Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Flash of light, Death Encroaches

Blaze felt every ounce of his strength being drained from his body, as the sword tore through his back. Blaze let out a cry of pain, as Demon Hunter continued to thrust the sword further in until the decorative joint rammed up against Blaze’s bloody chest. The blood began poured down from Blaze’s chest covering the decoration of two dragons linked together. Blaze looked up at Demon Hunter, who was now leaning over him, he tried to speak as he opened his quivering mouth, trying his best to say something but he couldn’t gather the energy to say the words. Tears started to run down Blaze’s cheek creating a steady stream of water that congregated at the bottom of Blaze’s chin, forming a large drop of water that splashed on to Demon Hunter’s hand. Demon Hunter could feel the tears hit his hand as he looked down at Blaze in shock. Blaze’s eyes began to feel very heavy, and they dropped down, as his vision began to blur. Then in the distance Blaze could see something, it was a little boy.

He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and black jeans; he slowly raised his right arm until he was pointing at Blaze. Then suddenly several boys appeared all around Blaze, they began to point at him, all of them were taunting and laughing at him as he fell down to his knees. All of a sudden the surroundings started to dissolve around him, the sky scrapers crumbled away in to blue sky’s and trees. The road disappeared in to the blackness and very quickly grass started to sprout all around him and within seconds grew in to an entire field that spread as far as he could see. Demon Hunter and his sword faded in to nothingness in front of his eyes and as he looked down he could see the blood evaporating in to the sky around him. His body had changed as well, his hair was shorter and cut in to the shape of a bowl, his body had shrunk to the size of a ten year old boy and he was very overweight.

“Yo, Fatty what’s the matter huh?!” one boy shouted “What’s the matter tubby want your mummy!” another cried. The children were all pointing and taunting him as they huddled around him, forming a circle around him. For some reason he felt a tear run down his cheek as he started to cry at the abuse he was receiving from the children. Then he felt a thump on the back of his head and yelled out in pain as the blow knocked him forwards as he thrust his hands to the ground to stop himself from hitting the ground. Then another blow struck his side, Blaze grabbed his side with one of his hand keeping himself upright with the other. Then a kick swiped his arm away as he crashed in to the ground face first, he started to cry and tried to hold back the tears but he couldn’t. He raised his head to see the child in front of him pick up a stone and throw it straight at Blaze’s face; the pain was overwhelming as he buried his face in to his hands. Blaze struggled in vain to move his body but he could not control anything, he then curled up in to ball as the boys continued to pelt stones at him. After a while the sky started to cloud over, rain started to pour down on to the field.

“Come on it’s pouring down” One of the boys said as he took off, “Yeah let’s head back” another one said as the group finally ran off towards the edge of the field and out of sight. Blaze just lay there, his clothes were tattered, torn and covered in mud, and his face was bruised with trickles of blood running from his nose and lip. After a while he struggled to his feet his whole body ached in pain as he staggered forwards towards the exit. He eventually made it to the exit as he looked around it all looked very familiar.

In front of him was a gate; on the other side was a street with houses on it. He opened the gate and walked through, after looking up and down the street Blaze felt drawn to the house in front of him. It was a two story semi-detached house, there was a large driveway and garage at the front of the house, with a wall around the front. Blaze walked across towards the house crossing the street as he went. Blaze walked along the drive way past the car and stood in front of the door staring at it. There was a knocker on the door and Blaze slowly raised his arm and grabbed a hold of it. Not sure of what to expect, Blaze hesitantly raised it and slammed it back down again creating a large bang on the door. Almost instantly the door flew open, standing in front of him was a middle age woman with black hair and deep blue eyes. She let out a gasp upon seeing Blaze and grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him inside of the house. “Dougy what happened to you? Did those mean kids pick on you again? Look at you you’re soaked, how did you get this wet? Your going to have to get out of those clothes straight away otherwise you will get a cold” The woman spoke with such speed that she left no time for Blaze to respond to any of her questions.

