Inactive - Chapter 27 Too Easy

“What the f*ck is wrong with you?!” Both Chance and Loki screamed at Rykar simultaneously as he walked through the door of their house.

After thoroughly and utterly implicating Elizabeth and the rest of her cohort, Rykar had sat down and finished his meal in a completely unhurried fashion. After clearing out four plates, he leisurely made his way back to their accommodation with a smile on his face, humming a happy tune with brisk steps. Hell, he practically skipped to the front door.

Truth be told, he had been expecting Loki’s outburst due to the way he left the hall earlier, but he had expected Chance to be more understanding. With innocent eyes, he looked at the two people opposite him with an expression of someone who had been wronged.

“What do you mean? It was the end of their cycle if they are meant to live, then they won’t come to any harm, right?” Rykar’s head tilted to the side as he asked bewildered. At this point, he truly believed that he had done nothing wrong, what was meant to happen would happen and that would be the end of it.

“Are you thick? There is no cycle! You did this, not anyone or anything else!” Loki carried on shouting, unable to understand his brothers thought process. “Do you not understand that they will die now? You have KILLED them! We wont even be here much longer so WHY?!”

“Chance, do you feel the same way?” Rykar looked away from his brother and questioned Chance before answering the question. As Chance saw Rykar looking straight into his eyes, he grew conflicted. On one side, he felt that the deaths of Elizabeth and her group weren’t completely unwarranted. However, on the other, he felt that this wasn’t a decision that should be made by such young children. It was too early for them to be exposed to such an environment.

It wasn’t so much a matter of it being wrong, but a matter of setting principles for the twins to use as a foundation. Loki and Rykar were now at a crossroads which lead in completely different directions yet was based purely on perspective. With all this in mind, Chance slowly nodded his head with a rare look of seriousness on his face.

“I see. So, Loki, why was it wrong and what does it matter to you?” Rykar’s tone took a 180-degree turn. Rather than the questioning voice he used earlier, his tone still remained light and casual yet the question became a statement rather than an enquiry.

“Nothing, but its not right.” Loki calmed down by this point, yet he wouldn’t budge on the matter. “Mom has always told us that taking life is wrong unless absolutely necessary.”

“Yeah, she did, didn’t she? She also told us that we were kings, right? Oh, and something about generals. OOOOHHH yeah, I nearly forgot about that saying she used to go on about, ‘a mother’s love never dies’” As Rykar said the last words, his voice began to show signs of wavering for the briefest of moments before regaining its strength. “From the moment we were born to the second we got to this camp, its been proven time and time again that life isn’t fair. Its what you make of it.”

Rykar’s words caused waves to tumble in Loki’s mind as he shuddered from the recollection. Despite his rising emotions, rather than becoming even more aggravated, he had already calmed down and re-assumed a straight face and calm demeanour by the time his brother finished his short speech.

“Mn, you’re right, what you do is your business as long as it doesn’t affect me.” Loki confirmed, neither agreeing or disagreeing with Rykar’s frame of thought. Instead, he simply decided to take it into account. At the end of the day, they had been given multiple opportunities and it was only the morality of the issue which left him conflicted. These people were not worth falling out with his brother over. Not even close.

“The plan is being pushed forward and modified. Along with what’s happened recently, Sir will want to be meeting you fairly soon.” After dismissing the argument at hand, Loki got back onto topic without allowing any interjection from Chance. “Its simple, once you go in, tell him that Loki needs to talk to him directly about missing plants. Make sure he understands that I can’t go to anyone else about this apart from him directly.”

“Mhm, that’s it? No worries, consider it done.” Rykar didn’t even ask for the rest of the plan, he adopted a carefree attitude as though the conflicts of the day had never even taken place.

Chance simply watched on from the side. Aside from the nod he had given early in agreement with Loki, he hadn’t even gotten a word in sideways! He was actually shocked at the sudden change in atmosphere! It was as though a storm had rampaged across the land while blowing all the buildings and tools up into the sky, only to set them back down perfectly in their original places

If anyone came in, it would be impossible to tell that anything out of the ordinary had happened while looking at the twins calm exteriors.

“I don’t know if your relationship is healthy or unhealthy I can’t even suggest you guys talk it out.” Chance muttered under his breath as he slumped onto his bed, no longer paying them any attention. “We will be called out pretty soon and told about the break. To be fair, there’s more than one person that was caught so maybe we will get extra time”

True to Chance’s words, it didn’t take long for bells to ring wildly through the air. Guards walked around the camp summoning everyone into the fields on one side of the camp. There was no open space within the camp for the thousand of people within the camp to fit at once, so they had to be a bit more inventive.

Standing in the field, all of the workers were standing between the rows of plants, evenly spaced apart as though they were a rag tag army. A makeshift platform had been constructed in the place of one of the supply points, on which Sir stood tall, while surrounded by guards and managers. None of the workers were able to even get close to him, despite them out numbering the guards and managers fifty to one.

The workers shuffled anxiously. Despite the nervousness which was obvious within the crowd, excitement was working its way into the atmosphere as people began to grow expectant of the break which was to come. All of the chatter and hubbub died down as Sir cleared his throat while holding up a spherical shaped device. As the sound was emitted from hi throat, this ball amplified it to the point that everyone could hear him clearly without even the need to shout.

