The young ninja risked a look back and saw Laura and Amy looking out the side door of the helicoptor.
“I knocked him out,” he responded in frustration. He had to yell to be heard.
“Oh,” responded Shawna as she sat in the co-pilot’s seat. “You don’t sound pleased.”
“Let’s just say that flying a helicopter wasn’t in my training.”
She looked at the control stick. “You move us with that thing.” She pointed. “It’s called a cyclic.”
He looked at her hopefully. “You know about helicopters?”
She shook her head. “Only from what I saw in Airwolf.”
He sighed. “I’m going to try to land.”
He moved the cyclic and the copter lurched around and headed toward the elementary building.
“You’re doing well,” commented Shawna. “Take it down slow.”
Jamie pulled over the elementary building. “How far up are we?” he yelled back.
Amy answered him. “About ten feet above the roof!”
“Jump!” He looked back at them. “I can’t land. And I don’t know how long I can keep it steady! JUMP!”
Amy took Laura’s hand and pulled them out of the door. They landed safely on the roof.
Jamie looked at Shawna. “You, too.”
She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “I can’t just leave you here.”
He thought for a moment. “I saw a parachute when I jumped in. It’s on the back wall. Bring it to me.”
She jumped up and ran into the passenger area, returning a moment later with the green pack.
“Now hold the control steady while I put it on,” he said. She grabbed the cyclic and he stood, donning the pack and fastening it in place.
He sat in the pilot’s seat again and said, “After you jump, I’ll take it up high enough for me to parachute out.”
“I thought you were scared of heights?” she demanded.
“I’m more scared of seeing you die,” he explained with a smile.
She leaned over and kissed him, then ran back to the door. He watched as she jumped to the roof of the elementary building. Then he pulled back on the control and his heart began to pound in his chest as the vehicle ascended.
A flash of metal in his field of vision alerted him to the fact that the pilot was conscious again. Jamie caught the ninja’s wrist, the blade of the Warui’s dagger mere inches from the teen’s nose.
In desperation, the young ninja pulled back on the cyclic as hard as he could, knocking the other ninja off balance. Jamie’s right fist connected squarely with the ninja’s jaw, sending him reeling back into the passengers’ area.
Jamie leveled out just as a flash of lighting lit the sky and struck one of the chopper blades, breaking it off. Jamie grabbed the control and pulled, but it was frozen.
He leaped to his feet and ran from the cockpit, grabbing the unconscious pilot and looking out the door. He was at least two hundred feet up and the copter had turned to begin a descent back toward the elementary school building.
He held the ninja in a bear hug, closed his eyes, muttered a quick prayer and leaped.
Holding the other ninja as best he could with his left arm, Jamie grabbed the ripcord and pulled, releasing the parachute. The resulting jerk as it caught the wind nearly caused him to drop the Warui. Turning to look at the copter, Jamie’s eyes followed it as it flew over the elementary building and toward the Baptist church.
I can’t look! He closed his eyes tightly, turning his head away from the inevitable crash. The wind blew through his hair, its breath muffling the other noises around him. The crash broke through the loud whispering with an explosion that made Jeremy’s destruction of the Home Ec room pale in comparison.
The explosion roused the Warui warrior. He groaned as he looked down, seeing the ground moving up to meet them. As they were only about twenty feet up, Jamie released him. Screaming what Jamie could only guess was a Japanese swear word, the ninja dropped to the ground in the midst of Adventure.
Then Jamie looked toward the crash site. There wasn’t a mark on the church. But the abortion clinic was in ruins.
The young ninja landed into a run. As he slowed his momentum, he dropped to the ground and kissed it.
Dave and Buster had helped the girls down from the roof of the one-story elementary building. Shawna ran up to him and leaped into his arms. He allowed himself a moment of peace as he kissed her.
“Brother, you are hurt,” came Yoshi’s voice from behind him.
