Seeds - Two

Part 2

Luri crawled over the stone and onto the needles then lay flat and motionless. In the dark she would appear to be no more than a thickening in the carpet. Dipping her chin down, she scanned the area about her. She was in a clearing as the stone below warded off tree roots. All about, she saw shapes and listened to the multitude of clicks and halting words. She was certain of five, but there could always be more. The entrance to the ledge was about seven feet in front of her, two shadows flitted from the trees, running right over it.

Her knives came out, one long and sharply pointed, the other short, fat and sharp of edge. Holding them before her face she tapped them together, one, one two. Immediately feet ran at her from her blind spot. Pain exploded in her side and someone planted face first in the needles beside her. Luri threw herself across the stunned man, following the descent of her blades with all her weight. The long blade slipped through ribs and speared into bone. The grunt was cut short as the short blade tore into the neck, scraping the spine and lodging in his windpipe. She kicked out her cloak with her feet, covering the dying man. He gurgled as blood pumped over her fingers. Twisting the blade in his neck she reversed her grip and threw her weight down on the handle, she tore more flesh than she cut, half decapitating him. She estimated the position of his heart and the long blade slunk up into him, piercing the pumping muscle. His shivering body lost strength as quickly as her side burned with an almost intolerable dullness. She grimaced but forced herself to continue scanning.

Reince's camouflaged head popped up from the ground. She clicked her tongue hoping to disguise the signal, one, one two. The ranger planted his hands on either side of the hole pushing himself up, he brought his feet up and kicked them out. He twisted and emerged onto the needles in a roll. She watched him find the tree line and rush towards the base of the nearest tree where he balled up pretending at being a bush.

Shapes moved behind Reince, all shouting, and forming unnatural words. Luri locked her tongue to her mouth roof, creating a vacuum that she released to mimic the clicking language. One, one, one; she signaled that three had passed. She forced her breath to calm and her hands to remain steady as she listened; the trees were alive around them, there could be a dozen men, there could be three dozen. Her nose wrinkled, the man below her had begun to stink. Dead men loosed their bowels but this was the grave stench of necrosis, rot. It filled the cloak making her gag but she dared not move.

Reince stuck his hand out like a twig to get her attention then nodded his head imperceptibly to his left. Luri rested her cheek on the needles, four shadows entered the clearing in a methodical search line. The second from the edge headed straight towards her, its shadow was hulking around the shoulders but the rest of him was unnaturally tall and thin. The proportions were wrong, she realized looking to the third. This one was hunched and walked like two halves of different humans stitched together. The fourth seemed the least malformed and would pass within Reince's reach before the second would reach her. She waited.

Reince rose up silently, a dark silhouette, beside the fourth man. The ranger's blade flashed up under his chin. The man stiffened and Luri sprang up in the moment his companions turned towards the ranger. She sprinted towards the first man who noticed her in his peripheral, she leaped forward in an arc, driving the blade down. His collarbone cracked in protest and the steel was imbedded deep inside his ribcage. The impact propelled him backwards. Luri landed flat atop him and scrambled up, her eyes trained on the back of the third man. Her long blade slid from her holster as she ran silently on bent knees. She saw Reince advance on the second man, who realized whom he had found and let out a brief bestial grunting shout before Reince tore his throat out but he did not fall. Blood poured like oil between his legs and he threw himself at Reince, grasping and tangling his camouflage cloak, they struggled. The last man ran to help oblivious of Luri's pursuit. He swung his weapon. Reince saw the blow coming but could only twist away. The weapon bounced off the back of his head and he fell backwards, leaving the dying enemy on his knees. Triumphant, the last man yowled his delight to the sky, voices answered from all around them as he raised his club two-handed. Luri shoved the long blade into his lower back and yanked sideways as hard she could. The razor-sharp blade sliced through him, eviscerating his organs. She withdrew the blade and fell back as he rounded on her swinging the club wildly. Reince rose groggily and threw his shoulder into the man's back, they fell. And then Luri was on him with controlled fury, the heel of her boot smashing into his exposed neck until she heard the vertebrae give way.

