Banished Pt. 15

"Fuck me. The armor. We can just use one half of a breastplate."

Cutting into the soil quickly loosened it right up, but scooping the dirt onto the breastplate panel actually proved to be quite the chore, until Francesca pointed out that we could use one of the arm guards as a scoop, making it much easier.

We also settled on the graves being quite shallow; no more than three feet deep, but even then, it took us close to an hour to get the holes dug.

"I just thought of something," I said. "They have cores, don't they? Should we extract them?"

Francesca nodded.

"I think the Kobalt do," she replied, and I nodded, using energy manipulation to locate the things, before cutting them out.

"Wonder how much we'd be worth," I joked, and Francesca shot me a wry look.

"If I ever die, please don't turn me in at a guildhall," she said, and I chuckled a little.

"What do I do, then? Turn you into a necklace and wear you wherever I go?" I asked.

"That'd be nice, actually. Or you could just keep me in a special place. Come see me from time to time."

I shook my head at her, then leaned in to kiss her.

"You better not die. Ever," I warned, and she smiled.

"Believe me, I'm trying my best."

We rested the bodies in their respective holes, then covered them, and I even placed three decent enough sized rocks over their graves, before heading off along the river's edge.

We stopped at a point along the way where we could access the stream from the bank, and we quickly washed a bit, and took a small breather.

"It's getting dark already, huh?" Francesca noted, and I nodded.

As we took the moment to collect ourselves, however, she shot me a worried look.

"Is it too late for us to make a run for it?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Our cores are pretty much spent. Doubt we'd get far... maybe we shouldn't have pushed on so much."

Francesca scoffed.

"On the off-chance that we run into the one human in this massive forest? We'd probably never make much progress if we proceeded like that."

I nodded in agreement, letting out a slightly tired sigh as I did.

Though maybe we could afford to take the more cautious approach when we finally had a place to settle down to.

We headed north along the river, but it took us no more than twenty minutes to come upon the group.

"Relax, these are the guys I mentioned," Ethan called out, as the members who spotted us quickly went into panic mode.

"Are they knights too?" one of the boys asked, and Ethan shook his head.

"I guess you could say they're 'randoms'; not much unlike yourselves, actually."

"Randoms? In that kind of armor?"

The boy seemed suspicious, and Ethan chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head as he did.

"They're doing pretty well, I guess," he admitted. "Though, you should probably thank them. They pretty much saved you all from that group that was hunting you."

The boy who was talking to him shook his head uncertainly, and one of the girls stepped forward.

"Sorry; he's on edge because we lost someone," she explained. "I'm Sheila."

She held a hand out, and I took it, giving it a little shake.

"Nathan," I answered.

Francesca introduced herself, then Ethan stepped forward.

"Let's see if my memory is working alright, then. The surly looking fellow over there is Jayden. Then, from right to left, we have Lin, Ray, Graham, Wilt, and..."

"Devin," one of the boys added.

"Right, and Colt?"

The boy furthest to the right nodded.

"And the rest of the ladies are Alice, Samantha, and Blair."

"Of course, he remembers the girls," Colt said, and Ethan nodded.

"It's coded into my DNA," Ethan joked, and the girls laughed a little.

"This is funny? Really? Julie's still out there somewhere!" Jayden shot, and the group went silent.

"How long has she been missing?" I asked, trying to break the tension a little.

"It might have been this morning," Sheila answered. "Something sort of attacked, and we got scattered a bit."

"Something?"

"It looked sort of like a monkey, but it had claws and fangs," Colt said. "It killed Stanley, and the rest of us kind of scattered. We all met back up, but she was missing after."

"We have to find her," Jayden said again.

"Doesn't matter; she knew the plan," Wilt cut in. "She would have come here if she made it."

Jayden advanced on Wilt, and Ethan quickly moved between the two.

"Whoa there. We're not going to get anywhere by throwing fists at each other," he said. "Maybe we can search along the river, but if she didn't make it here, then we need to consider that the hunters may have gotten her, okay?"

"Why are they following the river?" I asked.

"One of ours ran into them back at their hall," he explained. "Told them to follow this path into the forest, then head north along the river until they found me."

"You recruit newbies?" I asked, and Ethan shook his head.

