Chapter 3

The hunt for a Morgendorffer

Daria makes her way to the soon to be rebuilt tower of Lawndale, as she makes her way she stops suddenly when the beep on her radio starts pinging loudly…

She pulls out the whistle as she holsters the radio; she blows on it as no sound comes out. A little rumble is heard on the ground, Daria takes a few steps back as the ground itself begins to lift little by little…and with a great huge force, a tall man bursts out of the concrete with a single punch.

The man climbs out with he’s black hat covering his face, he’s black trench coat and black boots and pants.

The man looks around to see who blew on the whistle…he then turns around to see Daria once more

“You…”

The man looked at her like if he was about to charge her…to kill her, but he did no such thing; the man saluted her as he started at her.

Daria was, a little confused at the gesture but she shook her head and saluted…knowing that doing something that didn’t resemble Angeline would mean the death of her.

The radio beeps once more as Angeline calls her, Daria picks up the radio “I got him…you didn’t mention it was Jack”

“If I told you that you wouldn’t have done it now would you?”

Daria lowered the radio and looked at Jack, he was still staring at her with concern…Jack leaned forward looking at her closer

“Now bring him back here…I need to get Jack here on the double.”

Angeline turns off the radio on her side as the military men chat with each other

“You think the pay is good for this?”

“It’s a cult man; you don’t get paid in cults”

Another soldier stands up as he hears the conversation

“She did mention we were getting paid”

“Frankly in my opinion, I don’t really care what we are fighting for…as long as were paid right?”

The military men all nod as Angeline comes inside the military bunk room “You are getting paid” Angeline looks at the soldiers with concern

“So you don’t care what we fight for?”

“That’s how it’s always been right?”

“But Novus Vita fights for everyone’s hopes and dreams, isn’t that cause worth fighting for?”

The soldier stands up to make up a point

“We are mercenaries, we don’t really care what this supposed ex-cult fights for, we just do it for the money.”

Another soldier stands up

“It’s true…In war you fight for what you believe in…or you’re forced to fight for something you didn’t even care about…just like now”

The soldier looks around the area

“For example, I didn’t even care about Novus Vita until you hired us as hired guns…that’s what we are, we fight for the side who paid us to fight…so in other words, we are just men who fight for money”

Angeline looks at the soldiers, they told the truth…every hired gun knows their destiny…Angeline lifted her head up

“That may be true, but you’re still getting paid to do the job right”

Another soldier salutes

“That’s why we’re here”

The door opens to reveal Daria and Jack entering the bunker “Good job” Daria looks at Angeline who seems to be calmer this time, this only brings up more questions on her mind.

“Why so calm know?”

Angeline looks at Daria with her hands on her back, she turns around and walks away from her, Daria remains confused once again as she huffs frustrated.

“She goes through a lot of stuff”

One of the soldiers speaks out to Daria as Jack sits on the nearby bench. “And I should care because?”

“Hey we don’t care either, we’re hired guns”

Daria looks at them “I knew it” she stands up and stares at them “So why are you here then? Don’t you belong in the military?”

“We did, but now we are hired guns, simple as that”

“There’s always a story behind it”

“True, but there is no story for us, we’re just mercenaries, nobody ever cares about the hired guns”

Daria looked at them concerned “You don’t care for Novus Vita then?”

“As long we are getting paid…then no, we don’t care about an ex-cult”

One of the soldiers looks at he’s fellow companion

“At least that’s what she told us”

Daria looks at him “What do you mean?”

“Yea…some people say that Novus Vita is actually-“

“That’s quite enough chatter” Angeline comes in as the soldiers stand up and salute “Daria, you did well…and you weren’t followed…so I guess you’re free.”

Daria was even more shocked by hearing those words “I’m……free?”

Daria leans forward and points angrily at Angeline “Are you freaking kidding me!? You’re just going to let me go just like that!!”

“Either you go or I change my mind and kill you on sight.”

Daria stared at her for a few seconds before turning around and opening the door half way, before she leaves she turns to Angeline once more

“Why are you letting me go?”

Angeline crosses her arms while glaring at her

“I believe I’ve got a certain…surprise for you.”

Daria raises an eyebrow concerned…”What do you mean.”

“Walk out the door and you will find out.”

Daria turns around and closes the door after she walks out…a huge hum is heard all over the city…

“Attention people of Lawndale!!”

