Red Dragon

Chapter three: Discovery

By: L'il Will

Charles panted off fatigue as he thrust the large and worn shovel into the dirt and throwing the weak soil aside. Shove it in, throw it aside. Such a trivial yet tiring exercise. He was down to about three feet and everyone about fifteen minutes from the expected hour. The pile of moist dirt beside him kept getting larger and larger and he continued. He kept his work up until he was about ready to pass out, and even then he didn't even slow down. As a matter of fact, the only time he did stop was when he hit something.

"What the hell?!" Charles sputtered out as his cold, metal shovel came into contact with another object with a loud crash. Obviously another metal piece, given away by the clank that sounded off when the two hit each other.

Charles thrust his shovel back into the ground, at the same place...to test it, and was greeted by the same hollow sounding clank of metal against metal. He got on his hands and knees and gently knocked on the area where he had recently heard the sound. Sure enough, he was, once again, met with some hollow sound only this time he could feel the cold and dark metal knock against his hand.

"Curry! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Get back to work!" the hardass general yelled from a distance, finally standing up from his chair.

"Suh...Sorry, sir. I just found something." Charles stammered back, looking up from his crouching position.

"Then throw it in your pile of dirt and get back to work!"

"Yes, sir." Charles knocked on the small, metal object again to make sure of its placing. He lightly brushed the dirt off with his hand and the cold, wet feel of the metal piece sent shivers down Charles' spine. He traced his fingers around the outline and pushed the dirt of the way to reveal the edges. A box. The perfect rectangle showed the boy that he had discovered a small box, hopefully with something valuable. He dug his fingers under the long edges of the box, only to find that it went quite a bit deeper than he had expected and was held in place by the dirt very well.

"Curry! I thought I told you to get back to your work!"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

Charles got up from his crouching position and carefully eyed the metal container with a certain suspicion gleaming in his eye.

He forced the shovel deep into the ground in the areas around the box and threw the dirt to the side, making for easier access to his new discovery. After getting a few more inches down into uncovering the metal, he thrust the shovel right beside it, allowing no space to come in between the box and anything else but his shovel. He pulled back on the large, thick, wooden end, using it as a lever. It worked and the box started moving upwards towards the dark night sky as Charles pulled back farther and farther.

Finally, the box came out of the earth at great speed and landed on its side a few inches away from its original place in the earth with a loud 'Thump!'.

Charles flew back a few feet and landed on his rear. "Unngh!" he grunted as he landed in the cold, wet dirt.

He slowly turned over on all fours and crawled towards the box, which lay on its side. He picked it up and lay it back down so the sides with the biggest areas were on the top and bottom, and the crack that signified the lid was closer to the top.

"Curry! What in Gods name are you doing now?! I told you to get back to your digging!! Now do it!!

"I've found something, sir." Charles called over the field.

"Listen, Chuck." Jason piped in from beside him. "Will you just keep digging?! You're yelling is giving me a headache and the general is even worse."

"Jones! You're no part in this! Now get back to work!"

Jason jumped and hurried back to his digging but Charles remained in the dirt, examining his discovery.

"That's it, Curry!! During your stay here, you are my responsibility, and that means that I get rights to do what I can with you!!"

The general got up from his chair and started quickly walking over to Charles, digging hole.

"I can make you run 'The Wall' all night if I want to, and that's exactly what I'm planning!"

Charles rushed and grabbed the top of the metal box with it. Maybe if the general saw what he had found, the guy might calm down a bit.

"What the...?" came a yelp from beside Charles. "General Barlow, sir. I think I've found something over here." said Laura.

Charles hit the lid of the box one final time, and this time, it broke and popped open.

"Then throw it aside and get back to work!"

He pulled the lid off of the box and peered inside.

"I'm getting sick of telling you people!"

He saw nothing but what appeared to be a small watch.

"Seems pretty big, sir."

He reached inside and pulled out the small device, which made a small beep every two seconds, and every time it beeped a small, white light on its corner would blink.

"I don't care! I don't have time for this! Curry!" The general turned back towards Charles. "You've got to be taught a lesson in respect, and the session is now open!"

The device started shaking more rapidly and the little beeps became more constant. The lights shine grew brighter and, suddenly, the little device grew red hot.

"Ahh!" Charles yelped and dropped the burning machine to the ground.

"Huh?!" The general stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the little machine and its bright glow lying on the ground. "What, the hell, is that?!"

Suddenly, the device lifted itself in the air. Slowly spinning as it made its ascent towards the sky. It stopped when it reached approximately six feet and pointed down towards the general, as if it was looking at him.

The general slowly made a step towards it and the device slowly moved towards him until it was inches away from his face.

"Is...this for me?" he slowly asked without taking his eyes off the machine or even blinking as it hovered in front of his face. He made an attempt to slowly reach for it when, without warning, it shot an amazing beam of blindingly bright and burning hot light right into his face.

The beam was about seven metres in circumference and very strong. Strong enough to permanently burn the generals face and send him flying backward about twenty feet right into an oak tree, knocking it over.

The general couldn't be heard as he flew those twenty feet but his scream was loud enough to wake the dead.

After ten seconds of killing the general, the little device stopped the brilliant light and it was sucked back into the little watch-like device.

The children stood speechless while looking at what was once the general's face. His face was black and torn open so you could see his skull and whatever skin was left on his face was bubbling grotesqely.

"Oh, my God!" Rebecca finally screamed after a few seconds of staring at the undescribable face that the general held.

"Should we help him?" Jason Gulped, nervously.

"No need." a voice suddenly started speaking. "He'll be fine." the floating watch turned around and it was suddenly clear that it was the one talking to them. "For now, we have a world to save."

Well, that's the end of chapter three. Next time, we'll find out what this watch is and what it wants.

Until next time, The Will, will be sighnin' off.