Chapter 7.6

On the way back I started to feel strange. I could feel my hear hammering in my chest for no obvious reason, and I was sweating. It was so hot, I couldn't understand how they could sit there in their jackets without breaking a sweat. I drank the last of my water, but it did nothing to quench my thirst.

Once inside the compound, the feeling got worse. They were instructed to report to their superiors immediately, but I could barely understand what they were saying. I followed them to the office that used to be Captain's, but inside he'd erased any sign that she'd ever lived there. All the books were gone, replaced with poor taste war ornaments, the desk was neat with a whiskey set at the centre, and long dark drapes covered the end of the room, quartering off the living area. The walls were even painted a different colour; What used to be white, was now a dark forest green, giving the entire room a sinister impression.

We filled in his office, which was a little too small for all of us, and Rickon began his report. I half listened. "We caught the traitor and he was taken care of."

"Unfortunately, you were wrong about there only being one traitor. The women, Taisa Marr, she was the reason you were almost caught; she saw the exchange between you and Emmerson Lee and decided to warn Pealen authorities. You failed to apprehend her because you thought you caught the culprit."

"I apologise sir-" Rickon begins to apologise but is cut off.

"There no need to worry. She was taken care of." There's a hint of superiority and mock disappointment in his tone. "You're dismissed." A look of vexation spread across his face, but he politely dismissed himself before leaving.

"I need a drink after that." Leon sighed once out of ear shot.

"Agreed." Rickon replied, hardily concealing his pissed off tone.

With their plans to go drinking, I snuck away and navigated my way back to the bunk. The wound in my side throbbed with heat and tenderness; I made it to our room and collapsed in a feverish heap at the side of Rickons bed, hoping no-one would disturb me in the next few hours.

I dreamt of a place with a sky aflame with red, and dark twin moons that always shared the sky with the sun. Shadows lived there. They lived in huts carved out of tree trunks or in treehouses overlooking the canopy of an immense forest that spanned as far as the eye could see.

Behind me was a large field, but instead of grass or wildflowers, there were dark plants that looked like thin seaweed that grew on dry land. Beyond that were blue-grey mountains that kissed the sky in brilliant contrast.

Small dark animals scattered in the undergrowth as I moved. The feverish feeling was gone now; in fact, I felt more alive than I ever have. The air felt crisp in my lungs as if my they'd had never tasted a full breath of fresh air. Every cell in my body buzzed with energy; it was euphoric. I felt a smile on my lips.

I noticed Shadow lingering nearby under the canopy, "Is this where you live?" I asked him in amazement. I'd never seen a place so beautiful and strange.

He nodded slightly, or what would have been a nod if he were human and beaconed me to follow him. The forest floor was covered in bouncy green moss that left footprints in our wake. While Shadow was usually ghostly and weightless, here, he seemed to be more solid. Although the canopy was thick, it was easy to see. Upon closer inspection, the moss gave off a slight luminescent glow. We walked for a while, but we didn't encounter any other humanoid shadows. Apart from a creature that looked a bit like a deer which galloped past us and into the undergrowth, we didn't encounter another living thing. Soon the forest broke apart to a large pebble lake. The stones were impossibly black and round, and the water so clear, it was almost unreal. But when I gazed into the water, I was surprised to see blue sky reflected in it. I looked up at the sky to check its colour. It was definitely red, and the sky reflected in the water was definitely blue. Upon closer inspection the trees were different too, like the ones from our world.

"I don't understand. How?" I asked him.

Instead of simply repeating what I said, when he tried to speak, the sound that came out was totally incomprehensible. Like static with different pitches.

"I'm sorry I don't understand what you said."

His shoulders sag and he tries speaking again. More static.

A black dragonfly flutters past us and lands on the water, sending ripples across its surface and distorting the image. When the ripples clear, I watch a strange scene unfold in the reflection. Several ghostly images of the same bird overlap each other. The first features the small bird diving after a bug but gets snatched up by a wildcat as it attempts to come out of its dive. In the second image, it misses the bug but gets shot down by a hunter. In the last one, the little bird doesn't notice the bug, and flies off freely over the canopy.

I look up at shadow in confusion. ��Was is this?" I ask him, but in that second the stones underfoot shift and I'm falling face first into the water. Unable to stop myself I plunge into cold water and im sucked down to impossible depths.

More strange images pass through my mind and I'm unable to make sense of them all. They rush into my head, just when I think I'm about to scream-

"Oh, you're alive. We had bets on whether you'd live." Leon sneers. I gaze around the room in confusion. I'm back in the bunks; Leon and Quin sat opposite each other playing cards, and Jay leant with his back against the wall cleaning his knife.

Shadow's gone. Apart from my clothes that are drenched in cold sweat, there's no lake. I felt a pang of regret and loneliness that I couldn't stay there longer, which baffled me. I couldn't remember the last time I felt lonely. My head throbbed, but I felt a lot better than I did before; the bleeding had stopped, and I didn't feel feverish anymore. But the hunger pangs in my stomach tell me I've been unconscious for a while.

I watch him exchange money with Quin, and across the room I catch Jay staring at me. I couldn't make up my mind about him; sometimes he was more reasonable than the rest of the people in Dark Moon Squad, but other times, the way he looks at me make me send shivers down my spine, like a predator letting its prey mature until its ripe enough to slaughter. This was one of these times.

Trying to avoid eye contact, I scurried away to the toilets. Making sure it was empty, I jammed the door shut with the bin. The sink didn't have plug, so I wedged tissue into the plug until the basin retained enough water. Then I tenderly unwound the bandages around my waist and attempted to wipe off the sweat and blood that caked my skin.

The wound itself wasn't large. About an inch and a half in diameter, it formed a crater of hashed skin and dried blood. It was baffling to me that a wound so small could cause so much trouble, it stung like crazy whenever I wiped too close to the teared skin. When I was satisfied that I'd cleaned as much as I could, I bound it again with bandages I'd stolen from the supply closet.

Just as I was finishing up, the handle starts rattling frantically. I slide a new shirt over my head, and quickly release the bin blocking the handle.

A man explodes in from the other side. "Sorry" I muttered as he pushed past me and made a beeline for the toilet.

Outside, I was suddenly face to face with Jay again. I dipped my head and scurried away uncomfortably, but I could feel his eyes bore into the back of my head until I was out of sight. Why was he following me?

Back at the bunks, a pile of rancid clothing was dumped on my piece of floor. The smell made me recoil; three days of stale sweat and blood had turned the clothing sour and I tried not to gag as I pulled my blanket out from under it, stumbling back and almost colliding with Rickon as he entered.

He shot me a glare but started his announcement "Quin's group received word from their informant, that smugglers have been using the old mines between Garlantia and the wastelands to smuggle technology to Paela. They're there now scouting it out."

"I thought those mines were destroyed even before we closed our borders. They went barren."

"There were meant to have been destroyed, but the mines were so old even the people who worked there didn't know where all the passageways were. It possible they found some old ones that weren't blocked off."

"Isn't it kinda suicidal to go into mines we don't have a map to or if the tunnels will collapse?" another squad member asked.

Leon chucked, "Well that's why they gave the job to us isn't it?"

"As soon as Quin has confirmation of movements within the mines, we're heading out. And get that lot cleaned its stinking out the place." He ordered, firing me another dirty look.

It took three trips to clean all their clothes, and by the time I returned with an armful of clean clothes they were getting ready to leave. "Kid get your stuff we're leaving in ten." I rushed to collect some supplies and met them out on the driveway.