Token Huntress

by Kia Carrington-Russell

  Simultaneously two sabers jumped out on either side of the two-story buildings. The first I shot with my bow, the second I shoved my sword into its chest fiercely, before flicking it off with great strength against the building. I heard the splatter of its already decaying body as it slid down the wall.

  Ahead of me were another two. One side stepped me, leaving me open on my side. Its claws cut against my stomach lightly, giving me the opening I needed to swing my sword up him, dragging it deeply up its stomach to its throat. I clobbered the other one over the head with the back of my bow. I followed through with my sword, piercing it in the chest.

  I quickly caught up to the saber that dragged away its feast. I took aim, quickly shooting it down and grabbing Fam’s body from its filthy clutches. I took him in my arms, close to my chest as I felt the weight of a saber on my back. I looked around to now notice that eight encircled me. I let out an enraged roar. Not because I feared them or could not handle them, but only because I could not look down at the face of Fam before his body got cold. A noise reached my ears. A dart came toward me from up high in the buildings. I threw my body over Fam protectively. I felt the dart graze past my left arm.

  A gas cylinder reached one of the sabers and then a match. Quickly the effect was controlled by Teary, who instantly wiped out all in the circle with one clean sweep of flames. The heat instantly forced my body to sweat. I searched through the flames for where the dart had come from. From above there was a shadowy figure. Someone wearing a long leather jacket stood up there, watching from the rooftops. I went to stand, wanting to pursue this person, but I felt dizzy. My arm was grazed by the dart and bled slightly.

  Teary reached my side, looking over the body of Fam, who I held so tightly.

  “Is this poison?” I asked.

  Teary assessed it, squinting. “It is paralysis, there is slight infection already crisping at ye skin. It will soon affect ye whole body. We will get ye out, Token Huntress,” she said, adjusting herself to lift me. By now James and Tori followed her.

  “No! Burn it out now!” I yelled savagely, still eyeing the shadowy figure from the rooftops. I could not see their features.

  “No!” James shouted. I gave him a steady look which forced him to stay back. I did not care about a scar. Teary did not question my decision, quickly lighting a flame and edging it over the slight scratch that bled. I knew she would have to burn further so the poison would not spread. I held my facial expression steady, only fiercely looking at the figure that had poisoned me. The burn quickly crisped my skin. I assumed it was a member of the Council. They had previously attempted such methods, trying to kidnap and torture other hunters for information on the location of the Guild.

  I slowly stood. The poison on my skin had been burnt away. Luckily for me it was not such a quick and effective form of paralysis. Already the shadow on top of the building was gone. I could have pursued the vampire, and I wanted to, but the coldness of Fam’s body was my confirmation that I should stay and make sure everyone else escaped alive.

  “We must retreat,” I said, looking at Teary’s neck which still bled. James slowly took Fam, and much to my discontentment, he was taken from my arms. I did not show how much displeasure this gave me, not wanting James to see the mourning within me. Hunters disregarded emotion and I didn’t want him out of all people to see that I had such feelings.

  We ran back toward the others who were still within the building. Many of the sabers’ bodies were seeping into the carpet. My steps slowed as I walked in to find Dillian holding Corso. His leg was badly mutilated. Already the others had found some reasonably clean cloth and had strapped it tightly over the wound, but his blood still dripped onto the floor. We were in a horrendous state to run through the forest. So much blood would surely attract more vampires.

  My facial expression further hardened as I saw Pac within Kora’s and Kasey’s arms. Five stab wounds were in his chest. But Pac was so quick. How had he been killed? As if reading my mind, Kora’s voice rang out. “He protected us from three,” she simply said. Death surrounded me. It was my fault for being unable to protect them. I looked at Dillian for some form of reassurance, but he only reflected my pained eyes. I could not seek such refuge in James, who was aiding his friend.

  “We must retreat,” my voice was only a shadow of the fierce tone I had earlier. “We must return to the Guild, and with only death to show for our efforts.”

  W e helped our fallen members through the streets of the destroyed city, on edge about the creatures that might follow. Corso contained his screams, mostly because he was near unconsciousness. He was bleeding severely, his blood seeping through the bandages. He would not make it even if we ran at our heightened pace as a group. We were quick to reach the outskirts of the city, stopping for only a moment to regroup. Our first goal was to get out of the city, especially because of the trail of blood we left behind enticing the vampires.

  I assessed Teary’s neck; it was a clean bite — no venom was injected — so I knew she would not be turned. Only Council members could turn someone, not sabers. It was how vampires continued to expand their population. The vampires had to be much older and have complete control over their own hunger before being able to turn someone, or else they would probably drain that human completely dry. The process of being changed lasted a few days, although everyone experienced it differently. It was like a virus; slowly the human’s body would deteriorate, and every cell in their body would change. It was a long and painful process. We had now a few times tried to help a few of our own comrades who had been bitten. With hunters, the change happened quickly because we already had a strain of vampirism in our blood. We were turned within only a few hours. Luckily, the Vampire Council would rather kill us than turn us. We were two different races that hated one another. The vampires thought of themselves as superior, and thought it a gift to turn someone. They often only turned one or two in their lifetime and had an inseparable bond with them. This we had learned from information gathered over hundreds of years. Much of the vampire world was unclear as they guarded their secrets as tightly as we did our own.

