The Heart of the Dragon
Chapter 26

When they got to the beach, Angie and her friends were forced into one of the jets where Angie spotted Hayden and some of the other hybrids being taken into another jet. Once inside, Angie couldn’t believe how big the inside of the jet was compared to the outside. If anything, she felt like she was on a spaceship from Star Wars. But seeing how big it was didn’t just make her amused, but what she saw it contained was what really scared her.

Besides the many firearms they had, they also contained experimental rooms. And she could’ve sworn she saw human bones in one room. But when she spotted the experimental tools, that’s when she began to fear the worst of what was to come to the dragons and hybrids. For all she knew, the military could put the creatures on public display like a freak show, or perhaps do experiments on them until they die. Either way, she was scared for their lives more than hers.

Pretty soon, they came upon an empty room that size of a kitchen where Angie and her friends were shoved into as the door was closed and they heard it being locked. The room had no windows and only contained bleachers for them to sit on, just like a prison cell. Angie tried to replace a way to open the door, but it was no use, it was securely locked, it didn’t even budge.

“I can’t believe this,” Tammy remarked in shock, “How could Mr. Monroe betray us like that? He just had to call the military to ruin everything and now we’re most likely going to die by the end of the day!”

“And to think I actually admired him” Angie grunted when she noticed Jackson sitting quietly on the bleachers with his head down.

She couldn’t imagine what he was going through after replaceing out that his father was willing to put his own son in danger and betray everyone.

“Jackson,” she spoke calmly, “I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” he mumbled, “I should be the one to say sorry. I should never have invited you guys, now all of our lives are in danger because of my stupid dad who only cares about being famous and rich.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault this is all happening. If you hadn’t invited us, you’d be all alone in this situation. It’s better if we work together to replace a way out of this.”

“How?” he doubted, “This is a government jet with security top doors that are impossible to get out from.”

She let out a deep sigh while slouching on the bleachers, seeing how he was right.

“I guess all we can do is wait to be rescued” Eli muttered, “Or until they come to kill us.”

In the other jet, Commander Darabont entered one of the experimental rooms where he spotted Hayden strapped and chained to the body table with both thick straps and heavy chains to hold him down with the muzzle still strapped around his mouth. As the scientists moved away to let the Commander take a look, he walked over to the hybrid who had regained consciousness as he glared up at the Commander’s face who now had the claw mark bandaged.

“I see you’re finally awake,” he noted, “I hope my workers treated you well.”

Because he couldn’t talk, all Hayden could do was shoot death glares at the man.

“You really are a magnificent being, you know that? It’s like you came right out of a fantasy novel, haft human and haft dragon, so fascinating. You are going to make me rich.”

At that moment, Hayden let out a muffled growl while struggling against his bonds.

“Oh calm down,” Commander Darabont ordered, “Just hear me out for a moment. I know what you’re thinking, but I need you to know that I’m doing this to help myself and the professor. You see, he and I recently just got bankrupt, you know what that means right? In case you don’t, it means we’re on the verge of going broke, and we can’t let that happen. So you see, you and your dragon friends are going to help us get our money back so that we won’t have to live on the streets. You’ll be doing us a good deed.”

But seeing how he and his friends were going to get tortured for it, Hayden let out another muffled growl while struggling against the bonds. He desperately wanted to scream, but with the muzzle on him, it was no use.

“Although,” the Commander added, “There is another thing you can help us with.”

He held up Angie’s heartstone necklace as Hayden felt his eyes widen.

“Miss Brighton was wearing this,” he told the hybrid, “She said it was a gift, I’m assuming it was from you, right?”

Like before, all Hayden could do was growl angrily while struggling.

“I’m guessing that’s a yes. Well, I must say, it’s a very beautiful stone, nothing I’ve ever seen before. What’s it called?”

Hayden just frowned at him, reminding him of the muzzle on his face.

“Oh, right,” the Commander pointed to the muzzle “That thing, let me just go ahead and take this part off so you can at least talk.”

Because this was a special type of muzzle, all Commander Darabont had to do was take off the front part of the muzzle so that Hayden’s mouth was showing when the hybrid tried to attack him with his sharp teeth. But due to the bonds that were still holding him down and the bars on the muzzle, he still couldn’t move and bite with the bars blocking his mouth.

“I know you want to set me on fire,” the Commander smirked, “But if you do, you still can’t get out of here. These are the best chains we have, it’s strong enough to hold down a polar bear. Struggle all you want, but I’m not letting you leave.”

“Then you let Angie and her friends go,” Hayden growled, “I know it’s me and my kind that you want, not them.”

“As right as you are, I’m afraid I can’t do that. They’ve seen too much, and we can’t let any witnesses go.”

“Then what are you gonna do to them?” he demanded.

“I’m still thinking about that.”

“If you harm them I swear-”

“You’ll do what?” he scoffed, “There’s nothing you can do being chained up. However, there’s a chance I could let them live if you answer a few questions.”

“I’m not answering anything,” he spatted, “Even if I do, how do I know you won’t kill them afterward?”

“You don’t.”

“Then I won’t answer anything.”

“Can you at least answer this?” the Commander asked while holding up the necklace “What kind of stone is this?”

Hayden let out a groan, “It’s called a Dragon Heartstone.”

“Dragon Heartstone,” he echoed, “I like it. You know, I was testing this and discovered something extraordinary. Did you know that in this stone could power an entire city for at least 3 months?”

“Interesting,” Hayden muttered dully.

“Tell me, Hayden, are there more stones like this on the island?”

“Why?” the hybrid demanded with a concerned look.

“Because if you can lead us to more of these stones, I might be willing to let your human friends go.”

“Yeah right,” he doubted, “I ain’t helping you with anything. I know that the reason you want those stones is to make more money out of it. It’s all you care about, isn’t it? Having money to satisfy your greedy self. First, you wanna experiment on me and my kind and then you want the stones to power up a city and make more money out of it. What are you trying to do, rule the world? Well, guess what Commander, that ain’t happening.”

“I’m not trying to rule anything. I’m just trying to help myself and the professor from losing everything.”

“By kidnapping us and using us for profit?” Hayden snapped, “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“Very well,” the Commander frowned, “If you won’t lead us to the stones, then tell us where we can replace them?”

“I already told you I’m not answering any questions” he growled.

“Fine, I didn’t want to do this but, I guess I’ll have to make you.”

And with that, he placed the top piece of the muzzle back onto Hayden.

“Let me just get the secret weapon,” he stated before heading out of the room, leaving the hybrid fearing on what he was planning on doing.