Fourth Vector Ch. 07

"Stop right there!" yelled Jack as he unslung his NT-12 rifle from his shoulder and slipped off his horse. He moved quickly on his feet, approaching the remains of a tree stump that stuck out prominently in the space just to his left.

He caught the three men's attention almost immediately as they doubled back and temporarily forgot about the woman. She kept crawling away as the men unsheathed their own pistols and began to fire at him.

Jack darted behind the tree stump and felt the force of several shots as they slammed into the wood in front of him. He waited for them to stop shooting before hazarding a glance over the stump and firing off a few bursts from the rifle.

His first burst was deadly accurate, sending one of the men down quickly with a gut wound. He wouldn't be alive much longer, but his comrades were eager to avenge his loss. Jack barely ducked his head back down while the next few bullets came whistling just over the stump.

"Get out of here. This isn't your fight," one of them yelled from just beyond the ridge. More shots rang out as the woman screamed from a distance.

"It's my fight now!" yelled Jack as he rolled out from the stump once more and fired off a few more bursts. His recent training had paid off, and luckily for him, his recent wounds didn't seem to hinder him too badly. The next shot struck the second man in the shoulder and took him down easily while the third man took cover, laying flat against the ground.

Jack could see off in the distance that the other two men who had been rifling through the woman's possessions had taken off, quickly dashing into the forests to make a quick getaway. Finally, it was only Jack and the third man, both sparring off against each other in one last round.

"You can have the girl," said the man finally, yelling out with a voice mixed with fear and adrenaline. "Just let me go and there will be no trouble!"

His words only seemed to enrage Jack. The man only saw the woman as a bargaining chip to save his own skin, which paled in the face of what he and the other men were planning to do with her. Jack raised his head enough to get off another shot but missed and ducked his head down low again.

The third man must have seen his chance because in the space of a few seconds, he bolted up from the ground and began to sprint headlong into the forested area behind them. It wasn't so far away that he didn't have a reasonable chance of reaching it before Jack could get a shot in, but he wouldn't be so lucky today. A few feet from the tree line, Jack calmly brought the sight to his eye and let out of a burst of two rounds.

One shot pierced the man's shoulder blade and sent him toppling along head first into ground. He didn't get up again.

Even though the fight had felt longer than it should, it had only lasted a minute or two at most, and as Jack began to get back on his feet, he heard the sounds of the rest of the group behind him.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Greg after looking at the bodies and the carnage.

"They started firing on me as soon as they saw me. There's a girl down there. They were attacking her," said Jack while gesturing to the forested area in which the two men escaped.

Greg's expressions hardened. "Did you kill them all?"

"Two got away," said Jack. "Cover my left side while I go in this direction. We might be able to catch them."

The two of them moved off in their stated directions as Elektra remained behind to guard her father, Nikias, and Vera. Jack crept slowly along in a crouching position, never quite knowing if those other two attackers could have paused and waited until he got closer to pick him off at short range. He stepped over the body of one of the original three, the man still groaning and apparently alive. Jack bent down and picked up the man's pistol as a precaution but knew from the wound that he wouldn't be dangerous to anyone for much longer.

It was once he reached a small dip in the land right before the forest that he caught sight of the woman once more. She was huddled against a tree and watching him with fearful eyes, trying to discern his intentions. Her eyes flickered back and forth between his face and his rifle, unsure whether he would be friend or foe. After determining that the danger had largely passed, he pointed his rifle at the ground and approached her with one hand raised.

"I don't mean you any harm," he said to her as her face softened. "I saw them attacking you and I couldn't let that happen."

"How did you see us?" she asked, her expression changing to confusion.

"I heard someone scream from the road," said Jack as he pointed back to where they came from. "Was that you?"

Recognition dawned on the woman's face and she slowly nodded. She brought herself to her feet and brushed some of the mud off her trousers. It was then that Jack noticed just how stunning she was, despite his best intentions. The woman wore an outfit designed to be inconspicuous, her trousers and blouse a deep, forest green color, but it still couldn't hide the mass of blonde hair spilling out from the back of her hood or her gorgeous sky-blue eyes.

Before Jack could look any further at her features, the woman put her hand to her mouth and darted back to the middle of the open field.

"Wait a second," yelled Jack as she rushed away from him. He followed behind her until she reached a spot several yards away and fell to her knees.

"Jacob! No!" she cried once she hit the ground, clutching something to her chest.

That something was an older man who had been lying prone on the ground. As soon as Jack got closer, he could see the man was clearly dead. He had a nasty wound in his gut and not far from his body laid a bloody knife against the ground.

The woman began to weep against his chest, letting loose a steady stream of tears at the poor man's death. Jack was lost for words, not knowing who the man was in relation to her or even who she was for that matter.

As the others arrived and watched the scene unfold with the blonde woman, Jack once again reached her and sunk to his knees beside her. He had the urge to comfort her in some manner and felt some kind of bond with the woman, despite her unfamiliarity. Whoever this man was on the ground, he had clearly been important to her.

"I'll help you with a funeral pyre," he said quietly to the woman. "Nobody deserves a death like this."

She wiped a tear from her cheek. "I appreciate your offer, but it is not our custom. We don't burn our dead, we bury them."

