The voice came from Ajax. He stood towering over Titania as he laid weighted to ground. Ajax let out a deep hearty laugh, just like his father, seeing how awkward Titania looked. He threw the rock into the river, which was quite a distance from where they were at, and made a loud splash that was quickly overpowered by the water.
He walked over to the side of Titania and squatted down near his face. Some of the dead leaves and moist dirt got kicked up, landing on Titania's cheek. The slumped assailant still on top of his body, the weight made his breathing more difficult, each breath he took strained. "You had no chance of surviving that fight zero." He said gently as he stifled his laughter. He lifted the head of the assailant to get a better look at them, only to see that their face is covered in camo paint, their hair covered in paint as well. He flicked their nose to elicit a response but got nothing, "That there is a pugilist, that flick should have broke their nose. You wouldn't have won but kudos for trying." He padded his arm to congratulate him in some sort of way that he saw his father do. He felt weird doing so.
Titania said nothing but stared at him with glassy eyes of thought. He believe what he said, from the short fight that he just had he knew that he lost. He was filled with emotion but didn't know how to put it to words, so instead he stared at this familiar person.
"I am Ajax, by the way." He said, finally mentioning who he was. He then turned his attention away from him and back to the person on top of him. So far neither one of them made an attempt to move the body in anyway. Ajax started to rummage through the pockets of the slumped assailant, what he was searching for he didn't know.
"Yes, I saw you at the combat assessment," Titania said, "Would you mind moving this body, I would but for some god forsaken reason they are heavy." While he can still breathe Titania was still have a problem breathing from the pressure of the body. Ajax just raised an eyebrow at him and returned back to what he was doing. Ignoring him in pain as he wanted to do something else.
From the pockets he pull out many objects on the person. At first it was a pair of hand cuffs, Ajax held them out for Titania to see and raised his eyebrows in a seductive way at Titania. He laughed to himself and kept on searching.
He found a small knife strapped to the assailant's right boot and held it out for Titania to see as though to say, "See what could've happened?". He continued to go through the pockets of this person. In the back pocket he found a hand fan that was about 10 inches long. He placed by his side and continued.
Titania could feel the assailant's faint breathing on his neck, turns out Ajax didn't kill them but just knocked them out, he still didn't know if it makes their current situation better.
"Found it," Ajax said as he pulled out a small piece of metal. It was shiny grey, fainting humming could be heard if they were to listen carefully. Titania knew what it was, a tracking device. Ajax looked at the river and tossed it in there, hoping that the water would short circuit the device. If it didn't then hopefully the river flow would cause it to move, making whoever was watching the tracking device think that the assailant was still alive, buying them both time.
Finally after what felt like eternity for Titania Ajax flipped the body off of Titania, allowing him to breath normally. His first breath felt as sweet as honey from the comb. When he got up he quickly shook off the dirt and rocks that were on him. Ajax helped him by removing what he missed.
"Here, you're going to need this." Ajax said as he tossed the hand fan to Titania, "From what I read, the forest can get real hot and humid sometimes. And with the way the weather has been recently it's better to be safe." Titania opened the fan and saw that it was of basic design. It had a thin metal spines with the plain, black fabric woven in-between them. It had a small metal screw at the base to prevent the spines from falling out and caused it to have the signature fan look. From this Titania thought it was built for more for utility than for design purposes. He opened it fast and out came snap that was pleasant to the ears.
Titania smiled and walked to the river to drink, for he hasn't all day and his throat is parched. Ajax followed him like a duckling and drank from the same place after Titania was done drinking. When he was done, again he followed closely to Titania.
Ajax's original plan of following him from a distance has fallen through when he needed to save Titania from the assailant. So now instead on watching him from a distance his new plan is to become friends with him instead. As he knew that Titania would act differently if he knew that he was being purposefully monitored from a distance. Which Titania was now aware of when he got saved by Ajax.
"Well this can go either way now," Titania mumbled to himself, well aware that Ajax could hear him, "I can escape from the facility, gaining freedom but losing security. Well, if this person can find me then I guess that the security is already compromised. I can stay with the facility, losing personal freedom but gaining some form of security, along side with getting some assistance with my growth. But what if they restrain my growth, making me dependent on them for everything? And What is with this guy following me?"
Ajax heard what Titania was mumbling under his breath and let out a snort. Ajax didn't care which option Titania picked, in the end he is still following his father's directions, to monitor him. His father made no mention of returning him to facility if he were to somehow 'wonder away'. All that he had to do is monitor him and report his findings to his father. It didn't matter in what fashion it was in.
Ajax reluctance towards being here has gone way in the winds. He was brought here by force because his father wants to spend time with him. However, now seeing how events has escalated, from seeing Titania in a cocoon to fighting his father to now fighting an enemy, he wants to be with Titania as this person has gained his interest. Or until he gets bored with Titania.
"What are we going to do about that?" Titania said, point the knocked out body of the assailant. Ajax tilted his head to the side for a moment in though to himself. He then walked and grabbed the assailant's body and dragged it by the river's edge.
