Our own dark silhouettes stretched out on the jagged walls. The rustling sound of water reached my ears the lower we descended into the abyss.

The metal railing felt slippery underneath my palms. I fought to regain my balance after accidentally missing a step. It was dimly lit, and the scent of moss and soil filled the air. From the view I could make out a tall waterfall flowing through the aragonite crystals that jutted out of the wall, where more of these pipes were connected to. Multiple stalactites, green and blue, hung from the top, almost reminding me of icicles. A large lake stretched out in front of us, and General Andrew knelt down on one knee at the edge and peered at it, frowning.

“So...” I stumbled over my left foot again as I reached the bottom of the stairs. It was so eerie and cool in here, but hundreds of colorful rocks glowed around us. My voice echoed against the vast, empty walls that stretched miles and miles apart from us. “So what’s the matter with this water again? Is it undrinkable?”

He turned around, accidentally pointing the flashlight in my face. I squinted my eyes and turned my head away from the bright glare.

“Sorry about that,” he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yes, our scientists told us that this water tests positive for cholera. It causes severe dehydration and diarrhea amongst those who drink it. You see those pipes over there?”

I followed his crooked finger. There were so many of them that they looked like snakes slithering across the rock walls. It took me a while to locate the main one, which was bigger than the rest and located right underneath the flow of the giant waterfall on the other side of the lake.

“Destroy that pipe. The main one.”

“Pardon?”

“I need you to go across the water and find a way to break that thing so that it stops distributing the contaminated water to not just Portia, but the other cities as well. We need to filter the water before it can be used for drinking and other necessities before more people get infected.”

I began to fumble with the laces on my shoes. I kicked them off, and then slipped the backpack off my shoulders. It landed on the ground with a thud. The rocky surface of the ground beneath me felt uncomfortable against the soles of my feet.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Hold on.”

General Andrew gave me a funny look.

“How long will the water be shut off? I know the pipes are contaminated, but what will the people of these cities drink in the meantime? It’s only temporary, correct?”

“Oh, no, don’t worry. They won’t have running water for about two days. Our men already have shipped dozens of bottled water from Jova for them in the meantime and will continue to do so until this issue gets fixed. It would be better for the civilians to have access to clean water in a bottle than filthy ground water.”

I stared at him for a moment, before bending down and rolling up my pant legs. He folded his arms.

“What, you don’t trust us? We are doing what is best. If you don’t believe me, I can show you some results of the tests that we got from our scientists to prove it. People are sick.”

“No, no, it’s not that...” I stammered. “It’s just that...um....what about the Khonies? What will they drink? They’re going to have bottled water handed out to them, right? They should. I know they’re—“

“Don’t worry about them. They will have what they need in the maximum security areas. I will show you what one looks like, okay? They provide them with decent food and water, although it won’t be the same quality as the citizens drink. Which doesn’t matter anyways, since it would be a waste of money. Everything is fine.”

“But—“

“Mouse, many peoples’ lives are at stake here. Focus on the real issue, please. You do what you are told. Hurry up and follow orders. I promise, I will show you all the evidence you want.”

The man had such a confident look in his eyes I knew it was pointless to argue with him. It was wrong to question such an important figure of authority, but I had so many questions running in my mind. Maybe others, along with Rufus, had been sick because of this issue. I twisted my ear by instinct when I thought about his name.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

When my bare foot touched the surface of the water, a thick patch of ice began to spread out. Slowly, I held my arms out as I took my first few steps, the crunchy sound of crystal clear ice forming beneath my toes. It felt slippery and wet, and I ended up falling several times, the waves lapping around me. White foam formed at the bottom of the waterfall, where more of those beautiful stones were located.

I held both hands out towards the pipe, feeling a heavy stream of water rise behind me and slam into it. It barely budged, and I stared up at it, rubbing my chin. Heavy drops of water sprayed all over me, and I couldn’t help but sputter and cough.

