The Lost ( A Sequel To The Forgotten )

The Last Day On Earth

When we wake up, not everything is perfect. There's still smoke and injuries from the battle. And memories. There will always be memories. But the Walkers are gone, and the sun shines brightly. There are now three days until we take down Knor. Today, we'll recover from the Dusk War. Tomorrow, we'll make sure everything is ready. The next day, we'll start the trek to U.T. And the next day, we'll get into position. Then, it'll be time. It will finally be time to destroy the cause of all our suffering. I'm ready.

The rest of the day, we recover. We tend any wounds and stretch ourselves out. I make sure my sword is still in good condition, and it is. Then evening comes, and in the morning, we're one day closer to the raid. Today, we're getting on our last bits of training. I train with Tarna, which helps get me in the fighting spirit. We work on hand-to-hand combat. Tarna throws some punches a me, which I block. She then kicks it up a notch, jumping and kicking a few times. I manage to dodge these attacks. Then I move onto the offensive, punching and slicing and kicking. Tarna and I exchange blows until she backs off and makes a run at me. She jumps, which I didn't expect, and grabs me around my torso. Her force sends us both to the ground, where we wrestle for a bit. I manage to get behind her and wrestle her down, though, and I grin down at her as she struggles helplessly.

"I'm ready to move on to Knormites now." Tarna laughs.

"Oh yeah. You took down a teen girl, so I'm sure you're ready for demons. What if they do this?" Tarna twists under me, and suddenly she's on top of me. I laugh, too.

"Maybe I'll stick to training on teen girls after all." We also look over the plan, making sure that everyone knows their part. We study the Book Of Knor, hoping for some more inspiration on how to beat Knor, but the only thing we can see of him is his drawing: a circle with a single, black eye in the center. Four lines branch off of the circle. But no matter his size or anything else, we will take him down. We have the cathtonite blade, and that will be enough. It has to be. The sun rises and sets, and before I know it, we have only two days until the apocalypse. Today, we bid farewell to our beloved base and begin the trek to U.T. It feels odd going back. In a way, Ultra Tech is where it all started. And now, it's where it will all end... one way or another.

The U.T. building comes into view after a few hours, and I study it with new eyes. The eyes of a strategist. We look over the plan from the cover of a nearby boulder as we wait for the sun to set again.

"Right. So Wrive and Cass will hit the Portal Room from the left, Ray and I will hit from the right, and Rolly and Person will head in from the front," Tarna says.

"What about Shawn?" I ask. Tarna frowns.

"He's not exactly in battle condition, Wrive."

"Well, we can't just leave him here!" The others stay silent, looking at the grass. "We're just leaving him here?"

"Wrive, he's safer here than he is fighting the mastermind of all evil," Ray reminds me gently. I try to find an excuse to bring Shawn, but I know Ray's right. It's not fair to Shawn to bring him into a deadly fight.

"Okay, you're right." Seeing my distress, Tarna tried to comfort me.

"We'll leave him with berries and water. He'll be fine." I sigh, still unhappy that we're leaving my little friend behind.

We stay behind the boulder until evening, when we move farther away to sleep. No one stays up late. We're all nervous beyond words about the raid. We have only tomorrow to rest, and then we're headed to Knor's realm. It's a ton of pressure for us all. None of us can imagine Knor, Knormites or Knor's realm. Will it be firey and smokey? Will it be grey and barren? How big is Knor, or the Knormites? It seems that we know so little. And with the lack of knowledge comes the chance of failure. No one mentions it. But before, when we found cathtonite, I think that we just imagined smacking Knor with the blade and being done with it. But now, it's serious and real. We might all die. We have to face the possibility. But even if we all die painfully, I think this is how we want to die. We're rebelling against Knor. We're trying our best. And if we fall, we'll fall together. This brings comfort, in a strange way.