Chapter Five
Tough to Swallow
Asia hugged herself for warmth, in the early morning darkness, as she huddled beside her tiny fire. She stared in revulsion at what lay transfixed on a stick over her tiny blaze. How had it come to this?
Once she had dined out on the most expensive and finest cuisine the world could offer, but now she was reduced down to this impoverished and disgusting act of making a meal out of a rat. One by one her safe spots had fallen all over the city and with them her catches of food. She’d made the mistake of trusting too many people.
They weren’t bad people, as they were just looking out for their own good, but the betrayal hurt. What hurt worse was the fate of those who hadn’t betrayed her. In some ways she wished they had betrayed her. What had happened to them was beyond horrible.
In some ways it seemed like everyone had gone mad with the need to survive and that she alone had been left sane of the whole bunch. Yes she was fighting hard to survive, perhaps even harder than anyone else left in the city, but it wasn’t just so she could go on living one more day. She had to survive to break the Code!
Armed with that reaffirmation of purpose she picked up the stick and bit into the rat. It really wasn’t bad tasting, but the reality of what she was doing proved too overwhelming and she fell over to the side retching out what little was left in her stomach. She curled up in a ball on the rooftop crying.
“I can’t do this daddy! It’s too much!” She whispered out, as bitter tears fell down the sides of her face.
She had to though, as there was no one else. She sat back up stiffly. Weakened by lack of food and exposure to the elements she could feel herself growing sick. How was she to continue on surviving? She was hunted all day and night without stop.
She had heard the planes and then saw the evidence of their offspring the next day in the form of Code people shipped in to organize the city in its hunt for her. She hugged her knees to herself, as she tried to stifle a cough. She succeeded in that, but she couldn’t stop shivering. Forlornly her gaze fell onto the half eaten rat. She picked the stick up again.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you eating that in place of something else, but please try this bear meat I have here, in place of our departed little friend there. I think you’ll like it better.”
Asia was on her feet backing away from me her dark circled eyes wide in a mixture of alarm and fear. She was pretty far gone nerve wise and it was no small wonder why. I’d been fighting to survive myself for the past week in the city, as I had hunted for her.
It seemed as if everyone else was hunting her too, but for an entirely different reason. She was the most elusive prey I had ever stalked and my respect for her knew no bounds. I chose my words carefully, “Here take the meat. You need it. I guess you’re probably wondering who I am.”
Something occurred to me then, “You do speak English don’t you?”
She didn’t answer, but I did for myself. Of course she did you dolt, she’d gone to college here in this very city.
“All right that was a stupid question. In the spirit of true disclosure I will admit that I’ve been hunting you, but not for the same reasons as them.” I said gesturing widely to the city around us.
I could see how little she trusted my words. Poor girl had likely been betrayed by so many people already that she was paranoid of trusting anyone further. It wasn’t necessarily a bad way to be. The old adage, ‘only the paranoids survive’ was true, but in this case it wasn’t good.
I’d likely have to tie her up to get her to behave, which somewhat appealed to me I had to admit. She’d been glancing around the building’s rooftop looking to see if there were others with me, as we circled each other. I saw the exact moment, when the thought came into her eyes. The thought to kill me.
I was alone, I had food, and weapons which she had need of and if she left me alive than I would be free to report on her position to the others.
“Whoa sister! Don’t even go there! I don’t want to hurt you, but so help me I will if I have to!” She wasn’t listening to me.
She couldn’t weigh much more than 100 pounds soaking wet and I weighed that plus 150 more. It didn’t seem to matter to her, as she came at me in a speed rush. The girl had courage for sure. Moments later, as I gasped for air, I acknowledged to myself that she could kick too.
I was hard pressed for several furious minutes of close action, as she spun and swerved around me giving me everything she had. What moves I didn’t block I was strong enough to absorb, as if they hadn’t even landed. She was using at least six different fighting styles against me in a harmonious fight action that was all her own. Someone had taught her extremely well. Speed was her biggest weapon, but she was tiring quickly and beginning to telegraph her move combinations to me.
Not once had I hit out at her, and she sensed her imminent loss, if I were to. She set me up for a big hit meant to end it all in her panic to end the fight and I left myself open for it, but I tensed hard in preparation.
As her double kick landed it collided with my forced tension, which was the greater of the strengths involved. The force of her kick vibrated back into her and she fell hard to the roof with a cry of pain. I saw her face briefly, as she rolled away and it reflected nothing but pain and misery of defeat.
