Chapter 7 - Defense

  "Run!" I screamed.

  We both ran for it, hoping that we could reach the house, slam the door in their faces.

  Faces?

  Each of them had more than one. Reece was ahead of me, and he was almost there. So close.

  One of the creatures slammed into him from the side, knocking him flying.

  I didn't hesitate. Training kicked in - the countless hours Dad had spent drilling reactions into me. My hand found the axe handle even as I assessed the situation. Two creatures, multi-headed, wolf-like. Reece down but conscious. Priority: immediate threat neutralization.

  I pulled the axe from my holster, and as I approached with all my might, swung at the side of one of its heads.

  A sickening crunch and blood spurted everywhere, but the second head was gnashing at Reece, so I swung at that one too and missed.

  They looked wolf like, and somehow, he managed to keep it off him while the second wolf tackled me, and I was soon fighting with it and both its heads as best I could. Trying with all my might to hold it off.

  There was no way I could swing anything now. Its full weight had me pinned down, sharp gnashing teeth held back by nothing but my thick winter coat.

  **The creature's hot breath fogged in the cold air as I struggled. Its jaws snapped inches from my face, strings of saliva dripping onto my cheek. I'd seen what those teeth could do to flesh. If they breached my coat, I was finished.**

  The silver shimmer of something in my vision as I closed my eyes, about to meet my maker, then I heard the squelch, a growl, pop, another squelch. The creature fought me a little longer, but then stopped and fell to one side.

  Reece stood there, his eyes wide, with moms' knife covered in gore. He had killed them both, even though I'd helped slightly.

  I was up and had the knife out of his hand in a split second. "Are there more?" he asked.

  Back-to-back, we scanned the area. Eyes and ears listening just like Dad had taught me. "I can't see anything else, you?"

  "Nothing."

  "Let's get inside," I said, tucking my axe away, then about to sheath the knife, instead I held it out to him.

  "You—"

  **"You saved my life," I said simply, offering Mom's knife back to him. In that moment, he wasn't just my little brother anymore. He was my partner, my equal in this fight for survival.**

  "I never even knew you'd taken it." I shivered. "But you earned it."

  "I got more system notifications," Reece said.

  I had glanced at mine and shoved them away. "Did you read it?"

  "Not yet inside, later?"

  "Good idea." I nodded to the door.

  Reece took the knife and sheathed it himself, before putting it back under his makeshift belt. "Drag the wood in, then we'll come back for them."

  "Eeew, you want to what—"

  "Eat them, and if we can, curing their hides might well make for good hats, or something, right?"

  "Processing monster corpses..." The thought made my stomach turn, but he was right. "You're thinking like Mom now," I said with reluctant admiration. Waste nothing. Use everything. The rules that kept you alive.

  "I've never tried to do any of that, I wouldn't know where to—"

  "Like you I've done nothing but read the last few years of my life," Reece said. "I've got this."

  We dragged the wooden bits in, then between the two of us dragged the two headed-wolf like creatures around the back and then together we set about hanging them, draining their blood into pitchers, and while my brother started to skin them, I went inside to get the blood boiling and adding in the other root vegetables we'd found.

  By the time he came in, we were both exhausted, but at least there was hot, hot food, and this would really keep us going for a while. "I can put some of it up the trees. Hopefully nothing will be able to reach them up there."

  "We can set some other traps, but it should keep if it freezes."

  Reece grinned at me and dug into the meal. For once in a few weeks, we went to bed with full stomachs and more than a little hope in our hearts.

  ***

  That winter saw us killing and processing things as animals wandered into the area. Reece managed to cure more skins, and he did sew us both some really warm winter clothes, though his first attempt at hats made us both look ridiculous. Still better than those worn-out things we did have. He was right, so right and the more I saw him grow the happier I was we'd left that Valley.

  The rhythm of survival became almost comfortable. Each day brought its own challenges, but also its own victories. We developed systems, routines, built on what Mom and Dad had taught us and added our own innovations. There was a certain pride in seeing how far we'd come from those frightened children who'd first left the valley.

