Chapter 6

Something dark and soft lingered in the distance like an ever-present fog. In his peripheral vision, blue light seeped into his eyes, working the edges in. A numbing sensation pricked at the back of his mind, and a dying flame flickered like a candle.

Something dark, and monstrous, and alive lumbered in the distance, closing the space between them. It bared it's teeth, engulfing his vision.

The General awoke with a start, disoriented. It took a few minutes for his vision to clear and the room to take shape. His attention adjusted to the security cameras situated to the walls, and the glass wall beside him.

He tried to move, but his wrists and ankles were shackled to the chair

A dull thudding echoed in his brain as he tried to piece together the recollections.

A familiar voice spoke through the speakers above the glass wall. He immediately knew he was inside an interrogation chamber, hence he couldn't see through the glass.

The General narrowed his eyes. "I know that's you, Etrius. Let me out."

A moment of silence passed, and Etrius spoke. "Not until we get answers."

"This is an interrogation sequence," He said, watching his own reflection. "It's not like you. Just turn you and your team in, and we can do this the easy way."

Etrius ignored him entirely. "Silver Nitrate," He said bluntly. "We need a copy of it. Where can we find it?"

The General crossed his arms, his eyes darkening.

Behind the glass, Etrius eyed his team with something undecipherable stirring in his eyes. "I'm going in." He claimed. With The General chained down, and the shard of obsidian out of his reach, the possibility that something could go wrong was next to nothing.

"I'm going with you," Nox claimed, and Etrius gave her an approving nod. With the obsidian shard far out of his reach, she could infiltrate his mind and check for answers. If he didn't fight back.

He took in a deep breath, and then stepped through the door, Nox behind him.

The General glared bluntly at Etrius and Nox as they stepped through the door. Etrius armed himself with a handgun.

Uncharacteristically, The General chuckled. "Do you really think that can stop what's to come? I've got a team of elite soldiers who are looking for me, even as we speak. Your team doesn't stand a chance."

"First question," Etrius ignored him once more. "Where did you get this," He slid him a photograph of the obsidian shard. "You did this in purpose. Why does Nox feel the effects, and I can't?"

"It was merely part of an experiment," The General strained against the chains holding him down. "Nothing more. I don't know why it's affecting you."

An electrical vibe rang in the air. Nox untangled the strings that pulled at the air, and a metallic taste entered her mouth. He's lying. She declared to the team through mind-speak.

"Where can we find a copy of Silver Nitrate? It was moved from Romanov's lab."

"Do you really expect me to keep track of everything? I don't know."

Heat passed through Nox's being, and a layer of Goosebumps coated her skin. She narrowed her eyes, and spoke to the team through mind-speak. How long does he think he can keep this up?

Etrius slammed his fist against the table. "We're not putting ourselves through this bullshit, General. Tell us the truth, or I'll have my friend here infiltrate your brain and tear you apart from the inside afterwards."

To prove his point, Nox's eyes were set aflame with sapphire light. She reached out with her psychic power, grabbing the thoughts firing to and from his brain. She began to untangle them, preparing to yank the strings.

The General shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to fight her off, but she held him in place mentally. He strained against the chains.

Nox assumed that was enough of a warning, and released him. The General's shoulders relaxed.

"That was your warning," Nox snarled. "And believe me, I'm capable of much more. Tell us the truth, and I'll give you a quick death. Where's the notebook?"

The General's breathing was heavy, his head bowed, and eyes shadowed by his beret. "You won't get away with this. You and your team will pay the price for—"

"You are the enemy—You!" His face was twisted with anger. "You turned the blame around on us, made it look like we were the enemies. But soon, everyone will know who and what you truly are. Once they find out it was you who destroyed the cure…"

The General's mouth twitched. Nox noticed this and catapulted into his mind without warning. She grabbed hold of his thought before it could vanish into the back of his mind, and out of reach. "That wasn't the real cure," She said aloud, almost in aghast. "You relocated the real one."

Just as soon as she announced it, The General buried the thought within his mind, out of reach. It would take much of Nox's mental energy to get it back.

Etrius blinked in surprise, and then his eyes darkened like a storm. "Where is it? Tell us, and maybe we'll be kind enough to let you live a while longer."

"You'll never find it," The General said in a tone that was trapped between conquest and victory. "To go there would be suicide."

Etrius grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and swung a fist into his face. He shut his eyes, and blinked the redness in his vision away. "Where is it?" He pressed. "And where's the journal? We know you have it."

