The Aces

4. The Betrayal

My ears pounded and I froze, chills running down my spine. I watched in a frightened trance as my coworkers and friends fell one by one. They were being shot with tranquilizer darts from both sides of the room as soon as Mr. Grayus, whom I once trusted, snapped his fingers.

My team stood frozen as well, unable to process the horrid scene happening in front of them. "What the hell are you doing?" My voice trembled as I turned towards the betrayer.

"Katie, Katie,Katie" He villainously chuckled. "You or your team never told me about your background. However, I had to find out by myself. You know, you're very very important. You hold something extremely valuable, daughter of Rayne Zenoc."

I suddenly couldn't breathe anymore, it felt as if the walls were closing in. "He will never be my father, he kidnapped me! Who the fuck do you think you are?" I shrieked and lunged at him.

I felt my team hold me back, knowing that Mr. Grayus was capable of numerous things.

"Here's the thing Katie. I love you a lot, you're like niece to me and I've been watching over you for a while. But money calls, I'm sure you'd want some family time right?" Suddenly men clad in black and armored burst through the ballroom. It was Zenoc.

"You fucking bastard!" Khai spat maliciously.

I was shaking, I couldn't think until I remembered a vital protocol.

I turned around quickly. "You remember what I said right? Be ready at all times." They smiled slightly, I'm thankful they listen to me sometimes.

Suddenly I saw a blonde head pop out under the stage.

Jonah.

"I have backpacks with uniforms guys!" He yelled. "It's survival 101, don't look at me like that."

I didn't even want to question him. "Gaby open the portal to the Beyond! Hurry!"

"We've never been out there! It's dangerous." She worriedly hesitated.

"It doesn't matter, hurry up or we'll get killed!" I quickly pulled out my whip and controlled my electricity to form a blinding ball to get away and blind Mr. Grayus. Khai's electricity formed a humongous hand and knocked down most of the Zenoc's men while Adrian's ninja stars flew at high speeds rounding up the men in the back of the ball room.

The portal finally opened under all of us and quickly shut after Jonah went through. We landed surprisingly soft, but noticed how unsanitary it was. We landed in a pile of dirty clothes just outside the wall of our tiny civilization. I scanned our surroundings. It was just what I had thought it would be, an abandoned, rotting ghost town. Evidence of disease was clearly shown, it was stripped of life.

"So that happened." Jonah said and broke the silence.

"Okay first of all, how the fuck are you not knocked out and how did you get those backpacks with our uniforms in it?" Adrian demanded.

"So, I may or may not have overheard a tall, british black man talking to someone over the bluetooth about tranquilizer darts and trackers right before the ceremony. And may or may not have ran back to our rooms, grabbed supplies and used one of Gaby's rings to open a portal under the stage." He said nonchalantly.

Adrian was delightfully surprised. "You did good buddy but you could've gave us a heads up."

My jaw dropped. Okay, Dray is definitely cancelled. This whole situation means that they know where I am now and they're coming after me as we stand here. I felt like world was coming to an end, there was no way he was going to get me again. I can't let that happen. They won't get me again, It can't happen, It can't happen, It can-

"Kat? Hey, It's okay. It's okay to cry, but just know that we're here for you. We won't let them get to you okay." Khai said with a supporting tone. I tried to speak back but I couldn't do it. I broke down in sobs and felt warm arms wrap around me.

After crying out my anxiety for five minutes, although it felt like an eternity, we went to find shelter in an abandoned retail store nearby. We changed into our uniforms that were in the backpacks and gathered in the middle of the store.

"What do we do now? Where are we going to head to? You don't know what's out here. It's dangerous." Gaby said.

"I'd rather die out here than in the hands of those people." I told her. "Grayus betrayed everyone and our friends are stuck in there. I don't know what he's going to do to them. But for now, we're on the run. We have to leave this place as soon as possible and get far away from Scorchville."

After we settled and sorted our now musty ballroom clothes out in the store, we headed anywhere that could get us farther than the city.

"Kat, what's the plan? Because right now, we don't have a destination to get to. We're just out here, walking towards nothing." Jonah complained.

Khai suddenly stopped as if he remembered something. His face suddenly brightened. "Guys! My watch has a holographic navigation system. I input in everything I could after researching about the Beyond to have a map of the whole world. It's not finished but I'm pretty sure I have to whole state on here!"

"Holy shit, your nerd brain is amazing" Gaby teased him.

He gave her an offended look lightheartedly. "Anyways, you guys are going to want to hear this. There's a rumor that there's still people living out here in villages, even if disease wiped out everything. When I was doing research on the Beyond, Maika walked in. He told me a place called Velunus, which is about seventy miles from here, is filled with people. I even marked the place on my map. Do you guys want to check it out? I mean it's better than nothing that we have right now."

I looked at him as if he was a hero, "Does it look like we want to die out here? Let's go!"

We walked for an hour and the day was coming to an end. We were in the middle of the desert with only one Gas Station and a convenience store on the side of the rode. The only thing we had in our backpacks was water and maybe leftover snacks from our missions before.

"Guys! I see a car, it might not have any gas in it but let's have high hopes. It's getting dark and we have nowhere to rest, we also don't know what's out here." Adrian pointed out.

"Yeah but can anyone drive in this group?" I asked.

"Uh, I can. Let's go see if we can get the car to start." Jonah said.

To my surprise, the car did have gas. Maybe even a full tank. Someone not too long ago was probably here, maybe there are people that live here. However, the problem was that the car battery was dead but what the fuck are our special abilities for?

"Guys, did you forget about your abilities? You can solve the problem." I deadpanned, not impressed.

Khai came to a realization. "Oh shit." With that, he jumped started the car.

Then, an ear piercing screech came from the convenience store. A grotesque figure and skeleton looking figure approached us from the side of the store.

Gaby screamed. "Bitch! What the fuck is that!"

"Everybody get in the car!" I hollered. Everyone scrambled into the car and Kyle hit the gas as fast as he could. We looked back hoping that we would lose that monstrous thing that looked like it came from a fucked up Party City during Halloween. However, the grotesque figure was fast, chasing after the car at high speeds. Everyone was hysterically screaming and didn't know what to do. So I pulled out the whip and flicked it at the skeletal being. The electric band wrapped around it and it was being dragged by the car as it was being electrocuted.

"Oh fuck!" I yelled as the figure's hand wrapped around my whip and slowly tried to pull it off. It was slowly moving because the shock and being dragged around but it shouldn't be able to do that. Not even a human could do that. I quickly let go of the monster and pulled the whip back in. I took a good look at it, and it's eyes were predatory, like it was hungry. It was going to start running again when a blast of electricity hurled at it from the front of the car. It was Gaby and her ring.

I gave her a thankful look. "You guys, we have to get to that village fast. And figure out what those things are."

And we drove until morning.