Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (49 page)

After Jason went back to the
dinner table, he didn’t have any appetite. Even though the notion that Gloria
came to save him made him happy, he really hoped that was not the truth. He
wanted to see Gloria, but not in this way.

The next
day, while Jason was working, he thought about what Klaycon said yesterday. He
was wondering if Gloria was really here, why she didn’t contact him. Or she did
make the contact, but he didn’t know. Jason started to recall everything from
last month, but nothing stood out.

During
the break, Jason was waiting in the line to get some water. There were around
200 prisoners on this working site and they had to share one water fountain. As
he was moving in the queue, he noticed Shopper and Luee were peeking at him
nervously. Eiteuoo was whispering something to Hwoei. Then Hwoei stepped onto
an airborne platform and flew away. Guards also started to leave, only leaving
drones on the site. Jason had a bad feeling. He looked around cautiously and
caught several prisoners jump the line and move close to him. He clenched his
hammer and took a deep breath.

“Behind
you.” Yawon shouted to Jason.

Jason
quickly turned around and dodged a hammer thrown by a Sulan. A Ptueit rammed
into Jason and caught his waist. Jason poked Ptueit’s eye with the hammer
handle.

“Aaaaaaaah”
The Ptueit screamed in pain.

Two
Dolanz ran to Jason swinging their hammers at him. Jason grabbed the Ptueit and
kicked him at the incoming Dolanz. The Ptueit fell on one of them. The other
one swung the hammer at Jason’s head. Jason ducked down, but slipped and fell.

“Watch
out!” Yawon shouted again.

Jason
rolled aside before the hammer hit on his chest. He quickly got on his feet.

Others
prisoners quickly cleared the area and watched the fight in the distance. Now
Jason was facing six guys. Behind his back, Shopper, Eiteuoo and Luee were
ready to attack. They each held a hammer, moving around cautiously.

“Don’t
you worry, I won’t kill you. I only want to smash your balls with this hammer.”
Luee chuckled.

“Yep, if
you let us do that, you only lose your balls. You can still fight without
balls.” Eiteuoo said happily.

“Don’t
take it personal.” Shopper said ironically.

“No,
this is just business!” Jason said easily as he swiftly turned around and
dashed to Shopper. Eiteuoo and other six guys ran to Jason. Shopper dodged
aside, but Jason didn’t go after him. Instead he ran along the working site the
size of a football field. At the beginning all the nine guys could kept up with
Jason, but slowly some of them began to lag behind. Then Jason stopped and attacked
the guy closest to him and then ran again. He repeated this process again and
again until only three of them left. Now Jason didn’t need to run anymore, he
faced Eiteuoo, Shopper and a Zontean. The three were breathing heavily, their
faces covered in sweat. Jason was tired too, but he didn’t take a break. He ran
to Eiteuoo and flung the hammer at Shopper. Eiteuoo stumbled back, but too slow
to block Jason’s kick. Shopper ducked Jason’s hammer and threw his hammer at
Jason. It hit Jason on his back. Jason slumped on the ground. Just at this
moment, the Zontean swung a hammer at Jason. The pain on the back slowed Jason
down, but he caught the hammer on his hands just before it crashed his chest.
His hands hurt like hell.

Eiteuoo
quickly got up and picked up a hammer. He charged at Jason screaming.

The
Zontean was pushing the hammer down and Jason couldn’t move at this moment.
Just as he watched Eiteuoo run to him with a hammer aiming at his head, Eitueoo
suddenly fell on the ground. Then Jason saw Yawon kick the Zontean on the head.
The Zontean fell into coma. Jason quickly pushed himself up and stood beside
Yawon.

“Hey,
new guy, this is none of your business.” Shopper said angrily.

“Now it
is.” Yawon said firmly as he winked at Jason.

“Thanks,
man!” Jason said gratefully.

“You are
welcome!” Yawon said.

Just at
this moment, Hwoei flew an airborne platform into the working site. He was
surprised to see Jason was still standing on his feet. Driven by the anger, he
quickly hauled out his sidearm and fired at Jason. Jason jumped into the well
on the ground. Yawon followed right behind Jason.

The well was designed for
dumping valueless rocks. It had an inclined shaft and went deep into the
facility. It took Jason and Yawon a while to slide to the bottom.

It was
cold and dark. Yawon slowly stood up and caught Jason lying still near the
wall. He quickly ran to Jason and said, “Jason, are you alright?”

“Yes, I
am fine. Just want to rest a little bit.” Jason said tiredly.