"Not exactly. There's an otherworlder called Razvan who runs a training camp on the fringe of Irileth's domain, so we've just been helping some of them along to his camp whenever we could. The path is usually pretty safe, but... we can't really account for hunters and stray heralds, huh?"

"Safe, huh? I thought this was all part of the domain," I replied.

"Well, the southern fringes hardly ever saw monsters, and they never cross this river anyway; so as soon as they got to Razvan's crossing, they would have been fine. I guess we just got a little unlucky this time."

Jayden scoffed at this, and I shot him a sympathetic look.

"If it helps, we came here from much further north, and we never ran into anyone," I offered, and the man merely waved a hand, then moved off to sulk.

Ethan shot me a nervous smile, then indicated to me, and we moved off away from the group to talk.

"Honestly, I'm kind of starting to think it's a good thing I ran into you two. I didn't wanna spook the others, but there's a harbinger of some kind around here. Normally I'd have them push on through the night until we got clear of the zone, but I'm not sure it'll stay within the realm anymore now that Irileth is gone."

I nodded.

"What do you want us to do?" I asked.

"I can probably hunt it for a bit if you're here to protect them. I'm not sure how strong you two are, but if you could take those hunters down without a scratch, then I'm pretty sure you can at least fend it off if it attacked. What do you think?"

I turned to Francesca, and she nodded.

"Sounds good," she said, and Ethan smiled.

"She speaks! And the voice matches the face too," he said, and to my surprise, Francesca blushed. "Well, I better not waste what's left of daylight. Let me just talk to them a bit, and I'll head off."

He moved over to the group, and began talking to Wilt and Sheila, and I turned to Francesca, and shot her a teasing smile.

"I fucking hate him," she said, and I chuckled a little.

"I'm not sure if I believe you anymore," I teased, and she sighed.

"His very presence feels like a manipulation," she said, and as I placed a hand over hers, she pulled it into her chest, and held me for a bit.

"That actually feels so much better," she said.

"Really?" I asked, and she nodded.

"It feels as if your presence counteracts whatever it is that he's doing," she said, and I studied her with interest.

After a short conversation with the group, Ethan came back over to us.

"I'm gonna try to track the thing, but I don't wanna go too far in case I end up running into something else. Most likely, I'll be back every few hours or so to check on things."

I nodded, and with that, Ethan headed off.

Francesca and I moved over to where the others were, but everyone seemed to be on edge, so we settled down into our own corner, while everyone else did their own thing.

"Do you think we should sleep?" Francesca asked, and I nodded.

"Do you think you can?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"I'd rather you be rested in case something happens," she said, and I nodded, before casting a quick look over at the others.

"Wake me up, even if you're moving away from me for a second," I said, and she quickly nodded.

"Will do," she said. "Are you gonna use the sleeping bag?"

I shook my head.

"Doesn't look like they have anything, and I'd rather not make the tensions any worse."

She nodded in agreement, settling down onto the floor, and then patting her lap.

"You look so excited; are you thinking about Ethan?" I teased, and Francesca frowned, then flicked my ear in retaliation as soon as I settled down.

"Sheila sure looks like she'd volunteer her lap for the job," she replied, and I cast a tentative look over at the girl, who seemed to be straining herself to look over at us, before returning my gaze to Francesca.

"I don't trust them either," I whispered, and she nodded.

"Do you think we're just being paranoid?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"Meeting them in here feels pretty off to me; even if their stories add up. But we need the rest, so maybe we can play nice for tonight, then figure something out tomorrow."

Francesca nodded, and as I settled into place, she began to caress my head soothingly, and I quickly drifted off to seep.

*

"Nate, something's happening."

I woke up a little groggily, then sat up as I noted the worried look on Francesca's face.

"Don't put that on me!" someone yelled.

"If you don't do anything, then you might as well have!"

I sat up and spotted Jayden and Wilt going at it, and I quickly moved over to mediate.

"Stay out of this!" Jayden said, as soon as he spotted me.

"I will as long as everyone behaves."

He scowled at me.

"I'm going to look for my friend."

"Julie?"

He eyed me.

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?"

I sighed.

"If you go out there, we can't do anything to help you," I warned, and he shrugged.

"I don't give a fuck. She wouldn't leave me out there," he said, and I eyed him carefully.

I wasn't certain yet if something was up with the group or not, but his concern at the very least, seemed quite genuine.

