Touching, I guessed. “Okay, let’s go.”
I paused when I heard a noise. We’d been spotted, and whoever it was had decided to try to sneak up on us rather than charge us. Smart. But not smart enough.
Skrew hadn’t noticed, so I pretended I hadn’t either. If whoever had spotted us was a guard, they could have shot us from where they were. Unless they didn’t have a rifle. Either way, allowing them to get closer would give me more of an advantage as I only had an ax and a waterskin. One would kill, the other would quench my thirst if the guards fought hard enough for me to break a sweat. I hoped they would. I needed to take my anger out on something, and taking it out on the ones who tortured their own kind to death seemed like the best plan to me.
We were halfway to the trees at the edge of the clearing when the guards attacked. They might have had a small chance to surprise me if they’d thought about securing whatever equipment was making that little jingling sound. I pulled my ax and, in a single motion, sent it hurtling end over end toward the noise-maker.
The tool hit him in the chest, punched through what looked like plate armor, and sent sparks into the air. The guard flew back three yards before skidding on the soft dirt. I didn’t have time to wonder about how devastating the attack was. The second guard was looking at his comrade instead of me. I rushed him just as he turned, and his black eyes widened. I tackled him, pressed both of my hands against the back of his helmeted head, and shoved his face into the ground.
The guard tried to scream, so I pushed harder, meaning to suffocate him and keep him quiet. The guard’s helmet crumpled beneath my hands like a tin can, and I heard a dull, wet crack as his skull caved in. He spasmed once and lay still. I left my first confirmed kill behind as I stood.
More noises from the nearby shacks tickled my ears. I knew what it meant. The villagers had heard the fight. They were curious. I’d tried to keep the encounter quiet, but it hadn’t been quiet enough.
I turned to tell Skrew to hide in the woods while I took care of the problem, but he was already gone. I spun all the way around looking for him, but the little bastard had ditched me the first chance he got. I didn’t blame him—not really. But he’d given me what seemed like his word. I wouldn’t be so trusting next time.
I wasn’t sure how many vrak were coming, but it sounded like a lot. Twelve? Twenty, maybe? I was unarmed and outnumbered.
I looked to the guard I’d killed with my ax. I couldn’t see my newly acquired weapon, but it had to be nearby. Three leaping strides took me beyond the guard, and I crossed almost 10 yards. Lower gravity than I was used to? I didn't know, but I had no time to think about it.
I turned around and put less strength into my steps as I returned to the vrak corpse. The guard’s eyeballs were bugging out of his head, and his tongue was swollen, lolling out of his mouth to one side. And, the sheet of metal he used as body armor was caved in like a meteor had hit it. An oblong meteor, about the length of the little ax I’d thrown at it.
When I rolled the creature over, there was an exit wound about the same size of those I’d seen when firing old slug-launchers at metal plates. Several gouges in the dirt suggested my ax might have skittered somewhere. I followed the trail to a heap of trash but couldn’t see my weapon among the stinking pile of crap.
I took a deep breath and backed toward the center of the clearing. If I was going to fight more than a dozen goblins, I’d need some room. I just hoped none of them had rifles.
A pack of four-armed villagers emerged from the scrap metal buildings, looking more like zombies than aliens. They shuffled their feet and stopped at the edge of the clearing. They didn’t move. They didn’t attack. They simply stared at me. It was unnerving. There was no sign of a weapon among them, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hostile.
More joined them until there was a crowd of at least 50. I looked around for something to defend myself with and thought about the cage, which had come apart easily enough. If they made any hostile movements, I’d try to rip the whole cage door off. I hoped it would be strong enough to last through five or six swings.
But the villagers didn’t attack. Instead, they stared, holding each other in their four arms. It looked like they were embracing. I wasn’t sure if I’d be stuck there for a while, but it certainly wasn’t the kind of relationship I wanted to start with the locals.
Then a little vrak with long hair and gaudy paint around her eyes, a female child, maybe, emerged from the crowd. She approached the downed guard and kicked him on the side of his head. The guard, of course, didn’t respond. A murmuring began to grow. Hushed whispers became a cacophony of noise, and I relaxed a bit. They weren’t acting like an angry mob. I’d killed two of their own, but they weren’t upset about it.
The child shuffled over to me and held out a hand. Her palm was empty, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it. Suddenly, she came closer, grabbed my left hand, and pressed it against her forehead. Then she smiled before running back to her parents among the crowd.
“Hide!” Skrew appeared out of the trees. “More soldiers! They
