Chapter 15: Reunited with a Family Member
Lavander’s heart bumped out of her chest rapidly as the army of Santhrose came in like a swarm of locust. Their battle cries pierced through the night frightening the civilians down at the basement. Swords, axes, guns and even chainsaws were only a few weapons Lavander could name, all looked mean and scary and the troop they had looked gorgeous and unprepared.
Lavander didn’t give a battle cry signal, the bullet proof doors flew open with her psychic punch turning at least ten Santhrose into dust. Nobody stopped attacking nor took in what happened, a ton of men made it inside the hospital and a lot of Charleston took a lot of initial hit, dissolving them into thin air.
The Charlestons kept on appearing as one disappeared but Lavander knew Charleston can only create so much duplicate of himself before maximizing his ability and eventually paralyzing his abilities or worse, kill him with too much over usage.
Belle’s samurai skills improved from before, nobody even had the chance to come near her within two feet without turning into dust. The gun on her back wasn’t even used and yet about eight Santhrose were already slain within just a matter of minutes.
Lavander wasn’t about to let them steal the thunder, even thought she felt a little wobbly from the huge dome she had created, her regenerating ability had cancelled out her fatigue but her energy was slowly running out. Lavander believed that it would be enough to make it for the night.
A concrete table became Lavander’s choice of weapon flipping it and smacking people in the head of everyone she had encountered. The dust on the air was thin and yet it scattered all around the floor making it slippery and hard to move with. The Charlestons were resourceful and used the weapons of the fallen against them, soon there were gunshots and ripping of chainsaws around the hospital.
Devin was missing in action, a while ago, she was beside Lavander but then the attack came and it’s hard to tell who was from whom with the thin veil of dust covering the air.
A small tiny metal canister caught Lavander’s attention as it was thrown on her direction and rolled, slightly bumping into her foot as one Santhrose failed to slice her with a machete. The small canister blinked with a red light slowly then very rapidly with beeping sounds.
“Incoming!” Lavander screamed on top of her lungs and tried to barricade herself with a small force field with the few remaining time she had. The explosion was intense that the thin layered barricade she had created exploded in her face, bruising her face and temporarily blinding her. The regenerating process went slowly as a few more explosions came in with huge intensity.
Lavander finally had her senses running but broken bones hadn’t mend yet, which made it hard for her to move. A whole troop of Charleston was missing and only a few duplicates came in to replace them, most of the duplicates came in from the upper floors which they were guarding. It was a bad thing as Lavander thought, there were more Santhrose coming their way as the pawns were sacrificed for a diversion.
Devin finally appeared from the rubbles of the explosion, he seemed to be unhurt but a little shaken from the experience. The gray cement dust covered his whole face like a clown’s make up and down to his clothes which were charred and tattered.
Belle was unhurt as the explosion only passed through her body-the ability she was gifted with-but a little shaken just like Devin, with her knees shaking and her eyes constantly squinting. Another army came in, this time marching in unison in a very slow pace as they held machine’s guns ready on aim.
“Duck!” Lavander grabbed Belle in one of the rooms as Devin followed them. The storm of bullets cascade their way into the wall and furniture of the hospital wrecking every last piece. The bullets hadn’t made its way yet into their room but the sound and the vibration caused them to almost pee themselves.
“There’s too many of them,” Devin shouted out.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Belle asked as she covered her ears.
The menacing sound of machine guns stopped and for a moment there was only silence but it was later broken by the sound of chilling marching of an army. The sound of their leather boots stomping on the ground in unison was very terrifying, Lavander peeked outside the door and saw that the battalion was still moving in a slow pace. Lavander lost her hope when all the Charleston that came was past duplicate and not new ones.
“Anyone has a plan?” Lavander asked and all three of them just stared at each other. The sound of machine guns started once again, ravaging the duplicates of Charleston.
“Fallback!” Lavander shouted but only a handful of duplicates were able to make it to safety.
“I can fight out there, those bullets won’t hurt me,” Devin held Lavander’s shoulder, “trust me.”
“I can too,” Belle added.
“Uhh, uhmm,” Lavander had a hard time just wrapping her head around it, with all the pressure reeking around her, the words Devin and Belle gave out didn’t even register correctly on her head.
The marching went closer and Lavander hadn’t made out her mind just yet. “Let’s just do this,” she ordered but on the side of her vision, a puff of dust came dusting in. The menacing sound of boots seemed to had lessen then stopped.
