Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 284: Slipping Away

Laz had questions about how he understood what the sign meant, so when Ruby asked him, he didn't know how to answer.

"So that's it? You don't have an answer?" Ruby said, a bit annoyed.

"Would you like me to lie to you?" Laz asked with a half smile.

"Would you like me to kick your ass in view of everyone here?" Ruby asked back at his stupid question.

"If I remember correctly, it's you who enjoyed having her ass."

"I suggest you shut up right now before you say something I will make you regret later," Ruby stopped him from saying anything else although Laz felt like he detected a slight flush on her cheeks. Still, he decided to stop teasing her for now.

Now that the immediate threat was over with, Laz recognized another problem. Him and his team were expected to stay by the door and protect the various people coming in. At no point were they suppose to wander off and do whatever they wanted to do. Laz knew this going in, but that was a problem he had put on hold for later.

Now was later and Laz had come up with a stupid yet smart idea.

As the two captains and their remaining men came over to gather with Laz, Laz started looking around in an exaggerated fashion as though he wanted people to know he was doing it. Ruby had no idea what was going on in his head and therefore didn't say anything.

"Thank you Captain. We would have all been killed if you hadn't figured out a solution," said one of the captains to Laz while they both looked on at Laz's actions.

"Is there something wrong?" The other captain asked. As far as they were concerned, Laz had seen things they didn't which indicated a level of competence they didn't have. They respected his for this and would therefore give him more leeway, even if he was acting weird.

"There is a problem here," Laz replied without explained. He then went over to the various destroyed automations and took some time examining them. He wasn't really looking for anything but wanted to make it seem like he was.

More than that, Laz did find something unexpected. Even the destroyed bots still had a power core inside of them which still contained a certain amount of energy. Laz wasn't sure it would be good for anything, but he was going to save them all the same.

He made quick work of the destroyed bots before returning to the captains who had been waiting patiently.

"Look around and tell me what you see," Laz asked.

"Uhh... A whole lot of metal and nothing?" Captain number one replied without much thought.

"Yeah... Nothing..." Captain number two added, but with hesitation. He kind of felt like he knew where Laz was going with this statement.

"Right. Nothing. And when we first got here, there was nothing. Except that screen up there."

"Yeah. I was meaning to ask. How did you understand what it said?" Captain number one asked back.

"I didn't. All I did understand was that if they screen was different than when you first walked in, then it was indicating something. When you look at a gate or access point as a potential security hazard, then it makes sense that anything around it would be monitoring it." Laz's reasoning was bullshit, but it made a weird kind of sense. At least enough sense for the other two captains to accept.

"What are you thinking?".

"I'm thinking that just staying here as a big group is stupid and dangerous. We need to know more about what's around us and if any other threats are in the area," Laz replied back with a serious look. This wasn't the most original thought, Laz figured. 'You all stay here and I'm going to scout the immediate area,' seemed like a plot line that was not only overused, but seemed stupid when you where in a new environment in which getting picked off one by one was the bigger issue. Still, no matter how dumb it seemed in Laz's head, it was the only thing he could come up with on the spot.

"Alright. Well, my team and I..." The first captain tried to volunteer his remaining squad members for the mission.

"Captain, with all due respect, your team is broke and tired. Let them rest here while waiting for the next groups to arrive now that we know the immediate area is secure. And make sure not to kick anything, bump into anything or spit on anything that can't be identified, alright?" Laz responded, implying that his team would do the recon work.

"Captain. You know this goes against our immediate orders don't you?" The second captain asked Laz.

"Those orders were given before the gate was opened and before we knew what to expect. Right now, we are not only sitting in a hostile environment, but we are trapped here until we find a way to open the return gate. I don't know what's going to happen in an hour, a day or whatever from now, but for the moment, I want to get working on finding a way back. If they got a problem with it, they can bring it up to me when they get here. Which based on the time difference, looks like it's going to be a while." Laz said, looking at the 'sky' that was blocked out by the orange layer of clouds and light. Laz wasn't just making this up. Even though a lot had happened when they first got in, barely fifteen minutes had passed since his squad had come in. And if what they are saying was right, that 5 minutes outside equaled an hour in here, then the new arrivals wouldn't be here for at least 45 minutes. But that was assuming that they came in right at the five minute marker. The troops had been ready to go and on standby. The civilians coming in next wouldn't be so organized.

There were two squads left to come in along with various scientists and media. After they all got here, the higher ranked personal would come in. There would be one major coming in with the next squad though, but there were only going to be a few military personal in that squad while the rest were going to be reporters.

This was their way of bringing more attention to gate exploration and showing off for the public. After all, there had been nothing like this before in history.

