Chapter 11
Rhiem pushed his way through a throng of chatting hunters. The base camp of the Hunters, in the plains before the Apals Cliffs, was filled. Not comprised completely of hunters, either.
There were scores of merchants, an entire tent full of pay-by stitch medics. Rhiem turned his head, and saw a whole bunch of women, likely the hunter's wives, strolling down the path and laughing about the scars their husbands had.
He shook his head. The whole damn thing was like a picnic to them.
Rhiem made his way to the central fire, where he was greeted with an intimidating sight—
Two-hundred hunters, gathered, waiting. They were gathered in a huge circle, all in front of the huge bonfire built at the center.
In front of the bonfire, a largely fat hunter dressed in a flak suit, was yelling out to his comrades, swinging a shotgun in fervor.
"We'll crush these machines! Bullets and bombs will cut these bastards down to size!"
"YEAH!"
"Spoils to the survivors! Glory to the winners! And the best of luck to you all!"
Rhiem stared blankly at the man.
He strode, up, in front of all the observing hunters.
The fat hunter turned to Rhiem.
"Hey, it'll be your turn next, kid."
He rapped the hunter in the face with his knuckles. The force sent the fat hunter stumbling back.
Rhiem turned to all the stunned hunters.
"I need to know who your leader is--yet there's not a single person here who'll speak to me without slitting my purse. So, whom among you is your leader?"
All the men looked among themselves...some for their gun...
"I assume I am." The hunter who spoke up was almost seven feet tall, with his white, wizened hair tied back in a scraggly ponytail. Several of his limbs were prosthetic…
The old veteran from Ootya!
"Old man!"
"Good to see that you're still making a commotion on our great, age-old traditions. Right now, you're interrupting war poetry."
The crowd watched with impunity.
"Come to my tent."
The tent was nice and warm, with a small heater set up at the corner, next to a row of knives, set on a dirty rug that led out the door.
The old hunter poured some wine into a clay cup. Rhiem took it gratefully, and sat himself on a wooden stool.
"So. What the hell's up with the carnival?"
"*sigh*…Us hunters do not have long lives. We bring our lives with us, and enjoy everyday we have."
"So, young one. How did you make your way here?"
"I had to walk from Ootya. Through this crazy city, where this crack-head with a gun attacked me and Riu. And then that pirate-merchant guy came in and gave us a lift to here."
The Veteran stopped drinking for a second. Slowly, he put it back down.
"You went through Vurms?"
"Um, yeah. Is that where it was called?"
"…Vurms has been closed off as a red-zone. No one is permitted in there, for their own safety."
"What, because of that O'Connell?"
"...Exactly because of O'Connell. That man is dangerous. You should not have gone through there. You and the girl are lucky to be alive."
"Huh! O'Connell wasn't so lucky then."
"…you killed him?"
"Actually, the Pirate-Merchant guy killed him. But what was so dangerous about O'Connell anyways?"
The Veteran gazed a bit into space for a bit.
"O'Connell…he was a hero once." Rhiem glanced up. The Veteran pulled a large album from his pack. He flipped through almost fifty pages of hunters and soldiers.
"This was O'Connell." A metal finger pointed to a smiling young man, with clean, close-cropped hair and an Anti-Tank Rifle over his shoulder. No scars were on his face. "O'Connell joined the Rubine Armed Forces when he was sixteen. He commanded a small troop that was in control of the strategic location of Vurms. He was stationed there for about a year. Then…the Archeries attacked. One of the first places they struck was Vurms. O'Connell's troop was wiped out."
It was Rhiem's turn to stare into space.
"O'Connell then disappeared. Slowly, The Archeries pulled out of Vurms. Almost thirty years after that, random attacks upon mercenary hunters traveling through Vurms began. Survivors screamed the name 'O'Connell' as they fled. Since then, no one goes there."
Rhiem stared at the picture of O'Connell. The man who went crazed, somehow got in control of Archeries machines, and then attacked him and Riu…This man, this evil man…
He reminded Rhiem of him.
* * *
Rhiem staggered out of the command tent. He had been discussing tactics with the Veteran for hours now. By now, night had fallen on the hunter's encampment. All the men were sleeping, preparing for their fights.
For some, they dreamt of their deaths. For others, they dreamt of resounding victory. The strongest dreamt of nothing...
Rhiem pulled up to the nearest water spigot, and washed his face. The cold water felt good on his tired skin. Dripping, he wrapped his head in a towel, and started back toward Riu's and his tent.
