Chapter 14 Trust

I wake up to the sounds of multiple voices talking. I do not open my eyes right away and try to listen in.

“I am telling you that kid ain't right Sheriff, his healing is abnormal.” a male voice says.

“So he heals fast is what you are saying doc”, another male voice says, must be the Sheriffs I think.

“Not just fast, but almost instantaneous, in all my years I have never seen anything like it.” the doc says concerned.

“So we got ourselves a super soldier is what you are saying??” the Sheriff asks

“I don't know about that, but that damn uniform he has on, we cut it so we could bind his wounds and the damn thing stitched itself back together right before my damn eyes.” The Doc said with disbelief in his voice.

Sigh guess they do not know what is going on and have even less information than we do. I open my eyes and sit upright and turn to face the Sheriff.

“Tell me sheriff, what do you know about what is going on out there?” I ask sincerely

“GOD DAMMIT, HOLY SHIT, you scared the bejeezus out me kid” the Doc jumps back turning to face me as he had his back to me. Others look towards us at the Docs outburst and begin to walk in our direction.

“Not much to tell you the truth kid”, the sheriff scratches the back of his neck looking at me, as if trying to size me up and make a decision.

“Would you believe 3 days ago I was 41 years old?” I ask of him.

The Sheriff is silent staring at me, then says “I guess there is a lot to talk about right?” He does not looked convinced.

I nod and get up, look at my uniform it, is whole again, my wounds are gone. I look for my helmet and see it below the cot I was laying on. I do not see my goggles.

I turn to the sheriff, “You happen to see my goggles by chance?”

He nods, ” Yeah one of my deputies grabbed them said something about night vision or something”.

I simply say, ” they will be useless to him, could I get them back please?”

Sheriff says in reply “He served in Afghanistan, he knows how to use that stuff”.

I look the sheriff in the eyes,” We are getting off on the wrong foot here sheriff, if we are going to have mutual trust then taking someone stuff is not the way to go about it.”

“Well kid we have been holed up here for 3 days now, food is running low, we still have a few days left before it runs dry, tell me why I should trust you.” The Sheriff asks.

“Because sheriff I am the one that is going to save all of you”, I declare boldly.

The Sheriff begins to laugh, “Son I get that you are young and energetic, and have a few wild ideas popping up in that growing brain of yours”.

“Equip Advanced Marine Rail Rifle” I flick the switch to on and a squeal of the power up is heard.

The Sheriffs jaw drops and others begin to back away..

“Now as I demonstrated I can call upon weapons to equip at will. Would you like to see more?” I say in a teasing manner.

“Uhh what is that thing”, the sheriff asks a little uncertain.

“This here is a genuine Advanced Marine Railgun Rifle” I state, giving my best Instructor imitation.

“Equip Vibroblade.” I say next and sling the rifle over my shoulder taking hold of the vibroblade and turn it on, a hum is heard emitting from it.

I stab it into the concrete floor and large chunks begin to spew forth creating hole in the ground.

I retrieve the blade and turn it off “Return Vibroblade to inventory””Return Advanced Marine Rail Rifle to inventory” and just as suddenly, they disappears.

“So as you can see, I am not all talk” I say looking the Sheriff with a stern expression.

“Yeah I can see that now. Just WHAT are you boy?” The Sheriff as if dumbstruck.

“My name is Scott Smith, retired marines of 20 years, 41 years old till 3 days ago, my companions are also special, the red head is Julie Matterson and she too, is older than she appears, her specialty is healing, of the magical kind, that there is Cindy Horn, she is a Fire Mage. And me I am an Advanced Marine.” I lay it all out there no holding back.

“Fire mage? Magic healing? You expect me to believe that?”, The sheriff says, now growing angry.

“Tell me sheriff why are you all hold up in here? Why are you not at home and enjoying a nice cold one right now? WHY are you running out of food?” I finally lay the big questions on him to get him to face reality.

“Well uhh, there are things out there, not sure how to describe them, tore a person apart right in front of me, so we are in here staying safe from them.” his reply is rather weak and uneasy.

“So you believe there are creatures out there that you can not even see, killing people, yet you do not believe me?” I ask turning the question back at him.

“God dammit, how do you expect me to believe that shit? Come on, you look like a kid and you are telling you are an ex-marine of 20 some years and 41 too?” he finally breaks down wanting something as proof.

"Ok you want proof? I left something outside and am going to retrieved it, but I NEED my goggles. When I come back you will HAVE your proof and we can get on with the REAL discussion”. I emphasized those words.

Should I have shown them my invisibility?Naw, would have only confused and scared the shit out of them probably and they would turn an d try to kill me thinking I am one of the invisible stalkers. Plus I want to keep it as my trump card.

“Patterson!!” The Sheriff calls out.

While he is getting Patterson, I look to the Doc and ask, “how are they?”

“This one is Cindy right??” the Doc asks” She is out of the woods, we patched her up, so she should be ok, but she will be at least a few weeks before she will be able to move about freely. She lost a lot of blood and we used over 60 stitches to patch her up.”

“Now the other one, Julie right? I have no idea what is wrong with her. As far as I can tell she is as healthy as they come, nothing wrong with her physically I can see.” he says perplexed.

The Sheriff walks up to me and hands me my goggles,” Here you go, lets see what proof you can bring us”.

“Just have a few people standing by the main door, when I return to let me back in.” I say to the Sheriff, he nods to two deputies.