  “Esmore, he will not make it,” James said breathlessly, looking between Corso and me. “You need to run ahead of us with him on your back. You can get there within half a day, I know your speed. You need to take him back to the healers at the Guild. We have no other choice.” Although he covered his emotion, I could see the worry in his eyes for his friend.

  “I cannot leave you all,” I answered hesitantly.

  “We cannot lose time,” Dillian replied. There was a large cut above his florescent pink eyes. “He is losing much blood Esmore. Sabers may follow. If you carry Corso, it is not us they will follow, but you. We will be safe, and you can outrun them.”

  Dillian knew how I thought, and what he said was very rational and true. My goal was always to protect my team members. So right now the bait was Corso, and I would take him away from my members. I looked at Corso, who was very quickly slipping out of consciousness. I draped him over my shoulder. James grabbed a rope which was in my bag, quickly strapping him tightly, yet awkwardly, onto my back. There was not much height difference between Corso and me, and his weight didn’t affect me in the slightest. But I needed to make sure I could still swing my sword with my right hand, and still lift with my left hand and shoulder.

  “I love you,” James said, kissing me on the lips and stepping out of my way.

  “You are to bring Pac and Fam back, and all of you are to return alive. No breaks, be wary,” I ordered.

  *

  My steps echoed through the trees. Racing at such a speed caused my heart to thump loudly in my chest and the noise of the wind was whistling by my ears. At this pace I would easily make the full days’ run within a few hours. I was not as fast as Pac, but I could muster a far greater speed than the other hunters, including the older and respected Token Hunters. My eyes burned because of the mist and wind sweeping by them.

  Gradually I became tense
r. For the past five kilometers I could sense footsteps following me as it had now turned to night. No doubt it was sabers, they would have smelled Corso from far away. Hunter blood was far more enticing to vampires than human blood. I imagined this was a different pack than the one we had encountered in the city. Perhaps they caught my scent as I ran past their resting chambers. Little did they realize it was me they would meet when they caught up with us, and I would not let any survive.

  I did not let my speed waver, and stretched over another ten kilometers within eight minutes. I could now feel the footsteps getting closer, their breathing heavy. I could hear them coming, their rodent-like pace tripping over the forest floor. I passed the barn where we had stayed only the night before. I needed to get rid of the sabers before I reached the Guild. I enhanced my sight, no longer straining through the foggy dark.

  A saber jumped from the high treetops on my right. I raised my Barnett bow, shooting it down, and then the second one that followed. Three had surpassed my speed, perhaps carrying Corso dampened my speed slightly. But I refused to untie the rope that bound him to my back.

  They challenged me head-on, erecting their vile, long nails as weapons. I cut up the chest of the first one, barging it as hard as I could. My force was brutal enough to force it back, but scratch marks were evident across my cheek. I shot the second one with my Barnett bow. It took me only a second to apply new arrows. I was one of the better shooters in the Guild. I hacked my sword across the third saber’s neck, shocking it for a moment. My sword didn’t slice its head completely off. While it was stunned, I plunged the sword deep into its chest. Already I could begin to smell the stench of their corpses.

  Corso mumbled something under his breath, still very much in an unconscious state. I couldn’t see behind me to look at his leg, but by the wetness on the back of my leg, I gathered he was still bleeding heavily. If he were a human he would have been dead. Although we didn’t heal instantly like the vampires, it helped in the long fight against death. If I made it back soon, he would barely be alive. That end battle would be his to fight. His hunter body was doing what it could to keep him alive. I just had to safely get him to the medical section of the Guild.

  On my left two sabers attempted to ambush me. One tripped over a log and then crawled at me on all fours like an animal. I shot the first and then the second, taking note that there were no more following. Perhaps these sabers came from the forest and did not follow from the city.

  Corso mumbled under his breath again. I couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like the same gibberish he always spoke. Corso and I never saw eye-to-eye, but I still would do everything in my power to protect him. I slightly readjusted him, briefly looking behind me and scanning if anything else followed. I couldn’t detect anything, but I had the feeling I was being watched.

  I breathed in heavily, refocusing and making sure to keep a very acute sense of my surroundings, just in case someone was indeed following me. But I could not delay any longer or take any uncertain routes. I had to be direct. It was the only way Corso would survive. My running enhanced again, the fog surrounding me billowing away as I breezed through it. A few more hours passed and much to my delight no other vampires followed. Over the last hour I could feel myself depleting in energy. With only a mere twenty minutes left of my run, Corso’s mumbling became fainter.

  A scream ripped passed my lips as acid started to drip from his skin onto my shoulder. The right side of my body buckled under the intensity of the pain. When unconscious, Corso could not control the acid his body excreted. As a consequence, it now dripped over me. Smoke rose from my wounds. I couldn’t move my shoulder. My Barnett bow was rendered useless as I could only control the muscles in my arms enough to keep a hold of it. I gritted my teeth. There was no other way I could carry him.

