Chapter 25

The nurse walked up the long flight of stairs inside the library. Morning sunlight streamed through the amber-tinted windows. The whole building had been largely abandoned, with most ransacking nearby homes, stealing what they could carry, and leaving. Some stayed back in the village, enjoying that they could do whatever they wanted with Cassius and its villagers with little to no resistance.

Her footsteps echoed as she took one step at a time, careful not to spill the nectar and tea on her tray.

She quietly glided inside the bedroom door, shutting and locking it behind her. She placed the tray on the bedstand next to Addilynn, sitting next to her. Mixing the concoction of nectar and herbal tea. Slowly, she fed the tube of the funnel down the woman's throat, stopping when it reached her stomach. She placed her index and middle finger on Addilynn's wrist; the pulse was there but faint. "This won't sustain you forever; we just need to hope that he finds whatever he needs and gets it to you soon," the nurse said to herself, pouring the nectar tea into the funnel and watching the liquid drain into her stomach.

"Hey, guys! Look at this!" Zoe yelled, holding up a piece of paper. She walked from the front door to the kitchen to show both of them.

"Huh? What is it?" Colson asked, getting up from the table to look at the paper.

"I guess there are a couple of villagers still left, and they want help with the remaining group members. It was just taped to the front door. If the villagers are thusly using energy...Where's Ivy?"

"She's outback 'training,'" he said, doing visible air quotes.

Zoe glanced out the back door, seeing Ivy hanging upside down from a tree branch in the backyard.

"What are you doing?" Zoe asked, looking up at her.

Sweat dripped from Ivy's face, "Trying to get my energy," she grunted between crunches.

"Oh, well, the villagers want to meet us in a few minutes."

"You guys can go ahead."

"You aren't coming?"

"She's right," Colson said, "Someone should probably watch the house."

Zoe and Colson walked through the shop's doorway near Cassius's outskirts. It resembled an average gas station from the outside. Two pickup trucks sat in the grass outside. One was flipped, and each tire was visibly slashed. The other had several bullet holes in the hood.

The villagers had moved the shelves inside to block any lines of sight from outside. They placed some in the middle of the store, while they put a couple near the large front window.

The small bell above the front door chimed as Colson slowly opened it; they heard the talking from the back of the store instantly die down. A tall man wearing a broad animal fur fedora with earflaps and red tassels going down to his chest and a bright orange sleeveless t-shirt stuck his head out from behind a shelf.

"Oh, good, you made it," he said with a friendly smile. "They said you guys were young, but wow. The rest of us are just discussing…some things. Here, follow me," he disappeared back behind the isle.

Zoe gave Colson a wary look; she reached down to her leg, unsheathing the smaller of her two blades, holding it behind her back. She nodded at Colson for him to continue forward.

"Imagine dressing like that," he muttered under his breath.

Behind the shelf, a group of eight people sat around in a circle. Some sat on chairs and gas cans, others on the floor, and one lay on a shelving deck—looking half asleep.

A man with a greying beard wearing a brown leather jacket, jeans, and white cowboy boots stood up and introduced himself as 'Pai.' "I'll restate what I said earlier…The terrorist, Kiari, and his group are very close to succeeding. We know that Jashin and his old friend Idris have trapped them. Most of their men have evacuated upon learning that their leaders have disappeared, but there are still stragglers. Enough for them to still be a large threat."

"Hold on," Colson said, "There's still stragglers? Where?"

"We don't have time to explain it to you, kindergarteners, alright." A woman said, glaring at the two colonists. Thin and pale, with freckles splashed across her face. She wore black boots, black cargo pants, and a tight camo t-shirt. She had spikey red hair that ended just above her shoulders. "We should just get to the point; they can figure it out themselves." She stared at both of them; they gave her dirty looks in return.

"Wow there," Pai said, "We don't need to be like that. We're all here for the same purpose."

The man wearing the fedora spoke up, "He's right, Challen. They might know something that you don't," he smiled.

Challen rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right. Do they even know energy? Listen, Fuji, they're just gonna get in the way."

Zoe frowned, "Is she mad at us? What did we do?"

Fuji turned to the two. His tassels whipped in the air as he did so. "Energy is what's called-"

Colson interrupted, "Yeah, we know what it is," he glared at the woman named Challen.

