The Black Box

39

Isaiah hands Annabeth and I guns that aren't too heavy. We walk over to the targets and he gives each of us one bullet.
"Aim for the middle." He closes his left eye and pulls his trigger. It perfectly hits the target in the bullseye and disintegrates it. "Your turn."

I walk up and stop near where Isaiah stopped. There's no markers or fence so you just have to guess. I insert the bullet. I relax and close my left eye. I pull the trigger and the bullet hits the ring just outside the bullseye.

"Not bad." Isaiah claps his hand on my back which makes me off balance. "Your turn Annabeth."

I watch our friends and I see Sophie shoot the gun and the bullet barely misses the target. Feye yanks the gun from her hands and walks away. I faintly hear, "...your not cut out to use guns."

Annabeth nervously walks up and inserts the bullet. She closes her left eye and lines it up. She shoots and it hits the second ring just like I had.

"Have you two ever shot a gun before? 'Cause you're basically professionals," says Isaiah. "Almost perfect professionals."

He puts his gun back on the wall and instructs us to do the same. We walk over to the other side of the room that has the swords and daggers on it.

"Have you done any sword fighting or hand-to-hand combat yet?" He reaches out and grabs a sheathed black-bladed sword, the kind Christie and I have. He unsheathes it and pretends to swipe at me. I jump back before he even hits the place where I was.

"Christie, did you teach him some stuff?" He points to me.

"Basics," she replies.

He grabs a sword and a couple of daggers. He motions for us to walk over where we just practiced shooting our guns.

He drops them once we're there.

"I see you already have equipment Peter." He looks me up and down, looking at the daggers and two swords I have on. "Let's see how go you are with them." He jumps at me with a dagger hidden behind his back. I take a dagger from my belt and point it in the air where Isaiah will be just when he makes contact. He's exactly where I want him and I push in, making the dagger sink into his skin. He looks down, realizes that I stabbed him, and makes his expression harden. I remove my dagger and he falls over.

He stands up, touching his dagger wound that's below his right ribcage. It's deeper than I thought. He's not bleeding as much as I thought he would be. He smiles and small flicker of flame appears on his finger. He places his finger on the wound. I thought it would burn his skin but instead it heals his wound. He runs his finger over the wound and it's healed over completely.

Isaiah looks up. "Your turn Anna-"

He's interrupted by a ground shaking sound. The ceiling cracks and little pieces fall to the ground. He looks up. "What the-" The whole room shakes rougher than before and bigger pieces of the ceiling fall to the ground. One hit Kevin but as it came into contact, it turned into sand. Isaiah runs to the exit.

"Come on! Let's go! If we don't get out of here, we'll be sealed in here like a tomb."

Everyone looks at him and make a run towards the door. Another burst of ground shaking sound makes everyone fall to the ground, including me. A huge rock falls from the ceiling and blocks the only exit we have to get out of this place.

Isaiah curses under his breath and tries to move the rock with brutal force. He nudged the rock enough for a mouse to get past.

"Let me try to move it," says Kevin. His black fingertips grow even darker. He focuses on the rock and closes his eyes. The the top of the rock slowly crumbles to dust, leaving us enough space to escape. Kevin opens his eyes and he looks exhausted.

"Good job buddy," says Jax. Kevin smiles weakly and faints.

"Let's go!" Isaiah picks Kevin up and puts him over his shoulders.

He runs up the stairway first, then Navi, everyone else, and then Feye in the back.

The stairway is crumbling under our footsteps as we run for our lives. As we reach the top, the lights flicker and go out. Jax makes a small, bright flame to light our way. Isaiah leads us to the middle of The Shaft and down the hallway towards Noah's lab.

We stop in his lab and Isaiah puts Kevin down gently. He rushes out of the lab.

"Where are you going?" I yell after him.

"Going to find Noah!" he says, not looking back.

Navi goes to the back of the room and presses the same purple button that summoned Feye and Isaiah. The room begins to change.

The machine becomes screens and a control board. The books and papers disappear and the doors are blocked off. A map materializes on the empty table. Navi and Feye study the map.

Isaiah rushes into the room with Noah behind him.

"I thought the doors were blocked." I point to the doors.

"They are. There's another way to get through the doors," says Noah. "We had to-"

"There's no time for explaining Noah," interjects Isaiah.

"We're being attacked Isaiah. Go find Jess," says Navi.

He nods. He motions to me and he runs out the door. I don't move for a second and Navi yells at me. "Peter go with Isaiah!"

I bolt for the door. I find Isaiah on the ground in the middle of The Shaft, two big white figures looking down at him. He coughs and blood comes out. He sees me but doesn't make it seem like he did see me.

"Stop!" I yell.

"It's too late Peter," says Isaiah. "I always admired you 'cause you were just like me."

I run and cover Isaiah with my body just as the white figures pull their triggers.

At the sound of the gunshot, through my blurry vision, Jess appears and runs past us silently towards Noah's lab.