Lightning crashes and paints white spots on my eyes. I look around to let the burn of the flash fade. I notice a trail of blood spots behind me. It’s not far to go I think, only another three hundred meters.
The sky in this massive expanse of desert is beginning to turn grey. Pitter patter. I feel the drops of rain falling onto my scarred hands and face. It rejuvenates my parched skin in this heat. Three years on this journey and it hasn’t ended. I’ve lost so many people close to me, and somehow all I ever wanted was for me to die finally. But it didn’t happen. So I had to live with it. And I lived longer, waiting for that time to come.
The drizzle is becoming more intense. And the pattering is becoming a light drumming as it hits the dry thirsty desert sand. Then a flash, followed by a massive bass reverberation of thunder. More white spots.
I put a hand to my side and feel as the blood slowly gushes out of my side. Damn those bastards, damn those raiders. They killed my father. I took out all of them but he died. I couldn’t save him and I had to bury him in this desert wasteland.
It all started very quickly. Mr. Nobody was walking with me from the warrior settlement when they came. There were five soldiers, each wearing leather breastplates and each carrying short swords. At first we thought them to be a group of robbers but I recognized the armour they wore from the warrior settlement. Assassins.
At first they stood there facing Nobody and I in a line. Then the one in the centre stepped out. This soldier was larger built than his companions and seemed to hold rank between them. He had light blue eyes and had a massive scar on his lower lip. His blonde hair was bleached naturally from the looks. His leather armour had a cut on the left.
I darted a look at Nobody. He was getting angrier by the second. His eyes became narrow slits and a vein began to stand out on his forehead. He then thumbed his sword on his hilt. Looking at him I knew what to do. I had to stand my ground here against these five men.
I drew my sword from the scabbard holding it in the air. Nobody did the same.
“You will pay for what you did to our king.”
Nobody then looked at the leader. “Is that all you can say weakling?” His voice was a growl, like an old dog seasoned by hundreds of pit fights.
The leader looked impassively at Mr. Nobody. “Yes. That is all that needs to be said. You are weak. Now prepare to die.” The leader charged with a scream. His short sword raised high for a powerful attack. Nobody stood his ground then waiting for his attacked. As the attacker came to him he sidestepped and parried the attacker’s blow and sent a thundering kick into his attacker’s kneecap with a bone shattering sound. The attacker let out a scream of pain and went down to his knees. Nobody then plunged his sword into the attacker’s shoulder slicing off his left arm and then sliced off his head. The body flopped helplessly on the sand.
Then pointing a look at the remaining four soldiers, Nobody shouted, “You all want to die as well?!”
They charged. I ran to Nobody’s side getting ready. Before the fight began I knew we were outnumbered and Nobody didn’t have all the strength his body used to have. This was going to be tough.
Two of the attackers came to the right, facing me, and the remaining two went after Nobody. As one of the soldiers tried to strike me with an overhead blow I sidestepped in time observing the movement of his sword, then blocked and parried an attack to my right by the other. I seized the change to kick the left attacker’s shins hard and then blocked another attack by the other soldier, this time the attack was more ferocious and I nearly lost my footing. Quickly looking to my left I saw nobody had been sliced on his arm by the one attacker. I ducked missing being hit by a deadly sideswipe by another soldier, going down I sliced at the back of the Nobody’s right enemy’s knee. Looking to my right again I parried another strike by the damaged shin soldier and sliced at his neck. He fell then and I blocked an attack by the other, holding my sword against his in a lock. I then headbutted him, leaving him incapacitated for a second, and breaking his nose. The attack sprayed blood onto my face and white cloak. I then turned out toward Nobody who was still dispatching his opponents and landed my sword hard onto his left arm. Taking advantage of the previous attack on him I smashed my foot onto his knee spilling blood onto the desert sand. He fell do his knees
Next, the attacker who I incapacitated slashed his sword on my right arm. I cried out in pain. It wasn’t deep enough to make it weak. I let out a scream of rage. Running into him with all the force of my body I managed to break his sword from his hand and then I started pummelling him with my fists, left then right, all attacking his face. My vision was red with rage. By the time I was done with him I realised I forgot about Nobody. I turned around.
His other opponent was downed and dead from the looks, there was a pool of blood seeping from the bottom of his body. His head was turned down and there was a massive wound on his left. Nobody on the other hand was wounded on his right hip, and he looked like he was about to go. His attacked then took him down with a fell swoop. I shouted for him to hear me. The blood was flowing quickly out of him and falling even quicker below him with every attack, and the attacker then blocked and parried all of Nobody’s attacks. And then the soldier performed a savage overhead attack which found home at Nobody’s neck. I ran to him. I was too late. He fell then.
Battle rage took over me completely. Grabbing a fallen soldier’s sword I ran after him. He knew then what was going to happen to him. The soldier braced himself. He wasn’t prepared. First I struck him with an overpowering blow that threw his sword far from him. Then a lightning quick blow to his throat taking him down mercilessly and instantly.
He was still alive when I ran back to him. He was pale then, but he smiled at me. He said something, a prayer. And then he said “Hamza. I’m proud of you, you were every…thing…I…wanted…in…a…son….If you see your mother…Tell her I love her.”
And then his eyes went dead. I closed my eyes.
And then I fell in pain on his dead body. He was dead. And it was abnormal, inconceivable and on so many levels wrong. This was a man whose youth had lasted him years into old age, and whose strength had only ever been used for good. Now he was gone. The tears came then, in long, insistent sobs. Emotions welled up inside me and it all came out, every memory, minute and second of the time spent with this man I’ve come to know and love as my father just burst forth and suddenly I was helpless in all my strength and power earned.
Burying my father was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But I did it, every minute of it. Then I walked, and walked and walked. I hoped that at some point I’d drop and die. But I didn’t. My wounds hadn’t healed and I was dripping blood as I walked. Then something strange happened. I walked for another hour, feeling absolutely nothing inside.
That was an hour ago.
It rains now, and harder. The light drumbeat became a torrent of liquid. My walk became a limp, then the limp became a stumble, and then the effort required to simply stumble was becoming more and more. The world becomes a grey film of noise in this rain. Rain water fills my eyes and soaks me. It was warm. The world was becoming warmer by the second, my eyes are becoming droopier.
I fall hard.
The world is becoming darker now. I look behind me, the red spots of blood are dissolving in the rain water. I try to get up, to try to fight losing control but I cannot. I look up. There’s a figure walking toward me and beyond that a settlement with lights and fire like a beacon for a lost ship. The person is completely unaffected by the rain, I try to look for a face but all I see is mist and fog. And then I see a white cloak, but no face. No face.
And then the world gains ultimate warmth, and I’m happy. And complete darkness.
Excellent bru!