Alexis was looking forward to a little bit of rest and relaxation at the pool of the fortress. The day had been gruelling, the hike up and down the mountains to try and catch the baboons by surprise exhausting. They had swung by the other group of hunters who had, after waiting for most of the morning, butchered a lot of the carcasses and hung the meat into the shade of the trees. So now they were all carrying as much meat as they individually could back to the house. She could see that most members of the hunting group were flagging, their energy levels low. At least were getting some stat increases out of this, she thought, her strength, agility, constitution and agility had all climbed by one or two points.
The fusillade of shots ringing out from direction of the fortress was an unwelcome interruption of her quiet contemplation. At first she couldn’t place the sound of the rolling thunder interspersed by sharper cracks coming from the fortress, William and John however did and shouted for the group to get a move on, to get off the track and move into cover of the surrounding bush. They all dropped their loads, Miguel already rushing ahead, frantic, his sister and girlfriend were at the fortress.
As they rounded the bend in the river they could see a troop of baboons streaming back over the ridge towards them, William ordered the party to stop and find cover. They observed the troop for a while before William conferred quietly with Miguel and John. They clearly came to an agreement and split up, each crawling along the line of waiting members, whispering quiet instructions. John, lying down next to her, whispered: “When William gives the order, start firing up at the baboons. We hope that the surprise will allow us to take a few down before they charge at us. Miguel and William will draw the charge by exposing themselves but the rest should stay in cover. Between all of us we should take down most of the troop before they can reach us.”
“Fire!” William’s loud shout reached her a minute later and she opened up on the troop. To her horror, instead of charging at them, the baboons rushed over the ridge at the fortress, out of their line of sight. Although the fortress would be difficult for the baboons to attack if Ryan, Roland, Leah and Anna had secured it, the four of them had no hope of successfully holding of the charge. William realised it at the same moment she did and his loud “Charge” spurred the group on, each rushing to reach the crest the baboons had vacated as quickly as they could.
By the time Alexis reached the ridge, far behind the quicker hunters, the fight was over, William shouting down towards the fortress that they should hold their fire so that the hunters could move down the ridge. She was glad to see six people on the roof before the realisation hit her that there should be only four. Using her scope she quickly figured out that she didn’t know three of the people on the roof and catching her breath she saw that Leah and Anna were kneeling next to Kira, the dog covered in blood and feebly moving.
Alexis rushed down the mountain, worry consuming her. She barely saw the scores of dead baboons littering the slope and the occasional shot she heard of another wounded baboon being put out of its misery barely registered. The carnage closer to the compound was sickening, the stench of blood and intestine cloying and she barely paused. As she rushed around the corner of the house she bumped into the back of William, catching herself before she fell on her arse. Staring at the two bodies amid the various corpses of baboons William absently took another step forward towards the main doors. Alexis saw Roland lying on his back, eyes staring sightlessly towards heaven, his throat torn to pieces and the back of his skull cracked like an egg, brain matter leaking onto the stones. She didn’t recognise the other body, a young woman, throat similarly torn out, legs twisted away in disturbing angles and blood pooling around her in a large pool.
The whole terrace was covered in blood, the wall streaked with it, blood running down the gutter pipes, smeared on the window sills with broken windows where the baboons had apparently tried to get through the burglar bars. The heavy wooden door was battered, splintered in parts, but still closing of access to the house. William banged on the door, shouting up to the roof for someone to come open it. A short while later Alexis could hear someone on the other side of the door, trying to turn a key. “I can’t get it to open,” Leah’s voice came through the door, “come around to the kitchen doors and I’ll open those.”
By the time Alexis had reached the kitchen the door it was already open and she just rushed straight through, thanking Leah in passing, before heading towards the stairs. Heading for Kira, heart clenching in fear. She knelt beside the battered dog, Kira whining and licking her hand. She had taken a beating, one ear ripped off, chunks of her fur missing, scratches all over her muzzle and an oozing bite wound on her shoulder. Alexis knew that the dog had gotten lucky, she had expected far worse wounds from a fight with a baboon. Determining that Kira wasn’t critically wounded she immediately asked if anyone else needed her attention, but except for a few scratches or bruises no-one else was injured. So she carried Kira downstairs and started to patch her up.
