On the night Dr. Diallo was transferred to the Midarans, Dr. Bravo and Sahel waited in the hologram room until around midnight. They never received a message back so they returned to their own rooms and agreed to meet up tomorrow morning. On the next day, while they were waiting in the hologram room, they heard the wind crack.
Sahel recognized the noise and knew it had to have been a gun. At first, he thought it was strange because the hologram room was far enough away from the military practice range. He then tried to assume it was Dr. Diallo being executed but it still didn’t make any sense why King Silas would choose to execute him using a gun or how he even got a gun to begin with. Dr. Bravo must’ve thought the same thing as Sahel because neither of them visibly reacted until the second gunshot. The doctor and Sahel made eye contact. The mystery behind Neema’s disappearance was solved.
Sahel stormed out of the room and went all the way to the fire wall that surrounded the human city. He inspected his tunnel to see if Neema used it too. He found no evidence of any digging around the wall. Then just as he began to walk away, he heard it. 213Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZ0sQ3MyP6
“Hey Enzo, let us back in!”
It wasn’t Neema, but it was definitely a human. Sahel ran down to where the voice came from. Then more gunshots rang out followed by a roar of fire and damned screams. No more voices came from the other side of the wall. Sahel was terrified and devastated. Which one of those cries of agony was his son? Did it matter? This meant war.
After Sahel gathered himself and returned to the hologram room, he arranged a meeting. The attendants would just be Dr. Bravo and Enzo. He scheduled the meeting to be that same day because it was urgent. When both Enzo and Dr. Bravo arrived, Sahel could tell Enzo already knew what this meeting was about. All Sahel did was tell Enzo about the gunshots and how one of the soldiers called out his name and immediately Enzo began to cry.
“I’m sorry!” Enzo cried out. “Neema and his friends attacked me and I didn’t know what to do! I couldn’t fight back!”
Enzo took quick breaths in between each sentence and had to blow his nose after he finished speaking.
“I see,” Sahel responded, “I’m glad that you didn’t willingly participate in this event. I don’t know who Neema may have killed or if he killed anybody at all. Regardless, we will be going to war soon.”
Sahel almost choked on that last sentence. The harsh reality was that the Midarans would easily win the war. He chose not to mention Enzo’s powers and his role in the war because he didn’t want to put so much pressure on him.
“That is all,” Sahel said, “I will have an in-depth plan for the war by tomorrow. I will keep all the students out the war, Dr. Bravo.” Dr, Bravo nodded and left the room. Enzo followed with his head down and he returned to his room.
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Enzo skipped training on the day after the meeting. He was depressed and couldn’t shed anymore tears because he had spent last night crying so much. He didn’t hear any of the gunshots, but he knew that Neema had to have killed somebody.
He managed to get dressed and went to the cafeteria in his building to get breakfast. It was favorite: pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The food had no flavor. It only took a couple bites before Enzo lost his appetite. The knife intrigued him, so he stuffed it inside his pocket and returned to his room. The room felt smaller and hollow. He passed by his mirror and stared into his eyes. They were empty. The redness had mostly gone away at this point, but his eyes felt dry. He pulled the knife out of his pocket and set it on his bed. What was I sad about again? Enzo thought.
He picked up the knife and put the blade to the side of his neck. The cleanup will be someone else’s problem, Enzo thought, that’ll be the last problem I cause. At the moment Enzo began cutting, Sahel entered the room.
“We’re having a briefing in a—,” Sahel said but was shocked by what Enzo was doing.
Enzo ignored Sahel and continued to cut. He hit an artery and blood began to spurt out of his neck. Blood shot onto the walls and Enzo kept cutting. Sahel yelled for a medic down the hall and tore a piece of his sleeve off to try and stop the bleeding. Enzo couldn’t cut himself anymore because he was too lightheaded. By the time Sahel had put his torn off sleeve to Enzo’s neck, Enzo had collapsed onto the floor. Sahel begged for Enzo to wake up, he had even hoped for himself to wake up and to find out that this was all a dream. No one is that lucky.
In a few moments, a couple medics arrived and got in between Enzo and Sahel. They put a gauze on the wound and wrapped bandages around it and his neck. It was terrifying to see the pale white bandages turn into a dark depressing red within seconds. The medics put Enzo on a stretcher and transported him to the hospital immediately. Sahel had to move out of the way so the medics could leave Enzo’s room. He stayed behind for a second and stared at the blood stains in the corner of the room. Sahel took a deep breath and thought, I should’ve stayed on Earth with you, brother.
Sahel began to debate himself on whether calling the medics into the room was the right choice or not. It’s what I had to do, Sahel thought, I can’t just let someone kill themselves in front of me. Then again, I may be at fault for making him feel that killing himself was the answer. Damn it! It doesn’t matter anymore. If he dies, then we all die when Midara finally attacks us. If he lives, I have to convince him to fight, by any means. He’s our trump card; our only way out.
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