THE COMMUNITY'S BEST KEPT SECRET

Zev walked to where the other soldiers were and joined the troop where Milo was going but on the way he felt a beep in his ears. He stopped for a moment to calm the noise, perhaps it was a side effect of the loop until he heard that voice again.

"You do well not to tell about me."

"Who are you?" He asked, "are you my conscience?"

"If that's what you want to call me," it paused, "you must protect me, protect our connection and above all, you must not die…"

The voice went away in an echo, he was confused by that and didn't know how to act, he had to be more awake than ever.

On the way to the meeting points, Zev was in complete silence, deep in thought.

"Are you sad because Ocean and Evander made love last night?" Luna asked openly.

Zev looked at her strangely and shook his head, giving her a non-verbal response.

"There are more fish in the sea and I'm not exactly saying it because of myself," she laughed nervously.

He was thinking about his situation with Ocean, he had to get used to the idea that she wasn't her therefore he couldn't have a real feeling towards her person, however, if he wanted to change that he had to act in the right way, so he decided to support her in whatever she needed, even if it meant helping Evander as well.

During the trip Zev and Luna talked a lot about different topics, that kept them distracted from all the destruction that was outside, while in the Community things were different.

The commander, Ronda and Ocean together with three other soldiers were in the underground entrance, from there they could calculate the perimeter of what the containment zones measured. Frowning, they entered that horrible place with great caution.

"I'll cover them," Ocean said.

When they crossed to the other side, they saw that the containment chambers were empty, apparently they moved many creatures to another side, perhaps they were cleaning the area. They took advantage of the loneliness to advance faster. There were few people in the place who were easy to fool so it was not difficult for them to reach the main offices.

"It's here, let's hurry up," Ronda said.

There was a huge stack of papers arranged in alphabetical but inverted order, from Z to A inside a metal container, there they looked for information about the different projects while the three soldiers were outside with Ocean standing guard.

"Look Ronda," he called her to show her a folder. "Eternal life."

"Take that one."

They searched for more, mainly the ones with interesting names, even checking on the computer.

"Heaven?" The brunette was surprised, "I'll still take it."

In that a noise was heard at the door, a bullet had hit the head of one of the soldiers. They took folders at random and carefully left. Outside, a group of heavily armed soldiers were waiting for them, Ocean was facing them without causing explosions or very strong flames, the last thing they needed was to attract attention and for all of the Community to come back.

Ronda used her hair to tie up some snipers while Ocean burned them with the fire that came out of the palm of her fingers.

"Commander, come out!" Ronda yelled, opening the way for him.

Kylen ran back with the two remaining soldiers as the women engaged the snipers, and just when it looked like they had it figured out, someone played a trick on them. A man ejected some gas bombs from his weapon, Ocean approached to cover Ronda with her body to protect her from the explosives, however, contrary to what they imagined, a thick layer of black smoke emanated from them, the same one they released inside the bunker.

"What's that smoke?" Ocean asked, holding the man by the neck.

"My experiment still has flaws," he stared into the smoke, "it still has no effect on you."

That man was a scientist from the Community, he was determined to create a type of poison that would affect the cells of the reinforcements.

"It's impossible without his cells." As he said this, he moved his eyes in her direction.

Ocean looked at him determined to kill him, she slowly approached her hand with the intention of activating her incineration power but in that the man took out a blade ready to slit his hand, Ronda noticed so she quickly held her using her hair, causing her to cut part of its strands were cut.

Ronda ran at great speed carrying Ocean on her back, they shouldn't waste any more time since they were waiting for them outside, the snipers were coming behind them so the black-haired woman blew fire in their direction causing a barrier that prevented their passage.

Watching them walk away, the scientist began issuing search commands while opening a hidden hatch in the floor.

"Hey you," he spoke to him.

A maximum security cage came out of the ground with someone inside.

"Put out those flames," he whispered into his ear.

Getting no response from him, the man took the blade and roughly passed it over one of his eyes causing a heartrending but inaudible scream thanks to the fire. From the mouth of that being sprang a stream of water that extinguished part of the fire. A few kilometers away, he could see Ronda, so a sniper fired a locator that was embedded in her hair.

"Miss Jolene, I have very good news for when you return," he spoke on the radio.

Ocean and Ronda were already with Kylen to return to the bunker, the commander communicated with all the soldiers giving them the order to return home. When they arrived they were the most tired, they lacked air so they were given their space.

After a few minutes, they went to their usual meetings to analyze the folders and share their experiences. Ocean and Ronda were the most nervous there, especially when they felt the gazes of others on them.

"Raiden, the scientist attacked us with smoke bombs like the ones that have already been scattered here," Ronda commented, "Ocean was about to attack but he had something to defend himself with."

"Evander is in danger!" Ocean exclaimed, scaring the others.

Everyone's voices didn't wait, they spoke at the same time trying to find an answer to Ocean's words, Kylen asked for silence and also attention to what she had to say.

"Not only do they want to catch him first to take the rest of us, they have another plan in mind," she paused, "they don't plan to lock us up again, they are going to kill us."

Zev was shocked, he couldn't imagine that world with Ocean or the other reinforcements dead, he was so determined to confess his truth, it was now the moment to mention that he is the traveler but something stopped him, an impulse inside him prevented him from expressing himself.

"The bioweapon project," Kylen said, looking through one of the folders they took.

"Exactly," she pointed out.

Ocean was very stiff and worried, she imagined a lot of destructive scenarios in her head, she even looked like she was about to cry in front of everyone when she suddenly felt warm arms around her.

"I'll get rid of them if they catch me," he murmured in her ear causing a chill in her.

Zev was enraged when he saw how Evander hugged her so his bad side decided not to confess his secret, he remained silent waiting for more of the conversation.

"We have to calm down, we have so much to analyze," Kylen said, putting order.

In teams, they each reviewed a different folder to get the most important points of the content and try to put the pieces together to obtain better information.

"Eternal life…" Ocean pronounced.

"Heaven…" Zev mentioned.

"The biological weapon," Evander said.

"The most beautiful woman?" Milo questioned, "what the hell is this…?"

Many unknowns, key projects and a single objective, to manage the world at will.