Chapter 34.
Blood on Blood.
Oliver could only do one thing – just one thing.
He leapt from his hiding place and streaked toward them, readying his bow and sending an arrow off before they had even noticed him coming for them. It struck the leader right in the chest. He dropped the leather strip that was in his hand and staggered backward on impact. His surprised eyes found Oliver, and then found nothing as he slipped to the ground.
He was halfway to them when it struck.
Oliver hit his hands and knees, dropping his bow, the world shifting away. He was no longer in this clearing, but elsewhere, in another time. He saw the pirates again, the same men, the same situation, and he saw a rock colliding with a skull, breaking it to bits. He felt hot blood running over his hands, saw it steaming in the air. He felt it on his face, in his throat, in his nose.
He grasped at the present, but the past was overwhelming.
He felt Sara in front of him. She was shouting. Her hands were ghostly on his body.
He was suddenly focused only on the kill, only on the red run of blood. He had one way out, one escape from all of this – to eliminate the enemy, to destroy the threat.
But that was the past. It was trying to snap back into place, to force him to be who he was. He had been warned about this, but he never expected it to hit him so hard. It was like standing his ground against the pull of the ocean. His body was battered by the waves.
He overcame it for the time being, coming fully into the present. Everyone was engaged with the pirates, fighting for their lives, knocking guns out of hands and swinging bo-sticks.
But Sara was no longer in front of him.
She was fighting a pirate in the forest, matching his blows, but she seemed outmatched. Oliver staggered to his feet and went to help her. Before he could reach her, the pirate got the upper hand and put his arm around her throat. One tug and he could kill her.
Sara dropped down, slipping out of his grasp like she was covered in oil, but as she jumped back, the pirate pulled a knife and slashed her arm open.
She cried out.
Oliver lost himself again, and the timeline snapped into place.
He grabbed a knife off his vest and hurled it at the pirate, catching him in the eye. He closed the distance between them and tackled the man to the ground, grabbing the nearest heavy object and whacking the end of the knife with it, driving it home.
He dropped the rock and stared down at what he had done.
"Oli!" Sara was on him immediately, dragging him away from the body. Her arm was gushing.
"You're hurt," he said, blankly, like he was somewhere else.
She glanced at her wound but didn't pay it much attention. She just pulled him to his feet. Both of them looked up as a pirate dashed through the woods, Shado on his heels.
"Wait!" Oliver called, unwilling to part with one of their group.
She stopped, looking back at him.
"Everybody get back to the cove. Ivo is here."
"I can catch him," Shado insisted, antsy.
"We shouldn't be in the woods right now. Get back to the beach!"
His group moved on from the clearing, with him and Sara lagging. She put her arm through his and kept him moving. She must have seen something on his face, because she stuck to him like glue. What did he look like? Haunted?
It was quiet at the cove. Oliver hung back while the others pressed on through one of their hidden access points. He went to the top of the overhanging rock, looking into the dark woods. It was nearing sundown. Sara followed him, pacing around the rock, completely wired.
"Come here," Oliver said, after several minutes had passed. Her arm was looking nasty.
Sara looked unwilling to come closer, like he was going to try and hold her down, but eventually she relented. Her face twisted. "It's not that bad."
Oliver took her arm gently in his hands, turning it to see in the falling light. He tore the remains of her sleeve off and made a makeshift bandage. "You should go in and see Joleen."
"I don't wanna go inside. I want to stay with you."
Oliver just grunted, looking at the woods again.
"What are you waiting for?"
"It should be soon."
They stood there together, quietly. Sara leaned into him for support, and he put his arm around her. His hands were covered in blood, and so were hers. She seemed determined to stay with him, regardless of what he had done – what she had watched him do. Did that make them both bad people? He had tried to hard to protect her in the beginning, but now she was protecting him. She was here for him, the stone wall that held the ocean back.
It came just as the sun disappeared.
BOOM.
Sara jumped, but Oliver held steady.
A bright flash of fire erupted where the plane was, and black smoke curled into the fading sky.
"You said he did a lot of damage. Is that what… hurt Slade?"
Oliver nodded, remembering the damage one blast had done to his friends, to his life. He thought of the little vial of Mirakuru he had kept, how it sat, unused, in a crack in the wall.
He thought of using it again, to help protect his friends and family.
Sara wove her hand into his, blood on blood, and whispered,
"We'll be okay."