• Chapter 5

    “When the Captain said ‘Important mission,’ I thought he meant something, you know, important?” Anders ranted, looking frustrated as he tore across the dirt path. “Not this, anyway. I hate deliveries. I didn’t go through 200 days of intense training just to be a package boy.” He flexed his muscled arms to demonstrate the result of his extensive conditioning.

    Celica, trailing behind miserably, almost sprinting to keep up with Ander’s wide stride, panted her reply. “I could Jump us there, it would make things so much easier.”

    “Oh, no. No way. I am never going to cheat my way through time and space. It’s just… unnatural.” He said. “Besides, it’s good exercise. I need to let out my disappointment somehow, and walking really fast helps.”

    “We took a cab, Anders. That doesn’t count,” Celica gasped, her lungs and throat burning. “How much farther is it?” He pulled out his map and unfolded it. After rotating it around a few times, reminding Celica a lot of Peter, he finally jabbed his finger at the map and sighed satisfactorily.

    “Ah. Here it is. It should be right through this gate,” Eyes still on the map, Anders felt blindly for the short wooden gate and swung it open. The gate’s style was familiar to Celica, since the landscape was very much like her home in New Mexico. Just a bunch of wooden posts with barbed wire tied between them. The gate itself consisted of two long ply-boards nailed in an “X” inside of a square frame.

    It swung open eerily, creaking and drifting past their field of vision into the murky night. Taking no notice, Anders began to strut importantly on the path as it wound farther into the lot. “So this Herbert guy is apparently a spy for us.” Anders said absentmindedly, as though it were small-talk.

    “Really? You mean he pretends to be an Unknown and gets all their information and stuff?”
    “Well, yeah, basically. The thing is, he actually has to learn how to manipulate energy with them. They teach him everything, which means we learn a lot more about how they do it, and what it is they’re really doing.”

    “So the papers we’re here to get are Unknown secrets?”

    “Yep.”

    “Awesome. Maybe this will be majorly important after all.” Celica said cheerily as a large house drifted towards them through the gloom. “Wow. He knows how to live,” said Celica incredulously.

    The house was enormous, probably four stories high, with tall, arched windows that stared at them like eyes. High towers extended high above them, reaching towards the sky like arms, their battlements like extending fingers.

    “He sure does.” Anders said, staring in awe at the intricately carved front door, which was about nine feet tall.

    Celica reached up to knock on it, but there was no answer. They both waited for several minutes, but still, no footsteps could be heard on the other side. Anders, who had waited a few steps back, tapped Celica on the shoulder frantically.

    Celica turned around to see him staring wide-eyed towards one of the towers, the fear etched in his face clear even in the dark of night. She followed his gaze up to the top of the highest tower, and saw what had startled him.

    A short, fat man with a balding head was just barely visible at the top. He was standing on the very edge, as though preparing to jump. There was a glint of silvery metal as his hands shook, and to Celica’s terror, she recognized a hand-pistol clutched in his short fingers.

    “Herb! No! Come down! Please!” Anders shouted, and Herbert jumped in fright, and almost lost his balance. With several groans of unease from both of them, the two young POCC officers began to walk slowly to the base of the tower, where he would have landed, still not taking their eyes off of him, lest he jump.

    “I can’t!” He yelled back. “I can’t stop! I’ve tried!”

    “Herb, there’s a way to fix whatever’s happened! We can get you help! You can talk to someone, it will all be okay!” Celica yelled, sounding calmer than she felt.

    “You don’t understand!” He cried, “I need your help!”

    “We can help you if you just come down!” Anders’ voice echoed off of the walls of the house, bouncing from shingle to shingle. “Please come back down.”

    “Help! No!” His shouts were peaking and sounding higher pitched. His hand raised shakily to point the barrel of the gun to his temple. “Please, no!”

    In a panic, Anders groaned and fidgeted, trying to think of something to say that would make him stop. “Please, Herb! Don’t do it! There’s always a way out!”

    But it was too late. With a loud crack, Herbert’s body went limp. Thinking quickly, Celica Jumped to the top of the tower when his body fell in slow motion and caught his fragile figure before it plummeted off of the edge.

    “Herbert?” She asked quietly, but his bespectacled face was still. “Herbert? Are you alive?” There was no answer. The blood leaking from the side of his head was dripping onto her hand, which was resting behind the dead man’s neck. She set him down gently, as though he were a sick child.

    “He’s dead.” She called down to Anders, who stamped his foot and swore. Celica turned back to the pathetic man laying on the ground next to her, and her mind was racing. What could have possible drove him to suicide? He seemed very odd for someone trying to kill themselves. At the end, it sounded like he had been asking himself for mercy.

    “What do we do now?” Celica called again, and looked over to find Anders sitting on a protruding rock in Herb’s front lawn.

    “Head back to POCC and tell the Captain what happened, I suppose,” Anders said blandly.

    “Well, let’s go, then.” Celica Jumped back down to the ground level, and helped Anders to his feet. “Why is it that I can never finish a mission without getting blood on me?” She inquired, looking at her blood-caked hand.

    Anders sighed and smiled, trying to laugh, but couldn’t. What they had seen was terrifying, and Celica couldn’t blame him for needing a recovery break. “Did you know him?” Celica asked softly as they walked back to the gate.

    “Not closely, but he was a great guy. And brave. You heard when I said he was a spy in Unknown camps, infiltrating their organization. That takes guts.”

    “Yeah.” Celica said in passive agreement as they exited the property.

    “We need to get back to the base fast,” Anders said, holding out his hand.

    Realizing what he was implying, Celica grabbed it and Jumped them back to the headquarters.