Three Nights of Fear

Chapter 4: Jayden

The blood moon had just arrived and almost immediately, my smart phone starts to vibrate. The Esme had just emitted a powerful magnetic pulse that was designed to shutdown anything with any source of power. However, in the eleven years since the last blood moon scientists have engineered devices able to go unaffected by the magnetic pulse broadcasted by the Esme. Luckily, this technology was integrated into smart phones.

You know, so teens cowering at home can tweet about how scared they are in what might be their last moment of death.

For a moment I wonder who could be calling me at a time like this but of course, I knew who it was. I pull out my phone from my pocket and as expected, it was Clark.

"What's up?" I answer his call.

Clark takes a second or two to reply and when he does his reply is barely audible.

Strange.

"Jayden, sorry for calling you this late but you know I wouldn't call you at a time like this unless I really needed your help, dude," Clark says.

"What's up?" I repeat, not sure if he was playing a prank or being serious. I definitely wasn't in the mood for a prank.

"I may have gotten myself... into some trouble, dude... I thought I was joining the police patrol unit but I was wrong... These people are nuts, straight up! They're like some type of religious freaks man...I... I think some crazy shit is about to go down, they have prisoners in hear dude," Clark says, his breathing makes it hard to make out some of what he's saying.

For a moment there is silence between both Clark and I.

"Jayden, are you still there?"

"Clark you really chose a bad time to prank me. Not in the mood right now, bye," I say as I end the call.

What a jerk-wad.

It didn't really hit me that Clark said 'religious freaks' until two seconds later my phone begins to vibrate again. It was another phone call from Clark. I answer the phone and immediately Clark begins to speak.

"No, it's not a prank, I swear. I seriously need some help, people are in danger, I'm in danger and I can't get through this on my own."

Clark, was really serious.

For once in his life.

I can tell from the sudden shift in his voice that he was terrified. A flash back of the graphitized building from earlier today flashes into my head. Could it be that there really was a religious cult of extremists hiding in the shadows of this city? The vandalism, the graffiti was it all hinting towards an elaborate plan of theirs, building up to this very night?

I can hear some sudden shouts coming from Clark's end.

"They found me!" Clark yells in fear, I can hear the voices getting louder and his breathing getting heavier.

"Clark?" I say his name but there is no reply.

"Hang on, I'm on my way," I jump off my bed and immediately hear an automated message, "Your conversation has been ended."

I immediately call Clark's phone again but I'm instantly taken to his voice mail.

"Sorry, I can't get to the phone right now. Please leave your-" I end the phone call there and try once more only to receive the same results.

I curse under my breath and swing my closet door open, retrieving a square metal box. Inside the box is a high powered pistol, extra magazines, a suppressor, and a strap on sheath to secure the gun. I place the magazine in the pistol, twist the suppresser onto the barrel of the pistol, and strap the gun to my right leg. I quickly lift the window seal in my room ready to jump.

The security system is designed to detect anything attempting to break into the home. A silent alarm would be tripped and flashing red lights would be activated.

Why not sirens blaring loudly for the entire world to hear? I'll let you figure that one out.

The Harvest has just begun and already Clark's life is in danger.

What an idiot but we have to go after him.

I sigh, knowing that I was writing myself a death sentence going after Clark. Miranda would surely kill me when she finds out. The thought of asking Miranda and Sarah for their help came to mind but I wasn't sure if Miranda would approve of me leaving to help Clark. For that reason, I decide to leave a note, it's the least I can do before disappearing.

Writing the note only takes a few minutes then before I know it I'm hanging from the ledge of my window suspended two stories from the ground. I hesitate at first after seeing how high up I was. It wasn't that high up but I've never jumped from a two story building before, the sight is intimidating to say the least.

This is a stupid idea.

Clark got himself into this mess so he should get himself out. At the same time, I should have told him what I really thought about him joining the city patrol, so in a way I feel responsible.

I know, I know. Stop reminding me, I'm going!

Before I could argue with myself any longer, I place both my feet against the brick wall of the house and push off. Turning my body in midair I gauge the distance of my feet from the ground, I bend my knees as I'm about to make impact. As I make impact, I extend my knees and finally I perform a roll to distribute the force of the landing throughout my body. The survival boot camp I attended every summer taught me that.

"Parkour!"

That's what Clark would yell if he saw me perform the jump. He's crazy about parkour, he might not be that bright but he is athletic. Clark could have done that jump with his eyes closed and he would have added a backflip to it, just because.

Getting passed the electric fence would be easier being that it only requires a code. 37826. I punched in the numbers onto the little pad on the gate and it slides open. Once I'm through, the gate closes on its own.

I immediately head for the church Clark described earlier today. It would take at least an hour to get there. It wasn't that the church was far from my house but because I had to be vigilant about not running into any Esme. It sucks that I can't just use a car. It would surely get me there much faster but it would also result in unwanted attention which might lead to my death. I look up at the sky and see several vessels cruising by from far above. They were not close enough to be a threat but they will be really soon. The engines of the vessels hummed as they sped by at great speeds. Fortunately, there were no signs that any of the vessels had landed nearby. That was good but it would not be that way for long. I had to use this opportunity to move as fast as I could. Gun drawn, eyes peeled I run through the barely visible streets in hopes of saving a friend that might already be dead.

Please, don't be dead.