“I have a bad feeling about this.” Alita said. Her voice echoed through the street.
“Oh yeah?” I replied. “You’re just thinking that now?”
Alita and I explored a few of the shops and stocked up on some necessary supplies while Atticus stayed our watchful eye outside. I caught him staring at the ground so when I came out of the store I asked him what was up.
“Check out the tracks.” He said.
I leaned down close but didn’t know what they were.
“That’s strange.”
“They’re tire tracks.” Alita said.
“Tire tracks?” I asked. “but-“
And that’s when I heard it. Something I’ve only read about in history books. A motorized vehicle sped down the trail leading straight towards us-- and there wasn’t just one, there were six of them. Only one organization had the resources to ride gas-powered vehicles-- it was the military.
A dust cloud as high as a skyscraper kicked up into the air behind them as they raced their metal cans down towards the town. Not going to lie, I was a little freaked out. I turned to Atticus, “We need a plan and quick.”
Atticus nodded. Within minutes the trucks reached town and slammed on their brakes. A gaggle of men exited the back carrying automatic weapons and other fun toys. Also, they weren’t dressed in the normal camo green. These bad boys were sporting all black and looked like they were part of some sort of special ops team-- boy were they special all right.
The one wearing the most merit badges yelled out to the rest, “Spread out.”
The group instantly started kicking open doors looking for something… or someone… probably us. As they got a few doors down, Alita ran out one of the buildings and sprinted across the street next door. A few of the super soldiers spotted her and quickly chased after, letting out a few unsuccessful shots.
Well, they’re defiantly after us, I thought to myself.
Inside Alita’s building, more gunshots went off followed by a short pause until Alita ran out the front door again and disappeared around the corner of the street. I smiled. She was getting better. Half the group that followed her into the building came back out exploding through the door and continued the foot chase.
While Alita was wasting time, yours truly had managed to crawl in the dirt under the vehicles and plant some claymores I’d found from inside the vehicles. I planted them under all vehicles except one and slide back out into my hiding place with a fist full of remote detonators.
Alita, who had lost momentum, lead the military goons around another corner, stopped and turned around. The military goons raised their guns and yelled, “Hands in the air. Get down on the ground, NOW!”
Alita didn’t budge.
“HANDS IN THE AIR. NOW!” they yelled as they slowly advanced. Then, suddenly a gunshot rang out and one of the goons dropped to the floor. Then another and another. The three remaining scanned the area while swinging their guns frantically around while Alita just stood there.
“Gunner, up on the roof.“
Atticus, who was up on the roof, sprinted away as the military goons shot off a few rounds. This allowed Alita enough time to pick off the remaining three with a pistol Atticus let her borrow.
Back on my side of the world, Commander Merit Badge made some pretty ugly faces as he found out his team was slowly decreasing in numbers. He ordered a fellow officer to go back to the trucks and radio in for extra support. That’s when I had my fun. I let him open the door before I pushed the first button and blew the truck up. I’d never seen a heap of metal fly so high into the air. The dust cloud quickly shrouded Commander Merit Badge and myself.
“What the FUCK-“ was all he could get out before I let the next four blow. The TNT rumbled the ground like an earthquake. This time I used the cloud of dust to take down the remaining men and as the dust cleared, Commander Merit Badge realized he was the only one left standing.
I walked up to him as he took out his pistol and pointed it at my head. His arm shook so much I thought he’d faint and piss himself before he could pull the trigger back. Commander Merit Badge looked down on the ground and saw Atticus’s shadow from up on the roof. His eyes shifted to the left as he heard Alita taking her time walking up behind him. When his eyes landed back on me, I was already in mid-swing of knocking him over the head.
Chapter Nineteen: Marco, Polo
When he awoke inside one of his trucks, Commander Merit Badge started moving his tongue around his mouth like he was searching for a piece of stuck food.
“Don’t bother,” I told him, “you spit out the cyanide kill-pill when I knocked you out.”
Commander Merit Badge didn’t look too happy. The truck hit a bump and Commander Merit Badge bounced on his seat.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked.
“A place where you’ll tell us all your secrets.”
“We’re almost there.” Alita added. “Should I put the bag over his face now?”
“Yeah, why not. I’m tired of looking at his ugly face.”
After Alita put a cloth bag over his face, the truck slammed on its brakes.
Atticus came around the back of the truck and opened the doors. As I crawled out of the truck I muttered, “Smooth driving.”
He threw me a look and helped Alita get Commander Merit Badge out of the truck.
“Where am I?” he asked as he stepped out of the truck. All he could see was the pitch black of the bag. In actuality, we hadn’t gone anywhere. I had Atticus do a few circles in town and then park the truck.
“That should be your last worry.” I told him.
We walked him down the street and I decided to have a little fun by intentionally running his face into a few walls.
“Careful!” I yelled. “We don’t want to damage him quite yet.”
Alita had to hold her mouth from laughing. Atticus and I couldn’t stop from grinning the whole time-- this was too easy. We walked Merit Badge up and down the street a few times, saying things like, “Duck under the branch” and “Watch out for this part of the river.” Then when we got bored we sat him down in a chair outside on the main street.
