Hopeless Liberation chapter 16
Chapter 16
Peter
Screams rang out through the night.
At first, I closed my eyes, thinking I was only having another nightmare. But I slowly began to realize that everything around me was much too detailed to be apart of a dream. I could feel the warmth of my breath as it left my mouth and passed between my lips, which felt like two bars of ice. Also, my stomach ached as it rumbled, begging for me to feed it soon.
I opened my eyes and sat up. I was still in my cell and, after looking around, saw that there was no sign of any nightmarish-monster, or Jewel for that matter.
From somewhere outside, more bloody screams rang out and I could just make out a voice, which sounded terrified.
Soon, the screams grew silent and my heartbeat began to pound in my head as I wondered what the hell was going on.
A loud crash thundered at the end of the hall, making my head ring with pain. Then, a set hurried pawsteps became noticeable, moving closer to me with every step.
My nose sniffed the air and disbelief sank into me, making me once again wonder if I actually was dreaming or not. "Dante?"
Someone stopped in front of my cell, giving me a good look at whoever it was. I tilted my head back, gazing up at a pair of brown and blue eyes that brought me to tears.
"I'm here, Peter," Dante said.
"Dante," I choked, wiping away my tears so that I could see my friend clearly, noticing how his clothes were full of holes and realizing that he had only brought his gun. "You're... You're clothes. They're all torn. But you're not bleeding. And what happened to your sword and satchel?"
"I'll explain later," Dante said, after glancing down at the dozens of holes in his tunic and trousers. "Step back from the bars,"
Without question, I walked backwards and pressed myself against the far side of my cell.
Dante moved away from my cell bars and stood against the wall. He then raised his right arm and did some weird thing where he twirled his fingers around. But, when he pulled his arm back, the barred door of my cell ripped off the wall and fell down into the hallway, lying still on the ground.
I walked forward and stood in the hall, standing amidst the dust that was created when the door smashed against the stone ground. It was almost too good to be true. I was free.
"Come on," Dante said, breathing heavily now. "Let's leave,"
"You won't be going anywhere," a voice echoed from across the other end of the hall, followed quickly by the sound of sword being drawn.
Dante and I turned to see Jewel standing in the open doorway with a sword in her hand, dressed in a loose tunic and trousers.
"Dante," I screamed, "kill this crazy asshole!"
Without question, Dante raised his left hand and moved his fingers in way that made it seem like he was carefully grabbing onto a rope. Then, he jerked his hand to the left, sending half of Jewel's body to the side and flinging blood, brains, bones and intestines on the bars of the cell at the left end of the hall. The other half of Jewel's body, her right half, fell over, and slid down the stone wall with an eye that was wide with disbelief.
"Come on," Dante panted for breath. "We need to go,"
I followed closely behind Dante and left the cell room, hopping over Jewel's dead body with glee as I went through the open doorway.
When we finally reached the outside, we were greeted with rain, which poured down so hard that I couldn't even hear my own pawsteps. Thunder also screamed above us in the black clouds, granting me an occasional glimpse of the fort bathed in white light.
We rushed through the courtyard, heading towards the front gate, which had been torn down and lay in the mud among broken pieces of stone. All around the broken gate, as well as the rest of the courtyard, there lay bodies. Some were missing arms or legs, while others were covered in their own bloody intestines. But, regardless of their wounds, all of them bled together in the mud, their armor stained with red and brown.
"Dante," I yelled at the wolf, stopping to stare in horror at the dismembered bodies. "How did you kill all these guys?"
The wolf stopped running and turned to face me, still trying to catch his breath. "I have-"
Suddenly, Date screamed in pain and collapsed, landing on his arms and knees. I was about to ask him what was wrong, but my eyes glanced down at his back, which now had four arrows buried inside of it, leaking streams of blood down Dante's ripped cloak and tunic. No!
_ _ I looked up, expecting to see some knights on the top of the walls. What I saw instead almost made me scream.
Twelve men stepped through the open gateway; four of them carried crossbows and the rest held swords that were stained with raindrops. All wore yellow armbands.
As my body trembled, I kneeled down next to Dante, who was still gasping for breath. I placed my hand on his left shoulder, squeezing him tightly. "Get up, Dante! The Talth are here!"
Dante picked up a leg and tried to stand, only to have it slide out from under him in the mud, causing the wolf to fall back down as he cried out in pain.
Boots splashed water against both of my sides and rough hands pulled me up by my wrists.
"Let go of me!" I screamed as I began twisting every way and trying to escape.
But, during my struggle to try and get free, I noticed someone walk up from behind the Talth, a lion who wore a red armband with a white hydra. Is that Derek, the guy in charge of the Talth in the South?
