Chapter 35: So What Happened?
Luke then says, "I think I just won. Easy as pie." Luke starts limping towards the blown-out front of his hideout, climbing over & moving all of the rubble in his way. He opens the uncovered hatch & slowly starts to climb down into the tunnel. After entering the tunnel & closing the hatch, he yells out down the tunnel, "Alexia, don't worry. I survived-" he coughs for a sec then continues, "I'm SLOWLY making my way down to you guys. I will take a bit longer, but I will meet up with you guys soon!" Luke starts limping down the tunnel towards Jasmine, John, & Alexia.
Alexia yells back, "Good! I was afraid of something happening to you!"
Luke painfully yells back, "Don't worry! I'm a bit banged up, but nothing to worry about. I did defeat the group of people. It turns out they were Users too! I outsmarted them all! It was hard, but I pulled it off!"
Jasmine whispers so that only Alexia & John can hear her, "I knew he would survive that explosion. I'm surprised, though, that he survived 14 Users. I was not expecting them to come after us all the way out here, though."
John immediately replies quietly, "What do you mean 'them'? Are you talking about the people from the airport?"
Jasmine just silently nods her head & quietly replies, "Yes, sadly, that is what I mean."
After a few more minutes, Jasmine, John & Alexia see the tunnel exit. Alexia turns around & yells back to Luke, "We are near the exit of the tunnel Luke! Hurry up if you can!"
Luke lets out a small chuckle & painfully yells back, "Ok! Just wait for me. I'm already past the halfway point!"
After about 5 minutes of waiting, the group sees Luke come out of the tunnel. After Luke stands next to Alexia, Jasmine asks him, "So, tell me about the group that attacked you. Do you have any idea who they were? What did they do? And most importantly, how did you survive an attack by 14 Users at the same time?"
Luke lets out a small short chuckle, then says, "Well, I survived because of that Luke charm & smarts that I have!"
He looks over at Alexia & gives her a wink, then says, "I THINK that they might be the same people from the airport or the same group that is. I don't know if they were the same exact people. I didn't see the people who attacked us, or well, YOU at the airport that much. I was looking out for Alexia mostly & making sure she was safe. I assumed that you had everything handled, Jasmine. So I didn't pay attention to you much, sorry. John, you know why I didn't care if you were ok."
John calmly replies, "Don't worry, I know why. I don't hold it against you," He pauses for a moment then says, "for now-"
Jasmine immediately interrupts John, saying, "Shut up, both of you! Ok, Luke, describe what the Users looked like to tell if they are the same people who attacked us back at the airport or at least associated with them."
Luke nods his head & says, "Right, so like I said earlier, I think that they are connected to the same people who attacked us. The Users had the same light blue dome thing-like we saw back at the airport. But the group arrived at the door dressed as police, who also had assault rifles with them."
Jasmine looks confusingly at Luke, then asks herself, "Why would they bring guns with them? If they had 14 Users, they would be cocky enough to think that they would not fail. Did they ever use them?"
Luke shakes his head & replies, "No, they didn't. They only used their magical powers. Even when I got really close to stabbing one of them, they only used their powers to stop me—nothing else. I don't think they were even loaded. They didn't even try to threaten me with them. Just blasted the door off & then started to use their powers as I shot them & kept using them while I was attacking them with different weapons, never used their guns or anything else they had on them."
Jasmine nods her head while thinking for a moment & replies, "What did they exactly do with their powers?"
Luke thinks for a moment, then replies, "They almost IMMEDIATELY use it to blow the door off its hinges. That's impressive because it weighs a little over one & a half tons, but after I started shooting, the woman who blasted it open put up the identical-looking light blue dome-like shape they did back at the airport. The bullets were flying off it like it was deflecting my shots. Then when I used a grenade launcher to attack the group hoping to hurt one of them or destroy the 'shield,' it seemed to hurt the woman who put up the shield & when I looked, she was in pain. So I picked up my gun & started shooting at the group. The other woman in the group uses her magical powers to throw me back against the wall, but after quickly getting up, I shot her in the shoulder, which seemed like I could have enough time to stab her & hopefully take her down. Sadly, another member from the group, who sounded & looked like a guy, put up one of their hands & which caused my hand with the knife to stop in place mere inches from her throat, preventing me from killing her. Then told me how there was no way to win against all of them & asked how I plan to win?"