“Ok, I’ll go get the doctor.” I told Alita as I walked down the street, my footsteps echoed as if we were in some sort of empty warehouse.
I slammed one of the doors to the empty building, waited a few seconds and then opened it again for Atticus. We loudly walked up to Merit Badge making sure he recognized our presence.
“Ah, doctor,” Alita said, “so good to see you. Here are your tools.” She reached out and handed Atticus a lighter, knife and some ice water from a canteen. “We’ll leave you to it.” I told Atticus as Alita and I made stepping noises as if we’d walked away.
Merit Badge took a hard swallow.
“Where’s Eden hiding?” Atticus asked.
“I don’t know.”
Atticus started with the lighter and clicked it on. We waved the flame close to Merit Badges arm.
“What is that?!?!”
“Sorry, Atticus said. I had to move the cast iron cattle prod back into the fire. It was beginning to cool down.”
“Listen,” Merit Badge began to beg, “I’ll make you as rich as a king if you let me go.”
“All I want to know is where your leader is hiding.” Atticus replied.
“But… I… I don’t know.”
Atticus threw the ice-cold water on Merit Badge’s arm. Merit Badge screamed.
“What was that?!?!”
“I have to sanitize the skin before I can begin. I wouldn’t want you dying of infection on me.”
“Please, please don’t do this! He’s at Garden Grave, that’s all I know.”
"We already know he’s in Garden Grave. We need to know where inside he is.”
“I don’t know!”
Atticus slide the knife down Merit Badges arm and made a small prick.
“AH! Ok, OK! FUCK!”
Merit B
adge paused to think a second.
“He’s somewhere next to the waterfall. I’ve never gone inside with him but I’ve seen him disappear somewhere over there on more than one occasion. I swear that’s all I know!”
Atticus and I looked at each other. I nodded.
“Fine. Here’s the plan then. We’re leaving, but there are five men with guns pointed at you who are staying. Sit here and wait for five minutes. Someone will come up to you and take off your blindfold. When that happens they will escort you back to where ever you please. But make sure to not take off the blindfold yourself, otherwise you will be shot and killed by the five gunmen. Understand?”
“You’re gonna have me killed, aren’t you.”
“No ones going to harm you. You have my word.”
“Doesn’t matter. Once Eden gets his hands on me, I’m dead anyways.”
“Just wait here. You will be safe.”
We piled in the truck and as we drove off Merit Badge was still sitting there in the middle of the street like a good little boy. I can only imagine the look on his face when he takes the blindfold off himself.
We left the lighter, knife and water there so he could connect the dots. Even if he ran to Garden Grave to warn Eden, it’d take him three days-- more than enough time to get in, kill the bastard and get out.
***
That night we parked the truck a few hundred feet away and planted the remaining claymores around it as we begun our hike over.
The place crawled with military men in black special ops outfits straddling automatic weapons. To get past the first wave of men, we blew up the truck as a diversion and snuck our way inside the gated area.
Once inside, I was amazed at how similar it looked to how Dad described it. A small valley nestled up to a cove with a waterfall. So many flowers were in bloom my sinuses went crazy. Atticus kept checking behind us to make sure we weren’t being followed. Under the cover of moonlight we ran past moss-covered ruins and dodged in and out of the vine covered trees. I felt water drops on my legs as I kicked up countless amounts of flowers of every color shape and size. If the place wasn’t so creepy, it’d actually be kinda cool.
Once we reached the waterfall we decided to split up. None of the guards patrolled around this area; probably to hide the illusion that something valuable was here.
Alita climbed up to the top of the waterfall while Atticus searched behind it and I stuck my head into the water. The water was clear and warm. Hundreds of fish swam in schools all around me and as I looked up, I could see the full moon, which gleamed even in the deepest parts of the pond. I surfaced for air and that’s when I heard Atticus call out, “Hey, I found something.”
I quickly dried off and regrouped behind the waterfall. At our feet was an old stone well with no water inside.
I took out a Second Sun canister, lit it and chucked it down. As the canister fell, I saw a small spiral staircase descend on the inside of the well.
“I think we’ve found the front door.” I said. “How about we see if anyone is home.”
Atticus and Alita smiled.
We climbed down the stairs as the air grew substantially colder. We reached the bottom of the well and sunk into about three inches of two hundred year old well water-- super awesome, now my shoes were wet. Down the hall of the passage, flames lit up the stone entrance. The air smelled stale and dusty with a hint of body odor. Above us I could see skeleton bones protruding out of the ceiling-- guess I knew where the body odor was coming from.
At the end of the passageway we were greeted by a twenty-foot by twenty-foot solid gold door. The door was already forced half open so we let ourselves in.
It was like stepping into the Hearst Castle only twice as fancy-- if you could believe it. All the priceless artifacts from way back during the war were stored here in hopes to be one day reclaimed by the military. Not only did the military forget about these treasures, they also wanted nothing to do with Garden Grave. Leave it to Eden to find such a wonderful surprise.
