Two days passed in the blink of an eye and already it was time for us to make another trip out. We met together at the cafeteria as usual and then headed to the stables we had gone to before to pick up our rides.
As I walked through the large training area, I found myself scanning the crowd to see if Hector was here again. My heart sped up as my eyes drifted from one soldier to the next, but when we reached the stables I still had not seen him. However, there was a tingling on the back of my neck that told me that somewhere, in that massive room, he could see me.
We rode off in the same direction as we had the day before. Our mounts flew through the underbrush even faster than they had before, after one trip there and back on this trail they had become familiar with it. Their powerful legs tore through the foliage, we hardly had to steer them as they followed almost exactly the steps they had taken a few days prior.
We passed the field the birds had attacked us in. Not a bone was left from the fight. The ground had been picked clean, most likely by scavengers, but to us it looked a trap that had been reset by a skilled hunter. Needless to say we decided not to there stop again.
We passed the place where we had camped. An anxious feeling built up in my stomach as once again we ventured further into the twisted forest. We slowed a bit as the basilisks became less familiar with the terrain. We looked around all curious of this new surrounding.
I saw that the trees in this area were actually getting smaller. They seemed to be choked by the underbrush. Vines climbed up each limb smothering them. The bushes were lined with thorns and seemed to dominate the ground.
We were forced to slow our progress even more as our mounts began to get cut repeatedly by the jagged plant life.
"Wow, I thought that the things were bad before this is crazy." I remarked. " If this gets any thicker we will have to get off and cut our way through."
Scyll nodded, " I think your right. We need to start looking to see if there is an easier path. Lets leave our mounts here and work our way around on foot."
Gohn sighed. " Yay. Now instead of the lizards getting scratched up we will be." he said sarcastically.
I jumped down from and reached up to help Terry down, but before I had a chance her little caudal sprang down from its perch on her shoulder and with its tail lifted her gently to the ground and then jumped back to her shoulder. She stroked its head.
I grew out a machete shaped blade and began methodically carving a path. We progressed slowly. Caulin yawned taunting me, "Hey David pick up the pace."
I cocked an eyebrow and then turned to him. I leveled my arm with the blade pointed right at him. I tensed the muscles and the blade shot forward. It whizzed by Caulin’s head and stuck into a tree next to him.
"Hey! What is the big idea?" He yelped in surprise.
I laughed, "there you go now take that blade and give me a hand." I grew out a blade for Gohn as well and we proceed to cut our way through.
As we slowly moved about Scyll jotted down notes about our surroundings attempting to put together a crude map for our next trip out this way.
Suddenly Terry’s caudal shot its tail out sweeping in a circle surrounding us. We stopped and looked over toward Terry. She signaled for us to be quiet. "He must have smelled something." She whispered.
We crouched together silently straining our ears in hopes of hearing what had spooked Terry’s pet. There was a sound of movement in the brush to our left.
Carefully we edged over to peered through the thorn bushes. Three tall four legged animals stood about a hundred yards away. They stood about ten feet tall and were thin as tree branches. Three quarters of their height came from their long legs. They had a thick scaly hide that showed through a thin covering of fur. They seemed perfectly bred for this thorny environment. They strode easily with a strange deer like grace.
Caulin sighed, "Well they don’t look very threatening. Terry, your caudal is too jumpy." He started to stand when a shrill shriek range though our ears. Our heads snapped back around just in time to see something spring from the trees.
It was a dark greenish brown that camouflaged it with the trees and had kept us from seeing it earlier. Its claws dug into wood and it crawled down the trunk with frightening quickness.
The creature had clearly descended from so sort of lizard, but though the physical similarities were clear the ferocity was unlike anything I had every seen. The creature leapt from the tree and sank its teeth and claws deep into one of the unsuspecting deer-like mutants. The remaining deer-mutants tore off through the brush like lightning, but the tree beast had already bagged its prey. With a sickening crunch the predator snapped its prey’s neck.
We backed away slowly, taking care not to alert the feasting animal. I took a deep breath. The sudden shock of the animals attack had taken me by surprise. I looked at each of my friends. A general look of discomfort was on all of their faces. Uneasily our glances shifted toward the trees around us. None of us would have been able to stop the creature if it had attacked one of us at that moment. It took the creature all of a second to kill its prey. There was no doubt that the world we were in now was even more dangerous than the one we had grown a costumed to.
"Can we really do this?" Gohn said, his voice just above a whisper. "Just the five of us, can we make it?"
Without stopping or hesitating Terry firmly answered him, "We have to." Gohn nodded back in agreement.
We walked for another hour in silence, still wary of our surroundings. The going was slow even with Gohn, Caulin, and I cutting through the brush we were still moving at a snails pace.
