Huntress

As the sword cuts down at Selena’s head, she was surprised by what thoughts wound through her mind.

We’ve told legends of the four horsemen for thousands of years. Stories passed down generation to generation. The details might change but the shape is always there. Yet for all the stories, when they came, we were still unprepared. A global pandemic brought the world to a standstill. Quarantine became mandatory and production halted. Famine soon swept along in its wake, and it wasn’t long after that the fighting began. Leaders of the world got greedy, or desperate, it was hard to tell in the end. War raged. Weapons were unleashed upon the world. Destruction in Mans hands and raining down from the sky. The explosions causing skylines to change and the earth to be reshaped.

When the fighting subsided and the dust settled, those that were left had to fend for themselves. Generations passed and communities sprung up where farmers rose to a high prominence. Selena’s family, well-known farmers, were attacked and murdered while she was away. She had returned to the burnt out remains of home and loved ones. Selena didn’t need to be told who had done it… she knew. Now homeless, she grabbed what supplies she could and the closest sharp thing.

‘I was born a farmer,’ she thought.

Pulled from her moment of introspection, Selena evades the sword strike, catches the arm of her attacker, and thrusts her knife into their chest. She then wrenches the knife out and as he pulls away trips him and bears her attacker down to the ground while stabbing. Breathing hard through the face mask and kneeling over the now dead bandit she thoroughly searches the man for any supplies or tools. All the while checking around her in case of ambush.

Finding only some jerky and his scabbard she pulled it off him and dons it. Then, slipping her knife back into her boot, she reaches over, grabs his sword and stands up. Selena hefts it and makes it spin, testing the weight and checking the edge. It’s not the best that she’s seen. A remnant from an age ago. But it’s serviceable and comfortable in the hand. She looks around again and then notices something on the ground. It’s a locket. Heart shaped and the only thing left to her from home. Reaching down Selena gently picks it up and takes a moment to check the photo inside. A tiny family shot of a happier time that she now tucks safely away.

‘I was born a farmer,’ she muses to herself as she hefts the sword one more time before sheathing it, ‘and now I take up the sword.’

***

Selena stops mid step. There’s a smell in the air that wasn’t there a moment ago. A mother with child she’d passed by earlier had said that her prey had been seen in this area.

‘Turn left at the crossroads,’ she had said.

The world was cooler since the fall out and bombs had stopped. A constant chill in the air even when it was supposed to be summer. Her leather jacket kept her warm enough though and a special blanket in her backpack kept the night-time cold at bay. Now on that cool air she could smell something different. It wasn’t the usual background earth and burn or even that of an animal.

Selena tilted her head and tracked the breeze. She turned and walked off the path, moving stealthily through the undergrowth.

There, on a rise overlooking her path ahead was a figure, crouched and watchful. A bow with knocked arrow in his hands and 3 arrows imbedded into the ground for easy loading.

‘A sentry,’ Selena thought to herself. ‘Likely to try and kill me or warn others.’

She came up behind him, grabbed him around the neck and repeatedly stabbed him in the back. His voice caught in his throat as he struggled. She reefed him back and he fell to the ground. As he fell, she drew her sword and stabbed him in the chest to finish the work. Sheathing the sword, Selena reached down and took a bright red tube from the lifeless body.

‘Not that I care either way,’ she thought, standing up.

Finding a patch of sky visible through the tree line she pulls the cord, sending up a flare.

The flare travels into the sky, exploding black and loud against the clouded back drop. A distance away two figures turn to watch the explosion. One turns to the other, a skull masked figure in a heavy leather jacket with a giant mace resting on his shoulder.

‘Your turn,’ he says patting him on the chest. Then looking away, ‘Pack up we’re heading out.’

***

The land had flourished with less humans on the planet. It hadn’t taken long for the wild to creep back into what had once been major thoroughfares for human and machine.

Selena turned the corner and saw what was waiting for her in a clearing. A makeshift camp that now looked abandoned.

A bear of a man dressed in leather and wearing a skull mask sat on a camping stool staring in her direction. Across his knees lay a massive mace. He stands as she gets closer, and Selena notices the mace’s head is dirty with blood. There’s a rough feel to him, yet his small movements tell that there’s control in there too. She sees a well-used pathway behind him that leads into the woods further afield. Her prey had escaped again.

‘Deep breath, Selena’ she thought to herself. ‘Just another breath. Just another step.’

***

There was a forced levity amongst the group as they waited in various states along the path. Two watched the trail tensely while the others sat, lounged or tried to nap. Sounds of footsteps, heavy breathing and cries for help had everyone on their feet swiftly. A member of their group came around the corner, running towards them.

