A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1

Chapter 27

    Navigating my way through the facility was a bit of a task, but I was able to find where she was. She seemed to be adjusting some settings as she was hitting different buttons.
    I hid behind one of the many machines present and watched her walk around, pushing different buttons and adjusting different levers.
    After pushing some buttons, a hatch opened in the ground and the missile came forth. I stared in awe at the massive missile that came out of the hatch and gulped an incredibly large amount of saliva.
    She walked towards her massive weapon of destruction and traced its smooth bodice with her fingers. She uttered disturbing sweet words to it like it was her lover.
    I squeezed the spanner tightly and crept towards her. With tiny and quiet steps, I was able to get close. On sensing my presence, she turned to see who was behind her. Without a moment of hesitation, I mustered a whole ton of strength and swung the spanner right at her face.
    The force from the blow sent her to the ground and she gave out a loud cry with blood in her mouth.
    ‘Not yet,’ I said to myself.
     I grabbed her by the collar and landed a solid blow on her cheek, sending her back to the ground. It still wasn’t enough.
     I dragged her by the collar yet again, put her onto her feet, and landed series of blows until she finally went unconscious.
    I stripped her of her knives and gun and dragged her unconscious body out of the military facility into the cold desert night. The cool breeze that swept blew sent fatigue round my body.
    “Henry!” Katie called out and rushed towards me.
    “Hey. Grab her legs, I’ll grab her arms,” I said tiredly.
      We carried Mrs. Lever’s unconscious body to join her comrades. I used an extra handcuff I found in the glove box to cuff her hands behind her back. Katie drove towards Mystery Falls, while I watched over Lever and her comrades.
    When she woke up, I injected her with another vile of the serum, causing her to join her comrades in deep sleep.
    “Uh-Henry,” Katie called out.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked.
After my question, the vehicle came to a halt.
    “We’re out of gas.”
     We were stranded in the middle of a desert with no service, no food or water and a vehicle with no fuel. We were totally screwed.
***************
      Without any ideas of what to do, we sat on the bonnet of the vehicle under the light of the moon. We had completely given up on our phones. The chances of us getting out of that desert were pretty slim.
    “I still can’t believe you beat a lady to a pulp like that,” Katie said with a chuckle.
     I looked up to the sky and repeated something Daiwi told me.
    “When in positions where life and death is a gamble, gender is inexistent. They are simply two souls.”
      In Taioui practices, females are treated delicately. At first, they weren’t even allowed to engage in Taioui. Even when they were allowed to, they were still handled with intense care.
      There are records of Taioui practitioners that died for the sake of certain women and I definitely wasn’t going to belong to that party.
    But even at that, when it came to actual battles, gender is inexistent. Daiwi even joked with me once that the great spirits would mock you if you lost to a female because you were observing ‘manners.’
    “Wise words,” she teased.
    Suddenly, I remembered something.
    “Katie,” I began, giving off a serious aura.
    “I was unconscious for about two hours. There’s no way all I talked about was what I couldn’t remember about Lever.”
By then, she already got the message.
    “I want to listen to the full recording,” I said, lifting my head and looking her straight in her widely opened eyes.
    She was hesitant, but she eventually pulled out her phone and played the recording, and I listened to my words.
***************
    In the recording, I confessed that I had caught gradually growing feelings for my girlfriend’s older sister. I said words I never thought I’d say until I was older. I wanted to say I was just saying things as Alexis’ pregnancy had us talking, but lies don’t come out of one’s lips in Athed.
    “Were Clyde and Daphne present when I said this?” I asked softly.
     “No.”
     “Good. Th--”
In that moment, I heard vehicles approaching. I raised my head and I could see headlamps of about three vehicles up ahead.
    “Get in,” I ordered.
We rushed into the ttansport vehicle and locked the doors.
    “They have back-up?” Katie asked. She was far more scared than before. She was already crying.
    There were two possibilities. Either law enforcement already knew what was going on, or our captives had back-up.”
    I was shaking and terrified. Even if I was a Taioui practitioner of the ninth rank, it would still be impossible for me to fight off armed mercenaries all at once.
     I could only pray to Yokai and hope that they were not mercenaries.
     I loaded the guns we got off our kidnappers and gave one to Katie. She was still frightened by the sight of an actual gun. But if they were mercenaries, we had to do what we could to defend ourselves.
