by Jamie Davis
There on a plain below them, illuminated by the moonlight, was a cluster of several hundred tents and campfires. They’d found the human army.
Even though the terrain was rough, and it was dark, the squad picked up speed as they ran down the far side of the ridge. They only had a little farther to go, perhaps a little less than two or three kilometers.
They ran, bunching up on the trail when the first of the tall, horned demons came out of the darkness wielding a barbed, black scimitar.
Kurt spun as Curly called out a warning from behind him. He brought the staff of his glaive around just in time to parry the descending scimitar blade.
Sparks flew when the blade contacted the haft of the holy weapon. Kurt whipped the glaive to one side pressing the scimitar out of the way. He prepared to bring the axe head down on the shoulder of the demon facing him now that its guard was down.
The eyes of the creature glowed red in the darkness as it tried to bring its weapon back in line to kill him. It would be close.
Marci came to his aid, rolling along the ground and hacking at the demon’s side with her tomahawks.
She blocked the return stroke from the scimitar on her other weapon.
That gave Kurt the opportunity to thrust forward with the spike at the end of his glaive. He pierced the creature in the chest and the tall humanoid demon collapsed, clutching at the wound. The glowing red eyes faded to darkness has it fell over backwards.
They heard more shouts around them as the demons moved up on them from the darkness from both sides. “Hurry!” Sarge yelled. “We have to make it to the camp. Run for it.”
The others didn’t need encouragement. Together the squad took off at a sprint for the beacon of safety the campfires represented for them.
Occasionally, a demon would come running out of the dark from one side or the other. They were able to either outrun them or, in some cases, cut them down as the squad ran past.
Howls and screeches sounded all around now. It sounded like the demons might be getting ahead of them.
Kurt’s breathing came in ragged gasps in the cold, dry air. He kept running, but he knew they couldn’t manage this pace too much longer.
He turned his head sideways and spotted Jonesey running next to him on the left. He looked over his other shoulder for Marci, but didn’t see her. He turned back to look for her when a demon came out directly in front of him and he had to duck under a vicious swipe from a long-handled battle axe.
Kurt turned back around and brought up the glaive just in time to block the descending axe’s return stroke.
Jonesey jumped in from the side, sliding her long sword blade between the ribs of the horned demon, forcing it backwards. It fell to the side as they ran. Kurt was unsure if it was dead or wounded. He didn’t care. He kept searching for Marci in the darkness.
Jonesey tugged on his arm. “Come on, we have to keep moving.”
“Where is Marci?” Kurt asked.
“No clue. She’s probably run on ahead of us. She’s faster than we are.”
“Are you sure?”
“Where else would she be? Come on let’s catch up with her.”
Kurt ran forward on faith, searching the darkness for Marci’s lithe form in the dim moonlight. They’d almost made it to the camp ahead.
He could make out the shadowy forms of Fish and Smalls running ahead of him. They were the slowest of the troopers. Kurt and Jonesey must be bringing up the rear of the group. Marci had to be up ahead somewhere.
Kurt spotted a low earthwork wall a few hundred meters ahead of them illuminated by a line of large bonfires. The army of humans had constructed a simple fort with a broad dry moat around it, using the dirt from the ditch to build up the rampart upon which they could stage a defense.
If Kurt wasn’t running for his life, he might admire the simple expediency of it all.
The squad angled towards an opening in the wall where two fortified wagon were pulled across the front to act as gates.
“Open up!” Sarge yelled.
“Who goes there?”
“Sergeant Trudeau, First Company.”
“Sarge? We thought you were dead.”
“Open the damn gate you idiot. You can check to see if I’m alive or not later.”
Kurt caught up to the sergeant as the wagons rolled out of the way so they could run through. The wagons rolled closed behind them.
Troopers manning the walls began firing crossbow bolts and arrows down on the demons who’d chased the squad into the camp. Eventually the attack fell back into the darkness and the fighting ended.
Kurt moved back to the wagons and watched as they drove away the attack. Then he turned around. His eye’s searched the surrounding faces. “Jonesey, where the hell is Marci?”
“She was running right beside me for a while. I lost sight of her just as we made the final sprint for the camp,” Smalls said.
“Well, she’s not here now,” Kurt said. “Who else saw her?”
The rest of the squad members looked at each other and then back at Kurt. Doc shook his head.
There was no answer.
Kurt spun around. “I have to get it back out there. Open the gates.”
“No one’s opening that gate,” one soldier at the wagons said. “Especially not for someone we don’t know.”
“We left someone out there. Just let me through, you can close it right behind me. You have to let me go find her.”
A new voice sounded out of the darkness. It held the booming tones of command. “There will be no more opening of the gates tonight. If you have someone out there, we’ll send a party out looking for them in the morning. None of my command is going back out there tonight and neither are you.”
Kurt spun around to search the darkness for the source of the voice. A tall, gray-haired man wearing silver body armor strode into the light of the bonfires by the gate. He had a short sword on his hip and a crossbow slung across his back.
Sarge called out to the squad, “Attention.”
The squad all turned to face the newcomer, coming to attention. Kurt even felt his own shoulders jerk up and back from long practiced memory in response to that order.
