Astrid was now in hell, nothing she had ever experienced had been this painful. The two voices inside her head was in a never ending battle.
I won't let him turn!
He is going to die!
I could cut of his leg.
That would only hurt him more!
But I can't let him turn!
You have no choice!
And with that she was out of her head, into the real world. Facing down on Hiccup, she had been crying so much and she hadn't noticed. She was going to lean on his mouth, hoping for a kiss. But as she stopped just before they touched their noses, she felt a warm hand on her cheek.
"Don't kiss…" Hiccup smiled in a hoarse voice. "Just leave me…" He said sadly.
And with that, Astrid had snapped. There is no way she would let him turn, no matter what.
"Astrid, what're you…" Merida croaked.
Astrid's eyes began to blank, Hiccup's hatchet she had took from his back pocket had been lifted high. She wasn't thinking anything else than: Don't let Hiccup turn. Don't let Hiccup turn.
She swung the hatchet down fast enough to go through the flesh and bone, her head was now ringing in weird noises. Screams, and gasps. She looked down, Hiccup's left feet had been successfully amputated. The blood isn't stopping.
Merida held her hands near her mouth, thunder-struck. Astrid was breathing very fast, her heart felt like it was going to give in.
"Merida give me your bandana!" Astrid snapped, Merida however was too shocked.
Astrid leaped to her and took the bandana herself from Merida's pocket, she turned back to Hiccup who had turned unconscious. But he was heard to give a few wails and moans of pain, this only triggered Astrid more.
"HICCUP!" Astrid cried, hurried herself as she bandaged his amputated leg and cleaned it with the water left on her bottle in her backpack. "Don't die, please don't die." She pleaded, over and over. Chanting the same words on her mouth and in her head, at the same time.
The wound was covered and cleaned, Astrid looked back to Merida. The redhead couldn't say anything, she was too frozen in fear. She threw the bucket aside, carefully not to step on Hiccup's small blood puddle as she yanked his arm to stand up.
"Help me carry him." Astrid ordered, she lift unconscious Hiccup by the arm. "NOW!"
Merida had no other choice, she too wished Astrid's decision had worked. She hurried to carry Hiccup on his other arm, they slowly carried the wounded Hiccup across the bridge. They carried him carefully so he wouldn't fall again, Hiccup's arm was sliding off from time to time as they pushed forward.
"Almost there, Hiccup." Astrid said, breathing heavily in and out of her mouth.
"Stop…" Said a female voice.
Astrid and Merida both looked up to see who it is, they held Hiccup tightly for his protection. On the distance, stood a girl who pointed a 67 GP machine gun at them. The wind blows her abnormally long bright blond hair, her tank top and skinny jeans reveals her feminine curves.
When the sunset was right behind her, it was hard to tell her face from the shadow. Astrid and Merida was stuck in place, warily looking at the mysterious girl,
"Please help us! We have an injured and…" Astrid said as she walked a few steps forward, but right in front of her a bullet missed her leg just two inches.
"I said stop." The girl said sharply, raising her weapon even more.
Merida was boiling with rage, "We have an injured you dipshit!" She shouted in anger.
The girl said nothing, machine gun still pointing at them. Astrid hesitated to make a move, was this girl the one from the helicopter? Or was Hiccup actually right?
"Merida, you have any arrows left?" Astrid whispered towards the Scottish.
"I got spares in my backpack." Merida replied quietly. "Are we going to fight her?"
"Not yet." Astrid glared at the blonde girl, she noticed something else in the buildings around her. After a few seconds of looking around, she could see many faceless people, she couldn't tell if it was men and women who were aiming her from beyond the windows. The only thing she is sure of is that they're eyes are in the scope of a firearm, fingers in the trigger ready to shoot.
"I see…" Astrid said shortly to the girl. "You have snipers surrounding us, how many?" She asked calmly.
"18." The girl replied, her face began to appear as she took a step forward. "And me. Now, what do you want?"
"Help us… We saw that helicopter, we need help!" Astrid gulped.
Two more people appeared behind her, they were saying something to the girl. She nodded and the two men approached Astrid and Merida, one man points an M16 at them while the other one who had an eyepatch circled around them. Both of them had short orange hair, and a muscular body than instantly warns anyone that they were not someone to mess with.
Astrid kept cautious, then both the men turned to the girl. "They're clear!" Cried the man, his voice was deeper and more intimidating than Astrid thought.
The girl lowered her gun, she too approached them. The girl made a hand signal to all the snipers, they all disappeared from the windows.
The girl's face was round, and was pretty young compared to the two men. She held out a hand so Merida and Astrid could shake it. "Hi, my name's Rapunzel. Don't ask me why I have that name, my mom likes children books." She waited for someone to shake her hand, but then she realized. "Oh, right, sorry. Stabbingtons!"
She commanded her two men to carry Hiccup, but Astrid denied. "Woah! Woah! Woah! You can't just take him!"
"I can assure you he will be okay, we will take you to the camp where the boy will be fixed up. Maybe a peg-leg if you ask me." The girl assured her, Astrid had no choice she would not start a conflict with the person who can command anyone to kill anytime. The two men carried Hiccup by the arm, and walked away.
Astrid could only scowl at the mention of a peg-leg, surely this innocent looking girl couldn't have talked about that so casually.
"Wait, camp?" Merida asked, almost curiously. "How many people are there?"
Rapunzel scratched the back of her head. "I dunno, last time I checked it was nearly two hundred."
Merida stared in bewilderment, but Astrid went ahead of her. "I want to talk to the leader." She stated calmly.
Rapunzel showed a little sign of surprise, but her face turned back to a cold personality. "I can't. Not yet, I still don't know who you are." The blonde girl said sharply.
"Understandable." Merida said softly, but she caught a murdering glimpse in Astrid's eyes.
"What about the helicopter?" Astrid asked.
"Oh! You noticed? Yeah, we just got to power that thing last week. We used that to go from places to places, we just had gone to one city today to pick up supplies. Come, I'll show you." Rapunzel smiled and gestured her hand to follow.
Astrid was somewhat surprised by Rapunzel, she thought her as dangerous for a second but now she was like a very happy little kid. Seeing Rapunzel skipped all through the way, was very awkward for Astrid and Merida.
"So… Uh, Rapunzel?" Merida asked awkwardly.
"Hmm?" Rapunzel replied.
"How does the helicopter work again?"
"I actually don't know, I've never been to one before. Can't wait though!" She giggled.
Merida nodded curtly and went to Astrid. "Can you believe her? And I thought she was the leader!.. Astrid?"
Astrid gotten silent, she was looking at her feet. Merida shook her briefly, "Yo, ye okay? You zoned out there for a second." Merida frowned.
Her eyes snapped back to reality. "What? Oh, yeah, I did. I was just thinking about Hiccup, if I did the right thing or not." She said with concern in her voice.
"For a second there I thought you were a psychopath," Merida said light-heartedly, she put a firm grip on Astrid's shoulder. "But in this world you could only trust your guts, Hiccup survived because of you Astrid! Even I couldn't do shit about it."
"Right, thanks Mer." Astrid smiled back.
"Ha, ha… Please don't call me Mer…." Merida deadpanned.
"We're here!" Rapunzel called to them, they arrived at the center of the town. Surrounded by apartments with several window light dimly, meaning that there are inhabitants living there. But what distracts them the most was the people, they seemed to be partying near a giant bonfire in the center. The only light source of everywhere was only that, Astrid and Merida's jaw dropped.
Rapunzel smirked at their reactions. "Welcome to Corona."