I didn’t know it at the time, but we had just walked into the first underground castle ever built. Fifty-foot high ceilings with treasures so lavish just touching them gave me goose bumps. I grinned over to Atticus.
“Remind me to come back here after we kill Eden.”
“I’m going to have to remind you?” Atticus asked.
“Good point.” I said. “Ok Alita, you’re up. Slap on those goggles and let’s get this done and over with.”
Alita slipped them on but didn’t say anything. She started pressing small buttons on the side of the goggles until she ripped them off her head in frustration.
“I can’t get any readings in here. It’s just all static.” I guess the goggles weren’t meant to be used way underground. No problem. I had other ideas.
“We’ll just have to do it the old fashion way I guess.”
We heard footsteps approach so we made our way into a bedroom and smothered all the candles. As the footsteps grew closer, they slowed to a stop near our door. A flashlight clicked on and I heard the sound of a gun cock back-- someone wanted to play. I hid high up on the cross beams near the ceiling while Alita hid behind a giant statue next to the door and Atticus under a large wooden dining table with silk tablecloth. The barrel of Atticus’s gun protruded out of the cloth, silencer and all.
As he fired, I jumped down on top of the sucker and used him as a cushion for my landing-- breaking his neck just in case he wasn’t dead. I grabbed him by the feet and pulled him even more into the room before the next patrol guard walked by. The second guard stopped and took a step inside the doorway. Alita was an arms distance away and stuck a knife in the guys’ head. He fell straight to the ground without a sound.
I didn’t want to keep this up the whole night. We needed to get moving and cover some extra ground so I peeked down the hall and saw four more patrolling guards along with security cameras. The place was locked down harder than the white house. I needed some sort of a distraction.
“Hey guys, come look at this.” I said.
Atticus and Alita creped up next to me.
“What do you guys see around the corner there?”
Alita and Atticus peered out the doorway and I gave them a solid push out into the hall and slammed the door shut. The guards heard the door, spotted the two standing there and started running down the hall after them. Alita panicked as sirens and lights went off. She tried to open the door but I had locked it. Atticus didn’t waste any time as he grabbed her hand and started running. He was use to this by now-- I think.
Once the coast was clear I exited the room and walked down the hall with my hands in my pockets as calm as ever. The lights were still flashing but the siren had stopped. I knew exactly where Eden was hiding-- I just had to track down the most self-absorbed room I could possibly find and I was sure Eden would be there picking his nose.
Atticus got pinned into a corner as guards blocked both hallways and slowly started to advance towards them. Alita kicked open the door of one of the many bedrooms in the castle and pulled Atticus inside as he tried to pick off a few of his adversaries with a pistol. He had his worked cut out for himself since these cronies were military grade assholes and didn’t seem to be going down so easily.
Alita locked the door as Atticus reinforced it with a heavy oak bookshelf just as the military men started muscling up the door. Together, the goons rammed the door trying their best to bust through. Since the door was made for décor more than strength, chances were it wasn’t going to last long before the solid gold hinges broke off.
Alita flipped over a writing desk, spilling ink and paper onto a five hundred year old rug as Atticus combed around for an alternate escape route. The castle was buried under one hundred feet of dirt so windows were definitely not an option. That’s when the banging on the door stopped. Atticus stood across the room and heard the faint sound of something sizzling coming from the other side of the door
. He had heard that sound before but didn’t know where from. That’s when a cannonball the size of a watermelon blasted through the door shattering it like glass. Atticus jumped behind Alita’s desk as shards of wood from the bookshelf flung towards him. The cannon ball smashed against a stonewall and fell the ground. These guys were not playing around.
Outside the smiling military goons pushed the still smoking cannon back into the corner of the hall. One of the men reached through the hole and tried to unlock the door but before he could, he fell to the ground with a belly full of lead from Atticus. The squad unleashed their automatic weapons on the door, turning it into a million toothpicks. Priceless paintings, furniture and the like received craters full of hot lead.
One after one, the squad charged inside the room, only to be swiftly dropped to their knees by a well-placed bullet from Atticus or Alita. Only one problem-- they were quickly running out of ammo as the endless horde of men advanced onward. The room soon filled with a cloud of gunpowder and pile of dead bodies as Atticus continued to hack away at the group until his gun ran dry. Didn’t take long for the thirty men still remaining to push their way inside and surround the two.
“I’m going to kill Essa.” Alita mumbled to Atticus as they were held at gunpoint and forced to lay on the ground.
***
I wandered around the castle trying to sniff out my rat of a brother when classical music began to play throughout the castle. I followed the eerie music down the hall to the source and realized I was in the music room. Enormous posh paintings hung on the wall next to elaborately decadent décor. A grand piano with silver keys and a gold seat sat in the corner collecting dust-- what a waste. The room was dim except a shaft of light which protruded out of a double doorway. Standing in the light was a man in a butler’s uniform with his head bowed and arm extended towards the room next door. As I approached I noticed he wasn’t just any sort of butler. He wore a bulletproof vest under his outfit and the outfit itself had an unnecessary amount of tears and zippers, most of which had no purpose other than decoration. His hair was well groomed and his jade eyes were that of a cold-blooded killer.