The army of three still walked.

Jake Wayne stayed at the rear of the group. As Peter Wayne took steps in front of his charge's body, Maggie Up remained in the lead.

As the weakest member of the three-person group, which was a group of three Soynite people who were intent on reaching a horrible and menacing place that kept armed and dangerous Freeman enemies safe from harm and danger, Jake Wayne was the greatest distance away from the Freeman base.

Jake did not doubt the Freeman base was a terrible place that housed more than just one murder-craving Freeman.

Vile and unpleasant was what each Freeman was. Agonizing pain and terrible bloodshed was what Freemans tended to force into the universe that contained themselves, Jake, Peter, and the newly recruited Maggie Up. And those three walking Soynites, who were on their way to bring the well-earned deaths of brutal and awful Freeman adversaries, had been unwilling witnesses to the cruel horrors the Freeman brutes had shot into reality.

Cruelty and unpleasant deaths were what Jake and Peter had to keep at bay for as long as possible.

They had been inside a huge and blue Soynite spaceship. During the invasion, they had been inside that spaceship. After the Freemans' terror-inducing attack on the planet that Jake and Peter had both been born on years ago, the boy and his loyal Watcher had lived into that huge and blue Soynite spacecraft. They had lived inside that Soynite spacecraft for some time, and no armed Freeman brute had been able to find them in the spaceship.

Things had changed.

Now, Jake and Peter were on land. The two powerless Soynite males were on solid land. Washington land. Jake and Peter were also on the planet called Earth, which was dominated by the human race. It was day. And they had both witnessed their most recent companion, Maggie Up, bring death to a Freeman enemy. The death of that Freeman enemy had needed to happen. One less Freeman made life easier for Jake Wayne and Peter Wayne. And their new friend whose name was Maggie Up, too, of course.

Who was Maggie Up? Who was she?

Jake had only met her earlier. He had met that teenage girl not long ago, and that first meeting between those two Soynite teenagers had occurred in a forest in the state of Washington. The Soynites Jake, Peter, and Maggie were not in the city of Seattle, but they were in the same state as it. Just like the Freeman whose death had happened because of Maggie. So many more natives of planet Free deserved to turn into smoke. All Free natives deserved to turn into smoke, and Jake and Peter and Maggie planned on killing as many Freemans as possible.

All of the brutal Freeman people who made the choice to fight against the good Soynite people needed to be destroyed, and Maggie Up could help make that happen. She had already helped make that happen.

Jake himself had never even killed a Freeman, but just because that was true, it did not mean it would always be true. Jake would get his first Freeman kill. One day. It would happen one day. It would happen one of these days. It had to. Maybe that day would be the present day, which was the same day that Jake had witnessed a Freeman being killed on planet Earth.

Freeman people had brought deep revulsion and unfair horror to planet Soy, during the undeserved attack that had led to the entire Soynite population almost becoming extinct. Jake, Peter, and other members of the nearly extinct Soynite race had been forced to suffer, and it was through the fault of the vile, horrible, and cruel Freeman enemies. Even as Jake, Peter, and Maggie took steps in a forest while the three of them remained safe from any current attacks by the hostile Freeman people, the three Soynites suffered.

Who was Jake Wayne?

What Jake Wayne knew was that he had been born on the twentieth of February. That had happened sixteen years ago. It had happened in the year 2006. The global attack on planet Soy had happened in the year 2011, which was the same year that the youngest member of the current generation of Highs had been born in.

Jake was not the oldest of the Highs, but he knew who that person was. He had met the oldest High. The problem was that he wasn't sure if the oldest High was alive or dead.

What Jake did know was that Holy Majestic, Theo Majestic's kind and loving father, was a dead man.

The boy knew who he was. Even though Jake had never met Holy Majestic, he had heard of him. Holy Majestic had died. Many years ago. Holy had died over two million years ago, and his death had led to Theo Majestic becoming the new king of planet Soy. Theo was the creator of the High system, which was a system of government that was the reason why six different people were the current rulers of Soy.

