S.I.ER.A. S1E02 - Training Day

  “Max is dead,” said Anthony’s voice from the other side of the line.
         Kial was sitting upright on his bed. His leopard gecko was still scratching in its terrarium. The runes on his left hand glowed faintly.
  “How, when?”
  “They said it was some sort of gang initiation, and it happened sometime early this morning,”
  “Shit,”
  “Yeah, it’s all over the news,”
         A light in his wall rack caught his attention, it was his C-Net watch.
  “Anthony, I’ve got to go. Talk to you later,”
  “Sure, I still have to call the others, see if they know,”
         Kial removed his phone from his ear and placed it in the rack, then took the watch and placed it around his wrist. As soon as it was on his wrist the screen appeared with C-Net’s face on it.
  “Agent Newman, I have an AV request from General Baker, shall I patch it through?”
  “Yes, please, C-Net”
         C-Net’s face was replaced by Shaun’s. It was clear that he was still in his office.
  “Don’t you people ever sleep?” asked Kial.
  “Nope, you get used to it after a while,”
  “Sarcasm?”
  “I wish. Anyway, there has been a brutal attack in Crystal Park. It was the-”
  “Brown family, I know”
  “How?”
  “Maximus Brown is…was my friend,”
  “He might actually still be alive,”
  “What? How?”
  “I don’t know how, and I don’t want to give you false hope, but his body was not at the scene. It was clear, however, that he was home,”
  “So why exactly did you call me?”
  “Well, you’re new to S.I.ER.A. and I figured you need some field experience. I’ll swing by tomorrow at eight to pick you up, then I’ll show you a thing or two about crime scene investigation,”
  “Okay, see you then,” said Kial and closed the connection.
         He then removed the watch from his arm and fell back onto his bed, looking blankly up at the ceiling.


         In the words of Captain Jack Sparrow, ‘Death has a curious way of reshuffling one’s priorities.’ and It’s true.
         The death of someone close to you, or a near death experience, makes you look at life in a new light. The important things become more noticeable, and the trivial things seem…well, trivial.
         But we, as humans, have a flaw. That which moves out of sight, moves out of mind. Most people soon forget why they changed their lives and then the trivial things seem important again, until Death strikes again.
         My name is Kial Newman, I work for a secret governmental organisation, and this is our story

23 January
08:45
Brown Residence, Crystal Park, Benoni

  “So, what do you think did this?” asked Kial as he walked towards the door where Shaun stood.
  “I have no idea, that is what we are here to figure out. How’s your arm?”
  “The wound is completely healed, there’s only a spiral scar running up my arm. Where do we start?”
  “The door. Clearly this is where it came in. Judging by the lack of damage to the door, I’d say it was ripped from the wall with some sort of telekinetic powers. Then it entered the house,” said Shaun and motioned to Kial to enter.
         Kial moved past Shaun and walked into the house. The smell of blood rushed to his nostrils and he struggled to keep his breakfast down when he saw the inside of the house.
         A few feet from him, in a pool of blood, was Max’s mother. She was cut in half and the two halves lay in different directions. Ahead, at the far end of the room, the dining room table lay in ruins.
  “It cut this poor woman in half, with some sort of sharp blade weapon. Probably a sword judging by the scratch on the floor, then-”
  “Max was sitting in the living room, on that chair. He heard the door and turned around,” started Kial, “he saw his mother get chopped in half, then ran through the next room, past the dining room table and down the hall,
  “The creature must have seen him, and flung some sort of chain weapon at him. Judging by the scratches, something heavy with a flanged head. The creature missed Max and destroyed the table, then ran after him,”
         Kial moved down the hallway, Shaun following.
  “The creature got here, saw Max’s dad near the safe and rushed him. He bent him ninety degrees then chopped off his head. Screaming, Max’s sister. She came out of her room, saw this, then,”
         Kial turned around and walked past Max’s sister’s room, then continued on to Max’s.
  “She ran to his room, got on the bed. Max was looking for his bow and arrows in his closet. The creature came in, more screaming. In jumped his sister, ripped open her chest and cut the arteries leading away from her heart. She bled to death and her chest cavity filled with blood,
  “The creature then turned on Max and threw him through the wall,”
         Kial looked around the room, looking at the floor.
  “But not before he wounded it,” Kial reached down and picked up an arrow.
  “Max, his bow and his arrows are missing. He is possibly alive,” said Shaun.
  “What if the creature takes victims?”
  “Well, we might have time then,”
  “You think?”
  “I hope, an attack this brutal… Well, that thing has some DNA on it, Xal should be able to analyse it so let’s go,”
         Shaun stepped out of the room and headed outside. Kial looked around for a while.
  “We’ll find you Max, we’ll find you”
         Kial headed out of the house, got into the car with Shaun and they drove off towards the headquarters.

