Chapter 7: More Discoveries

Thomas’s jeep pulled up to a small house by the LAMCO warehouse. There were a series of abandoned tennis courts that he could see on his right. In the far distance, he could see the empty swimming pool. His attention was the small house not far from the courts.

“He had to be here,” Thomas said out loud. “I will search this town from top to bottom if need be to find my answers.”

Thomas put his jeep into park as he shut the engine off. He opened up the door and climbed out of the jeep. The area was hauntingly quiet. A place of former recreation, it was now just a shell of a place. He did not bother looking at it too much. He turned his attention to the small home where the old man directed him to go.

He noted the environment around him. He could see the Nimba mountain region. The Nimba nature areas of nothing but forests were close to him. Not far was the abandoned iron mine of LAMCO, where the iron was drawn and cut from the Earth. Now it was nothing more but a hollowed-out pit with orange sand around it and water that filled the center. Beyond were Guinea and the Ivory Coast. There was nothing but abandoned and neglected equipment gathering rust. It was clear skies, but rainfall was expected in Liberia, and that could quickly change at any moment’s notice. Yekepa was a place where fighting did occur but way less than other areas during the Liberian civil war. Besides what could be plundered here, which happened, there was really nothing else of value or any real strategic value to controlling it. Most of the civil war was on the west coast. Monrovia being the capital, was obviously the area you must capture if you wanted to control the nation.

Thomas took his pistol and holstered it as he shut the doors of the jeep and walked up to the small home. He could see activity inside the house as he made enough noise to make sure that anyone around the area would know that he was there.

“Let’s hope this man is still there. Hopefully, he is the friendly type of person.”

He stepped up to the small concrete patio of the home. It was not big, having only a couple of windows. The roof was falling apart, and the paint was peeling from the sides. The door was of basic construction with nothing fancy to it.

Thomas put his fist to the door and politely knocked on the door. He waited for a bit to see if there was any action going on. He then knocked again. He stood there for a little bit. Finally, after a short bit, the door opened up to reveal an old man with a heavy dark complexion. He held a cane in his hand to help keep him steady.

“Hello, sir,” Thomas addressed him quietly. “My name is Thomas. I come from the United States on an important mission that you might be able to help me out.”

The old man stepped forward and talked in a very coarse African voice. “What ... do you need help with, young man?”

“First, thank you for giving me this time to talk to you. I have been assigned to investigate paranormal activity from an organization in the United States. I essentially look for weird things, unexplained events, and whatnot. I spoke to another individual from the town, and he knew that you experienced an unusual event. Do you have the time for me to ask you these questions?”

The man seemed like he really had nothing else to do. On the one hand, it was an odd request but it broke up the atmosphere of skepticism in the environment. He finally nodded his head.

“I was sent to investigate an event where a man was supposedly shot by another, but the bullet did nothing to him. This supposedly happened ten years ago. I spoke to another man that said that you met this individual and witnessed the event. Is it true?”

The old man looked away for a short while as he looked away and think to himself. Then he looked back at Thomas. “ ... Yes. I saw the event take place. I was at a small church rally when a man dressed in red robes walked up to check the area out. We had a rally to pray for all that died around here and help push for peace. Seemed pointless, especially when another war broke out. I heard that the fighting west of here has stopped?”

Thomas nodded. “Yes, I don’t know how long it will last, but Charles Taylor has been forced out of power.”

There was relief in the old man’s eyes. Thomas noted that the man might not have access to the radio and is going by word of mouth to get his information.

“Hopefully, the warlord north of here got the message,” the old man commented. “He has taken over the northern villages and part of this town just recently. I will pray.”

“Me too,” Thomas replied.

The man looked at Thomas. “Yes ... there was a shaman or monk that was dressed in red that participated in the rally. He seemed like a friendly man. He stuck out like a sore thumb because he had a skin color slightly darker than yours. Some even mistaken him as a white man, but he was kind to all of us. The people at the church rally always noted this individual. We went to the backroom to have a talk to learn more about him. There were only a few people in the back when I talked to him to get to know him better.”