Soy was gray and barren. It was true. But it was also true that Jake, one of the six Highs, had the potential to bring Soy the glory it had held in the past. And the other five Highs, those Highs who were not Jake himself, had the potential to help Jake bring the barren and gray planet Soy its former glory. Soy had lost the sweet greatness it deserved to still have, but Jake, Peter, and Maggie could bring that sweet greatness back to their ruined home planet.

Planet Soy was not gone. It was only damaged. Jake's home planet, Peter's home planet, could be healed. It could be changed back into a great planet. Armed Freeman enemies had forced Jake and Peter to move far away from Soy, but no armed Freeman enemy had managed to take the lives of the boy ruler and his loyal Watcher.

No Freeman had killed Jake. No Freeman had killed Peter.

Jake had been a living person for sixteen years, and he was already a ruler. He was a ruler of an entire planet. He was one of the six Soynite rulers of an entire planet, and neither of those six rulers had been able to bring planet Soy the glory that it deserved to have. Well, that was what Jake assumed. The boy was not one hundred percent sure that neither of the six Soynite rulers had managed to revive the home planet that belonged to them all.

Maybe the oldest of the Highs had managed to bring Soy back its former glory.

Maybe the youngest of the Highs had managed to bring Soy back its former glory.

Jake, Peter, and Maggie stepped through a wide gap between two trees that towered over the three of them.

The three Soynites were still planning on getting to the dreadful Freeman base, which should be a terrible place that had more than just one bad horror inside it.

As he took steps during the trip to the bad and awful Freeman base, Jake could be shot.

Maggie Up had killed a Freeman earlier. That Freeman had carried a laser rifle. That laser rifle, which Jake, Maggie, and Peter hadn't bothered to pick up, was capable of firing a dangerous laser beam. During the invasion of planet Soy, Jake had watched red laser beams blast through Soynite bodies. Those red laser beams had blasted through Soynite bodies with fierce viciousness. The laser beams had come from Freeman guns. And they had emerged from those Freeman laser guns because Freeman people had pulled the triggers that were attached to those laser guns.

What had happened to innocent Soynites during the invasion had been bad. During the invasion, during that awful attack on Jake Wayne's home planet, the blond-haired boy had been too young to put up a good fight against the harsh and ruthless Freeman warriors, who were still just as monstrous as they had been more than just a few months ago.

After the Freemans' brutal, death-bringing attack on Soy, months had passed.

Years had passed as well.

As he took steps during the trip to the bad and awful Freeman base, Peter could be shot.

As she took steps during the trip to the bad and awful Freeman base, Maggie could be shot.

Two minutes went by.

“There's the Freeman base,” Maggie Up said.

Past the trees was a building. It was a huge building. As Jake aimed his blue eyes at the huge and gray place while he, Peter, and Maggie took steps toward it, Jake had no doubt that the Freeman base was much bigger than the mansion he shared with his only Watcher in the universe. The big base was a lot larger than Jake's own home, which didn't have any terrible horrors inside of it, and Jake and Peter and Maggie had to be cautious.

Brave.

They had to be brave, too.

Jake, Peter, and Maggie would have to be cautious inside the Freemans' big base. They had to be cautious outside the base as well, because the Freemans were dangerous. The three Soynites were in Freeman territory. Maggie had already killed a Freeman in the forest, and Jake knew there was a possibility other Freeman warriors patrolled the area outside their precious base, which had been made a target by the three Soynite people.

Jake glanced around.

A laser beam zipped toward him. It moved toward his face at a quick, rapid pace. Red and violent. That was what the laser beam was. The ruthless and harsh brute who had fired the laser, was a pale and violent Freeman warrior. He was just one of many Freeman warriors, but he could be killed. His life could be taken away from him. Complete destruction needed to take out the Freeman enemies, who viewed Jake, Peter, Maggie, and all the other Soynites as their mortal enemies.

Jake moved to the right. The red laser beam launched through the space he had stood in. Much to the teenage boy's good fortune, the violent, dangerous laser did not hit Peter or Maggie.

Harm didn't strike Jake, Peter, or Maggie, neither minor harm or serious harm. Because an armed Freeman warrior remained in the same area as them, the three people who had come from planet Soy were not safe.

