Chapter 12

Zephyr cleaned himself up and changed into new clothes that Damien had provided him. Meanwhile, Castiel and Ethan had finally awoken from their deep sleep.

"Where is he?" Ethan asked, noticing that the green eyed boy was gone from his bed.

Anesthesia turned around and smiled. "He should be changing, you guys should go clean yourself up and we'll give you your instructions for today." she cheerfully said.

Castiel nodded and got ready, taking a bag from one of the shelves and shoving essential items inside it. While Ethan proceeded to collect the fake ID cards from Tina.

All the three boys got ready and ran into each other on the stairs.

"Uh Damien wants us upstairs for our instructions." Zephyr said, looking back to see if the man was following him.

The trio reached a large oak door and pushed it open, the room they had arrived at was filled with books. It looked extremely well kept as not a single speck of dust could be seen on any of the books. In the middle of the room stood Damien, who was looking outside the window, unaware of the trio's presence.

"Damien?" Castiel worriedly said.

Damien turned around with a surprised look on his face before returning to his normal expression. He had assumed that they would've taken longer to reach the room.

"None of our members is free today to collect food so I'll have to task you to do so. You guys may be unfamiliar with the area, which is why I'll be providing you a device to track the location of the distributors." Damien opened a box on his table and took out a small black necklace with a T logo.

"This is mine but you can use it first before you receive yours next time. Here, one of you hold on to it." Damien gently tossed the necklace, Ethan slightly moved in front and caught it in between his fingers.

Ethan clicked a button on the necklace and a bright digital screen popped up right in front of him, it was an extraordinary sight to behold for the children who hadn't been in touch with proper technology for years.

Zephyr eyes sparkled with interest, he leaned in closer to Ethan, slowly raising his hands to touch the screen but his hands went through the digital screen. He made a disappointed sound before returning back to his original position.

Castiel eyebrows furrowed while he bended down to have a closer look at the screen, wondering how it was even possible for that large of a projection to emit from such a small device.

"There's a map, you guys are the red dot, follow the arrows and you'll reach the distributor. Once you reach the place, double click it and it'll show you the route back. Of course you guys don't need to get back here so quickly, you can explore around for a little but you need to come back by noon." Damien said.

Damien had figured that this would be the best opportunity for the children to discover the new world outside and see for themselves what it has become. After all, when they return back underground, they would definitely stay there for a long period of time before moving again.

"In a case of an emergency that you guys can't fend off or escape from, which is most unlikely. Click the button for 5 seconds and it'll send a signal to us." Damien said, pointing to a different button at the side of the necklace. It was barely even visible.

"Alright, we'll get going." Ethan said, taking out the ID cards and flipping through them, "12 meals today?" he asked.

Damien nodded and waved goodbye when the children walked out the door. Slumping on the chair, he started preparing for the afternoon, shuffling through the stacks of paper while he made a phone call to the higher-ups.

Ethan took the lead naturally while the other two followed behind. They were walking through the vast forest, the deeper they ventured in, the darker it was. Castiel almost tripped over a weird branch but he grabbed Zephyr's shoulder to steady himself.

"Sorry." Castiel apologised when he realised how roughly he grabbed Zephyr. Immediately, he let go after apologising and started walking cautiously.

"Its fine." Zephyr replied, walking through the forest with no problem at all. "I can see a pavement there." He said to Ethan.

Ethan looked up from the screen and Zephyr was indeed right, even though the concrete path was far, it could be spotted if looked upon closely. "that's the direction then." He confirmed while looking back at the digital screen.

The trio finally made it near the pavement before they all stopped and took a few steps back and hid behind a tree. Staying silent while they watched the pick up truck drive by. Suddenly, it came to a halt and the driver exited from his vehicle, looking furious.

Castiel started shaking Zephyr's shoulder gently, making sure not to hurt him. "There's some cages covered with a cloth behind of the truck at the cargo bed." He whispered. "There's also people with black uniform sitting at the back."

Ethan squinted and wanted to go in and get a closer look, he took one step forward before being pulled back by Zephyr who had a cold expression on his face.

"Stay." Zephyr said in a demanding tone. Grabbing onto Ethan's arm tightly.

A harsh wind blew by and the cloths of the cages were blown away for a spilt moment. In that span of time, the three boys saw what was contained in those cages.

There were people wearing white pieces of clothes with their hands cuffed. Some looked like they were on the verge of death, their faces were puffed and stained with blood. All of them were desperately trying to scream for their lives but the pieces of cloth stuffed in their mouth prevented them from doing so.

"What?" Ethan said, repulsed by what he had witnessed. His disgust slowly turned into anger, his hands curled into fists, he smacked Zephyr's hand away and stood up, advancing towards the truck.

There were many people surrounding the truck, all looking sketchy while wearing a black uniform with a gun tied to their waist. They looked like they were on the look out for people while the driver attempted to resolve the problem with the hostages.

Castiel stood up and ran towards Ethan as quickly as he could. He was scared of Ethan landing himself in danger that even the others can't help him get out of. It would be better to prevent such a situation from happening rather than letting it escalate.

"Ethan Lozano, stop." Zephyr said, his voice becoming a low tune and pitch, it sounded like melodies of a harp playing in the deep sea.

Ethan felt like he was a statue, incapable of moving any part of his body no matter how hard he struggled, he didn't budged at all. In his mind, he was cursing Zephyr for stopping him. All his logical thoughts were being overthrown by his fuming anger.

"Being unable to control your emotions is a sign of weakness." Zephyr said to Ethan who was being dragged back by Castiel. "You're terribly foolish for such an intelligent being."

Ethan suddenly felt like he could move again and this time he turned to Zephyr with tears in his eyes, refusing to let them fall and admit defeat. "We've got to save them. What if they get taken to the laboratory?" he reasoned.

"I had to leave the others behind because I couldn't save them! But this is a totally different case!" Ethan yelled out loud in frustration.

Zephyr glanced at Ethan and at Castiel before sighing. "Being too benevolent." He paused and glared at Ethan before guiltily looking away. "sets you at a disadvantage. Some things you'll just have to let go. You can't possibl-ly save everyone in the world. I'm sorry." His voice cracking in the middle of his sentence.

Castiel patted Ethan's shoulders while still keeping a close eye on the truck to make sure that they were not discovered. "I want to save them too. But let's control ourselves."

Ethan calmed himself down and controlled his anger. He regained his senses back and realised how reckless he had been to not consider whether he even had the capability of saving those people while there were so many armed guards around.

"On the digital map there was another route to the distributor. Let's take that instead." Zephyr suggested, pointing to the necklace.

"Let's take that instead." a unfamiliar voice mockingly said, looking down at the children hiding behind the tree. Pointing the tip of his gun on the side of Castiel's head.

Ethan made an irritated sound when he had realised they had been caught. If they did not act now, they'll be surrounded and eventually buried into the ground.

Suddenly, Zephyr made sniffing sounds while tears flowed out of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. "Please help us, we're lost!" he cried out, grovelling beneath the person's feet.