Chapter Nine:
Isolation Interrupted (2016)
Arya, stepping out of her and Weasel's shared bedroom into the upstairs hallway, rubbed her blurry eyes. Seeing the unkempt sheets of Weasel's bed, Arya could tell that she was already gone, doing whatever. Arya figured that Weasel was most likely tending to one of her two responsibilities which Arya had given her: either acting as a lookout or fishing with one of the multiple fishing spears that Lommy had made. Nymeria, who had been asleep on the floor, noticed her master leaving and followed Arya out into the hallway.
After Arya's group moved in with the Heddle sisters, Arya kept her position as the group's leader while Willow became her second in command because of the latter's commanding personality and skill at giving out orders. Aside from Weasel, Arya spent the most time with Willow and shared the most information with her. Speaking of Willow, Arya made her way down the stairs and smelled the food she and Hot Pie were currently making. The smell was wafting out of the kitchen.
Entering the kitchen, Arya stayed quiet as she watched what unfolded before her. Hot Pie and Willow were standing side-by-side in front of a stove. Arya noticed that she had just caught the end of a discussion between the two of them. Willow and Hot Pie reached around and gave each other a side hug. Before they split ways, Willow turned her head and lightly kissed his cheek before turning to attend to something else in the room.
Arya grinned. "Hot Pie."
Startled, Hot Pie gasped and turned around as quickly as he could, nearly dropping some of the utensils in his hands. He looked relieved when he saw who it was. "Oh, hi, Arya."
Throughout the past year, Arya had discovered that Hot Pie and Willow had formed a romantic relationship they didn't tell anyone else about. Arya noticed that they tried to keep quiet about it, but it was an open secret among the whole group. Arya was amused whenever Hot Pie and Willow tried to be slick about what was going on between them because it was really obvious if you were paying attention at all, even a little. Arya sometimes found herself thinking, At least they're more secretive about it than Lommy and Jeyne are about their own thing.
"What are you making with Willow in here?" Arya asked.
Hot Pie still looked a little startled. "R-rabbit… s-s-stew."
"For who?"
"People who are interested in lunch."
"Alright, have you or Willow seen Weasel around at all?"
Willow, who had her hands full with skinning a rabbit they'd hunted the day before, called over to Arya from the other side of the room. "Yeah, I did. She ran right out the front door, and I think she's going fishing right now."
"Okay, thank you, Willow," Arya said as she turned to leave through the front door of the house, calling to Hot Pie and Willow over her shoulder, "I'll be back for some of that stew later."
Arya went outside, and Nymeria followed her into the front yard of the Heddles' home. Arya immediately noticed the large hole dug in the center of the yard, a shovel and a massive pile of dirt right next to it. She knew who had been the one doing this; for the past number of weeks, Lommy had discussed constructing a "defense bomb" to put in the center of the yard in case many wights arrived or if they were attacked by a hostile group. Arya had yet to see this bomb, but she felt like she would see it in the near future when Lommy lowered it into the earth with the assistance of a few others. If she really got curious, she could go into the basement where the bomb was likely located; most of the basement had been made into Lommy's personal workshop. He sometimes disappeared down there for whole days, only to emerge to eat or see Jeyne or Hot Pie. Arya heard stories from Jeyne that he kept empty water bottles to urinate into, but Arya personally doubted the authenticity of some of these claims.
"Weasel?" Arya called, taking a few steps into the yard. Getting no response, she called again. "Weasel?"
Weasel herself appeared, walking out from the shed out front with one of the fishing spears. A bucket was in her other hand. The two locked eyes, and they approached, stopping when they were a yard away from each other.
"You were out here in the shed?" Arya asked.
Weasel nodded. "Yes. I'm going fishing. It's my responsibility."
Arya couldn't help but feel prideful seeing Weasel like this. She didn't really eat dirt anymore, and ever since she and the others moved in with the Heddles, her literacy skills had improved significantly, and she had become more adept at hunting. She even accompanied Arya and Nymeria and the others when they hunted every now and then. Weasel was less fearful, and Arya could see a strong sense of bravery in the former's hazel eyes.
Arya was about to ask Weasel if she could accompany her to go spearing fish in the river behind the house, but Weasel cut her off before she could even get a word out.