Finally, Caulin decided to break the silence. " I can’t take it anymore. We need to talk if for no other reason, we need to talk to keep our sanity. I don’t care if we are heard by the mutants out here, its not like they can’t hear all this chopping as it is."
Gohn sighed, "Yea, this will be a very long trip if we just edge slowly and quietly all the way there….. Though, making it there in one piece is slightly more important to me than being bored."
"We will be fine. I will protect you, my fragile little friend." Caulin said playfully slugging Gohn in the arm.
Gohn rubbed his arm and shot Caulin back an irritated look. He opened his mouth to say something snide in reply, but was cut off by Scyll. "Evander?" she said putting her hand to her mouth and pointing up toward a ridge above us.
Our eyes shot up toward the unfortunately familiar face looking down on us with hate filled eyes. Gohn’s demeanor instantly changed. Without saying a word he aimed his symbiot at the ridge. His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were a ghost white.
From the ridge Evander shouted down at his brother. "In a hurry to start a fight," He said and then added with disdain, "little brother."
Gohn swallowed hard, as though he wanted to yell something in reply, but the usually verbose Gohn was at a loss for words. Instead he opened fire. Terry spun around and shouted, "NO! we can’t do this here its to dangerous." but her warning went unheeded.
With effortless grace Evander sprang from his perch, Gohn’s darts whizzed harmlessly into a random tree. Evander reached up and grabbed a branch high up on one of the nearby trees and with one hand vaulted himself like some sort of monkey, higher into the air, positioning directly over Gohn.
Gohn continued to fire fruitlessly into the branches, but Evander was just too fast. Finally, He came to rest on a branch over Gohn’s head and pushed off of it straight toward the ground. Caught off guard by the sudden attack Gohn staggered. Evander hit him head on, and the two of them went rolling into a briar bush nearby.
As quickly as he had attacked Evander leapt back into the branches. Caulin ran forward and struck the tree with his symbiot. Sparks flew from the branches as Evander from that tree to another, but not before the shock reached him.
Sparked from the blast he missed his target branch and tumbled back to earth. Caulin cheered for himself as Terry rushed to Gohn to help him out of the thorns
"Serves him right." Gohn muttered picking the bristles out of his hands.
Evander still un-phased returned to his feet, a large cut now showed down his right arm. "You are going to pay for that dome scum." He cried in anger.
He charged us again. Gohn fired several rounds, but was still unable to hit him. Caulin stepped forward with renewed confidence after his last "victory". I grew out a club and readied myself.
Evander reached us in only an instant. He jumped up and kicked off a nearby tree trunk and flew into Caulin, knocking him to the ground. I stepped up and swung at the back of Evander’s head. He leaned forward dodging my swing and kicked backwards at the same time. His foot connected with my chin and I sprawled down to the ground.
I rubbed my chin in pain and returned to my feet. Evander was squared off with Caulin. Caulin held his staff up defensively and the two of them circled each other each one waiting for the right time to strike.
I signaled to Gohn to move in behind him. Slowly Caulin, Gohn, and I circled around Evander. His eyes darted back and forth between us as turned paying close attention to every move we made.
As I looked into his cold eyes my mind flashed back to the that day in the military training area. Where Hector had squared off against a group of enemies with that same look in his eyes. I shuddered as I recollected what happened then.
I struggled to think of some sort of plan that would counter act his frightening strength and speed. I looked over toward the girls. They stood at the edge of our little fight. There was a look a fear and sadness in their eyes. I could see Scyll held her right arm tighter than usual, clearly they didn’t want to participate in this fight, but both seemed afraid if they didn’t something bad would happen.
I returned my concentration to the fight at hand. This stalemate wouldn’t hold much longer, the emotions were running far to high. I had an idea. It wasn’t perfect, but it was all I had. Before the others had a chance I rushed Evander.
With lightning reflexes he spun toward me and braced himself for my attack. As I ran I fired my club out at him. He easily dodged it. Before I reached him I grew another claw this one was sharp at the tip. Once I was in arms reach I swung at him as hard as I could.
Of course he dodged the attack with ease. By now Caulin and Gohn were coming to join the fight as well. As my blade skimmed by Evander’s chest, he grabbed my arm and spun me around bringing my own blade toward my throat. He then positioned me so that I was between him and Gohn.
"You had better lower your arms little brother." Evander said. " Those darts my hurt your friend."
Caulin and Gohn both froze. Scyll gasped. Terry screamed, " Evander! Stop this!" but he just sneered.
I looked forward at Gohn and with a faint smirk I said, " Fire away Gohn." Evander’s eyes opened wide not believing what I had said. He looked up just in time to see Gohn’s arms raised and ready to shoot him through me.
Caulin and Scyll looked on in disbelief and Terry started to yell something, but before anyone could do anything a loud crack rang out through the forest. The noise was loud, louder than anything in this new world ever was, but the sound was vaguely familiar to me.
