Today was Saturday. Colin kept pinching himself and asking his parents and Gracie at breakfast to make sure that he really was awake, rather than in a dream within a dream.
"Hurry up with your food, Colin." Mom advised him. "You need to wash the car today."
That, if nothing else, convinced him that he really was awake. Washing dad's gravcar was one of his weekly chores, and mom never forgot it.
"Not today, Colin." Dad cut in. "I'll need the car in the morning, and your sister has dance classes in the afternoon. Then at night…"
"Youth group." Colin sighed. "Can I not go? I can sleep earlier…"
Dad and mom exchanged glances. "Why?"
"Jonah, Alicia and Larry will be there. They're going to cause me trouble again."
"Now, Colin, you have to learn to get along with your friends…"
"They're not my friends!" Colin flared. "Friends don't talk bad about you all the time! Friends don't call you names or say you smell or…"
"Phew, Connor, you smell." Mom told dad. "Whatever did you do…?"
"Sorry, dear." Dad replied. He turned to Colin. "What was it you were saying?"
Colin stared at Dad. "Never mind."
Dad always said Mom was his best friend. If she said he smelled, then clearly friends {did} tell you when you smelled.
"Colin, the prayerman is putting a lot of effort into doing something for the youth... shouldn't we at least support his efforts? It's all for your sakes, after all." Dad added.
"Why don't you go?" Colin grumbled.
Gracie tugged at Mom's sleeve. "Colin needs a girlfriend."
"Wha…?!" Colin choked.
"Sally says that her brother never complained after he got one. He goes to Youth Group early every time, just to meet her." Gracie added.
"Gracie, you're both too young for such things." Mom told her. "Colin's not yet twelve, and you are barely ten. Now finish your breakfast."
"He's going to be twelve soon." Gracie objected.
"Finish your breakfast!"
***
The three people Colin didn't want to see at youth group, though, weren't there today. Colin didn't see them at all.
"Wonder if I'll see them tonight anyway…?" Colin yawned as he prepared for sleep, putting on the Dreamworlds headband as he laid back on his pillow. He stretched out and relaxed, waiting for the blue mists.
As he slept, the headband connected him to the Dreamworlds Network, and then he was back at the place he set as his most recent default log-in location.
Colin opened his eyes in his room at Edward's Farm on the sixth night since joining Nakama World and smiled.
"I'm back."
***
"Yip." Shiro greeted him. He and Raiki were back too, but Colin had no clue how the three of them had returned from the Chasm of the Winds.
There was Rall, slumped next to Bubba at the end of the room. Fireheart was lounging on the biggest branch they had, and Kirin was staring out the window at the pond. Warc was nowhere to be seen, probably already at the pond.
Colin glanced at Meek's little nest, to see Meek settled there cozily. She was looking very heavily pregnant now, and he decided he'd better leave her home for a while.
Sonia came over to him and sniffed at him rather carefully. She tilted her head and turned to Shiro. "Auu?"
"Yip." Shiro told her patiently. "Yip."
"Yirf." Sonia struggled.
"Forget it, Shiro." Colin told him. "Just answer her question."
Shiro sighed. "Yip, yip."
"Auu?"
"Yip. Yiyip yi."
"Auu?!" Sonia jumped.
Shiro sighed again. "Yip."
"Mew." Raiki told Sonia.
Sonia shook her head, then sat back down rather shakily.
"What did you {tell} her?" Colin wondered.
"Yip." Shiro seemed to be laughing.
"Auu!" Sonia scolded him.
Colin had no idea what was going on, or what happened to his other Comrades when he went into that Chasm, much less what happened to him. All he knew was that he was back at base with all his Comrades and everyone was fine.
That was all he wanted right now. "Right. Let's see if Edward and Katrin are up for Farm Wars tonight, shall we?"
***
Edward shook his head when Colin asked him. "Something's strange today, Colin. People in town and the Comrade Home just seem… jumpy. Katrin hasn't been back at all since yesterday night. I hate to admit it, but I'm worried. I want my Comrades ready if anything comes up. I think we should take a break from Farm Wars tonight."
"Jumpy…?" Colin echoed. "What do you mean?"
"Everyone's… nervous." Edward said, frowning. "Maybe there's a reason for it, but I didn't stay around long enough to find out."
{Katrin would have looked for the reason… but…}
Katrin herself had been behaving oddly. Very oddly.
{That leaves me as the only J-Knight around this area in operation outside the airport. I should call Foxtrot and check with him about it. Or wait… maybe I should call Abby.}
He did. "Abby? It's Colin."
"Colin." Abby sounded rather annoyed. "What were you doing last night? Our crew went to the pick-up site and found neither you nor the Frenzied you caught."