Jake was armed.

He had managed to avoid being shot by his tall and menacing enemy, who was pale to the extreme, but the boy carried a gun of his own. Jake's bare hand continued to make contact with a weapon that had been brought from his home planet. Jake's weapon was a blue Soynite pistol, which had been in Jake's possession for a long time. Even before the invasion, Jake had owned the weapon. Because it had come from his Soynite Box.

The Soynite Box. Jake's Soynite Box. It wasn't with its owner. The treasured Soynite Box that Jake had pulled his laser gun out of earlier in the day was back inside the car the teenager and his loyal Watcher had stepped out of earlier.

Peter, like all of the other six Highs' Watchers, hadn't bothered to bring his own prized Soynite Box into the huge spaceship that had transported him from planet Soy to planet Earth. The spaceship had brought Peter's charge to the humans' planet as well, and the Highs had separated from each other. Their respective Soynite Boxes had gone with them.

Peter was armed.

He wielded a Soynite laser pistol in one of his hands. The Watcher was tall, but he wasn't as tall as the ruthless and merciless Freeman who had tried to kill Jake. If the pale warrior managed to fire a laser beam into Jake's body, there would be a chance the laser beam would kill the teenage High. If all six Highs were still living people at the present moment, Jake's death would turn the number of the Highs from six to five.

Five.

The number of Highs who were not Jake Wayne was five.

The Freeman warrior, who had made an attempt to shoot and kill Jake, did not care how old his blond-haired enemy was. Jake was sixteen. The Freeman warrior had been a living person for a longer time than the boy he had tried killing. The hostile menace stood taller than all three Soynites in the area. And all three of those Soynites would rather see the Freeman be dead than alive.

The Soynite's pale opponent was alive.

Maggie was armed.

The Freeman enemy held a black laser rifle in his pale hands.

“You're far from home,” Maggie said, hurling her words at the armed Freeman. Jake, with his laser gun, rushed to the spot behind a tree. Maggie moved into a run. While red laser beams zipped through the space behind the running girl, Jake swallowed. “A shot to the head won't kill me, Freeman!”

“Maggie, hide!” Peter shouted, standing behind a tree. “I'll distract him!”

Maggie could pick a hiding place. She could hide from the Freeman warrior. That Freeman warrior was far from his home planet, which was what Jake's new friend, the teenage Soynite girl named Maggie Up, had implied.

Yes, the Freeman enemy was far from his home planet. And the Freeman Maggie had shot and killed earlier had been far from his home planet, which was a distant planet known as Free.

Planet Free.

It was a place that contained creatures that would rip you apart. Many Soynite people had, with bad fortune, come across those dangerous creatures from planet Free. Because Freemans would rather ruin innocent Soynite lives with as much force as they could, Jake held no doubt the pale brutes had brought their vicious creatures from planet Free to planet Earth. Those creatures would not be nice to Jake, Peter, or their latest ally. Jake would not be nice to those dangerous creatures, which, if they could, would tear his body into several pieces.

Freeman animals had sharp claws and sharp teeth. The Freeman warrior who preferred to kill the three Soynites in the forest had a laser gun, which was made of metal not found on planet Earth. The weapon, it was foreign. It didn't come from the United States of America. It also didn't come from England, Egypt, Africa, or South America.

The dark weapon in the enemy's hands had been taken from a planet that harbored many more Freeman enemies.

Maybe one day Jake would make his arrival on Free. If that ever happened in the future, it would be the teenager boy's first arrival on that planet. Jake had possessed the luxury of making it to Earth. Earth was not the planet called Free. But many of Free's inhabitants, the pale Freemans, had made the trip to Earth. Jake had traveled to Earth, but he did not belong to the Freeman race.

Jake hadn't been born as a Freeman. He had been born as a member of the Soynite species, which suffered. Suffering smothered the Soynite people. It drowned them in unwelcome misery. The Soynite people suffered because of the Freemans.

They suffered because of Lock Tannis.