"Lommy wanted to see you."
"Where is he?"
"The basement," Weasel answered, then turned to head to her station at the riverbank behind the house.
Arya turned to head back into the house. Pleased that she had found Weasel, she now wanted to hear whatever it was Lommy had to say to her. Arya figured that whatever Lommy had to say to her, it was going to be worthwhile.
Nymeria stayed behind on the first floor as Arya entered the door to head into the basement. Walking down the stairs, she noticed that the lights were on, and she could hear Lommy and Jeyne talking in the distance. Heading into the basement, Arya turned and noticed Lommy and Jeyne each sitting in a wooden chair across from each other, still talking. Arya had to breathe a sigh of relief that they were only just talking.
Like Hot Pie and Willow, they were in love, though the relationship between Lommy and Jeyne was much more passionate. They could often be found being affectionate out in the open and, multiple times, Arya had to have a stern discussion with the both of them after she'd walked in on them in a compromising position.
While Arya was annoyed about all of this, she was sure that if Sansa were there with them, she would have absolutely gushed over something like this. Before the apocalypse started, Sansa had been a fan and avid collector of trashy and sappy romance novels, and she would have likely called Lommy and Jeyne's relationship a "textbook case of the Florence Nightingale Effect". Arya knew what that meant, and she supposed it made sense; while Lommy was healing after his leg was hastily hacked off by Arya using her machete, Jeyne had been the main person there to tend to his needs. After Lommy made a wooden leg for himself to use, Jeyne had been the one to teach him to walk properly again. Arya supposed that this was when they started liking each other before completely becoming very attracted to one another.
"Hey, you wanted to see me?" Arya called into the distance. Both Lommy and Jeyne looked over to see her.
"Yeah, I did," Lommy explained, getting up from his seat to approach her. Arya got a look at Lommy's wooden leg, and she noticed a faint hint of a limp in said leg. Lommy limped (and fell) quite a bit back when he was getting used to his new limb, and he had gotten more used to it as time passed.
"Alright," Arya said, "what do you want to talk to me about?"
Lommy got up and walked over to a table, which had a white sheet covering something large. He gripped the sheet with both hands, then looked at Arya, grinning. "Watch this." Lommy swung the sheet off and revealed what was beneath: two propane tanks tied together, with fertilizer and other combustible materials tied around it. Arya realized that this was Lommy's finished new bomb.
"Isn't it lovely?" Lommy said, still beaming with pride in his creation as he faced Arya and Jeyne. "I call it 'La Diabla'."
"Is it complete?" Arya asked.
"Almost," Lommy explained. "All I need to do is lower it into the big hole I've got dug out in the front yard, and I need to attach the wire to light it if I need to."
"Have you made this wire?" Arya asked.
Lommy nodded as he answered. "Yeah, yeah," he said, almost giddily. "It's a really simple set-up, and I can show you–"
He moved to go reach for something. Arya protested immediately. "No, that's okay, Lommy. You should do that when you put it in the ground."
"Alright." Lommy shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Arya had no idea why Lommy wanted to put the cart before the horse and wire up La Diabla in the basement when it was meant to go in the front yard. For a second, an image flickered through her mind of said bomb going off in the basement, killing Lommy, Jeyne, and then Arya herself before collapsing the house and probably killing others in the scenario. Arya discarded the thought; it was better to avoid becoming paranoid.
"Is that all, Lommy?" Arya asked.
"No," Lommy answered. "La Diabla is pretty heavy, so I need some help putting it into the ground. Jeyne's already agreed to help, but what about you?"
"Sure."
"Thanks for helping us," Jeyne said.
"I'm going hunting with Nymeria and Hot Pie in a bit, so I'll help you when I come back," Arya said before leaving.
That day, Arya and Hot Pie, accompanied by Nymeria, went out hunting in the woods. In the year since Arya's group had joined the Heddles, they had found a shotgun, which Hot Pie used for hunting since he was rather bad at chasing animals down due to his weight and slow speed. Arya had seen this before, and she felt annoyed when Hot Pie let food get away when he fell. Nowadays, this was almost no longer an issue. Lommy suggested the group try to seek out more firearms, though they hadn't found any yet.