He spent a split-second glancing at a young girl who was listening to a gold-leafed iPod. Her hair was dyed a bright crimson-red; close-cropped in a haircut that was known as a Windy-Bob. She hummed to herself, nodding her head.
The daughter of a hunter? She seemed familiar...So did the tune...
"Hey...cute, aren't ya?" The girl spoke up.
He stopped. He replied cooly: "You talking to me?" The girl pulled an earphone out of her ear. She looked really familiar.
"Yeah...didn't think there'd be any good guys around these sticks." She pulled up, close to his face. "Know who I am?" She was a bit shorter than him.
Rhiem looked at her for a bit, and shook his head. He started back to his tent.
"Shoot. You Fringe boys really don't keep up with times, do you?" She grabbed his hand, and turned his around.
"My name's Tiana Woles." She smilied, showing a clean row of white teeth.
Rhiem made a mental double-take. Come to think of it...Tiana was about his age...
"You...you're Tiana, from Rubine?" Rhiem's eyes were now focused, and alert.
Her smile widened.
"Yeah! Know me, huh? What say we get to know each other a bit better...?"
"I'm Rhiem. And I have to go, now."
"Hey! Don't leave, Rieem! Rieem...!" Her sing-song voice carried over the tents as Rhiem walked back to his tent. He didn't know what a pop-idol was doing, over here, at the Apals. He didn't really care either. She didn't belong here, and it was none of his concern.
* * *
Rhiem pulled past the dark tents, shivering; the temperature was starting to drop.
He thrust his hands inside his pockets, willing them warmer. Then then he didn't feel something he should have.
Looking down, he realized he must have dropped his key to the tent! Shit!
Rhiem turned back, and retraced his steps.
* * *
Dawn was rising. Rhiem staggered back to his tent. He made his way, and tapped on the door of his tent.
"Riu? Riu? Let me in, willya? I'm beat."
Rhiem shook his head. How could he lose his key?"
"Come in!!!" The tone of the voice was awfully familiar...
Rhiem popped his head in.
"Hiya Rieem... You have pretty friend here." Tiana waved to him, sitting on his sleeping bag. Riu was on the other bag, smiling weakly.
"Hi, Rhiem. You ...know her?"
"Hey, so sorry I had to swipe these from your pocket." Tiana tossed Rhiem back his keys.
Sighing, Rhiem rubbed his face. No chance of sleep, then.
* * *
Mid-Morning
"Oh yeah? What conditioner do you use?"
"Conditioner...what's that?"
"What? No way! As soon as breakfast is over, you and I are taking a decent shower, girl!" Tiana turned her head, smiling her whitest smile.
"And Rhiem, you can join us if you want..."
Rhiem kept on eating, obliviously, while Riu blushed behind her hair.
"Man, you guys are no fun." Tiana took a bite out of her energy bar.
"TIANA!" Tiana tossed her bar into her untouched bowl of gruel.
"ugh...shit. My mom's here." Both Rhiem and Riu turned to look at this.
A teenager, dressed in a suit, and carrying a bag his size of his shoulder, ran down the mess tent. His face was red with exhaustion, and he was panting heavily...
"Tiana, I've been looking for you everywhere! Where'd you go!"
She stepped up, and struck the boy in the chest.
"Shut it, fool. I didn't ask you to come with me, you dicked around and followed me. So if you're gonna keep on stalkin', then I'll just keep on losin' you."
She turned back to Rhiem.
"Noa, meet my new boyfriend. Noa, Rhiem."
Noa clumsily dropped the bag, and stared at Rhiem.
Rhiem shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Noa took a deep breath, and fainted.
* * *
"Guh...damn wimp."
"Who is he?"
Tiana sat at the medical tent's center. She twirled her headphones in a large arc, drawing eights in the air; a frown on her face
"Who he is...che. A long time ago, my parents thought the guys I was dating were too 'bad' for a good girl like me. They introduced Noa so I might date him instead."
She kicked the unconscious Noa in the face.
"Yeah, a wimp like him really makes me want good, nice, boys." She smirked a bit at Rhiem.
"You're an exception, though, pretty boy."
Tiana motioned to Riu. "Hey, I heard you're pretty good at singing."
"I...I'm alright at it."
"Good. We'll have a showdown. I have a mini-karaoke machine in my tent."
