Deadlands

Chapter 4 - The Others

We went on in. The guards thankfully paid no attention to us. I saw what it was like to live here in their disgusting town. But I was still very nervous being in the enemy's territory. They were treating to a few soldiers that faught in that battle. I wanted to point and laugh because some of the scumbags were pretty cut up..
     We rode past a few more guards. One looks right at me and smiles. I give him a glance but quickly look away. He probably thinks I'm someone else.. I look back to see him pointing at us. The other gaurds look and see the shield still uncovered...
     "Uh.."
      "..ah, nice.." He said as we started to ride as fast as possible, trampling others just to go towards the opening at the end. A bell started to go off. Then another.. Then several more at different parts of the town.
     "..damnit.." He said as he saw the gate coming down slowly. We start rushing through the busy street. Guards were waiting for us on the roofs, and by the gate. After just managing to get through the brief crowd, we made it to the end of the street. Dodging not only the gate itself, along with a few arrows, we just make it out without them trapping us in!

I hear an arrow whiz by. Then I look behind us. I see 50 archers lined up on the wall aiming in our direction as we rode off.. He commands the horse to go faster, just to get behind this giant rock, out in the plains. We begin to reer off track, and he attempts to pull the horse over, scaring it and flinging me off again. I quickly get behind the boulder. I hear him trying to get the horse to cooperate, but it's not going too well. He looks behind him and sees a flurry of arrows coming down. He jumps off and dives next to me. I hear the arrows hit the ground all around us. I hear the horse even scream several times before I heard a rather large thud. The man, covering his face, begins to sob a little. The arrows have stopped. We just sat there, waiting..

"..why wouldn't he go.." The man repeated in sadness. "He mostly would've.. Why didn't he move.."
"I- I-.."
"You probably don't know what it's like to loose something you've grown a bond to..!" He snapped.
"Yes.. I do.. My friend.. Dermis.., my wife-.."
"Just- ugh!" He continued to sob. I let him express his sadness, until I remembered the bloodthirsty guards.
"We should probably go.. They'll be coming over here to check on us any second.."
    He looked over to the horse, got up, and went towards it. I peek around the corner to see him hugging the horse. I see something below him. It's almost like a covered up hole.

     "Maybe we should go down here.." I said crawling over to uncover it. It's a deep, dark, muddy hole that reeks a foul stench. I reach over the horse and grab my shield. A few arrows stick out of the metal bound wood. I pull them out and grab what could potentially be a lantern. He looks over and snatches it out of my hands. He grabs two bags, one on one side of the horse, and one on the other. He pulls two bands of fabric and connects them together. He jumps ahead in and I follow shortly after. I get to the bottom and it's quite wider than the hole. I notice he's having trouble with the lantern. Using only what little light that comes from above I attempted to light it myself. After three tries it lit. I see him huddled into a corner.

"Come on.. I got it to work.." I said. He doesn't reply. I sit to the other side of the muddy cave. He has his hands to his face in the fetal position. I hear slight sobs through his mask. I sit with the lantern in silence.. Waiting..

Time goes by. He eventually sits back up and grabs the lantern from me. I, surprised, stand up and follow him down the cave. I have my shield by my side ready for anything. I'm scared.. Scared that another creature might come around and attack us. My mind begins to wonder how they, the ones who killed the horse, would have escaped those woods to the battlefront.. Maybe there's another way around.. Through the mountains, perhaps. I shall never know.. But we journey onward. The ground is quite gross, covered in a thick layer of mud. It smells. Smells of dirt and dampness. We continue on.. It begins to seem darker, even with the lantern quite bright.

"Just so we can't get separated too easily, grab my hand.." He said.
     "Good point.." I say nervously. We join hands and continue on. It's getting harder to breathe with this stuff that almost looks like thick black smoke.. However it doesn't reek of it.. Onward, we slowly continue.. We can't see. I start to find the walls just to assure that I'm walking normally. I feel a tug on my arm and begin to fall with the man. We scream. I land face first into the mud and slightly on the man.

"Ah.. Damnit.. My leg!" He said.
"No.. Okay.. So let's just uh.." I panicked.
"Let's see if I can walk.."
     "Indeed.." I said. He got up. He grunted off the pain. That smoke stuff is traveling up the hole we came from. There has to be a source... A huge gust of wind plows us back. The lantern goes out.. We recover from the terror and he pulls out his flame trigger. He lights the flame and most of the black smoke explodes in flame all around us..
     "Holy crap!.. This stuff is flammable.. How come it didn't go into the lantern..." He said. We get up and go forward with caution. I take my shield and the lantern and take point. I hear what seems like grumbling.. Or snoring.. We continue.. I see something up ahead.. Its bright and reminds me of daylight.. We go towards it.. I notice that the man is pulling out jars and collecting the substance..

"Come on! Let's go!" I yell. I hear the snoring stop. I see a rather gigantic, furry, gross creature with long legs and long arms rise from the rather large pit we are in. The man, looking up at it, tightens the jar, takes his flame trigger and lights the black substance that was coming from The Beast. I hear it's deafening scream and start to bolt out.

The man runs towards me as fast as he can. We continue towards the light and notice The Beast, on fire, beginning to rise up more, seeing its size grow. We begin to climb up the steepness of the cave.. I still hear the beast screaming as I see an orange glow come from the bottom. I see the beast in the light and quickly start to climb up. I get to the top with the man and notice the flaming Beast trying it's hardest to climb up. But even with it's super long arms and legs it thankfully keeps taking too much weak soil with him..

".. Let's go.." The man said. "Just over there.. By that tree. We'll find out where we are, and where to go.."