by Mikayla Lane
As soon as the bar creaked into place, Lara went to the side of the cabin and climbed the ladder to the roof. Rolling onto her stomach, Lara leaned over the edge of the roof and released the latches holding the ladder to the house and pulled it up onto the roof with her. No one was getting up there; she thought as she quickly moved to the back side of the roof and got ready for yet another war. This time on her turf.
*****
Dread shook his head at the dark one that was impaled by at least a dozen arrows. “Who the hell did Viper find?” He wondered out loud.
“I don’t know, but they’re pretty damn good. Honestly, I’m glad these assholes are the ones finding these contraptions.” Lt. David Jacobs said as he kicked the body with the toe of his boot to make sure it was dead.
“Dude! This forest ninja has got some mad skills! Did you see that?” Traze said, pointing to the dummy mechanism on the tree that caused them to release the real spring, on the trap that had sent the arrows flying.
Using a light stone, Decano held the stone to the body until it had superheated it, causing it to crumble to dust. They couldn’t leave evidence behind for the humans to find.
“We need to hurry.” Dread said, feeling as if time was running out for Viper. He couldn’t explain it, but he could feel it in the air.
“We need to keep a decent pace, but we can’t rush this. You know there could be other traps that they haven’t set off. I for one, do not plan on ending up like that.” Niklosi said, pointing to where the dark one’s body had been.
Gunfire erupted again, this time much closer than the other times. Everyone turned towards the sound, expecting it to be like the previous short bursts. It didn’t stop.
“Move, move, move!” Dread said, running full out through the obscure path uncaring if anyone was following him. He had to get to his brother.
Chapter Six
Lara held her breath while she waited for the five huge men to enter the small clearing in front of her house, grateful that Viper held off on his fire until she was ready.
Time to see if Viper is crazy, or level the playing field she thought, throwing the first bag into the clearing. As soon as the first shots were fired at the bag, Lara started throwing the other bags at them as fast as she could.
Grabbing her M16, she rolled onto her stomach and peeked over the edge of the roof to see what she was dealing with now. Lara gasped and slipped down the roof a little. Pulling herself back up, she peered back over the edge.
What the fuck? Lara thought raising her weapon to fire at the scattering people and… whatever those things are that were writhing on the ground covered in patches of the flour, salt and water mixture she had put in the bags. Taking aim, Lara began putting her bullets to use at the men fleeing to shelter from the barrage of fire that Viper was laying down.
“Kill that bastard on the roof!” Lara heard one of them bark out, and she grinned as she slammed another clip in her rifle.
Viper looked outside and couldn’t help the smile that covered his face. Even with his blurry vision, he could easily make out the white patches on the dark ones. Lara had concocted something in her kitchen that had ‘painted’ her targets for her. His smile faded when he saw the other shadows that had avoided getting any of the white on them.
“Lara!!! There are four more that don’t have the white on them! Four more!” Viper screamed as loud as he could, so she could hear him over the gunfire. Aiming as best as he could, he fired at the four figures.
Up on the roof, Lara barely made out what Viper was saying. Damn, she thought, grabbing another clip. Rolling back over she sprayed the areas where she had seen the men disappear, then flipped back behind the roof.
The gunfire from the front of the house was a lot more sporadic now, telling Lara that their numbers were at least reduced from the original five she had seen in the clearing. Or they were running out of bullets from firing at the traps. Either way, it was good news.
The bad news was that there were four invisible bastards out there, and she had no more of her salt and flour goop to throw and no particular direction to throw it in. Lara sighed, as odds went, they weren’t good, but she’d had worse.
Ignoring the fiery pain in her shoulder, Lara flipped back over and quickly scanned the small clearing in front of the cabin. The gunfire had stopped, and it had become eerily quiet. There was no movement below, and Lara figured that they were waiting for her or Viper to come out, saving their ammunition for their targets.
How the hell do you find something invisible? She thought with a sigh, trying to calm herself, so she could pay more attention to her other senses. Dividing the small clearing into sections in her mind, she scanned each section for any sign that something was there or out of place.
There, she thought. To her left, near the edge of the roof, she saw the drainpipe shift slightly to the side. As if someone bumped into it. Swinging quickly to her left, Lara fired several shots, the telltale thump told her that something hit the ground.
Well, it was down; she thought. She didn’t know if it was enough to keep it down since she couldn’t see the damn thing, but it was down for now. Lara wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and flipped back over to re-scan her sections again, hoping that she would be able to see the signs that another one was close.
It unnerved her a little that one had gotten so close before she knew it was there. This invisible shit was beyond screwed up; she thought, even for her book of bad days.
Just to the right of center in the clearing, Lara saw one of the bushes rustle slightly. Unlike the idiots who came without enough ammunition, she was well stocked; she thought with a grin as she showered the bushes with bullets.
She couldn’t help the satisfied grin when she saw an arm fall across the ground behind the bush. One more down. She was dying to know if Viper was all right, but didn’t want to call out and draw their attention to him. She needed to keep their attention on her until she could eliminate the threat to him.
