Chapter – 87 - Switching Position with a 'Fallen' to Escape

Beibei woke up from a very long and deep dream. Yet the moment her eyes blinked open, not a scrape of dream remained in her memory.

This was not the first time it had happened. Over the last two months, often she would wake up in dread, anxiety or intense frustration. For some odd reason she was certain the dream was trying to tell her something important, maybe even something regarding her lost memories. Yet for the life of her, she couldn't remember anything no matter how hard she tried!

Struggling to a sitting position, she gasped breathlessly, rubbing her chest to ease the clawing anxiety trying to break through. For a long time she simply sat and kept taking deep bouts of air into her lungs, trying hard to calm down her erratic heart and focus on the present situation.

She had no idea how to get out of the camp. Moreover, she was not willing to just let go of Menji. She really wanted to take Menji with her...but how could she achieve her wishes?

So Beibei spent another two days and nights roaming aimlessly through the inner and outer areas of the camp, eavesdropping over all the groups gathered together. Every bit of information was important...but she couldn't find anything which could ease her situation!

At least not till the end of the third day. As usual her spirit self was wandering about the clusters of buildings in the outer area when she chanced upon some people discussing on the other side of the wall. Beibei looked up and down the roughly put together inn, then moved closer and peeped in through the gaps in the Maramarae Bark planks.

A group of rough stones surrounded a large slab of stone which had been conveniently turned into a table. 4-5 guards were busy playing Datrou.....it was an odd board game involving stones and ores and desert lizard scales. She had noticed that this seemed to be the most popular way of beating boredom amongst the guards. However, she found the rules very confusing and couldn't find interest in the game.

"I thought they wanted us to wait till the end of the month before transferring the new 'Fallens'?"

"The Zala-lori mines are handing over their 'Fallens' tomorrow. Since they will be passing by us on their way, the higher ups ordered them to take our 'Fallens' as well."

"But the Leader is not here. Who will be commanding the hand over?"

"So what. As long as the Vice-Leader is here, the hand over will take place. Even if none of them are here, the hand-over will take place. It is the order from the higher ups. Who dares to go against it?"

"The team from Zala-lori will be coming tomorrow at noon. Do we need to clean up the people and keep them ready?"

"Nah! What is the use of cleaning them up. Just drag them out at noon and keep them ready by the gates. When the team comes, hand the three people over to them. They can decide what they should do with them."

Beibei listened for some time more. Satisfied that she now had all the relevant information, she went off towards the inner area. The team was coming tomorrow. The only way out for her was to take the place of one of the three people inside the cave. But.....

Beibei retreated back into her physical body, then lay on the couch, staring at the rocky roof, thinking about how to go about with her plans. The biggest problem was the guard who came to give her the meals at noon. She couldn't act any differently or it might raise suspicion. Hmmm....

At night, Beibei came down with stomach cramps. So when the guard came in to check on her, she blamed the food. Earlier she hardly had enough food, and had lost a lot of weight due to starvation. Now that she suddenly had too much food and drinks, perhaps her body was unable to take it. She had been feeling uncomfortable since the past two days, but was not able to let go of her greed. But eating too much now brought her down with strong cramps, nausea and vomiting.

For added convincing power, Beibei had pulled out the tiny fungus like growths under the bed and on the walls in the little bathroom. Thankfully their camp was too small to afford a doctor, so neither could the guard confirm her illness, nor did they have any pills for such a problem.

The fungus was quite bitter, and tasted very strange. Though she herself wasn't sure of its toxicity, she decided to take the risk. As a result, even when the guard came in, she couldn't seem to stop vomiting. The guard looked on in disdain, not even interested in coming any nearer. The luxury of the room was drowned out in the stench of acidic bile. He didn't even offer any words of comfort before turning on his heels and walking out in disgust.

There was no other way but to bear up with the foul smell in the cave. As the large stone was put back into place at the entrance, the smell became more prominent, till Beibei started feeling dizzy, and another bout of nausea hit her. However, she somehow managed to bear up with it till morning.

The guard came in the morning to check up on her as usual, but stayed at the door this time. The foul smell hit him like a blast as soon as the stone was removed, making him want to puke as well.

