The Gifted (13 page)

On the far side of the dragon was an entrance
to another tunnel where light could be seen. We walked around the
neck of the dragon and, just before we entered, Tracy said, “You
said you were a magical dragon. What did you mean by that?”

“Because I am impossible, and yet I am,” he
said and this time he had a smile on his face.

Tracy walked through the tunnel entrance
along with us.

This tunnel was still rock, but lined with
gems that sparkled in colors of green, red, blue, and purple. We
all knew these were precious gems, but we didn’t try to pry any
lose. We were still thinking about what had just happened. I could
not get the voice of the dragon out of my head.

Eventually we came to a place where we saw a
brighter light. This time the light was not red, but looked more
natural. We walked faster.

The dim light got brighter and it looked like
there was fog at the end of the tunnel ahead. A minute later we
could see out the mouth of the cave and there was sky and ocean and
a warm breeze rushed up to meet us. We were at the edge of the
island; the very place we wanted to go. We were free!

We came out upon a rocky slope. “What do we
do now?” asked Tracy.

I laughed. “I don’t know,” I said. Then I sat
down with my feet hanging out over the rocks below, confused and
tired. I sat looking at the beauty of the ocean and took a deep
breath. An evening fog was coming off the ocean and sunlight was
beaming down in patches. We had spent all day on the run. As I
admired the view, the others sat down and rested with me.

Guido was the first one to break the silence,
“What’s that down there?”

Out in the ocean I saw something long and
black under the surface. At first glance I imagined it must be a
whale because of its size, but it didn’t look quite right. There
was no tail and it was not moving as I would expect. Then I
realized I was looking at the top of a submarine. It must have been
bigger than a football field. It surfaced and through a hatch in
the top came Brock. He was alive! He waved to us and I could tell
he was smiling.

“He made it!” said Guido.

“They got our message!” yelled Tracy.

We began to rapidly climb down the slope.
There were large tan boulders for a little while which ended in
white sand. When we finally did get to the bottom, Brock came out
to meet us. He stood on the shore in a tight green shirt that
looked like he could rip it if he just flexed, and he was still
smiling.

“Hey kids,” he said as we got closer. “You
didn’t think I’d leave you, did you?”

“Thanks Brock,” I said.

“But how did you get help?” asked Tracy.

“You called for a rescue, didn’t you?” he
said.

Speaking into an almost invisible headset he
was wearing, he yelled, “Okay, men. Set it up!” Men prepared
equipment all up and down the beach, getting it from the sub and
putting it together quickly and efficiently.

“I hate to break it to you,” said Brock “but
we’re not home yet. We brought the war to you.”

“War?” asked Guido, who must have been
somewhere behind me.

“The description in your message made it
clear we needed to take action soon. I’d say get in, but I’m not
sure it’s any safer in there than out here. And who wants to be
trapped in a metal tube under water?”

I was bone tired and just wanted to lay down
and take a nap.

“Okay, what can I do?” said Guido.

“Glad you asked, Guido,” said Brock. “The
thing is, you are our secret weapon.”

“How’s that?” he asked.

“You are virtually invisible,” said Brock.
“That means no one will see you if you sneak up on them. If you see
a problem, you take it out. Kind of like a sniper, but without the
high powered gun.”

“Any chance I can get a gun?”

“That would take away your advantage,” said
Brock. “They’d see you for sure.”

“Okay, big guy,” said Guido. “Secret weapon,
that’s me.”

“Tracy,” said Brock. “Do you have that whole
fire thing mastered?”

“Better,” she said. “What do you. . .”

And that was when the planes came.
“Incoming!” yelled Brock into his headset. So much for our
reunion.

Three explosions happened almost immediately
on my left and machine gun fire whizzed by also on my left. Brock
was shouting orders, which I couldn’t hear because of the noise of
the bombs and fire. I found that I had dropped to my knees with the
first explosions, but Brock grabbed me by the arm and lifted me
up.

He tried to yell something to me as he
pointed to a long black metal tube, but I couldn’t hear. There was
a loud ringing in my ears, punctuated by more explosions.

