Chapter 3D
“Jesus Christ that girl’s spry for being as intoxicated as she is.” Sarah said as she rubbed her shoulder. She thought she might have pulled something bounding over the fence as quickly as she did.
“We should split up.” Zoe said as she scanned the area. Rah was nowhere in sight.
“Uh, no.” Sarah said, moving ahead and facing them all. “If I’ve learned one thing from horror movies it’s that you’re always safer in a group… Unless you’re climbing from tree to tree in a group with inbred Cannibals trying to catch you, but Wrong Turn wasn’t all that realistic anyway. We should stay together.”
“While I didn’t understand all of that, I must say I agree.” Anthony said. “We’ll be safer in a group. And though we might not cover as much ground, that won’t matter if we’re all dead.”
“Let me take the lead.” Sarah said, grabbing a small, but sturdy fallen tree branch. “Everybody grab something to defend yourself with and stay close.”
They all surveyed the area and grabbed either a stone or a stick and followed her lead.
Sarah tried to keep her senses open like Eve told her to do, but that was proving incredibly difficult considering the full belly of wine she was carrying. So instead of trying to focus in all of her senses she tried to rely more on her hearing, being that she couldn’t see too much in the dark anyway. If she closed her eyes and concentrated she could just make out the faint sounds of soft foot falls towards her right side. She put a finger up to her lips then signaled for everyone to give her some space as she slowly moved forward trying not to make a sound. She finally got close enough to a small shrub to see Rah’s lithe figure hunched behind it, readying an arrow. With adept stealth she didn’t even know she had she moved behind the girl and placed a hand over her mouth.
“Rah it’s me, Sarah.” She said as softly as possible. “I’m gonna take my hand off of your mouth, but you have to promise to be quiet, ok?”
Rah nodded in agreement and Sarah removed her hand before peaking through the bush to see what Rah had been focused on.
“See, I found ‘em.” She said with a proud smile. “Now if I can just get my arrows out quick enough I can hit one right after the other before they run away.”
“And that would be an excellent plan if there were actually two men standing there.” Sarah pointed out.
“What are you talking about; they’re standing right next to each other.” Rah retorted.
“No sweetie.” Sarah said.
Rah squinted her eyes at the ‘men’ in question then looked at Sarah and spoke again. “Well that would explain why they keep moving so in sync with each other.”
“Yeah.” Sarah said, taking her eyes off Rah, then moving them back to the clearing only to find that the man that even she’d seen was no longer there.
“Oh shit.” She said.
“Hello ladies, out for a late night stroll?” Came an ominous voice to their left.
Sarah quickly jerked Rah behind her and readied her stick as she heard the rest of the group come to back her up. The man in front of her was somewhat lanky and dirty looking, a leer painted his face as he took in the situation.
“Yeah, and it looks like our friends came to join us.” Sarah said, feeling confident that she could take on the malnourished frame. She stepped forward but used her left hand to signal the rest of the group to stay back.
“The more, the merrier, I always say.” The man moved to the left a bit and his prey moved to the right as if they were about to take place in some kind of dance.
“You the one who’s been taking the Amazon girls these last few moons?” Sarah asked, holding the stick in front of her with both hands as they continued to slowly keep step with each other. Their positions were now reversed, which was exactly where she wanted him. If he attacked her now, he’d have four other people at his back.
“Now do I look like I would do something like that?” He stopped moving and mocked her.
“No, but he sure does.” Rah said as she pointed behind Sarah.
“Sarah, look out!” Zoe yelled as Sarah turned into a swift right hook that knocked her to the ground.
This guy was a lot bigger. He towered over Sarah’s form as she moved back to her feet. With her attention drawn elsewhere the smaller man descended upon the group.
“Don’t you know it’s not nice to attack a girl from behind?” She said, swinging the stick and breaking it in half on the man’s skull. He barely even flinched. “Guess not.” She said swallowing hard then swiftly dodging a meaty fist headed straight for her head.
“Let’s see how many more times I can pull that off.” She said to herself as she continued to dodge and weave around his attacks.
Meanwhile the other attacker was descending upon the group and Anthony took point, brandishing a knife that he kept in his boot. He swiped it several times at the attacker and missed as the man backed out of the way, but was given an opening after Meg was lucky enough to throw a hefty rock at his head. The distraction gave Anthony just enough time to sink the knife deep into the man’s gut.