Sometime later
10:01
S.I.ER.A. 10 Headquarters

  “I have never seen anything like this,” said Xal as he went through the analysis, “this creature is genetically perfect,”
  “What does that mean?” asked Kial.
  “It has no junk DNA. Even you with that rare marker you have, even you have junk DNA. This thing is genetically perfect,”
  “It used medieval weapons,” said Shaun.
  “That is strange, this creature is extremely advanced. It has a nine point helix, the first one we found,”
  “Say what?” asked Kial.
  “Life on Earth had a double helix structured DNA, life off of this planet has other genetic structures,” said Shaun, “this is the second most complex extra-terrestrial life from we have found,”
  “The most complex is Civ 10-One,” said Xal.
  “Civ 10-One?”
  “Civilization with ten point helix, one”
  “Oh,”
  “You see,” started Shaun, “while some scientists believe that the intelligence of a species is measured by their speech patterns. We believe that a more intelligent species has a more complex genetics structure,”
  “So this creature will be Civ 9-One?”
  “Exactly,”
  “The creature is part Shape Shifter, how you two superior beings missed that baffles me,” said Xal.
  “And that means it can change shape?” asked Kial.
  “Yes, and that could be problematic,” said Shaun.
  “So, how do we find it and Max?”
  “That will be difficult,” said Xal, “it is easier to find one particular being if there are, say a hundred of their kind, because kind sticks with kind. This thing is alone as far as we know. But take heart in this, I do not believe it took Max,”
  “Why not?”
  “Think about it. The creature entered the house and killed three of four people. It killed them brutally, so why kill only seventy five persent? In your report, you say that Max was probably in his room, the creature came in, killed his sister then turned on him, correct?”
  “Yes,”
  “I think it happened a bit differently. Max was in the room, bow at the ready, waiting for the creature to enter the room. When it did, Max fired off an arrow, which nicked it; then the arrow deflected off. It threw Max through the wall then killed his sister,”
  “How did you come by this theory?” asked Shaun.
  “Simple logic, and someone crashed Max’s dad’s car”
  “How do you know it was Max’s dad’s?” asked Kial.
  “The car was registered to him. The police found it in Springs,”
  “That means that Max is alive, and we have somewhere to start looking,”
  “Indeed, I will have agents combing the area immediately,” said Shaun.
  “But we are also going to look for him, right?”
  “No, I need you to gather your team,”
  “Why?”
  “Two reasons. One, Mohammed escaped yesterday in-between the chaos. We are tracking him as we speak. He slipped up once, and he will do so again, and this time he will not get away,”
  “So, my team and I will be helping to find him?”
  “No, you are going to bring him in once we find him, and we will find him soon thanks to a little tracking device we planted on him,”
  “Okay, what is reason two?”
  “It’s training day. This will be the first time a team is trained and sent on their first field mission in one day. I have already arranged for agent Hernandez to drive you where you need to go,”
  “I’m getting the feeling that the agents here never know what they are getting sent into,”
  “Get used to it, now if you two are done briefing each other in my office,” said Xal, slightly irritated.
  “Sorry,” said Shaun and the two of them left the office.

