Rex shook his head, frowning. "You're paranoid. There's nobody here."
"As I've said, that's the problem," Van Kleiss reiterated. "Even if you don't believe me, you must admit that there must be something odd about this place if a professional investigation hasn't been launched."
"But there was! I told you it was just top secret. I saw it on the news, remember?"
"Then isn't it strange how they claimed to have an active investigation, yet not a soul is to be found here? Think, Rex. It doesn't make sense."
"Okay, well... we'll see."
Rex rolled his eyes and walked away, strolling through the remains of his home. His satchel slapped against his hip as he leaped over boulders, prompting him to hold a protective hand over it. Glancing up at the wreck of the building- or rather, what was left of it- he recalled Holiday's confused voice as she tried to call him back minutes before her fate was sealed. Additionally, the phantom smell of the burger he'd eaten that day wafted into his nose- but instead of making him salivate, it made him feel sick.
There was a first time for everything.
The teen remembered how he'd felt the rumbling beneath his feet, and how he'd thought it was an earthquake. He wished he could go back in time and rescue his family before the building collapsed in on itself, though acknowledged that it would be impossible to get everyone out. People like Kenwyn and White Knight would probably be the ones he'd have to leave behind in order to save the three most valuable members of his family.
Rex wished he could go further back in time to prevent the explosion from ever happening, but the cold truth of the matter was that he didn't even know the cause. That's what he came here to find out, after all. Rewinding his memories in his head, he tried to think of any warning sign that might have hinted towards the upcoming disaster, but couldn't bring any to mind.
That was the scariest part of it, really. Nobody saw it coming.
Did they?
As he wandered closer towards the center of the ruins, the child pushed a boulder aside and wondered if anyone had foreseen the event. Had Holiday discovered the truth a little too late? Was Six on his way to help her before he, too, was killed? Did White Knight ever send out an alert before the internal apocalypse? Rex couldn't begin to fathom how morbid their deaths would have been if they knew exactly what was coming, especially if they also knew they no had no choice but to wait for their demise.
"You're crying."
The child spun around to face Van Kleiss, watching the man walk several feet away from him, but towards the same general direction. He lifted a hand to his face and felt moisture beneath his eyes, his face reddening as he quickly swiped away at it.
"I'm fine," Rex insisted. "I just got... carried away. This isn't easy for me, you know. Stop being so judgmental."
The man grinned. "No need to be so defensive, Rex. I'm not judging you."
"Yes you-"
"By the way, what do you call this place? I'm not familiar with the term."
The boy turned to examine his surroundings, finding himself at the entrance of what seemed to be a lush, green area. Many of the plants, despite a lack of caretakers, flourished around the area, growing wildly without boundaries. He wandered further into the premises, taking a fresh breath of air from the rich supply of oxygen. Though the creatures that usually inhabited it were now corpses, somehow, he still found a sliver tranquility in the sea of green.
"The Petting Zoo," Rex answered. "It's where we kept the incurable EVOs."
"A shame," Van Kleiss remarked, enjoying the change of scenery quite thoroughly. "It's almost exactly like Abysus- only, much more restrained."
Rex scoffed. "It's nothing like Abysus. We had rules that kept people from being killed wherever and whenever, for one. We're not savages."
"Yes, you're not the savages who capture EVOs and lock them away from the world to stifle their true potential. I know."
Rex wrinkled his nose at the sarcasm.
"At any rate," the king continued, "There is much to be salvaged from this place. I could uproot these plants and take them back to- oh, that's quite distasteful."
"What?" the younger EVO asked. "Your plans to steal?"
"No, the unfortunate fate that befell that EVO."
Rex shifted his gaze towards the direction the man pointed at, spotting a large, orange creature sprawled across the ground. As he made his way towards it, it appeared to be a venomous frog-based EVO, notorious for jumping around and biting its wild companions around the neck. Its skin, once as bright as a the flames of fire, was now dulled to a shade akin to that of a dry orange peel.
