Chapter 5: Stories Revealed
He awoke like he always did, his eyes slowly opening to the darkness of his room, the only light coming from the closed window blinds. He usually liked to have it dark, always dim lighting and shadows. He loved the darkness, the lack of light. For the darkness hid what people were, the monsters in the dark could roam freely. The light revealed all these truths.
He gently moved away from the girl tied up next to him, hopefully sleeping fitfully. His men had gone through on their promise to search through, and had found a nice exotic specimen for him last night. He had taken his pleasure with obvious lack of remorse, only seeking the thrill of the pleasure, the intimacy of the flesh. Then he had fallen asleep next to her as she cried, her weeping a soft lullaby to him.
He threw open his closet and breathed in the cool, musty air of it. His clothing was tucked and hung in extremely ordered rows along it, and he decided to go for a more casual look today, as he had nothing to do in terms of business to deal with for at least several days.
He dressed in a nice pair of slacks and a white, tight T-shirt. He strode outside to his hallway and began to walk down it, loving the way the dimmed sunlight cast an eerie glow of lighting through it. He opened the door to his office, and stepped within, feeling that if he had no formal business to do, then he might as well have a little fun on the internet or take some exercise later. He pulled his leather seat back and plopped down into it, giving a call on his desk voice box to have the girl in his room returned to her cell.
He opened his email and checked through the various messages, mostly deleting the spam and other such stuff that currently clogged it. He paid attention to several others, and nodded as he agreed with their proposed messages. He answered a few from his workers, making sure he answered whatever questions they had thoroughly. Well informed employees made much more happy employees.
Then he found one that sparked his interest, as it reminded him of a very important issue. He opened it up to see that his secretary had sent one to remind him that the local sheriffs of the towns nearby had not received their bribes, and that the times for payment was near. He nodded and breathed deeply in relief. Thank god he had a good secretary. And she was especially attractive as well. Maybe he could take her out sometime for some champagne and a little more "action" than she would usually get. He smiled at the images running through his imagination.
He had been paying the local sheriffs quite bit of cash these days to give the order that no one was to go wondering through the woods near his facilities, and that they could be punished for doing so. He loved how the local police were so corrupt, that he merely had to give them some doe, and they would spit-shine his shoes while an elderly woman was being beaten to death just yards away. They would take a "nickel off a dead man's eye".
He typed up some reports and then began to write out the payment checks, and thought back to his success of all this time. He smiled at the memory of how he managed to bring this whole operation to the fold, something that a lesser man would never have been able to do. America was the land of opportunity, as he had been told as he served a different nation. But that saying was quickly proven true as he entered this business, and now he was in charge of the largest trade on this side of the border. Oh, how he loved life.
He got up and practically danced out of his large office, walking toward the main doors. He flung them open and breathed the cool air. The "convinced workers" were already quite busy in the workshops and such, and so the only living things he saw was the occasional guard standing at the gate or patrolling the fence line for any possible trouble. He had increased security since the incident with the escapee, which to his annoyance, had still not been caught. Due to those "ninja boys".
He chuckled at the memory of those pathetic guards. How they begged and pleaded their case with such an absurd defense as being jumped by a couple of boys who just happened to have great martial art skills. He was not ashamed ar bothered at all by his forced disposal of them. The only thing he did not like was the bloodstain was still not completely out of his carpet yet. He would have to set someone to work on that later.
A stroll was what he needed on so fine a day, and that is exactly what he began to do. He walked along the fence line, nodding at guards who came to attention for him as if he were some general patrolling the lines. In a way, he was. He decided to see if he could stir up a little chat with one of them.
"A very nice day we are having, eh?"
"That it is, sir."
"No trouble from any of our workers?"
"None, sir."
"That is very good to know. As you know, I am quite a busy man, and so I can afford very few mistakes on the part of my employees."
"I do my very best sir."
"As I am sure you do, god knows I pay you enough."
The man smiled.
"That you do, sir."
"Yes, I do. Well, keep up the good work."