Because of Lock the ruiner, the departure of thirteen certain Soynites had happened. Those thirteen Soynites, Jake included, had fled the currently ruined planet they had called home. Planet Soy was far from Jake. It was barren and gray and distant. Jake, Peter, and Maggie would rather live on a Soy that was beautiful and not lacking in great, wonderful jungles, but the reality was that Jake lived on planet Earth.

Peter, who planned on shooting a distraction into existence, had made it obvious he intended to help Jake and the other Soynites do their best to turn Soy into a great planet. As unfortunate as it was, the Soynite people had been displaced from the planet they loved. Jake, though, like Peter and Maggie, had the power to do whatever he had to do to revive the ruined Soy.

Freemans were real. Terrible Freeman enemies were real. But, despite the fact Freeman warriors took up space in the same big universe as Jake, hope came with Jake.

Jake was a boy who was confident that the great Soynite people would defeat the brutal Freeman enemies. The boy had to make an effort to kill as many Freemans as he could. He had to make a serious effort, really. Not only were the Freemans ruthless and dangerous and harsh, but they had weapons of mass destruction. The Freemans had bases on planet Earth. They had bases on planet Free. Plus, their people, their too-pale people, would rather destroy a Soynite than rescue one.

As for the Soynite known as Peter, he would rather save Jake than kill him. Keeping Jake alive for as long as possible was what the great Watcher had the intention of doing.

It wasn't just because Jake had been made into a Soynite High.

It wasn't just because Jake would rather see a living Peter than a dead one.

It wasn't just because the more Soynites there were to fight the Freemans, the more Peter had a higher chance of surviving the brutal Freeman enemies. Peter wished it was a guarantee he would survive the entire war raging between the Soynites and the Freemans.

The teenage High knew one reason why Peter planned on protecting him for as long as possible.

Jake and Peter, they were like a father-son duo.

Now, though, at the present moment, Maggie Up was a girl who had become friends with both Jake and Peter.

Allies.

Maggie had become allies with Jake and his Watcher.

Jake, Peter, and Maggie formed a group of three. They were three Soynites who had been forced to leave their home planet years ago, only to end up in a forest containing the same species that brought destruction to their people and their planet. But, like Soynites, Freemans could be killed.

Killing all the Freemans in the nearby building was the goal, and Jake had the potential to kill his first Freeman before the day was over.

Peter peeked out from behind the tree.

The Watcher held the Soynite laser pistol. He hadn't dropped it. Peter pulled the weapon's trigger a few times, and the Freeman moved into a rush. The blue laser beams missed him. Jake, who had been a Freeman hater for some time now, shook his head. In order for Jake to be a happier person, each of the blue laser beams needed to wound the Freeman.

Instead of blasting through the Freeman's towering body, the laser beams Peter had fired from his Soynite gun tunneled through trees, which weren't far from Jake.

There hadn't been any trees inside the spaceship that had transported Jake and Peter to Earth, of course. Jake could see the trees that were near him. He was not blind. A blind Soynite.

That would be an interesting sight.

Like the Freemans, it was natural for Soynites to have good eyesight. There was no need for the average Soynite to wear glasses so they could see. There was no need for the average Freeman to wear glasses so they could see. That was just the way it was.

Jake's species, it was close to becoming an extinct race of people. Even before the horrible invasion, the Freemans had outnumbered Soynite people.

Maggie hid. She had obeyed Jake's Watcher.

The girl was in Jake's view, but she was not in the Freeman's view. With his eyes no longer aimed at Maggie, the Freeman enemy, who remained armed and violent, continued running.

Jake took a shivering breath.

He had to make an attempt to kill the enemy.

The child ruler didn't forget the fact he had to kill the pale warrior. If given the opportunity, the Freeman would try taking his life. In truth, the Freeman had already made an attempt to kill Jake.

The Freeman turned. He pulled his laser gun's trigger. Jake pulled the trigger of his own gun.

A red laser beam blasted through the air.

A blue laser beam zipped through the air.

Jake's laser missed. Much to the Soynite's dismay, the Freeman didn't miss.

Pain slithered through the wound in Jake's arm. A groan left his mouth as he dropped his gun.

“Jake!” Peter yelled.

