Book Two Chapter Six: The Escape

Nick and his friends from Ectoclis escaped Saja's prison complex in the chaos of the riot that Nick started. They are going to escape Hemlon... But first they are going to destroy it.

Chapter Six The Escape: "This is the first time that I have addressed you all publically. You are all criminals here on Artemis and you are all on the run from the government. I have the power to influence a pardon for your crimes, and I shall do so if you help me rebuild Hemlon." Said Saja.

I felt an air of unease settle over the crowd.

"And what if we don't help you despite what you offer us?" shouted a voice.

Saja looked faintly surprised, but maintained her composure.

"What if you don't? Well, we have someone here today who can answer that, Nick, come up here and tell them what happens if you are to disobey me." Saja said.

I got up and walked over to the podium, thinking that it was best to do as she said for the time being, but there is no way that I would tell the crowd to follow Saja.

"Don't listen to her! She has no power without followers! She is going to make you raid the vampire council! And they will kill all of you!" I shouted.

Nervous murmuring settled over the crowd. I ran back to my seat before Saja could punish me.

"How did you know that?" Lauren whispered.

I actually didn’t think when I said that, but Saja used her spirit, so her past is entwined with the demon's.

"He's right!" shouted a male voice.

"She has no power without us!" Shouted another, a female.

“I am offering for you all to be pardoned for your crimes! You need me!” Saja objected.

She could feel that she was losing control of the situation.

“We don’t need you! We have done just fine on our own! We’re not your slaves!” A man shouted.

Everyone began shouting their approval. They began to surge towards Saja’s podium as one big mass. Man, these people were good. They didn’t even need much inspiration from me. I then had an idea.

“Guards! Guards!” The new Saja yelled.

"We should probably run before Saja decides to kill us." I said to my friends.

"Good idea." Serena said with a nod.

We got up. Fenton then looked into my eyes. He frowned.

"Nick, you are a vampire?" He asked in shock and terror.

I nodded, his expression grew dark.

"Yes, and Saja is our friend." I said.

Carlos scoffed.

"Good one." He said.

The old Saja then ran up to us.

"No, I'm serious." I told him.

Carlos drew his gun on her.

"What is she doing with you? Are you evil now?" Carlos asked me.

I shook my head vigorously.

“What? No! No! This Saja is on our side. The other Saja… Not so much.” I said.

He then cast a glance back to the podium to find that the new Saja was standing there. The evil, violet eyed Saja. He then turned around and gave me a questioning look as if to ask ‘why are there two Sajas?’

"We need to get out of here, now!" Saja yelled.

Seeing Carlos's confused expression compelled me to explain before he shot Saja. I began.

"Saja accidentally created this other Saja, a more deadly version of herself and if we don't leave now, it'll kill us all." I said.

Carlos looked even more confused than before. As did everyone else.

"I'll explain everything else as soon as I can." I added.

Just then, the new Saja ran out from the crowd. Her violet eyes were filled with anger. I had ruined her situation her on Hemlon. Fear filled me, I didn't want to be stuck here with the new Saja.

"Run! Now!" I yelled at my friends.

“There!” Serena shouted, pointing at a door that had guards piling out.

They were the guards that Saja called. The prisoners were fighting the guards, trying to get to Saja. The guards were so busy trying to control the riot that they didn’t even notice us! We made it through the door with no problem. I noticed that the special ceiling was gone, and I wasn’t getting weak. Neither was Lauren. She got weak in the sunlight on Ectoclis during her battle with Saja for the keys. Did she somehow adapt to sunlight? Maybe the usage of the glass ceiling Saja had gave Lauren resistance to sunlight? Was it the same for me, or did I have natural resistance to sunlight, like Federov? Lauren didn’t seem to notice it, and it wasn’t the time to bring it up now.

"We need our weapons!" shouted Serena.

“Do you know where you’re going?” I asked.

Serena nodded.

“Yes! I saw where Saja put all the prisoner’s weapons when I was brought here!” She called over her shoulder.

We followed her and we came across a wall, a high one. We must have been in a whole prison complex. An arrow sailed over my head and landed next to me, missing me by a meter. The arrow had a silver tip. It embedded itself into the wall in front of us. I looked up and there were archers storming out of watchtowers, on the wall and on the ground, some were controlling the riot that raged behind us, and some were opening fire on us. More arrows flew by, missing us by mere feet.

“Kill the escapees at all cost! Do not let them escape!” Shouted a male archer to his comrades.

I had an idea. I took a few steps back, and using vampire speed, I ran straight up the wall. Well, my plan was to kick a hole in the wall, but that worked, too. I saw a lever in a guard tower three hundred meters away, thanks to my enhanced vision. I also saw that the guard tower was directly above a huge metal gate off to my right.

"Get to that gate!" I shouted to my friends, pointing to the large metal gate.

I ran over to the lever using vampire speed, but about halfway to it, I was grabbed from behind and thrown backwards. It was the new Saja. I stared at her, she now stood between me and that guard tower.

"I've waited a long time for this, Chosen One." She said.

Her voice changed, it wasn't light and arrogant anymore. She kept an even, civilized tone, as if she has known me for a long time, but has been wanted to murder me ever since she met me. The friendly (well, friendlier) Saja was by my side in an instant, she must have seen the new Saja ambush me.

"It’s the voice of the Black Reqrium." The old Saja explained.