“Sergeant Trudeau, it’s good to see you again. I figured you’d be too tough to just die when you got separated from the rest of us. Come with me so you can give your report.”
Sarge, Kurt, and Jonesey followed the officer back to his command tent. Kurt didn’t want to leave the wall. He knew, however, the only way he’d get help to go out and find Marci was to get the army’s leader to agree to it.
Once they reached the tent, Colonel Evans sat down on a folding camp stool behind a small tray table.
“Your report, Sergeant?”
“Colonel Evans, sir, we were separated from the rest of the unit in the battle a few days ago. I gathered the remaining members of the platoon and made our way to a hiding place in the hills near the battlefield until it was safe to return.”
Sarge nodded at Kurt and Jonesey. “We picked up these folks and their missing friend two days later. They said they came through the magic gate sometime after they pushed us back. They said they had a holy weapon to deliver to you so we brought them with us. This is Kurt Carter. The other one’s Jonesey. The one that’s missing is called Marci Trenton. They’re good fighters and we appreciated having them along on the way back.”
Colonel Evans smiled and nodded at Kurt and Jonesey. “We can always use a few more good people on the line.”
“They have firearms that seem to work on the demons, too, Colonel.”
“Firearms, you say?” Colonel Evans remarked. “I feel like I’ve been here so long, I don’t even remember what one looks like.” He pointed to the holstered pistols Kurt and Jonesey carried. “How’d you get the bullets to have any effect on the demon-kind? We gave up on standard munitions long ago. Only specially made edged weapons seem to have any effect on them?”
“We found a work-around of sorts,” Kurt said. “Jonesey
found a small amount of the alloy on Earth Prime and fashioned what she had into bullets. I don’t know if she did anything else to them.”
The Elven tech mage shrugged. “In order to get them to work with a standard pistol load, I had to employ some magic or the silver would have been too soft and would have gotten gummed up in the barrels.”
“That’s exactly the problem we ran into,” Colonel Evans explained. “Good Lord, we lost quite a few good men and women before we found a way to fight these things without our rifles and other modern weapons. How many rounds were you able to manufacture? With bullets again, we can push forward through the demon lines to reconnect with the gateway. Then we’ll be able to resupply.”
“Not so fast, Colonel,” Jonesey said. “I manufactured nothing. I made these the old fashioned way, casting just a few at a time. It’s the only process that’ll work in this instance. Mass production is quite impossible.”
“What do you mean? How many did you make?”
“Twelve,” the elf said.
“Twelve? Why only twelve? What good could that do?” The Colonel’s exasperation crept into his voice.
Kurt held up a hand. “We had twelve. We expended four of them helping us cross the bridge over the lava flow.”
“So you really only have eight?”
“Yes, sir,” Kurt replied. “I have four. Jonesey and Marci have two left as far as I know.”
Jonesey nodded and patted the holster on her hip.
“I know it’s not much,” Kurt continued, “But it was all we could make on short notice. It was more important we deliver this holy weapon to you and your forces. It’s supposed to help bolster your defenses and help you retake this world.”
The Colonel stood and took the glaive from Kurt and examined it. He swung it through a few maneuvers suited to the close quarters of his tent. Then he held it upright before him with the steel-shod butt pressed into the earth at his feet. He shut his eyes and his lips moved silently for a few seconds.
“This is an excellent weapon. I can sense the power instilled into it. But, I’m unable to connect with the magic in it. I can only sense what is there beneath the surface. I should be able to do more.” Colonel Evans looked up to Kurt. “Has this been blooded already?”
“Yes, of course,” Kurt replied. “We just fought our way across that blasted landscape out there. Why?”
“Because the glaive has bonded with you and you have something holding it to you. It will not give up its powers to another until you have completed some task. Do you know what that might be?”
Kurt shook his head. “As far as I know it’s for you all to do. They merely sent me to deliver it. Now I have to go rescue a friend before she’s eaten by demons.”
“Your delivery is for naught, I’m afraid. None of us can use it now. It is only empowered for your use. It probably senses your bond to your friend and seeks to assist you in your quest to find her.”
“Then you’ll have to help me and give me men to go find her.”
“Maybe. We can talk again in the morning in the morning. I have to tell you, it’s unlikely she survived. She’s probably already dead. At least I hope she is.”
“But—?” Kurt tried to interject.
“No buts. You will join our command and help us when we strike back. We’ll search for your friend once we prepare to move the army back westward. Then we can retake the lost land from the desecrated ones with you and glaive at the lead. Sergeant Trudeau, get these two settled into your squad. They can fill in for your lost platoon members now that you’re back.”
“Yes sir, Colonel. Right away, sir.” Sarge reached out a hand to Kurt and gestured to the rear of the command tent. “After you.”
Kurt took the glaive from the colonel’s outstretched hand. “Colonel, this is a mistake. Jonesey and I aren’t here to become part of your army.”
“You are now. Dismissed.” The colonel turned around and shuffled papers around on the table behind him.
Kurt knew he would not get anywhere arguing with the man. He still had to figure a way to get out and get Marci before it was too late. He couldn’t do that if they locked him up or put him under guard.
