OBLIVIOUS

Chapter 13

When I agreed to what Baron wanted us to do first before we go into the deeper and more dangerous parts of this forest, I thought that we would just trek back to the facility that instant. But it turns out he already planned our movements for the next two to five days, because right now we a day after we settled inside his headquarters, we are now searching for plants with sturdy stems that we can use as weapons for fending off potential enemies.

I also thought that he was starting to lose his mind with trying to catch fish on the stream using these sharp-pointed sticks we got, (because we had seen enough on this whole place to assume that nothing in here is edible) but then he managed to spear a large-bellied white fish as long as our arms and we both exclaimed loudly like young boys when he finally managed to haul it off the water. The fish didn't look like it was a fish. It looked more like a cross between a reptile and a mammal with fins and thick white scales. It has these signature long whiskers that are double the length of its whole body that it can use both as a tentacle to strangle you or as a pair of whips to slap you so catching one was actually a feat to brag. Baron's face was red from the slaps he got while wresting the fish in his arms, so we both exclaimed with joy when he finally caught one, celebrating Baron's first hunt with loud whoops.

"It's not my first hunt," he said while he went again to the knee-deep part of the stream to hunt for that wacky form of a fish when I congratulated him. "I already did this before. I only stopped doing this because purplish-black liquid oozed from the one I first caught instead of blood. I forgot that we are in a place full of toxic things, dead or alive. So of course, these rascals aren't dinner material, you know."

"Then why are you catching them?" I asked as I went behind him to help looking for the fish too.

He pointed at his head, gesturing that I should think about the answer to my question myself, but when I just gaped at him waiting for the answer, he just gave in. "These slimy things are just like you."

"Pardon? What did you just said?"

"See their whiskers?" he asked pointing at the caught fish that were tied to his waist by the whiskers he was talking about. I nodded and asked what about it, to which he replied, "their whiskers are strong as hell. They don't easily break, so we can make a rope out of it."

"A rope? What for?" I could not believe how his mind works. Seriously, a rope made out of fish whiskers? Who thinks like that? Would it be easier if he just use plant vines? But just as I thought about that I remembered that the vines we saw tried to strangle us, so most probably Baron had already thought about it, but then changed his mind and looked for an alternative, which was this creep-looking fish that looked more like a cross of a reptile and an aquatic mammal.

"Didn't you want to save Vista?" he replied and I nodded because I do want to save her badly. "If you do, we need to infiltrate the facility. That's why we need ropes."

I almost blanked out at what Baron is trying to say. "No way. Are you saying that we will climb up one of those walls there to enter the building?"

"Yes, because the main entrance is heavily guarded by White Shadows and a battalion of Slackers. Of the many times I tried to sneak in using the main entrance, none of them were successful."

"Alright, let's say it's our only way in, but won't the enemies see us scaling the walls too? We are not exactly invisible."

Baron smirked at what I said. "You know, I preferred the times when you still stutter while you talk, or not being able to talk at all. I feel like you still don't trust me."

"I trust you, okay? I'm just trying to put sense into your grand plans," I quipped back and he laughed loudly at it. "And I think it's better to scrutinize our plans like that so that we can see the loopholes right away."

"Well, you're not entirely wrong, and I'm sorry if my plan sounded rubbish. I just forgot to tell you the most important part of that plan."

"And what's that?"

"Two of us will not be climbing the wall to get in."

"No," I said, trying to stop him from confirming what I already got from his reply. 'No, no, no."

"Yes, yes, yes. Because you are right, we are not invisible. They will see us so one of us has to become a diversion."

"And who's who?"

He pointed at himself, still smirking. I know why he was doing this. He was trying to get on my nerves because he wants to pay me back for whining at every bit of plan he says. I know that he was not serious in trying to bicker with me but I was still a little bit upset that he still wanted to follow his original plan without listening to my concerns. "You'll be the one who will climb the walls, while I'll be the diversion. No complaints," he added because I was already prepared to make a counter. "I am better when it comes to facing the Slackers."

"But I am the one who has a way of fighting our enemies," I said, referring to my newly-discovered ability to produce electric sparks. "I can deal with the Slackers too, you know," I shot back. But Baron just shrugged. Then he spotted another whiskered fish and tried to spear it again. I argued over and over again while he was spear-fishing, from telling him how I will probably be bad at climbing to him being the one who should climb because it was his idea in the first place. But Baron did not give in and just continued catching those damn fish while I stand next to him complain.

It's not because I am afraid that I might die by trying to do what he wanted me to do that I am so against his initial plan, but because I think it will be much easier if Baron does the more physically demanding parts of the plan while I do the more offensive parts because in case he already forgot, I can now move and talk properly thus I can now fight too that's why I wanted to fight too but Baron is that dumb kind of person that will stick to his decision even though there are many loopholes to it. In the end it was me who had to adjust, because his experience with the Slackers and the White Shadows are far more important, to which I can agree to a certain extent.

The next day, Baron went fishing again, while he asked me to train my body physically while doing exercises he taught me before he left. I liked this idea because I learnt from personal experience that we need to be physically adept while we are in this forest. Meanwhile, the new guy we brought inside the hollow of the tree was still unconscious, but he already looked like he can wake up any moment because he was no longer pale, prompting us to take turns in leaving our tree. We don't want him to wake up alone here with only one arm, so I offered to stay behind when Baron said he will be back to the stream to fish again because he needed more of those whiskers that he was making into a rope.