We all stopped, like curious children and looked around for the source of the noise. Slowly each of our gazes landed on a ridge about a hundred feet away. A small girl stood atop the ridge brandishing a handgun in the air.
She kept her long blond hair up out of her face using a small bandana that seemed to have been cut from an old shirt. She looked to be about the same age as Gohn and Scyll. Her clothes were tattered and dirty, just like Evander’s, repeated use outdoors. She had an athletic build clearly developed from years of rough living in outside the dome. The most defining feature about her was the fact that she was geared from head to toe with guns and ammunitions. At her sides were two handguns in addition to the one she held, and strapped to her back was a large automatic rifle equipped with an impressive scope.
She slid down the ridge and nonchalantly walked right in the middle of our little fight, positioning herself directly between Gohn and Evander. She completely ignored us and looked right at Evander.
Evander stared back at her coldly, "Jessica, What are you doing here?" He said irritated.
The girl scoffed, " Well I am about to shoot you in the leg." She said pointing her gun at him. " What on earth are you doing?"
Evander sneered, " Get lost, this has nothing to do with you." He replied still holding my arm tightly.
Jessica sighed and put her hands on her hips the way girls do when they get angry. " Nothing to do with me huh." She said. "Virgil, sent me to watch you because for some reason he was afraid you might do something stupid. Well I can easily see here that he had absolutely nothing to worry about." She continued sarcastically while haphazardly waving her gun around the area.
My friends all looked one in confusion. It took me a moment to realize they most likely had never seen a gun in their life.
Jessica continued, " You were given precise orders, find them and report back. Even I thought you couldn’t possible screw this up, but I underestimated your immense stupidity." I laughed a little despite my circumstance. The girls sarcastic tone reminded me a little of Gohn. She put her hands to her head and massaged her temples and then said. " Good grief Evander. Let go of him I can’t talk to you seriously when look this stupid."
Begrudgingly Evander released me and immediately began to walk away. Gohn quickly brought up his symbiots and aimed them at Evander, " You are not going anywhere." He shouted.
In an instant Jessica’s gun snapped up pointed directly at Gohn. "Yes he is." she said calmly.
Gohn brought one of his arms over and aimed it at Jessica. "What the heck are those?" He asked
"they are guns from my time." I said. Then looking at her I added, "Where did you get those?"
She looked over at me. "around." She said, "We scavenge a lot of things and then refurbish them. It may not be as pretty as life for you dome dwellers, but we get by." She added the last part with a hint of bitterness. Though she didn’t seem to like the dome she did not seem to share the seething hatred of it with Evander. Slowly she lowered her gun and said, " Virgil asked us to find you."
"Who the hell is Virgil and what does he want us for?" Caulin yelled still wound up from the fight.
"I guess you could call him our leader." Jessica answered. "as for what he wants, I honestly don’t know he doesn’t usually take much interest in dome dwellers." She started to walk off after Evander, and then called back to us. "I imagine he will try to contact you soon, now that we have found you. By the way if you head about a mile to west over that hill there is a clearing that you can use to travel easier through this area."
Terry stepped forward. "Why are you telling us this. How can we trust you?"
"Do what you want." She replied indifferently. "But I will give you this warning. The clearing is a well traveled feeding ground for larger mutants. The travel will be easier and you won’t be bothered by smaller stealthier mutants, but keep your eyes peeled because every once in a while you will hit a very big one." With that she disappeared over the ridge.
Gohn shook off the stun that seemed to have settled over all of us and said. " Are we really just going to let them walk away after everything that just happened. I want some answers."
"Answers or revenge?" Scyll asked softly. Gohn shot her a look and she bowed her head quickly.
I straightened myself up and looked off in the direction the two outlanders had left. Who were they and what were they up to. I looked over at Terry. She was giving me a sour look. I cringed as she walked up to me. "What were you trying to pull back there?! Were you seriously going to have Gohn shoot Evander through you?!" She yelled.
"I.. Uh.. Well," I stammered. "I would have been ok. You know I recover fast."
She clenched her jaw and turned away from me. "Reckless moron." She muttered. "We should get going, and at least check out this clearing before we make camp for the night." She said marching away toward in the direction Jessica had indicated.
"Hey wait!" I called, but she kept going and ignored me completely. Scyll caught up with her and they walked together. Slowly I fell into step with Caulin and Gohn. Gohn walked silently still sulking, but Caulin wouldn’t stop talking.
"Ouch are you going to let your woman talk to you like that?" He teased completely over the fight we had just finished.
"My woman?" I asked rolling my eyes then with a sigh I added. "Shut up Caulin" That sparked a slight smile from Gohn as we continued after the girls.
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