A Harrowing Escape
The side of the hill was covered in trees and thick forests that were nearly impossible to navigate if you weren't extremely familiar with the environment and terrain, but even for those who were, you couldn't move too quickly because of the thickness and number of the tall trees that grew there in addition to the possibility that you might fall down a cliff edge or run into one of the many large and ferocious animals that inhabited the forests.
The group struggled to make their way through the dense forest as fast as they could in a linear fashion with Trey leading using his strength and heavy broadsword to take down any obstacle in his path, Bo in the middle, his bow and arrow at the ready to strike from a distance, and Jason bringing up the tail end with his halberd in hand making sure that no one surprised them from behind.
They continued on for a few minutes without much activity until an arrow shot right past Trey's ear and landed in some small, furry creature pinning it to a tree. "What the hell, Bo?" an irritated Trey turned around glaring at Bo.
Bo calmly responded, "That is a blood weasel. Be careful, they travel in groups" As the rest of the group looked around and saw what had to be at least 20, no 30, maybe even 50 fist-sized beady eyes illuminated by the night sky staring back at them. The furry rodents had sharp claws and teeth sticking out of their fur and gleaming in the light of the fires and the setting sun. "Does anyone have a match, a lamp, or something? They're scared of fire." After they all shook their head no, still scared of the on-looking creatures' gleaming red eyes ready to tear at their flesh, Bo simply said one thing: "Run!"
The group rushed as fast as they could towards the coast not bothering with cutting down the trees or tripping over roots or rocks. The only thing on their mind was escaping the horde of creatures that wanted to eat them. As they continued to run, Bo slowed down a little and fell back behind the group, pulling out multiple arrows and firing them simultaneously, each one hitting its mark. This didn't do much to discourage the creatures, but it did cut down their numbers even if just by a little bit. Bo continued with this tactic, firing three arrows at a time while trying to keep up with the group behind him and cutting down any that got too close with the blade tipped edges of his bow, there blood blending perfectly with the crimson color of his bow as he deftly cut them down while still managing to fire off arrows.
This task kept Bo's full attention until he was brought out of his zone by a loud yell. Quickly glancing over his shoulder he saw that one of the young boys in the group had fallen over some rocks and seemingly twisted his ankle as his foot was twisted at an unnatural angle near a jagged rock sticking out of the ground, but even so the young boy still used his small, scythe-like kama to cut as many of the small rodents that tried to pile onto him as he could. He could only get so many though as they slowly, but surely, began to overrun him. He could feel their teeth dig into his legs, the harsh, stinging pain filling his mind until he was pulled out of the swarm and lifted up by Bo.
With the kid slung over his shoulder, Bo turned around and continued down the same path as the rest of the group, though they had managed to get a good deal ahead of the two, while just barely managing to edge away from the horde of flesh-eating rodents behind them. The young boy used his kama to cut down as many as he could from his spot on Bo's shoulder as they pursued the group. After what seemed like an eternity more of running-though in actuality it was about a minute or two- Bo finally saw a glint of light through the trees and as they got closer the creatures behind them tailed off or stopped in order to stay away from the light and in the shadows of the towering trees of the dense forest. Bo actually felt somewhat lucky that the group had only run into these rabid, but easy to deal with blood weasels as opposed to/ or in addition to any of the more ferocious large beasts that resided within the forests boundaries.
As he broke out of the mass of trees, Bo laid the boy that was slung over his shoulder down into the sand and attempted to catch his breath as the waves could be heard lapping against the beach nearby since he had finally caught up with the rest of the students. But, before he had the chance to completely catch his breath, he scanned the area in front of him where the other students were sitting or hunched over also trying to catch their breath until something caught his eye- or more like lack of something, or someone. "Where's Johnny?" Bo asked in a forceful voice that shown with a twinge of fear.
"What?" answered the voice of one of the students in front of him.
Bo repeated the question in a more forceful tone, if that were even possible: "Where's Johnny?"
After looking around them, the other students all started to don worried and fearful faces as they too realized that they were in fact missing one of their members. After a slight pause, one of the group spoke up in a hesitant tone, "I-I think he may have f-fell back in the forest." He stammered as he pointed a shaky finger towards the thick brush of trees that they had just left.
Bo started to turn around as he reached for an arrow from his quiver, until he was stopped by the voice of one of the other older members. "You can't go back there, Bo. We have to stick together until we get off this island."
"Jason… I will not leave anyone behind."
"Don't be stupid. You, more than anyone here, know what those those th-things are capable of."
"You're right." Bo stated as he walked towards the group only to stop short and reach down for a rock and a liquid he carried in a pouch he had wrapped around his pants' leg. Bo continued, "And that's why I have to go." as he poured the liquid onto the arrowhead and used the sparks created by rubbing two of the rocks together to set it ablaze.
"Stay here and keep everyone safe." Bo stated to no one in particular of the group. With the now lit arrow nocked into its proper position, Bo then proceeded to turn around ready to reenter the forest and find Johnny.
Bo carefully retraced the path that they had used to get to shore being sure to use the flaming arrow to keep any stray blood weasels at bay. After a few minutes of searching to no avail, Bo decided to go off of the path and search areas of the nearby forest. After even more minutes of fruitless expenditure of energy, he decided to give up and turned back around to meet up with the others on the beach, but he almost lost his footing as he ran into an object on the ground in front of him.
