Bab 76: Resort?
Olive felt her face grow warmer.
At first, it was a comforting warmth. Like a mother's embrace.
But then, the temperature continued to rise. It went from a soft warmth to a sizzling burn.
Olive's eyes opened and, a mere few inches from her face, a flame burned brilliantly.
Olive shoved herself off of the ground and scurried away from the flame, but she was already too late.
She could see it reflected in her bangs; her hair was singed by the fire.
"If it isn't sleeping beauty…" A scratchy voice penetrated Olive's ears.
The voice was raspy and twisted while simultaneously high-pitched. Olive could distinctly tell that the voice belonged to a woman.
"It took you long enough to get up." The voice came from above.
Yet Olive's eyes were still adjusting. She was light-headed and her vision was partly blurry.
She rubbed her eyes and peered past the flames that nearly scorched her.
The sun burned high above her.
Tall walls of dirt and mud surrounded her peripherals and beside her, strewn across the ground like an after-thought, the rest of her cohort laid unconscious.
Standing above her on the surface, an Orc with black braided hair and red markings looked down at her.
The Orc was female and her eyes were blazing. Her tusks protruded from her underbite and curved upward.
The female Orc was smiling.
Olive leaned herself against the wall of mud.
She looked at the female Orc.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Olive groaned.
A brutal headache assaulted her mind and exorbitant soreness threatened to tear at her body.
"Who am I?" The female Orc chuckled. "I wanted to ask you the very same."
"Boys." She clapped.
Ten Orc's arrived around the pit. They towered above Olive and, with bows in hand, aimed at her.
"Who are you?" The red Orc asked. "And why are you special?"
Olive instinctively raised her hands. It didn't feel nice to be on the receiving end of ten bows, but she grit her teeth and met the Orc's gaze nonetheless.
"Special?" This time, it was Olive's turn to chuckle.
"There's nothing special about me."
The red Orc's gaze didn't falter.
"Oh, but you are mistaken, little one." The red Orc's eyes suddenly glowed.
Her scarlet irises illuminated and burned like the flames that forced Olive awake.
"See?" The Orc's eyes returned to normal. "You're immune. Now tell me why."
But Olive merely stared at her.
"Immune?" Olive asked. "Immune to what?"
To this, the red Orc released a pent up breath.
"So you're smaller and dumber than the Mongrels…" The red Orc commented under her breath. "Great."
The red Orc shifted her gaze to the unconscious people around Olive.
"Get up!" She barked.
Immediately, Isaac, Leon, Koa, and Darnell — all of their bodies twitched alongside anothers'.
Like reanimated corpses, their joints and ligaments moved robotically. The four stumbled to their feet, struggling to maintain their balance along the way.
At this sight, Olive was taken aback.
She reached for the cuff of Isaac's shirt and tugged on his arm, but Isaac ignored her.
Then, Olive too struggled to her feet.
She grabbed Isaac's shoulders and tried to rattle him awake, but when she finally looked at his face, Olive saw his eyes.
They were glowing red.
Olive looked at Leon. His eyes were red too.
So were Darnell's and Koa's!
"Do you understand now?" The red Orc's voice bounced off of the pit's walls.
"Now tell me why you are immune —" she said, "or die."
The archer's surrounding the pit drew back their arrows. The bow's tension strengthened and the Orc's bloodthirst oozed into the air.
"I'm waiting." The Orc said.
When she finished speaking, Isaac, Leon, Darnell, and Koa all turned around and looked at Olive.
Their gazes were hollow. Their faces neither swayed nor twitched. Not a single unnecessary movement could be found within their movements.
They appeared soulless.
Meanwhile, Olive's eyes scattered.
She looked around the pit that trapped her.
Could she climb the walls? Probably.
But would the pit ever be left unguarded? Probably not.
And even if she could escape, Olive couldn't see a way out with the others.
The others?
Olive glanced at the four men in the pit with her.
Were they even still alive? Olive didn't know.
"Five…" The red Orc said.
"Four…"
"Three…" She continued.
"Two…" She started inspecting her nails.
"O-"
"I'm |Fearless|!" Olive shouted in the nick of time.
The red Orc raised her eyebrow. She flicked something to the side whilst looking at Olive.
For a moment, the two women just stared at each other.
Then.
*woosh*
An arrow slipped past Olive's cheek. It slammed into the mud wall where it was embedded.
Meanwhile, blood poured down Olive's cheek.
The arrow had just grazed her.