"I shall do so, sir."
The boss nodded and strode off, humming the tune of "part of your world" to himself as he walked off.
The guard watched him go, and heard the tune he was humming. He shook his head and muttered to himself. The man might pay them very well, but he sure was a pretty huge...well, freak...
-Orion's Tent-
Jason pulled the flap back and noticed that several other brothers were seated within the tent as well. Dean, his bronze hair and typical Hermes features were crunched together in concentration of what he was hearing. Mikhail was there as well, and he looked up to give a half-grin to Jason as he entered, slightly disheveled from recently in the middle of sparring.
Orion was there as well, and seated a ways away from him was little Garret, giving the smile of a youngster seeing an older relative. Jason couldn't help but return it slightly, Garret's smiles were just so infectious. He really could brighten a dark tent with that little smile, the smile of an abused boy finally seeing through the evil of the world and embracing a brighter way.
Orion noticed Jason enter, and he spoke softly and formally to Jason.
"Jason..."
"Sorry lord. I think the message got to me a little late, and so I was sparring when I was told. I came as soon as I heard."
"No matter Jason, I was only going through the initial ideas. I have a...request to make of several of you. Well, actually, it is not my request to make."
There was some general confusion.
"Then why were we summoned...lord?"
"Because Garret has something he would like to ask you. I called you here because you three would be the best group I could think of to pull this off. A son of Ares and Hermes, and my lieutenant. But I cannot force you to do as Garret will ask of you, for this is not my request to make. Garret is the one with the question. Garret, step forward and make your request."
The boy slowly slid off his seat and stood in front of them, biting his lip. Jason kept his expression neutral, but Mikhail and Dean both gave him grins in a kind of reassurance. Garret made eye contact with each of them, probably seeing if there were any way they would not accept right off the bat. But he seemed reassured enough to begin to speak.
"Well, you guys know that I have a sister, right?"
Jason did. Mikhail and Dean nodded as the new information reached them.
"Well, that place I came from...she's still in there. I don't know what they are doing to her in there...but she is...well she probably is being really hurt by them. They might be taking out there anger at me on her. So I wanted to know if you guys...well..."
"You want us to help you get your sister out," Dean blurted out, trying to help stir Garret on.
"Well, yeah. I don't think I can get her out on my own. Actually, I know that I can't do it on my own. So if you guys think you can help me sneak in and break her out...well, I'll be your friend..."
The group laughed at the reward, clearly amused, yet at the same time, they could not ignore the immense bravery this young boy was showing. He had broken free of a truly hellish existence, only to want to enter such a place again, for the sole reason of getting a blood sibling out. Jason grinned at the boy's nervousness, but bravery like what the boy was showing on the inside could not be ignored.
Orion stood up and took the floor once again. He smiled at Garret's nervous way of sitting back down again, but his heart to glowed with the courage the boy was showing, showing without probably even knowing it. He turned to address them again.
"You have all heard what Garret had to say. I will leave you to decide if you will help him. At dusk, if you wish to assist him, then report back here. The rest of the day is yours."
They got up and Jason looked long and hard at Garret, who shied away from his look, almost as if he were embarrassed by what he had just said. But to ask people he just knew, whom he were just going to be in the care of for help in something as his situation was...bravery came in many forms.
-Several Hours Later-
Micheal led his group through the area, scoping for something they were not truly sure what. All they knew was they were looking like something that resembled a base of sorts, with several large buildings, looking sort of like warehouses. Given these vague instructions, he was still confident that something like that would be very hard to miss.
They moved at a swift pace, though not so fast as they couldn't suddenly stop if necessary. Micheal scanned the way in front of them, the mid-day sun lighting up the way. The space in front of them seemed devoid of anything unnatural, only the trees and the wild being their companions as they combed through the surrounding countryside.
They moved about several hundred more yards before they came across a clearing. They halted at the sight, as this clearly was not a natural clearing. It seemed to have been cut from the woods around them, and at it's two sides, a road was seen, branching off farther into the distance then they could see. Micheal sniffed the air and winced at what he smelled.
