Chapter five: Capital's Truth

CHAPTER FIVE – CAPITAL’S TRUTH

  As early as 5am the members of the camp were up, Roxanne was still in bed sleeping–she needed it. 

  At about 7am she was up and did some clean up then they set out towards the capital, just six of them–Roxanne, Keith, Amberjill, Alfred, Peter and Fortress. They left the camp with two of the jeeps heading east towards the capital, as they drove through the dusty path Roxanne constantly looked left and right, in the distance she spotted a giraffe and an antelope eating a dead lion, she was stunned, Keith noticed the look on her face

“Weird right?” he said

“Weird? That’s crazy and creepy” she said 

“Everything is unpredictable in here” he said

“What’s that?” she pointed in the distance at two black animals like jaguars 

“Vampire Jaguars… They kill preys for blood not meat” Amberjill said from the back seat

“What the hell is that?” Roxanne pointed in the distance at a huge elephant with huge snake trunk, the elephant was seated while the long snake trunk moved ahead and grabbed a deer, wrapped it tightly and swallowed, the meal slides through the snake trunk and into the elephant stomach 

“Poisonous Elephants… You don’t want to be walking when they are close” Amberjill said 

“Obviously” Roxanne replied, they arrived a point where they had to go on by foot

“Come guys, we are almost, let’s move” Keith said 

   On foot they moved through the bushes into the woods

“Stay alert, this is black tiger’s territory” Keith said 

“What is a black tiger?” Roxanne asked

“You’ll see” he replied, Alfred and Peter pulled their arrows ready to shoot

“If it’s that bad why do we have to go through this path” she asked 

“Because this is the safest path” Keith said 

“If there is a tiger as you say then it’s not safe” 

“It’s actually a group of tigers but it’s better than what is on the other routes” Alfred said 

   Silence as they moved through the forest, for a while they saw nothing 

“Where are they?” Keith said as looked around with a dagger in his hand, Roxanne looked up on the trees and immediately spotted two huge black tigers with dirty water stripes 

“Eeemm… guys, I think you should look up” she said and they looked up to see two tigers

“They changed their pattern of attack” Keith said as the Tigers dived down from the trees attacking them, Peter and Alfred shot arrows at them distracting the beasts for the others to run off, it worked but not without the death of Peter and Alfred as both Tigers pounced angrily on both of them, they screamed out in pain as they others ran off. 

   They successfully went past the tigers 

“Wait” Roxanne said as she stopped

“What is that?” Keith asked

“Why did we leave them behind?” she asked 

“It was the only way… we have done this over and over” Fortress said

“They will be back, it’s a repeated process the only difference is your presence and their sudden change of attack” Keith said 

“Let’s get to the capital and find answers” Amberjill said and they moved, no long the capital was in sight, it was just like the mercury tower but this one was shaped like a cube, a large cube, no doors or window just large plain metal cube. 

   They walked towards it and it stood there with no chance of accessing it

“What now?” Amberjill asked 

“Roxanne you are the fire” he said, Roxanne walked close to the cube, touched it and it felt smooth, after touching it trying to find a hidden button or soft spot like in the box, she gave up 

“I have no idea how to access this thing, it’s impossible, there are no doors or codes or anything, maybe it’s not what you think it is” she said

“There must be something” Keith said

“I’m sorry Keith… I am not what you think I am” she said and suddenly the cube opened slowly to the surprise of everyone, a flight of stairs leading downwards was revealed

“Oh my God, it worked” Fortress said in excitement 

“Let’s go” Keith said and they entered, the entrance immediately shut. 

    Lights brightened the stair ways down into an office, the office looked familiar to Roxanne then she remembered the man who spoke to them on the large screen at RIYA, it was the office, there was no one in the office and there was no other door. 