I gave her a questioning look. She gave me a look that said 'I'll explain later.' I looked down at the base of the wall. The archers were almost upon my friends. We better wrap this up quickly. It was two against one.  The new Saja ran forth and hit the old Saja (kind of freaky, no?) on the side. The old Saja ran back to me, she was limping.

“What’s the matter, Saja? Can’t take a hit anymore?” The new Saja taunted.

The old Saja growled, any pain she felt earlier seemed to evaporate. The new Saja ran forward with incredible speed and threw a punch at me, I couldn't block in time, so it hit me and knocked me off the wall... Almost. I grabbed the ledge and just barely saved myself from a deathly plummet. Wait, if I was a vampire now, would I have died if I fell off the ledgE? I didn’t feel like testing that theory. By now the guards below had reached my friends, and I was hanging off the wall with the new Saja standing over me with a wooden stake. I then noticed movement behind her. The old Saja ran to the lever, and pulled it. She then used vampire speed to run over and knock the new Saja off of me and pull me up. We had no time to finish the new Saja off. We had to get out of here and off of Hemlon. We ran to the gate, down the stairs and to my friends. We ran through the newly opened gate, and into the city to retrieve the weapons, which is where I assumed they were, because Serena was running into the city, she seemed like she knew where she was going. The guards were right behind us, firing volleys of silver tipped arrows. We were now in the city, we blended in well enough, much to our luck.

"Where are the weapons?" I asked.

"The weapons should be in this building, it is Saja's armory." Serena answered.

I looked at the huge building.

"Alright, let’s get in, then hurry out, we'll meet back here quickly." Carlos said.

We entered the building and we split up. The building was dark. I would have to try to stay undetected. I went down a corridor, I entered a room. It had one weapon in it, as did every other room that I checked. I saw a spear in one room, a grenade like the ones Federov had in one room, I saw an old shield on another room, in one room I even saw a sniper rifle, much like the ones Saja tried to have her vampire snipers kill me with back when I raided her base on Hemlon. I took it the rifle, just in case I didn't find a weapon and we needed to make a quick escape. The rifle was sleek, just over a meter long, and it had a decent sized scope on it, the scope was around six inches long. I saw some ordinary looking bullets from beside the rifle, I pulled back the bolt and locked it into the rearward position, loaded five bullets in, which was the capacity, and thrust the bolt forward, as I had seen people do in the movies.

            Seeing how Saja had weapons from my world proved she could travel between worlds, she was dangerous. I hadn’t seen anything like this rifle on Artemis or Ectoclis. It could only have come from Earth. I shouldered the rifle, as luck would have it, I had a very steady hand now. Vampirism came with quite a few perks. I walked cautiously down the hallway with the rifle shouldered. I didn’t plan on keeping this rifle, but I took it for now. I saw another door, I opened it and I saw some flash grenade like things, like the ones that Federov designed. I had an idea. I don’t think that this place is an armory, but a research facility, the weapons here are replicas of what I have seen previously, anywhere. Federov's grenades, the sniper rifle, the spears, everything is a replica, Saja is building an army. The prisoners are her army, and these were the weapons, if we could destroy this place, Saja would be struck with a crushing blow. We’d have a chance at stopping this new Saja before she had too much power.

I met my friends back in the entryway and told them my plan.

"Alright guys, I have a theory, I don't think that this is an armory. This place has all sorts of weapons, weapons from all over the place. This place is a research facility. Saja is creating an army, and judging by the amount of those prisoners, I think that Saja has the numbers to mount an invasion on the vampire royal family. If we destroy this place, Saja will be struck with a crushing blow. We can stop her before it’s too late." I told them.

Carlos grinned. Fenton balled his hands into fists, his jaw became tight. Lauren grinned along with Carlos. Serena thrust her hand in the air.

"My friends, today is the day that we strike back against Saja. Luck be with us all." She said.

"I agree. We need to do everything we can to mess Saja up!" Serena said.

My friends from Ectoclis seemed very eager to strike a blow against Saja. I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t the only one here who had a bone to pick with Saja.

"Alright then, we need to search for something to destroy this place. Pyrotechnics will probably do the job. Look for anything explosive.” I told them.

“Wait, are you seriously planning on bowling this place up?” Serena asked.

I nodded.

“Of course I am! Why?” I asked.

“What about everyone on board Hemlon? What will become of them?” Carlos asked.

I thought about all the people Hemlon had on it. They would all die. I was faced with a similar choice a while ago. On this very cansodin.

“Don’t worry, we’ll only blow up the research facility.” I told them.

We went together to search for anything explosive, but found nothing, the place was solid metal. Even the pipes. I turned to the old Saja. I had an idea. Sven had cars, and where there are cars, there is a power source for them. I remembered seeing all of the things that Saja had from my world. Who's to say Saja didn't steal the formula for gasoline from my world to re-create it here? It was crazy, but Saja could have done it. I turned to the old Saja.

“Saja, can you fly down to Sven and get some gasoline, or some oil?" I asked.

Saja nodded.

"Yes, I stole gasoline from your home world and recreated it here, I made a fortune here in Hemlon. I know exactly where a warehouse full of it is in Sven." Saja said, her blonde hair whipped in the wind as she turned and ran a fast as a lightning bolt.

Author's Note

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Reviews

[John Mcnab]

I love the character interaction in this chapter! I love the name: Know the enemy! Very fitting, you seem to have a knack for creating good chapter names! Awesome story so far! Keep writing!