America Stranded in a Fantasy World

Chapter 30 "A Key, Yet No Lock To Match"

CHAPTER 30

"A Key, Yet No Lock To Match"

September 4th, 2040: Multiple miles above the "New South America Jungle"

Inside an S-97 Raider and flanked by three other sister helicopters, Director Stevens stared at his tablet while incomplete combat footage played on. From the perspective of a running US army grunt the radio had little to no discipline as panic filled the forest air.

"Be advised, Abrams airborne, repeat Abrams airborne!" A crackling male voice screamed as almost outside the camera's lens an Abrams tank landed hard on the sparse underbrush, doing multiple rollovers--flinging dirt and debris everywhere before slamming into a tree. Not long after, a deep, thunderous roar echoed around the forest.

"Fucking AT crew is gone! Long, you still got that AT 4?" A different soldier asked.

"Negative!" A female voice answered.

"Fuck! All units, broken arrow, broken arrow! Newman, get that damn 40mm up here!" And at that, the video abruptly ended. Leaving Stevens to let out a heavy breath and hold the bridge of his nose.

"Trolls again Director?" One of the three scientists riding along asked.

"Trolls, Cyclops, Giants--the goddamn forest itself for all I know." Looking through the door window at the dense jungle below, Stevens' mind raced with the thoughts of what man-eating horrors lived down there--and they were flying straight into its mouth. "This better be worth my time."

"If what the report says is true, it will be, Director. This... Manor of Magic, will likely answer most if not all our questions."

"And inevitably lead to new ones. Looks like we're here." As the S-97 made a sharp bank to the left Stevens got a clear view of the overgrown manor. In front of it, a sizable area had been cleared for tents and landing zones.

With a slight jolt, the S-97 landing gear bounced, then stuck to the rocky ground. Stevens was the first to step out and be greeted by a friendly face.

"Director Jim, struck gold yet?" After shaking hands, the two walked towards the tent town that had sprung up in front of the manor's main entrance.

"Rhodium in fact. This place has answered more 'million dollar' questions than anything the locals have given us. For a start--and a favor to ask, I need you to secure funding from the D.O.D to form a new branch, or make it a new section of an existing one. There is the real possibility that we can reverse-engineer magic to be of use to us."

"Well I can tell you right now The Army will be scrambling to be first. But I'll see what I can do. So, give me the rundown." Walking inside the entrance hall that had been illuminated by floodlights they could see scientists everywhere taking pictures and samples of the building.

"From the beginning we expected magic to be its own energy type, and more evidence is pointing to it being a type of ray like alpha, beta and gamma rays. We've confirmed that gemstones do in fact act like a battery to this type of radiation and can be discharged into the wide field of magic we've seen so far. Though the way it recharges is still a mystery, with running theories being it absorbs the ambient radiation from the air around us, or the newest energy source we've discovered." Hearing that, Stevens raised a concerned eyebrow.

"There's another one?"

"Yep, simply known as soul magic. The user can use an energy called "soul essence" to wield magic, but at a diminished capacity."

"Of course they can. Wouldn't be a fantasy world without it..."

As the duo continued to walk towards the main library Stevens couldn't shake the unnerving feeling of being watched but with no surveillance system put in place yet it didn't make much sense. Upon reaching the open double doors to the library, Stevens didn't hesitate to enter the room, and once inside quickly leaned back to avoid one of the hundreds of yellow orbs that were floating around.