Chapter 41: Storm
Mr Thomas slowed the wagon to a standstill. Although he carried out his own conversation with his wife, the sudden movement and accompanying words in the tray did not escape him. He placed a finger to his lips indicating Mrs Thomas to remain silent.
"The scent is faint but not too far from here, Chu I want to take point."
Lucy jumped off the wagon on receiving a nod of confirmation from Chu. She slowly began advancing along the dirt road at the front. Mr Thomas gave her a leeway of about a hundred feet before clicking the horses forward at a walk.
The man's years of life experiences knocked on his heart, giving him an uncomfortable feeling about this sudden situation. His sword lay alongside him unsheathed and at the ready.
Chu, on the other hand, stooped down in the wagon tray, his hands holding onto an armed crossbow. He swiveled his head ever so often scanning his surroundings. The plains might be devoid of trees, but it did not mean an impossibility in staging a well-planned ambush.
On the contrary, such an event could be easily executed. The many small mounds and clumps of shrubs provided excellent opportunity to carry out such acts. Otherwise, why would the Mong bandits eventually grow so large and acquire such a reputation in the surrounding region?
At the moment Chu constantly berated himself. He turned ever so often to see Lucy in the distance. She moved cautiously in her well-practiced crouched manner, which allowed her to explode in near instantaneous reaction should the need arise. What had him cursing himself, was the fact she did not wear her armor. This was his fault as the leader.
As someone who operated cautiously in this world, he chalked down this present situation as unacceptable. First of all, at home, they operated a defense plan making them near impervious to surprise attacks. Whether from beast or man alike they could hold their own against most enemies.
The problem lay when the group separated. The present circumstance becoming a prime example. They had grown so accustomed to facing danger, that they were now gallivanting around the place without a care. He found himself susceptible to the same dangers the other villagers faced when traveling on the wagon.
Lucy paused in front before returning to the wagon and its tense riders.
"Elder, I am certain that the scent surely comes from the Hoyle Farm."
Mr Thomas frowned as his worst fears became reality. Mrs Thomas gasped as she immediately covered her mouth.
Chu jumped down from the wagon armed with the crossbow. Lucy always carried her twin daggers. All other outfits and armaments were resting at home in the weapons chest.
"The entrance road to the farm is further ahead. I didn't find any strange smell around there."
Lucy added.
Mr Thomas remained silent before finally placing his orders. As the man with all the experience, the tactical and planning jobs fell on his capable shoulders.
"Chu, you and Lucy scout out the farm and its surroundings. See what we have to face. I will turn the wagon around at the junction and wait there. Any trouble and we can all high-tail it from here. Go!"
The two children made their way towards the junction before heading into the fields. Mr Thomas turned and positioned the wagon so he could either make a break towards the farm or escape to the village. He held his sword as he gave the reigns to his wife.
"Will they be okay? Thomas, they're just kids."
Mrs Thomas was not an ignorant or hysterical woman. She did, however, spend most of her life in Frost City. She certainly knew of the dangers involved every time the group ventured into the forest. Her problem at the moment lay with the current and most likely adversary.
Fighting beast and battling humans each required a different mindset. Someone who can kill a bird, could not necessarily kill a person.
"You think I don't know that? But the boy has made it abundantly clear, we cannot cuddle them. Beast or men, they have to face both to survive out here."
The couple sat together in quiet contemplation.
Chu and Lucy had already made their way stealthily across the harvested fields. They soon began surveillance around the distant farmhouse. Under Lucy's guidance, they circled around the farm closing in after she observed no movement.
For Chu, this activity bumped up his adrenaline rush sky high. Lucy might be good at detection but Chu considered himself way ahead of this world when it came to storming a house. With countless action movies and cop filled dramas under his belt, his discernment reached a level even beyond Mr Thomas.
Having knowledge was one thing, but putting it into practice was an entirely different thing.
At the front of the house on the dirt road, they found a man lying on the roadway. Chu
motioned to Lucy to keep an eye on the house as he crawled up and crouched beside the man.
The man was dead, an arrow pierced his neck while another penetrated his thigh, both wounds located on the rear of the body.
Chu directed Lucy as he held the crossbow at the ready like a swat team member raiding a home. His hands trembled at first with excitement but it gradually wore off making way to his accustomed steady ones from countless sorties in the forest.
"Chu, nobody is here, but I am getting a strong smell from the back."
One of the reasons Chu remained calm had to do with Lucy's ability. It helped to have a teammate that could tell if a room was empty or not. He still proceeded with caution as they sneaked around. Lucy might be able to detect someone by a lingering smell, but this ability had countless flaws.
