Chapter 45

It’s a scramble. A mad one at that. My brain isn’t fully awake yet and I’m frantically thrashing around more so in confusion than anything else. What do I need, what do I need? Clothes and armor? I slept in my leather armor yesterday because Bertrand told me to be as ready as possible and I only took off my boots before getting into bed. As I slip on my boots, I’m wiping away the gunk from my eyes with one hand and grabbing the sword belt under my bed with the other. Wraine’s in the same situation and the both of us nearly finish getting ready at the same time. When we rush out of our room and head towards the front enclosure, everything still seems normal. I don’t know. I was kind of expecting Midriver’s Finest’s goons all over the place and we’d need to fight our way out of our room. When we get to the front enclosure though, I see why there’s no one inside yet. The wooden gate and the wooden walls surrounding Derriv’s compound have kept every member of Midriver’s Finest out of the compound.

Who made this place? Why are there walls, literal walls protecting a group of buildings inside a city? Though I suppose I can guess how this happened. Who’s going to stop whoever built these walls? No one. I wonder if Alira has a similar compound like this or if the two other factions in Midriver have one for themselves. Maybe this is why Derriv was able to carve out a part of Alira’s territory for himself. Bertrand and Quinn are already here and they’re fully equipped. Though I don’t see Angelene anywhere around. Bertrand’s holding his iron longsword he’s always carrying around with him and Quinn’s holding two iron hand axes. I only slightly noticed before whenever Bertrand was wrapping or unwrapping his sword with linen when we practiced, but his longsword has a black blade with dark blue writing directly inscribed on the flat of the blade. The words aren’t Informal and I can’t read them but based on how they’re written, I can tell it’s an exotic language completely different from Informal or even Formal. I didn’t realize before since I’ve never seen him with his weapons out but Quinn uses two hand axes. The axes have wicked curves in their blades and there’s sharp points on the opposite ends of the axe heads pointed towards Quinn himself. Those axes are definitely not meant for cutting wood and I would not like to find out what they’re capable of. Quinn gives us a nod when he sees us arriving and puts up a finger to his mouth, telling us to keep our mouths shut. Bertrand shouts to the people behind the gate with his usual thunderous voice, “To what do we owe the pleasure of having Midriver’s Finest showing up in full force on our humble doorstep?”

There’s a clamor from behind the gate when they hear Bertrand ask that, most of it’s just profanity and threats but it soon calms down when someone, who I’m assuming is their leader, speaks, “I think you know damn well why we’re here Bertrand. You see, two nights ago, someone snuck into my territory and killed my men and stole my drugs and to top it off, they took my money. If that doesn’t explain why we’re here then I guess you are as stupid as you look, Bertrand. Now, I will count to three and you’ll open this fucking gate. You’re gonna hand me back my drugs, you’re gonna hand me back my money, and you’re also going to hand me those two little fucks who killed my men. Don’t think for a second your little wooden gate and your little wooden walls are enough to stop me and my men.”

Bertrand glances at us with a grin on his face and responds back, “You know I ain’t doing that Reed. You’re asking for the two newest members of Candle right now and we both know that isn’t going to happen. Why’d you go back on your word, Reed? I seem to remember hearing you promising Derriv you weren’t going to sell your garbage anywhere near Itia’s church. Does your word mean nothing Reed!?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Bertrand. My men have kept their distance from the church and my product hasn’t gone near it since Derriv and I set the terms. I didn’t even need to do that since the terms I agreed to with Derriv hinged on the condition that he was in the city. Since he’s obviously gone, why the fuck should I keep up my end of the deal? Just make it easy on yourself Bertrand. I know Derriv’s daughter is in there and let me tell you, if you make me work for it, she’ll have a worse death than your daughter.” What!?

The grin’s gone from Bertrand’s face and he has the same look from last night when we stalked our way to Jerome’s bedroom. Poor Bertrand. I had no idea he even had a daughter and it’s being brought up now of all times to hurt him. “Why aren’t you counting?”

“What?”

“I asked, why the fuck aren’t you counting? Weren’t you gonna count to three? Well do it then you fucking pussy.”

There’s silence for a moment before the man named Reed starts chuckling, “You heard him boys, rip ‘em to shreds.”

And that was the start of it. Like a gold coin being thrown into a room full of drunks, the entirety of Midriver’s Finest explodes into an absolute frenzy as they screech while throwing their bodies against the wooden gate. Bertrand looks at Wraine and me and snarls, “Not a single one of them gets past us!”

With my sword and shield in hand, I take a few short breaths as I ready myself both physically and mentally. When I think I’m good, I rush up to the gate and do absolutely nothing. I’m confused, what am I supposed to do? The gate’s fortified pretty well and completely separates us from the outside world. I can hear the bandits on the other side hacking their weapons into the gate and the wall but it’s going to take them a while before they can make their way through. What do I do until then? Quinn taps me on the shoulder and points to a small metal latch that’s around shin level for me on the gate before getting down on his knees. He grabs onto the latch and it slides to the left, opening a decently large rectangular hole in the gate. He quickly slashes his axe through the opening and I can hear several screams from the other side as a result. I see. After he’s done, he slides the wooden panel back in place and secures the gate once again.