The man had to shift his cane in the grass and dirt to keep his balance.

“We can sit down if need be,” Thomas told him, but the man waved his hand at him.

“It’s ok. I need to keep my body standing, or my body will just keep getting weaker. I saw the young man at the church and spoke to him briefly when a fight broke out outside from the church. Two men got into a nasty argument, and of course, they decided to do the worst thing at a church rally. One of the men pulled a gun on the other. The other man attacked him to grab his gun, and the gun aimed in my direction. I watched as the red-robed man got in front of me like he knew what was going to happen next. The gun went off, and the bullet flew to his shoulder, where it bounced off of him. The bullet did nothing to this man. He literally put himself in front of the fire to protect me. He saved my life. I almost did not believe it when it happened. No one would have walked away from getting shot like that. He would have been on the ground bleeding. Only the two others that were there besides the men fighting witnessed the event. A member from LAMCO went and recorded the events that occurred.”

“What else can you tell me about this man?” Thomas asked.

“I thanked him for getting in front of the bullet, but he simply smiled and bowed to me. He wanted to learn more about the environment. He told me that he was a traveler from far away that wanted to find a place to rest and relax. I told him he chose a place where war was all around him, but he asked about our forests and a place nearby that he could settle down. He was bald and wore a simple red robe. He looked young, like around your age. I didn’t mind getting a chance to learn more about him, but he left the rally and walked east towards Guinea. I never saw him again. That was almost ten years ago.”

“Hmmm ... thank you. What is your name, sir?” Thomas asked.

“Samuel,” the man replied.

“Thank you for telling me all this,” he looked at the surrounding environment. “Did you work here?”

“Yes, I did. I even helped take care of the courts and the pool. I miss those days. That pool was an oasis in a forest. I remember all the kids that came to that pool to get a good swim. That was so long ago.”

“Maybe things will get better again,” Thomas remarked. “I need to find this person. Take care of yourself. I will be leaving.”

Thomas shook Samuel’s hand. They both nodded as they parted ways. Thomas walked to his jeep as he opened the door and hopped in. Samuel walked back into his house and closed the door.

“Shame ... I got a lead, but I need to learn more about where this stranger might have gone. Damn, I wish I had more to go on. I have been lucky so far, but where might have this man gone to?”

He started up his jeep and put it into forward gear as he started to move forward. He began to inch his way from the nearby tennis courts as he was getting closer to the abandoned swimming pool. He then stopped as he started to think about where to go next.

“If this mysterious individual is a traveler, he could be anywhere by now. He might not even be here anymore. I might need to head into Guinea to see if I can get any information on this ... monk. I can try to head north from here, but if there is a local warlord that has taken over that area in a place like this, I am only asking to be shot at some more. I guess I need to head into Guinea, but I won’t have enough gas to make it back. Damn. What do I do?”

Thomas put his hand to his head as he tried to think of what to do next. “I should go and eat and get something to drink. I can enjoy the relaxing view of an abandoned pool and buildings. What a tourist haven this is...”

He drove his jeep closer to the pool, leaving Sam’s home into the far distance. He was not far from it as he put the jeep into park. He shut off the engine as he reached into his backpack. He pulled out a water bottle and started to drink it. He then pulled out an MRE and started to take the package apart.

“Let’s see ... Macaroni and Cheese, Pot Roast, Broccoli ... and M&Ms nice.”

Thomas thought back to the events of the day as he finished up his meal and stuffed the trash into his backpack. He never imagined he would have made it this far. No person that he knew back home would ever make a trek like this. It was a suicide mission, after all, yet here he was.

“I need to know where I need to go next ... where do I go? Did I make this whole trip for nothing? What about the people I shot? That kid, I can’t shake the fact I shot a kid.”

He went and placed his hands together by the steering wheel as he started to pray. He needed a miracle.

