The Mysterious Door

Chapter 18

"So," I say, "This place far away?"

"We'll hopefully get there by sunset tomorrow," he says without looking back at us as we walk parallel to a dirt road between dense forestry, "But I'm guessing you guys are tired, so we'll just make sure we're a safe distance from the manor and then set up camp for the night."

"Why don't we just take a car there," Daniel asks, "You look old enough to drive."

"A car would attract way too much attention," this time he glances back at us over his shoulder, "If we know PEACE, they'll have teams from all their factions on the look for you three. SPORT is on the verge of a breakthrough with this project and I doubt they'd give you three up without a fight at this point."

"Not true," Anthony says, "The Instructor said we're expendable. She was willing to kill us if we didn't do as she said."

"That was probably all for show. The Instructor talks big, but I'm sure she just said most the things she did to scare the lot of you into submission. Truth is our intelligence shows that this was her last shot at running this project."

"Well," I say, "At least we know they won't be doing this to anyone else then."

"I wouldn't go that far," he says, stopping for a moment to sneak a look at the road, "Chances are if they don't give the Instructor a chance to rectify this, that they'd just appoint someone to take her place."

"If you told me any of this a month ago, I would have punched you out cold," Daniel says, "This is crazy."

"I won't argue with that. Where I come from everyone knows of the existence of the supernatural, but what is going on here is strange even to me. I have learnt so much about what's actually going on in our world during the time I spent with the commander."

'I don't trust him,' I hear Daniel's voice, 'This is screaming trap to me.'

'He just rescued us,' Anthony thinks, 'Why would he go through all that trouble just to lead us into a trap?'

'I'm with Anthony,' I think, 'The Instructor was moments away from completing the merge. Why would they want to stop that?'

'I don't know, but I'm just saying we can't let our guard down.'

"Everything okay," Zack asks, "You guys look like you all have a lot on your minds."

"You have no idea," I say and the three of us laugh for the first time in who knows how long, "We've just been through a lot the last few weeks."

"I can only imagine, but things will get better from here."

"How can you know that," Anthony asks.

"Well, we might not have won the war yet, but we managed to get you out of the Instructor's grasp. That's the first victory in what I believe will be a long line of victories."

"I really hope you're right," I say, "I just want this to be over. When can we go back home?"

"I'm sorry," he says, "That won't be possible until sport is defeated. They were the ones that took you and they will know where you come from. We can't risk them getting their hands on you again."

"So, you're just gonna keep us prisoner again," Daniel yells coming to a standstill, "I knew we couldn't trust you."

"Calm down," Zack says, "We can't afford for anyone to hear us now. You won't be prisoners with us. We want to keep you safe, that's all."

"What about our families," Anthony asks, 'Don't you think they'll be going after them?"

"We've thought of that too," he smiles, "We have some of our higher ranked members guarding your homes at all time."