"Alright Captain. I agree with your analysis. As we discovered, the coms don't seem to work in here as there is too much interference in the atmosphere, but regular electronic devices don't seem to be affected. With that in mind, try to use a light signaling strategy to keep in touch throughout your investigation. At least this way, the major won't have anything negative to say about us acting on our own," Captain number one suggested before agreeing on certain light signals with Laz.

"Excellent idea. Alright squad. Get ready to move out." Laz wasn't going to waste anymore time and immediately got his people ready to go. Although this was the agreement, Laz had no intention of signaling back after the forty five minutes were up. He didn't want them to know what he would be doing and he had no idea were the evolved bastards were anyway.

It was already an unanswered question as to what would happen if the two groups encountered each other in here since they were about the same size.

Then again, Laz had no intention of keeping the squad together.

Once out of ear shot from everyone, Laz gather everyone up together.

"Alright. Here's the drill. Everyone is to break off into smaller teams and check the place out. Explore what you can but stay as safe as you can. This is a whole new world and there is no telling what you will find. Remember this though, even the smallest thing you encounter may kill you. And what's more, right now there is no way to get back. So we need to figure out how to activate the gate on this side." Laz wanted everyone to keep that in mind. They were stuck here just like everyone else so they needed to make sure they found a way to activate the gate on this side.

"The gate should actually be active on this side," Ruby said, cutting in.

"What do you mean?" Laz asked.

"The gate, once activated, should be a two way street. You come in and go out the same way. If we got into the got, we should be able to go out from the gate. Looking at the gate from this side, there seems to be a barrier preventing us from going back through so just like the little robots, it must be some sort of security measure that has been put in place."

"Why would they want us to come in... but not leave..." Remi asked the question first, before a shadow covered her face.

"It's some kind of trap." Helen came out and said what some of the quicker members had already come up with, including Laz. At first he wasn't sure, thinking it might be a gate issue. But after Ruby's information, the wheels in his head turned out that possibility quickly. And it seemed like the most logical one as well.

"A trap? This place is a fucking trap?" Dwayne wasn't one of the quickest when it came to thinking, so hearing this meant he wanted someone to confirm it.

"Yeah. It's a fucking trap. Why the hell did I sign up for this shit..." Jennia said, looking like she wanted to cry. She had fought hard to be the leader of her squad and come to this other world, thinking it would be a chance for her. But now...

"Despite that, there is also an opportunity here," Laz said, drawing everyone's attention back to himself.

"Even if it is a trap, that doesn't mean that there isn't anything here worth finding. This is a totally different world that seems to have long been abandoned. I have no idea what happened to the people who were here, or even if they were people. What I do know is that you will be able to find things here that don't exist on our planet. For example," Laz pulled out the cores he had taken from the destroyed automations.

"What are those?" Damien asked, watching the crystal and metal like object glowing in Laz's hand.

"This is one of the cores from those destroyed robots. Here. See if you can see what I see," Laz handed to core to Damien who studied it for a minute before freezing up in shock.

"Well... let Remi see," Seeing Damien not moving, Remi grabbed the core from him and check it out herself before also freezing up in shock.

The same situation occurred over and over again as each of the leaders took turns until it got to Ruby who also checked it out.

"You're fucking kidding me..." She didn't freeze, having quite a bit more experience with it.

"This thing is full of liquid energy... it feels... processed, like you could drink it down without having to worry about it suddenly going unstable and causing you to blow up..." Her analysis was in line with what Laz felt.

Unlike most of the treasures he had found in the past, the energy here was completely stable. If you drank it down like a liquid, it would sit in your body until you could digest it all. It might be a little painful in the same way over eating is painful, but it was still doable.

Of course you could just use it like a snack and take it in bit by bit every chance you had and save yourself from that overly full feeling.

Either way, that wasn't something you could get on earth. No matter what treasure you came across on those rare occasions you came across a treasure, it would always be a fight to control the energy, allowing it to enter your system and then absorb it until it became you own.

This was basically cheating.

"I would have completely missed this little thing had I not taken a close look at those destroyed robots. And each one had their own core. Which means they have to have a supply of these things somewhere, either already in the automations or piled high somewhere waiting to fuel these little bastards. So imagine what would happen if you found where these things are stored? You would be clear sailing into the next great realm at the least. I don't know how effective it would be for you after that, but either way, you could sell the rest and become rich overnight. The possibilities are limitless."

"Damn..." Had they not seen the core for themselves, they would have assumed Laz was lying. But now that they saw it and held it, they hated themselves for not finding them first. They had just been sitting on the floor until Laz came around and plundered the half dozen of them.

But this also showed them that even the tiniest of things in this world might be a treasure.

For the first time since they had left Madam Cal's place, everyone could feel their blood boiling from excitement.