Sometime later
10:30
Arthur’s Residence, Reinfield, Benoni

         Kial was standing in front of Arthur’s gate, calling him on his cell phone. Behind Kial, in the driveway, stood an orange Hummer H3. The driver was a Latino man in his late twenties.
  “Arthur, hallo?”
  “Hey, is Anthony with you?”
  “Yes, why?”
  “I need you two to come with me,”
  “Where?”
  “I’ll explain on the way, just get outside and get in the Hummer,”
  “Hummer?”
  “I will explain once we are all in the car, now come outside,”
  “Okay, we’ll be there now,” said Arthur and ended the call. A few minutes later, both he and Anthony walked to the gate.
         Kial greeted them then led them to the back of the Hummer, where he opened the back door and the three of them got in. Zac greeted as the other two got in.
  “What the hell is with the Hummer?” asked Anthony.
  “I asked that same question when he came round to pick me up, but he refused to tell me,” said Zac.
  “That’s because I wasn’t going to repeat myself. Hernandez, back to headquarters, please,”
  “Sure thing, Newman,”
  “So?” asked Arthur.
  “Last night, I was approached by a member of a secret governmental organization responsible for monitoring and policing Alien and Superhuman activity. There are thirteen districts in all, across the globe. One of them, S.I.ER.A. 7 is global but they ran into some trouble,
  “Now, to why you are here. I need a team, and you are it,”
  “And what would this involve?” asked Arthur.
  “Oh,” started Hernandez, “guns, explosions, danger pay, damsels in distress, Extra-terrestrials, Superhumans, explosions, bullets, wounds, blood…”
  “Okay, I think we get the point,” said Zac.
  “Did I mention explosions?” Hernandez said sarcastically.
  “I’m in,” said Anthony.
  “Me two,” said Zac.
  “Don would say hell no, but I’m not Don. I’ll risk my life for this,” said Arthur.
  “Great, ‘coz it’s training day,”

