War of the Fathers

by Dan Decker

  Chapter 15

  Tere cursed under his breath as Adar wished for better cover. They had been close enough to Arnie's blacksmith shop to hide in several small bushes at the side of the building. Adar was doing his best to keep from moving but found it hard. Feeling exposed made him uncomfortable. The bush wasn't much cover, but it was his only alternative for the moment. The Hunwei were everywhere and moving would mean capture or death.

  There was a ringing in Adar's ears. He feared it meant he would be left partially deaf. His head felt like somebody had put a bell on it and rung it for hours. His arm was bleeding but to his great relief he found that it hadn't affected his ability to use it. The blood would clot soon, so he put it from his mind. He checked the rest of his body as best he could from his crouch and determined he hadn't sustained any other notable injuries.

  Tere was crouched in the bush in front of Adar and had a huge gash on his forehead. The blood from the wound had already covered half his face. His eyes were alert and Adar believed that was the worst that he'd suffered. It was a small wound as well and shouldn't keep them from moving when the time came.

  For a brief moment, Adar felt like nothing had ever happened between them. He was reminded of a time they'd nearly been killed during a skirmish with some bandits. Tere had saved him from being maimed. It was a shame they'd lost their friendship. The regret washed away quickly. It was too late to go back now.

  A man fell several feet in front of them and a large armored figure loomed above Adar. The Hunwei glanced down at the man, looked away, and pulled something to his shoulder. Fire erupted from the end, illuminating the Hunwei's armor. The Hunwei must not have noticed them; otherwise, he would have been aiming their direction. The light from the blasts reflected off the helmet and the rest of the armor. It was the first real look that Adar had gotten of the Hunwei. The creature towered over the people. The helmet obscured most of the head and there was a faceplate with a place for the Hunwei to see. The light reflected off the eye cover, making them seem to glow and completing the Hunwei's unearthly look.

  Adar should have dragged Jorad to Rarbon months ago, back when he started feeling uneasy. He'd been angry with Jorad for not telling him about his encounter with the Ou Qui, but Adar was actually angry with himself. He'd had a premonition that this was going to happen and he'd ignored it.

  The Hunwei fired repeatedly. Each time the blast from the end of the thing he held to his shoulder lit up his armor. After several more explosions from his blaster—what else could it be?—the Hunwei moved away from them.

  Similar explosions came from all around as Adar examined the dead man several feet in front of them. A hole had been burned all the way through his chest. Light from a ship passing overhead showed the ash, mixed with blood, flesh, and bone that covered the ground where the man had fallen.

  Adar didn't dwell on the scene and surveyed the town square. Fire burned everywhere he looked. The fire, the continuing blasts from the Hunwei weapons, and the light from the roving Hunwei ships above them lit up the town square to the point that he had a good idea what was going on.

  As he viewed the scene before him, trying to formulate some semblance of a plan, he gradually became aware of the smell. It had always been there he was sure, but the smell of burning flesh and smoke began to assail him to the point that he noticed. With everything else going on, he hadn't been paying attention. It made him feel weak in the stomach. He closed his eyes and calibrated his mind. He needed to rescue Jorad, now wasn't the time to let weakness overcome him.

  He turned his attention back to the scene of death and carnage he was witnessing. While some of the Hunwei were firing blasters and killing everything they came across, most of the others were gathering people into the middle of the town square. Adar seemed to remember Semal mentioning that the Hunwei had taken many slaves.

  Tere growled. Adar looked at the man that had at one time been like a brother. Even now behind the fear in Tere’s eyes, the anger and hatred burned. One small oath was all that kept Tere from trying to kill him. Adar doubted that even the Hunwei would be reason enough to stay his hand. Would Tere see this as his final opportunity to get revenge on Adar?

  The explosions weren't coming quite so often now but they were still occurring at a steady rate. The street that they'd come from was littered with bodies and Hunwei were continuing to march captives into the middle of the square.

  “What happened to the others?” Adar asked, he hadn't been able to find Karn, Tarner, or Lous.

  “They were behind me when the explosions started,” Tere said. “I saw Tarner trip.”

  They fell silent again for some time, watching the mass of swarming people in the square grow substantially. There were now multiple Hunwei patrolling the outside perimeter.

  “The gods have cursed us.” Adar surveyed the crowd, hoping Jorad wasn’t there.

