Nodding agreement, I brought us into the airagain and began the journey home. Sara wanted me to keep a mentaleye out for troops on the way back in case they were moving up, sothe flight was fairly slow. I didn’t mind, as it allowed me tobriefly rest along the way. In my weakened condition, flying wastaxing my strength and I wanted to be at my best when wearrived.
Despite her caution, or maybe because of it,we arrived at the next pair of troops without detection. Thecylinder trick seemed to have worked pretty good last time, so Irepeated my efforts on this pair. Once they were encased, I broughtthem to us this time so Sara wouldn’t have to get too close to theedge of the trees.
Once they were out, she stripped the gearagain and added it to the growing arsenal in her backpack. “Backinto the trees,” she whispered as she finished tying the lastknot.
I hurried us along as best I could. WhileSara was dealing with the guards, I had scanned the area around myhouse and found no surprises. Positioning ourselves as close to thethird pair as I dared, I repeated the cylinder attack again. Thistime, as I began bringing the pair toward us, I heard a shout ofalarm from across the road. The other guards had seen theircompanions floating off into the woods!
I dropped the guards encased in my cylinderto the ground like a hot potato and lowered the two of us almost asquickly. As soon as Sara had her feet on the ground she was off andrunning, a gun in each hand. I wasn’t sure what to do yet, so Isimply hid behind a tree and started building up a shield for whenthey started to shoot at us.
Feeling a tiny bit safer, I closed my eyesand switched to mental sight to figure out what was going on. Iquickly located Sara who had taken cover behind a fallen log andwas swapping out her handguns for her precious rifle. The tworemaining guards were slowly making their way toward us but keepinglow and out of sight.
They reached the ditch on the far side of theroad and split off from each other. To make matters worse, Saraseemed to not have noticed the split, as her attention was focusedon where the pair would have come out from if they stayed to theiroriginal path.
I couldn’t wait any longer or someone wasgoing to get hurt. Reaching out, I plucked the machine gun from thehands of the first one and flung it into the trees. The second guymust have either been more alert or simply better prepared, as hefought the pull on his weapon and began spraying bullets in ourdirection.
Through either luck or skill, some of thosebullets came frighteningly close. Some of them hit my shieldcausing me to cry out in pain, but I refused to let the darknesstake me. With a final twisting wrench, I tore it from his grasp andsent it skittering across the gravel of the road. With a silent‘thank you’ to Darth Vader for the idea, I formed a circle of forcearound each of their necks and began choking the consciousness outof them.
It was over in moments, but there were stillpeople inside my house, and now they were aware that something wasgoing on out here. I put the same type of force band around thearms and legs of the four road guards and headed over to rejoinSara. If our advantage of stealth and surprise was gone, perhaps itwas time for a bold and unexpected move.
“I’m going for the house. Cover me,” Isaid.
Sara didn’t bother with words or even a nod;she simply started toward the house in order to take up a positionwhere she would be able to back me up. Saying a silent prayer, Imoved deeper into the woods away from the house before gathering mycourage for my next move.
There was a pair of exceptionally tall treeshere, and using them for cover, I shot straight up into the air. Iquickly pulled about two hundred feet of altitude and then arced myflight over to come down at the middle of my roof. I hoped that mymaneuver was unseen from the house, and since I hadn’t been shotat, I took that as a good sign. I stopped myself a foot off of theroof so they wouldn’t hear any noise and turned my sensesdownward.
There was one person at each doorway, but tomy sight they all looked the same. It would have been nice todetermine which one was Sid so I could take care of him first, butI suppose it didn’t matter. I would get them all out.
I took care of the one by the patio doorfirst. I simply flung him through the glass door and into the yardwhere I proceeded to bash his head against the wood pile until hestopped moving. I gave him a couple more raps for good measure andturned my attention toward the next guy. My strength was drainingfast with all of the mental activity but all I could do was take afew deep breaths before continuing.
The next one I chose was the one who waswatching from the garage. I took him out of the side door like Idid with the last guy, but I didn’t have a convenient wood pile tobash him against this time. I simply flew him up and then broughthim down in a loop which slammed him into the ground. He managed toshout out “roof” before impact. He bounced, but he didn’t moveafter that. Now only Sid was left.
I started to turn my attention downwardagain, but heard a clatter form the front of the house. Sid wasrunning away! Smiling in triumph, I quickly tore his gun out of hishands, but before I could do any more I was rocked by
