Chapter 16
Light & Field Craft
“Before we arrive, I expect you to have your camou on!” said Arnold.
End was stuffed inside Arnold’s armored mini coup as Arnold drove him to the camp site. Arnold’s sheer size meant that he occupied almost 70% of the space in his car. End could never understand this man’s obsession with small things. In the vehicle, End put on his camou face paint on. He was driven up to link up with the rest of his platoon in the LFC. It was only after about a five-hour drive that they arrive at their destination. There were many tall trees around the camp site, which was already set up well. As End came down from the vehicle, he stumbled because he could no longer feel blood in his legs having been cramped up for so long.
The recruits who had came earlier had chosen this slightly elevated spot so that any enemy would have to charge up a hill. There were barbed wires around the camp area. There were some designated toilet areas, and many tents that had been pitched. A camp like this was built to house all two hundred and fifty recruits from Raven Company.
“This is Raven Company’s site. All the other companies and schools are also part of this LFC survival course.” Said Arnold. Arnold went forth and made the announcement to his bunk-mates that End had arrived. Beef was just enjoying his instant noodles with his usual gang when he saw End. Beef growled at him.
“End will join you. I see that you finally have your camp up and proper after about a thousand push-ups throughout this week. Good.” Said Arnold.
Arnold took a long sip of his new espresso cup. He had bought a new one, ever since the last one exploded. In his pocket was a collection of them, all of them coming in exciting new colors. Arnold sipped from a calming blue espresso cup, after seeing that the camp site is done up prim and proper.
“The Purpose of this LFC training is not to test you on everything you have learnt so far. No one can know everything. What it is really about, is teamwork. You must learn to depend on each other’s skill sets to survive.”
Arnold took a sip and continued.
“You are required to survive as a team of any number for one month. There will be a lack of food, so all the platoons in the forest will be fighting for the limited rations that will be dropped into the forest in random locations. You are to conduct search parties for these rations, and you will be given Blanks as ammunition. These blank rounds stun, but do not kill the opponent, and yes you will be required to use them to safeguard your team, and to feed your stomach. May I remind you that this is a test, so any unruly violence will be punished. You might think you are alone, but there are invigilators from the Commando of Light unit hidden in the trees, watching your every move. Anyone who quits will drop out immediately from the LightCatching course. Understood?”
“Yes Arnold!”
“Carry on!” said Arnold as he placed his espresso on a sort of espresso shrine in his car, and drove off.
End grabbed his full pack and rejoined his platoon. He saw Billy, and Billy was happy to see him.
“Who is the platoon sergeant?” End asked Billy.
Beef was seated on a stool, and using his Swiss army knife to carve out a wooden doll. As he looked up to see End, he chopped off the wooden doll’s head.
“That would be me. I have been waiting for you.”
End walked up to Beef.
“Do you have a place for me, PS?”
“Sure. Put your things down at that tent over there, and report back for work immediately.”
End went forth towards the tent. In a flash, Beef had stunned End with a flash blank bullet. The rest of the platoon looked on in horror. End fell to the ground in excruciating pain. Beef called out his gang to grab hold of End’s wrist and hold him down.
“I am doing everyone a favor. He will slow us down. If this were a real war, we would have lost the moment he joined us.”
Beef walked over to End who was almost fainting from the sudden shock pain. He stuck the sticker like thin film of plastic that he had bought from the war mart, and stuck it on End’s wrist. The digital tattoo, which was End’s viewfinder, emerged on the thin film, and as Beef tore the film off, End’s viewfinder was removed. End felt the most excruciating pain. Beef faced End and spoke.
“The VFR 100, Viewfinder Remover. Always comes in handy. At first, I was preparing it for anyone who challenged my power during the LFC. But after what you did to me in the bunk, I decided that person was going to be you.”
Beef turned to face everyone once more.
“Gentlemen, with this VFR, we are going to dominate and survive this LFC. Tie him up. Let’s get to work!”
It was only hours later that End woke up, he found himself tied up to a chair. Beef was running through a plan with his gang.