Jamie sat Shawna down and turned to look at his clan-sister. “It’s nothing a few stitches and a week’s worth of sleep won’t fix.” He looked past her and noticed the Warui ninja who had been dueling with her , sitting on the ground. He was bound, but alive. “I’m proud of you, sis.”
The sound of approaching land vehicles caught everyone’s attention. “Not again!” exclaimed Max.
An army truck came into view on the road that ran along the south side of the school. Two more followed it. As the teens watched, not quite knowing what to make of this turn of events, the vehicles turned up the east road and drove toward them.
The front vehicle pulled onto the elementary playground and drove forward until it was barely twenty feet away. Then the doors opened and two men in army camouflage climbed out.
But what caught the most attention were three of the people who climbed out of the back of the truck.
“Dad!” exclaimed Dave.
“Uncle!” exploded Yoshi.
“Deck?” asked Jeremy.
The three walked up to them and Donnie embraced Dave. “Are you okay, son?”
“I’m fine, dad.” He chuckled. “Kickin’ ninja butt made this a pretty enjoyable weekend!”
Tanemura put one hand on each of his students’ shoulders. “I knew that you would be okay.”
Jamie and Yoshi swelled with pride and then hugged each other. They chuckled when they heard Dave demand, “Hey! Who’s the dude in the dress?”
They laughed out loud when they heard Deck reply defensively, “It’s not a dress, it’s a KILT!”
Epilogue
Sunday, 4:00 PM
Ouch, thought Jamie, this cot sure is uncomfortable. The young ninja was lying inside the ugly, green medical tent in the army encampment. The sound of various army vehicles moving outside filled his ears, covering the more peaceful sound of the river, which was only thirty or so feet away.
Reaching down beside the cot, he picked the vest of his ninja suit up from the floor and examined it. “I think I know what Yoshi’ll be giving me for Christmas,” he muttered to himself.
The flap opened and Yoshi stepped in. “How are you feeling, brother?” she asked.
“My shoulder still hurts. But at least not as bad as earlier.” He shrugged his good shoulder. “I guess the stuff they gave me to numb it is starting to kick in. Just not as fast as I’d like. My hand still hurts, too.”
Yoshi walked up to the cot and kneeled down beside it. Looking at the vest, she declared, “I think that you will need a new suit for Christmas.”
Jamie chuckled.
She laid her head on his chest and whispered, “I really did fear that we would lose you today.”
He put his good arm around her and said, “God was with us.”
The sound of someone nervously clearing her throat caught their attention. Shawna had just entered the tent.
Yoshi climbed hastily to her feet. “This is your place now,” she said to Shawna while pointing at her clan brother.
To Jamie, the sound of her voice was different. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” was the kunoichi’s reply. “I will leave you two alone.”
She quickly exited the tent. Shawna moved over and took Yoshi’s spot. He wrapped his good arm around the girl as she stated, “She’s jealous.”
“What?” asked Jamie incredulously. “No. We don’t like each other lik
e that.”
She looked up into his eyes. “Girls can tell these things.”
Jamie was about to respond, when the tent flap opened again and Tanemura stepped in. Jamie’s ninja master smiled as he approached the young couple.
“If I weren’t in so much pain, I’d bow to you, Master,” said Jamie.
“Do not worry about that, Jamie,” replied Tanemura. “I am just happy that you are safe, considering the fact that you defeated the leader of the Warui ninja in combat.”
Jamie looked seriously at his teacher. “Master Tanemura, when I was fighting the Warui jonin, he mentioned a prophecy. He said Yoshi was the one that they were supposed to fear.”
“I believe that I can explain that,” was the response. “In the seventeenth century, Christianity was still relatively new in Japan, which had begun to open its borders for trade with the west. Despite the good nature of the Portuguese traders who visited our country, Japanese followers of Christ were often persecuted. This persecution led to an uprising called the Shimabara Rebellion. One of the leaders of this uprising was an adolescent named Amakusa Shirō. Many of his followers attributed special powers to him. Apparently this young man had the Christian gift of prophecy and actually predicted, to both of our clans, the end of our war at the end of the second millennium of the Lord. He said that the last of the Warui leaders would fall to a female of our clan, unless they made peace with us. When Yoshi was born, her father felt that she would be the one.”