Sometime later
11:05
S.I.ER.A. 10 Headquarters

         They were sitting in the briefing room. It was a large, dimly lit room with a large wall mounted screen covering the far wall. The room was filled with seats and there was a small stage in the front.
  “I take it Kial has informed you why you are here,” Shaun said and they nodded their heads. “Good, any questions?”
  “I have one” said Anthony.
  “Yes?”
  “How the hell did you let what happened to Max, happen?”
  “We didn’t let anything happen. Despite what you may or may not believe, we are not the Men in Black, we are not an interstellar airport, not every extra-terrestrial that comes to this planet goes through us. And what happened to your friend was not our fault. If my suspicions are correct, the Brotherhood was behind this,”
  “The Brotherhood? What is this, Command and Conquer?” asked Arthur.
  “The Brotherhood of Ascension, they are an extra-nationalist terrorist group similar to S.I.ER.A.” said Kial.
  “They are nothing like S.I.ER.A., they would rather see everyone enslaved than live in peace,”
  “But why would they want to kill Max?” asked Zac.
  “They didn’t, he and his family were the unfortunate victims of a field test. Xal found something interesting in the blood, nanites. And not just any nanites, replication nanites. They are used in some of the more advanced, and top secret, cloning facilities to ensure that more complex beings, like humans, can be safely cloned without any complications or genetic rejection,”
  “I thought cloning humans was against some sort of law,” said Arthur.
  “It is, but with the right pay-off ethics, morals and laws mean nothing,”
  “So this thing is human?” asked Anthony.
  “No, not even slightly. It can possibly take the shape of a normal human being, but it was cloned by humans. A few months ago a vessel crashed in northern Afghanistan. When S.I.ER.A. 7 got there, the Brotherhood had already taken control. After a brief fire fight, the Brotherhood retreated but not without taking something from the ship. That something must have contained the DNA of the creature that killed Max’s family.
  “Also, those cloning facilities I mentioned, some of them reported stolen equipment. Not large stuff, but stuff that, if used together, would allow you to clone something,”
  “You got all that from microscopic robots?” asked Zac.
  “Pretty much. Now, you ready to get trained?”
  “I take it you are still looking for Mohamed?” asked Kial.
  “Yes, but he is still in the area, we have narrowed it down to Johannesburg and the surrounding area. Now, I’m gonna send each of you to one of the different training areas so that we can get it over with much faster,”
         Kial was first up for weapons training. After listening to a long speech about the different weapons, weapon types, ammunition and add-ons you could attach to weapon, Kial settled on two .45 pistols. Then he had to prove his shooting competence by firing at holographic targets at different ranges.
         After that he was told to enter the pit, a large room divided into smaller sections. Here he had to shoot all the targets that looked threatening and avoid hitting the friendly targets.
         Kial rushed into the challenge, taking only a second to decide to shoot or not on each target. At the final two, however, Kial shot one of the friendly targets. If it had been an actual person, they would only have been wounded.
         In some other part of the headquarters, Anthony was having some driving fun, much to the dismay of the agent testing him. The idea of this exercise, as he was told, was to test his driving competence in the area of civil and advanced driving. All that managed to sink in from the speech before the test, was advanced driving.
         The testing ground was a massive room filled with old cars and holographic targets that should be avoided as they represented pedestrians. Anthony was speeding around the track, almost never allowing the needle to drop below 100 Km\H. After the test, the agent gave him his pass and told him to leave as soon as possible.
         Zac was in the tactics are. His speech was much longer, explaining what to do when facing certain species and what not to do when facing others. Finally he could testy his knowledge.
         He was sent into a room similar to the one Kial was in, armed with tactical grenades and breaching equipment. His was tasked with moving through the area as quickly as possible and with as little detection as possible.
         He rushed in, throwing gas and flash grenades in the direction of every camera he could see and blew locks off with small amounts of C4.
         Arthur was tasked with something a lot more physical. He had to get to the top of a platform in a room filled with all manner of obstacles. When he asked the agent how he was supposed to get up there, he was greeted with one word, par-kor.
         He ran up the closest stack of crates, scaled them and then started to jump from stack to stack until he got to a rail. He jumped onto it and ran across, keeping his balance as he went. At the end of the rail, he jumped to the platform.
         As the day progressed, each one of them finished each of the training sessions, and by the time they returned to the briefing room they were soar, tired and in no mood to do anything.
  “Good news everyone,” said Shaun and they all groaned, “It’s not that bad. Look, it will be a few days until we can get your cars-”
  “Cars?” asked Zac, interested.
  “Well, yeah. Each of you gets a car, which you sort of need to get around. Think of it as a company car. I’ll take a note of what you want later, now we have bigger fish to fry,” Shaun said and pressed a button on the small remote he held. The lights went off completely and the screen went on. On it was the face of Mohamed and a few paragraphs containing information about him.
  “So, as you know, Mohamed took a few hostages yesterday and nearly killed someone. We got most of his associates but not him. And we now know where he is. He is holding himself up in a small abandoned warehouse. He seems to be alone but scans can be deceiving. You will go in and try to bring him back alive, if not, kill him.”
  “Anything we should know?” asked Arthur.
  “Yeah, just one detail. Mohamed is an Impure Flame, so he is dangerous. Make sure to take something along that could neutralize him if he transforms. And use my Hummer to get there,”
  “I’m driving,” said Anthony and Shaun threw him the keys.
  “Well, hop to it,”

