Asuka: Island of Shadows

chapter 21

          Chapter 20

I wasn’t exactly pleased with having to bring Hikairi in the first place, so when she disappeared the instant we got in the hideout, I was even less pleased.

And ten times as worried. Especially when I had to hide so that I wasn’t captured by General Neiken.

The one who looked like the leader though must have been the one Hikairi told me was called Lord Erai. He was a huge man, and I saw his eyes gleam with pride as he spoke to one of the younger Guards.

“Well done, that was wonderfully thought out. That old woman will never be able to get out of the room now. And those boys are in no shape to help her.”

The Guard muttered something, and looked straight at me. But to my surprise he didn’t say a word, he just gestured his head towards the main rooms.

Then the words sank in. Old woman? Hikairi must have been acting, to save them. I glared at the ceiling until they had long passed, and then ran down the hall.

I reached the main room, which was blocked. “Hikairi? Are you in there?” I called. I heard a relieved gasp.

“Satoru! Oh please please help.” I could hear a sob in Benjirou’s voice. “Hikairi’s trying to help Akiyo and Naoya, they’re hurt. She told me to wait by the door until you came.”

“One moment Benji, I will get you out.” I called. I began to move the heavy things that were pushed ramshackle against the door.

Finally there was only one thing left, but it was the biggest and heaviest of them all. Someone had found the huge statue that had been in the shop and pushed it against the door.

Or should I say, three someones. Keiji and I tried to move it all the time. Together we might be able to move it a few feet.

Most of the time we ended up grabbing Makito and having him help us.

And now I needed to move it by myself. I took a deep breath and moved towards it, bracing myself for pain and sore muscles.

For a few minutes I pushed, and then realized that it would never work. Keiji, Makito and I, had logs and levers and all sorts of supplies that they took with them to the camp when we moved this down here.

But they had taken them to the camp, and I was stuck with what little supplies we had abandoned when leaving.

Very little supplies. I groaned and leaned against the wall. I needed to get them out of there. That boy, the one who had looked at me, must have trusted me a lot to think I would be able to get them out.

I sighed and began to look through the hideout for anything at all that I might be able to use.

I found some rope, a few rocks, some bags of old stale food, some medicine that I wished I could give to Hikairi, as well as some bandages, and nothing else.

I went up to the store and looked through that, but Keiji and I always made sure it was clean and empty other then our hammocks.

Why did we insist that everyone keep the hideout so clean? What I needed right now was a million things that we always insisted were not left around.

And Hikairi and the other were trapped in the main room, with no food, no water, Naoya and Akiyo injured, Benjirou on the verge of a panic attack, and Minoru and Hikairi trying to help everyone calm down.

Minoru was twelve years old, almost thirteen, and a very resourceful young boy. He could use a knife, a slingshot, a bow and arrow, any weapon at all, as long as you gave him basic training.