Ch. 12 - They Explored...

↓This is the Audio File for Chapter 12!↓

The struggle for a better world is a long, hard-fought battle, even in the best of circumstances. It's not only made a complicated effort from the multitudinous obstacles that can be set by outside forces, but also from the obstacles that can be set in place by the people trying to make the change happen. Worse yet... are the obstacles that can come from the people you are trying to help.

So they say goodbye to everyone they can. Joshua mostly stays quiet as Bran explains that there's another barracks that used to be his they're going to look into. It'kara, Tor'me, and 'Ichael's faces light up with curiosity and worry, but he tells them they're going to be careful going back. Although, he does give a look to both It'kara and Tor'me, hoping they'll get that he wants them to keep an eye out for them in the meantime.

...

No reaction. But hopefully things'll be fine.

Starting off with the doctor back in 'Ichael's new room, Bran thanks her for helping shed light on the things they managed to talk about.

"Of course," Sarah replies, smiling a little. "Uh... Bran?" she quickly adds, tugging on his arm a bit.

Bran gets quiet and steps over to her, away from Josh, who notices while anxiously shaking It'kara's hand.

"Yes?" Bran asks, whispering.

He's trying very hard to keep his voice in a serious tone, which isn't easy after having gone through so many hours of being serious today.

"I suppose... to answer your last question..."

By now, Joshua's given up on trying to listen in and just switches his attention over to Tor'me now. They talk, but Bran's not focused on that right now.

"I don't know if I do know who your family might be."

The words make a hole get into Bran's stomach. All different kinds of ideas are going through his head right now, ranging from existential worries to the anticipation of what'll happen when they... go back 'home'. Probably not the best time or place to be processing this stuff, even if he asked.

...But it doesn't take him long to find words again.

"I guess I'll just have to come back then, huh?"

She laughs under her breath, and her smile gets wider and warmer.

"I guess so."

It's a nice feeling to Bran, the idea of coming back sometime soon. But he quickly moves himself back over to the bed, to talk to 'Ichael as Tor'me and Joshua continue talking behind him.

"We're going back down, kid," he says, ruffling 'Ichael's hair.

"Why's that?" he replies, in between a few chuckles. "I mean..."

As he continues, his face becomes more neutral and he gets a bit quieter.

"I mean what Sarah told us... kinda makes me feel like there isn't much reason. Right?"

Bran doesn't hear Joshua and Tor'me talking anymore. Even if Joshua wasn't looking at him, Bran could swear he could feel his eyes on the back of his head.

Hopefully he's just being paranoid. Today's been stressful as hell.

Yeah...

"Well, we've got a few things to do," Bran replied, only a bit quieter than his usual speaking volume. "And... hopefully we get some answers."

'Ichael hesitates a bit. "Yeah, I hope so too."

Bran stands back up and looks between 'Ichael and Joshua. "And we'll be coming back to see you, hopefully tomorrow."

Joshua glances over to Bran briefly, and then puts his attention to 'Ichael, repeating the sentiment with, "Yeah. We'll check up on you. Stay healthy kid," before turning around, waving behind himself, and going out the door.

Well, he said something. It felt sincere at least.

Far as we can tell.

The door closes, Bran waves similarly to Josh, and--

"Uh Bran?"

He looks to his left, and Tor'me is holding his arm out to him. He looks mildly concerned.

"What is it?" Bran softly asks.

It takes a bit for Tor'me to respond. "Uh... I didn't really know how else to bring this up, if you even want me to ask, but..."

It'kara comes in closer, making Bran look at them. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask as well."

They kinda huddle together, but without touching each other as their voice gets hushed.

"Is everything okay... between you two?"

...

"What do you mean?"

Bran didn't really know what else to say.

"I only ask because Joshua still seems... on edge to me. I know what you told me about it, but... I'm worried."

"So am I," Tor'me adds, whispering and looking between It'kara and Bran.

He's getting anxious, but...

...

well, fuck it. What reason do I have to lie?

"Honestly, guys?" Bran says. "I am too."

No reply. He goes on.

"This is the first time I think I've seen him get worked up like this. And yeah, I was pretty sure he was just scared of you guys, but I would've thought he'd calmed down more than this by now."

Tor'me looks a bit confused at that.

"What about you?"

And now Bran looks a bit confused.

"Well I get 'Ichael's excited because we're aliens. But... why are you so willing to talk to us? Or to... Sarah?" he finishes, gesturing to her standing a few feet away from It'kara.

"You wanted to leave."

Sarah's calm sentence makes everyone turn in surprise, the relative loudness of her voice speeding up Bran's heartbeat briefly as he locks his eyes to hers.

"Am I right?" she adds, sounding a little surprised at the idea.

Looking at all of them, one thought now dominates Bran's head.

Tell them. What do I have to lose?

...But as he remembers Joshua on the other side of the door to the room, he reluctantly pushes the thought somewhere else.

"Let's talk about that tomorrow, yeah?" he says, putting a smile on his face, hoping to show he genuinely wants to continue the conversation.