While I was doing lifts outside our headquarters using heavy chunks of tree trunk that Baron managed to cut, I heard a very loud and strange noise that I knew came from a beast. I immediately retreated back to the entrance behind the giant portion of the root that covered the hole leading into the hollow inside of our hideout because the noise was becoming louder and louder, meaning that it was getting nearer and nearer to where we were.

And then I saw the source of the noise. It was not only a beast as it how it sounded like, but it appears to be a demon. A monster. It's a hybrid just like how Baron described it. It looked like a whale, but it has three pairs of legs like an insect. And then it has a scaly head of a lizard, or maybe a crocodile, with a huge mouth and slits for nostrils. It has small milky eyes and a huge mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Then it has a long, slimy body that is as large as ten people combined. It was both a magnificent and a horrible sight to behold.

My heart was thumping hard as I observe it move around. It was at least seven feet away from me, smelling the air with its mouth open and its snake-like forked tongue waving in the air. It moved closer to where I was so I froze and waited.

I didn't move a single muscle just in case it can sense any movements around it. It groaned after a minute, scaring the whole foggy forest as I heard the flapping of wings above us sending the birds away. Then maybe not sensing anything, it moved on to its left, giving me relief beyond measure because I thought it could sense that someone was here and it didn't just saw me. It moved fast for its size which was something because it's very bulky with its graying blue body.

When the coast became clear I went back inside the hollow and took deep breaths. I can now fully understand why Baron did not want to enter the Secret Meadow and the Lair without us having offensive powers. Because if that was the thing that tried to kill him and had bitten him then we are really facing a big, big problem. Now I badly need to control my ability as fast as I could, which means that I had to follow Baron's plan to avoid further setbacks.

It was already dark when he returned, in which he had a big haul of fish whiskers. I didn't know there were plenty of fish in that stream. Now we sat between a huge flower he brought home while he was weaving the whiskers into the rope that was now as long as our arms extended fully. The flower he placed on the center looked like a giant bowl was glowing a faint blue light that served as our light in the darkness. It wasn't bright enough, but at least we had light to counter the gloom that this place had.

"So you finally saw the Raiding Demon," Baron mentioned while he continued what he was doing while I sat there contemplating on how can I use my ability because I thought that what if there is an easy way to do it without us risking our lives by going back to the facility?

"Raiding Demon? Is that how you call it?" I joked. "I would have christened it as Wide-Mouthed Cross-breed Reptile."

"Very witty, but unoriginal," he sarcastically replied, to which I laughed. "Now, do you get why I wanted you to fully harness your power?"

I nodded. "It's huge. I don't think I could kill it with just my ability."

"Our goal is to stun it or impale it if we can. Killing it right now with what we can do is still a dream."

"That's true. It looks like it's not the type of monster that gets hurt easily."

"You guess it right," he said. "My long gun didn't put a dent on its hide. That's how strong and thick it is."

"And you think electric bolts can at least paralyze it?"

"Most likely. The monster that tried to drag us deep down in that stream was the offspring of those demons. They lay eggs on the base of the stream, much like the salmon, so if your electric powers work on its offspring, then it will work on the full-grown adults."

"Okay," I said, impressed at his explanation. "You think about these things very well. I give you that."

"When you're stuck here, you tend to think about how to get out of here with so much passion. I even thought of how to make a man-made raft, just in case we don't find a single ship on the bay."

"It must be hard being able to do nothing but plan and wait."

"Yeah. It sucks. Sometimes I think that it would have been easier if I just didn't escape. If I just followed Forte into that second place they put us in."

"How did you met Forte anyway? I was curious about that. Did he came into this forest too?"

He shook his head and started recounting his experiences from the time he woke up. "I woke up with the White Shadows at the side of my bed. They were studying me when I came around. I think they did not expect me to wake up that instant because they were so surprised and even called it an emergency."

My brows furrowed at what he said. "They did not expect you to wake up yet? But why?"

"I have no idea why, but I clearly heard one of them saying that I should have woken up second. Another Moss named Axis 1 should have woken up first."

That made me shiver for no apparent reason. "You heard them say my name?"

"Yes," Baron replied seriously. "That is why I wondered about you. I know there's something in what they said about us waking up in order. Because that girl who was killed named Celeste that I told you about, according to them she should have been the third person to wake up."

"Axis, Baron, Celeste," I repeated our names. "Why do I have a feeling that it rings a bell?"

"Because it does ring a bell," Baron said. "Our names... The order they said we should wake up in... They seem to follow the alphabetical order."

I gasped. I gasped so hard that I started coughing. "You are right! It does look like we are named from the alphabet! Even with Forte! And Vista!"

"And we should have woken up in that order too," Baron reminded me. "But that didn't happen as you know now."

"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed with so much excitement by this new information that Baron cringed at me. "Forte woke up way earlier before me. But if that's the case, then it meant I should have woken up first. That Olan guy mentioned it too. He said they didn't expect me to wake up way too late as I did. That complicates everything," I added.

"No, it actually explains a lot of things," Baron contradicted me.

"What makes you think that?"

His answer made me question my identity more and more. "Because you are first on the list. You were guarded heavily and you have a special ability, Axis. That means you are not just a random person here. You are someone important, and that will make our escape mission a lot harder."