to the Imperial Nexus, he saw everyone living it up, like nothing happened. When he brought up what happened, some chubby officer just said, "We didn’t have enough money for the army, so we couldn’t help. That’s too bad."
Luther’s eyes got watery, and he tightened his grip, telling Brandon, "I promise, I’ll never forget. I can’t let it go, not ever."
Brandon, who didn’t usually say much, just reached out, pulled Luther close, and gave him a supportive pat.
Now, they all dressed up really nice, like everything was okay. It looked like they’d gotten over the past, but deep down, everyone knew they hadn’t. What was lost was never really replaced. Inside, their feelings were still strong and grew more intense every day.
They’d always remember those faces.
...
Ren and Kestrel raced through the tunnels below the ground. Back in the old days, Unit-01 had busted out of where it was kept, wrecking temples and labs from the inside.
Suddenly, the Eyehole broke apart, showing the real underground world. The floor under Ren and Kestrel started falling apart big time.
Everything shook hard. Metal things from the ceiling made loud noises, and rocks, dust, and busted pipes rained down. A big chunk of the hallway cracked open, and gross water sprayed out, getting everything wet. Sometimes, weird creatures would crawl out of the mess, using their arms and legs to climb up the pipes, trying to get away.
Ren was running with Kestrel on his back. By now, it was clear Kestrel was tired out and had to chill on Ren’s strong shoulders.
Suddenly, a giant rock slab crashed down in front of them. The pipes they were stepping on broke and felt wobbly.
Kestrel, peeking over Ren’s shoulder, quickly shot at the ground ahead. The gravity gun she used made a big hole, making the rock and the floor sink even more.
Without waiting, Ren jumped off the shaky floor. He touched the falling rock with his foot for a boost, reached out, and managed to grab the broken part of the hallway above.
First, he helped Kestrel up, and then climbed up himself.
Three of those creatures ran from where the road fell apart, heading into the new path that Kestrel and Ren made. A couple of them stopped, poked their heads out to sniff around, and then heard a super loud crash behind them.
They were so close to falling! Good thing Ren and Kestrel worked together to make a way out, or they would have fallen too.
It was weird seeing mutants and humans so close, but instead of fighting, they just looked at each other and kept running.
Suddenly, Ren stopped. Both of them turned to look in one direction; Ren heard a soft cry, and Kestrel felt someone’s sadness really deep down.
After looking around for a bit, both of them found the ’little’ mutant who had led them earlier. His large body was stuck under a huge rock that had fallen from the ceiling. The scene was pretty bad, with tons of heavy junk all around, making it super hard to help him out.
Kestrel kneeled down next to the mutant and showed her anti-gravity gun, thinking that if she used it, she might accidentally hurt the creature even more.
Even with Ren’s crazy strong alpha power, there was no way he could move something as heavy as a mountain. And since everything could crash down at any second, they couldn’t hang around for long.
The stuck mutant, with tears and stuff running down his face, made a soft crying sound. He bravely ripped a small part off his own body. Then, a light-colored, squishy arm poked out from between the rocks, holding that bloody piece.
"Could you guys eat this?" the mutant asked with teary eyes. "Everyone else left, and I’m scared that when I die, no one will eat me. I don’t want to be left here."
Seeing Kestrel and Ren unsure of what to do, he pushed the piece of meat towards them even more, sounding even sadder. "I ate my own mom. I’m super strong," it cried out.
