1
Eagle Strike
By
Dallas Hendrickson
Dedicated to Cady Crosby,
For inspiring a dream to words
Prologue
On February 4th 2007 I awoke at 4:00 in the morning, I had had the strangest dream I could
imagine, it had been about a 14 year old kid named Aaron, and about a race of beings that lived
amongst humans. The race of Neamodians. This book isn’t separated into chapters because I want
the reader to truly feel what I felt as I dreamt this, there was no break in the dream, no going to
get a glass of water in between chapters. So here entails the epic fantasy by Dallas Hendrickson of
the dream in which took me all over the world. When I decided to begin a writing “career” I knew what I would write, I wouldn’t write some tortoise and the hare… no, I would
write a dream. And so thus entails an epic fantasy of a dream put into words. Eagle Strike.
Eagle Strike
Swiftly, silently, and carefully, I scaled the tall building in the center of town, it was the
courthouse, I probably shouldn't have been climbing it, but risks were the one thing I was addicted
to... And then what I had come to the building for happened... A wave of darkness hit the land... Screams of pain and fear echoed in my ears, reverberating off the walls of the building... Windows
shattered, car alarms blared... The world had fallen into chaos... Then from behind me a sword wasdrawn... And I felt the blade stab through me… It was over…
"Aaron! Get up! You’re going to miss breakfast!" fourteen year old Aaron Brunaz rolled over in bed,
"five more minutes!" I mumbled, I heard the ice machine rumble from upstairs, giving an
exaggerated groan I rolled out of bed, the year was 2012, the tall dark blonde haired figure of
Aaron stumbled up the staircase, flopping down into a chair at the carved oak table the family said
a quick prayer then began the luxurious meal of eggs, toast and ham. I rubbed the sleep from my
eyes, I was a single child and was an addict of dangerous scenarios, I loved to free climb buildings,
usually stayed on the right side of the law, and had a straight “A” average in school... At least that's
what I told my friends.Truth be known I was homeschooled and I was an incredible fighter due to the years of arduous training in a Karate Dojo. I had gone through dozens of gymnastics classes and was getting quite good at it.
"It’s Wednesday Aaron, once your done with taking out the garbage you can go to the skating rink."
Mentally I was celebrating, the first Wednesday of every month, a few friends and I would go to
the skating rink. After quickly wolfing down my food I gathered up the garbage, dumped it into the
cans, and pulled it up the slanted driveway, a light frost coated the ground on the chilly spring day,
I pulled the garbage can up next to the mailbox. Then stopped.A scream? I could have sworn I had
heard it; I lived on a lake so it was normal to hear kids out wakeboarding letting out a scream as
they landed. A scream of joy... This was the opposite... A scream of terror... Of fear... I scanned the
woods across the road like a hawk, then turned and looked down the road. Nothing. I dismissed it,
and went back down the driveway.
"Hey Aaron!" came a voice from a booth near at the side of the rink, the slim form slipped inside
the building, I recognized the voice as that of my best friend Jack; Jack was a brown haired
fifteen year old, he had a strong built and could hold his ground if he had to. I strapped my skates
on, rolled my foot around, adjusted the strap, and then flew onto the rink. Jack quickly caught up to
him,
"So what's up man?" he said as we came around the corner.
"Nothing..." I replied, still a little curious about the scream earlier.
"Come on Aaron, we both know how boring your life is, what's going on?" he said sarcastically.I mumbled an excuse and he let a grin slip past his mask of a grim face, we sat on their beds for
hours practicing being able to keep a straight face at everything.Yes it was pointless, but what else
does a 14 year old do in his spare time?
"And now we’re turning the lights down for an all skate!" came a voice over the loud speaker.The
disco lights turned on as the bulbs turned off. Vanessa flew past me, she was one of my friends for
as long as I could remember.
"Hey Aaron!" she said, her blue eyes scrutinizing my every move.She whipped her long blonde hair around.
"What’s wrong?" she asked. That caught me off guard.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You just seem..." she began, then smiled, "never mind." She let out a cheery smile that could have lit
up the entire room then returned to talking with one of her friends.
Click.
"What was that?" I glanced around, Jack raised an eyebrow,
"What was what?" he asked.
"That click..." I said.
"Gosh man, you’re jumpy, you need to just cool it." he said patting me on my shoulder.
Click, click.
"That’s it!" I exclaimed agitated. I spun around, now skating backwards, and then saw it; a man in a
black mask wearing all black clothes held a gun pointed directly at Vanessa.
