Chapter Three: The Inside World
He checked his watch, “11:43pm” it said. It was late, he needed sleep, but he was not quite yet done. He sighed inwardly and set his glasses on the table, rubbing his temples. He wiped his glasses using his shirt and put them on. Then he switched the lamplight off, put the files in his drawer and stared out to the dark night. The moon wasn’t up.
He put the files in his drawer and dragged his chair back and got up. He was about to turn and leave when he saw it; the ball of light.
He stopped abruptly in his tracks and watched the ball of light. It illuminated the darkness as it came zooming towards his office window. It did not even stop at the window’s glass, it slipped through naturally like the light it was, and stopped brusquely in front of his face. He showed no emotion as the ball of light hovered in front of his glasses, he just looked on wearily.
Then the ball of light burst with a small, quiet thud into a green screen, on it were the typed words; MISSON ACCOMPLISHED and a cursor was blinking at the end. He nodded and the green screen shrunk into a ball of light once more but this time, glowed three times red and then exploded with the same small thud into nothing, leaving only a shower of white sparks sinking into oblivion.
He looked at the invisible air where the ball of light had just burst and nodded to himself.
So the boy had received the Transformat. Excellent. Arrangements must be made to retrieve the boy from wherever he is, keep a tab on him, until he is ready… ready to save the world.
James hit the stone cold floor so hard his ears were ringing and black spots filled his eyes. He got up slowly and shook his head, trying to discard the specks of black and the persistent ringing in his ears. He looked around slowly. They were in a kind of cave, a modernized cave, and a little funky smelling, he wrinkled his nose. All around him stalactites and stalagmites hung from the red roof and protruded from the cold wrinkled floor. But these stalagc-things glowed a soft flickering white light from within like huge lamps, illuminating the whole cave. They were arranged in rows, not totally perfect rows, some were crooked and uneven. The light made the whole place seem so isolated and distant and quiet, you could hear your own breath in this piercing silence. James felt the last of the alcohol seep through his shoes and filter into the floor like red, hard ground, amazingly.
Groans all around him announced the wakefulness of the others.
Leo groaned beside him as he spoke. ‘What happened?’
‘Oh I’ll tell you what happened. Seli lashed out at Leo, and maybe James and Jones too. ‘Your stupid big headedness happened. Venturing out into stupid unnecessary tasks like you own the world’
‘Seli… calm down’ Leo said.
‘Shut up. I won’t calm down. I tried to tell you didn’t I? But apparently I was being paranoid’ Seli finished, staring butcher knives at Leo, and slipping some at James.
‘But you came along!’ Leo said impatiently.
‘BECAUSE I WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT…’
‘Shhhh…’ James warned.
‘James Winter don’t you dare…’ Seli started threateningly but James pointed northeast and she shut up, thankfully.
A man was sitting there, beneath one of the stalactite light, reading a book with his leg crossed. James wanted to go and ask him for help but before he could move or think, a dark figure run past one of the stalagc-lights, disappearing from sight. The lights flickered and blinked and wavered more than usual in the shadow’s wake, making small electric hums and crackles.
The man, who was wearing a white long sleeved shirt and trousers with black boots and a black cap that was resting on his lap; James guessed him to be a cop, seemed not to notice, but James saw him slip a hand to his side quietly. The shadow reemerged a few feet from the cop and shot him with a pistol.
The cop was faster, though, in the next flicker of light he had jumped up, somersaulted in the air and landed on the floor so quickly he was almost a blur. The other guy’s bullet missed him by a wide gap and he instantaneously took out his own gun from its sheath and fired. It hit the attacker’s chest and the attacker was lifted off his feet and banged in the floor, some colorless liquid streaming out of the gun wound.
‘Germs’ the man muttered, shaking his head. ‘They never learn’ the cop slid his gun back into its holder. Big mistake.
In the next flicker of light, another man had appeared behind the cop and stabbed him in the back. The cop cried out and fell facedown to the floor, the knife’s handle sticking out of him, the same colorless liquid escaping through the knife’s side.
‘Guardians,’ the murderer said. ‘Always arrogant’
The man had pale, cold eyes that could make you believe he was lifeless if he played dead. He wore a dark jacket and black, thick trousers and gloves. He removed his knife from the cop and wiped it against the cop’s own shirt. Several figures appeared shadows in the next light falter and James held out his arms to the others to indicate they retreat backwards.