Returning back to the house, Arya and Hot Pie took their kills, five rabbits and a bird, to the kitchen to take inventory with Willow. Nearby, Weasel had two buckets full of fish she'd speared. Arya felt impressed when she saw this, and a hint of pride went through her when she realized what she was looking at. Weasel herself quietly sat and watched Arya, Hot Pie, and Willow take inventory.
After this ended, Arya approached Weasel. "How are Lommy and Jeyne?"
"Lommy finished his bomb," Weasel answered. "He wants you to help him and Jeyne carry it up the stairs."
Arya was willing to help. She knew that there would likely be a need for another person to carry La Diabla up the stairs, so she looked over to Hot Pie. "Hey, Hot Pie–"
"I heard," he said, turning to walk towards the stairs to head into the basement. Arya followed.
Arya and Hot Pie walked into the basement, and they soon found Lommy and Jeyne, who were getting La Diabla ready to be moved upstairs and into the front yard.
"Oh, good, you're here," Lommy said. "I was just about to go up there and look for you."
"What do we do?" Hot Pie asked.
"Get on one corner," Lommy answered. "We'll carry La Diabla up that way."
Carrying the bomb up the basement stairs, Arya and Hot Pie were closer to the door while Lommy and Jeyne were in the back. They were doing a fine job of carrying La Diabla up the stairs for a short while, then Arya noticed someone stumble in the back. Hot Pie must have noticed, too, evident by what he said next.
"What's going on down there?" Hot Pie asked.
"Sorry!" Lommy called back. "I slipped a bit, and it's kind of coming up all catawampus on my end here!"
"Try not to drop it!" Arya shouted down to Lommy and Jeyne's area.
Arya sincerely hoped that if they dropped it in some accident, it wouldn't go off and kill them all. However, she tried to reassure herself that the bomb would only go off if the wire connected to it was activated somehow.
After a few more minutes, the four managed to get it out into the first floor of the house and out into the yard. They slowly placed La Diabla into the big hole that'd been dug in the yard. When it was out, Lommy looked over at Arya, Jeyne, and Hot Pie as he began to pull the wire out from the hole, dragging it towards the exterior wall of the house as he spoke to the others. "Start putting the dirt back in."
As Arya, Jeyne, and Hot Pie began to get to work, Lommy continued his own activity.
Hours later, the group sat at the picnic table outside when dusk began to roll in. Nymeria did not sit at the table, but she sat down on the ground nearby. Hot Pie and Willow had served the whole group rabbit and fish with some stew and vegetables as well. Arya sat next to Weasel and every now and then glanced at her to make sure she was eating properly.
When they first started doing this, Weasel would flick her food at random people sitting at the table. Arya let it fly at first, but when Willow shot Weasel a very angry glare one night after getting half a carrot thrown at her head, Arya took Weasel away from everyone and explained why acting like that was a bad idea. She seemed to listen and understand.
At least she's not eating mud anymore, Arya thought. She hadn't seen Weasel eating any mud in a long, long time. She had either stopped or was keeping it a secret.
Arya then got a look at everyone else. Hot Pie was eating as quickly as possible, seemingly eager to shove as much down his throat as he could. Willow was eating slowly. Nearby, Lommy and Jeyne were practically glued together. Lommy had an arm wrapped around Jeyne, and they seemed to share their own food. Taking some of the cooked rabbit from her own food, Arya whistled to get Nymeria's attention and threw the meat towards her. Nymeria caught it in her mouth.
After a while, the group started talking. Hot Pie began telling jokes, and it was on from there. Joke after funny story after joke after funny story followed, laughter accompanying it as well. Even Willow let her guard down a bit during the process of this. When they were done, they moved to head on inside, and Arya looked over to see the wire jutting out of the ground, trailing across the yard, climbing up the wall of the house, and entering through a crack in a second story window. Lommy had finished setting up La Diabla earlier in the day.
"I want to go, too."
"No, Weasel."
"Why not?"
"It's just going to be me, Hot Pie, and Nymeria today. Maybe next time."
Frowning, Weasel was quiet for a moment. "Fine. I'll help Lommy or Willow or something."
Weasel turned to head off somewhere else. Arya, Hot Pie, and Nymeria had been in the process of heading out to go hunting, and Weasel had hurried over to them when she saw them leaving. As Arya, Hot Pie, and Nymeria exited the property to walk down the dirt path, Hot Pie started a conversation.
