‘These children are very frightened of us, like they have seen us before,’ Lexington said.
‘Can’t blame them. Look at Quixote.’
The “bad-men” Quixote had gone after had retreated to the building, leaving swathes of children between them and the cousins. Quixote roared and shot over the children’s head to chase them away. Some of the screaming children fled into the building, while others ran into the bushes either side of the courtyard leaving the four men standing with their backs to the building. Doors to their left and their right swung open and twenty more men, dressed in the same leather tunics and puffy pants trotted out to join their four comrades. On their gnarled faces they had expressions of intense anger with eyebrows knotted in fury. Scars filled their faces and lumps of badly set, broken bones jutted out under their skin, giving them devilish appearances, and heavy truncheons and maces swung loose in their hands.
Quixote held his ground, standing 50 metres out from them. Ari joined him. Seeing more men, a feeling came over him that he needed his Tomahawk. He reached behind and unhooked it, swinging it around in front and brandishing it in full view. The newly arrived guards eyed Ari and Quixote, and the anger left their faces, replaced by stunned surprise and nervous murmuring. Quixote snarled at them, cursing them with threats of mayhem.
Lexington and Melaleuca joined the boys.
‘Now what?’ Melaleuca asked.
Someone appeared on top of the building and surveyed the scene as if a commander viewing his battlefield.
‘Why have you returned here? You were banished.’
The guards assumed a pose that suggested they were readying to attack.
Chapter 17 - Engage, Evade, Escape
Quixote lifted his pistol and shot at the man standing on top of the building - Captain HeGood. The bullet whizzed past him though he did not flinch.
Melaleuca nudged Ari. ‘Stop him.’
He yanked Quixote’s arm down, and Lexington shook her head though looked steadfast at the Captain. She cupped her hands around her mouth.
‘What do you mean return?’
Captain HeGood folded his arms and rocked forward on his feet, raising his right eyebrow.
‘The cowboy gave me his word he would not return here ever again.’
Quixote snarled, thrashed against Ari, and shook his fists at the Captain.
‘Balderdash. You bare-fisted brainless gump of a stump.’
Captain HeGood swished his cloak aside and held aloft a baton, crying out, ‘ADVVAANNNCCCEEE!’
The guards held their ground not moving; a hushed silence falling over them. In an audible whisper one of the guards said, ‘Marauders. They’re back.’
Captain HeGood picked up a brick, and hurled it at the guard, knocking him senseless.
‘I’ll banish the lot of you to Golgotha. NOW MOVEEEEE!!!!’
Swallowing hard, the front line trudged forward, gripping their batons with white knuckles, while uncurling whips and whipping the air with a great menace. The guards behind them surged forward at an unsure pace, swinging razor-thin bamboo sticks - a crisp whistling whisk harmonising with the cracks of the whips.
Lexington stepped backward. ‘Perhaps a hasty retreat is in order.’
Melaleuca looked at the boys readying themselves to fight.
‘I know we should, but something about these men just makes me mad. Besides, they look scared.’
Lexington squinted out from under her cap, putting all the clues together: Children huddling in the bushes; Guards approaching unsure; The small girl asking not to be kidnapped; Even Pemily seeing them as Marauders:
‘Well, I do concur, but ─ ’
Quixote screamed and ran toward the guards yelling. Ari charged off to the left, swinging his tomahawk, and even Melaleuca leapt up and somersaulted right, splitting the guards in three directions.
Captain HeGood thrashed his arms about in the air. ‘GET THEM! I’LL BANISH THE LOT OF YOU IF THEY ESCAPE!’
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Three guards’ whips shot out of their hands, and a laughing Quixote fired at their feet. They turned, high-tailing it, and tripped over each other and Quixote roared with more laughter.
Lexington gritted her teeth and shuffled backwards.
‘Don’t hurt them!’
Melaleuca somersaulted back and forth with little effort, soaring over the guards as they lashed out with their whips. They dashed back and forth at a tiring pace trying to catch her with little success. Melaleuca leapt over one of the guards, grabbed their whip, and cracked it back at him, smacking him square in the face. A piece of flesh fell away, though the guard stood there unflinching.
