The World Aflame Book 1: Rise Of A Nation

The World Aflame Chapter 5: Our Safehouse Base

The World Aflame
           Chapter 5: Our Safehouse Base.
By: Stratford Ukena

(So for this chapter it will introduce a new character. so feel free to let me know what you think of the new guy and as always I hope you enjoy. -Stratford Ukena)

               I knew immediately upon arrival that my sister and the rest of the CAU's had made it safely to the safe house in the Appalachian mountains. First me explain about the safe houses. Me and my sister had went around he months we had been on the run and had set up hidden protected safe houses all over the eastern sea board. Because of our extraordinary ability to imbue energy into objects in order to shape and fortify them we had access to almost limitless options. All of our bases were in very hard to reach or out of the way places except for a few and many of them were bigger than one might expect. 

   I had built all of these safe houses with raw  materials and made the materials stronger through a process I call fortification. It was where I imbued energy into an object to make it less susceptible to damage of any kind. It was a process that was quite easy but time consuming. There was perhaps fifty of these safe houses, the locations to each one were memorized by us so there was no written record to find. In addition to being out of the way, each of the safe houses were equipped with cloaking energy that were made to make the  entire base invisible to all people. The only people with the ability to see and dispel the energy cloak were my sister and me. 

     But to even get into the safe house you had to get past our barrier which worked a lot like my energy shield. To get through that you had to have our permission as well. Well when I say safe house I really mean safe Castle. Our safe houses were walled building with towers and turrets. all made out of steel and stone brick cut, carved, and imbued with energy. 

      There was about thirty acres of land  with five towers at each corner and one in the central area; within which were filled with rooms, a grand hall, banquet room and kitchen. All this we had created in a few weeks. Who said having our abilities was only a burden. I took us a week to do jobs it would take most people a year to finish, like building and entire invisible castle so that we could relax and recuperate in safety. But not all our bases were this size most of them were just estates or farms. But we never had to pay because no one could ever  see our bases this one was probably our largest and it sat at the foot of the Appalachian mountain completely hidden from sight. it was on a rise so that it was easily defendable, but I had always thought it seemed kind of empty so we didn't stay in it much.

      My sister Aria and the girl Karliah had come rushing out to meet me as I came in for a landing on the overgrown grass of the front lawn. immediately a cold breeze most likely from the mountains rushed to meet me as well. I shivered then grunted in pain as I felt my ribs cry out in protest. I had almost forgotten about them. Most of the CAUs had been out on the front lawn like they were to afraid to approach the main building.

      I smiled wide as Aria lept into my arms and squeezed me tight.

    "Bubba! Bubba, you're  okay,"she cried with glee. I said nothing because she had just run head long into my bruised ribs. Instead a groan of pain escaped my lips and I collapsed to one knee. Aria stepped back concern written on her voice.

     "Bubba, what's wrong?" she asked  "Are you hurt?" I smiled, her ability to care about others before her self was just amazing. 

    "Don't you worry about me," I said hugging her tightly "I'm more worried about you. What did they do to you what kind of tests did they try to run." A pained expression passed over Aria's gentle features.

      "I'm fine Bubba, really i'm fine but I don't want to talk about that place it was scary." I looked her in the eyes it was clear they had done something to her something she wasn't ready to talk about.

        "It's okay Arie you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I paused before standing up to face the girl behind Aria. Karliah was staring at the castle in complete awe like she couldn't understand what was in front of her. Her brown hair whipped around in the wind. Her clothes were in tatters and her right leg had a bloody scab on it. She was also barefoot and looked like she hadn't eaten in a week. In fact all the CAUs looked like that. 

    Now they had began to gather around most were still looking at the castle others were just looking around as if they were expecting an ambush. Which was normal considering the lives each and every one of them lived day to day. The idea of being safe was just to good to be real.

    Karliah turned to look at me with wide eyes. 

   "Since when is there a medieval castle in the Appalachian mountains," she asked with a catch in her voice. 

    "Since me and Arie decided to build one," I replied in a calm tone. "Only took us a week and a half."

     "I call bullshit," the blond haired sarcastic kid said. "There is no way you two weaklings built this." One of the other CAUs punched his arm.

      "Are you stupid or something?" The CAU asked. He was a husky kid, looked to be about fourteen years of age. "Those two are energy users, how in the hell have you not picked up on that?" The blond kid looked taken aback as he seemed to study us in a new light. 

     "Really? they are?" 

     "Yeah we are," I said and I released a tendril of green energy in his direction. I swirled around him playfully and then snaked out and touched his forearm. The kid shrieked and jumped back but he hadn't been hurt. 

     "What was that!? the kid asked. "What did you just do to me?"

    " I injected some energy back into your body so that your body can begin to heal," I replied.

As I said this the bruises on his body began to fade. and he sighed in relief.

    "That feels amazing, thank you so much. The pain was becoming unbearable." 

      "Don't mention it." he walked over to me and put out his hand.

      "Austin, nice to meet you."

      "I grabbed his hand firmly and shook it. John, John Weltch."