Chapter Seventeen

Six

"Six?" a voice asks. I open my eyes to see John beside me. I'm in a room with walls exploding with colors; first red swirls, and the as they reach the door, the red turns into ocean blue. Funny, as much as I like it in here, I don't recall how I got here. "Where am I?" I ask him, pushing myself up on a soft and smooth material. I then realize this is a bed. I'm in one of the bedrooms.

"You fell asleep when we reached the Earth's stratosphere," John says, "so when it was okay to move around, I carried you here. You've been asleep for two and a half earth-hours."

I now hate myself for falling asleep during the ride. I just missed what should have been the biggest event of my life. I groan loudly and let my head fall into my hands. "Hey, it's alright, Six. You had to rest anyway," John says, scooting nearer to me. He wraps his arm around my waist and uses his other hand to force mine apart. I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but it's kind of hard not to. I've been dreaming about his day my entire life for Christ's sake! I know I just rose out of the sea and into the sky but I wanted to be awake when we were able to go home, even if it's still a year away.

"I know that," I finally say, "I just feel embarrassed because I was the only one asleep."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Here" John's hand reaches for something in his pocket. Out comes my pendant, normal and not fiery blue. I feel an unexpected wave of relief flood through me. He slips the chain through my head and pulls my hair out. The weight of my pendant sends a surge of strength through my veins. "The others are training," John says, "Shall we go?"

"Definitely," I reply, feeling giddy and excited. I swing my legs off the comfortable bed and follow John to the training area.

When I first laid eyes on the training area I swear my heart stopped.

It is a big room with a domed ceiling. Twenty or thirty lights hanging from above are illuminated and shining brightly, reminding me of a gymnasium. The section of the room I'm looking at right now is approximately eighteen meters wide and twenty-five meters long. The left and right walls are filled with doors. The floor is one hundred percent carpeted with something soft yet easy to get any form of friction on. A metal wall divides the room. On the other side of the metal wall, I hear loud gunshots and clinking of metal gears. That must be the target practice area.

"So," John says, "what do you think?"

"Where do I even start?" I ask in an amazed whisper. I watch Nine with his glowing red spear as he fights off automaton dummies that sprout from the doors on the wall and floor. When Nine destroys one after the other, they sink back to the ground, where I assume they'll be repaired by more robots. Only Nine, Ella, Sam, and Malcolm are here. Crayton, Cole, Marina and Meredith must be in the target practice area. I also notice that the mat of the floor is color-coded—all three of them. From wall to wall, the mat Nine is on is steely gray. Sam and Malcolm are on is green and as long as Nine's. Ella, with hi-tech goggles on, is on the widest mat; a black mat with white dots. Maybe that's a stimulation area, since Ella starts fighting off phantom enemies.

I finally decide where to go. "I'll be in the target area if you need me," I say, and with a quick peck on John's lips, I walk along the sides of the training area and slip through the huge, automatically sliding door, maybe around seven feet in height and three feet in length. I hear the door close behind me and everywhere, red, black and white bulls-eyes move—swinging from the ceiling, appearing on the walls, sprouting from the ground. Now this is what I'm talking about.

The walls here are filled with weapons of destruction—from little knifes to Loric samurai swords on the left and pistols to rocket launchers on the right. A ready-made belt with knife sheaths sits on the bench at the border of the shooting station. I secure the belt around my waist and after filing every pocket with knives, I enter the pandemonium of flying bullets.

Crayton calls off training seven earth-hours and thirty earth-minutes later. I'm supposed to do the earth-hour-thing, you know, now that we're in the endless beyond.

Zakarius, who was waiting outside the training area, leads us to the dining room. It's also a spacious room, but about two times smaller than the training room. A long, silver table is enough for all of us to occupy. John pulls the chair out for me and sits on the one beside mine. As soon as we all sit down, the empty plates come to life with food. We dig in, disregarding the foreign food, hungry after those long sweaty hours. Hey, I took a shower, so I feel fresh and cool.

That's safe to eat, Zakarius reassures me. I take a bite out of an irregularly shaped fruit. The juice that fills my mouth sends an exhilarating feeling through me. Normally, I would be all over exotic food, but this time, I want to savor the feeling in my mouth.

Good thing all of us are adventurous with these foods, if not we'd starve to death. I'm used to eating meat and other Earth food, not Loric like these. Loric food supply has years before they spoil. I don't know why, but something about Loric technology has that effect on plants. At least, Katarina said so.

"I love this fruit," I say between bites of the weird fruit. I've eaten three of them now, and I see Ella favors them to. She has juice on the corners of her mouth and her teeth are stained when she smiles widely at me. Crayton grabs a table napkin and wipes the sides of her mouth. No matter what age Ella has taken form of, I can clearly see in Crayton's eyes that fatherly characteristic I adore. Maybe he longs for his own child. Maybe he lost his during the war. Whatever the reason, I will make sure Crayton will get his revenge.

"This food is over the top," Nine says, grabbing everything within his arms' reach.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Malcolm says with a wink. Cole and the others chuckle, but I'm too busy eating my last piece of fruit to join in. God, I want some more, but sadly, Ella got hold of the last fruit.

Afterwards, we settle in for the night…so to speak.

John and I will share room, since he technically won't leave my side. "Day one," he says, and I understand what he means. "We're finally going home," I say, wrapping my arms around his neck as his are on my waist.

"We've waited so long. If only Henri were here," John says sadly.

"We all wish we have our Cêpans with us, John. Just think that you are going to win this war for him. For your parents. For Lorien," I say, just before his lips come crashing down on mine.

I eventually wake up without any trace of clothing left on my body. But the lights in my room are still dim. I found out that it indicates time. It must be night still. Then what woke me up?

John, who used to be sleeping soundly beside me, starts shaking, shivering. I roll on my other side and find his eyes at the back of his head. "John!" I yell in panic. I grab his shirt of the floor with telekinesis and put it on. Afterwards, I cup John's paper white face and try to shake him awake. "John!" I yell even louder. I can feel the hard thudding of John's heart. "John!"

What am I going to do? I can't just sit and yell all night long! I have to move! I have to do something! I have to save John!

John's pupils return and he sits bolt upright, taking in a deep intake of breath as he does so. I rub his sweaty back as he coughs and vomits bile on the edge of the bed. "What happened?" I ask him when he stops retching.

"Another premonition," he says hoarsely.

"Come on. Let's get you some water."

John couldn't fall asleep again that night. I didn't sleep as well, waiting for him to doze off first. This is his worst premonition. His breathing is labored as he tries desperately to sleep on my chest. I keep stroking his hair for no apparent reason. The bile on the floor disappears about five minutes later. No wonder this place is spotless. Everything's automated.

"I give up on sleeping," John whispers just before I'm about to sleep, "I see it all over again." I sigh loudly. "What did you see?"

"I saw Lorien after the attack. The dead started rising up from the ground. And with every step they took, they turned moldy green until they looked like the lower-ranked Mogs. They swarmed over me, tugging at my limbs, scratching my chest until my shirt rips open and they took my pendant," John says, and I feel the violent trembling of his body beside me. I shush him repeatedly. It feels like I'm talking to a kid. I lightly press my lips to his forehead and kiss him goodnight. Delaying the drowsiness no further, I close my eyes and wish for a better tomorrow.