I waste no time and take my leave followed by the 2 deputies who escort me back to the main door. They unlock the chain on the door and remove it. I put on my goggles and helmet, I nod to them and they open the door and they close the door behind me. I hear the chain going back on. I see my Truck is still here. A little dinged up on the front now, but drive able.

“Equip Vibroblade.” I say. They also took my AR-15 but I did not need it right now. The Vibroblade will do the job just fine for what I have in mind. I scan the area, see nothing for now and head out at a fast run. When I say fast, ok, I misspoke. I ran into the fraking fence and thru it, crashing to the ground.

Ow ow ow that hurt. I get up dusting the sand off of me, and survey my surroundings. I am about 180 meters from where I started. I look at the fence, it is sheared in 2 and about 100 meters or so from me, is the part of the fence the Truck went thru. Ok I admit, that took me greatly by surprise. To an observer I must look the the Flash running on idiocy. The girls would have probably been on the floor laughing at this one, thank god I get to keep some dignity.

Ok let try this again, I get my bearings and start to run, slower this time, much much slower, even so, I find it a little hard to maneuver, but as I approach another section of the fence, I jump it with ease. The fence is 6 feet high. I land and continue running, adjusting my course as I hit the street towards where the Gun should still be laying, it is not far now. In fact I see it laying on the ground and quickly reach it.

After retrieving and holstering the Gun, I survey the area again, and spot two of the creatures in the distance. Time to go on the attack, I quickly approach getting used to my new speed. Since I was with the girls I have not had a chance to run. This will take some getting used to for sure. I wonder if the girls are this fast too? Will have to test it, but then again, I have got a TON of stuff to test.

I quickly close the gap on the creatures, holding the Vibroblade, switched on, I attack quickly, taking out both legs of the nearest creature. It simply falls not registering what happened yet, then after a moment begins to howl. The other creature startled, looks at it companion not understanding, but I am already on it and its head goes flying. It slumps to the ground lifeless.

NOTICE!You have been awarded 1500XP,

no party members are in range to receive XP share.

I look around, see four more approaching. I quickly attack. On my first pass a head flies from its neck.

The remaining 3 creatures are searching for me frantically. One spots me and growls, but I am already on my second approach, both it legs fly off. I continue running, it is getting easier now and I am slowly increasing my speed running a circle around the creatures before I dart in on a new target, I slice at its midsection and the creature comes away in 2 halves.

NOTICE!You have been awarded 1500XP,

no party members are in range to receive XP share.

NOTICE!Level gained

NOTICE!You are now level 34

I stop running at this point facing the last creature, its back to me. I walk up to it and slide the bade into its back and lift up reaching past its head. Cutting the creature in half from waist to head.. It slumps down lifeless.

NOTICE!You have been awarded 1500XP,

no party members are in range to receive XP share.

NOTICE!Level gained

NOTICE!You are now level 35

I survey my surroundings again, 2 creatures are crying in pain, whimpering of sorts. I cut of the hands off of the first creature, it howls again. Then grab it by one arm and drag it over to the other creature, and do the same to it. Both are howling in pain now loudly. I drag both towards the main School building with them in tow. The other creatures are keeping their distance in fear. They are now the hunted and are learning fast to accept their role as prey.

I arrive at the building with the 2 whimpering creatures. I kick the door three times. I hear the rustling of the chains and the door swings open. The officers have their rifles aimed at me of all things, sigh. I Simply walk towards the cafeteria area where everyone is gathered.

I enter and there is a mix of panicked voices as they hear the creatures but can not see them. “Calm down everyone, they are harmless now.” I yell.

The Sheriff rushes over,”Are you crazy bringing those things in here?”

“It was the only way to bring you proof, unless you want to go out there with me and hunt these things?” I ask and the Sheriffs face goes pale and involuntarily takes a step back.

“Ok Sheriff you need to kill one of them” I say with a forceful tone.

The Sheriff holding his gun, is nervous and states, “how do I kill something I can not even see?”

Hmm he has a point. “Anyone got any flour?” I yell.

“Uhh we got some in the kitchen” someone says.

“Can you go get it please?” I ask

The creatures are still thrashing under my grip,but I do not let go. Only a few moments go by and the person comes back with a small bag of flour.

“That should do nicely” I say,”Now sprinkle it around me to my left and right” I instruct, the person who was nervous is calming down and is gaining courage and does as instructed, a small crowd is now gathered in a large circle around us. As the flour settles, there are gasps and shrieks sounded from all around as the creatures become revealed in all their grotesque glory.

Tho legless it is still imposing, with an apish face, protruding lower jaw and jutting sharp teeth. Ears are erect and tall above its head ending in points. The Sheriff looks visibly shaken at the sight, as do most, but there are a few who are not as bothered by them.

“Now you can see it Sheriff, kill it please” I say to the Sheriff.

The Sheriff looks at me like I am crazy, but then nods and points the gun at one of the creatures and pulls the trigger. He hits it in the mid section. I sigh, he then pulls the trigger shooting it in the head.. The creature goes limp.

Then as suddenly, the sheriff yells “what the hell is this?” He is swiping at something in front of him.

“Oh Sheriff, this proof is going to hurt.....a lot” I grin sadistically.

The blue light surrounds the Sheriff and he falls to the ground on his back with his back arched yelling “OH GOD DAMNED THAT HURTS ARRHHH!!

After a few seconds it is over. And there before us lays the 18 year old version of the sheriff.