by Saxon Andrew
• • •
The warrior looked around and could have sworn he had seen something moving. He took his rifle off his shoulder and stared directly at John but didn’t see him. “Hey, Jester, get up here and straighten Grinly out. He thinks he knows everything about shooting predators.”
The warrior turned slightly, looked back over the deck, then turned and walked over to the stairs leading up to the stern. Jonathan watched him and heard the third step creak when he almost stepped on it. If he had stepped on that step, the guards would have heard it and know no one was there. He waited a moment and knew time was getting short for the nine fliers still circling above the ship. There were no updrafts over the water to move them higher. He quietly ran to the steps and stepped over the third step and rushed up to the stern. The six warriors that had just arrived leaned their rifles on the railing and began arguing with the others. Jonathan pulled out his red blaster and pointed it at the sixteen warriors at the railing. He pulled the trigger and swept the beam across them and all sixteen blew up in an orange colored mist that blew away in the sea breeze. He shook his head at the deadliness of the red beam and heard the fliers start landing on the deck. The shots from shore covered most of the noise but Jonathan ran back to the door leading below decks and kept his blaster pointed it until the other nine fliers arrived. He looked at Dottie, “Everyone ok?”
“I think Lefty sprained his ankle. He’ll have to stay on deck.”
John saw Lefty struggling to move toward them and he whispered, “Sit down by that mast and wait for us.”
Lefty shook his head in pain and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“Just stay there and cover anything that comes up from below.” Lefty nodded and sat down with his back against the rear mast.
Dottie waved the other fliers to gather around the door leading below decks and quietly said, “Mitchell, lead the others down and start taking out the warriors below. Harmony says there are around fifty warriors on board. John removed sixteen of them so there should be about thirty four below deck. John and I will wait for you to give the all clear before we go after the officer commanding this ship.”
Mitchell nodded and opened the door with his blaster raised. The lanterns below deck offered enough light to see their way around. Mitchell looked at Tamara and nodded. The small flier moved down the steps and stayed close to the wall. The other six followed her down and Mitchell sent them in different directions.
Dottie looked at John and punched him on the arm, “Why did you do that? That rope grab was ridiculous; you could have been killed and where would I find someone else to be my mate?”
“Get real, Dottie. I know about forty archers that would fight for a chance to win your attention.”
“But they’re not you.” Dottie suddenly hugged him tightly and said, “I’ll go up to the cabin; you wait here for the others.” John nodded and knelt down by the door staring down the steps.
Tamara moved down the hallway and heard noise coming from behind a closed door. She looked at Mitchell and he stopped on the other side of the doorway. He waved the other fliers past and looked at Tamara, “How do you want to do this?”
Tamara looked at the latch on the door and pulled a small container of lubricant out of her pouch. She took off a glove and applied it to the latch and wiped her fingers on the wall. She put her glove back on and slowly pulled the latch back. She timed it with a loud laugh from behind the door and the latch clicked out of the notch. The door moved slightly inward and she nodded to the left.
Mitchell nodded and Tamara raised a hand and held up three fingers. She dropped one, then the second and on the third they pushed the door open and moved to each side of it. They were firing their red blasters as they entered and swept the room with the beams. Twenty Destroyer Warriors gathered around tables blew into a rust colored mist that fell to the floor. It happened so fast that none of them had made a sound. Mitchell moved back out of the room and moved against the wall. He looked in both directions and then pointed to the left. Tamara nodded and moved out of the room. She closed the door and led the way down the hall.
Bart moved into a room where numerous hammocks were hanging from the ceiling. Two other fliers followed him in and they saw eight of them were occupied with sleeping warriors. Bart moved over to where three of them were hanging and nodded to the others to spread out. The flier outside the room looking for anyone that might stumble up saw the inside of the room suddenly glow bright red and then the three fliers came out. Bart nodded and they continued moving through the ship.
• • •
After twenty minutes, Mitchell appeared at the steps and whispered, “We’ve got them all.”
“What took you so long?”
“I’m glad you told us there were thirty six down here. We removed thirty three but couldn’t find any others. Jars decided to look in the lower hold and found four more that were abusing the slaves. We managed to get the slaves to remain silent but I know they’re really on edge. I don’t know how much longer they’ll keep quiet.”
John nodded and ran to the door leading to the Commander’s cabin. He looked at Dottie who was kneeling beside the door and she shrugged, “How do you want to handle this?”
John smiled, “How do you go through most doors?” Dottie looked at him with a puzzled expression and John stood up and knocked hard on the door. They heard a voice say, “What is it!?!”
John said in a muffled tone that could not be understood, “THHHATTT MUSSSS ONNNNN SHHHHIIIIIPPPPP.”
The door burst open and the Commander came running out putting his pants on. Dottie tripped him and John punched him in the head. He rolled the Commander over and used four leather straps to tie him up. The Commander started screaming and Dottie pulled her head cover out of her pocket and crammed it into his mouth. Johnathan looked at her, “I hope you have another one of those.”
