Fan Fiction ❯ Human Alloy ❯ A Darkness Approaches ( Chapter 12 )

It was the next day. I had slept, after all, but awoke on the couch, a blanket wrapped around me, Cale snuggled next to me, an arm around my body. I wondered who had put me there, but I realized it was Kane as he walked into the room from taking a shower. He half smiled at me.

 

“Good morning,” he greeted with a nod. I stared blankly at him as Cale sighed into my neck. I closed my eyes, shivering under his breath.

 

“I can make breakfast if you want. It won't be nearly as good as Cale's though, or yours.” I said nothing, sighing heavily after he had disappeared into the kitchen. I was in a bad swing and I needed to get out of it. I sat up, running a hand through my hair, rubbing my eyes and I heard the main door open behind us with a mechanical whir. I wondered who it might be but when I looked, I saw it was Mercy, pushing something with her snout, low to the ground.

 

“Mercy?” I asked, standing. I was still clothed at least.

 

“Hello Yue,” she purred. “I've got our transportation of my master all set.” Master. It had been far too long since Mercy had ever used that term. In fact, since we'd been monitoring Jalene on the security cameras, Mercy had never called him that, and we installed those things a long time ago. It was a patient transportation carrier. It was basically a more advanced type of stretcher, those kinds that float with a smooth ride and adjustable heights. It could carry a ton as light as a feather, no problem. Steering was a little off sometimes but for the most part anyone could use them. I grinned, despite how worried my eyes were.

 

“Where on Earth did you steal that?” I asked accusingly as she pushed it around the other side of the couch to where I was. The fox laughed guiltily.

 

“From one of the infirmaries. They almost never use it. Oh and by the way, the elevator outside is broken. It crashed on my descent, but then again pretty much everything is destroy above ground everywhere,” she said, stopping to sit and watch me. I looked surprised.

 

“No need to be alarmed,” she said. “But then I guess I wouldn't know anyway. Just about everyone has left. There's only one news station broadcasting and it's on all channels. That's just in this one nation. Hard to believe, but it's true. Ever since they got those apartments set up on the new planet, Bush has been crazy to fit people in there. Because half the population is homeless and the other half works at R.A.D.A.R. there isn't that much problem convincing anyone to stay there.” Mercy had exaggerated some but not all the much. I had laughed my butt off before at all the funds Bush would have to pay off. It really was amusing. I looked at things now and liked to think that, although technology had advanced, humans had devolved. <I>They</I> didn't want to believe it, but it was still true. I kneeled down in front of Mercy, petting her.

 

“Good girl Mercy,” I praised.

 

“I want to help just as much as you do,” she said softly, one paw on my knee. Kane walked in.

“Well look what arrived on our doorstep,” he grinned. Mercy offered him a fox grin.

 

“I want to see how Master is,” she said, standing, looking at Kane, offering a sorrowful sigh, and darting off to Jalene's room.

 

“Master?” Kane asked quietly, puzzled. I nodded.

 

“I thought the same.”

 

I stood once more, Cale stirring behind me, mumbling in his sleep as he rolled over. He was so much like his brother. Especially when he was sleeping so you couldn't compare eyes. So beautiful; so peaceful. Kane approached Cale, sitting beside him, murmuring as I stare blankly ahead.

 

“Thank you Mercy,” I said, ruffling the robot's ears once more before finding something within the depths of the kitchen to have for breakfast. Through out the rest of the day I remained on the couch or in my garden, but in truth I felt trapped. Even the outside my garden provided wasn't enough. I still felt like I was caged in, though the wide sky, the expanse of forest was soothing, helping me forget my heartache, I still knew in the back of my mind that it wasn't the real world; but a created one.

 

`However,' I reasoned with myself as I stared at a fluffy white cloud. It still amazed me at how exactly things like this worked. `However, the world on the surface is a created one too. Once destroyed, now rebuilt as something, only to be destroyed again.' I frowned.

 

“How unbecoming,” I muttered to myself, rolling over in the grass, playing with the soft blades.