He shot a hard glance at Sarge and pushed past the noncom through the tent flap. Jonesey followed right behind him.
A few yards from the colonel’s tent, Sarge caught up with Kurt. “Kurt, I’m sorry. The Colonel’s just been at this too long. He’s short on troops and fighting a losing war. The man’s holding on the only way he knows how.”
“We’re not joining your army, Sarge. We came to deliver a weapon. That’s what we did. I’ll leave it with you so you can have it. Now, though, we’re going back out to find Marci. You’re not going to stop us.”
As the three of them walked along, Kurt arrived back to where the rest of Sarge’s squad sat, eating and chatting around a campfire near the gate.
“We’re not going to stop Kurt from doing what, Sarge?” Curley asked.
“How can you be so dumb, Curley?” Smalls asked. “He’s going back out after Marci.”
“Why would Sarge stop him?”
“Because, Curley,” Sarge said. “The Colonel said so, that’s why.”
Smalls shot a shocked glance at Sarge. “Why would he do that? It’s not too late to find her. She could definitely be alive. We could track her down if we sent a large enough group out after her.”
“She’s right, Sarge,” Stretch chimed in. “The girl helped us get across that bridge in one piece. It’s only right someone do something to find her.”
“Seriously, Stretch,” the sergeant said to the tall man. “You’ve never stuck your head out for anyone but yourself before. What’s so special about this woman who was a stranger to you three days ago?”
“I don’t know, Sarge. I guess it just don’t feel right to abandon her like this.”
The sergeant looked around at the whole squad seated around the fire. “You all feel the same?”
Kurt smiled as all five of the troopers nodded, even old Fish. Maybe there was hope to get some help to find Marci after all.
“You know this is mutiny.”
“I’d expect you all to come after me, Sarge,” Doc replied. “Mutiny or not, I’d want to know the squad wouldn’t let me down like that.”
“You, too, Doc?” Sarge asked.
“We all gotta go at some point. We’ve been dying for nothing in this stupid war for over a year now. I figure we’ve got one good mission left in us. Let’s do something that matters for a change.”
The sergeant’s shoulders slumped a little. Clearly, Doc’s opinion held some weight with him.
Kurt moved up next to Sarge. “You all don’t have to come with Jonesey and I, just help us get over the wall. We’ll take care of finding her. I’ll leave the glaive with you. I’m sure the colonel will find a way to use its powers after I’ve left.”
“Damn it all,” Sarge exclaimed. “This is above my pay grade.”
He looked around at the determined faces of his squad around the fire. After a few seconds, he nodded. “Pack light. It’s almost morning. As soon as the sun comes up, we’ll tell the gate guard we’re going out as a recon team. Once we’re out of sight of the ramparts, we’ll head back the way we came and see if we can’t locate Marci’s trail.”
“Why can’t we go now?” Kurt asked. He wanted to find her right away.
“If you try to break out of the camp now, you’ll likely be stopped and then the Colonel will have you watched until he’s ready to get the army on the road. There are morning patrols all the time. The gate guards won’t think anything of it.”
“Don’t worry, Kurt,” Smalls said. “We’ll pick up her trail. I’m sure of it.”
“You might be able to help with that, Kurt,” Jonesey suggested.
“Me, why me?”
“Because of your feelings for her. You two are tuned into each other right now. I’ve seen it in your auras. If you use that to your advantage, you might be able to find her
with a locator spell.”
“I’m not powerful enough to cast that type of spell in a place like this. I can do some tracking spells but a directional locator requires too much energy.”
“Unless there’s an emotional connection to the lost subject,” Jonesey qualified.
“That’s in the case of a mother and child,” Kurt argued. He was uncomfortable with the direction this was headed.
“Or lovers,” the elf added. “You both may not have done the deed yet, but there’s enough emotional tension between you two. It’s thick enough to cut with a knife sometimes. Stop being a stick in the mud and admit that to yourself.”
Kurt pondered Jonesey’s words. If there was a chance to find Marci, he had to take it, no matter how uncomfortable it made him feel inside.
“Okay, tell me what I need to do while we wait for the dawn.”
Chapter 14
Marci pulled at her bound hands as she struggled against the ropes wrapped around her arms. There wasn’t much she could do with her hands behind her back. She still cursed her crappy luck that got her captured.
The night before, the demons had closed in on both sides of the squad as they ran for the army encampment. She struck a few of the horned ones down as they charged in at the troopers on the run. Everyone fought to make it through to the army camp.
No one saw or heard when Marci stumbled and tripped over the uneven ground. As she tumbled and fell, the others kept running.
She jumped back to her feet right away, but by then she was cut off from her friends. Multiple demons passed around her in the darkness. They hadn’t seen her sprawled on the ground as they chased after her squad mates running ahead of them. She bent down and stayed low while she tried to work her way around the pursuing forces. The gap between her and her friends widened as she struggled to get around the demons to the left.
In the end, she realized it was a futile effort. There were demons running all around her in the dark. She wasn’t making any real progress, only moving from hiding place to hiding place.