Part Darren: Chapter 6

I opened my eyes to see the strangest sight here. Darren was standing with his hands and knees above me, on my bed. However much shock this event generated in me was overpowered by the amount of fear generated from looking at him.

We were both speechless. I was speechless from him and he was speechless from me. No one else was in the room with us, again.

“Don’t begin with an apology,” he said. “Let me explain to you what I saw.” I sat up against the wall behind me and got comfortable. He was my second in command and my best friend here. Whatever he saw scared him in some way.

 

 

Everything was going as planned. Ranger was still going from what we knew. The Arthromians could be waiting for someone to show themselves or for their commander, Cameron, to return. Either way, not one boy was going to shoot without the say so. Only if human assurance would stay forever.

If you didn’t learn from Ranger yet, you can never feel safe all of the time. Soram, the eye patch boy, was stopped in the head. Every Mind Soldier looked around. Not a single trace of the shooter was found.

One of our other boys was about to start shooting everyone else. The initial fear that our loss was coming was getting to him. Two more shots were heard. Then the announcer got back on.

“What an amazing turn of events! Excitement was bound to happen at some point in this battle, but that was unexpected. In order for him to get through Ranger sacrificed himself to stop the Arthromian commander! Hopefully both teams have a back-up because they’re necessary now.”

Ranger got stopped? He was hidden above Cameron, how the hell did he know? And who shot Soram? It’s a good thing I taught those codes at least.

Breathing in to prepare for the loudest, deepest and longest I could hold it. The train was coming through.

The gravity turned off while everyone ran. We all went above to the darkness of the ceiling. “We need to create a distraction before the attack. Anyone got an idea?” They all just looked at each other like lemmings. “Fine…”

It was time to end this. I took Soram’s gun and readied mine. “Throw me up.” The two strongest boys stood on both sides of me. With a combination of my legs and their arms, I flew towards the field. Arthromians getting bigger and bigger the closer I got.

The crowd was in a state of confusion. Everything was a blur to me as my eyes moved from target to target shooting. Before anyone recognized what I did the battle was over. Within a few seconds and the perfect aiming I stopped everyone.

Cheering came back as if a team just won a sports tournament back on Earth. It was good to hear for a few seconds. All of The Mind Soldiers, except Soram who was confused and Ranger who wasn’t here, came down to join the excitement. My mind was racing about one thing though. Where is Ranger?

An officer came in with one of those devices. He got through half of the Arthromian squad when a siren went off. A paramedic siren went off.

“Could that be him?” Soram asked. We stood next to each other as everyone else watched the scene.

“But why are paramedics coming? Did Cameron attack him physically?” I wondered out loud. Soram looked over with wide eyes. Everyone knew the rule that in here; only your gun can harm another. It would be stupid of him to forget that now.

My brotherly instincts told me I had to go check on Ranger. My leadership instincts told me I couldn’t let the others follow me. They all cared for him. They all knew other people needed him alive. That boy he always talks to needs him here.

“Everyone stay here! I’ll go check on Ranger.” Soram grabbed my arm. He wants to come, but knows I won’t let him. “There are no exceptions now. I have to go make sure he is okay.”

A complaint didn’t leave a single mouth. The only noises now were the sirens blaring and loud mumbling from around the field walls. It was time to go see.

 

 

“So what happened next?! Did you find me on the ground when you came?” I asked. The mattress was bouncing up and down from my excitement. My back was sore.

“They led me to an exam room where you laid there. The doctor told me the impact of the floor didn’t affect you because Cameron stopped you mid-fall.” Darren held my body still by the arms. We started laughing like siblings do.

“Your officer friend came in when lunch was going on,” Darren said. Did he mean Benjamin or Matt? If Matt came in, that might explain the visuals I received before this. If Benjamin came in…

“Which officer came in? You NEED to tell me their name!” Now I was holding Darren and shaking him around. When I stopped he looked around.

“He said you knew him as Matt. It was weird to be there because your friend Charles wasn’t allowed to enter while he was here.” I felt relieved. Officer Benjamin is bad news now. I couldn’t imagine what he would do to me unconscious.

I sat still and thought. Whatever Matt wanted to show me must have been important. He likes to hide the message inside other messages. The problem is that I can’t understand the messages sometimes and he has to explain them to me anyways.

Charles came into the room, alone. A tray of food was in his hands. It wasn’t as much as the normal serving they gave us. The shock in his eyes amused me. He almost dropped the tray.

“Did something scare you? Friends revive themselves from the dead all the time, right?” I began chuckling. “Ray did it all the time. Figuratively of course!”

“You can never be sure when that friend is s murderer and a mind killer.” Charles placed the tray on the side table. “Those friends also don’t usually jump off a certain height looking to get someone else.” He sat on Soram’s bed with a grin on his face.

Darren stood up and began to walk out. “You two have some catching up to do! I’ll leave you alone for now.” With a wink, he was gone.

We talked for a while until he noticed the condition of my bed. “Do you need some help with getting those cleaned? However you landed must have been bad.”

I looked over and saw ghostly figures of boys slitting their throat or stabbing their selves, bleeding out afterwards. “I think I’ll leave these here. They let me remember what happened in the past.”

I imagined what it would be like if they lived. There would be no blood on these sheets, maybe. Charles would be smarter probably too. I could be useless in their goal, just like Matt and him. “To think they could still be here and I would be at school, not around Charles.”