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Kaleb
I was called a child prodigy throughout most of my life. Little did they know, I worked hard every day to get where I was.
“Katie! Catch!” Audrey yells while throwing the black-haired woman at us.
I’m actually the one that catches the girl, but it knocks me to the ground. Katie yells out to Audrey while reaching her hand over the edge. I lay the unconscious woman on the ground and crawl to the ledge.
Audrey jumps off a piece of rubble. Using that red aura, she is able to punch her hand into the rock wall below us. Her eyes look hazy though. Isn’t there anything I can do?!
Her aura fades, and she falls into the darkness. I barely catch a glimpse of someone run from the way we originally came in from. He dives straight into the hole after Audrey. All I can see on him is that he has blonde hair and is kind of tall. He catches Audrey in his arms, and they fall to the bottom.
“Dang it! Who was that?” I ask Katie.
“I-I’m not sure. I couldn’t see his face, but I don’t like it. Somebody was following us, and now they have Audrey. What do we do now, Kaleb?” Katie asks me desperately.
What do we do? Audrey was our heavy hitter. Katie is our defense, and I’m supposed to be the brains. Think, Kaleb. We aren’t sure that person is actually the enemy. Even if he were, I doubt someone would jump in like that just to kill her from a height she would already die from. No, they would try to negotiate with us first. We can’t jump down this hole anyways, so it is already moot. However, I think Audrey is safe.
So next, that black-haired girl. I’m assuming that the giant tree came from her power. For the ground to crumble like that, there would have to be more floors below us. Trees can’t just burrow that deep into a whole mountain. Sunlight is pouring in from above now. We’re already pretty far in from what I can tell.
“Kaleb?” Katie says.
“Hold on. I’m thinking.” I say to her.
I walk over to the girl. I see the key clasped in her hand. Audrey really thought of everything in such a spur of the moment. Her pure battle talent and impulses are impressive.
I hold out the key to Katie, “Here. You unlock the door while I carry this girl. If we stay close to the wall, we should be fine. I don’t believe Audrey is in immediate danger, but we should try to get to her soon. Our safest route is most likely through that door.”
Katie takes the key but sounds unsure, “You seem to be making a lot of assumptions.”
I say simply, “I am.”
“Want to explain any of your logic to me?” She asks.
“Trust me. It would take too long. All I know for certain is that we still haven’t run into the equipment for geothermal research, and that door is the only path forward that we have come across.” I lift up the black-haired woman in my arms.
I can tell that didn’t satisfy Katie, but she leads the way to the locked door. I’m not trying to be mean to her, but it would take a lot of time to explain. Right now, I’m running dozens of different scenarios in my head. What route to take. What to do if the enemy has taken Audrey hostage. What if this woman I’m carrying is actually an enemy? It’s better to take as many things into account as possible. I can’t leave anything to chance.
Thankfully, the key we got off this woman works in the door. Katie pushes the giant steel doors open. Although, the inside isn’t too great.
“Well, I guess we know what happened to the researchers.” I say.
“Yeah...” Katie’s voice trails off.
There are ten skeletons lying on the other side of the door. This doesn’t make any sense though. They could easily unlock the door from this side, so why? I want to touch one of the skeletons to see if I can learn more, but Audrey comes first.
All of this has been bothering Katie a lot. Not just the deaths, but the fact that there was no record of any of this in the reports we received. It’s been obvious for a while. She marches past the skeletons regardless. Her fists are clenched.
“Katie. Are you okay?” I ask while following her.
She slams her fist into the wall, “No! I’m not okay! I was taught to follow what Olympus says. By my teachers, my friends, my father, but everything we have seen so far... None of it looks right. If this base were actually for geothermal research, the original blueprints would have shown where the rooms with the equipment were. This was a front for something else, and I’m beginning to think Olympus knew.”
“I know.” I say.
She turns to me, “Is that it!? Is that all you have to say?”
I sigh, “I’m not really the best with these emotional types of things. I also didn’t want you to think I’m pitying you. You’re too strong for that. I wanted you to come to this conclusion on your own, so I’ve been holding back what I say.”
Her face is angry at first, but then she just looks confused. She groans loudly. I think she is processing her emotions. She turns and walks down the tunnel again.
“Thank you.” She says without turning.
