by Shoraz
Taylor then put full power on her airmobile, and the others followed in an attempt to evade the incoming attack, but the speed of the knights was far superior, and they were gaining ground quickly.
“Roy it’s Taylor, we’re under attack and we’re headed your way. Do you copy?” Taylor shouted over the open radio in hopes that Roy would hear her message, but there was no reply.
“I repeat – Roy, it’s Taylor, we’re under attack and we’re headed your way. Do you copy?” she shouted again, but there was only silence, and again she began to repeat her call for help to Roy, then to her delight a voice came over the radio.
“We copy you Taylor – how much longer until you get here? – Over,” Roy said to the relief of Taylor.
“About an hour, we’re being trailed by a small army of knights so get everyone ready for a fight,” Taylor shouted.
“We copy you Taylor – Roy over,” and with that Roy and his fellow outlaws prepared their weapons and defenses and waited.
Then unexpectedly, one of the tires blew out on one of the ground vehicles and it rolled over, and everyone stopped and rushed towards it and moved quickly to try and get the occupants out.
As they made their way to the overturned vehicle, three of the four occupants managed to get out but the fourth occupant was trapped. Some of the outlaws tried helping him to get out but his leg was caught and in the panic of the situation and with the knights quickly approaching the trapped outlaw told them to get away and leave him behind.
For even though the outlaws were known for being ruthless, many of them were loyal to their fellow outlaws and put them ahead of themselves.
The outlaws continued trying to pull him out but were unsuccessful, and Ava then approached the vehicle, she then focused on the metal that was keeping the outlaw trapped, and suddenly the metal gently warped, and the outlaw was free and he was pulled to safety.
Everyone looked on in amazement but were quickly brought back to reality as Taylor shouted to them to get back into their vehicles and everyone scampered back to continue their evasion from the knights.
In the distance as Taylor looked through her binoculars she could see Roy’s fortress; then suddenly out of nowhere an incoming missile was launched and it hit the ground near one of the airmobiles. In an attempt to evade the missile the airmobile swerved out of control and crashed to the ground.
Then within seconds, a band of knights landed and destroyed the disabled vehicle and its occupants as Taylor, Ava, and the others still continued their journey to the fortress in hopes of fighting off the small army of knights with the help of Roy and his crew.
As Ava looked back, she could see the knights on the verge of reaching the caravan of vehicles, and then to her dismay, another missile was fired upon her group.
As the missile approached, the vehicles scattered in different directions in hopes of evading the missile, but the missile followed the lead vehicle which was occupied by Ava and Taylor and just as it was about to hit the airmobile it was decimated by a barrage of small projectiles.
Taylor – surprised by what just occurred – looked up and to her jubilation, Roy, his son Max, and about one hundred heavily armed vehicles loaded with outlaws were heading towards them ready for what would surely be the most perilous fight for survival that any of them had ever experienced.
The knights – undeterred by the sight of the incoming mass of humans – still powered ahead, while Taylor, Ava, and their group of companions were met by Roy and his crew of hardened criminals. As they met, Ava jumped out of her vehicle and stood to face the knights in clear and utter defiance and rebelliousness.
“Ava what are you doing? Are you crazy?” Taylor shouted at her.
“This is what I have to do, I can feel it,” Ava said as she waited for the knights to come closer to her.
In the haste and uncertainty of the situation, Roy and his crew were unsure of what to do and Roy looked towards Taylor in hopes of making sense of what seemed like an act of certain suicide.
“We didn’t sign up for a kamikaze mission Taylor,” Roy screamed at her, baffled at the seemingly stupid, yet at the same time, utterly brave stance made by Ava towards their lethal enemies.
“Just trust her Roy, look at how many of them there are, what choice do we have?” Taylor said, and as Roy looked at the hundreds of knights flying towards them, he too agreed that standing their ground against the knights was as good of a choice as heading back to the fortress.
“Prepare for battle,” Roy shouted and everyone readied their vehicles and weapons for the fight of their lives.
The knights were now less than one hundred meters away and were rapidly closing in on their apparently outnumbered prey; Roy raised his hand in a gesture for his soldiers to start firing once he gave the sign, but Ava told him that he was to hold off firing until she gave the go ahead. Confused by her taking command of the situation, Roy reluctantly agreed while everyone else patiently waited for the signal to fire upon their incoming enemy.
The knights then landed on the ground, and the two sides faced each other waiting for the other group to make a move; the situation was tense and the humans were severely outnumbered.
The knights then readied their weapons and Ava grabbed the bullhorn from Roy and shouted to everyone, “Do not shoot, wait for my go ahead. Even if they fire upon us do not fire back,” and everyone obliged to her commands even though many of them were unsure of what to make of the unusual request given their undesirable quandary.
The knights, whose weapons were ready, then opened fire and unleashed a volley of lasers and missiles towards the humans, and Ava stood her ground and just as the projectiles were about to hit them, Ava morphed them all into a ball of energy as everyone looked on in bewilderment and utter amazement.
