by Kyle West
As the sky darkened, stars began to appear. Ashton had been right; the meteor fallout from Ragnarok did not affect this area as much. It felt strange to sleep under a sky that was not much different from what my grandparents would have seen.
The clearness of the night caused it to cool off quickly. Soon, it was not so unbearable, and even the bugs mostly went away. The stars twinkled by the thousands.
Everyone else around me was sound asleep. Yet still, something just wouldn’t let me relax. I didn’t know what it was. As time passed, my feeling of unease grew worse, until I felt ready to wake everyone else up.
I touched Samuel’s shoulder, next to me. His eyes opened in an instant.
“What is it?” he asked.
Everything was still. The insects had gone away – because the night was cooling off, or for some other reason?
The answer came soon enough when people ran out of the forest, right for us.
***
We didn’t have time to react before I was trapped in a tangle of net. I tried clawing myself out, but to no avail. We were surrounded on all sides. Makara or Anna screamed, I wasn’t sure which in the darkness.
I rolled on the ground, only ensnaring myself further in the net. Gunshots went off, lighting the forest like bursts like lightning.
I reached for my Beretta, but was so ensnared that I couldn’t reach it. Then, I remembered my knife. Madly, I reached for it, and began slashing at the rope entangling me. I hacked, again and again, fighting my way out of the snare. Finally, I punched free, crawling forward into the darkness.
I was the only one free - the others around me were locked into place. The men did not have flashlights, and did not at first notice that I was free. I used this to my advantage, crouching low and heading for Samuel first, since he was closest. His eyes widened upon seeing me crawl next to him. I began cutting through his binds.
A large hand grabbed me by the shoulder, pulling me back with a snarl. I tried to wrench myself free of the man’s grip, but another pair of hands grabbed me and threw me on the ground.
But by this time, Samuel had slinked out of the net. He fired two times, and the man gripping me screamed. I felt his hand loosen, and I ran forward, out of his grasp. I reached for my Beretta, still holstered on my belt.
I drew it, pointing it into the darkness. Samuel and I were alone. From the forest ahead, I heard both Makara and Anna screaming, and the shouts of our attackers. Accompanying the screams was a rustling, dragging sound, leading away from our position. They were fleeing.
That was when I noticed two large men barring our path. They had stayed behind to make sure we didn’t follow. I could see each was holding a knife that glinted in the darkness.
Quickly, I brought up my gun, but not fast enough. One of the men charged forward, swiping it aside. It landed on the ground a few feet away and was obscured by darkness. As Samuel grappled with the other attacker, my own adversary advanced, stabbing toward me. I dodged. One of the girls screamed again, more distant. We had to take care of these guys, fast. And I had no way to reach my gun without leaving myself open.
The man took another jab at me. I jumped backward, my back slamming against a tree. Wincing, I dodged once more when the man came at me again. His knife plunged into the tree’s bark. Cursing in Spanish, he struggled to wrest it free.
I didn’t waste another moment. I took my own knife, slashing wildly toward him. My blade connected to his arm. He screamed, and I felt his warm blood splatter on my hand. He staggered away, meaning to run. His back turned to me, the rest was easy. I jumped him, sending him crashing to the earth. With gritted teeth, I pinned him and gave him a deep gash in his throat. Blood spewed out, his scream silenced by my blade. His body grew still under me as what was left of his life ebbed away.
Right next to his body was my gun. I grabbed it, and turned to help Samuel, who was still going hand-to-hand with his adversary. I ended the fight quickly by placing my gun on the back of the man’s head. He paused in shock right before I shot. His body fell forward, sprawling on the ground.
Samuel looked at me with wide eyes. He picked up his own handgun from the ground, and charged away in the direction the girls had been taken.
We ran for thirty seconds or so, pushing aside foliage and branches that slammed and scratched our faces and hands. Uncaring, we sprinted on. It was only a matter of time until we caught up to them, and we couldn’t let either of them get away.