“That voice” Daria immediately turns around and tries to open the door, the door this time, is locked on the other side...

Daria is unable to open the door no matter how strong she pulled.

“Gah!”

“My name is not important…but what I’m about to request is very…very important.”

Daria runs out towards the streets were a bunch of people have gathered up, hearing the loud voice on the city.

“I belong to an ex-cult…the name might have been heard…the name is Novus Vita.”

The people start commenting each other, some loud, some whispering and some excited and angry. Daria was among the crowd, she then saw a flicker of a screen turn on one of the skyscrapers.

The image of Angeline could be seen wearing a soldier’s mask.

“I am going to say this once……there is a person…her name is Daria Morgendorffer…”

Everybody immediately turns around to see Daria among the crowd; she backs off slowly while looking at everyone.

“If this person…”

Daria looked behind her to see a wall

“Is not dead in ninety minutes…”

Daria started looking everywhere for an opening while the people kept staring at her

“I will blow up the hospital…the retirement for seniors…the airport.”

The people started screaming at each other as Daria looked at the screen in shock “Angeline……you son of a…”

“And not only that…but I’m afraid the daycare centers where children are located…will be blown up as well…”

Daria started running towards the alley to save herself from the crowd

“Oh and every five minutes that passes while Daria Morgendorffer is still alive…I will blow up random houses with families in it…”

The people immediately started panicking in shock; one of them turns to see Daria running in an alley.

“There she goes!!” The man points at her as others pull out some guns to and immediately start shooting blindly at the alley.

As Daria evades the bullets trying to hit her…a large car van pulls out from the darkness, the door opens to reveal a wonderful sight, at least to Daria

“Get in”

Daria sighed with relief as she jumped inside the van while the people still took a shot at her with bullets flying by.

It was none other than Jane Lane and Trent who was driving the van.

“Where the hell were you!?”

“Angeline kept me in a damp cell, I’m sorry she just let me free”

“No wonder she let you free THE WHOLE CITY IS AFTER YOU!”

Daria crouched to avoid bullet fire coming outside

“Trent drive faster!”

Among the others who were in the van was Jessie, a fellow member of Mystik Spiral.

He was looking at Daria coldly while at the same time worried.

Daria was crouched with her legs together; she had her arms wrapped on her legs

Jane was armed with her shotgun as she looked at them both, she took a closer look at Jessie for the way he was staring at Daria.

“Jessie”

Jessie shook his head and looked at Jane “Huh? Oh what’s up?”

“Something wrong?”

“No no…I’m good”

“Then why the cold stare at Daria.”

Trent was driving like crazy as he avoided the people who were after them, but he was hearing the conversation.

Daria looked at Jessie; she saw a holster on his pants.

“He has a gun”

Jane looked at Jessie “Give me the gun”

“Why? I need to protect myself with it.”

“The way you’re staring at Daria almost looks like you’re going to kill her”

“Why because my mother is in the hospital?”

Jane looks at him coldly and concerned “I never mentioned the hospital”
Jessie starts breathing a little heavily as his arm moves slowly to the holster.

Daria looks at him as she stands up slowly, preparing herself.

“Jessie…give me the gun now”

Jessie looks at Jane as he puts his hand on the holster “Why?”

“Give me the gun”

“No”

“Jessie give me the damn gun”

Jessie looks down at the ground for a moment; he looks at Daria once more, staring coldly at her

Daria moves slowly behind Jane

“Give me the gun Jessie…or were gonna have a problem.”

Bullets were still striking the car as it drives through the streets…and to top it off, an explosion is heard from afar

Jessie takes this opportunity to pull out his handgun while Jane pulls out her shotgun

“Drop it!”

“No! Can’t you see? Every minute that passes is death to all those people, are you really going to risk you’re friends life in exchange for the people of this city!?”

Jane stares at him as Daria pulls out a handgun from one of the lockers and shoots Jessie’s hand

Jessie grunts as he lets go of his gun in pain, the gun drops on the floor.

“Daria!” Daria immediately points at Jane with her gun

“What………what are you doing Morgendorffer.”

“Save it, isn’t your mother coming in from the airport today?”

Jane’s eyes widen as she remembers her mother’s phone call earlier that day…

Jane now knew that one of her family members was in trouble if Daria did not die.