“Come on!”

General Andrew’s booming voice startled me so bad I lost my balance and landed backwards in the cool water. When I emerged from the surface, he was shaking his head. I grabbed onto the ice patch with one hand, clearing my hair out of my eyes.

“I can’t create a stream with enough pressure,” I called back. “I’m not going to try to use all this water, either.”

”And why not?”

“I don’t have enough energy. That wave really screwed me over. I still get the migraines.”

He raised his hands behind his head and began pacing in circles. “Are you for real? You must be joking."

“What do you mean? I told you I was burnt out because I had to break down the southern wall by myself.” It was ridiculously cold, and I couldn’t stop shivering. Beads of water rolled down my chin and splashed on my collarbone.

“You’ve had two weeks to recover since then. Have you not been taking the medicine for the migraines? Maybe if you hadn’t been sneaking out at night doing who knows wh—“

I held my hand out towards the water, causing a giant wave to rise and crash into General Andrew. He stood there, his eyes hardened with anger. A large puddle gathered beneath his boots.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “Did I splash you, sir?”

“So you have enough energy to do that, huh? Stop being lazy. You do that one more time, and you pack up your things and return home,” he snapped. “I’m not tolerating this from you. You want to waste my time, hmm? That’s alright. I got all day. All night too. You stay in the water until that pipe is busted.”

His words stung, but nothing hurt more when I realized that he thought I’d been drinking and partying. That I didn’t take this seriously. And to make matters worst, I knew that it was disgraceful to our nation. To be sent home would be disastrous.

I fought the urge to give him a piece of my mind as I began to swim underneath, bubbles rising up from my lips to the surface. It was a little bit hard to make out anything, but I actually didn’t mind being in this cave. Besides the occasional rumbling noise from the pipes, it was much better then walking around the city.

“The water’s great,” I answered, glancing at the pipe. “What a nice day to go for a swim, don’t you think? I...uh, I don’t mind staying in at all.”

“It’s full of bacteria. If you swallow any of it, it’s over for you. How stupid can you be? We cannot complete the mission until this is taken care off, and you’re just taking your time.”

“I have a pretty good immune system,” I replied. I really didn’t want him to stop talking to me. “Have you ever been in a cave before? This is my first time. I’ve read about them in books when I was a kid. Some of them are so big it takes forever to explore them.”

General Andrew sighed and reached for the walkie talkie in his pocket. I stiffened and held a hand out, water dripping from my soaked sleeve. Several icicles shot up vertically in the air, so thick and large I could make out my reflection in them.

“No, no, wait!”

“If you don’t follow orders, I’m going to have to call for more soldiers that will help get this thing down. And you will be released, since you can’t act like an adult.”

I bit down on my tounge hard, closed my eyes, and held my hand out towards the pipe. When I opened them, a giant ice mass with spikes at the end sat in front of me. The pain in my head came back as it began to crack into pieces and plop into the water again, splashing all around me.

The pipe had one heavy dent in it.

“Well,” I said. "That's that."

“Again,” General Andrew called out.

* * * * * * *

It took me all day to successfully complete my task. By the time I climbed out of the lake, my fingers were so wrinkled it hurt to bend or move them. General Andrew kept mumbling to himself, but what he didn’t know was that my right pocket was full of small chunks of selenite, gypsum, and marble, and a few precious stones that I wanted to put in Lulu’s tank. I squeezed my shoes back on and clamored up the steps, feeling dizzy.

When we stepped out into the afternoon heat, red dust clung to my wet clothes. As soon as we reached the camp, General Andrew handed me some test results and a few photographs of the maximum security areas not too far away from here. The place was plain looking, but had beds, a dining hall, and a lot of room for the Khonies to get their exercise and walk around in.

“So don’t you worry,” he said. “They are fine. The most important thing is that they are away from the civilians.”

"They won't infect our people?" I asked. "They need to be kept here so they won't get out."

"They will stay right there."