I feel like I should say something else, “You know...I remember our conversations in between our brainwashing sessions in Hell.”
She glances at me with a furrowed brow, “I...don’t.”
“You told me about your father. How he always expected perfection, and when you didn’t live up to his expectations... Well, you know. I also know about the deals he made to keep you out of the main army. Along with that other deal you caught him in.” I say to her.
She turns to me with more fear than anger, “I-I don’t remember any of that. You can’t tell anyone. I must have confided in you because I thought we were going to die.”
I knew it. She really doesn’t remember anything. There was more to it than that...but now isn’t the time for such silly things. Maybe it will come to her eventually. I just wish I didn’t feel like I’m hiding things from her.
“I didn’t bring that up to hurt you. I simply wanted to point out that if a higher-ranking official like your father can make those mistakes, it isn’t so unlikely to think there are others like that on Olympus. Whatever we find down here may be caused from someone on Olympus, but that doesn’t mean all of Olympus knew.” I explain.
Before Katie can respond, the black-haired girl’s eyes burst open. She struggles in my arms. I end up dropping her to the floor. She opens a pouch on her coat. She pulls out something and points her palms at me and Katie. A thin tree shoots out of both palms. Before we can react, the trees wrap around us. I can’t move at all.
The black-haired woman says with a hardened voice, “Who are you people?! What did you do with the rest of my squad?”
Katie says shakenly, “A-are you with the Olympus army? I’m First Lieutenant Katie Bishop, and this is Private Kaleb Iscariot. We are on a top-secret mission with Olympus.”
The trees tighten on us. The woman says, “I don’t know of any other classified missions in this area besides mine. What is your OCI number?”
“OCI number? I don’t know what you are talking about.” Katie strains. The tree is almost crushing the life out of me by this point.
Wait a minute... I say to the woman, “OCI...O-Olympus Coded Identifier number. That’s a type of number applied to classified missions, but it was phased out in the nineteen-seventies.”
The trees loosen up slightly. The woman says confused, “Nineteen-seventies? This is nineteen sixty-four.”
“No, the year is twenty fifteen. Here, look at the watch on my wrist. It will tell you.” Katie says.
The trees tighten again. The lady’s voice tenses, “Why would your watch have a year written on it? I won’t be fooled by some scheme Hell has plotted.”
Katie chokes, “N-no. It’s a smartwatch. Just let me show you.”
“Stop with your meaningless prattle. I will not listen.” The lady says defiantly.
“A smartwatch is like a computer that you wear on your wrist. Just please give us a chance. Our friend’s life depends on it!” I plead to her.
She pauses, “Friend? A computer on the wrist?”
She moves her arms swiftly. The trees detach from her but extend to the ground. We’re still bound by the other end, but it’s not as tight. She walks up next to Katie and leans close to her arm.
“How do I make this device work?” She asks.
“Normally, I bring it up to my face, but you can tap it with your finger as well. Then, just click on the calendar.” Katie says.
The woman taps the screen and jumps when the screen glows brightly. She taps it again. Her facial expression changes. She takes a few steps back.
“The future...I’m in the future. How did this happen?” She leans against the tunnel wall.
“What do you remember? Also, could you...uh, let us out?” I ask her.
She springs to life, “Oh, goodness. I’m sorry. Yes...of course.”
She snaps her fingers. The trees unravel themselves from us. They straighten up and begin to grow leaves.
She stands up again, “My name is Admiral Heather Short. Please give me some time to collect my thoughts, and I will tell you what I know.”
Katie perks up, “THE Heather Short? As in daughter of General Richard Short and granddaughter of Fleet Admiral Joan Bullock? They said you died at the battle over Japan’s northern coast. You even have a statue back on Olympus.”
Heather chuckles, “You really know your stuff and a statue? That is just like Olympus.” Her eyes narrow, “Wait a minute. The battle in Japan was over a month ag...I mean a month before my mission. Why would they lie about my death?”
“That is just another mystery to tack onto our list. Nothing about this has made sense so far. Maybe between our information and yours, we can piece things together. First, we need to find our friend though.” I say to Heather.
She nods her head, “Very well, I will follow your lead.”