But the closer he crept, however, the more questions popped into his mind. By the time he stood right next to it, he could see the details clearly, but they were quite confusing. The skin was perfectly intact- though lifeless- and no fatal marks were to be seen. None of the limbs were forced into any unnatural positions, and no pools of blood or other vital liquids surrounded the body. Granted, they would have dried up by now, but at least the stains would have been somewhat visible. It was as if the corpse was a wax statue rather than a previously living being.
"Something's wrong," the teen murmured, leaning over the body. "Can you tell what killed it? I can't."
Van Kleiss's face took on a more quizzical expression. "I can't either. Not even a gash on its head to indicate a fatal concussion. Flip it over."
Rex formed a Smackhand and lifted the frog EVO, then settled it down onto its back. The underside of the creature was just as untouched as the rest of its skin, making a cold feeling settle in his stomach. It was the eeriest circumstance for a death he could have imagined- the perfect, flawless demise.
"Perhaps it died from poisoning?" the king speculated, interrupting the child's morbid spiral of thought. "Cut it open. Maybe we'll see signs internal bleeding."
The boy switched his giant fist for a blade and sliced the stomach open in one clean line, cutting it from head to toe. "It's still creep-"
Rex screamed.
As soon as the skin was torn away, dark grey ashes began to burst from the fresh slits, littering the floor. The pressure beneath the thick layer of skin forced even more ashes out of the EVO, soon forming a large pile around the teen's feet. Like smooth sawdust, it oozed its way out of every crevice it could find, prompting Rex to leap back in terror.
"Why is it filled with that stuff?" he shouted, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. "It doesn't even have organs! What the fuck?"
"Quiet, Rex," Van Kleiss scolded, utterly fascinated by the state of the corpse. "Try to analyze it instead of reacting so primally."
"It turned into a bag of DUST! How does that even happen? It looked perfectly FINE!"
The man knelt down and pressed two fingers into the ashes, then rubbed it between his fingertips. "Isn't it interesting? No trace of fluids, bones, muscle, or anything of the sort. It seems to be entirely cremated from the inside."
"No, no, no," Rex chanted. "There's no way you can burn someone from the inside and leave it looking perfectly normal. No. This is way too messed up. This is-"
"If you really want to get over yourself, you should start by finding out how this happened," the king interrupted. "I, too, am intrigued- though in a much more professional way than you are. I've never seen anything like this."
The boy coughed. "Never?"
"Never. Biowulf!"
The blue EVO came rushing in immediately at the sound of the call, not expressing any fatigue whatsoever. "Yes, Master?"
"Find us an EVO and bring it here- gently, mind you. Make sure you don't damage it. I want to perform an observational experiment."
Rex shuddered.
His furry companion nodded and explored the remains of the Petting Zoo, searching for one of the many corpses that littered the place. After a few minutes, he found one suspended from a tree- an odd position for a fish-like EVO- and brought it back to the two, careful not to leave any marks on it. The orders had been direct, after all. The less mistakes, the better.
"As you wished," Biowulf uttered, setting the scaly creature down onto the soft grass. "What else may I do?"
"Tear it open with your claws," Van Kleiss ordered. "Clean lines. At least four, side by side."
As soon as the layer of scales was slashed through, familiar black ashes began to pour through each gash, making the teen feel slightly dizzy. Soon, the entire body was just a flimsy piece of skin, devoid of the dark stuffing that replaced its vital organs. The gauntlet-clad EVO noticed his youngest worker's swaying body, and held a hand against Rex's back to keep him from tipping over.
"Just when we get to the interesting part, you decide that it's too much?" the king asked, half mocking the boy. "Sit down if you need to. I'm going to be taking a good, long look at what I've found."
Feeling quite disturbed by the sudden turn of events, Rex did as he was told and allowed himself to sink to the floor next to the man, hoping to wrap his mind around what he'd just witnessed. Van Kleiss might have thought that his distress was due to the mere sight of the internal cremation- though that was certainly a factor- but the true cause was the implication.
What if Holiday and Six suffered the same fate?
