Audas was more surprised than anything to discover that only five people had been killed in the battle, all of them bandits.
If only by the gargantuan operation in the aftermath that is, as the combined forces of the Hubbers and the caravaners soon sent the remaining bandits packing. Those too injured or dazed to run were swiftly rounded up and dragged to the carts, along with the rucksack sized jammer that was now slung over the shoulder of one of the patrollers. Nine captured bandits were held at gunpoint as the defenders searched for the scattered horses and helped the wounded.
Pickup trucks barrelled down the road to meet them and their passengers scrambled to the injured with medical bags. Others armed with assault and battle rifles fanned out to secure the area whilst other trucks, sporting machine guns on their back decks, raced by.
No doubt making sure that the remaining outlaws stayed well clear.
Before Audas knew it, he was surrounded and quietly pulled away as the medics got to work. He watched as bandages were pressed over cleaned wounds before the injured were lifted aboard the trucks with a practiced efficacy.
Indeed, the whole operation was moving so swiftly that Audas had no idea what to do to help, the sudden feeling emerged that he was superficial, merely in someone’s else’s way.
“Come on.” Dray said, passing him the unjammed rifle. “We better get the record straight with the caravan leader.”
“Record straight?” Audas questioned, giving the weapon a look over.
“Just working out what happened.” Dray explained, “Might as well do it whilst its still fresh.”
“Oh believe me!” Kaine chirped, “I’d like to know how these guys got up here!”
Audas flicked an ear and raised a brow, it made sense. He would have done the same thing with Jack and Liana back in Manchester. Work out what had happened, went right or wrong. A numb feeling spread around his gut. But he refused to slump or turn away. They were gone. There was nothing he could do to change that. He had to focus on the present.
Dray led them through the crowds towards one intact cart, where the prisoners stood under the watchful eye of several guards. One such bandit was held back by the point of a vicious looking cutlass. “Trust me.” The cutlass wielder said, “Getting yourself killed won’t do anyone any favours.”
That Nyúlfur was covered in thick gold and silver fur, whilst his head was topped with a short mess of a dark brown hair. Tugging at a grey jacket with one hand, he aimed the cutlass point towards his captive’s throat. “So how about you just get in line with the others and consider yourself lucky you weren’t doing this by the Fort.” He said as his grey eyes narrowed.
Glowering at him, the bandit wiped his muzzle, as if testing the waters. But if the swordsman felt any emotion from the bandit’s determination, he didn’t show it. With a huff, the bandit backed up into the line.
Audas didn’t miss the splatter of blood across the bandit’s face and arm.
“Putting the bad boys and girls in line, eh Reyes?” Kaine asked, tone cheery as he nearly skipped past Audas.
Reyes glanced towards them with a nasty squint. “If one of my people got killed Kaine, I’d punch you for that.”
With that, he pulled a small, relieved smile.
“W-Well… I’m glad!” Kaine replied, hands resting on his hips.
“Same here.” Dray said with relief, “We’ve got our medics helping out with your injured now.”
Reyes’ eyes narrowed again, flicking towards the bandits, “We’re lucky no one was firing .50 cal. And we got some nice clean shots of them coming out of cover too. That makes up for our people getting hit. These twits should be grateful we didn’t put any more of them in the ground.”
Even as the bandits looked on with quiet rage at his words under gunpoint, his grey eyes settled onto Audas. “Especially when you came out, must have got their blood running.”
Uncomfortable at the sudden attention in the wake of the harsh words towards the bandits, Audas could merely shrug. “Couldn’t just sit behind a rock all day.”
The Nyúlfur chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “Can’t disagree with that. You are?”
“Audas. Reyes?”
“Reyes.” The guard confirmed, “The Fort’s caravans keep getting attacked, so I figured I could help keep the bandits off us.” He huffed; teeth clenched. “Whole lotta good that did.”
Audas frowned, “The Fort?”
“You don’t know?” Reyes replied, surprise evident in his voice, “Fort Stark?”
Before he could even process this, Dray stepped in between them, “Audas is from Britain, I should have given him a better lay of the land sooner.”
Now it was Audas’ turn to huff, amusement in his voice. “It happens.”
“Well at least Cascadia isn’t as wet as blighty!” Kaine cackled. Audas smirked back, Ah… the rain. Always the rain.
“I’m sure Dray will give you a healthy lecture on it.” Reyes replied, glancing back at him with a straight face, “I guess you need a report?”
“For the record.” Dray confirmed.
With a nod, Reyes paced round to the back of one of the other, empty carts. Reaching inside, he pulled out a small pad of paper and a black pen and tossed it over to Dray.
He leaned back against the wooden side of the cart and began to recite the events of the last few days. Reyes had set off with a small caravan from the Fort, trekking south past the ruined town of Kamloops and down to Ironhold, the Hub’s closest neighbour.
