Chapter Fifty-One: Know a Guy

  Siran, Holly, Blake, Tanya, Mikoto, Satomi and Haru travel on the large Chinese carrier ship across the sea. As they travel, Mikoto noticed Siran has been unusually quiet. Siran remained on the deck of the ship, staring off in the distance often as they traveled. However, he rarely talked. "Is everything with him okay?"

  "Well, Zia is still missing..." Blake says.

  "No, I get that" Mikoto says. "But he doesn't quite seem like... Siran, you know?"

  "I guess that's true" Satomi agrees.

  "We're heading to enemy territory, and that's the thing you're worried about?" Holly asks.

  "Well, yeah" Mikoto says. "Because, if it's Siran, I'm sure he'd have something to get us out alive. But since he's like this... I'm not so sure now."

  "You feel like you're losing your captain?" Haru asks.

  "In some way, yes" Mikoto replies.

  "As reckless as he usually is..." Holly adds, "this does seem unusually crazy, even for him."

  "Sure, but" Blake adds, "I'm sure he's still got something up his sleeve. Right?" Blake looks around as everyone was silent. "Right?"

  "Look" Holly says, "I've known Siran for a long time. Even at his lowest he's tried to protect us before. I'm not sure if he's got something up his sleeve or just makes it up as he goes... but like it or not, that's the state of our captain now. We don't have the luxury of backing out on him. As much as we've all waited on him these past two years and counted on him... he now is waiting on us and is counting on us. Got it?"

  "Yeah" Tanya agrees. "Holly's right. Siran is a beaten man. It's up to us to help him back up."

  "But that also means it's up to us to keep Japan's forces alive" Haru adds. "Keep in mind, this is officially war. Our people are out here with us. If he doesn't step up to help protect our people, then we risk losing everything."

  After several hours of traveling across the sea, they finally arrive near the coast eastern China, outside of Shanghai. They planned to move along the coast, using their current firepower to eradicate any ongoing threats they see along the way that'd give China the ability to send in reinforcements from all sides as they approached their real target. They planned to take these naval carriers directly to Hong Kong. Not long after entering the East China Sea, jets and tanks were sent out to attack the carriers. As they all rode past the coasts, keeping their distance from the shore, they'd take out any planes and tanks they came across. They traveled 928 miles on sea, from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Though they had to shoot down many tanks and jets, there didn't seem to be nearly as much resistance as they had originally anticipated. However, when they arrived outside of Hong Kong, they could already see smoke rising into the dark sky, lit up by fires. There was already another attack ensuing on China's soil. "What the hell is going on?" Holly asks.

  "Don't know" Haru responds. "We haven't been able to hear anything about war going on inside of China."

  "Who do you think is behind it?" Tanya asks.

  "Only one way to find out" Siran says. "Stop the carrier. We've come close enough. We'll be taking one of the amphibious tanks from the ship's docking station up to land. As for the rest, maintain control of the carriers and defend against any enemy armor vehicle you see. As for my crew, get ready. We're going in."

  As the crew ran from the deck of the ship, all the way to the back to board one of the tanks, the ships all came to a stop far from the shores of Shek O Beach. From there, the crew rode a tank across the waters and onto the beach. They were met with no resistance yet, and as they ventured forward, they couldn't find any signs of anyone nearby. They ventured deeper into Hong Kong Island as they saw people on the streets burning and protesting, fighting the police and military with bare hands and no weapons. The civilians were scared and startled as they saw a Chinese tank approach from behind. Though, when The Six Guns were the ones who came out from the tank, the soldiers began to worry and desperately try to shake the civilians off of them. Some of the soldiers and police officers threw civilians to the ground and started beating them over the head with batons as others took out guns and immediately fired at Siran and the rest. Holly stopped them from getting hit, with a large digital shield. Siran used magic to pull a slab of rock and cement road up from the ground to act as a thick piece of cover to hide behind as they formed a quick plan. Their cover was large and blocked most of the road. Many of the civilians hid behind the rocky cover with them. "What on Earth is going on?" Holly asks.

