Here I Come | ✔

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen - Withered Ghost

Saturday, 14th November 2020

KRYSTALLIA

"We'll trust you for now, but when everything's over, you're out of our lives," Landon said, directing everything at James. He nodded, "I understand."

Landon then took a look at the bodies. They were trying to get up but were too weak.

"Cuff them up," he ordered and Mark, Sam, and Joseph went to work.

"Could I..." James pointed at them and Landon nodded, "Go for it."

James went over to one of the guys and unhooked his vest. He inspected the piece of armor before throwing it back down.

"Could I borrow one of your phones?" he asked and I questioned back, "What's wrong with yours?"

"Burner phone. It isn't easily traced."

We nodded before Landon slid his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it, and handed it to James. He opened the back of the phone and took out his own phone. He took out a small chip from the back of his phone and slid it in Landon's.

He tapped on the phone a few times, waiting, tapped some more, and showed the screen to us.

It was a picture of a group of people gathering in the middle of a forest. They were wearing similar vests to the ones laying on the ground two feet from us.

"It's Withered Ghost. When I burned down their base, someone had escaped in time and gathered other people to create a successor of sorts to the gang. Because their resources were destroyed in the fire, they had to make do with what they had, and that includes bad bulletproof vests."

Looking at the vests on the barely alive people right now, I noticed how chunky they were. I picked the vest up and used a knife in one of the drawers to slice a small opening. I ripped it open and dumped out the contents.

"Are those..." Zach pointed at it and I nodded, "Cotton."

"Did they think cotton vests were gonna save their lives?" Sam asked, getting up after cuffing the last guy at the back.

"They must've had confidence they would catch us off guard," KT said and James shook his head, "That's not it."

Landon raised an eyebrow, "Then what do you think?"

James looked at the now-cuffed people.

"The person in charge thinks that they're expendable."

"Why would you think that?" I asked.

"Look at them," he nudged his head towards the people, "Some are barely out of high school. Young people nowadays think that gangs are 'cool' and would join them without thinking. The oldest here is your age and the youngest is sixteen."

"And," he added, "Teenagers and young adults with no experience of the world outside of their bubble are the easiest to manipulate to doing anything."

"You know a lot, don't you?" Mark asked, leaning against the slightly bloody wall. James shrugged, "Experience."

"What're we gonna do with these?" Joseph asked, lightly tapping his feet against a boy's back.

"Send them to the cells back at base. We'll question them tomorrow," Landon ordered and they complied, moving them into the cargo vans that just pulled up.

"You should leave. I'll book you a hotel if you want," Landon negotiated with James. He shook his head, "I'll find my own place to camp out."

"You sure?" KT asked and he nodded, "Everyone's looking for me, a hotel would just be a free ticket for the feds to catch me."