 

I wanted to get away. I wanted to get away to a real world with real plants and life, not one like this. I wanted a place with minimal amounts of humans so they couldn't destroy anything. I wanted freedom. I closed my eyes. I still was thinking about teleportation. About how some people thought they had it but didn't, about how, back in the twentieth century people could teleport atoms, and how now they hadn't advanced it past teleporting something the size of a grape. They could create suns; worlds of their own even, but they couldn't take something, send it ten times the speed of light, which would turn it into energy, absorb it somewhere and rebuild it. Of course because of the speed it would be almost instantaneous and because of the strong force within every cell, it wouldn't be very hard to rematerialize something after such a short time of being separated from the being. But apparently people didn't have enough resources to send something so large so fast. We needed a vacuum, something without air resistance.

 

I let my mind wander to Mars. All the people they had moved here. The United States, as a country and a nation had grown. We had form alliances with several other countries, so we were a much larger and prospering place with next to no enemies at all. But since our population was huge, we had to move it, and, according to Mercy and the last broadcast that they had put on re-run for all eternity and until the station was destroyed, everyone in the nation had been sent to Mars. That is, everyone but convicts and assholes. No all the assholes went too. If they hadn't, then Mars might as well not even be habitable. Even from watching broadcast it seemed things had gone pretty bad, but I was sure it wasn't from us. I knew for a <I>fact</I> that our viruses and corrupted data weren't that wide spread and from the looks of things, everything was going a lot faster than planned. Originally we had coincided that it'd be years of hard work and constant viral spreading before the fall of R.A.D.A.R. Of course the more people we had in our faction, the better, but even with just a few of us we were sure we could do it.

 

Rolling over, thoughts continued to plague me. The people of Earth fled so easily. Robots all over the world were destroying, malfunctioning, back firing. Of course, little did the public know, but thousands of people were secretly dying every day anyway, before the rebellion started due to malfunctioning Mecha-Pets. Mr. Quendenski had plotted it from the beginning and thanks to Gin's amazing hacking abilities and information gathering, we found the president of the industry actually had finalizing technicians who would program the pets after a while to go as far as murdering people. We, the rebels, were fighting against that. In some very twisted ways we had come up with several reasons Mr. Quendenski had thought to do something so wicked. It was probable he was partially on our side, wanting a better life for Earth, not just the people of Earth, and by destroying the human populace, it gave the world a better chance to grow and gain back everything it had lost. Of course that was slightly ludicrous. It was plausible he was just a psychopath who wanted to dictate the world, but it was also possible he just wanted money.

 

We figured if it was money, the corruption of pets, paying to get them fixed also, and getting free updates was one way he was conning people of their money. Promise free updates, but with every update, viruses could be contracted. They'd sit dormant for a while, then delete or corrupt something that could be replaced. The people would send their pet to R.A.D.A.R. to pay to have it fixed. It wasn't so often that the Mecha-Pets didn't seem efficient, but it was enough to make a surplus amount of money, especially with all that had and were still being sold. But why would he had robots kill their owners? Other than assassination money, possible black mailing, and even going as far as having the robots return to R.A.D.A.R. where they'd be reprogrammed and sold again, we couldn't think of anything else. None of knew the president that well, but we knew several characters he was associated with.

 

Mr. Quendenski's long time friend was Mr. Alfred Rebbic. Mr. Rebbic had worked in clone research for a long time, and in fact had taken part in many human clonings before. Rumor had that he was still looking for a way to successfully clone someone, alter their genes to be whoever someone wanted, then `sell' them. If someone could get their own perfect person, black marketed of course since it was still relatively undercover, then people would pay tens of thousands for them. But still, that was off topic as to why people had evacuated so quickly. My mind had wandered, and inwardly I reprimanded myself.

 

`Who else could it be? There are small factions out there, like us, but none of them big enough to have something spread this quickly, this efficiently. There has to be something else on our side, something more powerful,' I thought, brows knit as I closed my eyes and thought, the cool late afternoon breeze washing over me.

 

Despite how many robots Mr. Quendenski was corrupting, and how much technical stuff the rebels had screwed with for the past couple of years, there was no reasonable explanation as to why suddenly everyone left. The only thing I could think of was that something large and unknown was working against us. It occurred to me that, since they had stable life on Mars, they could be using satellite or various concentrated rays to cause the robots to go berserk. Speaking of berserk, the Berserkers and the New Generation robots hadn't been released, that I had known of. I didn't know much about the Berserkers except that were going to be released with tags and data from other smaller robot corporations, from those that competed against R.A.D.A.R. and would then seek out our corporations robots and sacrifice them, destroying them. That way R.A.D.A.R. would look like a victim and be funded for the robots it lost, which Mr. Q was planning on overpricing the damage accountability so he'd get more.

