"I'm exhausted, thanks for the idea, Enak," Jack said, stumbling out of the car.
He straightened up and started looking around their landing place, looking for anything of concern. The forest rang with silence, the sounds of twigs breaking under his steps breaking the silence.
Enak's semi-solid form manifested on his shoulder, glistening under the moonlight.
They stayed in silence for a bit while they both tried to gather words to talk about what had just happened.
"What was that?" Jack finally blurted out.
"I told you not to touch the Kana thread. It invaded your Kana network, making its way to your consciousness, subjecting it to the mind control. If you had let that man who was controlled everyone, you would've been under mind control by now, or probably would've even killed yourself under its influence," Enak explained gravely.
"I- I see, thanks for fighting him back from me," Jack sighed.
"What? No, I didn't fight. I just opened the passage. The one fighting should be just you," Enak said, confused.
"What do you mean? Weren't you the person in the golden aura that was fighting?"
"No, I don't know what you are talking about."
Jack stayed silent for a bit. The man had helped him, but he didn't come from outside. He was in that place from the beginning, fighting the man.
"Who exactly is controlling these minds?" Jack asked absentmindedly.
"How can I know? I didn't get enough time to properly analyze it, but the bad news is the Kana signature looked Kratian."
"Any chance it can be that guy who was the host?" Jack asked as he headed back to the car.
"I see no reason for him to not be. He has already shown himself a snake in our ranks. Considering he was a royal, he must be skilled and strong enough to pull it off."
"All the more reason for us to take care of him sooner," Jack said, clenching his jaw.
Jack pulled out the pocket tent out of the car and placed it on the ground. He deployed it and asked Diana over the Kana network to bring everyone out. A few seconds later, the hatch opened and people started to walk out of it.
"Everyone, make yourselves comfortable. I want you to listen to every word I speak here very carefully. Got it?"
There was a soft rustle as everyone moved around and started to sit down on rocks, branches, or the ground. After a few minutes, when everyone had settled in, Jack started to address the crowd. Jack turned on the headlights of the car; the light flooded the area, illuminating everything around.
"Does anyone here know what has been happening?"
"We went to attend a festival and the Ortho Sapiens took advantage of it to try and eliminate us?" a man who was sitting against a tree spoke up.
"That's what happened today, do you know what has been going on in the world lately?" Jack pressed on with the question.
The crowd remained silent and looked at Jack with confused eyes.
"Of course you don't. The media never covered it. The Ortho Sapiens have been massacring our people relentlessly lately. It's been almost a week since that day, since the day they launched a global massacre on the Kratians living in the Kratian reserved lands," Jack said as he shook his head.
"I know Ortho Sapiens are evil, but a global assault? That sounds a little too farfetched. Where was the police then? Where were the authorities? Didn't they hear the gunshots or something?" one of the people said.
Jack looked at the man. He was one of the mind control victims he had freed.
"They were made unable to act because they were under mind control," Jack said simply.
"No way, that's even more insane. Why would Kratians help the Ortho Sapiens? And let's assume even that happens, it's impossible for a Kratian to control this many people at once."
"It is, but the situation is going insane. Don't trust me? Here, look at their broadcast. This is the band Ortho Sapiens wear to communicate amongst themselves," Jack said as he threw the man his Ortho wristband.
The man browsed through the band and threw it back to Jack and ended up puking.
"You have your answer now?" Jack said with a sigh as he went and handed the man a water bottle.
"But why? Why would someone from Vanthelis Family join them?" the man said, choking.
"Trust me, mate, I'm looking for the answer to that too," Jack said, patting his back. "You seem to know about the Vanthelis Family, even when the royal families of Creta aren't mentioned much nowadays."
"I'm a historian," the man said bluntly.
"Okay, okay." Jack escorted him back to his seat and then took his place at the centre of the audience again.
"Well, now you see, you can't exactly return to your lives. We are being hunted by them, and the authorities that are under mind control by the enemy will not help us in any way."
"So what do we do? We can't exactly move out of here, we have no place to live in," a man said weakly, burying his face in his palms.
"We survive, we fight. These humans might have gotten stronger because we introduced them to Kana energy, but the power is still our domain. If we work together, we can protect ourselves. We will lay low for a while. Once they are sure no Kratians are left alive, we can slowly meld into the society by hiding our powers," Jack said, but even he knew how ridiculous it sounded.
"That will take years. And what about food and resources? We will have to go to human shops to get them anyway," another man said from the crowd.