  The people in the square far outnumbered the Hunwei surrounding them. If Adar could get his hands on one of the Hunwei weapons and figure out how to use it, they might have a chance. Tere mumbled something Adar couldn’t make out but he didn’t ask for a clarification.

  “Tarner,” Tere said pointing to the prisoners. “You see him?”

  “That's him all right.” Adar recognized the sharp angular face of Tarner. He was surprised to see that Tarner was still armed with his sword, but with the armor the Hunwei wore, maybe an armed man wasn’t much of a threat to them.

  “Never figured he'd end up this way,” Tere muttered.

  “The others are probably there as well.” Adar scanned the crowd, looking to see if he could spot Karn and Lous. He recognized most of the people and while he didn't know many of them by name, he knew who they were. He felt a sharp stab of guilt when he noticed the women and children that had been taken captive. When Adar recognized Soret in the crowd, his heart sunk. He examined everybody close to her, trying to see if Jorad was with her. He couldn't tell and he'd only caught a glimpse of Soret. Jorad could very well be with her.

  He hadn't thought of trying to rescue Tarner or any of the others, but seeing Soret changed his mind. If Jorad was there, Adar had no choice but to go get him and everybody else. If Jorad wasn't there, he'd never forgive Adar for leaving her.

  “Let’s go,” Adar stood.

  “We can’t just walk out there,” Tere hissed from the bush.

  “Doubt they’ll stop us from joining them.”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “Mass exodus. Unless you want to leave Tarner.”

  Adar stepped out of the shadows and walked towards the crowd. Tere followed him. As much as possible Adar avoided looking down at the bodies. They hadn’t made it five steps when he heard snarling from behind.

  Adar turned and faced the Hunwei, looking into the face of the creature. He was able to see the orange eyes that seemed to glow. The Hunwei motioned with his weapon towards the center of the square. Adar eyed the blaster, it might be his only chance to get one, and he was tempted to try, but then he’d have to run if that failed. He doubted the Hunwei would let him live through the attempt.

  “Just on our way there,” Adar said.

  “You’re not excluding us from all the fun.” Tere smiled.

  The bulge of one of Adar’s daggers dug into his side and he ached to try for the Hunwei's eye, but he turned and marched towards the crowd of captives. Tarner and Karn found them when they joined the group.

  “Fools!” Tarner said. “Should have run when you had the chance. Now we’re all stuck.”

  Tere said something but Adar didn’t hear and he wondered if the ringing in his ears would ever go away. He noticed Soret and headed in her direction. The people were scared and many showed signs of shock, several people lay on the ground. Whether they were passed out or dying he didn't stop to check. They had to act quickly.

  “Be prepared to run,” Adar said as he passed. “Run when I attack. Pass it on.” Too many stared numbly back at him, but several nodded. He repea
ted the message as he moved through the crowd, hoping that the Hunwei couldn’t understand their language.

  When he got to Soret, she was crying and it took several attempts to get her to speak. He noticed that she was staring in the direction of her home and through the incoherent rambling, he gathered that her house had exploded with her parents inside. He couldn’t get her to say anything more and Jorad wasn't with her.

  Another explosion filled the air and there was a flash of light from several streets away. The light illuminated another crowd of people that the Hunwei were herding towards them. Praying that Jorad was safe, Adar took Soret by the arm and returned to Tere and the others.

  “Karn, can I trust you to get her out of here when the time comes?” Adar asked, nodding his head to Soret.

  “Sure.” Karn looked disappointed with the assignment, no doubt he'd been gearing up to fight. Adar regretted doing it, Karn was big enough he could probably wrestle a Hunwei to the ground, but getting Soret out was important. Adar knew what it was like to lose someone and he didn't want Jorad suffering through that while trying to pass the trials in Rarbon.

  Adar called as many of the people around him as he could and explained if they all ran at once, most of them could escape. His words were met with disbelief and doubt. Tere, Tarner and Karn all supported him and eventually they'd managed to convince a sizable group to run.

  “When we going to do this?” Tarner asked.

  Adar examined several of the nearby Hunwei. One was close enough that Adar could take him in the eye with his dagger. He pulled it out and threw; it hit the eye and bounced off, falling harmlessly to the ground. The Hunwei turned towards Adar and brought up his blaster.