  Spring soon rolled in, and then summer, and we moved around, and around, finding places to stay, but not much of anything else. We did pack the weight on in the summer, gorging on fresh produce we foraged and then eventually started to grow at a little house we'd found. This was a nice place—till it wasn't.

  Monsters rolled in a month after, and though the both of us were fitter, and stronger and had been practice fighting, we were no match for them, and eventually were forced back on the road again.

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  That was also when we saw our first lot of—people. I knew Mom and Dad had been terrified of people, and each time they'd been out, had proved the why. People meant—death.

  Reece spotted the young girl first, and he came running back towards me with wide eyes, "I—I—"

  It took me a while to get him to tell me that he'd seen someone else, and though I was cautious, I was excited. Real people.

  How long had it been since we'd interacted with another human being? The isolation had become normal, but suddenly I felt the weight of it. Conversation, different faces, new stories - things I hadn't realized I'd been missing until the possibility appeared.

  Edging forward, the young girl about his age was playing in a garden, surrounded by bright flowers, and rabbits?

  I pulled him down behind a car covered in grass and plants, and I put my finger to my lips, "This is…"

  "It feels wrong," he said.

  "Yes, something inside me is screaming not to get any closer."

  Years of survival had honed our instincts. That prickling sensation at the back of my neck, the unnatural stillness of the scene, these weren't just fears anymore. They were warning systems we'd learned to trust.

  He was nodding, but he was also not moving.

  "We should go around," I said.

  Then there were voices. A few others were walking down the street. They'd also seen the girl.

  I was about to stand up, to scream at them, to stop, to not get any closer, but Reece, as small and light as he was, grappled me down, his hand over my mouth shaking his head furiously.

  The couple approaching the girl was trying to get her attention, but she wasn't listening. Maybe she couldn't hear them, but I could.

  Only when the couple were close enough did the young girl look up. "Hey," the young woman said. "What are you doing out here, by yourself?"

  The man with her was rummaging in his pack for something.

  The young girl spotted me, and I saw her horrific grin and the flash of blood-red eyes. When she looked up at the couple again, her face was back to angelic, and she asked. "You got some food?"

  The woman was opening the gate. The rabbits spooked and ran for it, but the both of them stepped into the garden.

  It happed in a flash.

  The young girl turned completely red, and the ground itself shook, and then up shot around the couple a massive maw that closed around them both.

  I shrank back and covered Reece's ears as the sounds of crunching bones and screaming drifted our way.

  My heart hammered against my ribs. The screams echoed in my head even after they'd stopped. This world. This monstrous, twisted world where nothing was as it seemed. The rage and grief I felt for those strangers - people I'd never even met - threatened to overwhelm me.

  We cowered behind the car for what seemed like an eternity, till the screaming stopped.

  I didn't want to move. What if….

  Reece was the first one to move, and I admit I waited. "The young girl is back playing with her rabbits."

  I took his hand, hitched my rucksack up higher, and walked him as quickly as I could in the opposite direction.

  That wasn't the first trap we'd see, nor was it the most disturbing. What we did learn was not to trust anything our eyes told us. That our gut was the most important thing here, and it made us even more wary of people. People could mean death in many ways, not just like those mimic creatures.

  Sheltering in broken-down cars, houses, anywhere we could scout. We walked in larger and larger circles, exploring the lands. There were a couple of big encampments with people, and every time we got near, Reece cried. So instead, we observed from a distance. Some seemed to have a tranquil life, others did not. They were constantly attacked by creatures and huge monsters. But we also saw the mana they had being used.

  From our vantage points, we studied these settlements like scientists. How they built their defenses, what weapons they carried, who took which roles. I sketched layouts in the dirt, trying to understand the patterns. Knowledge was survival, and I was determined to learn everything I could without risking direct contact.

  "Puberty?" Reece asked again one night. "When am I going to be old enough? What about you? You put weight on. Why can't you access more than you have?"