The knights continued firing at the humans, but the ball of energy was absorbing everything they shot towards them, and then suddenly Ava fired the ball of energy back towards the army of knights and decimated almost half of them while the others fell back due to the force of the energy.
Then as soon as Ava saw that the knights were vulnerable, she gave the go ahead and fell to the floor and the outlaws began firing at will upon their befuddled enemy, who were now running towards them.
The outlaws also began running towards them and as the sides clashed, the numbers were now in favor of the humans. As the battle continued Roy commanded the airmobiles to circle the knights in an effort to corner them and give the humans the strategic advantage, and as they did so they fired upon them, and one by one the humans quickly began taking down an enemy that only minutes ago had the upper hand.
As the battle continued, the humans finished off the last of the knights; and Krishna and Laurie helped Ava get to an airmobile and they flew to Roy’s fortress. Once the battle was over everyone headed back happy that the battle was won, but they also knew that the war to destroy all humans was just beginning.
CHAPTER THIRTY–FOUR
“Huh, you want to know more about Luanne?” Dean surprisingly asked John.
“Yeah, I just wanted to know more about her,” John replied.
Dean was surprised that John wanted to know more about Luanne as he didn’t remember speaking about Luanne at all to him. He then thought about it for a while and remembered how John told him that he would give his life for Ava and Jonah. How could he not tell the boy who was ready to give his life for his children about Luanne?
“She was an amazing woman, her kids and I were everything to her, and we were all that mattered. Even in the brief time that she was with Jonah and Ava, they meant the world to her, and she would have given her life for them. To tell you the truth, something inside me tells me that she did do that,” Dean said as he began telling John about Luanne.
“It sounds like she loved you guys a lot? I never knew my mother; I grew up with people that took me in from the sheer goodness of their hearts, and in a weird way I think that I was kind of lucky that my life turned out that way,” John to
ld Dean.
“Life is strange John, but in the end, what’s supposed to happen will happen, always remember that,” Dean said to him, which in a way was Dean’s way of expressing his feelings and beliefs about life and destiny to John.
He then continued on, “That’s what Luanne always used to say, she was a believer in destiny, and she believed in it with everything in her, she even believed that the cells in her body were governed by fate. People thought she was crazy, but I never thought that of her. She knew more about the true meaning of this world than anybody I know of.”
“Wow, that’s some belief,” John said in amazement. “Tell me more,” he then said to Dean, hoping to hear more about the mysterious lady who appeared in his surreal dream.
“There was this saying she had and I remember it vividly, and I feel like she’s right in front of me saying the words to me,” Dean said.
“What was her saying?” John asked inquisitively.
And Dean then repeated the words of Luanne’s saying and said to John, “Life is quite simple, yet it is amazingly complicated when looked at without the true understanding of what it really is. There is nothing at all that is random about what makes up the core of life, and in the end, life is simply a never–ending and infinite sequence of patterns, which initially started with one pattern, and then masterfully, patterns upon patterns were layered upon each other in a way that only the One True Creator is capable of.”
As John heard the words, he was flabbergasted and looked at Dean and said, “Wow, she was quite a thinker.”
“Yes, she had quite unique beliefs and I’m sure that you kind of had this feeling, but she was part superhuman you know, and I think that she knew more than she told us about life, and what it truly is,” Dean told John.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did she die?” John asked.
“You could ask one hundred people that question, and you’ll probably get one hundred different answers,” Dean replied.
“Do you know what happened to her?” John asked.
“Yeah I do, she died in her sleep, her time came, and she was ready to go,” Dean answered.
John was surprised by that answer as he expected something more spectacular but was happy to hear that she did not go through any pain or suffering before her death.
“Everyone had a theory about her death, mainly because the doctors couldn’t explain how she died; but there’s more to this world than we know of John, and not everything has a rational or logical explanation,” Dean continued saying.
“You’re right,” John replied.
“How did you manage on your own with two kids after that?” he asked Dean.
“I did the best I could do, but I swear to you there were times when I felt like giving up, but she wouldn’t let me, she kept me going. I can’t explain it but I really felt that she was with me the whole time,” Dean said to John, explaining his connection to Luanne even after her death.
“How was it raising Ava as a single father?” John then asked Dean.
“I won’t lie to you, it was hard, but it was fantastic. Both she and Jonah were, and still are, amazing children,” Dean answered.
As the conversation continued, Dean noticed that there were hundreds of airmobiles in the not too far distance and they were heading west; they tried getting a frequency on the radio to see if they could hear what was going on but they were unable to. They then sped up in their airmobile, eager to find out where everyone was headed.
As they made their way closer to the swaths of airmobiles, they could see hundreds of people also walking in the same direction. Finally, they stopped and exited their airmobile, and they enquired with a group of people as to where everyone was going.
“Haven’t you heard, we’re under attack from the betasapiens. They’re on their way to this region,” one of the men in the group replied.
“What? The betasapiens are attacking us? Are you sure about that?” Dean asked.