“Dear God, I make this prayer for those that are part of this terrible war. I have committed a great sin and killed a man, even if it was in self-defense. I shot two others as well, including a boy. I ask that you watch over these people and give them a better life than what they have now. Make sure that the child heals both physically and the mental trauma that he will suffer now after the war. I am on a mission to find others with a great power. I ask that you guide me on this journey. I need a sign. Otherwise, my mission will be inconclusive. Please ... give me a sign.”

He unclasped his hands and closed his eyes. He began to take deep breaths. He knew that he had to go somewhere, but he did not know where to go.

He opened up his eyes. “I must go to Guinea ... This is a one-way trip. I am insane, driven to find answers with little leads. I cannot explain my reasons. I must find it. I must...”

He stopped talking as he noticed something that grabbed his attention. He saw what looked like three women walking together, heading toward the abandoned swimming pool. They were coming from the other side where he was going to drive out from.

“Odd...,” he remarked. He noted the appearances of the women as they walked closer and closer as they walked to the swimming pool. The one that caught his attention was the tallest. She looked Asian, somebody that obviously would stick out in an environment like this, much like himself. The next woman had a dark complexion, but the other woman also looked white. She was dressed in black.

“No fucking way,” he said out loud to himself. “They can’t be tourists, not in a war zone. Even I am not a tourist, and this smells wrong all over it.”

As they walked closer, he noted that each one with the exception of one, was carrying an assault rifle as they walked together as a group. He noted that the assault rifles also looked odd. The AK-47s they were carrying had no magazines inserted into them.

“Why would they walk around with assault rifles but have no magazines inserted into them? This ain’t right ... Outreach briefing. I need to remember something that was important in the briefings with Outreach ... yes, I do remember. There would be strange reports of people in warzones that walked with guns with no ammunition. It was as if they were fake in appearance. Is it possible?”

He did note that one of the members in the group was sporting a pair of Taurus Raging Bull Revolvers that were holstered. This did put him in alarm that one of them could be dangerous.

He got out of his jeep. He could not believe his eyes.

“Have I truly found some of them? Have they been walking around the area, and I just so happened to bump into them?”

He pulled out his coin from his pocket and recited the words. “They exist ... they all exist.” He put the coin back into his pocket as a wave of determination entered into him.

“I am going to talk to them, and I am not leaving until I get some answers.”

With a determined look, he proceeded to walk to the three women. As he got closer, he could feel a sensation of being drawn to them. He ran, getting closer and closer to them. He ran past the tennis courts. The women came to a stop at the edge of the abandoned pool. The pool itself was large. It was basically an Olympic-sized pool. The catch obviously was that there was no water in it. Grass was growing in it as it was completely unused, and nature was reclaiming it over time. Second, after second, he was getting closer to them as he slowed down to a jog.

Within a minute, he reached the three women. Their backs were turned as they looked at the pool. The tallest one which he believed to be the Asian woman, was shaking her head as she looked at it. It seemed like the women haven’t even noticed his arrival. He took note of the odd clothing that the women wore even from behind. The woman dressed in black was wearing black pants and a black tee-shirt. Her hair was red. The tall woman wore an almost camouflage brown and green shirt with blue pants. The West African woman was dressed in a multicolored tie-dye shirt, with short jean shorts. He had seen many of the Liberians wore different types of clothes that they could find or get, but even that clothing was something that stuck out a little bit.

“Damn shame this pool has no water in it,” the tall woman remarked in an almost Chinese accent. “I was going to take a swim through this.”

“Well, I can’t swim anyway,” The white woman dressed in black responded to her in an almost French or German accent. “You were the one that was insistent that we go take a swim. Aida, I know you wanted to swim too, don’t deny it!”

The woman with the dark complexion held up her hand as she shrugged and sighed.

“Well, if you want to go take a swim, why not just go and tele...,” the woman dressed in black stopped talking as if something caught her attention. “I smell a human near us.”

She turned around as she had a non-surprised look on her face. There was even anger in her face as she unholstered one of her revolvers and aimed it at Thomas. The other two turned around as they looked at Thomas that was just looking at them dumbfounded.

“Hmmm ... what is this man doing here?” the tall woman spoke. “The people here all have dark complexions to them. It isn’t possible you are a tourist.”