‘Didn’t feel it.’
She crouched, sprung high into the air and came down on top of the guard, sending him sprawling to the concrete and knocking him out. She leapt again, landing on top of another guard, her crotch smacking the back of his neck. Her legs came to rest dangling over his shoulders. Surprised, the guard flailed his arms above him, though Melaleuca spun her legs out from underneath her, wrenching the guard off his feet.
A small cheer erupted out of the bushes and Lexington edged over to the children hiding there. As she got closer she heard the older ones telling all the children to pipe down, that cheering would certainly lead to banishment or death.
Melaleuca glanced at Lexington, meaning to check her but a wild cry from Ari drew her attention. He swung his tomahawk, thrashing at the air in front of him, charging at the guards again and again. Quixote hovered behind him, firing round after round after round as the desperate-faced guards inched backwards.
‘FIGGHHHTTT!’ Captain HeGood yelled. ‘FIIIIGGGGGHGHHHHHTTTT!’
Spurred on, several of the tired guards tried again for Melaleuca. She sped up, leaping back and forth egging the guards on until exhausted, they half collapsed. Captain HeGood screamed death threats at them again, and they turned their attention toward Lexington.
The remaining guards clumped together and advanced on Ari and Quixote. Quixote walked toward them, wrenching their whips out of their hands. They pounced on him, bringing him down to the ground. With a mighty cry, Quixote threw them off and started lashing them with their whips.
Bit-by-bit Ari and Quixote forced them backwards.
Melaleuca beamed, chuffed the guards had given up pursuing her. She watched them saunter off, though her smile did not last long. Lexington gave a little shriek as the wearied guards now honed in on her. Melaleuca ran toward Lexington, cart wheeling through the ragged line of guards, knocking them over.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Lexington said.
‘Yeah. This is fun, but I am not sure what we are achieving.’
Lexington threw her arms up.
‘They wanted to rescue the little boy remember.’
‘Quite. Grab the boy if you can. I am going to pull the boys back.
Melaleuca ran across the courtyard, somersaulting around some of the bedraggled guards and kicking them. She felt buoyant and exhilarated; a veritable defender of the weak.
Lexington approached the children in the bushes. ‘Come on. I won’t hurt. Follow and we can help.’
A small girl popped her head out and yelled, ‘Go away. We don’t want to be maraudered.’
Another girl hushed her, while an older boy pulled her back. All along the bushes, barefaced, scared eyes stared out.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Lexington asked. ‘We can take you away from here.’
A frail looking boy with hollow cheeks stepped out, and as if he had no soul, said, ‘We seek the way of discipline. The only way to leave here is through a hard mind and hard body.’
‘You want to stay here? Why?’
The same boy Ari and Quixote had seen chased came forward. ‘I’m not scared of you, even if you are a Marauder. My parents told me that you would return to help.’
Several children rushed out of the bush, and grabbed him, pleading with him to be quiet, and dragged him
back. Lexington looked over her shoulder for support, though Melaleuca seemed more distracted by the boys who had managed to herd the guards against the building.
Captain HeGood peered over the side.
‘CEASE FIGHTING!’
Having already stopped fighting, the guards hung their heads in shame. Captain HeGood sniffed back a noisy spit ball into his throat, gurgled in into his mouth, and spat on the cowering guards – following it with a sneer. He turned his steel stare to the cousins.
‘You may have bested these useless guards, who are now banished. But you won’t best my guard, the Inquisat. They said you would never return, but I said in case you do I shall be ready. AND I AM READY. I HAVE BEEN READY FOR THIRTY YEARS!’
Quixote snarled back at him.
Melaleuca leant in close to Ari. ‘Get Quixote out of here.’
Ari grabbed him, and struggling, started to drag Quixote backwards.
‘Let me go, you flea-bitten miser.’
Lexington walked to Melaleuca.
‘None of the children want to come. This proves my point. We do not know what is going on.’
‘I know.’
Melaleuca kept her eyes on Captain HeGood, and he turned as if to go, though turned back.
‘Why have you returned? What do you want?’