He then proceeded to stomp on their head with the boot of his heel. Continuously until it turned into fleshy pulp. He flipped them over and proceeded to stomp on their face, specifically targeting the jaw and teeth. This left them completely unidentifiable. He then kicked their body into the stream, it floating with the current of the river to a place unknown.
He clapped to himself as he walked to Titania, "How about some cooked bear?" Ajax said with smile. Titania smiled back at him and went to the carcass of the bear, he knew that he gained a dangerous friend in that moment.
When they gather around the bear the earth shook for a minute. One quick quake that came fast and left slowly, leaving an impression on the earth itself. The foundation of the earth shook to its core but it remained uninjured. Flocks of birds left their nest in panic, clouding the sun.
Titania and Ajax looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They thought it was a regular earthquake.
***
"We are nowhere near a fault line." Beliz said as he looked around, "Something else must have caused this." All the researchers and body guards went on high alert. The body guards regardless of if their shift was done all stood attention and maintained a vigilant watch of the facility. The researchers were looking at their device to see where the source of the earthquake came from.
"To think that the facility has been found this early," Rad grumbled to Beliz from the couch. Beliz was looking at his tablet, looking at the constant updates that security and researchers were giving them. After seeing the same information just worded differently each time from each notification he got he turned off his tablet and placed on his office desked.
He walked over to large windows that touched the floor and the ceiling, giving unrestricted views of the dense forest that surrounded them. He crouched down to a small cabinet that was close to the window but not enough in case someone might bump into it and scratch the window. He opened the two flaps that opened like doors and fished out three bottles, each containing liquids of different contents and placed them on the top of the cabinet.
The first bottle he placed was of pale green color, made from wormwood, anise, and fennel. In its raw form tastes of black licorice, it was absinthe. The second one was of uncomplicated origin, made of sugar diluted it water. It was simple syrup. The third one was of rather complex origin. This product was one that many nations on either side of the world claimed to made first, each one in their own unique style, with various flavors, but like most it didn't matter where it came from. All that did was that it was popular and tasted good with almost anything. This one was sparkling wine.
Beliz shot a look at Rad inviting him to a drink with him. Each one had a different reason for drinking at this moment. Rad smiles gently and walks over towards him. Beliz took this as a yes then took out two coupe glasses. He placed them on top of the cabinet, one on each side. With the three ingredients he had Beliz create two drinks that would suite such an occasion as this one they are facing. The sweet, green, bubbling drink before them was called 'Death in the Afternoon', a cocktail that is sweet to the mouth and mind. One glass for Beliz and one for Rad. They both reach for their glasses.
"We can always close up and open somewhere else." Beliz said with a sigh, in this rare moment of trying to find the bright side of things that are occurring. He took a quick sip of drink in his hand and placed it back on the cabinet, "It also means that are going to remove the unnecessary workers." He gazes longingly towards the forest in hopes of something. A savior to save him from the situation? Or perhaps a devil that would cause havoc through the facility? That would forcefully make them change locations. Making them start back from the ground up, giving them a clean slate to work with. But nothing emerges from the forest.
Rad took the glass and held it near his lips but not drinking it. "We can kill of those that are working security, those kind of people are easily replaceable, none of them are like us. As for the researchers." Rad paused and looked out at the forest from the window. Loose pollen has fallen from the trees, gently descending onto the ground. A fog of pollen of hovers in the forest. Rad takes a quiet sip and lets out a small sigh of refreshment. "You can keep of the researchers that are core to the facility, the rest you can kill in a fashion that you deem adequate."
"Any ideas on how I could do that?" Beliz said with a small chuckle. It's not that that he couldn't figure out a way that he could kill everyone. Even a small child could find a way to kill someone. He was stuck from indecision from having too many options. There was the tradition way of lining them up and shooting at them. There was that nerve gas that Beliz friend in the research branch made, she claimed it was painless but the video footage showing its effectiveness begs otherwise.
"We collected a lot of spores from Titania, didn't we?" Rad said with a devious smile, "We need some human test subjects to see how it affects people." He turned his view from the forest to the ceiling. He found a vent that allowed fresh, cool air to flow through the room, "That vent would allow for easy application." He said drinking the relaxing elixir. He nodded to Beliz as to say thank you for making this for him.
"What about the facility itself? I could destroy it with some effort." Beliz asked Rad, who was laying back on the couch his drinking resting on his chest. "Everything is metal in the place, an oasis for a person like me." He let out a soft laugh, the effects of this elixir quickly influencing him. "Yes it is," Rad responded.
"And what are we going to do with that, umm," Rad said to Beliz, his mind beginning to be muddled from the drink, "That other infected individual, he managed to survive so far. Might die tomorrow or even tonight. Whatever. We will be taking him with us regardless if he survives, we need more material to do research on."
"Alright then, lets start this tomorrow. We need to rest." Beliz said as he swallows the rest of his drink. He places the empty glass on top of the cabinet.