“That’s a great plan chief!” said Guile Wayne.
“Of course. Tonight, we are taking down these three platoons.”
“If you resort to this method, others will notice, and attack you,” said End.
“Let them. By the way, do you wish to be stunned again?” asked Beef.
“You will be attacked, and people will suffer,” said End.
Beef looked at the Wa Brothers who were watching from a distance.
“You two, take him outside and tie him to the pole there!” commanded Beef.
“Beef, it’s raining.” Said Andy WA.
“You have a problem with my orders?” asked Beef.
Andy and Larry brought End out into the rain. Quietly, they stuck a device next to End.
“I’m sorry we can’t do anything about the cold, but this invisible Light umbrella will help shield the rain.” Said Andy.
“And Billy Gin over there will try his best to use whatever he uses to provide you with some heat.”
End saw Billy Gin hiding in a corner. Billy was dancing on the ground, and the waves that he was producing were providing heat to End through the umbrella. Billy was really tired, but he was dancing as hard as he could.
The clouds threatened with a tinge of grey before letting loose their heavy burst of heavy. The rain came down, but did not strike End at all. Patrick from Beef’s gang, was always very observant in such situations. He whispered into Beef’s ears. Beef was enraged.
“I want the Wa brothers and Billy here now! I want their VFs.”
And so the Wa Brothers and Billy got their VFs stripped as well. Patrick destroyed the umbrella and water began to pour over End’s hair, on to his face and on to his lips. He could hardly open his eyes in the heavy rain.
After a few hours, he was shivering. With the lack of food and the extreme cold, he kept himself warm by using meditation taught to him by Mahatma, to convert whatever energy he had left into light and heat. What happens, he mustn’t fall sick, he told himself. As the sun peeked through the clouds to see if he was awake, Beef came to see him to ask him if he ever dared to speak again.
“Do you still wish to speak?”
End was quiet. Beef walked off smiling.
“I thought so.”
“Why is that when there isn’t enough for everyone, your first instinct is to snatch more from others, instead of finding a solution to find more for everyone?” mumbled End through his tired breaths.
End was left for another two nights in the rain. But no matter how Beef and gang tortured him, End would insist on his vision. What Beef did not understand was why End was writing complex mathematical formulas in the sand. Beef felt that End had probably gone mad, and got tired of toying with him and went about his mission.
For the first week, Beef’s campaign met with instant success. With the assistance of Patrick, Mickey, Guile and Ed John, their platoon ambushed a few other platoons by stunning and capturing them and their rations. He would rip their VFs off, and keep them as prisoners. As time grew by, he found that he was beginning to have more prisoners than prison guards. Then came the complication that he had to feed the prisoners, a feat that he began to neglect. One night, after he denied an entire co
mpany of POWs (prisoner of war) their meals, a commando invigilator pounced down from the trees and told him off.
“According to the rules of engagement, you are not allowed to ill treat a prisoner of war. Feed them or we will deduct fifty packets of rations from you.”
“Very well.”
To cover up his previous mistake, Beef thought of an ingenious and cruel plan. He would strip all his prisoners of their Viewfinders and rifles, and leave them to roam about the forest themselves. They would have no food and no weapons to fight back, and anyone who opposed Beef’s company would be stunned with his blanks. As I said, this was both ingenious and cruel, as Beef now had no responsibility for their hunger. The prisoners either joined with him eventually, or began scrapping for food in the forest.
As for the high usage of Light energy during his reign of terror, there were mobile Darkrooms scattered across the forest. However, Beef made the active decision not to use them. Firstly, he thought they were a waste of time to travel to. And secondly, he used them as ambush points to further his ambition to control all in the LFC. The Dark energy began to build up in his heart, and though the VF does not transform the dark energy into anything useful, it began to corrupt his heart and mind. Beef found himself more ruthless as the weeks went by, sometimes torturing his prisoners with no reason at all. He embraced his newfound savagery.
Watching these events unfold, a few commando invigilators gathered on top of a tall tree with Arnold just above Beef’s camp to address this problem. It seemed pretty amazing how the huge burly Arnold could balance on a small twig. The other commandos did not understand how he did it either.
