Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter XXIV

ELLE

Music: We Followed the Sun from Nemesis 3 MSX

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that now I'm praying to God that our final destination is a piece of cake for us, given how things went in Canada. The flight to Massachusetts is spent calming down and recovering from the events of the past ten minutes or so. I spend my time resting against Sam's side and messing with a paddle ball, something I tend to do when I'm bored.

Mia randomly breaks the silence by asking Brielle, "Has anybody ever told you that you and Avery look almost identical to each other?"

Brielle shrugs and replies, "Eh. Less often than you think."

"I don't see it," Sam says, shaking his head.

I raise an eyebrow and smirk at Sam. "You're blind."

"Hey, I'm willing to bet that I have better eyesight than half the people in this group." Sam then proceeds to shoot a look at Mia and Mackenzie, who are the only two people in our group that wear glasses.

"Technically, my glasses give me perfect eyesight, which is more than you could ever hope for, but whatever," Mia glares at Sam.

"Point taken," I say, technically responding to both Sam and Mia.

"I've got something," Luke, our current pilot, calls out. He flies us into the midst of a slump-looking area. The buildings almost resembles storage sheds, and each of them have graffiti written all over them. It seems to be in the middle of a countryside, with a couple of billboards towering above everything and vast fields for as far as we can see. A single road passes alongside the neighborhood. As usual, there appears to be a depressing lack of people here.

I, however, think that's just an illusion.

"Um, there's nobody here. Why are we stopping here?" Brielle asks.

"Just give it a moment. Usually this takes time," Shanna answers.

"Yeah, and I can just feel a presence here. I'm just not entirely sure where," I add, glancing around to see if I can spot anybody. Brielle looks at me funnily.

"She has this, like, superhuman sense where she can somehow always predict an attack ahead of time. It's weird," Skylar explains to her.

"Really?" Brielle asks in disbelief.

"Just watch. I'm willing to bet someone's going to show up within the next ten seconds," Luke says in a tease-like manner.

Music: I'm Kaori from Sexy Parodius

Sure enough, exactly eight seconds later, a figure walks out of one of the sheds, cackling viciously. He looks like one of those deranged farmers you see on those cartoons. His hair is all tussled up, he has a somewhat large beard, his clothes are all torn and tattered, and he has a hunch to his posture. The way he walks is also strange. Think of it like a skeleton and a zombie combined.

Oh, and he has a chainsaw.

At first, we stand back, ready to attack. Except... the man isn't really doing any harm. He just keeps circling us, laughing maniacally.

"Should we kill him now, or..." Heath asks, lowering his gun just in case.

"Wait. I want to see where this goes," Sam whispers.

The deranged man eventually does something noteworthy when he walks to a branchless tree and uses the chainsaw on it for an undetermined reason. He turns to face us and starts howling again, then starts to take a step forward.

At which point the tree falls right on top of him, knocking him to the ground. He goes completely silent and his body goes stiff. Blood starts pouring from the back of his forehead. Heath runs over to him and takes the man's pulse. "Yep. Dead as a doorknob."