“NO!” He shouted. “You and the others have not earned your freedom.” He stopped and stared up at the sky. I risked a glance behind me to see Nick trying to sit up. AJ was holding the piece of my torn cape around Nick’s leg. Further back I saw Brian, Kevin and Howie on the other side of the fence. I turned back around to see the chief still staring up at the sky. I could barely see his lips moving and then he stopped suddenly, holding his hands out to the crowd. The crowd fell silent as a tomb and my stomach twisted.
“The gods wish for a human, slave sacrifice. It shall be the injured, slave.” The chief announced, staring right past me at Nick. The crowd erupted in more cheers and the noise became deafening. The chief nodded to several natives that stood around the edge of the arena and they advanced towards us.
“NO!” I screamed, looking around wildly. They were going to kill Nick over my dead body. Then I remembered the slingshot I gripped tightly in my hand. Quick as a cat I dropped down, picked up a decent sized rock, aimed and fired it.
The rock shot like a missile through the air and hit the chief in the face. He let out an agonized scream and covered his face with his hands. Immediately blood starting seeping through and the crowd stopped hollering and stomping their feet. The native on his left was trying to help him. The much larger native on his right was glaring at me. I gulped and tried to tell myself to run, but it felt like my feet were stuck in cement.
“Lizz, come on!” AJ yelled in my ear, grabbing my shoulders. Shaking me out of my trance, he broke out into a run, pulling me after him. He raced behind Nick and started to pull him up. Nick let out a pain-filled cry and AJ tightened his grip.
“I can’t walk on it!” He gasped.
“You’re going to have to. They’re coming after us.” AJ hissed. Together we pulled Nick to his feet, or foot rather. “Come on, put your arm around my shoulders and use this like a crutch.” AJ instructed, handing the metal rod to him. Nick had his jaw clenched and his face was nearly white. My stomach was twisting with the pain I knew he was feeling.
We started making our way to the gate as fast as we could. It didn’t prove to be fast enough because several natives closed in on us. Instinctively I held the sling shot up at them. I don’t know why I did because that shouldn’t have made an impact on them, but all four of them stopped dead in their tracks.
“She struck the chief. She has the power of the gods!” One of them shouted in English, probably for our benefit. I snorted at the idea of me having the power of the gods.
“What kind of shit is this?” I said over my shoulder.
“If she can bring the chief down, she can destroy us with a mere look!” Another native yelled, spreading his hands out.
“I always knew there was something about you.” Nick joked quietly.
“Hahaha.” I retorted.
“Lizz, use it to get us clear!” AJ said urgently.
“Like how? Holler out Oooga Booga and hope they all cower in fear from the Big Bad Bitch?!” I snapped sarcastically.
“Just keep waving the sling shot around and look pissed off.” AJ suggested.
“Yeah, I’ve seen some pretty mean-ass looks out of you.” Nick added.
“Thanks, but I know you deserved them.” I smiled sweetly before turning around and facing the natives that had made a reluctant circle around us. My smile dropped as the seriousness of the situation sunk in. “BACK OFF ASSHOLES!” I screamed. “The god’s have got my back and I have been given permission to strike down anyone that gets in my way. You saw what happened to your chief, NOW LET US THROUGH DAMMIT!” I waved the sling shot around, mustering up the most hateful look I could.
The natives backed away, a trace of fear flickering across their eyes. Every sense told me to run as fast as my legs would carry me, but no way was I going to separate myself from Nick and AJ. They could only move so fast on the account of Nick’s chewed on leg.
“What are you doing? Go after them!” One of the natives that had been seated next to the chief shouted. He started yelling in a mixture of English and their tongue.
Several natives advanced on us until I glared at them threateningly and brandished my slingshot again. “I mean it, I will put a hole in your face. Back the fuck off!” I snarled.
They hesitated and looked at the native who seemed to be in charge. He yelled back something in response and they started to advance again.
Barely taking the time to think of what I was doing, I tipped my head back and started screaming like a banshee. Then I dropped to my knees and grabbed a handful of rocks, slinging them at random. All the while, screaming a bunch of gibberish and acting like I had totally lost it. When I finally looked up, I almost laughed at the look of horror on the native’s faces. I could only imagine how I looked. I’d been told I had expressive and even piercing eyes all my life. Now they had to have looked wild and possessed. And despite the crappy lungs I had been born with, I could be pretty loud if I wanted to. Now with new lungs, that seemed to help, even if it was just psychological. Of course the fact that I had Nick’s blood all over me probably made me look even more dangerous.
My aim was true and several natives were rolling around on the ground in a mixture of pain and fear. I knew that the rocks alone wouldn’t have brought them to the ground, but the fear that the rocks might have been cursed by me or something. I didn’t care so long as they got out of our way.
“Hold on Nick, we’re almost to the gate.” AJ coached. By nothing short of a miracle, we made it to the gate. There was a lot of angry screaming behind us, but no one dared get too close. Getting Nick over the gate wasn’t easy, but we were all going on pure adrenaline, him probably the most since he got attacked by Spike. Of course, I was now the cursed chief-slayer.
“How the hell are we going to get out of here? It’s a damn maze.” AJ grumbled.
“I think we’re going the right way.” I ventured.
“Lizz, you said that 10 minutes ago and we’ve turned around twice.” Brian smiled.
“Come on Howie, don’t you remember when we were exploring down here when we found Nick?” I asked him.
“No, actually I was more worried about how we shouldn’t have been wandering around and if I remember right, we got caught.” Howie returned.
I groaned. “That was when we got marked.”
“Marked?” Brian glanced at me.
“Nevermind, Howie does this look familiar?” I ignored Brian’s question. He was in Lelani’s hut when Nick and I had been branded and I didn’t want to be the one who got to tell him what was done to us.
Brian narrowed his eyes at me, knowing that there was something going on. Thankfully he chose to drop it, for now.
Howie looked towards the direction I had pointed. “I don’t know. It kinda does, but this whole cave looks alike to me.”
“No look, there’s light.” AJ whooped and took off in the direction where it was coming from. It cast an eerie glow towards us so that meant the moon had to be pretty bright and the sky clear. At least that would make it easier for us to travel in the dark.
As we all stood below the opening in the top of the cave, talking about the best way to do this, Nick sat down on a rock. I broke away and sat down next to Nick.
“How is it?” I asked softly.
“Hurts like a bitch.” He admitted.
“At least it quit bleeding. Are you okay though? I mean really, you had a pretty close call.” I said softly.
“Peachy.”
“Okay Nick, what else is on your mind?” I looked him straight in the eyes.
“Our meds. We managed to escape, but what does it matter if we don’t have our meds? We won’t last any time at all. Lizzard, we’re screwed.” Nick said somberly.