“Well done, Rozin, sir” a bulky man said to the murderer.
“Thank you” Rozin said and maybe he was really appreciative, but the coldness of his voice suggested he was talking to pathetic slaves. His eyebrows were arched and his hair was deep brown.
“Yes, now sir, with all due respect I suggest we retreat now” came a small voice, its owner belonged to a small man or even boy and he was having a real difficulty hiding the terror magnifying in his voice.
“No” Rozin said firmly. “We stay here”
“But sir, very soon Guardians will be coming and…”
“We stay here, Cane” Rozin repeated, staring into the small Cane’s eyes. ‘Those were Singar’s orders and unless you want to go contrary to them and betray him, I think we should stay here”
Cane seemed to want to hesitate but Rozin’s eyes pierced him and he succumbed. “Yes sir”
‘Good, now spread out and scan the area” Rozin instructed.
“Yes sir” Rozin’s men murmured and dispersed, each one going in different directions.
James, Jones, Leo and Seli, who had calmed down, exchanged looks. Rozin didn’t seem like he would want to have dinner with someone who spied on him.
Just then the air was filled with a “Psssst, Psssst, hey kids”
They turned to see a man in a corner, beckoning them wildly to come over to him. James raised his eyebrow at Leo.
“Well, that guy, (he pointed to Rozin) is certainly not friendly so I vote yes”
“Ok. C’mon then” James said since none of them wanted to vote otherwise.
They were halfway through the cave to the beckoning man when a strangled cry came out from behind James, who was leading the group. They turned to see Jones being strangled by one of Rozin’s men. Jones cried out and struggled, scratching any part of the man he could find and giving him weak blows.
The man sank a fist into Jones’ face with a loud crack and thud.
‘No’ James cried, abandoning all attempts at stealth. The man seemed to think he couldn’t handle James and the others alone so he dragged Jones back and pointed his gun at James. He shouted ‘Guys, Rozin! I got someone, some people, but I cannot take them alone.’
James heard footsteps but he didn’t care, he needed to get Jones, he was Michel’s treasure. He couldn’t bear to see the look on Michel’s face if James told him Jones was missing…or dead.
James prepared to lunge at the man and snatch Jones from him but a pair of hands grasped him and pulled him back. He looked around at the person who had done this; he guessed it was the beckoning man. He was in a long brown cloak and had a black hat propped on his head.
‘Listen, you can’t do anything for him’ the man said. “Can you possibly fight all those men by yourself? You don’t even know how to. Let’s go, the Germs aren’t going anywhere, we’ll get your friend back’”
James struggled pointlessly. He knew the man was right. But what was the part about “Germs” and “cells”. Had he heard right? Or was th
e man cray cray? A bullet soared over their heads and James stopped struggling. The man was right; they had to go, before he James loses Seli and Leo too. A mass of Rozin’s men came charging at them, drowning Jones and his captor from view.
‘I’ll find you’ James whispered before Jones’ bleeding face was blocked from view. James started to run, following the man as bullets escaped the barrels of guns, making louder noises that echoed so loud, you’d think the place was gonna fall, due to the emptiness of the place. The man made a sharp turn and James had to narrowly avoid a wall to follow him. They were walking in some kind of tunnel now.
‘Who are they?’ a man shouted.
‘I don’t know. I can’t see their faces properly.’
The man made a hairpin bend again but this time, stopped in front of something. James couldn’t see what it was; his eyes were still trying to get attached to this eerie total darkness. Then the darkness shifted and he saw a black car which the man was trying to unlock. The darkness was attacking him also. Then a click of keys and thuds in the car was heard and they man beckoned them to sit in.
‘Hurry, sit at the back and keep your heads down!’
They did so and the man started the engines just as a bullet whizzed past the car, then several gunshots followed. The man stepped on the accelerator with all his might as if stepping on a particularly pestering, annoying insect. They car banged into movement and James, for some reason, rolled the window down and poked his head out of it. A bullet was shot straight at him, very well aimed to hit his head.
But he saw the bullet coming to him in slow motion, as if something had just kicked a soccer ball weakly at him. It was weird, bullets were supposed to be very, very fast but he could see it coming, spiraling slowly, making its way through the air. He dodged it just before it hit his head; the bullet hit the rearview mirror.
