The Calamity had carried Mr.
Bones away into the sand.
Sophie grabbed her brother’s hand and ran all the way back to the base.
Mrs.
Bones, still standing on the roof, her eyes and mouth wide open, stared blankly at what had just transpired.
Tears streamed down her face.
She turned away from the balcony and went back inside her bedroom.
Tony, who had been looking at Sophie at the exact moment the Calamity erupted from the sand, had seen nothing of Mr.
Bones being swallowed up behind him.
He had absolutely no idea what had happened.
Once they arrived inside the base, Sophie was in tears.
Seeing her like this, Tony asked in sign language:
“Why are you crying, Sophie?”
“Is it my fault…?
If it’s my fault, I’m sorry…”
He, too, began to cry, without knowing the truth.
Sophie tried to reassure him:
“It’s all my fault… If I had been there, none of this would have happened…”
“What?” he signed.
She replied:
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Then, suddenly, he remembered:
“But I was playing with Croquettes!
He must still be outside… We have to go look for him, or he’ll get lost!”
And he added:
“And Mr.
Bones… I’m sure he’s the one who pushed me… We have to go look for him too.
It will be time to eat soon.”
Sophie, not knowing what to say, replied:
“Croquettes’ family came to pick him up, so he left.”
“As for Mr.
Bones… He has a lot of work to do, just like Mom and Dad, so we mustn’t disturb him.
Do you understand?”
He nodded:
“Okay.”
Then he added:
“I’m a bit tired, Sophie.”
“Go rest in the bedroom and don’t leave the base anymore.
We’ll play afterward.”
He walked away, signing one last time:
“Thank you, Sophie.”
Katy finally stepped out of her room:
“Is all this racket ever going to end?”
“And where is Croquettes?
It’s time for his bath!”
Sophie, tears welling up in her eyes, answered:
“Croquettes… got devoured by a Calamity… him and… and… and Mr.
Shocked, Katy approached Sophie, froze dead in her tracks, and then walked away into another room.
When the supply group returned, Sophie explained the entire situation to them.
Rick retreated into his quarters, his gaze freezing cold.
Sally asked where Tony, Mrs.
Bones, and Katy were.
Sophie replied:
“Tony is fine, he’s resting in the bedroom.
Mrs.
Bones stayed in her room… and Katy is out on the balcony.”
Sally went straight to see Tony.
She found him lying down and signed to him:
“Hey, how is my hero doing?”
He signed back:
“I’m doing good, Mom.
I’m just a little tired.”
“Then get some rest, my hero.
I’ll come see you afterward.”
“Okay, Mom… but call Lamar and Eden!
They were supposed to show me something.”
“Alright, I’ll go call them right away.”
Eden and Lamar entered the room and immediately started dancing the Logobi.
Seeing them, Tony jumped out of bed and began to dance too.
David walked in and joined right in on the action.
Tony, Lamar, and Eden were utterly shocked by his moves—he was the best dancer out of all of them!
The four of them danced together in perfect rhythm.
After a while, David left.
Feeling exhausted, Tony lay back down.
Lamar then performed a magic trick, cheered on by Eden and Tony.
Tony even proudly showed off the stylish scar on his leg, earning him even more praise and compliments.
Once Tony drifted off to sleep, they left him to rest and headed back toward the control room.
Sally was still trying to contact the agents of the Order of Doctors, but to no avail.
That was when David asked:
“Has anyone heard from Katy?”
Lamar replied:
“Yeah, Rick went to join her out on the balcony.”
Eden added:
“What about Mrs.
Bones?”
David shook his head:
“No.
We didn’t want to disturb her given her current state…”
“These days, they are even more formidable,” David noted heavily.
Lamar furrowed his brows:
“You’re not telling us everything.
Tell us the truth.
Sally was about to speak, but David cut in front of her:
“Okay… We’ll tell you everything.”
“The truth is, we weren’t sent here by the Order.”
“Some time ago, Sally and I developed a medicine capable of making the Calamities less aggressive, gentler… better.”
“Imagine a medicine like that… It could completely change our relationship with the Calamities… perhaps even allow us to coexist with them.”
“But the others didn’t see it that way.
To them, this medicine was useless—all they wanted to do was kill the Calamities, over and over again.
But before you kill, you must understand.
A human who kills without reason is no better than a Calamity.”
“So, we came to this base with a single objective: to prove that we were right.”
“In the beginning, our research led nowhere.
Not a single specimen survived for more than two days.
But we persevered: two days became one day, then just a few minutes… It was devastating news.
We wanted to give up multiple times, but we kept going.”
“And then, the results finally came: from a few minutes, we went to weeks… then to months!”
“We were happy, almost as proud as gods… but we didn’t realize that we were nothing but dust before the true Creator.”
“We tried to make them more resilient, stronger, more alive, and more human… And out of thirteen specimens, only one resisted.”
“But to our ultimate surprise, it burrowed deep into the ground and contaminated all the other Calamities before disappearing from our radars.”
“After that, we wanted to leave… to forget… but we ended up trapped here.”
“Because of us, this entire area now holds three formidable underground Calamities, and they are constantly growing due to the contamination.”
“The Order… we can no longer reach them.
They must think we’re dead.”
“It was that man, Mr.
Bones, who told us about you and your success against the Calamities.”
Sally fixed her gaze onto Eden:
“Well, answer us now.
We hired you for this.
Are you capable of killing these creatures?
Yes or no?”
Eden lowered his eyes:
“No… I’m sorry.
The Calamities I fight are smaller and they don’t emerge from the ground… I’m sorry.”
Sophie erupted:
“It’s all my fault!
If I had watched Tony better, Mr.
Bones would… would still be here!”
David shook his head:
“No… It’s my fault.
If I had listened to the warnings of the Order, we wouldn’t be here…”
Eden countered:
“No, it’s mine.
I’m not strong enough to defeat all the Calamities.”
Tony walked into the room at that very moment.
He was wearing a device that allowed him to hear the discussions a little bit, but it was practically broken down and couldn’t be repaired here.
He raised his hands and signed:
“Mom… Dad… so… are we going to die?