I spun around and flew forward knocking her off her feet landing on top of her just as the gun
fired; the bullet hit the wall in front of her head. Before I could move she was on her feet, moving
withlightening speed toward her attacker. Three more gunshots were fired, all missed, I stared
wide eyed as the girl I thought sat in a rocking chairknitting all day long, flipped over her attacker slammingher fist into his back. He spun around facing her, she had slipped off her skates, the attacker wore shoes. Spreading her hand flat she slammed it into his neck directly above the collar bone forcing himfall forward sputtering and coughing. With a ballistic force she slammed her fist into the back of his head sending himsprawling to the ground. Immediately she was upon him,
"Who sent you!" she screamed, now mask off the figure smiled
"Zerka will have a special treatment for you,and As for the boy..." the figuregrinned then looked at me
"he'll be dead before he figures it out..." then the form turned to dust...
What was I doing? I had found myself running out of the building and into another. I ran up several
flights of stairs and was now at the edge of a skyscraper, where hundreds of feet below sat the menacing earth, taunting my every motive.
"I’m not going to stop you Aaron," I heard Vanessa's voice from behind me. "This war is going to be
a heck of a lot harder without you though..." her voice trailed off.
"What do you mean...?” I said, now edging toward the air that lay beyond.
"No matter what you tell yourself, you are one of us... You are the "the one" who will destroy
Zerka..." her voice trailed off "if you don't believe me... Then jump... You'll see..." she said, her face
was grim. I'd have a lot worse death if I didn't just do this now, with that thing after me... With
that I took my final step, arms spread, I fell down... Farther and farther I plummeted toward the
earth... Then as I neared the earth I curled into a crouch position and slammed into the earth... Car
alarms blared, horns screeched, and dust engulfed me... I wasn't dead...? Was this heaven? I didn't
exactly want to think of the alternative... I felt the ground. An imprint of the impact was embedded
in the ground... I hadn't felt a thing... I stood up.
"See?" cameVanessa’s voice from behind me;she had just landed next to me. I was wide eyed "what
else can I do?" I asked excitedly, she smiled, "with time you'll be able to do practically anything, butfor now, we need to "leave no trace" that we were here.” I raised an eyebrow and then the ground beneath me turned back to the normal position, the car alarms turned off and I found myself atop the building once more.
"Like that," she grinned.
"You there! This is a restricted area!" came a voice from behind us. We spun around to see a
policeman with a gun at the ready. I glanced at Vanessa, then flipped off the ledge with her right
behind me, but this time something different happened, she swooped down grabbing my wrist and
pulling me up... Up? What was going on? As we plummeted up she dropped me on the roof of the
next building. Landing beside me she dropped to her knees. Head slumped down,
"he's here..." She said then fell over.
Everything was happening so fast, I had no idea how to use this newfound power.
"Concentrate..." I said it over and over again, then turning around to my mere horror I found the man in black clothes who was at the skating rink. A wicked smile creased his face.
"What have you done to her?" I made it more of a statement than a question.
"Only fulfilled my promise..." he smiled. I clenched my fists, focused my thoughts then flew forward
seething with rage. I slammed my fist into his gut, surprised by the sudden attack he sprawled back
quickly recovering. Opening his palms face up toward me I felt an unstoppable force throwing me
back over the ledge. Grabbing the edge with lightening speed I pulled myself back up. How had he
done that? I opened my palms like he had and focused my thoughts on a visual image of him being
thrown back. Nothing. The figure in front of me laughed,
"You are weak, chosen one!" he mocked. And then it clicked... I knew how to do it... I didn't know
how I knew it, I just did. I closed my eyes, focused my energy... Lifted my hands... Then pushed... A
wave of energy picked up the figure, sweeping him backwards off the edge.
Vanessa slowly got to her feet, staring at me in awe she began to fill in the details of what was
going on.
"We are Neamodians, a race set here by the creator to keep the world in balance; we've been there
in every war fighting alongside the soldiers. War hero’s such as George Washington, and Napoleon,
were all Neamodians. However Napoleon fell to the power of Zerka."
Seeing the question begin to form on my face she continued.
"Zerka is basically our arch enemy, he and his followers plan ondestroying the human race, to do that, they need to destroy us." She paused then continued,
"thenwe get to your powers, it'll take practice, but all you have to do is visualize what you want to have happen, and if you do it right, it'll work." she stopped once more, still hesitant to tell me everything that I can do. "Now that you know how to use your powers you can get a HUD that you can see through your eyes."
"HUD?" I asked with a raised eyebrow
"Heads Up Display, it tells you what's going on around you and your current state of health." "All of
this is controlled with a single thought."
"Sounds like a video game," I mumbled
"Many of the worldsconveniences have been taken from us. Zerka knows who you are now, he won't
stop until your dead, people you know will die because of this... Time is something we don't have, but
for now... You need your rest." And with that she vanished into the air that flowed around us.
