Efferent

Chapter 62

My breaths came in short, shuddering gasps as I realized what the silence meant. "He... he is dead?" I asked quietly, and Blaise closed his eyes and tilted his head back.

"I-I believe s-so." He said gently, and I felt renewed tears rolling down my cheeks, dripping off when I blinked.

"What did they do to him? Just extracting the serum is not enough to kill him! Did they dispose of him when they decided they do not need him anymore?" I cried and turned to Blaise. He clenched his teeth together and squeezed my hand harder.

"Stay strong, Ardyn." Blaise stated, and I nodded, albeit wobbly and unsure.

"Y-yeah." I hiccuped, and forced a smile on my face. "Okay." Then I pried his fingers off of mine, and walked to my bed, smothering my face in my pillow. I turned over and saw Blaise watching me with concern. "I'm f-fine."

Footsteps echoed down the hallway again and I looked up, only to see the stern face of... Clark. Clark? "Clark!" I yelled happily. "You are not dead?" He did not answer, but kept walking. "Blaise!" I screamed, ecstatic. "Clark is alive!"

"He is?" Blaise's eyes widened to see Clark stop outside of our cells. "How are you, Clark? Are you okay now? What were they doing to you?" He asked worriedly. Clark stared at us blankly, as if we were total strangers.

"What... what is the matter, Clark?"

"Shut up!" He replied loudly. "Shut up. You two, break it up. Go to sleep or something." I gaped at him, mouth wide open, and Blaise looked the same. "I did not say stare at me! I said to do something else! Go! Go on." He prodded me with a finger, and I blinked.

"What is wrong with him?" Blaise questioned me quietly.

"He is not as he is normally. There is something going on." I deduced. "James! He must have done something!"

"You are a genius, Ardyn!" Blaise exclaimed, and I looked at him sideways. He stumbled over his words as he rushed to answer, "James must have persuaded him to work for him or such." I cocked my head and looked back at Clark, who wore an emotionless expression.

"Shut up!" Clark repeated. "I will call in Travis if needed, so break. It. Up!" He pointed at our respective beds. "I want silence, understood? Silence!" Clark held a stick in his left hand, which thudded against his right as he stood outside of my cell.

We silently obeyed, crawling into our beds and staring at each other. "You are right. I think he is now one of James's mindless Afferent." I mouthed to Blaise, and he smiled softly, nodding. "What do you think we should do? We should try to escape."

Blaise frowned. "Yeah, we should. How? Maybe you can try to control an Afferent guard to unlock the cells for us?" He asked. I nodded thoughtfully and looked back at Clark. His expression was the same, his posture straight, and he had a walkie-talkie at the side of his belt.

Blaise must have seen my forlorn glance at Clark, and he sighed, "He is a traitor, Ardyn. Look. A soldier now."

"Quiet!" Clark snapped.

"You be quiet!" Blaise shot back, glaring. "How can you just stand there and watch us perish in here? How can you not do anything?" Clark did not respond. "Tell me, how did James persuade you to join his army of Afferent? How did you so easily become brainwashed?"

I saw Clark flinch just slightly, but Blaise did not notice. "I am not brainwashed. I am merely doing what is right." Clark replied coldly.

"What is right." Blaise snorted. "So, you call massacring a city right?"

"That was just an obstacle. Besides, it was good for the army. We will recruit more soldiers and soon we will become all powerful." Clark said. "This is the correct way to move forward." I shook my head vigorously, not used to this way of Clark. He had completely transformed into someone I did not remember.

"That is not right!" Blaise continued arguing. "You are a traitor to the good of mankind! A traitor!" He yelled, wringing his hands.

"Shut up!" Clark yelled back in turn. "Shut up!" He repeated. "You do not know why I am doing this, you do not know the reasons, so I suggest you stop making assumptions!" Blaise clenched his fists and I quickly tugged on his sleeve again, shaking my head.

Clark then spoke into the radio he had, talking quickly and quietly. A second Afferent strode into the room after, glancing at us. Clark made a quick movement, and a loud sound rumbled through the building. There was a flash of bright white light, and smoke appeared.

"Ardyn!" Blaise screamed. I quickly latched onto his hand.

"I'm here! I'm fine!" I clenched onto his hand tightly, and looked around us. I coughed, waving the smoke away, and tried to peer through it. The Afferent who had just came in cursed slightly, and I could hear loud footsteps pacing around. "What happened?" I asked.

I could hear footsteps of the Afferent fading down the hallway. He cursed again, saying, "Why is the door locked?" I looked to Blaise, who was barely discernible through the smoke. "Clark?" The Afferent questioned. "Clark?" He yelled louder, but Clark did not answer.

Instead, he appeared right by my side. Startled, I yelled but Clark had muffled it. "Shh, Ardyn."

"W-what?" I stuttered. Clark gave me a warning look, mouthing, "Just trust me."

"The blasted radio is not working as well! Clark, we are trapped in here!" The Afferent stated, and then moaned. "This is not going to look good on our reports! Disconnection, being trapped, and somehow detonating a smoke bomb!"

"What is going on here?" James bellowed, storming into the room with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed. "What is going on in here? Answer me, now!" He demanded the Afferent who was busily wringing his hands. He had a note of panic on his face now.

"U-uhm, I came in since Clark called for me, saying that the Efferent were disobedient, so I came in. The doors were unfortunately locked somehow and then a smoke bomb went off." The Afferent's voice wavered, growing smaller and smaller at the end.

James let out a huff of annoyance. "And, who let off the smoke bomb?" He strode closer to the trembling Afferent, and I felt bad for him. Clark then tugged on my wrist and pushed me towards the cell, which had an open door.

Then he wordlessly passed me keys, pointing towards Blaise's cell. "Go. Leave the facility. Escape." Then he walked away from me, to join the shouting match between the Afferent and James. I quickly unlocked Blaise's cage, and waited in the shadows among the smoke, hoping they would not spot us.

"I will be unlocking the doors to let the smoke out." Clark announced.

"Yes, yes, go do that." James waved him off in an off hand manner. "What we really need to focus on is who was in trouble for this- this mess?" He motioned at the room. "Was it you, Clark? Or you, Daniel?" The Afferent called Daniel was shaking now.

Clark quickly unlocked the doors and waved us out, pretending to be trying to get the smoke out. "Good luck." He mouthed, and I nodded, giving him a smile. Blaise decided to run down the hall to do some investigating on where the hallway led to, so I stayed and listened to their conversation.

"I think it was you, Daniel, since when you came in, the smoke bomb went off." James said disapprovingly. "This is a very serious mistake, and consequences will be very severe." I gasped lightly, and then peered in.

James then looked to Clark. "I think you can do the honor of the punishment, which shall be... hm, how do we prevent something like this from happening ever again?"

"Please, s-sir, i-it will not ha-happen again!" Daniel stuttered, crouching down on his knees and begging James, whose face showed no sign of mercy. "P-Please, please, please, sir. Please take mercy! I-it was only one mis-mistake, I will never do it again!"

"But we can not be sure that it will not happen again." James replied. "We can not have any blundering fools like you roaming around and guarding anymore." Daniel let out a whimper, a tear rolling down his cheek.

"You will be disposed of," James stated, "And Clark will do it."