The Strays
Chapter Seventeen

My eyes locked with Colt’s as he saw the predicament I was in, and I could see his anger, but before he was able to intervene, two guys grabbed him from behind.

I glowered at Reach.

“Don’t give me that look, sweetheart, I gave you a fair shot, but you insisted on doing this the hard way. I underestimated you, I’ll admit that much, and the show you had your friends put on, it was clever, I really didn’t think you would put up as much of a fight as you did. Who are you and who do you work for?”

“It’s going to take a lot more than a knife to my throat to get me to tell you something like that.”

“Who sent you here?” He persisted.

“Go. To. Hell. I’m not telling you shit.” I spat in his face as he grabbed me by what little hair I had and dragged me to my feet.

I could see Colt continuing to struggle, while Ty and Leo had been cornered as well. I continued to clench my bo staff as I once again drove it into Reach’s gut, only this time he was ready for it and blocked it adeptly with both hands, a rather predictable response. I knew I wasn’t going to land that shot, but he was forced to let go of me when he defended himself, giving me the chance to take a few steps back and gain some distance.

“You are just full of surprises, aren’t you.” Reach grinned as one of his friends grabbed me by the waist. I swiftly retaliated by slamming my fist into her face, before taking her by the arm and launching her over my shoulder. Colt had managed to finally get free, and I watched as he helped Ty take out four more of Reach’s people. That split second I turned my head, I lost track of Reach, for a brief moment it looked like he’d retreated, but I soon saw how wrong I was as I noticed him creeping up on Leo.

“LEO. BEHIND YOU.” I screamed at the top of my lungs, but I was too late. Reach already had him in a chokehold, and I could see he was struggling to breathe. I looked over at Ty and Colt who had managed to get their hands on some weapons, watching as they threw them to the ground.

I glared at Reach who had a triumphant look on his face and stared him down, but I could tell he wasn’t about to waiver, so I followed Colt’s lead, tossing my staff to the floor, where it was seized by the girl who’d tried to grapple me. Reach eased his grip on Leo, and I watched as he choked on the sudden rush of air that he had literally been gasping for. As the girl who seized my staff pushed me over to Ty and Colt, I could see her lip, as well as the purple bruise that was starting to form under her eye. It made me smile, as did the sight of her broken nose, though I wasn’t sure why. Reach let Leo go, shoved him into us, Ty caught him and helped him back to his feet, quickly checking he was okay as I went to take another swing at Reach, only Colt intercepted me just in time to stop it. “We have to pick our battles, remember, we already lost this one, let it go before we lose anybody else.”

I didn’t step back, but I did take a deep breath as I confronted Reach. “What happens now?”

“You and your friends are going to join us on a nice little walk through the countryside, though I will need to take precautions, what with that temper of yours.” He smirked as he tightly seized my wrists, binding them with rope as the others were bound by his friends.

“Game over, sweetheart.”

“No, it isn’t, not by a long shot. Colt’s right about me needing to pick my battles, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to win. I’ll replace a way out of this, I always do, when that time comes I recommend you watch your back, because when people hurt or threaten my friends, my family, I have a tendency to bear a grudge.”

“That’s cute, I’ll keep it in mind.” He took a piece of cloth from his pocket and stepped towards me, instinctively I ducked out of the way, moving backwards. “What do you think you’re doing with that thing?”

“I can’t have you and that crew of misfits of yours seeing things you’re not supposed to, if you have a problem with the blindfold though, I can always take you in without it, so long as you don’t mind never leaving again that is.”

“You’re going to navigate us through the woods blindfolded? It’s hardly practical.”

“We have our ways, and like I said you don’t have to wear it, I just can’t let you leave if you know where to replace me, or my people, especially when you hold a grudge.”

“Don’t be difficult, let’s just do what they say and I’m sure they’ll let us go when they realise we aren’t the threat, that we didn’t come here looking for trouble, we were just protecting ourselves while looking for our friends.” Ty reassured me.

I turned back to Reach. “Fine, it’s not like we have much of a choice.”

Reach put the blindfold on me and the others before leading us back to wherever it was we were going.

When the blindfolds and bindings finally came off, I noticed the four of us were in a small room that had a large, heavy oak door and four old, stone walls. I understood where we were being held immediately. It was a church, one that looked like it had seen better days, given the state of it.

“You three alright?” I asked as I tried to replace my bag, before remembering Reach had seized it.

“We’re fine.” Ty replied.

“Have either of you got any idea where we are?” Leo asked, turning to me and Colt.

Colt shook his head.

“I have a rough idea.”

“Oh yeah, you do? How?” Colt argued.

