Samantha’s POV
When I ran toward Jason, he was clenching his head in pain. I don’t know how that bastard but he won’t be…
“Miss Diggins! My quarrel is not with you. Get back in the van.” That man warns me not to interfere.
I looked at him and summoned my bio-blade on my arm.
“What did you do to Jason?!” I demanded answers from the man.
“You mean what I said to him? You see him clenching his head in pain…” The man points to Jason.
“Let him go!!” I sprinted toward the man, swing my blade toward him. The man dodges my blade as if hit air.
The man stood still with his hand behind him. There is no emotion on that man’s face. I continue to come at him with my blade; the man continued to dodge my blade, even dancing around it.
“Okay! You are definitely fast.” I smiled at him. “I’ve bet you can’t keep with me.” The man stood there looking at me, however, moved his arms to his side.
“As I said, Miss Diggins. My quarrel is not with you. You are only making it hard for yourself here. Please, put away the blade and head back.” I shook my head… No one tells me to drop it. I’ve summoned another blade to my right arm.
Outmatched
Using my speed, I’ve sped up time to where I can move in a blink of an eye to speed things up. The man is just standing there; he doesn’t able to keep with the pace of time. As swing my blade at him with the force of a freight train… The man has grabbed my blade with one arm…
Then he applied the pressure to my arm, causing a crack in my blade… What is he?
The man, with one swift and coordinated move... tore my arm and sliced the other one apart.
I was reeling back when the man tore them off of me. I… I had to force myself to stay conscious.
“Sam!” Brad calls after me... No, Brad… “Leave her alone!” I watched as Brad swung at the man with his fists.
I’ve watched as the man dodge Brad’s punches as if he was fighting an angry drunk and even Jenny used her tentacles did no good as the man would simply jump and pirouette his way to safety. Brad tries to use his telepathy to shut him down… I saw it had no effect on him, with Brad straining himself to stop them.
“You…” Jason got up from the ground. “You bastard!!” He lunged at the man with immense speed. The man, however, took as an exercise lesson. Nothing is working…
When Jason speed up in, however, to hit him, the man can keep with him with the flow of time. Even telekinesis would no good against him… it is like that the man possesses a strong self-control that he can resist everything. Yet…
“Jason… Jason!” I struggled to stand… The bastard tore my arms off. I need to concentrate… With a loud shout, I regenerated my arms to the way they were. “Jason, the man is holding back!”
“Yes, I was.” The man doesn’t even bother to deny it.
“Why are you doing this?” His motivations puzzle even Brad.
“It is obvious, he is REALLY here for Jason. For what I don’t know… But I know this.” Now I fully understood the man’s intent. “He is not here to kill us. If he had, he would have chopped off my head instead of my arms. He would punch you in the heart and tear your spine instead redirect your blows. God, you are sloppy with your punches, Brad.”
“I can’t read or influence his mind, either. Jason isn’t kidding when he said that guy is a well-trained hand to hand combatant. Not to mention showing tactical restraint.”
“The finest elites in the military trained him. Tern Benson was the man who trained me. He also trained me on how to keep my cool and the skills to survive.” The man lights up when he heard Jason’s response.
“You remember that? You are correct, he has trained you, but what else?”
“That was all…” The man feels dejected when he notice that wasn’t enough.
“I see. You need more time to discover who you are.” The man backs away slowly from us.
“What’s matter, Coward?! You won’t stay and finish this fight?” With all that power of his, he is slinking away like a snake. I won’t let get away with this.
“Samantha! Let him go! You can’t stop if you wanted to, and you saw what he is capable of. I’m all right.” Jason…
“I am touched by your devotion to your friends, Solider!” The man finds this amusing because I’m not laughing. “Keep up the good fight, Jason. Get stronger the next we meet. Maybe my ‘orders’ will change by then!” And like that, the man vanished out of view.
“I hate to say it, never thought I would fight one of the military’s elite soldiers.”
“Zombie elite solider, Sam.” Jenny…
Back on track
“Man, what was that?” It surprised Brad that he would fight a military solider today. “I forget that you and Jason are trained in martial arts.”
“And here I thought, you had experience with fighting zombies and other humans.” I chuckled. I noticed that Brad's movements were uncoordinated, predictable, and yet that man was simply redirecting his blows. “You were fighting like a drunk who just swing at his opponents.”
“And he did overpowered you, I believe.” I rolled my eyes at the thought of that.
“Let’s go, we wasted enough time as it is.” I got back into the passenger seat and buckle up the seatbelt. The others did the same.
As we got back on the road, Jason explained more about his mentor, Tern Benson who was his superior. He trained him in philosophy, Martial Arts, military tactics, strategy and more, but he doesn’t remember anymore than that. Hmm… that man knows who I am, but I never met him before.
I have underestimated the man, but it felt like he is no ordinary sentient…. Most of us have 1 to 4 powers within a set and no, not all of possess the speed of light. That man however can do more than that, he must have saw through the stopped time, could he be part of their 4th Gen Elites?
“Everything all right, Sam?” Brad interrupted me on my thoughts. It had been a long time since we got back on the road.
“I’m all right and I hope you weren’t reading my mind…”
“No, I’m just asking if you were all right.”
“Jason?” I saw he had his eyes closed. Must be in meditation.
“Yes?”
“That man was no ordinary Sentient and yet he held back on trying to kill us all just to get to you.”
“Samantha, I don’t have a clue why he wanted me. You asked to be certain that I’m not hiding things from you, correct?” Jason is acting a lot more sirene nowadays. Maybe it would be better to hold off on telling him everything. “You don’t need to force yourself to tell me anything. I suspect he is only following me to confirm if I am the man he once knew. His comment on getting stronger and mention his orders relating to me, spells out his intent on drawing out my memories instead of trying to eliminate me there.”