A scream came from our left.
We turned, and ran in the direction of the sound. A few seconds later, we came across one of the girls, netted in a clearing. She was alone, having clearly been abandoned.
“Anna, get Anna!” she yelled.
It was Makara. Not understanding, I ran forward to cut her binds.
“They left me here, and took Anna with them.”
“Where?” I asked.
“To my left,” Makara said. “Opposite direction you came from.”
I bolted away. Samuel could take care of Makara while I went after Anna. I had to catch them before they really got moving. Stealing a look behind, Makara was now out of the net, running with Samuel after me. Up ahead, I heard a whinny. They had horses. If they had horses, there would be no catching them. I didn’t yell Anna’s name, though I wanted to. I needed all the surprise I could get.
I burst out of the trees, finding myself on a dirt road. Four horses stood there, two men already mounted while two others were securing Anna to the back of one of the horses. She was wrapped in her net, and unable to break free. The men looked my way. Two of them reached for guns.
Out in the open as I was, I had no chance against them. Cursing, I dove back for the trees, rolling behind a fallen, rotting log as the first bullets sprayed chips of bark in my face. From behind, Samuel and Makara slid next to me.
“They have horses,” I said.
The gunfire ceased for a moment. The men were yelling again, the horses nickering and snorting. They were about to set off. We had to do something now, or it was never. I wasn’t about to let Anna become a slave.
Despite the danger to myself, I burst out of the trees, my Beretta aimed outward. It was then that the horses galloped down the road and into the night. They were heading in the direction of the settlement.
I fired a few bullets at the escaping forms, but nothing connected. Samuel, who had run up beside me, placed a hand on my arm, drawing it back.
I watched helplessly as the horsemen, with Anna, got farther and farther away. Despite the impossibility of catching up, I took after them.
“Alex!” Makara shouted, from behind.
This wasn’t over until it was over.
Chapter 8
“Alex, wait!”
I didn’t heed Makara’s second shout. I sprinted down the road, the thunder of hooves dimming as the horses sped away. I didn’t know how far it was to the settlement, but I didn’t plan on stopping until I got there.
The road rounded a bend, and after making the turn, it led straight toward the gates. The horses stood in front, waiting to be admitted inside.
I increased my speed, my body protesting at the strain. I was fueled only by my desperation to reach Anna. If they got inside, there would be no getting her back. The walls would completely surround her, and obviously, the guards would kill us if we tried to get in.
The gates began to open. The hoses ran inside. I ran desperately, knowing as they began to close, that I would not make it in time.
“No...”
The gates shut, locking us out.
I stopped in the middle of the road. Makara and Samuel skidded to a stop beside me. I didn’t say anything, watching the now closed gates with a sense of defeat. Shapes of guards materialized on top of the walls. They pointed their rifles our way.
“Down!” Samuel shouted.
We all fell in tandem as the first bullets sprayed the dirt. I fought the tears that came to my eyes. We had been outdone. Anna was gone.
“No...” I said.
“We can’t do anything about it,” Makara said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
A few more bullets entered the dirt road. For a moment, they ceased. That was when the gates began to reopen. I looked up, irrationally thinking that it could be Anna coming out. Of course, it wasn’t. It was men on horses – maybe five or six of them. The horses broke into a run, heading right for us.
“We’ve got to move, now!”
We scrambled out of the dirt, and gunned it for the tree line. If we could make it there, the vegetation would seriously hamper the horses’ speed. I looked back toward the city. It hurt, knowing Anna was in there, and knowing there was nothing we could do about it. We were leaving her behind.
“We can’t fight them, Alex,” Samuel said. “We’ll all be killed, and the mission will be compromised.”
“So what, we’re just going to leave her there?”
Samuel didn’t answer, him and his sister pulling me into the trees. Rather than fight them, I started running. As much as I hated it, they were right. I wasn’t going to cause them to die, too.
