The sound of dashing water as well as the eerie silence of the forest made Jeffery wake up. By the looks of the time, it was noon as the sky turned crimson as well as the sun almost at its rest.
"Fuck… My ankle… I can't feel it…", Jeffery grunted and saw how his left leg turned its color to purple, "But it's just a fucking ankle twist…"
He looked around and found himself at the very end of the dashing river while he rested his back on a wall, indicating he was on the edge of the dome. He looked around and saw that there were once a large amount of people occupying the, what it seems to be, empty chairs.
"What's going on?" Jeffery did his best and stood up. With his hand tied at his back, he carefully walked to Cipher's fort. Every step he made was a terrible pain for his left leg. The hunger and thirst, made it almost impossible for him to walk.
After a few meters of walk, he saw the lights upon the forest as well as a group of people shouting his name.
"O-Over here... H-hey!", with his remaining energy, he shouted as loud as he can as he gasps for air with a tight breath. Luckily, the men noticed it right away and called a stretcher for help.
"Quick, take him into infirmary, he needs his left leg to be tended to immediately", a familiar voice spoke that led the whole search party for Jeffery.
"N-Nix… d-did we win?", Jeffery whispered to the young man as he was carried towards the fort. Nix didn't reply but gave a smile as he closed his eyes and rested. Jeffery heard distorted mumbles and when he was put inside a vehicle, assumed that it was a private ambulance. He once again lost his consciousness.
After a few hours of him resting, he woke up in a bed inside the Cipher's infirmary. The scent of cottons and medicine filled his nose, as well as Rhianna's footsteps with her heels. Rhianna, on her usual lab coat, worked nonstop on taking care with Jeffery's leg.
"Good morning", Rhianna came greeting, checking on her tablet. She then showed an x-ray image to Jeffery about what happened to his leg. By the look of it, he had a swollen vein on his left leg that made his skin purple from last night's event, "You're lucky you don't have your bones broken."
"I must've passed out for a long time… what happened when I lost to that guy?", Jeffery asked in frustration. He could feel the excessive pain from the tragedy he had been to.
"About that… Zhack?... ", the lady asked the man who was sitting at the table at his right beside a window to grant Jeffery his presence.
"First of all, I want to congratulate you for doing a very good job. Dude, you really showed them what the Cipher is capable of", Zhackary greeted and tapped him on his shoulder, "However, Cipher lost… Utopians got all the flags and none of Veril and Rocky got near them because of Simon, the fifth member of Utopia."
"What about him?"
"From our database that was provided by Nix, Simon Tegart jr. was the late Philippine military general's son. Like you, he was trained to be a general someday like his father because they both have these extreme battle skills", Zhackary explained as he showed some paper files to Jeffery about the Utopian.
"I never saw him before… when I was training. Never even heard about him", Jeffery wondered about his origins when another young man came and cut in.
"After his father's death, Simon lost his path. He was proven to be addicted to drugs and sent to a rehab near Manila. In honor of General Tegart's family name and reputation, they prevented him from spilling any information about them", Nix entered the room to give Jeffery some food to eat.
"E-eh?", Rhianna on the side reacted upon Nix's sudden appearance. Everyone looked at her and it made her feel uncomfortable, "I-If you were to give him some food to eat… you could've asked me."
"Oh… well, I figured he didn't eat anything yet and I was in the cafeteria already", Nix smiled while the two lads behind them were smirking to the two.
"A-anyway… I am hungry, so Uhh… Later-", Rhianna bit her tongue as she left the room running away. The three gentlemen giggled as they saw her blushed so hard because of embarrassment.
"Anyway… about the topic earlier Zhackary, can you confirm it?", Nix asked as the two had a conversation earlier.
"Yeah… about that, I have some leads and I still have to investigate.", Zhackary replied while he swiped down the Cipher's member profiles on his phone.
"What are you guys talking about?", confused, Jeffery asked while he stuffed his face with some fried chicken for lunch.
"That assault towards you, it was planned", Nix said with his low toned voice.
"What?!"
"We shared legal information about the two factions towards each other at the beginning of the games so that everything is fair", Nix explained as to remind that he shared some as well to Keisha.
"But, that does not include that you were our trump card against them", Zhackary added, "Every information data that Nix shared was about our name, age and status."
"We figured that there was an info leak. Someone must've inside Cipher gave that information to them", Nix continued and looked at his watch to determine what time it was because he had a meeting by 5 pm.
"How did they get it? I mean, no Cipher is allowed to leave because this is a safe place", Jeffery asked in confusion.
"Well, we both know Utopian's illegal connections", Zhackary answered as he stood up to set off.
The both gentlemen bid their goodbyes to the young man on the bed. As they were about to leave, Rhianna surprised them when Nix opened the door. She was carrying a paper bag on her both hands while she carried a pack of fries with her mouth. Nix gently took the fries so Rhianna could speak properly.
"Uhmm.. Nix… here. These are cheeseburgers I got from the cafeteria. I figured, you don't have anything for dinner yet so I bought you some…", Rhianna said while she hands a bag full of delight with her cheeks flustered.
"Oh… Thank you", Nix took the bag of cheeseburgers and he gently caressed Rhianna's head and smiled, "These are my favorite".
"I'm glad…", Rhianna couldn't keep her smile as it almost reached her ears. She suddenly noticed Zhackary smirked again.
"Didn't you buy anything for me as well? I haven't eaten lunch you know", teased Zhackary and the two young men left the room.
"Geez, just go ask Keisha for that, I'm not your babysitter you know."
Rhianna entered the room and flustered really hard. She turned red even more when she noticed that Jeffery was looking at her. The young man finished his food and laid his back down for some rest. He stared at the ceiling, thinking about the defeat that the Cipher had.
"I still can't believe it… we lost."