The Renegade Chronicles

Renegade: Chapter Eight

The next day, we arrived a few meters away from the Tres Marias at exactly ten o'clock in the morning. The sun shined above us with no clouds in sight. Like a savanna, the base was surrounded by bushes, trees and tall grasses, which was an advantage in terms of hideouts.

The three of us wore our Maria uniforms while our comrades wore green Kung Fu outfits. Attached on the left side of Kate, Alexander and my clothes were one of the weapons which were earlier inside the black briefcase. Kate brought with her the sword she named Katherine, while Alexander brought with him the sword he called Cassandra.

With my signal, all the 300 soldiers sneaked towards their positions around the said base and waited for the next signal. Some hid behind the trees and bushed, while the others ducked below the tall grasses.

When everything was settled, the three of us calmly walked towards the rusty door silently and knocked three times. Suspiciously, no one opened it. With a greater force, I tried to knock again. But this time, a creaking sound was heard as it suddenly opened itself.

"What are the odds," Alexander spoke softly. "It was open the whole time."

Before going inside the base, Kate raised her right hand and pointed upward which signaled assistance from ten soldiers. So these ten men ran towards the door (to guard us) and we walked inside the old camp.

As we looked around, we realized that the place was too small. The whole room was somewhat cylindrical in shape. Approximately, its red colored walls were about five meters in length each. A wooden table was placed in the center with a crystallized heart on it that glowed in the middle of the day.

"Nice try, but we know this secret already. The real one doesn't light in the morning," I walked towards the table.

"There must be a secret room in here somewhere," Alexander looked around.

"Let's try this. If we say 'Maria' together, maybe a door to the real crystallized heart will open," Kate suggested.

"Okay. Let's give it a try," I nodded.

Then, a few seconds later, we repeatedly attempted to say the word, "Maria" together. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Instead, we looked like dumb people as we recited a nonsense chant of our foe's clan name.

"Maybe if we press these walls, a door will come out," I suggested as we pressed the four corners of the camp.

"Okay, let's give it a try," Kate nodded.

We tried to press almost all the parts of the walls, but still, nothing happened.

"Well, this is exhausting. The real crystallized heart is not here after all," Alexander said as he sat on the table.

To my surprise, sitting on that table was the key to reveal another way! In the middle of the base, the floor cracked that revealed a passageway underground.

"Great job, Alexander! At least once, your 'act of sitting for giving up' made us advance to another level," Kate smirked.

"You're welcome, bitch," Alexander snorted.

Then, the ten soldiers followed us towards the rocky passage and another ten ran towards the door to guard us from there. The passageway was lit with black colored torches which made our quest easier at that moment, but something was terribly odd. It seemed that the torches were newly placed.

After a few minutes, we reached a wooden door carved with tiger heads and by the looks of it, it was really antique. As we slowly opened the door, the huge fancy hall from behind it caught all our attention. I think approximately, it was about the size of a football stadium! There were large Maria banners that almost covered the walls of the whole place and tall black colored pillars stood firmly, which divided the room into three rows. As we narrowed our eyes and looked on the very far end of the hall, a huge tiger head made entirely out of cement was attached on the wall. As we walked closer, the details in the sculpture got clearer and found out something worth fighting. On the tiger's left eye, the crystallized heart was attached. To my surprise, it was not shining!