Ragged Heroes

by Andy Peloquin

  Thus far, Caderyn had remained steadfast in his decision not to get involved. The events unfolding in front of him were not his problem. At the mention of the giant man’s name being Laura, Caderyn couldn’t keep silent.

  “Did he just say your name’s Laura?” Caderyn said with a wince as if his brain was having a hard time even processing the thought.

  “Yeah! So? What?” Laura roared, reaching behind his right shoulder for the hilt of a two-handed sword. “You think that’s funny? You got something to say about it?”

  Caderyn turned to sniff the wind. His short, brown hair ruffled in the gentle midday breeze. “I think it’s pretty cute. How do all your friends feel about it? Let me guess, there are about another dozen or so of your band waiting just over the hill.”

  “How did you know that?” asked the slender man and the last member of the foursome to speak. “Who … what are you?”

  “What does it matter, Jason?” Laura asked the slender man. The muscles on his neck and back bulged with tension. “Let’s kill them both, take the child, and search the bodies.”

  “Wait.” Susan had said the word with such authority, all eyes in the middle of the conflict turned to her. “He doesn’t carry a weapon, he hears or smells like his senses are heightened, he travels alone.”

  Susan looked Caderyn up and down with something like wonder and fear in her eyes. “You’re him.”

  “Him, who?” Joshua looked over with a raised eyebrow.

  “The Elite I’ve heard in whispers and stories,” Susan said, shaking her head. “They’re immortal, more animals than men. They’re from a land far from ours. Joshua, call the rest of the scavengers from the hill—now.”

  “He doesn’t look so tough to me,” Joshua said with a shrug. “But we hired you to be the brains of this operation for now … so.”

  Joshua put the pointer finger and thumb of his left hand into his mouth and blew a shrill whistle. In a moment everyone could hear the shuffling of feet as the rest of the scavenger unit moved from their spot behind the hill. Another sixteen men and woman joined the confrontation.

  “You, no matter if you are what they say you are or not, you have to help this child.” Andrew limped over to Caderyn, one hand pressing closed his bleeding wound and the other holding the whimpering baby. “Whatever good there is in you, please, I beg of you with The Wolf’s Law, do not let them take this child.”

  Caderyn ran a hand over the days of stubble that had grown over his face. He was challenged with a dilemma that wasn’t so easy to walk away from now. The Wolf’s Law was a code between warriors with similar goals, even if they weren’t in a strict alliance. It stated that every member of the pack, no matter how small or strong, should band together and protect one another. In this case, it meant Caderyn allying with the Nephilim and the child.

  So, what are you going to do now? Caderyn asked himself. This is not why you’re here, but can you really allow this to happen? A child sold into slavery because you turned your back? Fine, but something’s going to have to be done about that whimpering.

  “All right,” Caderyn said, moving forward. He dropped the black cloak that hung from his shoulders. His dark boots, pants, and leather shirt were the only things he wore now. Compared to the twenty scavengers in front of him armed with everything from spears and swords to clubs and axes, he looked pitiful. “The child’s not for the taking by you, or Laura, or any other warriors with ironic names among your ranks.”

  “Then you will die, Elite or whatever you are,” Joshua said, rolling his shoulders. “Scavengers, kill the men, search the bodies, and bring the child to me!”

  Chapter 2

  How does this always happen to you? Caderyn asked himself as the enemies charged. Here we go again.

  Caderyn was, in fact, an Elite. Gifted at birth with an extra DNA strand that regular humans do not possess, he was stronger, faster, lived longer and healed quicker than normal human beings. Coupled with this was his heightened senses. When Caderyn tapped into this Elite gene, two things happened.

  First, his vision turned red. Where his eyes before were dark brown, the entirety of his eyeballs turned a deep crimson. The second thing were the canines in his mouth elongated. Doubling in size, his mouth looked more animal than man.

  This change happened to Caderyn in a moment. He had mastered tapping into his strength and ability long ago. Power, energy, intensity ripped down his muscular body from the core of his very being.

  The first wave of scavengers running at him look terrified but still moved forward as if their legs were committed to the act despite the looks of horror on their faces.