Jane looked at her as Trent kept on driving…but Trent was thinking about his mother too…coming in from the airport only to be blown up for just one person.

“See? You both want to kill me now; if she died because of me you would have blamed it on me anyway…” Daria pointed the gun at Jane’s head as she walked quietly backwards towards the van’s sliding door.

“Daria listen to me, we want to help you!”

Daria was getting ready to get out of the car while opening the door…a person tries to shoot down Daria with his assault rifle.

Daria in retaliation closes the door while gasping for air.

“You will get killed out there without us!”

“Would you really risk a family member because of me…would you really!?” Daria points the gun at Jane as she stands there looking at her, Daria lowers her guard for a second and faces Trent “What about you Trent?” Jane takes the opportunity to point the shotgun at her with one hand on the shotgun…Daria does the same by pointing the gun at her face.

“Drop it!”

“You first”

The two of them were face to face once again…the two of them stared at each other coldly…while waiting for one to either pull the trigger, or lower her guard.

“Daria I want to help you…”

“Not in that tone you aren’t.”

Both of them were sweating for the upcoming revelation, the two of them were right there pointing their guns at critical instant death shots.

“Drop the gun or I will make you drop it”

“Like I said you first, I can’t afford to trust anybody”

“Not even your best friend?”

“Not even you”

Trent finally got a chance to speak as he was still driving to avoid the people around him, thumps were heard.

“Hey, you two stop it, don’t kill each other over this…you guys are better than them…you have to get Angeline if you want to stop this.”

“We will Trent…as soon as Daria starts trusting me”

“You wish.”

Another explosion is heard as a close house is blown up mercilessly…

“Daria were was Angeline’s location?”

“It was close to the big skyscraper screen…in one of the alleys”

“Gotcha”

Daria and Jane were still point the gun at each other…as Jessie was quietly trying to get the gun…

Jane pointed at Jessie “Don’t!” this gave Daria the opportunity to shoot at him once more…this time injuring his arm

Jane also took this opportunity to grab Daria, performing a hold maneuver on her by grabbing her arm, pulling it to the back and pinning her on the floor

“Let go of me!!”

“This is for your own good” Jane turns Daria around and points the shotgun at her. “Now are you going to let me help you?”

Daria stared at her coldly as she was pinned down…she had no choice but to nod…

“Fine…fi-fin-fine……just get the gun away from me” Jane drops the shotgun and stands up, she gives her hand to Daria so she can stand…Daria stands up and immediately pulls Jane towards her, landing a punch directly to her face, knocking her out.

Daria sighs lightly as she picks up the shotgun and the three boxes of shells on the cabinet; she also picks up five handgun magazines and holsters them in her pockets on her jacket.

“Sorry” Daria was kneeling towards Jane to check on her, Jane hastily stood up and pinned her down once more, making Daria drop the shotgun again.

“Dammit!”

“I knew you were going to hit me…you’re stance…you know Taekwondo too?”

Daria was grunting in pain as she was pinned down “Yea...but that was a new technique I wanted to try.”

“It didn’t work” Jane stood up to pick up her shotgun…allowing Daria for perfect leg control.

Daria immediately turns around using her legs to wrap on Jane’s body and pin her down on the floor turning the tables.

Both of them were breathing heavily “How many years did it take you to learn self defense?”

“Two”

“Meh” Jane punched Daria in the face causing her to fall downwards on the floor, Jane got up and run towards her shotgun, Daria immediately retaliated by kicking her on stomach, this made her grunt in pain.

Jane retaliated with a roundhouse kick, blocked hastily by Daria with her hand and immediately Daria jumped and kicked Jane on her face, causing her to be knocked out this time.

Trent stops the car at the alleyway where Angeline resided…the door was now open, Daria picked up the shotgun once more

“Sorry, I can’t trust anyone right now.”

Trent got up from his seat and got closer to Daria “Whoa hold on, we really want to help you.”

“I’m sorry Trent…I can’t trust any-“ Daria immediately feels a sharp hit on her neck as she slumps on the floor fainted on the spot.

Jane was right behind her with her hand raised; she looked at Trent “Keep her in the car.” She picked up her shotgun and pulled out the shells Daria had in her pockets.

Jane jumped out of the van.

“Take care of her”

“Sure, No problem”

Jane went into the open door…where Angeline made the broadcast.