Now that I look around, there’s dozens of these latches all over the gate at different height levels and have different sizes. I saw these before but never knew what they were meant for and ignored them for the most part but now I can see they’re a godsend. I choose one that’s around my waist level and slide it open before stabbing my sword through the opening, feeling resistance against my sword. When I hear a horrible scream from the other, I know I’m successful and pull my sword back before closing the hatch. Half of my blade is covered in blood but it doesn’t deter me or even slow me down in the slightest. It’s almost like a game. A rather grisly game but back in Abermock we used to throw stones at each other for fun so who am I to judge. I move to another hatch and repeat the process over and over again. Bertrand, Quinn, and Wraine are all doing the same thing and we’re all swapping which hatch we use to throw the enemy off. After quite a number of successes, the bandits on the other side of the gate started to figure out what was happening once their fervor died down and stopped attacking the gate and targeted the walls instead. It’s been a few hours now and I’m a little tired but I’m still ready to keep going. The problem is, I can’t keep going if there’s no one near the gate.

Bertrand grabs my arm and brings me with him while Quinn grabs Wraine and takes him the opposite way. Bertrand leads me into one of the adjacent houses and stops on the second floor of the building. There’s a few windows here that open up showing the street in front of the compound below us and from here I can really see what we’re going up against. Dear gods, there’s nearly a hundred of them. How are we supposed to win? Bertrand breaks me out of my thoughts and gestures at the table near the windows and there’s a wooden bow on it. On the ground next to the table is a huge stack of arrows. Before I can turn to him and tell him I’ve never used a bow before, he’s already heading down the stairs while waving his hand at me, “Figure it out.” Oh gods.

Yeah it’s not easy. I don’t even fucking know how to fire an arrow correctly and the majority of my shots fall limply from my window straight down into the dirt below. It’s hard too because I think you’re supposed to pull the string all the way back but my arms are getting tired very quickly. There’s another person with a bow shooting from the building next to mine and they’re doing much better than me since they’re actually hitting the people below us. It has to be Quinn or Wraine and it wouldn’t surprise me if Quinn taught Wraine how to use a bow during this past month of training. I still haven’t fired a successful shot when Quinn comes up the stairs behind me. “I’ll take over here. You’re on the ground with Bertrand at the walls.” Oh thank you.

Nodding to him, I make my way down the stairs and out of the building. I regroup with Bertrand and it looks like Midriver’s Finest are showing why they deserve their name judging by the growing hole in the wall. It’s still too small for us to do anything to them on the other side but Bertrand doesn’t look happy. He doesn’t even turn to look at me before saying, “Not looking too good for us. Their numbers are bigger than what I expected and we didn’t do nearly enough damage to them at the gate before they gave up on it. We’re going to need to do something drastic here or else everyone in here’s going to die. I got news last night Derriv and the rest of the outfit will be back by tomorrow afternoon and if we survive till then, we win. The problem is at the rate they’re going, we’ll be dead by tonight. You up for it? Chances are we’ll die but at least we’ll drive them back for a bit and buy the others some time.”

I’d lie if I said I’m not hesitant about this. I’ve had so many brushes with death already that I know I’m not afraid of dying. No, that’s not true, I’m very afraid of death. All I need to do to remember that fear is think back to when I was still trapped in the tunnel and all I could do back then was accept that I was going to die. The anguish I felt back then knowing I couldn’t do anything to save myself was pure misery. At least this time I can struggle to keep myself alive but even that’s only a small consolation. I’m also afraid I’ll die before I fulfill my dreams. My aspirations are much greater than dying here but I suppose I can see this entire experience as an obstacle in the way of me trying to achieve my dreams that’s gone horribly wrong. I told myself before that if I died while trying my best to actualize my ambitions, I could at least be satisfied with dying like that. Taking a deep breath, I look all around me, taking in this place as my resting place. Maybe I can run away?

Huh, there’s someone staring at me through a window in one of the rear buildings. Looking back, it’s two little girls. One of them’s smaller than the other and has long dirty blond hair. Ilya. She’s clutching a stuffed brown teddy bear in her arms with a look of worry on her face. The other one’s a few winters older and she has long brown hair unlike her bald deceased father. Mary. There’s a look of worry on her face as well but underneath it all there’s an underlying sadness that can’t be hidden. She’s had a rough life so far and it’s all because of me. Now, if Reed and his men get in here, her already rough life will be cut incredibly short. That’s unfair. That’s unbelievably unfair. That’s so fucking unfair. Fine, my life for hers. That’ll make up for this unfair fucking world at least a little bit. “I’ll do it.”