Homesick

Chapter 14

Over the past few days, Kara began training me. She taught me how to use and throw daggers, she taught me how to climb around small areas and improve my strength. She teached me how to climb and use hook and grip, a climbing material on climbing tall heights. I practiced this using a computer-animated cliff, which seemed real. When i dropped, i fell to the ground, not to my death.

I have to admit, i started slow. Using a pistol, i always shot off target on the target board. It would always go awry. Kara would always shoot straight at the very centre. It made me frustrated beyond belief. With the climbing ropes, i would always fall down halfway and lie there for a long time while i watched Kara climb to the top in a second, as if it was nothing. I would lay sprawled there and Kara would join me to. My thrown daggers would always hit target, onto the wall behind it. I would always lose the fistfight, Kara pushing me onto the ground in the end. With swords, i never could get the hand of it. I couldn't get the hand of anything.

But after a while, something changed. I became somehow better. I could hit near the centre with the pistol after a few days worths of hard training. Not dead centre, like Kara, but it was thrown in the heart area, close enough in the danger zone. I could now climb to the top of the ropes, only a few seconds later than Kara. My daggers would always hit the target. I improved during hand-to-hand fights. I could stand my ground long enough in the fisfight with Kara to stand a chance before she called it quits. My bow and arrows were deemed satisfied by Kara.

One day, i was practicing with my daggers when Kara walked in, looking very concerned.

"Hi," I said, chucking another dagger at the target. It hit dead-centre. I looked back at her concerned face. "What's up?"

"No, it's alright." I said. I raised my eyebrows. "You're getting very good, that's all."

"Thanks," I replied, grinning. "You're a good coach as well."

She smiled and seemed to radiate with light when she smiled. She then looked solemn.

"But why the long face?" I said, looking at her.

"Well, Jack... do you think you're ready?" asked Kara quietly, staring at the ground. She bit her lip.

"Ready for what?" I asked, a hint of concern in my voice.

"Well, here's the thing," she sighed, plopping me on a chair and sliding a mug of steaming coffee towards me. "Claw's weapons are nearly complete."

"What?" I exclaimed loudly, slopping half the coffee over my front. "The weapon's nearly complete? You mean the weapon that will destroy all of New York?"

"Yes," said Kara thickly, handing me some tissues from across the table. "I've spied on him for a few days when you were away. I didn't interfere with him, because you know what happened last time we did.

"We failed to disable the weapon, we got caught by Claw, he beat us up, he interrogated me, we only just got away and then he sent Roamer to hunt us down," I said with a hiccough, counting on my fingers. "Yeah, i see what you mean."

"Exactly," said Kara. "We can't risk that again, we only just got away by sheer luck. This means-"

"Means what?" I asked sharply.

"This means we have to head him on face-to-face." said Kara sternly. "It's the only thing that'll work. We head him face-to-face on the night he plans to use his weapons."

Deathly silence greeted her words. I sighed and pushed the mug away, my insides boiling. Before, i thought that coming with Kara was no big deal, but facing Claw... that was something entirely different.

"But you've seen him." I said, my voice distantly faint. "You've seen him. He'll rip us clean in half in a second."

"That's not the plan," said Kara impatiently, leaning forwards. "Listen, the plan is not to kill Claw or do anything-"

"- but he killed tonnes of people, why not just end him?" I interrupted. My voice sounded a little babyish, i have to admit. "End him, end it all."

"Jack, i've already killed hundreds of people, i'm not killing anymore!" said Kara. She sounded close to tears. "It's not just all fun and games, you know, killing people just because the government forces you to, seeing people die in front of your eyes, waking up and screaming and sweating because of what i  did. I'm only a kid. I never wanted to kill anyone in the first place!"

It sounded like she wanted to say that for a long time. She then sighed and looked down.

"The government forced you to kill people?" I asked slowly and quietly, but inside i was shocked.

"Yes," she said after a moment's hesitation.

"But why you?" I asked curiously. "8 million people in New York and it's you..."

"My dad had this big problem with the government," said Kara coldly. "He was accused of major tax frauds."

"Major tax frauds?" I repeated, puzzled.

"This means he didn't pay his important taxes to the government." explained Kara. "We never had that money. It was big money, the ones only rich people could pay. My dad could never scrape that type of money. He owed the government so much. Too much."

"I thought the government were good people," I said. "They're supposed to help the city."

"They're okay," said Kara, shrugging non-committedly. "They treat the people fair enough. They're just greedy and they'll put money before their people."

"That sounds pretty bad." I said.

"Everyone's government is like that," said Kara, looking thoroughly unconcerned. "Anyway, my dad didn't pay his taxes on time. The government tracked us down, came to our house and demanded the money. Dad tried to explain the situation, but the government didn't accept it. They took me with them. And as a punishment and to remind that the government has power over us, they forced me to become an assassin. I was forced to work with them. They forced me to kill."

"I take that back, that sounds horrible," I said, horrified and shocked. "Why don't you complain?"

"What use is that?" replied Kara, shaking her head. "The government has about a thousand or more people working for them, they're too powerful. I won't be surprised if i complained they gave me a flogging or something."

"They flog people?" I asked, dumbstruck, staring into the distance.

"Yeah, but only sometimes," said Kara. "I've seen one or two, it's pretty nasty."

"Yeah, no kidding," I said grimly. "The government seems horrible."

"I've got a feeling they've just started being horrible," said Kara darkly. "So anyway, we better get going. Claw is heading to the west square in the middle of town tonight, so we better follow him."

"Yeah," I said, my insides churning again with fear. We both walked forwards to our weapons and i slotted a knife, pistol, retractable ropes and smoke bombs inside my belt.

Before we head out of the door, Kara turned to look at me.

"Remember, the fate of New York is in our hands," she said clearly.

I nodded and trying not to dread what would happen, we both walked out of the doors.