  "Put it on and lost it in winter." I was just as thin now as I was when we left the valley a lot thinner. But I was, and I admit, a lot fitter. I could carry and run with triple the weight. So could Reece. We'd made sure in the summer we built on everything we were. Even resorting to adding bricks on string to our packs.

  If we got in trouble which the more, we learned about our new life, was less and less we'd cut the strings and run much easier.

  As a team, we'd gotten so used to each other. Sometimes I'd take the first watch if we were in a strange place, then we'd swap. Reece was good, and at the slightest sound, he'd have me awake. But only for the right reason. He wasn't a scared kid, not anymore. We both grew in confidence; we grew closer as a family.

  The next winter was even harder. No matter how much we tried, we ran out of food, or wood.

  I found Reece crying outside in the cold one morning, and it almost broke me. "I miss mum," he said looking up at me, his big innocent eyes hurting, and it made me hurt all the more.

  "I'm sorry," I said and pulled him to me, the snow melting into my clothes. "I'm sorry I'm not mom, I wish she were here, she'd—she'd…."

  The words caught in my throat. What would Mom have done? Found a way, I supposed. She always did, until the end. "I'm not Mom," I finally said, "but I'm here, and I promise I'll find a way to get us through this. Just like she would have."

  I didn't want to leave him to go to the encampments we'd seen, but if he came with me, we might never get away.

  Stories mom and dad told us as kids were about thieves and beggars. But I had never thought I'd resort to that. Now though, as soon as he was fast asleep and snoring. I snuck out.

  Desperate times, desperate measures. The irony wasn't lost on me - after years of being taught to avoid other humans at all costs, I was now actively seeking them out. But starvation wouldn't wait for moral debates. Reece needed food, and I would get it, one way or another.

  It was a mile back, and deeper into the city, we'd seen a couple of the regular 'girl and bunny traps' but nothing more sinister. I surveyed the whole camp for two nights before I decided that I had to do it. There was no choice.

  Empty rucksack on my back and axe in hand, I carefully edged into the camp and then towards where I knew they'd been taking food from. There I tested the area, steadily and slowly, till I was able to put my hand on the building. I'd already seen there were mana spells/wards at some of the entrances, and I had made sure I avoided all the human made traps, as much as the monster ones.

  Now I jacked under the wooden slats with my axe and within a minute had two planks off and I was able to slide inside.

  It was a store alright and fit to bursting with food. I didn't pick things that would go off fast. The jars and bottle of meats were easiest to see, and pull, then the bags of grain. I stuffed as much as I could into the bag, then struggled to get it out of the hole.

  My heart thundered in my chest as I worked. Every sound seemed amplified - the rustle of grain bags, my own breathing, the creak of the floorboards. I moved with practiced precision, selecting items that would sustain us longest with the least weight. Thief. The word echoed in my mind. But thieves stole for greed. I was stealing for survival.

  I shoved it hard, and then myself through the gap, putting the wood back and then sneaking back the way I'd come.

  When Reece woke in the morning, we had breakfast early. He never asked where I'd gotten the food from, but when I started packing up, he nodded and did the same. "They'll come looking for us, won't they?"

  "They might," I said if they notice. "I'm not risking it, though. Let's go, there was a few other nice houses we passed in the old town. We can head back that way."

  He never complained, though I'd put more weight in his bag too.

  That winter we didn't run out of food, but we did run out of places to stay, and had to cast out nets wider, and wider.

  My thieving skills were levelling up, as much as what I could carry. It was only going to be a matter of time, though, before something went wrong. I wouldn't be lucky with every stop and the first time I almost got caught would be the last time for a while.

  The shouts behind me sent adrenaline coursing through my body. Feet pounding on frozen earth, branches whipping at my face as I ran. I'd known the risk. Understood what failure might mean. But knowing and experiencing were worlds apart. The fear of capture wasn't just for myself—it was for Reece, alone and waiting, depending on my return.

  I escaped because in the pure darkness of night; it seemed to grow even darker. The forest I ran through closed ranks on those who were following me. When I hid and they passed overhead, still searching for me. I doubled back around and then out again to where Reece was. We didn't hang about and left that home that night.