"Wha?" Riu glanced back at Rhiem before she was dragged off, hand-first.
"You're just going to leave him here?" Rhiem sat by the kid Noa.
"Eh," Tiana shrugged. "I could care less. C'Mon, Riu. Let's bring it!"
"Uh, um, al-alright."
As soon as Tiana and Riu left, Noa got up. It seems he had been awake the entire time.
"Goddamn it." Rhiem glanced at the kid. "Goddamn women..."
Noa got up, and shook his head. "Ey, what's up?"
Rhiem sighed, and sat back on a chair.
"Not you, rogue. you gonna be alright?"
"Yeah..."
"Great. So now you can explain to me why a Pop-Idol is singing karaoke at the eve of a major invasion."
Noa got up, and took a deep draught from his light blue-colored canteen.
"Tiana...she's been my friend since we were little. She keeps on saying that her parents set her up so she isn't embarrassed by me. Two months ago, her agent set her up on tour to the fringe settlements, said there was a large profit to be made. Against her parent's and my advice, she went, and she took her gun with her. I tracked her down, and have been trying to get her to come home."
Rhiem cracked a small smile.
"But, you end up carrying her luggage."
"...yeah."
"Tsh!" Rhiem got up, and made for the door. "Hey, if you're here, you have a gun, right?"
"Uh, kinda."
"Bring it."
The Shooting Range.
There was a small shooting range set up in the encampment. The rangemaster was a small old man, dozing off by the bottom of the shooting gallery. A collection of guns sat on his sleeping lap.
None of them had their safety on.
Rhiem slowly clicked each on the safety of each one of the two dozen guns upon the rangemaster's lap.
"Hey, let's sneak in." Rhiem jerked his head. Noa looked about nervously.
"Is this okay?"
"Huh! There are no rules here. Not Rubine anymore."
Rhiem started up a dusty engine,which was connected to a series of disc launchers.
"So, What's your choice?" Rhiem pulled his Fallen Tigress from his back, and loaded range rounds into the chamber.
Range rounds were rubber bullets meant to provide non-lethal practice. The round would crack the clay discs, and fly off harmlessly.
Noa pulled from his sack, inside, an enormous steel bow. There were two slots where the shafts of some odd arrow fit in, and a over-sized sheath hung from his back.
Rhiem's eyebrows went up.
"Hey, which museum did you swipe that from? I heard people haven't used bows for centuries."
"Just watch." Noa drew his bow. An arrow shaft popped out of his sheath automatically. He pulled it out, and Rhiem could see the full arrow.
The arrow had no point, no arrowhead. Instead, a small warhead covered the end.
"Don't look directly at it."
A disc shot out. Noa tracked it, and fired off a hasty shot. The arrow flew ahead of it, and hit the wall behind. As soon as the warhead impacted the concrete, there was a small flash, and a rounding explosion erupted from the wall.
Rhiem could actually feel a bit of the impact from the shooting gallery. The shock pushed him back a step.
"Damn...missed it. I need some practice."
Noa shook his head slightly.
"Well, your turn."
"If it's a show of arms you want..."
Rhiem stepped up to the gallery.
He raised the Fallen Tigress to scope. Three discs shot out.
waiting...waiting...
The disc soared in the air, and all flew to the center of the shooting range.
For an instant...the three were near each other...
He fired. The range round soared through the air, and smacked the first disc. The impact sent the round tumbling though the air, and the disc in another direction,.
Cracked by the impact, the disc spun through the air, like a pinwheel.
It caught the second disc by the very edge, and sent both discs in pieces flying at the target wall behind them.
Four halves of clay discs embedded themselves in the foam of the target.
Noa's mouth hung open.
"Oh my god...you took out two discs with one shot!"
Rhiem took a look at the last, soaring disc. It's trajectory was starting to come back, towards the gallery in the end of it's arc.
He drew his tomahawk, and chucked it, flinging it towards the last disc. The axe cleaved the object in the center, and sent it's pieces tumbling down.
Rhiem glanced at Noa.
"Here's some combat advice, since you're new.
1. Prioritze everything.
2. Always have a spare everything
3. Never give up
and 4..." Rhiem swung his hand out, and caught the returning tomahawk. The chain whipped around his arm several times before clinking to a stop.
"Never stand losing. I'll be waiting until you can beat me in this arena." Rhiem jerked his head. "Come on. Let's go check on the girls."
Fate has a cruel irony. Rhiem would not have to wait long.