The Core of Us All – By Odin Tito “The orphanage is divided away from the rest of the world, luckily” Alex spoke. Compared to the rest of the world, they were in the safest place possible. They lived off the land and used the natural methods of gathering food and water. It was Fabian and Alex’s job to go down and collect the water from the lake. Both the boys talked about their previous life and of what little they recall of their family. “Do you ever want to escape this hold?” Fabian asked interested by what he’ll receive “It’s either here or out there!” Alex pointed out to the world that lay before them Fabian knew instantly what he meant even though he pointed to a glistening summer lake, after the aliens came to earth war erupted in the what was once the golden age. The Aliens left their technology behind for anyone to claim and so they did. Lucky enough, the two boys managed to escape to Fiji, but it cost them their normal lives. “We better head off, the water bottles are nearly full” Alex spoke impatiently as the night started to unsheathe itself. “Don’t hustle me Alex, not after what Skye did” he spoke harshly for a reason. Skye was a girl back at the orphanage that ruled over all. Same age as Fabian, she had the beauties Fabian didn’t have. People say she rules more with her beauty than her commands. “Well I’m heading off with half the bottles, you bring the rest?” Alex admitted the truth and left. Fabian finished off filling the last bottles and went chasing after Alex. Fabian arrived five minutes after Alex, he wasn’t expecting a welcome back party, but the faces that were staring at him were sullen and scared. His pace fastened to the orphanage as his body filled with embarrassment. When he stepped into the orphanage Skye was waiting for him by the door, “Come with me now!” she commanded. Fabian dropped the bottles and was led into the office they used. There was a tall man in a suit with a stern face appearing across his face. “Sit down here and listen.” Skye ordered while pulling out a chair. “Hello Fabian, I’m General Knoxx on the side of America. I am here to give you a mission for the fate of this world and to save humanity.” Intimidated by his voice Fabian shrunk. “Soon tonight you’ll be escorted to Korea to capture the power-core. The power-core is the most precious thing on this planet, it’s the energy we all seek for and we believe Korea is using it against its will. Do you accept?” He questioned Fabian. “What? I’ve hardly seen the outside world and now you’re sending me to Korea!” Fabian argued. “Now now, you’ll be given a few hours to decide and the rewards for this mission’s success is godly” He announced. Fabian wasn’t buying it; he didn’t want to deal with the same thing that happened five years ago. “I’ll decide in an hour” He got out of his seat and left. Fabian walked out of the room and ran to quickly pack up his stuff. When he got there Alex was waiting for him. “What’s happening in there?” Alex asked “Nothing! We need to go!” he shouted in whispers “Well, I’m sorry mate but I think I’m going to have to stay here it is safer” Alex replied “Please don’t tell anyone than, because I’m running away from this prison” Alex was confused as he watched Fabian quickly packed his stuff and leave. Fabian ran faster than never before. He just didn’t want to be caught again and sent back. Fabian was halfway to the nearby town before he was caught. The space craft rose out of nowhere and zapped him with their lasers, which turned light into darkness. It was an hour before Fabian woke up and the room was stuffy and hot. “Hello sleepy head wake up!” Skye spoke in his ear gradually getting louder. “Where am I?” Fabian replied “An hour out from Korea, your love and joy is soon returning! Thanks to Alex” She laughed He was angry by that, betrayed once again by a somewhat friend. Fabian sat up and looked to his surroundings. “What is this? A space craft made by Americans, dam it’s a shit design, I could do better” He laughed, since he knew it anger Skye. Skye injected him with a needle which turned is mind in to a state of daze. It was a long trip sitting there frozen waiting for the drop, but it came. “Fabian get up we are approaching zone 3, prepare to jump!” Knoxx was there helping him gain his legs. “We’ve packed all the equipment you’re likely to need to succeed so do please try otherwise we may and as well chuck you out with no parachute” a little smile went across his face. Fabian gained his ground and prepped his gear. Waiting for the announcer to count down was frustrating, but the decent finally came. He jumped off the space-craft and fell. He pulled his parachute a few hundred metres above the ground and there he spotted his next escape route. There were people on the ground holding guns of sorts, they hadn’t notice Fabian due to