He screamed and then backed off; howling at first in pain, but then changing to laughter. He stood upright and pulled the knife from his stomach and pounded it into a nearby tree. All four of them looked at him in awe as he smiled mischievously.
“See this is the part where your little friends usually take off running.” He said.
“Yeah, well we’re too drunk to retreat.” Ra said, letting loose an arrow straight into his heart.
He only had a few seconds to look down and realize what had happened before looking back in pain. Afterward his entire frame crumbled into dust.
Everyone was quiet for a few seconds as they tried to take in what had just happened. The sounds of a fist being pounded into Sarah’s abdomen could not even pull them from their stupor.
“Did the rest of you see that too?” Rah asked, seriously starting to question her senses.
“Zoe, what did you put in the herbs tonight?” Meg asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m renegotiating the trade policy once we get back into camp.” Zoe answered.
“Um, guys.” Anthony interrupted. “We may want to try to help Sarah out now.”
They all looked over to the girl and noticed that the big burly man now had her pinned against a tree by her shoulders several inches from the ground and his mouth was about to descend on her jugular.
“Rah, shoot him in the heart just like you did last time.” Zoe said. “And make it quick I think he’s literally about to bite her head off.”
Sarah kicked and spit and cursed at her assailant to try to get free of his grasp.
“Oh you just wait mother fucker. I am so gonna kick your ass once I figure out a way to get you to put me down.” She screamed.
Then she noticed the fangs that started to glisten in the moonlight as they extracted themselves from his gums.
“No fucking way.” She said, not believing her eyes.
“You are either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid.” He said; his voice deep and haunting. “I like that in my food.”
He started to move in, but grunted and looked back at the group with a growl. An arrow had ripped through his right shoulder.
“To the left more!”
Sarah could hear Meg screaming before another arrow whizzed by both her and the freak in front of her.
“No, your other left!”
Came the cry from Zoe and with it another arrow that struck so hard it passed through the center of the man’s chest and shallowly embedded itself into Sarah’s own.
“You gotta be kidding me.” Sarah said, as the man dropped her and turned toward the rest of the gang.
She was hoping now that he was turned around they would have a better shot at his heart. Then she heard one of the worst possible sentences that could have been uttered at that moment.
“Uh, guys.” Rah said timidly. “I’m out of arrows.”
Sarah sighed then grunted in pain as she tried to get to her feet. Her plan at this point was simply to jump on his back and divert his attention long enough so the rest of them could get away, but before she even had the chance she felt cool air whip by her side from the opposite direction. Then in front of her eyes was the half broken limb sticking out of the man’s back. He stopped and stood there for a minute, then quickly turned to dust just as his companion had done. After staring at her friends for a few seconds she slowly turned to see what they were looking at.
Standing before her was the tall, dark and mysterious woman from the bar the other night.
Sarah would have been happy to see anyone who looked to be on their side simply due to the elation of escaping the fight. But to see Khepri standing there like some goddess out of a comic book made her heart beat so fast she thought it was going to thump right out of her chest.
Khepri let a small smile grow on her face and moved closer to her, lifting her hand to softly touch the side of Sarah’s bruised face.
“You just can’t stay out of trouble can you?” She asked.
“I aim to misbehave.” Sarah said, brandishing her best Malcom Reynold’s smile.
They both stood there for a few seconds just looking happy to see one another.
“Um, I’m sure that we’re about to witness a touching reunion, but I think you guys should save it till we get back to the camp.” Anthony said. “Being that we’re targeted as prey by strange creatures and all.”
“Right.” Sarah said, addressing the group. “Everyone, this is Khepri. Khepri, this is everyone. Khepri’s a friend from back in town, and this group of drunks call themselves amazons. Let’s go.”
After the quick introduction they all headed back to the gates with a little extra speed in their steps. Once in front of the gate, however, Khepri hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked, causing the rest of the group to turn and see what she was talking about.
“Nothing, it’s just that I don’t want to just invite myself over to stay in the camp.” She said. “I wouldn’t want to seem rude.”
Sarah shook her head and smirked before taking the woman’s hand and dragging her toward the gate once more. “I’m officially inviting you, now get your ass in here before we leave this thing open long enough for one of those baddies to get in.”