Pai cleared his throat, "At the moment, we know of the location of thirteen of Kiari's henchmen. About half of them are in the bar, and the others are a little harder to track down, but they're ransacking houses on the north side."

"Ask them if any of the henchmen know energy," Zoe whispered to Colson. He turned and asked for her.

Pai thought for a moment, "I know for certain three of them do. I'm not sure which ones or where they're located, though. But we should get down to business. We need as many people as possible because only three of us here know energy. Me, Fuji, and that man over there," he pointed at the guy lying on the store shelf; his eyes fluttered awake as he muttered something before they closed again. "Since you were sent by Crater to handle this situation, we knew that you'd be helpful, so that's why we asked you here."

"Uh, yeah, definitely," Colson said, avoiding Pai's eye contact.

"Wasn't there supposed to be three of you?" Challen asked.

"Well, she's not here," Colson said.

The woman scoffed, "Yea, no shit. Where is she?"

"Learning energy, which is something you are too stupid to do!"

Challen grinned, "Well, I just don't think you can be useful."

Fuji rubbed his temple, "Challen, can we not right now?"

Leaning in, she hissed in his ear, "Listen! I don't need some dead kids on my conscience, alright?"

Zoe gritted her teeth, "How is she going to talk to us about being useful! Where was she these past few days?" She thought.

"Come on then, do you have anything at all you can offer us? Because frankly, I think you should just leave."

"Oh, give me a break," Zoe muttered, looking down at the floor.

"Huh? What was that?"

"I don't know how you're going to talk about us being useless when you haven't done anything! We have been here with Jashin and Idris! We helped with the werewolf guy! We are going to fight Kiari and the other two! What have you done? What have any of you done?"

"Hey!" Pai yelled. "Will you guys knock it off?"

"They started it!" both Colson and Challen yelled in unison.

Pai stood up, "Alright, so it's agreed upon. Colson and Fuji's group will go search the bar, and the rest of us shall go get the northern stragglers. Any complaints? Any questions?" Colson's group comprised Colson, Ivy, and Zoe, while Fuji's group had Fuji and two other people.

Challen walked up to Colson and Zoe; she looked down her nose at them; none of them spoke—a few seconds of silence. Colson glared back at her while Zoe awkwardly fidgeted, staring into the distance. Challen crouched down so she was at eye level with both of them.

"Hey," she said, "you wanna know a helpful way of unlocking your energy?"

Zoe glanced at her, squinting warily. Her eyes bounced from her to Colson, unsure whether to trust her.

"Sure," Colson said, his body language being standoffish as he continued to scowl at her.

"Alright, so I found a couple of things helpful. If you think about something or someone you love while meditating. Or maybe an event that has happened that was really important or affected you in a positive or negative way. You should find a comfortable stance or sitting position, control your breathing and think about that. For me, it's all about relaxing, so the glands in your body and brain open up. I'd tell that to your friend as well. I don't know, just some advice," she shrugged and turned to walk toward her group.

"Thank you," Zoe said. Challen looked back and grinned.

Fuji turned to them, "Alright, go get your friend, and meet us back here!"

"How you doing down there?" Colson asked, looking down at Ivy, flat on her back, covered in sweat.

"Good," she said between breaths.

Zoe looked around the backyard. The tree Ivy had previously hung from had deep holes covering its trunk. To Colson, it looked like someone had spent their afternoon punching it. Part of the fence had collapsed; a massive boulder had appeared next to the downed wood. Many stray pieces of loose rope littered the grass.

"What were you doing?" Zoe asked.

"Carrying around that rock over there," Ivy said, her hand limply gesturing in its direction, "you should try it."

"Well, we were told that it's better to just do the stereotypical meditation. Also, to think about someone or something important to us. Like an event that happened."

Ivy got to her feet, "An event, huh?" She clicked her tongue in thought, "alright, that makes sense," she said; an empty grin crossed her face.

"Hey, Ivy," Colson grinned, "you wanna go beat up some drunks?"

Jogging through the streets of Cassius, it was still silent and baron. Colson scowled at the empty houses. "Well, this is just glum," he complained.