‘To leave,’ Melaleuca said. She grabbed Lexington and together they dashed back across the courtyard, pausing to help Ari drag a struggling Quixote over the embankment.
‘What’s got into him?’ Lexington asked.
‘Dirty snivelling curs. Mangy half-breed mutts. Downright low-lifes. Yella bellies.’
Melaleuca pulled his head upright by his hair.
‘Stop it Quixote.’
He carried on cursing the air blue.
‘Grab his bracelet,’ Lexington said.
With great difficulty Ari pinned Quixote’s wrist hard against the ground, and worked the bracelet free. Quixote stopped in an instant and stared up at them stunned. Melaleuca tilted her head back, sighed, and then flopped it forward – her eyes demanding an explanation. Quixote screwed his face up and for a brief moment looked as if he might cry, but then he started spouting, ‘Did you see us? Wow! We were unstoppable. And those children! How many? A thousand? A hundred thousand? Do you think we can go back and play with them?’
‘You scared them,’ Lexington said.
‘We could show them the bracelets, share our costumes with them, perhaps ─ ’
Melaleuca pulled his hair again.
‘Stop. Listen!’
‘Even the adults ran. We were the coolest. Did you guys see me?’
Ari put his face close to Quixote’s face.
‘QUIXOTE LISTEN!’
Quixote halted his rambling.
‘Control yourself Quixote,’ Melaleuca said
‘Sorry.’ He looked sheepish. ‘I don’t know what came over me. One minute I was just me and then I wasn’t. It’s almost like I became a real cowboy.’
‘Another reason why I need to analyse the costumes,’ Lexington said, taking off her detective cloak. ‘Now we should go. I hope that man on the top of the building will not chase us.’
‘Good point. Me cover our tracks. No one follow us.’ Ari said, the vowels in his word-sounds becoming shorter. Ari sped around the trees ripping branches off. He bundled them together, squashing dirt and grass into them.
‘We pull this behind us. Make good hide our tracks and smells.’
‘Why are you talking like that?’ Lexington asked.
Melaleuca thought of the weird speech she had used since donning the detective costume and laughed at her.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘Tell you later,’ Melaleuca said.
They all made sure their bracelets were on tight and high-tailed it out of there, dashing back the way they had come.
***
Captain HeGood sprinted out the back to a boy barely in his teens.
‘Well, where is she?’
The youth cowered.
‘Who sir?’
‘Bloody fool,’ Captain HeGood shouted, smacking him hard across his face. ‘My steed!!! What else!!!! Do you think I am going to chase them on foot?’
The youth fell to his knees and with two upheld hands cried out, ‘Who sir? I did as I was tolds. She’s in the pasture!’
Captain HeGood kicked him. ‘Are you blind and deaf? Did you miss entirely what happened? You should have run to the pastures and got my horse ready. And you wonder why you are still here. Cretin. I’ll do it myself.’
***
Ari insisted they zigzag across the land, weaving through and around trees, and walking in streams. He said it would make it harder for anyone to track them. Just before twilight they had made it back to the hills.
‘Okay stop, please,’ Lexington panted, her legs giving out on her.
They stopped and she fell to the ground, sweating.
‘Bracelets off,’ Melaleuca commanded.
They slid their bracelets off, and Quixote giggled at Lexington. ‘Next time choose a less smart costume.’
Lexington pushed herself up and threw the detective costume on the ground.
Melaleuca moved toward Lexington.
Oh no – here she goes.
‘How can you still laugh?’ Lexington said. ‘Those kids back there are suffering.’
‘I had lots of fun and so did Mel and Ari. Eh guys?’ He looked at them for support.
‘Yes. I enjoyed this costume.’ Ari said, though he knew what Lexington meant. ‘However ─ ’
‘The costumes are a lot of fun,’ Melaleuca said.
Lexington swung her head around them aghast and clenched her hands.
‘What happened back there cannot happen again!’
‘Lex. You charged in after Quixote,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Exactly. Hardly like me! These costumes ─ ’
‘Are fun,’ Quixote said. ‘Anyway, we are supposed to play and have fun.’
