CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
9
After staring at the blue force field-wall-thing for a really long time, I realize the shadowy ghosts that float around on its surface really don't move in a pattern at all.
Yay, what a triumph for science. Now that this is proven, there's one less thing to do in this stinky place. Which means, there's about nothing else to do. Nothing but waiting. Which basically is doing nothing. Doing nothing while waiting. Doing nothing while doing nothing.
Man, these thoughts can get you depressed.
So I just get back to staring at the force field-wall-thing.
I wake up with a jolt as an earsplitting alarm violently shakes me from a doze.
It's a long, dragging, deafening sound, triggering some long forgotten memories deep inside of me.
Memories of the day of Lorien's invasion. Memories of the intimidating sight of the Mogadorian ships landing on the planet's surface, of their mechanical weaponry wiping out entire cities, of Pikens and Krauls and all the other nightmares the Mogs keep as their pets, ripping through our defence lines, of the chaos rioting through the dying population.
Memories of the darkest day in my people's history.
I make sure Six isn't looking my way, then I cover my ears to block out the incredible noise the alarm is making. Immediately, my head gets clearer and the haunting images of our last moments on Lorien vanish.
Much better.
I glance over at Six, who is still standing turned away from me, facing the blue force field with her arms folded behind her back. The alarm doesn't seem to bother her at all, compared to me. Tilting her head to one side, she is absentmindedly watching the hazy shadows in the wall in front of her, lost in thoughts. Maybe she's trying to find out if the ghosts' movement is actually completely random or whether there is some sense behind it. Which, as I found out already, there isn't.
I sigh. Ever since agent Walker left our cell an hour or two ago, Six has been in this very same position, not moving a bit. I keep wondering what she's thinking about.
Not me, probably.
And I probably shouldn't be thinking about her, either. I should be trying to find a way out of here.
It's just hard to be locked up with someone and not to think about them, though, I keep telling myself. And how could I think of another thing? Six' presence seems to fill up the entire room, because whatever I do, I always end up looking at her.
With another sigh I get back to doing what I've been doing all along, which is nothing. Sitting around, waiting for something – anything – to happen. I wish someone else was here instead of Six, someone I could actually talk to without every single word getting stuck in my throat.
I wish was my Cêpan Sandor still here. Living with him was the best time of my life. All those hours we'd train together or watch movies or just talk, it's all gone now. I never told him how much I liked him, not only as the father I never really had, but also as a friend. I wonder what he'd think of me right now, sitting here and doing nothing. He'd probably tell me to stop crying around like a whiny baby, to get off my ass and get the hell out of here, no matter what it'd cost.
Man, I miss him.
I sniff loudly and rip Six out of her meditative state of deep concentration.
She turns around to me, blinks a few times as if I had just awoken her from a deep slumber, then regains her usual, confident expression. Well, not exactly her usual expression, I still have the feeling something has changed about the way she looks at me, ever since I had this outburst of anger earlier.
I didn't really mean to get mad at her, it was kind of unfair, considering the fact that the things I blamed her for are mostly my own fault. But at that moment it had just felt so good to finally get out all the rage that has been building up inside me ever since Sandor's death. It was so liberating to throw the weight of the last years at someone else, even if Six didn't actually deserve it.
What I had really caught me by surprise, though, was the way she reacted to my outburst of temper. You'd think someone as self-conscious as Six wouldn't simply let me yell at her for no apparent reason without getting angry herself. You'd think someone like her wouldn't just sit around, patiently enduring my rant like Six did. That's something you'd never expect of her. I'm not saying she's ignorant or so, but Six just isn't the kind of person you'd talk about your emotions with.
I let out a big snort. Talking about my emotions! I'm beginning to sound like a small whiny wimp. Talking about emotions, that might be something our cute little Johnnyboy.
I clear my throat and then – in my deepest, manliest voice – I grunt "Not a wimp."
"What?" Six asks and strolls over to me.
"Nothing," I mumble as she comes closer. I instantly blush, hoping she didn't hear that right now, but she doesn't seem to care enough to dig deeper.
She sits down next to me and pulls her knees up to her chest. Keeping her gaze straight forward, she buries her chin between her crossed arms and stays unusually silent for a while. Well, as silent as it can be with this stupid alarm still annoying the hell out of me.
"What do you think that's about?" Six says after a few seconds. Or at least I think that's what she's saying. At this noise level, I'm not quite sure.
"You mean the alarm?" I yell loud enough for her to understand.
She nods.
"Don't know, probably just a fire drill or something like that," I say with a shrug.
"You don't think it might be the others?" she asks and I snort. I hadn't actually really thought about what might have triggered the alarm. But whatever it was, it definitely wasn't the other Garde.
"Are you serious? Little John and his gang coming to get us out of here? Seriously?" I laugh as if she just cracked a great joke.
Six looks at me, keeping a straight face. "Why not?"
