Excalibur Arisen

Chapter 4

I met with Neutral each day at 2:30 PM for an hour. My mother suspected nothing unusual of the sort, only that I was taking a normal college course and paying for the class myself (which would be a miracle in and of itself). We repeated the process for three months, though Neutral had claimed the terrorists would be here in two.

"Hey Neutral," I began after the end of one of my sessions in the third month, "what do the terrorists plan to do if they take over the world, like they claim?"

"Simple: they plan to run a tyranny, with their leader as the tyrant." He paused. "Europeans- darn them. They came from a small group in England and quickly overpowered the English government. They gained more and more troops from English citizens and grew to a sizable army. From there they conquered Germany next, then Spain, France- all of Europe. Their numbers come from volunteers all over the world. The U.S. is their next target. If they claim the United States, the rest of North America they'll be coming after, followed by Asia and Australia, until they have the entire world under the palm of their hand. And that's not all," he continued, "they lie to their people to gain support. They use dirty tricks, Remin- anything to get them to the top." Neutral paused again to catch his breath. The past three months had considerably aged him. His hair grayed and his skin wrinkled slightly. He also walked around in a hunched position sometimes, explaining that he was getting older and that it was getting harder for him to walk, though he was only in his late forties.

"Now," he started suddenly, "before we go, let's review everything I've taught you. Show me your vertical and horizontal slices. Excellent! Now diagonal. Very good. Now let's transition into the listening section." Neutral led Remin into an empty space by the forest and then left. Remin prepared himself for the dummy ambush. He'd been through this multiple times now and got better and better at it each time. Silently he listened for sounds, any sound, that would alert him to the presence of someone/something. Then he'd heard it behind him, and momentarily Remin drew out Excalibur from its sheath, turned around gracefully, and nailed the dummy dead center in the chest. But Remin knew better than to assume that was the only one. He heard another rustling from the left, turned in that direction, and Excalibur plunged all the way through the dummy. A faint noise above him resulted in another successfully ruined dummy. He kept at this until there were no more dummies.

"Excellent, Remin!" Neutral smiled at him. Remin beamed back at him, a smile that felt genuine and friendly. Remin was proud of what he'd accomplished.

"You've got a real great smile, kid," Neutral complimented, laughing. "I've got faith that you can do this. You're dismissed. Take care of yourself." We shook hands like we did every time. I left to return to the house. Mom greeted me at the door.

"How was your course, Remin?" She inquired.

"Good, good," I returned. "What's for supper?"
"Actually, I'm going out to eat tonight...with your college professor." I almost choked, but held it back and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Mom wondered.

"Nothing, nothing," I said, still smiling, "just don't go overboard. I'll be in my room studying. I can make myself something." Quickly I walked up the stairs. I knew I wasn't going to eat anything. I wasn't hungry; I was excited for tomorrow.