"Nothing?!" Colin blinked. "Abby, three blue-badge Dreamers came along and one of them touched the Frenzied… they seemed to be able to handle it. I saw M-1 nearby and gave chase…"
"Neither the Dreamers, nor the Frenzied were found, Colin! The only ones in the area were the Green Men! Our pick-up crew were shot dead!"
Colin gaped. "Green Men?! When did they…?"
"We lost the shuttle and all our gear, along with four paid squires who all quit on the spot. They say you're working with the Green Men, Colin, and laid a trap for them! Audio recording confirms the Green Men mention that they knew where to find what they wanted because of 'our friend'."
"Abby, don't you know what the Green Men are after?" Colin said, feeling cold.
"Revenge, of course! They're after J-Knights! They're on our KOS list. It's war!"
Colin shook his head. "Maybe… but before even that, do you know why they came to Nakama World? Why they were kidnapping people?"
Abby fell silent. "No."
"They're looking for eight people." Colin said slowly. "Think of those who had been kidnapped."
"Henry Kibou." Abby counted. "Rita Matthews. Jonah Sands. Alicia Townsend. Larry Townsend."
Colin froze. "Jonah, Alicia and Larry too…?! When…?"
"Last night." Abby said. "At the site you abandoned."
Colin's first thought; {I barely escaped.}
His second; {How did THOSE three get caught? I thought they'd be the last to get grabbed by adults!}
His third; {Was it somehow MY fault?!}
Abby seemed to think it was. "You were the only J-Knight in the area. In fact, you were the one who called everyone there! It was a huge trap! Three kids were taken and our crew got slaughtered!"
Colin's throat felt tight, and he struggled to get the words out. "Abby, check the starting date for the kidnapped kids."
Abby fell silent for a moment. Then, she said, "The Green Men are looking for eight kids in particular, you say?"
Colin didn't say anything. His throat had closed up completely. He couldn't get a word out if he tried.
"Henry, Rita, Jonah, Alicia, Larry… all started on the same night. Six nights ago."
Colin said nothing.
Abby went on. "Here's the question. How did you know there were eight?"
"I was there." Colin managed at last. "I'm one of them."
"So… the Green Men are after you?"
"Maybe."
Abby growled. "Make it clear. Are they after you or not?"
Colin shivered. {They might be}. "Henry and Rita were released with apologies. The Green Men weren't after them. We don't know which of us they're really after."
"Well those three turned up at the airport last night. All three were like statues, but there were these green-and-yellow guys who left some nifty gifts in apology before Foxtrot and Maggie killed them."
Colin felt his heart sink. Somewhere, he'd been hoping that the Green Men would be satisfied with one or the other of those three and then leave him alone. It would have been sort of nice if Jonah vanished for good while Katrin and Colin could be spared any more trouble.
But clearly, Jonah, Alicia, and Larry were not the ones the Green Men were looking for. Colin already knew that they had been captured, and returned with all memories of the events in between wiped clean. Along with some gifts and apologies, so that they wouldn't really complain.
Henry never did. He went up two ranks with the new Comrades he was given. Colin hadn't spoken to Rita yet, but he felt sure she wouldn't complain either.
Those three, getting more goodies for free like that, would probably be happy to have been kidnapped. The whole thing probably sounded like a profit to them.
Five of the eight had already been taken… and released. The Green Men acted like fishermen throwing back into the water the fish they didn't want.
{So… who is the 'fish' they really want to catch?}
Colin had a gnawing suspicion that it was himself. {The night before I joined Nakama World, I disappeared from Garden Dreamworld for a few hours. Nobody could find me… and I can't remember anything about the time in which I disappeared. I can't remember anything at all.}
Colin stared at his right wrist, at the diamond shaped scar at the back of it. {Do the five of them have that scar? I didn't have it before I vanished. Did the Green Men do this to me? Are they looking for me to do it again?}
"Colin? Are you there?" Abby asked sharply. "You better tell me what this is all about."
{There's only three possibilities left. It's either me, Katrin, or that guy Phillip, but none of us have even seen Phillip since the night we started. For all we know, he didn't like Nakama World and went to Dream in some other Dreamworld.}
{Why would they be after either Phillip or Katrin? I can't think of any reason at all.}
{Which means… they're almost definitely after me.}
Colin shivered. "Abby… I don't know where to begin."
"Tell me who these Green Men are."
"I don't know who they are, or what they want! They're just after the eight of us! Or at least, one of us."
"Which one?! What for?!"
"Probably…" Colin began.
"Colin!" Edward jumped at him. "Run!"
"What?" Colin blinked.
Edward's face was pale.
"The Green Men! They're here!"