Our next problem is the path ahead is beginning to grow darker. I bet there is a separate power system for the lower sections. Luckily, that part doesn’t end up being too complicated. There are a couple of rooms on either side of us. Each door is labeled. I walk to one that says research and power conversion room. I turn the doorknob and push, but it doesn’t budge. Of course, it’s locked.
“Dang, and we don’t have Audrey here to smash it this time.” I say.
“Audrey is your friend, I presume? To break down doors with ease, she must be a child of a cyclops.” Heather says.
I’ve yet to meet a cyclops, but if they are like the legends, I end up not being able to control my laughter. Imagining Audrey with only one large eye is just too much. Heather looks at me strangely.
I calm myself, “Sorry. No, she’s not anything like that. She is a daughter of Hecate.”
“Huh, really? In my time, Hecate’s children never used brute force. Honestly, they mainly stayed to themselves and brewed potions of sorts. What an odd future.” Heather says.
“Should we keep moving? We can probably navigate through the dark if we have to.” Katie asks me.
“No need for that. Step back a little.” Heather says.
Heather opens one of the many pouches on her uniform and pulls out a tiny seed. She places the seed in her fingernail. She puts the tip of her finger in the door’s keyhole. Her finger slowly leaves the keyhole to reveal wood growing from her nail. She turns her finger to the right, and the door clicks. Heather turns the knob and opens the door.
“Woah, you’re so impressive, Heather!” Katie says almost like a fangirl. Complete one hundred and eighty degree turn from her usual personality.
Heather smiles softly, “Comes with being a daughter of Demeter. My mastery over plants is almost unrivaled.”
Katie walks in, but I grab Heather’s arm, “Why did you have the key to the large metal doors?”
Katie turns, “What’s this about, Kaleb?”
“In her tree form, she was holding the key that led down here. If she can manipulate locks with her plants, why did she hold the key? It doesn’t make sense.” I say.
Heather places her other hand on her head, “I...ugh...couldn’t use...I couldn’t use my powers.”
I think back to those chains that take away powers. Was it something like that? She’s obviously in pain from some kind of flashback. She’s breathing heavily.
I release her arm, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to jump to conclusions.”
She tries to calm her breaths, “It is fine. I don’t blame you. I was also suspicious of the both of you. You’ll make a good officer one day. I can tell you think things through.”
We walk into the room. This isn’t anything like what was up top. The computers in this room are far more advanced. It shouldn’t have been possible given the time period. At least there aren’t any skeletons in here.
Heather flips a large switch at the other end of the room, and the place springs to life. I jump over to one of the computers that is booting up. I know we are in a hurry, but I need to check a few things. They didn’t have these locked. I guess they didn’t expect intruders to make it down here.
Oh, they had a few external hard drives lying around too. I’ll just copy all of the data from this computer to it. I notice Heather is sorting through papers on the other end of the room. Katie walks up next to me.
“Anything useful?” She asks.
“These computers actually do have data on geothermal energy like the ones up higher, but there are a lot of encrypted files as well. We’ll need to find someone on Olympus who could hack into them. Wait, here’s something that isn’t encrypted.” I click on the file. It’s a video.
The recording is of some large arena-like area. There is a tall, winged man that is kneeling on the ground. He looks wounded.
A recorded voice says, “Releasing subject Serath into the testing room. He is a little different than previous subjects. Instead of being of that lower null class, he has powers. Our master caught him snooping where he didn’t belong and sent him to us for experimentation. The goal of today’s experiment is to study exactly how this demon’s power works and hopefully harness it for ourselves. It has the power to decay any living thing that gets near it. I’m close to a breakthrough, but I need a few more samples of the particles left behind.”
Katie says angrily, “This is horrible. They’re forcibly throwing lives away for their research. Wait...that boy. Does it look kind of like the guy that was chained up?”
It’s hard to tell since he doesn’t look sickly or have overgrown facial hair, but I think Katie is right. The boy, Serath, walks straight up to the demon despite the demon being over three times his size. If I had to guess, I think he had given up on any chance of escape.
The demon looks at the boy and holds out his hand. Serath takes the demon’s hand in his own. Shockingly, the demon begins to crumble to dust. The dust swirls around Serath. Serath inhales the dust. All of it flows into his body.