23 January
18:25
Moscow Ruins, Russia

         Alexander woke to the sound of gunfire. He was in the underground soviet bunker the Russians had stumbled upon and made their base. The cold stone floor was the least of his worries as he heard the all too familiar sound of a gauss cannon firing.
         The technology was still far too advanced for military use, but S.I.ER.A. had access to it, so did many of the alien races. The steel door to his sell flew open and the Nakita came into the room, clutching at her side with one hand and holding a pistol in the other. She was aiming the gun at Alexander.
  “Why the hell are they after you?” she demanded to know.
  “After me? How the hell would I know?”
  “Cut your bullshit, I know you work for S.I.ER.A.”
  “Then why am I a prisoner?”
  “Because I do not trust you, never have, and after what happened here, never will,”
  “This isn’t S.I.ER.A.’s fault, it’s the Brotherhood,”
  “Shut your lying mouth, the Brotherhood is trying to protect us,”
  “They are using you, they have no desire to save anyone, not even themselves,”
         There was an explosion in the room behind Nakita. She turned around to see what was going on and Alexander took his chance. He got to his feet, jumped up and brought his arms from behind his back and rushed her. He threw his cuffed wrists over her head and started applying pressure to her throat.
         Nakita reacted with a brisk kick to Alexander’s shin and then threw him over her head. She pointed the gun at him again and was about to fire when Alexander heard a bullet zip through the air and hit her in the shoulder. She spun on the spot and fell to the ground.
         Alexander looked towards the staircase and saw two members of the S.I.ER.A. 4 walking towards him, both armed with assault rifles with silencers.
  “General Page, come with us,” said the male agent in a Russian accent.
  “Am I glad to see some friendly faces,”
  “Here, take my pistol,” said the female, also Russian, and threw him a sidearm.
  “What the hell is going on?”
  “We don’t have time to explain, they are laying siege to this bunker,”
  “They? Who are they?”
  “Later General, we must leave now!” said the female.
  “Lead, I’ll follow,”
         The two Russian agent lead him through the narrow hallways to a hidden passageway. As they came to the entrance of the passageway, they were fired upon from behind.
  “You die, American!” shouted Nakita and fired off another shot.
         The male agent shoved Alexander out of the way and as a result got hit in the head by the bullet. Disgruntled, she shot the other agent, wounding her, then she advanced on them.
         Alexander, who was on the ground from being shoved out of the way, grabbed the assault rifle of the dead agent and opened fire on Nakita, emptying the clip on her. A hand grabbed him by the collar and he went cold. He turned and drew the pistol but loosened up as he saw it was the remaining agent.
  “Come on, we are nearly clear of danger,”
  “What about your partner?”
  “He is dead, we can’t help him, no come!”
         The agent tapped a key on her C-Net unit and the wall slid away. She motioned to Alexander to go through into the hallway beyond and he obeyed. Darkness closed around them as she tapped the key and the wall slid back into place.