With the invite in tow, Khepri followed the girl inside the camp. “No, we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen.” She said with an undetectable chuckle.
“We should split up.” Zoe said as she scanned the area. Rah was nowhere in sight.
“Uh, no.” Sarah said, moving ahead and facing them all. “If I’ve learned one thing from horror movies it’s that you’re always safer in a group… Unless you’re climbing from tree to tree in a group with inbred Cannibals trying to catch you, but Wrong Turn wasn’t all that realistic anyway. We should stay together.”
“While I didn’t understand all of that, I must say I agree.” Anthony said. “We’ll be safer in a group. And though we might not cover as much ground, that won’t matter if we’re all dead.”
“Let me take the lead.” Sarah said, grabbing a small, but sturdy fallen tree branch. “Everybody grab something to defend yourself with and stay close.”
They all surveyed the area and grabbed either a stone or a stick and followed her lead.
Sarah tried to keep her senses open like Eve told her to do, but that was proving incredibly difficult considering the full belly of wine she was carrying. So instead of trying to focus in all of her senses she tried to rely more on her hearing, being that she couldn’t see too much in the dark anyway. If she closed her eyes and concentrated she could just make out the faint sounds of soft foot falls towards her right side. She put a finger up to her lips then signaled for everyone to give her some space as she slowly moved forward trying not to make a sound. She finally got close enough to a small shrub to see Rah’s lithe figure hunched behind it, readying an arrow. With adept stealth she didn’t even know she had she moved behind the girl and placed a hand over her mouth.
“Rah it’s me, Sarah.” She said as softly as possible. “I’m gonna take my hand off of your mouth, but you have to promise to be quiet, ok?”
Rah nodded in agreement and Sarah removed her hand before peaking through the bush to see what Rah had been focused on.
“See, I found ‘em.” She said with a proud smile. “Now if I can just get my arrows out quick enough I can hit one right after the other before they run away.”
“And that would be an excellent plan if there were actually two men standing there.” Sarah pointed out.
“What are you talking about; they’re standing right next to each other.” Rah retorted.
“No sweetie.” Sarah said.
Rah squinted her eyes at the ‘men’ in question then looked at Sarah and spoke again. “Well that would explain why they keep moving so in sync with each other.”
“Yeah.” Sarah said, taking her eyes off Rah, then moving them back to the clearing only to find that the man that even she’d seen was no longer there.
“Oh shit.” She said.
“Hello ladies, out for a late night stroll?” Came an ominous voice to their left.
Sarah quickly jerked Rah behind her and readied her stick as she heard the rest of the group come to back her up. The man in front of her was somewhat lanky and dirty looking, a leer painted his face as he took in the situation.
“Yeah, and it looks like our friends came to join us.” Sarah said, feeling confident that she could take on the malnourished frame. She stepped forward but used her left hand to signal the rest of the group to stay back.
“The more, the merrier, I always say.” The man moved to the left a bit and his prey moved to the right as if they were about to take place in some kind of dance.
“You the one who’s been taking the Amazon girls these last few moons?” Sarah asked, holding the stick in front of her with both hands as they continued to slowly keep step with each other. Their positions were now reversed, which was exactly where she wanted him. If he attacked her now, he’d have four other people at his back.
“Now do I look like I would do something like that?” He stopped moving and mocked her.
“No, but he sure does.” Rah said as she pointed behind Sarah.
“Sarah, look out!” Zoe yelled as Sarah turned into a swift right hook that knocked her to the ground.
This guy was a lot bigger. He towered over Sarah’s form as she moved back to her feet. With her attention drawn elsewhere the smaller man descended upon the group.
“Don’t you know it’s not nice to attack a girl from behind?” She said, swinging the stick and breaking it in half on the man’s skull. He barely even flinched. “Guess not.” She said swallowing hard then swiftly dodging a meaty fist headed straight for her head.
“Let’s see how many more times I can pull that off.” She said to herself as she continued to dodge and weave around his attacks.
Meanwhile the other attacker was descending upon the group and Anthony took point, brandishing a knife that he kept in his boot. He swiped it several times at the attacker and missed as the man backed out of the way, but was given an opening after Meg was lucky enough to throw a hefty rock at his head. The distraction gave Anthony just enough time to sink the knife deep into the man’s gut.