Blaze began to wonder who this woman was and what on earth was going on. The woman grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head. She quickly removed the rest of his clothes and wrapped a warm fluffy towel around him. She then led him in to the living room where she sat him down in front of the TV. The TV screen was blurred; as he looked around the room he could tell that something wasn’t right. All of the pictures and paintings were blurred, the specific designs on the wallpaper were also blurred. Just then the woman walked in to the room with a big piece of chocolate cake for Blaze. Blaze took the cake and the fork and stared blankly at it, until he felt a familiar sadness swell up inside of him. As he stared in to the cake he started to hate himself, for the way he looked, what had happened, for his weakness and that he couldn’t control it as several more tears ran down his cheek. Then it all clicked, he realised where he was, suddenly the walls and floor melted away leaving nothing but him sitting there in a black void of nothingness. The cake disappeared from his hands as well as the fork. Blaze cried a little after realising who that woman was. “Mother, I’m sorry.” He said as he lowered his head in shame.

As the tears ran down his cheeks, they began to sparkle and glitter lighting the empty void that surrounded him. As he looked around the void started to take shape, walls appeared as if being built in front of his eyes at tremendous speeds. The room was quite large, and the walls were being painted white. Several glass doors appeared to the right and left of him, mirrors appeared on the walls, and several pieces of exercise equipment dropped in from the void that was still above. After everything settled the floor and roof came crashing down on to the room finally making it complete.

Blaze closed his eyes to wipe the tears from his face to get a clear view of the room that now surrounded him. As he opened his eyes he could see that the room was filled with people exercises on the equipment. As he continued to look around he saw various types of people, male and female, athletic types, muscular types and overweight people. They were all going about their business as usual like nothing had happened. As he turned he saw his reflection in the mirror, he had changed again. He was almost back to his original self expect he was much younger by around five years or so. Just then the door opened and behind it was a black void but out of the void stepped a young man. He was around six foot three inches tall, he had short brown hair, he was wearing an ice blue t-shirt and black jogging bottoms with white trainers.

The young man walked across the gym heading straight for Blaze, Blaze just stood there unsure of what to do as the man quickly approached him. As the man neared, his heart started to race, somehow he knew this man he just knew it. As the man finally arrived in front of him he started to relax slightly for some reason he knew that this man wouldn’t hurt him. The man offered his hand to shake, Blaze grabbed hold and they shook hands. “Hey Doug good luck on Saturday, hopefully we’ll both make it through. But you know there’s no way your going to beat me you know!? No matter how hard you train.” The man said in a happy tone smiling at him. “Yeah… sure” He hesitantly replied unsure of what was happening. “Hey Doug you ok? You don’t seem yourself” The man asked concerned. “Yeah I’m fine” Blaze quickly asked so not to arouse suspicion. “Well then, I’ll see you Saturday at the military enrolment”

Suddenly it clicked, he instantly remembered what week this was in his life; he had been training for several years now to get in to the army. He had wanted to prove to himself that he was better then the rest and would be able to pass the trials where other people had failed. He remembered that he had originally wanted to join the army to show the people that had abused him that he was better then they were and that he wasn’t nothing. The building suddenly shattered around the young man and Blaze. As he looked around the black void once again his eyes became fixated on the young man, whose clothes were dissolving and being replace by new ones. He looked down and the same was happening to him, he was suddenly wearing an army camouflage uniform.

The young man in front of him started to run on the spot in the black void that surrounded them. Blaze just stared straight at him puzzled at what he was doing. Then Blaze felt something cold land on him, as he looked up hundred of tiny water droplets hit him in the face. “Rain?” Blaze said baffled at what was happening. Rain was falling from above them but there were no clouds in the sky, as he looked up again, a dark blue sky started to spread above them consuming the black void. Soon the sky above them was complete, then as if it was being drawn in front of Blaze clouds and birds started to appear. A strong wind came from the east, the same direction that the young man was running in. His clothes waved in the wind as it fiercely pushed past him. More and more things started to appear around him several trees appeared in the distance and the soft muddy ground formed beneath his feet. In the direction that the young man was running in seemed to be an obstacle course, it was comprised of several walls, some with windows, tyres on the floor and rope swings. Finally several other people appeared in front of and behind him. They were all running in the same direction as the young man. On the outside of the obstacle course were several older looking men holding stopwatches and whistles.

