The Runners Pt. 8

  “No.” Paris whispered harshly to me as we marched single file through the woods, our captors surrounding us and keeping watchful eyes on us at all times.
  “Have a better plan?” I murmured back, making sure to hold my lips as steady as they could be.
  Paris was silent for several minutes as we walked, his glance sneaking back to look at Jin every few seconds. He was very protective of her for only having known her a few days, I was mildly surprised. He’d never taken to anyone else like that, even me.
  I looked forward, taking his silence as a surrender and continued thinking about how we would get out of this. So far it wasn’t looking good. They outnumbered us. Had all of our supplies. Surrounded us. And had all our weapons, a fact I was definitely not pleased with. I was really going to hurt someone if any of my knives got damaged…
  “Alright, so how do we do this?” Paris finally probed while we carefully slipped down a rocky slope. When his footing was secure he reached up toward Jin to help guide her down the slope. She carefully took his hand and climbed down slowly. She moved slowly but her feet appeared to know what was stable and what wasn’t which struck me as odd for her seemingly small amount of knowledge of the world.
  I waited at the base of the slope my two companions, letting Jin pass me before I started forward again.
  “Wait for the signal.” I said quietly to Paris when I knew it was safe to talk. I didn’t bother elaborating on what the signal would be, and Paris didn’t ask. A cold wind blew hard against our little party and I pulled my coat tighter against my body, hoping in vain to keep the winter chill out.
  For several more minutes we marched on, our direction moving us steadily away from where I wanted to be going. The farther north we moved the longer it would take us to double back and the farther we moved from food.
  It was time to act.
  “Stop.” I said loudly, bringing everyone to a crashing halt and bringing the evil glares of all Raiders present strictly to my head. I looked side to side checking what I could of the surrounding area. We were in a small valley, with a small mountain on one side, a larger mountain on the other and a dip towards another valley far ahead of us. I knew this area fairly well from previous years of travelling through this pass. This pass was the best chance we had.
  Connor growled under his breath and stormed up to me, grabbing me by my shirt and lifting me off the ground. “Why are we stopping?” He snarled, his crooked teeth showing menacingly.
  “I don’t know where exactly my Group is,” I said, “I need to scout ahead of us and make sure we don’t just stumble upon them.”
  Connor held me up, his scowl changing from threatening to irritated as I spoke. He understood.
  “And why would you do this?” He asked after a few seconds.
  “If I deliver my Group to you, you leave everyone alive and just take the supplies.” I said firmly.
  “What makes you think you can make a deal with me?” Connor laughed suddenly.
  “Because my Group has some powerful warriors in it. The few of you won’t be able to take them down very easily. If I deliver them to you peacefully, you take our supplies and leave. Nobody has to get hurt.” My voice was steady despite my feet still not touching the ground.
  Connor thought about this for a moment. He wasn’t afraid of a fight. But he also wasn’t dumb enough to pass up an opportunity to get supplies without a struggle.
  “Fine,” he said finally, letting me down slowly, “But you won’t go alone.”
  I figured as much. In fact, I was counting on it.
  “Levic.” Connor called as he waved one of his men towards us. “You will go with him and make sure he does what he is supposed to,” he told the man as he approached.
  The man, Levic, nodded quickly and stepped up behind me.
  Levic was a big man. Not as big as Connor, but certainly not as small as me or Paris. He stood only an inch or so taller than me, but had at least six inches of shoulder width to beat me. His legs were long and muscular, and his arms were well formed. His small eyes were dark, and watched me carefully under his wild, black hair. His beard was perhaps the most interesting thing about him, appearing to fan out in all directions at least two inches.
  On his belt Levic wore two knives, and a holster for a pistol the likes of which I had never seen. His pants and coat were both dark and well insulated protecting him from the frozen air that pelted its way through my rotten clothes.
  “Ready?” I asked Levic, my voice almost sounding as if I really cared if he was or not.
  He gave no reaction, standing as still as a statue.
  “Don’t get all excited on me…” I mumbled as I walked past him, heading towards the small mountain on the side of the valley.
  I listened to his heavy footfalls as he followed me, noting that he was not very stealthy when he didn’t chose to be. That would either be a good thing or a bad thing for me soon.
  We hiked fairly loudly for nearly twenty minutes, I not really caring about how loud I was and he obviously trying to make sure I knew he was right behind me. I stopped every couple of minutes to survey the area, pretending to check the ground and trees for signs of people nearby. Levic didn’t seem to notice what I was or wasn’t looking at, and continued to follow me unquestioningly. That was good. If he wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing than he probably wouldn’t notice I was taking us away from any signs of people I could find.
  We trudged on for a little while longer before I stopped and sat down on a rock. Levic came up beside me and stared at me with one eyebrow raised.
  “Thirsty…” I huffed, only half pretending that I desperately needed a drink of water.
  Levic’s unsmiling face barely twitched and he reached back to grab his water pack for me. Unlike the animal sacs that Paris and I used to carry liquids, Levic had a strange black tube about the 12 inches long. He grabbed the top of the tube and twisted, the cap of it popping off easily.
  He unceremoniously handed me the tube and scoffed after a few seconds of my staring at the liquid inside.
  “Water.” He grunted, seemingly disgusted with my hesitation.
