Nation Assassination

Chapter Six

Just after I thrusted my sword through the last raider, I dropped to my knees and sank to the ground. My whole body ached with dull pains, seared with gashes and stung with cuts.

I didn't know pain until just then. Pain wasn't stunning your toe on the table leg, it wasn't hitting your head... Hell, I would rather be shot in the foot that feel this kind of pain.

Jean climbed down from his horse and walked calmly down the hill.

"I don't know if your extremely brave and talented or fucking stupid and really lucky." He said.

"Both" I panted, not looking up.

If I had looked up though, I would have seen a huge smile on Jean's face.

"Your going to need medical attention... Right now." He told me and kneeled down in front of me. "It looks like your cuts have a lot of dirt in them..." He said, lifting my chin gently.

I looked him in the eye and cried. It started as a few silent tears rolling down my cheeks, but then it turned into loud sobs.

"Jean, it hurts so bad!" I yelled.  "It hurts it hurts it hurts." I sobbed quietly into his shoulder.

He petted my hair and told me it was okay, that it was okay. That I was okay. But I knew I wasn't. Before, the adrenaline enabled me to ignore the vigorous pain.

But the adrenaline was gone now, and the pain was unbearable.

"Mercy, listen to me. What you just did was incredible. No assassin could ever take on that many raiders out in the open. What you did will make history." He whispered.

"I just want to go home... " I sobbed "but my home is in ashes!  I have nowhere to go... And... And.... I have nobody Jean!  Nobody... " I cried and lifted my head from his shoulder.

He took my head in both hands and whispered to me softly "Mercy, no matter what... I promise you will always have me. From this day on, I promise I will stay by your side.  I know exactly how it feels to have nothing."

I nodded and we sat there in silence until a large group of men on horses approached... But they weren't dark, armored horses. They where browns, tans, whites and greys.

"Rochelle!" One of them shouted upon seeing us.

I felt Jean look up. "She's hurt... And she's on out side. Someone get her medical attention immediately." He told the men sternly.

"Yes sir " one of the men said and reached into his saddlebag, tossing jean a small dirty box with a red painted plus on the front.

Jean pushed me back and held me at arms length, looking at my wounds again.

"I'm sorry... But your never going to be able to see out of your right eye again... " he said sadly as he opened the box.

The box contained bandages, alcohol, wraps and gauze.

"This might sting a bit. " Jean told me as he poured some of the alcohol onto a cotton ball.

I nodded and he gently dabbed the cotton ball around my eye and on my cuts.  He was right, it stung a lot...but nothing could be worse than what I was already feeling.

I flinched a little, but other than that I let him do it. He pulled out a wrap and began carefully wrapping it around my head so that it covered my eye. Since the gash on my side was high up near my chest, Jean wrapped it as best as he could without actually removing my shirt in front of the other men.

"Jean... It still hurts." I told him and looked up into his eyes.

"Sh... I know. I know. " he said and hugged me.

If i was stronger, i would have hugged him back.

"Sir....who is she exactly?" One of the men asked.

"A friend." He said plainly, not letting go of me.

I stood up unsteadily and turned to face the men and in the strongest voice i could muster i said "My name is Mercy Anxo. I am nineteen years old and today I was captured my the raiders. The Vice got in my face so I shot him. Jean found me in a small room and told me to go with him to the NA. We jumped out of the window and I stole a pair of horses from the raiders. We where then caught by a guard so we took off. The guard called soldier raiders and they followed us, so I went on a rampage." I told them.

"Where are the raiders now?" One of them asked.

"You killed the Vice?" Another asked.

I turned and looked at Jean, who answered for me.  "She perforated the Vice with his own gun. As for the soldiers... She killed them. All of them, on her own. I fled to the top of the hill to watch and see if we could use her talent."

After the men looked shocked, I shrugged and said "I'm too easily underestimated. "

Jean gave a half hearted laugh before asking the men for a pair of horses, and the men responded that they only brought one extra horse.

"That will work." He said and took the reins of a studly looking white horse and helping me onto it, climbing in front of me.

I leaned against Jean's back and snakes my arms around his waist, laying my head on his back.

I was already half asleep when we started moving, and completely asleep before we got even a hundred feet.

Jean's heartbeat was something I could fall asleep to every night.