"Please, Six, don't make me laugh. I think we both know they can hardly even tie their own shoes without someone telling them how to do it. Do you actually believe they could do something to change our current scenery?" I nod at the force field surrounding us. "Sorry to break it to you, but they just don't have what it takes. We may have no idea where we are right now, but neither do the others. Besides, I'd be really impressed if they don't have their own problems with the Mogs. They've probably stupid enough to get taken prisoner themselves by now."
"Funny, coming from the guy who spent an entire year in a Mog prison," Six gives back and throws me a mocking glance.
I'm about to give her a fitting response when suddenly another noise besides the alarm becomes audible.
"You hear that?" Six asks and I nod. The newly arrived hissing sound grows louder and louder, until it drowns out every single noise inside our prison. It's hard to say which one of the two is more disturbing, the uncomfortably pitched, siren like alarm or the new sharp, whizzing noise.
There is something strange about the second one, though, something oddly familiar.
"Wait, that sounds like… like…" Six stammers, but her voice dies out. Her lips keep moving up and down, but no sound comes out.
She doesn't need to finish the sentence, though, I already know what she's trying to say. I recognize the noise, too, now.
It's the sound of a Mogadorian aircraft, firing those incredibly destructive missiles that they already used at the invasion of Lorien. The ones that tend to just reduce entire building complexes to tiny piles of ash.
"Oh, damn," I manage to say before the deafening sound of an explosion signals one of the Mog missiles hit our prison. With a protesting roar, the earth underneath us trembles and a shockwave of heat and heavily pressured air throws me off my feet and the marble ceiling comes crashing down on us.
Celebrations. Fireworks. Happy laughter from all around me.
I'm back at the night my home planet got destroyed.
I'm laying in a cradle, with Sandor and my grandma leaning over me, big smiles on their faces and proud sparks in their eyes. I let out a loud yawn and both my Cêpan and my grandma laugh. Satisfied with myself, I close my eyes and fall asleep.
The next time I open my eyes, instead of Grandma and Sandor, there's a giant hole gaping in the ceiling above me. I blink a few times, still sleepy from the little nap in my cradle, then I notice two things.
The first thing is an incredible pain in my temples, and a stream of warm liquid running down my nose.
The second thing is Six pulling me out of a pile of collapsed marble by the leg.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hiss in a sudden impulse of aggression and kick out so she lets go of me.
"Saving your life, idiot. Glad to see you're alive," Six mumbles while rubbing her wrist, where I just hit her.
"Saving my… life?" I ask, trying to process what she's saying.
"Yeah, your life. You got hit in the head by a giant piece of marble, lost consciousness and stopped breathing. Had to dig you out and perform mouth-to-mouth respiration," she says and tilts her head to one side.
"Mouth-to…What?" I murmur and then suddenly blush as I realize what this means. When Six sees my expression, she almost doubles over from a sudden laughing fit.
"Oh wow, you should see your face right now, it's priceless! Oh, why don't we have a camera?" she yells, hardly being able to breathe from laughter.
"Yeah, very funny," I grumble, but deep inside my heart is pumping at double the usual speed from excitement. When my stomach rumbles, I'm not sure if it's because of the butterflies in it or just because I haven't eaten anything decent for days.
"Well… Umm… Thanks for… that… I guess," I stammer.
Six stops laughing for a second and tries to maintain a serious face for long enough to give me an answer, but then just bursts out in another roaring laughter. My face turns even redder and I turn away, hiding from the shame of having to face Six.
Which only makes her laugh harder.
I wonder how she can be so carelessly happy, considering the fact that we are being attacked by our biggest enemies, being held captives by our second biggest enemies and I just almost freaking died. We should be devastated right now, desperate, hopeless [am Verzweifeln].
But Six is [ausgelassener] than ever, still unable to control her laughter.
Because finally – finally – something is happening in this god forsaken place, even if it's probably the worst-case outcome of this situation. At the moment, the relief of our time in this stinky cell getting to its end overwhelms every other feeling, even common sense. Six is just glad we're finally getting out of here.
And to be honest, so am I.
Hey there folks,
Yet another chapter, trying to maintain a more frequent uploading schedule. Next one coming soon, hopefully.
As for the review answering stuff:
ArcticBlue: The question is, would Five actually be wanting to save those humans, as they are his enemies. I actually was planning to do a part about him keeping Ella from interfering when they had a chance to highlight his cold-hearted, calculating mind, but I forgot about it. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll be sure to edit it when I update chapter 17. Reviews like this really help me out, so if there's anything you guys find strange/inconcequent/irrelevent/overall just wrong, please tell me :) As for the fall of five, I haven't got my hands onto one yet, but thanks for the huge compliment, though =)
Mysteryfanaticno1: Guess we're just going to have to wait and find out. Not gonna give away any spoilers ;P
That's all for now.
Again, if you don't mind, leave me a review with feedback, I'd really appreciate it.
Also, feel free to check back to chapter 17, I should have it worked over and updated by the day after tomorrow.
So, until we meet again, I wish you all a great time, and thanks to everyone for reading my story =)