The human forms we would occasionally spot on a parallel street were infinitely more worrying. But luckily, we were always far enough away from them not to be detected, as long as we took care to cross the intersection of these streets quickly and while the spectres were looking in the opposite direction.
We had to cross the river Arno along the way, feeling perilously exposed on the bridge, our noses assaulted by a pungent smell whose source we quickly located beneath us. There, in the greenish brine, countless maimed bodies were being carried away, rocked by the slow and steady stream as if to sleep.
The archery shop was not far, at half a mile away from the hotel by the most direct route. But there were furies in a street on our path, and so we were obliged to find a longer, more roundabout way.
Another obstacle, though not unexpected, presented itself when we finally reached the shop. It was locked. A spiderweb of cracks adorned the glass of the display window, suggesting that someone had tried to break in before us but was obliged to give up.
A beautiful, onyx black beast of a carbon bow was laid out in the display window. It had a boost stabiliser and rotating modules to adjust the draw length. My heart sped up at the sightof it, and my fingertips tingled with the desire to hold it in my hands. The way it was beckoning me, I felt it wanted to be mine just as much as I wanted to wield it.
“How the hell do we get in?” Amit asked in a low, whining tone. “You saw that street right around the corner. Breaking the glass is going to make noise. Andthey’ll come running ...”
“I don’t suppose any of us know how to pick locks?” Kevin enquired.
We all shook our heads. I did so without taking my eyes off my new love.
“Vat do ve do?” Monika lamented with an edge of helpless hysteria in her quiet voice.
“I have an idea,” Joshua spoke, and I could tell from his breathlessness that said idea unnerved him to no end. “A crazy one, but it can work. The way we came here, right, that street runs parallel to the one with the furies. A short alley connects the two about a quarter of a mile from here.”
We all nodded in assent, yes, that was the area’s layout.
“I’ll go to that connecting alley and make a lot of noise to draw the cannibals away. One of you will be watching from around the corner over there.”
He pointed to it.
“As soon as the furies take off after me, you break the glass and get in. Meanwhile, I’ll run back here. I’ll probably lead the cannibals here with me, that can’t be avoided. But, if all goes well, Renata will be armed by then and so can do her thing ...”
“Shoot them?” Monika asked, her lower lip quivering.
“Well ... yeah,” Joshua confirmed regretfully. “If she’s willing to? I know it’s not exactly direct self-defence but ... we do need those weapons to survive, so I’d say it is indirect self-defence.”
It didn’t take me long to reach the same conclusion. We did need to get armed, and even if we managed to locate and safely reach another archery shop somewhere within the city, therewas no guarantee that we could loot it without having to make similar sacrifices.
“I’m willing.” I nodded.
“And you’re positive you can get them?” Dave turned to me with a nervous frown.
“Yes.”
“But, babe, it’s much too dangerous,” Amit protested, grasping Joshua’s hand in both his.
“So is anything.” Josh shrugged, but with poorly concealed trepidation. “What did I run all these marathons for? Unless one of them is an Olympic sprinter or something, I know I can be faster than them.”
Amit groaned, shaking his head. But Joshua declared resolutely,
“Let’s do it, before I change my mind. Y’all get ready.”
We each picked up a loose cobblestone from the side of the pavement. Having volunteered to watch the furies from beyond the corner, it wasn’t long after Josh disappeared into the street we had come from that Amit was rushing back towards us, waving his arms up and down like a bat to signal the cannibals’ departure.
Surprisingly, the plan worked like a charm. We threw the cobblestones at the shop window, and the glass shattered loudly and abruptly, tiny shards falling to the ground like snow.
I lunged inside, my fingers closing around my carbon beauty. I threw the adjacent quiver of arrows onto my shoulder, shortened its strap, pulled an arrow, nocked, and waited at the ready. Others took their place behind me, trusting me to shield them.
Not a minute later, Josh reappeared at the crossroads opposite the shop, well ahead of the ten roamers that followed him. Tall and gangly, with an unkempt cinnamon afro and a marked overbite, Joshua was usually anything but elegant.Except for when he ran, because then his long limbs moved in a perfect harmony, and his body seemed to glide through the air as if his feet barely had to touch the ground to propel him forward.
Yet I had no attention to spare for the transformation. The utter terror of self-doubt gripped me in its unforgiving grasp.
What if I couldn’t do it? What if I kept missing and couldn’t keep my companions safe?
