Colonel Dillo knew that Major Caps was a good-hearted man. But a good heart doesn’t lead the actions of broken men, the need for validation does. He knew what Caps’ had done. After the children’s Halos took form, most of them had figured out how to exit their rooms. The Major was watching them carefully. The man tried too hard to be stern and stoic all the time. He tried especially hard when he was feeling especially soft. But he couldn’t harden the look in his eyes. One can’t fake what the eyes reveal to those experienced enough to read them. The large man stood next to his seat watching the screen displaying the second level of Dillo’s improvised dungeon. The children rallied together surprisingly well. It was as though there was a deeper trust among them than what could have been taken along with their memories. They worked together to get past the locked door in no time. It was the boy who was Casting even before the Halo limiter was released that took charge in getting past the first of Dillo’s improvised obstacles. No surprise there. He had taken one look at the key in the center of his own room and cast a replica of it that was of a liftable weight. Dillo found it amusing that he still cast it to be heavy enough that it required two of them to lift it. There was a psychology lesson in there somewhere. The boy had named himself Zephyr. He liked Zephyr. He liked all of them. “They make a good team.” That was the first thing that Major Caps said since he left for his long restroom visit some hours ago. Dillo looked at the screen holding Caps’ attention. Eight of the boys were at the final obstacle on the second floor, a bottomless pit stretching between them and the exit. He had left hints and instructions in the form of murals on the walls to give them all the information needed to cast a simple bridge to get them all across. Instead, the boys found a much faster method. The first one crossed without hesitation by casting a long pole that he used to vault to the other side. The rest decided not to continue the same way after the pole was dropped into the pit, never making a sound. Instead, they created a chain that they passed to the boy who had already crossed. He bound it to the door handle of the exit while others fastened it to a support beam on the other side of the pit. Zephyr hung on the chain to make sure it was stable. Once he found it strong enough he started to climb across the pit. “They do make a good team, huh,” Dillo said, “wouldn’t it be such a waste to execute them? Think of what they could do for our ranks.” They were both quiet for a long moment. The boys jumped and cheered for every one of them that crossed the pit. One was particularly nervous as he gripped the chain to cross. Zephyr started a chant. Soon all the boys were cheering “Terra!” “Terra!” Terra!” The nervous boy found his courage and crossed far faster than any of the others. When he made it to the other side, he was thrust into a mosh pit of celebration. “Orders are still orders.” The Major said. As if on cue, the window in the corner of Dillo’s vision blinked to notify him of movement around his property. He quickly swiped through the displays until he viewed the front gate of his manor. A man of severe features walked up the cobblestone path. Each of his steps cracked the stone as though he weighed literal tons. Loose pieces of cracked stone lifted into the air behind him as though caught in a pocket of zero gravity. The effect was like an asteroid trail following a hunk of angry mass on a collision course for Dillo’s home. Dillo should have known he’d walk straight up to the front door and ruin his walkway. General Voldenic wasn’t the type to slip in from the back. *** Sweat flowed like rivers down Jace’s body. With each spin and strike of the spiked hammer, droplets burst from his arms as shockwaves shot through them. The dent was wider than him now, and deep enough that any strike could be the one that finally broke through. A yellow bar in the corner of his vision had appeared just as the blue one did when he created his trusty hammer. If Jace were to take a guess, he would say that the bar represented his stamina based on how its depletion correlated to his building fatigue. Jace lost track of whatever Satch was doing. He tried to give him instructions to make his own hammer and help but he just went back to freaking out as usual. Which was a bummer. After he destroyed Jace’s ball it almost looked like he found some resolve. But nope. With each strike, he heard Satch whimper. He kept saying useless things like “what if this makes them mad?” “What if there are things that want to hurt us out there?” Eventually, he started getting real crazy, saying things like, “I can see them” and “they’re going to hurt us.” Jace struck the wall but felt no backlash of shock through his arms. The force broke through. “Yes!” he cheered, leaving the hammer lodged in the hole to pump his arms. He placed a foot on the wall, gripped the handle tight, and with a push of his legs and a pull of his arms, he freed the hammer. It dropped to the ground with a thud and he rushed to inspect his work. He got on his knees and peered through the hole. It was about the size of Satch’s nose and he could clearly see the number four across the hall was gone. The whole section of the wall was an open rectangle that led to a room beyond. Loose chains covered the floor of the opening. Is that where the other two came from? But why were there chains on the ground? He scooted himself around the hole to look deeper into the hall. He