LUCKY THIRTEEN
Voices spoke over him, distant and muffled.
"Make it quick." Karasuma!
Things were coming back together now. Once disjointed and far flung elements of the universe congealed together into one, cohesive reality.
The last Amon clearly remembered was Kristo's enraged face as the butt of the gas gun came crashing down over his temple. The swordsman had vented all of his anger and aggression in one, swift, downward strike. Amon was lucky the blow came from his own gun and not one of Kristo's blades. No, that didn't fit the shadow walker's m.o. Kristo never killed without reason, due cause. But that didn't mean the former hunter shouldn't have considered him self to be exceptionally fortunate.
Still, as the bruise bloomed on his forehead, and the world began to come into focus, Amon couldn't consider much of anything save the numbing throb just above his hairline. The hunter sat up, reaching for the tender welt.
"Amon, take it easy," Karasuma's sweet voice crooned.
Amon fought her gentle hands as he reached to get to his feet. His hands found one of the may pieces of paper, declaring mission statements and objects. "Acquire precognitive and hold in protective custody." Amon furrowed his eyebrows. They were after Kathain. This entire time, they were so interested in the hunt on Sakaki for Kathain, for an oracle.
The hunter shook his head, clearing the last of his disorientation. "Where'd they go?"
"Out, into the woods." The empath spoke sadly. Amon scrambled over the floor, taking up the discarded clip and gas gun, reloading the pistol; Karasuma trembled. "What are you doing?"
"Going after them."
Karasuma stared with wide eyes. "You can't be serious, Amon! You could have a concussion," Miho argued against the hunter, but the man refused to listen. She grabbed his arm. "Amon, there is a Solomon assault team on its way here, right now. You need to get out of here."
"Precisely what I intend to do."
xxxx
The woods were dark and scary for the first time ever in since the witches lived in Japan. The way it snaked down to the stream became like that of the serpent, twisting this way and that wildly. The twigs and brush leapt from the shadows, slashing and cutting at anyone who wasn't careful enough to jump out of the way. They disregarded it.
Kristo lead the way, followed by Brett, Robin, Bear, Sakaki, Nycole, Raven, and Geoff. Kathain trailed behind, running as fast as her legs as her legs would carry her. It wasn't fast enough. She mentally cursed all those years of skipping gym class and all those days of somehow worming her way out of exercising. Suddenly, a lifetime of laziness came back to bite Kathain in the butt.
Her eyes fell to the ground, seeing something dark and scarlet, something liquid. Kathain stopped, kneeling down and reaching for the substance. Her fingertips came up wet with it, stained red. Blood.
He bled out. Kristo's shoulder had been worse than they thought it was. The wound had grown infected. Kristo hid it well. He had seen worse; he would see worse.
"Kristo…"
Something else sparked in her mind.
Armed men, closing in. They were coming fast, coming specifically for her. Amon's gun pointed directly at Kathain. The hunter seemed vacant, empty, barren of all emotion.
"Amon… please don't."
Kathain leapt up, continuing down the wood path.
God, she felt like crying. The precognitive had dared to even think maybe, just maybe, Amon was someone who she would love and care about in the future. She had gone so far as to even make attempts, small steps, towards bringing Amon into their family, into THE family. The girl treated the former hunter well, trying her very best to be his friend, his ally, perhaps even a confidant eventually. She had allowed her good judgment to be blinded by a supposed vision. Kathain roughly wiped away her tears; it had merely been a sweetly macabre delusion of a post-teenage girl.
Still, it felt real.
It felt just as real as the uneven ground beneath her feet. Kathain poured out as much speed as she could. Her feet unsurely traversed the mellow earth.
She had to get out of there before Amon caught up with her.
xxxx
"They're coming; they're coming."
Nycole whispered the phrase with every long stride. She struggled to keep up alongside Sakaki. His longer legs stretched further, sweeping over longer distances. Still, the empath fought, knowing what lurked behind the trees.
"Kristo, shadowmeld us," Nycole ordered telepathically.
The swordsman didn't even look back, shouting loud. "I can't. I can't get all of us." He put pressure down harder on the gunshot wound, squeezing out another trickle of blood. "Not with this."
Kristo cursed the small mistake of the wound. It was a slip they couldn't afford, especially not now.
"Then, get ready."
xxxx
Kathain could hear them now.
Heavy footsteps followed behind her. There came a jingle of gear as they ran, catching up with the precognitive. She turned her head, still running forward as fast as she could but trying to catch a quick glance of whoever it was chasing them. For yes, now, there was no doubt in the precognitive's mind. Out in the woods, a Solomon assault team lurked, hunting her down, running perhaps no more than a hundred or two hundred feet behind her. They were coming, and the girl knew it. They were coming for her.
A hand shot out of the dark and grabbed her ankle. A fallen branch. Kathain tripped, screaming, landing face down in the stream. Water splashed around her. The girl coughed, spitting out a mouthful of cold spring water.
"Gotta keep moving."
The sounds of movement in the woods grew closer.
xxxx
"Kathain!"
Kristo whirled around as soon as her shrill cry pierced the night. He had promised her long ago to never let anything bad happen to the precognitive. The entire group had stopped, freezing in place.
Brett squinted in the pale moonlight, taking everything in. "Where's Kathain?"
"Kathain!" Nycole called out, searching for her friend.
The empath reached out with her mind, scanning the forest for Kathain.
She was soaked, drenched in water. She was running, running for her life. Kathain flew through the woods. She was lost and alone. Her heart trembled. She was terrified.
"She's alright," the telepath breathed. "She's on her way."
Kristo nodded, summoning the shadows around him, pulling the darkness up from the very ground and earth. "I'll get her."
xxxx
"Kathain!"
The girl froze. Amon's voice called to her, searching for the girl over the trees. She turned and ran faster, but her soaked pants and shirt weighted the precognitive down. Kathain knew what would happen; she knew he would come after her. Kathain's heart pounded in her chest, resounding in her ears. She had to keep moving.
"Kathain!" Amon called to her again.
The girl kept running, horrified, until a root caught her foot. Again, Kathain plummeted to the ground, shrieking out as she landed with a terrible thud. Something clicked in her ear. She glanced up, staring up the long length of the barrel of a gun. The precognitive held her breath for moment when she saw Amon standing over her.
"Amon…. Please don't."
She flinched, closing her eyes and waiting for the gun to fire with a tiny puff of gas.
It never came. Amon's hand reached down and found her arm, hauling Kathain to her feet. "They want you, just you."
"What?" Kathain blinked incredulously.
"We need to hide you."
It didn't matter. Even as the words spilt from Amon's mouth, the sounds of footsteps swirled around them. The assault team had finally closed in on its prey. The fallen branch had been no accident. Kathain saw that now. They had been waiting to separate Kathain from the group, from any of the witches who could actually protect her. Now, it was but Kathain and Amon, surrounded by who knew how many Solomon agents, all protected by the power of the Orbo, glowing dimly in the trees. They were like fireflies, flitting this way and that before settling.
Kathain pressed her back close to Amon as the hunter whirled around, aiming his gas gun this and way and that, but unsure on where exactly to fire.
"Amon…" the girl breathed.
He closed his eyes. "I know."
"I'm sorry…."
xxxx
Surrounded and outnumber…. Well damn.