“What happened to the rebellion?” asked Jamie.
Tanemura clasped his hands behind his back. “The rebels were all killed during a siege at a castle in the Hizen Provence. They were slaughtered, to the man, for their faith.” He sighed. “Many of the Funakoshi were involved in the battle on the side of the Shogun.”
“Ouch,” groaned Jamie. “There’s a stain on the history of our clan.”
“The Dutch, in order to gain the trust of the Japanese government, bombarded the castle, as well.”
“What do you think?” Shawna asked Tanemura. “I mean, about the prophecy?”
“I am more disposed to believe it because he did not simply pick out the clan that was aligned against his people.” He shook his head. “Despite the ways of the Waruiyatsu, they chose to remain neutral in the uprising.”
Again, the tent flap opened, and Deck stuck his head in. “Uh, Jamie,” he spoke, “there’s a photographer here from the Doniphan newspaper. He wants to get a picture of Adventure.”
“Why?” inquired Jamie as he climbed to his feet, wincing the whole time.
“Well,” responded Deck, “in just the last couple o’ hours, all the newspapers in Missouri have started calling you guys heroes.”
“How dumb,” remarked Jamie as he put his good arm around Shawna’s shoulders and the two walked out the flap.
They were escorted to a clearing, where a man Jamie didn’t recognize was standing with Dave, Buster and the others.
“Any word on when we’re supposed to get to go home?” Jamie heard Max ask Steve.
“They said they’d have make-shift bridges ready by Tuesday, so everyone who actually lives inside the city limits can come home,” was his brother’s response.
Dave, Buster, Yoshi, George, Jeremy, Steve, Leslie, Max and Pete had already lined up for the picture. Jamie reluctantly pulled away from Shawna and took his place next to Dave and Buster.
“All right,” instructed the photographer as he put the camera up to his face, “say cheese!”
At the POP of the flash, the name of every kind of cheese imaginable, from Swiss to head-cheese, was yelled.
After the picture, a man stepped up to the group and said, “I’m Del King, from 96.9. I was hoping to get an interview.”
“Hi, Del,” greeted Shawna.
“Shawna Weston,” began the reporter, “I didn’t know you were here!”
“You two know each other?” asked Jamie.
“He goes to my church,” explained Shawna. “How’d you get across the river?”
“The military brought some of the press across in boats.”
The middle-aged reporter looked at the male chunin and said, “Now, you’re Jamie Raleigh?”
Jamie nodded.
“And you’re the leader of . . . of . . .,” he looked at his notepad, “oh, what was the name of your group?”
Jamie grinned as he looked around at the other members of his club.
In unison, the adolescents all exclaimed, “ADVENTURE!!!”
END
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my stories. I understand that you have an endless supply of options for spending your money on entertainment. I am honored to have shared the first of many adventures with you. If you have enjoyed this story, please let me know by leaving a review in the online store where you purchased this ebook.
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Also available from Jeffrey Allen Davis and GCD Publishing
Lily’s Redemption
A Christian mystery thriller exploring the dangerous effects of pornography, it is available in paperback, Kindle and Nook editions.
Klandestine Maneuvers
The members of Adventure, along with some new faces, face an influx of racists who have come to Sera to terrorize the town’s only black family, the Robertsons.
Gateway to Thera
Half of the martial arts team known as ADVENTURE are spirited to another world to save Shawna Weston from a dark wizard.
Coming Soon
The Search for Yoshi
Shawna’s nightmares lead Adventure back to Thera, where we are treated to a flipped “damsel in distress” story and our heroes are forced to seek out and battle a witch who may be descended from the Old Testaments’ priests of Ba’al.
Invasion of the Ninja Page 18