“What the…” Devin crept in closer to the door to get a peek. Shrills went on then dust flew in the air, more confusion steered in the room.
Devin finally had a view of what was happening outside. There were definitely more duplicates of Charleston running around and disturbing the battle formation of the Santhrose but one thing was different, the Charlestons wore gray top with checkered shorts and slippers on, unlike the earlier duplicates who all wore a white shirt and very standard jeans. One thing was more overwhelming, a boy about five feet and half tall, definitely around sophomore year of high school was standing there fighting, no not fighting, there was thunder where he pointed at it and soon the rolling sound of thunder and lightning came side by side and the musty smell of burned objects reeked of the place.
“We need to go now,” Devin said and was the first on to go out of the room and immediately punched the first person he saw turning it completely into dust.
Belle quickly took her gun from her back side and started shooting. “Who is that guy?” she asked Devin who was fighting with a machine gun from one of the fallen.
A man raised his axe which only gave Devin the perfect space to shoot on his head. “I don’t know,” he said as the Santhrose turned into dust.
Lavander finally came in on the action, breaking bones from afar with her mental ability. “Purple?” she asked and took one of the guns and started shooting so she wouldn’t exhaust most of her abilities.
“Probably,” Devin ran through the crowd of ten and started punching and ripping things apart, the favor of the gods was probably on their side with the addition of new help. The boy was focused with the thunder, the wind grew wilder that swept some of the Santhrose away but a lot where still appearing, hundreds were still appearing from the bushes and they seemed to be coming out of nowhere.
All of them finally made it outside, removing possible threats inside the hospital. The parking lot became their battle field as the smoking bushes and annoying alarms of cars added effects on the chaos that was happening.
Lavander threw cars at the Santhrose that was after her but the migraine started to appear which worried her a lot. It was bearable at the moment but her trustworthy regenerating ability wouldn’t cancel it out, there was hope that she would pass out just long enough after they’ve taken victory.
Lavander finally had the opportunity to fight side by side with the new boy. He was taller up close, probably a few inches taller than Lavander and was quite chubby but not that fat to be obese, just enough with his height to have a lean look. The brown birthmark on his neck resembled the state of Florida without the straight lines. Black with tiny hints of silver was the color of his hair which was long till his nape. His eyes were standard brown but his cheeks were either added with blush on or naturally rosy. His eyes and colorful facial expression suggested that he was panicking while doing his thing, the aims were on target but even he looked like he was surprised on what he was doing.
“Hello,” Lavander said as they found each other literally back to back. A group of Santhrose circled them but the boy released a strong strike of thunder by Lavander’s side where their enemies were and with a mind blowing psychic punch, the thunder zapped everyone who was near it burning then eventually turning them to dust.
“God that’s hot,” Lavander remarked as her fist melted and burned even without physically touching the thunder itself. It healed in an instant but the pain was still a little tingly, “Lavander,” she introduced.
The boy released another lightning bolt and Lavander did her combo move. “Nolan,” he said.
“Nolan,” Lavander said while flapping her hands as it smoked from doing psychic punches, “remind me to bring sunglasses next time when you’re about to do your thing.” She said then chuckled.
The battle was still ongoing and Kiara’s army didn’t seem to seized at all. Cars flew in different direction, Belle’s blade constantly chopped a lot of Santhrose, the Charlestons were doing a heck of a job when they were mixed with the fallen’s guns and Devin, well Devin had fun with a lot of his Santhrose punching bags. At one point, the numbers didn’t seem to matter, stealth was becoming their number one problem as the minutes and probably hours had already passed.
“Where are they all coming from,” Lavander asked as she settled into a machine gun rather than using her psychic abilities.
“I don’t know,” Nolan started to pant as the thunder came two or one at a time and slower than before. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath while Lavander covered for her.
“Can we even do this?” Lavander said and was feeling very light headed but a figure emerged from the smoke that got her thinking, a familiar person she wished was by her side. Lavander looked again, squinting as she let her guards down taking in if what she was seeing was purely a trick of the mind or reality itself.
Nolan punched a guy in the nose who tried to attack Lavander in her behind, the Santhrose didn’t turn into dust but a bolt of lightning struck him when he lay flat on the ground. “What up?” Nolan complained.
Lavander was still in a daze as the familiar figure walked closer to her, his blonde hair and cool cerulean eyes weren’t easy to forget. Lavander stared in shock as the figure raised his gun and pointed it at her head. Even with the threat, Lavander didn’t move at all but instead utter a word that she remembered calling him.
“Dad?”