Irradiated

Chapter 23

"Come on, let's get back to the main camp." He lightly bumped his arm against mine as a signal to follow him there.

"Hey," I called after him before starting to do as he wanted. "How come you cried back in that cave?"

"It was the first time I saw you when not in my killer mode. How did you expect me to react?" A gentle grin glistened in his wake, just as it did a decade ago.

"I didn't know you were such a softie." I teased.

"Years without sharing who I really was did that to me. It changed who I was, almost completely." He explained softly, his eyes starting to dim.

"Oh... Sorry I asked."

"No, I don't blame you for that either. I'm the one who should be sorry and I already said that I am. Now, let's just get back, before they start getting suspicious." He shoved me forward and I exasperatedly went along with it.

Things started to gradually go their own way after I got appointed as a Golden Fox. They weren't exactly happy about three strangers joining the clan, but after Trevor explained that I was his brother, they slowly started to accept us. It did, however, take a lot of time. By a lot, I mean five hours.

There was Trevor, Sam, Angeli, Derrick, and nine others. I got around to only really getting to know two of them - Feral and Guardian. Here, their names weren't their birth names. Their names were based on an aspect of their personalities.

Angeli and Derrick were given the names Stubborn and Mystery. Stubborn was to describe how she wouldn't take no for an answer and kept trying until she got what she was looking for. Mystery was an obvious one for Derrick. I was given the name Jumper, for my 'jumping over obstacles,' as Humble put it. Trevor was named Wanderer for his bad and good ways, which the Golden Foxes knew about. He wandered to the good and the bad side, going back in between the two. Sam was known as Curiousity since she was always poking her nose around to find certain information.

By the time we were officially introduced to the Golden Foxes, it was midday. They called two separate meetings to do some explaining involving the strange activities of the Riches. They took place just after we became Golden Foxes and I expected it to be rather important because of that.

"They're doing something in there." Wanderer explained quietly to the group. "Something they're doing is decreasing the human population and I get the feeling they're not going to stop."

"Terrible people, they are." Mystery mumbled. "Causing trouble for others, yet still somehow helpful." He continued to talk to himself, but I could hear him clearly as I stood next to him.

"Do you guys have any ideas as to what it could be?" I asked, leaning back against the wall. I looked around at the guys gathered in here. Only males were in this den, for the two genders had separate leaders. Guardian was the female leader and Wanderer was for the males. Feral, Lucid, Humble, Oblivious, and Seethed were listening intently as they thought over what was being said.

"I think they're doing experiments on us." Seethed grumbled in his low voice and his soft brown eyes glittered with interest. "To see if there's anyone healthy enough to 'save the world.'" He scoffed.

"They're too ignorant. They wouldn't even be able to do experiments on us." Feral interrupted.

"Still, it's a possibility." Seethed continued to argue.

"Jumper asked for ideas, not possibilities. Things that could actually be happening." Lucid growled fiercely. He was overly impatient with things having to do with the Riches.

"It could always be that they're putting too many people in their prison for unnecessary reasons." Humble uttered softly. It struck me how different these people were from each other, but they still got along, Sam had mentioned, like family.