Chapter 11 – Zulu

“Can you hear me?” Zed asks

With his legs chained to the floor, arms tied around the back of the chair and eyes coloured white, he gives no answer.

“He’s deaf to us now Zed” Zee tells him “You can tell by his fuzzy looking eyes.”

“It happened faster than when we got ours.” Zig says

“Did you get yours time then?” Zed responds

“No, but it’s barely been 10min.”

“The first stage isn’t meant to take too long” Zed answers, still looking at him who is tied to the chair.

“He is a good choice. Better pick then the others” Zee says, changing the subject

“I liked the girl better” Zag frowns

“And I don’t like being the only male in our unit” Zed speaks out

“Awwww” Zag laughs “don’t be like that” she moves to jump on Zed but he dodges, making her land on her knees

“Only 18” Zee speaks out “He is the youngest out of us to get it.”

“You sure he won’t change his position in time?” Zig asks “Won’t change his point of view from any sudden events?”

“Won’t change his position in time?” Zee repeats, pauses and smiles before answering “Oh he will.”

Giving Zee a look of weariness “You know what I mean” Zig says. “You’ve spent the most time with him.”

“He is very much like us. He will change if there is enough reason to.”

“It took us all over a decade in the field to get to how we are”

“Do you not trust my judgement” Zee says taking out her knife. “You can still stop this” she hands it to her.

“Stop it” Zed says “The both of you” grabbing the knife out of Zee’s hand. “We’ve both examined him for a time. Zee’s monitored him for over 2 years. If you had any objections you would have raised it earlier. You’re only worried because he looks young”

“He is young” Zig responds “Only 18 as Zee has pointed out.”

“I liked the girl” Zag says again. “She was better.” She sighs with dreamy eyes.

“You know why we didn’t choose her.” Zed speaks up “When it came down to it she was too passive, she wasn’t aggressive enough when the time called for it.”

“Who would have thought the most promising one would have coward in the corner at the last second.” Zig sighs and sits on the desk.

“He wasn’t the most promising” Zee smiles “Mine was…and is”

“There are no records of him before the age of 11” Zig states a fact that the four of them know

“The five year record we do have of him show him to be…highly intelligent but not a genius. The past 2 years of monitoring him proves that to be true, but not only is he smart he is calm but brutal, disciplined but relaxed and most of all he is decisive.” Zed says, now leaning against a wall of the room with no windows. “We can guess what he was doing before that though. Considering the fact our first records of him are in Noiizia”

They all nod in agreement, him first appearing in Noiizia said a lot about what he could have been doing in the past, even with this though Zig continues to voice her concern.

“That’s the problem. Over half of his life is unrecorded.”

“Are we going to start questioning each of our pasts now?” Zee asks the rhetorical question “since if we do…none of us should be here.”

“…He could have been living with the Non-Humans, a spy”

Taking another knife from her belt and offering it open handed “You can still stop this”

Staying on the wall, Zed watches and stays silent, this time choosing to do nothing but let the event take its course. If Zig really did not approve of him, she has all the right to stop it by killing him now.

Pushing the knife away “No” she replies “I’m sorry. I’m just agitated that my choice failed so miserably”

“If he was with the Non-Humans then it’s all the better for us” Zee says “We are officially on trying to kill them all, but un-officially…”

“I wonder what he is seeing” Zag asks sitting crossed legged in front of the chair and quickly changing the subject.

“You know what he is seeing” Zed says joining in to change it as well

“Everything” Zag says “but everything is different to all of us.” Recalling what she saw “What I saw wasn’t very…pleasant”

“A combination of everything you’ve seen in your life, with the added feeling helplessness, uselessness and dread” Zig recounts her vision. “Why does it twist your memory, it took me a while to sort out what was real and what was not.”

“You could ask the Major” Zed says “I would love to know the answer to that question as well”

“Only if we could find him” Zag says “Do you think he died?”

“Him, dead?” Zed laughs “He is too quick-witted for that.”

“Too paranoid you mean” Zig corrects.

“Yes…Too Paranoid” Zed repeats as they all go silent and look at him who is tied to the chair.

“You guys can leave.” Zee says after a while “You don’t need to be here for all three hours.”

“It’s better if we are all here” Zed says. “You remember your first moments of awakening don’t you?”

Looking down at her hands “Yes” she says scrubbing them as hard as she can without injuring herself “Sorry” she mumbles very quietly

“It’s past” Zed replies stoically, equally as quiet.

“AAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!” a scream starts emitting from the chair and he who is on it struggles to get out of his restraints; his eyes still fuzzy.

“See, I told you it’s happening faster than it did for us.” Zig says.

Grabbing a rag “We’re lucky he didn't bite his tongue off” Zag says putting it in his mouth, muffling the scream and removing the chance of that happening.

“It could be because he is young” Zee says “he is at least a dozen years younger than the youngest of us when we first wore it. Younger mind, less memory, stronger body.”

“Did you tell him what wearing that would do to him?” Zed asks

“Only that it was the key to everything he wanted”

“And he agreed to it with only that much information?” Zig asks sceptically

“He trust me Zig. I’ve taught him a lot in the past 2 years. Almost every day in the last 6 months”

“He isn’t your son Zee” Zed says firmly

Scrubbing her hands again she doesn’t reply.

“Guuyyzzz” Zag interrupts the conversation making the three of them turn to look at where she was looking and realize the muffled screaming had stopped “His eyes are red” she states.