  I looked up from the tube to him and back down a few times before shrugging my confusion away and taking a sip. It was water, certainly. But it tasted strange, almost metallic. I ignored the peculiar bite and drank nearly half the tube’s contents before handing it back to him.
  “Interesting device you have there.” I said as he twisted the cap back on and put the tube back where he got it.
  Levic said nothing and only grunted for me to keep moving. I rolled my eyes and nodded in response, just as happy not to talk to him.
  I led him on for several more minutes before I found the spot I had been looking for; a fifty foot shear drop from a small path on the side of a mountain. Ancient stone pillars rose up from the bottom of the drop to mangled, rusty metal pieces at the tops of them. Many such pillars existed still from the days before the Destruction. The way the stone was broken and the metal rods jammed inside them fascinated me, as I could never understand how the ancients had managed to get them in there. It was like no other stone in nature, and I could only find pieces of it where the ancients had their roads and cities.
  I walked up to the cliff, gazing over the side and down to the bottom. It was a long fall.
  Hopefully I wouldn’t have to find out about it.
  “Hey, what’s that?” I asked, pointing down to the base of the cliff.
  Levic turned to look at me, but stood still for a few seconds before walking towards me.
  His heavy steps were sturdy and sure.
  “What is it?” He asked as he approached the edge, looking over to see what I had been questioning.
  In answer I planted my foot behind his leg and shoved my knee into the back of his, throwing him off balance. Before he could regain his balance I shoved as hard as I could into the back of the large man, hoping to knock him off the edge.
  Fortunately, I did catch him by surprise.
  Unfortunately, he was a lot heavier and faster than I expected him to be.
  The force of my shove did throw him toward the edge, but he was too heavy for my strength alone to throw, so he hit the ground on the edge but did not fall over it.
  “AHHH,” he roared with anger as he flipped onto his back to face me.
  He was in fact much faster than I had anticipated, his foot flying up and crashing into my thigh, shaking my balance. Before I could regain my balance he kicked his other leg out and knocked my feet out from under me.
  I grunted as I hit the cold stone, anger boiling up with my adrenaline. This wasn’t quite going as planned.
  I propped myself up on my elbow, my other hand up and ready to defend myself. Levic was in a similar position, but his free hand was firmly planted on the ground poised to support another powerful kick in my direction.
  His legs lifted off the ground, his lead one heading straight for my trunk. I threw myself backward, landing flat on my back and totally vulnerable. As the kick passed by inches from my arm I pushed myself up, landing with a slight shake before regaining my balance. Levic was on his feet too, and he’d put a few feet’s distance between him and the edge of that cliff. It was going to be harder than I’d hoped to knock him off of it.
  I stood ready, my raised hands loose and my feet solid.
  Levic looked me up and down, assessing what I could probably do. As he stood in a defensive position he reached a hand around to one of the knives at his belt.
  Good, I thought, that could be useful.
  He held the knife down in his back hand, the blade pointing towards me. I could tell from his stance he knew how to handle that knife.
  He took a step forward, his lead hand moving out of the way for an upward slice of the knife. His back hand moved with surprising speed as he ripped through the air heading straight for my gut.
  I took a step back, keeping an eye on the knife as it passed within inches of my jacket. Before he hand time to pull his hand back I grabbed his wrist with my right hand and curled my body around the outside of his arm, slamming my elbow into his rib cage.
  A pain filled grunt escaped his lips and his arm quivered with the blow. I threw his wrist down, smashing my knee against it and forcing the knife out of his hand. The knife fell to the stone with a dull clang.
  Amidst another muted cry of pain, Levic threw his meaty left hand toward me, the punch connecting solidly with my chest, knocking the wind out of me and sending me back a few steps.
  Before I could get my wits back he took another step forward and sent another powerful punch to my ribs. I reacted barely in time and managed to deflect his blow slightly, bouncing it off my ribs instead of absorbing it with them. My reaction did not save me from pain however, and a heavy grunt escaped my gritted teeth.
  Levic’s left hand fired straight for my head, but this time I was ready. I blocked the blow with my right arm, deflecting his motion upward and past my head, and then followed through with a punch to his nose his head flying back on impact.
  This time he was the one that stepped back and I took my chance. I lunged at him, grabbing his left shoulder, planting my foot behind his leg and throwing him with his backward momentum to the ground and toward the edge. He hit the stone on his shoulder and rolled toward the edge, one of his legs falling off of it.
  He planted his hands to stop himself and started to make his way back up but I stepped forward and slammed my heel on his hand. He reeled backward, a cry of pain and fury escaping his lips. That cry magnified to one of terror as I kicked his chest sending him finally over the edge of the rock. His scream died abruptly a few seconds later, his landing no doubt doing enough damage to keep him from making another sound ever again.
  I looked down over the edge, but was thankful all I could see was a black lump laying between some rocks at the bottom. I didn’t want to see anything more.
  Allowing myself a second to breathe I sat down on the ground and grabbed the knife he’d dropped in our fight. I was actually hoping to get the gun from him, but the knife would have to do. Taking a safe way down to the bottom of the cliff would take too long and I didn’t have enough time for that. Connor would expect us back soon. My ribs and chest hurt slightly, but the adrenaline rushing through my veins made sure that the pain was minimal at best. When I had gathered a breath I got to my feet and found the path we’d taken up to the cliff.
  Now it’s time to go get Paris and Jin, I thought to myself as I began the long hike back.