The man groaned. ‘Close the window’ he instructed. ‘Do you want to get yourself killed?’
James quietly rolled the window up and crouched down. Now, he felt as if he could dodge any bullet at all. Keep ‘em coming.
They drove in silence until the man turned at a place called Bone Marrow: Blazing Blossom according to a huge signboard that welcomed visitors into the estate. They drove on, the car tires crunching gravels and humming slightly. James tried to get a look at the estate but the man kept telling him to put his head down.
‘Why? It’s not like those people are following us now is it?’ James got no answer.
After a few minutes, the man, oh James needed to know his name, got down and walked around a bit, obviously scanning the area. After a few more seconds he opened the back seat and they got down from the car, James was already getting pins and needles in his thighs and legs. The man groaned and pushed them into the house, where he turned the key in the lock and ushered them inside.
He switched on the lights which emanated from a golden chandelier that hung above them. Directly in front of them was the sitting room, made up of seats and a TV, that’s all. And the dining table was in the kitchen which was beyond the sitting room, spookily like Michel’s house.
James, Seli and Leo slumped themselves into the seats, and the man sat opposite them, eyeing them.
James said nothing, so did his friends. Then the man started talking. ‘I suspect you want to know what happened tonight.’
‘Yes, because I’m pretty sure we were swallowed by Nemo,” Leo said and Seli nodded but James had more pressing matters to deal with. Firstly…
‘What is your name?’ James asked. He couldn’t stop himself.
The man smiled and said, ‘Most sensible question of the night, you kids keep talking nonsense, no manners.”
Leo frowned but James saw a searching look in the man’s face, as if he was looking for the answer, but that can’t be, looking for your own name? Nah. But James did not trust the man, despite the fact that he had saved James life.
‘My name is Rognard, S-ah, Lyan.’
‘Rognard S-ah Lyan?’ Leo asked.
‘Very funny’ Rognard said, not smiling at all, ‘It’s Rognard Lyan. It was just a slip of tongue.’
‘And what just happened back there? Who were those guys who took Jones?’ James said before any of them could utter any word.
‘They are Germs’ Rognard said indifferently.
James laughed and then abruptly stopped, seeing the serious look on Rognard’s face.
‘You can’t be serious’
‘I am serious.’ Humans only see Germs as some filthy wormy things through instruments they call microscopes.
‘I’m guessing you are not human’ Leo said.
‘Take it like that’ Rognard said nastily. James was about to retort but Leo interrupted hastily. ‘So what are you then? Huh?’
I am a… cell’ Rognard answered. ‘I think it is owing to that thing (he pointed at James’ Transformat) that you are now witnessing a world humans cannot see, a world partially seen through those microscope things.’
‘We are humans too’ James said in a for-your-information sort of way.
‘I know that, but if you keep blubbing out that to other cells you will get shot straight away” Rognard warned.
‘They’re that straightforward?’ Leo asked.
‘Yeah, it’s a cycle of life here’ ‘Cells kill Germs and other intruders without a second thought. There’s nothing like jail or court here, just direct justice.’
‘When do we get to meet them’ Seli asked, as if she hadn’t heard Rognard’s last sentence.
‘Tomorrow. That reminds me, you have to go to bed, I’ll show you around Nemo tomorrow’ And James, you will please stop bleeding on my carpet, hm?’
James looked down and saw that he was bleeding from his knee again; Nemo’s alcohol may have clotted the blood when he fell inside.
‘Er, do you have any spirit?’ James asked uncertainly, he didn’t know if cells had spirits or any human thing.
‘I got human alcohol and cell alcohol, your choice?’
‘Human- how exactly did you get that?’
‘There’s some in the cabinet in the kitchen and some cotton in the first aid box also in the cabinet.’ Rognard said, refusing to answer James’ question. “Good night, oh, select one of the rooms upstairs, each, hm.’
‘I don’t trust him’ James said darkly when they heard Rognard banging his door upstairs.
‘We’ll talk later okay, I need some sleep’ Leo said, making his way upstairs.
‘Goodnight James’ Seli said, ruffling James’ hair and following Leo upstairs. James felt something like water flow through him from the spot on his head Seli ruffled, he ignored it.
James knew they didn’t believe him, he didn’t even know why he didn’t like Rognard himself. He must be grateful that Rognard took them in when other cells would not even apprehend him but shoot him dead. But deep inside he knew something was just wrong…