“Good,
good!” Yawon said excitedly.

“Why did
you save me?” Jason asked.

“I am
not sure. That is not important right now. We are trapped here and we need to
get out.” Yawon said seriously.

“Who
tell you we need to get out?” Jason said with a mysterious smile.

“What do
you mean?”

“I don’t
know about you. I am going to get out of this prison and this is the best
chance.” Jason said firmly.

“That is
my man!” Yawon said happily and hugged Jason.

Jason
pushed Yawon away harshly and said, “What the fuck is that! Don’t touch me!”

“Sorry,
sorry, I was so excited.” Yawon said quickly.

As they
started to search for way out, they heard the low frequency humming sound.

“Drones
are coming!” Yawon said in a worried tone.

“Yea.”

“Clank!
Clank! Clank!” Some heavy metal sound echoed in the shaft. Then the humming
sound started to go away. Jason felt the ground beneath him started to shake.
He ran to the wall and shouted, “Hold on to the wall. They are dumping the
waste!” He grabbed a big screw on the wall. Yawon dashed to Jason and held on
to a handle.

All of a
sudden, the ground sunk and everything flew out. The wind was so strong that
Jason could barely hold on to the screw. He could see Yawon losing his grip on
the handle.

“I can’t
hold it anymore.” Yawon shouted desperately.

“Don’t
act like a girl!” Jason shouted.

“I am…”

Just at
this moment, Yawon went off the handle. But Jason caught him on his wrist.

“Grab
the wall.” Jason shouted in pain.

The wind
started to dwindle and then four outlets opened on the wall and air blew into
the shaft.

“Get
into the vent.” Jason said as he climbed upwards in a hurry. He knew the
pressure equalization wouldn’t last long. Yawon followed right behind Jason and
they both got into the vent at the last minute before it closed.

They ran
along the shaft and found a maintenance robots checking the tubings. They got
on the robot and reached the maintenance center where robots got charged. Jason
knew they had left the prison section and now they only needed to get into the
hangar. He walked to a big robot and got onto its back. The robot looked like a
truck. Jason quickly removed the back shell. He then took out several
batteries.

“What
are you doing?” Yawon asked.

“We can
get around like this. We will hide in this robot and get to the hangar.”

“That is
brilliant.”

“Don’t
just stand there. Come help.”

While
they were making room in the robot, Yawon asked, “What are you going to do
after you get out of here?”

“Well,
the first thing, I will call my girlfriend. She will be worried to death right
now.” Jason said tiredly.

Yawon
looked into Jason’s eyes and smiled happily.

“What?”
Jason asked in confusion.

“Oh,
nothing. It’s just I thought you were cold-blooded. Now I feel different.”

“I am
cold blooded. You are right about that.” Jason said coldly.

“OK. I
heard that you got into some trouble with Hylocan. Does that have something to
do with the Hylocan queen?”

“Well.
Rumors are everywhere these days. I guess that is true.” Jason said.

“Do you
love her?” Yawon suddenly became very serious.

“We are
not having this conversation. This is ridiculous. Why are you asking something
like this? Jason said in disgust.

“I mean
we are all guessing you and the Hylocan queen had a love affair.”

“Why you
gossip like a girl? I can’t believe this!” Jason said angrily. .

Together
they soon made enough room at the back of the robot and hid there. They drove
the robot out of the maintenance center and headed to the hangar.

The warden soon learned that
Jason went missing. He was surprised that this would happen under the Hwoei’s
watch. He quickly ordered the sweep of the entire facility. He knew if Jason
wanted to leave Listan, he had to get on one of the vessels in the hangar. He
had his men cripple every vessel. Then he removed all the guards from the
hangar and only left several drones there.

Jason
waited patiently until the midnight. Then he and Yawon drove the robot into the
hangar without any problem. The moment he saw those vessels, he was so excited
that he screamed out like a kid. He quickly parked the robot to the closest
vessel. But before he went out, he noticed something weird. There were only
several drones in the entire hangar the size of 10 football fields.

“What
are you waiting for? Let’s get out of here.” Yawon said hastily.

“Something
is wrong. I can feel it.” Jason said in a heavy voice.

“Come
on. We are this close. They can’t stop us now. We just need to get on the
vessel and we will be out of here in seconds.” Yawon said as he pointed at the
vessel meters away.

Jason
couldn’t explain how much he wanted to get out of this prison, but he knew the
warden was not that stupid.