 

I sighed once more, thinking, exhausted from the mental stress.

 

`We just need to find who is behind all this, what caused everyone to evacuate Earth so quickly and suddenly,' I yawned. `The creator—He should have some answers.' I lazed around the rest of the day until near evening when the sun was dying. I couldn't stand it much longer. I was restless and I wanted to go. I wanted to find out more, to know the truth. I was also eager to see what had happened top side, on the surface where the rampant robots, Berserkers and New Generation had gone wrong. Apparently R.A.D.A.R.'s plans to monopolize the world had gone amiss. Ironic to think about since they seemed so enthusiastic to help. I snorted.

 

I grunted as I pushed myself up. I was going to pack now, not that I really needed anything other than maybe a change of clothes, a weapon and some food. The food would have to be either something nonperishable or something that would hold out for a day or so. I'm sure we'd find something to eat along the way.

 

 

***************************************

 

 

It was early morning, the dawn still arriving in my garden. Dua had joined us, and when I asked since when had he gotten here, the small dragon replied.

 

“I came halfway through the night when everyone was asleep. I'm glad to say I've found you alright,” he said in a deep manly voice, “however, it's utter chaos above. I'll explain in detail as we travel. There's no time now.”

 

“Be glad I have a homing device,” Kane smiled weakly. All were silent, weary as we began our travel. Kane had helped me to secure Jalene onto the transport stretcher and I grimaced, still a little unsure as to why we would really need him. I asked Kane this as I strapped down a cool, pale arm.

 

“Because,” was all he said. “You'll see.” I couldn't press him for any other information. Still mentally exhausted we set out, the sun just barely shining behind a distant mountain, deep shadows obscuring the land spread out before it. We were in the orchard, wasting no time as mercy ran ahead, to investigate everything; Dua sat perched on Kane's shoulder, humming softly.

 

“So,” I trailed after a long moment's silence as we worked away across the stubbled ground. We'd have to work our way through the orchard, across to where the forest was and make our way through the slight opening in the mountain's side. It was downhill from there and about a day's journey before everything would start falling into shadows. “Would you like to tell us what's going on at the surface?” I asked as I pushed Jalene gently along, peach petals swirling around us as a cool morning breeze picked up. Faint traces of light shone over the orchard wall. Dua sighed, shifting his wings to comfort his position before he continued. He fixed our position to a diagonal, taking our time to walk through the various blooming fruit trees. Everyone seemed ready to go and find answers, but hesitant at the idea of facing the unknown.

 

“I'm not sure even how it happened, or the source. There are malicious robots on the loose destroying buildings and civilization. That I know of, their target is humans. The source of their creator is unknown; however several breeds have been traced back to R.A.D.A.R.” Dua said promptly.

 

Cale scoffed.

 

“So this is it? Humans just waltz in, do as they please and when things get out of hand they leave?!” the white haired boy snipped angrily. Kane shrugged.

 

“They're cowards, they just want to shed responsibility.” I shook my head.

 

“And there's no way they could control the robots? What's the government been doing?” I asked blandly, stumbling over a knot in the ground.

 

“Apparently not much,” Cale replied, acid dripping from his voice.

 

“The government sees no need to. Lawyers employed by R.A.D.A.R. corporation are paid big to keep officials cool. The lawyers and technicians explain that the robots' malfunctions are technical errors and bugs that get into the system. They blame it on hackers mostly, and on the fact then when it all gets down to it robots are still machinery and not 100% efficient so they're expected to short circuit at some point,” Dua explained, tilting his head.

 

“But no one realizes that this… this <I>genocide</I> against the human population is an actual plot? A scheme to make money and control the government?” Cale put in vehemently.

 

“No. There are too many humans who think they're `right.' They have such twisted beliefs it doesn't matter.” Kane shrugged.

 

I thought for a moment, worrying my bottom lip. An idea struck me as we brushed through an orange grove, the sun's rays casting long shadows of our figures.