Jasmine thinks for a moment, then replies, "Well, how did you win & survive the attack?"
Luke chuckles for a second, then replies, "I shot the tiny target in the ceiling that I put into destroying the place in case of emergencies. Granted, this was not an emergency I never planned on happening, but it seemed like a good time for any to use it. The explosion threw all of us flying outside & when I got up, I shot every one of them in the head while they were still either unconscious or dazed enough to not be able to act fast enough. I figured if they were dazed, then they couldn't act as fast as anyone else that doesn't have magical powers like you."
Jasmine nods her head & says, "Well done! That is true. Powers or not, everyone can only react as fast as their brain can process & how much energy, physical or mental, they have in them. So I assume that the explosions we heard, with the first one being from your grenade launcher & then the second one was from you blowing up the place, which might I add, did cause the ground in the tunnel to shake a bit."
Luke nods his head & replies, "Yeah, it was for emergencies that needed a last-ditch effort to stop everything & everyone. I'm surprised that I even survived. I think it might have been the fact that most of the group was in front of me, who probably took most of the blast for me. But that's just my guess. But who knows, maybe my logic is wrong & it was because of another reason. Regardless of the reason, I'll still take it!"
Jasmine gives him a look of surprise & says, "I'm surprised. Well, at least you survive. But I have a question for you, what did the women who attacked you look like? I need to know who we're dealing with."
Luke looks down at the ground & thinks for a moment, then replies, "The one that blasted the door open had black hair & 3 stripes of purple hair, she also had a tattoo of a purple snake on her left shoulder & what looked like a yellow & orange phoenix, almost as if it was made of fire, on her right arm. One on each side & 1 in the front too. While the other one, who threw me back against the wall, had brown hair on one side & sky blue hair on the other side. She had no tattoos that I could see."
Jasmine looks at the ground, thinks for a moment, then says, "Damnit! I knew some of them would come, but not those 2," she looks back up at everyone & says, "Ok, I think we might be in some serious trouble now. We need to get some help."
Luke & John look at Jasmine with a confused look, then both say, "Ok, but how are we going to get some help?"
Luke replies after also saying, "& who are we going to get it from?"
Jasmine looks at Luke & says, "Luke, don't you have some burner phones so that the phone call can't be tracked?"
Luke shakes his head & says, "No, they were, sadly, also destroyed in the explosion too," He pauses to think for a moment, then says, "I do have a small stash of hidden electronics hidden a short walk; from here. Follow me & I'll get it for you."
Luke starts walking to where he put the hidden stash, with everyone following shortly behind him.
After a few minutes, Luke stops at a seemingly random small patch of randomly colored patterned stones. He pushes the dirt & gravel to the side & starts digging where the center of the rocks was & after about a few minutes of searching. He comes across a small hatch with a handle. He opens the hatch & pulls out a small metal box.
He opens up the box & pulls out a small phone & hands it to Jasmine & he then says, "I hope this is good enough because this is all I have left, sadly."
Jasmine grabs the phone from Luke & looks at it. She then replies, "This is good enough. Thank you, Luke."
Jasmine starts typing, gets up, & waits for someone to answer the call.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Mark_Cashion
Mark_Cashion I have been busy thinking of a good way to move things along in this chapter & making it A LOT shorter than it was initially. That coupled with the fact that I have been busy with work & other stuff.
I have been trying to get better with working on this book again. As I have been wanting to get it done & tell the story that I have come up with. The good thing about the long shifts at work is that I have time to think of stuff for the book & sometimes, how I can have the events in this vast world continue. The problem is how do I make them seamless & don't interrupt the flow of the story.
Creation is hard!
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