Chapter 14 - Back Home

*Ding!*

[Mission Complete]

[Warping in:]

[3]

[2]

[1]

The world distorted around the surviving raiders as they found themselves teleported back at the raider's meet-up area. The majority of the staff stationed there quickly ran over with towels and blankets, covering the shivering and traumatized hunters.

"Are you all okay? You've been in there for over 2 days. We were so worried!" The staff manager walked up to Fable with a cup of hot tea.

"We're okay," Fable smiled, receiving the up with thanks.

"When you all went in, the gate suddenly turned blue. We started panicking and called the Hunter Bureau HQ for help." The manager explained, leading the raiders to a temporary lodging area where they would undergo some medical examinations to ensure they were okay.

"It turned blue?" Fable frowned, turning around to look at the staff manager.

She nods, handing him a clipboard with the peculiar readings they received throughout the last two days.

"Anything else odd that happened?" Fable pushed away the curtain of the lodging tent, looking around and seeing Sarah sitting in a corner with a doctor sitting in front of her, using a needle to prick her finger.

"You okay?" Fable walked over, sitting beside her, patting her head.

"Mhm," Sarah nodded as she replied distractedly.

"What's on your mind?"

Srah looked up at Fable with a complicated expression.

"I..." She began hesitantly, "I haven't told my family about me going on his raid yet..."

Sarah lowered her head as her voice turned to a whisper.

"Didn't you tell your brother? I thought you said you gave your brother the pamphlet." Fable looked at her in surprise.

"He said no...but I already signed up by then. So I didn't have the guts to tell him."

Fable sighed as he looked up at the tent roof.

"I bet he's really worried...You were gone for 2 days,"

"I know... the raid was only meant to take half a day or so. So I thought it wouldn't have mattered if I told him or not."

"Yeah. Apparently, the gate turned blue when we went in." Fable informed her, passing her the clipboard.

"That line there is an average reading. This here is when we went in, and that giant spike there is when the gate charged color." He explained, pointing at the reading. "So we think it's difficulty or the ranking of the gate got forcefully pushed up."

"How did that happen?" Sarah gasped, staring at Fable in shock.

"We don't know yet. You just stay here until we confirm everything at the conference later today." He assured, standing up and smiling at her before leaving the tent.

Outside, Rein was standing there looking around.

"Rein?" Fable walked up to him, patting his shoulder.

"Where'd you go? Was trying to find you." Rein grumbled looking over his shoulder.

"Just went to check up on Sarah,"

"Was gonna ask. That creature. When it died, it whispered something to you and you made this weird frowning face." He imitated what he saw in an exaggerated manner. "What'd he say to you?"

Fable frowned as he thought back to the moment before looking back at Rein, patting his shoulder.

"I'll tell you at the conference tonight."

*TZZZ*

"Anyone? Hunter Union? Can anyone hear me? Over."

A small static voice rang out from a small walkie-talkie in a distance.

"We require backup! Western Ledensire. There is a.... monsters...."

Its voice crackled, slowly distorting before a loud scream and an ear-deafening crackle echoed from the walkie-talkie.

"What was that?" Rein frowned, walking over to the staff member who was also looking at his walkie-talking in confusion, trying to communicate back but to no avail.

"Gimme." Rein held out his hand, talking the instrument and inspecting it.

"Hunter Union, speaking. Are you still there? Over," He calls in.

There's no reply on the other side.

"Western Ledensire." Fable looked down sorting out his thoughts before looking up in surprise. "One of the three opened gates is in that area."

"Did the monsters inside the gate somehow come over to...?" Rein's eyes widened as looked back at Fable, handing back the walkie-talkie.

"I think so," Fable ran off, grabbing his sword and shield, beckoning a hovercar over and hopping in alongside Rein.

"What about Sarah though," Fable whacked his brain, contemplating an idea to solve Sarah's dilemma.

"Just think about that after we've dealt with this," Rein urged, giving the driver the coordinates.

Fable took a deep breath and sighed, "Fine,"

He took out his phone and texted Sarah,

'Emergency. Coming back in a bit. Wait there for me.'

"How long until we arrive?" Fable asked the driver, his eye on the time.

"Around 30 to 40 minutes I'd say." He responded, looking at the road finder on his screen.

The two hunters sucked in a breath of cold air and looked outside in a mild state of panic.

"Hopefully it's not a monster who's too strong." They thought, looking out their windows.

----

Back at the gate meet-up point, Sarah was still sitting at the corner of the lodging tent when the tent flaps flew open and an extremely worried Marcus could be seen looking around before landing his eyes on Sarah.

"B-Brother," She muttered slowly, her guilty eyes avoided eye contact.

"Y-you. I thought I lost you as well" His voice rang out as he walked over, "D-don't do something like that again,"

His voice was shivering as he stood in front of her.

"I-I'm sorry." Her voice slightly trembling as well, as tears began welling up in her eyes.

"Let's go home." She heard her brother whisper, as he held out his hand in front of him.

"B-But. I haven't finished my check-up." She replied, looking over at the doctors still analyzing and checking her blood for any unknown contracted disease and other illnesses that the world beyond the gate might contain.

"It's fine. You don't need it." He took her hand and lifted her up from the seat.

"B-But my friends told me to stay here until they're back." Sarah suddenly said, showing Marcus her phone with Fable's message.

"Where did this friend of yours go?" He frowned, looking at the name of the contact with a feeling of deja vu.

"I don't know. He said there was an emergency." She replied honestly.

"He probably just left," Marcus stated, sighing and nudging her out of the tent slowly.

"Okay, okay. I'm going. You don't have to keep pushing me." Sarah shrugged off Marcus's arm and walked alongside him instead.

"How was the adventure?" Marcus suddenly asked, breaking the silent atmosphere created between the two.

"A lot of walking." She replied.

"Really? What kind of gate was it?"

"We landed in this desert area..." Sarah began describing her journey, talking all the way to the car and home.

"...And that's how we ended up warping out."

She finished her story as the hovercar arrived, parked inside the car park of their apartment complex.

"That sounds fun," Marcus commented, opening the door of the car and stepped out.

"But, wasn't the mission to defeat one boss? Why were there twenty in the end?" He asked, making his way up onto the twentieth floor where they stayed.

"To be honest. I have no idea." Sarah replied with a shrug. "The complete message came after we defeated the last one so maybe that was the boss?"

"Or they could've been one creature spilt into twenty different ones." He suggested, digging around for his keys and opened the door to see their worried mother running up to Sarah with a big hug.

"Oh my god, Sarah! You scared me half to death!" She wept, hugging Sarah as hard as she could.

"First it was Marcus, now it's Sarah going missing for over two days. How come you both love to scare your dear mother so often. What do you guys keep getting yourselves into?" She scolded, bringing them over to the kitchen and giving them a plate of homemade sandwiches.

"Made it just then. Dad went rushing to another meeting a few hours earlier." She stated, watching them both eat with a huge smile on her face.

"Let's just hope we can just live without any more drama from now on." She muttered.