Part 6: Death of Freedom
Chapter 68: The Aftermath
It was now the early hours of the morning. The survivors had been gathered outside the stadium. The many thousands that were injured were being evacuated to various medical centres across the Capital District. The most badly injured were transferred to the city medical facilities.
The players had remained in their locker rooms. They were unharmed by what had happened in the stands. They were evacuated to outside the stadium and were told to stay with the other survivors.
Ryan was helping as much as he could. He was desperately trying to find Saliyah, but to this point to no avail. Most of the attendees in the boxes were saved. Two of the boxes fell when part of the structure of the stadium collapsed. James was sitting outside the front of the stadium. He was frozen in shock.
A medical technician ran over to Ryan to check if he was fine. He appeared to have hurt his hand.
‘May I take a look at your hand, sir?’ asked the medical technician.
‘Okay, quickly,’ replied Ryan anxiously.
‘Burns again,’ said the medical technician. ‘Many of the injured have these burns on them.’
‘What are you talking about?’ asked Ryan angrily. ‘There are no fires in here.’
‘These are chemical burns,’ said the technician, shaking his head.
Ryan pulled his hand away and said, ‘I need to keep searching. I have no time to chat.’
Percival approached one of the medical technicians who was organising the injured. ‘How many injured do we have now?’ he asked.
‘Altogether around seven thousand,’ replied the medical technician. ‘Almost a thousand are critically injured.’
Percival looked up; he could see the Head Enforcer standing in the luxury box. He was staring down into the stadium.
Percival exited the stadium through the players’ entrance. He walked over to an enforcer who was monitoring the survivors.
‘Is this all of them?’ he asked the enforcer.
‘These are all the survivors that did not require medical attention,’ replied the enforcer.
Percival scanned the group with his eyes. ‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘Out of eighty thousand, that’s it.’
The enforcer nodded.
Percival walked to the front of the stadium. He was expecting to see the media, but there was no sign of them. Percival looked over and saw James, who was sitting by himself, sipping from a bottle of water.
Percival turned to look at a group of enforcers. ‘Arrest him!’ he shouted to them as he pointed at James.
The enforcers rushed over to James and handcuffed him. He put up no resistance at all and did not even say a word.
Meanwhile, back in the stadium, Ryan continued to search for Saliyah amongst the dead on the field. He had no success. Then another section of the stadium crashed down. A few minutes later, enforcers and other members of the rescue team announced the full evacuation of the stadium. Ryan refused to leave. The enforcers had to remove him forcibly.
At the end of the road leading to the stadium, a large crowd had formed. Most of them were from the venues that aired the Grand Final live. The crowd was eager to know what had happened, but they were told nothing. The enforcers ensured the crowd could not get near the stadium.
The rescue operation had been halted to allow engineers to secure the structure of the stadium. The next few days, they removed damaged sections and secured what they could. It did not take long for them to uncover that the stadium had been sabotaged. They found evidence that explosives had been used to bring down key structural supports. They also found evidence that acid had been used. It looked like several fire sprinklers had sprayed acid on the crowd.
The engineers immediately submitted a report to the Head Enforcer detailing what they had found. The rescue operation recommenced once the engineers confirmed the stadium was structurally safe to enter.
There was a complete media blackout regarding what had happened. No one other than the enforcers, rescue workers, and medical workers was allowed near the stadium. The Alset Company offered to help with the rescue operations, but nobody from their company was allowed near the stadium. The Alset family members had no idea of the extent of the incident.
Demadrian arrived back in Carrington. He promptly returned to the room he was meant to be held in. Hadrian soon found out about the return of his son. He immediately went to the room to speak with him.
‘Where have you been?’ demanded Hadrian. ‘We have risked so much to cover for you while you were gone.’
‘Not having the blue juice almost killed me,’ said Demadrian. ‘I couldn’t go through that again.’
‘We could have worked that out here,’ said Hadrian firmly. ‘You didn’t need to leave, son.’
‘I needed to retrieve something from the North District,’ said Demadrian. ‘It is key to me developing a long-lasting blue juice.’
‘Your obsession with this has done so much damage,’ said Hadrian in a sad tone as he turned to leave.
‘I just need the right equipment,’ said Demadrian. ‘I can now do everything from in here.’
Hadrian left the room without responding to Demadrian.
Ryan was back at the stadium with the rescue workers. He continued to frantically search for Saliyah. He desperately needed her to be alive. The stench of the dead was overwhelming for many of the rescue workers. Ryan was somehow able to block it out.