  “Down!” Adar knocked Soret to the ground first and landed on top of her. The blast from the Hunwei went into the crowd. The other Hunwei nearby started firing as well. Adar scrambled off Soret and charged the closest Hunwei, diving into his legs. As the Hunwei fell, Adar grabbed for his blaster. The Hunwei yanked it out of reach and slammed the butt of the blaster onto Adar’s head who howled as he latched onto it again.

  Tere and Tarner were there the next moment and helped pin the Hunwei down. As Karn ran by leading Soret and a small group of people, Adar noticed that several of the Hunwei were firing at the escaping group. He hoped that they were fast enough to escape and turned his full attention to the Hunwei that was struggling with Tere and Tarner. Adar unsheathed his sword as the Hunwei kicked him in the stomach. He gasped for air but remained standing.

  Adar thrust his sword into the gap between the helmet and armor. To his surprise, the attack was stopped by something he couldn't see. He tried again in several more such openings and found that he wasn't able to get through. Melyah, they'd have to run. They couldn't kill these things.

  “Run!” Adar called out to the crowd. “Now’s our chance.” The panicked exodus that he had hoped to start had failed to happen. Another Hunwei approached them, blaster down as if he was afraid he’d hurt his companion.

  As Tere and Tarner continued to fight the struggling Hunwei, Adar tried again for the blaster, but the Hunwei wasn’t letting it go.

  Once the other Hunwei was close enough, Adar lunged for his legs, but he was prepared and Adar felt like he’d assaulted a thick oak tree. The Hunwei kicked Adar out of the way and ripped Tere off his fallen companion.

  Adar got to his feet and knocked the Hunwei’s arms up as it took aim at Tarner, the shot dusting the top of Tarner’s head. The distraction was what the fallen Hunwei needed and he flung Tarner off. Adar pushed up again on the arms of the Hunwei he was grappling with but he might as well have been trying to push a rock. A gurgling growl came from the Hunwei.

  He’s laughing at me, Adar realized. Holding his sword with one hand, he pulled out a dagger with the other and went for the eye. The Hunwei didn’t try to stop the blow. He didn’t need to; Adar’s dagger was turned away just before it would have reached the eye.

  The Hunwei grabbed at Adar as he continued to try with the dagger, twisting around the Hunwei as he went. The bulky armor appeared to limit flexibility and as long as Adar stayed right up against him, he had a hard time latching on to Adar. The armor didn’t cover the Hunwei perfectly, and Adar tried to get through the gaps under the arms and even tried the neck again. It was futile; something kept him from getting through.

  Adar yelled in frustration, there had to be a way to kill these things.

  Several hands grabbed onto the monster. More hands followed, and then even more. The mob of people had finally surged. Adar took the lead and together they pushed the Hunwei to the ground. Others stopped to help Tere and Tarner with the other Hunwei, but most made a break for it.

  As Adar's Hunwei went down struggling against the mass of people, the head of a nearby person disappeared in a mess of blood and brain matter from a blast. Adar looked regretfully at the blaster that the Hunwei still held with an iron grip and turned to run.

  When Adar saw Tere struggling to free himself from under the mass of people holding down the other Hunwei, their eyes made contact. The hatred and anger that burned there could have started a fire. Adar hesitated and then reached out and took Tere’s hand. It took some struggling and maneuvering, but he pulled Tere free, due in part to several other people being knocked out of the way when the Hunwei beneath the dog pile blasted holes into them.

  “Run!” Adar yelled hoping those nearest him would listen. “Run! We can't kill them. Our only hope is to run.” Many of the captives had escaped already and he felt hope as an additional surge pushed forward running past their Hunwei captors. The Hunwei were firing into the crowd but there weren’t enough of them to stop the tide of people.

  The Hunwei Adar and Tere had been fighting were still being mobbed, but it was just a matter of time. He yelled again as he ran for the edge of the square with the mob. He needed to find Jorad.

  When Adar got to Arnie's blacksmith shop, he slowed, looking for Soret and Karn. The stampeding mob of people almost knocked him over and he ducked behind the building, grabbing hold of a trash barrel to steady himself. It reeked of rotten food.

  “Can you see them?” Adar asked as Tere stopped beside him.

  Tere shook his head. The blasts were coming closer and there was a loud explosion from the town square. They pushed back into the mass of people. Several blocks later, Tarner appeared in front of him, holding on to a door to keep the mob from running him over.

  “In here!” Tarner yelled. Once they were inside, Adar spotted Soret and Karn before Tarner slammed the door, blocking out the light.