On the walk home I began testing my newfound abilities.Turning on my HUD I was greeted by a
voice inside my head. "Ah, I see you have discovered your powers Aaron, I'm Rex, your HUD
Advisor,and I’ll be in contact with you throughout your whole life and can supply you with resources
and advice."
I smiled, then a thought crossed my mind,
"how do I reply?"
Then the voice came again,
"you just did, I can read every thought you think. In the left side of yourperipheral vision you will see a green stat menu."
Looking straight ahead I saw a green symbol appear. What was going on? My brain was working like a computer and my eyes projected the screen.
"That is correct," replied the voice
"This is really getting annoying," I mumbled.
"If you'd like this to disappear, simply say HUD off, and HUD on to make it reappear.
"How do I activate the menus," I asked, realizing he could hear what I said.
"Simply a thought," he replied. I smiled, maybe this wasn't so bad after all.
"I'm now activating all your menus, good luck! Let me know if you need anything!"
Immediately my head began to throb for a few moments then it was gone and my peripheral vision was filled withnumbers and menus.
A wry smile touched my lips, my mom always dropped me off at skating which meant she had no idea of what had happened, I sometimes caught a ride home with Jack's parents,which would explain why I hadn't called mom about picking me up. After finally reaching the house I slowly stepped onto the front porch. The silence of the house was welcoming as I stepped inside I heard my mother in the kitchen, I slipped downstairs to my bedroom, I picked up my cell phone andsaw a new voicemail, it was Jack. I hit the '2' and the message began to play.
"Aaron! I've been set up! The cops think I killed you! A body was found on our porch it looked
identical to you! They have me in some sort of prison holding cell and this was my one call. Get
lawyers or something! Get me out of here!" The line went dead.
"To save this message press 1, toreplay--" I slammed the phone shut and threw it across my room. A clone... This thing cloned me and killed the clone making it seem like Jack killed me... I slumped down on my bed... What was I going to do?
Two hours later I found myself on a rooftop just outside the jailhouse that he was being kept in.
"You sure you want to do this?" came the voice inside my mind.
“This is all I can do,” I replied. I had decided to get Jack out of there without a lawyer; I'd do it on
my own... The hard way... I jumped off the building landing on the ground infront of the door. I
wore dark sunglasses and black clothes. I stepped inside to find myself greeted by a clerk.
"Can I help you?" came the voice of a young man; he seemed to be in his early twenties. I turned
toward him,
"Actually… You can…” my voice was dark as I began to visualize the desk
he sat behind fly forward pushing him back, then with a quick rush of adrenaline, I felt the power surge through my body as the defying force of the desk slammed the young man against the wall.
Shouts rang out from the adjacent room, turning; I met face to face with two shocked police
officers. Visualizations flew through my head as the officers slammed together with a thud and a
crunch of bones. Rage seethed through me as I stepped past their crumpled forms.
I quickly found my way to the holding cells; the world was a lot crueler than it had been merely five
years ago. A new world leader had made prisons Hell's lair, and this one was no exception, a rat
scurried between my legs. Mold coated the dimly lit walls, prisoners moaned. I walked slowly down
the isle of metal cages. Nearing the end I turned to see Jack, slumped over on a bench. Laying my
hands on the bars, my mind began to visualize a scenario, then putting it into action I yanked on the
bars pulling the door right off its hinges. Throwing it behind me I stepped inside, the withered
form of Jack slowly looked up at me... "Aaron...?" he croaked, rage coursed through my body at his
current state. Lifting him up, I threw him over my shoulder and began to run out, being stopped by a
small army of police officers, I soon managed to collapse a wall onto them and moved on. I ran out of that God forsaken place visualizing myself being propelled up onto a nearby rooftop I felt an irresistible force throw me upward.
After quickly laying him down, checking his vitals, I made my way back to his house.
I gently laid his withered form down on the porch, rang the doorbell, and ran.
I found myself sitting at my desk, papers scattered the top and around the ground, drawings of body armor, cloaks, and symbols scattered my floor. The doorbell rang, I heard voices downstairs as my parents talked with whoever was at the door, I heard the quick patter of someone coming up the stairs, being that the study was dimly lit it took me a moment to recognize the slim form of Vanessa. I made a failed attempt at a smile, she glanced around at all the papers.
"And this is...?" she asked, expecting me to finish the sentence. I indicated the clothes I was wearing,
"If I'm supposed to be this thing you’re talking about, these clothes are going to be pretty lame." The ever present frown creased my face as she sat down next to me.