* * * * *

The next few months were difficult, as we only targeted the cities that had water contamination coming from their underground caves. Our scientists believed that a dangerous species of bacteria was growing in one cave with large crystals, so I had to block off all the pipes with ice to stop the water flow. I got shot twice by stray bullets from enemy fire when we had to break in, but we weren’t that successful and had to retreat a few times.

I successfully transferred four hundred and fifty five Khonie to their safe haven. Their screams and cries for help as I dragged them out against the ground and held them at gunpoint towards the trucks barely fazed me. The knot of anger grew inside of me, and when a Khonie begged me for mercy, I slammed the cage door right into his face. His dark eyes were full of grief and desperation, the fingers grasping the metal bars. I stood there in the dust, cigarette in my mouth, watching him and the others disappear over the distance. It felt good, in the moment, to finally be in charge. I soon understood that the general's words made sense. These creatures were mindless, and in our way. They had to leave.

Each city that I entered, I watched the rows of subhuman creatures being marched off towards the security wards. Something nagged at me a bit, but I could always drink and smoke it away. This was for the best, and I reminded that to myself everytime I separated families from each other.

By the end of the month, thousands of these creatures were sent to their own places. The army gave me a lot of money, and I spent it all, mainly on weed and cigarettes. I was smoking three packs a day, laughing to myself, drinking until I puked in the toilet.

All eight caves were underneath my control. Their pipes were split and crushed by my ice. Not a single drop fell from them.

It was after I got injured a third time did they send me back to Jova, much to my dismay. I had really enjoyed moving from place to place over a span of weeks, but this one was more severe since I got hit in the stomach. A heavy scar remained after surgery, and I got prescribed some medication and was told to rest. Baldwin had greeted me with excitement, but I missed Lulu terribly. My stuff was still back at the dorm.

In the meantime, I drank all the vodka and liquor I could get my hands on, waking up with terrible hangovers. It didn't matter when there was no one to talk to and I had no company besides the shadows that crawled on my bedroom walls. I chugged straight out of a wine bottle. I didn't know why I did it, when I busted through Baldwin's safe, cussed out the staff, and threw up all over my bed and passed out on the floor. When I was rushed to the hospital for alcohol poisoning, I simply stared at the doctors' faces and laughed so hard I was pink.

* * * * * * *

I awoke around midnight in a cold sweat.

As I stumbled out of my suite into the hallway, I could hear loud laughing and coughing coming from the conference room. After heading to the kitchen and grabbing a large bag of tortilla chips, I followed the noise. When I pushed open the door in a daze, the bright light hurt my eyes. Mr. Karin was slumped over in a chair by the empty table, smoking a cigarette in one hand and downing a shot of vodka in the other. In front of him sat his laptop, where the volume was up high to a video chat. His hair was ruffled and his tie loosened.

I gently rapped on the door. “You okay?”

His blue eyes widened with surprise as he quickly sat up. “Adlai. Didn’t expect you to be up.” A faint frown fell on his face when he saw the chip bag in my hands. “Should you be eating that? Sergeant Davis is not going to be happy to see you gain back the weight you’ve lost. Put those back right now.”

I sighed, and, mid chew, slowly placed it on the table. “What are you doing here?”

Mr. Karin yawned and stretched. With one hand, he slid a worn metal key across the smooth surface of the table. “I got some last minute things I need to take care of. I’m leaving in an hour or so. Baldwin needs this info by tomorrow, but I’ve been procrastinating. Can you run to my office and get the blue folder that is labeled with the word dates on it? It should be on the bottom shelf below my files.”

I reached over and picked up the key. It felt smooth and cool against my fingertips. “I don’t know where it is.”

“Third door down the hallway. You can’t miss it.”

“Right.”

* * * * * *

After grabbing a drink, I finally managed to find the door. The meds they had given me really screwed me up. As I stepped inside and fumbled with the light switch, I tripped over the recycling bin next to the desk and landed on the carpet floor with a heavy thud.