Death. There had been blood spilled here. The scent of blood and death and he swore he could even smell despair here, like a group of poor souls had been massacred like animals for slaughter. A smoldering pile was gathered up in a corner of the clearing, and the smell seemed to have been coming from there. They did not approach it, for the scent was simply overpowering. And then they noticed the truck treads in the dirt.
"Well boys, that looks like our path," he said, pointing down the road where the tracks led. They split up slightly, half of them on one side of the road, the other on the opposite side. They ran down the side of the road in the woods, just out of sight, making sure they made no more noise than absolutely necessary. The road went on for a way's, and then they began to make out dim sounds in the distance. Micheal gave them a signal and they slowed, making sure they could move without disturbing anything.
The place came into view gradually, and the group stopped in the last of the woods before they ended with an open area next to the fenced perimeter. On the other side of that fence, guards with what looked like at least AR-15 rifles or other variations of such patrolled, usually in pairs. Others stood guard at various junctions, and there were a good five of them guarding the main gate. Micheal was sure there were many more in the other buildings as well.
A large, extremely elegant mansion was in the distance, and it looked like a mansion of a living god, so huge and elegant it was. From where they were, it looked like it was pure gold in the sunlight, and there were many outbuildings and other such things around it. It sat a good distance away from where the other buildings were, and those buildings looked like something out of a prison movie. A really sadistic prison movie.
They looked indeed like warehouses, but with bars on the windows. They were huge, looking like they were capable of holding hundreds of people. He could see vent holes punched into the sides of them, as if to help ventilate it when too much smoke from whatever happened in them built up. And then he saw what looked like a kind of holding area, but it was huge, and it seemed like the exact thing you would expect criminals on death row to be locked up in. Just what was being held in there, Micheal actually pitied.
He gave a signal to the brothers near him and they gradually began to fall back, backing up slowly until they were out of sight of this Hell on Earth. If this was what Orion had sent them to investigate, then they might want to get back to him as fast as mortally possible...
-Several Minutes Later-
Jason had been playing out what was expected of them. He had been asked by Garret to go infiltrate a virtual slave camp, rescue his sister, and then get them out alive. Well, it could have been a lot worse...at least it wasn't the Pentagon...
He paced the training area, still giving out instructions to those needing them, but mostly being lost within his thoughts. Bravery like Garret's needed to be answered, but he was not sure if he should attempt to rescue anyone from the type of security that was sure to be there. If what garret was saying about the place was true, then surely, there would be some serious numbers of guards there.
"How old are you?" a young voice asked.
Jason whirled to see Garret standing there, a grin on his face. Jason couldn't help but chuckle.
"Why do you ask?"
"I'm curious."
Jason wondered how to answer this question. How to answer and then explain it to Garret. But Garret was young, and so he still had the mind of a youngster. So Jason decided to let him have it straight up.
"I'm 22."
Garret's eyes widened and he looked at him in shock. His mouth dropped several inches and then he spoke in his excited, nervous tone.
"But you don't...you don't look..."
"I don't look anything like that, I know...I am physically sixteen."
"But how...how can that be?"
"Garret, when we join the Brotherhood Of The Hunt, as it is known formally, we are given the ability to be immortal."
"Like you can't die?"
"Pretty much. The only thing that can stop that is if we die in battle."
"That is so cool!"
"Yes, Garret...it is indeed...cool."
Garret kicked at the ground and looked at Jason again with his curious eyes. Jason felt another question was coming...
"How did you join?"
"Come again?"
"How did you join the group?"
Jason swallowed as he remembered how he came to become the lieutenant of the brotherhood. Memories flashed through him of his childhood, and he gave an involuntary shudder. Garret saw this and he backed away slightly, wondering if he had just asked the wrong thing. He looked up at Garret with frighted eyes, eyes that had become all too painfully familiar.
