stopped as emotion threatened to overcome him.
‘Please Will,’ Fred said quietly, ‘what happened then, was Liz in the group outside?’
‘Yes Fred,’ he replied, ‘but I don’t know what happened to her, the last I saw of her she was running hell for leather towards the lake, the Hunki didn’t follow her group right away, they were busy slaughtering the ones who tried to make it to the tree line. Once that was done they left a ship to collect the bodies, the other two ships left to chase everyone else.’
Fred went cold inside; Liz outside running for her life while the murderous bastards hunted her down left him with a feeling of numbness. He only hoped the training he had given her helped her get away from the vicious little killers; he hoped but doubted it. He had an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach that made him want to scream. ‘Now is not the time’ he thought, grief could come later, now was time for survival.
‘Where’s everyone else?’ he asked in a cold emotionless voice as he pulled himself together keeping his emotions in check.
‘Don’t know,’ he replied shaking his head. ‘The bastards came back this morning, only one ship but they cut another twenty of us out, sent them off southwards by the lake and followed them after about five minutes. I saw them coming so me and three women ran through the tunnels and out under the tree line about half a mile north of here. I left the women in a small rock hollow with an overhang at the front while I came back to see what was happening, I saw you and here we are. What brought you back, Liz said you had gone for good?’
‘I knew they had come back,’ he replied without embellishment, ‘I was worried about Liz so came to check on her.’
‘What are you going to do,’ Will asked?
‘Go and find her.’ he said looking at him with eyes that bored into Wills’ soul. ‘Either that or find out what happened to her and I promise you if the Hunki have killed her I won’t rest until I kill the bastards.’
‘Fred that’s suicide, I don’t care how good you are with a bow, you don’t stand a dogs chance against the Hunki weapons.’
‘Maybe not, he replied, ‘but I need to know what happened to her and as God is my judge I promise to take revenge if she has ended up like those poor bastards outside.’
‘Anything I can do to help?’ he asked, ‘or if there’s anything here you need just take it.’
‘Not really Will,’ he replied with a half smile that carried no humour, ‘just point me in the right direction.’
Seven
He waited until dusk began to fall, spending the time honing his knife to a razor sharp edge that would make a Rippers claw seem blunt by comparison. Will watched him as he quietly and methodically ran the knife up and down a smooth sandstone rock stopping only to test the blade and take small pieces of the food and drink he brought to him. Dusk was the favoured time to leave; travel would be slower through the night because the Hunki only hunted in daylight; if he was going to find out what happened to Liz he was better off in the darkness, sleeping of a day only when and if he could find a place to sleep that secured him against the elements, the Hunki and Rippers alike.
Five hours into his journey he saw the tell tale glow of a camp fire. In the pitch black of Newth’s night the glow was like a beacon guiding him to his quarry. Cautiously he sniffed the air; the unmistakeable smell of cooking meat wafted on the slight breeze. Silently he began to glide towards the fire stopping in his tracks after only two minutes as his hunters’ nose caught the unmistakeable aroma of a Ripper. Rippers never travelled alone, they were pack animals with at least two travelling together. Thankfully he was downwind of them and he determined to stay that way and not get between Rippers and the Hunki with nowhere to go.
The glow of the fire and the smell of roasting meat was ahead and to his right, the Ripper was somewhere to his left. His ears heard the sound of breaking twigs coming from the Rippers direction, the Hunki to his right were making no attempt to be quiet and obviously not aware of the stalking animals. He breasted a small hill taking cover behind a native shrub. In the clearing below him ten Hunki warriors sat around a fire eating what was obviously human meat, the torso of some other poor devil turned on a spit roasting over the fire. His blood began to boil and he knocked his bow but stayed his hand realising he had nowhere to run when the Hunki turned on him. He would get two of them at least, but two was not worth the sacrifice of his own life.