the night, but if he managed to get himself captured he’ll be spared the task of this mission and maybe spared his life and be set free to go where ever. When he reached a distance of where they could hear him he started shouting “Help ME! Please take me in I’ll do whatever you want me to do?” he yelled A few of the gun man looked up and in reply started shotting. Bullets were zipping past Fabian inches away from him, he had to guide the parachute down and land somewhere quick before a bullet is actually aimed. Moments later a bullet collided with the sheet of the parachute, luckily for Fabian he was ten metres from the ground so the impact only gave a small shock. He knew he wouldn’t be able to walk and surrender now, he thought. Otherwise the consequence wouldn’t be in his favour. He gathered information of his surroundings and spotted a hundred metres away the compound where the soldiers were. “Arhhhh! I hate this why is it always ME! -blam!-KKKKK!” he raged Gradually calming himself down, taking deep breathes he got and looked through his gear. He had a shifter, grappling gun and an American standard silenced lazar gun with an ACOG sight attached. He hasn’t used many shifters before, but they allowed anyone to become undetected from radars and coms, it also allowed him to briefly camouflage with anything he was near. Fabian gathered his feet and went sprinting like a wolf in the night, hungry for revenge. The compound out in the distance seemed pretty quiet, not compared to the other ones he’s been to, but he suspected that they were doing this for a reason to make this compound look like a casual one. If it was a casual one then this mission would be a big waste of time. That thought quickened Fabian’s pace, when he drew near to the outer wall he grabbed out his grappling gun. He timed it precisely when the guards walked away from the ledged he was about to shoot at. The sound of the thump latching onto the wall gave Fabian a fright, but no guards came so he planted the other end of the gun in the ground and began climbing. Finally reaching the wall, he detached the grappling gun so no guard would see it randomly here and call the alarm. “What the hell is going on? Not even a guard in my sight!” he whispered After his little stunt the guards went wild and started spilling out of the compound searching for him. He could see from a distanced where he’d landed there was a swarm of guards. This provided time for Fabian, which was desperately needed. There was a ladder not too far from him which he reached and went down. The compound was small, so Fabian went searching for an underground vent suspecting that this small building wasn’t hiding the power core, but a large bunker underneath. He found a tight vent in a few minutes turning his shifter on to avoid guards. He squeezed through and managed to drop a few feet below into a small room. Darkness engulfed him, so he turned on his night vision sunglasses that he casually wore. Witten on a sign in front was “Draining Room 21” and next to that was “Power Room Next Left 150m” from a few lessons of Korean he was able to interpret pretty much anything writing, but not spoken. He opened the exit door and trekked the way the arrow pointed. On his way he had to use his shifter and gun to sneak around people and stun them if there was no possible way around. He felt the energy in him increase, as he drew near the power-core room. There were two guards blocking the door, so he quickly took them out both with a headshot. When he grabbed the handle of the door it was locked, it took him all is strength to barge through, but there waiting were scientist with all their equipment around the power core. “Get the -blam!- down or I’ll shoot you all dead!” Fabian commanded Some leapt up in fright, others huddled to the ground. They had no weapons to defend against Fabian, so most surrendered. “You don’t have to do this!” one of the scientists spoke Fabian twisted his gun, pointing straight at the scientist’ head he didn’t recognise the scientist which was good. “I’m taking the power core no matter what, detach it now from your tools and I’ll be out of your way!” Fabian replied. “What will you do with it, you can’t give it to America, you know what will happen?!” Fabian knew what would happen, that’s why his intentions changed from when he got the mission. It wasn’t a mission to capture the power-core it was a mission to destroy it. “I’m here at my will and at my own will I shall destroy this stupid corrupted core! Get out of here now or be radiated into a monster!” The scientists in the room hurried themselves; the scientist that spoke to him approached him steadily. “You’re doing humanity a great service, people will remember this, remember that hero!” The scientist dedicated every word to Fabian. (continues next post)