RB Chapter 124 Peck, Arrival

Eric wracked his mind, trying to come up with a reason to keep her here, but he couldn't find one. The atmosphere grew silent as they beheld each other. He could see the resolve deep in her eyes, there was no way that he was going to be able to change her mind, he realised.

"But you have to promise me to treasure your life. Don't challenge beasts you feel can pose a threat to your life." Eric finally relented.

"Don't worry, I still have a long life ahead of me, I won't die that easily!" She grinned back at him.

"Promise me!" His serious expression still didn't change.

"Okay okay, I promise not to challenge beasts I sense possess a threat to my life." She also relented.

"Okay. When are you leaving?" He asked.

"Now."

"What? So you were already prepared?" Eric was shocked. She had just dropped a bomb, and then decided to leave, not dealing with the aftermath?

"What about Dr. Marcus?" He asked. The Man had been called in to work. The time was currently around 9:00am.

"So you have finally managed to say his title. Have you finally developed a good opinion of him?" She teased.

"He is someone who deserves respect. I don't even know how long it will take me to reach his level of expertise!" He sighed.

"Anyway, I am leaving. Close your eyes, I am going to give you a gift." Chloe stood up.

"O-Okay." Eric obediently did as he was told. She was the person, he trusted the most aftetall.

As he closed his eyes, he felt a foreign sensation on his closed lips, it was fleeting, but he felt it.

His eyes opened, and involuntarily widened as he finally registered what had just happened.

Chloe was looking straight at him, her face withdrawing. She was blushing furiously, but her eyes still looked into his.

'I love you. This is my way of declaring my love. I can't say the cheesy lines, so this will do. When I come back, probably we will develop further?' She thought while pulling back.

"C-Chloe!?" Eric was at loss of words.

'What just happened? Did she just peck me? Does she like me?...ahhhhh! I can't make sense of everything!' The more he thought, the more a red blush crept up his brown cheeks. He blinked his eyes and looked away from her. He didn't know how to face her feelings.

"We shall talk about this when we next meet." Chloe plucked up her courage and said those words before heading to her room, getting her luggage and going out the door as if running from something.

Eric, the one left behind, had jumbled thoughts, and he didn't even manage to notice her leaving through the door. It was like he had been frozen in place.

'She likes me? But I am still young, and I have always seen her as a sister!'

'Aaaaaaah!' He screamed in his mind.

"Anyway, I need to inform Dr. Marcus, I wonde how he will take it." He mumbled. He had decided to throw that problem to the back of his mind and focus on the current. She had said that they will discuss it during their next rendezvous anyway.

-----

After Chloe had left the city, two girls arrived at the point where the tunnel connected with the underground structure. They were in the same state that Eric and Chloe were in when they had first arrived, if not worse.

The two were Leah and Elena. Elena was missing an arm, but the two girls were giving off a wild aura which was scaring anyone from approaching them. Their trip to the wilderness had given them a ferocious edge.

"I never want to go back into the wilderness without a team." Leah, gave the tunnel they had just came through a look and shuddered just by conjuring up the memories of what they had just passed through.

Elena didn't say anything, she was just stroking the stump, where her right hand had been. Even now she still hadn't forgiven herself for her rashness. She was also feeling down because she had had to depend on Leah for many matters, something her pride wouldn't normally allow.

The two didn't continue off into the city, but simply waited by the tunnel. Elena had contacted the people who were currently taking care of her, the Mpologoma clan's remnants, to pick them up. They were currently acting as her guardians.

A black car, hovering a few feet off the ground appeared at the far end of the road and stopped near the street. Except for the cars heading out into the wilderness, all the cars in the city, had some anti-gravity technology.

"Welcome back young miss." A woman alighted from the back of the car and kept it open for Elena. Her face didn't show any fluctuations at Elena's missing arm.

Leah had a look of envy on her face when she saw the woman. All her mother's surbodinates had either died or run off, no one was taking care of her and she had had to ask a few friends from school, of course the ones who had been members of the ten clans to take care of her. It had been embarrassing, for her who had been raised with a golden spoon in her mouth, but she had swallowed down all the negative feelings and bowed her head.

"This is Leah Musota Butwa. From now in, she will be living with us." Elena declared.

"Nice to meet you miss Leah. Young miss would you please enter the car, right now it isn't exactly safe." She persuaded after greeting Leah perfunctorily. To her, only the young miss was important.

Leah, felt that from her. A seed of dissatisfaction appeared in her heart but she squashed it.

'I will join up with Eric after here. I believe that he too is alone and isolated from the others.' She took a deep breath to steady her mental state.

"Is there anything important that has happened ever since I left the city?" Elena asked. She, with Leah were occupying the back seats, while the woman and the driver were in the front seats.

"The other scions came back a few weeks ago...though two seemed to be missing." The woman reported.

"They are dead. What's next?" Elena answered and continued asking. The woman raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't become any more curious.

"After a few days, Eric Masanyalaze, and a woman believed to be Chloe Masanyalaze also arrived at the city. They are now staying in the apartment of a famed bio-engineer." She reported.

Leah, whose attention had been outside the car this whole time shifted to the woman upon hearing about Eric.

"Do the other scions know of this?" Elena asked.

"They have been monitoring him ever since he arrived in the city. According to what we have gathered, the Black Diamond branch in this city hasn't yet announced an executive." She added the latter half as she was privy to the circumstances of her young miss.

"If I am not mistaken, they have already chosen someone to take the seat among themselves. They must have been waiting for us to arrive and grant them the vote." Leah analysed, earning a second, serious look from the woman.

"Have they already approached Eric?" Leah asked. The look the woman gave her made her puff out her chest in pride. She was more intelligent than even Elena.

"No, probably, waiting for the two of us." Elena answered with a glint in her eye.

"How do you know?" Leah asked, surprised.

"I have met Mugumivu and the others countless times. Their choice must have been him. I know his personality well." She answered.

"Let's first head home. I want to regrow my arm. Once that is done, we shall set out on a visit to Eric. Turn away anyone who comes bearing something from the other five scions for the time being. We shall only deal with them when have gathered." Elena ordered and closed her eyes to rest.

'Will they really not interfere in our plans to get together? Monki is someone who is impulsive, but Elena seems confident. I wonder why that is?' That was Leah's last thought as she too, leaned back into the car seat and drifted off into sleep.

-----

Kampala city had changed in the past few weeks. Many people were more lively and new technology was being introduced at a pace far outstripping the past.

But, there was also an unexplainable solemnness to it all. Most of the new technology being unveiled was mostly related to war, causing the citizens to be unsettled.

A rumor had started a while ago that all this was preparation for a show down with the beasts, a war to reclaim the lost land.

The citizens, so far hadn't shown any reaction as it was just a rumor. They were waiting for the official statement from their revered leader, Elder Muti.