♦♦♦
About a month later, Chase dropped by for the first time. He had agreed to meet Mackenzie at the shoreline so that he could be led into the village. Mackenzie was at the shoreline when they saw a small blue sailboat coming towards them. Once his boat reached the island’s shoreline, Mackenzie ran down and met him there.
“Welcome Chase!” they shouted when they reached Chase’s boat.
Chase tied off his boat and carefully got out. Once he did, he grabbed a small brown leather bag that was in it and walked over to Mackenzie, smiling.
“Hey Mac, shall we go in?”
“Yeah, c’mon.”
Chase wrapped an around their shoulders and Mackenzie led him into the village. As they were heading in, Chase got tackled to the ground by Theo who picked up roughly and held him up tightly by the scruff of his neck.
“Who are you, what do you want here?” he asked, his face mere inches from Chase’s, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Wait, Theo, he’s my brother!” Mackenzie yelled, coming closer.
“You know this guy?” he asked them.
“Yes, I do.”
After a few minutes of scrutiny, Theo let Chase go and brushed his shoulders off.
“Sorry about that, we just had someone attack our village and everyone’s been more on high alert lately,” said Theo.
“I know. I’m sorry about all that,” Chase said.
“Why? It wasn’t your fault. Come on, we’ll get you some food and you can come and meet everyone.”
As they were walking in, Chase froze in his tracks. Standing mere feet from him was Miles who had a shocked look on his face.
“Chase is that really you?” he asked, softly.
Breaking off at a run, Chase nearly tackled Miles to the ground.
Laughing, he helped Chase to his feet and brushed his shoulders off.
“It’s so good to see you, Miles,” Chase said, with a smile on his lips and an amused look in his eyes.
“Likewise. Come on, let’s get you fed,” Miles said, smiling.
He, Chase, and, Mackenzie walked into the village and into where the kitchens were. To their surprise, the two of them found Ronan already there.
“Oh! Who’s this?” Ronan asked.
Sticking out a hand to shake, Chase smiled.
“Hi I’m Chase, Mackenzie’s brother,” he said.
Taking it and shaking it, Ronan grinned.
“It’s nice to meet you, Chase. I didn’t know you had a brother,
Mackenzie,” Ronan said.
“I didn’t mention him before because I thought that I had lost him. We got separated when we were kids,” Mackenzie explained.
“Well, it’s nice to have you back among us,” Theo said.
“Thanks, everyone, I appreciate the warm reception. Even if it’s at a risk,” Chase said.
“What risk?” Ronan asked.
“Didn’t Mackenzie tell you about Dylan and what he did to me?”
“What? No, they didn’t,” Theo replied, shocked.
“Shortly after Mackenzie and I were separated, he found me and took me in, and from what I understand, brainwashed me to be his perfect little soldier.”
“Are you here to spy on us for your master, then?” Ronan asked, accusingly.
“No! believe me, I’m hurt the fact that he lied to me. I really thought
Mackenzie was dead,” Chase explained.
“Really?”
“Of course! I love Mackenzie, why would I ever be intentionally away from them?”
“I’m sorry. You’re right, of course, you wouldn’t do that,” said Ronan.
“Don’t worry about it. Now, what’s for lunch?” Chase asked.
“I was just about to make sandwiches. Would you like one?”
Chase nodded.
“Sure, what are the ingredients?” he asked.
“I took out some cheese, cold cuts, lettuce, and a couple of other things,” Theo said.
“Sounds good, pass the bread?” Chase asked.
Grabbing the bag of bread, Ronan passed it to Chase who took it and opened it. Taking out two slices of it, he passed the bag to his sibling who took some for themselves. Ronan and Theo did the same as well and ended up making five separate types of sandwiches.
♦♦♦
When they finished, Miles took the plates and placed all of them into the sink. Then he turned back towards the others, his back resting against the edge of the sink with his arms crossed as he watched the others finish up.
“Would you guys want to watch a film until Chase has to head back?” he asked.
“Sure,” Mackenzie replied.
“Of course,” Theo said.
“I’d like to, thank you,” Chase said.
Straightening up, Miles uncrossed his arms and walked towards the entrance.
“I’ll be right back, guys. I’m going to grab the film player and I’m going to see if I can find some movies to watch.”
He finally left the room and the others were left to talk among one another. Chase spent the next little while of what we could learning about Mackenzie and what he’d missed.
♦♦♦
Half an hour, Theo returned with a small rectangular box and put onto the table for just a moment. Then he walked over to the far-right wall and grabbed the TV that was there and brought it over. Walking back over to the table, he grabbed the player and walked over to the TV and hooked it up. He then opened the player and placed the movie in it and started it. The movie that Miles had picked was an action/adventure movie that had made them laugh while watching it.
