Found Ian
Vivian was surprised by the answer she got. He did not see him? What is that supposed to mean? He
did not see Duncan with me? But we fell into this place at the same time, so how could Kurt have missed
him?
Vivian still could not figure out what he was talking about, but when she looked up, she realized that
Kurt was looking angry for some reason. She stopped asking him questions and let him take her
deeper into the cave.
About twenty minutes later, Kurt finally took her to a place that was bright enough to see. Miraculously,
he wasn’t even wheezing or panting at the end of the journey.
“What is this place?”
“The base Eddie built years ago. Vivi, stay right here and don’t run around, okay? I’ll go inside and take
Ian out with me,” Kurt told her curtly and placed Vivian on a stone that looked like a table.
Wait, this is Eddie’s underground base?
When Vivian finally processed the news, she was overwhelmed by a sense of disbelief.
What? How did this happen? I thought we are under a waterfall! How did we even get to this place
anyway? Daddy and Mommy told me that this place is a forbidden area, and it is already cordoned off. It
shouldn’t even have an entrance, so how did we even get in here?
When realization struck her, she was terrified. Knowing that moving around might invite unwanted
attention, she quickly sat on the stone and tried her best to remain still.
After placing her in a safe spot, Kurt turned around and leaped away. A moment later, he was nowhere to
be found. If Vivian could see that, she would have been shocked.
Oh, right. I forgot to ask Kurt. How did he get here? He’s supposed to be in school. Why’d he suddenly
show up out of nowhere? But more importantly, how did he even take me back up here?
Vivian had a lot of questions, but she had no one to get the answers from at the time being.
After Kurt left the earlier spot, he quickly came to an important entrance of the underground base. He
found it easily thanks to the map he came across before.
Nobody knew that Sebastian had given the place’s blueprint to SteelFort long before he got in trouble.
After SteelFort got the blueprint, Karl gave it to some of the people he trusted the most. One of them was
Kurt, a protector of the Jadesons.
Kurt stepped onto the stone bridge, and the moment he did, he noticed a pair of footprints on the ground
through the dim light that illuminated the surroundings.
He went down to measure the size, and it was about the size of a sixteen-year-old boy. Is this Ian’s
footprint? Or could it be Duncan’s?
The look in his eyes grew colder, and as he followed the trail of footprints, the sound he made became
fainter and fainter.
About ten minutes later, the path opened up, and through the darkness, he noticed a lot of ruined
weapons lying at the side. There were guns, knives, and all sorts of weapons.
It was a treasure trove of weapons, but alas, they were all destroyed. Kurt looked at them calmly and
went ahead without even stopping.
Suddenly, he heard a loud sound coming from ahead. He focused his gaze through the darkness, then
he took big strides into the unknown.
A boy gasped in horror as he looked at Kurt, who appeared behind him out of nowhere, and he
blanched.
Kurt paused for a moment when he saw the young man before him. “Ian? Is that you?”
A moment later, he calmed down and eased up a little. He thought he was in for a fight, so he was
surprised to see Ian instead.
The boy Kurt found was none other than Ian, but he was not in the best condition at the moment. His
whole body was stained with mud, and there were cuts on his face. Anyone who saw him would feel sad
about it.
Ian picked up the stainless steel item that fell earlier, and he looked at Kurt in surprise. “Yeah, that’s me.
What brings you here? How did you find this place anyway?”
Kurt calmed down and explained, “I came back since I’m on break. Mrs. Hayes said you guys came to
the waterfall, and I was worried, so I came too.”
“I see.” Ian now understood why Kurt showed up all of a sudden. He put down the stuff he was holding,
and then he rubbed his leg. It was still injured, and he frowned from the pain. “Yeah, I have a situation
here.”
“What kind of situation?”
“Duncan fell down when we came to the waterfall. After that, I tied myself to a steel rope and rappelled
down, but I knocked my head against something halfway through and blacked out. When I woke up
again, I was already in this cave.” Ian pointed at his head. He was still feeling dizzy at that point.
Kurt looked at him, and it was then he realized that Ian had a bigger wound on his forehead. It was still
bleeding as they spoke.
Worried, Kurt quickly took his backpack and unzipped it, then he took out some bandages and a bottle of
salve. “I’ll clean your wound. It’ll be problematic if you get infected.”
Ian contemplated it in silence for a few moments, then he allowed Kurt to clean his wound. Ian was a
smart person. From the moment Kurt came to their home, he knew Kurt was no ordinary young man as
he claimed.
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