Kid Combat: Curse of the Red Beryl

By Christopher Helwink

CRACK! BOOM! Fireworks explode all around a small girl. SAMANTHA, 13, races between the blasts on an all-terrain vehicle piloted by her friend, CONNOR – code named Gears. Behind them, the men chasing never see the bursts of light coming and crash into neighboring trees.

As SAMANTHA escapes, she clutches onto the prize that she has stolen from Jones’s mansion – an ancient book of text named The Book of Darkness. With it, Samantha and her group of DEFENDERS hope to decipher what mysterious activities Jones is planning and save the town from his evil ways.

The next day, KYLE CHRISTENSEN moves to his new home of Elmcrest. Kyle is a typical thirteen-year-old boy with an attitude about everything and has not yet found his calling in life. He is a genius who can figure out anything in the blink of an eye and gets bored at school fast. His father, PETER, recently agreeing to work for Jones, warns Kyle that this opportunity is a great one and not to do anything that could spoil their future.

While Peter settles in to his new job, Artie Jones reveals to him the reason he has been hired and shows him the secret that lies beneath the mansion. The two travel down six hundred feet to a cave whose walls are lined with an ancient scripture embedded into it. Peter learns that his primary job is to decipher the ancient script so Jones can find the RED BERYL – the rarest of the precious gems – and a link to the power of the gods – as foretold in The Book of Darkness. Jones demands Peter stay at the mansion until his work is complete or never see his family again.

As Kyle tries to fit into his new home, he stumbles upon Samantha and her group of friends. In the back of a Curio Shop filled with strange wonders, Kyle meets the rest of Samantha’s crew. Gears – the computer expert, an oddball set of adrenaline junkie, always bickering with each other set of twins named Rocket and Wedge, and finally their mentor, Charlie Thompson, the old man that runs the shop and guides the group. Together, they show Kyle that Jones is not all what he seems. Since Kyle’s dad moved their family to work for Jones, he begins to worry about his dad’s safety.

Once Peter goes missing, at the hand of Jones, Kyle rises to the challenge and enlists Samantha and her friends to help rescue his father. As Kyle and the Defenders make a charge on Jones’s Mansion, the heart of the story is the rescue of Peter and the rise of Kyle fulfilling his destiny of becoming Kid Combat...the last legend in the Book of Darkness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Helwink
• Release date: Sep 28, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452374048

Christopher Helwink

Christopher A. Helwink was born and raised in Elmhurst, Illinois. After ten years of working in technical engineering, he turned to writing young adult books.The first volume - Curse of the Red Beryl - is currently being published by Wheatmark Inc. The second book in the series is nearing completion and the third volume is in its initial planning stages.Besides writing, Christopher enjoys an array of sports. You can find him playing hockey, baseball, golf, and tennis in his small amount of free time. As well as putting the finishing touches on his 1966 Mustang.

Book preview

Kid Combat

VOL I— Curse of the Red Beryl

Christopher A. Helwink

Published by Wheatmark at Smashwords

Copyright 2007 Christopher A. Helwink

Discover more at www.kidcombat.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter One: The Escape

9:30 p.m.

Running through a dark tunnel, a teenage girl wearing a yellow hard hat with a flashlight taped to the side races for her life. This is Sam, thirteen. She is clutching a bulky package in a grocery bag close to her chest.

The tunnel is a secret shaft belowground leading up to—and for Sam, away from—a mansion in a remote area of Elmcrest. The tunnel is approximately eight feet in height, with barely any lighting. The walls are circular but uneven. The ground beneath Sam’s feet is wet and sticky. Her feet struggle to gain speed as she flees for her life.

Behind her, shafts of light pierce the darkness. There are pissed-off people chasing her. Five men, to be exact, each man carrying a flashlight of his own and running at top speed. As the tunnel continues onward, they gain on the small girl.

Sam is average height for her age and skinny. Her strawberry-blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail under her hard hat, tossed back and forth. Her legs ache as she races away from her pursuers.

Frantically, Sam taps a small switch on her headset. Gears! Come in! Gears??

An excited, static-filled voice comes over her headset. I’ve got you! Don’t worry about a thing!

Outside the tunnel, near a stretch of woods on the perimeter of the mansion, a teenage boy sits with his laptop. This is Gears, Sam’s closest friend. Gears is a super-smart African American teenage computer geek. His eyes, frenzied, follow the surveillance images set up on his laptop. The small white dot on his screen represents Sam. Also on his screen are five additional white dots – which represent the men chasing her.

Sam, I think they’re gaining on you! Gears says over his headset.

Tell me something I don’t know! Sam yells back, not in the mood. Just get me outta here!

Okay, okay, Gears responds and starts looking at the plans of the tunnel. You’re good as long as you don’t lose sight of…

A crash! Sam loses her footing and falls to the ground. The flashlight on the side of her helmet flickers out. She is in the dark.

Sam? Are you okay? Gears yells into his headset. He waits for an answer.

Sam, meanwhile, gets up to her knees and gives the flashlight a smack, and it comes to life.

Yeah, I’m fine, Sam finally responds. She turns around and sees the flashes of light right behind her. She can almost make out the faces of the men behind her—which means they can almost make hers out too.