“Simple maths. If you know the time it took you to get from A to B and how fast you were travelling, you can work out roughly how far you went. If I take into account landmarks as well as cardinal directions, I can estimate where we are within a mile radius on a map. Though I don’t really need a map because there’s only one place this could possibly be, the only church I know of that is this far outside of the city limits, that isn’t in a small town or village.”

“Where are we then?”

“I only ever knew it as unholy ground, that’s what the locals called it. The church was abandoned in the late nineties after it became the site of a mass suicide, a student cult from a local university wanted to illustrate the hypocrisies of religious institutions. This site already had a pretty sketchy history, prior to that, after the nearest village forsook it in the late eighteen hundreds. Two children were murdered inside, so apparently the villagers tore the church down brick by brick so they could build it afresh somewhere more isolated, on what was believed to be blessed ground, hoping it would cleanse the evil spirits housed within the church’s walls. The villagers continued to hold service there, despite the trek, and strange stuff continued to happen around this new site, people would go missing, animals died, soon it became too much and the villagers abandoned it. Lots of people have tried to keep the church alive over the decades, but after the mass suicide it was closed down permanently.”

Colt, Ty and Leo all shared a concerned look.

“I’m not saying this place is haunted, just that it has a rich history, and is a logical choice if you want your faction to be hidden and isolated, after all, not many people know this place still exists.”

The door to the room opened, and we all turned to face Reach. “Yet somehow you seem to know an awful lot.” He interrupted.

“I like to read, and I came here a few times with my camera to take photos, the locals were always friendly, had a lot to say to about this place, the myths surrounding it, so I have to say I was surprised to see the villages were practically abandoned the last time I passed through; I know it had nothing to do with the E.A.D because this was long before they started their operations in the city and established a base camp, which just leaves you. I guess you’ve been here much longer than most realise.”

Colt punched me in the arm. “Stop antagonising the guy.”

“Pissing people off is what she does best though, you wouldn’t ask a leopard to change its spots, why should she?” A familiar voice echoed through the room as he appeared behind Reach.

“Linc?” Leo and I gasped while Ty just stood smiling.

“You know these people?” Reach asked.

“The taller one with the Hellraiser scar is my brother, Ty, and the rest are our faction, except the mouthy one, she doesn’t really do factions.”

“How’d you replace us, kid?”

“Ava, the girl whose nose you broke, I overheard her in the infirmary talking about what happened. Apparently, the patrol ran into a mouthy girl covered in tattoos and three guys, who picked a fight when they tried to bring them in. It sounded pretty familiar, and I overheard them say they brought you here, I didn’t see the harm in coming to check it out for myself, after all I was almost certain it was you and I thought you could use the help.” Linc explained as his brother grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

Reach’s demeanour seemed to shift. “Linc, you should take your friends to get cleaned up, see if you can replace them something to eat as well, I’m sure Willow and the little ones will be happy to see them. Get them their things while you’re at it, Ava will know where to look.” Ty, Colt and Leo followed Linc out, but when I went to go after them, Reach blocked the door. “Not you.”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, but I think we need to talk.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“We both want answers, and I’m certain we can help each other.”

“Can I get my things back first? I tend to think better when I’m tinkering with something.”

“Alright, Cae.” Reach nodded as he stepped out of my way.

“You don’t get to call me that, only friends do, and given that you tried to kill someone I consider family, you certainly don’t fall under that category.”

“The kid really means a lot to you, huh?”

“A long time ago I swore I would protect him whatever way I could, he’s like a little brother to me, so when people try to kill him I take it rather personally and don’t give me the, if I’d known who you were crap, we both know that wouldn’t have changed a thing, it’s not like you’d have taken us at our word, or us at yours.”

I followed Reach out of the church, my suspicions confirmed. “So you really did choose unholy ground, I’m going to assume you aren’t the superstitious type.”

“Don’t act so surprised, you knew exactly where you were the moment I took off that blindfold. It’s actually a cute, little parlour trick.”

“It’s nothing special, just simple maths with a bit of common sense and logic.”

“I was talking about your ability to still focus even in your situation, you’ve got good instincts for survival.”

“So I’ve been told.”

We approached one of many tents, only this one was by far one of the biggest, though not quite as big as the marquee I could see further away.

Ty, Leo, Colt and Linc were already inside when we got there.

“Hey, what took you so long? We thought you’d gotten lost.” Leo smiled.

“Or left.” Colt offered as an alternative.

“It was my fault. I needed to talk to Caelyn, but she hasn’t been in a very giving mood, apparently tinkering helps her think so I said she could have her stuff back, provided she doesn’t use it to hurt anyone else.” Reach explained.

