Chapter 21
The Traveling Chaos
A/N: Thank you NinjaMelissa, Awesomegirl01, Dj6667013, RapidstarJ, LuckyBrick123, and FireIce for your awesome reviews!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago, nor Dodge Ram! :D
"Dang it!" Cole hisses at the sight of where Zane was not twenty-four hours ago. He's absent of course and there are so many horrible signs of what happened.
"Can he survive with that much blood loss?" Lloyd asks, picking himself up from having slipped in a sticky puddle of it.
"Gross!" Jay exclaims and bolts out of the room.
The two roll their eyes, despite the fact that their brother is right. It's disgusting that a human would do that to him.
There's a bloody whip and metal rod on the floor as well as an iron in a bowl of coals that have gone cold. "It looks like they left a while ago," Lloyd speculates, poking at one of the coals. "What do we do?"
"Head straight for the village. That is, once Jay recovers a bit."
Jay slumps against the door outside of the dreadful room, putting his head in his trembling hands. Who knows what they did to him? He must have hurt a lot. Why did they need to do that to him?
He stands up and breathes deeply a few times to calm himself down. He decides to walk toward the car, but halts. He lifts his left sneaker and sees he stepped on something on the floor and picks it up.
It's a piece of paper. He unfolds it, discovering there are two of them, exactly the same except for the signature on the bottom.
Zane and Pixal had each signed one of them and after a bit of examining Jay starts to cry. The door opens and his brothers put a hand on either of his shoulders.
"What's the matter?" Lloyd asks.
Jay hands the papers to them.
"What?" Cole exclaims.
"They got married?" Lloyd yelps a little loudly.
"Then why are you crying?" Cole inquires.
"Because that means only one thing," Jay says, causing the other two to exchange glances, "The situation is worse than we thought."
"How do you know that?" Lloyd asks.
"They're getting married because they're afraid they'll never have another chance," Jay responds.
The others are quite taken aback that Jay, of all people, figured that out. Lloyd suddenly drops on his hands and knees, and holds a hand to his stomach. He groans.
"Lloyd, are you okay?" Cole asks.
"Is it your stomach?" Jay inquires.
"Yeah…it's…worse…than before," Lloyd sucks in a deep breath and stands up with Jay and Cole's help. "I'm worried about Kai too."
"Why?" Jay says.
"Kai, I think we're going the wrong way," Nya informs her frustrated brother.
"Yeah, I know that. You've said it fifty times already."
"Excuse me! You don't need to be ugly about it!"
"Sorry! I'm just frustrated is all," Kai grips the steering wheel tightly and lowers his voice, "I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into me lately."
"It's okay. I understand," Nya gently pats him on the back.
"Thank you, but no, you don't," he mutters inaudibly.
"What?"
"Nothing. I'm just not feeling well," he admits.
"Do you want me to drive?"
"No, later, but thanks."
Nya simply stares worriedly at him, and turns to face the window again. The phone rings. Kai eagerly answers it, but his face falls.
"Yeah?"
"Kai, did you take any medicine with you?" Lloyd inquires.
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"Not now, please."
"Kai, the others know already. We're counting on you, brother."
"Oh, and please take care of yourself," Jay voice sounds a bit away. "Nya needs you and so do Zane and Pixal."
"Okay, I'll let you all know if anything comes up," Kai says.
"Jay found something interesting at the place where Zane was…um," Lloyd hesitates.
"Yes?"
"He married Pixal."
"He what?"
"Be safe," Cole tells him and Lloyd hangs up. Before the fire ninja can continue speaking, his phone rings again and he answers with an unknown caller.
"This is Kai Huo speaking. Please identify yourself."
"This is Zane Julien," the ice ninja responds in a scratchy voice.
"Zane?" Kai exclaims and Nya looks at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
"Where are you?" the fire ninja asks.
"N-Ninajo…City."
"Okay, where in the city?"
"A-at a pay…phone by Dareth's dojo."
"You hide in the dojo and I'll pick you up, okay?" Kai confirms.
"I-I can't. Pixal and I…can't make it."
"Why?"
"I cannot…walk…f-far without him finding us."
"Get civilians' attention!"
"Zane!" Pixal screams from over the line.
"I have to go," Zane says and the phone hangs up.
"Wait!" Kai yells. He's too late.
"Nya, we're going to Ninjago City."
"Zane!" Pixal screams, drawing the ice ninja's attention to outside of the pay phone area.
"I have to go," Zane says and hangs the phone up. After managing to jump out of the truck, the two had barely made it away, but now Harrison and Carmel are running at them. Zane opens the transparent door and grabs Pixal's hand, bolting in the opposite direction, toward a police station.
Bang! A bullet zips past them and Zane shoves Pixal behind a car parked alongside the sidewalk, ducking as Harrison shoots at them.
Pedestrians scream and start running in a sea of people away from him, toward the two behind the car. Zane grabs Pixal's hand again and slips into the crowd of panicking people, which, for once, the ice ninja is grateful for.
Several civilians drop dead from the two. Harrison keeps shooting whilst Carmel calls for back up and the sirens of police cars draw near. The utter chaos provides the best cover for the runaway couple to slip away, or perhaps not.
Pixal trips and Zane pulls her up, nearly having been trampled on by all the people, allowing Harrison to get an eye on them.
"Got them in sight," the evil man says to his partner. "Get the sniper up."
"He's on his way right now," Carmel responds, pocketing her cell phone and drawing her handgun out.
"Hostage situation, now," Harrison shouts over the fearful screams.
"I'm on it," Carmel replies and sees a little girl who drops her doll and goes to pick it up.