“Yes Sir, one hundred percent sure,” the man replied.
“Okay thanks,” Dean said to the man as he headed back to his airmobile, and just as he was about to enter it, a group of three men armed with high powered lasers walked up to the airmobile and ordered Dean and John to step away from it.
“We don’t want trouble, we have nothing to offer you,” Dean said.
“Step away from the airmobile,” one of the men ordered them.
“No!” Dean defiantly said, and then suddenly one of the men shot at him, and he was hit in the stomach and ran for cover. In the commotion John also ran for cover and with no one to guard the airmobile, the three men took off with it.
After they had taken off John ran towards Dean to see if he was okay, he was severely injured from the laser hit and was losing blood, and it was clear that he needed medical attention.
“Can someone please help us?” John asked as he gazed among the many people.
“We’ll help you,” said a voice, and a young man came running towards them, and he was followed by two knights, one of them was carrying medical supplies, and they attended to Dean and stopped the bleeding. They also gave him pain medicine, and after a few minutes, Dean fell asleep.
One of the knights then put Dean on his back and carried him as John followed them.
“Where are you headed?” John asked the young man named Bismarck.
“We’re following the crowd to Salt Lake City, that’s our best chance to survive the attack,” Bismarck answered.
“Is that where you were going?” Bismarck asked.
“No, we were headed to Las Vegas to find his son and daughter until they stole our airmobile,” John answered.
“Sorry about that, you can’t trust anyone, especially now,” Bismarck said to John.
As they walked in silence, John wondered if he was making the right decision by going with Bismarck to Salt Lake City instead of finding an airmobile to get him and Dean to Las Vegas.
Somehow he felt that it was right to go to Salt Lake City; and he then remembered his dream about Luanne telling him to protect Ava. He then felt that this was the path that would lead him and Dean to Ava and Jonah, and deep in his heart he knew that by following his instincts he was making the right decision and following his destined path in life.
CHAPTER THIRTY–FIVE
As the group of outlaws made their way back to the fortress they were greeted by family and friends; they shared the story of the battle and Ava was the topic of conversation; as never before did anyone see such a show of force from a superhuman.
Ava was then taken to a bed so that she could rest as her head was in severe pain from using her superhuman abilities; meanwhile, Roy and Taylor met and plotted their next move. As they plotted, another alarm sounded, “The knights are incoming, the knights are incoming,” and with that Roy and Taylor rushed to the war room.
When they arrived they saw a large swath of knights headed towards them; there were approximately one hundred of them, and Roy ran to get Ava in hopes that she could perform the same magic as she did before. As he did so he heard the fortress being pounded by missiles and lasers; and the humans fired back, but the knights invaded the fortress and began ruthlessly killing any humans in their sight.
As the battle continued the humans fought back, but given the swiftness of the attack they were unprepared, and many of them were killed. A band of three dozen knights then made their way to an artillery room and massacred the humans that were protecting it, and as they entered the room, they lit it on fire which set off a massive explosion that rocked the fortress and decimated the area surrounding the artillery room to total and utter ruin.
As Roy made it to Ava’s room he fell to the ground due to the force of the blast; and he saw that Ava was in no shape to fight and decided to stay in the room to protect her and her friends as they were weaponless.
As the fight continued on the outside; both sides were suffering casualties, but the knights were not fazed by it as this was the life they were built for. M
eanwhile, close by, Roy’s son Max, wielded a sniper rifle and carefully shot and killed many knights from his hiding spot. The knights continued ravaging through the fortress destroying most of it, but their numbers were quickly decreasing, and only a few of them now remained.
Back in Ava’s room, the door began violently rattling and it was clear that the knights had found them; but from his hiding spot, Max saw the knights trying to get in and ran towards the room in hopes of saving Ava and her friends. As the door shook, Roy pointed his gun at it ready to shoot the first enemy that he laid eyes on; then suddenly he heard two shots and then there was silence.
After a few moments there was a knock, and then a voice said, “Hey it’s Max, open the door,” and Roy ran to the door and opened it and as he made his way outside he saw the damage the knights had done to his beloved fortress.
As he looked around he saw the lifeless bodies of dead humans and knights everywhere, a few outlaws then came walking slowly towards him.
“That’s it boss, we killed them all,” one of them said.
“Where’s Taylor?” Roy asked.
“She didn’t make it – she’s dead,” another outlaw replied.
Looking at the devastation all around coupled with the low number of survivors, Roy knew they wouldn’t be able to withstand another attack especially with Ava in no condition to fight, and he decided that now was the time to head to Alaska – which was always his plan if an event such as this were to occur.
“Prepare the submarine; we’re going to Alaska,” he commanded, and his crew headed towards the submarine which lay on the shore of the ocean nearby.
They loaded their belongings and Roy went to get Ava, as he broke the news to her she was torn about whether to leave or not, but her love for Jonah would trump her love for herself and would keep her from boarding the submarine. Krishna and Laurie tried to convince her to leave but she wasn’t sure what to do.