Read Online The New Order by Sean Fay Wolfe - Free Book Online Page B

into the room, his chest heaving from lack of breath.
    â€œAh, Archie! All set for the big day, are we?” asked DZ as he wiped the pumpkin goo off his finger and onto his pants.
    â€œYeah, but that’s not why I’m here,” said Archie in one breath.
    Stan suddenly stood up straight. He knew something was wrong. “Archie, what happened?” he asked.
    â€œBen just sent me a messenger. Apparently when he sent a scout to report to him on the condition at the Jungle Baselast night, the scout came back and told him the base had been hijacked.”
    â€œWHAT?” Stan asked, dropping the rest of his pie on the ground. “What happened? Who took over the base?”
    â€œWell, the scout said that when he approached the base, he was shot at by figures in black tunics and caps that were patrolling the watchtower on top.”
    The room was filled for a moment by a stunned silence. Then DZ threw his hands in the air and yelled, “Oh, come on!”
    â€œDo you mean to tell me that our Jungle Base was taken over by the Noctem Alliance?” asked Charlie, his face reflecting his shell-shocked disbelief.
    â€œIt would seem so,” replied Archie gravely. “It looks like not only is the Alliance still alive, but it’s powerful.”
    â€œIt’s not possible!” cried Stan. His stomach had knotted up, and he was beginning to sweat as he started to think about what this information meant. “The Jungle Base is one of our most fortified! All twenty of the guards in there were skilled fighters with enough armor and gear to fight at maximum capacity!”
    â€œThat’s not all,” added Archie, the fear in his voice almost tangible. “One of the Noctem soldiers was Leonidas, Stan.”
    â€œWhat the what!” shouted DZ. “Leonidas is dead! Wasn’t he killed at the battle along with the rest of RAT1? Right? Stan?”
    But Stan was staring at Charlie in horror, who returnedwith a stare of absolute astonishment. Their eyes locked, and it was clear that they were both thinking the same thing. The military had, after investigation, concluded that Leonidas had been killed in Becca’s TNT trap at the Battle for Elementia. The police had determined the same thing. There was only one source in the kingdom who had stated that Leonidas was still alive, a source Charlie had talked Stan into disregarding.
    â€œYou weren’t just hallucinating that night, were you, Stan,” said Charlie. It was not a question. Even Stan, who had brushed off the nocturnal visit by Sally’s voice as nothing but a delusion brought on by fatigue, now knew perfectly well that everything he had heard was indeed Sally trying to contact him from beyond the server.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” asked Archie, in a nervous, alarmed voice.
    â€œYeah, what are you talking about, Charlie?” asked DZ, his face taking on an uncharacteristically freaked-out look.
    â€œStan . . .”
    Stan leaped up. That voice did not belong to Charlie. It did not belong to Archie or DZ, either. And, based on a quick look around the room, he was the only one to hear it.
    â€œWhat?” Charlie asked, looking at Stan in panic. Stan paid no notice to any of them. He was already sprinting down the hallway, taking a sharp left, and bolting into his room. He needed this conversation to be private.
    â€œSally? Is that you?”
    â€œStan . . . I don’t . . . much . . . time . . .” Sally’s voice from nowhere was punctuated by bursts of static, and Stan could barely make out what she was saying. “Noctem . . . Alliance . . . alive . . .”
    â€œI know Sally, I know!” cried Stan. “They just took over our Jungle Base!”
    â€œI know . . . but . . . another . . . attack . . . inbound . . .” Her voice was barely audible over the now loud static. It was as if somebody was trying to jam her signal.
    â€œDon’t . . . know . . . heard .