Lara laid down fire randomly around the clearing, just so anyone left would realize she was still watching. She was changing her clip when she saw the strangest thing she had seen yet. Considering she was dealing with invisible men, that was saying a lot.
A large black blur flew out of the forest and into the clearing right in front of the cabin. Whatever it was launched itself at the air and began clawing and hissing violently. Screams rent the air as Lara watched in shock as blood began to fly around the hissing and growling black thing.
The entire clearing suddenly erupted. Viper started screaming something about a Gibly and not to shoot him. It finally dawned on Lara what the black thing was doing, and she began firing at the area underneath it until she watched it slowly drop to the ground.
Her eyes followed the movements of what she now realized was a young panther. Yeah, why not she thought to herself. Invisible men, aliens, and now black panthers that fight and kill your invisible enemy. Yeah, she was completely sane; Lara thought with a grimace.
She saw the sun glinting off of something to her right and pulled the trigger the moment; she realized it was a rifle taking aim at the little panther. She could have sworn the cat looked up at her and grinned and couldn’t seem to stop the smile on her own face as she nodded to the cat.
Oh why the hell not, she thought. If this was her delusion, then she could have a nodding, grinning panther if she wanted one. Looking to the forest where the cat had come from, Lara could hear the sound of heavy footsteps crashing through the underbrush, and she hoped like hell it was either a bunch more cats or Viper’s people otherwise, they were seriously screwed.
“We got incoming!” Lara yelled out as she followed the movements of the cat in the clearing as it stalked around as if it were a bloodhound. She’d worry about the others when they got close enough to be a threat.
The moment the cat launched itself at the air again; Lara didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. As the cat hit the ground and shook itself, the forest seeme
d to part as men poured into the small clearing.
“Viper?” One of the men screamed as he pushed past the others.
Lara looked down and could see the strong resemblance between the two men. Her doubts about his relation to Viper vanished when she heard Viper yell out from inside the cabin.
“Dread?”
Lara could hear Viper opening the barricade on the door and turned to watch the cat walk up to one of the other huge men.
“I don’t see any more of them. She kill them all.” Lara sat mute as the cat spoke to the man.
Oh hell yes! She thought as she rolled over onto her back. A talking black panther. Yeah she really knew how to up the crazy factor. Because for her mind, visible men, aliens and attack panthers just weren’t enough. No, she had to have a talking panther in her delusional world.
No doubt, she was going to have to create a new book of bad days just to cover today. If she wasn’t a babbling idiot, eating her own boogers by morning, she thought.
Lara laid on the roof as Viper, and his brother held a mini reunion below. Not being good with people and feeling like hell now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Lara was content to just rest there for a while as long as Viper was safe.
The peace came to an end all too quickly when Lara heard Viper yelling out her name. “Lara?”
“I’m here. Give me a sec.” Lara said as she pulled herself upright with more effort than it should have taken.
She barely stood and looked down in the clearing at all the men surrounding Viper and her small cabin when she saw the lone man behind a tree pointing an automatic rifle at the group.
“Forest Ninja is a chick?” Lara heard from below as she raised her weapon and fired off five shots in rapid succession. The group turned as one to see what she had shot at and Lara lowered her weapon.
She heard the breath behind her, but wasn’t fast enough to react before she looked down at her stomach, her eyes refusing to communicate to her brain the large holes that had appeared. Blood was streaming down the front of her, soaking her shirt and pants.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion for her. Viper screaming her name, the black cat scrambling up the side of the roof, the shouting of men all around her. She heard the sound of her rifle hitting the roof and looked down to see it. Viper said four, Lara thought as she felt her knees start to buckle; damn, this was the fourth.
Lara looked down at Viper, grabbed two knives from the front of her vest, and planted both of them into the thing behind her just as the cat attacked it.
Strange, Lara thought as she fell to the roof, as soon as the thing fell, she felt something come out of her stomach. There was no pain. Shouldn’t there be pain? Lara thought. Maybe this was another delusion like the talking cat, she said, trying to convince herself none of this was real.
Lara suddenly felt like ice and could feel her body trembling. She looked up as something big blocked the sun, hoping it was one of the good guys. She didn’t think she had much fight left in her anymore; she was so tired.
“We need to get her to a MedLab! Get a transport here now! You hang in there. No, no, no! Fight damn it!” Lara could see the mouth moving on the blurry face in front of her, but she couldn’t make her mind understand what it was saying.
She was so tired; she just needed to rest for a minute she thought, rolling her head to the side and closing her eyes. She groaned when someone shook her roughly and yanked her shirt open.
“Don’t you close your eyes! Wake up soldier!”
“Lara! Let me go!”
“Shit this is bad! Its claws severed her spine and punctured her internal organs; she's bleeding out from everywhere! Get me some help now!”
Lara had no idea who was speaking, the only voice she recognized was Viper’s and he was screaming to be let go. The last thought she had was that these must not have been the good guys. She screwed up and delivered Viper to the enemy.
*****
Viper stood in the clearing and hugged his brother tightly, grateful that he had come. He had turned to the roof in time to see the dark one rise behind Lara and saw her rifle drop from her hand. Even though his vision didn’t allow him to see details, he knew that she was hurt badly.
