A Life Of 'Shine - Lem Fike

50

The cries, they were Nora's. She was in trouble and with the echo of the cave it was hard to know the exact location she was in trouble.

Arthur had stayed with the girl, more so because Charles insisted he go seeing how Arthur was in no condition. While he did not want to be left behind, arguing with Charles would only be fruitful and so he reluctantly agreed with this.

Charles luckily didn't have to travel too far in order to find Nora, the cave not that big in terms of searching for missing friends and all he needed to do was listen for the taunts and cheers of her attackers that were celebrating far too prematurely.

There was three or so of them, all not paying attention as Charles was able to creep close enough. He could probably take them all quickly and silently, but there was this anger building inside of him the more he watched them. Apparently, what they had already done to Nora was not yet enough and while she was out cold they had taken to kicking her body, or pulling at her hair.

Taking out the sawed-off shotgun, he aimed and fired and in a matter of minutes they were no longer a bother, dead as dust and rotting on the floor where they should be.

He walked over, quickly looking over Nora for any visible damage. There were few cuts, scrapes and bruises but nothing too serious luckily. Gently, he picked her up and gently threw her over his shoulder. Knowing where he left Arthur, he headed on back to talk with the male, ideally about the female still in the cage they needed to rescue.

"What the hell happened?" Arthur cried, hand balling into a fist as he began coughing once more.

"A large group got the upper hand on her, she fought 'em off as best she could but by the time I got there she was out. Found her like this."

"Shit."

The two both simultaneously looked over, the cage standing in the shadows. From where they were it looked empty but the sobs from inside told them that it wasn't.

Not wanting to scare the poor girl inside, Charles gently placed Nora on the ground, leaning against a barrel while he and Arthur slowly stepped over towards the cave. "Easy, we ain't gonna hurt you." Arthur soothed as he got closer, but the girl- through fear, kept screaming.

Arthur slowly pulled the knife out and upon seeing it the girl screamed some more, finger pointing at the weapon as she cried out. Both Charles and Arthur tried calming her but the attempt failed and so Arthur quickly cut the rope that bound the door closed, entering all in one motion just so he could pull the girl into a hug; only trying to calm her.

"We ain't gonna hurt you." He soothed, voice calm and gentle and with time she had stopped screaming and grew relax. While she was still afraid, she had learned that these men were in fact not lying but in the end she was still uncertain on trusting them, however, she could see no alternative options.

"Miss, what is your name?" Charles asked as he led them out of the cave. He had halted momentarily, just to pick Nora up once again but was able to catch up given the slow pace they had been walking.

"M-Meredith." She answered in hushed tones.

When she did leave the cave she winced at the sunlight. Arthur brought her to his own horse while Charles walked over towards Beanz.

"You take her on home, I should probably get Nora back." He told Arthur, to which the male could only nod in his agreement.

He turned back towards Meredith, who looked around at the area, possibly uncertain in her trust for these men but she had no other choice.

"Are you okay to ride on my horse, Miss?" Meredith looked over at Arthur who had already mounted, she chewed her bottom lip in thought for a moment before slowly nodding.