Chapter Seven: Searching

Xandar looked around the room he'd walked into. It was very small, about 5ft wide and 4ft long. On one wall there was a small plaque with some information about the church, he noticed that it was built in 1902. The other side had a long list of names of people, who were long dead, that had donated to the church. Straight ahead there was an old wooden door that stood slightly ajar. It was the only way through into he rest of the church so Xandar, walked through it.

As soon as Xandar walked through the door he stopped and stared in amazement. Covering all the walls in the main hall of the church were giant pictures of a man, with the word Zoot printed at the top of them. Xandar took a closer look at the picture. The man looked like he was wearing a cut up suit; he had war paint smeared on his face, long messy white blonde hair and goggles perched on the top of his head. But what had caught Xandars attention the most were the man's eyes. They had a mad, feral look about them, almost like a wild animal. Tearing himself away from the picture Xandar walked over to the nearest cloaked person and tapped them on their shoulder.

"You're needed on guard duty outside." Xandar said, after they had turned to face him.

"Right." The cloaked figure replied, and they turned and headed out of the hall.

Xandar slowly walked up the aisle of the church passing the rows of seats until he reached the altar. Upon it had been created a shrine; there was a small picture of Zoot and rows of candles. A small group of cloaked figures were kneeling around it silently praying. Xandar knelt down and joined them, looking around he hall for another door as he did so. He spotted a door on both sides of the hall, but he stayed where he was.

After a few minutes of silent praying Xandar noticed that the group he was with had stood up and were heading over to the door on the left side of the hall, so he got up and joined them. He followed the group of people through the door. They walked into a long thin corridor which had a few doors along each wall. The group progressed slowly down the corridor, stopping at each door, where a few people would funnel off into the rooms. As he walked past Xandar looked into one. He saw rows of beds and a couple of sinks on one of the walls. They looked like dormitories.

Eventually Xandar was the only person left in the corridor. It was deathly quiet apart from the small muffled voices he could here coming from a room at the far end of the corridor. Quietly he set off towards the voices he could hear, hoping that it was going to be Jane. He came to the door the voices were coming out off, it was placed in the corner where the corridor turned into another one, and placed his ear against the door.

"and it will soon be time to leave this place." A voice said.

"Are you sure that our numbers are great enough Guardian?" another voice questioned.

"Do you doubt the plans that Zoot has laid out for us Luke?" the Guardian asked.

"No, of course not. I was merely concerned for your safety, our cause will be greatly harmed if we lose you. The Mallrats are well protected within the city." Luke replied cautiously.

"The plan that Zoot has laid out for us shall not fail. He has told me so himself. As for the Mallrats, the Supreme Mother will deal with them, won't you?" the Guardian demanded.

"Yes, I will. I shall pull them apart from with, they are too trusting." A female voice said maliciously.

"Good. You see Luke, the plan is flawless." The Guardian said proudly.

"Yes, Guardian." Luke replied still sounding uncertain. "What shall we do with our potential disciples, if we are to be leaving soon?"

"How many of them are accepting the word of Zoot?" the Guardian asked.

"All but four of them. There's the two that we picked up this morning and the other two."

Xandar couldn't hear anything for a few minutes; he guessed that the Guardian was thinking things over.

"Well those two we've had for a month and they have resisted every chance to accept Zoot's word, and we don't have the time to teach Zoot's word to the other two. Our plans need to move forward quickly. So just get rid off them."

"By get rid of them you mean?" Luke asked.

"Kill them!" the Guardian said impatiently.

Xandar had heard enough. He needed to find Jane quickly. He moved away from the door and went round the corner to look down the rest of the corridor. He quickly walked down the hall putting his ear against each door, checking to see if he could hear Jane inside them. He turned another corner and was beginning to get worried until he saw a cloaked figure standing guard next to a door. He could also hear shouts of help coming from inside.

He slowed his pace down as he approached the guard. As Xandar walked past he gave the guard a nod, as he carefully pulled the knife out of his belt, the guard returned the nod in kind. As soon as he had walked past, Xandar quickly spun round and hit the guard on the back of the neck with the handle of the knife. The guard crumpled to the floor. Xandar was so surprised with the precision of his hit that he stood there stunned at what he'd done. A feeling of déjà-vu washed over him again. Quickly he came to his senses and walked up to the door.

"Jane is that you?" he asked.

"Yes. Is that you Xandar?" Jane asked.

"Yeah. Hold tight, I'm going to get you out of there." Xandar replied.

"I'm here too. If you care." Slade said.

"Oh, great." Xandar sarcasticly replied.