Blondie and Red

She picked up the spear and his crossbow, before warning him, "Don't move until I am out of your sight."

Then she turned around and disappeared into the forest.

Ryan sat there watching with his face warping in anger and loathing.

"We got her!" he heard a shout, after a minute. His lips widened into a sneer. He sauntered into the forest and found his group. Blondie was unconscious on the ground, lightly bleeding from her head.

"Sorry, I tried to take her by surprise and ended up hitting her head from behind," apologized the dark-skinned man named Keyes.

"Is she dead?"

"I don't think so. She is breathing."

"Good enough. Let's tie her up and wake her. She's a feisty one, but that just makes it better."

***

Blondie woke to a splash of water against her face. Her head hurt and her vision spun. She was sitting on the ground, topless, with her hands held behind her by Keyes. He had one hand pulling on the leather belt that bound her hands together and his other hand was currently molesting her breasts.

"She's got some gorgeous titties, eh, boys?" she heard Ryan speak, as he stood in front of her with a sneer on his face.

"RED!" she screamed, for the only friend she had in this world.

"He's dead, you dumb bitch! No one survives a two thousand feet drop," said Ryan. "Now let's make things clear for you. We are going to rape you, and we are going to take turns. Then we are going to fuck you again. Over and over," he spoke, his face twisting with cruelty.

He seemed to get pleasure out of voicing those words.

"RED!" she screamed again. Looking at the men's faces surrounding her, she found no trace of pity in them. Only a mad lust that even she understood. She just didn't understand what drove it.

"You can either go along with it," he continued, "and make the experience more pleasurable for yourself, or you can struggle. It won't make any difference. I'd rather enjoy it if you chose to struggle."

The men snickered.

"RED!" was her only response.

"Well, don't say I didn't give you a choice."

The men laughed.

Ryan loosened the ropes around his waist and let his pants fall, his member already stiff in arousal.

"RED!"

He just smiled and stepped towards her, pointing his organ at her face.

"Careful, Ryan. She might just bite your dick off," laughed a man by his side.

That made him pause. "You would, wouldn't you bitch?" he asked.

"RED!"

He finally lost his temper. "Goddammit woman! Stop fucking screaming about a fuc-"

Thwip.

Everyone looked up at Ryan to see what had made him stop, only to find an arrow sticking from one side of his neck to the other, blood spurting out of both the entrance and the exit. He tried to speak but only his lips moved. Raising his hand, he tried to step towards Blondie, but the next arrow hit him in the temple. He collapsed to the ground.

Keyes, who had been holding Blondie, let her go and scrambled to his crossbow, while the others raised theirs in the direction from which the arrow had come. They were surrounded by a thick jungle and their fear made them unable to see. Blondie, however, caught a fleck of red move through the trees.

Twang, they heard an arrow release and the men ducked and covered their faces on instinct.

A man howled in pain as an arrow lodged itself into his arm, but the next moment a wooden spear flew out of the forest and hit him in the chest. Its momentum made him fly off his feet. He hit the ground with a thud, and lay unmoving.

The remaining three fired their cross bows into the forest, but none found a mark. Blondie struggled against the belt binding her hands behind her and broke free. Keyes, who was the closest to Blondie, looked at her, and she saw the realization in his eyes.

He reached for his sword, but Blondie was quicker. She jumped to her feet and headbutted into his nose. She heard it crack as he fell to the ground with blood spilling out of his nostrils. Blondie heard Red rush in from the forest to the left, but she did not turn to him.

One of the other men screamed as two bodies crashed into each other. Keyes scrambled backwards, trying to get his sword out of its sheath. Blondie kicked his groin. He let out a high-pitched squeal that she didn't think he was capable, but she didn't wait. She stepped forward and swung her foot up into his chin. His neck cracked, and he fell backwards and lay unmoving.

Blondie quickly turned around and found Red on the ground, in a struggle with the last remaining member of Ryan's group. Red easily had the upper hand in strength, but the man under him fought like a cornered rat, scratching and biting. The other man was lying in a puddle of blood with an arrow impaled from above his shoulder. It was deep enough to have reached his heart, which is what seemed to have killed him.

