literature

DRAGON CHAPTER 7

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CHAPTER 7




Drake looked back out at the horizon behind him, watching as the sun began to set. His eyes shifted to the skyscrapers that poked out from behind the trees far off in the distance, thinking about what had happened the day before. He lit a cigarette and looked over at Utan as he walked by. “You think anyone’s snuck into this fuckin’ place?” he asked, motioning up the trail. “Kinda isolated.”

With a sigh, he adjusted the assault rifle that was slung over his shoulder. “I’m sure it’s happened a few times.”

Utan noticed that the forest had grown silent as they neared the chain link fence that separated the hiking trail from the road leading deeper into the mountains. Up ahead, Troy and Derek stood at the gate and he saw that Troy was holding a rusty chain that had been cut and left on the ground. “You think this was him?” he asked, tossing the chain to Drake.

He looked at it, examining the sliced link carefully before throwing it to the ground. “Doesn’t look like it.” He made his way past them, kicking the padlock that had been laying in the middle of the trail. “Someone must’ve got fucked up.”

Derek, Troy, and Utan looked at each other for a moment, then lowered their rifles off their shoulders and held them at the ready. The group slowly made their way up the trail, feeling the air grow heavier and heavier as they approached the crumbling fortress. The ground was loose under their feet as they walked. The area was heavily eroded to an unnatural degree compared to the surrounding landscape and many of the trees around the fortress had seemingly died, which struck them as strange.

“How old was that satellite image?” asked Derek, walking over to one of the trees. He knocked on it, hearing a hollow tone pass through. “These have been dead a long time.”

“We captured it just this morning.” he answered, pulling the tablet back out to look at the picture. “These trees were alive just a few hours ago.” He noticed that Drake just continued past them and up the steep hillside to the fortress. “Drake, hold up!”

Drake didn’t respond. He kept walking, climbing up to the rest of the trail with ease. At the top, he pulled his pistol out of his jacket and held it at the ready. The others moved slowly, following him as they approached the partially collapsed entryway. “What the fuck is this thing even doing out here?” he asked, lowering his pistol and examining the structure which looked like it would be more at home in the British countryside than in a U.S mountain range. “This shit isn’t exactly normal.”

Picking at the crumbling stonework, Troy mumbled to himself and looked at the flakes that were piling up at his feet. “I figured it was just some kind of old fort. Not a medieval fortress.” He looked up at the remains of a second level. “There’s nothing here that’s even from this country. It’s not native american, colonial, and definitely not modern.” He picked another piece of stone from the structure. “Nowhere near modern.”

They suddenly raised their weapons and aimed at the dark interior when a deep howling echoed out from within. “Here we go.” Leading the way inside, Drake carefully scanned the remains of the courtyard. He turned toward the others as he walked past him, weapons still held at the ready despite the deafening silence that surrounded them. “There’s nothing here.” he said, lighting a cigarette. “You’re sure that signal came from this place?” Troy just looked at him, gun aimed at the main hall. “Right…”

A sound echoed from the main hall and everyone swung their weapons at the doors. They stood there for a moment, waiting for any sign of movement but saw nothing. Troy signaled for Utan and Derek to move forward into the hall. They nodded, rushed ahead, and took cover on either side of the doorway, peeking around the corners to see what was inside as Drake and Troy made their way over.  

“You see anything?” asked Troy, taking cover against the wall behind Utan.

“Negative.” answered Derek, while Drake took cover against the wall behind him. “This sounds like a bad idea. Shouldn’t we get some backup?”

“We don’t have the time for that shit.” Drake growled, rushing past Derek and into the main hall, pointing his handgun around the room, readying to fire if he found his target. “Where the fuck are you?” The others followed him cautiously, observing every inch of the room.





Terra walked up to her front door, tossing her backpack back onto her shoulder when it began to slip. Sith a sigh, she reached for her keys, but suddenly stopped when she noticed how quiet the house was. “This is…kinda strange…” she mumbled, wandering over to the garage. I hope he didn’t just leave…” She set her bag on the driveway and lifted the garage door, finding that the Raptor was gone. “Really, Drake? Not even a goodbye?” She lowered the door and picked up her bag. “I’m gonna miss him…”

Just then, a man wearing a denim vest drove in front of the house in a white and black roofless humvee and stopped. “Miss, You’re the one who lives here correct?” he said, climbing out of the vehicle.

As he ran over to her, Terra just stared at the vehicle for a moment knowing, just by it’s colors, who he was with. “Yeah…But your kinda late to find Drake.”

“Late?” The man looked confused by what she said. “They already left to find that fortress?”

Now Terra was just as confused. “Fortress?” She turned her attention to the man. “Look, things are getting too weird now…All of this stuff you guys are doing, it’s not normal. My teacher think’s I’m insane now because of yesterday with that guy and people now saying it was a gas explosion.”

The man stepped back as she moved in closer to him. “calm down, I had nothing to do with that. I’m just following orders. I need to deliver an important message to either Drake or Troy!”

“I don’t-” She paused, seeing a way to finally get the answers she was looking for. “I…might have his cell number somewhere inside.”

“Great, could you get it? I need to tell the-” Terra smirked, knowing that this might be easy.