I tried to think about the situation for a second, but his urgency was quickly getting the better of him, and he pushed his way past me, and began to head south along the river's edge.

"Hold on," I called. "What's your plan, exactly?"

He shot me an annoyed look, but as he saw the seriousness of my expression, his impatience abated a little.

"We got separated before we got to the river. If I can backtrack to where that was, then I'll search the area just around there."

"And that was this morning?"

He nodded.

"And you all walked all day?"

He let out an exasperated sigh.

"Do you see any other methods of transportation?" he asked sarcastically, and I shook my head.

"I mean, did you run at any point? Jog? I'm trying to gauge how far you travelled."

His expression shifted again.

"We did. Probably stopped for about... two hours in all. And maybe got started an hour after sunrise."

I nodded again.

That meant roughly... twelve hours of walking?

Factoring in how much ever time it took them to get back together after getting separated.

So maybe, twenty miles?

Twenty-five max.

I stared into his core, and noted his capacity was close to depletion.

"Okay, I'll put you in armor that lets you move faster, but I have terms."

"I'm listening," he said.

"One; you need to sleep."

"Fuck this," he said, but I stopped him.

"I can see how tired you are, and you won't make it far. If you want to save Julie, you need to make it there. Or are you just trying to go out there and die?"

He paused to study me.

"Fine. What's the other condition?"

"Make it back before dawn," I said, and he shook his head.

"Even if I left now, how would that be possible?"

"The armor. You'll be quicker, and this time you'll be running. I estimate that you can get where you're going in just under three hours."

"Three hours?"

"Yeah. This one will boost your endurance," I said, showing him one of the armor slivers, "and this one is speed. With three to four hours of sleep, you'll be ready to leave."

He eyed the pieces of armor.

"What do I do if I find her?" he asked.

"This is a healing vial. If she's injured her feet, pour it on the affected area. I'll give you two more armor pieces with the same stats as the one you'll be wearing, so let her wear that, and run back here. No stops, because we don't know what else is out there."

He nodded.

"Alright. So, sleep?" he asked, and I nodded.

"ASAP."

He nodded, yawning, his own exhaustion suddenly seeming to catch up to him, and he moved over to where the group was gathered, then settled down on a flat bit of earth.

As he did, I caught Sheila's eyes on me, and she quickly moved to my side.

"You're really giving him armor for that suicide mission?" she asked, and I nodded, sighing a little. "You know, these supposed knights wouldn't even give us armor."

I shrugged.

"It's not really mine anyway; we stripped it off of the ones who were hunting you," I explained, and she shook her head.

"Still. We're strangers," she continued, and I shrugged.

"Everyone is at the start. But with a little bit of trust, most of the time at least, we can grow into something more."

She followed my gaze to Francesca, then smiled.

"Is that how you two got so close?" she asked, and I nodded, a little sheepishly.

"I guess..."

"Isn't she a little young to be your girlfriend?" Sheila asked, and I chuckled a little.

"She's matured more in the past week than you can imagine."

Sheila shot me a teasing smile.

"Oh? Did you make a woman out of her?" she asked, her tone suggestive, and I laughed.

"No. It's more like, this world made a warrior out of her," I replied, and Sheila frowned.

"So, everyone has to learn to fight eventually, huh?" she asked, and I shook my head.

"It depends. We had to do what we needed to do to survive. But not everyone is suited to fighting."

"So, there's others in your group?"

I nodded tentatively, and she pursed her lip, as she eyed Francesca again.

"Well, if there's room for a plus one to do anything but fighting, keep me in mind? I don't know if I fit in here, and I don't really trust this Ethan..."

"And you trust me?" I asked, and she bit her lip a bit, then shook her head.

"Maybe not... but considering what you're doing for Jayden, maybe I'm distrusting you the least right now..."

She headed off to rejoin the other girls, and Francesca moved to my side.

"You're an actual chick magnet now, aren't you?" she teased, and I chuckled a little.

"Funny. You know, back on earth, I couldn't get a date for love nor money," I said, and she shrugged.

"The things we value here are very different. Maybe you just rank higher on the ladder when survival becomes a more pressing issue," she suggested.

"Would have never imagined that," I said thoughtfully, and Francesca gave me a playful swat.

