CHAPTER 19
Long Forgotten
The Megors accompanying the group gathered to think of a plan to take the base. Adonis, Heops, Alan, Anika, and Kane were thinking of what Erion has said and did not know what else they could expect from the “Company.”
“I can't believe they have cloned the old man! That is unthinkable,” said Alan.
“I am sorry for him Alan. We all are,” Kane expressed his concern.
“Right now we need to be focused and think of a way to overcome this setback and move forward. The situation requires from us to be as concentrated as possible,” Heops decided to be more decisive.
“How can I be concentrated when almost everything in my life has been a lie? I have been helping the “Company” from the very beginning and I am responsible for this. It was me who made them proceed with this plan.”
“Don't blame yourself Alan. There is no time for that now. The past is past and we cannot change it. What we could change now are our thoughts and find a way to help the people. We are all here and together we will fight with whatever we have,” Adonis reassured everyone when Erion came to the group:
“We have a lot of supplies and ammunitions inside this secret base. If we don't find a way to get them, we may never have a chance of fighting back. The plan has been devised. We will attack the house, but two of you must come with us. The rest must stay here.”
Alan stood up ready to help. Anika stood up too.
“No Anika, you must stay here.”
“Alan is right, I will go with him,” Kane stood up.
“All right, follow us.”
Erion made a sign and the Megors made their way to the end of the tunnel. One by one, they came out of their shelter and pressed themselves close to one of the walls of the house. Erion looked through the window. He saw Alberi sitting on a chair talking to a man, surrounded by four armed soldiers. What they did not know was that this house had three entrances. Erion made signs to his people to split and position themselves in these places. He asked Alan and Kane to stay put and not to interfere. They had to stay there in case things went wrong, when in that case, they had to go back and find a different way and strategy. The Megors could communicate telepathically and that gave them the possibility to attack at once, even if they do not see each other. For a split second, they came out of their hidden places and attacked the men inside. Moments later Erion opened the front door from inside and made a sign to the two to get in. Alan entered and saw something he had never expected. He saw the figures of Alberi and the other men talking and doing the same as what they were doing before. Erion made a step and passed his hand through Alberi's figure. These were holograms.
“Holograms…,” Alan said surprised. “But that means they know we are here.”
“Precisely, we must move quickly. There is a hidden passage from this house to another location. Hopefully they haven't discovered it yet.” In the past, Erion have built a network of underground tunnels under the city and he knew every single one of them. Apart from that one, he built a second secret tunneled system in case of an emergency, which was known only to his closest allies. In this house, they had radio transmitters, frequency blockers, and different ammunitions that they could take with them. Alan and Kane already instructed the rest to come out and gather in the house. They knew for sure that there were people already on their way to this house and had to move as fast as possible. While Anika was waiting for Azmo to regain consciousness, she placed the frequency stopper on his head. He slowly came back to normal, feeling dizzy and having a strong headache.
“Where am I? What's going on?”
“The “Company” launched the project “Fading Nation” and you was affected as most of the people in the city. We have managed to escape from their building and now we are located in one of Erion's secret bases. Unfortunately, they have tracked us here and we need to move fast. There is no time for more explanation now. I will explain while we walk.”
“Azmo, glad you are back. Don't remove the frequency transformer from your head or you will become again one of them. Come on, we got to move!” Alan welcomed Azmo.
Erion opened a room with lots of weapons and shouted: “Take what you need! We must move in five minutes!” After taking enough ammunitions and firearms, everyone was ready to go. The King led the group through a corridor going under the ground, which ended with a door made of stone, engraved with a figure with elongated skull and slim body. Next to the head, there was a circle with a dot in the middle. Underneath the circle was a little hole. He took out one small metal pipe and pushed it inside the hole. At the same time, he pressed the little dot in the circle. The engraving in front of them split in two and started opening sideways. Erion made a sign for everyone to go inside. He entered last and pressed a button on the wall, which closed the stone door behind them. He asked all of them to stop.
“We all know that the “Company” already discovered the house. That means the rest of the hidden bases might be too. However, if I did not tell the “Company” about this place, that means someone else did, and sadly, it might be someone from our group. I don't believe one of us is capable of betrayal… Right now we are heading to a place, which is in the outskirts of the city where I hope the “Company” will not find us. From there we will have time to plan our next move. The rest of my people should be waiting for us at the main meeting point, which is our main goal.” As soon as he finished his sentence, they heard helicopter propellers.
