Chapter 3 Part I

Chapter 3
A mission of Trust

As the sun peeked over the desolate and arid hills in the distance, I could already hear Gigs tearing cloth and mixing paste for his wounds. The boy was quiet and steadfast in his task. We had much ground to cover and time was short. Our meat was salted and curing and some cooked and ready to eat. We weren’t gonna starve anytime soon but we might dry up and dehydrate. The weather was turning too. The wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping. A front was sure to come and we were running from it. The farther south we were when it crossed, the better off we would be.

After half a day travel we started to see a grounded cloud in the distance. Travelers of some sort and they weren’t moving fast. We were gaining ground and would soon be on them. We took a break so we could catch up to them in the setting sun and hopefully have an advantage if we needed to react defensively. As we sat and ate a bit, Gigs started opening up a little more as he sharpened and rewrapped Betty, the spear that had saved us before.

“You know, I watched my sister die. I saw my mother lifeless. I swore to Ryan I would find peace in their bloodshed. I live for their demise. I carry them in my chest, my heart, my soul.” He paused and stared into an empty space. He stared and pondered. He continued sternly and emotionlessly, “ I was woken up, barely a teen, and held against a wall as they drove stakes through my shoulders and into the wall behind me. I could hear her scream. I could hear them all scream. I heard Ryan outside yelling and fighting. I tried to close my eyes but they peeled em open. They looked rabid and crazed. Their eyes held only joy and savagery. They made scoundels look normal. They were Ramone’s ‘New Era Republic Army’. They had nothing but hatred in them. Controlled only by the fear of Ramone himself.”

“You have seen them?” I asked

“I lived in their wake.” He continued. “ Watched as they raped and beat my mother. They savagely took every bit of her til she lay lifeless and emotionless. They would put a blade into her everytime she screamed until she had no blood left to bleed. They raped her in a puddle of her own blood and licked the puddle like it was iccream off o cone. I struggled. I pulled and tore at my chest trying to get the stakes out. I felt nothing but rage and yet could not move. I was suspended and horrified. I could do nothing but watch and let her die. She mouthed the words ‘I love you’ to me and my sister as she went lifeless. Her eyes still open and body still moving to the motion of her rapist on top of her.”

“We will get them. You will meet them again,” I reassured him.

“Unlikely,” he responded, “They’re all a mist in the wind and food to the wild now. But I will find the man who gave the orders. I will find him and I will drain him of his life, just as he has me of mine. I will bathe in his fear and gambol in his blood. I will not stop til i have met his end and this damn mission has delayed the inevitable.”

I saw determination, pain, and fire in his eyes. He may have shown no emotion but i swear his eyes had a life of their own. A literal glow almost. I had never seen such passion or pain in anything before. He was on a path to destruction or triumph. I could only try to harness his rage and use it for the task at hand.