text: [Themes: horror]
  
  "James! Are you alright? Come back to me!"
  
  It hurt to wrench my eyes open, I was having such a good dream. The sun penetrated my eyelids slightly, leaving a soft orange glow that I had no choice but to see. I was very, very tired, and just wanted to go back to sleep.
  
  "Get up James! We don't have forever! They're going to catch up!" Some grabbed both of my shoulders and began shaking. My eyes flew open, and my hands wrapped around their throat, squeezing mercilessly. When I finally got adjusted to the light, I realized the person I was choking was Bo. He was struggling to get my hands off his throat, choking and gasping for air. I let him go immediately, feeling a bit bad about it. Glancing around, I realized we were in the middle of Miyazaki, surrounded by the towering rubble.
  
  "I'm sorry about that Bo, the last thing I remember was getting captured by... the scavengers?" He grimaced.
  
  "Yeah, it was them. I was just barely able to find you and pull you out of the shelter before... James, they absolutely exterminated everyone. It was a vicious ambush. But we can't stop now, I'm confident they saw us leave. We need to---".
  
  A gunshot echoed around the rubble, and Bo's head erupted like a balloon, showering my body with blood and brain remnants. His body wobbled for a second, and then collapsed in a heap of rebar and small stones. For a moment, nothing happened. And then I screamed. Two more gunshots sounded off, coming from my right, and I hardly hesitated in turning that way, eager to end either their lives, or my own, whatever came first. The masked lone scavenger stood atop an outcrop on a nearby partially destroyed building, and I made a beeline towards him. He fired again, twice. The first bullet whizzed by me harmlessly, but the second flew through my shoulder. I felt nothing.
  
  I practically launched up the side of the building, grabbing stone after stone to hoist myself up, and the scavenger stumbled back, surprised.
  
  "You're going to pay for that one, motherfucker." I knocked his gun out of his hands, sending it flying into a nearby wall and laid a hand on his mask, tearing it off and throwing it off the side of the building. It revealed the face of a young Eastern European man, his face frozen in fear as my fingers hovered menacingly over his eyes. He struggled and I could sense his desperation, hands fumbling uselessly for his belt, where his machete sat.
  
  My urge to plunge my fingers in his eyes and rip them out was palpable, but something stayed my hand. I'd sworn never to become an agent of violence, years ago, when I'd joined the newspaper. Could it be that a man's resolve to his beliefs was this malleable? I'd been angry ever since I'd seen Captain Li Qiang die to those pirates. Some men deserved to be avenged.
  
  > spare the Scavenger
  I looked into his eyes and realized I could not end his life. Instead I let him fall to the ground and sob, a pathetic waste. I hated him, but I could never kill him. He looked up at me momentarily and appeared to mouth words to me, but nothing came out. I leaned closer, just in case he was whispering, and that's when he seized my face, pulling my ear right next to his mouth.
  
  "James, it's Itaki. Please, snap out of it!" I jerked my head out of his hands roughly, looking back at the man with apprehension. It couldn't be... what I'd heard. The scavenger stopped sobbing, and reached for his machete, pulling it out and swinging at me, but it was like fighting an opponent moving in jello. I ducked his swing and knocked the weapon out of his wrist, but I already knew what this was. I grabbed him by the shoulders, holding him deathly still.
  
  "Look at me, did you just say you were Itaki? The words came out garbled when I said them, like they were a violation against the entire universe. It was like coughing up an unnaturally large hairball. The scavenger's face contorted, and I found a dull ache mounting in my forehead, the first pain I'd really felt since waking up. His eyes welled up with tears again, and this time they felt extremely unnatural.
  
  "Yes, it's Itaki! Please, wake---" That's when, for the second time, everything went black.
  
  > Continue
  I found myself hunched over a shivering figure, Itaki, with my hand outstretched towards his neck in anticipation of a strike that now would never come. He was cowered in the corner of a room with dank metal walls, shielding his face partially with one hand, and reaching out with the other. He nearly jumped out of his skin when I grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled him to his feet.
  
  "Holy shit James, you're back, thank god," he stuttered and coughed up a little blood on the stone floor. He was surprisingly tough for such an old man. "Listen, they'll be back here any moment now, you were supposed to kill me. That young boy from the Jai Li is here somewhere too... Bo is it?"
  
  "What the hell is going on!" I shouted.
  
  "Calm down, James. Let me explain. They kidnapped us, and they were using some kind of chemical, or something I'm not sure, to turn you into... this. Okay, I really don't know all that much, but I think your senses and strength are enhanced. This 'Archbishop' kept running his stupid fucking mouth at me while I was chained up down here." He took a deep breath, and put his hands to his head. "I'm not any sort of shape to leave, you might as well ditch me."
  