After a day of searching, no new survivors were found. Instead, thousands of bodies were removed from the stadium.
Ryan continued searching throughout the night. Finally, he reached the shattered plexiglass. Underneath it lay Saliyah. Ryan slowly pulled her out. Her body was in a very bad condition, but he knew it was she. He carried her to the centre of the field. He dropped to the ground. He held her tight and sobbed relentlessly.
Early the next day, some of the rescue workers were removing bodies from a collapsed section of the upper stands when they heard a knocking sound from below them. One of the rooms had fallen through the floor. It sounded like someone was trapped inside it.
The rescue workers cut through the door. They shone their torches inside the room. At the back of the room were a chef and Jeff Yensid. The chef was awake, and she was knocking on the wall of the room with a pan. Jeff was unconscious. The rescue team pulled them both out. They sent them to the nearest medical facility.
The Head Enforcer called Governor Ebirb in Carrington to place the entire Alset family under arrest. At the same time, the enforcers stormed all the Alset facilities in the Capital City simultaneously. They arrested all those involved with installing the upgrades to the stadium. The entire Alset family was rounded up in just a few hours. They were taken to a large room that the guards could easily secure within the guard complex in Carrington.
The Hat Lady was held in a prison cell at the Capital City prison. She knew nothing about what had happened at the stadium. She heard the arrival of many new prisoners in cells around her. She made a small section of the wall adjoining the cells invisible so that she could see inside. Inside the cell were four male technicians who worked for the Alset Company.
‘Why are you guys in here?’ asked the Hat Lady.
‘We’re the technicians who put up the plexiglass at the stadium,’ replied two of them simultaneously.
‘Let me guess, James Yensid wasn’t happy with what it looked like, so he had you arrested?’ asked the Hat Lady.
‘No, it broke,’ replied a technician. ‘James Yensid is four cells down from here.’
‘Wow, he got himself arrested!’ remarked the Hat Lady. ‘Juice or no juice, he really is an imbecile.’
‘How did you make that hole in the wall?’ asked another technician.
‘It’s not a hole. It’s just a part of the wall I made invisible,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘Anyone can do it with plenty of practice.’
‘How is that possible?’ said a technician. ‘The wall is made of stone. It’s not organic.’
‘When the world is one big illusion, anything is possible,’ said the Hat Lady as the wall became fully visible again.
The Hat Lady knew something dramatic must have happened for James to be arrested. He was running the show just a few days ago. In an instant, he was replaced. Her first thoughts were that it had something to do with the enforcers.
Meanwhile in Carrington, the guards interviewed each Alset family member separately to determine what they knew about what had happened to the stadium. None of them could offer any useful information or reveal anything about who was involved.
The Alset family members were returned to the large room. Governor Ebirb entered the room to address the whole family.
‘I know at least one of you was involved in this,’ said Ebirb firmly. ‘If nobody speaks, the whole lot of you are going down.’
‘After all our family has done for you, how dare you treat us like this?’ shouted Hadrian angrily.
‘Fifty thousand Linap were massacred in the Capital City because of your family,’ shouted Ebirb. ‘I am not covering for that.’
‘You’re only interested in looking out for yourself,’ said Demadrian as he walked towards Ebirb. ‘We have more security than you have guards. Continue this charade and we’ll see who’s going down.’
‘Talking about charades,’ chuckled Ebirb. ‘I know you took a little trip out of here. Secret vacation in the Capital City, just a little harmless R & R, I suppose.’
‘Let’s just stay calm,’ said Hadrian as he walked towards the two. ‘We will continue to fully cooperate with this investigation.’
‘We will absolutely fully cooperate with this investigation,’ said Demadrian calmly. ‘We will do so from the comfort of our mansion. Otherwise, a thousand heavily armed security guards will storm this building.’
Jenna, who was standing behind Ebirb, was waving frantically for Demadrian to remain quiet.
‘Fine, nobody leaves Carrington while the investigation is still ongoing,’ said Ebirb as he squinted his eyes while staring at Demadrian. Ebirb turned around and left the room.
‘Are you crazy!’ gasped Jenna as she ran towards Demadrian. ‘Ebirb is a complete psycho. And we don’t have Grandfather to protect us anymore.’
‘I’ll do whatever it takes to protect our family,’ said Demadrian as he put his arm around Jenna.
The guards entered the room to escort them back to the mansion. Hadrian gave Demadrian an angry look as he walked past. Demadrian responded by playfully poking his tongue out at him. Hadrian sharply turned his head and continued walking.
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
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