The Freeman's violent laser beam had blasted through a chunk of Jake's arm.

Blood.

It rushed out the injury.

Maybe Jake, whose father was Theo Majestic's fifth cousin, would die close to the Freeman base that wasn't far from him. If Theo Majestic had a child, that kid would be Jake's sixth cousin.

Jake, though, might die before he could have his own child.

A laser, in a rush to take Jake's life, hurried toward the wounded boy's face.

Someone grabbed him.

The person forced Jake away from the spot where he suffered. And the boy watched as the vicious laser beam launched through the space he had occupied.

“Freeman!” Peter shouted.

He opened fire.

The Freeman shifted his attention to Peter, then the pale opponent opened fire, too.

Maggie forced Jake against a tree. She placed her hands against his shoulders before examining his wound.

“I would tell you you're okay,” Maggie said. “But I can't do that, because you're bleeding.”

“I'm going to be okay,” Jake replied.

A bleeding arm didn't mean you were guaranteed to die because of whoever had attacked you.

Jake would be okay.

People had the power to lie. Even people who led others had that power.

The wound in Jake's arm served as proof that the typical Freeman warrior was a vicious enemy who would rather harm or kill an innocent Soynite than let them live in peace. Jake, whose visible injury gave a wounded Soynite's status, had come into the forest. The forest had a Freeman base located in it. In order to achieve their goal, the Soynites called Jake and Peter were willing to risk being harmed or killed.

As Jake bled, as Peter distracted the armed Freeman enemy, as Maggie Up stayed in front of the hurting Jake, the possibility that all three Soynites would be killed before the day was over remained as real as the laser gun that the pale warrior had fired. The possibility remained as real as the healing glass square in Peter's pocket. That healing glass square could stop Jake's bleeding. It could close the wound. But Peter, who had the healing glass in his pocket, engaged in a gunfight with a seven-foot tall Freeman.

In short, Jake had to be hopeful.

“Peter has a healing glass,” Jake said, speaking the truth as he bled.

“Peter is also busy,” Maggie said. Jake winced. "Hey, Jake, stay strong. Okay? Can you do that?"

"I can."

"You're not just a wounded warrior," Maggie said. "You're also a good one."

Jake watched as the girl peeked out her hiding place. With a fast movement, she hid again, then a red laser beam sped past the tree. The laser blasted holes through several trees. Dangerous and vicious, the laser was. Just like many Freeman warriors who had harmed and killed Soynites on their own home planet.

Maggie ran. Her reddish-brown hair moved with no control as she dashed toward the spot behind another tree. A laser beam rocketed through the space a few inches behind Maggie's back, the shooter almost striking his target. Hearing Maggie scream in pain would make Jake frown.

The Freeman had come close to firing a laser beam into Maggie, and he might manage to shoot the girl.

A shaking exhale slipped out Jake's mouth.

Peter had stopped being able to distract the Freeman. For a temporary amount of time, anyway.

Jake was one of three Soynite people in the area. Theo Majestic, who had made Jake into the High he was, had left Jake, the other five Highs, and their Watchers.

Theo was not able to give Jake, Peter, and Maggie any help. Every single Freeman warrior alive existed as a threat to Jake and the other Soynites who had managed to avoid being killed during the Freemans' attack on Soy.

It had been Theo's idea to turn six Soynite children into the latest generation of Soynite Highs.

Jake hadn't been killed, sure, but it wasn't a guarantee the boy's fellow Highs had survived up to the present time.

Boris Endman, another former High, was not able to give Jake, Peter, and Maggie any help.

Years ago, before the invasion, Boris Endman's granddaughter had gone missing. She had been kidnapped as a baby.

Boris had never found Alice Endman, the daughter of his only child. Maybe death had found Boris. He might be dead. The other former Highs might be dead, too. Many Soynites had already been killed. It would be no surprise to Jake if his former rulers had been killed by members of the Freeman species.

What about the current Highs?

As Jake bled in a forest in America, did the High he had stood next to outside a spaceport on planet Soy lay in a puddle of their own blood?

Was Jake the last living High?

