Standing at the front of the large group was a man dressed in some kind of leather armor. The sleeves had been cut out, but there had been some kind of armor on his shoulders. On his head was an ancient helmet worn by athletes. In ancient times, it was said to protect a person’s head against blunt force trauma. How well it worked in the wasteland, Daniel wasn’t sure. As for the man himself, Daniel sized the man up and down. Based on what he saw, he guessed that in that moment, he could attack at a hundred different angles. The man wasn’t an expert, but he was sufficient fighter.

“Before I begin, I should introduce myself. My name is Vice Warthorn and I will be leading this group.” The man paused, wanting to see if anyone would challenge him on this claim. No one did. “With ten of us here, that should be enough to deter most bandits. However, if we are to get into trouble, I would like to ask anyone who can fight to step forward now.”

Of the people who had joined the group, no one was willing to step forward, Daniel included. Of course he could fight, but he didn’t want to make his abilities known. Most likely, if people knew what he could do, they would just ‘throw him to the wolves’ so to speak. Daniel had heard enough horror stories on the matter to know when he needed to keep his mouth shut.

“Very well. It seems I will be the only one to fight on the front lines. Of us, how many of you have traveled this way before? I ask you step forward.”

This time, three merchants stepped forward as well as one of the wanderers.

“Roughly half,” Vice said to himself. “Then some of you may know the dangers of this road. If any of us are led astray, I hope you’d be willing to guide us.” The few didn’t say anything before Vice kept talking. “While I have traveled down this road many times, I may not be able to save you from every danger, so stay close. If we are ambushed by people, I would ask you to run ahead while I try to deal with the threat. But don’t stray too far. Many bandits will have ambushes set throughout the trail, making you easier targets.

“However, if it is an animal, I would ask you to move farther, but still stay relatively close. If you get lost and don’t know your way, you may wish that an animal or bandit would get you.”

No one disagreed with what he said. While they all hadn’t traveled down this particular road before, they were all experienced travelers. None of them wanted to be stranded in the wasteland.

“Before we leave, I would like to ask if everyone has food with them. This will be almost a week’s worth of travel.”

Two of the merchants checked their bags. They were younger looking fellows. One looked to be in his early twenties while the other looked to be almost twenty, just a bit older than Daniel. The others didn’t check their bags. They already knew what was in them and had packed more than enough. As for Daniel, he knew how long he could last without food. Besides, he knew how to cook things from scorpions to mutant wolves if things got dire.

After the two nodded, the group headed out.

For the first leg of the journey, no one had yet talked. They all kept an eye on each other. They were people of the wastelands. Even the younger merchants were hesitant to socialize with others.

Daniel didn’t mind, he kept most of his thoughts to himself. He watched the area around. The wasteland up until this point had been rather flat. There weren’t any places to hide for humans. But he knew that there were other dangers.

They traveled almost the whole day. The only time they stopped was to take a break for a mid day meal. Daniel had checked his bag to see if his uncle had packed him anything.

When he opened the bag, his eyes went wide. It wasn’t because he saw food, there was something else more important in his bag. His eyes widened at the vision of all the gold that his uncle had left. Ever since the first day they sold the pieces of the motorcycle, Daniel had been keeping count of how much gold pieces his uncle had saved. And while he didn’t know the exact amount, the supply in the bag must have been close to how much he had saved over the years. All of the gold had been neatly placed inside a container inside the bag so as to ensure that the coins wouldn’t jingle as Daniel walked.

Daniel looked up to the sky and thanked his uncle in his heart. He then looked inside the bag once more and found that there was some food inside. He grabbed the bits of nuts that his uncle had packed for him and ate them.

Soon enough the group started up again. After walking for so long, the short rest the people had allowed them to open up towards each other. A few of the merchants began to speak with one another. Although none of them sold the same thing, they did find the various selling techniques to be fascinating. Daniel had no interest in such things. And no one seemed to want to talk to the lone traveling child.

At night, the world had started to become cold. The group had started to move away from the river as animals would often come to the river. While most wouldn’t dare attack such a large group, there were still some regular animals and mutants that wouldn’t be deterred.

They moved far away enough that the river was but a finger’s width in the distance. Merchants had set up their tents while the wanderers had brought out their bed rolls. Daniel was the only one who was able to remain comfortable with just a blanket thrown over his shoulders.