"Are you angry...should I have not asked that?"
Jason swallowed and shook his head. He felt that...maybe...maybe it was time to tell someone his story in full.
Sit down over there Garret, I'll tell you how."
Garret had been pointed over toward a tree stump, and he walked over and lifted himself up slightly, before plopping down upon it. Jason chose to sit on a stool that he unfolded next to it, and he sat down, wondering where to begin.
"I had a rather...disheartening childhood, so to speak," Jason began.
"What do you mean?" Garret asked, moving closer to Jason.
"My mother said I was an accident. My father never said anything like that, but my mother was adamant about it. She said that I was the one who should not have been. My sister was ten years older than me, and only my dad kept them from doing me any real harm, at least up to a point."
"Why would your mother be so harsh on you?"
"I do not know Garret. Women can be like that at times, I guess."
"But my momma was real nice to me..."
"Well, then you had the rare experience of having a loving woman caring for you. Usually Garret, they are pretty much self-centered wenches. But back to my story."
Garret hushed and tilted his head in attention.
"When my father died in the Gulf War...well...now nothing was holding them back. My life suddenly became a living hell. They would constantly be beating me and doing other things to me...they were very fond of putting cigarettes out in my flesh."
Garret's mouth formed an O of shock.
"This kept going for several years. I was an abused puppy. I had no hope of ever getting out of there. The world to me was a cold, dark hole..."
Garret nodded, obviously so engrossed in his story, that he was not seeing the same somewhat parallels with his own life.
"Finally, they had be tied up in some alley. They were having fun with me, virtually torturing me for some pleasure of theirs. I had some bones broken and I was virtually covered in scorch marks from their cigarettes. And that is when I was saved."
"Saved?"
"Yeah, saved. By him," he jerked his head toward Orion's tent. Garret nodded.
"He taught me to be tough, to be able to get up on my own two feet after I had been smacked down by the world. He showed me the way of the warrior, and soon, he formed this group that you now see before you. And I was made it's first member, the lieutenant of them. In that position, only Orion has authority over me."
Garret nodded, the story sounding quite true. Jason had never given any reason as to why he would ever make anything up, and Garret heard his words to be honest and true. Brutal and unforgiving, yes, but honest.
Jason stared into the boy's frightened eyes and felt something begin to burn within himself, a kind of courage he himself never felt before. Not when he fought Artemis during the war, not when he fought Thalia several times, and not even when he personally attacked Nemesis at the moment of his lord's weakness. What this boy had endured and now was planning to do was beyond anything like that. Jason carried his sword in his hand, but this boy seemed to carry his in his heart, even if he himself did not know it...and courage like his was something that could not go unanswered...
"I will help you get your sister out."
"Really...?" garret asked, his eyes full of hope and his mouth twisting into a smile.
"Yeah...I will."
"Thank you!"
Garret then wrapped his arms around Jason and Jason was taken back by the sudden move. But his shock quickly dissipated and he slowly wrapped his arms around Garret as well. Garret hugged him fiercely for a good minute before running off to...well, only the gods knew where the hyperactive youngster ran off to.
He heard a commotion and Micheal and the other members of the scouting party came into camp. Everyone stopped and looked at them, worried at there expressions, which were very grim indeed. Micheal did not look nor talk to anyone around him, and only gave an acknowledging nod toward Jason. He did not stop by the weaponry tent to drop off his gear, and nor did he even try to take off his armor. He only made a beeline for Orion's tent, and Jason knew better than to interrupt.
Several hours later, he was called into Orion's tent, and he listened to the briefing of what had been discovered...and he did not like what he was hearing...
-Dinnertime-
Garret ate his meal in high spirits, confident that he was now going to be getting his sister back within just a few hours. Jason sat a certain distance away from him, and Orion was by himself as well, slowly eating the meat from the deer that had recently been taken down. Garret thought back to Jason's tale, and then looked at Orion with the same curiosity. He remembered all the stories that Orion told him about the ancient world, and then a thought came into his young mind.
