Grave of Heroes 8 Chapter 8

Braden crept up to the side of the house and peeked through the window.

It was dark inside, but darker outside. Inside he could vaguely see shadows moving around.

He cursed in his head. "I can't see anything from this angle."

Trying to move quietly, he took soft steps around to the front of the house so he could look through windows into the entryway.

As he took his first step onto the porch steps, a creak sounded from the wood.

He flinched and stopped where he was, holding his breath, listening.

He didn't hear anything beyond the insects that had come out at night. Barely daring to breath, he took another step up the stairs, careful to slowly put his weight on the step for fear it would creak again.

Making his way up the steps he finally arrived at the front of the house, and went to one side where windows looked in.

There were somewhat see through white curtains blocking his view, but they were ornamental and frilled, providing him with small holes he could see through.

The first thing he noticed was a lantern giving off light. It was a flame, which was unusual, as most houses relied on electricity. But on second thought, it made sense. They wouldn't have registered their presence in the house with the government, so the government naturally shut off power to the house as it was assumed to be abandoned.

He continued to observe the room. He saw four men, two of whom were the thugs he had seen on the street. They were all dressed in black clothes that looked similar to combat fatigues. In the center of the room, they had bound the figure he'd seen being carried to a chair. The black bag was still covering their head, but he thought he saw the person moving which meant they should still be awake.

Braden could hear them talking, but couldn't make out the words. It seemed like the two thugs were addressing the man he had seen waiting in the door. However, as he watched, the man turned around and Braden quickly crouched down, making sure his head was below the windowsill so he wouldn't be visible. However, before he did he caught a glimpse of something that made his blood go cold. The man had a sword at his waste.

In the era of Supers, having a weapon like a sword or a bow or any other "cold" weapon indicated one thing: you had an ability that made you deadlier with a cold weapon, with its myriad applications, than a hot weapon like a gun which could only be used in one way. The fact that this man had a sword meant he, at least, was a Super. And that terrified Braden. If it was just taking on a few men, well, it would be dangerous, but if he was careful and followed his lessons he thought he could hold them off long enough for the emergency task force to arrive. But taking on a few Supers was another prospect entirely.

The man shouted something at the two, and it was loud enough that Braden could clearly hear it, but he didn't understand the language. It certainly wasn't Federal, like what he'd been taught in school, nor English which was what his mother spoke with him.

He held his breath, afraid that the slightest noise would catch their attention. After a minute had passed he finally dared to raise his head and saw the man had turned back to the hostage. He seemed to be thinking, and the other three in the room waited in silence. Then he barked something that Braden didn't understand and he and the three men started going upstairs.

"Now or never," Braden muttered to himself under his breath. He carefully walked over to the front door. A potted plant, long rotten, sat next to it. He felt around in the soil and after a moment felt something hard. He pulled it up and dusted off the dirt, revealing a somewhat rusted looking key.

When his neighbors died, someone, he assumed a relative, had cleared out the house. But it seemed like they hadn't known about the spare key they kept there. The old couple that lived there had told Braden where it was. They never said anything, but he assumed it was so he had a place to come if his mother had had too much to drink that night. He'd taken advantage of their kindness many times.

"Let me take advantage of it once more," He thought as he sent a silent thanks to the deceased couple.

He put the key in the lock. It didn't fit as well as it should, the rust grating on the lock, but eventually he managed to fit it in. Holding his breath he slowly turned the key and heard the lock faintly turn.

He quickly, but carefully, pushed open the door and stepped inside, not bothering to shut the door in case he needed to make a quick escape.

He crept over to the figure tied to the chair. The man seemed to sense him and began making muffled sounds. Braden thought he must be gagged underneath the bag.

He quickly made a shushing sound. "I'm not one of them. I'm going to cut your bonds now, hold tight."

The man stopped making noise and Braden went behind the chair and began to saw at the rope with a kitchen knife. Whoever these people were, they apparently couldn't be deigned to use common materials, as the rope was thick and tough. Braden labored over it for a full minute, glancing over his shoulder every time he heard the slightest creak of floorboards in fear that the men would be back soon.

He finally managed to cut through one of the strands of rope, and quickly began unwinding it from there.

The figure quickly freed their arms and raised them to lift the bag off their head. To Braden's surprise, the person underneath the bag wasn't a man, but a teenage girl. Moreover, she was much prettier than any girl he had ever seen. She had a gag tied around her mouth which she quickly unbound now that her hands were free.

"You're a girl?" He blurted out in a hushed whisper.

She gave him a look and didn't deign to reply. He quickly blushed, realizing it was a stupid question.

"Give me some help with the ropes on my legs." She whispered urgently.

Braden went around the other side of the chair and began sawing at the ropes binding her legs.

"Do you have an ability that can speed it up?" She questioned impatiently.

Braden shook his head mutely, ignoring the assumption that he had some ability at all.

She shook her head, reached her hands down to the ropes trapping her legs, and closed her eyes for a second. Braden, still sawing away, suddenly dropped the knife in shock as he saw the rope burn to ash under her touch.

Before he could think any further though, he heard a sudden hush from upstairs and realized that the knife hitting the floor had made comparatively loud noise.

The girl quickly stood and grabbed his hand. "Come on," She urged, and dragged him out the door.

Braden heard shouts from above and threw caution to the wind, running as fast as he could out the door with the girl.

Her dark brown hair tickled his face as she ran in front of him, dragging him along. He quickly brushed it away as it made him feel like sneezing.

"You don't have to keep holding my hand," He said, dragging his hand free. However, as soon as he did, the girl stumbled and fell forward. Thinking he had somehow thrown off her balance he quickly knelt, ready to apologize. But when he turned her over he noticed she had passed out.

"Did they drug her?" It was the only thing he could think of. It would also explain how they were able to take her even and keep her imprisoned even though she was clearly a powerful Super.

He quickly bent down to lift her up. His arms ached in protest. He had pushed himself too hard earlier in the day at work, and now he was paying for it. Ignoring the pain, he quickly stood up with her in his arms and began running. Looking behind him he saw the men had already reached the door. He darted off down the street, and heard their shouts following him.

He reached the road quickly, thinking desperately. "Where should I go? Where should I go? The emergency task force will be responding to my house. Should I go there?" But he quickly dismissed the idea. He had no way of knowing how long they would take to arrive, and if the men caught up to him before then he didn't fancy his chances against 4 armed men.

"I need to go somewhere, somewhere with security, someplace that has cameras and that I'm familiar enough with to hide." Only one place seemed to fit. The school.

Without anymore time to consider, he quickly ran down the road towards the school, struggling to carry the girl as his breaths came in gasps.

The road had never seemed so long.

Chapter end