“Let’s eat some deer and get out of here. I’m ready to get there and rest for days.” I grinned thinking about the lazing around without the threat of danger. My muscles and feet could use a little downtime. Since we’d traveled on foot across the continent, my poor body was tired down to the bones.
There was still time for a kiss before we left, so I tackled a newly dressed Tor to the bed and smothered his face with dramatic kisses, loud smooch sounds echoing around the room. It wasn’t often we got to laugh and smile in our environment. I wanted to steal a little bit of time for fun.
“When we get to where we’re going, you’re gonna be in for it.” He rolled me over on the bed, his body looming over mine. I prayed, wished, and hoped he meant what I wanted him to mean.
“You’re going to punish me for being so bad,” I teased, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth.
“We’ll just have to make it there and see.” He leaned down, his blue eyes on me as he pressed one kiss upon my grinning lips.
Then as quickly as it began, our moment was over. Reality clinched our thoughts and reminded us that we needed to eat and move out with haste. The longer we stayed here, the more likely someone would come scouting and we’d be found. We double-checked our inventory, water, food, and weapons. It would have to do in our final hours to the hopefully blessed destination.
After our food had settled in our stomachs, we hit the grass-covered road. Over our journey, I attempted to overlook the bones we saw. In the woods, there weren’t many to see, since most people weren’t out in the wild when everything happened. In towns like this, it was hard to ignore. The drier climates without the humidity preserved them slightly more than the other side of the continent.
There wasn’t anything I could do about it now. The more I saw, the more I wanted to know their story, to bury them, and pray to the heavens that they found peace after dying.
“Keep moving forward,” Tor whispered as we passed a school bus crashed into a light pole. It had dried vines growing over it. A heavy feeling settled over me; my hands trembled at the sight. I knew not all of the kids on the bus had died that day. I also knew there were now bones left in the faded yellow tomb.
“Nothing I can do,” I whispered to myself and closed my eyes. I couldn’t change the past; I could only move forward.
We left the town and followed a back road that would skirt around the larger city and lead us to our new home.
Two hours passed, and I thought about how much I hoped our destination truly existed, and it wasn’t overrun, destroyed, or a lie. I didn’t know if I would be able to muster up hope if it weren’t true. Once someone lost hope, he or she lost everything. Hope pushed you, drove you to greatness . . . the lack of it would destroy you. I decided to let go of the worries and simply hope. We would make it, it would be there, and we would be OK.
“Hello, travelers.”
All hope I had crashed and burned like the planes falling out of the sky on the end of days. A group of three Dramens stood before us, armed with an axe, a bow, and a gun.
Chapter Six
My body froze in place; every muscle locked. I didn’t know what to do. We were outnumbered, and while we could fight, we couldn’t take all three of them.
They looked similar in size, maybe six feet, and tough. Cords of muscles bulged out from their leather and feather-covered attire. Signature black paint smudged their face and arms. They had weapons strapped to every part of their body.
What scared me the most was their eyes—the menace and the feral look in them that promised such awful things.
“I like the girl. Can we keep her, Dak?” the one on the left said to one of the others without taking his eyes off me.
“Nah. We’ll sell them both. I bet they’d pay a pretty penny for these two at the Iron Castle.” The man in the middle smiled, his yellow-stained teeth making me cringe even more.
“Sorry, gentlemen, we are already traveling somewhere else. You won’t be taking us.” Tor stood tall. His dominant hand twitched, ready to reach for his weapon, all the while keeping his eyes on the man in the middle named Dak. The leader, the Dramen who held the gun in his hands, aimed at our heads.
Guns were not something you saw often. They hoarded them in the Iron Castle with the king and queen, which meant the fools had found the weapons.
“Don’t think you can stop us. Let’s go peacefully to camp, then we will head to the city,” Dak said with the confidence of someone knowing he had the upper hand. I looked at Tor, just as he turned his gaze to me. We were going to fight; I didn’t think we’d win but we were going for it anyway. I sure as shit would rather die than be taken to the Iron City.
Faster than I’d seen him move before, Tor had his knife in hand and threw it at Dak’s shoulder. It hit, and it hit hard. His body fell backward, and a gunshot echoed around the woods as he landed on the ground. He had the instinct to pull the trigger, but the bullet missed.
The other two shot forward with weapons ready to kill. Tor took the one on the left, the one that wanted to keep me, and I found the one on the right with the axe. I knew how to fight. I could do this.
He swung hard, the sound of the metal slicing through the air buzzing in my ears. I kicked when he tried to right himself again, knocking him in the side, his feet staggering from the loss of balance. This time he swung up, to impale the blade in my throat. I moved quickly, dancing as if I was a warrior on a stage instead of the nutritionally deprived girl moving for her life.
My fingers gripped my sword and I arced it low. The wet sound of skin being sliced filling the air. His groan echoed against the trees before he dropped to his knees to press his dirty hands to his wound.
I looked over to my love and watched as time seemed to slow. Tor’s head was between a Dramen’s arms and the sight made my knees wobble. My stomach dropped to my feet and my throat ached from the tears brewing. The Dramen would kill Tor. My Tor.
I reacted. My feet were no longer frozen to the desert ground. I moved with an instinct to protect, and before I could blink, the Dramen’s head rolled on the ground. Blood dripped from the tip of my sword to the dirt.
Tor’s eyes were wide at what I’d done.