Blonde drew the machete at her waist and rushed towards the wrestlers. Red noticed her approach and rolled over the grass to bring the man on top of him. She plunged the machete into the man's back, pulled it out, and stabbed him again.

The man's body seemed to slowly lose its strength as his struggle grew weaker. Red shoved him away to the side. The man's eyes and mouth cursed at them, but no voice escaped as his lips. His breathing grew heavy, before quieting and finally coming to a stop. His pale brown eyes slowly lost their spark and focus.

His death seemed to bring clarity to Blondie's mind. She looked around and saw only death. She fell to her knees and vomited out the contents of her breakfast.

"Are you alright?" she heard Red say, and she looked up at him. He was sitting up and staring at her with concern.

"We killed them!" she said, subconsciously raising a hand to wipe her mouth.

Red's eyes widened as he looked around. He had heard Blondie's cries and attacked the men like they were wild animals, but now that they were dead and harmless, he couldn't mistake their forms. His face gained a sickly pallor as he seemed to realize that he had killed people.

What am I doing? Blondie thought as she saw the blood drain out of his face. She watched the misery in his eyes, and it made her rush to him.

Uncaring about the state of her undress, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a tight, uninhibited, hug.

Her hug was almost too tight but Red didn't care about the discomfort. It felt real-- she was real. He had missed her and dreamt of her for the past few days. He was happy to finally be in her arms, but the vision in front of him was nonetheless gut-wrenching. "Blondie..." he whimpered from her shoulder.

"It's alright," she said to him. "They were bad people, essentially animals. They would have done more harm to their own kind if we hadn't killed them." She was going to bear the weight of their deaths on her own shoulders. She wasn't going to let Red be affected by it. "You did the right thing."

She felt a tiny nod on her shoulder, but she knew he wasn't fully convinced. "Let's get out of here. We can talk somewhere else," she said, pulling away from his hug.

Red quickly got up to his feet, eager to get away from there.

"We should collect their weapons and clothes. They are better than ours, and they won't be needing them anymore," she spoke, trying to hide her guilt as she stood up. Stealing from the dead did not feel right, but it was the right thing to do-- for us.

Red simply nodded and went around collecting the bolts and as many weapons as they could carry. However, he seemed to have no interest in getting their clothes.

Blondie put on her shirt and proceeded to strip the dark-skinned man of his clothes; his clothing was the least damaged. "Here, put these on," she firmly told Red, handing him a pair of pants, a shirt, and a belt with a scabbard and quiver.

Red looked at them with disgust, but nonetheless took them. Soon, the two of them were strapped to the boot: crossbows hung from their backs, their quivers were full of bolts, a machete in Blondie's scabbard, and a sword in Red's.

"You take the spear. You're better with it," she handed Albert's spear to Red, before strapping a leather bag to her shoulder. It had some dried meat and berries in it; enough to last them a day or two. "Let's go," she said, leading Red away from the bodies and the village.

***

That evening, an ear-splitting shriek rang through the forests from the place where the bodies of four men lay.

Kelly lay bowled over her brother's body, sobbing. Albert and Keyes, who was once again fully clothed, stood behind her, along with a few others from the village.

"I will kill that whore and her lover!" she screeched and looked at Albert. "We won't rest until we find them. I will rip her heart out with my own fucking hands," she told him, her voice leaving no room for argument. Her face twisted in rage was no longer pretty.

"Kelly..." Albert muttered, glancing at Keyes. "We don't know what exactly happened here..."

"I don't give a shit. Would you ask such questions, if I was the one murdered?" Kelly asked her husband.

Albert had no reply to that.

***

"How are you unhurt?" Blondie finally asked Red when they stopped to have lunch. For the past few hours they had rushed to get away from the village and had spoken very little. But time seemed to have turned their moods for the better. They finally decided to sit by the river and have some of the food from the bag.

"What do you mean? That person scratched me pretty badly," he said, pointing at the scratch marks on his right cheek, while tearing at the dried meat with his teeth.

"You fell from two-thousand feet!"

"Oh that! I fell into the river," he said matter-of-factly, popping a berry into his mouth.

Blondie wanted to smack herself in the face. "Red, nothing makes me happier than seeing you unhurt, but why are you unhurt? You shouldn't be able to come out of a two-thousand feet fall unscathed, even if you fell into the river."

