Ash Ketchum: Battle of the Ampere

Ch. 22 The Next Step

   Time seemed frozen, disjoined like broken sequences cut out of a horror movie. Calem's hands and torso were drenched in blood and he was screaming in anguish. All of us were crying, even Iris, who didn't know either of them. During it all one of the guards woke and began shouting at us to let him go. The emotion of the moment piqued my anger. "Shut up!" I shouted.

  "Let me out of this!" He shouted back.

   I stood and walked to him. When he saw the fierce anger on my face his own expression his turned from anger to fear. I had to control myself so that I only shocked him unconscious. Then Zeus and I dragged him out of the clearing into the jungle, crammed leaves into his mouth, and tied his shirt around his face his to keep him from making any more noise. We were doing it for his benefit. In Calem's current state he would gladly silence him permanently. Then Zeus, Brock, and I dragged the other guards into the jungle, including the two who had been shot. There was no need to tie up the guard who had shot Drew. He hadn't survived Zeus's blast.

    Shauna found a wool blanket in one of the trucks, and she and Korrina draped it over Drew's body. It was nearly an hour before Calem finally left Drew's side. He sat alone at the edge of the clearing, softly crying.

   Grief is a powerful force that settles in the heart like a dark, heavy fog. It was familiar territory to me. I was eight years old when I lost my father.

    Everyone wandered off to their own place. Brock was in a daze, muttering that he should have seen the guard, and he walked off alone. Shauna, Iris, and Zeus sat together outside the clearing, near the spot we had first entered. Korrina and Clemont went for a walk while Serena and I sought refuge in the front seat of the red truck. I just held her in silence. So much had happened since we'd separated, but neither of us felt like talking about it. The gladness we felt at being together again was muted by shock and grief.

   An hour or so later Clemont walked up to us alone. He opened the back door of the cab and climbed in. His eyes his were as swollen as ours. "I can't believe this," he said. "I can't believe Drew's gone." He looked at me anxiously. "Is your mom safe?"

  "She got out," I said. "She's with the voice."

  "I wish we were," Serena said softly. "What are we going to do now?"

   I looked through the windshield at Calem, then back at Serena. "We've got to get out of here before someone finds us."

  "And where?" Clemont asked.

  "Raihan gave me the name of a hostel in Cuzco. We'll drive there."

  "Raihan?" Serena said. "You mean the guy who took us up the river?"

   I nodded.

  "How did you find him?" Clemont asked.

  "He found me," I said. "Do you remember that tribesman we saw on the way in?"

   Clemont nodded. "The Amacarra."

  "They saved me from the Galactic troops. Then they brought Iris and me to Raihan."

   Serena said, "Who is Iris?"

  "Iris was one of Cyrus's kids until she escaped from the Starxource plant six months ago. The Amacarra were hiding her. When the Peruvian army started moving in, the tribe took us up the river to Raihan. We hiked through the jungle until we found a place to stop the convoy."

  "How did you know where we were?" Clemont asked.

  "The voice," I said.

  "You talked to the voice?" he asked.