“I could say the same thing,” Thomas replied. “What is going on here? I saw you three come to this pool in an area. This is a war zone.”

“What are you doing here?” The woman dressed in black demanded.

“You could have been killed coming up to us like that,” The woman with a dark complexion also jumped in. She, like the other Liberians, had a West African accent.

“What are three women in an area like this all walking together doing here? In a fucking warzone? I want to know now!” Thomas demanded.

The woman dressed in black came up to him and practically extended her free hand to him in anger.

“Oh, here we go,” the tall woman remarked.

“You are not Liberian. You don’t live here! Go back to your home where everyone is all happy.”

“Lily, back off. You are only going to scare him,” The woman with a dark complexion remarked.

“You couldn’t do anything to me anyway if you wanted to, Lily, if that is your name,” Thomas argued back. “You are carrying guns with no magazines in them. What are you going to do? Throw a fist at me?”

Lily had a smile as she slowly walked up to him. Thomas went and put his hand to his gun.

The tall woman sighed. “Well ... I tried.”

Thomas went and pulled the gun from his holster as he went to aim it at Lily. None of the women looked scared. Lily simply laughed a little bit as she stared at him with her revolver still trained to him. She ignored the gun that was aimed at her chest.

“Go ahead and pull the trigger,” Lily told him. “Go ahead; let’s see if you are going to do it.”

Thomas looked at the other women as Lily stopped and looked at him. Thomas felt that none of the situations was making sense. He lowered his pistol and holstered it again.

She herself holstered her revolver. “See ... no guts,” Lily said as she stepped up to the Thomas. She was right next to him.

“I am not going to shoot you,” Thomas replied. Trying to catch her by surprise, he swung his fist into her face hard. His fist smashed into her face, but it was like punching brick. His fist came to a sudden stop on her nose as it impacted her, doing no damage to her. He recoiled in pain as his fist bounced off her. He grabbed his punching arm as he bent over in pain.

“Fuck...”

“Ha,...” the tall woman laughed.

Lily still stood next to Thomas as he was cringing in pain.

“Can I eat him ... please?” Lily asked the other two women.

“Lily, you know we don’t do that unless he was really asking for it,” the woman with a dark complexion replied.

“Yeah, I know. I can do this, though.” Lily, with a quick reflex, went and grabbed Thomas’s gun from his holster. She grabbed it so fast that he could barely react to it. She pulled the pistol out of the holster, held it in her hand, chuckled, and then tossed the pistol several feet away from him. “I can do that, though.”

Thomas watched the pistol land in the grass as Lily turned around and walked up to the other two women. She stood starring at the empty pool as the Asian woman, and African woman looked at Thomas.

“My name is Thomas,” Thomas spoke as he went to the pistol and re-holstered it. “I am on a mission to investigate the unknown phenomenon. Whether you are aliens, mythical creatures, gods, or paranormal, my goal to investigate it and record the events as much as possible and report it back to...”

“Outreach,” the tall woman replied.

“You know this organization?” the African woman asked her.

“Oh yes, I am well aware of this group. They are responsible for the last several incursions into war zones under secrecy to investigate the Coalition of...”

“Hold it!” the woman dressed in black interrupted. “Don’t go telling him about us. You, Thomas ... leave us. We have the right to kill you for getting into things that you shouldn’t pry your nose in.”

The tall woman sighed. “Technically, that is true, but we never had to act out on that threat, Lily. Stop being so belligerent.”

“My position in Outreach involves me going into the most dangerous of areas if need be,” Thomas explained. “If I die in the process, then so be it. Now I introduced myself. How about I learn what your names are. My name is Eugene Thomas, and yours?”

The tall woman looked at the other women and shrugged her shoulders. “My name is Xuanwu.”

The woman dressed in black held her hands up towards her. “Just like that, you give him your real name. Fucking hell! Fine ... you know what if we are not going to be so discreet then I will tell you my name. My name is Lily...”

“That isn’t your real...” Xuanwu said Lily before the woman held up her hand towards her to stop her from completing her sentence.

