The Whispering Blade - Chapter 14 Road Trip

The side door opened and I jumped into the van. Eli slammed the gas pedal down and I felt us jerk forward as if we ran over a speed bump. As we raced out the parking lot, I glanced back at my apartment. The Servant was slumped on all four, barely able to keep his conscious. Isa and I watched as he was unable to hold on and fell on the floor, knocked out cold.

“It’s over,” I sighed.

Eli maneuvered the van onto the road. “Is he dead?”

“No,” I answered. “I mean, I don’t know? D-d-did I kill him?.”

The sword transformed into a snake in my hand. “There is a possibility that he did from overexerting the amount of Eden he can handle.”

“Are all Conjurers that strong?” Isa questioned.

“I feel like they’re pretty strong, except Sintra helped figure out their weaknesses,” I started. “When I distracted him, he lost control over the beast.”

“Oh, then I guess they’re not totally unbeatable,” Eli remarked

“As long as we make them lose focus we should be okay.”

“That is not always the case,” Sintra corrected. “Making Conjurers lose focus is effective, if they are novices. At higher mastery levels, Conjurers are capable of manipulating their summons with extreme ease.”

Eli turned the van and entered the highway.

Sintra continued. “However, all three of you performed admirably. There were no fatal injuries and all of you listened to my teachings. Well done.”

The morale in the van felt high. I felt my confidence in myself grow through my accomplishment.

“Thank you, Sintra,” we all expressed.

The snake slightly bowed its head. “Don’t let one small victory create complacency. But good work.”

I dismissed Sintra and laid back in my seat. Isa sat in the front with Eli and helped him with directions. Creating more space for myself, I moved the remaining suitcase I had on top of the empty box of food. Wait. Empty??

I jumped out of my seat and looked at the near-empty box of food. Only a handful of cans remained. I counted them all, we only had 11 cans of food remaining.

“Guys, we’ve got an issue,” I gasped. “We only have enough food for a day or two at the most.”

“Wait, what happened?” Isa blurted.

“It must’ve happened when I hit that hick,” Eli lamented.

“So what are we going to do now?” Isa questioned.

“There’s gotta be a stop somewhere on the way to your parents’ house,” I guessed. “We can keep a lookout while we’re driving.”

***

“How many do we have left now?” Eli asked me as he finished the remains of the canned barbeque beans.

“Uh, that was the last one,” I responded.

My stomach started to growl. Over the last two days, we tried to ration our food, but in the end, we couldn’t help ourselves. Hunger was not an issue I really had to face before. We all learned that we were stress eaters and went through five cans the first day.

“How much gas do we have left?” Isa asked.

“We’ve got, uh, less than a quarter of a tank,” Eli replied. “Keep a lookout for any cars left on the road.”

I looked out the window and tried to spot a car. So far, nothing but the road and an empty plain of tall grass.

Over the last few days, we had run into some gas problems. Every single gas station was either looted or too dangerous to approach with all the mutated animals nesting there. It wasn’t until yesterday where I learned that I could manipulate the gas out of the pump or car. The only problem was, I wasn’t good at controlling it. I’d be able to get only a quarter of the gas into the van so we’ve been needing to take a lot of gas stops.

“Hey! There’s one!” Isa spotted around thirty minutes later.

Eli parked the van next to it so that both fuel tanks were facing each other. We all stepped out of the car. Eli enhanced the strength in his fingers with Eden and tore the gas cap off of the deserted vehicle.

I took my time as I began to manipulate the gas out of the car. Last time, I rushed it and ended up spilling gas all over me. I still reek of the smell. When I pulled the gas out of the car, a clear liquid appeared out of the fuel tank. Like a rope, I gently tugged at it and directed it towards our van.

Eli popped open the van’s tank and I aimed the fuel towards the opening. The gas wobbled in the air as I tried to maneuver it into the tank. Droplets of gas fell to the floor as my concentration waned. The gasoline splashed against the surface of the car as I missed. I quickly corrected myself and a good amount of gas went into the tank.

After a few minutes, I had finished siphoning the gas. This time, I did slightly better than before, getting about a third of it inside. I plugged the fuel cap back in and opened the door of the van. Before I could step inside, a thunderous noise exploded behind me.

My head jerked back and I was shocked at what I saw. Over forty feet away was a small flock of roosters with a lizard’s body. Its wings were longer and leathery, and its tail swept the dust on the ground. They were as tall as my waist and they were fast as hell. Before I could get into the van, the flock of seven rooster-lizard things surrounded us with our backs against the van.

Isa stepped out of the van. “What the hell are these things?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Eli replied as he got into a fighting stance.

I pulled Sintra out and adopted a fighting stance as well. The creatures began circling us, looking for any openings to strike.

“Guys, they’re getting closer!” Eli panicked.

Their red eyes inspected us, trying to spot any signs of weakness. Eli looked away from them for a brief second.

The beasts used that opportunity to strike. They zigzagged towards us, making it harder for us to track their movements. Isa preemptively shot out a wall of flame to stop their charge. However, it didn’t take but a second for the animals to sidestep the barrier and continue their assault. Two of them snuck behind the van and jumped on top of it.

I swung wildly at them as I tried to fend them off. I managed to wound them in the leg and wings. They fell to the floor and tried to hobble away. Eli found his opportunity and quickly grabbed their necks before they could escape and wrung them. They flopped on the floor, dead. and their wings beat quickly.

The five other beasts saw the commotion and immediately backed off. Not wanting to risk any more casualties, the beast ran off back to where they came from. We collectively let out sighs of relief as the danger had passed, for now.

Eli knelt down beside them. “You know…these things have giant legs, think about the meat on this thing.”

“No. No. No,” Isa immediately cringed. “I know what you’re going to say, and that is gross.”

“But look at it!” Eli exclaimed. “That’s basically a chicken! Who knows if there are going to be regular chickens now!?”

My stomach growled at the thought of fried chicken and my stomach began to growl.

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