Every few days I managed to kill a deer or antelope as we came out of the hills and down onto a lightly wooded plain. We moved through the plain easily following an old trail that gradually widened into a road. Several times we found large farmsteads that had been destroyed but the tracks always led away to the north.
Ellie was silent each time we found the farmsteads. It was a week before we walked around a thick stand of woods and saw the small city, it had high walls and towers. The city was across a wide, deep river rushing through it. We went through the gate and the way led to the left and around towards the stream.
Ruin and wreckage was scattered everywhere and the stench of death was almost over powering. We were almost to a body strewn bridge when three orcs emerged from a building. There was no hesitation, my rifle came up and I shot the first in the chest and then the second. The third turned to run and I put a bullet through the back of its head.
I looked around before reaching back to pull on the horses, “make sure Little One and Charles are in the wagon.”
Ellie went to look in the wagon as we reached the bridge and started across. I could see tall wooden gates on the other side of the bridge with what looked like hundreds of orc bodies. The horses resisted going closer but I kept pulling until they followed. I finally had to stop and pull bodies aside before we could move forward.
I could see men above the gate on each side. When Ellie made a noise I turned to see a half dozen orcs trotting towards us. I knelt and started with the ones behind and worked my way up to the last one as it got close to the wagon. I put a single bullet through each orc’s head and stood when I was done.
I went back to moving bodies and a second later the gate opened and a dozen men came out to help. When it was clear Ellie led the horses through the gate as I fell in behind. One of the men, a tall wide shouldered man walked with me, “I don’t know how you made it through.”
I shrugged, “for the most part they have been ahead of us. These were the first we have seen.”
They closed the gates and he shook his head, “the first we knew they were climbing the outer walls and overrunning the guards. We barely had time to reach this side of the river.”
I glanced around at the few people, “they haven’t tried to reach you very hard.”
He shook his head, “they are to busy with those that didn’t make it.”
I continued to follow the wagon as Ellie led the team through the city. The man shook his head when we stopped in a stable yard by the other gate, “most of the people left out this gate already.”
I went to help Ellie unharness the horses, “let us look around?”
He nodded and I looked at Ellie while working. She smiled and glanced back, “not many orcs are going to attack anywhere but the bridge, they fear water.”
I smiled, “unless they find another way across.”
She nodded and we collected Little One and Charles before heading back to the gate blocking the bridge. From the wall beside the gate we could see into the city as orcs moved around. I finally gave Little One to Ellie and aimed the supper long before squeezing the trigger. There was the crack of the bullet as one of the orcs head exploded.
I nodded and began slowly picking targets. More orcs appeared to see what the noise was but they didn’t seem to connect the sound with them dying or with us. Ellie snorted, “so gorged they can’t think.”
I killed two hundred before I stopped, “I need more ammo.”
Ellie grinned and turned to climb down. She was back thirty minutes later and there was already a hundred orcs across the bridge looking towards us. She helped load magazines from the bullets in the wooden box. It took ten rounds before they began to understand that the sound and the dying orcs were caused by something we were doing.
