Written By: Pillowyspu

Edited By: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

The sun-drenched afternoon sky had faded into cobalt dusk and the sound of thunder from an oncoming summer rainstorm echoed in the horizon. That once soothing soundtrack of songbird from the lively forest had segued into a chilling undertone of late evening crickets and locusts. Nid and the Woman tentatively approached the homestead and while Nid immediately bolted for the cabin, the Woman was more interested in the welfare of the child.

She approached the child with a calming sense of restraint; her instincts wanted to grab the child and hold him, yet she had to remember the boy’s parents were just murdered in front of his eyes. She wasn’t sure how the traumatized boy would react to a stranger holding him. He was still sitting in the grass but he wasn’t laughing anymore. He looked as if he was frozen in time and his face was pallid and sickly as he stared at the lifeless bodies of his mother and father. He was still maybe a toddler but his long mane of scraggly unkempt sandy brown hair resembled his mother’s and his wide, hazel colored eyes looked a lot like his father’s. The Woman kneeled down next to him and placed her hand on his trembling shoulder. As soon as he felt her touch him, he shrieked in utter emotional agony. The Woman pulled him closer to her and ran her fingers through his hair as he collapsed to the ground and choked on a fit of tears. The Woman began to sob with him.

            Nid came bursting out of the house and charged towards the Woman and child. Nid towered over them and The Woman covered the child’s mouth with her hand and pulled his head towards her, shielding his eyes from Nid’s fiery glare. The two cowered as Nid held her hunting rifle at her hip and shouted, “Shut. Him. Up!”

            The Woman didn’t say anything at first in fear that Nid might not react gracefully to her defiance. But as soon as Nid pointed the rifle towards the child’s head, the Woman stood up, placed both hands on the end of the rifle’s barrel and pressed the cool steel to her bare breastbone, “You’ll have to shut me up first.”

            Nid considered pulling the trigger for a moment but lowered the rifle and her smoldering gaze continued to burn as she stared the Woman directly in the eyes. She clenched her teeth and spat, “We don’t have time for this. Find a way to quiet him before I do it for you.”

            Nid stormed off and entered the house again. A gentle rain began to fall on the Woman and child as the Woman looked him in the eyes and told him she wasn’t going to let that “psychopathic son of a bitch” hurt him. The child clearly didn’t speak the Woman’s language but somehow he knew exactly what she was saying. He wrapped his arms around the Woman’s torso and held her as he realized she was now his only hope. At first, she tried to get him to go inside the house but he wasn’t ready so the two sat on the lawn while a gentle drizzle soaked the forest canopy above them and they watched the fireflies dance around the hollow until the gloomy dusk settled into darkness. He continued to sob silently.

“My dad and I used to catch fireflies,” The Woman spoke with gentle motherese, “They weren’t very many of them where I grew up because of all of the pollution but every once in a while, we would spend a few nights up at Hadley State Park. I remember this one time; I had caught one and told my dad I wanted to ‘squash’ it. He asked me what the firefly had done to wrong me and — I couldn’t answer. I was only five so my concept of right and wrong wasn’t exactly there.” The Woman paused, realizing the story wasn’t really going anywhere but the boy seemed to enjoy the soothing sound of her voice so she continued, “I let it go and it lit up the entire time it flew away. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.” The boy stopped crying and held the Woman closer, tucking his head into her underarm and his eyelids began to droop, “I’m sorry about everything, kid.”

The sky erupted as that evening storm rolled in from the west. The boy had settled into a peaceful slumber so the Woman carefully picked him up, slung him over her shoulder and brought him inside. They sat in the wood-paneled foyer for a while, which was lit only by a flickering fireplace, and the Woman continued to hold the child in her arms while she stared into the sputtering fire and savored the moment. Nid was in the living room and had already broken down the portal gun into pieces and was carefully inspecting each complex component. She didn’t seem to notice the Woman; she was completely entranced in her work.

The Woman stood up and inspected her bow. She plucked the string and thought about driving an arrow through Nid’s skull and ending this living nightmare. However, despite her unwavering drive to reign down justice to the corrupted Leon Aventis, she exercised restraint. After all, this callous, cold-hearted Nid is her only ticket out of this barren realm and she couldn’t help but feel a sense of loyalty to her. Nid saved her from Drak’s custody all those years ago and trained her to be the woman she is today and even in her pitiless state, Nid was still the mother she never had. She hoped that Nid’s newfound psychopathy was just a temporary effect of the failed teleportation.

*          *

As Noah approached the small fishing cabin, he could immediately tell the women had been there and they were starting to get sloppy. They didn’t bother covering their tracks, which made hunting them down way too easy. The wooden door had been recently kicked in and the splintered wood was still fresh. The cabin was in absolute shambles – broken glass, overturned furniture, and scraps of paper littered the floor. Noah didn’t want to spend much time here but he noted to himself that the women couldn’t be that far.