He couldn't give a yes or no answer to that question. The Freeman with the murderous intent stayed in the same area as Jake, his Watcher, and his new friend.

Jake did not plan on making it more likely for Maggie to lay in a puddle of her own blood. That was the nearby Freeman's intent. It was not Jake's intent.

For some time, for way too long, really, Peter had been the only Soynite Jake had been able to interact with.

Maggie didn't know Jake was the first Soynite High of the latest generation of Soynite Highs. Outside that spaceport on Soy, Theo had made Jake into a High. Then the man had done the same to five other children, saving a certain newborn baby for last.

Lock Tannis, planet Free's ruler, was the reason why the invasion had become as real as Jake. The Freemans were willing to kill for Lock Tannis. Just like how Jake was willing to kill for Theo Majestic, his distant relative. Maybe a Freeman had killed Jake's distant cousin.

The urge to kill every Freeman didn't bleed out of Jake.

But his arm bled.

"Jake!" someone shouted.

The voice's owner had a deep voice. Jake shifted his attention to him.

Peter.

He stood behind a tree, which wasn't far from the tree Jake stood close to. The Watcher wielded his blue laser pistol in one hand. His other hand formed a fist. There was a chance that fist held an item Jake could use to his advantage.

"I'm going to give you the healing glass," Peter said. "Catch."

Peter tossed the healing glass.

As the object sailed in the open air, a laser tore through the rough bark belonging to the tree near Peter. Jake snatched the healing glass out of the air, then his Watcher broke into a sprint. A red laser charged through the air again at a violent pace, but it passed above Peter's head.

The Freeman had failed to shoot Peter. He hadn't failed to shoot Jake.

That pale enemy had caused more than enough frustrating trouble for Jake and Peter and Maggie, and Jake's wound was proof. The injury was physical evidence the big Freeman doubled as a big problem.

But Jake could heal his wound.

With the healing glass now in his possession, Jake brought the object to his injury.

It healed.

Laughter shot out Jake's mouth. Gone. The wound was gone. The Freeman had shot Jake in the arm, but the healing glass Peter had tossed to the boy had been put to work. Humans on planet Earth would love to keep the Soynite healing glass squares in their possession. The Freeman who had shot Jake might scowl if he learned his teenage enemy had used a Soynite item to recover from his injury.

Jake moved the healing glass into his pants pocket. He aimed his eyes at the laser gun on the ground. Peter hadn't released his hold on the laser pistol he owned, but Jake had dropped his weapon.

He bent down, grabbed the gun, and then he lifted it off the ground. The laser gun needed to be aimed at the Freeman, the too-pale warrior who had tried killing Jake. That same enemy would love to kill Peter and Maggie.

After straightening his body, Jake turned his attention to the spot Peter had stood in. The Watcher was on the move, opening fire as he rushed.

The Soynite man sprinted as Maggie ran.

Peter's laser beams missed the Freeman by a few inches, and he aimed his weapon. He didn't aim it at Peter.

Jake took aim.

As Jake pulled his gun's trigger, the pale brute pulled his laser rifle's trigger.

A blue laser beam tore through the Freeman's chest. While that happened, a red laser beam tore through Maggie's head.

Jake's enemy fell.

Maggie fell.

And the boy's only friend, the friend who hadn't been killed, approached him.

"They're coming!" Peter said, grabbing Jake's arm.

Voices erupted. Freeman voices. It sounded as if they were behind Jake and Peter, which possibly meant the Freemans could see Jake and Peter, but the two Soynites could not see the Freemans. Each of those Freeman soldiers would love to take Soynite lives.

Peter had caught sight of the incoming Freemans, and now it would be smart for Jake to run.

"Casualties happen, Jake!" Peter said, speaking as he ran. Jake ran, too. They dashed toward the Freeman base. "They happen!"

A Freeman had killed Maggie Up.

While Jake rushed toward the Freeman base, Maggie's killer morphed into black smoke.

Jake had killed his first Freeman. If he planned on surviving to see tomorrow, he would have to kill more Freemans.

As Maggie's lifeless body coursed through his mind, Jake intended on surviving.

He intended on killing.