“They are here! Let's go!”
Everyone was walking fast. The floor of the passage felt strange couple of times. In some places, they saw strange mucus—looking substance on the walls and on the ground. The smell was also unusual and sticky. As the group was moving forward, they felt that something was not right. Something else was living in these tunnels. They were not alone. Nevertheless, they continued walking. The Dorgs were at the back of the group and the Megors in front. They suddenly came to a huge space, like a cave, under the ground and a small lake in the middle. There were also three tunnels in front it, leading to unknown places. Erion made a sign for everyone to stop. ” This is strange. We didn't dig three tunnels as I remember, but one,” he thought.
“There would be a small change of the plan. When we were digging these tunnels, we never had to make three of them. There are three tunnels in front of us and I am not sure, which is the right one. We need to split into groups and find out the one that leads to the base. There is something else. I sense we are not alone and that might complicate things. Let's split into three groups and find out the right tunnel. We will all keep connection in case of trouble. Be extra cautious as this could be a trap.”
They split up and headed for the tunnels. The Megors had an excellent sense of smell and they led all three groups. Erion smelled something that was very familiar to him but was not sure what it was. He was stepping very lightly when he sensed this smell very close to him. Suddenly something from the dark, producing enormous sound, knocked him down. Both creatures were on the ground rolling from one side to the other. The King quickly moved on top of his attacker and clenched his hands when the other two Megors came to help him. They managed to put him down and looked what this being really was. This creature was neither Megor nor Human or Dorg.
“Who are you?” asked Erion.
“Why have you come here? It is forbidden to be in these tunnels.”
“We don't want to harm you. What are you?”
“I am an experiment. You are the first living creatures coming here for the past ten years.”
“Experiment? What experiment?” Erion started remembering the beginning of his days when he was growing up. The experiments conducted and the breeding of Megors back then was not exactly perfect. There were specimens who were not as they had to be and the “Company” disposed them. He didn't know what happened to them, but obviously now everything became clear for him. Erion continued: “My name is Erion and these are my friends. We are brothers. I am too an expe
riment. We have been created in the same lab with the same purpose. Unfortunately, the people conducting the experiments were not as good as I thought they were. How many of you are down here?”
“I am Naz… We are around hundred, living underground for the past ten years. The soil provided us with the necessary food and with time we adapted to this environment.”
“It's a long story to explain now, but I want you to come with us. We are heading to the ground. The people who created us have taken over the city and are planning to rule the earth. If we do not stop them, they will succeed.”
“We must inform my people. Follow me.” They walked back through the corridor until they reached the point with the small lake. Erion contacted the other two groups:
“Little change of plans. Everyone, get back to the little lake. Over.”
“Copy that. We found the right corridor. Over.”
“Excellent Alan”
The other two groups headed back to meet with the rest. When they arrived, they had the chance to meet with Naz. His eyes were strange, completely black, the head was more elongated than usual, and he was moving differently than a normal Megor — sharp movements with heavy steps. On both sides of his neck, they noticed something like a small gills. He told everyone to wait there, then got to the edge of the little lake, squatted down and placed his hands on the ground. Pushing forward he slipped into the water and disappeared in the dark. It was complete silence. As far as Erion knew, the Megors did not have gills. Two minutes passed when bubbles started showing up on the surface. Three figures slowly came out of the lake and stepped forward towards Erion. The first was Naz. He moved aside and made space for the other two. They stepped forward and greeted Erion:
“My brother informed me about you and said you were one of us. Who are you?”
“I am Erion and these are my friends. We are trying to escape from the “Company'” people who are chasing us. We are heading to one of my bases where we can group and plan our next move. I just learned that you have been left here in these tunnels to die. Couple of us are too an experiment. It was unfortunate that you was left here, but now all that is about to change. I am sure you have been waiting for a long time to fight for justice. I welcome you in our group and I want you to join us in our fight.”
“Among my people I am known as Keran and this is Solomon. We don't know you and have no reason to believe your words. It is true that we were left here as a failed experiment, but that is our faith and we have accepted it a long time ago.”