"She really wants to spend time with you, huh?"
"Yeah," Arya answered. "Honestly, I think she likes me the most."
"Yes," Hot Pie agreed, nodding. After a short while, the two disappeared into the woods with Nymeria in tow.
Hours later, Arya, Hot Pie, and Nymeria had hunted various rabbits and some birds. Arya, looking up at the sky, figured that it would be getting dark out soon. Disappointed that they hadn't discovered much food, the two started to make their way back to the house.
Arya thought that, maybe, the Brotherhood Without Banners would arrive to trade. Usually, two or three people from the Brotherhood arrived at the house to trade. Arya hoped that Gendry and or Edric would be among them one day, but neither ever showed up.
"I'm disappointed," Hot Pie said.
"So am I," Arya replied. "Maybe we'll find more tomorrow."
Hot Pie nodded. "Yes, that's…"
He trailed off as he looked ahead. Three things were before them: two wights and a black car. Arya noticed as well, and she and Hot Pie dropped their sacks of dead animals to attack the very much rotted wights. As the wights took noticed and charged towards the nearby humans, Arya drew her machete and charged, ramming it into its remaining eye. Hot Pie blew the brains out of the other with his shotgun, and it fell backwards and didn't get back up.
"How many bullets do you have left?" Arya asked.
"That was my last one," Hot Pie answered. "The rest are back at the house."
Now they turned their attention to the car. As Arya and Hot Pie approached to look into the windows, Nymeria picked up a scent after sniffing the wights and moved to the back of the car, towards the trunk. They looked inside the window at the same time after putting their weapons away.
"Tell me if you see something you think is significant," Arya instructed. Hot Pie nodded.
At first, Arya did not notice anything. It looked like whoever owned the car had just abandoned it in the woods. Aside from a box of bullets sitting on the backseat, there was no sign of someone being present there. Arya tried the handle of the side door where she was, and it opened.
"Do you think they're gone?" Arya asked.
"I don't know," Hot Pie answered. "That bullet box makes me think they're around."
Arya moved to the front hood of the car, and she stopped when she saw the green front license plate. This was the same car she'd seen on the road to Saltpans a year before the night she'd cut Lommy's leg off.
"Arya?" Hot Pie approached her. "Did you find something?"
"Look," she said, pointing to the license plate. "You see that?"
"The license plate?"
"Yes, this is the same exact car I saw."
"What car?"
"You remember when we cut Lommy's leg off? When we were heading to the intersection, I saw a car that looked exactly like this with the exact same license plate on the street heading to Saltpans."
"Meaning?"
"This is owned by the Brave Companions."
This hung in the air before Hot Pie said anything else. "Then let's get Nymeria and leave. Warn the others that the Brave Companions are in the area. Hey, where is Nymeria?"
Arya then noticed Nymeria's absence, but they quickly found her sniffing and scratching at the trunk. Curious about what was getting Nymeria so worked up, Arya moved to open the trunk. Because of how damaged it was, it was held shut by a black bungee cord. Arya drew her machete again and sliced it open. She flung it open with her free hand and was hit with a hideous smell. Arya and Hot Pie peered into the trunk and found it filled with severed limbs, including solitary hands and feet. They were all in various stages of decay. To Arya, this was the final nail in the coffin regarding confirming the identity of the group who owned the car. Before speaking, Arya drove her machete into the nearest back tire of the car to prevent them from following them if they decided to give chase.
"We need to leave," Arya said. "Now."
Arya and Hot Pie turned to grab their bags of hunted animals and run, Nymeria following closely behind.
Upon their return to the house, Arya and Hot Pie dropped off their hunted animals in the kitchen. Willow was there to help Hot Pie manage the new food. Weasel was there to say hello to Arya and give her a hug. While Arya appreciated the affection from Weasel, she had a different priority in mind ever since the discovery in the woods.
"Weasel, where are Lommy and Jeyne?"
Weasel paused to think for a moment. "In the house somewhere. I think they went into the basement a while ago."