It sounds like something is slammed down in the recording, “What?! I think the demon just made a deal with the boy. Get the enforcer unit down there. Tell them to bring the demigod nullification equipment. The boy is a child of Fortuna, so he shouldn’t hold too much innate power. Wait? What is he doing?”
Serath raises his right arm. A giant ghostly figure appears behind him. The ghost is holding a roulette wheel. Most options on the wheel say good luck, bad luck, that’s fate, or free spin. One of the spaces that says bad luck changes to say death. The wheel spins rapidly and just as quickly stops on good luck. The lens of the camera that was recording gets a crack in it. The video frizzes to static.
“So basically, they used their geothermal research to cover up using demigods in experiments.” Katie says with disgust.
“Not just any demigods. Helpless ones. He said they usually use people with null marks. While they are still more physically strong than humans, they don’t have any powers to fight back. I may have been sent to investigate this place, but I never would have expected this.” Heather says sadly.
It makes me sick to think that some parts of Olympus are just as bad as Hell. There isn’t anything we can do about it now though. I only wish there were a way to help that Serath guy. Regardless, the data has finished transferring, so I take the hard drive and put it in my bag. We’re about to head out when we hear growling noises.
“Wooooohoooo! What is it, boys? Ya’ll smell some Olympus mongrels? I knew it was a great idea to split up from Astaroth. He always takes all the fun.” The voice laughs wildly.
Heather says quickly, “We don’t want to get trapped in here. Let’s go!”
We follow Heather while pulling out our swords. I’m not the best at combat, but there isn’t a choice. From the way we came, there are twelve hellhounds, and what I can only describe as a shirtless lunatic. One of his eyes looks crazed, and he is chuckling hysterically. He has four large gourds that seem to stick to his skin. One on either side and two on his back.
I hear loud crashes coming from the way we need to go. Audrey could be fighting. We can’t be stalled here.
“Ohohohoho. I smell three delectable meals. Let’s have us a killer time, shall we?” He takes a gourd from his left side and begins to swirl the contents.
Five of the hellhounds charge at us. The hallway is fairly wide here, so we can mostly not be in each other’s way. Heather throws a seed and swipes her arm from right to left. When the seed hits the ground, it sprouts rapidly. Three of the hellhounds are now bound by a swirling tree. Heather balls her fist, the tree tightens, and the hellhounds turn to ash. Katie and I are able to take the other two down well enough.
The crazed man laughs maniacally, “Ohhhhhhh. At least one of you is pretty skilled, huh? Might have to even the playing field on ya.”
He drinks from the gourd in his hand. He holds his other hand’s fingers like a circle over his mouth and spews out droplets of the liquid. The droplets cover all three of us. It doesn’t appear to do anything. Then, our swords begin to rust and crumble away.
The other seven hellhounds come all at once. Without our swords this won’t be easy. Right before they get to us, the ground glows beneath the front four hellhounds. Spikes being held by iron rods shoot out of the ground all the way to the ceiling. Katie’s body is glowing, so she must have placed a trap there when I wasn’t looking.
The spikes disappear. Wooden blades form from Heather’s hands. She slices through the remaining three hellhounds. She tosses her swords to Katie and I and forms two more almost instantaneously. The craftsmanship on these blades is surprisingly good. I wouldn’t have thought wood could be this sharp. If his liquid only makes things rust, we should be fine now.
He jumps on one leg excitedly, “Oh boy. Oh boy. OH BOY! I’m getting fired up now! WOOHOO! It would have been too easy for the mutts to take you out! I wanted you all to myself anyways!”
He takes the gourds strapped to his right side and left part of his back. He spins them in his hands. Heather charges at him, and I follow her. He pours the contents of both gourds into his mouth. He drops the two gourds to the ground. With his mouth gaped open, he stares at the ceiling. He wobbles in place.
Heather swings her swords, but he clumsily dodges. His eyes are wildly looking around the room. I swing my sword to his right. His eyes dart at my direction, and he quickly falls to the ground. He rolls forward and stays on all fours.
He pounces at Heather and knocks her to the ground. Heather’s hands hit the ground, and trees immediately spring up to bind him. He jumps off Heather before the trees can touch him, and she cries out in pain.
I slide past Heather and pick up another of her wooden blades. While running towards Katie, I toss one of the wooden blades at the demon, who is twitching crazily. He raises his hands from the ground and clasps the sword in midair. He throws it back at me. Heather points at it, and it changes form into a wooden ball. It hits me but could have been a lot worse.
