The Soul of Ten
Chapter Four
28 February 2011
Connor walked into town with Adel to his right and Marina to his left. He'd given the girl his Loralite ring so that the Mogs wouldn't recognise her but they were just going to have to hope that they didn't know what Adel looked like.
They all knew that the chances were slim.
Connor led them through to the café where he'd left Sarah, praying that she had done what he said and stayed there.
They sneaked up a side alley which Marina said came out opposite the café. Connor saw Sarah inside, sitting with Héctor, the man that Marina ran from in the café earlier and a girl Connor guessed was about eleven.
Marina grabbed his arm and yanked him back down the alley. He looked around wildly, thinking that she'd seen a Mogadorian.
"The man in the café…" she whispered "He's one of them." Connor whirled around and looked at them again. He couldn't see much of the man she was talking about, his back was to the window, but him being a Mogadorian didn't feel right.
"Look under the table." Adel pointed. Connor's eyes drifted down to where she was pointing and went wide when they saw the Loric chest, tucked away, mostly out of sight.
"Stay here." Connor told them "I'm going to introduce myself." He stepped out into the street and cast his eyes around, looking for anyone who looked out of place. He couldn't see anyone but he was certain that the Mogadorians were nearby, he could feel them.
The bell jingled as he opened the door and everyone inside looked up at him. Sarah broke out into a smile and got out of her seat, walking over and hugging him.
"I was worried about you." She told him. He pulled away from her and dragged her over to the side of the room, trying not to look like anything was wrong to the others "What's wrong?"
"Marina thinks that man is a Mogadorian." He flicked his eyes towards the table and Sarah caught the look. She frowned and shook her head.
"He said he's from Lorien." Now it was Connor's turn to frown. The Mogadorians had never tried anything like this before "And so is Ella. Come and talk to them." She moved towards the table and tugged on his arm a little. He let her pull him over to them.
"Senor Ricardo, a pleasure." He greeted Héctor. He'd spoken to him about his mother's miraculous recovery when he first came to Santa Teresa.
"Senor Young, have you met Senor Crayton?" Héctor asked, indicating the man that Connor couldn't see from outside. He held out his hand and Crayton took it firmly.
"I hear you aren't from around here." Connor started.
"I could say the same about you." The two men made eye contact and the other three people at the table shifted awkwardly as they stared each other down "Show him, Ella." Connor turned his gaze to the girl and watched as she started to change. She shrank in her chair and her features became a little rounder and more childish. When everything settled and stopped changing she no longer looked eleven, more like six or seven.
"I'll take that as proof."
Nobody said anything for a second until Connor kicked the chest softly under the table.
"Is that yours?" he was looked at Ella but Crayton answered.
"It's Marina's. We got it out but we couldn't find her." Connor smiled.
"I got her out but we didn't have the time to get this." He glanced over Crayton's shoulder at the alley where Marina and Adel were hiding and frowned. There were two Mogadorians sneaking up behind them and they hadn't noticed yet.
He jumped from his seat so quickly that he knocked his chair over. He vaulted the table and smashed straight through the window, sprinting across the street at the two Mogs. They started to raise their blasters but he was passed Marina and Adel and on the Mogs before they had chance to react.
He kicked the blaster out of the first Mog's hand before he got a chance to use it and then spun around, using the momentum from his spin to kick the Mog in the stomach. He stumbled backwards into a spike of rock which had rose out of the ground behind him. He turned to ash as the second one brought his blaster to bear on Connor.
He was about to yank the blaster from the Mog's hand with telekinesis when someone dashed past him and attacked the second Mog. He watched as Adel slashed a kitchen knife over the Mog's stomach. It was a vicious blow but not enough to kill it. She grabbed the Mog behind the head and tried to thrust her blade into its heart. The Mog raised its blaster as they struggled and before Connor had time to react he pulled the trigger.
A beam of blue light struck Adel right in the chest and Connor knew right away that she was dead. She stopped fighting and the Mog tossed her to the side. Connor charged at him and picked him up by the throat, hoisting him into the air.
He squeezed and squeezed and the Mog dropped his blaster in favour of grabbing at Connor's hand and trying to get him to let go. It didn't work, Connor was too strong for him and he was far too determined to kill this Mog. Eventually the scout stopped struggling and went limp in his hand. A second later he turned to ash which blew over him, covering him from head to toe.
He turned around and saw Marina cradling the body, her head buried in Adel's shoulder. The others had come out of the café and were standing at the end of the alley, watching. Connor knelt beside Marina and put his hand on her shoulder.
"I know you don't want to hear this but we need to leave. The Mogadorians will have heard the blaster go off." He told her calmly.
"I can't leave her." Connor had been expecting this and he'd already come up with a solution.
"We'll bury her when we get out of town." He promised "It'll have to be quick though." Marina looked at him and smiled, but it was a sad smile, one of grief and anger.
He helped Marina to her feet and looked around their little group.
"How many weapons do you have?" he asked Crayton.
"Two rifles and a couple of pistols." He replied.
