Against the Odds
Day 1
Blindfolded, tied up, and gagged, Kii stood struggling not to fall asleep. Adrenalin could only take her so far, and after what seemed like hours on end of complete darkness, her fear was giving way to exhaustion. As far as she knew, it was around eight o'clock when she ran away from home. And when she ended up here, wherever here was, it appeared to be mid morning. Now, based off of the cold air that was blowing on her skin, and the loss of the sun's warmth, she figured it was nearing the late afternoon.
I'm so tired...
Her feet and legs ached. She was being forced to stand, with no opportunity to move. She tried to run once, but one of the men who was guarding her screamed, and then her arm felt the sharp, cold pain of a well sharpened blade. He yelled insult and threats at her, kicked her a couple times, and then he dragged her off somewhere. Now she was bound to something that felt like a tree trunk.
I... can't fall asleep. It's almost nighttime. He's gonna rap-NO! No I can't. Don't think about it. Stay awake. Think of way out of this.
Occasionally, throughout the day, she had slipped in and out of consciousness. Every time she did, the head of that dead man stared back at her, glaring at her as his body fell to the floor. She could almost smell the iron scent of the blood spilling out of his body. It poured out like a squeezed juice box. His eyes seemed to say, "How could you do this to me?!" The image kept jolting her awake.
Okay think Kii, think. Go over it again. What do you know? It was dark out and then it was morning, and I ended up in an unfamiliar place. The only thing I can think of is that I was drugged, and someone dropped me off here. But I don't get it..., if I was unconscious I should me more rested than I am now. And why am I here? These people didn't seem to even notice me till I screamed. I don't get it, is someone watching me...? There's no way this is TV, since I actually got hurt.
Kii wiggled her eyebrows in frustration, trying to stay awake. They haven't searched my pockets, so they don't care what's in them. Which means that they don't care if I use my cell phone, so I must be in an out-of-service area. But they way they reacted to my iPod..., and what was it that guy said? "That power," or something... It was like they didn't know what an iPod was for. And why are these guys using swords and arrows? Aren't... aren't guns better for this sort of thing? And why are they dressed that way? Are they some religious group isolated from society?
But...I don't get it. What does it all mean? I can't make sense of anything, Am I going to die without making up with my mom? Without seeing my baby bother? Ugh, I just want to sleep.
She slammed her head into the trunk and felt her head rattle, not for the first time. It hurt like hell but it worked. She was more awake.
I must stay awake. I must. What does it mean? Why are they dressed like that?
"You keep doing that and you're going to die, demon."
Kii's head snapped around into the direction of the voice. Her heart started racing to the point where she could hear the blood pumping in her ears. She couldn't see him, but she knew it was the booming voice of the man that killed that soldier. She let out a tiny, muffled scream.
It not night is it?! No. No it's not! It can't be! She started struggling with the ropes behind her back, which bound her round the tree.
"For some reason..." he started. Kii could hear the crunch of his footsteps coming towards her direction. The sound stopped right in front of her, "For some reason, nobody is coming to get you demon. Now why is that? Did you truly come alone? Have my men and I wasted an entire day on you?" He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I know all my soldiers were so desperate to return to their villages, and it has angered them that they had to spend another day here,"
She felt his hand graze across the cut on her cheek, and then grab a lock of hair had fallen out of her mess of a hair bun. His voice changed, playfully. "Why, I had to stop several of them from killing you on the spot! I'm sure you overhead. They were so disappointed, but I am a man that honours my promises. And it's safe to say that you owe me one now, wouldn't you agree?"
As a matter of fact, she had heard him advocate for her. The men were begging him to either let them kill her or let her go. And this man had yelled back at them that she would be dead by sunrise, and that any person who argued further would be killed on the spot. She did not hear a single complaint or mention of her being tied up here after that. In fact, the whole camp was silent. They were probably more scared of dying by their leaders hands then of her. Now, Kii knew, this man was coming to her to rape her. That, or kill her. He probably did not have the patience to wait till sunset.
I'd rather die!
She felt something cold and moist sloppily touch her forehead, along with the prickly feeling of a beard. Despite her exhaustion, Kii shuddered violently and tried to lean away as far as she could. She began screaming as loudly as she could into the cloth stuffed in her mouth.
"You're a feisty little wench, aren't you? Quite ugly too." She felt his hand stroke her cheek. He was blowing his rank hot breath into her face into her face, which she had no choice but to breathe in through her nose. "For someone who looks so unappealing, why is it that your skin is so soft? You dress like a slut, but it's like you've never once worked for your meals. But you know..., I could fix that for you." He stopped stroking her cheek. His breathing was now laboured, smothering her face with the stench.
Kii twisted her face away from him; the smell was terrible. Her stomach felt woozy from the stress, stench and fear. Seconds later, she threw up into her mouth and, because there was cloth stuffed into her mouth, she started choking.
It was another couple of seconds before the man realized what had happened.
"Shit!"
Suddenly her mouth gag came off, followed by her blindfold, and a moment later, the ropes that bound her to the tree. Kitsuna fell to the ground, vomiting and coughing uncontrollably. As she retched, she purposely vomited all over her clothing, hoping it would turn the man off. She wanted to look as unappealing as possible.
After what felt to be too short of a period of time, her stomach felt empty, but she continued retching, trying to keep him away. She cautiously peeked up and saw he was stepping back, sword in hand, giving her an utterly disgusted glare. Thinking fast, having nothing to let to vomit, she started violently coughing up saliva.
He clicked his tongue in anger,"What a disgraceful wo-"
"BOSS!"
Both Kii and the mans head whipped into the direction of the new voice. It sounded desperate. Her eyes watered, trying to adjust to the light. A soldier, a small, hairy man who looked like he was in the middle of getting changed into more comfortable clothing for the evening, frantically ran over.
