Kingdom Gone

INTO THE WOODS

I feel naked.

No weapons. No armor. No badass sword. Even my holster was empty, since I left my sidearm in my jacket to not pose a threat when confronting Nijah. Damn her too, by the way. Half of my reward money? Bitch didn't have to jump out a train or wrestle a two ton mutant pooch.

And now I'm hiding behind a log. In the dark. With mercenaries in the woods all around me. I tried to hide my tracks but a recent rain made the dirt especially muddy. Shit.

"See anything?" One mercenary says little ways away.

"Nothing here. Move on to the next quadrant." His buddy replies. Soon their flashlights bob away.

I wait a few minutes, then peek over my cover. Just trees and more trees. Well, they don't call it the Kingdom of Lumber for nothing. I vault the log and begin making my way northeast, referencing my mental map of the Kingdom. El Refugio De Piedra isn't safe anymore. The Governor convinced the King to let his lapdogs loose, and he'll have the whole police department on my ass by morning. My best bet is to make it to Alley City and catch the HoloTram to the Fourth Kingdom. But first I got to make it past the lapdogs.

I go a about a mile without any mishaps. I did have to stop once or twice to let mercenaries pass, but it's at this one mile marker that I run into my biggest obstacle.

A ravine.

The only good thing it did was help me reorient myself on my mental map, since I decided to not use my phone flashlight to keep myself stealthy. Unfortunately it's still another 10 miles to the next city.

I could double back and go around the ravine, but if any mercenaries made it this way, they'd do the same. If I can cut across somehow, I could probably get a good lead on them. So off I search.

After about half an hour of searching, I locate what I assume is the narrowest part of the ravine, and a long time ago a tree must've tumbled across because it left behind it's withering trunk for lost hikers like me to cross, and who am I to not honor the death of said tree by walking across his dead corpse?

After setting one foot on the log, I say fuck it and whip out my phone light. Using a tremendous amount of effort to keep my heartrate under control, I ease my way across the log, ignoring the sound of the rushing river stories below begging me to fall. The other side of the ravine is in sight and begin to walk faster, never wanting to see solid earth so much in my life.

Then suddenly the log shakes and I slip on a mossy patch, landing face first onto the trunk, wrapping my arms around it for dear life. I close my eyes, praying for it to settle itself. And it does.

I breath a sigh of relief, cautiously standing once again. And then come face to face with Eye Patch man.

The sight of him nearly scares me off the log, and instead makes me take a couple steps back, he stepping onto the log in return.

"I knew you would try to run this way to Alley City. Just a matter of waiting." The log shakes a little as he approaches, fists raised. "I'd call for my men, but I'd much rather do this myself!" He swings at me and I deflect it, causing us both to shimmy along the trunk a bit.

I point at him, right in his eye patch. "You are suicidal old man." I try to kick at his leg but end up teetering myself, leaving me wide open for a tackle, which somehow ends up with us both still on the log, but his forehead pushing down on my neck. He draws his sawed off shotgun from his holster, aiming the muzzle at my face.

"Say hi to Miranda for me!" He yells.

I jab my fist into his side just hard enough to knock off his aim, the sound of the blast making my ears ring. Even though my hearing is gone, I feel the wood cracking from the point where Eye Patch's shotgun blast hit the log, and soon the entire dead tree snapped in half, plunging us down into the dark river below.