Arya, not desiring any more information, made her way down to the basement to see if Lommy and Jeyne were indeed down there. Making her way down the stairs, she heard people making noises, likely talking. However, knowing Lommy and Jeyne, Arya braced herself for potentially seeing anything down there. After a brief while, Arya found them, their faces inches apart.
Jeyne noticed her first. "Oh!" She and Lommy seemed flustered, as if Arya had interrupted whatever they were in the process of doing. Jeyne smoothed out something Arya didn't notice at first and then continued speaking. "Arya! Do you need anything?"
"Yes," Arya answered, ignoring Lommy and Jeyne's flustered states. "Gather everyone in the living room."
For the next five minutes, Arya, Lommy, and Jeyne went to gather everyone in the house into the living room. Arya stood in front of everyone when they were all amassed in the living room, and she looked over at Hot Pie.
"Hot Pie, you were with me when it happened, so please come over here and explain this with me."
Hot Pie waddled over to Arya and stood to her left when he reached her, facing everyone else. Arya cleared her throat and began. "Hot Pie and I have reason to believe that the Brave Companions are in the area."
Jeyne looked alarmed as Arya continued speaking. "Hot Pie and I found a black car with a green license plate out in the woods, and I remember seeing that same car on a road leading to Saltpans the night we cut Lommy's leg off."
Hot Pie nodded. "Yeah, yeah, and Nymeria was picking at the trunk. We opened it, and it was full of severed arms and legs. Some lone hands and feet were in there, too."
A chorus of concerned statements came from everyone, and Jeyne looked more concerned than before. Her following statement confirmed her feelings regarding everything that was going on. "No, no… they know Willow and I live here… they must be coming back for us. I know what happens to people they kidnap, I KNOW what happens to–"
Lommy wrapped a comforting arm around her. "Just take a deep breath, Jeyne. We'll figure something out."
Willow walked over to Arya. "What are we gonna do?"
Arya paused to think for a moment. They had been living at peace in their seeming blissful isolation for so long–besides the occasional wight or hostile animal showing up–that they hadn't thought to build up defenses. And who knew how long they had before the Brave Companions arrived at the house if Jeyne's concerns turned out to be accurate. They needed to get to work. And fast. Arya now felt a little hope that she'd held them off for some time by putting out one of the tires on the car when she and Hot Pie found it in the woods.
"Everybody, start doing whatever you can to fortify the house," Arya ordered, speaking loudly enough so that everyone could hear.
They worked all through the rest of the day and the following two days. By the last day, Lommy had made several more explosives. They had taken inventory of all of their weaponry, and Arya, Jeyne, and Hot Pie had taken the time to wrap the entire chain link fence around the property in barbed wire. A few crates had been brought up from the basement, filled with miscellaneous heavy scrap, and placed in front of the opening where a car could drive through. However, they only had two, so Arya hoped that the admittedly shoddy barricade would work. Everyone always had a weapon on hand, anticipating an attack from the Brave Companions at any moment.
When they were all finished with their tasks, it was close to dusk. Arya, Hot Pie, Lommy, Weasel, Jeyne, Willow, and Nymeria all gathered in the front yard to discuss the situation.
"Okay, is that everything?" Hot Pie asked.
"I think so," Willow answered, then looked at Arya. "Can you think of anything else?"
"No, no," Arya said. "I think we'll be okay. Lommy, if they get in the yard, set La Diabla off."
Lommy grinned. "Alright, I will–"
"Look!" Hot Pie shouted, pointing towards the woods. Everyone turned, and they saw a black car with a green front license plate approaching at a fast speed.
Realizing what was about to happen, Arya shook Weasel to get her attention. "Weasel," she said in an urgent tone, "go to the kitchen, get the biggest knife you can find, and barricade yourself in the basement until this is all over."
Weasel nodded and ran off. Meanwhile, Willow and Lommy quickly went back inside the house. This left Arya, Jeyne, and Hot Pie in the yard, respectively wielding her machete, her crossbow, and his shotgun. Hot Pie was to Arya's left, and Jeyne was to her right. Nymeria was nearby, hidden off to the side, and all four watched as the black car sped up, likely to one hundred miles per hour, and rammed through the crates with a loud sound. The car was very damaged as a result of this, though the Brave Companions members were still in the yard.
