Radioactive: Chapter Two

Radioactive

Chapter Two

~Haunted Houses and Monsters~

Part Two

Kiri followed the blood trail from the hole in the ceiling to the second floor room. The walls in the room were covered in claw marks and blood smears. The floor opened up to Kiri’s right. A small notice appeared in her vision. The DNA from the blood sample belonged to the latest missing person, Mr. Granger. He disappeared after stating to his wife that he was going to take a walk and would be home soon. Kiri sighed. He wasn’t coming home as he intended.

Her attention shifted to the claw marks on the walls. There appeared to be a struggle of some kind in the room. Kiri scanned one of the claw marks and put it against her vast database. She didn’t find any direct matches. Kiri filed the information to use on a later date. Whatever made the scratches had five claws, awfully sharp by the looks of things.

Curious she brought up a virtual schematic of the house. She scowled when she didn’t see Kaiba’s tracking number come up where he said he’d be. Instead of in the basement he was below the house in what looked like an air pocket that the house was almost on top of. Fortunately she rarely listened to Kaiba’s order not to monitor him. On more than one occasion, he had bitten off more than he could chew. Naturally he would insist that he would have been fine.

A red dot appeared on the screen labeled UO for Unidentified Object. It seemed to be pursuing Kaiba’s blue symbol in a predatory manor. Kiri glanced at the claw marks once more.

“And he asks why his father insists I come along on these missions,” Kiri stated.

She jumped through the hole to the first floor and walked toward where she left the briefcase. Her eyes started to glow purple. Ones and zeros crossed her visions on the screen. When they disappeared there was a hole where all the zeros had bunched together. With her briefcase, Kiri jumped into the hole.

Kaiba landed on a pile of bones. He stumbled forward, releasing his grip on his flashlight and ending up on his hands and knees. The flashlight struck the ground and went out almost instantly. Kaiba suddenly found himself alone in the dark. For a moment, he forced himself to breath evenly to calm himself. Nothing ever got accomplished by panicking. Then he started feeling around in the dark for his flashlight.

There was a sound behind him and Kaiba looked over his shoulder. Naturally he couldn’t see anything in this darkness. He forced himself to remain calm and levelheaded. It was just loose dirt falling from the hole. Nevertheless he found his hands searching more franticly for the flashlight. One of his fingers touched the butt of the flashlight, pushing it further away. The sound of something sharp scrapping against the rock rang out in the darkness. There was no rationalizing it anymore, there was something behind him. He grabbed the flashlight and tried to turn it on. It wouldn’t.

Kaiba swore and got to his feet, facing whatever threat was after him. He hit the head of the flashlight against the palm of his hand hoping to bring the device back to life. There was a low growl as Kaiba tried to make the flashlight work. He took slow even steps backwards, feeling his way through a place he couldn’t see. Once again he hit the flashlight against his palm and is slowly flickered to life. He pointed it in toward the darkness.

He jumped slightly, not expecting what he saw to be so close. At about four feet away was the mysterious predator. It looked part human in some appearances but was covered in green scales except for its face. Its face looked human by all means. It was around the neck that the scales started appearing, transitioning from skin to the green scales. Black claws extended about three inches from its fingers. The claws on its toes were much shorter. Its tail waved low to the ground. It appeared to be made out of segments and three blades shot out at the tip. Neural spines extended from its back at about two inches apart. They weren’t that tall but they were noticeable.

The creature growled. Its eyes looked large and innocent as the tapetum lucidum reflected the light of the flashlights light back. Strands of white hair fell over the creatures face. It looked at Kaiba with curiosity and interest. Kaiba tilted his head slightly and the creature followed the motion.

“So you’re what’s been following me all this time,” Kaiba spoke.

The creature cooed or something close to it. Kaiba took another step back, looking behind him a brief moment. The air pocket was wide and expansive. When he looked back at the creature, the creature had decreased the distance between them by a foot. The creature cooed again.

“I think it’s safe to say that it’s better if you don’t get much closer,” Kaiba took a step back.

The creature tilted it head and crept closer, maintaining the new distance. Kaiba nearly tripped backwards over some remains. He looked down at the remains, only half eaten by the creature. Kaiba felt his breath get caught in his throat. Suddenly the creature screeched, bearing sharp fangs. It lunged at Kaiba.

