I was holding my head, slightly pulling my hair.
"Pathogens are enemies though! Markus has only been helpful! This doesn't make sense!"
"Yes, I know. For some reason, he has no interest in people or eating them. He can remain, and he told me about you, to protect you, he put in a good word. If he hadn't, you may have been executed after what you did to those police officers."
I apologized and tried to explain, but she understood. Which was only more confusing.
"This won't make much sense currently. If Markus or you attack anyone, you will have to be arrested... or executed." Imode said, her smile gone.
I nodded my head, and she let us leave... just like that.
Why did she trust Markus that much... wait... why did she trust me... I started to somewhat let it sink in. If I hate Markus for really being a Pathogen... wouldn't I need to hate myself for partially being one?
Turns out the answer would eventually be yes.
***
The train ride back to Kioka City was silent. Markus didn't talk, so it seemed he knew I had nothing to say to him. Should I hate Markus? Of course not... that'd be hypocritical.
We left the train and Markus stopped me.
"Cal." He said, quietly, yet so boldly considering the situation.
"What," I said, trying to become enraged.
"I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know the truth, but... I was scared I wouldn't live to see tomorrow." He puts his palm to his face, staring into his palm, he began whispering now. "How selfish of me... I'm so sorry."
I ignored his apology.
"So you killed the church members?" I asked, still not looking at him, my hands were clenched into fists.
"Yeah. I did it for you... because of what they did to your parents." He said quietly.
"Do- Do I look like some sort of child, Markus? I could have just done it myself." I remember saying before everything goes dark.
***
(Markus)
Cal was... different. He was laughing maniacally.
"If I really needed to kill people- no Pathogens, I would have just killed them while I was there!" He yelled.
I tried to calm him down, but his eyes had a reddish glow to them... his Pathogenic side... was emerging.
After being hidden for so long, it yearns for total control over Cal's body.
Cal threw one of his fists toward me, to which I let it hit me. I deserved to be hit. Especially by Cal.
I've ruined so much by trying to protect him.
"You... monster! That's what you are!"
His screaming and laughing was scaring civilians and people nearby were staring.
He threw another punch, but I caught this one and twisted his arm. The only way to get the Pathogen to revert control is to cause it unbearable pain. So much that it would rather just be hidden away again.
Cal began screaming in agony, but I kept twisting. A few cracks and pops later, and he fell to his knees.
For a quick moment, he stared at the ground, he looked at all the people staring.
I helped him up. He complained about wrist pain, but I just began walking away with him. Avoiding unnecessary attention.
***
(Cal)
Markus never really filled me in on what happened, but I can only assume it was bad, as people had been staring.
I felt pain in my wrist, but Markus told me I had just tripped.
***
We arrived at the camp, my wrist still swollen, and stinging like hell.
Instructor Miko obviously wasn't told about the situation we were in with the police. He ran up and began yelling at us for "being late".
We got in our positions, and he told us we are lucky they hadn't left without us because we would have regretted it. I'm not too sure about that.
***
We had been riding for hours now, and the temperature had been dropping. Jian had just been trying to sing to us, while Pika pretended to play the piano. Those two managed to make me smile for a moment, and today seemed to be going better.
Until we met... him.
A random boy on a horse rode up next to us and waved politely. Pika was swooning over him the moment he arrived, and I felt a little nervous. He began speaking quite loudly.
"Hey! Welcome to the Snow-side! Although it's real name is Savito!"
Snow...side? I had no clue what the heck snow was. None of us did.
"I just recently saw grass, so soon you'll be able to see snow for the first time. Well not for Mr. Miko there!" the boy announced with a grin.
We were now steadily going up a hill, the frigid air was getting to me, it burned me, but yet it was cold. How could something cold feel like I was burning?
We reached the top and... we could see a vast landscape, filled with a white texture. It looked like clouds had dropped to the ground. Pathogens in the snow were frozen, and couldn't seem to move. It's where they should belong... right?