The trees around the clearing had come alive with angry shouting. Reince stood, his rifle was slung behind his right arm, he reached for it then let it fall back.

'Reince.', urgency cracked her voice.

He took a step towards her, stumbled, then stood statue still as if in thought or confused. 'Come.', he mumbled finally, grabbing her wrist and dragging her towards the edge, 'Into the tree, one, two, three.'

'What? No!'. But his hands knew reflexively where to find her harness, like handles, beneath the cloak. He half jogged her towards the small cliff and the trees sticking up from below. When they were near, he began, 'Three, two, one.'. Luri jumped up as he tossed her over the edge, she arced into the mist. Crashing blindly into the Needle-tree, she grasped desperately at the tiny sharp leaves and the noxious needles. Vertigo exploded in her chest as she barely managed two handfuls of slippery leaves. She wormed her way deeper into the foliage until she was secure.

Reince's compression rifle thumped softly behind her. A man screamed in pain. 'Find Bannon.', he called over his shoulder then faced the clearing and knelt into a firing stance. He sighted the rifle at the woods. Everywhere, silhouettes emerged from the trees, bolts whistled from Reince's rifle and Luri could see the vague figures falling. He'd shot four but the trees around him swarmed.

'Campman!!!', an inhuman roar echoed from the mist itself, shaking through the needles. The voices died down instantly. Luri felt panicked, what could she do? Reince's back was to her, his cloak had come off and even in the dark, she could see the blood from his scalp staining his shirt. 'You hurt me Campman! Kill my friends.'. Reince's rifle swung and a bolt whistled into the trees, narrowly missing a peaking shadow. 'I forgive. We's gon' be friends! By pain or want, Campman! We make you strong. Stronger.'

Reince gave no answer but she knew him well enough to see his trembling. He was concussed and losing blood.

'Make you strong for pain? Make you strong for fighting? No different way.'

Reince flipped the rifle, planting the barrel under his chin with his thumb on the trigger.

'Slow now.', the voice released a series of clicks like an ancient tree crackling in the wind. In perfect synchronicity, shadows oozed out from the trees around the clearing, standing passively, shoulder to shoulder in absolute stillness. Reince's free hand went to his back so only Luri could see, his fingers splayed out several times, telling her Go!

She did not want to go, she wanted to climb down and kill and kill until her helplessness went away, until only she and Reince remained in the world. Find Bannon, he had told her. She heard Bannon's cannon exploding somewhere on the slope below.

A short-emaciated figure pushed through the line and approached the kneeling ranger. Long hair like a mane framed his head as a wild halo and he was naked but for a ragged skirt tied about his waist. Reince's lead tipped bolt still protruded from his shoulder, he yanked it out, tearing a hole in his own flesh as the deformed tip had shattered and left splintered lumps behind. He tossed the bolt at Reince then thrust his thumb and forefinger into the open wound and dug around, he came out with a slither of lead which he flicked at Reince then continued to dig for more. The ranger flipped the rifle again, pointing it at the figure's head.

'Shoot,', said the thin man, 'then I talk,', he gestured around him, 'with different voice. No difference. We be friends, no choice.'

'What do you want?', Reince asked in a slur.

'I say many times.'

'Why?'

'Why?', echoed the man. His head rolled around his shoulders, a rapid series of clicks escaping him, then his arm extended above his head, bloody fingers pointing at the heavens, 'To keep! To keep!'. A chorus of voices clicked in unison.

Reince spat, 'A feral cult.', his rifled whined, then hissed as the compression propelled a bolt at the man's face, he whipped his head about, the bolt tearing through his cheek and destroying teeth on its way out. 'M-m-m-make...', he lisped through his damaged mouth, 'you sssssstrong.'

'THE WORLD HAS CHANGED!!!', cried the shadows. The levy broke and the crowd surged forward.

The rifle fired in rapid succession but the last Luri saw was bodies piling onto the ranger. She gulped down her scream and slid down the tree. Somewhere below, Bannon's rifle thundered again. Find Bannon, her discipline was gone, tears streamed down her neck as she sprinted blindly towards the sound.