Then with a flash of light, everyone started to move at some speed towards the obstacle course. Blaze leapt forward trying to follow the young man, he was important to his past and a key link he just knew it but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t remember who he was. Blaze was slowly starting to catch up with him as he passed through the obstacle course jumping through windows, climbing over walls and swinging from ropes. The young man suddenly turned back to Blaze and smiled before leaping over a water obstacle. Blaze could feel his heart beating violently but he had to give it his all. As he looked ahead he could see a wall which was easily the largest on the course. The young man reached the wall a split second before him, he placed his right foot on the wall and began to quickly run up the wall, as he neared the top he reached out and grabbed a hold of the top of the wall and pulled himself up the rest of the way.

Blaze decided to do the same, quickly running up the wall but near the top but his foot slipped on slippery surface. Blaze reached out for the top of the wall with his out stretched hand but he just missed. He started to fall back down when a hand reached out and grabbed a hold of his wrist. It was the young man; he raised him up and threw him over the wall. Blaze fell back down the other side and landed on his feet. The young man dropped down besides him, “Can’t give up now, can we?” the young man said with a smile on his face. He started to run off towards the next obstacle Blaze smiled and gave pursuit. “I will beat you” he muttered to himself with a small smile on his face. Tyres were the next obstacle as the young man was half way across it Blaze pushed himself with his might to try and catch up. As he stepped in and out of the tyres he could see ahead that he was beginning to gain on him. “Come on” Blaze muttered to himself as he pushed himself even harder. Both of them left the tyres at the same time, they could both see that in the distance was the finish line. The wind was blowing against them; Blaze could feel his muscles start to ache all over as the cold rain hit his body. He was giving it everything he had as he sprinted towards the finish line, but the young man was starting to gain the lead as Blaze’s aching muscles were starting to slow him down.

They where neck and neck when Blaze could just barely hear a voice over his own panting “That’s it, give it your all!” As he looked to the left he saw the young man looking at him smiling again. Blaze pushed forward with all his remaining strength, then before he realised it he had passed the finish line and could hear a voice calling out to him “Hey, you can stop running now. You won!” he stopped in his tracks and looked behind him. To see the young man jogging towards him, “Hey you did great. You’ve improved a lot.” the young man said as he slowly panted from exhaustion. “Riser, Derrick” a man shouted holding a clipboard near the finish line. The young man turned his head around “Here!” he shouted back. Everything then froze and cracks appeared all around. It was all coming back to him now. “Derrick Riser, how could I of forgotten you?”

Pieces of the surroundings started to fall away as the cracks spread throughout the sky and the ground. As the pieces disappeared in their place Blaze could make out derelict buildings and a sunny sky appearing behind them. The ground beneath Blaze was comprised of concrete and rubble. The people around Blaze disappeared apart from Derrick, his clothes stayed the same but a helmet was appearing on him. He was slowly changing his position, he turned to face Blaze and lowered him self slightly by bending his knees. A gun appeared in his hands as he carried it pointing down. Blaze unconsciously held out his hands and a semi-automatic rifle appeared in them. Somehow he knew exactly how to use it, he turned and faced the building that was appearing in front of him as the surroundings changed around him. Everything changed in to the city; he heard a click and around ten people appeared around him

“I hear our new CO is a rookie fresh out of the academy” One of the soldiers said as the squad pressed against the wall on either side of the door. “What’s his name?” Derrick asked, “Captain Dagon, he should be here soon with the sentry” A soldier on the far side replied. “Great just what we need a rookie captain to get us all killed” A soldier muttered disdainfully as he placed something on the door. “Hey Derrick, you actually going to kill something this time?” The same soldier said as they squad started laughing slightly. “You know that I don’t kill Dave” Derrick replied as he threw a pebble at him. “Hey don’t be so touchy, why’d they let you in the army anyway. A soldier who won’t kill is the daftest thing that I have ever heard” Dave said as the pebble bounced off his helmet. “It’s not like I don’t do my job, besides injuring a soldier is more effective then simply killing on a battlefield.” Derrick said disgruntled.

