A Time To Rise

Chapter 12

''I try to keep my breathing steady as if I was asleep. The footsteps come closer. Thud, thud, thud. This is someone different. They are too quiet, too stealthy. This can't be the government, we are too far ahead. The mysterious person stops and I get the strangest feeling that I am being watched. Adrenaline begins to course my veins and I hear the footsteps continue towards me. A little bit of dust starts to stir and become airborn. Okay, this is getting a little bit too close now. Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed my legs and started to wind a rope around them. No, not again. I sit up and drive my trusty knife through the attackers armour and into the heart. The hands go slack and the body slumps off to th'e side. I pull out my knife and stand up and walk around the edges of the campfires light. There were two shadows and I just killed the first one.

I can't find Zane or Catherine. I start to panic. If they aren't there then.......no I can't think like that. I head back to the mysterious body. My hands shake as I take off the armoured vest. That's strange. The vest is so thin that it probably won't be able to stop a bullet so why is it wearing it. The black shirt underneath is covered with pockets so I begin to search the pockets.

Okay. Now I am really scared. I just killed a highly trained assassin with a knife. There has to be more of them here otherwise the assassin would be wearing at least a bulletproof vest. I put on the night vision goggles that I gained possession of and start t0 search the ground. I vaguely remember Catherine sleeping on a low branch with lots of leaves. I only saw her because she roughly pointed out where she was going to sleep. I slowly walk over to the tree with my knife out in front of me. The forest seems silent, like it is watching me. I climb onto the first branch and something rustles in the leaves. I look up just in time to see someone land on top of me. My knife flies out of my hand and I get flattened to the branch with my legs dangling over the edge. Through my night vision goggles I see someone sitting on top of me. Someone with long hair.......

"Catherine. It's me, Jake. Where's Zane?"

Catherine gets of me and sits back against the tree.

"I was happily sleeping here when I woke up to Zane running past me with two or three shadowy guys chasing him. I climbed further up the tree to hide and then I saw you climb up to tree. Of course I obviously didn't know it was you so I jumped."

" Well thanks for that," I say, climbing off the branch to grab my knife. "Let's go."

Catherine jumps down and we leave.

A crack echoes through the forest and Catherine and I stop in our tracks. I hold my knife up in front of me again and Catherine tenses up, ready to fight. I hear a loud thud and start to run in the direction with Catherine close behind me. As we draw nearer to the source, it becomes clear that there is a fight going on. I sneak closer to the fight and peer through the branches. Zane is leaning against a tree with his knife out in front of him and blood courses down the left side of his face. I scan the area around him. Trees. There are only trees. Catherine grabs my arm and points towards the right. I look closer and see not one, not two, but four assassins wielding long, curved swords. I look closer at Zane. He has a far few cuts on his arms and chest so I am guessing he isn't doing to well in this fight. The four assassins seem to be regrouping, and they don't look like they are in a bad shape.

I turn to Catherine. " Defend." I hope she got the message but I can't say anymore incase we are overheard. She nods and we race over to Zane. The assassins heard and attacked.

Great. Two assassins. I have to hold off two attackers with one trusty knife. Well this should be fun. I immediately scan my two attackers. They each have the same armour, a light vest and combat boots. I dodge the first swing and block the second. The impact vibrates up my arm so I change to a two-handed grip. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the other assassin coming up behind me. While I still have my knife locked onto the sword, I kick the sword out of attacker number 2, knee attacker number 1 in the stomach and then slam the hilt of my now free knife into his skull. He cripples to the ground. I spin around and engage in combat with assassin number 2, who has picked up the sword. The assassin swung his sword and I duck, stab him in the abdomen and roll away. Apparently, this guy isn't human because he just stood up straight and got angry. Oh no, I am in for it this time. The assassin lunged at me and started to engage me again. The only difference here is his swordplay has gotten a whole lot better.

I can barely keep up. The assassin feinted and flipped over me. Instinctively, I thrust my knife behind me and caught the blow that would have pierced my heart. I roll out of the way again and stand up. I feel the rush of air on my neck so I turn and drive my knife into that thing behind me. The assassin falls to the ground dead. I look over at the place where I crippled the other one and find nothing. I feel a sudden hot spike of pain pierce my left shoulder and I squirm around to find assassin number 1 holding a very bloody knife in one hand and a sword in the other. I heft my knife in an attack position but stop short when the assassin starts coughing up blood. I look at his chest as see the tip of a knife producing from the spot where his heart is. He falls to the ground and a very beat up Zane stands behind, with another bloody knife. He wipes the blood off on his jacket sleeve and looks up. Duh. It suddenly dawns on me that Zane looks so beat up because he can't actually see all that well as it is dark. I see a dark shadow rise behind Zane so I flip knife and throw it at the assassin behind him, skimming Zane's shoulder. The knife struck in the centre of the chest and the assassin sank to the ground.

I walk up to Catherine who was sitting against a tree, staring at her fingers.

"Are you alright?" I say, sitting down next to her. The way Catherine stares at her fingers is like she hates herself for fighting.

"You know, it is ok to resent having to fight even in self defence. "

"I know."

My eyes grow heavy with sleep so I lean back against the tree and start to drift off. The next thing I know Zane is shaking me and telling me to wake up. I groggily open my eyes and try to stare at Zane but I can feel myself being tugged back into my sweet, sweet sleep.

"What's wrong?" I say, desperately wanting to go back to sleep.

"Jake, stay with me. Can you lean forwards? I need to see where the bleeding is coming from."

"What? I think.......I think it is coming from my back...yeah that sounds right." Something is nagging me, sitting at the back of my mind. Catherine gently leans me forwards and Zane looks at my shoulder. My vision starts to go a little fuzzy, as if I have suddenly become short sighted so I lean back, almost crushing Zane's hand in the process.

"Jake, you need to let me try to stop the bleeding."

I slowly nod and close my eyes, vaguely aware of Zane's shouts telling me to stay awake.