Blood in the Dirt

Chapter 18

Andrea gasped; she had only ever heard small stories of their enemies. Gino reacted by quickly grabbing Andrea, and carrying her out of the building as fast as he could. He placed her onto the ground, and ran back in to grab Theodore as well; The other two found their own way out.

The roof of the structure caved in, sending bits of wood flying everywhere. The rumbling of the ground paused, and the five were finally able to stay upright. Gino directed his voice to the two children, "Find your weapons, we don't have any time to lose." He and Giovanni then began to sprint to the temple.

"Can you fight with your shoulder like that?" Andrea asked.

Theodore turned to her and responded, "I suppose we're about to find out." With that he started towards his sleeping quarters. "Come on, I have to get my weapons!"

Andrea had hers already, so she hurried to Theodore's side. They arrived at where his weapons were, and stared at the now destroyed building. Theodore began searching through the rubble, and Andrea followed suit. Within a few minutes, they recovered the chest that held his belongings. He strapped on his gear, and they set off to where the explosions were going off. They exited the dojo gates, and saw how terribly the town was ruined.

Houses scorched to the ground, children's bodies lifeless in the streets. Women are forced to their knees as their husbands are killed on sight. Andrea couldn't close her eyes; they were never meant to. They had a burning desire to see everything.

A knife flew towards Andrea's left side, she felt it disturb the flow of the air and caught it before it had made any damage. She looked East and was pleased to see the attacker already being taken care of by Theodore. She looked West and threw her newly obtained knife at a burly man's throat. She ran past him and ripped it out of his flesh as she moved on to countless others; but their ranks only grew.

Then she saw him; a short man barking orders in a tongue she couldn't understand. She darted behind a nearby boulder as she saw him begin to look in her direction. She waited for his beady eyes to look the other way and when he did, she twisted around to the other side and shot an arrow at his throat. It whizzed through the air and crashed into his chest. Lower than she had aimed, but at least it had hit him.

A faint cry erupted from the far side of the town, "Retreat to the general!" She looked to where the voice had come from only to see thousands of men running away from the battle.The screams of civilians were suddenly muffled as Andrea was sent careening backwards. She landed roughly onto the cobblestone path. The only thing she could focus on was the throbbing in her head and the high-pitched ringing in her ears. She felt arms on her body, checking for something. She was lifted into someone's arms, and watched out of the corner of her eye; the picture of the battlefield that she could once call a home. Before long she had slipped out of consciousness.

Small, slow heartbeats. One, two, three, and stop. One, two, three, and stop. Eyes open. Eyes can't see. Eyes close. One, two, three, and stop. One, two, three, and stop. Small ringing. Eyes open. Eyes can't see. Eyes close. One, two, three, and stop. One, two, and stop. One. One. One. And stop.

Large, rapid heartbeats. One, two, three, and stop. One, two, three, and stop. Eyes open. Eyes are blurred. Eyes close. One two three, and stop. One, two, three, and stop. No more ringing. Eyes open. Eyes blurred. Eyes close. One, two, three, and stop. One, two, and stop. One. One. One. And stop.

Normal, paced heartbeats. One, two, three, and continue. One, two, three, and continue. Eyes open. Eyes now see. One, two, three and continue. Continue.

She awoke, and began to rise from her cot. "No, stay lying down. You still need lots of rest." a disembodied voice spoke, but its words were not heard as Andrea stood anyways. She felt a hand try to grab her and shrugged it off as she strolled out the door of the infirmary. She felt her shoes hit gravel, and watched the world turn sideways; She shook her head and continued towards the town square.

She didn't know what she had expected, but the sight before her wasn't it. Death...So much death...

She watched as men picked body after body off of the streets and carried them to the top of the hill. Women and children stood nearby, their faces stained with tears that had dried long ago. She assumed they were standing there waiting for the last piece of the family to be uncovered.

"Andrea! What the hell are you doing out here? Look at yourself!" a voice spoke. "Andrea!" it called again, it was someone she knew. A boy; Theodore? No. "Hey," She felt hands grasp her shoulders. "can you hear me?" she nodded. "Okay, come on, let's get you out of here."

"Daniel! What the hell? You're supposed to be helping me with this!" another voice in the distance called.

Daniel, of course it was Daniel. "One second!" he yelled back. He directed his attention back to her and slowly helped her to a bench. "They said you'd be in the hospital for at least a week."

"How long has it been?" she asked.

He let out a small huff of breath and said, "About four or five days. Give or take."

"It only felt like a few minutes to me..." Andrea stated, disappointed in herself for not helping longer than she had.

"I saw how you were injured. I'm surprised you can remember your own name after the shape you were in." he said, trying to distract Andrea from her own self-disgust. "Scratch that, I'm surprised you're even still able to see."

"I couldn't at first." she answered quietly.

Daniel scoffed and returned, "Wow, you blame yourself for every little thing don't you?" Andrea didn't respond and so he continued, "You need to let go a little. An Outsider weapon exploded right beside you! There was no possible way you could have stayed out there. That's why I brought you to the infirmary."

Andrea stood up and turned on him, "You're the one who carried me away? You're the one that forced me to give up on my own neighbors and let them die?"

"Woah, woah, woah. Calm down princess! You would have done more harm than good if you had stayed out there! You were so disoriented you might have swung your sword at your own father! Just relax, I got you out of there so you didn't kill yourself; or anyone else." Daniel retorted. Andrea relaxed a little but tensed up again when a thought crept into her head.

Theodore!