Thankfully everyone else nods, and he makes a small wave as he steps to the door.

"Oh, uh..." he adds, turning back to It'kara and Tor'me. "Would you be able..." he begins, looking at Tor'me, trying to ask them to keep an eye out for him and Joshua. But then he remembers...

"Wait, you... are you allowed to... continue doing anything about Galvana?"

Tor'me's head jumps up in recognition. "Oh. Well, actually, Sarah and I will probably need to talk to the people mad at me about what we talked about anyways, so... I guess we'll see."

"Okay," Bran replies, turning to It'kara. "Could you uh... keep an eye out for... me and Joshua?"

Kinda wish I could make that come out less vague right now.

But even as It'kara hesitates at the statement, they never take their eyes away from Bran, like they're registering the weight of his underlying worries.

"I can make something happen."

"Okay," Bran replies, automatically.

He looks back to the door and walks through, meeting Joshua just a few feet down the hall with his eyes. Then he stops, puts his hands on his hips, takes a deep breath and sighs out as much of the anxiety as he can.

"Let's go back to Galvana," he says, dreading the thought.

Back into the ship-to-surface pod they go, with nothing to say between themselves. Bran just watches as the ground advances to him faster than he's ever imagined possible, all while not feeling any of the motions of the trip himself.

Least I'm not gonna be sick from this.

Joshua just keeps his eyes closed and holds Bran's hand tightly. Bran squeezes a few times, trying to make him calm down.

What do I even say to him after we get there? After we look at - if we get to look at the other Barracks?

One thing at a time, man. Steps.

...

The pod touches down, just behind the door through the wall of Galvana, and Joshua sighs as he opens his eyes and gets up. Bran follows him out of the pod, and they both watch it retreat through the sky, until it disappears into the general shape of the spiraling, double ended obelisk of a ship, long before the pod actually touches it.

Watching it leave, Bran is reminded of what time it is, as the sky is red and the ship is vaguely outlined from the few lights it has on, small and far away enough to look like stars. If it wasn't for the bright shield coming down from it, he'd probably forget it was even there.

In fact, while that thought's here, he did forget something.

He's been looking in the vague direction of the door for quite some time, where there's usually somebody keeping watch at the control booth.

Nobody's there.

He looks around, Joshua watching his head move.

I don't hear anybody.

No engines, no voices, no officers walking out of the Tower just ahead...

"What's wrong?" Joshua asks. Bran jumps a little bit at his voice, the loudest thing on the planet right now.

"People don't fall asleep this early," Bran replies, trying to whisper.

Joshua looks around now, getting put on edge. "Well," he says after a few seconds, "maybe they don't have anything to do today."

But Bran shakes his head, remembering earlier today. "No, hang on..."

He made his way to the Tower now, looking through the hallways that branched off from the lobby for any signs of life. Footsteps, voices... any single person walking somewhere. But he didn't find anybody. He even found his way to the Marshall's office, seeing him looking out a window away from the door... and he somehow looked worse than he did earlier today.

Oh my god, did that all really happen just today?!

Yeah, it did.

...

Wait a minute...

"Joshua?" Bran asked, his voice echoing through the lobby.

"What?" Joshua asked back, standing at the center of the seal stamped onto the floor.

"I don't remember seeing anybody else anywhere in here when I found you and the Marshall. Do you?" The question lingered in the room as Bran walked back over to Josh, the question somehow confusing him more than the apparent lack of people.

He looked down, trying to pick out his memories.

"No," he finally replies, "Not really. I wasn't paying much attention to that."

Neither was I.

Bran looks back around, hoping to see a soldier running an errand, an officer trying to kiss someone's ass... one of those weirdos who walk around with clipboards, writing down who knows what. But nobody shows up.

It absolutely was not this empty just a few days ago.

"Bran, what's going on?" Joshua asks, finally seeming to understand how freaky this is, given the context of the last few days.

"I don't know," Bran weakly answers.

The dead quiet stays around for a while longer.

Maybe all of this was going on for longer than just today. Maybe the only reason this is making Bran worried is because of what happened earlier. For all he knows it could be like Joshua said; 'maybe they don't have anything to do today?'.

...But the doubt didn't stay for long. And neither did the silence, as Joshua and Bran made their way out of the tower to get back to looking for the other barrack.

Now, they were both out on the streets. Thanks to the walls of the city, the wind couldn't make a sound come over the silence that was causing Bran and Joshua's footprints to become the loudest things on Earth. Almost every other step, Bran looked around, past houses, over rooftops and back to the windows of the Tower. He never saw anything.

But they kept walking. Back to their barracks.

And when they got there...

...

There were people.

Soldiers. Some officers. Bran even recognized some of them.

...But there were definitely fewer people outside than there 'should' be right now. Even if they didn't have much to do.

This all made Bran stop about 30 feet from the building, Joshua stopping just behind him.

"This isn't just making me scared, right?" Joshua asked, as if he really needed to.

"I don't know what's going on," Bran whispered back.