_ _ "We came to steal a prince," the lion said, looking down at Dante as he stood at the bleeding wolf's right side. "But it looks like we found the wolf that killed Osric, too,"
Before he could explain how he knew who we were, Derek bent over and pulled Dante's gun out from its holster. He then held it at his side and kept on talking. "Dante. That's what the posters and Talth in the North said your name was. Apparently, Osric figured that out when he removed a few pieces from that merchant friend of yours in Ansil. I know you killed him, Dante. We found your ear at his hideout,"
Slowly, Derek reached into his pocket and pulled out a grey wolf ear.
"Not many wolves walk around with only their right ears," Derek said. "Even fewer have guns,"
The lion then slid Dante's ear back into his pocket.
"Dante!" I yelled. "Kill them before they kill us!"
Dante, still trying to catch his breath, lifted his right hand, only to have his wrist burst open and splatter blood into the mud after Derek shot it with his gun.
"I think you have the wrong idea," Derek said to me as he strutted around Dante, who began to scream. "There's a nice reward for you to be brought back to Lowpive. You friend here, though, isn't worth anything to anyone but us,"
"That's not true!" I said, as Derek stepped next to Dante's left side. "He's Caiden Seril, a prince just like me! If you bring him home, I'm sure Queen Seril will pay you plenty of gold,"
Derek lifted his head to laugh at the sky, which caused his mane to become further drenched with rain. "You here that, boys? We got two princes instead of one,"
All the other Talth laughed, like we were all friends joking over a round of ale.
Derek lowered Dante's gun again, shooting Dante's left wrist and staining the mud beneath him with even more blood.
Dante let out another howl of agony and began to sob, his head hanging low.
"Stop hurting him!" I begged, my eyes beginning to sting with tears. "You can have me! I'll go willingly! Just don't kill him,"
Derek shook his head and walked in front of Dante, standing at an angle so that he faced me as he pointed the gun at my friend's head. "I can't do that, Peter. You're friend killed my friend, remember? And I'd like to pay him back,"
"Peter," Dante managed to whisper, raising his head just high enough for me to see that his red eyes were full of pain.
I'm sure we'll be fine. After all, the good guys make it to the end of every story, right?
_ _ "Look away," my bleeding friend managed to gasp, blood dripping down his arms and into the puddles of rain around him.
Not always. Sometimes, a good person has to die for the rest of the world to be saved.
_ _ Derek pulled the trigger, the gunshot echoing alongside the sound of thunder, and Dante collapsed. Pieces of meat and chunks of bone then began to leak out of his open skull on streams of blood.
With my emotions running high, I leaned over to the hand that held my left wrist, sank my teeth into it and soon felt hot blood wash over my lips.
The Talth screamed and released me, just as I noticed a knife sheathed at his side.
With my now free hand, I grabbed the knife and drew it from its scabbard, only to drive it into the Talth's side, twisting it around inside his belly as red began to pour out.
I pulled the knife out of the Talth before he fell, not even caring to know what species he was. Then, I turned right, just in time to see the other Talth who had been holding me bend over, probably so he could have taken the knife out of my hand.
Before the Talth could wrestle the knife from me, I raised it and plunged the tip of the blade into his throat, wriggling it around and sawing off bits of his flesh as hot blood splashed down onto my face.
"I'll kill all of you fucking bastards!" I screamed, pulling the knife out of the Talth, who I realized was a fox as he gurgled on his own blood and fell over to lie still in the mud.
Before I could attack another Talth, countless hands seized my arms and twisted them. I screamed, trying to wriggle free so that I could have stabbed all of them for killing my only friend. Sadly, the pain became too unbearable and the knife fell from my fingers as tears poured down my cheeks, mixing with both the blood and rain on my face.
"Cole, carry him," I heard Derek order, my tears preventing me from actually seeing him.
Before I could protest, I was thrown over the shoulder of someone whose species I couldn't smell, since my nose was filled with snot as I began to cry.
We began to move.
I raised a limp arm and wiped away the tears from my eyes, noticing that we were passing through the open gate. Just a few steps back, I could see Dante's body lying in a sea of red.
Slowly, I reached out my arm, hoping that Dante would stand up and come save me.
He didn't.
"Dante," I cried, new tears washing over my eyes.
Soon, the fort was out of sight and became lost among the trees, which shook their leaves under the heavy downpour of rain. And, for the second time in the past couple of days, I was someone's prisoner. But, unlike a few days ago, I had no friends to come rescue me and was entirely alone.
*To be continued in the final installment of the Perilous Jaunt trilogy *