"Give Héctor a rifle. Sarah, do you still have that pistol I gave you?" the girl reached behind her and pulled a pistol out of her waistband. Crayton pulled a rifle out of the suitcase that he was dragging behind him and handed it to the man. Connor held his hand out and the Mogadorian blaster slapped into it. He held it out to Marina and she took it gingerly.
"I'll carry Adel." He told them "You need to cover me. I'll bring the real fight once we've buried her." Nobody said anything but there were various nods of agreement "We've got a helicopter nearby. It'll hold all of us at a push. Sarah can lead the way. Marina go with her."
The group trooped out of the alley and into the main street. They moved down it, all of them glancing furtively around, looking for any sign of the Mogs other than the dead Cêpan in Connor's arms.
They were out of the town when they spotted their first Mogs. Crayton mowed down the three of them before they could even react but his gunfire was sure to attract more attention.
"Run!" Connor shouted. None of them argued, they all just did as instructed. They headed straight for the tree line even as the Mogs burst out of the town and opened fire.
Connor was the first to reach the trees. He placed Adel on the ground and turned around, his bow appearing in his hand as he did. He fired arrow after arrow at the army that was emerging from the town, attempting to slaughter his friends.
He kept raising rock shields behind his friends, trying to stop the worst of the blaster shots from hitting them. It worked but it meant that he had to slow down how quickly he was firing back to raise the shields and divert shrapnel after they were destroyed.
The Mogadorians were moving forwards as they were firing and Connor was just waiting for them to get close enough. His friends passed into the trees and Crayton tried to turn to help but Connor waved him off, shouting that he needed to keep the others safe.
Crayton was about to protest but the first line of Mogs was close enough. A row of rock spikes erupted from the ground, skewering a dozen Mogadorians. Crayton saw that Connor had it and resumed running after the others.
The Mogs swarmed past the spikes and Connor smirked viciously. The spikes exploded sending shards of rock flying in all directions, taking out at least another dozen Mogs. The others hesitated and Connor used the break that gave him to his advantage. A hole appeared at his feet and he gently used his telekinesis to lower Adel's body into it. Once she was resting comfortably on the bottom the hole closed itself up, entombing her forever. Connor had the rock on top form a tiny Loric symbol so that if they ever came back they could find her.
The Mogs started swarming forwards again and this time Connor decided not to fight, he turned and sprinted the other way. He could see the others just ahead of him. They were running at Sarah and Héctor's pace, which was much slower than Connor knew the Loric could run.
Blaster fire arced through the air around them and Connor knew that he was going to have to do something drastic if they were ever going to get away from the Mogadorians.
He stopped running and turned to face them, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for what he was about to do. He waited until they were practically on top of him before slamming his hand to the ground.
Nothing happened at first but Connor held his hand flat on the ground and concentrated. He felt the ground shake a little and knew that it was working. A crack appeared underneath one of the Mogs and slowly started to grow bigger and bigger, a web of cracks spreading out underneath them.
The Mogs looked at the ground and started to shuffle around nervously. They shouted at each other in Mogadorian before turning and pointing their blasters at Connor. The earth shook as they opened fire and their shots missed by quite a distance.
There was a cracking sound and the cracked ground that the Mogadorians were standing on started to fall away, revealing Connor's masterwork underneath. He'd created a canyon which spread as far as he could see in either direction.
One of the Mogs fell into the pit with a horrible scream and that was when the others started to panic. One started to run but he put his foot on a piece of rock as it fell into the canyon. He yelled and one of his comrades tried to catch him. They both fell into the chasm that Connor had created underneath them.
Some of them fired at him but Connor deflected the shots with his telekinesis, dusting some of the Mogs with their own weaponry. A group of them sprinted away towards the far side of the canyon but Connor didn't wait to see if they'd made it. He simply turned and ran as fast as he could towards where they'd landed the helicopter.
He caught up with the others just as they reached the clearing where the helicopter was landed.
They crouched in the trees, looking out for any signs that there was something wrong. Connor knew better than most that you could never be too careful with the Mogadorians. There was a very real chance that they'd found the helicopter and were lying in wait for them to arrive.
"Where's the pilot?" Sarah asked him.
"I don't know. But this doesn't look good." He replied.
"Can you fly that?" Marina asked, her eyes fixed on the helicopter.
"I can." Crayton replied for him. Connor looked at him and the man nodded in confirmation.
"Everyone stay here." Connor told them "I'm going to go out there and make sure it's safe." He strode out of the bushes and his bow expanded into his hand once more.
He poked around the helicopter but couldn't see anything that looked out of place, apart from the obvious fact that the pilot was nowhere in sight.
He stepped away and took one last look around the clearing, checking for any sign that the Mogadorians had found them.
He was just about to call the others over when he heard a rapid beeping sound coming from the helicopter. He realised what it was a second too late.
The helicopter exploded and the shockwave sent him flying through the air. He landed on his back about 300 yards from the smoking ruins of the helicopter that was their only way out.
A shadow fell over him and Connor looked up to the sky to see a Mogadorian ship, silver and shaped like a teardrop, rise above the trees and glide into the clearing. It set down right by his head, the pointy end pointing away from him, and he pushed himself to his knees as the flawless silver surface opened and a ramp slid down to the ground.