  “Rawww!” Caderyn roared, letting out a bellow as he ran to meet his attackers.

  He moved faster than any of his assailants could counter. His strength meant he could break bones and crack skulls with single strikes or kicks. Caderyn let in the animal-like instinct his Elite gene exuded and went to work.

  Through blood-red vision, Caderyn caught the first unlucky warrior by the shirt collar with one hand and ripped out his throat with the other. As bizarre as it seemed, a wooden nametag with letters etched into the surface was placed on the scavenger’s tunic that read: Logan. Caderyn moved to his next unlucky victim, who broke a club over his right shoulder, to no effect.

  Caderyn sent a right fist into her face that broke her nose and sent her reeling back. She also wore a name tag: Megan. Blood flew freely through the air as Caderyn tore through the scavenger ranks, dismembering and eviscerating his name-tagged opponents.

  A lull ensued a moment later as Caderyn lifted a scavenger into the air by the throat and slammed him into the ground. The cracking of multiple bones filled the air as the scavenger came to rest on the road, broken.

  Caderyn looked up through a sheen of sweat and blood. A cut had been opened up over his right eye. Soreness in his shoulder where the club had stricken him was already healing.

  “You’re a monster,” Jason said with wonder written across his face. The tall man clutched a spear in both hands. “The stories were true.”

  “Before you die … why do your scavengers have name tags?” Caderyn asked before spitting to the side. “That seems strange.”

  “They go through scavengers so quickly, they have to have all of their minions wear name tags or they forget their names,” Susan said with a furrowed brow. “By the way, I want no part of this. I was hired to be the brains for a heist in Azra and to recruit for them. I’m not into kidnapping babies or fighting Elites.”

  “You coward!” Lauren shouted over his shoulder at Susan. “Do you have no sense of brotherhood? You spineless imp.”

  “Stick and stones,” Susan said, backing away from the fight. “And I don’t know what an imp is anyway. Are you sure you’re using that word correctly?”

  Caderyn once again took the time to reassess his enemies. There were still a dozen left, including Jason, Joshua, and Lauren. Whether they knew it or not, they didn’t stand a chance.

  “Kill him now!” Joshua screamed in a fit of frustration. “I’ll get the child.”

  The remaining scavengers were less willing to mount an all-out charge, having just seen their counterparts put through a meat grinder. Still, they moved forward, circling Caderyn. For his part, Caderyn focused on those enemies he imagined could do him the most amount of harm. On the top of his list were Lauren and Jason.

  As they surrounded and closed the circle around Caderyn, the Elite chose to take the fight to his opponents. Caderyn rushed Jason, battering away his spear with one hand and delivering an uppercut to the man’s jaw that shattered teeth and bones alike. If Jason ever did rise again, he wouldn’t be smiling very much.

  All around him, scavengers stabbed and sliced with bladed weapons. Out of the corner of his eye, Caderyn could see Andrew protecting the child and trying to fend off Joshua. There was nothing Caderyn could do at the moment.

  Among the killing blows Caderyn doled out left and right, a long sword managed to stick him in the lef
t side of his torso. Pain lanced through his side as his accelerated healing factor already began working on the wound. Unluckily for Caderyn, he still felt every ounce of discomfort associated with an injury.

  “Ugh!” Caderyn pulled the sword from his side, ignoring the bloody slices to his hand that came with the act. Caderyn went down to a knee.

  “See, he’s bleeding. He can be killed,” Lauren said, pulling his sword free from Caderyn’s grip. “We can take him all at once.”

  There were only three other scavengers on their feet at this point. They looked to one another, as likely to bolt as to join Lauren’s attack on the Elite.

  “He doesn’t even know your names.” Caderyn struggled to his feet. “You’ll die today for a poor excuse of a leader who doesn’t even know your names.”

  “Of course I know their names,” Laruen said with a stressed laugh. He snapped his fingers, looking over to one of the three remaining scavengers. “You’re M.L., M.L. Spencer, right?”