  "Li Xiaobai" one of the citizens says. "He's refused to give up his position as president. They removed the limit of one man's term as president in China and he's refused to leave since. From then, he's attacked Hong Kong constantly, and trying to force people into the military to do as he says. Well, we've had enough of it! And with most of the military efforts being focused on Japan, we took our chance to fight back!"

  "Doesn't seem like it's going well for you" Haru says.

  "This is why it is called a fight" the man says. "If it were easy, we would call it something else."

  "As for Li Xiaobai" Siran says. "Is he still cowering away in Taipei?"

  "As one who believes he is higher than man does..." the civilian responds.

  "Great" Siran says as he stands up from behind the cover and begins to shoot back at the soldiers. Siran uses digital shields to block, but Holly joins in on shooting and protecting Siran.

  Blake follows behind Holly and tries to protect their backs as the crew moves up. Though there were plenty of soldiers, the soldiers simply couldn't move freely due to the resistance from the civilians. Pushing through them was faster and easier than they had originally thought. But something seemed off to Blake. "Question:" Blake says. "The president isn't in Hong Kong!?"

  "He rarely ever would be" Holly replies.

  "Then why did we come here!?" Blake asks.

  "A hostage" Siran says.

  "What are you planning?" Haru asks. "I figured we'd be coming here for something important, since we passed right by Taiwan... but, a hostage? Do you think that'll work!?"

  "Only for a little bit!" Siran replies as he shoots. "It'll be someone important enough to keep the police and common soldiers out of our way, as well as maybe even get us close to Li's front doors. But he won't be important enough after that point. The rest of the people in this government likely think they're higher than normal people. They don't mind shooting their own kind."

  "And I pray you have a plan after that!?" Tanya asks.

  "Something like that..." Siran replies.

  "Something like... excuse me!?" Tanya asks.

  "Here's a thought" Blake protests. "How do you think we're going to find someone important like that to begin with!?"

  "Don't worry" Holly says. "We know a guy."

  "Haru, make sure you bring the tank with us" Siran says.

  "On it" Haru responds promptly as she turns around and gets in the tank.

  After a while, the crew escapes the crowd and gets lost in the darker parts of the city where power has been cut. They hide the tank in an alleyway and cover it with a tarp. Then, the crew behind to walk deeper into the city, into Wan Chai. They approach the police headquarters, then watched and waited from across this busy street. For a while, it seemed like they were sending an infinite amount of police officers and spreading them out all around the city. At the very back was a familiar face in a nicely dressed suit. Zhang Wei, pointing his finger furiously towards the south as he yells something inaudible to some of the officers as they run out of the building. After they all leave, Zhang Wei was left behind as he angrily shakes his head in anger and goes back inside the office building. The crew runs up to the building and Holly takes out her laptop and begins to hack a keypad to a staff entrance of the building. This door is locked but there's no cameras pointing to this door. It was the quietest way inside, but to do it, she needed to get the door unlocked. The crew waited impatiently as Holly did her work. Finally, a quiet beep was heard as the light on the keypad turned green and a lock inside the door could be heard unhinging. The crew successfully got inside. They ran into a lobby as a girl working for the police sat at the lobby desk. She saw the crew, but before she could make any noise or call for help, Holly used digital magic to cast a digital sound barrier to stop her from calling for help. Haru quickly swept up from behind her and put her in a headlock until the desk worker passed out from a lack of oxygen. Haru placed the desk worker carefully on the ground and released her as they continued deeper into the building. "Good thinking with that sound barrier, Holly" Haru says.

  "Eh" Holly says. "Not my first time breaking into this place to kidnap this guy in specific."

  "That worries me" Satomi says. "That worries me a lot."

  After some time of searching the nearly empty building, they ran into Zhang Wei. Zhang Wei immediately draws his gun and shoots, but Holly deflects his shots. Zhang Wei tries to flee, but the floor under his feet directly shifts and suddenly sprang up just a few centimeters, causing him to trip. Zhang Wei hits his head on the tile floors and looks up, only to see Holly pointing her sniper rifle down at him, with the barrel nearly touching his nose. Zhang Wei reluctantly puts his hands up in surrender as Holly kicks the gun out of his hand and across the floor. "Get up" Holly says.