The demon pounces off the floor in my direction. He lands on a wall and jumps off of it to the roof. I hope I’m right about the situation. When I’m at Katie, I turn and point my wooden sword towards the demon. He launches from the roof towards me.
The ground and walls surrounding the demon glow. Leather straps appear from the walls to try and bind the demon. Spikes begin to rise out of the ground like before.
The demon’s eyes twitch rapidly. While in midair, he takes his gourd strapped to his left side and quickly pours the contents into his mouth. The leather straps bind him in the air, but he spews droplets below him.
The spikes surrounding him rise all the way to the roof, but the demon is unscathed. All of the spikes directly below him rusted and crumbled into the air right before they could touch him. The demon breaks his right arm free. He darts his free hand towards me while smashing through the few iron bars between me and him that were holding up the spikes. My arms and legs are frozen in fear. I close my eyes.
A voice sounds out, “Vrill?” I think it sounds like that Astaroth demon.
Nothing happens to me. I open my eyes. His outreached hand is stopped right at my face. He moves his arm back. He holds one finger up to his deranged smile as if telling us to be silent. He breaks his other arm free from the leather straps.
He pulls a small radio from his pocket. Laughing crazily, he says, “Yes, captain?”
“Beelzebub has been awakened. The mission is a half failure. We’re heading back.” Astaroth says.
Vrill’s eyes narrow at me slyly. He says into the radio, “Ohohoho. You got it. I had a fun time myself. I’ll have to tell you about it.”
“Fine, just get back to the gate for now. Gluation is getting ready to move the entrances again.” Astaroth says.
Vrill pockets the radio. His body shakes, and the rest of the straps holding him are broken. He turns around and smashes the rest of the bars. He begins to pick up his gourds. The last one is lying next to Heather.
Heather slowly stands, “This isn’t over, vile beast. I’m not done.”
She holds up her wooden sword. Vrill reattaches the two gourds to his body. Heather swings her sword for his head. He ducks his head down, grabs the gourd beside Heather, and kicks her back towards us. She stumbles.
Vrill says with his crazed eyes bearing down into us, “I don’t kill those weaker than me. Come at me when you actually have a chance. For now, I’ve lost interest.” He attaches the last gourd to his body and walks away.
Heather clenches her fists. I hear what sounds like a wolf howling in the direction we were originally going. We let him waste too much of our time. Audrey could still be in danger if she is even alive.
“Let’s let him be, Heather. We have to stay on task.” I say to her.
She doesn’t look happy about it, but she runs past me. Katie and I follow her. I hope the demons are gone by the time we make it back out. I was backed into a corner, and I froze. I’m not cut out for this close quarters.
I’ve always been so weak. That’s why Luke and Peter had to watch after me when we were still normal students. I was always a burden on them. I thought if I could do this, I could prove to myself that I’ve changed. In reality, I’m just fooling myself. I’m no different than before...
I can still finish this for you, Luke. I may not be a fighter, but I will help bring you back. Afterwards...I’ll thank you for everything you did. Then, I will learn all about Olympus and our enemies. Whatever you need from me, I will deliver...because you did for me.
Katie yells out, “Audrey! Wait. What are you doing to her?”
We run into the room that was on the recording. The rock roof has an odd design to it. It’s almost as if a large stone hand is jutted out, but the ends of it are broken. The room itself looks like it was the center of a warzone. I can’t imagine what Audrey went through here. Audrey is lying on her back with a black orb in her hands. That could be the soul piece.
Next to Audrey’s body is a little girl in a pink dress with pigtails. Katie is running towards Audrey, but the little girl just grins at us and skips away into a passage on the other side of the room. Could that have been another demon? I doubt she is the cause of the room being destroyed. I would bet more on it being Astaroth’s doing.
Katie checks Audrey’s pulse and breathing, “She’s only unconscious. Actually, besides her clothes looking a little tattered, she seems to be completely fine.”
Heather turns to me, “Have you all run into that little girl before now?”
“No, I haven’t seen her before.” I answer.
All Heather says is, “Hm. I wonder.”
