Project: Death for Classroom Zero

Chapter 60: Maybe

“’See You? Who is that? No, what the hell is that?” Amara asked. Her forehead was scrunched and full of interest from what Tristan has just asked.

Quickly, Tristan realized that Amara was not the same person as the one whom he is calling ‘See You’. He quickly realized that she was way different than her. With that, he found himself wondering why are there a lot of people trying to help him while he was inside this place.

At first, it was Rain; then the ‘See You’; then Amara. He couldn’t easily process the though that a lot of them was helping him as he fight for his life, trying t survive in the seemingly eternal binds of this hellish place. But it is what it is.

“Nothing,” Tristan said. “Just forget about it.”

From that, Amara shrugged. “Okay, if you say so.”

“Then can you tell me now about what you know about Blaze?” Tristan now asked.

Amara scanned through the scattered papers in her office, read it as if the answer to his question was written in there, then after the second, throwing it in the air.

“Gosh, I hate spending my life inside this room. If only I could just find a way on how to escape here.”

“You mean, ever since you won in the batch three of the Project Zero, you have never tasted true freedom from the outside?” he asked.

“Nope. Not until the project is not yet complete.”

“I see.”

“So if ever you’re the one who won the fifth batch, you’re lucky because you will only be spending a little time compared to others who’ve won. You see, every survivor of every batch became part of the researching team for the project zero. The head of the project does not want to lose the every survivors, and wanted to use them in a way or another. But I heard from higher ups that this would be the last run of the research’s phase. That’s why maybe the project—whatever it was—is now going to end.”

“That would be impossible. Being the last survivor of this project, I mean.”

“Why not? Tristan, everyone of us has been thinking that you’re the one who will be the last one standing. You see, that’s a good thing in some way, and a bad thing in another.”

“But there is still Rain and Blaze, and Seven, or even the twins. That’s why I don’t want to say I will win. And besides …” Tristan look down the ground, “I … I don’t think I can manage to handle the trauma. Seeing you, or Rain, or Blaze, or the others being dead, one by one. It will forever haunt me.”

“Well, that’s one of the consequences of winning. You need to lose something before you win. Especially to you, since you are just easily attaching yourself to other people. You just easily believes and puts trust on other people. Fools on you.”

“How did you handle it? The trauma?”

“I don’t know. I just … Maybe I just happen not to get too attached to the people that I have met, knowing that there’s a high chance they’ll be dead.” She shrugged.

From that, Tristan sighed. “I don’t know if I’ll have the will to survive.”

“Surviving was hard. But surviving from the guilt was even harder. Anyways, I think we’re veering to a sharp turn in our conversation. Let’s go back to the topic.” Amara said.

“Right. I was asking about Blaze. What do you know about him?” Tristan asked once again. The atmosphere of the place is already serious, but it became even more thick and heavy when Tristan asked her about what she knew about Blaze. For a minute, they only did nothing but to stare at the silence dangling all over the secret headquarter of Amara.

Then, Amara finally decided to answer his question. “Actually, I am not sure if I am doing something that could put me into the tight rope. But, I think … Blaze was more than just a zero student of your batch.”

Tristan’s forehead scrunched, and the curiosity overflowed on his thoughts. Yet, he did not speak, nor ask other question because he wanted Amara to continue speaking without any interruption. He needs to longer his patience since she was actually contemplating whether if she would say what she knows or not.

“I don’t personally know him. But since the first time that I met him in the class, I sensed familiarity to him. At first, I don’t know where I had met him, but as sooner as I keep myself near him, I remember someone I’ve met who is similar to him. Yesterday, my guess was being given evidence.”

“Who is that man?” Tristan asked.

“He kind of remind me of some man I have met inside this building. A higher up.”

“Higher up?”

“Bosses. You see, this project was not just born out of whim of a single person. It’s a project that is made of a secret underground organization. What organization? I don’t know. Seriously, they are good at hiding information. I’ve been having a hard time collecting it even though I am already a worker here. Anyway, few of the higher ups decided to visit this place and look at the current run of their dreamed project. So they visited here, yet the way how they visit, in order for them to freely stroll without being recognized, is by wearing masks. You se how funny was that? Leaders of a secret organizations earing funny masks just to hide their identity? Then there’s this person whom I was shocked when I met. The higher ups visited my headquarter since I am the recent survivor of the batch 3 tests. And then, behind the leaders who are at my estimation, forty years old or above, is a man who is just at the same age of mine. I was flustered at that time because there is a leader who is as young like us. While they were all talking, my attention were all at the man, and I am aware that behind the mask, his gazes were straight towards me. His presence … I somehow remember it being similar to Blaze’s.”