Finally, after an hour later, the movie had finished, and they hurried to get Chase to the shore so that he could get back before he was missed by anyone.
When they reached the shore, Chase opened the bag he had brought with him and removed the robes that he kept there and slipped them on. He then turned towards Mackenzie and pulled them into a hug.
“I’ll miss you, Mac. See you in a month,” he said.
Saying goodbye, Chase adjusted his bag and got into the boat that he came in. He unraveled the sail of the boat and got into it, he then pushed off the shore and made his way across the water and back to his camp. Watching him leave, Mackenzie turned towards the others after Chase was out of sight.
“Today was a good day, but we should get some rest. I’m sure you guys are all exhausted from today,” they said.
Wishing each other goodnight, Mackenzie, Ronan, and, Theo headed back to their place while Miles headed back to his and turned in for that night.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Over the course of the next few months, Chase’s face had quickly become a familiar and welcome face among those at the village, everyone seemed to like him very much. One
day, as Theo was by the pit doing a few tasks Chase had arrived by boat and upon reaching the village, collapsed onto the ground. Getting to his feet, Theo rushed over to him, quickly and attempted to revive him.
“Chase are you okay?” he asked, frantically.
Not getting a response, Theo gathered Chase into his arms and broke off at a run until he reached the infirmary. Entering it, he found to his relief, one of the nurses there waiting, patiently.
“Hi, can you take care of my friend’s brother?” Theo asked, timidly as he shifted Chase in his arms.
“Of course. Place him down on one of the beds,” the woman said.
Shifting him around slightly, Theo placed Chase onto one of the beds. He turned towards the woman, gratefully.
“Thank you so much. I’m Theo, it’s nice to meet you,” he said.
“I’m Laura, it’s nice to meet you, what’s his name?” she asked Theo, nodding towards Chase.
“His name is Chase, I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He just collapsed when he arrived here by boat so that he could visit
Mackenzie,” Theo’s eyes widened as if realizing something, “I have to get Mackenzie! Can you stay with him for a few minutes while I g
et them?” he asked.
“Certainly,” she replied.
“Thank you so much. I’ll be right back,” he said, grabbing his jacket and hurried over to the door so that he could find Mackenzie.
♦♦♦
Meanwhile, back at the infirmary, Laura had begun preparations on how she could treat Chase. Looking him over, she found a series of cuts and scratches all over his body, she also found that his leg had been broken as well.
Walking over to the sink, which was against the left wall of the room she bent down and reached under it, pulling out a small pewter bowl from it, she then filled it and brought it over to where Chase was. When the bowl was placed down, she moved to grab some bandages that were in one of the cupboards and brought them to where the bowl was. Taking out the rag that was in the bowl, Laura began to gently cleanse Chase’s injuries, she then moved onto covering them and bandaged his leg up. Just as she was finishing up, Theo rushed in with Mackenzie on his heels.
“Where the hell is my brother!” Mackenzie yelled.
Following Mackenzie, Theo placed his hands gently on their shoulders.
“Calm down. He’s laying over there,” he replied, gesturing towards where Chase now lay, unconscious.
They ran over to his bed and looked him over, frantically seeing the bandages and the cast on his leg.
“What happened?” they asked, looking up at Theo in alarm.
“I don’t know, he collapsed as soon as he arrived here. I guess we’ll know is when he finally wakes up.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
♦♦♦
One day as Mackenzie was sitting with Chase, Cole walked in.
“Hey Cole, what brings you here?” they asked, eyebrows raised.
“Dad told me what happened,” Cole replied.
“Theo told him?”
Cole nodded.
“Yeah, I’m glad he did. I wanted to check in on you,” he said.
“That’s sweet of you, Cole. Thank you, would you like to sit with me?”
“Sure, that would be nice.”
They had been speaking to one another for a while when suddenly to their shock and horror, Chase stiffened and began to convulse violently.
“Quick! Help me lower him back down onto the bed,” Mackenzie shouted, as they moved to Chase’s right side. The two of them each grabbed a side and they lowered his body down, very gently. When they had, Mackenzie turned back towards Cole, anxiously.
“Cole, do me a favour and grab a bowl and fill it with it,” they said, raising a hand, Mackenzie placed it gently upon Chase’s forehead,
“damn, he’s developing a fever.”
Quickly getting to his feet, Cole raised a hand and swept it through his hair. He then anxiously ran his hands over the span of his waistcoat and then quickly moved over towards the sink. Taking a deep breath, Cole grabbed the bowl that was in the sink and filled it, placing one of the rags that was near it into the bowl. Once the bowl was filled, Cole brought it over and Mackenzie took it from him.