“The prisoners are starving, we should intervene now!” said Arnold, “I don’t understand why they have changed the LFC syllabus into this dog eat dog test. It was supposed to be a simple outfield survival course.”
“Look Arnold, I don’t understand it either, but these are the last minute instructions from Amon himself,” said an invigilator. Arnold pondered hard. As he was thinking hard, he looked down and saw Beef celebrating the night like it was a joyous occasion. His platoon was laughing and joking in the camp, while the prisoners were roaming outside the confines of his guarded defensive area with true hunger. Arnold looked at the recruits with pain in his eyes.
“So what vocation do you think Beef belongs to?” asked one invigilator.
“Are you insane?” said Arnold.
“I am just doing my job.”
“Your job is to ensure that the recruits are well trained.”
“No. That’s your job. My job is to assess what vocation best suits them!”
Arnold shook his head. He saw some recruits lying on the outskirts of Beef’s camp. They were hungry and thirsty, but Beef just won’t let them in.
“This is too much!” Said Arnold, “I have to help them.”
“No Arnold, you can’t. This is under the strict training directives of the Ministry of Defense.”
“And if I do?”
“Then we have to stop you.”
Arnold looked at the commandos with a dull look, and a confident and sarcastic laugh.
“I don’t want to hurt you. So please don’t try to stop me!”
The Invigilators surrounded him, to stop his next move. Arnold growled and began to warm up for a fight. All of them began charging up their VFs until the glows coming from all their VFs were so intense that the moon looked like a caned-light. Suddenly, one of the invigilators pointed to something.
“Wait! Arnold, Look!”
Arnold noticed that End had acquired a sharp piece of rock and had sawed his way out of his ropes. He escaped the confinements of Beef’s camp and stole some rations from the reserves. There he saw Billy Gin.
“I need to escape. Will you join me?”
Billy Gin was happy.
“Ow!…”
End covered his mouth.
“I get it. Let’s just go!” said End.
End also sneaked into the tent of the Wa Brothers with Billy Gin, and woke them up.
“I need you guys.”
“Yes boss!” echoed the Wa Brothers as they left Beef’s camp with End.
Arnold smiled as he saw End’s enterprising move. He looked at the other invigilators with a smile.
“That boy just saved your necks.”
“But so what if he escapes? What makes you think that boy can make a difference?”
“Because he is a puny insect.” Answered Arnold, “No one will see him coming.”
With the help of the Wa Brothers and Billy Gin, End escaped the camp. End instructed his team to run out deep into the forest and gather each and every starving ex-prisoners. He shared his stolen rations and water with them to quench their hunger. The ex-prisoners were so hungry that they swallowed almost everything whole. End then told them what he had in his mind.
“With your help, we are going to take over Beef’s base.”
“But how? We have no Viewfinders.”
“If you can help me gather some materials, I can build some for everyone.”
“Where did you learn to build VFs?” asked Andy Wa.
“I needed that final piece I couldn’t understand for the longest time. While I was tied up and left in the rain, I finally understood the final piece of the puzzle.”
“What is it?”
“Total internal reflection.”
No one understood what he meant.
“If you will have faith in me, I won’t let you down. Help me gather the equipment, and within three days, I will build new VFs.”
The men thought to themselves that if they didn’t give this a shot, they would starve and be forced to exit the training anyway. And so, like men possessed, the ex-prisoners from several platoons set out to gather any and all raw materials that End had instructed them to. The materials included prisms, pieces of glass and any and all fragments of past VFs that may have been damaged and discarded during the jungle training of previous batches of LightCatchers. Within a night, End had created very primitive looking viewfinders. It looked ugly and like a big box sitting on some of the recruit’s arms.
“Wah” said both the Wa brothers.
“So that’s where the final mirror goes, that’s the part we couldn’t figure out.” Said Larry Wa, who was learning fast.
“Did anyone ever tell you that you are a genius?” said Andy.
“Never in my life.” Replied End, still wiping the sweat off his forehead.
