The Hunt

by Sourav Deka

  “Drive the car, son. We can’t do anything now. He is dead,” dad said.

  “But………………………..”

  “Just drive,” Martin yelled. “Or else we will die too.”

  We drove to the airport as quickly as we could. We had no idea what we were going to do. He was dead. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have listened to him. Now everything was over. We needed the descendant blood but we left the place. To continue we had to think of getting back his dead blood. We got out of the car and went to Michael’s plane to discuss what to do next.

  “What should we do now? Michael’s dead,” Martin said, as his lips trembled in fear.

  “He told us to wait in the airport,” I said, walking towards the plane.

  “Well that was when he was alive, he is dead now.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, man. I………….I…..need time to think.”

  “We didn’t even get Robert’s blood,” Dad said. “We have to get it.”

  “I know, I know, dad.” I rubbed my forehead. “He said he will take care of it.”

  “We should go back for Robert’s blood.”

  “What??” Martin’s eyes widened. “No, we will be dead.”

  “We should wait here,” I said.

  Martin raised his eyebrows. “Wait for whom, the dead? Aivors know we are in this city. They will shoot us the second they see us. We have to leave this country as soon as we can.”

  He was right. There was no point in waiting, but we couldn’t leave. We needed the dead blood of the descendant. I needed to think, to figure out how to get it. If we go back, Sam and his men will kill us in seconds.

  I kept strolling around the airport thinking what to do next. Just then we saw a man in white suit covered with blood coming towards us on a motorcycle. He looked familiar. As he came closer I recognized him, it was Michael. Happiness sparkled inside me. He was alive.

  “You are alive?” Martin couldn’t believe his eyes, his jaw dropped.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” Michael gave a smug smile and dismounted from the motorcycle.

  “How are you alive?” I asked, walking towards him. “We saw you shot, you died. Did you spell your body like Sam?”

  Michael tore his suit from the chest. A dazzling silver color thing was under his suit which sparkled in the sunlight.

  “It wasn’t magic,” Michael tapped the silver color thing. “It’s bulletproof. I wear it every time I go out.”

  “And the blood?” I gasped. “We saw you bleed.”

  He chuckled. “That’s fake. It was just to fool them so that they leave me there thinking that I am dead. Without blood it won’t look realistic.”

  “But it was a risk,” Martin said. “He might have shot you in the head.”

  “Umm, yeah. I had to take that risk,” Michael sighed. “It’s the only way you all could have gotten out.”

  “Did you get the descendant’s blood?”

  “Yeah, I got it,” he took out the cup from his pants pocket and showed it to us. “Aivors are searching for us everywhere. We should leave.”

  I was relieved to see him alive. I thought everything ended, our mission failed, but like a miracle he came back alive with the blood. We can now continue. But now it has become more risky. The Aivors were looking for us everywhere. They found us this time. We couldn’t let them find us again. We have to finish this fast or else we won’t last long.

  “Where is the next one?” I asked.

  “Let’s get on my plane,” Michael looked at the plane. “We will talk there.”

  We all went inside Michael’s private plane. The pilot was ready to take off.

  “Sorry about your men,” I said.

  Michael clicked his tongue. “Don’t worry. There are a lot of Savors around the world. I can make one call and hundreds of them will come to help us.”

  “That’s it? They are just ready to fight anytime.”

  He shrugged. “This is how it is. They are loyal to us, we have grown into a huge group over the centuries,” he checked his laptop. “You will be surprised, Ross,” he half smiled. “This time it will be awesome.”

  “Why? What happened?” I sat beside him.

  “We will find five of our descendants at the same place.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “How is that possible?”

  He smirked. “It’s a coincidence, they are all in New York.”

  “What if it is some Aivor’s plan to kill us? Maybe they gathered them in the same city.”

  “No, I don’t think so, because all the five descendants were living in New York since 1991. Aivor wouldn’t have planned it since 1991. This isn’t a trap.”

  “Still we should take precaution. They attacked us here. Probably they will attack us again.”

  “Yes, we will be more careful. I will arrange a bigger army this time.”

  I nodded. “So we are headed to New York then?”

  “Yes, I will talk to the pilot. You all take a nap,” Michael patted my back. “It will be a long flight.”

  “Yeah, and you better change your suit, it stinks,” Dad said.

  “I will,” Michael smiled and went to talk to the pilot.

  CHAPTER 20

  “Hey wake up,” Michael said, twitching my shoulders.

  “We arrived?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

  Michael looked through the plane’s window. “Not yet.”

  “Then why did you wake me up?”

  “We need a plan.”

  “I will kill them. That’s the plan.”

  “There will be five descendants living in a single city, Ross. We can kill them at once.”

  I scratched my head and sat up. “How?”

  “We can lure them together into a trap and kill all of them at once. A lot of time will be saved.”

  “But that would be too risky.”

  Michael grinned and sat in front of me. “We will use a bomb.”

  “No, that won’t work. I have to kill them. Their blood should be on my hands.”