“Don’t go pinning what happened in the woods on me, I warned you what would happen if you tried to force my hand and you didn’t listen. I was simply trying to replace a civil alternative so I could get on with looking for Linc and the others, you were the one who coerced us into following you.” I snapped as I picked up my bag and went to leave.

“Where are you going?” Leo asked.

“Reach and I need to have a conversation, but don’t worry, I’m not going far, I’ll come replace you guys when we’re done.”

“If you touch her, or hurt her in any way, Ty and I will tear you to pieces, I don’t give a shit who you are.” Colt sneered as he barged into Reach on his way out of the tent.

“How long have you and he been a thing?” Reach asked as he followed me to the church.

“We’re not a thing, he’s just generally very stubborn and overprotective.”

“Really? Because a few hours ago I was literally cutting off the kid’s air supply and the most I got from your friend was a pissed off glare, but you mention being alone with me, and he’s threatening to tear me limb from limb. Clearly there’s something going on there.”

“Honestly, it’s none of your goddamn business.” I snapped as I took my board from its strap on the bag. It had been damaged pretty badly whilst we were fighting, but it wasn’t something that couldn’t be fixed, and it would give me an excuse to modify it a bit.

“What is that?”

“A prototype for a hoverboard. It’s in dire need of repair, but it shouldn’t take me too long, though you owe me a new visual display unit.”

“Wait, are you saying you built this thing?”

“I told you I like to tinker, it helps me think, and I had a lot of free time while I had to lie low in the city.”

“And the bo staff, did you make that as well?”

“Yeah, but that was before all of this, that was just a little engineering experiment to see if I could do it.”

“I see why Jer likes you.”

“Enough with the small talk, you said you had questions, get to the point.”

“First things first, where is Jer? I thought he was accompanying you.”

“Delilah and Rocky needed to see him, they weren’t buying his cover story, so he had to go in person to clean it up, he gave me directions to the clearing so I could reunite my friends.”

Reach started to pace anxiously as I continued tinkering. “I didn’t have you pegged as the nervous type.”

“Normally I’m not, but these aren’t exactly normal circumstances. I told Jer you were trouble the moment he mentioned you, yet he still stuck his neck out to help you, and now he might even be compromised.”

“Jeremy caught me meeting with Leo and an old acquaintance of mine shot him, thinking he was protecting me. I was the one who stitched him up, and that’s how we wound up involved with each other. Trust me, if I had any other choice in the matter he and I would have never crossed paths, not at the museum, not in the coffee shop, never. Now I think you can answer a question of mine, what exactly did Jeremy tell you about me? I’m not stupid, I’m aware that he’s done his research and knows all about my past as well as my family.”

“Jer told me you lost your brother Miles and that your brother Sean died in a car accident, you are the last member of your family, which means you’re the only lead Delilah has to replace your father’s research. You also formerly worked for the E.A.D, which would explain the abrasive first introduction, which I’m not going to apologise for, though I do appreciate the fact you were so tight-lipped about what you were doing in the clearing in the first place.”

“We thought my brother Sean was dead, turns out he might not be, you already knew that though, didn’t you?”

“Jer had his suspicions after the first time you met because you and Sean still bear a passing resemblance despite your change of appearance, as well as your shared affinity for aliases. I personally didn’t see it at first, but now I don’t know how I missed it. You have that same smirk when you concentrate and a sparkle in your eye when your passion for something starts to consume you, though you are by far the more aggressive one, he is so much calmer.”

“He was here?”

“Briefly, a few months ago but he left, I haven’t seen him since and all he said was he had to take care of something in the city.”

“And Jeremy knew this? Just when I think I can trust him, he gives me another reason not to.”

The pacing finally stopped and Reach walked over to me. “Jer is a strategic guy, things are easier for him when he’s in control, then someone like you comes along and challenges all of that.”

“So it’s my fault he lied to me about my brother?”

“No. It’s hard to explain, but if Sean was still here, I’m sure Jer would’ve told you about him sooner, like I said though we haven’t heard from him in months and that means anything could have happened. Jer doesn’t know where your brother is or if he’s even okay, that message from the lab could be months old and he wouldn’t want to tell you Sean was alive, for you to later learn something had happened. You grieved the loss of your brother once, so why would he risk putting you through it a second time?”

“Why would he care about how I feel? We hardly know each other.”

Reach shook his head. “Sean talked about you a lot, and I guess that’s why Jer thinks so highly of you, he knows your brother wouldn’t want you getting hurt, so he tried to protect your feelings.”

“Brilliant, I’ll add him to the list of people who think they need to look out for me, when what I do or don’t do is none of their business.”