Sam, there’s a ladder to your left. Do you see it? Gears’s voice has even more static in it since the fall.

Sam never responds as she takes off for the ladder.

Stop! a voice from behind Sam screams out. She can make out a thug pointing at her.

Sam not missing a beat, reaches onto her belt and pulls out two homemade smoke canisters, opens them, and rolls them down the tunnel toward her pursuers. Within seconds the tunnel is full of smoke, and Sam hears men coughing as she reaches out and feels the rung of a ladder.

Sam? Sam? Gears says agitatedly into his headset. No answer. Doggone it, Sam! I’m coming for you!

Gears starts packing up his laptop and stuffs it into his backpack. He gets up and starts to run toward the mansion.

Under her breath, Sam exclaims, Coming for me? Ha! Somehow, I’ll have to save him! She hoists herself up the ladder.

Gears races through the woods, talking into his headset. You guys good to go? He again receives no answer and tries once more. Guys? Anyone?

On a hill overlooking the mansion, an abandoned headset and cell phone sit on the ground. The headset once again goes off. Guys? I’m on the floor of the woods again, aren’t I? I’m gonna kill both of you!

Gears makes it across the forest to a clearing and behind a small mound. This is where his ATV is hidden. He takes off the camouflage, puts his laptop into a small compartment in the back, and kicks the ATV into gear.

-

Sam is crawling up the ladder in a cloud of smoke when she sees a hatch above her. Just as she gets the hatch open and is about to break through, a hand from the tunnel grabs her leg!

Sam kicks back at whoever has her ankle. She lets out a crazy shout of no known linguistic origin: HIYAHHHAGH! It works! Freeing herself, she shoves herself through the hatch at the top of the ladder. This leads her to a small tunnel off to her right, which she crawls through. At the end of the tunnel is a ladder leading up. As she climbs, Sam sees the night sky.

As she continues to climb, her exact location is inside an old wishing well in the backyard of the mansion. The overwrought—and over decorated—wishing well is five feet in diameter and in the middle of the immense back lawn. Finding herself inside the well comes as no surprise to Sam, as it was her entrance into the secret passage minutes earlier, leading her up to the mansion.

As Sam is making her way up, Gears, on the ATV, comes to a skidding halt in front of the wishing well. He runs up to the well and sees his friend almost upon him. As Sam is about to speak, she is grabbed again, this time by both ankles, and is pulled back down into the wishing well. Gears’s eyes bug out, and he tries to grab Sam.

Reach! Gears yells at Sam. She is just able to grab his hands. Gears yanks with all his might, and he and Sam land in a tangle of arms and legs on the back lawn.

You call that running? Gears says in a nervous panic.

You call that rescuing? Sam snaps back. They share a look, and both jump to their feet. The ominous mansion in the background lights up with activity, and they see the flashlights of even more men spilling out of the mansion.

Time to go! Gears says. Without an argument from Sam, they both race toward the driver’s seat of the ATV.

What are you doing? Gears asks.

Getting us out of here! Sam responds, and she hops on and kicks the ATV into gear.

I did the rescuing, I do the driving! Gears says.

You really want to argue this now? Sam asks as she points out toward the mansion.

The men are clearly visible. Suddenly, the two friends hear what sounds like a gunshot. Gears leaps on the back of the ATV without saying another word.

As the two take off and race away from the well, Sam does not notice her necklace, damaged in the fall with Gears, slide off her neck and onto the lawn. The two race across the grounds of the mansion, away from it, toward the forest where Gears started the night.

Sam, knowing they are still far from escaping danger, shouts into her headset. Guys? You are there, right? Tell me you have a plan!

Back on the small hill overlooking the mansion, a boy steps up and picks up the abandoned phone and headset left in the woods. This is Wedge. He is a very unusual-looking fourteen-year-old boy with severely bent glasses that were last in style in 1975. There is definitely something off about Wedge.

Oh, yeah. We’re here, Wedge says into the headset. In front of him steps another version of Wedge. This is Rocket—his twin brother. Everything about the twins is the same. Same blonde hair, same dark eyes, even the same glasses bent the same way. Rocket is holding something that looks to be a double-barreled shotgun. He cocks it.

And we definitely have a plan!

Speeding away from the mansion and toward the twins, Sam reassures them. I have total faith in you guys! She disconnects the headset and turns back to Gears. I have no confidence in those guys! Can’t this thing go any faster?

We are fighting Newton’s second law of motion, Gears interjects, where he states that external forces cause objects to accelerate directly proportional to the weight of the object.

Holy cow! Did you just call me fat? Sam blurts out, dodging a tree.

Gears, embarrassed, tries to regroup. No! I just mean … I just wish I had a bigger engine is all!

The two reach the tree line. They whiz passed Wedge and Rocket. As they do, a few meters away, Wedge and Rocket watch them fly by. Wedge turns to his brother, Rocket.

Targets acquired!

Wedge and Rocket position themselves on opposite sides of a narrow path. They each screw scopes into their shotgun-looking devices just as Sam and Gears whiz by them.

Weapons hot! Wedge yells to his brother. Rocket taps his head and loads a cartridge into the device. He cocks it and gives his brother a thumbs-up.

The half-dozen ATVs driven by the mysterious