The Wa brothers looked at each other, and then at End.
“You are a genius.” They said at the same time. End smiled.
“You guys are the real geniuses, this is the only device I know how to make.”
“But you are an inspiration. Seeing you work, we didn’t waste our time either.”
“Yeah, me and my brother were so angry with the way Beef was running things.
“So we came up with something and we would like to show you.”
Andy and Larry attached to their wrist the primitive VF, which looked like a giant tissue box. Together, they used their VFs to draw out a three-dimensional diagram to show their intentions.
“Beef won’t see this coming a mile away.”
“We call it The ‘Lightning Bolt connection.’”
But all attempts to make their presentation exciting failed when the technicalities were too confusing for End to understand. Andy looked at End’s wrinkled up face after their twenty minute explanation, and decided to just tell it straight to him.
“Basically, we found a way to hack into his photon rifles for good.”
“We can switch off the enemy’s photon rifles for a good minute.”
“But of course the more light we have, the more powerful the connection.”
End laughed.
“How did you guys do it?”
“A Passion for design.” They both echoed at the same time. End patted them on their back. As both the brothers walked off to further their design discussion, Billy Gin walked up to En
d and tapped him on the shoulder. He was usual silent self, but he seemed to be very happy. He ushered End to follow him to a tent.
“Where were you?”
Billy used hand gestures to make a capital “C” sign, and did it twice.
“CC? Charlie Charlie? Charlie Charlie company. Oh. Are you alright? It’s not safe there.”
Billy smiled. He did a little dance to show that everything was just swell. Yes, we already knew he was a good dancer, but today, he seemed overjoyed about something. Billy had built this tent himself, but it was what’s inside the tent that he was so excited about. As they went deeper into the tent, there was a piece of cloth covering some device. Billy looked at End, took a breath, and finally unveiled his new discovery.
“What is it?” asked End as he saw what Billy had to show him. End couldn’t quite understand. But then again, you needed to be a Club DJ to understand.
It was an old school DJ’s turn table that must have been designed somewhere in the year 2800. It was about three inches thick and was rectangular in shape. It was the size of a good decent medium sized backpack. It had two circles drawn on it at the two sides, and a central portion where a mixer was, so that the user could adjust levels. It was slick in design, with its black and scratch-proof surface. How ironic, thought Billy, that a turntable would called scratch-proof.
“So what is it?” asked End.
Billy gestured for End to watch, as he began his live demo. He began powering the machine up with his light. As the machine came alive, so did he. He began putting music from his own memory into the device. As he scratched and played with it, the area lit up. The colorful lights that were coming from his music, seemed to behave like air molecules as they diffused into the air and into the surrounding makeshift camp. The music in the form of colorful air molecules floated till they reached the ears of the Wa brothers. Billy Gin then pointed to End to speak.
“I don’t understand, what do you mean?” asked End. Billy Gin was gesturing him to speak up. Just then, End remembered their short signal lessons.
“Wait a minute. Are you saying I can communicate with them?”
“Communicate with who?” asked Larry Wa.
“Hey, nice music!” End heard the voice of Andy Wa.
“Wow, I can hear you.” said End.
“Woah. What is this? I can hear you too.” Said Andy.
End looked outside the tent, Andy is at least four hundred metres away. End looked at Billy, amazed but what he had accomplished.
“You have just set up a communications network with this music device. Astounding.” Said End.
Billy Gin smiled and gave End the thumbs-up. As long as he was spinning music, there would be a communications network. End thought for a moment.
“Guys, can you hear me?”
Everyone in End’s camp could hear End, it was an open network.
“Billy, are you able to limit the network to our allies only?”
Billy, made some configurations with the mixer and gave him the thumbs-up once more. As End turned around, Billy tapped him on the shoulder once more. He scratched the disc, and a ear-piercing signal was sent throughout. Everyone covered their ears.
“You jammed our hearing range. Awesome!” said Andy.
End thought hard about what this meant. He didn’t have to think long.
“Gentleman. I have a plan to get back our rifles and ammunition.” End announced to everyone at his makeshift camp.