“Well ... Lily,” Thomas replied to her. “Nice to meet you,” he said as he shook off the pain from his hand. “I am sorry I took a swing at you. You were just being a bitch, and in an environment such as this, I had to learn to be more aggressive than I should, especially when I am trying to learn more about you.”

Lily had this devious smile on her face. “Fine ... whatever.”

“Hey, that coming from you is promise,” Xuanwu responded to her.

“Oh, shut up,” she replied as she turned around and looked at the empty pool.

Thomas then turned his head to the African woman. She had been quiet to let the others speak, but she was ready to talk.

“My name is Aida,” the woman told Thomas.

Thomas began to look at her. A funny feeling developed in him as he looked at her longer and longer. She was getting surprised as she saw him practically staring at her.

“What?” Aida responded. “You are staring at me. It is annoying me.”

He was practically drawn to her like she was pulling him to her. He had seen many of the Liberian women as he drove down the roads. He was used to their appearances, but this Aida looked unique to him. Technically there was nothing special about her, but Thomas couldn’t stop staring at her. She had blue eyes along with two black moles on the left side of her cheek that he took note of.

“I am ... sorry. I didn’t mean to stare at you. I just ... do I know you?” He asked her.

Aida had a confused look at first. Xuanwu herself even had a questioning look as Lily listened to the conversation.

Thomas was noting everything with her appearance as if there was something so distant in his mind. He felt that he recognized her from somewhere. She was a medium build of a woman, moderately stacked, and had long black hair that rode down her head. To Thomas, she looked lovely and beautiful.

Aida was looking at Thomas with a stern look as she looked him over. She was noting all of his features from bottom to top. She did not recognize anything that stood out to her. She finally shook her head.

“No ... I don’t recognize you,” Aida replied to him. “You must have mistaken me for someone else,”

Thomas shook his head as well. “Like I said, I am sorry.”

Aida calmed down a bit as Thomas took her gaze off her as he focused his attention on the other women.

“Anyways,” Thomas said, trying to change the subject. “I am part of an organization that is trying to investigate unusual activity that for some reason has been occurring mostly in warzones and battlefields. I was sent to investigate a man in red robes that can apparently not be hurt by bullets. Now with you three and the fact I threw a punch at you and did nothing to hurt you,” he said as he looked at the back of Lily. “I am certain that there is some unknown phenomenon going on. Care to explain what’s going on? I am not leaving even if you are going to kill me.”

Xuanwu nodded, “Like a typical Outreach agent. The courage of you agents is amazing. I ... heard of one that went into Somalia last year without hesitation or care for his own life. You guys have balls of steel doing what you do. Do you have the coin they give you?”

Thomas went and slipped his finger into his pocket, pulled out the coin that the agency gave to him, and showed it to them.

“Nice,” Xuanwu smiled with a nod.

“Enough...” Lily said. “I vote we kill him. Agent or no agent, they represent a threat to us and our mission. He knows too much about us and who we are. I can do it. Just give the word Aida, and I will suck ... I will devour him if need be.”

Aida was deep in thought as she was scratching her chin.

Xuanwu shrugged. “If we kill him, more will come no matter what. Are we going to kill every human that comes looking for us?”

“No offense, but you three stick out like sore thumbs,” Thomas added. “Lily, you are a white woman dressed like some goth chick in Liberia. Xuanwu, you are a tall Chinese ... no Mongolian? Aida, you are the only one that could convince others that you come from this region but that tie-dye shirt of yours.”

Xuanwu smiled and clapped her hands together. “He got my birthplace down, not bad, Thomas.”

“All of you all walk with guns with no bullets in them either. Of course, with Lily’s, I am not sure.”

“Well, to be fair,” Xuanwu added. “Usually, when we go on assignments in areas like this, we don’t always walk together. Places like here, we can get away with it more. Aida has had to investigate areas around Monrovia by herself, so we don’t attract too much attention together. Me and Lily usually wait in other areas in reserve away from human activity, ready to be called in if she was in danger.”

Aida went and pointed her hand at Thomas. “If we let you live, what is stopping you from reporting us to your superiors?”

