Legacy of the Birds: Book One of the Spark(A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Eight

It's just another normal day in the Alligator Lake, Florida, if any day in the past decade can be called "normal." Ten years ago, this place was a swamp full of alligators, but after the Great War with wights, the water dried out under the unnatural scorching sun. The swamp turned into a desert like the rest of  Florida.
Not long after the swamp dried out, people started to move in. Normals and peculiar who sought to live out of wight's reach. Perhaps it's some sort of arrogance, the corrupted never bother to check this place.
Today, everything seemed the same. Maybe people here had seem enough things that nothing surprise them anymore, or maybe it's just people had learned to only mind their own business long ago.
In a world like this, knowing too much brings only trouble.
So, when an old black Aston Martin enter the town, no one raised an eye.
Which was just as well.
Emma stepped out of the car, and scanned around.
"Well, not exactly a swamp, but we will start from here."
*
John was already a little disappointed when he knew they have to find a swamp in a desert. He got even more disappointed when he realize Emma's method of "searching" was basically just looking around.
"You sure you know what you're looking for?" He asked.
"I will know when I see it." Emma replied.
"But aren't loop entrances supposed to be hidden? How are you going to find a swamp loop in a bloody desert?" John argued.
Emma stopped, "Have you finished?"
"My point is if this loop can be hidden from the wights for so long, there's no way you can find it simply by looking." John said.
"Fine, then what do you suggest we do?" Emma asked angrily.
"Two travelers lost in a desert town." Someone's voice came from behind them.
The two turned, and found an humpbacked old man in a tattered black coat.
"We're not lost, and we know exactly where we're going, now off you go." Emma said.
"I can provide you any information, given reasonable price." Then the man leaned closer to the two and whispered, "like the location of a certain time loop."
*
Emma drove the Aston Martin, following the old man's direction. Slowly, they drove to the outskirts of the town, and stopped by a small house. A pot of purple flowers was set in front of the door.
"Come on in," the old man said, "inside is safer for informations you're seeking." Then he went into the house.
"Can we trust him?" John asked.
"Of course not," Emma replied, "We just have to play along until he tell us what we need to know."
Then they, too, entered the house.
"Now, let's get to the point. You want the location of the loop of peculiar rebels, isn't that right, Miss Bloom?" The man asked, his back no longer humped.
"Who are you? And how do you know my name?" Emma asked surprisingly.
"I'm Aullis. As for the second question, you are quite famous in peculiar world, 'the mysterious last surviving member of Miss Peregrine's wards.'" The man answered while making air quotes with his fingers. "Plus your hood hardly cover you face, anyone who has seen you before can recognize."
"And where have you seen me before?" Emma said.
"Never mind that. What's important now is that I have something you want, and you two can give me something I want."
"And what do you want?" John asked.
"I need you to go on a rescue mission. Subject's name is Liam Brown, fifteen years old, normal boy, red hair, blue eyes, taken a month ago."
"Hold on a second here," John said, "you want us to break into some wightish prison and get someone out. How do we know you're not leading us directly into an ambush?"
"You don't, but this is your only shot of finding your rebel loop. So I guess you will have to trust me."
"Alright then," Emma said, "How do you suppose we can just break into a prison and get someone out, and no one will be coming for us? They will get here eventually and take the boy back."
"No they won't, because you're not breaking into a wightish prison. You are going to break into a ambro den." Aullis said.
"But what's a normal boy doing in an ambro den? It's not like they can milk his soul." John asked.
"Those traffickers take normal people back from time to time, bird knows what they want."
"Fine," Emma said, "we get this boy out, and then you give us the location of the rebel loop. But if this turns out to be a trap, or the location you give us leads into nothing, you won't live to regret it."
Aullis handed a card to Emma. A photo of their target.
Then Emma headed back to the car.
John stood up to follow her, but Aullis gestured him to stop.
"I think you should know, there's something you'd want to see in that ambro factory."
John turned to him, "And what is it?"
Aullis smiled. "Time to go now, boy."
*
A black car moved without lights on, it kept moving until vanishing completely into the shadow of a giant structure.
The clouds were so thick that even moonlight could hardly pierce.
"Must be it, the only ambro den in Florida." Emma said.
"You sure about this?" Asked John.
"We have to do anything to get the location, remember?" Emma reminded him.
"But we don't even know if he knows the loop. What if it's a trap?"
"Do we have a choice? Plus, it's not like we can't handle some mercenaries."
John wanted to keep arguing, but Emma just gestured him to stop. She opened the trunk. "Can you shoot, John?"
"I only used handguns before, not exactly good at it." John answered.
"Then you pick a pistol. Just remember, turn off the safe before you fire." Emma said as she attached a submachine gun to her belt. "By the way, put on the silencer. We don't want them to know we are here."
Emma put on a sweater, and tossed another to John. "Put this on. It's peculiar wool."
"What's it for?" Asked John.
"Keep you from freezing to death, obviously."
*
The second night shift had just begun. A guard stood in the factory gate, gazing the horizon.
No one ever tried to attack this ambrosia factory, because no one was that stupid.
Night shift has become the most boring job, but in times like this, boring was a good thing.
Less than two hours ago, he was sharing some cheese with other guards.
He's lucky to get night shift, they said.
Just a couple hours left, then he could rest and go home.
Within eight hours, he could go back to the family he worked so hard to feed.
Boring and uneventful, tonight seemed no different.
Then, his perfectly boring night, along with any hope for him to get back to his family, was cut short by a bullet.
"How do we deal with the body?" John asked.
"Leave it, we will be gone before sunrise." Emma said.
John shined the light around. "It's a garage." Then he ran forward, towards something in the corner.
"John?" Emma called out. "What in bird's name are you doing?"
"I knew it! I recognize this!" John and he pointed at a truck.
It's back doors hung open. What's left of a mental lock laid on the ground.
Emma picked it up. "Not many peculiar can do this."
Then she looked at John.
"Do you think Blanche is here?" His voice trembling slightly, out of disbelief and the fear of losing someone once again.
Emma didn't want him to be disappointed. She wanted to tell him how unlikely it was to find Blanche here after what she put her capturers through. And even if she was indeed brought here, there's no telling whether she's still alive.
But Emma just said, "I don't know, but it's possible ....
*
They walked into a an empty corridor. The light was turned off, and not a sound can be heard. Faint yellow or red light flared trough the windows on both sides.
"Don't look into the window." Emma said.
John turned to look and immediately regretted not listening to Emma.
The inside of the room was a bloody mess.
Dissembled limbs and organs with knives and needles still attached laid on the desk, some unidentifiable liquid dropping from them. Almost every inch of the wall was stained. The only corner that can be described as clean was where a shelf stood. There were bottles on the shelf. Some bottles contained black-sliver liquids, and others held unknown liquids, preserving objects John can not name.
It's like some mad scientists conducted their crazy experiments and decided never to clean up the lab.
If their first few feet into this factory was already like this, John didn't really want to know what they would see when they find Blanche.
"Like walking into a lion's den," John thought.