Book Two Chapter Seven: When There's A Will...

Nick and his friends are going to blow up Hemlon, but first they need to evacuate all of the civilians!

Chapter Seven When There’s A Will…: My theory was correct. I was getting good at getting into Saja’s head. Just then, I heard voices.

"We haven't searched in here, sir." Said a male's voice, he sounded pretty young, maybe sixteen.

"Go that way. Don’t let anyone escape from this building. Understand?" Said the other male.

This guy sounded like he was around fifty.

"Yes sir." Said the younger one.

There was someone coming, it was one of the males.

"Hide." I told my friends.

I hide behind a nearby barrel. If I shot the young man, the other guards would hear, then we would be in trouble. It was dark, thank goodness.

"I'll get the lights." Said the older one.

"Thank you sir." replied the younger man.

The lights flicked on and I saw the man. It was not a man at all, it was a young boy. He was almost fifteen, two or three years younger than me, he was human, I smelled his blood.

When the lights flickered on, the teen saw Serena as she scrambled to hide somewhere.

"Sir! There is someone in here!" The man gasped.

I jumped over the barrel, rushed forward and smacked his head with the butt of the rifle, knocking him out. His commanding officer came in, ready to fire his bow. I lifted the marksman rifle and shouldered it.

"I will give you three seconds to surrender, or I will shoot!" I called.

He didn't seem very keen on that idea. I wasn't, either, but he didn't call my bluff.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Two seconds." I warned, ignoring his question.

I heard a thwip! He shot the arrow. I pulled the trigger without thinking, it was a reflex, a survival instinct. The resulting gunshot sounded like a compacted explosion that ripped its way out of the rifle's barrel. The end of the barrel ignited briefly. I had shot the older man straight through the heart. The rifle had a hard recoil, but I barely felt it because burning agony filled my shoulder as the arrow ripped through it. I yelled out. More guards rushed in. They had heard the shot go off.

"There they are!" One of the guards yelled.

They were closing in.

“Bring the intruders to Saja!” One of the guard shouted.

“We must crush any spark of hope the prisoners have!” Shouted another.

Before they reached me, they were bowled out of the way by the old Saja, she flew in holding several jerry cans, using her vampire strength to help her. My guess is that they were all full of gasoline. Her black wings that I had seen on Ectoclis were sprouting out of her shoulder blades.

"I have the gasoline." Saja said triumphantly.

She handed me a few jerry cans. She did the same to the others. I lifted my cans with no problem, thanks to my improved strength. I took the cans and poured them all over the place; inside rooms, in the hallways, I even got some on the ceiling. When I thought I covered the most of the complex, I browsed the rooms one last time, just to do a quick run through before we blew the place sky high, well, it already was sky high, but you get the idea.

It turns out that checking the rooms one last time was a good idea, because I found one I missed. Inside I found a familiar sword. It was a silver blade with two blue stones on each end of the cross guard. Written across the blade were the letters 'SANGIRIA'. This sword was the exact same one that I found so long ago In Tigiti's tomb. I picked it up and felt its familiar weight, which was surprisingly not much. I rushed outside to find that my friends all had their weapons back; Lauren didn’t have or need one, Serena had her bow and a quiver of arrows, Fenton had a dagger and Carlos had his gun. My adrenaline was spiked in anticipation for the event to come. The others were already outside, finished pouring their share of the gas.

"Alright, now let's light this candle." I said.

I turned around, took aim with the rifle, and shot the gasoline. Pulling the trigger resulted in a resounding Crack! That echoed off of every surface for kilometers. A fire started spreading where I had poured the gasoline.

I then disposed of the rifle. I took Sangiria in my hand, and looked up at the fire. Explosions went off every once in a while within the research facility. Then I noticed something, there was a pipe coming up from the underground and it ran up the side of the complex, it came from under Hemlon. Where the core was. Uh oh. If the fire reached that core, the explosion would destroy Hemlon! A second later, a powerful explosion ripped its way through the research facility. The explosion knocked a lot of pipework lose, and judging by the explosions from the complex, the pipes probably carried propane, a common, easy to find, yet very explosive fuel source. Saja really could move between worlds. If those pipes really did carry propane, then we better get off this thing, and fast. Just then a huge explosion rocked Hemlon. The cansodin shook.  I heard screams of terror in the distance, a reminder of how many people were about to die.

"Follow me!" I heard Saja call from a few meters away.

“No! We need to go back and help the innocent people off Hemlon!” Lauren cried.

“You know we can’t do that! We’ll all die along with them if we stay here much longer!” Saja said harshly.

“But all of the people! They’ll die!” Serena objected.

“We can’t save them! My other self needs to die, if she doesn’t she will throw the world into chaos! If the price of stopping her is a large volume of human lives, then I’m willing to pay it!” Saja snapped.

“Please Saja! Isn’t there a way off of Hemlon? There has to be a way to save these people!” Fenton pleaded.