He screamed for her as the men launched into action around him, trying to get on the roof and get to her. He lunged forward to try to get to her as well, when Dread pulled him to a stop.
“Lara! Let me go!” Viper growled as he fought his brother to get to Lara. He had to know she was all right; he had to get to her.
“You can’t do anything for her right now! Stop! Let them get her down.” Dread said quietly, trying to sift through the raging miasma of Viper’s emotions that were screaming through his energy.
Viper slumped against his brother as he heard Decano yell from the roof. “Shit this is bad! Its claws severed her spine and punctured her internal organs; she's bleeding out from everywhere!”
“You have to save her, Dread. Please.” Viper begged, gripping his brother’s arm tightly.
“Who is she?” Dread asked, curious why his brother was so emotionally volatile.
“It’s Kinara.” Viper said hoarsely.
Dread was even more confused. “What about her?”
“Lara is Kinara.” Viper said, lunging forward as they brought her down from the roof.
Dread was momentarily stunned by Viper’s words and had to use more strength than he intended to stop his brother from getting to the badly injured girl.
“What the hell are you talking about? You know that isn’t possible! You have a concussion. You’re confused. We’ll get both of you to MedLab.” Dread hissed quietly, hoping no one else would hear his brother.
“I swear I will stay here, if you go over there and make sure she is all right. Feel her energy, you are the strongest of us; you'll recognize her. Please, Dread…” Viper begged, knowing if his brother would just do as he asked he would believe him; and understand.
Dread looked at his brother intently, feeling the strength of his conviction in his energy. He knew it wasn’t possible; Viper couldn’t be right. However, he needed his brother to stay calm until they could get him to Amun and make sure he was well.
“I will go check on her. Do not move!” Dread warned as he stepped a foot away as if to make sure Viper would keep his word and not move.
When he felt like he could trust his brother not to run to the woman, he nodded to Traze and David to keep an eye on him as he walked over to the crowd around the girl.
Med packs were opened all over the ground; bloody medibands were discarded as multiple hands worked to save the girl’s life. Dread circled around until he saw an open spot near her feet.
Kneeling down, he stared at the unfamiliar face of the female, not understanding why Viper would think he knew her. Reaching out with his energy, he tried to reach out to the woman, but either her energy was very weak or the men surrounding her were overwhelming hers.
Dread took a deep breath, then reached out his hand and wrapped it around her boot covered ankle. His energy roared through his body so quickly his spine stiffened, the power holding him to her until his hand began shaking on her foot.
With a huge push of strength, Dread yanked his hand away from the woman and stared down at her in amazement. It wasn’t possible. Turning to Viper, Dread knew his brother was right.
Dread immediately sent a private message through the Shengari’ to Ratoka, the spiritual leader of the Zendarian people and most of the beast nations. The fact that Ratoka responded so quickly and without any surprise told Dread that this unbelievable occurrence was somehow expected by the man. That pissed him off. Dread didn’t like surprises.
He walked quickly back to Viper and whispered quietly to him, “Do not speak a word of this. Ratoka is coming to meet us.”
Viper nodded his head, “How is she?”
Dread shook his head sadly, “She’s in pretty bad shape, but the energy she pulled from me should keep her going until we get her to Amun. Ho
w the hell did you find her?”
“She found me. She rescued me from the assholes and kept me alive. How did this happen? How…” Viper’s voice trailed off as he thought of what the hell this could all mean.
“I have no idea. Where has she been? Does she know? Did she say anything?” Dread asked trying hard to understand what the hell had happened since the transport crashed.
Viper thought of all the things that Lara had told him, which wasn’t much. “We need to grab her packs. Inside the cabin, in the tunnel. I saw her take them down there. There’s something in them that she is trying to protect. It’s important to her, so it’s important to me.”
Dread looked over at David, who nodded and headed into the cabin to go find the tunnel, and the packs that Viper was talking about.
“What is in the packs?” Dread asked when Traze followed David into the cabin.
“I don’t know. She was in trouble. She found me because she had come out here to hide.” Viper explained, trying to piece it all together.
“Does she know?” Dread asked again.
“No, I don’t think she does. I don’t understand it, Dread.” Viper said, looking up as the transport hovered over the cabin.
“I think Ratoka knows something. We’ll figure it out; I promise. Are you all right, brother?” Dread asked, concerned about the multitude of raw emotions Viper was feeling and the pain he was ignoring in his body.
“I don’t know. I can’t lose her, Dread. Not again.” Viper said, his voice breaking as he watched her being loaded into the transport. He could hear the medics yelling that they would take over her care.
He and Dread were silent, wrapped in their own thoughts as they headed towards the hovering transport. Viper was oblivious to the slaps on the shoulder and the others who were cleaning up the dead bodies and closing up the cabin. His emotions were too raw and close to the surface.
No longer having the adrenaline and danger to keep his mind occupied, the memories and emotions assailed his senses. He felt the deep sorrow and pain as if it were yesterday instead of hundreds of years ago. He flinched slightly when David and Traze came up beside him.