Kaiba raised his arm to defend himself. He felt the creatures fangs dig deep into his arm. Kaiba fell backwards at the impact dropping the flashlight. This time the light remained on. He tried to crawl backwards as the creature tried to bite through his arm. Kaiba took his other arm; a blade pierced his through the skin of his wrist. The blade was six inches long. Kaiba thrust his arm into the creature’s abdomen, the blade digging deep into the flesh. The creature cried out in pain, releasing Kaiba’s arm. It retreated into the shadows.

Kaiba quickly got to his feet. Blades extended from both wrists. He looked around, the light from the flashlight only provided uneven light. Kaiba looked into the shadows. He knew that the creature was still out there, waiting for another opportunity to attack. The blades extended to about a foot. His eyes scanned the darkness. He heard something behind him. Acting quickly, Kaiba threw his arm in a wide arch and pivoted around.

He cut the creatures face as it lunged at him. The creature fell to the ground. Kaiba took his other hand, the blade sharp and ready, and thrust it in the creature’s chest. The creature moved in time and the blade struck the creature in the upper right shoulder. Angered, the creature’s tail lashed out towards him. The three blades dug deeply into Kaiba’s back. He cried out in pain.

Kaiba pulled his arm back and severed the creature’s tail. He stepped back and tried to pull the three blades of the tail from his back. The creature turned its body and attacked again. Kaiba darted to one side. He grabbed what was left of the tail and pulled it out of his back. The creature turned toward him again and started to attack. It leaped and lunged at him but suddenly it whimpered and was thrown to one side. It struck a rock, a silver blade dagger sticking in its leg. Kaiba turned to where the dagger came from. Kiri stood there, an annoyed look in her eyes.

“You couldn’t wait until I was done with examining the first and second floor?” Kiri asked.

“Can we talk about this a little later? We have a little bit of an issue,” Kaiba muttered.

“Would you like your briefcase now or later?” Kiri held the briefcase out.

The creature growled anger at the new comer.

“Later! Later! I’ll look at it later!” Kaiba shouted impatiently.

“Yes, sir,” Kiri put the briefcase down.

She shifted herself into combat mode, redirecting most of her energy to her weaponry, arms and legs. The creature charged at her. Kiri stepped to one side, grabbed one of the creature’s arms and threw it into the opposite wall. The creature struck the wall. Kiri charged at it, her fists glowed a light purple due to her routing additional energy to her hands. She punched the wall where the creature was just moments before. Acting quickly she pivoted and punched the wall repeatedly following the creature as it tried to escape along the wall.

Dust, dirt and rocks fell off the wall. The creature screamed as Kiri pursued it. It ran away from the wall and Kiri was hot on its heels. She extended her right arm. A long compartment opened along her arm. A sword appeared and a machine slipped the sword down her arm and the hilt into her hand. She focused her energy in to her legs and jumped. Kiri pointed the blade down and landed just inches off her target. The creature darted out of the way the last moment. Unfazed, Kiri transitioned into her next attack. She took the sword and threw it narrowly missing the creature as it started to scale the walls.

Kiri straightened both her arms. Compartments in both opened revealing two silver handguns. Once they were placed into her hands she aimed and shot at the creature. She struck the creature several times and it lost its footing, falling back to the ground. There were two clicks as all her bullets were spent. The creature rolled over from its back and ran toward her. Kiri dropped the guns and stood still. The creature rushed at her and leaped. Out of nowhere Kaiba rushed passed her. The blade of his right arm was extended to three feet. He cut the creature from its opened mouth and cut through its entire body.

The creature’s snarl was cut short as its death came. Blood sprayed all over Kiri as she stood there unmoving. Kaiba breathed heavily, blood stained the blade. He relaxed his arm and the blade retracted back into his arm. Kiri dropped her human cover. Her body glowed a nebulous purple. Soon after, her body returned to its original clean self, clothes, appearance and all.

“What now?” Kiri asked as she walked over to the brief case.

“Bag the body and the rest of the tail. I’ll have Jekyll do an autopsy,” Kaiba stated.

Kiri set the briefcase on its side and opened it. A laptop computer lay secured in the case. She pulled out a black bag from one of the pockets it the case and walked over to the creature’s body. The foundation gave off a loud creaking sound.

“We should get out of here before this whole thing finally comes down,” Kaiba closed the case and waited for Kiri to finish with the body.

Together they made their way out of the house. Once they stepped outside the house fell into the abyss. Dust and dirt stirred up into the air, hiding the world in in a hazy fog. Kiri placed the body in the trunk and Kaiba got into the passenger’s seat. He opened the briefcase and turned on the computer. Kaiba wrote a report just as Kiri was getting in the car.