Frustrated he lowered the bow taking the tension out of the string. As he did so he heard the low growl of a Ripper over to his left. With a smile of pure pleasure he realised he had never been so happy to see a Ripper. Three of them came bounding out of the woods charging the unsuspecting Hunki. Again he raised his bow but waited until he knew what damage the Rippers would do to the Hunki before selecting a target.
He knew from experience these animals were fast but he had never seen a pack of them hunting like this before. They were among the Hunki before the hated enemy could react ripping at least six of them to shreds as they stood reaching for weapons. He never hesitated unleashing an arrow at a Hunki running for the shelter of his ship. It hit its target cleanly in the middle of his back, his next arrow downed a Hunki as it reached the ships door; the remaining vermin was brought down by two Rippers as the ship lifted into the air and away from the bloodbath on the ground.
All that could be heard was the growling and snarling of Rippers as they ripped apart the Hunki they had just killed with teeth and claws. He took three arrows out of his quiver, two he placed in easy reach; the other he fitted to his bow and fired at the nearest Ripper. It went down with an arrow embedded in its heart; the second arrow took another in its throat before the last animal let go of its blood rage and turned to see what was killing its pack. He saw Fred and charged, Freds last arrow found its way into the beasts open jaws as it raced towards him intent on shredding the flesh from his bones.
The clearing was a quagmire of blood soaked ground littered with Hunki and human body parts. Eight human corpses lay headless off to one side of the still burning fire. Fred gave them a cursory look; it would be impossible to know if one of them was Liz and he dreaded looking and seeing something that might make him think it was her. He assumed these poor unfortunates were the last lot of people taken from East Harbour in the hours before he arrived; if so Liz wouldn’t be there she was set running six days ago.
He left the carnage behind him but not before he dragged the human bodies to the fire and left them to burn. The Hunki may be back but he was damned if he would leave them a meal of his former friends. His last act before leaving was to rescue his arrows from the Hunki and the Ripper carcases he had downed; the Hunki would in all probability be back with reinforcements to collect their dead and he didn’t want to make it easy for them to realise what had happened here. If they thought for one second a human was killing their own with arrows they would kill everyone they came across without thought or question in revenge.
Away from the fire his eyes once more became adjusted to the darkness; there was no light, no moon to illuminate his path only the soft glow of the billions of stars that blazed overhead. It was enough for him to pick up the trail of feet as they ran headlong in panic away from the chasing Hunki. At least five people had come this way; the tell tale signs of broken branches on the shrubbery, deep imprints of feet as they came down on the soft sandy ground along the side of the Inland Sea before they dug in once again to find purchase as they ran, and the odd pieces of ripped cloth and discarded clothing made his tracking easy.
Half a mile from the Hunki camp site and about two miles from East Harbour the five split to go their own way. Sensible Fred thought, in a group they were easy to chase down, individually and heading for the tree line they would be that much harder, especially if they made it into the trees and relative safety if they could find a hiding place. He scanned the ground and ascertaining the smallest imprint of a foot in the soft ground noted the heading it took and followed it. The big imprints made by bigger feet were men, the
smallest was a woman and he hoped against hope it was made by Liz. If he had trained her right and she remembered what he had taught, she would leave a trail for him to follow; not that she expected him to seek her out, but just in case he did.
Two nights later he came across a small cave. He lit a torch of twisted grass on a long piece of wood that had been soaked in oil he had taken from East harbour. A quick initial search took him around a corner into a large open area full of misshapen rocks left by water as it had cut through the soft limestone. Behind one of the rocks a fire had been made and made recently. Small animal bones lay in a neat pile to one side of the fire, some still had meat on them, meat which had been cooked and eaten by whoever had stayed here. Engraved in a rough scrawl in the rock above the fire was the word Liz; for the first time in nearly two weeks he allowed himself a smile of relief knowing she was still alive and he was on the right track. Tonight he would stay here, tomorrow he would resume his search in daylight; this far into the trees daylight travel should be relatively safe from hunting Hunki packs. Daylight would also make his tracking easier and help him cover more ground as he followed Liz and hopefully caught up with her.
She