As he looked down to what was at his feet, using the fire to see better, Bo realized that what he had originally thought to be a mound of dirt and unknown animal feces covered by leaves and other forest materials was actually the remains of what used to be Johnny's body. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the blood weasels had effectively gnawed off most of what were Johnny's face, chest, stomach, and limbs leaving behind a mess of ragged flesh and torn, chewed up muscle and exposed bone fragments. Not to mention the increasing and lingering stench of what smelled like raw human flesh being … cooked? At that moment, Bo recognized that he had been holding the flame too close to Johnny's corpse and immediately jumped back and, in a visibly panicked state, comically attempted to use his legs to fan and kick dirt on any remaining fires while holding the bow and flaming arrow away with his hands.
After he had gotten rid of any stray fires and overcome the putrid stench of blood intermingling with the smell of rotting, and some partially cooked, flesh, Bo started to turn around and head back towards where the others were resting until he heard an ear-splitting shriek coming from that exact direction. Quickly recovering from the shock, Bo ran through the thick brush in record time, fueled by the adrenaline rushing through his system and numerous, horrid thoughts of what could've caused someone to scream out like that.
Upon arriving at the sandy coast, Bo realized just how lacking his imagination truly was. What lay before him was a gruesome, horrifying scene of carnage. His friends' bodies lay strewn haphazardly, in the same area they were before, bleeding profusely from the numerous bullet holes that riddled even the youngest of them and the boy he had saved off to the side with a bullet through the head. In the midst of the bodies lay a small form with black hair, indistinguishable due to the blood covering it, but Bo was sure that it was Marisol, the innocent little girl from the dojo. The only other student left standing, aside from Bo, was Trey struggling to stay up in front of the group as his vision was clouded by blood dripping from his forehead and his left arm hanging uselessly by his side making it hard for him to swing his heavy broadsword. The only thing holding him up was the will to live and protect his allies against the plentiful marine forces that stood in front of him, untouched minus the few that lay on the ground between them and Trey.
From the scene in front of him, Bo was quickly able to deduce that the marines had somehow been made aware of the group's presence in the area and managed to surprise them by coming around quietly and attacking before they even had time to resist. Somehow, though, Trey had survived but had been shot twice in the arm, and had seemingly been hit in the head with the butt of a rifle in the midst of taking down a few of the marines.
Wanting to save at least one of his friends, and driven mad by the loss of the rest, Bo rushed forward with no regard for himself and acting purely on instinct. As he prepared to fire off an arrow as he ran towards the chaos, gunshots rang in the air followed by the sound of Trey's body falling to the ground in a pool of his own blood as his broadsword was planted in the chests of a marine he'd thrown it at a few feet away in a desperate attempt to take down one more.
Completely overcome by grief and rage, Bo fired the flaming arrow that was still nocked in his bow into the chests of one of the marines in the middle of the group setting him ablaze and prompting him to run around in a panicked state catching nearby marines on fire as well. As the marines' attention was drawn to what was happening amongst them, Bo used that moment to fire off multiple arrows three at a time, hitting random marines in their throats, heads, or chests. The combination of the two attacks had managed to take down almost half of the squad of marines leaving approximately ten still standing.
As they refocused their attention, and their guns, on a charging Bo, the marines all prepared to fire, but before they could Bo had already used a sudden burst of speed to appear in the middle of the marines. While the marines fired off errant shots one after another trying not to hit each other, Bo used his agility and the blades at the tips of his bow to dice and slash at as many marines as he could. Though the blades were only about the size of that of a switchblade, he managed to put enough force behind his swipes that he was able to inflict deep gashes on limbs, slit throats, and thrust deep enough into their chests between ribs to puncture hearts and lungs.
After it was over, Bo stood face to face with the single remaining marine of the group that had attacked his friends. The marine, visibly shaken, let out a scared yell before being grabbed around the throat and actually lifted off of the ground by a young man slightly shorter than him. Letting out stifled gasps, he tried begging for his life as he stared into the cold, black orbs, which were normally a gentle dark brown, that radiated an immense killing aura.
Bo, however, took no heed as he spoke in a cold voice. "You killed them all. ALL OF THEM! Most were merely kids." The marine's continued pleas for mercy and forgiveness fell on deaf ears as Bo released his grip only to plunge one of the bladed tips through the base of the marine's skull and through his brain killing him in one swift blow.
Bo then walked over to where the majority of his friends' corpses lay-particularly the smallest one that was curled up in the center. Getting closer, he noticed that the figure was still alive- shaking and struggling to breath. Gently, he knelt down and cradled the small figure in his arms, turning its face only to see that his assumption was right- it was in fact Marisol's body. She had been shot in the throat, left to bleed out as she watched the others die and heard the screams of pain as they happened and as they ceased.
Bo could see the immense pain and agony she was in through her eyes, but the most apparent emotion was easily sadness- the sadness of seeing her peaceful home island set ablaze and hearing her friends, her family of sorts, die in front of her. Bo was brought out of his thoughts by a sudden cough spraying blood on his face and mingling with the blood on his shirt. Laying her back down on the ground, he closed her eyes and stood up opting to put Marisol out of her obvious misery. Before he stabbed his bow into her to deliver a swift, painless death, Bo muttered, "I'm sorry" in a soft voice and shed a single tear.
Before more tears could fall and he broke down completely, Bo was shaken by yet another explosion in the village. This brought his attention back to the matters at hand and only served to solidify his resolve and verify his mission: save as many as he could, escape the island, and get revenge on those responsible for destroying his home and ruining his life.