“You’re bleeding all over, sir,” Kiri stated as she sat in the driver’s seat.

“I’m fine,” Kaiba smirked, “The sooner we get home the sooner I can get this looked at.”

“We’re going to the airport with you looking like that?” Kiri started the car.

Kaiba closed the laptop, “I was thinking we could take the Midnight Train instead.”

Yes, sir,” Kiri pulled away from the curb leaving the destroyed home behind.

Iridescent: Chapter Nineteen

Iridescent

Chapter Nineteen

~Reality – Part 2~

After the Fall

Direct Continuation…

Chaud was relieved when Vicky’s axe struck the shadow and made it disperse. Though it wasn’t defeated in gave Chaud enough time to roll out of the way. A bullet whizzed past his ear. He looked up and saw Ai with one of her guns in her hand. Chaud moved quickly as Zathura attacked him again. He touched the axe when it struck the ground sending a jolt of electricity through it. Zathura was jolted back. Shadow puppet disappeared.

He blocked another bullet with his gun. Ai scowled at him. For the first time, Chaud notices that Dante wasn’t beside his sister. It was then that he heard a distinct ringing. He ducked down as a blazing sword cut the air above him. Chaud pressed a button on his gun lengthening it into a type of sword. Though he wasn’t an expert in sword fighting he knew enough to keep himself alive. Besides, he thought, a claymore was a heavy and slow weapon. He would be able to avoid getting hit easily.

That was where he went wrong. Dante was very efficient with his weapon. Paired with his powers Dante’s skills were deadly. Dante swung his sword at Chaud’s head. Chaud bent back as the flaming sword swung at his head. He attacked Dante right after. Their weapons clashed together, Chaud’s sword sparked electricity while Dante’s roared with fire.

There was another gunshot and Chaud raised his second gun and aimed it at Ai. He fired two shots. The first bullet struck Ai’s bullet down in midair. The second bullet struck Ai’s weapon out of her hand. She pulled the second gun out and aimed it. Chaud pivoted around Dante keeping distance between himself and Ai’s aim.

“Vicky!” Chaud called.

She parried Ren’s symitar attack, “What!?”

“Get Amber out of here!” Chaud jumped to one side and slashed at Dante with his sword, “Get her to the desert!”

“You sure?” Vicky looked back at him for only a second, “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine!” Chaud ducked as he dodged an attack, “I’ll catch up to you later!”

Vicky threw out her hand blowing both Ren and Yin back. She extended her hand and the throwing axe that she had thrown at the shadow came back to her. Kew crawled up Sanya’s leg and jumped on to the arm she used to restrain Amber. The little creature bit her arms and hands. Sanya waved her hands around as a way fling the creature off.

Amber ran toward her brother. Vicky scooped Amber up in her arms and looked back at Chaud.

“Chaud! Catch!” Vicky threw a blue vial at him. She turned to Kew, “Come!”

Kew ceased his barrage of attacks and ran toward Vicky. He ran up Vicky’s leg and assumed his place on his shoulder. Amber screamed for her brother as the wind whirled around the girls. Vicky rose off the ground. Sanya was about to use her powers when the she-wolf growled at her.

Chaud caught the vial of Blue Gold that Vicky tossed to him. He used it knowing full well that the first vial he had taken had not worn off yet. Chaud stumbled back when a dizzy spell struck him suddenly.

Yin ran up to him. She attacked with her glaive. He dodged by bending to his left. Chaud threw out his hand. Electricity shot down his arm and struck Yin. Yin screamed as electricity flowed through her. She was blown back and slid on the ground. Yin struck a rock and was knocked unconscious.

Zathura got to her feet. She charged at Chaud and picked up her axe along the way. Chaud opened his wings and with a mighty wing beat sent electrical sparks toward her. Sharp feathers shot toward her scratching and scaring her. Zathura dropped her axe as her arms were targeted the most. She fell to her knees and tended to her wounded arms.

Lightning flashed and thunder crashed overhead. With the second injection Chaud struggled to keep his powers under control. He could feel his heart racing and struggled to breathe normally.

“What the heck are you doing kid!?” Dante called over a crash of thunder.