Saja fell silent for a moment.

“Well, yes. There is a way to save these people, but we’re short on time and there’s no guarantee that it’ll work!” Saja said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I had an airship hangar constructed when I was in command. It’s just past the prison complex, in behind it. If we hurry, there is a slight possibility that we can save everyone.” Saja said.

“That’s great! What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Lauren said with a grin.

“Okay. Fenton, Serena, Carlos and Lauren, you go and get the people onto those airships. Fly them down to the ground, get away from Hemlon though. When this thing goes up in flames, wreckage will rain down and crush everyone if you land too close.” Saja said.

“What will you and Nick do?” Carlos asked.

“My other self will most likely be trying to stop you all from evacuating the people. Nick and I will hold her off long enough to allow you to get everyone to safety.” Saja explained.

“Um, there’s one small problem.” Serena said.

“What is it?” Saja asked.

“Well… Um… None of us exactly know how to fly an airship.” Serena said nervously.

“No need to worry. Among all of those prisoners, a few will know a little something about flying an airship. They all grew up here on Artemis after all.” Saja said.

“Thank you, Saja. You really have changed for the better.” Serena said.

Saja gave a nervous smile, as if it bothered her to hear her say that.

“Come on! We need to go right now!” Lauren said.

“Good luck to you all. Be safe.” Carlos said.

The others went back to the prison complex to gather the prisoners, Saja led me to the very edge of the cansodin. Good thing the prison complex was close to the edge. The new Saja had just started to rebuild Hemlon, the explosion that had killed my friends in the past must have only damaged the lower part of Hemlon, now the explosion was going to be huge, because the core of Hemlon was going to be Artemis's first atomic bomb. The whole place was going to blow!

Just then, Saja tapped me on the shoulder.

“There!” She said, pointing to the new Saja.

The new Saja was running after my friends. She was trying to stop them from getting to the prison complex! Good thing there was already some distance between her and them. Another explosion came, this one rocked Hemlon, as if an earthquake had shaken the great cansodin. The new Saja turned around to look at Saja and I. Even from here, I could see the desire for vengeance burning in her eyes.

The new Saja glared at us. Just then, she started throwing fireballs at us with frightening velocity!

“Watch out, Nick!” Saja called.

Fear cut through my other senses, taking over. There was easily two hundred feet between the old Saja, me and the new Saja. The fireballs crossed that gap in a second and a half. We had to dodge and weave just to stay alive! I saw an oncoming fireball. I was going to dodge it, but an explosion rocked the cansodin and knocked me off my feet! I was about to be fried.

Mere milliseconds before I was indeed fried, the old Saja ran to my aid, and without stopping, dragged me to cover. I was so relieved, I was starting to feel a little light headed.

"Wow, thanks Saja." I said, scratching the back of my head.

The words that I just said seemed very odd, they seemed out of my character, I then knew why: I had never said them before. I peeked out from behind the building that Saja had dragged me behind.

Another huge explosion rocked Hemlon, residents of the great cansodin scurried to find cover, buildings fell all over the place, it was like an earthquake had struck. Another explosion, and this one knocked everyone in sight off of their feet, including the new Saja. A building nearby was falling... with the new Saja underneath it. As soon as the shadow of the sky scraper fell on her, Saja turned around and used fireballs as ammunition to incinerate a whole large enough for her to fit in in the sky scraper. The new Saja just incinerated a hole in a thirty story sky scraper within seconds. Another explosion, by far the biggest yet, shook Hemlon, and caused the portion of land that Saja and I were standing on to collapse.

The wind rushing my face was exhilarating. The old Saja caught me mid fall, we were safe. Or so I thought. Huge chunks of Hemlon were coming down, which meant the whole thing was being destroyed, not just the research facility, as we had seen above. The new Saja would have no base of operations. A massive metal girder came down right beside us, along with a huge piece of rock. I looked up to see it, this one had a few turrets embedded in its side! They must have been part of a security feature in Hemlon. Fear seized control of my thoughts.

"Saja! Look out!" I yelled.

I saw the turrets move, and a hail of bullets came towards us. Saja glided through the air, dodging the tempest of bullets that were raining down on us. She glided under a massive metal beam, which she swiftly avoided. We heard a massive explosion, this time it was enough to force us to the ground twice as fast, certain death waited for anyone above. (Well, except for probably Saja, the others and the prisoners that the others were trying to save.) We spun out of control, then we heard a snapping sound, and Saja screamed. I looked at her wing, where the sound had come from. Her wing had been broken from the force of air on it. What were we going to do now?

Author's Note

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Reviews

[John Mcnab]

Oh my. This chapter was so suspenseful and so action packed and so awesome that I think I will read it again some day! I love the newest character: Chibata! He sounds like a seasoned, hardy old man who knows how to handle himself! I cannot wait for book three, I will read it asap!

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you! I am glad you like my writing!