By Sama Khawaja
Children’s laughter rings out in the garden.
A soothing sound in the usually quiet countryside of Tallow.
Destiny toddles over to a beach ball that is practically hidden by the long, swaying blades of grass. A shadow suddenly hovers over her childish form and she looks up to satiate her curiosity.
‘What are you playing, Destiny?’ the shadowed man asks her in a husky but gentle voice.
‘I’m playing with my friend Mage. He likes to play catch but he can’t catch the ball so I always have to get it,’ Destiny pouts. The man scans the horizon.
‘Where is Mage, Destiny?’ the man asks, seeing that no one is within range to be considered a person.
‘He’s here, silly, he just likes to hide,’ Destiny laughs. She stops giggling almost immediately when her sight blurs and a migraine begins to surface. She clutches her head and teeters to the side.
‘Is something wrong, Destiny?’
‘N-no. Just…dizzy,’ she slurs. Suddenly, the sound of glass being shattered resonates across the garden followed by a shout. The man looks up sharply to a pretty little cottage on the far side of the lawn.
‘Alicia!’ he cries out in alarm and sprints towards the cottage. Destiny attempts to follow but she trips and the ball rolls away from her. It suddenly stops, standing stock still, as if taunting her to come get it. The light breeze has picked up speed now.
‘Not now, Mage! I don’t want to play anymore!’ she cries out and tries to get up but the breeze transforms into a gale, pinning her to the ground. Dirt and grass envelope her, swirling around like a tornado.
‘I can’t play, I can’t play!’ she screams, throwing her hands over her face.
‘Dee! Hey, Little Dipper, come in! Destiny, can you hear me?!’
Destiny snapped out of her reverie to hear Tito bellowing in the headset over her ears. She wasn’t surprised that she could still hear him over the whirling blades over the chopper she was in. He was always the rambunctious sort.
‘Little Dipper to Grizzly Bear! What’s the emergency?’ she answered calmly after she pressed a button to activate her microphone.
‘Get down here STAT and get us out of here! We got the chip!’
‘The chocolate chip or the vanilla chip?’
‘The one that will get you to start moving and get us out of this hellhole!’
‘I still say we could have come up with better codenames,’ she muttered as she flipped to ‘Manual’ on the aircraft.
‘What was that??’
‘I said meet me where they launch their private jets!’ Destiny said quickly and maneuvered the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior through the thick fog that spewed out of the mouth of the volcano, Mt. Ougi.
She delved deep into it until she spotted a platform that jutted out from a cave on the side. Destiny took the chopper into a nose dive before she pulled up just in time to see her team racing down the cave passage. That was when she noticed the robotic dinosaurs hot on their heels, snapping hungrily and their eyes glowing red with hate.
‘Wow! Tito, why didn’t you tell me you guys got caught sneaking around! I would’ve hurried over faster!’ Destiny commented and grinned at a heavily panting Tito, Gear and Adriana. She jabbed a button to open the side door and the trio clambered in, practically collapsing as they did.
Said dark-skinned thug just glared at Destiny as Gear made his way to her and removed the headphones from her head to place it over his own.
‘Hope you didn’t damage my Sheila!’ Gear snapped. ‘Now get out of my seat! I wanner try some new gizmos I’ve rigged my baby up with!’
‘Aw! No fair, Gear, you never let me drive her!’ Destiny grumbled but obeyed.
Gear ignored her comment and flipped a switch on the headboard as he swiveled the chopper around to face the dinosaurs who growled menacingly on the platform, angry that they couldn’t reach their prey.
‘Try these babies on fer size, ya cruddy snappers!’ Gear hollered manically in his Southern drawl as he pressed a button on the steering bars. State of the art M195 automatic guns popped out of the sides of the helicopter and trained on the creatures. The guns started to pump lead so fast that by the time everyone on the aircraft blinked, the dinosaurs were reduced to riddled sheets of metal.
‘Mission accomplished, YEE-HAW!!’ Gear hooted and pumped a fist in the air. Tito and Adriana laughed at Gear as he steered them homewards. Destiny smiled. But her thoughts were elsewhere.
5 comments:
I loved the flashback.
Also, I really like how it starts off right in the middle of all the action.
For the sake of critique, I think you should've given a little more detail about the surroundings.
I loved the ending. I couldn't quite figure out the flashback though.. and what triggered it....you could have maybe made that clearer?
i actually thought the ending was a little sketchy heh.
I think the flashback is part of a dream..? That's the impression I got. But it's interesting and I love Gear's accent; you've conveyed it well. Here I come, Chapter 3! :D
And the drawing is super-cool just by the way, and a great idea. :)
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