/A/N: Big, big thanks for pikku_millie and ECA. You guys are a big help with your ideas when my writing gets really stuck *inserts heart here for each of you*
Finally, I got this chapter done. Critics, comments, questions, anything at all that comes to your mind, leave a review or a pm. Tell me what you liked or absolutely hated. I appreciate the feedback! But anyways, I hope you'll enjoy~~/
The bandit leader's face flashed persistently through Crocodile's mind as he hopped over the wide roots sticking up from the ground. His imagination strained the old man's expression with wrinkles caused by Crocodile's current actions. Besides the days of heavy raining, the nights were out of the question for a visit to the hideout. They might have given him the basic training for defending himself along with his pistol but they were not exactly thrilled of the idea of him purposefully seeking any trouble.
"It's best to leave the wilds for its owners the moment the sun sinks down" they said. And Crocodile respected that logic only straying from obeying it on a few occasions. This was one of those times he made an exception to the rule. Crocodile's idea had lingered until the late dusk and he was too impatient to wait until morning. Besides, he had traveled a hundred times this same path. It was the shortest and safest. The boy could recite the trunks and the branches that were reliable under the weight of the foot and the hand. And the ones that were less so through the hard way. Fortunately for Crocodile, the cost had been only minor, as for figuring out the more animate part of the forest. Cuts, sprains, burns and bruises had all faded eventually along with the pain and ache. Rather than leaving marks on his young skin, his blunders aged Cordin and the others.
A tangle of deep, hoarse noises strengthened when Crocodile pushed the creaking door open. He stepped in to the house that was dark apart from the streaks of moon light entering from the windows. It was a soft light, like a layer of milk. The boy went through all of the rooms in hopes of finding someone who wasn't already sleeping before checking the common bedrooms. To his disappointment all of the bunks were in use by their owner, each one of them fast asleep. The weapons were on the floor on a carelessly tossed pile.
They must have returned from a raid…
Crocodile stared at the snoring inhabitants and went to the kitchen, not even trying to prevent the clumsy wooden floor from crying under his steps. He would have preferred them to be much more noisier. The raven-haired halted at one of the dinner tables and piled up some plates to make room. He placed down the rustling paper bag that still had all the pies inside. Despite his drowsiness and the knowledge that he'd have to trek the same distance back to town, Crocodile was pleased for accomplishing his whim. The bandit leader might frown at first upon finding those pies in the morning. But then he'd stuff them in his mouth, notice how delicious they were and would nod to himself and think aloud that Crocodile sure was a fine boy.
Crocodile closed the front door behind him and his shadow got loose from the bask of moonlight in the clearing when he rustled back to the trail.
Nick stayed completely still against the rough trunk as he observed the girl coming back outside from the shady building. She wasn't holding the paper bag in her hands anymore. There were only a handful of trees between the man and the child when she blended in the shadows. It seemed that she was heading back to Uliami. Nick let her go, he had memorized the route. And he was more interested in the people in the house before him. Nick was trembling. He was furious.
Those assholes..How long have they made that little girl steal for them? Even the meat pies I gave her! Poor girl. And she is so afraid that she's unable to tell anyone in the town…Maybe they even threaten her. Maybe they have her whole family as a hostage!
The officer nodded to himself in the dark. His instincts had been right on making that call for a back-up from the next town. They had first hesitated but after taking a look at his records inclined to sending him help. And they even gave the special permission for the men to take the zap-alpacas, the fastest animal breed on the island. They would get these bastards hiding in the building under arrest and for Nick it was self-evident that they had to act tonight. He didn't want the girl to suffer a moment longer. Nick nearly jumped when the den den mushi started ringing and lifted the receiver up after collecting his breath.
That was fast…
He described in detail the route through the forest to the clearing and hang up the phone.
The bushes rustled when a crowd of officers with their guns on their backs greeted Nick. One of them approached him.
"The situation?"
"No changes," Nick informed.
"We give them one change to surrender in peace."
Nick agreed though he frowned mentally. It was unfair that this scum was treated better than they deserved. Had he the authority they'd eliminate these criminals on the spot when they were vulnerable. But he had vowed to the code.
The man next to Nick held out his hand and was given the megaphone. He adjusted it to the fullest volume to make sure it cut through the snoring from inside the house. A shout rang out in the clearing: "This is the police! Come out with your hands in the air!"
They better not have any captives in there.
Nick gripped his gun tighter against his shoulder.
The bandits' sleeping halted and they fumbled out of their beds when the loud words from outside had penetrated into their consciousness. Their quick hope of them being just a fragment of a messed up nightmare was crushed away when the command was repeated, with an addition that they better hurry up or else they'd start the fire. The bandits were whispering loudly while taking glances from the windows to the yard and crouching close to the floor level:
"They found us!"
"Fuck!"
"Fucking hell!"
"What now?"
"How did they find us?"
There weren't a whole lot of reasons to choose from. Everyone knew and at the same time weren't still sure how this had happened. The look on Hijan's face tensed when she went for her gun.
"Get your weapons."
She started firing the men outside before the others even got a hold of their weapons. The police answered with gunfire.