"The next one won't miss." The red Orc threatened.
"Hey! I told you!" Olive argued. "I'm |Fearless|! It's my Trait!"
"I can't feel fear!" Olive said. "So if your illusion, or whatever it is, is based on fear then it won't work on me!"
"Oh?" The red Orc licked her lips.
"You can't feel fear?" She smiled.
"We'll see about that!"
***
*knock* *knock*
"Secretary-General?" A male's voice broke through the closed door.
"Enter!" Barber replied.
Agent Fox, an indistinguishable white man with short red hair and sunglasses indoors, entered the Secretary-General's office.
He walked up to Barber's desk where he placed a single USB drive. Stepping back, he crossed his hands behind him and patiently waited for the Secretary-General to finish reading her papers.
"How are things in Brazil?" Barber asked whilst her eyes still scurried across the page.
"The story is slowly fading out of major media." Agent Fox replied, "I'm surprised Agent Crow's plan worked so quickly."
"Hmm?" Barber hummed, "Oh yes, Crow's plan really was outlandish wasn't it?"
Secretary-General Barber flipped over the page she was reading. There was a backside to be read too, after all.
"Yes, Secretary-General." Agent Fox agreed, "Also, although the reaper's major media presence is declining — his local reputation is growing."
"How so?" Barber asked, slightly intrigued, but more so going through the motions of her job.
"Some of the locals have begun idolizing him: murals, sculptures, stickers. The reaper is becoming an urban legend all across Brazil."
"Idolizing?" Barber's brain subconsciously reacted to the word.
She put her paper down and finally looked at Agent Fox.
"Why would the people idolize him? He caused mass destruction and reaped the lives of hundreds of soldiers and locals." Barber said.
But Agent Fox shook his head. "We're not sure."
"There have been a bunch of Internet forums and websites we've had to take down that showcase explicit images of the aftermath: destroyed homes, crushed corpses… a lot of it is confidential information that's somehow being leaked."
The Secretary-General brushed it off. "That's just Emilio's dogs. I'm sure he's trying to tarnish whatever reputation the reaper has garnered by releasing those images. He wants the world to see how awful the reaper is."
"No, what I'm interested in is the murals you mentioned. The Rose family wouldn't make murals and little kids' stickers. That has to be someone else." Barber concluded.
"Should we track them down?" Agent Fox asked.
The Secretary-General waved her hand. She dismissed the notion.
"Only if you deem it necessary."
"Now — what's this?" Barber picked up the USB drive.
"It's a proposal from G.U.A.R.D. They'd like to begin construction in the Land of Trees immediately." Agent Fox said.
"A proposal?" Barber scoffed. "More like a request for funds!"
But Barber digressed. She slid the USB drive into her desktop and unzipped its files. Once she did so, three spreadsheets littered her computer screen in addition to countless other mundane reports.
Barber studied the spreadsheets.
"Agent Fox?" Barber said.
"Yes, Secretary-General?"
"What am I looking at."
…
"Um…" Agent Fox hesitantly scratched his cheek.
"A resort…" He mumbled.
"Say again?" Barber cupped her ear like she didn't hear it the first time.
"A resort, ma'am!" Agent Fox straightened his posture.
Barber ignored him. Instead, she quickly scanned the proposal.
Like Agent Fox said, the entire proposal was for a resort constructed around the black pyramid.
It would consist of a town square built in front of the pyramids entrance. There, shops and stalls for tourists would be placed alongside a grandiose fountain depicting the behemoth lion the first Awakened had to slay to escape.
Bungalows would be built all along the jungle trees as, due to the sheer size of the trees, tons of apartments could be built per tree.
The proposal included bridges spanning the skies, built from giant tree to giant tree.
They planned on building water wheels all along the Enchanted River to harvest electricity and, eventually, windmills in the open plains.
Then, if the Land of Trees resort goes well, the proposal hinted at expanding to the Land of Frost and the Land of Skies: a winter resort plus an aerial resort.
The end of the proposal was signed by Sutton Adams, Director of G.U.A.R.D. In addition to his signature, a note, separate from the proposal, was attached.
"Although operated by G.U.A.R.D., we're willing to ceced the resort as a 'global territory' thus registering it eligible for taxes. Consider the taxes." It read.
At this, Barber smirked.
"Very sneaky…" she muttered under her breath.
"The next UN meeting will definitely be an interesting one!"
///LostNoteFound///
Hey moofin…. So uh…. You come here often, or…?
;P
(thanks for the stones)
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