I slid my knives, one by one, back into their holsters. All six strapped in different places on my legs, sides and arms. I pulled the last one out of the back of the slashed and bleeding body lying face down in the mud as I made my way back toward the compound. I am not sure how they discovered our location but it was time to move. This may have just been the first wave, the spies, more could be enroute and I was not prepared for another fight quite yet.
Dover rounded the side of the building and met me at the door. He had blood on his hands and strewn across his face, but from all accounts he looked unharmed, so unlikely it belonged to him. He is our best fighter one on one, there has yet to be someone who could leave marks on him.
“How did they find us?” he asked while grabbing the door to lead us inside.
“I am not sure, maybe someone was followed heading back from town yesterday” I ventured, concern plaguing my mind. We were usually so careful. Had someone become lazy, left tracks, rushed. Could it have been on purpose? I thought I could trust everyone here, but was I mistaken, naive even? “However it happened, it is time to go, we can brainstorm later about the whys. Let’s bandage the wounded, gather needed supplies, and head out”. I followed Dover to the command room where it seemed most of the group had gathered. There was a concentrated mix of confusion and anger in the room, any moment I was going to get an earful about our discovery and subsequent attack.
“So who’s fault is it?” He yelled “It has to be someone, they didn’t just stumble upon us, that attack was at least halfway planned.” Rick stomped over, rage written on his face. He had the desperate need to blame someone and I apparently looked like the right someone. “Well Alec, say something, we have people bleeding, and now we have to move injured, someone needs to be held accountable for either being too lazy to protect their trail or a downright traitor” His tone was not becoming any quieter as he bellowed his words inches from my face. Dover took a big step forward, creating a person-shaped wall, with his shoulder wedging its way between Rick and myself, “I suggest you take a few steps back and lower your voice a few octaves, before I make you lose it”. Dover did not like threats, verbal or otherwise, made to those he felt fiercely for. The options flashed across Rick’s eyes as he now stared at Dover. He clearly thought better than attempting a fight he was sure to lose and took a couple steps back and a deep inhale in. “I am sorry, I am just pissed. Lily got hurt and she isn’t the only one”.
“I understand your feelings” I say with a step forward so I can better see everyone “as I feel them too, I am sure everyone in the room does, but I have barely had a moment to catch my breath, let alone decipher how this occurred.” “You’re right though, we do need to get moving.” I stated, as I started around the room to survey the wounded. It appeared that besides myself, Lily and Andrew were the only ones injured. “We need to get the few of us injured bandaged up, then we need to gather the necessary supplies and head out, preferably as soon as possible”. I finished my lap around the room and realized Layla isn’t present. “Where is Layla?” I ask. I feel a slight surge of panic begin to well up but I ignore it.
Piper calls from across the room “She came in here with Lily and Andrew to let us know what had occurred but as soon as Andrew started recounting the incident she headed out and made a left, I am not sure where she was headed though”. I nodded, turned and headed out the door in the direction she was last seen going. I check each door as I make my way down the long curving hallway. The compound was a round shaped concrete building. The outer walls as you walked down the hall led to the outside but no windows were anywhere along it, as the place was built for protection more than comfort. The inner walls of the hall had doors that led to a command room, a kitchen, a day room and two large bunk rooms. As I made my way from the command room I inspected the day room, the kitchen and the first bunk room. I found Layla in the second bunk room in a chair beside an old heavy oak desk. She had medical supplies scattered across the entire top of it and she was shirtless, mending a wound on the right side of her ribs. “Layla” the word felt heavy as it left my lips, full of concern and the ever present desire. She peered up, dark green eyes meeting mine “I am glad to see you’re ok”. Her eyes traveled down my body and back up, most likely looking for wounds “pull up a chair and show me where they got you”. She pointed to a chair at another desk and then to a spot next to her. I made my way to the chair “How do you know they got me at all?” I asked. “Well,” She started with a point towards my arm “I can see the blood dripping down your arm and off your finger tips, and also,” She smirked “someone always gets you a little, never a lot, but always a little, that I can count on”. I placed the chair next to her and sat down, purposefully bumping my leg into hers “oh, always a little huh, maybe I like to bleed just a little, maybe it’s on purpose!”.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed my left arm and pulled it towards her. My heart always jumped a little at her touch. “So tell me about your day” she smiled as she met my eyes then began inspecting the laceration on my inner bicep. “Oh ya know, normal, boring, not full of attacks and knife fights” I laughed a little. She always knew how to relieve some of the tension from the moment. “Honestly though Lay, I don’t know, I am not sure exactly what happened”. I looked down into my lap, there was that defeated feeling I had been ignoring. She squeezed my forearm with her left hand and looked at me “Just recount what happened on your end and I will tell you mine and maybe we can make some sense of it”.
“Ok, well, Dover and I were heading out for the evening’s 360 to make sure everything was secure and nothing seemed out of place. We had made our way almost around the final side of the building when we heard something in the treeline behind us. Dover saw the knife heading towards us and dove into my legs taking us both down to avoid being hit by it.” “He rushed towards the treeline and I ran towards the front door to alert the others.”
