“Wake up.” Someone was shaking Matt.
Matt opened his eyes to see that they were still inside the cave, and he was wearing the Tiger’s Hide.
Matt pulled himself up and saw an army of tigers standing before him.
“Why am I wearing this?” he asked the Scavenger.
The Scavenger grinned. “You deserve it. The big tornado you created struck the ceiling so hard that the shards fell. The shards were of ice, so it didn’t hurt us, because James had put up a – what did he call it? Yes, an ice barrier that blocked the shards from hitting us. The tigers fell back, confused and scared of the ice, and I seized the opportunity and the Hide. But more than me, you deserve the Hide, and that’s why you are wearing it.”
Matt felt honoured. It wasn’t every day that a great warrior complimented him.
Looked at the army of tigers before him, he asked, “What do I do with them?”
The Scavenger shrugged. “Your wish.”
James suggested, “You can tell them to rest now, but to come when you need them. You can call them when we are at a war or something.”
Matt liked the idea.
“But remember,” the Scavenger said, “you can only call the tigers once.”
Matt nodded as he made them retreat into the shadows.
“What next?” he asked.
“Let’s move out of the cave. I am tired of this place.”
“Me too,” Matt said as the children followed the Scavenger back outside the cave into their chariot.
Once inside the chariot, the Scavenger pulled out a map, laid it on the table, and they all sat around it.
“This map shows all the places the Death Lord has under his control. It is magical and is updated every time the Death Lord conquers a new territory. After carefully observation, I have found out that he is supplying food and weapons to his army from various factories. The biggest of them is not far away from here,” he said, pointing at the map. “This one is called the Dark Factory, and if we manage to blow it up, we will have hit a sore spot.”
“And how many people and monsters are there in this factory?” James asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe a thousand or so,” the Scavenger shrugged.
“And we are five,” James pointed out. “We are outnumbered 200:1. And you think we can still blow up the factory.”
“The Death Lord chose a prosperous village to establish the factory,” the Scavenger informed. “He demolished the village, citing security reasons. There’s an electric compound deep inside. We infiltrate the factory, get to the compound, disable it, put a timer in a bomb to blast the factory, and get away! A fool-proof plan.”
“But we are outnumbered!” James reminded him.
“The risk’s worth it. It is a great opportunity. We can create chaos inside the armies of the Death Lord by blowing this single factory. And besides, it won’t eat up much time.”
“All right then,” James said. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The Scavenger said, “The factory is not far from here. I have a great plan. Listen…”
15
We are almost there,” the Scavenger announced.
To avoid alerting the guards, they ditched the chariot and travelled on foot through the forest.
The Scavenger glanced past the bushes and trees and whispered, “Now for the plan.”
Matt shot forth from the clearing. As expected, some of the guards at the gate rushed at him. He swooned to the ground.
Helping him up, a guard asked him curtly, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
Matt pointed back to the forest, looking scared. “A Serpentine… came attacking… barely escaped… HELP!”
“Okay, okay!” One of them calmed him. Matt knew that they had believed him.
“Where is it?” a guard asked. “Show us.”
Matt led a few guards towards the forest. Suddenly, he fell to the ground again and shrieked in pain.
Daniel got the signal. Foliage sprouted from the ground and wrapped itself around the guards, right up to their mouths, so the guards couldn’t even scream.
The Scavenger rushed out from the clearing. Before the remaining guards could react, he charged straight at them and, within a few moments, knocked them out cold. Archer, James and Daniel walked up behind the Scavenger.
“Well done, Matt,” Daniel complimented. “I didn’t know you were such a good actor.”
“Good work, boys,” the Scavenger said, examining the trapped and unconscious guards.
They hastily switched clothes with the guards and stood at the rounding of the turn.
“Get ready,” the Scavenger said. “As soon as we round the turn, the guards at the gate will see us.”
The children nodded nervously. Directly attacking the guards was not an option, because they were outnumbered. Even if one guard escaped, he would alert the whole factory.
The guards at the gate nodded to whom they thought were their comrades. “What was it?” one of them asked. The Scavenger made his voice deep and gruff, and said, “False alarm. The kid was fooling us.”
The Scavenger made to open the gate, but the guard stopped him. “What do you think you are doing?” the guard asked.
The Scavenger snapped, “We have urgent business inside. Need to go to the washroom. ”
“You all want to use the washroom?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” the Scavenger affirmed. The children tried hard not to laugh.
“You think I’m stupid?” the guard said indignantly. “The Death Lord will not spare us if you were to be careless. What if a powerful intruder comes while you’re in the washroom, and we would need as much manpower as we can get? No, you can’t go. You are not allowed to use the washroom.”
“As a rule?” the Scavenger asked the guard.
“Yes!”
“Oh well, oh well!” the Scavenger said irritably, “if I was in your place, and if you wanted to go to the loo, what would I say? I would have said – please go ahead. Is there such a rule? Well if it is, then I think that this rule is the vilest, most disgusting, evil, wicked, weird, awful, unpleasant, horrific…”
“Okay, okay!” the guard said. “Go to it!
