CHAPTER 3 – INTO THE WILD

With the four grunts in his room, the olive drab ODST, who turned out to be a Spartan known by the name Master Chief, was explaining what was following them.

"They're called the Nazgul; the guards of the index. They were humans once. Then Gravemind the deceiver gave each of them a key like the index. Blinded by their greed, they took them without question. One by one, they mutated into the flood, and now they are slaves to Gravemind's will. They will never stop hunting you."

"That not sound good," Pippin remarked.

"What we do?" asked Sam.

"We go to Rivendell," replied the Chief.

So they set out, traveling over hill and under branch. It took several days, for they had no vehicles. The grunts, although they felt somewhat insignificant in the presence of a Spartan, they got to know him rather well. When they learned that he was the last of his kind, then they felt more compassion for him than fear.

One night, when they had camped out on a hill, Frodo was assessing the situation.

"Me no think this good idea. We on top of big rock. Bad guys can see us. Master Chief run off to get fire wood. We alone and defenseless."

"You always pessimistic. Get happy," said Pippin.

Frodo looked down at his motion tracker. Nine red dots were closing in on their position.

"Very bad thing!" he screamed!

The other grunts, looking at their motion trackers, suddenly realized what Frodo's rationale behind exclaiming something like that was. Nine dots. There were nine Nazgul.

Within seconds, the dots had closed in very close. The grunts drew their plasma pistols. Looking in the direction of the dots, they saw nine figures in black cloaks. Beneath their hoods, twisted, distorted faces covered with thick mucus glistened in the moonlight. All nine of them simultaneously activated plasma swords. The grunts panicked.

Pippin was the first to retreat, "Big scary thing! Run!"

Frodo's three companions ran, leaving him standing alone in front of nine plasma sword wielding flood. He fumbled and fidgeted with the index, and found the button for active camouflage. It didn't help.

They could still see him as well as if he had been illuminated by a spotlight. The flood that was apparently their leader stepped forward and stabbed Frodo in his left shoulder. Frodo screamed in pain as the Nazgul withdrew his blade to fight another foe.

This other foe was the Master Chief, who had a shotgun with him. Utilizing it effectively, he successfully scared off the Nazgul. Frodo, with extreme effort, disengaged his active camouflage.

Master Chief, after rounding up Frodo's companions, began carrying him on his back through the wild, the grunts struggling to keep pace with him. They eventually found their way to a small gully where many weeds were growing. While trying to find certain weed that would keep Frodo's wound from becoming infected, he noticed a large red dot behind him on his motion tracker. He had a split second to react because whatever this thing was, it was right on top of him.

He whirled around, and was rather confused at what he saw. There was a white ghost floating there, and a female voice spoke out of the radio.

"What's this? A Spartan caught off guard?"

"Cortana?"

"In the flesh. Well, sort of."

Frodo, meanwhile, was propped up against a tree, his wound becoming gravely infected. Grunts breathed methane, so they always had to wear large converters on their backs which took in the regular atmosphere and changed it into that vital gas. If a grunt was wounded, the wound had to be healed using a special method, because otherwise they could die from oxygen poisoning. Frodo was trying to stay alert, but his wound was letting too much oxygen into his bloodstream. He looked over at where he had last seen Master Chief, and swore that he was hallucinating.

A white ghost was approaching him, with no driver.

"What? Me seeing things?"

"No you're not," replied Master Chief, "Cortana, a human AI, has taken control of this ghost. She's going to give you a ride to Rivendell.

"Get on. We don't have much time before those Nazgul show up."

The Chief helped Frodo into the remote controlled Ghost, then watched as it boosted away. His connection with Cortana was gone again.

Cortana, who wasn't actually in the ghost, but was controlling it from afar, was monitoring Frodo's lifesigns the whole way. They were steadily growing weaker. She coaxed extra speed into the ghost, and for good reason too. The ghost's monitoring systems showed nine other ghosts following it.