He walked over to where Orion was finishing, and sat next to him. Orion noticed him and chuckled.
"Well, what is it now, young one?"
"You think before we go, I can hear one more story?" he asked. Orion chuckled again, and set his plate down.
"I told you almost all of the stories I know," Orion said.
"You said almost..."
Orion sighed and looked around, hoping to buy some time. The air was cool and moist. The sounds of the brothers horse playing and joking around was surrounding them. Orion smiled at their youthful bantering and decided that there was one story that he had not told Garret.
"Long ago, thousands of years in the past, there was an incredibly beautiful huntress. A goddess actually, one of the most..." he trailed off.
"What?" Garret brought him back to the present. Orion shook his head and smiled, continuing.
"She had taken a vow to forever remain chaste, and never to be taken by a man. She formed her own group of like-minded maidens, the huntresses. And she hunted the Earth for years, never before being rivaled by anything beneath Lord Zeus's sky. Until one day..."
"What happened?" Garret accidentally interrupted, his mind absorbing the great tale.
"One day, she met a man. She did not like men because of her vow, and so she initially distrusted him. He had skill that no mortal possessed, and he could not be rivaled by any of them while on the hunt. And he even was able to sometimes defeat even her accomplishments of hunting. For these deeds, she initially did not like him. But that eventually changed..."
Garret nodded as Orion trailed off again, lost in thought. He wondered why Orion was pausing, but thought he might be trying to make a dramatic effect, not thinking about just what was playing within Orion's mind.
"She spent some time observing him, and in that time, a different feeling began to take hold of her. She went on several hunting expeditions with him, and the more that they began to learn about each other and seeing each others skill, then the more closer they became. Finally, she became very good friends with him, though she did not know one thing during that initial friendship..."
"What was it."
"That he...that he was in love with her. He thought she was the most beautiful thing that had ever graced the world. Her skill, her way of being able to move so effortlessly, to stalk the wilds and...and her eyes. He eyes were like the very moon she was deity of...and the man knew that if he died, it was looking into those eyes that he wanted his last sight to be..."
Garret was actually getting kind of annoyed with how Orion would fade in and out as he spoke, almost as if he were trying to remember something about himself as he talked. Garret really wanted to hear the end of this story before he had to go. Orion needed to hurry up!
"One day, the goddess told the man something that brought all the joy in the world into naught by comparison. She had told him that she too had fallen in love. And that she had fallen for none other than him. When the hunter heard this, he felt that nothing else could be wrong, for if this was the one thing ine the world he could have, then he would have gladly accepted."
Garret nodded, his attention seized.
"On their final day together, they professed their love, and then the goddess went to spend the day with her brother. Her brother had seen his sister and the hunter together, and felt that it was necessary to end it before the goddess violated her oath. And so when the hunter went for a swim out in the ocean, he challenged his sister to an archery contest, and chose as the target, the unknown head of the hunter, who he spotted out in the water."
Garret gasped at what he thought was coming.
"When she heard the challenge to her skills, the goddess could not deny it. And so she fired her arrow expertly, and hit the hunter in the head, killing him. She did not know what she had done until his body washed up on shore, and she grieved for thousands of years afterward.."
Garret nodded.
"But the man's soul could not rest in peace. He believed that he had been betrayed, and when two other gods...or one god and a titan...appeared to his shade, and showed him a fractionated version of what happened, then he became convinced that the goddess was at fault completely. He swore that if they could return him to life and give him powers that were the match of god, then he would aid them in destroying the goddess and her kind..."
Orion closed his eyes and breathed deeply. How could he have been such a fool to have believed Kronos and Nemesis? He knew that Artemis would never have hurt him on purpose. How could he have been so blind...
"What happened after that?" Garret pestered him again.
"The hunter returned to the Earth, and he formed his own group...he dedicated it to be the opposite of the girl's group. It would be composed of all boys, and they would first make sure that the goddess and her huntresses were destroyed. And so they waged war upon them. The hunter openly attacked his once love..."
