Destined: 2 Be Continued

9. Not Locust

After Jeremiah forced Alex to trust him and his friends, Heather pulled him aside. "What is it?" Jeremiah asked, a bit confused and a bit annoyed. "I just pulled Alex aside, what do you need me for?"

Heather pulled him into another cabin. Jeremiah saw August and Belle glance smugly at each other. She closed the door tightly, as if she was going to say something important. What she said was sort of important, but not entirely.

"I've noticed you're wearing long sleeves lately," she said, pointing to Jeremiah's long sleeves. Jeremiah looked down at the subjects of her pointing. They were indeed long. "They are long," he observed, duly earning an eye roll from Heather. However, it seemed he was making progress, for she didn't slap slap him; instead, she just tapped him on the chest. "You used to wear t-shirts, and you've been on a tropical island for two years. Why would you need long sleeves?" she asked.

"Well, I mean, it's not al--" Jeremiah tried.

"Take off your long sleeves. Now," Heather demanded, clearly concerned.

"But...I'm not wearing--"

"I don't care. No one else is around, and I'm technically our team's medic. Take it off."

With a great sigh, Jeremiah took off his shirt. Heather gasped at what she found.

"What happened to your arms?!" she cried out, trying to stay quiet. Jeremiah looked down at his arms--brutally scarred from his wrists to his shoulders. Looking at them still hurt, reminding him of how he got them. I better explain, Jeremiah thought to himself, knowing that was going to be Heather's next demand. 

"You know the razor-backed cave lions, the ones I had to fight?" he began. Heather nodded slowly. She clearly remembered the backups for in case the villagers fought back.

"Well, uh...I fought them, obviously, and...they are not housecats." Heather, hearing Jeremiah's explanation, was clearly not impressed. He hid her face in her hands. When she finally looked up, she asked, "But how? How did you get that many scars?"

"The lions are...real team players," Jeremiah explained, running out of the small amount of eloquence he had. Heather seemed to want to say something, but she only said, "Okay, put your shirt on. Let's go back with the others." Jeremiah gladly re-dressed, and the two stepped back into the room. August and Belle were giving them intensely smug looks now.

"We've reached the barn, by the way," August remembered, snapping out of his smugness trance. "I'll take Loraine down to the ground level right now." Jeremiah nodded, then sat back down. August left the room, and within a few minutes, Loraine was descending to the ground. Once Jeremiah felt the train hit land, he opened the wall and let everyone through. 

"Is that the barn?" Alex pointed to the only building, which was clearly a barn, that was around within twelve miles. Jeremiah simply answered yes, choosing not to be annoyed. The six trekked over to the barn, and Alex opened a large door that was on the closest side. The six stepped through. 

Locust was sitting right there, in the center of the barn. The barn itself was stacked with hay in the corners, but aside from that, it was empty. Locust turned slowly and evilly, as if TG had taken great care in corrupting him. He had been fiddling with some wooden object, almost like how August had fiddled with metal pieces. That reminded Jeremiah that he hadn't seen August with his armor on. He looked behind him, thankful to see that his teammate was prepared.

"Nice of you all to come," Locust rasped, setting down the wooden object and standing up. Locust had six sets of limbs: one to walk, and two that were used as arms. His eyes made up a good half of his head, and antennae sprouted from the top of his forehead. Jeremiah wondered what he looked like when he was a normal Destined--before he had gotten corrupted.

"It ends here," August abruptly said, then stepped forward, elbowing Jeremiah out of the way. He held forth one arm, and a rocket shot from his wrist. The rocket exploded on contact, as most rockets do.

After the smoke cleared, Locust had seemingly disappeared. The Destined would have celebrated if not for the piece of paper that was in Locust's place. Heather cautiously stepped over and began to read from it.

"Dear Destined Fools,

Do you think I would allow myself to be defeated by a single hit? I am much wiser than all of you combined. I am not here, but rather somewhere else. However, I have left you something that's...quite special. I'm sure you have seen one before. Well, perhaps you haven't. 

Toodles,

          Locust."

"Well, that's weird. And also vague," Alex commented. Jeremiah had to agree with him. Last time, he had given them the exact coordinates...of course! He had given the, the coordinates because that wasn't his real location! But what did he leave for them? Jeremiah asked that question out loud.

"No idea," muttered Belle, racking her brain for the last two years. Jeremiah followed suit. Seen one before, but perhaps...not? Was Locust just making a guess? Surely he wouldn't, he was just playing mind games. Jeremiah looked around the barn. He realized that was useless after he thought about something.

"Maybe it's invisible," he told them.

"Yeah," Belle uncertainly agreed, "But we've never run into anything that was invisible. Nothing that gave us trouble, which would be something that Locust would give us."

"Maybe..." Heather began, but then she shook her head. "No. Nevermind." With that, the team went back to the train, sitting back down in the eating room. Jeremiah checked his wrist, and a number came to him: 10:23. It would be a bit before noon. 

"Well, we didn't get to beat up anything today, but maybe we will tomorrow," Belle offered, sitting down, taking a polishing shammy, and beginning to polish her katanas.

"Does this happen all the time?" Alex asked. Jeremiah shook his head. "No, last time, it was really action packed. This is strange. Almost suspicious." Jeremiah continued to think about how suspicious it was, even after he said that.