 

“But the earth should be okay right? I mean, not only does history repeat itself, but because there's an imbalance—”

 

“The Law of Threefold Return,” Cale finished, grinning for me. Kane smiled murkily.

 

“What about Mars? Won't they destroy that to?”

 

“In time,” Kane replied, petting Dua on the head as his sky blue dragon shifted farther up his shoulder. “In the meanwhile the Earth will grow back naturally.”

 

“If I may continue my report,” Dua cut in before anything else was said. I nodded. “It seems the robots are reacting to several different signals. First is one that's causing the robots to go berserk, but not all of them. Apparently only a number of very durable and destructive robots were programmed to react to this signal. The other signal, only certain smaller robots are acting towards; that is, a genetically enhanced and warped, half creature, half robotic breed named the Rebounds.”

 

“Those cat things!” I exclaimed. Dua chirped.

 

“These are all targeted towards an underground location, presumably in here.”

 

“The Black Halo?” Kane said at once.

 

“Assumedly.” I watched in silence as Mercy darted into view from the end of the orange trees ahead of us. The other wall was in sight, the door slightly to our right. In silence we fell under the shadow of the arched stone doorway, Mercy's paws clinking softly against the hard packed ground. We reached the other side and stopped a moment. Grey wisps of clouds hung high in the air, and somewhere in the distance they converged to form a blanket of dark storm clouds, threatening to pour.

 

“Shall we?” I asked, and we continued. The land lay before us, short yellowed grass that led to a plain on our right, somewhere far along the line, and in front of us, the large pine forest. Behind that was our mountain.

 

Despite how close we seemed to be to the pine forest, it turned out we were much farther away than anticipated. As we drew closer, the dark bark towered high above us, branches covering the space dozens of feet above our heads.

 

“Who is the creator?” I asked. Even I didn't know, and I felt left out when Kane had been talking about the touchy subject. Kane said nothing for a moment.

 

“You'll see.” Left in curiosity and gloom, I sighed, gripping the mobile stretcher in front of me like a cart. Birds flew off in delta formation overhead, gliding slowly past, their shadows scarcely tracing the ground in the poor light. Despite the fact that the sun should have been shining brightly, the thin veil of grey clouds covered the hopeful rays completely. Focusing on the foreboding trees ahead, I didn't notice our visitor at first, but upon nearly stepping on its sleeping form I did.

 

“Watch it!” it growled. Startled, I stumbled back. Standing, it shook itself off, stretching wide wings. It gave me a disdainfully glare, it's burning yellow eyes mechanical, though looking seriously realistic.

 

“What? Never seen a robot before?” it snapped.

 

“Ah, I'm sorry,” I apologized. Kane was smiling, Cale standing slightly off to the side and looking inquisitively puzzled, slightly frightened.

 

“Whatever.” It turned and padded off.

 

“Gryphon,” Kane addressed it, “how did you get here?” The gryphon stopped and threw a dirty look over its shoulder. It gave an amused smile, though it seemed bored.

 

“What's it to you?”

 

“I mean, I doubt Cale's ever seen you before, and he practically owns this land. How long have you been here? Where are you going?” the blonde inquired, kneeling down, one hand on the earth. The gryphon considered him a moment.

 

“You know if I answered every one of those questions at once I'm sure I'd impress you with my talent, but if I tried you'd screw up my software, so I'm not going to. Why should I tell you anyway? You're the ones who trod on me! Honestly, if you're going to be a tourist at least look where you're walking.” The gryphon's beak clicked with annoyance, his talons clawing at the ground, wings shifting.

 

“It appears to be one not processed by R.A.D.A.R.,” Dua helped out.

 

“Sure isn't. By the tone in its voice I'd say a hacker made it,” Mercy mused, eyes smiling. The gryphon sighed.

 

“Calling this land yours is a joke!” he said supremely, one claw laid delicately on its feathered breast. The thin curls of metal rustled under its talons. “It is my master's and he's been here much longer than any of the likes of you. You'd be glad if he even allows you to live afterwards.” The lion tail swished angrily.

 

“The creator?” Kane asked. The gryphon scoffed, not answering.

 

“More than likely. It'd be my bet anyway,” Mercy said, head held high. The mythical robot rolled its eyes.

 

“What are you doing near my forest anyway? No one's allowed back here, they don't need to come!”

