by Yajat Sharma
The Scavenger walked forward with light footsteps, examining the thick air cautiously.
A howl echoed inside the cave again, making the Scavenger pause.
The scent of tiger hair drifted around, and Matt looked at Daniel in alarm, for he knew Daniel to be allergic to tiger hair. He remembered them going once to a zoo together. Daniel had almost sneezed his head off.
Archer and James were looking at Daniel too, watching as his nostrils flared.
Matt leapt to cover Daniel’s nose, but he was too late. Daniel sneezed hard. “ACCCHHOOOOOOOOOO!”
The howling stopped.
The Scavenger swung around. “Are you mad? Who sneezes like that? You must have alerted the whole Dark World with that sneeze!”
The Scavenger took a deep breath and waited, but nothing happened. More silence followed.
“There’s nothing,” Matt whispered.
But the Scavenger looked scared. The tigers had surely heard it, that’s why they were quiet. The sneeze had done the damage.
“What is it?” Daniel asked. “There’s no more howling.”
“That’s what I am worried about, fool,” the Scavenger said, shushing him.
The Scavenger waited some more. But there was silence.
“Okay, that’s it,” Matt said, “I am done.”
Matt moved forward and took the turn ahead and let out a loud gasp.
“Look at this,” he called out, as his voice echoed.
The others came around behind him and gasped too. Far behind, at the wall, there stood a raised block of stone on which lay, gleaming brightly, the Tiger’s Hide, yellow with stripes of white on it.
Matt took a step forward, but the Scavenger pulled him back.
The Scavenger whispered to him, “The tigers will attack you as soon as you go near the hide. Think of another way.”
“There is no other way! Besides, we should snatch it while the tigers are not here,” Matt reasoned.
The Scavenger released him and pulled out his sword. “Then go. I will guard you.”
There was an eerie silence all around. Matt stepped forward. As he neared the hide, nothing seemed to happen.
Matt grinned and stepped forward to snatch the hide.
That’s when tigers pounced at him from both sides.
Matt was prepared and, summoning the power of wind, he blasted air around, throwing the tigers helter-skelter.
But more came, and Matt found himself being surrounded by them.
His friends sprang into action and charged boldly.
As most of the tigers turned towards his friends, Matt seized the opportunity. He created a miniature tornado that spun and struck a tiger head-on, whirling it and slamming it to the wall. Matt shot more tornadoes, smashing and striking the tigers, wreaking mayhem.
Yet more tigers appeared. Matt realized they were swarming all over; there was just one way to defeat them – by taking the hide.
“Daniel!” the Scavenger shouted, “You can control the Earth. Do something!”
Daniel tried in vain and cried, “There is no vegetation here at all and no trees to summon. I can’t do anything.”
The tigers starting to surround Daniel.
Matt glanced at the hide that lay glistening there. His face lit up as he saw Archer sneaking up to it, but before Archer could even touch it, a tiger came from behind and sent him flying.
Matt closed his eyes, raised his hands and roared. The air in the cave seemed to enter into his hand, and Matt focused its power. He funnelled the air as he let it go, creating a massive tornado.
Matt couldn’t see his creation’s effects, because the effort had taken a major toll on him. He slumped to the ground, all his energy drained. Unconsciousness overtook him.
“Wake up.” Someone was shaking Matt.
Matt opened his eyes to see that they were still inside the cave, and he was wearing the Tiger’s Hide.
Matt pulled himself up and saw an army of tigers standing before him.
“Why am I wearing this?” he asked the Scavenger.
The Scavenger grinned. “You deserve it. The big tornado you created struck the ceiling so hard that the shards fell. The shards were of ice, so it didn’t hurt us, because James had put up a – what did he call it? Yes, an ice barrier that blocked the shards from hitting us. The tigers fell back, confused and scared of the ice, and I seized the opportunity and the Hide. But more than me, you deserve the Hide, and that’s why you are wearing it.”
Matt felt honoured. It wasn’t every day that a great warrior complimented him.
Looked at the army of tigers before him, he asked, “What do I do with them?”
The Scavenger shrugged. “Your wish.”
James suggested, “You can tell them to rest now, but to come when you need them. You can call them when we are at a war or something.”
Matt liked the idea.
“But remember,” the Scavenger said, “you can only call the tigers once.”
Matt nodded as he made them retreat into the shadows.
“What next?” he asked.
“Let’s move out of the cave. I am tired of this place.”
“Me too,” Matt said as the children followed the Scavenger back outside the cave into their chariot.
Once inside the chariot, the Scavenger pulled out a map, laid it on the table, and they all sat around it.
“This map shows all the places the Death Lord has under his control. It is magical and is updated every time the Death Lord conquers a new territory. After carefully observation, I have found out that he is supplying food and weapons to his army from various factories. The biggest of them is not far away from here,” he said, pointing at the map. “This one is called the Dark Factory, and if we manage to blow it up, we will have hit a sore spot.”
“And how many people and monsters are there in this factory?” James asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe a thousand or so,” the Scavenger shrugged.
“And we are five,” James pointed out. “We are outnumbered 200:1. And you think we can still blow up the factory.”
