Beast Soul - Chapter 143

“We have to head back to the house!” Gavin spoke as he turned around, and both Kevin and Jason turned to glance at each other with confused expressions on their faces. “There’s a problem that we have to deal with!” Gavin tilted his head to the side as he spoke, and the two men nodded their heads in response before following him.

“You all! Continue with the search for the intruders!” Gavin turned his head to look at a younger man who was standing right next to him, and tossed him an old sword, which the man caught with almost no effort. “They might still be in the forest! Just because they’re fast doesn’t mean that they’re unreachable!”

“Aye, aye, sir!” The man yelled out, right after which he turned to the others and ordered them to head towards the forest.

The three men walked over the tall grass as they headed back to the neighborhood.

“What’s the deal, Gavin?” Jason asked with his head tilted sideways, staring at Gavin’s face for an expression that he could comprehend. “Did something go wrong inside the cavern?”

Gavin stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Jason, one of his eyebrows raised up as he opened his mouth to speak. “Did something go wrong? Didn’t you hear that loud explosion just now?” He said while pointing at the destroyed land right behind them. “Or did you not see that large hole on the ground?”

“Well now, I didn’t know that had anything to do with the cavern now, did I?” Jason shrugged his shoulders and spoke as though it wasn’t his problem that he wasn’t able to figure out that something had gone wrong in the cavern.

Gavin seemed speechless. He then turned to look at Kevin and said, “Are you hearing what this son of a b*tch is saying?’

“I did,” Kevin nodded his head at the rhetorical question asked by Gavin and continued, “What of it?”

Gavin was left speechless once again. He then looked back and forth at Jason and Kevin before shaking his head furiously and walking forward, muttering to himself as he moved. “Idiots.. idiots everywhere.. idiots all around me!”

Kevin and Jason looked at each other, trying to figure out what Gavin was so mad about, but in the end, they simply shrugged and decided to ignore his actions, simply counting them as confusing actions of a senile old man.

The three men walked through the tall grass and soon reached near Mr. Carrick’s house.

“Did you find him?” Gavin asked with a loud voice as they entered the house, and a young skinny man exited the bathroom, completely covered in dust and dirt. “Oh, yeah.. I think we did!” He said as he coughed continuously, and the three men walked past the man.

Kevin peeked a glance at the man covered in dust before shifting his gaze back to Gavin and asked, “What did you ask just now?” He spoke with his eyebrows raised up. “Who have you found?”

“The Chief, Kevin..” Gavin let out a long and heavy sigh before answering Kevin’s question, and the three men entered the bathroom which was completely covered in dust and dirt all over the walls and the roof. “We found the Chief!”

Both Kevin and Jason let out a cough before covering their mouths and nose with their handkerchiefs, and they stared right at the entrance of the secret pathway, which was enveloped by a bunch of young men who were pulling the hand of Chief Henry, who had trouble getting out through the partially blocked pathway.

“Pull, boys! Come on!” One of the men cheered loudly, encouraging the others to increase their strengths so that they could pull the Chief out of the secret tunnel as quickly as they could. The other men chimed in on the chant, and after a few seconds, the Chief was successfully pulled out of the narrow passage, and landed on the floor with a small noise.

“Hah!” Chief Henry let out what appeared to be an amalgamation of groan and relief, right before coughing continuously as he rubbed his nose. His face had been completely covered in dust and dirt, and there were small scratch marks all over his hands and legs.

“Oh.. Oh lord! Ugh..” Chief Henry continued to cough loudly, and Gavin turned to look at one of the men who were standing right next to them and yelled, “Get the Chief some water! Hurry!”

“Ah, yes! I’ll be back in a few seconds!” The man said in a flustered voice as he dashed out of the bathroom, and Gavin placed his hand on the Chief’s shoulder as he whispered softly into his ears. “Take your time. You’re out of the cavern right now, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Gah, gah.. I- I don’t have anything to worry about, you say…” Chief Henry said with a sarcastic chuckle before coughing loudly once again, and he turned to look at Gavin with a light smile on his face. “Well, isn’t that just an optimistic way to look at the situation…”

‘I was just trying to cheer you up, though..’ Gavin, who realized that the Chief wasn’t feeling relieved with his words, bit his lips in response, but he didn’t say anything about it and kept quiet.

“What about the rest?” The Chief asked with a quivering voice as he looked around. “Did you save anyone else?”

“Uh, no one else has come out of the pathway except for you, Chief..” Gavin said with a reluctant tone, and Chief gulped down his saliva before staring down at the floor with defeat in his eyes.

“What have we done, Gavin..” He muttered under his breath and he grabbed his head tightly, gritting his teeth as he continued, “We’ve failed him! We’ve failed our lord! We’ve let the intruders destroy his sacred temple! How could we have let this happen?”

“Chief! Chief, get a hold of yourself!” Gavin said as he used his grip to exert pressure on Chief Henry’s shoulder, but it didn’t seem to work.

“I got the water!” The man who had just ran away to fetch water for the Chief returned with a bottle filled with water, and he handed it over to the Chief. “Oh, and one more thing Chief!”

“The Chief doesn’t have time for your words right now!” Kevin stepped forward and pulled back the man, slamming him back to the wall and making him groan.

“Bu- But the cops have arrived!” The man spoke with a scared tone, and as soon as he finished speaking, everyone’s expression changed and they looked at each other.

Even the Chief, who seemed to have gone crazy just a moment ago, had returned to normal, and began gently touching his chin, seemingly in deep thought.

—————–

“A pretty dense forested area for a neighborhood inside a city known for its futuristic experience, is it not?” Commander Larsen turned to look at Special Agent Alan and asked with a smile on his face, and Alan shrugged his shoulders. “Unique… But I wouldn’t say that it’s a bad thing.”

“I wouldn’t either,” Larsen took a cigarette stick and placed it in between his lips as he finished speaking and then lit it. He then squinted his eyes as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and let out a large puff of smoke before continuing, “However, it does intrigue me as to how the Malkalians came to successfully integrate a dense forest into their neighborhood when none of the other neighborhoods were allowed to.”

He placed the cigarette in between his lips again before speaking, “Can’t help but wonder if there’s something suspicious going on..” “The security said that we can head inside!” Detective Harry turned around and yelled out to Commander Larsen and Agent Alan, who looked at each other before entering their vehicles.

The group of police cars moved up as the gates opened, and Commander Larsen looked out of the window, admiring the view like a child would.

“I thought the Chief of the community.. What’s his name?” Commander Larsen asked Detective Harry, who replied, “Are you talking about Henry? Chief Henry?”

“Yeah, Chief Henry..” Commander Niko Larsen snapped his fingers as he realized the name of the person he was talking about and continued, “I thought Chief Henry didn’t cooperate too well with the cops in the city? Why is he letting us in the neighborhood so easily?”

“Oh, that…” Detective Harry widened his eyes as he understood what Commander Larsen was asking him. “It’s not that the community doesn’t cooperate with the New World City Police. It’s more about cooperating just enough.”

“Just enough?” Larsen raised an eyebrow as he asked the question, intrigue evident in his words.

“You’ll get it when you deal with these people..” Detective Lewis interjected into the conversation as he turned around to look at Larsen.

“I’m even more excited to meet them now…” Commander Larsen smiled as he stared out the window once again, and the police vehicles continued moving forward, into the Malkalian neighborhood.