“It’s not even been 30minutes.” Zig says getting off the table.

“Did something go wrong?” Zed asks getting of the wall.

“No, everything looks fine” Zee answers

The chains holding him down start to whine and begin to stretch.

Standing up “Lucky we all chose to stay” Zag says quickly taking the rag out of his mouth and going behind him to keeps his hands together.

“Zee” Zed says moving to retrain his feet.

“Yes, Yes” Zee answers moving forward to sit facing him on his lap and holding his face with both hands.

“Zig” Zed says.

“I’m at the door” she replies.

Feeling his skin heating to higher temperatures then normal Zee looks into his eyes “Can you hear me? Can you see me? Are you with me?” she asks but does not get a response; but she didn’t need one, she knows he can hear her and that he can see her.

“Stay calm, try to control your heart beat, Think about the breathing techniques I taught you. Use them. You are safe here.”

Feeling his temperature continue to rise

“Stay calm, try to control your heart beat, Think about the breathing techniques I taught you. Use them. You are safe here.” She repeats it like a recorder over and over and over again, holding his face in her hands and keeping her eyes locked with his.

The chains continue to whine, soon snapping and stopping Zee from speaking.

“Zee” Zed says “Get off him” still holding his legs.

“His eyes are still red” She replies.

“Get off him NOW” Zed demands as he his arms get pushed apart and receives a kick to his chest, sending him flying into the wall, breaking the table that was behind him.

An arms comes up and Zee goes up in to the air by the neck whilst another arm knocks Zag in the face, sending her at Zig.

“Stay calm” Zee says calming holding herself on his arm “Breathe”

Letting go and punching her in the chest, he sends her at Zed.

“Remember guys” Zed says catching Zee “We are to restrain him, not kill.” As his eye turns red.

“Yes Sir” Zig answers, as her eyes turn red.

“Aye” Zag answers, eyes turning red.

“Break his bones if you have to” Zee says “don’t let him leave this room” her eyes turning red too.

The room turn silent and steam starts rising from his body. Still in his chair everyone waits for anything. The temperature rises rapidly and the four spread around him.

“AAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!” He roars, standing up and breaking the silence.

Like a signal the roar sets everyone in motion. He dashes to the door but gets blocked by Zig so he jumps but receives a punch and gets sent to the ceiling. Instead of crushing into it though his feet lands upon it, allowing him to jump from it and head towards the broken table.

Zag coming off from the east wall body slams him in mid-air, pushing him towards the west, where Zee had jumped off to slam him from that side. Colliding in mid-air to force him directly into a vertical drop.

Just before hitting the ground he rolls and pushes Zee underneath him. Landing upon her and sending a full strength kick into her chest before punching Zag in the throat, Making Zee cough out blood and Zag clench her throat as she falls to the ground.

Zed comes from the front running at full force to tackle him to the ground, this time successfully pushing him down as Zig jumps to give another full body strike as Zed rolls off him.

The full bodied strike is foiled though as with Zed off his body he raises both his legs to perform a backflip and kick Zig back at the ceiling.

“Break his bones!” Zee says without hesitation recovering from the chest kick that cracked almost all her ribs.

“Aye” Zag responds as Zig kicks off the ceiling and times a strike with Zed to successfully get him back down instantly shattering his left shoulder bones.

“AAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!” he lets out another roar as his right shoulder bones get shattered as well before head butting both Zig and Zed, causing their holds to weaken just enough to break free and stand up.

Zee jumps again to kick him in the chest with the help of Zag from behind, but the kick never reaches as he dodges at the last second to body slam her into the wall. Causing her already cracked ribs to break and shatter.

Blood now covering his face and Zee on the ground he turns around with his useless arms to find Zig and Zag down at his feet. Breaking his legs, making him fall and knocking all sense of resistance from him.

“How is she?” Zed asks

“I’m fine” Zee responds coughing out blood. “He never hit my head”

A few minutes pass and his eyes go back to their original colour.

“It’s past” Zed says, as all their eyes change back as well.

“Why is it so dark?” he says regaining control of his limbs.

[System activation complete]

[Welcome **** ********]

[Night Vision Activated]

The room turns green through his right eye and he sees blood all over his hands and clothes.

“I…I…I’m sorry” he says looking down at his hands

“It’s alright” Zee says coming up to cup his face in her hands “It wasn’t your fault” still spitting blood as she speaks.

“It was so dark” he says “I heard you speaking. I thought it was a dream”

“It’s okay” Zee replies. “You had no control” looking directly at his eyes “Stay calm, breathe”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It might not have happened.” Zee answers “Zed’s didn’t”

“What is this” he asks removing himself from her care and standing up, touching the new gear on his head.

“The major called it Nous hub. We just call it the I.G.S. Short for intelligence gathering system” Zed answers. “Its main purpose is to provide the user with any information he or she wants. That be it legal or illegal ways, it is able to hack into everything.”

“The key to everything I wanted”

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A/N

I guess this wasn't a dump of information, but it will be coming, in the next, probably.

Another flash back. Be aware that they will be quite frequent.

Its not a bad thing right? since i do have to get information about what happened in the past and present time.

I won't ever label the chapter as "Flashback". Ill leave it up to you guys to realise.

Though you guys will probably realise what chapters they are by the titles after a time.

Thanks for reading ^.^

Hope to god i didn't the names mixed up...they are all so similar i kept typing the wrong ones at times >.>