Chapter Eleven

Now is the time that Skye must choose which side she’s taking. Me or them.

I need to focus on the present. The jungle seems endless with no way out. It has remained this way ever since I killed that sergeant.

I just knocked him out. Of course he would have called for help. Why can't I see anyone around me now?

Why is it so quiet?

It's a deafening silence. I couldn't hear anything except my own footstep and beating heart. I don't know when this transition between the sound of nature and absolute silence occur, but now all the birds and insects stop making noises, and even the sound of wind brushing against leaves fades away.

Oh shoot. Is this a trap?

I look around. Layers and layers of trees surround me, like repeating patterns knitted on curtains. The trees from similar shapes and the branches point at the same direction. Without the wind, nature becomes perfect geometry.

Why is it geometry?

Why is it a pattern?

Why are there two trees that are exactly the same?

Why is there nobody following me?

The pieces of clues come together like a jigsaw puzzle, and the faces of the puzzle is showing the trap laid ahead. I am stepping right into it.

I take a small rock and pelt it with as much strength I have. It landed a few hundred meters in front of me. I take another one and throw it at the same direction. This time it flies further. As it is about to land, it suddenly blinks out. Yes, blinks out. One second it was there, the next gone.

This is the Infinite Cage, the ultimate trap and prison.

Skye told me some information about it, but she said it was only a prototype, a beta version.

Have I gone so rouge that they need to use this kind of weapon?

I run to the point where the rock blinked away and used twigs to mark a line. I cross the line and look back; the twigs are gone. I mark another line with twigs. I run another few hundred meters and there I can see the first line. So this thing teleports me from one end of the cage to another. No wonder I keep running and still can't run out of the forest.

Then there is this blinding flash and a loud siren blaring.

Red laser dots appear on my chest. I am diving out of the way as bullets tear past, leaving a searing graze on my chest.

This is an ambush, an arrest, an execution.