            He scanned the environment for a bit and then followed a small trail of disturbed vegetation that led into the heart of the forest. He put on his wide brimmed sun hat to keep away the troves of mosquitos that assaulted the back of his neck and pushed onwards for what felt like hours, following the trail until the vegetation became so thick, the trail nearly impossible to track. When he finally lost his confidence, he leaned against a tree and took a swig of whiskey. A crescendo of moody evening light pierced through trees above him; he realized he didn’t have much time before nightfall and it would become next to impossible to track her. However, as he looked down at his boot, he noticed the four-toed footprint freshly impressed into the soil and next to it was the human print. He took one more nip of whiskey before he packed it away and continued to follow the footprints up a ridge. He heard a chime coming from his backpack and pulled out the DNA tracker – it had refreshed the location of the woman and located her only 200 meters ahead. However, there were still no signs of Nid. Without warning, Noah was stunned by the shrill sound of a child screaming just over the hill.

            He darted up the hill and planted himself under a bramble bush above a ridge that overlooked the hollow. After he assembled the scope and bipod, he rested the rifle on the rocky cliff edge and magnified the high-powered scope searching the valley floor for the source of that scream. Below him, he noticed the Tudor-style homestead and scanned the façade in search for any signs of life. He smiled when he saw Nid burst out of the front door and followed her with his scope as she approached the redheaded woman. However, that smile faded when he saw the Woman was holding a small child. He thought, “Who the hell is that?”

            He set his sights on the redheaded Woman. She was half-naked, shivering, unarmed and looked far from battle-ready so he realized killing her was going to be a lot easier than he originally suspected. It almost felt too easy. However, she was still holding this child and something didn’t feel right about pulling the trigger just yet. He looked around the yard a bit more and noticed the bodies of two locals, a young male near a wood pile and another female laying face down on the porch. The unsettling idea that Nid and the Woman are holding this child hostage entered Noah’s mind and he realized he wasn’t going to take any chances.

            He watched the two women argue for a while and nearly pulled the trigger when he saw Nid raise the barrel of an old rifle to the boy’s temple. He was surprised to see Nid; his DNA tracker clearly didn’t show her even though he was less than a quarter-mile from her and she was standing in view. Noah was perplexed to see the woman press the barrel of the rifle up to her breastbone and discounted it as some kind of bizarre joke. He considered pulling the trigger but before he had a chance to line up the shot, Nid stormed off and the Woman returned to the child, held him close to her and remained still and silent. He didn’t know what to make of this. Was she using the child as a shield? Or maybe he was some kind of bait?

Noah was a good shot but at this distance and because of the increased wind from an oncoming thunderstorm, he didn’t trust the rifle to shoot with that kind of precision to ensure the bullet would pierce the woman and leave the child unscathed. He was waiting for the woman to stand up but she remained planted on the front lawn of the homestead until the last of the day’s light settled over the forest floor. The rain only intensified and within a short amount of time, the storm had fermented from a gentle summer rain shower into what felt like a hurricane. Realizing he may only have one more chance to kill the woman from a distance, he waited a while longer until she stood up, picked up the child, and started walking towards the front porch.

            Noah waited until the back of her cranium was lined up precisely in the center of his scope. The wind died down a bit and he figured this was going to be his last chance. A flash of lightning lit up the valley just enough for him to see the woman in perfect detail. He counted down the seconds and waited for a rumble of thunder to mask his shot. He grinned, held his breath, and pulled the trigger.

            Click.

            Noah pulled the trigger again.

            Click. Click. Click.

            “Son of a bitch,” Noah cursed to himself as he pulled out the rifle’s magazine and realized he hadn’t loaded any bullets. He frantically perused through his backpack in search of .408 Chey Tac rounds to load into the rifle but he froze when he realized in his rash frenzy to finally bring out vengeance for his deceased daughter, he left the ship without packing ammunition. This was the first time Noah can remember ever making a mistake this careless. This mission is too personal, he thought to himself.

            Noah tossed the rifle to the side in defeat and ran his fingers through his hair as raindrops pummeled his back. He considered screaming to vent his frustration but he wanted to salvage this mission because he was so close. He remembered the tactical knife strapped to his ankle and smiled. As he pulled it from it’s sheath, he ran the blade of the knife over his index finger and drew his own blood. It was his only chance.

            Noah made a pact with himself to carefully plan his next move instead of rushing in to finish what he started. He realized his mission was not the only thing on the line; that boy was clearly being held hostage by these two monsters and he made it his primary mission to honor his daughter by saving the life of that boy before finally killing the Woman who assassinated Maggie.

            A flurry of ideas raced through Noah’s mind. He thought about sneaking through the back window and taking the women from behind but he knew Nid and the Woman had a sharp sense of hearing and even this pounding rain wouldn’t be enough to mask his footsteps. He considered bursting through the door and killing Nid, taking her rifle, and using it to finally shoot the Woman before she was able to get to the child. But this was risky and rash and Noah had already made bold mistakes that cost him way too much. He watched Nid and the Woman through the living room windows and used his scope to locate the portal gun, which was sitting on a table near the window. It was in pieces and it clearly wasn’t functional so he figured he had plenty of time to plot the perfect takedown. I’ll just wait until they get sloppy again.