The group had decided that they needed to set a watch to ensure that nothing would surprise them in their sleep. It was only when they asked who should keep watch that they finally realized that Daniel was amongst them. All of them agreed that Daniel was too young and didn’t think he should even be given a turn.

It was alright with Daniel. With nine people remaining, they could all be given a single hour to keep watch. In the end, they decided that there would be eight people each night. As for who got left out, that would be rotated amongst the people. The only person who everyone agreed needed to stay up all the nights was Vice as he was the only one that could actually fight.

That night, nothing happened. All of them had gotten their rest and had woken up. No one was missing that they could tell. The same thing happened the next night as well.

Night fell on the third day. While nothing had happened to them at night, the land they were visiting was starting to have more vegetation. With more vegetation was the higher chance of animals, or worse mutant animals. All of them had been warned to be vigilant.

Daniel felt that there was something wrong. Maybe it was because the scenery was starting to change or maybe he was just starting to get paranoid, but Daniel didn’t like it. As soon as everyone except their lookout. Once the merchant was looking the other way, Daniel took his opportunity to climb up a nearby tree.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

With qi in his step, Daniel’s steps went completely unheard. The only indication that he had moved into a tree were a slight rustling of leaves. But with the cold night, it didn’t seem all that strange. The lookout turned, but he didn’t even notice that Daniel was gone.

Daniel wondered if it was because it was dark that the man didn’t see him. Daniel grabbed some rope that he kept in his bag and tied it around his legs. It wouldn’t have done well if he fell off the tree.

After getting himself as comfortable as he could, Daniel managed to get a bit of sleep.

From directly in front of him, there was a noise. Daniel stirred awake as he opened his eyes. There was someone there. It was a grubby looking person. Dirt had been smeared across their face as some kind of camouflage. The person wasn’t even stealthy at all. The branch was swaying up and down from the person’s ever shifting weight.

“Ambush!” Daniel called out. The others stirred from their slumber and awoke to the danger around them. A group of a dozen or so people had surrounded them.

One of the merchants woke up and found that there had been a fluid trickling down his hand. His eyes shot wide as the red fluid was still warm.

This wasn’t good. The bandits had already surrounded them. They had already killed one of the merchants that Daniel could see, but there could have been more. Daniel saw the others begin to look around. It seemed that there was only one person who was dead.

“Well, well, well. Looks like someone is too clever for his own good.” Daniel looked to see that Vice was looking up at Daniel. As for the bandits, all of them had helmets similar to Vice. Vice looked shocked that everyone was waking up. But that momentary shock passed in a matter of nanoseconds. A cold smile appeared on his face. “You know I never thought a child would see through our little game. Then again, I guess you would have survived in the wasteland for this long without being a little bit cautious.” Vice beckoned Daniel down. “Come down here. All you need to do is give us everything in your bag and we’ll let you live. We’ll even be kind enough to let you keep your bag.”

Daniel looked down at the people. There were too many of the bandits for Daniel to handle on his own. He needed to think of something. He looked around. None of the merchants or wanderers looked like they were going to do anything. Both of the younger merchants had their hands up in surrender. Only the wanderers who didn’t have much didn’t look like they were willing to surrender either. Some of them were feeling around their person. Daniel had been watching these people for days now. He knew that the wanderers each kept a weapon with them. But none of them were finding the weapons that they kept on them.

Damn.

Before Daniel could think of something, the man who was on the tree branch was able to stand up. He threw himself at Daniel, hoping to knock him off of the branch.

How foolish. Using his qi, Daniel had lowered his body weight. Now he could move freely on the branch without too much fear of falling off. Then he grabbed the man’s arm, twisting it around him. He held the man there, suspended in air with only his arm behind his back keeping him from falling. Daniel even allowed his qi to flow through the man so that he was weightless as well.

The bandits all let out a gasp of shock. They then began to whisper amongst themselves, wondering how Daniel was able to do what he was doing. Some of them theorized that Daniel was some sort of mutant. While a mutant with Daniel’s abilities would fetch a fine price, they weren’t so sure that they could even catch him. Vice had a complicated look on his face.

“Are you sure you want to continue offending me?” Daniel gave a cold snort. “One false move and I’ll kill him.”

The other bandits were looking amongst themselves. None of them seemed to want this comrade of theirs to come to any harm. Besides, he didn’t even have a helmet or padding on. A fall from his height would leave him seriously injured at best. If his wounds got infected, that would be it for him.