At that moment, a young woman stepped out of the door and saw the Commander tied up on the deck. She looked at Dottie and her eyes grew wide. Dottie said, “You will not scream!”
The woman’s mouth was open but she managed to remain silent. She looked at Dottie and all she could see was her head, “Why have you tied up the Commander?”
“We’re taking his ship from him.”
“What about all the other warriors?”
John took off his head covering and said, “They are no longer a problem.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am.”
The young woman smiled and said, “If that’s true then you won’t mind if I…” And she kicked the Commander between his legs and then kicked him in the head. Dottie grabbed her and John said, “HEY, WE NEED HIM FOR INFORMATION!”
“No you don’t. I know everything he knows. I’ve been stuck with that slug for a year. I’ve heard everything he has.”
Dottie smiled, “Even so; please allow us to extract what we can.”
“He won’t talk.”
The Commander had regained his senses and was trying to hold his crotch. Dottie looked at the young woman and said, “If he doesn’t tell us what we want to know, we’ll turn him over to you to do as you will.” Dottie and John both saw fear in the man’s eyes.
The young woman smiled, “Oh, I do look forward to that.”
The Commander closed his eyes and knew something terrible had happened. His fears were confirmed when the slaves came up on deck the next morning and began setting the sails. The strange people who had taken the ship directed them to start sailing north toward the distant cliffs. In no time, the ship was under a full sail and quickly disappeared over the horizon.
Chapter Ten
Loucious doused the lanterns at daybreak and had the survivors of the previous night form up into teams. More than eighteen warriors had been taken by predators and the ones that survived were in a hurry to wrap the mission up quickly. They did not want to spend another night in the jungle. Loucious estimated there was about three hours between the source of the smoke plumes and
his current location. He nodded to the point team and the Destroyer Warriors moved forward into the thick vegetation.
• • •
Andy waited on the south side of the clearing with Harmony and two other archers. He expected the Destroyers would enter the clearing in the center. The archers were spread out in the trees waiting for their arrival the booming noise from their rifles let them know their progress. Two hours later, the first Destroyer Warriors arrived at the edge of the clearing.
• • •
Loucious looked out into the large clearing and saw ten giant trees had been felled and set on fire. This was not a natural event; the trunks were all notched where they had been cut. His eyes narrowed as he thought about why someone would cut this many trees and set them on fire. This didn’t make sense. Then he looked out into the clearing where his troops had moved and it hit him; this was bait. He yelled, “GET DOWN! WE’RE GOING TO BE ATTACKED!!”
A red beam flashed down out of the tree and three warriors beside Loucious were vaporized into an orange mist. He hit the ground underneath the chest-high vegetation growing in the clearing and saw red beams crisscrossing overhead. It was eerie; there were no screams. It was as if anyone hit by one of those beams just ceased to exist. He yelled as loud as he could, “FIRE AT THE SOURCE OF THOSE BEAMS!!”
The Destroyers were well disciplined and well trained. Andy watched from the edge of the clearing and saw archers start to fall out of the trees. Numerous archers were on top of the tree trunks firing at the ground from above. The Destroyers immediately spread out and started crawling through the underbrush as soon as the first shot was fired. Many of them crawled through the gaps in the huge trees where they had burned and cooled over the four days the fire had been going. They would wait in the grass until they saw a red beam and they would jump up and snap off a quick shot. Archers were dying.
Fats saw the Destroyers firing at the red beams and he put his gun in his holster and pulled his bow off his shoulder. He knew they had been instructed to leave their bows behind but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. It would be like leaving his arms behind. He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and watched the grass. A Destroyer stood to shoot and Fats hit him in the head. Two Destroyers stood up slightly to see who had killed their comrade and Fats dropped both of them in an instant. Fats was big but he was one of the Community’s best archers. Soon, no Destroyer would raise their head. Later, Fats would regret not being on the other side of the clearing.
Kristen saw Fats firing his bow and she pulled hers off her back. The blaster was going to get her killed. She had climbed up a tree and she was looking down into the chest high grass. She could see the Destroyers hunkered down in the grass waiting for a beam to be fired. She notched an arrow and smiled. The first Destroyer she hit never made a sound as the arrow went through his skull. The second screamed when he was hit in the chest. The Destroyers began crawling quickly through the grass as death rained down on them from above. They couldn’t see the arrows coming and the source of them was invisible. They began firing their rifles into the trees at random and Kristen hid behind the trunk as bullets whizzed by her. At least they weren’t firing at the other archers. The firing subsided and she leaned out and killed six more Destroyer Warriors.
• • •
Six Destroyer Warriors had crawled toward the south end of the clearing looking to get in to the forest to take their shots. One of them saw a red beam fired from the trunk of the tree he was crawling next to and he quickly fired at the source. Something fell off the trunk next to him and he saw a strange looking hand weapon on the ground beside him. He picked it up and counted to three. He jumped up and pulled the trigger and swept the red beam that came out of the gun along the top of the trunk. He saw numerous orange vapor clouds explode.
