I was given those 7 days of my time and I had to use it wisely. I didn't want my journey to just end immediately as it started. I had one goal in mind right now, knock out the bad guy. I didn't want to kill anybody so I'll just knock him out and leave him by the police, like that thing Miles did in Into the Spider verse. Surely that would work in real life without any evidence of his crimes. Right?..
On the seventh day of my training Dan finally narrowed it down to.. some island, our conversation basically went something like this: "I've found Alfred, he's hiding at Pitcairn Island." "Um.. What country is that at?" "It's not AT a country, which is why it's a perfect hiding location, but it's somewhere between New Zealand and Peru, so I'll use my helicopter to bring you there in around 12 hours." "YOU HAVE A WHAT?"
We landed at Pitcairn around an hour after he picked me up with his helicopter. Dan left me here alone, with nothing but a phone to call him, wishing me good luck and said he hoped I didn't fail him. Instantly once I found the first village I knew something was up, all the inhabitants stared at me and some ran into their houses. I didn't want to draw to conclusions too fast, because these people might not have been under Alfred's control, but were just being exploited of their resources. Turns out it was the second one because just a couple of steps later I saw somebody whipping the back of a native. I couldn't believe my eyes. My blood was boiling so hot that I felt I might die. I ran up to the girl and punched her so hard she got knocked unconscious, but that was the least of my problems. It turns out she was just a trigger in a chain of events. Right when I punched the woman, hundreds, and I mean HUNDREDS of people rushed out from the cave with weapons like rifles, spears and swords, so many I felt I could barely move. Why would they do this to me? It was only my first encounter.
I could only shake off the burning feeling before using my lightning powers to run behind a big rock before they started unloading their weapons on me. I gathered my courage and thought that if the people in the movies and books can fight tons of people like this, I can too, so right when the first person check the rock, I tackled them to the ground and kicked them as hard as I could, just to release the adrenaline, which was a good thing I did that, because right when I was about to kick them I got my arm shot. The pain was otherworldly, an experience I have never experienced before. Let me tell you this right now if you have never been shot, please don't even think about it. The adrenaline quickly stopped the pain, but for those few seconds I could do nothing but scream as they enemies surrounded me. "This is it." I thought. "I'm dead, and I couldn't even defeat a horde of enemies." I heard a "plink" noise right next to me as one of Alfred's soldiers looked around. The next time I heard a "plink" noise I saw what made it. One of the natives threw a pebble at the soldiers. Just like that, the native got their attention.
5 of the soldiers split from the group and started approaching the native. I couldn't bare watch somebody else get injured like I have, I don't want anybody else to die, I want to be everybody's hero. "I want to save them all" I thought, before dashing to to the native and grabbing them, running away as fast as I could to some remote place on the island. I kept doing this with all the natives until the only ones left that were at the village were the soldiers. I knew I had to get creative, because fighting them one on one clearly wasn't going to work. I looked around to see what I could use. I thought about the giant rock I hid behind when I first got shot. It was too big, there was no way I could move it on its own, and cutting down its size with my lightning would only reduce its power. The house was my next best bet. I ran behind it for cover, then used my lightning power to carve out all the walls before they got destroyed from the gunshots. I used my knowledge of levers to build a mini see-saw and jumped from a nearby tree to roll the rock, causing the group of soldiers to split. This was something I could work with, not all of them at once, but small groups I could take on little by little, and as fast as possible before they regrouped. I knocked out the first batch of enemies and I was about to knock out the second batch, when some gunshots whizzed by me right as I turned around. I almost met my fate to another bullet that was coming straight to my hide, and I sidestepped it, which I thought was the right thing to do but only got hit by another bullet to my leg. This one didn't hurt as bad as the first one, and I could still move my leg perfectly fine, but that was not at all a good sign, since I knew the adrenaline would just kill me faster. I had to think of a way to split the soldiers up longer.
I thought about those pens they keep hamsters in, all those tunnels and quadrants. If I could find a place that was as complex as that, I could easily outmaneuver most of the soldiers and take them out one by one, but where could something like that hide in the woods. I saw the lady I first knocked out when I saved the native being whipped. Of course. The cave. It might not be massive, but chances are there are tons of twists and turns I could use. I ran inside the cave, expecting the soldiers to follow me in, but all they did was blow up they entrance. I couldn't believe it. I'm trapped in a cave. I thought they would just follow me in, but they used my injuries to their advantage since they knew I would bleed out in this cursed cave. Why did I enter here. I just wanted Dan to come save me, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. What else could I do.
I thought about everything I could think of, as fast as possible because I could feel the adrenaline running out and my heart slowing down. Why was the reason the soldiers were hiding down here when they probably didn't even know I would attack today... The natives were probably down here. Those soldiers were probably also manning the mine, but then I stopped them. I limped around the cave, hoping I was right, hoping I wasn't the only one stuck down here and that somebody else had a way out. I nearly tripped over some metal chains on the floor when I heard some muffled voices. At this deep into the cave there wasn't a light source so I had to grab on to the chain and find the person on the other end, hoping they weren't another soldier, but it was thankfully another native with some kind of device that stifled their speech. I removed the device after some fumbling and they expressed nothing but gratitude. "My name is Henderson." They said. "My name is Ryce, but quick question, do you know a way out here? The soldiers bombed the entrance and I was hoping I would find somebody else." "That is a problem. Let me think... There's supposed to be an emergency elevator around here somewhere, in case a cave-in ever happens, but I can't see right now, the only one provided with flashlights are the guards." "A light source isn't much of a problem, I have abilities that let me create lightning, but I didn't want to use it unless necessary because I might accidentally zap someone, or cause another cave in. "What? Lightning powers? That sounds like something from a fantasy." "It did sound like one for me... but rest assured you" I broke his chains with a stream of lightning. "They are in fact real."
Henderson bandaged my wound and we escaped the mine. "You're just a kid.. Are you sure you can save everybody?" "I'm sure I can do it, because if I can't then I would forgive myself. Speaking of everybody, why were you chained to a rock, and how do you have bandages but not a flashlight?" "The guards were given orders to do so. It's apparently so that we don't escape from the mine in case they ever have to leave us. As for the bandages one, we're supposed to supply our own first aid items, because they don't care if we live or die." "That.. sounds awful." "It is.. I genuinely thank you for rescuing and helping us Ryce." "You're welcome, but save it for later."
I reached the camp ground of the guards, who were already celebrating their victory with a feast. I noticed a guard's utility belt just lying on a table and grabbed a flashlight, and a swiss army knife from it and taught Henderson how to pick locks using a swiss army knife so he can free the others trapped in the mine. Now it was all up to me to stop these people, and I have almost as much time as I need. I thought about a Rube Goldberg machine and what is the largest thing in this camp site that can quickly knock them out, or at least create chaos. The trap was being formulated in my mind as suddenly, a guard noticed me, but at that point it was too late. The trap was set up. I ran away from the camp site as far away as I could as I watched the forest behind me burn. I took their stuffed pig and placed it on the ground, tied with some hidden rope traveling the ground so they wouldn't see it. When the rope was pulled a knot on a net would untie as thousands of wood pieces get unleashed on the bonfire as the soldiers now have to fight the fire, giving me enough time to report to Dan, although, luckily, I'm pretty sure the soldiers won't die from this considering they're right next to the water and they have plenty of buckets. Dan responded to my call almost instantly and told me that Alfred already fled the area and he has to relocate him, but he congratulated me on surviving this far and was already coming to pick me up. I asked him about the locals, but he said he's sure they're fine.
