Groups of Three

Seamus and the others chatted for a good hour while I basked on the radiant sun. As the people of Termina had pale skin it wasn't really a good idea to do so but being altered brought with it a certain amount of immunity to the sun's radiation. It meant one wouldn't easily get sunburns!

My basking was cut to an abrupt end however as Kaiser who until that point had been in his tent came out to survey things.

"Boss, what's up?" Seamus asked in a typical Seamus fashion. The man was rather amiable. Kaiser didn't answer him directly though. He instead addressed all members.

"We will be splitting into groups of three" Those were his words.

Everyone instantly tensed up. Some even gasped audibly.

"Bo-Boss that… that's a bit dangerous, no?" Seamus had instantly become rather concerned. He had told Jimmy much earlier how everyone was a grade two. That is to say… they were all too weak!

"Am I your nanny?" Kaiser seemed to look down on this response however as he quickly retorted.

Seamus' understood what Kaiser meant and decided not to utter another word. Those who were having similar thoughts could only complain inwardly. They also understood that Kaiser didn't bring them to the surface to feed them crystals and I was looking forward to that.

Since I was already in grade three Kaiser didn't allocate me a single crystal. If we were split into groups of three however getting hold of crystals would become much easier.

"What does it mean to be in the altered stage? Do any of you know? You don't. Because if you did you wouldn't be scared of a slightly bigger rat. Are you all numb in the brain? What differs us from those mutants? Intellect!" Kaiser wasn't done after retorting against Seamus as he could read the others' expressions.

Kaiser paused to gauge everyone's reactions. He then went on to conclude the matter.

"You should all be smarter than those beasts so what do you fear?" This was a rhetorical question. Nobody answered. They knew the answer.

As long as they could analyze the patterns of the animals and locate their weaknesses, it wasn't impossible to eliminate even a grade nine altered as a regular person. Of course, luck would have to be on their side for such an event to take place but… it wasn't impossible!

"I will lead one group and Dan will lead the other." Kaiser brought the topic back to the split. The group members suddenly looked bewildered, however.

"The boy is in grade three making him stronger than all of you already. He is also rather quirky. Don't question my decision." Kaiser knew the reason for their bewilderment and therefore spoke with authority.

"""Yes, Boss!""" They said and resounded. Still, there was a high chance that some were still reluctant to be lead around by someone ten years younger than themselves.

Perhaps acknowledging this, Kaiser didn't make things difficult for me.

"Seamus and Hawk you are with Dan. The other two come with me." Kaiser said pointing at Jimmy and the burly man who I believed was called Nardo.

"We won't venture too far from one another" Kaiser was now most likely speaking to me and my small group.

"Fire a gun to defend yourself as well as alert us if you face anything greater than yourself… if you think you won't make it, light this" Kaiser said and tossed me a red flare from his bag. I supposed it was the signal to abandon the other.

"The same rules apply to my group. Make sure to stay vigilant." Kaiser said before gesturing for Jimmy and Nardo to follow him into the grass. The path he took this time was different from earlier.

I watched as his back retreated into the grass before turning to my two team members. Hawk was a rugged looking man. He seemed naturally intimidating and imposing.

Seamus on the other hand looked young and naive. It was odd since he was older than me but it was best not to judge.

"Since we can't stray too far from them let's not veer too far from their route. Let's go slightly northeast" Kaiser had gone north. We would cut a similar path but diagonally. There wasn't any special reason for this.

"Ok" Seamus simply replied. Hawk seemed to have his misgivings but didn't voice anything.

"Lytton, take good care of Colt, We'll be back!" Seamus yelled towards Colt's tent as we made our way into the grass.

Colt was already in a good shape but he had caught a fever perhaps from stress. Lytton was left in charge of him.

We trudged into the grass and could only hear its shuffling and our footsteps for a good while. It took us a good ten minutes before finally coming across a mutant.

We could hear footsteps and movements in the tall grass. That was our cue to stop. As I was put in charge, I naturally had to put myself at stake and assess what lay ahead. My stealth was also bound to prove helpful.

The creature was at most grade three giving that it wasn't immediately alerted as I pressed forward.

I finally caught a glimpse of the animal. It was a bird the size of a chicken. Its wings were also rather small suggesting it was a grounded bird. I covered the machete I had safeguarded by my hip with my black smoke to conceal its presence and slowly brought it out.

Swoosh!

The machete rapidly cut through the grass and aimed for the bird which came to know of my presence. It was too late, however.

KAWK

It sounded like a chicken too. My blade had dug straight into its neck before it could utter another sound though.

I tried to pull out my machete and was slightly surprised to find it felt stuck. The blade was being held back by a bloody ooze. I presumed this was its blood.

"What a strange creature…" I muttered as Seamus and Hawk came from behind me.

POP

The gooey chicken suddenly burst sending its sticky blood flying everywhere. Luckily as it was rather small the explosion only reached my knees.

"Hahaha what was that?" Seamus asked after seeing the short spectacle.

"I don't know" I replied while inwardly complaining. I looked at where the corpse used to lay and found no crystal. It was rather disappointing.

"Let's move on, they don't all drop crystals." Seamus added and began to walk forward

I didn't want to dampen his mood but...

"I'm stuck" I told him. He sent me a second glance and noticed how I was being tied down by the gooey blood.

"...Let's get you out first" Seamus said and Hawk continued to remain silent.