Remember More

Chapter 34

REMEMBER MORE

CHAPTER 34

John tore off like a torpedo. Yan was right behind.

John worked up a ball of qi as he neared. He fired it off at the creature who still had Jonas by the throat.

Letting go of Jonas, the creature crossed his arms to block, and then somersaulted away, riding on the force of John's qi until he was halfway down the field.

"Jonas!" John caught his son up in his arms.

Jonas seemed to melt away and collapsed into his father's embrace.

"Jonas!" John eased him down onto the ground, resting his head in his lap. He stroked his son's head, now hairless and mottled as if diseased.

Yan bent down and examined him. She checked his pulse and breathing.

She looked at John. "He's so weak. It's like he's completely empty…"

John nodded. Clutching his son's hand, he dared a tendril of qi and extended it inward, feeding it gently toward the younger man's heart.

Within two seconds, Jonas' eyes fluttered, and then he opened them wider, until he looked upward and met his father's gaze and he smiled. He nodded.

John couldn’t hold back his tears. He cried and a few of them dropped onto Jonas' face.

Jonas reached out and took his father's hand. He eased a few breaths in and out. Blinking, he met his father's eyes again, and then Yan's. "Dad. Yan."

Together, they eased him up to a sitting position. John still held his son by the hand and through that, continued to feed in his qi a trickle at a time.

John looked his son up and down. He was smaller than John had remembered. And much more gaunt, a stick figure only, a gollum.

John brushed his hand over his son’s face. "What happened to you, Son? Did he hurt you? Did…" John gasped. "…your ears!" He jerked back and sat up straight. "You still have them! And your eyes!"

Jonas frowned at that. "Yeah. Of course!"

Yan shook her head. She tried to explain. "Your father and I thought that after you'd been captured, they must have tried to work the information about the Others out of you by torturing you and cutting off your ears…"

Jonas laughed. "You thought that? But why? I…"

"You mean they didn’t do that? But we found the ears, the eyes!"

Jonas smiled and shook his head from side to side.

By this time, Zhang was sidling up to the three of them, hands behind his back, smiling. "So, I see you've finally found that which you have lost."

John returned the smile, nodding. "I'm so sorry we couldn't tell you the truth before. But you see…"

Zhang waved him off. "No matter. I figured it was going to be something like that." He chuckled. "I had met up with your boy and uh…" He thumbed over his shoulder. "…Mr. Crocodile over there a few days ago. And then when I found you and Yan, I kind of had an idea as to what was going on. No harm done. Besides…"

"Guardian!" The creature had been making his way back to them in measured steps during all of this. Now he stopped himself at a distance from the group and called out to them. "I'm not done with you yet. You still have not beaten me."

Zhang turned to him. He scoffed. "Oh, please. How many times must I tell you? You are not ready. You will only bring harm to yourself and to others…"