“We rested up for a day in Ironhold, got prepped for the climb up today thinking it was your typical trip.” Reyes stated, a faint hiss escaping, “But a bandit group of that size up here with that damn jammer? Didn’t expect that.”
Audas glanced over at Dray, “This doesn’t happen often?”
Dray shook his head, “We get the occasional Feral pack wandering up, but almost never bandits. The patrols and mountains see to that.”
“Heck, then how did no one spot these folks?” Kaine asked, softly kicking the cart’s wheel.
Dray didn’t look, scribbling another note onto the paper. “We’ll have to look at every angle to try and work that out, if they got through, anyone with the right mindset can.”
Audas frowned, imagining the sheer scale of the valley. Even with plenty of patrols, there was a lot of ground to cover. Dray wasn’t wrong, it wouldn’t have been impossible to slip through. Getting into cities back home through underhanded methods was an indicator of that. He had heard of bandits shifting targets, especially as the military tightened its grip on key areas…
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Audas uncrossed his arms. “I don’t have the experience to say… but have the bandits been having a harder time with raids elsewhere? Or are there less caravans?”
Reyes shrugged and shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard. If anything, we’ve had less issues with Nyúlfur bandits and more issues with the apes.”
Apes.
Humans. Audas thought. Whilst it had become apparent to him that things were not so much black and white, the slur still made him subtly chafe. Every time he had heard it being used by a Nyúlfur; it was a curse against humanity. But he didn’t pick up any hate, or venom in Reye’s tone. Was he simply more casual about it?
Still, Audas kept those thoughts to himself.
“What, so the Nyúlfur are getting outcompeted by the humans in a shooting contest for once?” Kaine quipped, letting the humour seep back in.
“More like the bastards just got lucky.” Reyes replied, “I suppose this gang was either desperate or cocky enough to try raiding us this close to one of the Big Three.”
“Either way, no one’s hurt too badly.” Dray said, “We better help get this caravan moving again.”
“And get the wounded out of here.” Audas nodded in reply, the image of the shot up caravanners still fresh in his memory, “Those bandits might come back.”
“We’ll be ready for them this time.” Reyes scoffed, pushing himself away from the cart. “Come on, I’m not happy staying here either.”
They walked back towards the centre of the caravan, only for each member of the group to get called over by nearly half a dozen different voices. All of a sudden, his companions had scattered to the wind and Audas found himself alone again. Feeling suddenly out of place, he stiffly scanned his surroundings. But the assembled Nyúlfur were still moving efficiently from task to task. He didn’t have any idea what he could jump in and help with. Perhaps he could just stay on guard fo-
Something tapped heavily on his shoulder, nearly sending a shudder down his back. But when he turned, he found a white furred Nyúlfur stood behind him, shorter than everyone else. “Katori?” he blurted out in surprise.
Before he could step back or even ask her what was up, she lifted up a medical bag in one hand, motioned towards one of the carts where, sat down and propped up against its side was a cluster of the injured.
She must have noticed me sticking out like a sore thumb. Regardless, a request was still a request. It wasn’t like he had anything else on hand to do.
“Alright.” He replied, slipping the M14 over his shoulder. “Lead the way.”
A little smile flashed across Katori’s face as she jogged across the ground with Audas in tow. Other medics were already busying themselves with treating wounds, mainly amongst the caravanners, but also amongst a handful of bandits and Hubbers who had caught a bullet in the skirmish. With the more severely injured having already been rushed back up to the Hub, it was now the more mildly wounded that were getting checked over.
The white furred Nyúlfur took a knee next to one of the caravanners, his teeth gritted as he tried to stretch his leg, peppered with small bullet holes. Katori rested a hand on top of it, catching his attention with a tentative shake of her head. She leaned forward, carefully checked over each of the wounds, then pulled out a metal bottle and a set of tweezers from her bag, all the while motioning for Audas to get down next to them.
Confused, he obliged. Taking the tweezers in hand, she reached into a belt pouch, where some kind of brown, pale capsule appeared. She handed it over, clearly signalling towards her mouth, and then at the patient. Wait a second… she wants him to eat that?
The caravanner chucked it down his throat, visibly swallowing. But as he did, Katori made her move. Leaning forward and pushing the tweezers into the open bullet wounds. Audas winced as the caravaner half yelped, half hissed as the female Nyúlfur worked the tool in, a little sparkle flashing in her eye as she tugged the tweezers out with the crumpled bullet. She worked efficiently, checking for other bullets before finally taking out another container, and motioned for Audas to hold the leg down.
The Nyúlfur hissed again, leg shivering as the antiseptic burned its way into flesh. As Audas pushed the leg back down, Katori wrapped up the wounds in light bandages, before with a gentle smile, flashed a thumbs up.
