|TPEC|Glowing Embers Book 1|

Chapter 27: Tracked

"Why are we even back here? What's the point? What if that man finds us here too? I'm sure he's here."

Gavin complained.

"Stop with all the questions, it's annoying. And besides, the reason we're here is to capture that man. The scientists want him to study."

Frits replied, irritated.

Gavin sighed and looked forward. Samantha and Judie were carrying ropes and tranquilizers.

"Hopefully this stuff works."

Samantha said aloud.

"Alrighty losers, how's this gonna work?"

Jessica stopped them.

"Might as well just have someone lure him to a spot, and then one of us will shoot the tranquilizer. We tie him up, and boom, we take him back to our base."

Damian said, much more confident than the last time the teens were at Carusos. All of them nodded, except for Jess. She rolled her eyes.

"Alright, Fritz, are you okay with distracting the guy? If so, I'll tranquilize him and Jess can tie him up."

Samantha said. Fritz nodded, so did Jessica. The teens went along inside.

"HEY BIG GUY, COME KILL US!"

Fritz screamed. The others jumped, startled by his loud voice. Judie, Damian and Gavin hid outside of the restaurant, Gavin kept watch for other infected people. Fritz felt the man's presence, and got into a position to run. Just as he was ready, the man jumped out from a nearby corner and chased Fritz. Samantha loaded the tranquilizer while hiding behind a counter. Jessica untied the ropes. Samantha quickly peaked from behind the counter and shot the man. He stared at them. Jessica peaked out as well. The man looked at them, as if he was sad. Like he knew their plan but couldn't control anything. It was easy to tell that he knew he was going to be an experiment, and suddenly his eyes flashed, for a second, they looked natural, normal. The teens looked at eachother, and back towards the man. His body flashed, it was a glowing white flash, almost like a ghost. The man fell to the ground, and his eyes shut.

"He looks big. This is gonna take all of us."

Fritz spoke. The teenagers surrounded the man's seemingly lifeless body. Each of them grabbed a limb, with Gavin remaining to hold his back. They slowly carried the man out of the restaurant, and towards the woods where the camp was.

"Did you guys see that earlier? The guy's eyes flashed, and he looked like a ghost for a second."

Jessica asked, her voice was squeaky from holding her breath. The teens nodded, but shrugged it off. They continued down a hay covered path, until they made it to a medium sized camp. It was full of small huts, campfires, and many people chatting. They all looked at the teens and one man from the crowd called a name. A lady walked out of one of the huts, one of the nicer, larger huts.

"You did it, good work guys. I'll call the others to lift him into the cage."

The teens dropped the man to the ground. Fritz suddenly picked up a name tag that was attached to his shirt.

"Apparently his name's Rinaldo. Suits a pizza guy I guess."

"I wonder who he was before all this.."

Judie said. Nobody looked at her.

"Who cares. He's just a killer now."

Jessica abruptly replied.

"Not like he can control it, you know."

Jessica made a face at Judie, and turned to the others.

"Jeez. She's such a goody-two-shoes baby."

Jessica said under her breath. Damian heard her, but didn't say a word. Judie looked down. Suddenly a group of people came and picked up the man. They didn't say a word, not that there was anything to say. Fritz ran up to them and handed the name tag to one of the men. He took it and went on with his work.

The others excused themselves to their huts. Judie sat in her own hut, doodling on a tiny notepad, thinking.

Rinaldo. That name sounds so familiar, where have I heard that?

She tapped her head, trying to alert memories to come up in her head. So many came to her. She spent her birthdays in Carusos. She had quite a few memories of good experiences there. She opened her eyes.

He's the same pizza chef. He's the one that smiled at me. He's the one who brought our pizzas on my birthdays.

He's going to suffer after all his hard work?

After his kindness?

That's not fair.

But..

Lifes not fair, is it?

Poor Mr. Yulfo.