“None. My whole job is to investigate these things. If anything, I would even go as far as taking you back to Outreach so we can question you. Although ... the way it was you, Lily, I couldn’t even put a scratch on you if I wanted.”

Lily actually chuckled. “I would be lying if I actually didn’t feel that punch of yours. I was not expecting you to throw a punch at me, at a woman of all things,” she sighed and lifted her hands to the sky. “Great, now I am having a regular conversation and actually warming up to this human. Can we kill him now?” She finished asking as she turned back around and looked at the empty pool.

“You are not making my decision any easier, Thomas,” Aida told him. “Do you know how many of the agents of Outreach make it back after their missions?”

“The survival rate is practically zero,” Thomas added. “Only two agents of eleven sent managed to report back with no injury and found nothing. Five never returned and assumed dead. Another ... was found ripped to pieces and sent back to the United States. I am number ten of those agents. I knew what I was doing when I signed up for this job.”

“Why did you sign up for this job knowing that you would likely die?” Aida asked him.

“I wanted to know the truth if gods and goddesses exist. I believe in god, but I need to know if there are others out there or not. Think of me as a Christian with a desire to learn more about the world around me. I believe there are things out there we can never fully explain.”

“Do you believe in a world where mythical creatures exist out there?” Lily asked him with her back turned.

He nodded his head.

Aida stepped closer to him. “There is more, though, isn’t there?”

“Yes,” Thomas explained. “I, for some reason, feel drawn to here. I can’t explain it. It’s like I have been here even though I wasn’t. I look at you, and I feel like I have seen you somewhere, yet it makes no sense to me. I have seen other women around here, but I look at you, and I feel...”

“Yes...” Aida nodded with a smile.

“Like I have known you for a long time. I can’t explain it. I ... am at a loss of words.”

“You managed to make it this far,” Xuanwu said. “I guess it’s best just to come with us.”

“Thomas, do you feel attracted to me?” Aida asked with a bit of a smile on her face.

Lily sighed and shook her head while she was still looking away.

“I ... I don’t know what I feel,” he replied.

Aida held out her hand to him. “Give me your hand.”

Thomas went and held out his hand to her. She went and took his hand and held it. “What do you feel when you hold my hand?”

“I feel the warmth of your hand. It is small, delicate, and soft, and...,” he could not finish his sentence. He went and pulled his hand away from her hand. There was still a look of confusion on his face.

Aida took her hands and crossed them. “What if we live in a world that the deities exist?” She looked down as she asked. “What if we live in a world knowing that the folklores were true? What if I told you that magic does exist, Thomas?”

“What do I believe? I believe that it exists. I am here and talking to you. It is a miracle that it happened.”

Aida went and put her hand to her face as she was still in deep thought. Suddenly she was overcome with a scent that filled her nose. She looked and saw that it originated from her hand that she used to shake his hand. The scent was coming from him. She smelled her hand again and felt a wave that filled her senses. It was a sense of nostalgia that she recognized. Her heart beat faster. She felt a sense of arousal and love.

“That smell, I know that smell,” she commented as Thomas looked at her with skepticism.

She walked up to Thomas and grabbed him without hesitation, and pulled him down a little bit. He tried to resist, but her strength was unimaginable. Xuanwu watched with a bit of a surprised look. Lily herself turned around to even watch the scene take place.

Aida grabbed his arm, and she lifted it to her nose as she took a deep whiff of his skin. Her senses were lit aflame. She closed her eyes as her heart skipped a beat. She was breathing hard and had a deep smile on her face as she let him go. He rubbed his arm where she left a small mark on his skin.

“It’s you ... my dearest love, my dearest mate,” Aida told him as she put her hand to her heart. “You did it, didn’t you? You came all this way to find me, didn’t you?”

“I don’t understand,” he told her. “I do find you ... attractive. I feel like I know you ... I.”

There was a cheerful glee on her face. It was as if she was filled with utter relief. She never felt so happy in her life. She looked at Xuanwu and Lily as she nodded.