Chapter 4 - Learning

At first, Karabell had wondered how it was possible for humanity not to have prospered at all during those two thousand years. After all, the AAD's scientists had managed to discover both a material durable enough to withstand deflecting the creatures' attacks and a poison that could kill them. However, that had pretty much been it. Even the devices they had presented him with so proudly weren't that great. They looked and functioned exactly like smartwatches. Like older models, at that. Aside from making and receiving calls and checking the time, the soldiers didn't have much use for them.

However, one month before, he'd received an answer to his question. A painful one. It wasn't that humanity hadn't made any new discoveries... but only those hefty tools had survived for so long. Marno had once told him that even the Agency's buildings weren't completely impenetrable. All those records he'd read were only about fifty years old. Apparently, once in a while, groups of powerful Aberrations were born, larger both in size and intellect. That had also been mentioned in one of those records. They could be killed, but it took time. The AAD had multiple bases set up either high in the mountains or in secluded caves. It even had its own farms, for that matter, though Karabell'd never seen one. When the Superior Aberrations emerged, however, not even those were safe. Those things were smart enough to mobilize large numbers of normal Aberrations, effectively assembling a small army in a short amount of time. When faced with such a threat, not even the fighters could do anything. In that case, the only course of action was abandoning the base, and then hunting the creatures one by one.

The superior Aberrations didn't seem to appear at set intervals of time, which made it impossible to predict their next appearance. Important resources, information, not to mention people had been lost in their attacks. It was as if they specifically targeted... No, that was exactly it. Those Aberrations were meant to prevent the human race from ever advancing. After all, they weren't proof of the species' permanent evolution. When he'd first heard the old man talk about that, he'd written it off like nothing more than gibberish. But then he'd seen it with his own two eyes.

They were returning from a long recon mission that had lasted several days. It had also been the first time the squad had needed to spend the night down in the abandoned city. They'd learnt how hard it was to fight surrounded by darkness. The entire building... The entire area had been utterly destroyed. The place where they'd trained together, their home, had been completely crushed. There were no corpses around. Naturally, the creatures had eaten them. Karabell stared at the pile of rubble in disbelief. He heard Alice start sobbing. He was neither angry nor sad... he was purely baffled. He couldn't understand it. But Marno's words came back to him.

"That's it... That's gotta be it," he muttered. All those memories he'd made there, those people who had helped him along the way, they were all gone. But he was the team's Captain. He couldn't let them see how shaken he was. Een was doing his best not to start crying too, trying to comfort his sister. Shono wasn't the type to easily lose his composure. But even so, Karabell was sure he'd just seen a small tear roll down his cheek. Just as he was about to speak, something caught his attention. There was a corpse propped against one of the trees surrounding the destroyed building. No, it wasn't a corpse. The man was still breathing. Karabell recognized him instantly. That man was Gun, one of the base's scientists.

"Are you alright? What happened?" the Captain asked, grabbing his shoulders. The man's eyes shot open.

"What? Who... who're you lot? Whaddaya want from me?"

"Wha..." Karabell stumbled backwards, surprised by the other man's outburst The scientist jumped to his feet, dropping a bunch of papers.

"Woke me up, eh? Ya think I needed someone to wake me up? Apologize!"

He must've gone insane... After what'd happened there, it wasn't unlikely. No matter how much he tried to calm the man down, he continued to yell and threaten them. Karabell wasn't sure Gun even knew what was going on anymore... he didn't seem to be mad at them especially. He simply spat out insults. After a short while, his speech completely lost any coherence. They'd all known him for a long time. Seeing him like that hurt more than they could've ever imagined. Shono picked up the scattered papers.

"Captain, this isn't looking good."

And, for better or worse, he was right. The Captain couldn't believe his eyes. Those were detailed instructions on how to create the weapons, the poison and the watches. Blueprints. Karabell burst out laughing. It was the team's first time seeing their leader lose his composure like that.

"This is a joke. It has to be a joke. I can't believe this didn't cross my mind until now. It's incredible! For such a thing to happen... It's truly incredible," his voice fell to a whisper. He sat down, looking at his teammates. "I'm sorry I reacted like that. See, Marno once told me a story about a specific type of Aberrations..." He'd calmed down a little. Enough to speak properly. The other three carefully listened to his explanation. A Superior had attacked the base, no two ways about it.

"So you're saying..."

"I'm about 75% sure there's more to it than meets the eye. I'd really like to discuss this in a friendlier environment, but it doesn't look like we have a choice. By the way, Shono, you're strangling him," Karabell remarked as Shono was doing his best to calm down the now mad scientist.

"He's right," Een suddenly spoke. "Think about it. What were the odds of only one person surviving? And he just happened to have those documents on him? Nothing else, but only the things we need to fight the Aberrations? He didn't survive, those things spared him. They let him live so that someone could rescue him... and start over from scratch. I've wondered for a long time. Why didn't mankind simply get wiped out? They have the power to do that. This may me more complicated than we think..."|

Karabell stared at the sky and sighed. Een was probably right. Just when he'd finally begun to think he'd managed to understand how that world worked...

*

Shono patted him on his shoulder.

"Are you alright, Captain? You seem a little under the weather these days. Dinner's ready." Concern glinted in his eyes.

Right. They'd finally gotten back to that old shack they'd taken shelter in. Well, he called it an old shack, but it was a fairly big house, with three bedrooms and a generous fireplace. And most importantly, it wasn't that far from their old home, meaning that it was in a relatively safe position. The only problem was Gun, who had been placed in the building's basement. That way, his yelling wouldn't keep them up at night, and they didn't risk him attracting any Aberrations. They'd patched up the place pretty well, but Karabell knew they couldn't stay there forever. After their fight with the three Aberrations, he definitely wanted some of Shono's delicious cooking.

"Maybe I'm just tired... Lately I seem to be reminiscing a lot. It's not like me. Go downstairs, I'll join you soon."

"Hurry up or the food'll get cold," Shono joked. "And you know how Alice is when she's hungry."