The men began to pile out of the car. The driver was, to Arya's horror, Rorge. I thought he died years ago, she thought. Also exiting the car were Biter and three men she didn't recognize. One of them was a shorter man who had a crazed look in his eyes. He looked over the three in the yard, grinned, and licked his lips.
"Iggo, Pyg, get to my left," Rorge ordered. "Biter, Shagwell, to my right."
Iggo and Pyg, the two men Arya had seen in the car the year before, did as they were told. Biter and Shagwell, the man who'd licked his lips, did what they were told as well. After a brief while, Rorge stood across from Arya. Jeyne and Hot Pie kept their weapons trained on the Brave Companions. Rorge had various scars across his face, but he looked the same as when Arya last saw him. The same went for Biter as well.
"Why are you here?" Arya demanded, tightly gripping her machete.
"We were scouting, and we saw you here," Rorge said, laughing. "Next time, make sure we don't have a spare tire in the trunk." All of them people in the group with the exception of Rorge and Biter were armed.
Arya didn't believe him when he claimed they were only scouting the area. The barricade being rammed through proved to her that their intentions were not to her own group's benefit. She spoke again as her eyes narrowed. "Leave. Now."
Rorge laughed again, this time more loudly than before. Some of his cohorts joined in. "I remember you from Winterfell. You think you can act threatening? Think again. Now here's what's going to happen: we're going to kill all of you, maybe take some of you back to Saltpans, then rob your house and take everything we can use–"
"What's going on here?!"
The loud shout drew Arya's attention. Behind the Brave Companions members and the fence, two Brotherhood Without Banners members had arrived: Watty and Alyn. Arya had realized that in the group's haste to fortify the property, they'd let the trade they kept with the Brotherhood slip from their minds.
Shouting erupted between the Brotherhood and Brave Companions members as they seemed to recognize one another. Watty produced a bat while Alyn pulled out a crossbow as Shagwell, armed with a morning star, turned to face them. As everyone kept yelling, Iggo raised his rifle at Arya's group and fired. Arya's attention was drawn to the shattering of the glass that made up the window behind Jeyne's head. As Arya realized that he'd intended to blow Jeyne's brains out and missed, all of Rorge's group sans Shagwell–who stayed behind to do battle with Watty and Alyn–emitted a loud war cry and charged towards Arya's group up front.
Arya, Hot Pie, and Jeyne quickly ran backwards towards the front of the house as the Brave Companions reached the middle of the street. However, before they could get closer, a loud explosion emitted from the middle of the yard. Fire, dirt, and debris went flying in all directions as La Diabla went off underground. Rorge and Biter were the most unscathed, and they were knocked forward. Iggo was screaming as parts of his body were burned, and Pyg was in several burning pieces, dead. Hot Pie and Jeyne raised their weapons and began shooting. Hot Pie missed hitting either Rorge or Biter twice, and a crossbow bolt from Jeyne found itself in Biter's massive belly. It didn't seem to bother him, evident by him tearing it from his bloated flesh like it was nothing and snapping in his hand like it was a toothpick.
Iggo, who was still in great pain, charged at Arya and tackled her to the ground at full speed. He wrapped his hands around her throat and began to choke her. Arya responded by swinging her machete at his side, hacking at it as much as she could in the awkward position. Beyond them both, Arya watched as Shagwell knocked down Watty and subsequently crushed his skull with his morning star. Despite Arya's efforts, Iggo did not let go as he progressively tightened his grip; he was determined to kill her.
A few seconds later, Arya heard growling and then watched as Nymeria appeared and bit down into Iggo's left arm, yanking back and shaking it around in her mouth while growling savagely. Iggo let out a loud shout and released her grip on Arya as Hot Pie fired off another blast from his shotgun. Arya didn't see if he hit anything; she was focused on Iggo. She jumped to her feet, ran over, and kicked Iggo in the face as hard as she could. He landed on his back, and Nymeria dove forward, tearing into his throat.
Realizing that Rorge and Biter were still coming at them, Arya called over to the others. "FALL BACK! THE HOUSE HAS BARRICADES! FALL BACK!"