"Hijan! We can't kill them all!" Roat yelled in desperation after the shooting on both sides had been going on for some time. The police were outnumbered by them by this point, they didn't need to continue the fighting.
"If we do that, they will hunt us down!" he tried reasoning his friend but she showed no signs of ending her bullet fire.
"Stop!"
Hijan gave a sideways glance as she spoke: "If we leave any alive-"
"Then who do you think will be in trouble?"
Roat stared at her for a while, nodded and positioned himself once again in the shooting position.
Hijan stopped firing, clinging to her gun only when the last man of the opposing side was on the ground, not moving. The area was scattered by the lifeless bodies, one of them their friend.
Cordin crouched to the body of their now former chef, sighed and commanded:
"We are leaving. Take nothing unnecessary with you."
A weak protest could be heard in the crowd: "But what about-"
"I said we are leaving!" Cordin interrupted.
"Someone has to explain to the boy" one of them proposed warily while the man next to him wept.
"And what do you think will happen if they send another group here and they find a message before Crocodile, huh?" Cordin spatted. He kicked the brown-haired body laying on the ground with a force that would have severely damaged the guts, had they been operational.
After packing the vital supplies the bandits took a last glance at their home before heading deeper into the woods. To a destination they themselves were not sure of. After an eerie silence the dark forest burst back into chirps. A bird group in the trees that had been observing the place for a while landed smoothly to the ground. The vultures skittered to the corpses. Three of the birds backed far away when one of the servings started shooing them. The rest of the flock ended their meal time as the shooing object now rose from the ground. The officer breathed heavily and looked around the former battle field. He didn't notice the angry shrieking of the birds as they flew back to the treetops. The only survivor of the police group started taking rough steps. His head hang down.
The sun was starting to be visible in the horizon's edge when the police found his way back to the outskirts of the town. The old man on the porch set down his news paper and rushed to the wounded man. He grabbed a hold of the man in uniform just in time before he fainted to his arms.
Crocodile woke up in the deserted store to an extraordinary commotion outside. He brushed off the tangled bangs over his face and straightened himself up, stiff from the hard and dusty floor. The boy dragged himself to the door, then outside where a crowd was gathered tightly around an old granny from the edge of town, all chattering loudly. Crocodile heard bits here and there of the interrogation that was going on. A police. Gunshot wounds. Crocodile felt his throat drying and stepped away from the people, back to the building he kept his stuff in. The only thing he took with him in a hurry was his pistol. In case things were as bad as he feared they might be.
The boy's vague deductions were confirmed at the destination when he saw the clearing, now littered with half-eaten bodies, the birds still chewing them. Crocodile felt his stomach twisting and he awoke to the fact that he had been just standing there for some time and hadn't breathed. Crocodile eyed the unfamiliar bodies on the ground and a horrible realization hit him when he noticed their clothes.
"Okay, this is important Crocodile, so listen closely," Hijan had suddenly coughed to make the nine-year-old stop reading. He had moved the book aside reluctantly and looked at her with his arms crossed. "There are certain people who…" At this point she glanced at Roat who leaned his head, closed his other eye and rotated his other hand. "…Who don't like us very much," the woman finished her sentence. Crocodile knew it wasn't just about dislike. He had heard about the police, thanks to the two grannies in the town who loved nothing more than to gossip. But he didn't bring his knowledge up. The boy nodded and Hijan took a paper and started scribbling something: "If you see someone like this in the town, don't talk to them and avoid coming here until that person has left for sure."
Hijan turned the paper so Crocodile could see the drawing. He couldn't maintain his mouth still when he saw the jumble of wobbling lines. Roat covered his mouth but the wrinkles around his eyes and the muffled laugh betrayed him. Hijan narrowed her eyes at his colleague but handed the paper and the pencil to his extended hands. After a moment Roat presented the two a colored picture of a uniform.
Crocodile memorized the picture and hoped he would never see a person wearing the clothing in it.
Crocodile shook his head. He had to focus. He scanned the area. The tracks. He could follow them and find the bandits. Crocodile wasted no time when he found the row of marks on the ground. A mix of relief and panic started fighting inside him. They had some lead, he didn't know by how much but if he followed the foot marks and the crushed roots, eventually he'd get to where they were. The boy started pacing and except for the inviting, encouraging marks on the ground disregarded everything in his field of vision. When it had been an hour or two from the start of his tracking, delicate drips started falling from the sky.
No…
The amount of the drops multiplied gradually. Crocodile was fatigued but quickened his steps.
No…
His lungs were screaming for him to slow down. He couldn't afford to do it. Crocodile roared in frustration to distract himself from the pain. From the desperation. The leaves of the bushes and the trees were pressed downwards by the constant flow from the sky. The guiding signs for Crocodile were getting harder and harder to spot from the muddy ground, as was to keep balance on it.
"No, no, no!" Crocodile shouted with the small amount of breath he had left. His feet tangled and he fell in the dirt. He lifted himself up to his elbows, thoroughly soaked. His shirt and trousers were grimy. The rain's smashing in the forest was so loud that even Crocodile's wails between his weeping drowned under it.
/A/N:I feel like such a bad person *incomprehensible grumbling*/