could only barely see the edge of it, but it looked like there was another opening where the number two should have been. Had more of them gotten out? Jace put his mouth by the hole. “Hey, anybody there?” he called through. “Stop!” Satch hissed in a sharp whisper as he pulled Jace away from the hole. Jace knocked him away. “What’s up with you?” Satch was shaking far more than usual. He was sweating too. Why the hell would he be sweating? He hadn’t done anything but complain this whole time. That and scratch himself. Jace took notice of the raw skin on his forearms beginning to pool blood. “You’ve gotta believe me, I can see them somehow… I’ve been trying to tell myself they aren’t real. But deep down I know they are. I can feel them… They can feel me.” Satch was staring at the floor with a distant look in his eyes as he spoke. “But I don’t know exactly where… Just that they’re coming for us.” This was ridiculous. “What are you talking about? The other people like us? Because it looks like more got out of their rooms. And I saw chains on the ground–” A thought popped into Jace’s head. They may have already gotten through the big door at the end of the hall. “Dammit, we’re wasting time,” Jace said. He grunted as he hoisted up Big n’ Spikey. “Either help me break through or back up.” Satch snapped back to attention. “No! You can’t!” Jace nudged his head in the direction of the hole. “I clearly can.” “But they’re monsters!” Satch screamed. The ring of light at the back of his head grew extra bright. “Sure, then how about you use your time figuring out how to beat them instead of groveling over them?” Jace began to spin himself with the hammer. He needed a good hit right next to the hole. Not too close that he was in it, but just close enough that the little bit of wall left between them could be easily knocked away. “I’m trying but they’re all I can think about!” Satch yelled. Big n’ Spikey tore through the wall again and Jace was able to even pull it free by dragging it through the first hole. He wasted no time on inspecting and wound up for the next strike. Jace looked out for any attempts of Satch trying to stop him, but he had gone and hid in the opposite corner of the room. He even grabbed a chair to hold in front of himself. Whatever. This was a one-v-one. The wall vs Jace. And he was about to win. The hammer tore through the wall, creating a hole big enough to crawl through. Jace took a step back to appreciate his work. He wiped the sweat from his brow and flicked it on the floor, reminding the room who was boss here. He didn’t bother looking at or calling for Satch. He’d come along eventually. There was no more time to waste. Jace spun with the hammer, tossed it through the hole, and followed after it. He rolled into the hallway and immediately noticed the door at the end of the hall hung open just like he expected. Its binding chains and open lock were strewn about the ground, bested. It was… so annoying. He wanted to be the one that figured out how to get past that door first. He was the first to see it! But no, Satch had to get them locked back in that boring-ass room for who knows how long. Long enough for him to flatten his ball. Jace wanted to find a way to seal that hole back up and trap that whimpering idiot. But that was probably what he’d want. It looked like a wild party had raged through the hall with all the scuffs, scratches, and clutter. Every single number on the wall was replaced with a rectangular opening, but none were the same. One looked scorched at the edges with a solid puddle of metal on the floor. Another looked like it had the wall cut free around the chains and had the whole thing pushed out of the way. Some chains were cut up while rusted and brittle. Only one opening had an open lock and untampered chains. Jace looked at the last number left remaining. The number three. His and Satch’s room… with a little hole in the wall next to it. Compared to the remains of everyone else's escapes, Jace’s looked… like the losers. He didn’t like that very much. He looked through the open door at the end of the hall. It led down a flight of stone stairs. But he didn’t feel like following everyone else. Sure, he wanted to meet the others but not as a follower from behind. He put his attention on the wall that blocked the staircase leading up. That wall was untouched. None of the others must have considered that there was something beyond it. None of them knew what he knew. He grinned and dragged Big n’ Spikey to the barrier between him and his destination. He may not have been the first to the staircase down. But he’d be the first to the staircase up. Jace started to spin with the hammer to wind up his strike. While he rotated, he noticed something move in the hall. He’d get to that in a second. He followed through and smashed the spike into the wall. The recoil of shock through his arms was stronger this time and he definitely dealt damage. A web of thin cracks spread as broad as his shoulders. Satisfied with that, Jace looked behind for whatever had moved. Maybe another person hadn’t left their room yet? Or maybe Satch had decided to come out– A figure of shifting blackness crawled towards the hole of room three, a grotesque hunched form. It looked as though it were made of millions of little worms all writhing over one another. Sharp points jutted out at the ends of its arms. It dragged one of those points along the wall, making little sparks as it did so, highlighting the wriggling contours of its flesh. But it made no scraping sound… it made no sound at all.