Arya, Hot Pie, and Jeyne darted into the house as Nymeria took off from Iggo's dying, convulsing, and gurgling form towards the backyard. Once inside, Jeyne slammed the door shut, locked it, and, with Arya and Hot Pie's help, began pushing a bookcase in front of it. As soon as they finished, someone slammed their full body weight against the door from the outside.
"OPEN UP!" Rorge screamed as he slammed himself against the door again. "WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"
Willow appeared in the hallway. "What's happening?!" she shouted, running over to Arya. Jeyne and Hot Pie were further away from them, closer to the stairwell to take them upstairs where Lommy was located.
"Barricade the door!" Arya commanded as Rorge slammed himself against it two more times. Arya could hear the sound of wood splintering and cracking. "They're trying to get inside the–"
She never got a chance to finish. The bookcase flew back and landed against the wall as Rorge broke the door down, tearing it in half in the process. He stormed in and immediately noticed Arya and Willow. He had murder in his eyes.
"BITER, GET THE FAT ONE!" Rorge screamed as he tore down the hallway towards Arya and Willow while Biter poured in. Since Willow was up front, he reached her first. Willow had a metal pipe. She yelled and swung, but Rorge caught it, threw it over his shoulder, and punched Willow right in the face. Arya ran to help, but before she could reach Willow, Rorge grabbed the disoriented Willow by the back of her head and slammed her face first into the adjacent wall, breaking through and hitting a stud.
Rorge dropped Willow, who was now limp, and charged over her at Arya. Arya was about to swing her machete, but before she could hit him with it, Rorge grabbed her and threw her out the window across from them both. The window broke, and glass shards cut Arya's skin as she was chucked out of the window and landed on the grass on the side of the house, right next to the rapid, powerful river than ran up against the house.
As Arya climbed to her feet, still gripping her weapon, Rorge climbed through the window and made his way over to her in four quick strides as she got to her feet. Yelling, Arya swung her machete and actually landed a hit on Rorge. He responded by swinging at fist at her. Arya ducked out of the way and rolled to the side, then jumped up and made a dash, intending to impale Rorge through the side. Unfortunately, Rorge was too smart, and he noticed her. He swung again. Arya jumped and aimed for the face instead, swinging from the side instead of trying to impale him through an eye or something. Rorge screamed as he shoved Arya away from him with both hands.
Landing on her back, Arya began to climb to her feet as she noticed the blood now gushing from the center of Rorge's face. What did I do? Her eyes widened as she noticed that she'd cleaved his nose clean off. There wasn't even a trace of nose left; just a red hole.
Seeing this as her chance, Arya roared and charged, jumping again, this time intending to ram her machete through the nose hole. Instead, Rorge swung one of his arms upward and hit her with a hard uppercut, knocking her back. Arya tried to get up, but Rorge was on her in seconds. He grabbed her by the throat with his left and choke slammed her against the exterior wall of the house. With his right, he punched her in the left cheek, then the jaw, then in between the eyes. Arya felt everything, and she began to get disoriented. Finally, he ended his series of attacks by giving her a hard blow to the side of her head.
Gagging, Arya dropped her machete and fell, rolling over in pain. She was incredibly dizzy, and her vision was blurry. She began to slowly crawl to her fallen machete, but Rorge beat her to it, stamping down on the blade with his left foot. "No," he growled. "This is MINE now."
As Arya began to climb to her feet, Rorge's right arm shot out, and he wrapped his hand around her throat, raising her into the air before him.
Staring into her eyes, Rorge spoke to Arya again. "Normally," he began, Arya hearing nothing but sheer, blistering hate in his voice, "I'd take you back to Saltpans, torture you in more ways than one, then feed you to our hunting dogs. But for you, I'll make an exception since I feel like entertaining myself today."
"What?" Arya said as a thin line of blood dripped from the left end of her mouth.
"Can you swim?"
"N-no, I don't think–"
"GOOD LUCK, THEN!" Rorge screamed, tightening his grip around Arya's throat before hurling her over the property line and into the river.
After landing in the water, Arya struggled to get to the surface, almost running out of air in the process. After her head breached the surface of the river, she swiveled around and looked back towards the house. She could only helplessly watch as the house became more distant and as the sounds of battle raged from the Heddles' property. All the while, Arya struggled to stay above the water. Just as the house was about to disappear behind some trees, a strong, loud current brought her beneath the water again.