“Mission Accomplished Miss Roxanne” they looked to see a man sitting on the chair behind the table, it was the man from the video at RIYA

“I remember you, you are the man behind all these” she said but he remained silent for a while

“My name is Barrister” 

“You killed 100s of people and put me through hell to be at this point” she lamented, he got up and walked over to the other side of the table and sat partly on the table, they stared at him

“I am not the man behind this project neither am I the master mind” he said to her 

“Then who the hell is?” Roxanne questioned, he was silent for a while 

“You are” he said and they all looked at her, she looked confused 

“What the hell are you saying” she asked

“You are the founder of IBED” he said

“What the hell is IBED? I don’t even have a job talk less of a company”

“IBED, International Body for Evolutionary Divergence” 

“This is crazy, I want out of here” Roxanne said

“IBED is a company founded by you 15 years from now”

“What!” she sounded 

“You established this program after your science team discovered time manipulation, manipulating of events from the past or future” 

“The purpose of this program is to stop Sky-X from achieving its selfish aims” 

“What are you talking about?” Keith said to him

“We know that Sky-X has sent lots of people into the future, my present, to get access to sensitive information about world war III” 

“Sky-X plans on stopping the world war III” Keith said

“No it doesn’t and as a matter of fact, Sky-X wishes to start the world war 3 so it can control it as to achieve its desired result, Sky-X also wishes to go back in time and learn of the US nuclear launch codes and get access to the nuclear football”

“That’s not true” Amberjill said

“Sky-X will only be able to send men back in time to access the nuclear football if their mission to the future became a success but IBED knew the plans of Sky-X so we trapped every single time travel agent in a false reality”

“But it’s a time trap”

“No it’s not” Barrister said

“Sky-X has no idea what is going on in here except when you communicate them through dreams, it’s a good thing you have not shared the information you got from the future with Sky-X”

“I don’t believe you” Keith said 

“You Roxanne work for IBED… at least not directly but through manipulation of time events” 

“I don’t work for you… I am a victim” she said

“You work for yourself Roxanne… IBED has killed two birds with one stone, Roxanne you standing here today is proof that manipulation of past and future events is very possible automatically making the IBED program a success and you being here today in this cube has helped IBED access agents of Sky-X without Sky-X knowledge”  Barrister explained

“You killed 100s just to achieve this?” she said

“Which would you rather, 100s die or billions?” Barrister asked

“This was your idea, your plan” Barrister pushed a button that displayed a screen showing matured Roxanne in a board meeting and behind her was the company name written boldly 

“The Program which you called RIYA experiment is a deadly one and you immediately volunteered to be the test subject since others were scared to… the test included manipulating a major event from your past and put you through a few experiment to test your divergence, your divergence ability was proved to be 100% after you used the elevator to reach the top floor… you were aware that if you had died during the test, IBED would not have existed and you would not exist in the future” he explained, she stared in awe

“I did this?”

“You have always described yourself as the girl with fire bones and yes you are because you just saved the world from harm” he said

“Wait hold on… I still need to get out of here, we still need to get out of here” Keith said 

“IBED will not have you leave to deliver such sensitive info to Sky-X… To Sky-X you are dead and your only option right now is to stay in the reality we created for you or exist in my present… the future” it wasn’t a tough option but one with quite a sacrifice 

“What about our loved ones?” Amberjill asked

“It’s a necessary sacrifice… if you get this info to Sky-X then your future and that of your loved ones is doomed for death”

“How did you know of Sky-X’s plan?” Fortress asked

“We are the future… we have seen the results of your success journey for Sky-X”

“Do you want to take the offer?” he asked and there was a long silence 

“We’ll take the future” Keith said 

“Thank you” Barrister said then looked at Roxanne 

“So what about me?”

“In 60seconds you will be returned to your reality”

“And which of my future events do you plan on reshaping again?” she asked 

“None… at least for now… you are the future of man… the flame of hope” he said… 

   Roxanne woke up on her bed, it was a dream… she looked around her

“Holy shot! So it was a dream?... Thank God…it felt so real” she fell on the bed feeling relieved 

“I never wanna have such dream again” she said as she got up from the bed but was it actually a dream., because on her arm was the injury scar from the pit bull attack and on her waist the scar of the tiger scratch…

THE GIRL WITH FIRE BONES…