Chaud looked at him. He extended his arm and electricity shot toward Dante. Dante ran to one side avoiding the attack. Ai fired several shots at Chaud but he avoided them easily. Chaud looked at her and a bolt of lightning fell from the sky. Ai was only fast enough to form a force field as it crashed down. The bolts impact on the force field resulted in a blinding light. When the light subsided, Ai managed to protect herself but was knocked unconscious due to the stress of the impact on her power. Dante ran to his sister’s side.

Anger started to overwhelm Chaud, something that he had never experienced before. He hated Dante and the others that were hunting him and his sister. Chaud could feel the anger controlling him. He extended his arm and thunder rumbled overhead. Dante looked at Chaud and narrowed his eyes.

“Ren!” Dante called.

Chaud looked to his right and stepped back to look squarely at the coming threat. Ren ran passed Chaud on his left. Chaud noticed a sly smile on his face. Ren didn’t try to attack. The hair that covered his left eye parted for a moment. Ren’s left eye was closed with a horizontal scar from his eye brow to his mid cheek. Ren’s left eye opened suddenly capturing Chaud’s attention. His eye was red and black. Chaud couldn’t avert his attention.

“What’s your worst nightmare?” Ren whispered as he ran passed.

Chaud closed his eyes and looked away suddenly. When he opened his eyes again he wasn’t in the mountain crater. He sat on a chair in a dark room. An unknown light source shined down on him as he sat alone. Chaud looked around and tried to peer into the darkness.

“My you are quite the disappointment aren’t you,” a familiar voice said.

Chaud looked ahead and saw his father sitting behind a table looking at him.

“Nothing but a disappointment,” Sirius said, “Why can’t you be more like your brothers?”

“He isn’t smart enough,” Kaiba said over Chaud’s shoulder.

“He isn’t handy,” Lynx sighed as he appeared and walked passed Chaud on his right, “I doubt he could put together the contents in a Lego box let alone a rocket.”

His mother appeared in front of him, “What a shame. I wouldn’t have gone through five hours of labor for you if I had known you would be completely useless.”

“I’m not useless!” Chaud shouted.

That brought laughter from the people in the room. Their laughter echoed and filled Chaud’s ears. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the sound only seamed to grow. Chaud closed his eyes and tried to force the laughter to stop internally.

“You know, you’re right,” Zara’s voice stated. Chaud opened his eyes, “You’re not useless. You’re stupid, you’re an idiot and completely incompetent. You’re worse than useless. You have a lot of improving to do before you’re useless. You have no use.”

“No!” Chaud shouted.

Sirius put a hand on Chaud’s shoulder, “Shall we go through everything for you?”

“Speak slowly,” Miwa laughed, “We wouldn’t want him to get lost!”

Mother held out a piece of paper in front of Chaud’s face, “An ‘F’ in math—”

“Do you even know the square root of 5,839,203,490?” Kaiba asked.

“Dude! Even I know that!” Deontay shook his head.

“An ‘F’ in Language,” Mother continued.

“How do you say rock in Swahili?” Sirius asked, “To hard? How about rain in French? Can’t you do anything? How about stupid in German? Can you do that one?”

Mother smiled, “An ‘F’ in Science—”

“What is the molecular structure of water?” Naru asked, “I’ll even be nice and give you a hint. It’s H₂O stupid.”

“Stop it!” Chaud shouted, “Just stop it! Leave me alone!”

“An ‘F’ in Gym,” Mother laughed, “Who does that? Fail gym?” the smile on her face disappeared, “Only you because you are so useless!”

“And we’re only getting started,” Sirius smiled.

“No! Stop it!” Chaud gripped his head, “Stop it! STOP IT!”

“Look at him;” Zara said with disgust, “He can’t even handle a little pressure.”

“He can’t even take care of me as he should,” Amber crossed her arms, “He really us useless. A real waste of space.”

“I’m sorry,” Chaud said quietly.

Amber rolled her eyes, “There is no apology for being such a loser.”

“I’m not apologizing for that,” Chaud said.

He took a third vial out of his pocket and injected the blue liquid into his system. His body pushed itself to its furthest most limit. His arms and hands crackled with electricity. He felt every cell in his body charged and almost pulsating. He could barely hold still, his body was shaking so much. Chaud looked out at his so called family and friends. He shouted and a pulse of electricity radiated from him smashing the illusion that was being woven around him.

Chaud opened his eyes back in the reality he knew. He looked around at the scene around him.

Dante had his sister in his arms. He motioned to the others to follow him. Zathura and Sanya ran to his side. Ren picked Yin up on his back. He smiled at Chaud before following Dante.