‘She’s coming!’ he exclaimed and ran off.

After long moments another figure stepped around the corner and came towards them. The group raised their weapons as their leader came up behind them and stepped through to the front.

A heavy mace landed at their feet with a dull thud.

‘Ah, the little farm girl all grown up,’ Marcus acknowledged. ‘Have fun with the Gatekeeper?’

Selena shrugs, giving nothing away of the horrendous fight she had to endure to get here.

‘Come to play with us now?’

She raises her sword tip and points it straight at him in response. The look in her eyes furious. Her braided hair coming loose, clothes torn and bloody.

‘Well, if you want to play,’ Marcus continued as he starts to fold back into the group and walk off, ‘come play.’

The group reform their ranks and brandish their weapons. Axes, machetes, and wire-wrapped clubs. They pause for a moment, then attack Selena who moves herself into position.

***

Marcus waits on the path ahead. A raised walkway over shallow lake-lands. Trees growing out of the water formed a natural corridor that rose high overhead. On his hip he carries an axe and in one hand he leans slightly on a glaive. A roughly made, yet strong and durable pole with a small sword on the end.

The sounds of fighting carry through the trees and over the water. Of weapons clashing on weapons and bodies. Screams that were sometimes drawn out or quick and sharp added to the mix. Eventually it subsided and like an angry beast risen from slumber Selena came around the corner.

She had finally found her prey. Her calm, calculating demeanour that had got her this far was at its breaking point. The heart shaped locket around her neck heavy and reminding her why she kept going.

‘You are full of surprises,’ Marcus shared. ‘You might wonder if I care,’ he says gesturing behind her at the scene of death she had left behind.

‘I don’t,’ she thought vehemently.

‘I don’t,’ he continued. ‘Less mouths to feed. Shall we play?’ He asks as he looks down at his hand then back up to her with a grin. ‘Like I did with your family?’

Selena’s self-control snapped, and she rushed at him. Marcus, nonchalantly leaning against his glaive, didn’t move. Once in range Selena wildly slashed at him. He calmly responded by evading, moving the glaive around behind him, changing hands and lancing the tip at her face. Her training was all that saved her as she slipped forward below the strike and stabbed upwards. Marcus caught it with the bottom of the shaft and followed up with a double hand slice to her neck that she narrowly evaded by planting her feet and circling her torso to the other side.

Selena realised that she was in a bad way. She knew that she had done the wrong thing and needed a safe exit. Circling her torso back the way she had come she lashed out at Marcus’s exposed leading leg, causing him to parry. He circled the glaive and brought it smashing down at her centre mass. The only thing that saved her was that she had continued her movement and double stepped away while circling the sword around her shoulders as a shield.

She came to a stop several steps away and saw that Marcus hadn’t moved but was idly checking the edge of his glaive. Selena paused, breathed, grasped the sword with both hands and settled herself down. She had been close to death that round.

Selena took a step, then another, and raised her sword to strike. Marcus swung the butt of his glaive at her which she evaded, then cut at her in a flurry of strikes. She caught the first two and evaded the following, which left him wide open. She brought her sword down, causing him to jerk back in surprise and bring his guard up. He then stabbed which she caught, he circled around and tried to stab again. This time though she deflected, reached out with her left hand and grabbed the shaft of the glaive. She pushed it down while flicking her sword at his exposed wrist, causing him to let go and twist his free hand away to protect his face. Selena followed up with a circle and swung at his other hand forcing him to let go completely. She pointed his glaive at him and for the first time his façade broke, and he screamed at her in frustration.

He unclipped his axe as she threw the glaive away and stabbed his face. He caught her sword and kicked her gut, doubling her over. Marcus wrenched the sword from her grasp, spun and cut her head off…

Or that was what he had meant to do. She ducked at the last moment and crushed his leg to the ground, ankle and knee breaking on impact. Pushing him over she rolled up his now prone body. After elbowing him in the face, she pulled her knife from her boot and stabbed his sword arm, the axe having gone free when he fell.

She sat on him and took the sword from the ground as he struggled and screamed. Sitting up she fell on him with the sword, piercing his torso. Marcus struggled for a moment and then the fight seemed to go out of him. He was still for a moment then he looked up at her.

‘So much death, little huntress,’ he breathed. ‘What will you do now?’

Selena took off her mask and leaned closer to him.

‘Take up farming,’ she answered and with each word twisted the sword deeper.

When she knew that it was over Selena stood up and walked off down the path.

The sword left behind. The locket not so heavy