“Well then, I see you have accepted your reality without a fight. How can you stay here and live this life? The world is for everyone and not only for the people who play Gods. You have as much right to live as they have. They are no better or smarter than you are. Do not separate yourself from the rest of the world. We all live and share the same planet and are entitled to live free and to do what is right, to be who we truly are.” Erion grabbed Keran's hand and closed his eyes. The Megors could transfer memories to another person just by touching them. He showed Keran what the world was like, what he saw when he was young in the labs and how the “Company'” scientists were experimenting with Megors and Dorgs. He quickly released his hand and stood still.
“That what you showed me made me sad for our people. The outside world is truly not for us. Now please continue your way, leave this place, and never return.” After these words, he made a sign to the other two and they slowly descended into the depths of their only home. Erion was standing still, looking at them with sadness in his eyes. They were all silent for a moment.
“We must continue,” Erion said.
They slowly started walking through the right tunnel while thinking about these creatures living underground for so many years. If they could find a way to survive here without sunlight, without the help of others so could they. That motivated everyone to move forward and believe in the success of the mission. After twenty minutes, they reached the end of the tunnel. There was a door, which they opened and slowly started climbing up a narrow staircase. The walls were covered with humid and dust. ” No one has walked here for the last ten years,” thought Alan. The stairs led to a middle—sized hall, made of huge stone blocks. Erion was very cautious moving around these labyrinths, as there could be traps everywhere. He led the others to the main hall where they were going to gather and discuss how to get to the rendezvous point. That shelter was ten meters below the surface, close to the forest, just outside the city. The main aim was to meet with the rest of the Megors who should be waiting for them at the main meeting point.
CHAPTER 20
Lotus
Mr. Elred was expecting Dr. Rob in his office to report about the development of the experiment. The door opened and he entered the room.
“Welcome doctor.”
“Thank you Mr. Elred.”
Mr. Elred started the conversation:
“We are looking at a big success I heard. Please, brief me about everything.”
“Yes sir. As foreseen, the “warriors” tried to attack our old facility in an attempt to stop the experiment and as expected, they did not succeed. More importantly, our informer is loyal. They did not know about our new testing facility and walked straight into our trap. Unfortunately, they managed to escape and were last spotted at one of Erion's hidden bases. Thanks to our informer, we knew about it and set a little trap for them there. We have a map of all his hidden shelters and have people monitoring them constantly. However, we believe that they are heading to the main secret station situated close to the forest, where they will probably meet and prepare to attack us. I have sent a squad couple of minutes ago to ambush them there.
“What about the experiment itself?”
“Sir, the experiment was a complete success. We have everyone in the city under our control. We can manipulate every human within two hundred kilometers radius. Thanks to Alberi's documents, the research has been completed for our second experiment and we have already commenced work on it. It should be ready within couple of days, maybe weeks. However, we are still missing the final calculations for the project, which we believe to be mapped inside Alan's brain. Unfortunately, they have disabled the signal going to him and he is no longer under our control. I am afraid they also found Azmo. That I can assure you will not stop us from completing the mission sir.”
“I hope that is true doctor. We have invested millions in these projects and we are expected to have a complete control of our sector as soon as possible. If everything goes by the global plan, the earth will be under “their” control and then we will rule our sector. I have received a transmission from the rest of the globe's leaders that their missions have completed successfully too. It is only a matter of time before everything completes with full success. And now doctor I would like you to…” he made a little pause when he said the word: “lotus.”
Immediately after that, the doctor froze in his place and his look faded. He was staying there as a living doll with no response to the outside world. What Dr. Rob did not know was that he was not the only scientist in this room. Mr. Elred was an excellent hypnotist and an expert in the compartmentalization of the human brain. He was able to divide the human mind into different parts and each part would have its own identity. He could trigger any kind of character from his patients just by calling its particular code word. In that case, Dr. Rob was “switched off” by the word “lotus.” It was too risky not to have control over the people he depended on and especially over his main scientist. Mr. Elred called Mr. Basilius in his room.
“Mr. Basilius, everything is going by our plan. Our good friend Dr. Rob here is doing an excellent job and we are on our way to rule our part of the earth very soon.”
“I am pleased to hear that. We need to make sure that Dr. Rob is going to accept full responsibility if something happens and will not remember anything about the mission when everything is completed.”
“That will not be a problem, I have programmed him, and we have nothing to worry about.
We need to inform “them” about the status of the project.”
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