10.3
All clad in gray-green rain jackets, Trey, Coral, and Cam bushwacked their way up a dark, misty hill. The sounds and scents of the sea flew in the air around them.
It had been all too easy to get inside the fence.
Trey led the way, snapping off thorned branches in his path.
When they crested the hill, a single dim streetlight came into view. It appeared to have been turned on since the beginning of time, always shrouded beneath a sky of clouds and a veil of mist.
Trey wiped the water off his face and squinted at the light, then into the distance. As far as he could see in the fog, there wasn't a single building, street, or even another light.
A lone beacon, the streetlight stood before him ominously. He turned his eyes back towards it. Something about the way it glowed wasn't right. Its light was a little too dull and a little too yellow.
"We here?" Coral asked impatiently. She spat on the ground beneath the light, as if marking her territory.
"I don't see nothin'," Trey murmured uncertainly.
Coral stuffed her hands into her pockets and strode past the light. Her steps were freakishly long for someone so tiny.
Trey followed slowly, and Cam pulled the hood of his jacket a little lower.
They proceeded into a murky forest of nothingness, but it transformed suddenly.
As if materializing out of mist particles, little shacks appeared around them. Trey's eyes darted left and right. He cracked his knuckles subconsciously.
Now, squares of light shined off in the distance.
"Let's go," Trey declared, setting his gaze firmly forward.
They marched towards the lights, and weathered wooden buildings appeared around a wide, straight road.
Farther off, they could see many more dark roofs, some with lights on inside and smoke curling up out of them, and others without a single sign of life.
All three of them stopped when their feet hit the street.
"Where's he at?" Trey asked as he slowly surveyed the area.
"I dunno," Coral snapped. "No one said how we'd find the guy."
They both turned at the sound of a shifting rain jacket and saw Cam with his right arm raised, finger pointing straight down the street.
"Looks like he came to meet us," his voice said from beneath the hood of his jacket.
A gray figure was silently emerging from the fog.
Coral's hands flew to the handguns she had on each hip. Trey took a step backwards and pulled a knife from his pocket.
The approaching man raised his hands over his head. His black cargo shirt was unbuttoned, and his sandy blond hair hung low over his eyes.
"You don't have to fight me," he told them. His voice was smooth and calm, like a windless sea.
But the gentleness of his voice only made the Bone Creek trio more wary.
"Who are you?" Trey asked rapidly, knife held at the ready.
"My name is Cale," the man replied, halting his approach a few dozen feet away.
"You're XI, right?" Coral questioned, nodding her head at him in challenge.
"Yes," Cale replied with a subtle nod. "But there's no need for violence."
Coral took a few of her long strides forward.
"Watcha mean?" she spat, standing up in his face. "Why else're you here?"
Cale looked confused, cocking his head to the side as he looked down at her.
"I'm here to protect Ilwaco. All I want is to keep everyone safe."
Coral clicked her tongue and curled her upper lip, exposing her top row of teeth.
"But you're Blake's lackey," Cam's hooded figure said from behind her. "Right?
Cale smiled grimly.
"Yes, I am."
"Then how can you be all about safety?" Trey added, stepping forward to join the others.
Cale sighed and averted his gaze, turning his head to look off into the distance. Coral's eyes narrowed at his side profile in response.
"Yes, I work for Blake, but I don't agree with everything he says and does. I really just want to keep everyone safe, I swear."
Seeing the unchanged expressions on his challengers faces, Cale added, "Why don't we go inside somewhere? I'll answer all your questions."
The mistake he made was to lower his hands.
Coral spun on the spot, sending a sailing kick straight into his cheek. The metal spike on the toe of her boot slashed deep into his face.
He gasped and stumbled. Blood spurted from his mouth and he spat his own teeth out onto the ground.
Ever so carefully, he raised his hands over his head again and stood back up straight.
Blood was splattered across his entire face, and a large chunk of flesh was missing on his left side, exposing the inside of his mouth and the few teeth he had left.
"We don't care who you are," Coral told him with an unforgiving glare.
"We just wanna know about Blake and XI," Cam said.
"And you can talk right here," Trey added.
On one of the hands he was holding open, Cale curled his fingers into a fist, leaving just his pointer up.
The three waited, albeit impatiently, as his face patched itself back together.
His bleeding flesh dried and reached across the hole for the other side. From the roots, his teeth reemerged gradually, each one at a slightly different speed and timing.
Even as the hole was mended and blood flow stopped, red droplets were still smeared across his skin and occasionally fell from his jaw to the ground.
"Go ahead," he said patiently, not bothering to wipe away the blood. "Ask me anything."
"How strong're you?"
Cale stared blankly at Coral. He looked at the two boys, as if expecting them to ask him something else instead.
But they all gazed expectantly at him. This was the first thing they wanted to know.
He chuckled a little, unable to help being reminded of his own two daughters as he looked at the young trio before him.
"My authority is temperature, if that's what you want to know," he finally answered.
"Cold?" Coral interrogated.
He nodded.
"But how strong are you?" Trey asked again.
Cale paused, wondering how he was supposed to answer such a question.
"Hmm," he mused. "I'm probably… one of the twenty strongest people in the world."
"Hah!" Coral spat. "Think you could beat us, huh?"
Cale nodded slowly. "Yea–"
Shunk
Coral's foot and Trey's fist ended six inches deep in a block of ice. Their target, Cale's face, was stationed calmly on the other side.
They both wrenched their limbs out and snatched a weapon, furious gazes zeroed on Cale, but they each stopped when they felt a hand on their shoulder.
"Stop, guys," Cam said. "He's all talk."
Trey gritted his teeth and looked at the face behind the ice. "I'ma kill that fucker," he muttered.
"How many other XI are there?" Cam faced the ice and asked.
Cale, hands carefully raised above his head, walked out from behind his frozen shield and replied with a question of his own. "Which city are you guys from?"
"Bone Creek," Cam replied proudly.
Cale's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.
Slowly, he nodded.
"Ten, which makes eleven in total. I think that's why Blake called it XI."
Cam, Coral, and Trey stared at him.
"That obvious, huh?" Cam muttered.
"Where they all at?" Trey shot at Cale.
Cale shook his head. "I don't know that."
"How strong're they?" Coral asked.
"Well," Cale replied thoughtfully. "I don't really know. I'm sure some are stronger than I am, though."
They all glared at him.
At that moment, a young woman came running onto the street behind him.
"Cale!! What are you doing??"
Long braids of silky red hair flowed behind her as she pumped her arms, uncoordinatedly swinging her torso as she ran.
"Cale!!"
Cam looked around Cale and focused his gaze on the woman's bouncing chest. He elbowed Trey and whispered in his ear, "Yo, she's hot."
Trey looked at him exasperatedly.
Cale turned around slowly, and the woman gasped when she saw his face drenched in blood.
"Cale! Are you kidding me?"
Then, her eyes found the three kids standing behind him.
"Ivy, it's ok," Cale assured her.
"Why is that blood on your face?" she asked dangerously, refocusing her piercing emerald eyes on Cale.
He ignored her and looked over his shoulder.
"You guys should go," he told the Bone Creek trio. "I really don't know anything else about Blake or XI. You'll have to ask someone else, maybe even Blake himself."
"We're not leavin'," Coral informed him.
Cale pursed his lips and reluctantly turned forward again to face Ivy, hands still raised above his head.