"But, I was pretty hurt. The river dragged me all the way to around where we met earlier. I couldn't even walk. I had to drag myself to the shore, and then I managed to crawl into a bush, before I fell unconscious. Thankfully, the bush had some berries. I ate them when I woke up, and I fell asleep again. I wasn't even able to walk until the next morning. It took me three whole days to fully heal. That's why I didn't come for you. I was kinda hoping you'd find me, first."

Blondie's jaw fell as she looked at him in disbelief. She raised her hand and showed him her wounds from her hustle with the terror-bird chick on the first day of her arrival.

"You heal pretty slow," he informed her, and she chucked a berry at his face.

"I think it's you that heals very fast."

"What can I say, I'm pretty awesome. We can still change my name to Mr. Awesome."

Blondie let out a sigh of exasperation, but the smile on her face persisted. She was happy to be back in his playful, innocent company.

For the rest of their lunch, Blondie recanted her experiences while they were separated.

"You were right. It sounds like they were pretty awful people. I don't feel as bad about killing them, now," he said, when she explained what they were planning. He didn't seem to know what 'fuck' or 'rape' was, but it was obvious that they were planning to hurt her and were going to hurt others in the future.

"I tried to get away without hurting them, but they wouldn't let me go. I feel sorry for Kelly," she shook her head.

Red did not say anything and simply nodded in understanding.

"Red, do you piss or shit?" she suddenly asked him.

"I've no idea what those words mean."

"Does anything come out of your groin?"

"My penis?" he answered.

"No, like water."

"Why would water come out of my groin? Are you alright? Those berries might be bad. Yesterday, I ate some bad ones that made me hallucinate. I saw you flying in the sky, and I started uprooting trees and boulders to throw them into the air to grab your attention. Turns out, I was only chasing after a bee, and chucking grass and pebbles at it."

"Never mind. Kelly was doing some strange thing where she had liquid coming out of her vagina. I think we are different beings than them," she told him.

"Oh, weird."

"And, don't eat anymore berries without showing them to me."

"Ok, mom!"

She chucked another berry at him.

Once they finished eating, Red stood up facing the river and stretched his arms outwards. "The Adventure of Red and Blondie begins again!" he cried at the river.

Blondie simply smiled and Red turned to raise a brow at her.

"What?" she asked.

"You're not going to say that Blondie and Red sounds better?"

Blondie shrugged her shoulders. "I don't care as long as there is both Red and Blondie in it."

"Fine!" he grumbled. "Blondie and Red it is. It sounds better, anyway."

Blondie hugged him and planted a kiss on his cheek.

***

After lunch, the duo continued their march, away from the village. They didn't stop until nightfall. They found a good tree to spend the night and ate the rest of the food in their bag, before falling asleep while holding each other.

"Blondie! Wake up!" Red shook her awake in the middle of the night. She looked at him questioningly, and he pointed her towards the bend of the river in the west. The meandering river had taken a sharp turn on their way, and they had chosen a tree with a clear view of it.

Blondie spotted ten villagers, carrying torches and riding on their stunted-camels. They were a quarter of a mile away from them, but their torches made them quite visible against the dark forest background. They were presumably tracking Red and Blondie's steps along the river.

"Can we fight them?" Blondie asked. It was apparent that they wouldn't be searching for them in the middle of the night, if they wanted to simply talk to them. Blondie wasn't sure if they would believe her words, either.

They couldn't keep traveling as she was sure the stunted-camels could outrun them. Hiding was an option, but it felt risky.

"If they all have similar weapons as us, and are well-prepared, it will be a difficult fight. I had cover against the five men from before, and I took them by surprise. I doubt this will be the same. And there may be more of them scouring the forest.

"What do we do then?"

"I dunno," he shrugged.

"We should swim across the river. I don't think the villagers will want to cross the river."

"Sure, but whatever lies beyond is probably as bad for us as it is for them."

"We'll have to risk it. We shall hide somewhere until the villager's lose patience and head back. Then we can swim back and go on our way."

"Okay. Let go."

The two quickly got off their tree and jumped into the river.