“Hey cut the chatter!” A man said as he ran down an alley towards them carrying a large metal briefcase. “Sorry Captain” Derrick and Dave replied in unison as the captain put the briefcase on the floor several feet in front of the door and open it. A gun rose up out of the case and a keyboard flipped on to the side of it. The captain typed in to the keyboard rapidly, “Is everybody wearing their idents?” He asked as he looked around the squad as they all gave the thumbs up. “Good, ok done” He said as ran over to the wall, “Everybody in this building is a target; I have been ordered to use lethal force. Alpha, Bravo your taking the first floor, Charlie secure the ground, Delta and Echo second and Foxtrot, Golf you’ve got the top floor. Everybody stay sharp and pay attention I don’t want any mistakes. Prepare to breach” The captain said as everybody secured their helmets and held tightly on to their rifles. “Breach!” The captain shouted as Dave pressed a button; the door suddenly blew off its hinges and slammed on to the floor.

Dust lifted in to the air stopping them for being able to see inside the building, suddenly bullets started whizzing out of the door and in to the street. “Give it a sec” The Captain said nervously. “You did set it up right? Didn’t you captain?” Derrick said as the squad looked at the lifeless sentry. When almost instantly the barrel started to spin, bullets sped out of the sentry and through the door as screams could be heard on the other side. The sentry continued firing as it pivoted and turned unleashing a hail of bullets through the door, when it quickly stopped as steam rose out of the barrel of the sentry. “Ok go go go” The Captain said as the squad ran through the door. Blaze ran through the door and leapt over the bodies as he followed Derrick up the stairs, Blaze could hear gunshots and shouts throughout the building. He was almost scared as they finally reached the top floor “ I’ll take left, you take right” Derrick said as he stood in front of the door, Blaze ran past him and stood by his door. “Ok go” He said as he slammed his foot in to the door knocking it open. As he looked around he could see lighting shining in through the window, two people stood in front of him holding guns. He quickly step forward pulling on the trigger the bullets ran them through before they could even react as they stumbled backwards collapsing on the floor. The glass shattered as the bullets penetrated through it, he staggered forward a little bit in shock as the adrenaline was being pumped through his veins. When suddenly a blade slammed down on his rifle, the rifle hit the floor with a clang and Blaze dived across the room as another blade barely missed him.

He rolled and slammed his back in to wall with a crack; he looked up and saw a man holding two swords the end of the blades where curved and jagged. The man was muttering something as his eyes locked on to Blaze’s. He slowly walked over to him as he raised his sword in the air; Blaze slowly closed his eyes when suddenly he heard the sound of a gun shot. He instantly opened his eyes again; the man was on his knees in front of him and then he collapsed on to the floor. As he looked around he saw Derrick standing in the doorway, standing absolutely still as a small pillar of smoke rising out of the barrel. As Blaze looked by his side he could see the sword and as he looked at it he remembered “my swords” he muttered to himself.

Once again the floor fell in to the black void, and the wall dissolved around him. The sky appeared above them, it was covered in a black smoke that appeared to be brown as the sun shone on it in places. The ground was covered in mud, Blaze looked around and he could tell that he was in a trench. Explosions sounded all around him, as he ducked for cover inside the trench. People started to appear around him and Derrick some of them were running up and down the trench while others were leant up against the side. As he looked at Derrick he could see a green visor was appearing on the right hand side of his helmet, when one quickly appeared on Blaze’s helmet as well.

