The Elites

Warriors: Part 42

Jayden POV

"I'm really sorry sir, my companion is a bit worked up," she began, as she stood in front of me, raising her hands in surrender to them, "...we ran into some trouble, while hiking," she continued, "And my friend is badly injured." She added motioning to me. The man looked skeptical at first then, looked over at my wound, clearly in view, since I had on no shirt, and I could see him grimace.

"How did he get that?" he questioned, still studying us.

"He...was protecting me, during a rock slide..." she said, her eyes not leaving the man's. Silence hung in the air for a second until the man signaled one of the men behind him to go to us. The man wasn't wearing a loincloth like the others instead he had on a jeans and t-shirt, and carried a white first-aid kit, as he jumped over the bush to reach me.

"We'll help you kids out," he said, finally lowering his gun, as the man reached me and prodded my wound. I relaxed my stance, and returned the man's gaze, "but you should get out of here as soon as possible. It's dangerous here." Tia nodded silently and then turned back to me, as the man got up from inspecting the wound.

"Gillan, the wound's bad, we need to get them back to the camp asap."

"Alright, men, let's go," the man named, Gillan responded turning his back on us for the first time, and signalling to the other men, before he turned back around," Can you walk?" he questioned. 'No, I crawled all the way here,' I thought sarcastically at his dumb question. Tia laughed lightly.

"Yes, he'll be fine," she stated, smiling politely, nudging me in my side softly.

"Ow..."

"You're a big boy," she said smiling gently, "Now be nice.' I smiled slightly, feeling my chest relax at the smile she had on her face, she looked so tender, and loving even as she teased me, I had to fight the urge to kiss her, and shout to the world, that this girl said she'd be mine.

Tia POV

"So we're going to the Africans village?" I asked, the medic as we walked along the path to the village.

"Yes, we know some of them for a while so they allowed us to set up camp here," he answered.

"Gillian, mentioned a threat in the area...what was it?" I asked, I wanted to know if they knew about the elites or if he really thought we were a bear or something.

"There are many things in this world you do not know about, Miss Tia," he responded, "very horrible things that you wouldn't even want to know. Gillan is the leader of  warriors fighting to destroy these things." I turned my head slightly to see Jayden beside me, as he idly stroked my hand. He seemed to have been thinking about something, but the moment he realised I was looking at him, our eyes seemed to lock on, electricity pulsed through my body and his cocky smile slid across his face, I instantly turned back. Yes, he was horrible. I could feel my heart beat quickened as I recalled last night, but I did want to know him, very well, in fact. I bit my lip, in an attempt to calm myself, and turned my attention back to the medic. He was also probably talking about elites...in which case was it really alright to go with them, I reasoned. I glanced back again nervously, I could ask Jayden, what he thought...obviously he should have heard the conversation though...meaning he knew that they're probably the same human warriors...so in which case—should their arch enemy REALLY be walking into their camp injured.

"Ah, we're here," the medic announced, snapping me out of my thoughts before I could come to a decision. I looked around my surroundings as we stepped into a clearing, and I noticed Jayden's hand left mine as we looked around, there were a few huts, and a lot of men on stretchers unconscious bleeding, or just sitting with wounds on them. My hands instantly went to my mouth as a gasp escaped, when I looked at the wounded men, it looked as if they had all been to war. My eyes flew up to Jayden as he stood beside me, in the clearing.

'Did the elites do this?' I asked silently, he didn't even look down at me in response—

"We've another injured! I need antiseptic and bandages!" the medic called, running further into the clearing, passing Gillan as he entered a hut closer to the front continuing to ignore us, "Follow me!" I bit my lip and took a few steps forward, and Jayden trailed behind me. Will we really be okay, if the elites did this then...won't they recognize Jayden, I thought, In this environment, and his condition he's in no position to fight them. What'll happen if they realise? I glanced nervously across at him, as he walked beside me, please don't notice him, I prayed silently.

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"Hey! Where did you two come from?" a voice asked, I froze and Jayden stopped beside me. We were already halfway through the village, if we could just get to the clinic, no-one would see us there, right?

"Hiking..." I tried, the medic was already ahead of us preparing the surgery apparently, so I didn't even have him to cover for us, " We got lost and hurt." I added trying to make my voice sound more convincing.

"Ian, doesn't he look kind of familiar," another man questioned to his friend, he was missing an arm. I bit my lip, what can I say to that, 'he just has one of those faces?—will that really work? What do I do?!

"Me...?" Jayden cut in, turning to the man, with a small devious smile on his face. Gosh, he has no sense of timing, does he!?

"Jayden," I hissed quietly, 'I know you're not one to cower in fear but please remember we're out numbered!' He smiled down at me innocently for a brief moment before looking back up to the men.

"I definitely recognize him," the first one said, crap, he heard! "Claims he's the strongest assassin." A few more people looked in our direction, at the accusations and I could feel my face flush.

"Jayden! We have to run," I cried, pulling his arm slightly, as some men started to stand up and come closer, and the healthy men in the group came also. He didn't budge, he just studied them silently.

"Too late for that, Titi," he stated, signalling to the group of healthy and sick men that were now surrounding us with non- automatic rifles, so I couldn't stop them—I guess they learnt from last time, I thought. I bit my lip again, Crap. Jayden moved himself in front of me again, and I could sense his elite energy activate. The guns raised immediately, to point directly at us.

"Can't we try to talk to them!?" I cried as he wrapped his arm around my waist. It felt like a hundred rifles went off simultaneously, in the same moment he jumped over a few of their heads into a tree.

"They won't listen to reason, we can only fight," he stated.

"But they're not wrong to be angry, we can't kill them!" I cried, as he moved us again in order to dodge another round of bullets.

"Well then..." he stated, slashing some of the soldiers down, "...stay here, I'll fight them," He said putting me on another tree branch and as he prepared to jump down again.

"Wait, Jayden!" I called, causing him to stop momentarily, as he hung unto the tree, "Please, don't kill them." He sighed as he looked at my horrified expression.

"I'll try," with that he jumped into the midst of them to attack.

Jayden Pov

"Please, don't kill them," she said. I dodged another attack and punched one in the guts. How am I going to win this, without killing them! I contemplated fighting to dodge the blows, every time I knock one down, they come back, and then I can't even give a deadly blow—because they may die. I groaned, this is hopeless, if it wasn't bad enough that they're tenacious—they're also innumerable. Is this village so big they can hold so many soldiers!?

Someone slashed me with a knife, and I punched him in the face. Shoot, I'm getting slower, I panted, jumping out of their reach again, this is hell of tiring—and my wound isn't helping much. Whack! I could feel myself falling forward, darn that hurt. My vision was getting hazy, my feet fumbled forward as I tried to regain my balance. What the hell, another man jumped out at me with a cutlass this time, and slashed at me, I dodged to the side, and they're still coming , I thought in and out of consciousness, as the blade dug into my skin. A loud scream of pain escaped my mouth, as I fell forward again, looks like I lost, I guess I deserve to lose once in a while... I managed as I saw another man aiming for my head with his sword, but darn...I hate losing.

" STOP IT!!"