“Maybe it was just a wrong guess, Amara. I mean, if there really is a higher up who is as young as us, why would he enter in this hellish place, risk his life by pretending he’s a student? He could have done other more thrillful things other than entering this den of demons. He would surely not enjoy,” Tristan said, refusing Amara’s concept.

“I don’t know. That was just my guess. I don’t mean it too to become true or to take that guess seriously. But … just yesterday, I saw him. He was secretly talking to the men in white. They were on a room that is limited to the medical staffs only. He was talking to them comfortably, as if he was a boss commanding his followers.”

“M—Maybe you just misheard it. Or maybe there is just a misconception.”

“Misconception. I don’t thinks so. I clearly heard them. I clearly heard what Blaze said.”

“What did he say?”

“It’s about you. About the thing which I helped you about, yesterday. I can still vividly remember his words even today.”

Tristan swallowed. He waited for Amara’s composure.

“H—He said, ‘Principal Copper asked us to check the kid. If he’s still throwing tantrums from his puny loss, he told us to kill him.’ That was what he said after many other things he had said. That moment, I knew what they are referring to as the ‘kid’, was you. I confirmed it when they ended their meeting. I came back to my bed in the clinic, pretending I was still sick. I asked them where they are going, and answered to fetch you. That’s where I quickly decide to tag along with them, so that I can give you a warning,” she stopped, realizing something, then said, “If by any chance you failed to do what I warned you about, you and I would be probably dead by now.”

From that, Tristan thought that if ‘See You’ hadn’t gave him the warning first, he would actually have no time to analyze and compose himself properly that moment when Amara gave him the warning. He might have failed understanding her, and might still charge to he men in white—they would surely die from that, by any chance. Yet, despite that, he’s still thankful to her desire to help him.

“That was hard to swallow. The truth about Blaze.”

“You don’t need to actually swallow it whole. Maybe my guess is wrong. Maybe I just mistook something differently. There’s a lot of possibilities. But what I want you to do, and what I kept on saying, be careful to him. Do not fully trusts everyone in this place. You have to be careful on every decision you are going to take, because it might lead you to your dead end. Even me, do not fully trust me. Though I would not, but you still need to consider the fact that there is a thin chance that I might betray you every ways possible.”

Tristan nodded. “I am getting your point,” he said.

“You see, I am telling you this, because I am expecting that you will also tell this to Rain, Seven, and even the twins. I just don’t want the fact that maybe someday, you’ll regret fully trusting him. This is just a warning.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it, Amara—both your care to the group and to your willingness to help me.”

“I am glad I could help, Tristan. Please tell them about this. You know, with my current act of being a stupid one on the group while being on batch five, they would surely not listen to me. Worse, they might believe Blaze more than me.”

Tristan wanted to ask more about her, despite how long Amara’s explanations was, there were still a lot of questions that is being kept dangling around the path. Questions like: Why doesn’t Blaze recognize him if they have already met? Of course, there could be possible answers to this, yet without the truth—which either Amara doesn’t know yet—all of the possibilities would remain as just a possibility for them. Another question is an important one; he should not miss it because it feels a big information coming from her: Who is Principal Copper? He have heard the name of it already. For a man who-always-dream-big, he would never miss the name of Copper Mariano: one of the most successful man in the world; a man who has been interviewed numerous times, showed up in different published articles because of his feat about making the Josen high School an academy of excellence. Tristan had forgotten the events of the outside world, to the point that he never realized Principal Copper is highly likely involved in this monstrosity.

Yet, even though he knew the basic fact about Principal Copper, he still wanted to ask Amara about him. He was sure that he would get something from her about the existence of the Principal.

However, when he was about to ask it, Amara started telling, “I think we have been spending quite a long time here already. I’m afraid that our group would start looking for us already. They’ll be suspicious if we kept missing for an hour or more.” She stood and moved away from the table she was sitting at. She opened a certain cabinet from that table where she has been sitting, and then grabbed a card. Quickly, she went to another side of the room, and there, from the spectacularly built floating keyboard (which was made of the luminescence of light), she rapidly typed something.

Tristan sighed. He did not know, but his courage to ask about the principal has just flushed into vain, now that Amara was into something.

“Hey,” Amara called. “Come here.”

Tristan looked again at Amara, and saw her looking back as well. Behind her, another futuristic door was automatically opening, revealing a dark path that would lead them towards no one knows, but only Amara.

“To where is that door leading?” Tristan immediately asked.

“Towards Caspian. This is where I hid him,” she stopped, then started hesitating. “At least his subconsciousness,” she clarified.