Lightning struck around where Chaud stood. Chaud flapped his wings and took to the air. Lightning struck him but had no effect. He flew in the direction of the desert to look for Vicky and Amber. The wolf followed below on foot.

Vicky hand landed just at the foot of the mountains on the nearest sand dunes. She looked up at the dark clouds that hung over the mountains Amber cried while Vicky rocked her as they waited for Chaud to join them. Vicky stood up suddenly when she saw a bead of gold light falling from the sky like a shooting star. It struck a nearby sand dune kicking up sand. She ran toward the point of impact with Amber close behind her. The wolf approached as well.

“Amber stay there!” Vicky called as she slid down to where Chaud lay unconscious.

Amber dropped to her knees, covered her mouth and cried. The wolf walked up to her and stood behind her. Vicky looked down at Chaud. She pressed her ear against his chest. At first his heart was racing faster than she could count then suddenly it stopped.

“No, Chaud!” Vicky started pressing against his chest acting like his heart.

Amber’s breathing became uneven when she saw what Vicky was doing. She looked around hopelessly for help of any kind. Amber saw some vehicles on the horizon. She got up and waved her hands. She could already hear Chaud’s voice yelling at her that she had no way of knowing they were friend or foe but at the moment Amber was willing to take that chance.

The she-wolf perked her ears and sniffed the air. There was a familiar scent that she recognized in the air. She howled into the air. Shortly the caravan veered toward their location. Amber dropped to her knees and looked back at her brother. Tears streamed down her face as she hoped and prayed that they would be able to help.

Iridescent: Chapter Two

Iridescent

Chapter Two

~Big Brother~

After the Fall

Chaud jerked awake. He looked around the temporary camp. There was his pack near the fire and another smaller white bag near it. The fire that was lit the night before was now nothing but ashes and bunt wood. Chaud sat up quickly immediately wishing he didn’t as a wave of dizziness fell over him. He forced himself go to get over it quickly and got to his feet.

He looked around franticly. His heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. He forced himself to calm down, breath, and listen. The birds in the forest were chirping. The little wind that there was rustled through the wilting leaves. Without any direct sunlight the trees were starting to suffer. Then there was something else. He listened closer to the sound. There was a type of pattern to it, something that he was very used to.

Chaud took off, suddenly. He dashed through the woods toward the sound. The sound of trickling water grew louder and louder. Soon he broke through the tees onto a sandy patch by a river. A ten year old girl by the water stood up quickly and backed up to the water’s edge, her singing cut short by his sudden appearance. She wore a loose white sweater dress, black leggings and tennis shoes.

When she saw him, she ran toward him. Chaud caught her in his arms.

“Sorry,” the girl cried, “There was a deer and I followed it, and I—”

“It’s alright,” Chaud said, “Just don’t go wandering off by yourself again, okay? We don’t know who might be out here. Come on, Amber, let’s get going.”

Amber nodded and started off a head of him. They made it back to their camp and started to pack their things. Chaud dug around in his bag and pulled out the last bit of bread they had. He sighed.

“Hey, you hungry?” Chaud asked his sister.

“No,” Amber lied.

Chaud shook his head, “You know you twitch your nose when you lie, right?”

Amber looked at Chaud, “But we don’t have a lot left.”

“You let me worry about that,” Chaud said, “you just tell me when you’re hungry alright. Here.”

Chaud gave her a piece of bread. She accepted it from her brother’s hand. Chaud tore himself a smaller piece to make the food last longer. He had barely anything to eat the last week. Most nights he went to bed without eating only after Amber went to sleep so she wouldn’t see him. But she wasn’t stupid. She could tell he was skipping meals.

“That was a great breakfast,” Chaud smiled, “Shall we go?”

Amber nodded. She set off singing a lullaby that mother had sung to them both when they were younger:

“Over in Killarney, many years ago

My mother sang a song to me
in tones so sweet and low.
Just a simple little ditty
in her good old Irish way
and I'd give the world if she could sing
that song to me this day.”

She sang it over and over again as she skipped through the forest. Her short orange hair bounced as she sand and skipped along. She seemed so at peace in the midst of what was going on. It was hard to believe that she had nearly fallen to her death four weeks ago from the helicopter. Chaud managed to get under her and soften her fall.

Originally she was meant to join the rest of the family while Chaud stayed behind and look for his friends. Now his priorities changed slightly. He still wanted to find Zara and the others but his for most priority was to find a safe place for him and his sister.