"You going back to sleep?" she asked, and I nodded.

"Wake me up when Jayden is ready to head out. Then we'll switch," I said, and she quickly nodded as we got back into position to rest, and this time, when I woke up, I felt a little more rested than I did after my previous interrupted bit of sleep.

Francesca let out a yawn, and settled back down with her back against the tree trunk, just as we were when I was asleep, but I noted with interest that she quickly dozed off like that, with her hand clutching onto her spear which rested beside her.

It was so curious, and I studied it with interest when a voice called out to me:

"I'm ready to head out," Jayden said, shaking me from my reverie.

"Okay. There's one more thing," I said, and while he initially seemed a bit annoyed, his expression quickly shifted as I retrieved a dagger, and offered the blade to him.

"Is that a knife?"

"Dagger," I replied. "It might not look like much, but it can cut through almost anything," I explained, and he studied the thing, then took it from me, withdrawing it from its sheath and examining the blade slightly.

He began to move a finger toward the blade, and I quickly stopped him.

"It cuts through everything," I said again, and he swallowed uncomfortably, before taking sheathing the blade and stowing it away.

"Okay," he said.

"When you get there, you have a few hours to search. Three, tops. But just remember, I expect my armor back," I said, and he nodded slowly.

I watched as he headed off, and as I looked back at the group, I noted that most of them were sleeping uncomfortably all around our little camp area.

Samantha appeared to be awake, but she was watching over the other three girls, while one of the boys, I think his name was Lin, was keeping a lookout to the north side of the camp.

I moved to Francesca's side, and settled down there, keeping a lookout, until eventually, Samantha seemed to wake Sheila up, and after she indicated to me, the girl nodded, then sleepily made her way over.

"Hey," Sheila said.

"Hey. Do you know if Ethan came back while I was asleep?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"He didn't," she confirmed, and I frowned a little. "Do you think something happened, or do you think he just left us?"

I shook my head.

"Neither one of those things is good right now."

She shifted uncomfortably, before taking a seat beside me, on the other side from where Francesca was.

"What do we do if he doesn't come back?" Sheila asked.

"I'd wait until that became a reality before speculating," I said, and she sighed.

She shifted around for a bit, then turned to study my armor.

"You guys seem to be doing well, huh?" she asked, and I chuckled a little.

"Honestly? It kinda feels like if we're just barely scraping by."

"I think you might be selling yourself short. Although, how much does all of that armor cost?" she asked.

"This set? I have no idea. It's more of an inheritance than a purchase, really."

"And hers?"

I went over the pieces in my head, then nodded.

"A little under seventeen hundred," I said, and she let out a whistle.

"So, we'll need to make at least that much, plus whatever we need for heals and supplies, in addition to the amount needed for a ticket, huh? That's gotta be at least, what, eight thousand credits?"

I laughed, and the girl studied me.

"What? Am I underestimating what it takes?"

I shook my head.

"Your assessment is pretty well thought out, I'll give you that much. It's just, we're almost certain that the return ticket is a myth."

She eyed me.

"Based on what?"

"The company who sent us here offloaded one of their former employees on our group. She has a lot of inside info on what they're really about, but really... it only just affirmed what I'd begun to suspect."

Sheila studied me carefully.

"So, there is no leaving?" she asked, and I bit my lip nervously.

"If there is, then it lies outside the realm of our current understanding," I replied, and she nodded.

"But, return tickets... you have confirmation that they don't work?"

"Sort of. Anecdotal evidence, if that counts."

She studied me, so I continued:

"I haven't confirmed it myself, but... we met an otherworlder whose been around for a bit, and according to her; her friend bought a return ticket only to reappear here as a monster later on."

Her mouth fell open as she studied me.

"How did she know the monster was her friend?"

"They retain their memories, their personalities. But their humanity is... tainted. They crave our cores, and they hunt and kill us with an almost unnatural thirst," I explained, and she shuddered a little.

"Is that what Ethan is out there fighting?"

I nodded, and she shifted closer to me again.

"All of this is so crazy-"

She began, but I leapt to my feet, cutting her off midsentence just as one of the boys suddenly went flying into the air, and I nudged Francesca awake, just as he let loose a desperate scream, as something, though I couldn't quite tell what it was, pulled him up into the darkness of the canopy above.