‘Mel?’ Lexington appealed to her. ‘Our mothers must have meant something more when they said keep on playing. Those children...they…..they...’ She choked on her words. ‘They…..it’s horrible….what they were doing to them……how can we play…...’
Melaleuca remained unaffected. ‘We will work it out.’
‘I think we are here to rescue the kids,’ Quixote said.
‘Makes sense.’ Ari nodded. ‘I could make a raiding plan.’
Lexington tried to stamp her foot hard.
‘NO! That’s just the point. We don’t know anything about this land and who lives here. The children did not want to be freed. If we just keep on charging around without being smart then who knows what is going to happen.’
Quixote sauntered up to her.
‘I’ll do what I want.’
‘Oh really. And what’s that then?’
‘Whatever I want!’
Melaleuca placed a hand on Lexington’s shoulder, sensing her need for them to listen to her. Lexington calmed herself, shrugged Melaleuca’s hand off and pulled on the detective cloak.
‘What if?’ She tapped her chin. ‘We map the land out? Find the best area to attack?’ She eyed Ari. ‘Note our finds, perhaps even rank them in importance.’
Quixote put his bracelet back on, booming at her in a raspy voice. ‘Sissy! What say we round us up a posse and storm that town over yonder.’
‘No,’ Lexington said, shaking her head. ‘Mel?’
‘I’ll explore,’ Ari said.
‘Sensible,’ Lexington said. ‘Let’s find explorer’s costumes, a geologist perhaps, maybe even an archaeologist, hmmm?’ She adjusted her hat with a smug air.
Ari slipped his bracelet back on and an idea lit up his face.
‘Need a shaman.’
‘Now look here!’ Lexington said. ‘We need facts. Facts backed by hard evidence.’
‘Tarnation,’ Quixote said. ‘We need a damn good raiding party.’
As the ten
sion rose and their opinions clashed, the costumes took over, until they argued in character.
‘I’s blow holes in all of youse.’
‘It heap no good. You listen to earth spirit.’
‘What utter poppycock. Drivel such as this belongs in a mad house.’
Melaleuca stepped toward them to intervene. Instead of walking, her body flipped up in the air, pirouetted, and landed behind them. She tried walking again, though her arms and legs flipped all over the place. She fought for control, though the more she tightened her muscles, the more she wobbled and shook. Her mother’s instructions flashed into her mind and she tried pretending to be a gymnast. Relaxed, she went with it, trying to out-leap her body’s jerking and jostling, and as she did so, she brought her limbs under control.
Oh my God, the instruction to play was right.
She imagined being back home, feeling the thrill and safety of pretending to be something she was not, and launched into a series of back flips, stopping 30 metres up the hill, exhilarated and in control. Now she had to trust her trust, the very lesson she was to learn since embarking on this adventure.
Behind her bickering cousins, the setting sun touched the low hills in the distance, and a sense of purpose stirred in her. Clearly they needed to learn to use the costumes before anything else; hypotheses, exploration, rescuing - anything. Her inner resolve toughened, and pulling her bracelet off, she walked to the others, grabbing the bracelets off Lexington and Ari. Surprised, they stopped fighting.
‘Ari. Take Quixote’s bracelet off.’
Pouncing on him, Ari wrestled him to the ground, eventually yanking it off. Grime streaked down Quixote’s face, though a smile of great enjoyment travelled from one ear to the other.
‘That was so much fun,’ he said.
Her mind clear, Melaleuca suddenly saw Quixote’s role. Out of all of them, only Quixote had a permanently irrepressible spirit that nothing could stop. If any of them could teach them how to play seriously, without being serious, it was Quixote.
‘Sit,’ Melaleuca beckoned them.
‘But…..’ Lexington protested.
‘SIT!’
They sat - their faces grainy in the fading light of the day.
‘I have decided,’ Melaleuca said, ‘where we are to start. The costumes are not as simple as they seem. Each of us in our own way has lost control. We need to learn to use them before we use them again like we just did. If we are to rescue those boys, if we are to use them for anything, then we need to know how to use them, and...’
The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders - Book 1 Page 25