  “Actually, my name’s Brandon,” the scavenger said in a nasally voice.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Caderyn leaned down to pick up a spear. He broke it into three equal parts across his knee. “You’re all going to die right now.”

  The three wooden shards of the spear whipped out of Caderyn’s hand faster than the eye could track. In as many seconds, there were three wooden staffs sprouting out of the chests of the remaining name-tagged scavengers. As if they had planned the act, all three fell to the ground at once.

  “Now you,” Caderyn said, pointing to Lauren. “Time for you to die.”

  For his part, Lauren tried to strike at Caderyn when the Elite rushed forward, but he was just too slow. Caderyn gripped the great two-handed sword Lauren used and tore it from his grip, breaking a fare amount of his fingers in the process. Caderyn swung the sword behind him in a wide arc and brought the blade down in the center of Lauren’s head with such ferocity, it split the scavenger clean in two. Both halves of his body fell to the ground in twitching bloody heaps.

  “No, no! The child, her name is Charlotte Sloan! You must protect the child,” Andrew screamed as the last seconds of his life ticked by. “Get her to New Hope, the Four Territories Inn, two days. They’ll meet you there!”

  Caderyn turned to witness one of the most horrific things he had seen in his life. For an Elite who was capable of living for centuries, that was saying a lot.

  Joshua had changed. Black veins crossed every exposed inch of his skin. Ebony orbs replaced his previously normal-looking eyes. He held Andrew off the ground with his right hand. Joshua’s fingers had bored their way into Andrew’s eyes, nose, and mouth. Rivers of blood fell down Andrew’s face.

  The child was screaming. Andrew had placed the baby behind him, taking a protective stance in front of the infant before confronting the monster.

  Susan ran to pick up the child in her arms, ignoring the situation transpiring in front of her.

  Joshua jerked his hand violently to the right, then left, snapping Andrew’s neck. He dropped the Nephilim’s body. It fell in a bloody heap, motionless.

  “So you’re not human, either.” Caderyn looked from Joshua to Susan. “Did you know about this?”

  “Heck, no.” Susan rocked the squealing babe in her arms. “I was hired for one job, one job. I thought they were all just a bunch of name-tagged idiots. I had no idea he was a … a … well, whatever it is he is.”

  “You were hunting Andrew and his group all along,” Caderyn said, rolling his shoulders and preparing for another fight. “Why all the dramatics if you were just going to show yourself anyway?”

  “Being a Nephilim recruited by the Fallen gets boring after a while.” Joshua shrugged as he circled Caderyn. “Sure, torturing and killing the first few hundred victims was fun, but after that, it just lacks … it lacks flair.”

  Something was still bothering Caderyn. A detail itched at the edge of his mind as Joshua droned on.

  “I was just backup in case the initial force failed to do the job. Good thing I was here,” Joshua said, leaning down to pick up a steel mace from the battleground. “Now all that’s left to be done is to kill you, kill her, and take the child.”

  “I should have known there was something wrong with you when you enlisted me to be your strategist, but also to help swell the ranks of your crew.” Susan glared at Joshua. “You’re a monster, and you have horrible breath.”

  Joshua cackled at this, his pitch-black eyes shining with manic delight.

  “The ability you possess as a Fallen Nephilim is strength,” Caderyn said to himself more than Joshua. “Andrew was already too weak to use his ability against you, whatever that may have been.”

  “Yes, strength, but not only strength,” Joshua said. A wicked grin split his lips.

  Joshua moved so quickly, Caderyn barely had time to raise his sword and deflect the mace’s blow.

  CLANG!

  The strike erupted in a shower of sparks.

  The blow sent a tremor up Caderyn’s right arm.

  Joshua leapt backward with another roar of laughter. “This is going to be fun. I’ve never tested my mettle against an Elite before.”

  “Well, come on, then.” Caderyn placed both hands on the hilt of the two-handed sword that still dripped with Lauren’s blood. “Come at me, demon!”