Die. Is that what was going to happen to Anna? No. Her fate would be worse than death. She was going to be enslaved, worked to the bone with little food or rest. And if her master was cruel, or perverse, then her fate would be much worse.
I turned back. I wasn’t leaving her.
“No, you don’t...” Makara said.
“She’s alive. I know she is.”
“We’ll come back for her!” Samuel said. “We can’t do that if we die here. Now come on, get your ass moving!”
Telling myself Samuel was right, I kept running. All the training in Skyhome had done me good. I had no problem keeping up with Samuel and Makara. Such wouldn’t have been the case two months ago.
Behind, our pursuers chased us into the forest. We entered the first of the trees, pushing our way past brambles and underbrush, putting as much distance between ourselves and our hunters. Fueled by shock, grief, and pain, I pushed myself on. For what, I didn’t know. I wanted to run the other direction and get to Anna.
Why hadn’t I listened to Makara when we came upon her in the net? If we had done what she said and immediately had gone after Anna, we could have saved her. If Samuel and I had kept running, we might have gotten to her in time.
I couldn’t blame myself for long, however. A bullet whizzed past my ear, hitting a nearby tree.
“Keep moving,” Samuel said, between breaths.
I could hear the men shouting from behind. They were on foot, now, having abandoned the horses.
The land began sloping upward. Mixed in with the dense vegetation were rocks and boulders. As we hoofed it up the incline, the trees began to thin. My lungs were bursting for air. Behind, I could see shapes chasing after us. We couldn’t keep this up for long.
“They’ll see us up here,” Makara said, pausing a moment. “We need a place to hide.”
Samuel pointed. “There.”
Against the side of the slope was an opening, deep and dark, moonlight reflecting off the rock surrounding it. The last thing I wanted to do was go underground. Not only did I have a lot of bad memories of things that had happened underground, it would take us further away from Anna. The more time that passed, the worse her chances got.
“We need to go in there, Alex,” Samuel said. “It’s the only way.”
“Fine,” I said. “But we’re going back to the town tomorrow.”
Samuel said nothing as we headed for the cave’s opening. The men weren’t far behind – they would be in view of us in seconds.
We climbed inside, sliding down a steep slope into the dark opening. The air was dank and moist. When the slope evened out, I scuttled up, glancing up at the cave’s opening. We had probably slid down fifty feet. Within the darkness, I heard an underground stream gurgling. I heard Samuel’s pockets rustle as he searched for a flashlight. From ahead, I could hear the trickling of the stream.
Samuel’s flashlight clicked on, its pillar of light scanning the cave. The cavern was a huge, both tall and wide. I could see the stream before us. It flowed down and away. The water had probably filtered through the ground from the recent rain. The air was cool, with an earthy smell. Nothing smelled rotted or Blighted, which probably meant there were no virus-infected monsters down here. Or at least, that’s what I hoped.
“We’ll follow the stream,” Samuel decided. “Once it’s safe, we’ll follow it back out.”
“What if they follow us in here?” Makara asked.
Samuel didn’t answer for a moment. “I doubt they have flashlights. It seems they don’t have as much technology as we do. But if they do, we’ll hear them coming.”
Samuel walked ahead, splashing into the water. We followed him. I glanced back toward the cave entrance. No one was there. Hopefully, they hadn’t seen us come in.
As I waded into the stream, its coldness chilled my skin and made my muscles go numb. As I stepped out onto the other side, I rushed up the stream’s bank to keep up with Samuel’s pool of light. Above, stalactites glittered with both minerals and condensation. It was eerily beautiful, but it had no impact on me. My mind was somewhere else, thinking about the girl I couldn’t save.
I felt numbness creep over me that nothing to do with the cold water or cool air. I thought of Anna, bound in darkness and alone, all because I wasn’t fast enough to save her. I hated myself, and knew I could never forgive myself as long as the thought that she was still alive haunted me. It was unbearable to think about my failure and what Anna would have to go through because of me.
