Fantasy

38 - Randy

We're outnumbered. Phil isn't stupid; the guard threatening me also has his hand clamped on my arm so I can't just teleport out. After taking my rifle Phil asks if I have any more weapons on me. "No," I lie.

"Your sunglasses," Phil says. Seeing no other choice, I hand them over. He moves on to Jenna, who actually doesn't have anything, but I'll admit I'm kind of interested to see what kind of firepower Jayce has on him. "Alright, cough up all your weapons, Jayce," Phil says. Jayce opens his arms wide.

"Don't have any."

"Ha! The day you don't have a gun on you will be the day pigs fly. Come on, everyone knows you're an artillery geek."

"Is that what they're calling me now?"

"Hand over your firearms, blades, and any other gadgets."

"I guess pigs are going to fly today 'cause I don't have anything."

"Pat him down," Phil orders. The man holding him checks all the pockets on Jayce's army jacket. He makes Jayce unroll his sleeves and then roll them back up, turn out all his pockets, and the man even checks his shoes, but he comes up empty-handed. He pats Jayce down from head to toe one last time and still finds nothing. Phil scowls, but shrugs it off. "Indeed, maybe pigs will fly today; it's too bad you won't be around to see them. Hey, Jayce, remember that drone prototype you sent Riley that the CMRA never got to test? Well, I was thinking that, since you're leaving the CMRA, now would be a good time to see if it works. Oh, and we did modify it a tad, hope you don't mind," with that, Phil motions for the men to lower their guns. The one holding me drops a metal disk the size and shape of a hockey puck at my feet. I have just enough time to glimpse Designed by: Jayce Worldd carved on the top before it sprouts legs and latches onto my ankle. A chain attached to the metal leg cuff unfolds and the puck part drops to the ground and plants itself there. Only then does the man lower his gun and step back. I try to move, but I'm tethered to the ground. "Ah, let the fun begin," Phil announces, opening his plastic case. He pulls out a metal cylinder the size and shape of a base drum. Jayce's eyes widen, uh-oh. The top of the cylinder suddenly unfolds, revealing four large propellers. They all start spinning and soon the thing is air born. A square flap on the side of the drone slides open and the muzzle of some sort of gun pops out. Finally, a thin band of metal stretching around the entire cylinder slides down, and a strip of what looks like tiny solar panels is left. For a moment, the thing does nothing but hover there and we do nothing but stare at it.

"Nobody m..." Jayce starts to say, but Jenna suddenly realizes the real danger we're in and panics before he even finishes the thought.

"Ahhhh!" she screams, turning and running. Unfortunately, this gets the drone's attention. With surprising speed, it targets her with the gun and fires. Only now do I realize it's not a gun, no bullets come out; it's a FLAMETHROWER! A stream of fire spouts from the machine and follows Jenna as she runs behind me. My first impulse is to run, but of course, I'm chained to the ground. I desperately try to free myself, but it doesn't work. The hockey puck is securely fastened to the ground and I'm a goner. As the fire nears me I hold up my palm and soak it with water. This succeeds in doing absolutely...nothing! The whole dang thing is apparently waterproof! All I can do is duck and hope the fire passes over me. It would work, except when I duck I draw the drone's attention towards me. It stops spitting flame and refocuses on my head. Jayce seems to have deserted me, and Jenna definitely has. With magic I create flames on my hands and attempt to melt the metal cuff. Come on I think, melt. The metal seems unaffected and any second now the fire will reach me and I'll be roasted.

"Randy, stop moving! You aren't going to free yourself! You're just setting off the motion sensor," Jayce explains. I look over and realize he's been trying to attract the drone away from me; it just isn't working. In the seconds I stop the sensors finally pick up on Jayce. It might be partially because he hits it with a rock. He runs past it, and it turns around to pursue him. Jayce moves out of the way each time the muzzle almost shoots fire. He has a few close calls, but I can't do anything to help.

"Oh come on, Phil." Jayce huffs, "You being a part of this giant organization aiming to conquer the world is, you know, pretty bad, but attacking a man with his own invention, well that's just unethical." That time the drone almost gets him and he just narrowly rolls out of the way. He turns and runs out past where Phil and his men are standing and it follows him... at first, but the thing stops a few feet away from Phil and turns back towards me. Jayce turns around. "What? Oh, it must be set to stay within a certain circumference." If he says so, I don't even bother trying to remember what circumference means. The flamethrower is aimed at me, but Jayce runs in front of it, getting its attention. He has no choice but to continue playing chicken with the death machine. I glance over at Phil, who looks bored, but then, to my horror, he pulls out my sunglasses, detaches the temple, and drops the rest on the ground. He slides the blade out and focuses on Jayce.

"Look out!" I shout as Phil throws it. Jayce runs towards me to avoid both the knife and the drone. In his haste he trips over an exposed tree root and falls to the ground beside me. My knife embeds itself in a tree that was behind him. "You okay?" I ask. He nods and moves to get up, but before he makes it to his feet, the ugly machine spots us and whirls around. He freezes; if either of us moves, we're dead. "We're going to die," I say hopelessly. It was bound to happen sometime. Jayce's eyes light up.

"Not necessarily," he says, "Do you trust me?" I hesitate.

"Sort of."

"Never mind, we're going to die," he replies.

"Alright, alright, I trust you!" I scream as the machine, even though we haven't moved, spots us anyway and lines up the flamethrower.

"Then stand up!"

"What? It'll kill me!"

"Now!" Jayce yells. He has saved my life twice now. I make a quick decision and jump to my feet, bracing myself for the pain as the flamethrower trains on me. While it's distracted, Jayce rolls under the thing and sticks something on the bottom. The whole contraption shoots up a full 20 feet higher than the treetops and then explodes like a firework. Jayce lays his head back on the ground and I slide down to a sitting position. We're both breathing hard. Phil and his men have disappeared to who-knows-where. Upon seeing this Jayce breaks into a smile, which soon turns to laughter. For some reason, I end up laughing too. "We're alive!" he sits up and looks over at me. "You've got guts; I didn't think you'd do it... Thanks." I smile in return.

"No problem." We both laugh with relief again. "Hey, do you think you can get this thing off my ankle?" I ask, remembering the cuff.

"Oh, yeah, I'll see what I can do." Jayce says, moving over to me. "See, I designed these things to be deactivated with a code word, so there should be a microphone..." He finds a little black circle covered in holes, the mike.

"By the way, what was that thing you put on the machine, and where'd you get it from; I mean, I thought they patted you down?" Jayce glances at me, snickers and shakes his head.

He pulls out his Army knife and as he unfolds the blade he replies, "What I put on the machine was essentially a firecracker taped to a baking soda rocket, only a lot more powerful. I got it out of my jacket."

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain how they didn't find your little gadget on you." He shakes his head again.

"Do you want out of this thing or not?"

"Yes," I mutter. He brings his knife around and slides the blade under the edge of the little black microphone cover, prying it off. Underneath is a foam bit which Jayce yanks up along with the wires attached to it. He switches to the scissors on his knife and cuts the actual mic off the wires. He then scrapes off a bit of the insulation so the copper is visible. With one hand he holds the insulated part of the wire and spreads the fingers of the other. Lightning jumps from his index finger to his middle finger and he touches it to the copper. A puff of smoke comes off the end and I'm then able to pull open my ankle cuff and free myself.