Chapter 34: The True Selves
"Dead…" the words that was hoarsely whispered by one of the remaining eleven; the last living beings on the base as all but two of them began checking the fallen. As they examined one body after the other, none of them were able to find a pulse from the necks or a heartbeat from the chest; their skins ice cold. As they carried on checking all the soldiers, Wayne and Littlefoot watched this new behaviour with confusion on their faces.
"Wayne… why are they acting so different to the first time we saw them?" Littlefoot asked watching Maxcien check man after man on the ground.
"I am totally clueless… it like an alternative personality has just surfaced or something," Wayne replied mumbling a little. Littlefoot looked at him a little confused.
"How do they get this alter-nat-ed per-sir-nat-ming?" Littlefoot tried to reiterate but struggled to say the words properly. Wayne got a gist to what Littlefoot was trying to say to him so he turned to face the bemused dinosaur.
"'An alternative personality'. It's a term I heard that someone has another side to them and that they have no control over. It sort of just happens when they least expect it. Sort of like a side you never thought you'd see in someone," Wayne spoke thinking aloud.
"You're not far from it kid," a voice said making Littlefoot and Wayne turn to the source of the voice. IT was none other than Lieutenant Maxcien, "We all just woken from a bad dream and seeing the damage we caused." She walked up to them stopping about six feet away.
"How do we know that this is not one big trick? Huh?" Wayne said with sharpness in his voice. Littlefoot nodded in agreement seeing the point.
"Wayne's right, you could be tricking us," Littlefoot added.
"I know this is going to be hard to believe but…" Maxcien began but was cut off by a few gunshots. As she looked with Wayne and Littlefoot they could see Stud and Trud holding Helienson's arm trying to get the gun off him.
"What the hell going on?" Maxcien shouted at them.
"He's trying to kill himself that's what!" Trud shouted back still having as much trouble as Stud trying to stop Helienson. Soon Alice and Alan joined in, trying to force the gun out of Helienson's hand.
"God! Do I have to do everything myself?" Maxcien ran up to them and joined in with more shots firing into the night air.
Janny and Grant with Max and Kile, the two scientist, watched helplessly as the struggle carried on until all those trying to get the gun fell over with the professor and the gun slid on the hard surface before coming to a stop at Littlefoot's front feet. Littlefoot took a look at the gun peculiarly giving it a little tap with his front left foot. The gun went off by accident hitting the wall to the left of Janny who instantly started going mad, gesturing with her hands frantically with angry sign language. Littlefoot didn't hear anything from her but he could easily tell how angry she was by the glaring look on her face.
"Calm down Janny, you're scaring him. He didn't mean for it to go off. So stop saying, 'You crazy dinosaur! Keep away from that gun before you kill someone with it!'" Grant said and Littlefoot looked at him with a stunning amazement.
"You can understand what she said? When she said nothing at all!" Littlefoot asked with a wonder that was confusing him.
"Oh, you see her hands moving like that? It's called sign language. She can't speak but can hear and see very well. So this communication is her only way of talking to us," Grant told Littlefoot before turning to the mob that was on top of each other, "You better get hold of the professor so he don't get another chance to kill himself."
Trud and Stud picked up the Professor and held him by the arms ensuring he didn't get another chance to commit suicide. Helienson hung limply from Trud and Stud energy-drained and ill-looking as Maxcien marched up to him and smacked him across his face.
"What the hell you playing at?" She yelled at him causing Wayne and Littlefoot to back away a step or two hearing the anger erupting from her voice.
"Too much blood on my hands… that's what I am playing at…" Helienson spoke back with a voice that sounds sick over a hundred times.
"So killing yourself would make things better!" Maxcien snapped slapping him in the face again, "You're the only one that knows what's really going on! You've been part of Tri-MacRock-Labs for years!"
"Thirty years… I've been with them for thirty years and for twenty-five of them, I was brainwashed to kill and destroy so many human lives for the pride of Tri-MacRock-Labs… and to give the world what no one sees to the leader… a leader who I can't remember but I know… the one who brainwashed all of us…" Helienson said in a weak and wracked tone.
