Road to the Legion

---Begin Chapter---

Brenda gathered everyone in Great Hall. They grouped up according to what table they sat at. Instinct told her to check the boys' adolescent table first. She lined them up and counted them off, saying their name then she found O'Connell and Zaitzler were not here. She growled a bit, and reported to the Abbott, "I knew it would have been those two."

"Who, Brenda?" the Abbott asked.

"Richard O'Connell and his partner in crime, Vassilij Zaitzler."

"Oh, I should knew this day would come," the Abbott said shaking his head sadly. "Those two rascals put more gray hairs on my head than you did as a young 'un, Major. I knew those two would leave one day. I never thought it would be today. However, this will not put us away from retrieving them. We should-"

"Father Abbott," the Major said loudly. The Abbott looked at him.

"Yes, Nikolai?"

"Don't go after them. Those two have spirits like hawks. They have to be free. They can't stay here all the time, besides they are old enough to leave. After all, it's 2:00 Am, it's past O'Connell's birthday and today, Vassilij turned eighteen as well. They should just go."

"Nikolai, I have a feeling you were apart of this. I think you already had this talk with O'Connell and your nephew. Yes, you have. You told them to stay didn't you? But you also realized that they can't be kept here." The Major nodded, and the Abbott smiled. "A wise choice you made, Nikolai, to let them go. You did this once too. And even I did. Perhaps they will be alright. But I am sending you to look after them. To be their guardian angel."

"But Father, I'm a little too out of shape to do such a thing," The Major protested. "Don't get me wrong, Father, if I were more fit to do that, I most defiantly would. But I'm not exactly young anymore."

"Neither am I, Nikolai. So then we should send another."

"No, Father," Brenda said. The Abbott was surprised, usually Brenda would be the one to have someone to go get them or she would go, but here she did not approve of guarding them at all.

"Why not, Brenda?" The Abbott asked.

"Because, they would know. They're expecting it, I'm willing to bet. We're just going to have to trust them on this. This will be their greatest adventure yet. We don't always have to protect them, but they know that we're here for them. Let them do what they have to. This will make them grow-up."

The Abbott nodded in agreement, "A fine point you make, Brenda. Then it will be so. We will just trust them in taking care of themselves. Besides, even I must admit that they are born survivors. Now with that done, let us go back to our beds, and get some sleep."

Everyone but the Abbott and the Major left Great Hall. The Major stared up at the tapestries of the stories of Joseph and David. He turned to the Abbott and said, "Father, this is not done. It is just beginning."


"Yes, for them. But for us, my friend, our journey will be at an end soon. I fear we may not see them succeed with our age. But I know that their adventure will be on no one in this Abbey will forget."

"Yes, your right father," The Major said as he looked at the tapestries again for a few moments then he sighed and turned off to his room, "Good night, Father."

"Good Night, Nikolai," Abbott said tiredly. The Major then went to his own room, but the Abbott stayed in Great Hall and looked at another tapestry, telling a fairy tale of two runaways and the elders that cared for them, seeing the eldest lying and coughing, he himself coughed a bit. The Abbott was a very old man, in his nineties, and he knew his time would come near. Straightening up he took one last look at the tapestry and then walked to his room, saying, "Good-bye Major Nikolai Zaitzler, and good bye and good blessings, Richard O'Connell, and Vassilij Zaitzler. I will miss you all."