23 January
19:05
Abandoned Warehouse, Industria, Johannesburg

  “Is this the place?” asked Zac as they got out of the car and looked at the derelict building.
  “Yeah, this is it. I was expecting more gunfire,” said Kial.
  “Well, they are clearly expecting so. So let’s not keep them waiting,” said Anthony and started walking to the entrance.
         They entered the deserted building and walked to the centre, keeping their eyes peeled for any movement. The place was empty. As they got to the middle, the door they entered through slammed shut. They all spun around only to see Mohamed.
  “Okay, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way being you give up, the hard way, you die,” said Arthur.
  “How about option C,” said Mohammed.
  “There is no option C,” said Zac.
  “I beg to differ. You try to stop me, and I kill you,”
  “Drop your bullshit, you are leaving here one way or the other,” said Kial.
  “I don’t doubt that in the slightest. How is your arm by the way?”
  “Fine,” said Kial and gave him the bird with his left hand.
  “Charming. But enough of this, time to die,”
         In the blink of an eye, flames engulfed Mohamed and seconds later there stood a flaming bear in his place. The bear roared and a wave of heat emitted from it.
         The four of them started to pen fire on the bear but their weapons were having no effect. The bear advanced on them, and swung a large claw in Kial’s direction. He dove out of the way to avoid it. The bear tried the same with Arthur, who slid underneath the blow. It tried to smash Arthur into the ground, but he managed to get away.
         The bear reared and turned on Zac, who was to slow and got knocked to the ground. It then roared again and bared down on Zac, sinking its flaming hot claws into his chest. Zac’s screams of pain filled the warehouse.
  “Hey asshole!” shouted Anthony.
         The bear turned to him and Anthony pulled the trigger of the shotgun he had in his hands. Hundreds of electric bolts sped towards Mohamed and hit him, causing him to yell out in agony, transform back into his human shape and roll off of Zac.
         He clutched at his sides as the bolts were pulsing electricity through his body, incapacitating him.
  “This thing works great,” he said as the other two came closer.
         They helped Zac to his feet, even after he reassured him he was fine. A phone rang and Mohamed started laughing.
  “It’s for you,” he said.
         Anthony nodded and took Kial’s place in supporting Zac. Kial cautiously walked over to Mohamed.
  “In my jacket pocket,” he said and Kial reached for the phone.
  “Hello?”
  “Kial! Help me, they-”
  “Rebecca?”
  “She is her with us, yes,” said a rough Mexican voice.
  “If you harm her,”
  “We won’t, as long as Mohamed stays alive. Now step away from him,”
  “You can see us?”
  “Yes, now step away or the blond gets a new ventilation hole,”
  “Fine,” he said and motioned to the others that they should step back.
  “Good, now we are coming in so don’t try anything,” the voice said and the call was ended.
         A door opened on the other side of the warehouse and three men entered, one of them holding Rebecca at gunpoint.
  “Is there anything we should know, you sounded fierce?” asked Arthur.
  “I’m not going to let someone die because of us,”
  “What’s your plan?” asked Anthony.
  “I’ll let you know as soon as I know,”
  “That helps,” said Zac weakly.
         The men now gathered around Mohamed, who was recovering from the electric bolts and getting back to his feet.
  “Humans,” Mohamed started, “so weak. You would sacrifice yourselves to save others. Actually it’s only S.I.ER.A.”
  “Who the hell said we were going to sacrifice ourselves?” asked Arthur in a hushed voice.
  “It was implied in the ‘don’t hurt her’” said Anthony.
  “Now,” said Mohamed and pulled a gun on Kial, two of the three terrorists that entered later, pointed guns at Anthony and Arthur, “you die,”
  “Human,” said a voice inside Kial’s head, “you don’t have much time. Act natural, don’t talk, just listen,” Kial kept his composure , “good. Now, close your eyes. Perfect. You feel that strange sensation trying to get hold of you? Focus on it, let it fill every part of you. Now raise your left arm, remain focused. Harness the energy. Release it now!”
         Kial opened his eyes and felt a sudden drop in his energy levels. There was a distortion in front of him as a pulse moved from his hand past the terrorists. The pulse knocked the three terrorists all the way back to the other side of the warehouse where they hit the wall with great force, killing them instantly.
         Anthony, Arthur and Zac looked confused. Mohamed seemed terrified. He roared once and charged at them, knocked them down and running to the other exit. He only managed to get a few meters before a shot went off and he stopped in his tracks. Mohammed yelled and then exploded into a ball of fire, about three meters in diameter, then dissipated.
         The four agents turned around on the ground and saw Rebecca with a pistol in her hand.
  “You guys have an interesting job,” she said.

