Chapter 3
Jorelo switched on the lamp back on and reached around the floor for his phone which still was attached to his belt.
"Dammit, who calls this late?" He questioned it as his time to rest up for tomorrow dwindled slowly. Once the phone was found, Jorelo tore it open and spoke into it. "Hello?" the fudgehog said, trying his best to hold back his irritation.
"Jor, it's me, Falkor," the voice on the other line said with not nearly the same tiredness in his voice as Jorelo, "I didn't wake you up did I…?"
"Argh! What does he want? Last I heard he was gonna go to sleep!" Jorelo threw a fit in his head, but shortly stopped to take a deep breath in and out to keep his cool. "No, though I was about to go to bed…" He lied a bit to keep Falkor from feeling guilty, a yawn accidentally slipped out of the tired fudgehog.
"Well was it just me or…" Falkor began to sound nervous, "or did the boss… Sound a bit, different?" Jorelo didn't say anything about the comment at first, instead he thought over of what the base leader had said earlier today. Now that he had thought about it, the base leader did sound somewhat dissimilar of what he usually did.
"I guess…" Jorelo carelessly confirmed, trying to end their conversation as fast as he could. Every second of lying in bed happened to be more important than discussing what the boss sounded like.
"You guess?" Falkor retaliated, "Jorelo, anyone could probably tell that he sounds different."
"Well it's probably just a cold or something," Jorelo threw out a hasty hypothesis, "don't make a big deal out of it," this made Falkor sigh in disappointment, The white fudgehog knew Jorelo wasn't very interested about the subject.
"Okay…" Falkor said, feeling like he could say nothing else to make Jorelo listen.
"…Can I go to bed now?" Jorelo said straightforwardly, he couldn't stay awake much longer.
"Sure… Sorry for keeping you up Jor," Jorelo hung up the phone the moment Falkor apologized. Letting out one last yawn, Jorelo laid himself out on the bed as he dug his head into the pillow and shut his eyes, a electronic voice came on, but Jorelo was already fast asleep.
"Engaging hibernation mode," it buzzed, and time just seem to fly by after that, and before Jorelo knew it, it was already morning.
"Hibernation mode, disengaged," the voice greeted Jorelo as the waking fudgehog blinked his eyes open and raised his arms in the air to let out a morning yawn. Glancing over at the clock, the time was 7:30 AM. Jorelo sat up and scooted over to the edge of the bed.
"I gotta get ready," he said to himself. Standing up, he walked over and opened the hidden wall closet on the other side of the bed, and gather all his equipment he would need for the upcoming mission. Magnum… M-16... A combat knife… Grenades, even though he wasn't so big on using the grenades in war. Once he was ready, he shut the closet door and walked out of the room and headed toward the lounge. The dark fudgehog had a rude awakening when he happened to run into Falkor on the way there. Even though Jorelo was still slightly annoyed with him, they had talked about the rest of the day to come while still heading towards the lounge.
"Hey Jorelo!" Falkor said gleefully, "how'd you sleep?" which was kind of a dumb question to ask Jorelo since the hibernation process knocked you out cold until it was time to wake up (Or someone who was awake stopped it manually). Falkor, however, didn't have one of these systems in his room as the hibernation systems were usually installed by requests from troubled sleepers.
"Good," Jorelo shrugged, "but I wish I had had more time to sleep," Falkor's good mood was soiled a bit.
"I'm sorry…" Falkor apologized, "it's just I had something on my mind."
"Mmm-hmm," Jorelo hummed and nodded at him.
"And I can't get to sleep without getting things off my chest," Falkor said, "and the only people I know here are you and Pandora… And I don't think Pandora is up to a one on one chat with me."
"I wouldn't think so either," Jorelo said, snickering a bit, "she got mad at me for saying she was just like you, I think…"
"Oh really?" Falkor started to let out his own chuckle as well.
"Well, then after she joked about not really being mad about," Jorelo said, "but she still didn't want me to ever say that again," Jorelo explained as they were both nearing their destination, or at least Jorelo's. The dark fudgehog had no idea if Falkor was going to the lounge as well. The last hallway there would decide if Falkor was making his way there or not, Jorelo took a right and Falkor followed.
"Just to let you know," Falkor informed his friend, "from first hand experience: Pandora hits hard," Falkor said as he tried to find the bruise on the arm Pandora had punched yesterday. The comment made Jorelo chuckle lightly, he knew Pandora would have hit him harder, but Piñata Resistance didn't need anymore piñatas in the infirmary. For Jorelo however, Pandora would never hurt him on purpose, maybe on accident here and there during childhood in blind fury.
Both fudgehog's had entered the lounge and headed towards one of the tables near the corner and sat down across from each other. This was their usual hang out during their free time. However there was the exception if the table was already taken, but the chance of that happening was slim.
"So… What are we doing here Jor?" Falkor questioned him as he looked around, not many other piñatas were here strangely. The light fudgehog also spotted a few televisions on the walls around them, these tubes broadcasted channels from other countries, in languages these piñatas didn't understand.