As Blaze looked through the green visor pieces of information started to appear when he turned to Derrick it showed various pieces of information about him “Name: Derrick Riser, Rank: Corporal, Age: 21, Blood type: A.” Suddenly Blaze could hear a voice coming through the headset “Ok I’ve got some more Intel for you guys, America has leant us one of their satellites for this. It seems that they have finally decided which side to support in this civil war.” The voice came through although slightly distorted, “It’s about time” Derrick replied as his body suddenly sprung to life. “Well better late then never, anyway Major Matthews is currently hacking in to their intelligence network. If she manages to do it then we will be able to temporarily shut down their defences and stop the artillery bombardments. When this happens you guys will breach the control tower and destroy it”

“Major Dagon are you sure about this?” Derrick said as he placed his hand on his headset to be able to hear better. “Major?” Blaze thought to himself as he continued to listen to the conversation. “It is the only way to turn the tide; we have been stuck here in a stale mate situation for a month. If you push here we should be able to push in to France and take Paris to end this war once and for all.” Dagon replied over the headset “How are the Germans doing?” Derrick asked as he peeked over the top. “They have managed to push the French back to a stalemate, which is why we have to push in to France now to help them out. Hold on a sec…” Dagon said as the airwaves suddenly went silent “Ok Major Matthews has managed to hack in to the network and I have the order from General Gammon. You have twenty seconds until you two and the strike force go over the top so make any preparations you need to make quickly” He said.

Suddenly several people appeared out of thin air in front of Derrick and Blaze “Hey how are you doing Captain Kitch.” Derrick said waving to one of the men “Fine thanks Derrick but just call me Mike, I really don’t like the title.” Mike replied as the group prepared the ladders. “Ten seconds left” Derrick said looking at his watch. Blaze started to breath deeply and his hands shaking slightly on the ladder before he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Nervous?” the voice asked as Blaze turned his head he saw that it was Major Kitch. “A bit” He replied honestly. “That’s ok because I’m shitting myself” Mike said causing Blaze to laugh slightly when suddenly it came in over the headset. “Charge!”

Blaze and Derrick climbed up the ladder and leapt over the ledge; they were the first over and ran as fast as they could towards the enemy trench and control tower. “We have about five minutes until their artillery can fire again. We have to bring down their tower so it will disable the shields for a missile strike.” Mike’s voice said through the headsets as Derrick and Blaze where half way across. Suddenly bullets whizzed past them as the soldiers from the enemy trench started firing at them. Blaze could hear several screams from behind him as Derrick fired on the enemy trench causing them to take cover. “Just keep running!” Derrick shouted as they finally reached the enemy trench. Derrick quickly unleashed a torrent of bullets in to the trench as Blaze jumped in shooting several soldiers. To the left was a passageway, “that’s the entrance” Mike said dropping in behind them.

“Are we all that made it?” Blaze asked as nobody else appeared from over the trench, “It appears so” Mike said as he started to run towards the passageway. Derrick and Blaze quickly ran after him as Mike peeked around the corner and down the passageway. “We have to be quick, they are still probably scrambling to protect the trenches as they realise that the artillery and sentries are not working. But after that they will fall back to the control tower. There are two guards up ahead, if we can take them out we should be able to seal the control towers entrance before reinforcements show up. Whatever happens protect the demo packs.” Mike said as span around in to the passageway and quickly shot with expert aim at the two guards taking them out.

“Let’s go” Mike beckoned and the group quickly ran down the passageway, as they made it bullets started whizzing past them from behind. The group ran to the control tower and quickly took cover as groups of soldiers started appearing at the entrance of the passageway. “Derrick get the door closed now!” Mike shouted as he opened fire from behind a wall with Blaze following suit. “Got it!” Derrick quickly replied as he sprinted towards the control panel as bullets flew past him. He quickly pressed multiple buttons before the mechanical door sprung in to life and started to close as a red light shone down the corridors.

