Following Ian through the woods was sort of concerning but he led us like he’d been in there for all his life, and based on the story he had explained while we were walking, he was. He had explained that he grew up in a ‘cabin’ (he had said it with emphasis so great on the word he was basically screaming the fact that it had quotations around it) but for children with…abilities. He also said we closely resembled what symptoms those children had before they had been chosen to go to the ‘cabin’, so now the ‘Minister’ is testing our brain waves and see if we are like the ability children. But wouldn’t I know if I had these abilities? Like wouldn’t I know if I could make a bottle float with my mind? I decided to express my concerns to Ian.
“Uhm, dude like what if, we don’t have these abilities, I don’t know about the others but I’ve never made any bottles move with my mind or anything for that matter,” I said as we sat down for a rest, it was now 10:00 PM, and we had been walking for almost two and a half hours. Oh god, what if Alice woke up by now?
“Ok, good questions, but to start, if you ended up not having any powers we would just erase your memory,” Ian started and the others gave him a look to say ‘what in the world?’ but he just continued “And most children never show symptoms of having powers, till met with others like them, which is why we have reason to believe all of you have abilities we have already labeled down what Alice’s abilities and her’s were triggered by someone else’s, so at least one of you in this group has powers.” Ian finished and I was more worried about the fact that Alice had powers, than to really care about the first thing he had said.
“Ok uhm, what about our parents?” Borden asked standing up again, ignoring Noe trying to get him to drink some water, which he had gotten from Ian.
“What about your parents?” Ian asked, it was the only time where more than just concentration was evident in Ian’s expression.
Borden was pacing back and forth, looking more concentrated than Ian now. “Like, what if they like come looking for us? What will we do then?”
Ian’s face darkened and his mouth turned into a thin line, that could not be good. “We erase your parent's memories of ever having you and we take all of your stuff to the cabin, so they won’t suspect a thing, but if you have any other friends it might affect them slightly since we can’t really erase an entire towns memory, but we have some pretty strong Memorors, so you should be okay, thanks for reminding me though.” He then produced a device from his pocket, it looked sort of like a modern-day phone, but had a rose pink case and was sort of shaped like an egg or like those tomogachi things that people used to collect, he must have noticed us staring at it like it was an alien because he said “Oh uh this is like a pager since we can’t have phones, it attracts…them.'' This just left me even more confused but I just went with it because he didn’t seem like he wanted to explain any more than what he had just said.
Ian pressed a few buttons, well correction one button, a few times since the contraption only had one button in the first place. Anyways he pressed the button and then said “Pick up the girl, and make sure to bring the Memorors since they need to be erased, thank you.” He then let go of the button he was holding, sort of like a walkie-talkie.
“What was that about?” Thad asked, his eyebrows arched up and I noticed how pale his normally darker skin looked.
I leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Dude, you good?” I asked and he nodded but I wasn’t so sure of his answer, why was he so nervous? “You sure?” I asked, but Ian was talking now so he didn’t respond.
“-but I tried to contact them before in the world, and it didn’t work so I’m assuming they didn’t get-” Ian was ranting about something, but I was confused, seeing as how I hadn’t listened to half of this conversation since I had been too focused on what had made Thad so upset.
“Wait what?” I asked, not understanding a single thing Ian was saying.
“The call went to The Minister, and I told him to bring out the soldiers to collect Alice and to wipe your parents' brains as well, but I don’t think he will get my attempts to contact him, since this world seems to block out all connections from going into Lykes Ac. but I’m not one hundred percent sure.” Ian finished, but yet again he just left me with more questions than answers. Who is the Minister? I mean although he’s been brought up before, Ian never explained exactly who this guy is. Also, the cabin that Ian mentioned has SOLDIERS!? And who or what or where is Lykes Ac, and what relevance does it have with connections!? Also, what did he mean by ‘this world’ LIKE IS THERE MORE WORLDS!?
But despite all my confusion I just nodded. “Alright, I’m going to be the one to ask, what is going on?” Ezequiel asked and I jumped slightly, I had forgotten he was behind me and his low voice is a drastic change compared to everyone else’s, making me almost jump out of my skin, just at the difference in his voice.
Ian sighed and shook his head lightly, “I’m sure they will explain everything when we get back, but for now we need to find the gateway to Lyke, okay?” Ian seemed to have forgotten that we had no clue what Lykes or what the gateway was.
“Yeah alright, but one question,” Borden started and I could already hear the sarcasm just dripping off his tongue, almost like that one snake in Norse mythology, y’know? The one that drips poison onto Loki’s face for all eternity, except that he wasn’t dripping poison (although it almost seemed like it at times) and he wasn’t a snake, but he could be with the way he bites back, it is snake-like, almost too snake-like if you ask me.
“Okay, ask away.” Ian nodded, I think it’s funny how he’s all open for questions, but he doesn’t seem to like answering them.
“Where, what, or who is Lykes Ac. or whatever you said.” Ian seemed to pause as if looking for the right answer but Borden continued before he could speak, “And why don’t you like, I don’t know fill us in a little bit so we don’t feel like we’re following a stranger.” Borden finished and I now understand why he had sounded like he was speaking in sarcasm. Borden seemed to always speak in sarcasm like it was a language everyone could understand, but only he could truly speak, not even me.
“Lykes is my world, it is almost like that show, the um..” He thought for a moment before the idea finally came to him “The Lion King, yes that's it, and not in the way, that we’re all like lions or something but like because there is a good half, like pride rock or whatever, and there is a bad side, like the outlands in Lion King, and The Minister is like Simba’s dad, whatever his name is-”
“Mufasa.” Ezequiel interrupted, then turned red when he noticed the stares he got, he didn’t much like to be in the spotlight, that is why he was so shy all of the time.
“Yes, Mufasa, anyways The Minister is like Mufasa, he is sort of a king, everyone respects him and they live by his rules, even the ‘Outlanders’ which is coincidentally their actual title. But that’s off topic but basically, there is this one guy, Jenar Rilos, he is like the real-life Scar, he despises The Minister, and he is trying to recruit people to join his army, to overthrow The Minister. So now we are doing the same, building an army to go to war.” Ian finished his re-telling and started rubbing his eyes in annoyance “Now, can we go? I have to keep on a schedule and we are thirty minutes late.” And normally I would have disagreed, saying that I wanted to know the rest of the story, but the weight of the situation seemed to fall on me, this guy was recruiting us to fight in a war against a man we barely knew for a man WE BARELY KNEW, to say it was overwhelming was an understatement. So I just got up and started to follow him yet again, through the woods.
***
Twenty minutes of walking, TWENTY minutes, I barely walk five in a day, not to mention all the other walking I’ve had to do today. Ian stopped abruptly, what was it now? We’ve stopped every three minutes or so because of something minor that Ian hadn’t been used to, for being the person that has to be out of his world so much he shouldn’t be scared of a random bird that has decided to make noise from the tops of the trees. But he isn’t looking for something anymore; he was looking at a specific spot on the floor, a latched door. He bent down and opened the small hatchet looking up at us, smiling “Welcome to the secret organization of we like to kill scar.” I laughed.
“Secret organization of we like to kill scar?” Ezequiel asked, confused.
“No, it’s just a secret organization.” Ian laughed before dropping into the trapped door, the laughter seeming to fall in with him.
We sat there for a few minutes waiting for him to pop back up, when he didn’t I took things into my own hands “Are we gonna go?” I asked before dropping in myself and surrounding myself with the darkness below.