“So kill him,” Vice said. “Do it if you have-”

He had said so.

Daniel reached for the knife his uncle had left him. In a quick motion, he brought it out and stabbed the man in the side. He must have hit an artery because blood began to come out in an alarming rate. The man let out a howl that was too wild to be human. At least that was how Daniel thought it went. As he saw it, bandits like these were less than human. There were those that worked to just survive, but these gluttonous pigs were only looking to fatten their own bellies as far as Daniel was concerned. If they acted like animals, then he would put them down as such.

After stabbing the bandit, Daniel threw the bandit to the ground. He landed with a thud. Vice’s eyes followed the body in horror. His eyes then trailed back to Daniel. “How dare you?”

Daniel shrugged. “You’re the one who told me to do it. Their death is on you.”

Vice held up his hand and pointed a dagger at Uri. “Kill him!”

The other bandits all began to head up the tree. They climbed higher and higher. Daniel watched them as they did. It was just as he expected. He had studied each of them. All of them were low level fighters, nothing to write home about. But even if they were, there were still too many for Daniel to handle on his own. Thus he waited until they got close.

Once they were less than three feet away, Daniel ran to the edge of the branch. He then leapt off, his body almost weightless glided through the air. Vice’s eyes went wide. But while he looked surprised, he still had enough presence of mind to hold up his dagger. Daniel increased his weight ever so slightly. It lowered his body to the point that he was able to glide under the dagger. He then gripped the man by his side, ensuring that he didn’t glide past him.

Vice turned his body, but Uri was able to hold on, keeping out of Vice’s sight.

“How are you doing this? Are you a mutant?”

“You have offended the wrong person,” Daniel said. He used his dagger to slice at Vice’s inner thigh. The man then went down, his legs no longer able to support him. Finally, Daniel was able to stand in front of him.

Vice shot his arm out. In a last desperate attempt, Vice had tried to stab Daniel. But he was too slow. Daniel kicked the man’s wrist, sending his dagger flying through the air to parts unknown. “Am I supposed to be afraid for offending you?”

“I’m not the one you should be afraid of,” Daniel said. He leaned in close. “You have no idea who my master is. He goes where he wants and kills who he wants.”

A look of terror was on the man’s face. Daniel let the feeling sink in. He then sunk his dagger into the man’s throat. His body fell to the ground. Footsteps were approaching. Daniel turned to see that the other bandits were heading towards him. When he turned to look at them, all the bandits were too scared to move. Daniel had seen this happen before. When his uncle was out matched, his tactic was to take out the largest threats. Although Daniel wasn’t sure if Vice was the largest threat, the others did seem to take orders from him. And the fact that they stopped when Daniel looked at them showed just how scared they were of him.

“Do you think I’m in the mood to fight right now? Scram!”

The other bandits exchanged looks. By the looks in their eyes, none of them were sure if they could handle this child. Even if Daniel just barely eleven, he had just killed two of their members in a matter of seconds. On top of that, he already demonstrated powers beyond humanly possible. The bandits then began to disperse back into the vegetation.

Daniel didn’t move until the lights of their torches were nothing more than mere flickers in the distance. Only then did Daniel relax.

The others ran up to him. All of them were asking him questions, questions that Daniel didn’t feel like answering at the moment. After a few moments, they remembered Daniel’s age and knew that he needed his rest. They all backed up to give him some space.

“Let’s move,” Daniel suggested. “Mutants probably heard the commotion and might come here to see what they can kill or scavenge.”

All the wanderers and some of the merchants backed up what Daniel said. And with that, they all departed. Daniel looked back. He remembered the dream he had a few days ago. Was this what fate was telling him, to kill those that brought bad karma into the world? He wasn’t sure. But he had to admit, there was something satisfying knowing that at least two more bandits were gone from the world of the living.

Daniel let out a sigh and caught up with the others.

He had caught up to them when he heard a voice. It called out his name. Daniel turned back. It was a tall figure whose blond hair was glistening in the moonlight. The person’s head was bowed forward, so Daniel couldn’t see the person’s face. But he didn’t have to look up for Daniel to know who it was.

Off in the distance, the group had started to get away from him. Daniel turned to look and see that the group was getting farther and farther away. He looked back once more. The figure of Spencer was gone, only an empty space was left. Daniel didn’t dwell on it too much and headed back towards the group.