 

“We need to see the creator,” Kane stated flatly. The creator? I may not know much, but putting two and two said told me the creator was probably found in the Black Halo. Kane nodded, sensing my thoughts.

 

Cale shifted his weight, eyes worried, his guard up.

 

“What for?” the bird cat answered after a pause of consideration. Kane stiffened.

 

“If you must know, despite your rudeness….. we need his wisdom about the Legends.” The gryphon's interest peaked.

 

“What do you know about the Legends?” it demanded. Kane smirked.

 

“Show us the way to your master and you'll know.”

 

“As if! Find your own way, but I'm going to follow you anyway. I'll laugh when you get lost.” The robot stretched, yawning before turning and padding off into the dark forest. I noticed Mercy looked distant, concerned. I gave her an inquiring look. Making eye contact she said, “I don't think I like gryphons.” Kane smirked.

 

“Let's carry on. If it rains at least we'll have some protection in the forest.” He led the way.

 

“Kane? What do you know about the Legends?” I pressed. I knew something about them, but after all it was just a long forgotten story. I didn't even know where it originated.

 

“Everything in the stories,” he said simply, waving it aside.

 

“Cale?” I asked. He shook his head.

 

“I've only vaguely heard of them, like a distant memory,” he said, worried. “But I don't anything about them.” Kane weaved an arm around his lover's waist, looking into mismatched eyes.

 

“Don't worry about it. Once we're there, we'll have everything answered. I pushed Jalene around a large pine, trusting Kane. Still, there was something odd about him I didn't like. He was perfectly fine before, but just recently something had surfaced. I could tell Cale knew too, it was in his thoughts. I didn't say anything though. The truth was I wasn't sure. Mercy seemed to know something as well, but she always knew more than we did. She was Jalene's Mecha-Pet. Maybe I'd ask her tonight. Knots of pine grew in thick clusters, making it hard to navigate, especially with the stretcher in front, and there were no trails or decently clear paths to travel.

 

Silence remained dominate for a while with the occasional grunt from those who found it difficult to navigate around the trees, I myself included. Thunder rolled overhead somewhere, close to where we were. Shadows fell around us and everything darkened as the clouds thickened.

 

“Cale,” I heard Kane whisper somewhere to my left, obscured by a fallen pine branch, “is there anywhere around here we can take shelter?” leaves and pine straw crunched below our feet, shuffling as I heard Cale jump on and over the log.

 

“I don't know,” he replied, nimbly darting under another crooked branch, avoiding the trunk of another tree and waiting for us to catch up. Despite my easy moving attire, it wasn't as easy to circumnavigate, especially with the stretcher. I took for walking slightly ahead, around several adjoining trees.

 

“I could try and find a place,” he offered, brushing wily bangs away from his face. Dua scattered loose straw somewhere above us.

 

Thunder rumbled again. Soon, I knew, it would be pouring.

 

“Hey guys, I found a place. It's not completely ideal, but it's better than nothing,” Mercy clucked, jumping onto another large fallen tree ahead of us, wedged between three other trees. Her tail swished. “Follow me. I signaled Dua to wait for us there.”

 

“Good thinking Mercy! Thanks!” I called as she jumped from the tree. Patiently, she ran ahead, stopped to wait as we caught up then ran ahead again. Cale and Kane straggled somewhere behind. I followed through the twisted pines, becoming aggravated when the stretcher bumped on the trees or got stuck between two. After a moment's struggling with a particularly fussy soft barked tree, I pulled loose, stumbling and tripping over my foot, colliding with the ground. Nearly in tears from annoyance and frustration, I lay on the soft pine straw covered floor. Above us, a clap of thunder broke the resonating silence, acting as a switch to turn on the rain. Above us, the needles shook with fury as my companions raced to meet us.

 

Mercy flagged them down, barking from beneath the shelter. The stretcher lay several feet before me, where it had stopped, Jalene still securely on it. The shelter was something like an innate, shallow cave. A large tree, probably an oak, and one of the few that weren't pines, stood half uprooted, sitting atop a higher level of land. It left a scoop in the hard packed earth, slanting slightly down to create a hole. The earth at entrance sloped down and away from the inside of the cave, thus allowing the rain to run off. Dua poked his head out from between a tangle of roots.