Orion took another deep breathe, composing himself.
"When the final battle came, much blood was spilled on both sides. But the goddess never gave up hope that the hunters would come to his senses, and he constantly attacked her. But when she finally got through to him, he felt the power given to hi by the evil ones beginning to kill him. And at that moment, when the goddess could have easily have destroyed him, left him to rot in the intensity of the pain he was feeling, she instead saved him. The hunter did not know why..."
"Because she loved him," Garret finished for him.
"Yes Garret...because she still loved him, even after all he had done. After all the pain and misery he caused her and her sisters, she still found the strength to see through the lies he had been fed, and save him from himself, in a way. And when she showed him what had truly transpired that day, he took his revenge upon the goddess that tricked him..."
Garret did not interrupt this time, only stared in awe as Orion told the tale, not thinking that he might possibly be telling him his own story.
"The goddess told him that she forgave him, and that she still loved him, even after all those thousands of years and the events that had recently come to pass. But the hunter could not forgive himself for hurting her, not yet. And so he left with his group, promising that he would come to her aid when she called for him. They had not seen each other since..."
"Wow..." Garret said, clearly shocked and pleased with this story. Orion forced a smile at him and told him to run off and spend what little time remained before he sent them to retrieve his sister. Garret ran off, his mind playing the story over again in his head. Orion sat on the stump and gazed at the moon, seeing her face within it.
"Oh gods, Artemis...Please, I cannot forgive myself...please..."
If it were at all possible, he could have sworn the moon shone brighter at his words...
-One Hour Later-
Orion watched his brothers as they filed into the tent. Garret came into the tent just after Jason, and sat next to him, looking at Orion with his usual wonder. Orion thought back to the story he told, and wondered if Garret would ever see the connection. If he did, he might actually rest a little easier, as children always seemed to understand some things better than adults. But in any case, he needed to inform them of what would be the situation facing them.
"By entering this tent, you have agreed to accompany Garret to help his sister, am I right?"
They nodded their understanding.
"Very well. Micheal, tell them of what you saw."
Micheal stepped forward and addressed them in a usual, business like tone. But there was an underlying current of uncertainty hidden beneath his usually stoic demeanor.
"The place we think Garret has been talking about is about five miles from here, situated within a fenced in perimeter. Based on what I saw, there are quite a few guards within the area, and they are heavily armed with at least semi-automatic rifles and pistols. We didn't notice any watchtowers, so I do not think you'll have to worry about any eyes in the sky, or snipers."
They nodded, mentally taking notes.
"There is a really large mansion a distance away from the "warehouse' structures that Garret has described. We think the main guard quarters might possibly be within there or somewhere close to it, so you might get some breathing room for a time. But that leaves the guards at the main gate as well as those patrolling the fence perimeter. They will have to be dealt with if we are going to get a shot inside."
Jason began to consider this as Micheal continued.
"The ware houses all look alike, and so we don't know which is the primary one. But Garret told us what the main building for housing the workers is, and we believe it is the large, almost prison looking one about several hundred yards behind the working buildings."
He tried to draw a rough diagram on a piece of paper as he spoke, and the group noted every little bit on that sheet of paper. They would need to be doing a lot of improvisation during this, and every bit of foreknowledge they have would come in extremely handy.
"And that is all I really can say. We couldn't tell anything else than that..."
"Thank you Micheal," Orion said, and Micheal took a seat. Orion then turned and addressed the group.
"I have taken it upon myself to include the brothers Morgan and Darren in this. I feel that brains and healing abilities might come in very handy during this. I really do not know what else to tell you boys, except some maybe ancient blessings..."
"We'll' get back alright, my lord. Don't worry." Jason said, and Orion nodded.
"I am sure you will. Now go while the night covers you..."
Well, that was a interesting chapter to write. I hope you all enjoyed this, and remember to review. I did not get many for the last chapter, so try and get this one up to snuff...until we meet again, Happy Hunting!