Jack nodded. "Not a problem. I just assumed you were Sorellan. We also bury our dead where I'm from."

In that moment, her head spun to lock her gaze on him. The intensity of her sky-blue eyes nearly toppled him with their power. "I appreciate your offer. Jacob was the best companion anyone could ask for, and now that he's gone, I don't know how I'll go on."

Jack nodded. "This is a bad time to be alone out here in the countryside. Roaming bands of ex-soldiers and thieves are no place for the unarmed."

"It was no place for Jacob either," she said quietly.

"What were you doing out here? Do you live nearby?" asked Jack.

The woman quickly shook her head. "We're not from this island but we were on our own quest. To fulfill an ancient prophecy."

Jack blinked several times without responding. Prophecy? Quest? They seemed like words out of a story from his childhood. Something not to be believed by adults. Yet here this woman was, sobbing over the body of her dead companion and proclaiming to be on their own mission for prophecy. It all seemed a bit far-fetched and fantastical, and he truly didn't know how to respond to her.

Finally, the woman raised her head after pressing an affectionate kiss against the deceased man's cheek. "Thank you for saving me. If you hadn't arrived, I don't know what would have been my fate." Her piercing gaze had a way of striking deep into his very soul.

"When I heard the scream, I just reacted. I couldn't let anything happen to you," said Jack a bit more truthfully than he would have liked. He slowly extended his hand. "My name is Jack Easterbrook."

She looked at his hand for several moments to study it before her gaze locked on his face. A very faint smile filled her lips before she responded. "My name is Kat."

"I can't leave you alone out here, Kat. It's just too dangerous. We're on our own mission, and we can help to make sure you get to the next town safely, but it won't be easy."

She nodded slowly. "We live in dangerous times—that is for certain," she said cryptically before turning her gaze back to him. "If you'd let me accompany you, I'd be very grateful."

Jack smiled gently. "Of course, Kat."

Kat opened her mouth to say something else but before the sound came out, Jack heard his name called from several yards away.

"Jack! This one's still alive," said Greg as he held up one of the attackers by the arm. The man groaned at the sudden movement and his head hung limply against his body.

"Hold on just a minute, Kat, okay? We're going to see who was responsible for this," said Jack to the blonde woman before he pushed up from his knees and approached his Marine comrade.

By this point, the rest of the group had gathered around and approached what remained of the tiny battlefield. Both Heron and Nikias were inspecting two of the dead men while Elektra kept watch. Vera was watching with an apprehensive look while Greg hovered over the one that was still alive and waited for his commander.

Jack reached the man quickly and took stock of his wounds. He was the man that had been hit first and his hands were still clutching his gut and the hole left from Jack's rifle. Disturbingly enough, the man's intestines were visible from the wound, even as one portion threatened to spill out of the opening.

Jack had no time for patience or subtlety. He put the barrel of his rifle directly into the man's wound and applied the adequate pressure. Predictably, the man screamed out in pain.

"I'll make this very easy for you," said Jack through gritted teeth. "I'll end your suffering here quickly, but only if you tell me who you are and why you attacked these two people."

The man cried out in pain once more. "Take it out, take it out!" he yelled.

"Who are you?" roared Jack. "Tell me now!"

"My name is Zeno! Zeno, I'm Zeno . . . fuck!" screamed the man in pain. Jack let off the pressure and allowed the man some breathing space.

"Why did you attack that woman? What did you want?"

"Gold! Just money! Any coin or something valuable!" said the man with a grimaced expression. "We were told they'd have it!"

"Who told you?" pressed Jack.

"Our leader! The robber, Melitos!" he screamed.

"Who the hell is Melitos, and where can I find him?" said Jack while he pressed the barrel into the man's gut once more.

The man screamed in agony once more. "He's a thief, fuck! His hideout is nearby. It's near the Dark Forest! On the west side—no, east side! Fuck, it hurts so bad—so very bad!"

Jack let the pressure slip once more. The man's hysterical screaming didn't seem to be helping the cause, and the great amount of blood that was seeping from the wound meant he wouldn't last much longer.

"How many men does he have? Why is he targeting innocent people? Who does he work for?" pressed Jack, watching while the man's face slowly turned pale. The man began to choke, managing to cough up a wad of blood but nothing close to resembling any further answers.

Jack let his rifle fall to the ground as he grabbed the man by his shirt and pulled him forward. "Answer me! Who does he work for?"

More gargling sounds and blood oozed from the man's mouth before he finally began to shake with a great tremor. The man whispered one name, and the sound of it to Jack's ears made him grit his teeth in anger. Suddenly, just as quickly as the man's tremors started, they stopped. He was dead.

Jack let the man fall to the ground as the rest of the group surrounded him. Several specks of blood now dotted his jacket and his face, but his expression remained calm and filled with resolve.

Heron was the first to speak. "What do you want to do, Jack?"

Jack looked to Nikias first. "How far away is the Dark Forest from here?"

Nikias' eyes rolled up in thought. "Maybe half a day to the west. We need to pass by it on the path to get to Mount Tarpeious."

"Good," said Jack with quiet determination. "We're going to pay a visit to Melitos on the way."