Alba wandered out of the clinic all stitched up and highly dosed on pain medication. He saw Freya walking around frantically with Lumi standing beside her and once she saw Alba she sprinted over and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Have you seen Andri or Eryi?”

Alba looked at Lumi who simply shrugged.

Lumi said, “He doesn’t know. Can I go back to the lab now?”

“No!” Freya yelled as she turned toward Lumi.

Freya cleared her throat and vented, “I am in charge of you Spiders, and it’s my responsibility to know where you are at all times. I cannot ask for help from my superiors or underlings or I will be relieved of my duty. I told them I would have no problems, but clearly you are all incredibly defiant!”

“What were you expecting?” Alba asked. “We’re murderers.”

Freya glared at Alba and muttered under her breath, “We all are.”

Freya sighed and said, “Come with me.”

When she turned around however she met the intense judgmental stare of her superior.

“Lieutenant general!”

“Ms. Lloyd, is everything alright? Are the tests complete?”

“Yes, they are sir!”

The lieutenant general looked at Lumi and Alba, then back at Freya.

“Where is Andri? I have something I need to speak with him about.”

Freya hesitated and the Lieutenant raised a brow.

“Did you lose him?”

“What? No! He’s still in testing sir!”

The lieutenant general crossed his arms and said with a dull tone, “That’s weird. I thought you said the tests were complete?”

Freya’s cheeks burned bright red and Alba couldn’t help but sigh. This woman was a lost cause, and it was clear as day. He wondered who put her in charge, and for what reason. Lumi tried to sneak past Freya to the door, but Freya caught her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her right back.

Lumi complained, “But I wanna make weapons!”

Freya spat, “Shut your trap.”

Freya turned to the lieutenant general and said, “I apologise sir, both Andri and Eryi got away from me, but there’s no way they could have gotten far. I will find them right away, sir!”

“It’s understandable that you of all people would make this mistake, but I couldn’t have predicted that you would forget about the trackers.”

Freya’s eyes lit up along with Lumi and Alba’s, but they lit up for different reasons.

Alba questioned, “Trackers?”

Lumi shot him a swift look of concern and then she began feeling as though her skin was crawling with bugs.

“Ah, haha! How could I forget,” Freya said with a lifted tone.

Freya pulled up her phone and Alba snuck a glance. There weren’t just four dots on that map, there were hundreds. Every soldier in the military had been chipped except for the ones in superior positions. Freya typed in a long string of numbers into the search bar and the location pinged to a place not so far away. Freya immediately began skipping off, grabbing Alba and Lumi as she did. The lieutenant general followed close behind and Alba hesitantly looked back and asked, “Sir, why are there mutants here?”

“Mutants?”

“You know, the bugs that attacked me and Lumi.”

Lumi quieted her mind and listened in, but when the lieutenant didn’t answer she sighed and leaned in to whisper into Alba’s ear.

She whispered, “It’s quite obvious. They’re experimenting with the bugs and training them. Remember how that maggot thingy only reacted to a red dot?”

Alba whispered back, “But what would they gain by experimenting with bugs?”

“Bugs are strong, stronger than humans are. So, wouldn’t the logical explanation for the military be to make them into weapons that we humans could use?”

Eryi felt a sharp sting on his lips where his piercings were and their lips parted ways. Eryi’s whole face felt so hot, it burned and stung. His heart was crawling its way out his throat, and he couldn’t tell if he was terrified or flustered. Andri had bitten his piercings, and it didn’t have a hint of affection behind it.

“What are those? I don’t remember telling you to do that.”

Eryi couldn’t find any words, and he choked, unable to come up with any excuse. Andri stared at Eryi, then looked out the window. He turned around with a face void of any aggression, but rather coated in mischief. He flicked Eryi’s nose and Eryi yelped. He felt conflicted after he had only received a small flick, but then Andri pecked him on the lips and he felt as though he was going to faint.

“I will be the one initiating, got it?”

“Huh?”

Andri explained, “If this is how it’s going to be, then I will be the one in charge. Don’t stretch your authority.”

Eryi shyly looked down and muttered, “Okay.”

“Andri,” A familiar deep voice ran out down the halls.

Eryi saw a strange expression on Andri’s face and he turned around to see Freya, Lumi, Alba, and lastly the lieutenant general walking toward them. The lieutenant walked ahead of them and met up with Andri and Eryi. He gave Eryi a swift look, but he focused his attention on Andri and said, “Come with me.”

“Hell no, Koda.”

The lieutenant general grabbed Andri under his arm and began dragging him away, and tried to pry the lieutenant general from Andri, but he was far too weak in comparison to the tank that was the lieutenant general.

“Let go, Eryi,” Andri ordered with a soft voice.

Eryi, completely stunned by Andri’s tone, let go instantly and watched in disbelief as the two walked away. Eryi watched as the lieutenant general whispered something into Andri’s ear, and Andri’s expression turned from annoyed to shocked.

Alba called, “Eryi?”

Alba waved in front of Eryi and called, “Yo?”

After a pause, Eryi finally looked at who was in front of him and muttered, “What?”

Alba backed away a bit and said awkwardly, “I was just making sure you were still breathing, haha.”

Alba’s light joke fell on deaf ears and Freya noted internally that this group would need major mending before it could be of any use.

Lumi stared at Eryi’s bottom lip quietly, but her curiosity eventually got the better of her and she asked, “What happened to your lip? It’s all bloody.”

Eryi touched his lip to find that it indeed was bleeding, but Andri hadn’t bit him that hard. Suddenly it hit Eryi, he was bleeding because of the kissing bug’s bite, not Andri. Somehow this made Eryi feel strange. Would it have been better if Andri made him bleed instead?

“Come on you three. Andri will join us later,” Freya said as she pushed them away.

Alba scoffed. “Don’t say that like you’re giving us a choice!”