Clash Of Worlds (10 page)

Cody untied the hands of the last member of the group who had been held captive within the tower. One of the full members had now taken charge of the group. He was a tall dark man known only to the trainee’s as Commander Stewart. The commander was trying to formulate a plan of escape. If truth be told, Cody and Sophie felt a little aggrieved as they felt it should be them in charge, especially considering the fact that they had been the ones responsible for finding and freeing the captives. They both knew however they had to obey their superiors and this Commander Stewart was far above them in rank. The commander’s plan was to still act as if tied up until the guards came back and then rush them in huge numbers. They were twenty-five in number after all, and the commander doubted that twenty-five ninjas would come into the room the next time the men came back. The ninjas had overpowered and out-skilled all of them when they originally came onto the island, but the commander had concluded that their greater number would at least see them out of the room in which they had been imprisoned for many hours.

They all setup positions for the rush. The commander and several others took up station behind the huge door. Cody took up a position on the ground not far from the front of the door. He was to throw sand from the floor into the faces of the ninja guards with the aim to temporarily blind them when they were far enough inside the room. Sophie, Sato and many of the others lay down in the corner of the room pretending to be still tied up. Several hours had passed while they waited.

Cody began to think the guards would never come. He was tired and his stomach rumbled with hunger. He hadn’t eaten for over fifteen hours and his belly gave off another cry for nourishment as he lay on the floor. “Concentrate you stupid son of a bitch,” he said to himself quietly in that Texan accent of his.

Right at that moment, the sound of footsteps could be heard in the distance. The group could hear someone approaching the door, which began to open slowly. The group braced themselves for the assault they had been waiting seemingly an eternity for.

Cody was the first to see who came through the door due to the position he had taken up. He noticed Jade, who had previously left the group disguised in ninja uniform enter the room. She still wore the uniform, but now no mask covered her face. He then realised she had another ninja directly behind her and that Jade’s hands were behind her back. The ninja behind her had a knife to her throat. Rachel soon followed behind them. She was also unmasked and had a knife to her throat courtesy of another ninja. The commander soon realised of what was going on and signalled for the group to hold off the assault. The others, who had been playing dead, rose to their feet as a great number of ninjas entered the room. Their number was at least double the squad. The commander realised they were outnumbered and out matched.

The ninja guards circled around the group, surrounding them. On the outside of the circle, Jade and Rachel still lay captive with blades to their necks. The guards prepared their swords as if to strike. Cody, Sophie and the others prepared for battle. Though they knew they were overmatched, they were not about to give up their lives without a fight. One of the ninja’s cried out a coded signal. The guards charged forward towards the trainee’s trapped inside the circle when suddenly; the fire torch’s that where on the walls curiously began to go out. Cody and the others looked around in confusion as the room was quickly filled with total darkness. Then the sounds of fighting could be heard in the gloom. The sounds of screams and swords crunching together and punches landing and men falling to the floor echoed all around them. Cody couldn’t see a thing but he could only guess that a huge brawl was taking place between the ninjas and the squad members. The fighting went on for several minutes before silence fell on the room.

All the fire torch’s re-lit simultaneously, lighting the room once more. To Cody’s surprise, the exam squads were still stood in the middle of the room close together, just as they had been before the lights went out. The group looked around in confusion as all the ninja guards were now down on the floor. They had been involved in a battle all right, but not with the group huddled in the middle of the room.

“What happened?” asked the confused commander.

Jade and Rachel still stood in the corner, with two men holding them from behind.

“So did you miss me girls?” said a familiar voice.

Out stepped Chad and James from behind the two girls. The twins hugged Chad, overjoyed to see him. James stood next to them a little bewildered they didn’t thank him too.

“Don’t worry about me, I only helped rescue you too,” he said sarcastically.

Jade patted him on the shoulder like a person would do to a dog. “Thanks, James,” she said not sounding overly grateful.

Whilst the fire torches had gone out James and Chad had ambushed the guards. Chad, who always had exceptional eyesight in the dark, was the one who had done the majority of the damage. He had guided James through the dark room to the location of the guards via an earpiece whilst fighting the guards himself.

The group of full organisation members, now joined by James, Chad and the twins began to talk about how they would escape. The commander formed a huge plan and detailed a step by step a strategy, involving scouts and trying to learn the layout of the tower in order to find their way out. James and Chad looked at each other giving a sarcastic look, clearly not impressed by what the commander had to say. The pair had a vital item that would aid their escape and James, out of politeness, was waiting for the commander to finish his long speech before revealing it.

Chad had never been known for his politeness however and he decided to interrupt the commander mid-speech. “Or we could just use this,” he said and motioned to James who reached into his pocket and pulled out a large folded piece of paper.

“What is that?” asked the commander.

“It’s a map of the entire tower,” replied James, handing it over.

The man opened the map and examined it closely. After looking over it for a few moments, the commander asked where they had acquired such a thing and James signalled for the French Archaeologist, who had been waiting outside the room all this time, to enter. The Frenchman walked up next to James and Chad and give a nervous wave to the entire group as they wondered just who an earth this man was.

The commander decided they should make haste out of the tower using the map and the group departed in a rush. They all stayed together in one big unit as they jogged down the dark corridors’ of the tower. As they advanced along James whispered “nice work with the lanterns back there,” to Chad, in reference to the way the lights had gone out suddenly in the room and then come back on at just the right moment. The others didn’t pick up on this back in the room, as they had been pre-occupied with everything else that was going on. James however, was fully aware of what had happened. It was Chad that had mysteriously unlit the fire lanterns and re-lit them without being anywhere near them.