"I promised Pandora I'd meet her here," Jorelo replied while watching one of the screens himself, the news that was displayed really didn't catch his interest so he gave his full attention back to Falkor.
"…Is she gonna be late?" Falkor shot another question at him, wondering where she was.
"She didn't call me telling me she was, let alone at all." Jorelo said impatiently, wishing Pandora would arrive a little faster.
"Okay," Falkor said dully as he imagined getting another jab in the arm when she arrived, but it was unlike Pandora to hold a grudge against anyone. The pretztail didn't really hate anyone and you wouldn't call Falkor an exception, though he did pass the barrier of a "painful annoyance," but there were some joyful moments Pandora and Falkor had shared together.
"Why don't we get something to drink while we wait?" Jorelo said as Falkor nodded in agreement, licking his dry lips. The white fudgehog followed his instructor to a nearby vending machine. Jorelo pulled out his ID card and slid it through the scanner on the vending machine.
These venders were a bit different than the once that required currency back before the war, for the fact that items inside didn't cost a thing. However there was a limit on how much you could pull out of it in a certain amount of hours. The machine was created with this rule in effect so everyone could get their fair share of whatever they wanted out of the vender. Jorelo pressed a button and an un-cola soda can popped out the dispenser, he picked it up out of the slot promptly and had gone back to sit at the table. Falkor did the same, except he had chose a cola product. Both fudgehogs met back at the table as they both sipped their sodas slowly. Jorelo finally came up with a question this time.
"Just wondering… Where are they sending you Falkor?" He asked carefully. Falkor took a long sip of his soda before answering.
"Didn't you hear? Almost everyone's being sent to Piñata Central," Falkor said, and rolled his eyes in disgust of it.
"…'Cept you?" Jorelo finished for him.
"Actually no, I'm going too," Falkor sighed stressfully as Jorelo took a drink of his soda, his eyes caught Pandora coming from the hallway in a fast paced walk.
"Sorry I'm late!" She yelled over to Jorelo, Falkor twisted himself over the chair to look at her.
"It's okay," Jorelo nodded at the pretztail, offering her a seat between them, she took it and sat down promptly.
"Hey Pandy," Falkor said. The white fudgehog gave her random nicknames when he greeted her most of the time just to get a kick out of her.
"Shut it Falkor…" Pandora said while glaring at him. Her visage alone told him that she wasn't going to put up with anymore of his crap.
"Fine, you win," Falkor surrendered, "but besides that, are you going to Piñata Central as well?" Pandora nodded and let out a long, tense breath of air.
"Now that I think about it," Pandora started, "I wish I hadn't demanded to go with you guys," Pandora concluded glumly.
"Why?" Jorelo asked, tilting his head, "she's finally realized it huh?" He told himself.
"Didn't you hear?" She began, waiting for them to respond, though no one said anything so she continued, "…Piñata Central is practically up to it's neck in sours, the PDF is sending out aircrafts to bomb the area, and you know how they are take action!" Pandora said, and she had every right to be worried. The PDF, or Piñata Defense Force, was more of a nuisance than a blessing. Most of their soldiers couldn't even hold their gun properly in battle. And Fear ran in their soldiers faster than they ran from it, but like Pandora, they had the right to be, their enemies were no normal sours. These sours were pumped up with an unknown earth shattering powers and other unexplainable talents. Thus the creation of the PR, or Piñata Resistance, an underground group of liberators whose goal was to not only keep the sours at bay, but to wipe them out forever. Sadly, the Piñata Resistance had no such abilities like the sours, but they had made up for it in strategy.
"Damn…" Falkor was left speechless, everyone knew the foolish infamy of the PDF.
"Yeah, in other words… We're gonna be on a suicide mission," Pandora said. Jorelo shook his head and spoke up.
"We can still make the best out of it, just stay out of the bombing range," his plan made them think the situation over a bit, but Pandora had soon killed it.
"…Isn't that going against orders?" The pretztail questioned him, Falkor sighed again soon after.
"She's right y'know," Falkor supported Pandora's side. The dark fudgehog took another drink of his soda before speaking.
"We can make something up if we get caught on the run, like we got off course because of strategic reposition or something," Falkor and Pandora looked at each other for a brief moment while thinking it over. "Besides…this isn't like Piñata Resistance to send us right into the battlefield anyway," Jorelo added.
"Hmm, you got a point…" Falkor was in deep contemplation, "…Should we just avoid contact from enemy and ally then?" Pandora looked over to Jorelo, letting him decide for all of them.
"…I think we should," Jorelo decided, "do you know where we're landing?" He looked over to Pandora as Falkor took a sip of his soda. Pandora shook her head and closed her eyes, knowing they would probably be informed of that at the last second.
"Nope," the pretztail responded, "but now I'm worried about that too…" Falkor began to get nervous as well as he was starting to question if he should just run away and hide from it all. Honesty, fighting from behind the lines was what PR had done best, what caused them to send mostly all of their troops right into the middle of it all?
Before anyone could say anything else a PA announcement clicked on with a synthetic female voice explaining that briefing would take place in a short while inside the aircraft hangars. The trio headed towards their new destination for their briefing, all knowing that it was too late to chicken out now.