 

“C'mon Yue!” Kane called, diving for the shelter. It sounded more like an order. Quickly jumping to my feet as rain brushed down from the canopy, I grabbed the stretcher, thrusting my lover roughly towards the small shelter Mercy had found. They grabbed it, adjusting it to better comfort our lack of space. I dragged my body in, slightly wet but barely soaked.

 

I ended up rolling in, a lot longer drop than I expected, flopping across Kane and Cale's lap, knocking the breath out of me. For a moment, I saw stars.

 

“You okay?” Cale asked. Mercy looked at me from above. Around us rain pattered down, thunder rolling. I groaned. Jalene lay at an odd angle in front of us, situated to give us as much room as possible, despite how cramped it really was. Cale shifted over towards Mercy and she complied, Kane's Dragon nesting somewhere in the root's above us. Mercy curled into a tight little ball, lying in corner to situate us better. I remained laying where I was. My head was in Cale's lap, my lower torso on Kane's. He moved slightly.

 

“Comfortable?” Kane asked. His question was followed by an immediate cymbal clash of thunder. I nodded. We listened to the pouring rain for several long moments. Thoughts swirled in my head.

 

“What do we plan to do? This rain is hindering our journey,” I said, facing away from Cale. He gently stroked my hair with his knuckles.

 

“Stay here,” he said quietly. “It might be even days before the rain lets up, but eventually we'll be back on our way.” I closed my eyes, shivering at the boy's soft touch.

 

“Mercy?” I asked, feeling awkward about how bring the subject up. Her eyes searched mine, but other than that, she remained motionless. I hesitated. “You know something about Jalene, don't you?” She closed her foxy eyes, lifting her head.

 

“I do. What do you want to know?” she asked after a pause.

 

“What exactly is wrong with him? He's not really dead. I feel something inside him. Something like an obstacle. His mind isn't gone. Why?” I was tense. Jalene's fox sighed. She was quiet for so long I thought she wouldn't answer me.

 

“In all preference I'd rather not talk about it—”

 

“Yue can learn when we reach the creator,” Kane put in bluntly. It made me feel as if I wasn't supposed to know. An idea struck me that made me feel incredibly stupid. I blamed it on the recent events, muddling my mind. I had been thinking for so long now how human I perceived Jalene to be.

 

“Yes,” Kane said softly, “that's on the right track.” I stared blankly at the roots above me, Dua twittering, shifting with a sigh and settling himself down. The rain poured beyond our shelter. Mercy continued to watch me a moment before tucking her nose under her tail and resting her hard drive. I closed my eyes. Yes, that was right. How many times did Root and Gin remind me? Don't fall in love with Jalene, just persuade him to trust us. I sighed, Cale's fingers still in my hair, one arm thrown across my face. It saddened me to think about, but it was true. I did love Jalene, and it was something that wasn't supposed to happen. I wondered how much longer it'd be that the poor boy could take before he snapped. Living with such fears and illusions; it wasn't fair what the scientists had did. I wasn't there, but what I did know creeped me out. It made me wonder what the world was coming to, but judging by what Dua had told us, I already knew: destruction. Chaos. Plague. But we would fix it.

 

The rain was constant for a while, drumming around relentlessly, but after a good long soaking, it calmed down, lingering at a drizzle. The sky was still dark and clouded, but an hour or so before noon it ceased. Still, we rose to peer out, half crouched to peer down the run off which had nearly turned to mud. Joints groaned as we crawled out, Mercy nimbly hopping out ahead of us, shaking the dirt off, Dua stretching his wings and perching on a nearby, low pine branch. Once the three of us were out, pulling the stretcher with Jalene on it as well, we stretched, the ground wet beneath us, the air damp with moisture, the pine needles far above out heads dripping perspiration.

 

“Well that was fun,” Cale commented, hands on hips, staring at the sky above. A fat droplet of water hit his cheek. While Cale was wiping it off, Kane smiled, wandering ahead.

 

“We'll break as soon as we can find the entrance leading through the mountain towards the Black Halo, okay everyone?” Kane announced, sweeping a hand through his hair.

 

“Sounds good to me. I'll cook something up if we're hungry then,” I offered, attending to Jalene's carrier, pushing him gently at waist level in front of me.