It actually hurt me to see such an expression of defeat on one as brave as her. She kept scuttling away from me on the rooftop, as one of her legs appeared injured.
In alarm I saw her objective and dove for her as I yelled, “No!”
But she was gone over the edge of the roof. Desperately I peered over to see her land hard on an old fire escape twenty feet down the side of the building. This chick was nuts and I liked it! With concern I watched her hobble to her feet and start limping down the stairs as fast as she could go.
Wow! She had beauty, but more than that she now had my respect, in a way a woman perhaps had never had before.
“Ready or not honey here I come.” I said, before flipping over the edge after her.
The landing was a hard one, but she was worth it. I started down the stairs after her. As we neared the bottom she fell the last ten feet to the ground, but gamely she popped up and started out in a hobbling run.
Just then forty or more people converged on her from both sides of the street. They knocked her to the ground, as they cried out in glee at their capture of her. Something snapped within me at the sight of what had just happened. At some point she had ceased from being just a dalliance in the passing to being my woman. I reached for the sword behind my back, as I jumped off the platform for the street below with my cry of war sounding loud in my own ears.
Asia made her way down the stairs in a panic knowing that the big man would follow. Every step caused her pain, as she placed weight on her twisted ankle, but it only helped goad her on in her effort to escape. The big man on the rooftop terrified her.
He’d appeared without making a sound and to behold him had been like looking at the heart of something wild and unchained. He’d offered her bear meat! There were no bears in the city! He was a cannibal no doubt and he’d been offering her a chunk of someone he’d butchered to be sure!
She’d attacked him out of desperation only to find hitting him had the effect of colliding with an oaken beam. It hurt. He blocked her attempts with greater skill than she had, which meant that he would likely win any fight between them and the thought of being at the wild man’s mercy had completely freaked her out.
She had been just guessing that there was a fire escape on that side of the building, when she had toppled over the edge. The wild man had even been wearing clothes fashioned out of leather. Where had he gotten so much leather in the city from?
“Oh God!” She said, as her mind seized up with the awful answer to that thought.
Her pace quickened and she gladly leaped off the platform for the hard street below. Desperation to escape the butcher behind her drove her to her feet into as hard a run as she could muster and then they were upon her kicking and grasping at her. She sank to the ground with a moan of despair. Forget the wild man’s beastly appetites for her flesh, what would the masters of the Code do to her?
She had failed!
Miserably she clutched her pack to her, as if she could protect the priceless information contained within, from the stupid masses gathered around her clamoring for a payout. There were screams and wild yells and then the sound of running. Running?
She glanced up. Everyone was running! Just then a severed arm plopped down to the street beside her. She stared at it in horror and then unable to stop herself she rolled onto her back to see what unholy monster had been unleashed upon the city.
It was the wild man and he was coming for her!
Bodies and parts of them lay everywhere. He was covered in blood and the sword in his hands ran red with it, even as the fire in his eyes said he thirsted for more. A shriek of fright erupted from the very core of her being at the sight of him approaching her.
Blindly she turned over and started to scramble along the ground, but a grasp like iron seized her and held her in place. Pressure was applied to particular pressure points and in fear at what he was doing she tried to lunge away, but was helplessly restrained still.
“Shhhhh!”
Was that him trying to calm her, as he forced her to blackout? What kind of a sick monster was he? He most likely planned to rape her in her unconsciousness and then chop her up in pieces and throw her into his stewpot and he wanted her to be calm! She struggled, but it was no use, as the darkness closed in.
“Oh God please have mercy!” She breathed out into the pavement before everything went dark.
She went slack under my hands. Poor girl was petrified of me and looking around I had to admit I could understand why. I wiped my sword off on a dead body and re-sheathed it and then I turned her over.
Her face now reflected the peace of unconsciousness and I had to admit that I had never seen anyone so captivating as she was. I glanced up at the sounds of shouts from up the street. Time to get her to safety. Possessively I swung her up into my arms. She was a little thing and much too thin from weeks of running and barely getting by.
The hunters that had been brought in would be here soon. I tossed a little present on the ground for the dogs they would have with them. The dogs wouldn’t be a problem soon. I was going to need to move fast though, gently I swung her over my shoulder and I took off running, as the heavens opened up and dumped down rain, which helped to wash away the blood that I was covered in.