  "Fuck that, I'll carry you." I grabbed him and threw him on my back, where he clung for dear life. He may have been a fairly frail old man, but I didn't expect to just toss him on my back like sack of flour. I ran to the door, pleased with how easy it was to move on my feet, gracefully bouncing from one spot to another like a long-distance runner. I grabbed the handle on the door, which came off in my hand as soon as I squeezed down on it. Instead, I just kicked the door, which splintered under my foot like it was made of balsa wood and flew through the opening. There were quite a few scavengers standing around idly near the entrance of the door.
  
  They jumped into action as soon as they caught a glimpse of me, one of them shouting for backup. I grabbed the first one a bit too roughly, slamming his head against the wall with more force than I'd anticipated. Hopefully he'd wake up. The others drew their blades, trying to back me into a corner. My mind was on a different level. Each scavenger had their own weak point: one a little too close to the wall, another with a slight limp in his leg. I exploited them all, weaving in and out of their strikes and knocking them out with singular blows. It took less than a minute to clear out a room of over ten trained men.
  
  Bo was nearby as well, strapped to a gurney and completely unconscious. I grabbed him as well, snapping the restraints and hoisting him underneath my left arm while taking the stairs upwards, towards the exit. There was another metal room like the one we'd been in, and this time there was no hesitation in kicking down the metal door, ripping it off the wall and out into a wide-open area. It was the inside of the shelter. I glanced around and found the crew, just barely coming to their senses, as light peeked its way into the compound. One glimpse of me holding the limp body of Bo and a battered old man on my back, and they all drew their weapons.
  
  "Wait wait!" I shouted. "I'm not your enemy!" Itaki jumped down off my back, yelling in Chinese and waving his arms.
  
  That's when I got shot in the back of the head.
  
  It was nice to be back home, after such an insane experience. I'd woken up in Kindred Hospital after weeks of unconsciousness and surgeries to repair portions of my nervous system after it had been wrecked by having a bullet enter my skull, and scrape the top of my brain. When I woke up, Itaki was there waiting, gifts in hand. In fact, my entire hospital room was filled to the brim with countless items, flowers, and trinkets. Itaki chuckled at my surprise and told me they were gifts from my friends in Taiwan. He gave me something of his own, a small doll of a young girl, handmade and stitched. He said he'd planned to leave it at his home in Tokyo, if we'd ever made it there, but since we hadn't, I might as well hold on to it. I took it with both hands as a sign of respect, what would later be a pleasant surprise to my doctors.
  
  Qara and Aubrey would visit later that day, delivering something more precious than flowers or trinkets: the remains of my camera, which she said had been partially crushed in the ensuing battle after I'd passed out. I asked her what happened, but she only smiled.
  
  "Dr. Blythe will want to tell you himself, he's better at it anyways. All of the footage is still good, by the way, so I look forward to reading your article."
  
  Next came Dr. Blythe, apologetic but still eager to talk. He told me of how the scavenger who'd shot me wore colors of blue and gold, and how the crew had fired back and killed the man, along with any other stragglers still roaming around the shelter. I asked him about Ogasawara, but he shook his head in shame.
  
  "We never found him, James. He's been presumed dead. I just hope we're wrong, and somehow he's still out there, doing something crazy."
  
  He spoke again in a slower, quieter voice. He confided with me that the scavengers had injected some sort of serum into my bloodstream, giving me freakish strength for a while. The man who'd shot me was some sort of cult leader with a propensity for medical experimentation and a religious fix. Guess it was lucky that he'd given me that strength, because nearly all of his group was unconscious and unable support him. It also saved my life, by boosting the defensive nature of my skull. Dr. Blythe told me none of the doctors were aware, however, and that it should stay that way.
  
  The crew had made their way to China on the damaged tugboat, following the coastline down and sailing west until they'd stumbled upon a small port. From there, they had split up, Bo and his crew making their way back to Taiwan, and our group flying back home to the United States. It was a long, harrowing journey, and it showed on Dr. Blythe's worn face. He jokingly stated that this was the wildest adventure he'd been on yet, and he was glad I was a part of it, but I could still detect a tinge of sadness in his voice as he looked down on my broken body.
  
  I was released from the hospital not long after, having regained most motor skills back in record time. There was something I needed to do, immediately. I ended getting some sort of mailing address for the Jai Li crew from Dr. Blythe, which was how he managed to stay in touch with them, and began writing.
  
  Jai Li Crew,
  
  Thank you for everything. The gifts you guys gave me are ones I'll cherish forever, especially the deck we used to play Big Two. Many thanks, and much luck for future voyages and adventures.
  
  James
  
  Short and sweet, I decided. I tucked two more things into the envelope before sending it off. One was a picture of Captain Li Qiang before his death, and the other, Bo's smiling face as he fought off the pirate attackers. I knew he'd appreciate that. Taking a deep breath, I sat down at my computer and powered it on. Dr. Blythe's original email flashed up on the screen. I clicked off of it, and got started on my article.