"Who?" was all Holly could say, but she knew exactly who it was. She was one of them.
"This is just…unbelievable," she said. "Unbelievable,"
Juliet and Holly were bathing Myles and Beckett when Foaly, Angeline, Mulch and Artemis came back. Artemis was outraged for some reason and left in a huff.
Moments later, Foaly's and Holly's communicators both got the exact same message simultaneously,
He was bound to show up sometime again, but a distress call from Ark Sool rand through the speakers.
"Short! Foaly! Get your butts down in Haven! D'Arvit! It's coming! Get out of here! Now! Trouble! No! Run for-" was all Sool could say before a small explosion could be heard. There was still buzzing, meaning that it was still on. There wasn't a huge boom, just a small gas-like passing.
"Hello? Sool? Ark? Hello?" Foaly demanded, but no one answered.
"What was that?" was all Mulch could say before they all rushed to Tara. Once they reached it, they slipped down to Haven and were surprised at what they saw.
Haven was deserted. The strange thing was that there were backpacks, guns, and objects littered everywhere, but no burn marks. There were no bodies anywhere.
Foaly took in a long whiff of the air, widening his eyes. "It smells vaguely of…selenium?"
"Selenium. Aren't...?" Holly was about to say what is made of selenium, but she didn't even want to say it. Did this happen to Atlantis too?
"Selenium is used for…" Foaly began. He said what it was, but it was barely audible.
"Bio-bombs." Holly said, meaning that the worst had happened. They let that sink in for a moment. All the signs pointed to it. No one here, but buildings and objects unaffected.
"Help!" they heard, and a small flicker of hope appeared. Could there be lives left? If so, did the bio-bomb malfunction?
They all ran(galloped, in Foaly's case) over to where they heard the sound. When they reached their destination, they were surprised with what they saw.
A woman with the tissue of her hand smeared. When smeared is said, it means that it is like a painting, as the paint is smeared, like some kind of bleeding, melting effect.
Next to the woman was a gnome with part of his head smeared, his eyes wide. His brain must has been smeared.
"The tissue…it's smeared." Foaly said silently. "I've never seen this in my life. I…" he was so caught up in it, that he actually bent down and smeared it more and more until the whole body was just a smear.
The woman shrieked and looked at the gnome, now a blot in time. Foaly rubbed the smeared tissue all over his cheeks. The tissue was lighter than his skin, created weird effects. His skin smelled different, and his smooth hair became spiky and sharp, edge-like like barbed wire.
"Foaly!" Holly said. He seemed so caught up. Foaly snapped out of his trance and looked at his hands.
"Holly, this is…big! Someone has survived the bio-bomb! We can research this and find cures for the innocent! Everyone we loved! Trouble, Grub, Caballine…"
At the mention of the name, Foaly's eyes widened. "C-Caballine…Caballine!"
Foaly started to gallop off, but Holly grabbed his shoulder. "Foaly, there's no other way to say this but she's probably gone. She-"
"No! We have a condo on the outskirts of Haven! I am to believe the bio-bomb hit the center of town, so the border must be safe!" Foaly yelled.
Mulch and Angeline followed him, but something caught Holly's eye that made her gasp. Engraved in the ground was a shape that looked like an unfinished P or B or D, like a flamingo standing up. A straight line with a craned or curved flag. Under it in Gnommish read: A CHOICE.
Holly put her hands to her mouth. "What have they done? How could they? How could…we?"
Holly quickly ran after Mulch, Angeline, and Foaly, who stopped dead in their tracks when they reached the condo's bedroom.
In the bed, was a pretty centaur laying down. She had nice, cute features and golden hair. She would have been beautiful if not for the look on her face. Her features were sharp and scared, like here wide eyes but small pupils.
Her mouth was wide open in a scream, but what was engraved on her chest was scary.
It was a shape that looked like an unfinished P or B or D, like a flaming standing up. A straight line with a craned or curved flag. Under it in Gnommish read: A CHOICE.
"Oh no, they killed Caballine too!" Holly said, causing everyone to give accusing looks to her.
Foaly smeared the smeared tissue all over his body, as if it were a lucky charm. The more he did this, the more pale and sickly he looked. He coughed many times.
"You know who did this? You know who killed my Caballine?"
"Well," Holly began, sighing. "They're a group called the Exiles. You know who they are from their dirty clothes and the scars all over their faces. Haven and Atlantis exiled them out of their land because of their secret but effective rebellions, resistances, and uprisings against the government, hence their name. That's their logo, their symbol or insignia. It's supposed to be a scythe reaping the lives that the government has corrupted. A CHOICE is their saying or slogan."
"And how do you know about this?" Foaly demanded while coughing.
Holly was going to say because I'm one of them, but thought that that would hurt him painfully.
"Because I used to be…the mayor's guard, since I was involved in the government's plans."
Foaly's eyes widened, suddenly surprised. "Which mayor? Pandora? Yes, Solomon Pandora was quite a leader, too bad he was murdered in his own bed with…a cryptic…symbol like…a scythe engraved in his chest…" Foaly put two and two together and gasped.
"They killed Pandora… We have to find Artemis! If these Exiles are rising, then who knows who they're killing!" Foaly looked worried. "How do we find him?"
"I know how!" Holly said, pulling out a device from her belt. "I thought Artemis and his mind might go AWOL on us again, so I tracked him just in case."
\ "You…have Artemis chipped?" Foaly said, bewildered.
"Alright, it might sound bad but…" Holly said, then looking down sadly, here voice lowering in volume. "I just can't imagine what I'd do without him…"
"Well, we have to go now. It says here he's somewhere near Scotland! We have to move!" Mulch said loudly.
"Wait! Something's wrong with my Arty?" Angeline said.
"Well, Mrs. Fowl, there's a large possibility these Exiles have and will hunt Artemis down and see to it his blood spills, so yes, something is wrong." Holly said peeved.
Foaly groaned, paling, he started loosing his footing. From openings, the LEP came from the surface to them.
"Major Cooren Sheen. We heard about the bio-bombing, so my squadron and I came as soon as we could. Any trouble?" said Major Sheen.
"Well, it seems that the Exiles have fought back."
"Exiles? What Exiles?" the major said, nervous.
"The Exiles that almost destroyed our world and killed many leaders, including Pandora." Holly informed.
"The Exiles? We have start a full on investigation!" Sheen shouted.
Suddenly, Foaly collapsed onto the ground and moaned. The major gasped when he saw Foaly.
"Do you…do you see what's wrong with him?" he roared.
"Well, no, we don't know." Mulch said.
"I've only seen this twice in my life, and so has Have. Only two symptoms have been reported. It's called Poliosteed. It strictly diseases centaurs only, causing certain death. Only the most prestigious and high-ranked doctors have studied this, but no cure has been made. Doctors are too arrogant these days to find a cure. They'll need billions of dollars to even think of a slight hunch, even more money will be needed for a full-on vaccination or cure!"
"What's going to happen to him?" Holly asked.
"Well, we'll find some doctors to take care of him, but you're going to need a death wish to actually visit and touch him without expert caution." said Sheen.
As the men took Foaly away to certain death, Holly looked up to the underground sky.
Where are you Artemis? She pleaded. Please tell me, where in the world are you?
Some drama! While Foaly is being taken away by officers and studied, please read, rate and review this story! Thanks to the people that like this story and keep me going!