Shades of Wolves

Chapter 15: Turning upside down

November, 13th, 2100

When I was 18, the pandemic came. My father and my mother were both doctors. They worked day and night then got sick. They were given oxygen tanks and tried to survived on their own. My mother passed away. My father somehow made it. But he fell into depression because he had to watch his patients die day and night and blamed himself for not being able to save his wife. In the end, he also committed suicide.

In order to have money to pay for my life and my brothers, I sold the brains of my parents. Their 20+ years of experience only exchanged $100,000 from WIC.

There are pandemic profiteers, not just WIC. I want to win this game to get to that storage. It's the only way to get back what my parents lost.

I realize there are quite a few people like me. That girl named Hoa is really smart, but she's too kind. At the age of 17, she could not be cruel enough, could she? But later, she will have to face it. I really want to know, when she cries out and begs hopelessly in vain, when the blood soaks all over her body, what will it be. What she would turn into? Is she gonna be like me?

Nabeya

Day 4, 8:30 a.m, at WIC’s canteen.

After Hoa put the last pen stroke down, everyone gathered around to double check their questions.

Hoa, Mahoney and Nabeya were both slowly taking food and then sat at Sammul's table nearby.

“Shall we sit here?” Hoa asked Sammul who was sipping soup. It was his favorite, apart from fruit beer.

Sammul said nothing. It might be a sign of him silently agreeing. They put their plates of food on the table. Hoa sat next to Sammul, opposite Mahoney and Nabeya.

“Do you know who I am?” Nabeya asked with a smile. She had heard that this guy's sense of smell was crazy.

“Yeah. You’re the one who eavesdropped on us last night, aren’t you?” He remained calm as if nothing happened.

Nabeya paused for a few seconds. She seemed surprised by the other answer. This guy knew she was eavesdropping, but he remained calm and did nothing. Was it because he believed in himself that much or thought she would do no harm.

"You know but you didn't tell me?" Hoa was also really surprised.

"You're still sitting here eating, which proves she's harmless to you."

Hoa plucked her food. Luckily, it was Nabeya. If it had been Felix, she would have told Ander about this. And then there would have been quite a few deaths and Hoa would definitely not have been going to be left alone.

“Previously, you said you had a way to help us find the watchers, right?”

Sammul stopped his spoon. The man raised his head a little, but very quickly he returned to his state of not worrying too much.

“Yes, but you might have to suffer a bit.” Nabeya said something quite unclear to them.

They had come to this situation where there was no more thing that could make Hoa feel more suffering or burden or anything else. They hung their lives on the curtain. The only thing that they should be afraid was not getting through this challenge. Who on Earth would be afraid of difficulties?

“Try us”

Mahoney urged. Hoa did explain to her what's going on, but finding out who was Toothless was beyond her reach. To understand the code from the code sequence, she had to hear it several times from her best friend's mouth.

"Let's finish eating!" Nabeya pushed the plate of food, telling her to enjoy breakfast first.

“But I want to know” Hoa tried to turn the volume down so only they could hear.

"That's who Hoa is. Once she wants to find a solution, she will need no eat at any time" Mahoney laughed.

“Is that so?”

Nabeya suddenly stood up. She got off the table and walked towards the crowd. Neither Hoa nor Mahoney understood what she wanted, except for Sammul, who smiled and whispered something in his mouth.

"Listen to me. Hoa knows how to solve the test! I just overheard her telling her best friend that she solved it all.”

Nabeya shouted in excitement. Her arm pointed towards Hoa. With an expression like finding gold, she made the masses of people who were waiting for Felix to have a second choice. They looked at Hoa in thirst. How the hell was this a way? Nabeya was clearly increasing more burden on them.

Ander walked out from the crowd. He went towards her. His face looked like the meat of a baby goat. Now that there's someone to help him solve the tough questions, he would not need to worry about not being in the top 30.

"She's joking. I don't know how to solve them." Hoa forced out a smile, trying to explain herself.

“No, she was once on the list of genius class. I'm sure she can solve them."

Felix walked over, she leaned against the table to look at Hoa with her pair of eyes. This put Hoa into an awkward situation. Felix surely wanted to share the burden with Hoa.

“I have been studying poorly for a long time. Now I go to a public school with no reputation at all.” Hoa shook her hand, her face trying to squeeze ‘the truth’ out of her mouth, but they still looked at her as if she’s a delicious bait.

“I don't know. You could be pretending to be dumb. Now everyone is afraid of being kidn*pped by traffickers because of their intelligence.”

Ander sat down at the table. That’s the empty spot left by Nabeya. He put his arm around Mahoney and used his big hand to grip her tightly to pull her close.

"Do you do it or not?"

“She really… Her school thing is very…. nor- normal...” Mahoney was so scared that she stammered. The more she tried to clarify, the more it made her look like she was accusing herself.

“I was there when she said that she finished solving it and kept it in her head. Just waiting for the last 20 sentences, when no one is going to pay attention, she will quickly fill in and submit. That's how she goes unnoticed by the people around her."

Nabeya added again. She grinned happily. Her eyes were looking at Hoa as if watching a joke. Sammul next to her was even more leisurely. He sipped the soup spoon by spoon as if nothing had happened.

“Very well, hon!” Ander looked at Nabeya in admiration and fascination.

"No big deal. I tell you a secret, but you have to protect me. I want a seat in top 30.”

Nabeya revealed her true nature. She was desperate to be able to continue. Hoa looked at her with her sad eyes. She shouldn't have included this girl in the group.

