Once they left the cave, they continued to head North making sure to keep themselves as small a profile as possible. The rains held off which allowed the ground to soak up the water and make travel at least a little bit easier as they followed the simple game trails. During their travels, they gathered what they could find and ate it without cooking it as they didn’t want to chance a fire giving away where they were.
They came to the top of the hill that overlooked the town and kept to the tree line and watched it for signs of life. The town looked much as if had during the Spring when he had come with his family to trade before the coming the coming warmness of Summer. He could even see people moving around the town and he couldn’t see any damaged buildings. His heart started to swell as he began to think that the Raiders had not come this far North. He looked at Kobi and started to smile until he noticed her shaking and her eyes wide with anger and he followed her gaze back down to the town.
There were only men moving about the town and even at this distance he could make out their furs, mismatched armor, and weapons. Kobi raised a finger and pointed at the large tree that dominated the town square and his fears were confirmed as he saw the bodies hanging from that tree. Small shapes moved about the bodies and Painin could hear the distinctive cry of carrion birds feeding on them.
He slumped down next to a tree and put his head into his hands and scrubbed at his face trying to make sense of everything. He busied himself looking through their nonexistent supplies and sighed knowing he had only two choices ahead. Either move around the town and continue North towards his Uncle without foraging and hope they find food along the way or sneak into the town and find some supplies before continuing North. Both choices involved not getting captured or killed by the Raiders.
Resigning himself to his choice he motioned for Kobi to stay put and began to slowly descend the hill making sure of his foot placement along the way. The overgrown nature of the hill allowed him to remain concealed for a large portion of his journey.
The chunk of meat that hung before him nailed to the tree had once been a man before the raiders had gone to work on him. His eyes had been put out, his tongue removed, ears and nose cut off. His arms and legs had been removed and the stumps cauterized to stop the loss of blood. His genitalia had also been removed before they cut open his chest cavity and splayed his ribs apart exposing the vital organs inside. Everywhere there was blood and pain and yet somehow despite the ghastly wounds the man was still alive in the barest sense of the word. His breath came in short labored bursts and he groaned softly as the crows danced about him picking bits of meat from the body their black feathers shiny with blood.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He looked at the remains from his place of concealment across the road and just sat there trying to take in the horribleness of men. First his family, then Kobi, and now this man whose only crime was to go about his life until the raiders came and destroyed everything in their path. Painin sat back amongst the undergrowth and just tried to come to grips with the enormity of the situation. Reaching a decision, he crept out of the undergrowth and snuck across the road, and took a deep breath before he pushed his knife into the exposed heart of the man who seemed to smile as his entire body seemed to relax in its struggle.
The ghastly deed done he offered a prayer for the man and the ending of his pain. He ran to the back of a nearby house and tried the door which to his surprise opened though it was dark inside. Looking back, he stole a glance back up the hill to where he had left Kobi, but he couldn’t see her hidden amongst the undergrowth. He slipped into the darkened room and allowed the door to almost close behind him.
His eyes slowly adjusted to the light of the room and he set about looking for anything he could make use of as quietly as possible. He didn’t like to be as exposed as he was in this house and especially with Kobi being left all alone back up the hill. The room was in shambles with items scattered about and broken. He sighed inwardly knowing that they should have just headed away from the town and tried their luck at finding food. He was about to give in that voice when he heard a sound like a thump come from one of the other areas of the house.
The door to the adjoining room was closed and he slowly opened it to reveal the kitchen area beyond. He moved about the area placing whatever he could find no matter how small into a mesh bag that was hanging on the wall. “Well, at least something is better than nothing.” He thought to himself as he turned to leave the house. Yet another thump caused him to stop and move towards the far side of the room where he placed his ear against the door. From beyond the door, he could hear muffled sounds like grunts and bangs.
Slowly pushing on the door, he took in the sight before him the bag of food landing on the floor with a muffled thud. She had probably been pretty once. Once before these men came to this town and brought their heinousness with them. Now she was little more than a chunk of bleeding meat as tears rolled away from her eyes and mixed with the blood that pooled around her.
Pulling his belt knife, he ran at the man and stabbed his blade into his back as he went about his business. The blood was rich and red as it came from the wound and the raider let forth a started cry. Again, and again he plunged the knife into the same area and soon the raider's bare legs and the flood beyond were covered in blood. The raider fell forward onto her and Painin with a growl rolled him off and plunged the knife into his throat and pushed it over to the left until it hit the hardwood flooring beneath.
Panting Painin looked into the eyes of the raider as the light left them. His hand slipped off the knife and hurt from clutching it so hard. He looked over at the woman’s face just as the world went black around him.