"Tsk! Keep the entrance open! And you! A few days in the enjoyment cave, and you think you have become a flower in a garden! Get up and clean up your stench! Since your stomach is not able to handle our good efforts, then there's no need to have any meals in the afternoon. Clean up this entire room. I'll come again at night. I'll decide if you need to eat after I see you tonight!"

The guard walked off without another word. The guard sitting at the entrance peeked inside the room, then immediately walked further off. Even at a distance he could smell the stink coming from the room!

Beibei breathed in relief. The guard would come again at night....that meant he would not be coming in the afternoon? Good! With a lighter heart and mind, she immediately got around to cleaning the room. No matter what, she couldn't stand being in such filth even for a moment longer.

She waited till the first sun started moving towards the zenith, then silently peeked out of the cave.

The guard was sitting a bit away, and was currently nodding away in the drowsiness from the heat of the day. Beibei took a deep and long breath, then silently started working using her own powers.

She knew she had to knock out the guard before she could do anything else. So using the sharp rocks around the cave, she let out her energy to guide them upwards, making sure to keep them at a distance from the sleeping guard. Then using a sharp and strong momentum, one of the largest pieces of rock hit the guard on his head. The sleeping man did not get a chance to make a sound before he was knocked out.

The hit was quite strong, and blood gushed out from his wound, scaring Beibei. She did not want to kill someone. For a while she was unable to move, till finally she jerked out of the daze and ran up to the guard to check if he was truly dead. The breathing was faint.....but it was till there.

Beibei heaved a loud sigh of relief. Picking up the fallen body from the ground, she ran back to the cave. The clothes she had been given as part of her task as the 'pleasure girl' had already been ripped apart into strips. Strips she now used to tie up the guard with the leg of the bed, and completely gag and blindfold him.

And now she used the second power she had discovered in the past few days. Ice!

She had noticed this guy using his wind power in the past few days to open and close the stone at the entrance. She could only hope he did not have fire energy as well. She concentrated for a while, allowing the ice energy to seep out from her body. She doused the man in a generous amount of water after tying him up, and now she used the ice energy to freeze all the water drops, forming a thick case of ice all over him. The only space she left untouched was the nose and eyes.

Finishing the task, she slipped out of the cave, rolling the large stone back to its normal position. She glanced up at the sky. The sun was going higher up. Glancing around to make sure that no body was around, she made her way to the cave where the three people were being kept.

Since most of the commoners were in the mines right now, the guards of the cave quarters had been called off on other duties. Only a single guard remained near the two caves where the 'Fallen' commoners were being kept. This place had a lot more rocky hills and large boulders. Staying hidden behind them, Beibei quickly changed into a set of male commoner clothes which she had swiped from one of the cave quarters. Her fingers touched the ring hanging from a rusty chain coiled around her neck.

Her mind paused as she looked at the ring blankly. She did not know where she got this, nor who had given it to her. But somehow....it made her feel safe. It made her feel like.....like there were people out there who were waiting for her to come back. she turned her attention back to the guard.

Shoving the dirty clothes under the boulders, she used her wind energy once more, making some of the stones fly a distance away, then hit the shack at the other side. And as desired, the sounds caught the attention of the lone guard. He looked around in surprise, then frowned and got up to check who was wandering about the cave quarters at this time.

The shack was at some distance, beyond a small hill. So Beibei rushed forth to remove the stone from the entrance. Entering, she quickly checked out the three lumps, separating the other man who had fallen ill along with Menji. All of the three were unconscious, so throwing his body over her shoulders brought no response from the man.

She quickly slipped in to the other cave for keeping sick people and settled him at one corner, returned back to the first cave and then pulled at the large stone to cover the entrance once more.

However, now she was pulling the stone from the inside, so the stone did not fall back to its usual position, leaving a slightly larger gap than usual.

Beibei prayed fervently to Goddess Burorake that the guard wouldn't notice the slight difference, as she pulled the dirty and stinky sheets around her body and lay down on the side of the cave where the other bodies were laying. Now all she could do was wait. And hope that no one would find out the switch....at least not before she made it out of this camp...