“What? Will you solve them or not?!” Ander said as he grabbed Mahoney by the hair with such force that it made her cry.

"Spare me. She doesn't know anything. Please. It hurts!"

Mahoney pushed Ander's hand helplessly. The girl’s struggle made a bastard like Ander happy. He even used a much bigger force.

"It seems like your friends don’t love you that much. Seems like you mean nothing to her"

Ander tugged her hair down again, causing Mahoney's pinkish-white neck to tense up. Then he put the knife on it. The touch of the blade on the soft skin drew her blood drop out a bit. Each drop of the fresh blood made Hoa's heart ache. No one here spoke up. The worse part was that they even prayed for more blood to be shed.

“Let her go, I will solve them with Felix!” Hoa said with tears in her eyes, her voice a little choked.

"That’s my girl!" Ander pushed Mahoney down.

Hoa went to the board. Her chalk lines danced on it. She had wrapped herself in a shell of normalcy for a long time. Life was boring but peaceful. Funny how the word genius was exposed for just a few seconds and her friend's life was at stake just like that.

Those people looked at the numbers drawn on it. They eagerly filled in the answer area. Happy and cheerful? Hoa wished that there had been a big fire here immediately so she could burn all these bastards to dust.

……………………

7pm, room 029.

Hoa looked at Mahoney, who was sleeping peacefully in her blankets. The wound was only minor, but since returning from the cafeteria, Mahoney had not said anything.

Hoa was sitting in front of the window. She thought about Nabeya. Her actions and expressions before and after really didn’t match. Now calming down and reconsidering, Nabeya was like two completely different people. Also, if she wanted to talk about their plan, the fact that they were looking for the watchers would be worth telling more. But she kept silent before Ander. She kind of found it hard to understand.

Knock knock…

The knock on the door made Hoa stop her train of thought. Through the small hole on the door, she saw that there were many people crowded in front of the room.

Bam. Bam…

The pounding was getting louder and louder, showing that they were no longer patient. If she refused to open, maybe these people would destroy the door. Hoa looked at Mahoney sitting on the bed, she waved her hand to signal her to hide.

"You go to the bathroom first!"

But Mahoney's eyes were determined. She walked to the table, took the knife, then rushed to the door, flicked the lever, then pointed the knife at the annoying harassers.

"Either get out of here, or I'll stab you!" Mahoney shouted. But they just laughed without fear.

“Are you going to scare us? You think we be afraid of your dull knife if we have the guts to come here?" A tattooed fat man spoke up.

"Okay, what do you guys want?" Hoa did not want to fight any more.

“Tomorrow, we need you to read the answer to each question to us.” Maggie in the crowd spoke up.

"Aren't you afraid that Ander will kill you?" Hoa snorted in question.

“We left Felix to him as a way to leave him alone. If he starts the fight, we'll kill him first. You think that many people here are not enough to take action?" Bruno replied.

But did he think Hoa was a child or something? There were only about 30-40 people here. The previous number must have obeyed Ander already. Taking his side would also give them others a chance to get into the top 30. The people here were clearly not bringing him any benefits. That was why they were abandoned. That was also why they came to her as their second solution. If Ander knew about it, there would be chaos.

“If Hoa is on your side, she will be executed by him first. Will you guys protect us then?” Mahoney sneered. She had changed after this morning's incident, much tougher.

“We will, if you agree!” Bruno confirmed.

"Okay! If you guys are brave enough to fight Ander tomorrow, I'll help you, otherwise I'll stay the same. If Ander wins then I follow him."

The clever words from Hoa were enough to make her an intermediary between the two sides. At the same time, it pushed them into a death war against each other. Whoever won she would be with them. Her use value was very high. Surely both Ander’s side and Bruno’s wanted to keep her. This was indeed a fair payment for this morning's incident.

After negotiating, Hoa tiredly fell on the bed. Mahoney was sitting next to her. Her hand was still holding the sharp knife.

"If I'm threatened again, will you save me, Hoa?" Mahoney asked with a soft smile, her previously tough gaze turned to sadness.

“We are friends. I will definitely save you. Stop thinking about this morning!"

Hoa embraced Mahoney in her arms. During the most difficult times in life, this best friend was always there for her. Then there nothing in this world could tear them apart. For that, there was no such thing as abandoning her in the time between life and death.

“Thank you. I get it. Let's eat something!"

Mahoney beamed. She turned to the refrigerator, but no one knew that her face at that moment was just covered in tears.

………………

11pm, rooftop, 8 hours before the last day of the first eliminating round.

Hoa went up there. Today not only Sammul, but also Nabeya was sitting around the fire. There was a bottle of mango fruit wine in her hands. She handed Hoa a blood-red bottle, which was strawberry-flavored. Hoa looked at her, she also looked at Hoa. Indeed, as expected, Nabeya was not simple, just a few words of hers made the witnesses believed and followed her trick.

"Sorry, I didn't think to scare Mahoney like that!"

Hoa walked step by step, then sat down next to Nabeya. She took her beer bottle and sipped the sweet alcohol. After the others left, she finally knew the reason why Nabeya turned upside down so quickly.

"It's okay, it should be like that. Your way is not bad at all!”

“If you want to know how this thing goes. You have to wait and see how tomorrow is going to turn out!” Sammul, sitting on the other side, spoke coldly.

In the quiet space with only the three of them, from time to time there was a scream of agony downstairs. But no one cared. That was the price for the callousness that others had to bear. Hoa slowly realized, if she kept her heart soft, the one who would be drown in blood would definitely be her.