Placing the bowl down, Mackenzie reached into the bowl and took out the rag and squeezed all the water out of it and placed it on Chase’s forehead. For the next while, both Mackenzie and Cole sat with Chase until he hopefully awoke.
♦♦♦
Six hours later, they heard a rustling sound coming from where Chase had been laying. When they turned around, they saw to their absolute elation that he had regained consciousness.
“Chase, you’re awake. Thank goodness!” Mackenzie exclaimed, running over to the right side of where he lay.
“What happened?” he asked, clutching at his forehead, groaning.
“You don’t remember?”
Chase shook his head, confused.
“All I remember is passing out twice.”
“You passed out twice? I guess I must have found you the second time when you got to the island,” Theo said.
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Do you remember who knocked you out the first time?” Mackenzie asked.
“Not really but I may have a guess. All the times that I came here, someone from my camp must have follow me and eventually knocked me out when I came here to visit,” Chase explained.
“Mackenzie can you stay with Chase?” Theo asked, getting to his feet and pulled on his jacket.
“Of course, what are you thinking?” Mackenzie asked.
“Just a few quick things that I need to do. Can I get you guys anything to eat?” he asked.
“Sure, I’m kind of hungry. How about you?” Mackenzie asked Chase.
“Yeah, me too,” he replied, as his stomach growled.
“Okay, I guess I’ll be back soon then,” Theo replied, leaving the infirmary.
♦♦♦
Chase and Mackenzie had been speaking to one another for well over an hour when suddenly, the door to the infirmary was opened with a loud bang. Alarmed, Mackenzie turned sharply in their seat, wonder- ing who had entered so abruptly.
“Where is he, Where’s Chase?” Miles asked.
“Miles?” Chase’s voice asked from where he had been laying the entire time.
Turning sharply, Miles’ eyes landed on him.
“Chase, you recognize me?” Miles croaked out.
Chase nodded.
“Yeah, I think I do,” he replied, slowly.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Throwing his arms around Miles’ neck, Chase pulled him into a tight hug, as he began to sob.
“It’s so good to see you, Miles,” he said, once he’d finished wiping the tears from his eyes.
“Likewise, I’m glad that you’re back,” said Miles.
Theo walked in several minutes later, his arms filled with containers of food. Walking over, he placed everything down, making sure to not spill any of it. Once he had, he took a seat and took a deep breath.
“I got a little of everything, guys. Ronan should be here very soon, he said he wanted to be updated.”
“Alright, that’s good,” Mackenzie replied.
Chase reached over to the containers and opened one and began to eat a tuna pasta that was lightly drizzled with some mayonnaise. Meanwhile, Mackenzie had grabbed another tupperware that had an egg salad that had a few drops of blood in it. Just as they were finishing up, Ronan walked in, looking relieved.
“Hey Chase, so good to see you’re alright. Do you know what happened?” he asked.
“I have a guess. I think all the times that I came to visit, Dylan had me followed and today I got knocked out,” Chase replied.
“We need to do something. He killed Richard and now he hurt Chase, he needs to be stopped before he hurts anyone else.”
“You’re right. We need to take a stand,” Theo said.
“What do you propose we do, Ronan?” Miles asked.
“I want to get everyone trained and ready,” Ronan said.
“Alright, sounds good,” Theo replied.
“Since almost everyone is immortal, except for a few humans I think an obstacle course is the best way to go about doing this.”
“When do you want to do this?” Theo asked.
“In a few days, it’ll be the start of the month and we can work through it for that entire month,” Ronan said.
“Okay. I’ll tell my group what we have planned,” said Miles.
“Alright, sounds good,” said Ronan.
♦♦♦
A few days later, they awoke bright and early and headed to the pit where they found Miles waiting for them, appearing to be excited about what they were about to do.
“Good Morning Everyone! I hope you all slept well. Today we’ll be going to a secluded location and working through an obstacle course.
Now if you’d follow me I’d like to show you where we’ll be practicing,” he said.
Miles jumped off the stage and looked over his shoulder as the others followed him closely.
♦♦♦
The obstacle course was huge. They’d start with a
single hurdle, jumping on a pull-up bar they would do about five pull-ups and then jump off. Afterward, they would climb up another rope again and move down a zipline, after which they would climb a massive wall and then would climb a rope, touching the top bar that the rope was attached to. Finally, they would then scurry down the rope, finishing the course. Ronan had everyone split up into groups of four; each of those groups were required to go through the course in under 10-15 minutes. Those that failed to do so, had to complete the course again.
The Nightwalker Chronicles Page 5