I resolved at that moment, no matter what Samuel or Makara decided, that I was going after her.
***
An hour later, we were still walking. The cavern went on and on. Finally, Samuel came to a stop, clicking off the flashlight.
“We’ll hold up here.”
The darkness was now absolute. Rather than being afraid of it, I felt safe in it. Nothing could attack me here. Only...
“We know the way back, right?” Makara asked.
“There’s just two directions in this place: up, and down,” Samuel said.
“What about Anna?”
No one said anything for a moment.
“We’ll go back once we get some rest,” Samuel said. “Scope out the town, see if there is a way in.”
“And how are we supposed to do that?” Makara asked.
“We’ll think of something,” I said. “We can’t abandon Anna like this.”
“I agree,” Samuel said. “But I will give it no more than a day. If there are too many guards, we will have to move on.” Samuel paused a moment. “I’m sorry, Alex. The mission comes first.”
“How can you say that? She’s one of us. We leave no one behind.”
“I understand that,” Samuel said. “But you saw how many guards they have. I won’t risk everyone on a suicide mission.”
“There has to be another way in.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Samuel said. “I can promise no more than that.”
I wanted to yell at him, and just barely held myself back.
“I wonder how they found us to begin with,” Makara said.
“I don’t know,” Samuel said. “But we’re lucky to even be alive. It’s a miracle we weren’t all captured.”
No one said anything more. I heard someone sit on the ground beside me. The stream which we had followed trickled to our side.
We had nothing to our names. Our gear had all been left behind in our rush to escape, and had likely been looted by now. All I had were the clothes on my back and my Beretta. It was like I had gone back to square one.
As I lay down on the cold, hard rock and closed my eyes, my only concern was how to rescue Anna.
I had to think of something by tomorrow, or she was going to be gone for good.
***
Later, we awoke. All there was to do was get up and start heading back. Samuel clicked his flashlight back on, and we followed the s
tream back to the surface. Soon, we were greeted with a bright spot of light in the distance – the entrance to the cave. The light illumined our surroundings, revealing stalactites and stalagmites once hidden in the darker regions. Parts of the stream veered off in separate directions, gathering in crystalline pools.
We crouched low as we climbed up the mouth of the cave. Peeking out, it was early dawn – far earlier than I expected. The morning air was crisp and cool. The dim light was blinding after the total darkness of the cavern.
Gathered below the cave’s mouth was a circle of five men, sleeping around a fire down to the coals. One of them was awake, warming his hands by the fire. He looked up. His eyes widened.
“Now,” Samuel said.
We burst out of the cave, guns blazing. The man screamed as our bullets ripped into him, sending him sprawling to the earth. The other men jolted up, reaching for their guns – but two more were felled before they could even get shots off.
The other two ran for cover. Makara picked one off before he could find shelter, while the last man disappeared behind a boulder.
“Put the gun away, and we will spare your life,” Samuel shouted.
The man threw the gun aside, coming out from around the boulder with hands raised and eyes wide. He fell on his knees, whimpering.
Makara walked ahead, holding out her handgun. “Shut up.”
She shot him. The man fell backward to the earth.
Samuel shrugged. We looted their bodies, finding some ammo and this crumbly, yellow bread that tasted like corn. We also found some roasted white meat. Though both the meat and “cornbread” were dry, they tasted good. We drank from some canteens we found. Mine was filled with water that had a sweet, spicy flavor to it. The canteen had probably been filled with some sort of alcoholic drink – perhaps rum – before it was used for water. We found a nearby knapsack, loading it with ammo and leftover food. Samuel hoisted the pack onto his shoulder, and set off down the slope in the direction of the settlement.
“We are going back, then?” I said.
Samuel nodded. “It won’t hurt to take a look. Don’t get your hopes up. If I feel like it’s impossible to get in, then we’re heading to Nova Roma – with or without Anna.”