  He grabbed my shoulder. “Yes, that’s why you will detonate the bomb.”

  A line etched between my eyebrows. “What? Killing them with the bomb will work?”

  “Yes, you are killing them. That’s what we need. The bomb should be detonated by you.”

  “But the bomb will tear them into pieces. We need their dead blood to unlock the cure, remember?”

  “No, it is a different kind of bomb. It won’t blast like a regular bomb and tear them up. It will shoot iron nails, little ones but very sharp and poisonous.”

  “Iron nails?”

  “Yes, when the bomb detonates, it will shoot nails in all directions with enormous speed. The nails will pass through all the descendants in the room,” he snapped his fingers. “And they will die.”

  “Okay,” I crossed my arms. “How will we lure them out to the same place?”

  “We have got an advantage. Two of them are married to each other and the other three are friends with them.”

  My face lit up. “Great! So they know each other. It will be easy.”

  “Yes. Think about it. What if the married couple throws a party?”

  “They will invite their friends.”

  “Yes, and we can kill them.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you stupid? If they throw a party, they will be not the only ones there. They will also invite other people,” I shrugged. “We can’t kill others.”

  “Yes, I know. That’s why I will go to the party and lure them inside a room.”

  My forehead creased. “What?”

  “Yeah, the same room where the bomb would be planted.”

  I scratched my head. “Will this really work? I have doubts, man.”

  “It can work, Ross. Trust me I can make this happen.”

  I sighed. “How will we convince them to throw a party?”

  “I am going to give them money to throw a party. I will tell them that they won some lottery. As I am throwing the party I wil
l get the chance to be there.”

  “Great, but……………….”

  Michael put his hand on my shoulder. “It can be done, Ross. I know it.”

  His plan sounded weird, but still I believed him. He was confident that he could execute it like the way he described.

  ******************

  We landed in New York after an hour. It was 5 am in the morning. The fog covered the whole city. I could barely see a thing through the window.

  “Wear a jacket, it's cold outside,” Michael said.

  We all wore some warm clothes and came outside.

  “My men are waiting outside the airport,” Michael gestured his hand to follow him.

  It was very cold. As soon as I stepped out of the plane, the frosty air touched my face and made my body shiver. I rubbed my hands to warm up a little and followed Michael outside the airport. There were two cars waiting for us. They drove us to a hotel. It was a luxurious one like the one we visited in Atlanta. Michael handed us the keys and we went to our rooms. I took a shower and ordered some food. This one was going to take time. We had to kill five descendants at once. Michael had to plan everything. He spoke to his men and discussed the plan with them.

  I sat on my bed and took out my cell phone. There were fifteen miss calls from Andrea. She must have called me when I was on the plane, so I called her back.

  “Hello,” Andrea answered.

  “Hey, how are you?” I asked.

  “I am good, what took you so long to call? I called you so many times.”

  “Umm, we ran into some trouble,” I pressed my lips. “I didn’t get time to call you back.”

  “Trouble? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, Sam and his minions showed up, but everything’s fine now.”

  “They must have figured out that you are going after the descendants.”

  “Yeah, how is Aaron?”

  “Nothing changed. He just keeps on staring at everyone in anger. Doesn’t eat much, hardly drinks. But don’t worry, we are making him eat and drink enough to survive.”

  “And what about Dave?”

  She sighed. “He is completely paralyzed, only blinks his eyes. Doctors are taking good care of him. They are surprised as they didn’t find anything wrong with his body. It was completely Bristy’s magic.”

  “Yeah, I guess Dave has to stay like that for a few more days. We are close to the cure. Maybe it can help him.”

  “Let’s hope for the good,” she said.

  “Yeah, have you contacted your mom? She must know whatever happened.”

  “She knows, Ross. I told her everything. She told me to stop when she found out how I survived the magical forest.”

  “But you didn’t listen.”

  “I won’t listen. I knew from the beginning there would be danger, Ross. I chose this.”

  “I know,” I smiled. “It’s obvious that she will ask you to come back, she is your mother.”

  “But I don’t want to. You said it yourself, you are close.”

  “Yeah, we are. Just a few more days.”

  “When will you be back?”

  “Soon, we just took down another descendent.”

  She paused for some seconds. “Don’t lose yourself in this, Ross.”

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t know. This is changing me.”

  “You have killed people, of course it’s going to change you. You will never be the same, but…………….”

  “But what?”

  “But don’t go too dark. Don’t let the good inside you die.”

  “I don’t even know if there is some good left in me or not.”

  “There is, Ross. I know there is. I know you don’t want to do it.”

  I sighed. “Sometimes I wish I could go back to my old life.”

  “I know,” she said softly.

  “I am killing people Andrea,” I said. “I didn’t want to be like this.”

  “No one wants to be like this. I know it is horrible, but we have no choice. I wish I could say something to make you feel better.”

  I chuckled. “I guess I will have to live with it my entire life.”

  “It will go away. Everything fades away with time.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, it will. Nothing is permanent Ross, nothing.”