Commander Stewart, James and Chad, were at the front of the pack. The commander knew of the fighting skills of both men and therefore had requested they lead the line with him in case they ran into trouble, which of course they did. The group were halted in their tracks by a loud banging noise in the distance. The corridor began to shake.

“What was that?” asked James.

Another loud bang and the corridor shook once more.

“What’s happening?” asked another one of the students.

Chad looked rather pleased with himself. The commander noticed the look on Chads face and deducted that he knew something.

“What did you do?”

Chad began to address the large group of squad members. “Don’t worry people, everything’s under control!” Chad wasn’t worried about anything. The whole mission was an adventure to him. He was having the time of his life. “Remember the professors lessons? Never leave an enemies stronghold intact!”

“What have you done?” asked the commander, the tone of his voice being that of a demand rather than a simple question.

This is what Chad had been doing during the hours that he and James decided to split up earlier on. Whilst James had discovered the room that had contained the ancient dagger and met the French archaeologist who was accompanying them on their escape, Chad had an adventure of his own.

During Chad’s exploration of the lower levels of the tower, he had come across several things. The first of which was several guards, which he had taken out without so much as breaking a sweat. Each of the guards he had noticed carried a piece of plastic explosive and Chad gathered each of these from his victims. On the very lower levels, Chad had bumped into a gathering of sorts. The leader of all the ninja guards was holding a conference. Around eight men were lined up in an empty room with sand flooring and only four empty stone walls for decoration. Chad had walked in on the meeting whilst the speaker was mid conversation and a voracious battle ensued. The leader had stood on whilst he watched Chad take out seven of this best men. Then he and Chad squared off.

The ninja leader put up a better fight than the rest, but Chads speed and strength was too much for him. The fight ended when Chad threw a powerful punch into the man’s chest. The punch broke all of his ribs and was so fierce, the man had flown back over twenty feet before crashing into the wall. Chad surprised himself with this feat of strength. He looked closely at his fist before nodding to himself in approval. He had found an electronic detonator, which was linked to the plastic explosive. It was at that moment that Chad had formed a plan.

When James and the others learned of Chad’s plan, which you might have guessed was to blow up the tower upon their escape, they were not best pleased. The commander, in particular, was upset with Chad’s actions. However, there wasn’t anything they could do about it now. Chad’s plan was flawed in one key area. He hadn’t anticipated that it would take so long to find the hostages and escape the tower. He had set the explosives to a timer and some of them were beginning to detonate. An explosion hit the corridor above them and several large bricks and debris came crashing down on the group. The group frantically moved out the way to avoid the falling debris, barely managing to do so. Along their travels they came across the odd ninja here and there. James and Chad would move them abruptly from the group’s path as they raced through. Such was the force of the explosions now that the ninja’s themselves were in a state of panic and the majority of them attempted the flee the increasingly unstable structure.

With the help of the Frenchman and the map he had given them, the group managed to get out of the tower in time. The party was only several hundred feet away from the tower when it collapsed due to the explosives. The planter of the explosives smiled as the building crumbled. He was very pleased with himself. The others didn’t share his enthusiasm and several of them glared at him whilst others just shook their heads. They knew they’d been put in unnecessary danger by his actions. James, who usually leapt to the defence of his childhood friend without question, wasn’t pleased with him either. The group walked towards the beach were the ships were waiting to take them home. They walked along in near silence, most of them just simply glad to be alive.

The commander, although relived to still be in one piece, and grateful for James and Chad’s rescue of the group was not pleased with the latter at all. He made his feelings known to him and Chad hadn’t taken the criticism well. He walked ahead of the group alone as his mood began to worsen. As far as he was concerned, he and James were the hero’s of the mission and the commander should have been showering them with praise. James, who had been hanging back with the rest of the group, finally jogged ahead to walk with him. he knew from personal experience that Chad was not the most pleasant person to be around when he wasn’t in a good mood. The truth was Chad could have a very short temper at times.

James cautiously approached him hoping to raise his spirits. “You ok man?”

“Not really. That commanders an asshole.”

“Keep it down, he might hear you.”

“I don’t care if he does,” barked Chad who raised his voice a little. “If it weren’t for me and you, this whole mission would’ve been a failure.”

James said nothing. He knew it would be unwise to disagree with him at this moment, so he simply kept his thoughts to himself and walked along with him. They passed through the woods, which led onto the beach. The ships could be seen in the distance.

The group boarded the ships and departed from the island. As the ships disappeared out of sight, all that was left was the sight of the ocean waves crashing softly against the bank of the beach. Just then, a dark hooded figure emerged from the woods and took one step out onto the sand. The figure left the island immediately and headed north, to a place not of this world…

The hooded figure walked down a long dimly lit path. The sky was black and the night was still. Old oak trees surrounded the person in all directions. The leaves were absent from the branches, as they always were, and the trees showed no sign of life. Several black crows watched on silently as the hooded figure continued onward along the path. Ahead of the figure in the distance was a large castle, looming over the surrounding area like a fortress. This was the dark palace of the kingdom of Underworld. The palace lay in a valley of mountains and sat in the middle of the largest of them all.

Around the mountains lay a forest that stretched for miles. This was known as the cursed forest and there was only one path to the castle through it. Those who ever strayed from the path would be lost forever in the endless mystical labyrinth of the forest. Many from both the worlds of Underworld and Alexandria had tried to explore that forest and forever had they been lost within it, dying from starvation amongst other things. Even Kanto, the king of Underworld feared to venture too far off the path in the cursed forest for legend had it that something else lay within the depths of the trees.