“I’m going to keep this short. Congratulations to Rykar for revealing seven thieves amongst our midst. The usual reward is a shift worth of holiday to the entire camp, therefore this shall be magnified seven-fold. Twenty-eight hours of free time will be awarded to the workers from this moment onward, return to work promptly at the sound of your corresponding signals.

“Rykar will skip ranks, being promoted straight to the rank of guard. This is also effective immediately.” He then scanned through the crowd before locking eyes with the cheery faced Rykar. “I’m sure you’re eager to know the benefits of becoming a guard, I also have a few questions which you’ll be answering for me. One of you, take him towards my office.”

Sir was still facing Rykar as he ordered his guards, not even bothering to spare them a glance. Despite his speech indicating that Rykar had done a great service towards the camp, there was no warmth in his voice. Everything came out in a matter of fact sort of style, with the promotion and invitation to his interrogation leaving no room for refusal or debate.

Finishing the short speech, Sir walked down from the platform without even bothering to dismiss the crowd in front of him. As though waiting on his every word, no one from the crowd had any intentions of moving from their spots, even after he had disappeared from their sights for over ten minutes. It was only then that one of the guards gave them permission to take their leave while ushering Rykar in the direction which Sir had left in.

The entirety of the harvester workforce, close to three thousand people, had gathered on the field in a hurry for this speech which had only lasted less than sixty seconds. Despite this, there were no complaints, only excitement at the prospects of unlimited rest and food within these twenty-eight hours.

Due to only having two hours of rest between shifts, this left everyone seriously short on time to do anything else. Recreational activities or finding time to get acquainted with the opposite sex were all but impossible in this time frame, unless they were willing to forgo thee vital rest they needed before the gruelling field work. A break this long was unheard of within the walls of this camp! Despite the fear and resentment they still held for the twins, a sliver of gratefulness began to emerge in their eyes.

So, Rykar. I wonder how you knew that these people had been stealing from me? Each and every one of them no less.” As Rykar walked into Sir’s simple yet luxurious office, he wasn’t even given time to approach the wooden desk before Sir began to question him.

“They didn’t look like they were walking normally. They seemed kind of off balance and the only thing which would be small yet heavy enough to stagger them is probable the fruit. I wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t been bringing attention to themselves.” Rykar countered while shrugging.

“So, you made an assumption purely based on their manner of walking?” Sir reiterated through squinting eyes. Receiving a nod from Rykar, he still maintained his suspicious gaze but had no way o refuting this. “So, you haven’t seen anything else that’s strange on the field? Bare in mind, if you have interesting information, it could lead to the freedom of yourself and your brother.”

As Sir extended this piece of bait, a warm smile crept onto his face. Rykar wouldn’t have been able to tell, but this was a similar expression to that which he had made before. The top and bottom half of his face were perfectly mismatched. While the warm smile hung on his lips, Sir’s eyes seemed to be radiating a poisonous air as they bore into Rykar.

“F-freedom?” Rykar stuttered the word while thinking hard. “Does it matter what kind of information? And do you promise?” he let go of his carefree attitude and took on the look of an anxious thirteen year old at once. It was as though a child was being led by the nose with candy as Rykars eyes went wide and he shuddered at the thought of being released.

“Any information that is useful and a guarantee, you’ll be free! To be honest, you’ve probably already noticed that there are no other children like you here. I don’t really like having children work so hard when its possible they may have bright futures ahead of them. It’s possible to get you out but ill have to pull some strings, help me to help you Rykar.” Sir went full on charity worker mode.

The poison in his eyes vanished as his voice turned watery and sorrowful. “I used to have a son he would have been your age if not for aaah I’d rather not bring up the past.” He laughed depreciatingly as a tear dropped from his eye, which he quickly wiped away up using his sleeve. Clearing his eye, he looked up at Rykar with hope. In his eyes, the youth now seemed on the verge of tears as he felt sympathy for the once hardened man in front of him.

“Well I don’t have much.” As Rykar began to speak, the warmth seeped out of Sir’s eyes for a moment. “But Loki has been telling me that some of the people in the fields have been acting weird I’m sorry, he told me that he couldn’t say what, in case someone heard. I really don’t know” Rykar let out a disappointed sigh while scratching his head, trying to recall his brother’s exact words.

“No, no. That’s plenty! Go get your brother, I think you may really be able to go free!” Sir’s eyes regained their light as he jumped up from behind the desk and patted Rykar on the shoulder as he ushered him out of the room.

As Rykar’s back faced him, Sir’s face contorted fully. A malicious smile was plastered on his face as his tongue snaked out of his mouth. His eyes narrowed into slits as he gazed down at the poor boy in front of him who he had just strung along like a puppet on a stick.

‘Too easy.’ Their thoughts mirrored each other.

From the front, looking back at the two walking towards the office door, one would be able to see that both man and child had the same evil and malicious expressions on their faces as they walked forward like marching demons.

One in front, one in the back. Both were playing a game of hunter but only one of them would end up the prey.
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