  Soon his chest started secreting a steady stream of acid, causing it to burn through his shirt and onto my back. My legs buckled and I held my roar of anguish in. I could feel the droplets of acid digging holes into my back. Breathing heavily, I tried to push the pain away. I have to save him, I reminded myself. I crawled back to my feet, pushing myself to my limits. It was not that much faster than how fast I was running before, but the desperation made it burn all the more. My legs buckled a few times when the acid from his legs dripped onto the back of my calves. It was affecting my will power as my muscles began to spasm. I dared not think about the long term effects it may have on my body.

  I could see the gates, and waved my good arm and sword for them to open. “Open the gates,” I bellowed, although I knew they could see me. I wanted them to rush. The two hunters at the gates looked at me in surprise as I poured into the gates, running straight past them and into the tunnels. Sighing with relief when the white walled infirmary came into view, I rushed in. I placed him on the first bed I saw, more forcefully than I intended to. It was my body’s instinct, flicking him off to limit the pain.

  I quickly moved toward one of the tall wooden stands that held the white coats. I wrapped one around me before the nurses could properly understand what was happening. I still flickered across the room at a high speed. I flicked my golden blonde hair out from beneath the collar. I couldn’t let them see the wounds, if they knew they would report it instantly to Campture. And that was something I didn’t want. She may very well take me off the raid team because of it, deeming me unfit.

  Within those few seconds the two nurses — who had been quietly enjoying their tea —panicked. They saw the blood that seeped into the mattress. Droplets of green leaked from his skin as sweat drops, dripping off and burning through the mattress. If it weren’t for his hunter blood, he would most certainly be dead by now from losing so much blood. We could heal efficiently but such a wound could not repair itself.

  “We were attacked by sabers. His leg was cut through with a chainsaw,” I said, explaining his wound. Irritated by the burning of my back and neck, I adjusted myself uncomfortably. I felt as if it were still festering. The two nurses both looked at me blankly; of course they didn’t know what a chainsaw was, it was a trial weapon. “The weapon he was attacked by had a metal jarred exterior. It can cut through solid wood and obviously flesh. The weapon works in a rotary motion.”

  That was all the information they needed to start busily handling Corso. “This is Corso; we have to watch his acid drops. I need the sedative to induce him into a coma. It will stop the perspiration of acid from his skin,” the older nurse said. All hunters, no matter their Guild department, were aware of one another’s gifts, especially the infirmary members. She injected the sedative into Corso with a needle. The younger nurse was tearing away the heavy bandage on his leg.

  It was almost completely dangling off. Only his bone kept it together. It seemed that the acid was being used for survival. His body was trying to detach and burn away the rest of the leg. I could see that the acid was eroding the bone, trying to close off the wound.

  “Huntress Esmore, are you in need of assistance?” the older nurse with white eyes asked, catching my attention. It was then I realized how tightly I strapped my arms around myself, trying to contain the shakes — the repercussion of Corso’s acid affecting my muscles. They were continuing to spasm.

  “No, I am fine. Do what you can for him. I will be taking my leave now. There may be more wounded hunters that I must go fetch now. Thank you both,” I said, nodding my head in respect before leaving. I struggled to lift my Barnett bow. I rolled my right shoulder. I was able to freely move my right arm which always held my sword. I quickened my pace out of the tunnels and stood at the front gates impatiently.

  “Open them,” I said to the two guards, who were surprised by my sudden appearance. They looked at the white robe I wore in suspicion, but I had to cover my wounds.

  “I think not,” Campture’s voice rose from the shadows. Kelf followed behind her. I shot a harsh glare toward the guards who had informed her of my arrival. “Why are you wearing a robe?”

  “My team is still out there
. I could only bring back one. I will report to you afterwards,” I said, prompting the men to open the gates.

  “No, you will report to me now. Your team should be strong enough to return on their own,” she said sternly.

  “I am their Token,” I retorted angrily.

  “You, Token, have already abandoned them.”

  “I had no choice. I had to save the life of Corso because that ridiculous chainsaw weapon was used against him. We have lost another two. I will not witness the death of anymore,” I said savagely.

  “You don’t have a choice. If you leave these grounds, there will be consequences.”

  I felt the anger swell inside of me, like a savage animal clawing its way up through me. This image came to mind and I felt myself slipping out of control. Whatever was coming to the surface was radiating lust for blood. Campture took a step back, as if reading my thoughts. I took a shallow breath, reminding myself of the lessons my father had taught me. Contain those thoughts and dark intentions… breathe. Calming the darkness that bit at my insides, I focused on Campture again.

  Campture’s lips tightened at my internal anguish. She drew breath to speak, but I would not stay because she said to. My allegiance was only to myself. I bolted for the unsteady rope ladder on the north wall where Dillian and I often were placed on guard. My left shoulder was almost useless now. As soon as I reached the top, I flipped myself over the high wall, regretting it as soon as my knees took the impact of the heavy jolt. The fog swept around me, unsettled by my sudden jump.