 

“It shouldn't be much farther ahead,” Dua said, alighting on his master's shoulder.

 

“All right, we'll continue on.” I trailed behind Kane, Cale just off to one side of me, somewhere in the middle. Mercy had bounded ahead again. We picked out way around the thick clusters of trees once more. Despite how healthy I prided myself in being, eating only foods that weren't boxed, exercising, drinking pure water, breathing fresh air and whatnot, my calves were killing me. I supposed that was from laying down in the little underground cove, still as a stone. Grunting, sweat lining my brow as I extricated myself from a particularly vicious clutch of branches, Jalene hovering only a few feet in front of me, I heard the crash of Kane slapping aside low branches as he caught up with Cale. The forest wasn't all that deep, but the tangle of trees and plants had slowed us down quite a bit. With stomach growling as we pushed on, as we fought every step of the way, until we reached a solid rock face, festering with ivy that reached up along its side.

 

Mercy barked off to our left.

 

“Well, I guess we got a little side tracked,” Kane chuckled, panting. Cale nodded, looking calm as ever. I brushed strands of wet hair from my eyes. We were stained wet in various places, damp from the excess water that clung to the bark and the leaves that had soaked our clothes. Stray droplets clung to the white haired boy's leather, rolling off in beads.

 

“Come on slow pokes!” Mercy called, poking her head through a bush.

 

“No fair,” I returned, “you're water proof and you have a nearly endless supply of energy; we don't!” Mercy shrugged, wrestling her head through to the other side of the shrub.

 

“Well I hope you have the compatibility of a mountain goat. That or you're a natural rock climber,” she said, rustling off a bit.

 

“What?” Kane questioned.

 

“We'll find out,” I breathed, stepping over the bush Mercy's face had just occupied, disregarding the terrain completely. Cale was close behind, followed by Kane. I saw the white and red fox standing, paws perched against the side of a crack in the mountain's face.

 

“This is it,” she said, glancing from our party back up the mountain. I approached, observing the ordeal. Birds sung behind us, happy that the sun was back out. There was a high step that led to an uneven dip in the craggy surface, winding far out into the unknown. Pools of water had collected where the mountain's steep and rugged face had sloped down.

 

“Goody.” I blew air out of puffed cheeks. “Well, let's go. Mercy hopped up, her back paw catching the edge of a rock.

 

“Ahh I broke a nail!” she wailed, scarcely pausing before bounding ahead. “Dua's waiting for us at the end, by the way.” She glanced over her shoulder, waiting around a bend in the rock for us less nimble creatures to clamber after her. Sighing, I found a hold for my hands, pulling myself up by one leg before squatting down to pull Jalene's stretcher up with me. Kane and his love stood waiting behind me. Stumbling down the immediate slope, I adjusted Jalene's height so he wouldn't bump into loose corners.

 

I offered a hand up for Kane pulling him up. Cale scaled the walls like a natural. He offered a sheepish grin to my astonishment.

 

“I've had practiced,” he explained as I nodded.

 

“We're almost there,” Kane said. “I feel the signal becoming stronger.” At this I looked at Jalene. Mercy barked to hurry us on. The warm grey rock, slick with rain and darkened in color, proceeded before us, surrounding us on all sides. Loose pebbles tumbled down as we climbed over the rocks, sometimes having to merely step around them, sometimes having to get a boost up. I suffered several scrapes and bruises. We reached a high point, Mercy standing, forepaws together, nose pointed nobly out. Dua was perched ahead and below down a twisting, steep trail that lead out.

 

“Much easier to come in that leave,” Mercy observed, looking up with bright eyes at me. I nodded, Jalene by my side. Behind me, Cale surfaced, crouched on one knee, eyes searching. The blond was at his heels.

 

“Wow,” Cale breathed as he stood, pulling Kane to his feet. The land before us seemed forbidding, dark and in turmoil. In the distance was a graying darkness. The sun still shone here, but the rays died off farther and farther on. The Black Halo hung ominously before us, the distance belied by the fact that shadowed edges clung like fog in the distance; the absolute blackness was much farther on. I took a deep breath, already noticing the vultures gliding like kites in the air, wheeling about in search for a carcass, screeching like dark messengers awaiting the doomed. Off along the wasteland, small shapes loped along, the Rebounds. This was our welcome.