I’ll take that as good news.
Time flew by at a rapid pace as Audas followed the little medic round, helping her work medical wonders before loading the patients into departing pickups or carts. He would watch as she removed other bullet fragments from the injured, cleansed and sealed up wounds to prevent infection and inspect other, less obvious injuries. Sometimes she would leap up to her feet, quietly tap on someone’s shoulder, and before Audas knew it, another casualty was carried or guided away.
And yet, through all this. Katori had never been stern, or lost even an ounce of patience. As some of the Nyúlfur snapped back, or cursed through clenched teeth, she would respond with a simple, concerned look. Or she would rest her hand on their shoulder and give a gentle squeeze. There was always something she could do to calm their frayed nerves. All without uttering a single word.
How… does she even do that?
Katori tapped on his shoulder again with a smile, bowing her head at him in thanks. “I’m… I’m glad I could help you out.” He managed to say, unable to ignore a fuzzy warmth in his chest.
Her smile grew wider. But then her eyes drifted away, locked onto something else and soon enough, she was sprinting away towards another Nyúlfur who was clutching her arm. How does she do all this?
Then the engines began to rumble over his shoulder. One hand resting on the gun strap, he turned, ready to snap the rifle at the new arrival.
Instead, when the two new pickups came rolling up the trail, he let his arm fall free as Alika Kingsley leaned out of the passenger window of one of them. “Been busy?” she asked with a worried look, fidgeting in her seat as the truck slowed to a halt.
“You could say that.” Audas replied, letting a little warmth slip through as he raised a brow. The situation had improved enough he felt like it was worthwhile to try a small joke, “You’re late.”
The worry quickly faded away, displaced by a relieved smile. “I suppose you’re right.” Alika admitted. The smile faded as she started to look over the scene, “Got moving as soon as we heard. How’s everyone holding up?”
Audas glanced across the emptying path, all that remained was the handful of Hubber responders and caravanner guards slowly pulling themselves back into the trucks, or forming up to begin the short hike back up to the town. “Could have been a lot worse…”
“Just lucky then?”
“Very lucky.”
He turned back round to her, letting his mind reprocess the battle, or at least what bits he caught. The last time he had walked into a gunfight, or tangled with some wolven creatures… everyone around him died.
Audas’ chest clenched tight, and he had to resist the urge to hiss a breath in. “Do things always go this well for you?” he asked, feeling a flicker of hesitation slip through despite his best efforts. “You know, without many casualties?”
Alika’s eyes seemed to dull, gazing away from him for what almost felt like an eternity. And when they fluttered back, there was almost an emptiness to them that he had never imagined.
“Not often.” She softly whispered, “Not damn often enough.”
Mentally, he could sense himself slump. He had almost forgotten how horribly twisted and torn the world had become in the last few years. His mind had been too focused on the Nyúlfur or just the Retrovirus itself. And with the Nyúlfur showing themselves to be more like people with every passing moment, every little uttered word or wave of a hand only served to remind him of that.
Even I have to admit that now. He noted, The Outbreak… it’s affected everyone. Some more than others but… the scars are always there.
He couldn’t help but feel whatever pain was emanating from Alika.
It didn’t last for long though, as the Nyúlfur woman perked up, a little sparkle in her eye as she leaned back into the chair. “Glad to see you’re all okay.”
“Why Miss Kingsley!” Kaine exclaimed, stepping past Audas with a big goofy grin on his face. “I’m honoured!”
“And I immediately change my mind.” She replied immediately with a roll of her eyes.
I don’t blame her for that! Audas chuckled mentally to himself.
“At least we don’t have anyone trying to kill each other on our side anymore.” Dray said, stepping by Audas. Even in the corner of his eye, he still caught the flicker of a hand between himself and the grey furred joker.
“More good news then.” Alika laughed.
Katori herself finally emerged at the very edge of his vision, and a twitch of his eyes confirmed the two sisters sharing a small, simple smile. “Anyway.” Alika declared, patting the side of the pickup, “Hop aboard, unless you want to walk.”
As Audas smirked and started to climb onto the back deck, a thought emerged. A month ago, he would have never even considered the possibility of the Nyúlfur being nothing more than monsters, on par or even worse than the Ferals that had slaughtered their way across continents. Raiding isolated settlements, killing the defenceless humans, the bombings…
And that night…
But yet, in that month, he had gradually realised how horribly wrong humanity was about the Nyúlfur as a whole. What they really were. He could have left, and yet… he stuck around regardless.
The Nyúlfur weren’t monsters. They were people. People just like any other human being, as he was.
There was no denying the fact there were Nyúlfur who strove to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible. But many were also capable of caring, friendship, family, heroism…
Love maybe?
Regardless, what mattered was the fact they were people.
And for the first time, Audas was proud to be one of them.
Who is your favourite character?