As the door slammed shut the group took a deep sigh of relief, “Ok well that’s the hard part done with” Mike said with a smile as started to take a gentle stroll down the corridor trying to calm down. Beads of sweat were running down Blaze’s face as he wiped his brow, “That was close” He said as he rose off his knees and stood up. “Ok I will plant my demo charges on the ground floor, you two clear the top floor of enemy soldiers and plant yours there. We will rendezvous on the roof in three minutes” Mike said and they nodded to each other, Mike then ran down the corridor and turned left at the end. “Ok let’s see” Derrick said as he pressed a button on his visor suddenly he could see the heat from the people above through a thermal scanner on the visor. “Looks like there is about fifteen of them up there, you ready?” Derrick said pressing a button again on his visor. “Yep” Blaze said gulping. The two quickly ran towards the stairs, as they reached the top floor they could see several people walking about and others working on consoles in a room opposite the stairs.

Derrick placed a finger vertically on his lip to signal to Blaze to be quiet; he quietly nodded as the two quietly and crouched down moved towards the door. As they reached the door Derrick pointed to his belt, Blaze looked down at his belt and saw several grenades attached to it. Blaze nodded as he detached the grenades from his belt, he gently removed the pins from the three grenades before throwing them in to the room. Derrick and Blaze quickly leaned against the wall and covered their ears as the grenades exploded around the room shaking the control tower slightly. Dust and debris exploded forth from the doorway in to the corridor as a man staggered disorientated out of the room, a trickle of blood running down from his forehead. Derrick quickly leapt up and slammed the end of his gun in to the back of his neck, the man quickly collapsed on to the floor. “Ok let’s plant those charges” he said as he went to enter through the doorway when suddenly everything froze.

Everything slowly started to blow away like dust until there was only the dark void surrounding him again. All of a sudden blaze felt like he was floating, his clothes became wet as he could hear bubbles around him. His eyes were closed shut, as he tried to open them but he couldn’t then he could hear voices. “How is the specimen?” A deep voice asked, “His body seems to be accepting the treatments. It seems that putting the subject in stasis allows the body to cope better with the procedure. Unlike the others he is showing only minimal strains to his body, the process should hardly affect his life expectancy unlike the others.” A voice replied, it was weaker and higher pitched, Blaze could also tell that the person was slightly nervous. “Excellent have you found any more candidates like him” the deep voice asked.

“Yes sir, but have you told the previous subjects about the side effects of the process yet?” The second voice asked nervously. “No, and you will not either! They are inconsequential to my main plan anyway but for the time being they serve a purpose. Who is the second candidate?” The deep voice asked. “Well his name is Derrick Riser, but his personal profile does not really make him a suitable role for the program. It says that he will not kill so he is likely to prove defiant at later stages of your plan” The second said. “It does not matter the process naturally wipes a subject of most of their memories, besides candidates of this material are becoming increasingly hard to find.” The deep voice said.

“Well that is true, my research has not found many other suitable candidates for the process.” Suddenly Blaze could hear several bleeping sounds. “ah it appears that this subject is almost ready, although I am reading several abnormal reading. It must be his gift awakening” The second voice with an unsure tone. “Excellent, it is now time. Awaken my phoenix, Blaze!” The deep voice said booming, the word Blaze seemed to echo all around him as his eyes suddenly opened by a blinding flash of light appeared in front of him.

As Blaze opened his eyes again he could see a city all around him, he looked down and saw blood all around him. As he slowly looked up he saw Demon Hunter in front of him slowly removing his cold sword from Blaze’s body. Blaze placed his hands on the floor as he struggled to keep himself up. Several tears started to run down his face as they splashed in the blood below. “Please forgive me” Blaze muttered as he collapsed on to his side unable to support his own body any longer. Demon Hunter stood their in awe as he saw Blaze crying. “I remember now, thank you” Blaze said as he closed his eyes and slight smile appeared on his face. “Doug?” Demon Hunter said as Blaze finally died.

END OF CHAPTER 4