  "What is it this time?" Zhang Wei asks. "Your little friend was freed almost twenty years ago."

  "Yeah well" Siran says as he walks up to Zhang Wei. "We have bigger plans."

  "Like what?" Zhang asks.

  "You're going to get us some face time with Li Xiaobai" Siran says.

  "And then what?" Zhang asks. "Die like dogs? Ha-ha-ha! What do you plan on doing while there?"

  "That's for us to know" Siran says. "And for you to find out. Now get on your feet."

  "Wait! Wait!" Zhang pleads. "I can't go there with you! They'll mark me as a traitor and have me killed!"

  "That's not our problem, now is it?" Siran asks.

  "But- then... Li! Where is former office Li?" Zhang asks.

  "You mean Ying?" Holly asks. "She's not here. What's it to you?"

  "I'll make you a deal!" Zhang pleads. "I can lead you there, but I want you to protect me! I'll surely die if they see me with you! But I want you to guarantee me protection!"

  "Again, that's not our problem" Siran says.

  "In exchange!" Zhang interrupts. "In exchange, I'll help you get someone. Someone important. Li- I mean... Ying, as you know her. This is someone who's important to Ying."

  "What are you getting at?" Holly asks.

  "He'll help you too!" Zhang says. "He's located in a prison like Ying once was. He goes by the name of Master Chao. Master Li Xiu Chao."

  "And the reason he's in prison?" Siran asks.

  "Exactly what you'd expect" Zhang says. "For going against the president."

  "Lead the way" Siran says as he picks up Zhang and ties his hands behind his back. Holly then removes all of his charms as they proceed out of the building and then sneak him out of town and into the tank that was still hidden in the alleyway.

  Zia struggled to see straight, after she hit her head on the tree. Her phone fell out of her pocket, and stumbled across the grassy floor of the forest, as a possessed Thomas Holland crawled on the ground towards him with four arms made of pure endo stretch out from his back. He rapidly crawls up to Zia, his jaw unhinging and exposing razor sharp teeth as his face comes close to Zia's face. Just as it felt like Thomas was about to bite off Zia's face, a knife came down from the sky, shining bright white, and summoning lightning that pierced through Thomas like a spear. A loud thud was heard as Zia flinched. Suddenly, her head popped off her pillow as she was breathing heavily and sweating nervously. She looked around and she was lying on a mat which laid on the ground and a small pillow just below her head. She heard a female voice, from a person named Felicia Keyes. "Bad dream again?" Felicia asks.

  Zia nods her head and quietly says "Yeah..."

  "What happened?" Felicia asks. "You seem to be getting them a lot."

  "Well, there was this strange man..." Zia says. "He was like a human, but... he wasn't human. I'm not sure who he was, but he wanted... to kill me. He didn't have arms, he had these sort of black arm shaped tendrils coming out of his back and these razor sharp teeth. I think he was trying to eat me?"

  "Like a zombie?" Felicia asks.

  "Zombie?" Zia asks. "Yeah... I guess so."

  "Then what happened?" Felicia asks.

  "Well... that was it" Zia says.

  "And you say you don't know the guy?" Felicia asks. Zia nods, then Felicia snickers and says "the least a guy could do before eating a girl out is take them to dinner, am I right?"

  "Hey!" Zia complains.

  "Relax, girl. I'm kidding!" Felicia says as she laughs. "Seriously though, are you sure you don't know the guy?"

  "Not that I can... recall" Zia says.

  "You sure nothing else happened?" Felicia asks. Zia rubs the back of her head, then winced in pain because of the soft spot on the back of her head from her injury. "Be careful" Felicia says. We only just recently took off the bandages. Your head hasn't fully healed though.

  "In my dream" Zia says, "I had hit my head on something..."

  "On a tree?" Felicia asks.

  "I think so. I didn't see it" Zia says.

  "Well, we did find you with your skull cracked open, by a tree" Felicia says.

  "I know, I know..." Zia says.

  "Think it's related to my accident?" Zia asks.

  "Maybe?" Felicia replies. "Did you fight any zombies recently?"

  "Zombies aren't real, Felicia" Zia says. "Besides, I really don't know... I still can't remember anything. I don't even know who I am..."