Iridescent: Chapter Twenty-Six

Iridescent

Chapter Twenty-Six

~Food Groups~

After the Fall

“Alright,” Zara sat at a desk, her legs propped up on the table, “let me get this straight. We’re going to the same place.”

“Looks like it,” Chaud smiled at the room full of people.

Miwa sat beside him by the window. He shook himself.

Chaud continued, “It seems that Miwa downloaded the information was the same location where I was told Fang about. Northeast from here on the coast there’s a cove with a sub stationed there.”

“Is it still going to be there when we get there?” Shadow asked.

“It should,” Chaud shrugged, “I’m the only one on the Island who has the codes to start it.”

“Now the question is,” Crow started, “are you supposed to have the codes?”

Chaud just met his gaze, “I neither confirm nor deny.”

“Right,” Zara rolled her eyes, “of course you do.”

“Great!” Crane chimed, “Now we can head out there, right?”

“Not yet,” Fang said, “We have to deal with Chaud’s other issue.”

Zara looked over at Chaud, “What did you do this time?”

“Okay, I just want to go on record and say that I didn’t do anything,” Chaud crossed his arms, “kind of.”

Tempi scoffed, “Sure.”

“He’s being hunted by a group of bounty hunters,” Fang went on to explain, “It looks like this New Order really wants Chaud and his family where they can see them. The Hunters have been on our trail ever since Chaud joined up with us. I admit. They are pretty good at what they do. From what I heard, they almost killed him a few times.”

Zara looked at Chaud, “You almost got yourself killed without me?”

Chaud shrugged, “I wish I could tell you I had a say in the mater. But as it turns out, dying is unpredictable.”

“All right you two,” Tempi interrupted, “let’s get to the point. What are we going to do about those hunters?”

“We could just run for the sub,” Puppetmaster suggested. He sat alone in a corner. Shuppet sat on his shoulder.

“They wouldn’t let us get that far,” Fang stated.

“Then we pound them in to the ground,” Tempi slammed her fist into her palm.

Zara looked at her, “Can’t you think with your head? What about the people who don’t have powers? Couldn’t they get hurt if the hunters decide to attack? And then there are those who have powers. How many vials of Blue Gold do we have? Surely there isn’t enough for everyone and who knows how many the hunters have.”

“How many do we have?” Shadow asked.

“My group has eleven,” Zara said. Everyone looked at her. Zara shrugged, “Leader tendencies to take a mental tally of everything.” Zara looked at Tempi, “I guess only real leaders have that tendency.”

Tempi stepped forward, “Why you—!”

“Nine,” Fang answered.

Crow raised a hand, “Five.”

Puppetmaster smiled, “None.”

Tempi looked around. Not wanting to look incompetent she quickly counted the vials she remembered seeing in her bag, “Three.”

“Twenty-eight,” Miwa added up all the numbers, “We have twenty-eight vials.”

“Thanks, Miwa,” Chaud said, “I’m sure none of us could add on our own.”

“No prob!” Miwa chimed. The he thought a moment, “Hey! Was that sarcasm?”

“No, of course not,” Zara said sarcastically.

“Hey,” Miwa looked at her, “I was just trying to help.” He looked up at Chaud, “I thought we were friends! Why have you joined the enemy!?”

“Enemy?” Chaud was confused.

Fang sighed, “May we get back to the topic at hand. Kids these days…”

“Crane and I could take care of the caravan,” Crow said, “You know, get them away from here while you all fight it out. You can have our vials. We can’t use them.”

“I think that would be best,” Fang nodded.

Crow looked around the room, “How many of you are going to be staying to fight?”

Zara raised her hand, “My team and I are staying.”

“We are too,” Tempi said.

“Shadow and I will stay as well,” Fang said.

“I suppose I could help out,” Puppetmaster smiled, “I wouldn’t want to miss something this interesting.”

“Good,” Fang stated, “We should think of a place for you and the caravan to lie low for a while.”

“We could clear out one of the other hotels around here,” Shadow suggested, “The people in the area seem to be afraid of us. It shouldn’t be that hard to clear them out.”

“I think that would be a good idea,” Crow nodded.

“Do we have a plan?” Fang asked.

Tempi shrugged, “I guess so.”

“We’ll discuss battle tactics later,” Zara said as she stood up.

Fang walked toward the door, “Good. Let’s go get this over with Crow.”

Crow and Crane stood up. Crow followed after Fang and sighed, “Right behind you.”

Shadow and Crane followed after the two men. They appeared to be great friends over the course of the past events. Tempi glared at Zara as she walked out. She paused slightly as she passed her. Their eyes met momentarily before Tempi walked off. Puppetmaster opened the door for the girl. Miwa walked off, muttering to himself about how his best friend had betrayed him and how life was so unfair. Chaud looked after him, wondering if he should go and talked to the dejected pup. He turned to Zara.

“Miwa looks pretty bummed,” Chaud voiced his concern, “Did something happen on your trip?”

“We didn’t blow up any building,” Zara spouted. She cleared her throat before continuing, “Miwa and I just don’t see eye to eye on most, no, everything.”

“Right,” Chaud raised a curious eye brow, “Did you blow up a building, Zara?”

Zara changed the topic, “Tempi seems to hate me.”

“Yeah,” Chaud agreed, “About that building—”

“It’s okay because I don’t really like her either,” Zara shrugged, “You hungry? I am. I’m going to find a bite to eat. After that we can tell the team the plan.”

“The building?” Chaud asked.

Zara crossed her arms. She remained silent for a few more moments before saying anything, “I didn’t have a choice.”

Chaud placed a hand on her shoulder, “It’s okay. I believe you. Now if we can forget this whole almost dying thing…”

“Fine,” Zara walked off.

Chaud followed her. They walked down to the resort’s kitchen. Dr. Jekyll sat in the kitchen. He barely gave the two a look. Zara headed toward the food supply while Chaud talked with Jekyll.

“Did you hear about the meeting?” Chaud asked Jekyll.

Jekyll looked at him, “I guess. Don’t see why no one invited me, thought.”

Chaud smiled, “I’m sure they thought you were busy being the doctor and all.”

“You could have asked,” Jekyll looked over at Zara. He watched her pull a certain of eggs out of the fridge, “To many of those will kill you.”

Zara looked down at the eggs and slowly placed them back. She pulled out some frozen waffles instead.

“If you want to gain weight in your thighs, those will be fine,” Jekyll said.

Zara put the waffles away. She closed the refrigerator and opened the pantry. There were a few stale rice crackers in there and she got them.

Jekyll sighed, “I guess those will do. You’ll be hungry in half an hour though.”

Zara walked past Chaud. Chaud stopped her a moment, “He’s just in a bad mood. You can eat something else if you want.”

Zara bit into her rice cracker, “Yeah, not while he’s sitting there.”

Chaud leaned in and whispered, “I’ll sneak you some pizza or something.”

“Thanks,” Zara took another tiny bite out of her cracker, “these don’t taste very good.”