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She could hear a subdued discussion taking place in the lounge, but her first priority was treating Kira, everything else, except serious injury, could wait for the time being. It took her a bit longer to stitch up the bite wound, it was nasty, before she washed up and joined the rest. Stories had apparently been shared and plans been made as she just heard the tail-end of John’s statement “…recap, everyone mobile will pick up the meat we dropped and then start clearing the baboon’s corpses, dumping them down at the river. We’ll build a pyre for Monique and Roland afterwards. Let’s head out.” People started filing out of the lounge and John saw her, “Alexis, check up on Ryan and Michelle please. They say they’re ok but I’d like you to confirm please. Ryan in particular went through some strenuous combat.”
Ryan, having heard John, just sighed and moved over to the kitchen, limping slowly and then heaving himself up on the kitchen table, unbuckling his belt before smirking at her, saying, “Do what you must.” “You’re an arse.” Alexis said, blushing slightly, before pulling down his shorts so she could look at his wound. The scab was impressively far along, the wound looking far healthier than even that morning. It was however cracked in a few places and blood had seeped out at the cracks. Nothing serious, so she just dabbed some disinfectant over the wound and admonished Ryan. “You need to take more care of yourself and stop aggravating the injury if possible” to which his quick “Next time I’ll rest the leg and get eaten by the baboons”, was not an appropriate answer which he seemed to realise immediately.
He awkwardly excused himself with “I didn’t think that through, shit.” before just shutting up entirely. She was starting to realise that Ryan, not unlike his brother, lacked any sort of filter between mouth and brain, often voicing thoughts before properly considering them. She knew it would rub most people wrong, but she had found the quality endearing in William and knew she’d find the same in Ryan, it made them honestly refreshing at times. She left Ryan with an “Its ok, happens.” before she moved on to Michelle, whose wound wasn’t healed nearly as well as Ryan’s, but still at least a few days ahead of what she would have reasonably expected. Michelle confirmed that her Healing sub-stat was growing between one to two points per day and that she had upped her constitution during the last few level ups, hoping to heal up as fast as possible.
Sitting down next to her, Alexis opened her Character Sheet, only to be greeted by a flashing notification: Congratulations on reaching Level 10. Please journey to an Ascension Obelisk to choose your Classes. Experience earned beyond Level 10 will be banked until at least one Class has been chosen by Player. Alexis just closed her Interface and squeaked “Ding!” furiously blushing at her tone of voice a moment later. Michelle had a confused look on her face but Ryan’s loud “Gratz!” was satisfying in a way no Gratz! had ever been before. Alexis immediately went looking for John to share the news, and asked Michelle to have a look at her Character Sheet before she left the room, after all, she’d been sharing her Experience with Kira and it was safe to assume that others would have reached Level 10 after the massive haul of Experience today.
It turned out that all the original members of their group, except for Michelle with the deficit accrued by being their communication relay, had reached Level 10. Ryan, at Level 9, was also very close. The new group, who hadn’t been part of the party, had reached Levels between 4 and 7 from the fight with the baboons. Under any other circumstances their success would have probably been a reason to celebrate but the loss they had suffered today was reminder of the price they would pay every time they let down their guard or took too many risks.
She joined the rest in carrying the corpses down towards the river, foregoing assigning her stats until after she had chosen her classes. Then, once the baboon corpses had been cleared everyone cleaned up the sweat, grime and unmentionable fluids by taking a dip in the open reservoir feeding the gardens as the pool had become somewhat iffy during the last few days due to lacking circulation. As the sun set they gathered around the funeral pyres they had built on the sundowner platform on the ridge above the fortress. Jaco spoke a few gruff words about his cousin Monique, his pain evident. It surprised Alexis that he hadn’t elected to speak a prayer, but she understood. William then spoke about Roland, recounting a few of the funnier experiences they had shared in the last days. It had earlier become clear that although William hadn’t known him well, he, amongst them all, had known him best. Which was sad, Alexis thought. Just before the sun disappeared below the horizon they lit the pyres, each raising a glass or bottle to the heavens, toasting the departing souls. They all remained quiet and withdrawn, most probably considering their mortality same as she, then slowly filtering back down to the fortress and getting ready for bed. For tomorrow would be an exciting day.