The bar was a low-hanging, dingy wooden building. Its dusty windows were cracked, with a steady stream of light coming from inside. The door creaked loudly as the six of them walked inside. Most of the chairs and tables were upturned and pushed to the room's perimeter. Liquor bottles, beer cans, and shot glasses littered the ground; around the mess stood five men of different ages and heights. A skinny woman was positioned behind the bar, leaning on it for support, as her bored gaze looked over the group as they entered.

"So, what do you want?" A short, muscular man with a face tattoo reading "KTA" over his right eyebrow, wearing a black hoodie with cut-off sleeves, tight white pants, and white sneakers. "Wow, that's strong," he muttered after taking a long drink from a glass bottle.

Colson gritted his teeth in disgust, 'More drunken bastards,' he thought, 'such trash….'

Fuji took a few steps forward; everyone in the room's eyes was trained on him. They all looked laid back and relaxed, but Ivy could tell they were a hair-trigger away from jumping into action if they needed to.

Fuji knit his eyebrows in confusion, "where do I know that tattoo from?" He cleared his throat. "We're here to discuss some things with you. Would you please leave Cassius?"

After several seconds of dense silence as they all stared at Fuji with wide eyes, they broke into hysterical laughter.

"Dude, you really dropped the ball on that one," Colson mumbled.

A heavy dark-skinned man in cargo shorts and a cut-off button-up, a lit cigar in his mouth, sat cross-legged on the ground and wiped a tear from his eye, "You know, a week or so ago, we were asked the same thing by some of your villagers," he stopped laughing, and his face turned serious, "Now their bodies are at the bottom of a river."

Another muscular man glared at the group, taking a few steps toward Fuji. "So, which one of you wants to die first? The big three used to make those decisions, but they aren't here right now. So we get free reign!" His face was covered by a hoodie.

"What's there to discuss? It doesn't look like any of you have anything of value on you, so unless you're gonna make us rich, then this is it for you!" The gelatinous man had to roll to a nearby chair to push himself to his feet. "Hey, Poatan, let me take this," he said, looking at the man with the face tattoo, who grunted and went back to drinking. Fatty placed the lit cigar on the wooden countertop.

He stomped his feet and got into a sumo wrestling stance, a wild look crossing his face. "The name's Chizo; normally, I would run the gauntlet right here, take you all out one after the other…." He closed his eyes. A low hum reverberated through the bar as his face contorted into a painful grimace as the sound slowly increased in volume. After almost ten seconds, he let out a yell as a tiny brown aura surrounded him. A small bead of sweat dripped from his forehead as he opened his eyes, a cocky grin plastered on his face. "But, since I'm not the only one here, we'll make it a game!"

"A game?" Ivy's eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"Well, it's up to you. You really only have three choices. One: figure out an order in which you'll fight us. Two: attempt an escape, and die in the process. Three: surrender to us!"

"Surrender?" Colson asked, "What do you want from us?"

Zoe glanced around, looking at the faces of everyone in the room. She noticed that most of Fuji's group to her, seemed nervous. She glanced suspiciously at Chizo, "Is he holding back?" Zoe thought. "We were all able to produce a larger and more intense aura with only a minuscule amount of Jashin's energy inside us. He took much longer to activate that too. I don't know enough about energy yet, to make a clear judgment of him; this is so frustrating!"

"If you're gonna choose the first option, you will pick one from your side to fight me. If you somehow win, that person will move on and fight someone else from our side until they lose or beat all of us. When I win, I will continue to fight you until I either lose or win.

"If you chose the second option…." A large grin creased across his pudgy face, "It'll annoy me for sure. We will end up capturing you. Maybe a little torture if we feel like it.

"I wouldn't try your luck with the third option. You'd be getting us all riled up for a fight just to blue-ball us at the last second. Most of you would end up dying. I wouldn't kill any of you girls; killing you would be a bit of a waste, don't you think? We'd have to release ourselves in other ways!"

Colson leaned towards Fuji, "I think Poatan is the leader of these guys—That guy back there with the tattoo. What should we do?"

"We'll choose the first option," Fuji called out.

Zoe looked at him, 'I hope he knows what he's doing. If I had to guess, I'd say their plan is to slowly wear us down and remove our morale by taking people down one by one. But since no one knows who else has the use of energy and if they can do the same things as Jashin and Idris, then the next person would know what the abilities are and can start thinking of a strategy.'

Chizo held out his hand, "Whoever is going first, shake my hand, and after we've made contact, the fight will start!"