20:35
S.I.ER.A. 10 Headquarters

  “You will live,” said Xal as he finished examining Zac’s wounds.
  “So you say Mohamed is dead?” asked Shaun.
  “Yeah, we saw him explode right in front of us,” said Kial.
  “Where did you learn to shoot like that?” asked Arthur.
  “My dad wasn’t about to let her little girl go out into the world without teaching her how to shoot,” she said.
  “Have you found Max yet?” asked Anthony.
  “No, we had him for a while, then we lost him completely,”
  “Damn it,” said Arthur.
  “We’ll let you run through training day tomorrow, it’s too late to do anything now. Oh, your cars are here, Gizmo is just putting the finishing touches on them,”
  “Awesome,” said Zac.
  “Yeah, let’s go outside and let Zac rest for a few seconds, then you lot can head home,” Shaun said and they left the office. “look, you need to keep a close eye on Zac,” he said as they were out of earshot of the office.
  “Why?” asked Kial.
  “He could very possibly be an Impure Flame himself,” he said, “when you are attacked by one, you can be infected and become one. Zac’s wounds were on the border, so it’s fifty-fifty,”
  “Great. Max, missing. Kial, nanite man. Zac, a flaming asshole,” said Anthony.
  “Hey, he is our friend,” said Arthur.
  “With friends like Anthony, who needs enemies,” said Rebecca.
         They waited for Zac for a few minutes, then they all headed over to the garage where they were greeted by Gizmo, a Rastafarian man.
         He pointed over to a spot in the garage and there stood their cars, side by side. Kial’s green Subaru WRX STi, Zac’s black 2009 Mustang GT, Anthony’s silver Lamborghini Reventon and Arthur’s dark greed Lexus IS-F 350.
  “Wow,” said Anthony.
  “Yeah, I’ll catch you guys tonight at the badminton. Rebecca, can I take you home?” asked Kial.
  “Sure, you brought me here so I guess it’s only fitting,” she said.
         They climbed into Kial’s car. He started it, and drove off towards the exit. The others got into their respective cars and did the same.

Sometime later
22:33
John Barabal Hall, Reinfield

         Kial jumped into the air and smashed the shuttle towards Arthur, who had only enough time to react and lightly hit it over the net. Unfortunately it was too high and Zac was able to drop it just over the net.
  “Good game, guys,” said Anthony as they headed off of the court.
  “Yeah, we should do this again Tuesday,” said Zac.
  “Definitely,” said Kial.
         They packed up their rackets and headed outside. They greeted each other and started driving off. A car caught Kial’s eye and he decided to investigate. Sure enough it was Rebecca in her father’s BMW.
  “What are you doing here?”
  “Waiting for you,”
  “Okay, why?”
  “Nothing like that, we’re just friends, right?”
  “Yeah, of course,”
  “I killed a man, Kial,”
  “He was a terrorist,”
  “He was running away, he was unarmed and I shot him. I didn’t even try to spare his life. At that moment I wanted nothing more than for him to die but now…now I think I may have made a mistake,”
  “You saved countless lives, Mohammed was evil,”
  “Still, who am I to decide if he had to die or not,”
  “I believe things happen because they are meant to happen. Mohammed died because he was meant to die, otherwise you would have missed. And before you say anything, you are not a bad person. The fact that you feel this way, proves that,”
  “Thanks, Kial,”
  “So you’re gonna be alright?”
  “Yeah, I think so,”
  “Good, now get home. You need your beauty sleep for tomorrow,”
  “Yeah, later,”
  “Later,”
         Rebecca started the car and headed off as Kial walked back to his. He got in, placed the key in the ignition, started the car and looked in his rear view mirror.
  “Max!” he said in shock.
         He looked around and sure enough, there sat Max. His face was covered in dried blood, his clothes were torn and there was a gash stretching from his left temple, across his nose to beneath his right eye.
  “What the hell happened?”
  “Creature…Dragon…Killed my mother…father…sister…Screaming…Couldn’t stop…Tried…Thrown through wall…Had to run…crashed car…people looking for me…Kial…help…please,”
         Max passed out and fell over onto the back seat. Kial opened the glove compartment, then the hidden compartment inside it and removed and injector and a vial of blue liquid. He placed the vial into the back and injected some of the liquid into Max’s neck.
  “Hold on, Max, I know someone who could help,”
         He turned toward the steering wheel and started to drive back towards the headquarters.
  “You probably won’t like it, seeing as what happened to you, but he can help you, he will help you,”