RE:volt! Chapter 35: Hole n Peace

  Happy? Irelix asked as floated across from the boy in chains.

  “Not particularly.” Ark replied, frowning in the dark, damp, and tiny isolated cell that was buried underground.

  Ark was in The Hole. As the name suggested it was a literal hole in the ground, a small isolated cell buried in the earth with the opening being a hatch atop the cramped cell that had a small opening to allow air in.

  Here Ark hung, the boy suspended in chains as punishment for ignoring the orders of Bruno and leaving Sixty-six in the state that he did.

  Ark hadn't meant to, but a sickening desire to dominate had flooded his veins, a feeling he knew was attributed to his ongoing puberty problem.

  “I need a fix.” Ark said with the progenitor of dragons laughing in his face.

  “It's puberty. There is no fix.” Irelix replied, the words Ark didn't want to hear. “You'll just have to go through the growing pains my species undergoes.”

  “You mean I'm stuck with these… urges?!” Ark spat, glaring at the dragon.

  Irelix smirked, finding obvious joy in Ark's suffering.

  “Relax, eventually it should temper off as you grow. Why are you so angry? An apex predator should always look to dominate the lessers.” Irelix offered, attempting to assuage Ark's concern. “It is only a natural desire.”

  Despite the woman's words, Ark felt no better, he could feel the urges rising up, the need to break free, the need to conquer, to dominate enemies and subjugate the inferior species.

  Was this madness what dragons felt at all times? Was the euphoria from dominating others a drug that enslaved dragons into conquering the world? Ark didn't know, but he needed to get this under wraps.

  Suddenly the hatch opened up, casting light into the soggy hole where Ark was greeted by Ninety-Nine, the man's hair graying as he stood at the edge with a bowl of food in his hand.

  “So much for freedom huh.” Ninety-Nine said, crouching down to feed Ark with the sun at his back.

  “Just a temporary bump in the road.” Ark replied, staring up at the man who smirked.

  “I heard you punched out a kid in your cohort.” Ninety-Nine said, lifting a wooden spoon filled with porridge towards Ark's mouth. “Want to tell me what that was about oh great liberator?”

  “Just a momentary lapse in judgment.” Ark replied, tempering the urge to break his chains and fix the height to eye ratio he had with the trustee.

  “Is that so?” Ninety-Nine said, his eyes. “Ya know, interesting things have been happening around the camp lately.”

  “Oh yeah?” Ark said, swallowing the goopy and tasteless rations, eating it all as this would be the only meal he'd get for the next three days.

  “Oh yeah. An Overseer was allegedly murdered recently, haven't you heard? Not a single witness to his whereabouts.”

  “Weird.”

  “Yeah. Weird.” Ninety-Nine said, narrowing his eyes at Ark. “What's even weirder is that someone was with him the night he disappeared, a young girl in fact.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  At Ninety-Nine’s words Ark’s heart stopped momentarily, his lungs ceasing to intake air.

  “A cheery girl that hasn't said a word despite being there that night.” Ninety-Nine said, the two staring at one another. “A struggle obviously occurred. But as talented as Thirteen is, I doubt she could lift a grown fat ass such as Manfry without help. So that begs the question… who helped her? And more importantly, how?”

  Ark and Ninety-Nine stared at each other for some time. Both knew the answer, both knew who the culprit was. But neither said a word, leaving the disappearance and hypothesis of Manfry murder as it'd been previously,

  Unconfirmed.

  “How is she?” Ark finally asked as he ate another spoonful of food.

  “Shaken but not stirred. She's tough.” Ninety-Nine said, alleviating the cause of some stress Ark was feeling. “But this, can't happen again. Not like this. She was lucky to run into me, luckier still that I could fix her dress. If you have a method to circumvent the collars, I suggest you take it and flee post-haste.”

  “Oui! Man-maid! Stop chatting with the iso and get the fuck to work!” A voice called out, ordering Ninety-Nine back to his duties.

  “Yes sir! Right away sir! I'm just finishing up here sir!” Ninety-Nine said with a submissive smile and attitude before turning to Ark. “If you go north, through the trees and cross the river the hounds won't find you. That should buy you ti-”

  “HURRY THE FUCK UP!” A helper called out again.

  Ninety-Nine grimaced, retrieving the spoon and looking down at Ark with a sigh before closing the hatch, casting Ark back into near infinite darkness where he would stay for three days.

  Sound advice. Irelix commented. As much as I am loath to admit, the monkey speaks truth. Why haven't we left already?

  Ark sighed, his shoulders sagging.

  “Because I can't, not yet.” Ark said, furrowing his brow as he thought of Thirteen and her ordeal, of all the slaves and their ordeals. Ark couldn't abandon them. Couldn't allow the injustice of slavery to persist. If he left they would be doomed.

  Such a blessing heart. Irelix commented before fading away, leaving Ark to stew in his own thoughts as they turned to Nintey-Nine’s advice and the future.

  “North huh…”

  ****

  Days passed before Ark was released from his solitary confinement and allowed back into his barracks where he was greeted with mixed looks.

  From Thirty-Four, an instant hug and left over rations that Ark instantly stuffed into his mouth.

  From Thirty-Three, a worried look of disapproval.

  And finally from Sixty-six, the boy named Isa who was nursing a black eye, the teen scowling upon seeing Ark approach him and his lackeys.

  Thirty-Four and Thirty-Three backed Ark up, the two groups staring at one another.

  “What do you want?” Sixty-six said, his hand balling into a fist.

  “A truce.” Ark said, standing at the head of the two who Sixty-six had mistakenly thought of as this cohort’s alphas. He was wrong, the person really in charge was the boy with blue eyes, the teen who was a head shorter leading those who led.

  “Truce?” Sixty-six echoed.

  “It means-”

  “I know what it means.” Sixty-six said, surprising Ark.

  “Is that so, Isa?” Ark replied, causing the boy to flash a look at his friend Axel. The two unaware that Ark knew their names.

  “How-” Axel began but Ark cut him off.

  “I pay attention.” Ark said. “Something I recommend you four start doing if you’re going to be in this cohort.”

  “What do you want?” Isa said, crossing his arms, a bodily sign of one closing themselves off. Whatever Ark would say, it was clear the boy wouldn’t hear it as he was still nursing a grudge.

  “Peace.” Ark replied, staring the boy down. “Your three friends here tried to ambush me. You threw the first punch. As the victim, I’m well within my right to defend myself, so I won’t apologize. Instead… I offer peace, letting bygones be bygones.”

  “Bygones be bygones…” Isa echoed. The boy adopted a pondering look, his brow furrowing as his eyes narrowed. Sixty-six knew what his friends were plotting, knew that they were going to teach Six-two-six a lesson. What he hadn’t expected however was that they’d be the ones getting their asses handed to them and that the boy was the true alpha of their cohort.

  “I’ll leave you alone if you leave us alone.”

  “Fine, whatever.” Isa said, wincing as his swollen eye pulsed with pain. “Leave us alone.”

  Ark extended his hand, confusing Isa.

  “Its called a handshake. We touch hands to signify a deal has been made.” Ark said with Isa slapping his open palm.

  “There, are we done?”

  Ark smirked.

  “Yeah.”

  For now.