Chaud walked a few paces behind his little sister. His eyes were constantly scanning the area for any threat and his hand was always on his weapon. His ears were always tuned to any noise that was out of the ordinary.

“Amber, could you tone down your singing?” Chaud asked.

Amber did so without complaint. She and Chaud had an understanding. It was discussed that she had to listen to what he said in order to keep her safe. A lessoned learned early on in their travels. Something didn’t feel right to Chaud. He might be starved and hungry but his intuition was as sharp as ever.

“Hey, Amber, come here,” he said

Amber turned and went back to him. Chaud put a finger to his lips and she stopped singing. She turned and looked around trying to see what her brother was seeing. Chaud quickly drew his gun.

“Get behind me!” Chaud said.

A man ran through the trees just a head of them. The man was carrying something and stopped suddenly when he saw something. He raised his arms in the air and dropped a sack that he had over his shoulder.

“Don’t shoot, man, don’t shoo—” the man’s sentence was cut off as a gun shot rang through the air.

The man fell lifeless on the ground and Chaud looked into the dense forest. Amber shot forward before Chaud could stop her toward the man who got shot. She grabbed the sack that the man was carrying as another gun shot rang through the air. Chaud returned fire into the trees.

“Amber!” Chaud called for his sister.

Amber turned and ran into the woods with the sack. Chaud followed her. They ran down hill away from the shooters. More shots rang outs they were pursued by whoever was following them.

“Don’t run straight!” Chaud advised.

Amber zigzagged in between the trees. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. Her feet carried her swiftly. She paid no attention to the branches as the scratched at her face and body. Her brother ran parallel to her a few feet away.

“Left!” Chaud called in between firing shots, “Veer left!”

Without protest, Amber did as she was instructed. She tripped over and exposed root. Chaud grabbed her shirt and brought her to her feet. Amber ran beside him. They ran out into a small clearing. The ground ahead of them ended into a cliff face. From the angle they were, there was no way to tell how steep the cliff was. Chaud swore underneath his breath.

“We should have gone right!” Amber said breathlessly as she ran.

“You trust me?” Chaud asked.

“You’ve kept me alive this long,” Amber tried to smile.

Chaud grabbed her hand and together they ran off the edge of the cliff. Amber’s heard felt like it leapt into her throat. Everything felt stuck in slow motion for her. Far below them were the heads of threes. She looked at her brother and noticed he looked calm. He looked at her and said something. Blood was roaring through her ears so she was mostly reading his lips.

“We’ll be alright.”

Amber nodded. They crashed through the canopy. Amber was tossed about as she tried to grab on to branches and leaves as she did her best to break her fall. When she hit the ground she fell on her back. Chaud fell close to her and cried in pain.

“Chaud!” Amber cried.

Chaud groaned as he held his shoulder. He took a deep breath before popping his dislocated shoulder back into place. Chaud let out a long groan of pain. Amber got to her knees to assist him.

He shooed her away, “I’m fine. I just need a minute. Oh, jeez, that’s going to hurt tomorrow.”

“You okay?” Amber asked.

Chaud looked at her with a smile, “Just a bruised ego. I’ll live.”

Amber had to smile and almost laughed.

Chaud looked around. He saw a tree close by, “Could you help me get over there?”

“Sure,” Amber nodded.

She helped Chaud to his feet and walked him over. She sat him down against the tree. Chaud sighed as he sat down. He closed his eyes and opened them again.

“Are you going to be alight?” Amber’s voice was shaking.

Chaud smiled, “Yeah, I’m still on an adrenalin/endorphin high. I think I might pass out but that’s just about it.” He reached for one of the signature guns on his belt, “Will you be able to take care of yourself while I take a little nap? Just point and shoot, okay?”

Amber looked at the gun and shook her head, “I can’t.”

Chaud was having trouble staying awake, “Please, Amber…I need you to take it okay? I’ll…get it back…later, alright?”

Amber reluctantly held the gun. She held it like a foreign object. Upon her mother’s insistence, Amber was going to be a lady and not dabble in the ways of her brothers. She looked at Chaud. He lay against the tree, passed out. Amber forced herself to breath calmly. What would her brother do?

She strapped the gun to her waist and looked around. The first thing she would have to do would be to collect their items. There would be no fire that night because of the people chasing them. Maybe she could find some food! She wouldn’t stray very far. She wanted to be around when Chaud woke up.

Amber nodded, “That sounds like a plan.”

She hoped Chaud would wake up soon. She didn’t know how to continue on without him.