"Heh. I burned that notebook. Did you really think I was going to risk keeping it?"

A wave of coolness rippled through Nox's being. He's telling the truth with that one, She declared, and then clenched her fists. He was just telling them that to show how much power he had over them. But not this time. They were getting answers.

"Where is the real cure?" Nox demanded, her eyes setting aflame with sapphire light in warning. "Speak up, or I'll drag you into another round."

~X~

Beecher made his way through the halls, checking Boomer's dorm, but he wasn't there. He narrowed his gaze. Lloyd was watching Romanov in the science wing, so Boomer must've been patrolling outside.

He trekked up the staircase and sauntered through the main hall, snatching a hand-gun from the table. They could never walk outside without firearms, not with troops looking for them. But Nox was camouflaging the base with her psychic power—they would never be able to find them… Unless The General had a tracker. He knew that government workers had trackers embed into their bones to track them should they ever get captured. Etrius removed his from behind his left ear when he first found the base. Still, with the base hidden from sight, they would be drawn to believe they had removed it, and dropped it somewhere in the forest.

He clicked the safety off his firearm and pushed past the door, into the early morning light. The base vanished behind him.

The air was crisp with the scent of burning russet forestry. Pyres of smoke rose in the distance. Beecher pressed the contact button through his headset. "Beecher to Boomer. Where are you?"

Static. Then, "Backside of the base. Come see this." Beecher jogged to the southern wing of the base and found Boomer leaning against a tree, a wolf at his side. Beecher readied his hand-gun. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"Found him," Boomer said nonchalantly. "Released him from a bear trap, called him Timber." He scratched him behind the ears, and then checked his injured leg. "He's healing fast." He marveled.

Beecher ran a hand down his face. "Boomer, we have a planet to save, The General to interrogate, a cure to find, and zombies to fight. Now isn't the time for a pet wolf. You don't know where it's been."

The wolf licked Boomer's palm, but stiffened and snarled when Beecher tried to step closer. He reeled back. "Well, this looks like the start of a beautiful friendship." He spat. He glanced at Boomer, anywhere other than the wolf. "Did you check the perimeter?"

"Nothing so far. Looks like The General isn't as sure as he thinks. It's been hours, and no one came near this area."

In the tree branches, the assassin's silhouette crouched down. He attached a silencer to his sniper. He aimed, training the crosshair at Boomer's head.

Beecher's keen eyes picked up something in the shadows, a piece of metal reflecting against the slanting morning sun. Without thinking, he grabbed Boomer by his shoulder, bringing the two of them to the floor.

The bullet whizzed by, burying itself into the tree and shattering fragments of wood.

Boomer glared with widen eyes at the attacker as he leaped down from the tree. Boomer produced his shotgun and clicked off the safety.

The assassin unsheathed his sword.

Boomer aimed for a headshot and fired, but the assassin twisted his blade through the air with a flick of his wrist, deflecting the bullets with impossible speed. Beecher knew instantly this man wasn't a normal troop sent by The General's organization.

"Who the hell are you?" He pressed, readying his sniper.

The assassin spoke, only his mouth visible beneath the shadows of his hood. "That is none of your concern."

"You're trying to kill us, aren't you?" Boomer fired three rounds, aimed at his shoulder to keep him alive long enough for answers. The assassin deflected the bullets as easily as he did with the first.

Timber backed away, his eyes darkening. He tromped back to his master and sat stalwartly on his haunches, tilting his head at Boomer.

"Should've seen it coming," Boomer mumbled. "He works for The General. They've found the base."

~X~

The General paced the length of the interrogation chamber, with Nox and Etrius on the opposite end of the glass. Nox tested her power, sapphire light swirling in a matrix of patterns around her hand. "His willpower's strong. I'll give him that."

"He knows where the real cure is. We're getting that information out of him, one way or another." The anger in his eyes burned with disclosure.

Etrius' headset gave off a crackle of white noise, and Beecher's voice came through. "Etrius, Nox, barricade the doors! We've got company."

Etrius responded, "What's going on over there?"

"One of that bastard's soldiers. He has powers like Nox," Incoherent screaming and gunshots. "Don't let anyone in or out!"

Etrius lowered the volume on his headset and spoke into the microphone so The General could hear. "How many human experiments are there?"

The General seemed to read his mind. "I warned you someone would find your base. Won't be long now."

"I'm not playing your game, General, just answer our damn questions."

