Chapter 25

Waking up the next day was awkward, everyone was still upset about the previous night. They packed up in silence, no one saying a single word. They began traveling, Shadow kept his pace a little faster than normal, keeping a long ways ahead of everybody else. Finally, they came to a cave in the side of the mountain range they were following.

"The quickest route is through these caves. Once through, we're about a days walk from the city."

"Yeah." Tashia answered. Her voice sounded glum.

"Alright, follow me and try not to get lost." Shadow said, leading the way. They made there way through the caves slowly. While walking along one of the narrow ledges, the floor gave out under Tashia's feet. She started to fall, but Shadow managed to grab a hold of her shoulder, and easily lifted her back onto the ledge.

"Watch your step." he told her, continuing to move along the ledge. Finally, they reached a large cavern inside of the cave. From the looks of things, someone had made camp inside of it.

"This seems like an odd place to set up camp." Victoria said, looking around.

"Yeah, it does." Tashia agreed.

This is giving me a bad feeling. The shot rang out in the chamber, the bullet striking Tashia in the back of the head. Shadow reached for her as she started to fall back, catching her in his arms. Another shot rang out, then another. Hal fell next, blood spraying from his chest, Victoria afterwards. Ariel ran for the opening for the chamber, The shot hit her in the center of her back, she collapsed where she stood. Shadow cradled Tashia's lifeless body in his arms, tears flowing from his eyes. He felt a bullet drive into his side, then his shoulder. No matter how many hit him, he could not die.

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Shadow quickly snapped back to consciousness. He kicked his leg out, causing Tashia to trip over it and fall to the ground just as the first shot rang out. He spun around, lifting his arm in the part of the gun to Hal's chest. The shot's ceased.

"You look familiar." The voice said. Shadow watched as a man emerged from behind a rock.

"Ferret?" Shadow asked surprised. He barely was able to recognized his former friend. The time apart hadn't shown well for him. His hair was graying and thinning, despite his still youthful age. His close were barely rags. Shadow was surprised that the gun in his hand even still worked. It was covered in rust spots.

"Shadow?" Ferret said, his facing showing the realization of who was standing in front of him. A cruel smile formed on his badly scarred face. "Shadow, how glad I am to see you."

"What are you doing all the way out here?" Shadow asked. "Bull expand his borders?"

"Yeah, but not this far. It's all gone down hill after that whoopin' y'all gave us in the slums. Bull was pissed, threw all us out of the gang, started rebuilding it. I don't know what happened to Mantis and Fang. We all split up. I became a thief... then I killed a couple of people, and now I'm hiding out here. And now, I'm going to kill you, and take what you owe me out of those three women."

"Just try it it" Hal said, stepping forward. His spear in his hands.

"Ferret, you don't want a fight."

"Yes I do!" He yelled, raising the gun to fire. In a flash, Shadow was in front of him. He grabbed Ferret's wrist, and shot his palm into Ferret's elbow, snapping his arm, the gun fell to the floor. Shadow kicked Ferret in the stomach, causing him to fly back, slamming against the wall.

"This... isn't possible." Ferret said, drawing a long, rusted dirk. Shadow grabbed his hand, and forced the dirk away, holding is at his side.

"You really don't know when to stop do you?" He said, not forming it as a question. He stabbed Ferret's leg with the dirk. "You were going to kill us weren't you?"

"N... no, I swear I wasn't trying to kill you guys." Ferret said, pathetically.

"I don't believe you Ferret." Shadow said, gripping the dirk tightly.

"Shadow..." Ferret whimpered. "Come on buddy."

Shadow slammed the blade down into the skull of Ferret, causing him to scream. The blow miraculously hadn't killed him.

"Oh god, just kill me!" He cried, tears flowed from his eyes as blood flowed from the new wound made by the dirk. Shadow grabbed Ferret by the leg and started dragging him towards the deep hole just outside of the cavern. His sobs echoed through the chamber, a trail of blood being left behind them.

"Shadow, just finish him." Tashia pleaded.

Shadow finally reached the hole and stopped. He turned around and grabbed Ferret under his arms. He lifted Ferret up into a standing position and tossed him into the hole. There was silence followed by a soft thud as Ferret hit the bottom. He twitched in pain, whimpering his pleas for death. Shadow walked away from the edge, leaving the pathetic man in pain, trapped in the deep fissure.

"Shadow..." He heard him plead quietly. "Please just finish me." His voice was broken by sobs.

Shadow ignore him, walking back into the chamber.

"Let's go." he said coldly. Without waiting for a response, he headed for the exit of the caves.