Chapter 214: Similar Backgrounds

Having 5 people stare at him all at once brought a level of pressure Peter found himself struggling to handle. He needed to tell them the truth of what happened, but the fear of messing up again tied his tongue.

That was when he turned to look at Quinn, the one who was the most understanding of his situation. Perhaps it was due to Quinn having the same kind of background as him, both being level 1s forced to take the same earth ability from the military, and barely having money growing up. Either way, that gave him the courage to speak.

"I... I didn’t tell her anything!" Peter managed to get out.

"That’s not what we’re asking," Erin coldly responded, "We’re asking if she saw us."

"You’re not trying to skirt around the truth, are you?" Fex crossed his arms.

"Hold on," Layla said, "Give him a chance to speak."

Peter’s muscles relaxed a little, and he continued talking, "We did come into the strange underground city. I tried to tell her that we should leave, but Cia wanted to continue going in. We got closer, but when we saw the king tier beast, we ran off."

"And she didn’t mention anything about vampires?" Erin raised an eyebrow.

"No, I swear!" Peter exclaimed, "She shouldn’t have seen any of you guys, especially since it was dark."

This was something that Peter genuinely believed. Although he had seen some bright red lights, they weren’t close enough to see any people around, aside from Layla, but she wasn’t doing anything particularly ’vampiric’ as far as he knew.

Granted, he couldn’t see well in the dark, especially so without his glasses, but if Cia did see something, then surely she would’ve mentioned it to him by now.

Just then, they heard the voice of a man speaking through a megaphone, catching everyone’s attention.

"Alerting all students under military base 2, regroup by your homeroom teacher on the base floor of the shelter immediately! Bring with you all of your belongings!"

They glanced over the bridge to see a man with the megaphone, as well as several other personnel, including Leo and Faye.

"Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s about us," Fex commented.

They immediately left to pick up their items, before rejoining back on the ground. There, Erin ended up standing close to Del, who glanced her way, and barely hid a disgusted look.

’If only he wasn’t a teacher,’ Erin thought, ’Having Layla deal with him would instantly improve my mood, and would bring her one step closer to evolving.’

While they were waiting for everyone to arrive on the ground, Erin looked up, and noticed a girl with dark brown skin and deep red hair. She was the same girl she saved earlier that day, and next to her was Ruby.

At the same time, Quinn noticed that those with military uniforms were packing up their things, but the same couldn’t be said for the civilians. He didn’t know why, but Quinn had a bad feeling from this.

After a few minutes, Faye quickly ran around the students, getting a headcount of everyone. Once she was done, she ran over to another military official and told him that they were all accounted for.

"Attention everyone!"

All of the students turned towards the direction of the speaker, who was Faye.

"We have reason to believe that this planet has already been colonized by the dalki. There have been reports of a dalki settlement located somewhere close to this mountain, and although it was reported to be empty, that doesn’t mean they won’t return again."

Normally, they wouldn’t have listened to the words of just one person, but when Cia was giving her report, Leo was also there, and he had added that he sensed the aura of someone powerful. He said it was on the strength level of a 4 spike, making the rest of the military officials believe that a 4 spiked dalki was keeping watch on the humans on the planet.

Unbeknownst to Leo, the aura he was sensing was actually Arthur’s.

There was also the report that the travelers gave about the underground city. After they returned Cia and Peter to the shelter, they found the mountain entrances closed. This was most likely a sign that the dalki were planning on returning to the planet, and didn’t want the humans to know their base of operations.

"As a result, this expedition is officially canceled. Please go through the following portals to return back to earth." Faye commanded.

Several soldiers took out a few portals in a row, and turned them on. They then began to gather boxes of supplies, and took those with them through the portals.

Despite the portals being right there, none of the military ordered the civilians to go down. Instead, all Quinn could see were the people in question watching them from above.

"Hold on, why aren’t they packing their things?" Quinn asked, referring to the villagers.

"Where else would they go?" Layla replied, "They probably spent all the money they had to move here. Even if the military allowed them to use the teleporters and head back to earth, they would only become homeless with no way to earn credits."

"Even if they were going to become homeless, wouldn’t it have been better to keep them around to help in the war?" Erin spat out, clenching her fists.

She had been naive about a lot of things, but this was something she wasn’t. Although there weren’t any dalki on this planet, the idea that the military was going to abandon other humans to the threat of one was something she couldn’t understand. Even when extinction was a very real possibility, they would willingly allow other humans to die, and for what?

"I hate to say it," Vorden began, "But when it comes to most people in tier 4 or 5 shelters, most of them don’t have abilities. They would be useless in a war, just another body to take up precious resources."

Then, Erin saw the little girl, Minny, being held by Ruby. Except, it wasn’t the warm embrace that one would expect a mother to do, but one where they didn’t want their child’s innocence to be broken. Her hands were on Minny’s ears, and Erin could tell that despite the tough face the woman was putting on, there was worry in her eyes.

’Just because they’re not strong, doesn’t mean they have to die!’

Erin in the past was lucky, in a way. She had money to afford to go to another planet when her old one was attacked, one with the proper resources to keep a roof over her head, and had a reliable source of food.

But these people weren’t funded by the Big Four.

"Quinn," Erin spoke with an intense tone, "When we get strong enough to afford a teleporter, let’s come back here. Let’s help the people that they abandoned, and protect them."

Erin knew that those living at the shelter would be safe while Arthur was there. He did make a promise to keep watch over them, so there was time for this to happen.

Quinn paused, but nodded, determined. "I was just thinking the same thing."