The General stopped pacing the room. His eyes watched the opaque glass with someone undecipherable stirring within them. He closed the distance between him and the window, stopping right where Etrius was standing.

Etrius had to take in a deep breath and remind himself that The General couldn't see him through the glass. That it was just chance that he was standing right in front of him.

As if the glass were clear, The General glared into his eyes with as much hatred as he could muster. He wasn't even sure if he glaring directly at Etrius, but he was.

"While I'm still here, might as well tell you the dark truth," His voice dripped malice, "About yourself."

Etrius backed away and searched for a mute button, but there was none. "You know nothing of me, bastard," He spat. "The only evil one here is you."

The General's eyes darkened beneath the shadow of his beret. "Human beings are a plague on this Earth. They brought this war upon themselves. They're digging their own graves, and they don't even know it. The only cure is to let them fall."

Etrius punched the glass. Instantly, he regretted it, letting The General know he really was standing before him.

"There are a million choices you can make. And if you're lucky, you're the one who gets chosen. And when that happens, there's no denying it. You've made your choice, Etrius. You and your team are running around, trying to fix a broken reality you can't repair. You're just as corrupt as the other vermin in this world. And deep down, you know it."

"Shut up," He growled. "Shut up, shut up!"

"You're working for the human race, a kind that can't even tell the difference between innocence and violence. If you save them, there won't be an end to the violence. You have all the characteristics of a human being—skin, blood… But the only emotion you're capable of feeling is greed."

Etrius lost it. He seized the mic and turned it to full volume. "No! That's a lie! You're the enemy—you! It's because of you that everything's fallen to shit!" His eyes sparked with an ethereal while glow. The glass fractured beneath the pressure of his power.

"Etrius—" Nox seized mic out of his grip and muted it. "Don't let him provoke you. Pull yourself together."

Etrius' mouth formed into a thin line, but his breathing was still heavy with anger. He pointed at The General on the opposite side of the glass. "He's just giving us horseshit. That isn't true!"

"I believe you," Nox reassured, but this didn't lessen his patience. "I know where the second base is."

Etrius shifted his full attention to her.

"That monologue? It distracted him so I could read his mind. He hid the cure in the Castle dimension, where the other research labs were established. We need to get there before The General's troops do."

A powerful vibrations hook the room. The windows rattled, and for a second, Nox believed they were going to burst. Dust and concrete fell from the ceiling, and The General gave a smirk. "There's my exit ticket."

"Go help Beecher," Etrius ordered, but Nox didn't budge.

"I'm not leaving you alone with him. He tempted you once, and you nearly fell for it."

"I can handle it," Etrius frowned. "We're asking the questions here. We're the ones with power, not the other way around. Go and help the others. I'll watch him."

Nox crossed her arms. "I'm not moving."

"Look, if our enemy is as powerful as Beecher says, we can't face him alone. I'm only beginning to understand these powers. You go and help them," He pointed up the staircase. "That's an order."

Nox ground her teeth, but otherwise stifled her anger. "Fine. If I see your arguing with him one more time, I'll separate you two." And she ran outside.

~X~

Nox trekked up the stairs and ran towards the back exit. She slid to a stop in the doorway when a body was thrown against the ground before her. Beecher groaned at the ache in his stomach and scanned the area for his sniper.

Their eyes settled on the hooded assassin, his feet hovering above ground. Light swirled in a matrix of patterns around him, curling around his body like coils. His eyes were set aflame beneath the shadow of his hood.

In the forest, Khan, the timber wolf watched the scene with soulless eyes.

The assassin extended an arm, aiming at Boomer and a charge of power sparked to life in his hand. Nox screamed and lashed out with her right arm. A slice of sapphire light pierced through the air, striking the assassin off his feet. He hit the floor hard on his back, his hood flying off.

He forced himself to his feet and glared at Nox with golden eyes. His hair shimmered with an ever-shifting silver, like moonlight. He aimed at the team, his hand curling into a fist. Nox formed a translucent shield between them. "Go!" She ordered them. "Get inside, get weapons! I'll take care of this guy." The low growl in her voice gave them the motivation to leave. They vanished behind the curtain-like wall that hid the base.

Nox charged, unsheathing her sapphire sword. The assassin produced his own silver blade that shined in the moonlight. He danced out of the way and sliced his blade, blocking hers.

"My name is Ivan Joseph," He said, his voice nonchalant and husky. "And The General's life is mine to take."