The Black Box

40

The pain sears through my back and I fake my death. The warming sensation is slowly rising in my back. I open my eyes slightly and see that the white figures are gone. I stand up and look at Isaiah. He's breathing is shallow. I kneel next to him.

He looks up at me and weakly smiles. "My time is done Peter. Go fight your battles, leave me here."

"I'm not leaving you here Isaiah."

"I know you won't, but I will make sure you leave me." He lifts his finger and a flame flickers there. It engulfs his hand and he slowly puts it on himself. His body begins to dissipate when he presses it against his chest. "I've tried my hardest in shaping you into a great person but it seems you've already done that without my help."

I look into his eyes.

"Tell Jess I love her." That's the last thing I hear him say before he's completely gone. The only thing left of him is his ring. I look at the inside of the silver flames and see I. Daskalakis engraved in it and put it safely into my pocket. I sit there in a moment of silence before I run back to the lab.

I get through the doors before they close them.

"Where's Isaiah?" asks Jess. She searches my face for an explanation, but finds none.

"He's gone."

"Gone?!"

I nod. I see her eyes fill with tears.

"He said that he loved you." I take his ring out of my pocket and hand it to Jess. "I thought I would give this to you."

She looks at it for some time and puts it into her pocket.

"Sorry to break the silence, but we're being attacked by The Alliance right now so we better think of a plan or else we'll all die!" interrupts Noah. Jess punches him in the stomach.

Jess, Feye, Navi, and Noah look over the map. Noah points to something. "This is where they're hitting. They're trying to break our barrier and get inside."

"Hey, umm, Noah," I say, "you know when Isaiah...passed....there were these two big white figures looming over him and they shot us."

"Us?" asks Noah. Jess is looking at me, searching for any information that involves Isaiah.

"I shielded Isaiah from the gunshots."

"And you're still here?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I think so." I look at him and smile then realized that this isn't the time for smiling so it disappears from my face.

"You said two big white figures?"

"Yeah."

"So they are inside our base after all." Noah turns back to the map. "Our options are to either die or get captured and tortured."

"Is one of them to escape?" asks Kevin. " 'Cause I'd rather escape then die or get tortured to death."

"There's no way possible. Our base is entirely built underground and has only one entrance. They most likely know where the transparent boulder is so we're all doomed."

"Who thought it was a good idea to build the base entirely underground and it only has one entrance?!" says Kevin.

"It's been here for a long time and they find it now? What I want to know is how they found it."

"One of those things that track body temperature?"

"No, those couldn't work. We're too deep underground for those to pick us up."

The ground rumbles and we all look up.

"Don't worry. The entire ceiling is made of diamond and obsidian, almost impossible to break through."

"You said almost," I say.

He ignores me and goes over the map. I faintly hear footsteps in the hallway. I think everyone else has too. There's two pairs of footsteps, one running faster and lighter than the second pair that's heavier and slower. The footsteps continue towards the doorway but stop right outside. There's a shriek, a woman's, and then a gunshot. The heavy footsteps walk away.

"Did that really just happen?" asks Jax.

Navi nods. "We've got to move if we want to es-"

There's an explosion and everyone's pushed into the back of the room. Rocks and metal are everywhere inside in the room. As the dust clears, there's two figures inside the doorway. It's a girl and a guy.

The girl has long brown hair and pale pink eyes. She has swirls of black encircling her wrists. Noah's face is in shock. She looks at least eighteen, like everyone else.

The guy has brown hair on the sides, the top is blond, and its a buzz cut. His eyes are pitch black, like pits. He has splatters of black ink all over his right arm. He looks vaguely familiar.

"You are all hostages of The Alliance. No questions involved or else you will be killed," the girl says, flicking a finger in the air and looking over each of us.

Noah's about to speak but Feye clamps a hand over his mouth before the sound comes out.

"Take them Cyril," the girl says to the guy. The guy roughly rounds everyone up and leads us down the hallway. The girl is walking behind us, watching our every move.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," I whisper to Christie.

"What?" she whispers back.

"What is a protector?"

"It's hard to explain, but they're chosen for a certain person of the Pure and given special enhancers that they need to protect that chosen person."

"And you were chosen to protect me?"

"Yeah. Protectors have dragons tattooed to them somewhere."

"Is Navi a protector then too?"

"Yeah, but his Pure went missing a while ago. He always liked her in a way. She was captured and never seen again."

"That stinks."

"Yeah. He really liked her. If the Pure does die, then the protector dies slowly afterwards. The protector is connected to the Pure like a lifeline. If it's the opposite, if the protector dies, it doesn't affect the Pure. It's kinda sad."

"Is Navi...dying then?"

"I don't think so. He hasn't shown any signs that she's dead and he's dying."

"What was her name?"

"Angela."

The girl sees us talking to each other and hits the back of our heads with a gloved hand. "No talking!"

"Why a gloved hand?" I whisper even softer to Christie.

"She has the killer enhancer and if she touches her hostages, we'll die." She whispered even softer than I did and I had to lead closer to her to hear.

We walked to the center of the room and the guy named Cyril stopped us.
"Time to go," he says. I swear I've heard his voice before.

He makes all of us hold hands and we're standing a circle, holding hands like we're girl scouts.

He shuts his eyes and the world goes blurry. I shut my eyes so I don't throw up from the movement.