“That is something… He noticed he just dodged and parry our attacks.” Now he got Brad thinking about it as well. “If he wanted to, he could take us all out right there and then instead of holding back.”
“Or dodging my tentacles and dancing like a ballerina!” What is that mean, Jenny?
“My mentor taught us some ballerina as a way of developing our grace. To avoid wasted movements.” I cringed the moment Jason mentioned that… I never did like taking ballerina classes…
“Anyway, it looks we’ll be need to be careful from now on since that man is keeping his eyes on us.”
“No, Brad… You heard him. He made his intent clear that he is only after me, not any of you. If he was, he would have brought a unit with him instead of being by himself.”
“You cared about us that much, huh?” I wanted to know if he still holds hard feelings since our ‘side trip’.
“Enough that I don’t want to put you in danger. I don’t want you guys getting caught in the crosshairs because of me…”
“Jason, we already got involved in this! Every time we faced danger from either zombies, humans, each other or soldiers that act superhuman. We look out for each other even if we don’t agree or like it but you are family to us, like it or not, buster.”
“I know and I appreciate it, Jenny. Even though, you’ll stopping calling me ‘freeloader’. You said it couple times already.”
“Like when?” Jenny is pouting again.
“Guys!” I saw that the earth was moving in front of us, it is blocking the road. The car screeched to a stop.
“Someone must have put it up! Brad, can you go in the other direction?” Brad tried to put the car in reverse, but suddenly the earth shot up behind us. Whoever is doing this doesn’t want us to go anywhere, Bandits I suspect.
Beware of Road blocks
Thankfully, we could get out of the car and we got into a stance when we were under attack. I know they would be bandits that prey on unsuspecting travelers out in these parts. A sentient is controlling the surrounding earth. Maybe if we-
“You better not move!” someone yelled out and firing their rifle in the air.
“Tough talk for a bandit!” I shouted back in the air! Suddenly, I feel the earth moving again. I can feel in my shoes as well. He is not alone…
We turned our attention toward the wall and saw people coming through it… They are heavily armed and wearing cowboy hats. I saw a woman manipulating the earth itself and sliding as it was a fun slide.
They surrounded us on both sides; I drew both of my blades at once… They ain’t getting our stuff without a fight.
“Samantha! Hang on, they don’t seem like bandits.” What is he doing? “This must be their territory but who I don’t know…” A woman with brunette hair with scars showing over her arms and she is wearing an eyepatch on her left eye. Her body glows her with energy while drawing out her gun.
“Your trespassing on our territory here, didn’t ya read the signs on your way here?” We saw no signs on our way here.
“What do you want from us, miss? If you want our stuff-”
“We don’t want any of your stuff! We aren’t Bandits and we make our own stuff here, living on the land!” The woman seems to take as an insult that we assume they are to take our stuff.
“Then let us move on, then!” I pointed my blade at the woman, which she laughed in my face and pointed back to her group.
“You see my group? Don’t be stupid! You think you’re the first woman that made a threat?”
“Beside, you’re surrounded, miss! I am the one who controls the earth here and no, I’m not lowering it for you.” There! That must the one responsible for that wall.
“Wait a moment, if I understand correctly. You folks live by Fort Bridger, correct?” Now Jason is telling us this now. “As far as I know, I learned from some folks that pass by here that you folks live here independently of any government. You isolated yourself from the world since you folks don’t trust outsiders easily and made it your home.”
“Read the sign, have you? We don’t want any outsiders through our territory and it seems to me you ignored it.”
“DAMN IT, JASON! You and your hiding of secrets!” I turned toward Jason. He should have spoken up sooner on the matter. “For someone that is analytical, you sure hell pick the worst time to tell us now.”
Jason stepped in front of me, and then he turned around.
“Samantha, they are not bandits, and they think we trespass into their territory. Think about our odds here, they mean us no harm and they want to question us. Are you thinking about fighting them?”
“Don’t change the fucking subject, Jason! Did you know?” I insisted he need to give me a straight answer.
“I read the sign and no, I did not expect they would trap us here with a wall of earth. But think about this, fighting is unnecessary and I suggest cooperating with them.”
“No, Jason. I don’t trust these people!” Jason is blocking the way. “Move out of the way!”
“Then what? Look around us!” He pointed to the people surrounding us with guns and they have some Sentient in the group. “You are more capable of this! If you fight these people, they are no guarantees we will walk out of this alive and THEY WOULD KILL US ON THE SPOT!” I’ve never seen Jason being this angry. Normally, he would remain calm in this situation. “Are you going to throw our lives away and gamble on the fact we can fight our way, we even don’t how many people they got or what they are capable of?”
“And what is your point?” I need a better reason than just cooperating with them.
“Hear them out and do as they say, and if you don’t like it, then’ll we fight our way out. But at least, we’ll how dangerous they can be.” A man run toward with his feet on fire, I saw a trail of fire behind him. He points his rifle at me.
Alright, Jason… I’ll trust you on this. But if you get all of us killed... I’ll… I’ll make you regret this. I withdraw my blades and raised my hands into the sky; the others did the same.
“Ya’ll cooperating with us, now?” The woman asked as she saw I raised my hands.
“I assume you’ll take our stuff and let us go, I presume?” The woman frowns when I stated my question.
“Nah, we are taking you with us, your stuff stays there.” I nodded.
The other lady in encase in a rock shell to ensure we won’t be trying to escape or pulling off any funny business. She then put into the ground. We being dragged along for a ride to their community.
We better hope that Jason's intuition is right on this.