  I smiled. “I wish I would have been there with you.”

  “Me too.”

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “Okay, someone is knocking. I will talk to you later, bye.”

  “Okay, take care.”

  “You too,” I hung up and opened the door. The hotel servant was standing with the food I ordered.

  “Keep it on the table,” I said.

  He kept the food on the table and left. I closed the door, sat on my bed, turned on the TV and started eating. After a few minutes someone knocked on the door again.

  “Come, it’s not locked,” I said.

  It was dad in his usual grey jacket and brown pants. He entered the room. “How are you doing?” he asked.

  “I am fine,” I grabbed a burger.

  He sat on my bed. “You should know that what you are doing is for a great cause,” he said.

  I nodded. “I know.”

  “Don’t go dark side after all this is finished,” he inhaled deeply. “Bad things always attract us. I understand what you are doing needs to be done but don’t be like this when all this is over.”

  “I won’t dad. I will be the same boy I used to be.”

  “Sometimes I wish you and your brother didn’t get involved in this,” he said in a low voice.

  “I know, but no one can control anyone’s destiny dad.”

  He pressed his lips. “I should have tried. Your mother left you, she did the right thing.”

  “Parents leaving their children,” I chuckled while chewing the piece of my burger. “That’s never the right thing to do dad.”

  “But we are like cursed. Both groups will never stop following us. If I would have left you, they wouldn’t have known that you and Aaron are my sons.”

  “It’s not your fault.” I gulped. “It all ends after we find the seeds. No other descendant of Aivor or Savor will suffer like again. I will end this.”

  Dad nodded. “Promise me, after finding the seeds we will never talk about this. We will build a new life. Become a normal family.”

  I smiled. “I promise. I want that too. All my life all I wanted is to have a normal life with my family, but never got the chance,” I gulped. “Mom left us, and then you disappeared. We lived like orphans.”

  Dad stared at me for a couple of seconds. I could see the regret in his eyes. He hugged me and a tear ran down his cheek. “I am sorry, Ross. I won’t leave you again.”

  I fought back my tears. “I know dad, I know. I wish mom was with us too.”

  “Me too son, me too.”

  ******************************

  It was 6 am in the morning, my phone kept ringing. Its incessant buzzing woke me up. I rubbed my eyes and picked it up, it was Michael.

  “Are you ready?” Michael asked.

  “Ready?” I said.

  “Yesterday I convinced the couple to throw a party.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah, I provided them money by telling them that they won a lottery. They are throwing the party tomorrow.”

  “Thanks for not telling me this yesterday.”

  “Well, I was busy making the arrangements, the bomb hasn’t arrived yet.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  “It’s not much to worry about, it will arrive tomorrow. I took care of it”

  “Tomorrow?” my eyes widened. “The party is tomorrow? You should have told me before.”

  “I said I was busy. Get ready, we have to make some arrangements today.”

  “What type of arrangements?”

  “I will tell you everything. First get ready. I will be there in an hour.”

  “You aren’t in the hotel?”

>   “I am coming there. I will tell you everything, be ready bye,” Michael hung up.

  I brushed my teeth, took a shower and ate breakfast. My orange t-shirt was in my suitcase, I took it out and wore it. Michael called again after an hour.

  “Come downstairs,” he said. “I am waiting for you in the car.”

  “Yeah,” I hung up.

  I went downstairs. Michael was waiting in his car parked at the end of the street opposite the hotel we were staying in. He opened his car’s door. I stepped inside and closed the door. “Okay, tell me,” I said.

  “I asked my people to send the bomb. But he said it will take time because of security measures,” Michael said.

  “Security measures?”

  “Yes, it’s not easy. The bomb can’t be brought here like a kid carrying chocolates in his pockets.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, I get that. But you are the leader of a powerful group. Wouldn’t that be easy for you?”

  He shook his head. “It’s not like that. If you bark in the streets that there are seeds which can give you immortality, no one will believe you. But if you tell them there is a bomb somewhere, you know what?” he scoffed. “Everybody will believe it.”

  “Okay, I get it. So what do we need to do now?”

  “It will take time. Today we have to build a path so that tomorrow we can plant the bomb beneath the room. That’s why I called you. We will dig up and make a way.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Dig up and make a way?”

  “Yeah, what’s wrong?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You are getting crazy day by day.”

  “You have a better idea?”

  “Someone will see us, Michael. We can’t do it secretly. Digging up and making a way,” I tightened my cheeks. “People will notice.”

  “We will say we are archeologists.”

  I chuckled. “Archeologists? You have ID’s?”

  “We will make some fake IDs and papers, that’s nothing to worry about.”

  “But archeologists just don’t go anywhere and dig up.”

  “We will say it’s important,” he grinned. “Just trust me, okay. I will take care of it.”

  I sighed. “It’s a risk man. If somehow the descendants know about this, the whole plan will fail.”

  “They won’t know. Nobody will know what we are actually planning to do,” he patted my back. “I know what I am doing.”