The Last Guardian

Chapter_51: Good day to Die!

Meanwhile, about six kilometres south from Johnathan, Billy was trying to convince Lisa to leave but she wouldn’t listen. She argued that he had risked his life for her and she was obliged to help him.

“He risked his life for you and that’s the reason that you should go home-you can’t expect to fight these things-” Raven argued.

“But I still need to find the missing kids-”Lisa replied.

“They aren’t here and we will let you know as soon as we find them-not to be rude but you would only be a liability-”said Raven.

Lisa was disappointed and slowly walked towards her car. Billy loaded his gun. Soon they heard a loud blast in the distance. Johnathan had killed the second witch.

“Go! Go now-” said Billy to Lisa.

He and Raven rushed out towards the source of the sound to investigate. Lisa noticed they both had two strange looking pouches tied on their waists. She got into her car and drove onto the highway-it was five in the morning and she still had no idea where the missing kids were and she had hardly 8 hours left to find them- she made a promise to the governor in front of the captain- she had to do something. Moreover the two dead cops, how would she explain that, Billy had hidden their car but for how long. She was on the scene and she was answerable!

Johnathan stood on the cliff looking at the smokey ashes of the dead witch. He had to find the others now. He observed his surroundings, it seemed that the witch had brought him deep into the other side of the forest.

He took out his cellphone and to his dismay, it was smashed. Now he had to go looking for them by himself. But he had other ways to reach them. He felt a lot better and energetic with this new Qi that was flowing through his veins.

"No time to waste, I have to run-"he said to himself and started to run.

He expected to sprint like before but the new force in him made it better. He was running at the speed of light!

In a matter of seconds, he had crossed half of the forest and in the next few seconds he was about to reach the highway. He saw both Billy and Raven standing over the rotten corpse of the witch. Within a second, he appeared in front of them. Both of them were shocked.

"Johnny? You okay my boy?"asked Billy in surprise.

"Oh I couldn't be better! Where's Lisa?"asked Johnathan catching his breath.

"We sent her home- wait- how did you just appear outta nowhere?"asked Billy.

"New powers man- I'll explain later, we still don't know where the kids are and there are two dead cops at the cabin- I think-"replied Johnathan.

"Well we could ask the witches where they hid the kids but they look pretty dead to me-"said Billy.

"Yeah- and there's another I turned to dust- long story- what do we do now?"asked Johnathan.

"Ah! I guess we're back to square one- dang it! Every second we waste, we lose the chance of finding the kids-"said Billy strapping his rifle.

"Is Lisa okay though?"asked Johnathan.

"What's it with you two? There's still a legendary witch on the loose and you two are worried about each other?"said Billy in frustration.

Johnathan scratched his head in embarassment. He knew how dangerous this mission was but his mind kept going back to Lisa- maybe he was falling for her!

"Let's get outta here-"ordered Billy.

Few minutes later Johnathan was driving with Billy on the highway back to their Church. Suddenly Johnathan hit the brakes, an old lady, dressed in a white robe, with a hood over her face and holding a stick was standing in middle of the road. Billy was immediately alarmed-

"Drive- don't stop- Go!"he said nervously pulling out his pistol.

Johnathan did as he was told and drove straight towards her. But the car stopped suddenly a few feet away from her.

"Oh God help us- it's her-"whispered Billy.

"Who?"asked Johnathan.

"Babayaga! The legendary witch-"said Billy.

"Let me handle this-"said Johnathan and reached for the door.

But strangely, the door won't open, he pushed and pulled on the handle but it won't budge. He hit on the glass with his metal arm but even the glass wouldn't break!

Raven was on her bike just behind them and when she saw the Witch in the middle of the road, she immediately turned jer bike around and drove away.

"It's stuck! Why won't it open-"said Johnathan struggling.

"It's no use Johnny- we're doomed!" said Billy sitting there motionless.

Johnathan was surprised, he looked at Billy, his face was pale and sweaty, he'd never seen Billy surrendering before...

The witch slowly removed her hood and both of them saw that grumpy old toothless face, full of hatred and anger and white as snow. She raised her hand and the truck began to squeeze itself. The doors and windows weee crushing like the entire vehicle was being crushed by an unseen and powerful force. Johnathan and Billy desperately tried to find a way out but the roof of the truck was crushing down on them leaving little space for movement.

And then the unthinkable happened. From out of nowhere sharp spikes of wood began to rain down from the sky all around them. Some of them fell on the bonnet of the tryck and some pierced the roof. Billy barely escaped from getting impaled. More and more spikes fell on the car and it got harder for them to save themselves.

"Johnny, now would be a good time for you to bring out your powers-"said Billy nervously.

Johnathan tried to focus but the constant bombarding of the spikes and the crushing of the truck was making it hard for him to try anything. He couldn't die easily but Billy could. So he pushed on the windshield with all his might. His eyes began to glow and he had almost cracked open a way out. But a spike came flying through the windshield and pierced Billy on his shoulder, pinning him to his seat. Billy let out a terrible scream in pain. Johnathan pushed harder and the windshield flew open. He then got himself out and jumped out if the car. He understood that the only way to stop this nightmare was to finish the witch, no matter how legendary she were. He ran towards her but the witch threw a dozen spikes at him. He managed to dodge a few but three of them hit his right thigh and his chest. He fell down groaning in pain. Normally he would recover but this time it was different, he was losing control over his body, the spikes were poisoning him.

He turned and looked at Billy- he was bleeding and still pinned to his seat and the truck was smashed, like it had been in a terrible accident. Johnathan kneeled down and tried to remove the spikes but the harder je tried to pull them out, the deeper they went into his body. He felt a hellish sense of pain like something was killing him from the inside and he could barely think of anything else...