“What
are you thinking? Come on. We gotta go. This is the only way out.” Yawon said
quickly.

“I know
and they know. This is a trap.” Jason said calmly.

Yawon
fell into silence.Jason maneuvered the robot out of the hangar and said, “We
have to surrender.”

“What?
Are you kidding me? I can’t believe this.” Yawon shouted angrily.

Jason
didn’t want to explain anything to Yawon. Even for him, this was already a very
difficult decision.

“You
don’t need to follow me. Do whatever you want. You still can drive to hangar.”
Jason said coldly and then got out of the robot. He walked slowly on the
corridor with his hands above his head. Yawon screamed desperately and then
followed Jason.

Soon
patrol guards found these two and took them to the warden.

After
hearing how the guards captured these two prisoners, Wy smiled at Jason and
asked, “So why not just go to the hangar and leave here?”

“I never
thought about it.” Jason said calmly.

“Oh,
really, I am so moved.” Wy itetn said ironically.

“Some
prisoners were attacking me and we barely survived. Then Hwoei shot me with his
sidearm and I had to jump into the well. We barely survived from being sucked
into the space.” Jason said as he glanced over at Hwoei.

Wy itetn
turned to Hwoei and stared at him.

“Sir,
that was bullshit. I was watching the working site and no one was attacking
this Human. I promise you.”

“Alright.”
Wy itetn said easily.

“If I
really planned to escape, why would I surrender without even trying one of the
vessels in the hangar?”

“Because
you know you can’t survive the asteroid belt.” Wy itetn said.

“Did you
check my training record in Guardian Fleet? If you did, you will know that
won’t stop me.” Jason said confidently.

“You
know what? I will look into it.” Wy itetn said easily. He had guards escort
Jason and Yawon back to their cells. 

Mark knew nobody would believe
the ousted Glycan king Liutein was hiding in the Human colony and even he found
it ridiculous. He didn’t have the time to dig out what was going on, because he
was dying to get Jason out of Listan.

It was
the second day since Mark arrived with the team at Listan. The majority of the
maintenance team were engineers from different second class species. Originally
there were three Humans in the team, but Treton London pulled some string and
put Mark in the team. Even though they were not prisoners, guards and flying
drones kept an eye on them all the time.

After the
dinner, Mark and others gathered in the cramped room which served as both their
dining room and dorm. They stared at the screen, waiting for the fight to
start. The drones were providing the live feed.

As the
crowd surrounding the watch tower started to boil, a Sulan called Iteynoin
slowly walked into the area. He was tall and muscular, his skin brown, with no
hair or eyebrows.

Suddenly,
the crowd slumped into a dead quiet and quickly cleared a path for Jason.

Mark was
shocked. He squeezed his eyes several times and it was his son Jason. He wasn’t
happy to see him at all.

Iteynoin
stared at Jason angrily, his hands shaking, his legs shivering. Jason, on the
other hand, strolled leisurely.

Hwoei,
standing on top of an airborne platform, entered the area in a graceful way.

“OK. You
all know the rules. Let’s fight!” Hwoei shouted.

Iteynoin
darted to Jason, his right fist swinging at Jason’s head. Jason slid to the
left and grabbed Iteynoin’s right forearm, throwing him forward and kicking his
knee. Iteynoin’s heavy body fell over like a stone. Jason leaped into the air,
thrusting his fingers at Iteynoin’s nape. Iteynoin rolled over, dodged Jason’s
attack and stumbled back to his feet. They dashed to each other and started
wrestling. Soon they were rolling all over the place. Iteynoin locked Jason’s
knee and Jason was straining Iteynoin’s arms to ease the pain on the knee.
Iteynoin was taller and bigger. As he slowly wore out stamina, Jason began to
have the upper hand. He slowly broke the knee lock and hit Iteynoin’s face with
his forehead. Soon Iteynoin was bleeding all over the face and he started to
let his hands loose. Jason caught this chance and punched Iteynoin’s head with
a heavy blow. Iteynoin fainted. Jason swiftly cycled behind Iteynoin’s back and
choke held his head.

“Clank.”
Jason broke Iteynoin’s neck and then he stepped on Iteynoin’s neck and pulled
his head off the body. Iteynoin’s eyes were still blinking, his body lifeless.

“Damn!”

“Fuck!”

“This is
shit!” The crowd shouted loudly.

Nobody
cheered for Jason, even though many of them did bet on him.

Mark
watched Jason leave the area. He wasn’t sure he knew his son any more.