“The Death Lord chose a prosperous village to establish the factory,” the Scavenger informed. “He demolished the village, citing security reasons. There’s an electric compound deep inside. We infiltrate the factory, get to the compound, disable it, put a timer in a bomb to blast the factory, and get away! A fool-proof plan.”
“But we are outnumbered!” James reminded him.
“The risk’s worth it. It is a great opportunity. We can create chaos inside the armies of the Death Lord by blowing this single factory. And besides, it won’t eat up much time.”
“All right then,” James said. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The Scavenger said, “The factory is not far from here. I have a great plan. Listen…”
15
We are almost there,” the Scavenger announced.
To avoid alerting the guards, they ditched the chariot and travelled on foot through the forest.
The Scavenger glanced past the bushes and trees and whispered, “Now for the plan.”
Matt shot forth from the clearing. As expected, some of the guards at the gate rushed at him. He swooned to the ground.
Helping him up, a guard asked him curtly, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
Matt pointed back to the forest, looking scared. “A Serpentine… came attacking… barely escaped… HELP!”
“Okay, okay!” One of them calmed him. Matt knew that they had believed him.
“Where is it?” a guard asked. “Show us.”
Matt led a few guards towards the forest. Suddenly, he fell to the ground again and shrieked in pain.
Daniel got the signal. Foliage sprouted from the ground and wrapped itself around the guards, right up to their mouths, so the guards couldn’t even scream.
The Scavenger rushed out from the clearing. Before the remaining guards could react, he charged straight at them and, within a few moments, knoc
ked them out cold. Archer, James and Daniel walked up behind the Scavenger.
“Well done, Matt,” Daniel complimented. “I didn’t know you were such a good actor.”
“Good work, boys,” the Scavenger said, examining the trapped and unconscious guards.
They hastily switched clothes with the guards and stood at the rounding of the turn.
“Get ready,” the Scavenger said. “As soon as we round the turn, the guards at the gate will see us.”
The children nodded nervously. Directly attacking the guards was not an option, because they were outnumbered. Even if one guard escaped, he would alert the whole factory.
The guards at the gate nodded to whom they thought were their comrades. “What was it?” one of them asked. The Scavenger made his voice deep and gruff, and said, “False alarm. The kid was fooling us.”
The Scavenger made to open the gate, but the guard stopped him. “What do you think you are doing?” the guard asked.
The Scavenger snapped, “We have urgent business inside. Need to go to the washroom. ”
“You all want to use the washroom?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” the Scavenger affirmed. The children tried hard not to laugh.
“You think I’m stupid?” the guard said indignantly. “The Death Lord will not spare us if you were to be careless. What if a powerful intruder comes while you’re in the washroom, and we would need as much manpower as we can get? No, you can’t go. You are not allowed to use the washroom.”
“As a rule?” the Scavenger asked the guard.
“Yes!”
“Oh well, oh well!” the Scavenger said irritably, “if I was in your place, and if you wanted to go to the loo, what would I say? I would have said – please go ahead. Is there such a rule? Well if it is, then I think that this rule is the vilest, most disgusting, evil, wicked, weird, awful, unpleasant, horrific…”
“Okay, okay!” the guard said. “Go to it! Go to it! And be fast about it.”
The guard opened the gates. The Scavenger and the children went inside. One of the guards accompanied them.
Everything was going as planned.
“Wait a minute!” the guard said abruptly to the children. “Aren’t you too small?”
The Scavenger suddenly attacked one of the guards. The children followed with the remaining ones, using their Elemental Powers to knock out the guards.
The place wore a deserted look. Matt followed the Scavenger around a turn and discovered a place buzzing with activity.
Strange creatures scurried around. Goblins wandered, around carrying huge pots of reddish-blue liquids. Small dwarves trod on their tiny feet, writing notes on paper. Big demons blazed fire from their mouth to warm the pots. But no one noticed the children and the Scavenger dressed as guards.
“Find the Weapon Room,” the Scavenger whispered to the children.
Matt looked around the huge place. There were many doors, and on one was hung a sign – WEAPON ROOM.
He pointed it out to the others. They walked up to the door casually, so as not to arouse suspicion, and slipped inside. Giving it a quick scan, the Scavenger helped himself to some useful weapons.
“Grenades, tear gas, fire arrows, oil, micro knives, thorn sticks, visor for head…”
Once the Scavenger had his fill, he said, “Now to the compound. It’s a long way, but now’s the time to use these weapons.”
They walked out of the room, mingling among the fiends. No one gave them a second look.
The Scavenger led them up the stairs to a cave-like hole engraved in the wall, closed by a lid.
“There are guards inside,” the Scavenger whispered. “We open the lid, throw the unconsciousness-inducing gas shells, close the lid, wait for a minute, and then get in. Got it?”
“Got it,” the children replied in unison. The Scavenger did the job and they waited, holding their breath.
Moments later, they opened the lid and went in to find the passage lined with the guards lying faint. They quickly walked straight ahead. The passage grew wider and wider and, at last, they reached five closed doors.