• • •
Andy saw the archer fall off the trunk and then the Destroyer standing and firing the red beam at the archers on the tree. More than fifty were instantly killed. Andy whipped his red blaster out and shot the Destroyer warrior. Another Destroyer instantly jumped up and pointed the blaster toward him but Andy blew him away instantly. A third Destroyer stood up with the beam ten feet to the left and Andy shot him as well.
Harmony watched Andy shoot the three Destroyers and she knew he was firing too often. She stood up next to him and looked out over the chest high grass and saw three Destroyers suddenly appear with their rifles raised. She pushed Andy out of the way and fired at them with her blaster and all three blew away in the wind…but not before they fired. Harmony was hit by two of their bullets and collapsed to the ground next to Andy.
Andy saw her fall and he instantly grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. Harmony’s face was a mask of pain and he whispered, “No, NO, NO!”
Harmony looked into his eyes and shook her head, “I’m so sorry.”
“Be quiet; save your energy.” Andy looked and saw that Harmony had been hit in the shoulder and the chest. He put his hand on the chest wound and tried to stop the blood from pouring out.
“I love you, Andy.” Andy looked into her eyes with tears falling. Harmony closed her eyes and said, “Try to save Melody if you can.” And then she was gone. Andy pulled her to his chest and was racked with sobs. The two archers standing next to Andy turned and moved into the high grass.
• • •
The Archers in the trees saw Andy and Harmony fall and their rage was instant. Mark tried to order them to stay behind the trees but they ignored him and jumped to the ground and rushed into the thick grass. This tactic actually saved many lives. The Destroyers couldn’t see them; they fired at the red beams. The archers would move up on a Destroyer in the grass and shoot him. Any other Destroyers around the area would be shot as soon as they moved. The fight took on a frenzy and the archers were taken by a blood lust. Their leader had been killed.
Mark joined the archers in the grass and he was the one that stumbled up on Loucious. Loucious saw the grass behind him move and tried to whip his rifle around fire, but he failed. In forty minutes, all the Destroyers had been eliminated.
It was then that the survivors found Andy holding Harmony in his arms at the edge of the clearing. His pain broke all their hearts and they assembled around him and waited. Two hours later, a flier was dispatched.
• • •
John and Dottie stood on the stern of the giant vessel and watched the young woman steer the ship. Dottie had her arms around John’s waist and felt at peace. Mitchell yelled from the lower deck, “John, we have a flier coming!”
Mitchell was pointing behind the ship and John turned and saw the Glider moving along the shore, “What’s going on?” Dottie shrugged and John said to the young woman, “Can you take the ship closer to shore?” The woman nodded and turned the ship. Thirty minutes later the glider moved out over the water and came flying in. John saw the Derek was maneuvering to land on the bow.
The former slaves were amazed at the flying device moving toward them. They had never seen anything like it. Derek came in, furled the wings, and fell eight feet to the deck. John and Dottie helped break his fall but it was a hard hit. John picked Derek up and said, “What’s going on?”
Derek shook his head and John and Dottie knew there was bad news. “Harmony has been killed in the fighting.”
John’s heart went into his throat, “What about Andy!?!”
Derek shook his head again, “He’s alive but he refuses to leave Harmony’s body behind. Mark has exhausted himself trying to get him to see reason but he won’t listen.”
John’s eyes narrowed, “Why did you come here?”
Derek looked at Dottie, “Mark wants you to fly back and take Harmony’s body back to the community.”
Dottie did a double take and said, “Is he crazy? Just how will I be able to do that?”
“Mark is of the opinion that you and Harmony together weigh just a little more than a single male flier. He feels you can do it.”
“I’ve never flown with that much we
ight. I won’t…”
John put his hand over her mouth and said, “What if it was me?”
Dottie looked at John and closed her eyes. She shook her head and said, “Get the ship close to shore and then turn into the wind. I’m going to need the temperature difference to get the lift I’ll need to make the trip.”
Derek said, “I’ll go with you.”
Dottie shook her head, “No, you’ll only slow me down. Besides, John can use your help here.” Dottie hugged John and then kissed him tenderly. She walked to the bow, lifted her glider pack, and buttoned the harness around her. John stared at her and said, “Please be careful.”
Dottie smiled, “Now you’re sounding like me.” Dottie waited and as the ship turned away from the shore she climbed the rail at the bow as John held her legs. She felt the wind in her face as she pulled the release chord and the glider popped out on her back. The control arms fell in front of her and she jumped to the side of the ship.
The former slaves had all rushed over and watched as she quickly fell toward the water but the wings caught the breeze and she rose slightly. She turned into the wind and lifted the front edge of the wings and began a slight climb. She was a hundred feet up when she turned toward shore and flew at her fastest speed. John was worried that she would end up in the water but she arrived over the warm land about ten feet off the ground. The sea breeze blowing in under the hot air over land immediately lifted her. She circles about eight times over the beach getting higher and higher with each turn and then she flew over the trees and headed south.
John sighed and went back to the stern of the ship. The young woman looked at Derek and said, “Are you taken?”