3.69 Censored Questions

         As raging storms and icy sleet kept the survivors of Anur huddled around the fire, endless stories continued to unfold. Perceptions had been illusory, truths had been lies, there were more eye opening lessons to be learned about life in Atlan than could ever have been imagined. And asking those censored questions of which they dared not speak, was allowed in Lemuria, it was even encouraged. Mina listened to the debates unfold from the kitchen, the coincidences bothered her too.

         "Don't you think it's a huge coincidence that the dogons slaughtered all the children in Culloom, just a few weeks before Fina just happened to get slaughtered?" Everyone had a theory.

         "Maybe it wasn't the dogons that killed the children in Culloom? Maybe it was a savage virus that killed them too?"

         "Maybe it could happen here?"

         "A savage virus?" Dena echoed, amused. "I assure you it wasn't a virus!"

         "How do you know?"

         "Bell told me. His crews had to clean up the mess. They had to actually hunt and kill the dogons in Culloom! Right Bell?"

         "Really?" Zara glanced at Bell, questioning. He was stone-faced, it seemed odd, surely there would have been pictures in the tabloids?

         "Oh Ya!" He assured. "The dogons slaughtered Culloom. Fina was an epidemic. They were two completely unrelated disasters!"

         "Then why wasn’t the epidemic in the tabloids like the Culloom Disaster was?"

         "Because Atalon would never publish a story like that in the Tabloids unless he had the facts! He doesn’t know what virus it was! That's the whole point of the Tabloids! To inform us of facts! Dogons were a fact!"

         "What's an epidemic?"

         "There are unanswered questions with regards to that theory, actually" Mina couldn't help but speak up now, she didn't believe the two genocides were a coincidence. "Neter saw the gates that just happened to keep the genocide contained, both in Culloom and in Fina."

         "Gates?" Josh sat up, shocked by such a suggestion. "When did Neter go to Fina?"

         "When he investigated the Underworld."

         "Neter investigated the Underworld?" Bell came to life now, he hadn't heard about any investigations.

         "We couldn't believe the things Zara was telling us" Mina finally came clean, they had the right to know, especially now. "She had a bad head injury, we couldn't tell if she was delusional or not. Her story was unbelievable yet we couldn't ignore it in case it was true. Neter went over there to check things out."

         "Neter went over to spy on us?" Adon was shocked. "And didn't get caught?"

         "No, he went to check up on you. He discovered that her stories were just a small sample of the toxic slew that Atlan had become, we felt we had to do something, give you all a chance to escape. That's why we came to Atlan to invite you to our Solstice party."

         "WHAT?"
         "Neter went to investigate?" Dena was lost for words. "How did he get in?"

         "Toxic slew?" Josh was shocked by Mina's harsh reference.

         "You actually came over to lure us away?" Dena was horrified.       

         "Ha-haaa!" Josh didn't care about the truth, Lemuria suited his ideals well, in hindsight it was quite amusing, genius in fact. "We all thought Atalon had set us up for some giant solidarity test or something!" For a moment the reality of their world was forgotten as the new friends could finally laugh about the preceding events.

         "It wasn't a virus."      

         The laughter died off as Adon interjected, all eyes turned towards him, questioning. 

         "Excuse me?"

         Not since the moment he stood on the Pageant stage, blinded by the lights, had Adon felt so nervous. His heart was pounding so hard he wondered if they could hear it, the rush of even debating whether or not to break The Oath was intense, like a drug itself it was empowering. He took a deep breath, daring to so the right thing...
         "What are you talking about?"

         Like a rock, loosened in the flow he couldn't stop it from coming out now. "It was the Solution."

         "The Solution?"

         "Yes" he assured, relieved it was over. "The Fina Solution."

         "What's the Fina Solution?"

         Adon hesitated, unintentionally adding suspense, legitimately troubled by what he had concluded. "It's a medificaion."

         "A medification?" Mina frowned. "What’s that?"

         "They were poisoned."

         "Poisoned?" Gasps and shocked glances were exchanged as the truth escaped his lips.

         "What Fina Solution?" Dena frowned, disbelieving.

         "What are you talking about?" Josh was equally doubtful.

         "They weren't good enough for the New Nefilim race" Adon explained. "Garbage Gens. I overheard the gods talking about it. Also, I was with Seton when he poisoned the reservoir."

         "You poisoned them all?"

         "No! I didn't know!" Adon protested.

         "Wow... I think I did read about that in the Tabloids…" Josh recalled the news story now... "There was an article about a solution added to the water to cure a virus…"

         "That was the Official Line, I never saw any illness reports leading up to it, we didn't process any corpses until afterwards."

         Bell eyed Adon with growing suspicion, Adon was bolder than he looked, why would he be involved in such a high level operation?

         "How do you know?" He grilled. "Why should we believe you?"

         "Did you know about it?" Josh asked, wondering now what Bell knew.

         "I did not!" Bell lied, nerves steeled, he wasn't going to break any Oaths.

         "What if it was all for the Soloha?" Josh couldn't hold his censored questions back either, he was joining his own dots now. "They were harvesting pineals from them you know!" Some censored questions were best left alone.

         "How do you know it was poison?" Dena wasn't buying into the conspiracy theories, still unwilling to believe such levels of deception were even possible. "They weren't all Garbage Gens! There were lots of Professors, Stylists and Business Owners over there. Even the Goldens were a valuable commodity, we invested a huge amount of time and energy developing them, why would Atalon just throw them away?" It was a good point. "What if Doctor Seton was legitimately trying to cure the virus before it made anyone ill? Maybe he's just too embarrassed to admit he failed!"

         "Yeah" Bell chimed. "How do you know it was poison? Do you have proof?"