Author's Note:
Thank you all so much for reading my novel. It means a lot to me! Make sure to come back every Tuesday and Friday for the new releases! If you want to support me more, you can always rate and review on whichever platform you're reading this. It really helps me out a lot. If you see some things that would make the story better or more comprehensive, make sure to leave it in the comments or the review section. Thank you again. Enjoy!!
End of Author's Note.
Episode 10: The Final Stand of JK
Everyone in the room couldn't stop staring at the screen in front of them. So much information was just given and there had been so little time to take it all in. It felt as if concrete filled their bodies until they were all frozen. Little Paisley was the first one to make a move, "Alright!! You heard the man, let's go!! Pack it up people and let's go to the safe place the doctor was telling us about." All three of the other heads in the room swiveled from the screen and towards Paisley with raised eyebrows. The speed that their heads twitched at was mere milliseconds and slightly startled Paisley. She flinched as if she didn't expect it and ran down the hallway to her bedroom. If it was any other situation, that would have been hilarious and everyone knew it. It was obvious to them that Paisley was just trying to take control of the situation. She wanted to be sure that Liam would be taken care of.
Travis broke even more of the tension, "Paisley is right. We need to get a move on. Brittany, we should get things packed as if we won't be coming back , because I don't think we will be. Liam, we know you don't have much over here, but pack what you do have and you can put it in Paisley's bag. We need to be out in about half an hour or less. Once we get where we're going, we can get you some more things. Go ahead and help Paisley alright?" Liam snapped out of it and said, "Yes sir, I will. I think I'm just a little tired, but I'll be okay." He headed down the hallway to an open pink door with flower stickers all over it.
Everyone spent about twenty minutes getting packed up with the things they needed. Some of the things were for entertainment on the car ride. "What is this thing?" Liam asked as Paisley was packing. "Oh! That is the Territ 3 X game system. My dad just got it for me last month so I can play some games on it in the car and stuff. Would you want to play it with me?" she asked kindly. Liam did want to play, but the fact that he was still devastated by the loss of his parents made it pretty hard to even want to be happy, much less play a game. He didn't really understand how he could put this feeling into words. "I'm not sure right now, but maybe I will at some point." Liam stated, attempting to hide the sadness in his voice. He knew all she was trying to do was cheer him up, but all he could think about was how much more fun it would be if his dad was here to play it with him.
After they got the car all packed up Brittany and Travis stepped to the side to talk in private. Travis started, "I think we got everything. Now it's time to close the laptop and go, but I don't want to have the kids in there. Would you stay out here with them and I'll go in to deal with it?" Brittany looked at the kids in the car trying to get buckled up. She smiled painfully, and a feeling of uselessness filled her up, making tears pool in her eyes. "I'm sorry." she said while wiping her eyes. "I know we need to be strong, but I've never felt like I could do absolutely nothing to help someone before. All I want is to be there for him." Travis understood the feeling well, because that's exactly how he felt. "I know what you mean. This is too much for any of us. The thing is, what we're doing right now by getting out of here, that's us being there for him. We are moving him to safety. We will be there by his side every step of the way. I love you Brit. Now, please, go sit with them so I can handle this and we can go. Everything will work out. It's just hard to see that right now." She knew he was right. Their world just felt so empty. It seemed so hard to take a step forward.
As Brittany got herself together and went to sit in the car, Travis went inside to handle things. For some reason, as he crossed the threshold, memories of his family started jumping to the forefront of his mind. He was walking at normal speed towards the laptop, but it felt like he had five flashes of memories per step taken. His wife, smiling and laughing in every room of the house. His daughter, growing up from a newborn and getting her own room. Him chasing both of them around the house and making them giggle. All of the tea parties that took place literally everywhere were making him emotional. It could have been the fact that he was now alone with no one to see him that he needed to appear strong for. His body felt like it needed a release. As soon as he got into the living room, Travis Sanely broke. Tears flowed. His emotions unchained themselves. Sadness erupted and cries were let out. He needed this. He felt like he bottled up his emotions, even from back when he and Barry had that conversation about possibly adopting Liam. He cried for a few minutes, but knew he couldn't be long. He started cleaning himself up so it would appear like this never happened.
