Dark Destiny

Chapter 16 - Conclusion

CHAPTER 16--CONCLUSION

Within the tent, the explosion shakes the foundation upon which El-Fahd and Jeremiah are standing, sending El-Fahd staggering back, his hip slamming into the platform holding his idols. Jeremiah staggers on his feet, reaching out and finding a small table to use for support. The guards fall back, two of them crashing onto the floor.

Before they can compensate for the first explosion, another blast shakes the tent again, knocking Althea off her feet. She reaches out for something to catch her fall, grabbing at a small table. It crashes to the floor, spilling papers and a small plaster statue across the dirt floor, as she falls with it, landing on her side, her gun tumbling out of her hand.

She quickly reaches for the gun, only a few feet away, but is surprised when a foot reaches out, stepping on her extended hand. She looks up, seeing that one of the guards is standing over her, trapping her hand beneath his sandaled foot. She reacts to the pain surging into her hand and fingers by letting out a loud cry, which shatters the silence of the moment within the tent. The guard reaches down, picking up the gun. He sneers at her with contempt, as he pulls the gun up, pointing it at her. She pulls her hand back, inspecting it, disturbed to find it black and blue around the point of impact. Not surprising, really. She's always bruised rather easily. She's just thankful that it doesn't seem to be broken. For the moment, though, she has to ignore the dully throbbing pain shooting through her hand, which she cradles against her chest, held within her other hand.

"What are you going to do with that gun?" she asks the guard standing over her in Arabic, hiding the fact that she is holding the small plaster statue behind her hand, within her palm and against her forearm.

The guard makes no response, despite the fact that she knows he understood her. His eyes revealed that much. He merely looks down at her, his hand on the trigger of the gun, pointed directly at her. Althea does not like the silence. She would prefer that he said something.

As the guard keeps his gun directed at Althea, he looks ready to pull the trigger, and Althea instinctively slides back across the floor, reaching the side of the tent, even as she watches him cautiously. He laughs nearly under his breath, enjoying the fear he sees in her eyes. However, before he can pull the trigger, or otherwise terrorize Althea, another explosion rocks the tent, causing the guard to stagger back, falling back against a large glass vase, which shatters when his head strikes it, imbedding hundreds of shards of glass in the back of his head, and along his neck and shoulders. He writes in pain where he landed, the gun sliding across the ground, where Althea eagerly grabs it.

The last explosion sent El-Fahd staggering back, and Jeremiah takes the opportunity to slam his fist into the side of El-Fahd's face, jerking his head to the other side from the impact of his punch. While Fahd is temporarily off-balance and stunned, Jeremiah turns, slamming his elbow into the villain's face, driving him staggering back on his feet. With another punch, this time to his foe's mid-section, Jeremiah manages to make him drop the tablets, which flash brightly upon being released from his hands. To Jeremiah's surprise, however, they do not fall to the ground. Instead, they float upward, hovering a short distance above their heads, just out of reach.

On the ground, El-Fahd starts to push his way into a sitting position, working his way back up, as he yells out in indignation. "You fool! You have made me lose the tablets! They will be out of control!"

"I don't think so," Jeremiah responds coolly. "I still have the other tablets...and you're not controlling either set!"

Jeremiah looks up to see the two tablets above their heads, radiating energy and casting a glow that illuminates the room. As the light becomes more intense, Jeremiah and El-Fahd have to shield their eyes, turning their heads away instinctively for a moment from the blinding light that the tablets are generating. Jeremiah traps his tablets under his right arm, shielding his eyes with his left hand.