  Chapter 3

  “Bahaha,” Joshua roared with laughter like a maniac. “I am no demon, but they are who I serve. Just like the angels choose their Nephilim from the human ranks, so, too, my Fallen masters do the same. We are just two different sides of the same coin, two different armies in a war that has existed on this Earth since its inception. I will make you beg for death, Elite.”

  Caderyn reached for that animal that lived deep inside. The gene that set him apart gave him strength. He charged. Caderyn’s heart beat like a war drum as adrenaline pumped to every finger and toe.

  Fallen Nephilim and Elite Human clashed on the battlefield slick with blood from the fights that had already taken place Caderyn traded blows with his foe, who was just as fast and as strong as he was. Sparks showered on the combatants as they notched their weapons on one another.

  Sweat gathered at Caderyn’s brow as his enemy grinned. It seemed Joshua was nowhere near tiring. The two were equal in strength and speed, but the Nephilim was fresh and eager to fight.

  You’re going to have to do it. You’re going to have to use the one edge you have that he doesn’t, Caderyn thought. For all the gifts the Fallen demons bested in this human, they didn’t not give him one.

  Caderyn thus far had maneuvered the sword around his body with skill equivalent to any great warrior. Each blow he received sent a tremor through his arms. The mace being used by Joshua was chipped and notched in a dozen different places now. Still, the Nephilim brought it down over and over and over again.

  This is going to suck, Caderyn thought.

  Joshua brought the mace sideways in a right-to-left motion. Caderyn opened himself up to the attack. The iron war mace struck him on his left side with enough force to break ribs. An audible crunch filled the air. Violent pain erupted. Caderyn’s vision blurred as the fingers of unconsciousness coaxed him to give in.

  Caderyn made a gasping noise that sounded like a half-sneeze.

  “Bless you,” Joshua said with a grin. He tried to pull the mace back from his strike with no success. “Hey, give it back!”

  Pain was still very much a factor, but the initial shock had worn off and already Caderyn’s healing factor was taking affect. With his left arm, he hugged the war mace to his side and slashed out with the sword in his right hand. With one strike, he severed Joshua’s left arm from his body. It was a perfect cut right at the shoulder.

  “Ahhh!” Joshua released his grip on his war mace. He fell to his knees, his right arm grabbing at the stump where his left arm had been a moment before. His screams of pain came from somewhere deep in his throat. “My arm, my arm!”

  Caderyn winced as he pulled the war mac
e from his side. His own blood drenched the area around the wound. Seconds after he removed the weapon from his side, his accelerated healing factor mended his broken ribs and closed the skin around the injury.

  “Oh, my.” Susan covered the tiny infant’s wide eyes. The baby had stopped crying now and was looking on with an open mouth. “You shouldn’t be seeing this. You’re too young.”

  Caderyn took long, deep breaths to deal with the level of pain still coursing through his body. In the space of a few breaths, he felt as good as new. Dropping the sword and mace, he leaned down to pick up Joshua’s severed arm. The limb still twitched as if it remembered how to move but just couldn’t perform the same acts as before.

  “You’re a monster,” Joshua said, looking up from his kneeling position. His black orbs for eyes hadn’t changed. The dark veins in his face were fading to a dull grey. Blood gushed from his wound like a man vomiting after a long night of drinking. “They’ll come … they’ll come for the girl.”

  “Let them come.” Caderyn lifted Joshua’s severed arm over his head and beat the Fallen Nephilim with it over and over again. War rage sought to take Caderyn deeper into its depths. Red was all Caderyn could see at the moment.

  Caderyn’s arm was sore from the repeated motion of striking the Fallen Nephilim by the time the child’s cry stopped him.

  It wasn’t a cry of fear or anger. If babies were capable of crying as if they were asking someone to stop, the child did.

  Caderyn came to his senses. He dropped the severed arm by his side. Looking down on the mess in front of him, it didn’t even look like a body any more, just a broken meat sack that had at one time been a person.

  “Shhh, shhh, shhh…” Susan bounced the baby up and down in her arms, still shielding the child’s eyes. “You’re all right. I mean, you smell like you soiled yourself, but other than that, you’re alive, at least. That’s more than we can say about, well … ninety percent of everyone here.”