That night as the Abbott lay in his bed, struggling for breath and wheezing, he closed his eyes and calmed down, his body still, and his spirit flying to heaven.

~~~Where O'Connell and Vassilij are~~~

The two friends had ran for twenty minutes towards Cairo's lights. They slowed down to rest, and sat down. Both breathing heavily and taking long gulps of their water. Vassilij wiped his brow and looked at Cairo City that was only a ten minute walk away. He took another gulp of water and turned to O'Connell who was taking little sips of his water, "we aren't turning back now, right?"

O'Connell shook his head, "No, we're too close to freedom now. I can see Giza Port already."

"O'Connell, there is a problem though," Vassilij said putting his water away. O'Connell looked at him quizzically.

"What problem?"

"Uncle Nikolai gave us food, and drinks, but no money."

O'Connell smirked, "What do we need money for?"

"To get a ticket to get on the ship. Then to buy food, and then to buy new clothes, and stuff."

"Why buy, when you can steal?"

"O'Connell! What if we're caught?"

"That's why God made night, Vass. Besides, we can sneak on the ship, it's no problem!"

Vassilij pondered on this a moment then nodded, "you're right. I don't know why I was worried."

"It's just all that teachings and lessons starting to kick in from the Abbey. I am going to miss the Abbott though. He was a good man."

"Yes, and I'll miss my uncle. But we have nothing to loose now."

"Once you got nothing to loose, then you get to do everything you ever wanted."

Vassilij smiled and nodded. They got up and walked on into Cairo. "I wonder what kind of girls are in France."

"Good-looking ones, Vass, real good-looking ones," O'Connell said smirking.

Upon entering the city limits they went straight to the Giza Port. Sneaking around they looked for big, opened crates. They found two that were unused. They pushed them onto the loading space and got in one each. The chipped off holes for breathing and closed the crates as best they could. They waited then slept.

They were both woken up by people yelling in Arabic and English. Then they felt the crates being lifted up and into the ship. Vassilij peered out his breathing hole and saw on the huge ship liner painted in white the title S.S. Anne Marie. He looked down at the docks and saw men and women dressed regally like they were wealthy and peasants begging for money or food that the English ignored. The crates they were in passed the third-class loading, he saw a young girl of about four going on. She looked his way and saw his eyes. She tugged at her mum's coat, "Mommy, there's a man in the crate."

Her mother picked her up, "No there isn't honey."

"But I saw him!"

"Now, you were just seeing things child."

Then in a few minutes they felt the bump of being near dropped in the ship's storage. Vassilij looked out his hole in the crate, he was facing the inside of the ship, he moved to the left side of the crate, "Rick! Rick!"

"What?" Rick whispered back.

"Can you see out side?" Vassilij whispered, a bit loudly but still a whisper.

"Yes," Rick said looking out of the hole in his crate. "They're almost done loading, hmm.."

Rick strained to hear what the men were saying. But they were talking in Arabic, "hey, Vass, can you understand Arabic?"

"A little, why?"

"What are the Arabs saying?"

"They're saying that there are only two crates left, and that-oh shit!"

"What?! What?!"

"There's a bomb in one of them! Let's get outta here! We gotta warn the Captain!" Vassilij started to pound at the crates side. Rick did too. It took them ten minutes to break out of the crates, they ran out of the storage to the door that led to the boiler room just as the Arabs put in the first crate. One Arab came up to the one loading saying in Arabic that the one with the bomb was the last one, and that the English would not go unpunished for invading their land. (no offence to Muslims or Arabs.)

~~~Where Rick and Vassilij are~~~

The two ran past many passengers on the third class part near the bottom of the ship, pushing people out of the way yelling, "Get out of here! There's a bomb in the ship!"

This started an uproar by some people and other people thought those two were kids playing a nasty joke on them. The two boys made to the Second class cabins and ran past security up towards the deck. In less than seven minutes they made it to the deck. They looked around, they were at the bow of the ship, they found some stairs leading to the room with the tiller (or whatever the little steering wheel of ships are called.). They ran into the Captains room gasping and saying at the same time, "There's a bomb on the ship! There's a bomb on the ship!"

The Captain settled them down, giving them water, "Calm down, boys, calm down. Now what are you saying, one a time now."

Rick spoke first, "Some Arab terrorist have put a bomb in a crate that's being loaded now!"

Vassilij then said, "The Arab said that it was to go off when you reached the Atlantic, away from land. I heard, so I did, sir!"

"really?" The Captain said, snapping his fingers, a security guy came to him. "Go check the Crates on the ship, in Storage, I don't want to chance this. I want the whole ship checked for bombs and other weapons. Check every Arab on board. Now, go, go, go, go , go!"

The two boys rested in their chairs as the Captain questioned them, "How do you know of this?"

"Well, sir," Vassilij started, "we snuck on the ship in a crate to get a ride to France. Then Rick heard Arabs talking. And he asked me what they was saying, I told 'im that they were saying that there were two more crates coming, and one 'ad a bomb in it. The Arab later said that the bomb would go off when the ship reached the Atlantic."

The Captain looked at them both, looking for signs of lies and tricks, but it was all real, "I believe you. But the fact you snuck on can cost you."

Then one of the officers came to the captain, "Sir, we found two bombs, one was in a crate the other was attached to an Arab."

"Thank you," The Captain said. He stood up and said to the two boys, "For saving us, I will let you ride for free. But for sneaking on, you will have to work as guards. There is an important family here. Yes, a very rich English family called the Rowans. Their daughter is about your age, and they want her to have a body guard. If you two would pose as her body guards, it will make up for sneaking on."

"Er, but shouldn't we be forgiven for sneaking on? After all, we did save the ship, and people on it. Besides, we're getting off at France," Rick said. The Captain nodded.

"yes, but it would help us. And we aren't really stopping at France, so if you do this, we'll stop long enough to let you off, and you'll have fresh supplies of food and some money. What do you think?"

"I think, Comrade Captain has been over-generous," Vassilij said. The Captain chuckled.

"Nonsense, you two saved hundreds of lives, and your working, it's the least we can do!"

"Thank you, sir," they said at the same time. The Captain shook his head.

"Nay, thank you two. And please, call me Daniel!"

~~~End Chapter~~~

Jester: Well, I hope you will all review! PlZ!! It'd be much appreciated!

Jester

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