There was something that got his attention though and made him compose himself a little faster. The laptop had a flashing message on it. It said, " Read this carefully! After closing this laptop, the other one that Barry had will explode. The goal is to do as much damage as it is able to. That's not all. Exactly one hour after you close this laptop, just like the other, this one will explode. This is to make it seem as if you guys are no longer alive. This should give you all more time. Once you get to the safe house, you will be greeted by people who are waiting for you. Just tell them who you are and who Liam is. I have hand picked people that I can trust. I know they are of the same mindset as me when it comes to the king and his cruelty. Make sure you don't use anything that can be traced back to you guys. Look out for one another. You all will be safe. Live long!" After reading the message, Travis took a quick picture of it and planned to show it to Brittany after they left. He placed his hand on the back of the screen and closed the laptop. He thought, "Sixty minutes from now, the house that I built with my own hands, that my daughter and wife called home, will no longer exist." With that, he walked out of the door, locked it for the final time, and made his way toward the family vehicle.
As he entered, Brittany could see that something was wrong with Travis. She whispered, "Babe, what's going on? You look like something else just happened." As she finished those words, Travis pulled out his phone and on the screen was the picture of the message. He handed it to her so she could read it clearly. He could see her eyes going from line to line. A moment later and she was tearing up yet again. The look in her eyes said that she was utterly defeated. If she could have waived a white flag right now, she definitely would have. If nothing else, they thought that after all of this was over, they could have come back to this place. It was clear now that it was impossible. She handed the phone back while staying silent. She shook her head indicating that she understood, but it was obvious to Travis that she felt what he was feeling. He put the car in drive and headed off towards the address that the coordinates led them to.
As they drove, Paisley talked to Liam and played her game. She never forced it on him, but at some point Liam became interested in what she was doing. He was glad because it distracted him a little. Eventually, Liam got to take a turn and the kids were just playing together and having a good time. The longer they drove, Travis and Brittany became more focused on their surroundings. They realized they never got out much, other than to hang out with the Gray family. The landscape they were passing was gorgeous.
Hundreds of miles away, there was a big burly man walking into a smaller tower of a huge castle. This castle had an insignia placed at the top of every tower and there were quite a few. It was the symbol of a red dragon. This was the king's castle and it was on a massive island-like state called Yewmair. This city was called Red City, which was named after the Red Dragon Guild. The man walked up a few flights of long winding stairs that ran up the walls in a spiral formation. After going up to the fourth floor, he walked up to a panel that allowed for communications with security for the upper floors.
Picking up a small silver device that laid on the control panel, he clicked the button on the side and held it. "Get me a teleporter to the ninety seventh floor. And don't make the mistake of making me wait. None of you will like what happens next." In an instant, a portal opened up in the room that glowed ominously with a dark blue and black mixture of spiraling colors. The big man walked through the portal without missing a beat. In the fraction of a second, he traveled ninety three floors and ended up in a research lab.
The laboratory's layout was pretty practical to say the least. Everything was in the center of the room contained inside of a large glass cylinder that made a separate room. The rest of the floor was an area for walking with doors placed along the wall. The cylindrical glass room was a staple to the labs of the king, but it also added a bit of pizzazz to the rest of the room. He didn't take long to look around, the man maneuvered his way around the open floor to a door that led to an office. Without knocking, the man went in and spotted who he was looking for right away. "Hey Cluts, I have something for you." A person that was sitting down in his office chair spun around and clearly looked offended. "Didnt your parents teach you any manners? You freaking animal!! My name is Crutz… doctor Crutz you idiot! How many times do I have to tell you?! Every time I see you, I end up pissed off from your stupidity. You're lucky you're strong or the king would have thrown you to the wolves a long time ago!" Doctor Crutz placed his index finger and thumb on both sides of his nose and sighed. "Just… show me what you have and get out of my face, please." Annoyance was clear in every word.
