Chapter 425. Return
Aden stood on the vast deck of the aircraft carrier, gazing into the impenetrable dark expanse ahead as he held a lit cigarette between his fingers.
"The sea wind is so fierce at three in the morning. Why did you come all the way here to smoke?" A familiar voice rang out from behind Aden.
Taking a puff from his cigarette, Aden turned around to face the source of the voice. His eyes met with a figure in a crisp military uniform. He was standing next to a colossal key that was slightly smaller in stature compared to the carrier's tower.
The figure was a middle-aged man with a stubble-laden chin, and his eyes glimmered with resolve.
Offering the cigarette pack with a gesture, Aden asked, "Weister, care for one?"
"No thanks, I don't smoke," Weister politely turned him down before joining him to stare into the dark waters ahead.
"Haunted by nightmares again?" Aden turned toward his longtime comrade, who had enlisted alongside him.
A hint of hesitation flickered across Weister's eyes, but he eventually gave a firm nod and said, "I dreamt of Captain and the crew. This time...it was Feuerbach who pushed me down."
Aden let out a yawn as he brushed away a tear that had formed at the corner of his eye.
"All these years, you've dreamed of every one of your shipmates pushing you down the stairs, but yet you've never figured out who was the true culprit.
"Listen, since you survived that ordeal, just let it go. Make the most of your life here. You know, Ginny from the med bay has taken a liking to you. If you were to marry her, you'd be the envy of all of us."
However, Aden's words seemed to have touched a sore spot as a suppressed fury crossed Weister's gaze.
"No! I have to return! I must find the one responsible and kill him with my own hands, no matter who it is!
"Because of him, I can never see my mother again. Neither can I ever return home."
Aden crouched down on the deck and took a deep breath from his cigarette. He had been hearing these words for decades and was tired of them.
After Weister was finally done airing his long-standing bitterness and anger, Aden voiced out, "Buddy, I'm thinking of retiring. I've already put in my request.
"Looking back, I ran away from home over something trivial and have never gone back all these years. I want to go back and have a look. I owe them an apology."
The fury in Weister's eyes slowly faded as he gazed at his comrade crouched on the deck. "You can take my spot. That way, you can get back up to the surface in as early as six months."
Aden looked up in astonishment at the veteran soldier before him. "Really? You'd really do that for me? But that could mean you're condemned to remain in this wretched place for good."
Weister shook his head. "The world above belongs to you and Captain. I was born in this seascape, and this is where I belong. No matter how great the surface world is, it's not my home."
Overwhelmed by gratitude, Aden pulled Weister into a warm embrace. "My brother! Everything I have is now yours—the Playboy magazines under my pillow, the protein powder beneath my bed, and also my retirement pension. They are all yours."
"I don't need the money."
Hearing Weister's words, a hint of sorrow surfaced on Aden's face. He knew what the man was thinking.
Aden stepped back and offered a solemn piece of advice, "Listen, bud, 010 is a high-security project that is contained in isolation. It's not a place you can just walk into.
"And be careful never to let the others know you're from another time. Otherwise, those from the Research Division are going to cut you up and analyze you."
"There must be a way... There must be," Weister muttered to himself.
Hearing the resolve in Weister's voice, Aden decided to stop his dissuasion. He pulled out his smartphone and launched the map application. The red dot on the app accurately pinpointed their precise location.
Aden swiftly zoomed in and out on the display before placing the phone back into his pocket.
"Let's go. Even if we can't sleep, we should try to get some rest, or we won't have the energy for our day's duty. We're just three days away from our destination."
Aden then turned and made his way toward the towering silhouette of the carrier that was covered in radar antennae.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sharp report of gunshots shattered the silence of the night. Aden froze in his tracks and slowly lowered his gaze. His eyes widened as he witnessed the fabric of his uniform swiftly staining with the crimson of his own blood.
He turned around slowly with a look of disbelief and came face to face with Weister, who held a gun in his hand.
"Why..." Aden asked weakly as his hand instinctively pressed against his wound.
"Why do you get to go home, but I don't?! WHY!" Weister roared, his voice laced with venomous envy, and his features twisted in resentment.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots continued to echo as Weister emptied the gun's magazine. He then grabbed Aden and threw him overboard into the dark waters.
The last scene Aden saw was a sea otter persistently hammering a shell against the hull of the carrier.
"Why...? I'm so close to reaching home... Why now..." Charles collapsed to the ground with agony painted on his countenance.
This time, Charles had an extremely hard time emerging from the memory. He went through a tense ten minutes of cognitive disorientation before he could anchor himself back to reality.
However, the glimpse he had of the island's coordinates on Aden's phone before the man's demise had Charles thinking that the entire ordeal had been worth it.
The aircraft carrier was transporting the colossal key for that skyward gate, and its final destination was the most distant isle in the archipelago. As long as they reached their island, they would be able to secure the key to unlock the door to the surface world.
Trembling, Charles stood up and dashed toward the distant voices.
The motionless bodies that had littered their surroundings were almost gone now. Upon finding Tobba and Anna, he found them in a quarrel over a human body.
"Let go, you brat!" Anna shouted.
"Why should I? I saw it first!"
"Enough!" Charles intervened and stopped their bickering. "How long are both of you going to continue with this?"
Seizing Anna's hand, Charles turned to Tobba and said, "We should go back now. Tobba, how do we exit this perspective?"
In response, Tobba exhaled a large bubble. "Step inside, and you will be able to return."
Eyeing the writhing bubble before him, Charles looked at Tobba and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"
Tobba's face was etched with fear as he emphatically shook his head. "Why would I want to leave? I've just managed to find refuge here. If I get out, I'm as good as dead. Besides, I can still communicate with you from here. Sure, my messages will get a bit jumbled, but you'll get the gist of it."
Charles nodded in understanding and pulled Anna, who had a look of reluctance on her visage, into the pulsating bubble.
Boom!
Suddenly, the deafening sound of cannon fire assaulted Charles' ears. He could feel that the Narwhale was tilted at an extreme angle and on the brink of capsizing.
Right in front of him, Dipp let out a fierce roar as he drove his blade deep into the giant toad perched on the ship's railing. The other crew members held weapons in their hands and were fighting valiantly against the sea otters that were trying to get onto the deck.
It was pandemonium. The Narwhale had even raised her steel plates, meant for underwater defense, to shield herself against the sea otters' attacks.
The once dark waters had now become a sea teeming with brown sea otters. It was as if they had entered an ocean entirely made up of otters.
They surged madly toward the Narwhale, undeterred by the barrage of cannon and gunfire or Sparkle's attacks.
"Have these sea otters gone crazy?" Anna's limbs swiftly morphed into writhing tentacles as she plunged into the battle.
"No. Perhaps this is their moment of utmost lucidity." Eight tentacles sprouted from Charles' form and white electrical arcs danced around them. He then dashed toward the most vulnerable point in their defense.
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