Brock put a meter long rocket in my hands and
pointed to a box of them behind him. It was a bazooka and ammo. I’d
seen them in old movies. More explosions, two, just in front of us.
It scared me to death! At first I closed my eyes, but then felt
Brock shake me. He pointed again to the rockets. The one in my hand
had fallen to the ground.

I looked up just in time to see that there
were already dozens of robots, scurrying like giant spiders with
heads suspended above their legs, running down the slope and they
were firing guns. Bullets hit all around me. How could I still be
alive?

Then one exploded in front of us. I had
barely seen the streak of the rocket that must have come from
Brock. He was already reaching back and grabbing another out of the
box, and I did nothing.

A plane buzzed lower over our heads and more
machine gun fire, but much of it seemed aimed at the sub and those
just getting out.

Two men fell off the sub, hit, and splashed
into the water which turned red where they landed.

Behind the robots, enemy soldiers were
charging down the bank. Then more and more until there were
probably well over a hundred. They fired and ran like mad men.

How could I still be alive?

Three soldiers who charged us had their pants
instantly combust and they dropped to the ground and rolled in any
sand or dirt they could find. I didn’t even know where Tracy
was.

Another explosion behind me too close to the
box, and now I couldn’t close my eyes. Now I had to see what was
going to happen!

Brock launched another rocket that blew up
one spider robot, which in turn blew up the one next to it.
Soldiers ran on past it and now an enormous explosion to our right
erupted and sand and water sprayed down on us.

How am I alive in all this? I thought.

Looking to my right I could see two men down,
probably dead, while another was moving slowly, rocking back and
forth. Then even closer to me than those men (how could I have
missed it?) Han was kneeling and making paper airplanes, with four
or five already circling overhead on their own, and as he looked
up, his face wore an expression of perfect calm. Like he does this
every day.

He finished making another plane and sent it
up with the rest and then pointed his finger, like a wizard in old
books, and the planes all zoomed off in the sky.

In front of me again Brock was firing another
rocket. This one hit one robot that was almost directly in front of
us, and smashed it back to hit another before both exploded. Now
there were fewer robots on the beach, but they were upon us, and I
knew I was dead.

I could see Brock shouting orders through his
headset and reloading, but I still couldn’t hear anything except
ringing in my ears and explosions. And I thought more of Han and
his perfect calm.

A robot came toward us from the right and
towered over me. This was it.

I prepared myself to die and realized I
didn’t know how. Something slammed into the top section of the
robot, knocking its head sideways. It tried to correct itself but
as it did, it was hit again and again. Finally its spindly neck was
permanently bent. As I watched, its head bent toward me and I could
see a paper airplane repeatedly smashing into its head. But how
could that be? It was only paper.

As the robot crashed to the ground a few feet
away from me I heard more shots high above and I looked up and saw
the jets in some sort of dogfight, but what they were fighting
seemed invisible. A jet had fire coming out from one engine and
then it just exploded. A parachute was falling from the plane.

Now there were only two more robots further
down the beach on my right, and soldiers were peppering them with
machine gun fire.

Enemy soldiers were now fighting many of our
men hand to hand or with guns at close range. One ran up to us from
my left, but Brock was too busy reloading the bazooka. I prepared
to defend myself or die and as I finally stood to my feet, the man
just crumpled to the ground in front of me. Something touched me on
my shoulder and I jerked around to fight, but it was Guido. In his
right hand was a bloody big rock. He smiled and then ran on.

I looked ahead at Brock who was sweating and
breathing hard. He was grabbing his right shoulder and his shirt
had a bloody patch running down his back.

Then I heard two explosions above me and saw
two more planes in flames going down. One crashed into the hill in
front of us, but when I saw this I was amazed at how few soldiers
were left on the enemy’s side. There were no robots, and no planes
overhead.

Three more soldiers who were fighting with
our men had their pants catch on fire and they dropped to the
ground.

Further to my left an enemy soldier just fell
to the ground for no apparent reason, and then another and then
another. Guido.