Layla cut into my retelling “Oh ok, I wondered who hit the alarm because Lily and I were in the hallway and when we rounded the corner, the door was shut and we saw nothing disturbing”.
“There was no time to wait to inform anyone because no sooner had I pressed the siren button and turned to look back outside when I saw two of them running towards me. I slammed the door as best I could, pulled my two side knives and met them about halfway between the treeline and the compound.”
My thought was interrupted by a stinging pain. I winced. Layla was applying an ointment to my laceration that did not feel altogether lovely.
“Don’t be a baby” She smiled “Go on“. I continued, “So I slid in between them and caught one of them with my knife on the back tendons of his ankle. He collapsed and I managed to slit his throat before the other one was on me. I narrowly jumped back just missing the karambit he was wielding. He was so fast, I somehow dodged most of his advances but he still managed to get the inside of my bicep with one of his knives. He swept my legs when I flitched and when I went down, he took off running. I scrambled to a kneeling position, grabbed a throwing blade from my leg holster and let it fly. I managed to get him in the back, deep enough to lay him out.” “The fight felt like seconds but it must have been longer because by the time Dover and I headed inside, everyone was already in here angry and nursing Lily’s wounds.” “What happened, did they make it inside? How many were there?”
“I’m not sure, if you had two and we dealt with one then it’s that plus however many Dover handled.” Layla stated as she started to add a bandage to my arm.
“Where did the other one come from? Did he get inside? I thought I got the door latched, I didn’t see anyone else.”
“You did get the door latched but one must have been sneaking around the other side of the building because as we got to the front door it was starting to open and to our surprise it was not you or anyone from the compound but a stranger with a knife, the type with the curved blade, is that what you said the other guy was wielding?” she asked.
“Yeah, they are called karambit knives. Interesting that it is the weapon of choice for all of them.” I answered as I started to zone out into the wonderings of what groups carry that specific type of knife but a tight pull on the bandages Layla was wrapping my arm with brought me back to the present.
Layla continued “ Yes, that’s what he was wielding. He was a massive guy. 6’2, 220 lbs easy. We ran into the kitchen, it seemed the best place to get him away from others so no one else would be involved. Lily grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter and I had pulled out the blade you gave me for my birthday, very handy by the way” She stated with a smile. “Anyway, it was rough. We both went at him, Lily went high and I aimed low. I managed to get a clean cut in on his side without getting cut or grabbed but he shoved Lily across the room, she hit her head pretty hard.”
“He grabbed his side and wheeled around to face me. He started to charge me and I tried to jab him with the knife but he grabbed my arm. He was fast for a big guy, his free hand grabbed my throat and pressed me up against the cabinets.”
She took a breath “there all done” she stated as she laid my arm back in my own lap. She however did not let go, she just left her hands softly laying on my forearm.
My body tensed and burned with anger. My blood boiled thinking of her fighting on her own and this guy having her dead to rights.
She looked at me, reading my anger, and continued on, “I thought he had me. He squeezed and lifted up but as my feet started to leave the floor he dropped me and grabbed his left side. Lily had managed to throw the kitchen knife she still had and it got him in his side. Once he let me go and I caught my breath I aimed for his neck. He was still slightly bent down holding his side but like I said, fast. He managed to catch my arm and cut me in my ribs with his knife hand.”
She mimed the motion as she recounted it, showing me how he managed to sweep the knife across her now banaged side.
“Luckily Andrew came in, wrist crossbow on, and got a clean shot off into the guys jugular. The guy grabbed his neck and stumbled a little but stayed upright. Blood was streaming through his fingers. He charged Andrew and managed to cut him a few times with his knife. Luckily Andrew is pretty handy in hand to hand combat. He landed a solid kick into the guy’s knee, which made the guy go down and then Andrew threw an uppercut which dislodged the guy’s hand from his neck and he fell over. He must have been low on blood by then because he passed out and then bled out.” “We left his body in the kitchen when we went to let everyone else know what had occurred, it is still there. We will need to deal with that I imagine.” She stated, as she shrugged a little and started to clean up the medical supplies.
I let out a breath, I realized I had been clenching my teeth and fists, I let them relax. I grabbed her hands and turned them towards me. “I am glad you’re ok but I am pissed you had to fight at all.”
We sat in silence for a moment. I stared at my hands holding hers, thoughts washing over me, I could feel her eyes on me, her hands warm in mine. She was the first to break the still in the room “I am confused by their motives. It was too many to simply spy for information but too few for a full on assault.” she stated, questioning in her tone.
“I think the goal was an ambush, “ I said “I don’t think they were looking to fight us awake or maybe not all at once. Dover spotting them I think made them rush their plans. I imagine they were either going to try to take us out one at a time or wait until nightfall and we seemed asleep. Though I am not sure how they planned to get into the compound since we lock it down.”
“Maybe they weren’t looking to kill us at all originally? Maybe they were looking for something?” Layla pondered.
“Or someone” I looked at her and felt fire. Maybe she was that someone. Maybe they know what she is capable of.
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