Chapter 75: The Switch

I was still in a daze as Fiori pushed me in the truck. I collided with Benagher and hit my head on the opposing door. My body didn’t quite feel like mine. Emotions I had never experienced were still flooding all over me. So much tension in my hands, my arms, my legs while I felt lightheaded and nauseous.

“Are you ok, Fenn?” a voice asked me. I didn’t answer.

I heard the roar of an engine, and the truck took off. The driving felt hasty, but so were my thoughts.

I heard Benagher say: “They won’t be going after us.”

“Why not?” Meyer asked.

“Ted will want to recoup. This is too much commotion for him. His display of power, in front of the press, was mediocre at best. The security breach of his system will worry him. He will not risk endangering Fenn. He needs the boy. He needs him, alive. But more importantly, he will want to appear in control and that means making no rash decisions, or impulsive moves. His wrath will come later, for now we should be safe.” Benagher explained.

“Still, we need to be on our guard, desperation can radically change a man,” Yuki added.

The truck fell quiet again. I welcomed this silence. I was now sweating profusely and was having a hard time breathing.

Meyer noticed: “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” I harshly retorted.

Someone handed me a bottle of water. It just irked me more.

“I’m fine!” I shouted.

They left me alone.

The truth is, I wasn’t! There was nothing “fine” about me. My head was about to explode. Memories, memories, painful memories tearing me apart. I could see the murders. I could see myself. I was surrounded by lies. I was full of anger. I was pain, grief, and sorrow. I was everything I didn’t want to be. I could feel an urge growing inside of me. Rapidly like a tidal surge swallowing all that was me.

My eyes kept falling on Fiori. That man, always at the center of all my troubles. Yet, I owed him my life, over and over again.

We eventually reached mid-point. Just as Fiori had told, two vans were waiting there for us. Benagher took the driver’s seat in one. Meyer went on board with him. Fiori was about to join them when I screeched: “No. You come with Yuki, Evian and me. There is somewhere we need to go. I am done following your senseless orders.”

Fiori was about to object but before I knew it, my right hand tightened, and I laid a punch across his face.

It felt so good. The pressure on my brain released slightly. I rolled my neck to get some relief.

Fiori stumbled back, surprised. Then a smirk light up his face.

“Welcome back Fenn. I understand. Eva turned on the switch. Didn’t she?”

I frowned.

“So, what, if she did!”

“It’s all good,” Fiori calmly answered. “It’s a lot for you to take in right now, I am sure. But you need to come with us, we need to travel to the meeting point. We need to leave Antarticum.”

“That will have to wait,” I interrupted him. “We need to get what Ted couldn’t find.”

“What are you talking about,” Yuki asked.

“There is something hidden at my parent’s house. Something Ted wants. Something very important that Ted must not find. Evian knows where it is.”

“Evian isn’t going to survive, very long,” Fiori cautiously said.

“I KNOW!” I screamed still full of anger. “Somehow, I feel like, I should know what it is we are looking for. Evian must have told me. It’s there, somewhere in my head, I am sure! Evian talked about a journal, but it isn’t it. That was false information, for Ted. I just need more time to figure it out!”

“Time is a luxury, we don’t have,” Yuki cut in. “We need to get to Control Island B, before it is too late.”

“I am not enough to save humanity. We need that information hidden back at the house. Time or no time, we have no choice.” I gave a stern look to Fiori and waited for his answer.

He didn’t take long: “If we go quickly, we can still make the meeting point.”

“We don’t have time!” Yuki insisted.

“And how do we know this isn’t a set up! Do you even know what you are looking for?” Meyer chimed in.

“Why would it be a set up! Evian is on our side! Besides, look at him… what does he have to gain.” I pleaded.

“The kid is almost dead,” said Benagher, stating the obvious.

“So, what exactly are we getting at the house?” Fiori asked after a quick glance at Yuki.

“Information about B-24602. A name, maybe. A formula. I don’t know… really. But it’s important. I know it.”

“And Evian couldn’t tell you? Precisely?”

“He was afraid Ted might find out. He said, the least one knows, the better it is. I am not even sure, if he, himself, knew what that information was. But it’s there. I know! I feel it.”

“What exactly is that you are feeling?” Fiori asked genuinely curious.

“The need to go there. The need to go get something I left there. I feel like I should know where to look. I feel like I’ve seen it over and over again. It’s just feelings. My memories are all tangled up, but this feeling is reel and has been with me since my last meeting with Evian.”

“That’s not enough! We can’t jeopardize our only chance at escaping Antarticum, for a hunch!”

“What’s the point of escaping this hell, if we can’t survive the hell to come!” I snapped.

“What did Evian tell you?” Fiori asked clearly interested.

“He only talked of a journal. But that’s not it. That was for Ted. That was a ploy.”

“Evian planted false information in your brain to send Ted on a wild goose chase?”

“Something like that!”

“That’s fine, but there must be more. There must be something else,” Fiori questioned.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“If it is that important, he must have told you!” Yuki said irritated.

“Maybe he did tell you, in other ways. Maybe it was something he didn’t talked about. Maybe something, he showed you?” Fiori probed.

“Memories. He showed me a lot of memories.”

“Anything else… anything that stood out.”

“Lianna. I saw her, a lot. I saw her pain. I heard her music.”

“A music book?”

“No, in all my memories, there never was a music book, only a picturebook. Ah! The picturebook! ‘P for poppies,’ he said, ‘the flower of remembrance’. There was a field of poppies. It felt unusual. It was the first time I saw it. He then said to me: ‘The journal is hidden in Hana’s old bedroom under a loose plank of her floor. I placed it there before turning myself in, to the government.’ But that last bit was for Ted!”

“The poppies were for us!” Fiori said victoriously.

It rubbed me the wrong way.

“It was for me!” I corrected him. “We have to look for poppies! A field, maybe, and the picturebook! Last time, a page was missing… the yellow bird was gone. Or maybe that’s not it. I don’t know. It is so confused in my head, right now.”

Fiori gave a harsh look at Yuki.

“Fine, let’s go to the house and look for poppies!” Yuki decided without waiting. They tossed Evian on the back seat and climbed into the second van, followed by Fiori and me.

Just as we took off, Fiori rolled down the window and yelled at Benagher: “Take care of Meyer. We’ll meet up in twelve hours.”

I was still angry. But I was also curious. I sat next to my brother. I quietly rested my hand on his. His pulse was so low. I did the one thing I could do best. I shared with him my energy until I dozed off exhausted.