***

A quarter mile away from the duo, Kelly was watching the river through a crudely made wooden telescope. "They are crossing the river!" she screeched at her husband.

Albert blew a whistle and the rest of the villagers started appearing out of the forest. Albert explained the situation to them, but before they could discuss it, Kelly spurred her ride into the river. "I am going," was all she said.

"Friends," Albert spoke to the rest. "All of us are scared of the other side. Gregory's group had been the strongest of us, and they disappeared without even giving us a signal.

"But that was a year ago, when we didn't have proper weapons. Do we want to live the rest of our lives as a prehistoric tribe, in the middle of nowhere? I think it's time we venture out. Together, I think we can face any danger that the other side can threaten us with. Who is with me?"

About half of the villagers slowly raised their hands. Albert nodded at them, and they followed Kelly into the river. Keyes and the rest watched from the bank.

***

Red was the first one to the shore. Blondie was a more fluid swimmer, but his arms were simply stronger. He pulled Blondie to her feet and pointed towards the swimming stunted-camels, with Kelly and the villagers on their backs.

She simply nodded and began to squeeze the water out of her clothes. Red followed her suit and once they set their clothes straight, Blondie extended her hand to him. "Into the jungle?"

"Into the jungle," he nodded, and they took off into the foliage without even looking back.

***

Albert and the villagers following him caught up to Kelly, who waited for them at the place where Red and Blondie's tracks led into the forest.

"Kelly, we know where they've gone. Let's look around before we venture in deeper. I want to know what sort of creatures live in there," Albert said.

"NO! The sooner we find them and kill them, the sooner we can establish our safety. Who knows what those treacherous bastards may lead to us?" she yelled, spurring her animal forwards.

Albert and the rest followed.

***

Blondie and Red heard the first cry of death, within fifteen minutes of their trek into the forest. It was immediately followed by a cry of absolute terror, and the subsequent shouts of alarm from the villagers.

Blondie and Red paused and looked at each other.

"Something's found them."

"Run!"

Death throes continued to ring through the jungle as the duo scampered through the forest.

"Should we climb up a tree?" Blondie huffed. She heard a scream that seemed to belong to Kelly.

"What if they can climb trees, or worse, they are from trees?"

"What do we do, then?"

"I don't know, Blondie. Let's just get as far away from them as we can and try to find a place where we can defend."

They kept running and the number of screams continued to dwindle before they heard the final scream. It belonged to a stunted camel.

The jungle went quiet for a few seconds before they began to hear bodies rushing through the trees-- quick but heavy patter of feet. The two ran as fast as they could but the creatures kept getting closer.

Suddenly they burst out of the trees and found themselves facing a steep, monolithic hill of granite rock. Its surface was smooth, dark, and unscalable. There was no vegetation within fifteen feet of the hill and the soil around it was black. They looked up and saw that the hill was at least five-hundred-feet high. They couldn't see what lay on top of it. The thought of running around the cliff came to their minds, but the creatures stalking them were almost upon them.

They ran to the wall of the cliff and turned around. Red pointed his spear towards the forest and Blondie readied her crossbow. The first of the creatures stepped out.

It was a hairless lizard-like creature on four legs, twelve feet in length and four feet at its shoulder. However, it seemed to possess none of the clumsiness of a lizard. Its legs were muscular and made to chase down creatures and rip them apart with five-inch claws. Its grey skin looked scaly, tough, and hard.

It possessed a deep skull with large, red, cat-like eyes that gleamed under the moonlights. Two enlarged canine teeth, six inches long, protruded beyond its lower jaw.

It snarled at them.

Blondie shot a bolt towards its mouth, but the creature dodged to the side, with agility unbefitting its massive size. She threw the crossbow aside and pulled out her machete.

"Gorgonops!" Red muttered under his breath.

Blondie couldn't help the smile that sprouted on her face. They faced the most terrifying creature yet, and Red's first thought was to name it.

Soon, more of its kind began to step out of the forest, surrounding them. They were at least six of them, maybe more in the forest.

"Blondie..." Red said with a seriousness she hadn't heard from him before. "I am glad to have met you, and I really enjoyed our time together. I wanted to adventure more with you, but it seems like our journey has come to an end."