“It might take a little while. I don’t remember where it I might’ve put it.” she motioned for him to follow. “C’mon, It’s still kinda warm out.” As he followed after her, she suddenly whipped around and glared at him. “Just don’t try anything! Or I’ll have Drake end you.”

He backed up again nervously. “I-I wouldn’t think of it…!”






In the fortress, the man with the black and red eyes observed the group’s movement from a distance. He stood in one of the deepest corridors beside a collapsed tunnel. After a few minutes he could see four lights at the end of the pitch black hall. With a glare and a low snarl, he moved to his right and walked backwards into the collapsed hall. As they neared, he waved his left hand in front of him with a flash of green flames. Drake then passed the hall which was now a solid wall. They stopped there for a moment, getting a feeling they were being watched. He followed his arms and glared at them before glancing back at the collapsed tunnel when they moved on. Once they were out of sight, the man stepped forward, and the wall he was behind vanished. He walked through the fortress, deeper and deeper into it’s depths, until he reached a small circular room with a well filled to the brim with strange black water. He ran his fingertips against the surface of the water, watching the ripples in the low torchlight that filled the room.


“It appears as though I must push forth. The Dragon is too near.” He looked into the water, seeing Terra in her home with the man that was looking for Drake and the others. She appeared agitated, standing over him as he sat in one of the recliners, and talking to him as though she was demanding something. “There is potential. Many paths have revealed themselves. But even so.”





Drake exited the fortress and his phone suddenly rang. He sighed in aggravation and pulled the device from his pocket, surprised to see Terra’s number on the screen. “Yeah?” he answered, just as surprised to hear someone else’s voice on the other end.

“Shit, Drake? Look, this chick you’re crashing with? She’s INSANE!” responded the other man in a minor panic. “She wouldn’t let me get in touch with you guys until I promised to give her some answers!”

Drake rolled his eyes and lowered the phone with a groan. “For fuck sake…” he sighed, holding the phone out to Troy. “You deal with this shit…”

Troy took the phone and held it up. “Go ahead.”

There was panicked sound on the end before he heard the man’s voice. “Sir, Private Aron Davis from Command. I was ordered to deliver a message, but this girl here wouldn’t let me get in touch with you.”

Troy rested his rifle on his shoulder. “What’s the message?

There was a rustling on the other end as though a struggle was taking place. “The disturbance at your location subsided shortly after you located Drake.” he explained as Terra yelled in the background. “Command attempted to contact your team but communications were interrupted. They want a report on your findings.”



As the sun set on the horizon, Drake and the others pulled into Terra’s driveway, surprised to find the white and black humvee still parked out front. Flipping Raptor’s kickstand down, Drake sighed, knowing what was going to happen once they entered the house. He walked up to the front door, watching the windows as he moved, until stopping and just staring at them.

“What the fuck?” he mumbled, moving up to the front windows. He looked into the house seeing the man in white and black armor walking to the front door. “Hold up.” The door swung open and the man exited. “Where the hell is Terra?”

The man sighed and shrugged. “She just up and left a couple hours ago.”

“She just left?”

“Just like that. Said something about getting answers.”

Troy walked inside, to get his rifle out of sight. “And the fact she was holding you here had nothing to do with it?”

The man scratched his head with a groan. “Private Davis?”

“Sir, I didn’t tell her anything that would compromise our operations.”

“Then what’d you tell her?” asked Utan.

“Just that your team was investigating that fortress and that she might want to keep her distance from it.” he explained. “She said there shouldn’t be a fortress like that in the mountains and seemed to think I was lying about it. We ended up arguing about it and after that she just took off.”

Troy folded his arms and looked at the others. “Maybe the city archives? If she’s looking information on that fortress, it makes the most sense.”




Terra pulled up in front of the Department of Records. Putting her car into park, she sighed and looked at the front doors. “I hope they’re still open…” she said, grabbing her phone off the passenger seat. “Fortress in the mountains…sure…” She exited the car and quickly walked up to the entrance and swung the doors open. Looking around, she felt uneasy about just how empty the lobby seemed to be. “Um..excuse me?” she called walking over to the front desk. where an older woman sat, working on a computer. “I was wondering if you had any information about John White National Park.” She tensed up as the older woman looked at her. “Please don’t ask why…”
“Of course, and what why do you need these documents?” she responded, turning to her computer once again.

Terra’s heart jumped and she suddenly felt lightheaded. “I-I’m working on a school project and just need information about the area. Landmarks, trails, things like that.” The woman became silent for a while as she typed on the computer. She glanced around nervously, checking the doorways that surrounded, hoping that no one would come through looking for her after forcing the information out of the man looking for Troy and the others. “C-C’mon…” Just then she heard two sets of footsteps down the hall, one in hard soled shoes and the other in what sounded like heels.

She looked to her right and watched as a man and woman walked into the lobby. “Like I said Dr. Harrison…” started a younger woman, holding a stack of folders in her arms. “This kind of research  is going to make you look real bad. People aren’t going to just accept the idea that something like this exists.” she said, just getting a sigh from the man, who held what looked like a rune stone. “Charles…You know it’s true. You said the university isn’t thrilled about it.”

Terra glanced between the man and the rune stone. “It can’t be…There’s no way.”

“I know.” he said, with a mild British accent. “But I also know I’m onto something.” He turned and continued through another door. “There’re things in this world no one has the answers to and I think the people to created this are the key.”
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