And then it was over. We were the only ones
left, a lot fewer than we’d hoped, but we won. And I had done
nothing. I looked over and there was Han, still on his knees,
smiling.

Brock gave orders on his radio while the men
got their gear together and were already marching out and up to the
top of the hill. As I was climbing up a rock, Brock came up behind
me and put his hand on my shoulder, “Hey, don’t let the past push
you. Ignore what happened and start over.” I could barely hear him
above the ringing in my ears.

We crested the hill with the sun before us on
the horizon. I was thinking about what Brock said when I saw in
front of us a large army of animals and students who were waiting
at the top. I looked up at Han and he looked at me, “These must be
the animals we saw earlier,” I said. “Where’s Hayasa?”

Before I realized what I was seeing, a streak
of barking fur raced past me. He yelped and in general disturbed
many of the animals faced against us. Animals tend to get scared
easily, and these were no different. Hayasa caused such a
disturbance that many of those controlling the animals were trying
desperately to calm them down. Hayasa raced around and around them,
kicking up dust and dirt as he ran.

A loud roar went up from their army. At the
center, a boy with dark hair and a stern expression was riding on
the back of the tiger that had entered my training room earlier. It
was Derek. The tiger had no fear of Hayasa and had no fear of us. I
wondered if he had the kind of gift Hayasa had. If so, we were in
trouble.

But now I figured out Derek’s gift; he was
able to control animals. That’s why Derek was never concerned with
having a tiger in our practice room.

Derek yelled and those who had control of
their animals ran toward us screaming. A boy was riding an
Elephant. The elephant ran right through our soldiers and our
weapons like running through a grass field, men falling left and
right. Then it disappeared for a few seconds and reappeared. An
invisible elephant? Two eagles flying close together lifted up a
man next to me and carried him off. I ducked and ran for cover.

Our men opened fire. Animals fell wounded or
dead all around me. It was a slaughter! They might have been fast
or invisible at times or have other strange gifts, but they were
not bulletproof. It was kind of sad in a way, but if we didn’t
fight them they were out to kill us, and some of our men were still
dead before the end.

There were two who were not such an easy
target: Derek and the tiger. Together they seemed bulletproof.
Nothing we threw at them made a difference. Anyone who got near
them were trampled or run over. Derek was riding on some kind of
saddle. Then I thought of something. If we could unlatch the saddle
so it fell off, then
he
would fall off. We could do this. I
knew we could.

I found Tracy. I told her of my idea and she
nodded. Most of the battlefield was quieting down except Derek and
the tiger. As the tiger came near us to pounce again, I saw Tracy
close her eyes. But before she could finish, the tiger charged her,
knocking her down. It stood over her with its teeth near her
throat. Without a thought in my head, I screamed and ran at the
tiger.
Not my friends!
I felt the anger I had felt earlier
and it was unleashed.

Derek and the tiger turned toward me,
surprised. I knew I didn’t have any weapon, I had no combat
experience, and now I was going up against a bulletproof tiger, but
I didn’t care. I didn’t care about any of it because I was mad. I
ran screaming like a crazy person. As I did so, the tiger got off
of Tracy and turned toward me.

“Noooo!” I was clearly out of control. “I’m
gonna feed you to my dog!” I screamed. The anger had built up and
now I couldn’t control it and I was going to get myself killed. I
was just a few steps away when I realized something, I was about to
die. And I remembered Han. I wished I felt the same calm. At least
I will have saved one person.

Tracy was starting to sit up. I took the last
two running leaps and then something weird happened. Derek, who had
been on top of the tiger just fell off the other side. I crashed
into the side of the tiger, who ignored me. I bounced off, but not
like you would bounce off a soft animal. Because of this animal’s
gift, he did not feel soft but like iron. When I hit the side of
the tiger it was like hitting a tank. It seemed to happen in slow
motion. First my arm crumpled beneath me, then my right knee hit it
and bounced back, but because of my momentum I kept going. My
shoulder and chest hit at the same time as the side of my face. I
was lucky that I had been turning sideways with my head or I would
have broken my nose. When my face hit the side, the pain finally
registered.