Seeds - Twelve

Part 12

Reince held his palm before his eyes as the sun had slunk to a purple sky and peeked at them over the slopes. He cast furtive glances at the minder, it's looming presence like his shadow got lost in the dusky trees and appeared like a floating spirit towering over the hushed ghosts. When he stopped, it would keep coming until it stood his sentinel, and only when he attempted to move against the flow would it haunt him with a kindly shove and a blank insistence that he continue along. Reince pushed toward the base of the mountain, away from the human voices further down.

He smelt the decay roiling thickly through the still air long before he rounded curve of the mountain. He marked his minder with a furtive glance over his shoulder then stood on the edge of the battle site. One had been decapitated in its run, another's skull was clove in and broken open, the third was cloven but not broken. There was a hole in the side of the ditch, and the deep print of a big man jumping over it. His eyes followed the deep tracks of a creature sprinting through the needles towards the stone, and-, he checked the gaping hole torn through the thing's torso, getting shot by a second pair of hands. Then? Reince turned; the human's head spackled the stone. He had come around the corner, disturbing the needles as he footed himself to swing the axe. The man's feet lay in the hole they had made, he had struggled with someone who left no footprint. Bannon's rifle had introduced itself against the last two.

Reince checked the corner and saw the minder coming up fast. He bent and took up the axe, then moved with the flow again. The blade occupied most of the handle's length but it was short and well weighted for balance; it would not chop a tree- but bone and flesh. He carried the axe openly, shoulder glancing the minder, which seemed as oblivious or uncaring as the other creatures of the fact that he was now armed.

The sun was like a luminescent grapefruit cut in half on the horizon and sliced up by the tree tops; the rays stung his cornea and set the back of his head to an uncomfortable pulsing that set tune with his heartbeat. He touched the wound again and found the new thick strands, he had to dig into the patch to feel the new skin below, it was thin, sensitive and a multitude of arteries throbbed hotly beneath the surface. Reince looked about him, then quickened his pace until he almost jogged. As he went, he took the flask from his belt and slipped it into his shirt where a pocket was hidden over his breast. He followed the stone and passed through the horde; the minder following gamely and untiring along.

A while later, the mountain dipped away to the right and he would have missed it had it not been for the direction of the light. Reince approached the shrapnel hole in the wall face; a jagged gash that had thrown out slivers of itself and cracked deep into the stone flesh. Leaning forward he inspected the droplets of blood and sniffed deeply; no rot, just fresh blood. He looked down; multiple sets of boots had pressed into the carpet. Bannon had come from the east; the other had come from the west; they converged against the stone. Reince looked up at the length of the stone wall, then moved on as the minder strode curiously into view.

The light had darkened and melded the shadows to pale dusk when he heard a bolt whirring overhead, cutting the air with incredible speed. Something hissed far to his left on the downslope. Then another bolt flew after the first, followed by a third. Reince eyed the series of retreating ledges. A dark smudge rolled in a low arc from a ledge somewhere to the front, then another, and yet another. Reince looked back to where the smudges landed and saw the shadow of a creature picking up one of the smudges. Three bolts whistled directly over his head, followed by the hissing of decompression. The creature startled as the bolt passed through its fingers and into its body.

The minder took him by the shoulder and shoved him around and forward. 'Alright. I'm going.' he told it.

Reince blinked in disbelief as a flare sailed out into the darkness and bounced like a lit match across the carpet. Liquid fire gushed up under the skirt of a needle tree, spraying outwards. Fire washed through the trees before him, whooshing along like a flood, engulfing and drowning the walkers in droves before it turned hellishly. Something exploded behind his shoulder like a geyser of flame. The world burned and it screamed with many voices.

The minder gripped his shoulder but a bolt whistled through the ranger's hair and cracked into its collarbone. Reince stared at the illuminated face; its skin wrinkling into surprised folds, the black pits of its eyes reflected flames for pupils, then he heard rope lashing against the stone at his back. Reince swung the axe around and up into its armpit. It stumbled backwards and Reince pursued, chopping twice more into its shoulder until the weight of the arm sagged, stretching and snapping the skin as it fell off. Another bolt pierced its cheekbone, the razor tip glinting in the back of its throat. A third bolt whistled and thudded into its scalp. It lurched towards him but he dropped the axe and jumped at the rope. 'Hi ho!' he called pulling himself up the stone face as someone above heaved the rope up.