Chapter 40: Fear

Chapter 40: Fear They returned a few hours later with their bags filled with weird looking fruits, enough to feed all of them.

"What makes him think that we can eat that or that it’s even safe?" one of them asked, voicing out the thoughts in the minds of the others.

"I’m a chef in the canteen kitchen," Kieran said, shutting them up.

Receiving no more complaints, they moved on to share the fruits with everyone while informing them of their departure in a few minutes.

"They should be able to work now?"

Kieran asked when he got closer to Sabrina. The cold expression on his face just made the question seem weirder.

"Umm, yeah!"

"Good!" He replied before going to take a seat while silently munching on the fruit in his hands.

....

BACK AT THE CAMP

CONTROL ROOM BD36....

"How are they doing so far?" Instructor Selena could be seen asking the soldiers seated at a destination filled with holographic monitors displaying a feed of all the recruits in small rectangular panels and their information and current status on another panel.

The status of the recruits was constantly changing due to the data being collected and sent from their watches in live time.

"Most of the teams are on the mission, but teams 1, 3, 5, 6 had some encounters. They’ve deviated." A soldier at the desk gave a report.

"They chose not to call it in..." She muttered just loud enough for instructor Keith beside her to hear clearly.

"How did they manage?" He asked.

"Teams 1 and 5 managed to wipe out one each–"

"What grade?" He asked, interrupting the report of the soldier.

"D and B respectively, sir." the soldier reported.

"B grade? What about the others, they had an encounter too right?"

"Yes sir! With an A grade."

"A grade and they didn’t die? I’m surprised." Instructor Keith said with his hands on his chin. He didn’t even consider the possibility that they had managed to wipe out the A grade group. The way he saw it, there was no way a bunch of pretty useless first years could do that, even if they grouped up together.

’I would actually like to see that. They might actually be able to... Naa, what am I thinking? It’s impossible!’ He thought, pushing the small thoughts of doubt that had started to pop up within him.

"The recruits seem to have intentions of going after the beats, sir!"

’What are they thinking? They should have made the decision to call it in by now!’ Keith thought hearing the report of the soldier.

"Should we call them back or so we send in a team?" He asked and the soldier payed attention waiting to hear the decision of the Instructor Selena.

"No, leave them. Let them do as they wish!" She declared.

"Are you sure? They mig—" Instructor Keith wanted to say, but he was interrupted.

"Yes! I know what I’m doing Keith! Don’t question me! I thought you didn’t care about them!"

"Alright." He replied, keeping silent.

"Eiiish! What’s with all this commotion? Aren’t they just some recruits? We get new ones each year." A lazy voice was heard, breaking the tense atmosphere of the monitoring room.

"The hell are you doing here freak?" Keith said to the person who had just stepped in with a slightly hostile tone.

"Why do you sound like that? C’mon we’re bros, aren’t we?" the person asked in his still lazy tone, walking to the side of the room to sit on an empty chair.

"Don’t you dare call me that. I want nothing to do with you!" Keith’s anger was visible and the tension that had disappeared returned in full force.

Hearing this, his expression morphed to a sad one but that couldn’t be seen due to his long hair and black mask that obstructed his face.

"Alright boys, that’s enough! It happened, and I’m sure no one wants to go back to those matters so cut it out." She said to the both of them ignoring the fact that one of them was of a higher rank than her.

Seeing their silence which was the same as their approval for her, she continued facing the Instructor that had just stepped in.

"Now, why are you here?"

"What? I can’t see them too? They’re my students too! I taught them what they know about combat....at least some of them. I’m here to spectate" He said those last parts awkwardly, moving his gaze away from Selena’s face.

"Hmmm" Selena hummed.

It was unlike him to care about his students, there must be something else. He even avoided her gaze.

"Alright. You can stay, but you’d have to stay put and not one word from you! These are my terms"

"Alright, I’d stay put!" He agreed without any complaint. This only made Selena more suspicious of his reasons for being here.

...

Back in the forest, Kieran’s new group had finally set out from the abandoned outpost. Their destination was the center of the region. They wanted to confirm the Intel they had gotten from the two dead leaders of the beasts.

According to the Intel, they could find whatever beast was responsible for the unexplainable thongs they had come across so far. Kieran doubted that he’d get the answers to all his questions, but he was ok with getting the answers to some of them.

Along the way, they had taken a detour to the base of the same beasts that had chased the other two teams to Sabrina’s location. With their numbers, it didn’t take mu h effort and time to wipe them out.

The location was an outpost, similar to the one they had seen before, but the structure was less wrecked and this time they didn’t find a beast in charge of the others there which only made it easier to finish them off since they seemed to be following pre-mediated orders and there was no knew to give live knew and help them adapt to the change.

They also didn’t encounter the last types of beasts Kieran had fought with which he was starting to consider as strange. After clearing out the beasts, they actually managed to find some weapons on the armory and most of them were still in good condition.

The beats must have abandoned them after being unable to figure out how to use those particular equipments. They even found some hand grenades which was extremely beneficial to them.

Clearing out the weapons useful to them from the armory, they continued on their journey to the center of this region filled with talk trees.

’.... Why? What was so special abou–’

THUD!

"Watch your step Kieran! We’re there!" Jake said after Kieran bumped into him.

"Huh? Sorry." Kieran apologized.

He had been lost in his thoughts for a moment and they had somehow managed to reach the center of the region. Even though they ran at full speed, it was faster than he thought it would be.

They were currently on a small cliff and he could see all of them gathering at the edge to look at something down below.

Slightly curious, he pushed his way to the front and looked at what had captured their attention.

Staring at the terrain beneath the cliff, Kieran’s jaw almost dropped, but his mind was blown way in astonishment at the structure before his eyes.

"Kretas!" He subconsciously muttered.

Before his eyes was something they had been told they might never see since the production of such had been stopped long ago.

From beneath the cliff till a distance he couldn’t tell, was an extremely large clearing.

Situated in the clearing was an equally large and tall, blue glowing barrier. Despite the faulty look of the barrier, it didn’t change the effect it had on all of them.

Beyond this barrier were many huge and tall structures, all of them built of that same black rock Kieran had seen in the hands if the beasts he fought and, in the camp’s underground carven.

"Fuck!" Kieran muttered put in shock for the second time knowing how tough the rock was but that wasn’t what made him feel a sudden sense of dread, it was how the huge outpost looked like it was crawling with ants. The outpost was like a live city, but instead of soldiers, it was filled with the brim with those blue beasts and he even saw some other types of monsters walking in the streets of the outpost.

Worse, in the hands of most of the beats were military grade weapons and they even wore some sort of amour that seemed to absorb the light around it, just like the black rock.

Kieran desperately wished it wasn’t made of the same material. Alas, his hopes were dashed when he saw the same type of blunt weapons as the ones the tall beats he fought against had wielded. To top it all off, Kieran managed to see those tall beasts coming out of a section of the outpost carrying heavy carts that contained the same black rock he wanted so much to curse.

’A mine? This is fucked up!’

"Are you okay, Kieran?" Sabrina asked seeing his now shocked and pale face.

This question attracted the attention of the others who were surprised to see than he was capable of wearing another expression. They didn’t understand why he had that expression.

They were surprised too, but Kieran’s expression hinted at something more than that. He seemed....fearful?