Chapter 35

Tired, bruised, battered, sore and maybe with a cracked rib or three, I stumbled out of the Indigo Gate after killing all four of the Lords. (One at a time, of course.) My newly upgraded Spell was ungodly devastating to mobs of zombies and ghouls. I felt like I spent more time hunting down the ghouls and chopping their heads apart looking for treasure, than killing the first mixed mob of four hundred undead that I encountered.

Opening the door of Kate’s former bedroom, I came to a complete stop. Inside the main room were Kate and Ed, eating lunch on a card table and sitting on cheap metal chairs.

“Where’s mine?” I asked, removing my helmet and gloves.

“In the fridge. Get it yourself, lazy bastard.”

Kate wasn’t as stoic, and hadn’t seen me outside of an all too brief meeting, when Beau handed over my armor and gear, before I headed into the Gate behind me. She ditched the sandwich before her, and rushed to give me a hug.

“Were you worried?” I accepted her hug and held on to her while she vented a few tears.

“Yes,” she sniffed.

Kissing her on the forehead, “I’m alright.”

Releasing Kate, I headed for the fridge. A sandwich sounded awesome right then. “I thought we weren’t going to meet this openly for a while.”

“You thought wrong. Wash your hands first, you barbarian.”

What? It was wrapped in a paper towel and it was clean.

Knowing better than to argue with that voice, I washed my hands, took another bite, and then reiterated my question about waiting.

“Katie, can you heal me please? Since I’m not getting any answers out of you two.”

“Where are you hurt?”

“Ribs, caught a glancing blow while fighting the third Lord.”

“THIRD? How many did you fight?”

“Four. And don’t worry. It was one at a time.”

Kate broke her own rule and hit me after a run, before getting checked out. Forgetting that I was wearing armor, she hurt her hand and then yelled at me for hurting her.

She was emotionally messed up and couldn’t stop crying. Not that I was dumb enough to comment on it.

“So, what’s going on?” Something was obviously up if they were both here waiting for me.

“Go shower. The hot isn’t on, but you stink.” Ah, they weren’t telling.

Taking another bite of my sandwich, “Thanks, Kate,” I began undressing.

“And don’t talk with your mouth full of food.” Ed was having fun keeping me in the dark. She too sounded strained but was doing her best to keep it under control.

The cold shower was lukewarm from sitting in the building’s pipes all morning, and not too bad. Kate had even supplied me with my shampoo and soap, at least I thought they were from her. Ed had surprised me more than once with her thoughtfulness.

Kate scrubbed my chain shirt in the kitchen sink while I showered and shaved, scraping a week’s worth of grime, goo and blood off.

Handing me a fresh set of underwear armor, I dressed, clean for the first time in what felt like years. Trading off my armor, which I placed back in my inventory, Kate asked for my chain helmet in exchange. She cringed at the grime which had built up on it, both inside and out.

Only after I was clean and shaved to their satisfaction, did Ed give me a hug and a kiss. Well worth the wait, in my opinion. Kate had snuck a long one in once I exited the shower.

“Do I get to know what we are waiting for now?” I had figured out that they were keeping me from leaving for a reason.

“In five minutes, we need to leave to meet someone outside the building.” Ed warned me, dressing in her Hunter’s outfit herself. Kate, apparently, wasn’t allowed to answer questions regarding this meeting, so I didn’t ask.

Exiting the elevator in my wet, but clean, mismatched chainmail armor and coif, we headed to the front set of doors when I stopped abruptly. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people outside.

“Come on, chicken. Your fans are awaiting.” I glanced at Ed, then at Kate, wondering what the hell was going on. Taking me by the hand, Kate led me to what looked like a podium and a speaking Heather addressing a crowd of reporters with a very large live audience behind them.

“No, Mr. Blakely is not the devil. He was granted the title of Hero by the System which rules over the Portals. The arrest warrant, issued by General Prichard, was illegal. The US military has no jurisdiction over civilian Hunters nor the Portals located inside the United States.”

We watched the kangaroo press conference for the next twenty minutes, in which Heather crucified the military for their witch hunt and for my illegal imprisonment.

“ ... I can’t answer why he decided to imprison a Hero. You would have to ask him that. Or wait for congress to do so next week in their hearings.”

After answering or obfuscating the next few questions, Heather called out, “Jason Blakely, would you come here please?”

I frowned from under my helmet, which was more like a black chain hood than a helmet, but the protection that it gave was all too real. Ed gave me a gentle push in the back, letting me know it was okay.

Removing my hood, I stepped forward and made my way to the pedestal, while the press and onlookers searched me out. Finding me wasn’t difficult.

“Just outside of the Black Gate, we discovered a single Devil-like creature. Does this man look like a devil? A zombie? A giant ant, skeleton, Orc or goblin? And how do I know he is a Hero? Show them your titles, Jason.” Heather ordered.

I wasn’t pleased to be placed in front of the crowd and paraded around like this, but if it got the arrest warrant off my neck, I could deal with it.

I revealed my Class and Level, after that last run, along with all of my titles. There wasn’t anything to hide any longer. Those Hunters among the reporters got an eyeful at the sheer number and different colored titles I owned. The audience further out saw little of what was revealed, since they were too far away to make out the wording of them clearly. Yet the colors floating above my head caught some of their attention.

“Would you like to say a few words, Jason?”

“I honestly don’t understand why I was being persecuted by the military. Before my last meeting with them, we had been exchanging information, mostly me giving them everything I learned and getting jack in return. They even had an operative on my team, with the understanding that they could ask pretty much whatever they wanted, and I would answer. It was a willing participation on my part. I was even trading priceless magic items to them for a loss.”

“I’m sure everyone by now has heard about the Jokers, well those come from me, and I believe, only me. They used to get half of the ones I found, with only a token back in exchange. No more of that shit. If they want them from now on, they can bid on them like everyone else. I really did my best in trying to cooperate with General Eastmont who was in charge of the US military’s Hunters. And look what it got me, jail, and a wanted criminal and they never even told me why.”

“I just hope whoever takes over the military’s Hunters has a better head on his shoulders than the last guy. We Hunters risk our lives every time we enter a Portal, or Gate, as they are rightly called. Every time we enter, something can go wrong and we can get injured or killed.”

“No country’s military has enough people in service to explore all of the Gates. Why they want to monopolize them all, makes no sense to me. The expense of leaving over half of the Gates empty and unexplored is just waiting for God knows what to happen the next time an outbreak occurs. I heard that the last outbreak was pretty bad.”

“For those in the Chicago area, I wish that I could have helped in the last outbreak. The powers that be in the Pentagon decided that they would rather have me in prison than out here helping the innocent, just so that they could play their little power games.”