“Now,” the Scavenger said, “each of us will go down each of the holes. We all will land around the area below, trapping the guards. We will take them by surprise and knock them out. You ready?” The children nodded.
Matt bent down and entered the hole. It was dark inside. He crawled and crawled until he saw the light and moved towards it to find that it opened out to air. Five feet below were guards, thirty or so, holding stun guns in their hands.
Matt could see a door being guarded by them.
Occasionally, one of the guards would toss a glance at it.
Matt looked ahead and saw four other holes with four familiar faces peeking out of them.
As Matt watched, the Scavenger pulled out one smoke- inducing grenade. Unpinning it, he raised it overhead and prepared to throw it below.
Matt pulled out another grenade too, and so did the others. They had to throw it at the same time, to cause disorder among the guards. Also, throwing the bombs from different directions would cover a larger area.
Matt threw the bomb. Four more grenades landed on the area and exploded, releasing smoke everywhere.
Matt jumped from the hole, unsheathing his sword, ready to attack.
The Scavenger had also made them wear special lenses, which allowed them to see through the smoke. Matt found it very irritating at first, but now he was thankful for the idea.
The smoke was beginning to diminish. Matt saw the guards on the ground, unconscious or injured. All his friends, except James, seemed fine.
They all surrounded James, who had been hit by a stun gun.
Matt looked at the Scavenger expectantly.
The Scavenger shook his head sadly. “I am sorry, but this is beyond my magic. The only way to cure him is through special medicine.”
“Where can we find it?” Archer asked.
“In the factory itself. We will get the medicine and cure James.”
“Archer, come with me. Matt and Daniel, take care of James,” said the Scavenger. He opened the door, revealing a well-lit narrow passage.. The Scavenger and Matt rushed inside.
They stopped at the end of a passage, where there were three guards and three rooms.
The guards were dealt with quickly, and the Scavenger pointed to the doors. “As far as I remember from the maps, the middle one is to proceed with our mission, the left one is for the weapons, which we have already taken, and the third one is for the medicinal chamber. Come on.”
They sneaked into the third room. It resembled a laboratory, where people in lab-coats were testing chemicals.
One of them gave the Scavenger and Archer a puzzled look. “What do you want, guards?”
The Scavenger was quick to reply, “This fool accidentally fired himself with a stun gun. We need an antidote urgently.”
The man nodded and turned to a shelf that had various test tubes lined up. He took one out, filled it with some orange liquid and directed, “Just two drops.”
The Scavenger and Archer rushed towards James. As soon as the two drops entered James’s mouth, he snapped awake.
“What happened? Did we knock out those guards?”
Before anyone could reply, a voice came. It was the lab scientist who had followed the Scavenger and Archer. His expression turned stormy. “Wait a minute! You are impostors -”
Sensing that he was alone, the scientist turned and ran. Before the Scavenger could neutralize him, the scientist had pressed an emergency button on the wall. Suddenly, the lights started flickering. The Scavenger and the children quickly rushed out of the room in the confusion that ensued.
Matt looked around in wonder at the crowded place, maybe the hall, swarming with beings.
One of them walked up to them and reprimanded, “Well, well, well. What do we have here? Why are you not in your positions? Don’t you remember the last time when an intruder broke in and almost blasted the whole factory?”
The Scavenger was about to say something when a big screen appeared on the wall.
“Workers of the Dark Factory,” a voice spoke urgently. “Red alert! I repeat, red alert! Five intruders have broken into the Factory. One tall and four short! Kill them! I repeat, KILL THEM!”
The guard turned to the men he was speaking to. “Wait! You resemble…”
But, by that time, the children and the Scavenger were already fleeing. They raised commotion all around as the creatures tried to capture them.
The Scavenger caught hold of the children as they were running. “Change of plan. I am taking James with me to the compound. He knows more about machines than any of us. This place has bombs laid out all over. From the control centre, we will set the timer and escape. Matt, Archer, Daniel, you need to get out of the factory as soon as you can and create a small force field for us. It will be the only thing that will save us when the factory blasts. And if you can, do manage to steal some useful weapons and chemicals too. Now run!”
Matt saluted him. “Yes, Captain!” Then they sped away in different directions with the creatures chasing behind.
“Where to first?” Archer asked.
“Let’s go to the armoury!” Matt suggested. “We can take all the weapons from there.”
“Good idea,” Daniel told him. “Let’s go.”
A fiend with two tentacles leapt in front of them. “You will not -”
Daniel jabbed him with his sword, and he fell away. “We need to hurry, or we might get stuck inside while the place blows into pieces.”
They burst into the armoury and locked the door behind them. The creatures pounded at the door.
“It will break soon,” Archer said, examining the feeble latch. “Hurry.”
The door burst open and monsters stumbled in upon each other. But the trio was already far from them, heading for the laboratory.
Hundreds of creatures and guards were all around. There was no way to escape except via the windows, which were too high up.
“Now what do we do?” asked Archer, looking around for some way out.
Before Matt could speak, a creature covered with a coat stepped forward.
“Surrender yourself and we will not hurt you!”