     Our captives were still unconscious, so they were the least of our problems.
    As we awaited the arrival of the mercenaries/army, I helped Katie stop crying and helped her stay positive about getting through our predicament alive.
    ****************
    ‘They’re here,’ I said to myself on hearing the vehicles come to halt.
    I heard the footsteps of people swiftly surround the vehicle.
    “Henry Collins and Katie Hathaway, are you in there?” a thick, hoarse voice asked.
    “The army,” Katie whispered.
    I grabbed her wrists and stopped her from moving. We had to be sure they weren’t mercenaries faking to be soldiers.
    “I’ll handle it,” a female voice said.
    “Happy, are you there?” the female asked. Her voice was like that of a mature woman, but one could hear ‘Soldier’ in her voice.
    “It’s my aunt! She’s the only one that calls me by my middle name,” she whispered with a hint of excitement on her face.
    I tightened my grip a bit, still suspicious about everything.
    “Are you sure she’s not--”
    “Happy, don’t be scared. It’s me and my comrades here. You two are safe,” she assured us.
    Katie tried to force her hand out of my grip, but I didn’t let go.
    “We’re here,” she called out.
    I let go of her hand and she hurriedly unlocked the door and jumped out of the vehicle into the arms of her aunt.
    I came out of the vehicle slowly to see soldiers around us.
    “The mercenaries are unconscious in the back,” I said, breaking Katie’s affectionate moment with her aunt.
    With that utterance, I felt the gaze of all those who heard me. Not once in a thousand years would a fourteen year old take down three well-trained mercenaries.
    “You mean you took down three armed and dangerous mercenaries all by yourself?” a male soldier asked, walking towards me.
    “Yes sir,” I replied with a straight face.
Some of the soldiers opened up the back and carried their unconscious bodies out. One of them came to Katie’s aunt with the box that held what I injected them with.
    “What is this?” she asked.
    “We don’t know. But we know it makes you unconscious and when you wake up, you won’t exactly have memory of what happened before you were unconscious,” Katie explained.
    “And you were able to use this on them?” Katie’s aunt asked, staring at me oddly.
    “We should get them home Sargent. Their parents will be beyond worried by now.”
    “I’ll get them home. You and your squad should go ahead,” Katie’s aunt suggested.
    “Alright.”
**********
    Katie’s aunt had three other soldiers come with us on our way back home. I was really worn out. Keeping my eyes open was even a task. I was able to get a few minutes of sleep which felt like seconds when Katie woke me up.
    “We’re at your house Henry,” she said faintly. I rubbed my eyes awake and tiredly stepped out of the vehicle.
    Katie, her aunt and two of her comrades accompanied us towards my house. I was pretty sure it was past midnight. The wind gave a comforting feeling with it. It was like it said; ‘Well done.’
    I opened the door and stepped into the living room. My family, except Alexis was present. The atmosphere of the living room spelt ‘intense worry’ very clearly.
    “Where in God’s name have you been?!” mom asked with worry.
    “Do you have any idea how--,”
Before she could finish, Katie’s aunt walked in.
    “Helga?” Freya’s dad said.
    “Helga, what is going on?” Katie’s mom asked, stepping forward to embrace her sister.
    “Zoey, the kids are tired. Let them sit and explain everything.”
    **************
    We sat and I explained everything to everyone present in the room, starting from the uneasy way I felt whenever I was close to Lever, to when I went unconscious and down to me remembering. I dint tell them what I did to remember. I just said, I thought hard
    “Why didn’t you report to the higher authority” mom asked.
    “I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t give the police information on the basis of, I don’t like the vibe of my teacher,” I replied and ran my fingers through my hair.
    Mom had her arms around me the whole time. She was scared, but relieved that I was okay.
    “So my brother basically saved our lives and the lives of everyone in Mystery Falls,” said Heather.
    “Yes, he did,” Katie’s aunt replied.
    “I’m still having trouble understanding how he took down three mercenaries,” said Dr. Hathaway.
    “It’s no ordinary feat for a teenage boy,” Mrs. Hathaway added.
I had become the center of attention. Everyone wondered how a fourteen year old took down three mercenaries without sustaining a single injury. I told them;
    “I was just lucky.”
After a few minutes, we all said our goodnights, and I was finally able to go to bed. I slept comfortably, knowing that I was basically Mystery Falls’ unknown savior.