He screamed and then backed off; howling at first in pain, but then changing to laughter. He stood upright and pulled the knife from his stomach and pounded it into a nearby tree. All four of them looked at him in awe as he smiled mischievously.
“See this is the part where your little friends usually take off running.” He said.
“Yeah, well we’re too drunk to retreat.” Ra said, letting loose an arrow straight into his heart.
He only had a few seconds to look down and realize what had happened before looking back in pain. Afterward his entire frame crumbled into dust.
Everyone was quiet for a few seconds as they tried to take in what had just happened. The sounds of a fist being pounded into Sarah’s abdomen could not even pull them from their stupor.
“Did the rest of you see that too?” Rah asked, seriously starting to question her senses.
“Zoe, what did you put in the herbs tonight?” Meg asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m renegotiating the trade policy once we get back into camp.” Zoe answered.
“Um, guys.” Anthony interrupted. “We may want to try to help Sarah out now.”
They all looked over to the girl and noticed that the big burly man now had her pinned against a tree by her shoulders several inches from the ground and his mouth was about to descend on her jugular.
“Rah, shoot him in the heart just like you did last time.” Zoe said. “And make it quick I think he’s literally about to bite her head off.”
Sarah kicked and spit and cursed at her assailant to try to get free of his grasp.
“Oh you just wait mother fucker. I am so gonna kick your ass once I figure out a way to get you to put me down.” She screamed.
Then she noticed the fangs that started to glisten in the moonlight as they extracted themselves from his gums.
“No fucking way.” She said, not believing her eyes.
“You are either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid.” He said; his voice deep and haunting. “I like that in my food.”
He started to move in, but grunted and looked back at the group with a growl. An arrow had ripped through his right shoulder.
“To the left more!”
Sarah could hear Meg screaming before another arrow whizzed by both her and the freak in front of her.
“No, your other left!”
Came the cry from Zoe and with it another arrow that struck so hard it passed through the center of the man’s chest and shallowly embedded itself into Sarah’s own.
“You gotta be kidding me.” Sarah said, as the man dropped her and turned toward the rest of the gang.
She was hoping now that he was turned around they would have a better shot at his heart. Then she heard one of the worst possible sentences that could have been uttered at that moment.
“Uh, guys.” Rah said timidly. “I’m out of arrows.”
Sarah sighed then grunted in pain as she tried to get to her feet. Her plan at this point was simply to jump on his back and divert his attention long enough so the rest of them could get away, but before she even had the chance she felt cool air whip by her side from the opposite direction. Then in front of her eyes was the half broken limb sticking out of the man’s back. He stopped and stood there for a minute, then quickly turned to dust just as his companion had done. After staring at her friends for a few seconds she slowly turned to see what they were looking at.
Standing before her was the tall, dark and mysterious woman from the bar the other night.
Sarah would have been happy to see anyone who looked to be on their side simply due to the elation of escaping the fight. But to see Khepri standing there like some goddess out of a comic book made her heart beat so fast she thought it was going to thump right out of her chest.
Khepri let a small smile grow on her face and moved closer to her, lifting her hand to softly touch the side of Sarah’s bruised face.
“You just can’t stay out of trouble can you?” She asked.
“I aim to misbehave.” Sarah said, brandishing her best Malcom Reynold’s smile.
They both stood there for a few seconds just looking happy to see one another.
“Um, I’m sure that we’re about to witness a touching reunion, but I think you guys should save it till we get back to the camp.” Anthony said. “Being that we’re targeted as prey by strange creatures and all.”
“Right.” Sarah said, addressing the group. “Everyone, this is Khepri. Khepri, this is everyone. Khepri’s a friend from back in town, and this group of drunks call themselves amazons. Let’s go.”
After the quick introduction they all headed back to the gates with a little extra speed in their steps. Once in front of the gate, however, Khepri hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked, causing the rest of the group to turn and see what she was talking about.
“Nothing, it’s just that I don’t want to just invite myself over to stay in the camp.” She said. “I wouldn’t want to seem rude.”
Sarah shook her head and smirked before taking the woman’s hand and dragging her toward the gate once more. “I’m officially inviting you, now get your ass in here before we leave this thing open long enough for one of those baddies to get in.”
With the invite in tow, Khepri followed the girl inside the camp. “No, we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen.” She said with an undetectable chuckle.