They left the ransacked house and made their way to the courtyard at the back. Here Chu witnessed the true cruelty of the mankind this world. On the ground lay dead bodies whose stomachs had been sliced open. He was sure they had once been men because the heads were staring back at him from the low stone wall they now rested upon.
Decapitated!
Over the strewn bodies, suspended on a tree branch was Farmer Hoyle. He was hanging by a rope tied in a noose below his shoulders. Chu identified the man only from the familiar rags of the clothes he usually wore.
The man's face was beaten to the brink of being unrecognizable. His mouth seemed to be missing a few teeth. Farmer Hoyle's body seemed to have borne witness to heavy whipping, reducing his clothes to rags. Some sharp object left numerous lacerations across his body, leaving a pool of blood on the ground under him. Furthermore, the man's hands and feet looked broken to even the inexperienced Chu.
The only thing that kept the bile down in Chu's throat happened when the farmer made a small cough and sputtered some blood from his swollen mouth.
"By Heavens he is alive, Lucy cut him down now!"
Chu forgot the unsettling feeling as he rushed to help Lucy release the man from his torture. Lucy scampered up the tree like a squirrel and cut the rope while holding the end. She then lowered it gently until Chu held the man and supported him to lay on the ground.
Seeing a person he once knew reduced to this state agitated Chu.
"Keep still Mr Hoyle, hold on until we get help. Lucy, get Thomas but don't take any chances. Run away if you encounter trouble."
Chu placed the man on his side to prevent him from choking on a mixture of blood and saliva. The sight in front of him made him think he fell in the middle of one of those gruesome accidents on the news. As a man now familiar with blood and killing, this scene still disturbed him and shook his very soul.
His emotion stemmed from the fact that the cause there was no accident. This incident reeked of some stony-hearted killers.
Chu could easily convince himself while hunting and reaping the lives of beasts in this world. The first reason was clear cut, kill or be killed. The second entailed his very survival and the return to a primitive time which meant hunting for food. Wild animals could only be wild animals. He hunted at the moment for food and survival, certainly not for sport and pleasure.
'Beast could not be reasoned with, nor bargained or pleaded to keep a life. But people, people should never have to die like this at the hands of other people!'
'If you want to kill someone them do it, why make them suffer like this. Creating a picture like this portrays humans who have long reverted back into a beast mentality.'
Mr Thomas rushed in holding the first aid kit from the wagon. Lucy had wisely kept Mrs Thomas from running in to witness this gory sight. She probably kept Mrs Thomas company outside, pacing around near the open fields.
"By the heavens, was it bandits?"
The old man asked as he knelt down beside the heavily injured man.
Chu grabbed the potion and emptied the contents into the farmer's, then he began scattering the powder over the more ugly looking wounds.
Farmer Hoyle regained a little consciousness at this time. On recognizing Mr Thomas through his glassy looking eyes he grabbed at the man's cloak wildly. Thomas held his hand to calm the man down. Farmer Hoyle seemed to build up all the strength and willpower he could muster.
"S...save them, revenge. He...help my granddaughter. Last night...bandits! Reven..."
Those words sucked away the remaining life-force from the farmer.
With eyes opened in regret and an unwillingness to die, the old man passed on to unknown. All the medicine available to Chu at the moment could never save him. The trauma from the severe injuries had taken its toll.
Mr Thomas and Chu did not get even a moment to grieve or pay their condolences.
"Chu! Come here, hurry!"
Mr Thomas pulled his sheathed sword and ran out, while Chu grabbed the crossbow and followed behind. Exiting the courtyard they glimpsed Lucy and Mrs Thomas in an agitated mood, pacing at the edge of one of the fields at the rear of the building, furthest from the road.
Both males hurried out to meet them, only switching to a sprint when they saw Mrs Thomas swoon and drop like a stone. Luckily Lucy was the one close by, her quick reflexes prevented the woman from reaching the ground and injuring herself.
When Chu arrived, he found himself witnessing another drama. Two men were on the ground, both dead from their obvious fight against each other. Chu recognized one of them as Mr Hoyle's son-in-law, as for the other he did not recall ever seeing him.
The men were not as badly mutilated as the ones in the courtyard.
However, Chu saw something that brought the bile gushing up his throat.
His convulsing body did not give him the time to further investigate.
He turned and stumbled to the side spewing vomit while emptying his stomach. Amidst the retching and watery eyes he saw Thomas hold his fainted wife, the old man's face grim.
On the ground near the son-in-law was a heap of straw.
Protruding out from the crude bundle was a hand.
The hand of a very little child.
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