"BOSS! IT'S THE BIRDS OF PARADISE!"
Kii's captor did not miss a beat and ran over toward the man, screaming, "WHAT?! WHY DIDN'T OUR SCOUTS NOTIFY ME SOONER!? HOW FAR AWAY ARE THEY?!"
"THEY'RE HERE!"
Screams overcome with the sound of absolute horror from the soldiers in the camp followed, but Kii didn't stay to listen. She got up and ran in the opposite direction the moment the men took their eyes off her. She desperately prayed they did not notice. It seemed like all the guards who were watching her left when their boss came to have his way with her.
Run! Keep running! Run!
She ran into a forest, running in zig zags in case arrows were shot at her. Kii was never a fit person to begin with, and was so tired, but still she ran. Listening to the distant screams of agony, she ignored about the painful cramps of dehydration she was experiencing in her side; her lung's pitiful, desperate cry for oxygen; and the heavy lead-like feeling that was dragging her extremities down. She just ran at full speed. And when she could not run any further, she continued to walk as fast as possible, using the trees surrounding her as support.
Kii did not know how long she traveled for. The sun had sank, and the stars were out. After having drunk some water from a pond she came upon and throwing it up immediately afterwards, she collapsed between a bed of bushes, not even caring about the bugs that made their home under where she fell.
She dimmed her cell phone screen and tried call her house and the police on her cell-phone, but got no signal. She sent a text to every contact she had, hoping it would automatically send once she got in-range of a satellite.
Kii shivered. With no way to warm herself up, she was freezing under the night sky. She was so scared that her body would not let her fall asleep. She ended up sticking her ear buds into one ear and turning on her iPod. Eventually, she fell into a very light sleep.
Day 2
"Well, what the hell happened here?" A slightly annoyed voice asked. Draped in red and purple cloth respectively, InuYasha and Miroku stared out at what seemed to be a one sided battle. Three Birds of Paradise laid dead, next to nearly a hundred human corpses.
"A massacre is what it looks like." Miroku said, raising his hands in a prayer of respect, "Come, let us bury these men and pray for their safe journey to the after world."
Miroku peeked over and saw InuYasha's face twitched in irritation. "Look Miroku, I didn't come along out here with ya just to bury some pathetic humans. I came to hunt some demons. And I ain't wastin' my time doing these stupid monk rituals of yers!"
Miroku sighed, "After all these years, I still don't know what Kagome sees in you." Ignoring InuYasha's complaints, Miroku started around the camp for something to use as a shovel. He knew that his old friend was just putting up a front, and would end up helping out eventually.
The camp they stumbled upon was covered in blood, desecrated bodies, and the misty haze of smoke from a fire not long burnt out. Miroku lifted his purple robe up to cover his face, cursing himself for forgetting to bring along the gas mask his wife Sango had given him. He began exploring the area.
I don't sense any demons lingering around here at all. Or any signs of human life for that matter. For what purpose are these demons attacking all these military camps for? Not a single person here seemed to be a threat to the birds, and none of them were eaten for food. This is the third massacre we've come across this year.
Finding a shovel which he suspected was used for making latrines, Miroku walked over to what looked like a clearing. There was nothing in the area except for some ropes and vomit. It was the perfect place to make some graves.
"InuYasha, start digging over here!" He yelled out. He waited for the sound of InuYasha's grumbling, and then began digging a hole.
The half demon walked over to monk and began to quickly claw out dirt from the ground, using his fingers to pierce the soft earth beneath him. Miroku continued working earnestly, and then stopped, seeing that InuYasha had finished three holes before he even finished one. Instead he got up, and started walking towards the bodies with the intent of dragging them to the graves.
After a while, almost randomly, InuYasha stopped digging and started sniffing the air.
"Something smells like ninja food," he said mindlessly, almost nostalgically. He got on all fours and started sniffing the ground. Memories of ramen started flooding into his mind, and drool fell from his mouth.
Following the scent, he spotted something blue on the ground in front of him. He leaped over to it and picked up the wrapping of a bite sized chocolate bar. Traces of chocolate were still on it. He started at it curiously.
"InuYasha!" Miroku yelled out, seeing the half demon slack off. "Help me out here. The faster we get this done, the faster we can continue on our journey... Mmm? What's that you got there?"
He dropped the body he was dragging across the war-stained grass, walked over to InuYasha and grabbed the wrapper.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"This looks strangely like the food Kagome used to bring back from her world." He commented, avoiding InuYasha's reach as he examined it. "But that's weird. I thought she was unable to return."
"Yeah well," InuYasha said through his teeth, annoyed, "If you give me it back, I'll ask her about it." He lunged for it, but Miroku easily dogged him, knowing his friend's attack patterns by heart.
"No. That'll take too long, and Kagome hasn't traveled in months. The food on here looks fresh." He licked his finger and then swiped it across the wrapper. Placing the finger back in his mouth, he closed his eyes, fondly remembering the taste of Kagome's home countries food. He recalled what this was called: Chocolate.
"HEY!"
Miroku handed the wrapper back to him. "Here, try smelling it. If you follow the scent, we can find who owns this."
"I was just about to do that! And if you hadn't gotten your greedy hands all over it, it would've been easier to track!" Pouting, InuYasha sniffed the blue wrapper. Miroku watched as InuYasha also purposely scratched some of the chocolate bits off under his fingernail. He mused it was probably so InuYasha could try some later when he was not looking.
In seconds InuYasha had his nose to the ground, following the faint scent that went straight into the forest.
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AN: Woo! I got a review. I don't understand how to reply to them yet, but that made me happy enough to set aside my homework and write this! :) More to come soon I hope. I've got a LOT of assignments coming up and they have first priority.