"So what do you suggest we do? Go back to find ourselves killed tomorrow? Or stay here in a constant state of fear, waiting to be found and killed? Have our children stay in this suffocating atmosphere? Laying low and slowly molding into the human society is the best bet we have got," Diana interrupted suddenly.
"Listen lady, we get it, but how will we live? We don't even know how we got under mind control. What if we just end up getting mind controlled again and sabotage everything? We can't always stay in a forest like this as well. We will be spotted if we build a shelter."
"For that you have us. The device in which you were gathered before this is called a pocket tent. It works on a Kana reactor that is powerful enough to sustain 500 families very easily inside. There is no limit to space. We will stay inside it. We have to," Jack replied.
"And why should we follow you? What if you are one of the Ortho Sapiens? What if you take us in and then drop us off at a Revenant-making farm or something?"
"I am a Kratian like you, why would I?" Jack replied back.
"Wasn't Mr. Vanthelis one too? Heck, he was one of the royals. If he can betray us, there is a good enough probability you might too," a man shouted who had been listening in from the top of the tree.
Jack bit his lip. He had no answer that would satisfy as a verification of his loyalty to the Kratians. He opened his mouth to speak something but closed it again and hung his head down in defeat. Diana came up behind him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"It's up to you. If you wanna die tomorrow, go away and get back to your place. If you wanna at least struggle to stay alive, come with us. End of discussion. Just know we will be heading back to Pennsylvania in a few hours, so take your decision now. Place your trust in us and we promise to keep you alive along with us. Get away and we won't give a damn if you died in front of us," Diana rebuked the crowd.
After a few moments of silence, an old man stood up and walked up behind Jack. He stood there for a moment and then started to address the crowd.
"I have nothing to lose. I have no children. My wife—she died to protect you, young lady. So even if I die tomorrow, I won't regret it. But if I can live a bit longer under your care and share my knowledge to help you youngins, it won't be too bad," he said slowly.
Jack smiled a little. He bowed before the old man and said, "That would be most welcome, sir."
"Don't mention it. I used to be a farmer, so well, if you find a place to grow crops, I will guide you. After all, these old bones can't exactly farm right now," the old man chuckled.
"Yes, yes, I will look forward to it," Jack said, smiling, and turned back to the crowd expectantly.
There was a sudden rustle and shuffling of footsteps, and people were either moving behind Jack or gathering opposite to him.
The man who was a historian walked up and said, "Well, mister, I am a historian as you know. History won't be of much help to us here, but I guess I can help you with geographic locations."
"That would be very generous because I used to suck at it," Jack said, offering him a handshake. "Jack Hauston," he said.
The man's eyes widened in shock. He froze for a second and then took the handshake.
"Th- Thain Merovan," he said, stuttering.
Jack looked at the man with puzzled eyes.
What has got him so worked up? he thought as they shook hands.
"M- M- Mr. Hauston, c- can we talk a bit later?" he stammered.
"Sure."
With a final shake of his hand, the man disappeared
into the crowd behind him.
"Is that everyone willing to come with us?" Jack said, looking puzzled at everyone who had gathered in front of him.
"Yes, and the ones coming with you will soon regret it anyways. They gonna come back again soon," the man who was sitting on the tree said as he jumped to the ground.
He was fairly young, around Jack's age.
"Well, keep yourself safe, mate," Jack said, shaking his head as he turned back to his crowd as the other walked away with his.
"What a waste of potential," Enak sighed.
"Indeed."
Jack looked around his crowd. All the youngbloods had went with the other guy. Teenagers and their risky attitudes! Jack thought curtly. Out of the 170–180 people they had rescued, only a hundred remained with Jack. Most of them stopped because they had a family too precious to risk, or nothing to risk. But clearly, there were no combatants in the group.
"Alright, everyone, you will be under our care from now. We will have another pocket tent for non-combatants. There is a synthetic indoor farming system as well, but seeds do take time to bear fruit, so we will have to live on canned food for a while," Jack sighed as he took out another pocket tent. He set the format to an apartment building.
"This will have each individual family have adminship of their apartment. There is no limit to space and you can freely add rooms to your apartments. For now, everyone go rest. I will explain the division of work and duties tomorrow," Jack explained as the pocket tent completed the realm creation.
After everyone walked inside, Jack closed the hatch of the tent and entered his own tent with Diana.
"Where is Ethan?" he asked her.
"He went to sleep, said he exerted himself too much."
"I see. We should go to rest too. Viora, take the car inside," Jack said as he waved to Diana as she disappeared inside her room.