I sighed and got on my knees, trying to sort through everything in the order that it was before picking them up. It wasn’t until I saw some strange letters at the very bottom did I stop and squinted my eyes, trying to read the very fine print.

Somehow, it reminded me of a telegram.

The papers had been crushed, smoothed out, then crushed again. I straightened out the right edge corner of one with my thumb. It was dated almost nine years ago, when I had just arrived in Jova. It only had three sentences that sent chills down my spine.

I used paint. She is safe; you know I can’t come here. Do what you promised me, I beg you.

It was addressed directly to him by an unknown source. I picked up the other one, which was sent to him a few months later on.

Get the boy out. Get him out now.

I let the paper slip out of my hands and fall on my lap, my heart beating like a drum. There were hundreds of these letters over the span of a decade, written with almost the same message. I had to lean forward to catch my breath, gripping the hem of my baggy gray sweatshirt with both hands. I thought back to our old plan, all those years ago. It was still clear as day. How Rufus said he needed a week to figure out things. How he had begged me to trust him that night on the bridge, and the distressed look in his eyes.

How it had smelled like paint, not blood.

He had never used a real gun.

I slammed my fist in the wall, clamping down on my lower jaw. I had attacked an innocent man and his family for helping me. I wanted to beg Rufus to let me know why hadn’t he told me; but then it hit me that he never recognized me. The image of the blood stained knife and his daughter’s petrified face played over and over again my head. The urge to cry was coming, but I quickly wiped away at my eyes. It felt like walls of the room were slowly closing in on me.

I’m so sorry....so sorry....I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know...

I stumbled to my feet and leaned against the hallway wall, clutching the papers in one hand, running my other one frantically through my hair as I tried to figure out what to do next. After closing the door to my suite, I wandered over to the closet and pulled out a backpack. I stuffed it with all the paychecks I had received from the army, some clothes, a few of my favorite books, and a toothbrush. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely pull the zipper as I slipped on my boots.

Paint, blood, paint....

In my bottom drawer, I pulled out the Glock I had been issued in service and reloaded it with the few bullets that I had left. Time seemed to stop as I flung open the door to the conference room. The momentum caused it to bang against the wall. I leaned against it for support. It was hard to look at him, so I focused on the worn carpet floor. My hand felt weighed down by the firearm, and for a moment, I just wanted to run.

“You....you knew?”

Mr. Karin gave me a strange look as I balled my fists.

“What?”

“I’m not an orphan. And you knew about it.”

He gave a nervous laugh. “Who told you that? Stop being so foolish. I have to get this done, just pass me the papers—“

“How could I do this to people?" I whispered. “Look at what you’ve turned me into. I hurt a father and a child. All my life, I’ve hurt so many people, but I can’t forgive myself for what I did this time.”

”What is wrong with you now?” Mr. Karin asked. “What are you blabbering about?”

I felt my vision get blurry, but I blinked several times again. I could not lose myself in front of him now and humiliate myself. It wouldn’t help.

Mr. Karin immediately stood up, a shocked expression on his face. I stared at the man who had betrayed me, who had lied in my face every single day. The letters were crammed in my pockets. Beads of sweat traveled down my forehead as I took a deep breath.

His face turned a deep shade of red as he glanced at the papers I threw on the ground, watching them flutter everywhere.

“Let’s go to Mom’s grave, shall we?” I asked, trying to ignore how badly my voice shook. “We can dig it up to see if she’s really there. Underneath the peach tree. Because whoever is in that coffin is not her. Or maybe there isn’t one at all.”

”What are you talking about—“

I pointed the gun at him, causing him to raise his hands in the air. It was satisfying to see him in this state. The last thing I needed was more blood on my hands. But I wanted him to piss himself in fear.

Ice began to form and spread out on the walls, leaving beautiful transparent patterns.

“Tell me where she is,” I said. “Now.”