"Who? Spit it out old man!" Maxcien said about to slap him again but Alan and Alice grabbing her hand she took a look at them both.
"That is…" Alice began
"…Enough! He's just been…" Alan continued.
"…brainwashed as much as…"
"Us!" they both finished in unison.
While Maxcien took time to respond, something crept into Littlefoot's mind.
"Wayne. I bet they're twins!"
"I never met twins before…" Wayne replied in a half-surprised look.
"Maxcien! His name is Chi-Sanner. The world's leading professor in the body of minds and other things like I do… testing of the theory of the solar system, space, time and fabric of sub-genetics. He's just as good as me but he has gotten the better of me twenty-five years ago…" Professor Helienson said as the two guards let him go forcing him to drop onto his knees where he looked to the ground, "I have killed even dinosaurs… I don't deserve to live…"
Now, Maxcien had had it with the professor's whimpering. Grabbing him by the collar, she pulled him up on his feet so he was at eye level with her and she stared hard into his face.
"Now see here Professor. We all feel sick and want to kill ourselves right about now but this is no time for dying because of what we or you did… We all are going to live and live up to the day that this Chi-Sanner sees my fist hitting his face with you stopping the leader of Tri-MacRock-Labs from taking the goal of all goals. Do you hear me?"
"Yes I do Maxcien…" Helienson replied sheepishly and Maxcien let him go. Helienson tidied himself up and looked at Wayne and Littlefoot.
"I am sorry what I have done… I can never bring back the ones I've killed… but I will make amends to the damage I've done by ending it…" Helienson took a look at the remaining team of the base, "Clear the bodies up. Put them all in the morgue… I will be in my lab." Helienson then turned on his heels and walked away from them pushing the keys on the keypad and entering the building once it opened.
"You al heard him! Let's clear this up!" Maxcien shouted clapping her hands twice before going to Wayne and Littlefoot, "You kids will need rest and not in that cell near that meat-eating dinosaur."
"What?" they both shouted and almost hugged each other in fear and shock hearing what she said.
"Don't worry, you two will sleep in the barracks over there," Maxcien reassured them pointing to the building nearest to the Chrono Cannon, "now go and get some rest. I will get Grant to bring breakfast to you children in the morning."
"What? Me? I am a technician not a delivery boy!" Grant protested.
"D'ya wanna take it up with me?" Maxcien sneered giving him a cold look and Grant gulped.
"No ma'am…"
"Good," Maxcien said with a smile before going over to Janny and helping her carry a body to a building on the far side by the lava cliff and the wall of the base.
"Wayne? Should we?" Littlefoot asked looked up at him uncertain.
"I don't see why not… they are all acting strange and I am too tried to complain about it…" Wayne yawned before turning away and making his way to the barracks.
Littlefoot looked at the Chrono Cannon seeing a flash at the end of it that looked like the one that blow the large flying rock up.
"That's it! That's the one that destroyed the large flying rock! I know it is!" Littlefoot beamed before noticing Wayne was way ahead of him, heading over to the barracks, "Hey wait for me!" Littlefoot yelled as he made a sprint to the barracks.
Without anyone knowing, Black Raptor had gotten into the base and had taken two small objects before driving away in her jeep kicking up dust as she made a run. However she took a look at them in the case but noticed something and she slammed her foot on the brakes. Picking the case up and staring at them, she cursed loudly throwing the case on the empty seat and hit the steering wheel with her fists twice.
"Damn it! I forgot one!" She stood up on her seat and taking picked up her binoculars from the back of the jeep. Looking through them, she saw that the main gates were now closed and with the guards in the command centre now posted on the mini-cannon towers. Black Raptor went into an outburst of curses throwing the binoculars in the back of the jeep hitting her fists downwards in thin air before calming down a bit.
"Two gems out of three… now I have to take a new step in getting the last gem but who has it… and how do I get in a base that's now on high alert…" She mumbled with an angry look. From behind her, Black Helmutwas staring at the large and mostly empty base seeing patrol being very strict given the lack of people that were left alive. It was clear that going back was now going to be much more difficult for her.