Chapter five: Stories to tell
Skelly took Cody and Spidey to a larger room with a table in the middle. Said table was surrounded by chairs, making it look like a conference room.
"Go ahead and sit," she said. "Wait for me to get the others."
With that, she left the room.
Cody did as he was told and sat down on one of the chairs, groaning softly as his abdomen hurt again. Spidey sat down as well, and took the time to discretely study the human.
He seemed rather strong but agile at the same time. His skin was pale, as if he rarely saw the sun. He had a somewhat thin layer of dark brown hair on his head. He also had some facial hair of the same length and color. His cold, emotionless eyes were a dark blue. He appeared to be in his early twenties.
This guy seems like a soldier, she thought. I guess that explains why he was able to fight back decently. And why he can ignore the pain that well.
She suddenly realized she was staring and looked away, blushing and mentally slapping herself. Fortunately for her, Cody was too deep in thought to notice her stare. He was thinking about his past, present and future. The place he left behind, the questions he had and how he was going to get back.
I wonder how dad is doing, he thought. And my friends. Is the war really over? Everyone must think I'm dead. I thought I was a goner myself, since nobody could ever survive such an explosion. Especially from that altitude.
The two were interrupted from their thoughts when the door opened. Skelly stood on the other side with other people Cody wasn't familiar with. He and Spidey stood up as the group entered the room.
The majority of the group consisted of girls. Most of them were looking at him curiously, while others looked away in shyness. Among the girls, Cody caught a glimpse of one boy who seemed to be around ten years old.
Skelly smiled. "Boy and girls, I would like you to meet someone," she said. "His name is Cody Boone, but he prefers being called Sergeant." She looked at Cody. "Sergeant, I would like you to meet…" she suddenly stopped talking as she looked back at the large group. "…well… this is going to take some time."
It did indeed take a while to get all the names and shake all the hands. When they were finally done, Cody was told to sit at the very end of the table. He did so, and once everyone else was seated, Skelly spoke up: "Now, Sergeant, why don't you tell us about what happened before you appeared in the ravine you were found in."
"Alright…" Cody replied. "I should probably start at the very beginning. Since I'm not from around here, I'll just give you all some history first." He sat up.
"Several decades ago, before my birth, portals started opening all around the planet. We didn't know anything about their origin, but we suspect they were created by extraterrestrial life forms or ancient civilizations. We did know, however, that they created or transported a new type of energy to our world."
He was silent for a moment to let that information sink in. Then, he continued.
"This energy, which we call Exotic Matter or XM, could give one the ability to influence thoughts of humans."
"That sounds pretty scary," the boy of the group, who was called Yaebi, softly said. Cody nodded.
"It is. What makes it worse, is that there were people who thought the energy should be used to take human evolution to its next level. This group, the Enlightened, got their hands on more and more portals. They used the energy to get absolute control over the planet. Democratic ideas were swept away."
"T-that's horrible…" a tall girl in black said. Cody recalled her name was Andr. He was pretty sure she was the shyest of the bunch. The others were completely flabbergasted by the story.
"There were some people who thought that too," he said. "When they united, they formed the Resistance. They wanted to limit the use of Exotic Matter and the ingression of whoever created it." He looked at them all. "I am the son of a Resistance general. I've been trained to become a soldier all my life."
He was silent again when a girl in green clothing (her name was Cupa) suddenly spoke up. "How did the war end?" she softly asked. "And what happened after that?"
"That's… complicated…" Cody responded. "I'm not sure if the war is over yet." The girls gave him puzzled looks, which was enough for him to continue.
"A few days ago, I… disobeyed the rules," he said. "We knew where the highest Enlightened members were; it was the same place where they temporarily kept their machines which they used to control the Exotic Matter." He took a deep breath. He didn't know how the girls were going to react to what he said next. "I had to go on a suicide mission."
The room was silent for a moment. On their faces he saw shock, confusion and disbelief. He didn't blame them.
After what seemed to be hours of silence, Skelly spoke up. "Then how did you end up… here?"
Cody shook his head. "I don't know," he simply answered. "I remember crashing into the building with my aircraft, then waking up here. I know It's hard to believe, but I know what I saw."
"Um…" Andr suddenly said. The others looked at her questioningly. "What is it, Andr?" Skelly asked. Andr remained silent and looked at the ground. Then Cupa said: "We heard a loud noise coming from the ravine we found Sergeant in," she said. "It's what got our attention in the first place."
"…I see," Skelly said. She turned her attention back to Cody. "I suppose it may have had something to do with the impact of your aircraft into the building." Cody just shrugged. "I guess."
There was another brief silence.
"Now…" Cody said, "…Tell me your story."
The instant he said that, the atmosphere changed. Skelly cautiously looked at the others, who looked back worriedly. Cody leaned back in his chair. "We had a deal, Skelly," he said in an intimidating tone. "I've done my thing, now you do yours."
Skelly was taken aback by this at first, but quickly regained her composure.
"Alright," she whispered.
"For as long as everyone can remember, this world has known two intelligent species: humans and mobs," she began. "You know about the humans; your world is full of them. The mobs were different: they had abilities beyond that of normal humans, making them potentially far more dangerous."
A moment of silence occurred before Skelly continued. "Despite that potential danger, the two races lived in peace and harmony with one another. Until, many centuries ago, the humans turned against the mobs."
This confused Cody. "Why?" he asked. Skelly shrugged.
"We never knew for sure, but we believe that it was done out of fear for those aforementioned abilities. Even now, our kind is hunted by the humans, likely because everyone believes that malevolence is in our nature."
"Wait…" Cody suddenly said, having noticed something about what she just said. "Did you just say 'our kind'?"
The group, including Skelly herself, froze. Her face reddened a bit. "D-did I?" she nervously asked, causing Cody to roll his eyes.
"Don't play dumb," Cody firmly said as he looked around the group. "You're these mobs you're talking about, aren't you?" Skelly was frozen for one more second before she sighed, looked at the ground and closed her eyes. The others warily looked at Cody, who sighed too.
"Alright, look," he began. "Yes, I'm human, but I'm not from around here. I have no problem with you." This made Skelly and the others look back at Cody with hopeful eyes.
"You… don't?" she hesitatingly asked. Cody sighed again.
"You helped me. I didn't trust you when I woke up but I rarely trust anyone immediately anyway, so nothing new there," he said. "And if these people are being indoctrinated into thinking you're evil, I'd say we need to give 'em an update."
The mobs were too astonished to say anything. They just looked at Cody, who suddenly grasped his abdomen.
"That reminds me…" he said as he suddenly felt a familiar feeling in his stomach. "You don't happen to have any food, do you?"
That snapped them out of their trance. Cupa smiled brightly. "Of course!" she cheerfully said. "I'll be right back with some bread." Before anyone could react, the girl in green was gone. Cody looked at Skelly questioningly. He didn't have much variation in food back at the Resistance base, and this 'bread' wasn't something he had ever heard of. He knew he was probably about to look stupid, but he didn't really care. He opened his mouth to ask:
"What is bread?"