The boy introduced himself as Nato. We all greeted Nato with random noises, a jumble of "hello", "hi" and "yo"s.
Nato pointing toward a mountain, and announced proudly that it was his hometown.
Something was off. He was so calm, but we were alerted that their town was under attack by Pathogens or Raiders or something like that. The Pathogens were frozen... he was calm... was there no attack?
He looked over at me, noticed my expression, and quickly began tearing up.
"My poor hometown! It'll be destroyed by that savage guild of thieves!" Nato declared sadly.
He brushed his grayish-white hair out of his face, yet it kept falling back in front of him. It jutted out at all angles, like spikes. It was quite long but seemed to be just pushed out everywhere, instead of downward.
"Hey, Nato! What's your deal? Weren't you just happy as hell?" Jax spoke my mind. For once, we had something similar. Common sense.
"Eh, no- well yes! I do that in stressful situations! I really do need help with my hometown!" Nato desperately said.
Instructor Miko seemed to notice this odd behavior as well. As we reached the gates, he held his hand to his belt where his gun rested.
Nato entered the gate first and was waiting for us.
"Come on in now," Nato said, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.
"That would be quite unnecessary if there is no actual problem here," Miko said, still holding his gun.
"You want to have it that way, Miko? I've always despised you and Imode."
Suddenly I remembered something about useless history.
***
"Cal. Are you paying attention?" Kayla asked after hitting me with her book.
I looked around and nodded, rubbing my head and returning my attention to the teacher, who was explaining the surrounding area.
"And right past the end of the map here is The Snow-side or Savito. It's a beautiful area, but you will all have your chance to visit there if you become a Pathogen Hunter." He said, pointing to the edge of the map still.
Our town was circled, the city looked so close on the map, yet was actually quite far from my experience traveling there.
"Savito however... is a dangerous region. They have incited many wars with us, and we have only been at peace for twenty years."
Byul's hand raised up extremely fast. Looks like he couldn't find one of his questions in the textbook.
"Mr. Rual? What are the wars for? Power?" Byul asked quickly.
"Land." Mr. Rual said, pointing and moving his finger around the area we lived in.
"All of this land is what they are after. They want all of it."
Byul's hand dropped and he remained silent.
"War is war. Unending pain." Mr. Rual said, topping the fear for the class.
***
"Instructor... perhaps we should... go?" I managed to speak. At that moment, I noticed people in buildings with sniper rifles, lining the wall of the town as well. They were evenly spread along with the cover of the town's wooden walls.
Nato's arms were outstretched. I looked to Instructor Miko, and it seemed that he noticed it as well. He sighed and quickly drew his gun, shooting it quickly.
Nato was hit in the chest and jumped behind a house, leaving a trail of red snow. We all began running in the opposite direction as instructed, but I noticed that someone was sneaking up to Instructor Miko with a knife.
I lifted my hand subconsciously and a finger bullet popped out, hovering above my finger, spinning quickly. It then shot at a high speed, hitting the man in the leg. His leg was sliced almost right off, and I felt disgusted by what I had just done.
We had to take a huge turn to ride to our left instead of backtracking back to camp. People were running at us from the way we came from. We had been watched the entire damn time.
We were chased into a forest, where we dodged and weaved between trees. Hoping not to crash.
Everyone was scared, but adrenaline was kicking in all of us.
A shot rang out and hit a tree, just barely missing my head by a few inches.
I ducked down to avoid getting hit, but I heard another shot ring out, and I felt a burning feeling in my shoulder. I felt something warm dripping from my arm, and I felt shaky.
My horse wavered to the left quite a bit, and I was barely holding on. My vision was blurry. I couldn't function correctly.
After running for some time, I was so dazed that I slipped off my horse. My horse was still running...
I hit something and fell unconscious.
The world just became a dark haze for a moment as I lost consciousness.