I try to take the orb from Audrey’s hand, but she surprisingly still has a tough grip on it. Instead, I put her hands in her pockets and lift her up. Katie picks up Audrey’s book which wasn’t too far away.
“Does this complete your mission?” Heather asks.
“I think so. The orb Audrey is holding might be what we are looking for.” Katie says.
“Is it some kind of weapon?” She asks.
We take Audrey to the door we came in from and sit down to rest. Katie and I explain our current situation to Heather. Our capture by Hell, Luke’s rescue mission, and his coma. She of course has plenty of questions surrounding not only that, but our time period as well. Before long, Audrey begins to stir.
She sits up, “Ughhhh... my freaking head is pounding.”
Katie wraps her arms around her, “Oh, Audrey! We were so worried about you! You saved us from falling even at your own risk. Really, I can’t thank you enough.”
Knowing Audrey, I would have thought she’d push Katie away. She doesn’t. Maybe she’s too tired, or just maybe...she’s finally breaking out of that tough girl shell.
“Geez, Katie. Alright, alright. It was no big deal. I’m glad to see you’re both safe.” She turns to me, “Looks like you did good. I knew you could keep a level head.”
I embarrassingly stutter, “N-no. R-really, I did-dn’t do anything special.”
“You’re being modest. You have exceptionally good tactical awareness. You figured Katie had been laying traps again and led that demon, Vrill, into them. I was too focused on the fight to even think about that.” Heather says and holds her hand out to Audrey, “I’m Admiral Heather Short. I take it you are one of the people that rescued me from my time capsule. For that, I thank you.”
Audrey looks confused but shakes her hand, “Time capsule, huh? You do talk a little odd. I’m Audrey Davis. My rank is uh...”
“Lieutenant colonel.” I say.
“Right. That. Anyways.” Audrey stands up, “We should probably get moving. I’ll feel much better when the orb is back to Luke’s body.”
As we travel down the hall, Heather says, “So, this Luke must be something to have gained all of your respect.”
“He’d be the first to argue that he isn’t that special. Then, he’d probably do something amazing right after. He led our entire mission to Hell without knowing his demigod parents or the powers with them.” Audrey says.
“I only saw him fight once, but even for his first time he would have put some in the army to shame.” Katie says.
“I see. I’ll have to introduce myself when he wakes up then.” Heather says.
“What’s wrong, Audrey?” Katie asks.
I turn around. Audrey stopped a little ways back. She’s staring into a mirror embedded into the wall.
“My reflection...I saw it move.” She says.
“Uhhh... Are you sure you’re okay? It’s your reflection. It’s supposed to move.” Katie asks concerned.
She shakes her head, “No, I saw it move differently from me.” She waves her arm, but the mirror shakes its head instead.
“What?” Heather steps forward.
The mirror Audrey’s mouth begins to move, but I don’t hear anything. Audrey appears like she does though. She begins to talk back to it, but to us it is more like a one-sided conversation.
Her eyes widen a little, “Is that really true? Yes, of course that’s what I want. Will it really change anything? I...fine.”
Audrey pulls out the black orb from her pocket and hands it to me, “Take this back to Luke, Kaleb. No matter what.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on, Audrey?” I ask her.
She takes her book from Katie, “Just do it! I...may be gone for a while. Tell the others that you will all see me again. Also, remind Luke we have a promise between us. I’m not sure if he’ll even remember it after all these years.”
What happens next is pretty odd. Her reflection reaches its hand out of the mirror. Audrey grabs it and is pulled into the mirror. Katie stands in front of it, but all we see is Katie’s reflection. She taps it, but it is solid.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my li-” Heather suddenly stops talking. Actually, she looks frozen mid-sentence. Katie is frozen in place too.
Here I thought the mirror was going to be the strangest part of today. The hallway has a mysterious door right in the middle of our path forward. It isn’t connected to anything, and it definitely wasn’t there before. The door has an engraving that begins to glow. It reads, “Will the one closest to Luke step through, please.”
I say to I guess myself, “Uhhhhh...I don’t care how polite the door is. I’m not going through that.”
The door bursts open, and something forces Luke’s black orb from my hand into the doorway. The inside of the doorway appears to lead to a different place. It doesn’t seem like I have a choice. I can’t let that orb get away from us now. I’ll have to go. I don’t have a good feeling about this.
