BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

It felt almost surreal to Erik how easy it was to provoke Logan and his friends into following him. He knew Logan wasn't the school's brightest person, but he didn't think he was that stupid.

Erik also had a lot of fun writing that letter. It wasn't like him to say nasty things about another person, but he made an exception for Logan.

As Erik boarded the train, he knew he had to be careful since the vehicle didn't leave him any possibility to escape. Once he saw Logan looking at him from the other side of the carriage, he knew he had to start moving.

There weren't many people on the train, and the few ones present were mainly farmers who had to make a trip to the city to do some paperwork.

Some were dressed in suits since they probably had to go to some office, while others wore jeans and some sweaters or jackets.

Some even seemed as if they'd been sleeping during their journey. They all stared curiously at the mask-wearing Erik despite him trying not to attract attention.

Erik started running again as he saw Conal, Logan, and Orson approaching. He passed through multiple carriages, often hitting the people standing there.

"Hey! Hey you!" one man yelled out after seeing the masked figure run past him. "What are you doing?"

Soon after, the same man got hit by Logan, who made him fall to the ground. The farmer quickly scrambled up and ran away before anyone else could see what had happened.

Erik turned to look back; Logan was awfully close to him, so much that he could see the veins on the young man's neck protruding like snakes slithering under his skin.

The bully was angry; it was the first time someone dared to say something like that about him. It was true that he did a lot of bad things to other people. He knew there was someone out there that resented him.

Still, every time someone tried to do or say something like that to him, Logan actually made an example of them by beating them thoroughly. His face twisted in anger as he looked at the masked Erik, apparently running away like a coward.

His rage was so high that Logan didn't notice a bag on the ground, on which he tripped, falling to the ground, hitting a bench, and bleeding from the forehead.

Conal rushed over to where Logan lay on the ground and helped him stand up.

Erik, in the meantime, continued running. Until he arrived in front of a carriage where he could see two police officers standing. With a quick move, Erik took off a jacket from his backpack, removed his mask, and put on a hood that successfully hid his face. After that, he entered casually, as if nothing had happened, and went in front of the carriage exit.

The two policemen observed him but didn't think much about it.

Soon later, Conal, Orson, and Logan arrived inside the same carriage and spotted the young man with his back toward them. However, they also saw the police officers and knew they couldn't do anything to the young boy, which they still couldn't recognize.

The three sat down next to each other without saying a word while occasionally glancing at the unknown man with looks of pure hatred. Soon enough, they reached the train station in the northern district.

Erik patiently waited for the carriage doors to open. As soon as they did, he dashed out of the train like a madman.

Logan, Conal, and Orson followed suit, leaving the police officers confused and bewildered.

"STOP, YOU MOTHER FUCKER!" Logan shouted while chasing the young man. Who, in the meantime, took a flight of stairs down and jumped out of the train station.

"DON'T RUN, YOU USELESS COWARD!"

Erik ignored Logan's shouts and kept running until he reached a large and long unpaved road, the one he took every day to go to Mister Fox's farm.

As Logan saw the open road, he shouted at him, "You can't hide anymore, you little prick!" unaware that Orson and Conal were growing restless.

The whole chase looked too deliberate for them to be a mere coincidence. They knew that whatever they were going to do, they were dancing in the palm of the mysterious student.

When Logan caught sight of the dancing wheat fields ahead, he looked anxious for a moment as he feared that the masked man would have used the plants as a mean to hide from him. He yelled at the masked boy, "I'll get you, I swear."

With no choice left, Conal and Orson decided to follow Logan while Erik kept running toward the wheat field. They ran behind him, observing as he slowly approached the woods behind the wheat field.

The view of the forest was weird, but they could never imagine that the young man was leading them to a breach in the city's defenses and that they were inevitably going toward thaid's territory. As soon as they passed the last row of wheat stalks, they entered the forest, unaware of the danger they put themselves in.

Erik then entered the woodland, fully knowing that he was going to risk a lot since there were thaids out there.

The fact that he was lucky enough to meet only two weak ones didn't mean that all the thaids out there were weak, but only that the ones surrounding the city were.

The young man glanced left and right in search of hidden danger, hoping not to find any. There was a chance that some of the stronger thaids might appear, especially now that he had intruded into their land.

But despite these worries, Erik still felt calm because his need for revenge was stronger than any fear. Erik knew that his feelings were dangerous ones, but he got sick of Logan, and he got sick of Conal and Orson.

As he saw no immediate danger ahead, the young man hid behind a bush making Conal, Orson, and Logan lose his tracks.

The trio went quickly past Erik's hiding place and kept searching for him several kilometers deep inside the forest.

"Logan..."

"WHAT?!" he shouted.

"I don't think it is safe here!" Conal said.

"Why it shouldn't be safe?" Logan angrily asked.

"I don't know, it's just that a forest inside the barrier is too weird, in my opinion."

"What do you mean? You coward. We are inside the barrier!" Logan said.

"Are we sure about that?" Orson asked.

"Of course we are! It's impossible to get past it without walking through the military outposts! What are you scared for?"

The trio nervously looked around, hoping that what Logan said was true.

"We're being toyed with," Orson said.

Conal nodded.

Orson looked at Conal and Logan, unsure if he had to continue following them or not.

In the end, they continued on, keeping an eye out for signs of life, which meant the masked man. They finally heard a sound after countless minutes of unnerving silence.

"There!" Conal pointed toward the direction the noise came from. Only to immediately shudder at the sight in front of him. Six insectoid thaids were looking at them as if they were a tasty meal.