Chapter 179

179 The Final Piece

I ran after her to see Tisiah pick up the keys from the ground nearby as he looked towards me and grinned. Then he took out his phone and called someone as I grabbed my gun and approached him. “Hey, B. Maddie has Masaru, we’re gonna go get him,” Tisiah said on the phone. “We’ll be leaving from here soon.”

I stopped as he ended his call. “Tisiah...” I said softly as he looked at me. “Where did you get those keys?”

“From the ground,” Tisiah responded with “duh” nod of his head.

I looked down at the ground as I began to notice there was blood on the ground all over. “Let’s go,” I said, feeling a bit nauseous.

Tisiah nodded before climbing into the car. I looked around for Nikki first, but then she came running towards me with her gun pointed towards me. “We need to leave!” she shouted, running towards us.

“Come on, get in, get in!” Tisiah shouted, as he entered, holding the gun out of the window. “We gotta go!”

“Yes, yes,” I nodded my head before climbing in after them both. I turned back to see Nikki get inside of the car after Tisiah was already inside of it.

“Ready?” Tisiah asked, as me and Nikki nodded our heads. “Let’s go!” Tisiah said before revving the engine and driving off-so I held my breath as we sped out of there and headed towards where Masaru was supposedly still alive, with Maddie Cone nowhere in sight.

“How are we gonna find Maddie Cone?” Nikki asked, looking back at me from where she was sitting next to Tisiah in the driver’s seat.

.....

I shrugged my shoulders as I looked out the window-watching the scenery fly by as Tisiah drove down the highway in a hurry. “Got any sight of them?” I asked Tisiah, but then he shook his head no as he continued to drive us towards our destination.

“How are we going to find Maddie Cone?” Nikki asked again.

“I don’t know,” I said, sighing with annoyance as I leaned back against the door, trying not to feel sick from how fast we were moving. “Just try to see a white van,” Nikki responded, looking out the window herself to see if she could spot one of them.

“I’ll try to see them,” she said after a moment, but then she shook her head no as she looked out the window once more. “There’s nothing out here...” she said quietly.

“Shoot,” Tisiah grumbled, but then he stopped. “Wait, I see something.”

“What?” I asked, as I saw a white van speeding through the highway. “We got em,” I muttered in prospect, but then Nikki shook her head no.

“No, they’re too far ahead.”

“Too bad,” I murmured to myself as we sped forward to catch up with it before stopping at a red light. Then Tisiah began to honk the horn as we pulled out behind it. “Where do you want us to go?!” Nikki asked, as we all stared at the van we were chasing-it had been slowing down so we could catch up with it, and then it stopped suddenly at a red light.

“They’re stopping?” I asked Tisiah.

“Yeah,” he replied as we caught up with them.

“What do we do?” I asked.

“I don’t know...” Tisiah said as he slowed down to match their pace. “They’re doing something.”

But all of a sudden, two guys came from their windows with automatics in their hands. Fear crept up inside of me. “Oh shoot,” Nikki mumbled, but then I felt the force of what seemed to be a truck hit us, and glass flew inside of the car. The world was rolling around, and I was beginning to see stars.

“Hold on!” Tisiah yelled out as the car started to skid sideways before crashing into a building. It threw me against the back of my headrest with an intense pain and pressure while it flung Nikki out of her seat with an intense thud and clatter of her gun falling.

I screamed, I shrieked, I screeched in fear.

Then it stopped as dust and debris rained down inside the car, making me cough from the dust in my throat and lungs as I fell on the floor of the car-battered and bruised by the crash. I coughed some more until the dust cleared up. Then... everything went black.

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What-what...?

What happened??

Where am I?

I looked up, seeing the surrounding environment. It was as if I was in some sort of warehouse or something, and green was all around me. Leaves, trees, everything was green-green leaves everywhere.

Where is everyone?

Am I alone here?

Where are Tisiah and Nikki?

Where is Maddie Cone?

I heard footsteps coming closer to me, but then I saw that it was only a deer that had walked out of the trees. But then right then, I realized I was in Camagüey. I was inside of the warehouse, Charlie, and I strapped in this sort of chair that was like a ball sort of. Two cup holders by me, as I sat on the chair and there was a strap on my waist. Where were Nikki and Tisiah? Were they here?

“Hello, Connor,” I heard someone say, as I turned around and stared back. It was Maddie Cone who was now wearing a black jacket, and this long but firm dress that stopped below her knees. Her high heels continued to reiterate through the room, and the wooden floor gave it the certain base to her noisy high heels.

I stayed silent, fear and confusion just rattling through my brain. “How are you today?” she asked, as she dropped to my elevation. She smelled of lavender and cashew wood, and I couldn’t help but give into the fragrant smell.

“I asked you a question,” she hissed, and I cleared my throat. “Fine,” I responded, trying to sound strong, but in reality, I was as demure as a mouse.

“Good, good, now you might be wondering why you’re sitting here today,” she said. “Well, figures, instead of Masaru Kin as our ultimate piece, we were tracking it down unintentionally the whole time. You.”

“Me, for what?”

“To finish what we started, Connor,” she said. And right at that point, I knew what she was saying. I was inside the Xeno right now, and what she intended to do to Masaru-she was now doing to me.”

“Wait-wait, what makes me so special?” I asked, trying to look at her as she sauntered away from me. She chuckled. “Well, Masaru is capable of using nature to his will. Water, fire, earth-lightning, all the fun stuff. But he actually has an injury, so he can’t even use it for more than three hours. And that’s not even including using his full power.”

But then I heard her return, and she stopped as she looked at me. “You, on the other hand,” she said. “Your power consists of energy, and I’ve seen the damage you’ve done with a certain percentage. Imagine the full power you can put into this. Yeah, I’d prefer you. Now stay still.”

All of a sudden, footsteps began to rumble around the room. I looked, seeing a bunch of scientists walking around, taking their positions. “Hey Dr. Mord,” she said. “Start it up.”

Then, arms began to shake, and electricity was sparking all over my arms. More and more, my body felt like it was burning-melting into ash. Pain coursed through my entire body, and my eyes felt like shooting out, and my legs began to feel like licorice-bendy and unstable.

I screamed loud in pain, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

It was too much-the pain-it was too much for me to bear, too much for me to handle. My muscles began to become so weak, and then-then...

The electricity started to grow brighter in my veins. All of a sudden, my head rocked back, and the energy began to boil inside of me, but it was like an energy so powerful that it felt like it was going to explode any second. And then all of a sudden-a loud screech exploded inside of me-a screeching so loud it hurt to even listen to it.

Make it stop.

Make it stop!

It was so painful-so intense-it was unbearable.

Make it stop-make it stop-make it stop, make it stop!

I tried to move my hands, but they were completely stiff. I wanted to scream, but my voice felt shattered, and my throat felt like sandpaper-so raw and painful. I tried to move my legs, but they felt heavy and heavy, like it filled them with rocks or cement or something.

Make it stop-make it stop-make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop!

And then it stopped. “Yes!” Maddie Cone celebrated. “We now have completed the Xeno. What’s our energy levels, Dr. Mord?”

“We have one hundred and eighty-six point five million,” Dr. Mord said. “It should be enough to make our test subject go completely berserk.”

“Perfect.” Maddie Cone turned to face me as she dropped to my height again. “Thank you for your service.” Then she snapped twice before saying, “Guards, put him back into his cell. We’re not too much in need of him anymore.”