Bondo responded, "Shut up! I don't have time to deal with your feelings. Just get a move on and check this out. It's a direct order from the king." As he said this, Bondo placed a grey laptop on the doctor's desk. Crutz asked, "Oh! Where did you get this? You've been doing some less than honorable things again, haven't you?" Bondo snapped back, "I don't have to explain myself to you. You're so pathetic, hiding out here in your little lab your whole life." Crutz snickered and said, "Just because I have the brains you're lacking doesn't mean you should get upset about it. I'm sure the king does well feeding you along with his other sheep. You won't have to worry about anything as long as you flex your big biceps anytime the king needs a killing."
Bondo jumped across the room in the blink of an eye. He grabbed Crutz by the throat and lifted him up. Bondo shaped his hand like a gun and placed it up against the doctor's head. He said with a threatening tone, "If you only knew where I just came from and what went down, you definitely wouldn't be speaking to me like that. You remember your old pal Kryo right? I'm sure you do. You were always chasing after him like a good little dog. Come to think of it, you guys made that crazy serum right? Oh wait I forgot, you were never special enough to jump on that project. I hope you said all you needed to say to the good doctor before now. Because, yeah, he's a goner! Ha ha! Oh yeah he's six feet under! His blood was everywhere and I did it! Ha ha! It was like I painted the walls! Ha ha ha!" Bondo could see a glimpse of fear in Crutz's eyes and smiled. "You wanted to know so don't get upset. Not like I really care. I hunted him down like a mutt. He's been dead for about a week or so. He stole the serum from the king and gave it to someone else. I eventually found a connection that led me to a family with a kid that didn't look normal, so I killed them. The kid somehow got away from me, the little bastard. But then I found the laptop and knew I was in the right place." After knowing he ruined Crutz's day, he threw him onto the floor and turned to sit on a soft couch placed along the wall opposite of the doctor's desk.
Crutz just laid there on the floor in shock. He didn't want to believe his ears, but knew it was true. Eventually, he sat upright and lifted himself up off the floor. "He really took the serum? Nobody knew who it was. I even tried looking into it all. So how did you find out it was him?" Bondo raised an eyebrow, "That's crazy. Your whole tone changed huh? If you must know, there was a cute little nurse that came forward about some information she had. It was something she saw years ago that just wasn't normal. When she started talking we thought she was as crazy as a hatter, but then she said she thought she saw a baby that contained a god. We were pretty sure she was a damned lunatic. She kept begging and eventually it got just annoying enough that we put her in front of the king. We were kinda hoping he'd tell us to just get rid of her, but he took her seriously. That led us to finding clues here and there about Kryo's activities. Now that woman lives in the castle and gets treated like royalty. I guess snitches really don't get stitches huh? Ha ha!"
"I just want to ask, what was the name? I mean the name of the girl." Crutz asked. He was saddened that Kryo was dead, but felt like he might have had a good reason to swap sides. This made him wonder why someone ratted him out. He turned to look at the laptop and went to open it. Bondo thought for a second, "Yeah, I think her name was Macy. No that's not it. Darcy? No that's not it either. Hmm. Oh, it was Stacy!"
Down below on the bustling streets of Red City, markets were moving, people were thriving and laughter was heard all around. Inside one of the restaurants, someone noticed the champagne in their glass was rippling with energy. In the moments after, the whole area of town shook that was near the northeast tower. A man and his girlfriend looked up in terrified curiosity and noticed the tower was doing something kind of weird. It seemed like the top of the tower was almost being sucked into itself.
Boom!
The entire top half of the tower was instantly missing and the material used to create the tower exploded out in all directions. Some of it hit other buildings, some of it hit nothing but the ground, but some of it hit and instantly killed several people. On top of that, everyone that was in the areas of the tower that was affected, were all dead. They were vaporized in an instant. It was as if they were here one second, and then they weren't the next.
End of Episode 10: The Final Stand of JK
Author's Name
ClodiasManga