Whatever people were doing, it was quiet. So no exercises or drills. No weapons out either, from what Bran could see.

The only other notable thing was that some people were watching the ship, and probably talking about it to the people next to them. Mostly soldiers, but a few of the officers were doing it too.

Everything felt off right now.

...

Bran didn't really feel like pushing their luck any more than they have, so after waiting and watching for a bit, he decided to walk over to a house to their right. He looked through, or in between the walls to see just how much space there was for him and Joshua.

We could both walk through this just fine.

He walked through to the end of the walls, and thankfully saw more pathways, seeming to lead around all these...

...god, these houses only have space for anything as big as a person. No furniture, no windows, not even any doors on the other sides of these things.

Well, to be fair, there wouldn't be much to look at on these sides of the houses.

...and assuming Sarah is right - about this place being an otherwise abandoned art project, it wouldn't have to be built for people to live here, would it?

We are kinda getting off track.

Yeah... right. Can't really talk about it with Joshua, anyways.

Speaking of, Joshua was just watching him from the opening leading to the streets. Bran motioned him to follow quickly, in case anybody might see him from up ahead and thankfully he caught up. They kept moving, getting a bit crowded as the houses blended in together with their uniform building materials and states of decay. It also made it really hard to tell houses apart, but thankfully, since there was almost always some sight line showing the streets, they didn't have to worry about getting lost.

Didn't necessarily make it easier to get around the barracks, though. As many alleys as there were, they could only go so far around a building of that size before running up against the city wall, and they did. They reached a point where houses couldn't really provide much more cover for a stretch of land.

There were houses just ahead of them, though.

Houses with alleys that should lead them to exactly where Bran remembered the other barrack to be.

Bran peeked around the house wall, trying his best to not touch it so he didn't burn himself.

Soldiers and officers were still looking at the ship, talking amongst themselves. Not as many as there were; Bran imagined most of them went inside at this point. But he didn't wanna wait for them to leave.

"What do you want to do?" Joshua asked, breaking the silence with a whisper.

Bran contemplated silently, watching everybody's eyes.

"Well, they seem pretty focused," he began as he was suddenly aware of his heartbeat. "We might just be able to walk along the wall without anyone noticing."

"Are you sure?"

"I mean, no. But I'm not finding a stray tumbleweed and using it as cover. They'd probably notice us more if we did that."

Silence between the both of them as the people ahead just kept looking above where they were.

"Whatever we do, we gotta do it, man," Bran said, backing up to straighten his back, and getting ready to go. "Follow me closely, just in case."

And he just started walking. Near the wall and at a mild pace, hoping to keep himself (and Joshua) as small and hard to notice as possible.

Bran knew the walk would only take them a few seconds from one end of housing to another, he understood it wasn't even that far away.

But the idea of being out in the open after using so much effort to hide was getting to him. He kept glancing over, trying to see if anybody was looking at them, and it almost made him grind his clothes against the concrete to his right, which would definitely make it easier to notice them with how quiet things were right now.

He opted to just keep looking ahead.

...

But it didn't make him feel any better either.

In fact, he noticed he needed to focus quite a bit to keep himself from walking faster, or just running. His heart was the only thing he could hear right now.

Calm down, we're 2/3rds there now.

The house was getting closer, and closer.

In Bran's head, at any second, he could imagine those guys shouting at them, running over to them, god knows what else after today...

"Hey!"

A faint voice to Bran's left, definitely coming from the barracks.

Then not even a split second later, Bran bolted for the alley in front of him. Once out of view, he skid to stop himself while turning around to see Joshua running as well... but then he looked to the left...

...and slowly came to a stop. Just, watching what was to his left.

"Joshua!" Bran quickly shouted in a voice he'd use for a whisper. "Come on! Over here!"

"They're not following us, Bran!" Joshua replied, in his normal speaking voice, gesturing him to come out and see for himself.

Trying to process what he said, Bran hesitantly peeked from the wall to his right.

...the men were all going back into the building, way more voices coming from inside, even audible to Bran in spite of how far away he was.

As the last one outside went through the door and started closing it behind himself, one clear voice rang back to them.

"We've made up our minds!"

The door closed.

And the world was quiet again.

Quieter, even. As Bran stepped back out of the alley, his footsteps were once again the loudest thing around. Of course, he could've sworn he could hear more discussion from the barrack, despite the distance, but if he did... it was all barely audible. Basically a whisper.

He looked over to Joshua and Joshua gave him the exact same expression Bran was giving him.

What is happening?

He looked back ahead of him, expecting people to come out sometime soon. He almost found himself wishing they'd just chase after them already, something that'd make more sense to him at least. But nobody was coming out.

They were the only people left in Galvana right now.

...

Eventually, Bran decided he wasn't gonna wait for them anymore. He walked back to the alley, the confusion and frustration making him grind the sand and dirt under his shoes harder. Once he was back to where he stopped, he looked back to Joshua, who was still looking over there, at the barrack.

Just blankly staring.

"Come on, Joshua."

Joshua snapped his head over to him, stood a few seconds longer, and started following him again.