Chapter 15 - A bridge too far...

Rachel never asked questions. Throughout the week we travelled together, she never asked where her parents were, or what happened to her little brother. Maybe she already knew or, maybe she didn’t realize it… But whatever it was, she loved being with us. You could see that in her eyes…

We’ve been walking with Rachel for a week now. One night, Terry was carrying her. She slept all through the day, while we all carried her in turn, and that night, it was Terry’s turn. She woke up a few hours ago, and didn’t fell asleep ever since… Maybe it was because Terry was keeping her busy…

Terry: Alright, alright, alright! Let’s go over it again, little dude. Watch me closely.

Rachel: Okay…
Terry: *growls*
Rachel: Grrr…!!
Terry: … We need to work on that.

Rachel: Show me again!
Terry: *growls*
Rachel: Grrrrr!!
Terry: … Almost, but not quite.
Rachel: Grrrrrrrrrrrrhrhrhrrrrrr!!
Terry: Oooh, scary!! Do that angry face again!
Rachel: *pulls angry face*
Terry: Yeah!! That’s it, little dude!!
Rachel: Heehee!
Mahabi: She’s a human, she cant growl like you…
Terry: Yeah, and she can’t purr like you either.
Mahabi: Purr?
Lattei: *laughs*
Mahabi: Excuse me?!
Terry: Yeah! I heard you purring whenever you were asleep…
Mahabi: … I don’t purr.

As Mahabi and Terry kept on discussing whether or not Mahabi was purring in his sleep, I noticed that Lattei looked around cautiously… He kept his hands close the sheaths of the swords and he lifted one of them up by moving his thumb up…

Nicole: What’s up…?
Lattei: … Head’s up, we got company…

Then all of a sudden, we heard something coming out of the bushes… Terry and Mahabi aimed their weapons at the bushes, but lowered them as soon as we saw what it was. A group of 8 guys, all furries… But for some reason, Lattei kept his hands close to his swords…

Terry: You guys scared us…
Wolf: Damn, are we glad to see you guys.
Mahabi: Same here.
Wolf: Where are you guys heading?
Terry: Azerbaijan.
Wolf: Oh! That’s where we’re going as well.
Terry: Oh good.
Wolf: Not to be rude or anything, but… You guys happen to have something to eat…?

Terry: Yeah, of course.

So Terry got down to take off his backpack but… As soon as he looked up, the wolf aimed two pistols at Terry’s head… Lattei immediately draws his two swords and Mahabi took his aim… Then all of the other guys aimed at us as well…

Wolf: Oh, well in that case, give us everything you got.
Terry: … Are you fracking mental…?
Wolf: Are you so naïve…? Give it… *presses guns against Terry’s head*

Terry lets go of Rachel as she got behind me and he tossed the backpack in the middle of Mahabi and Lattei…

Wolf: You think I’m retarded or something…? Tell you’re guys to drop their weapons…

Terry: … Do it…

Mahabi: … There’s no way I’m gonna let these guys take from us what took us a lot of effort to get…

Terry: Do it Mahabi…

Then they dropped their weapons… The wolf walked up to the backpack and all of a sudden, Lattei kicked dust in his face, and kicked up a sword and stabbed him in the chest. He placed his foot on the wolf’s chest, and kicked him dowm… The others were so baffled by that, but quickly recovered and took their aim again… Terry and Mahabi got down quickly and grabbed their weapons as I ran away with Rachel… I jumped up a tree and held Rachel close as we could follow the gunfight below… I held my hands around Rachel’s eyes but… I could see everything… Lattei got hold of his other sword, and rolled over to one of those guys. He chopped the legs of the guy just below the knee with a cross swipe as he fell down… And Terry and Mahabi just sought cover and shot to whoever was out there… But Lattei punched someone in the face with the grip of the sword, and as the guy he punched fell back, he quickly stabbed him in the back…

It all happened in a blink of an eye… And as I looked around, they were all dead… Mahabi and Terry threw away their weapons as Lattei was wiping his swords clean…

Terry: Where’s Nicole?!!
Nicole: Up here!!
Terry: Rachel?!!
Nicole: She’s with me!!
Mahabi: It’s all clear!! Come on down!!

Nicole: Ok… Ok… Rachel…?
Rachel: Y-Yeah…?
Mahabi: Nicole!!! Hurry up!!
Nicole: I’m coming!! Rachel…? Hold on to me ok? And whatever you do, don’t look. Don’t look ok…?

Rachel: *nods*
Nicole: Ok… Here we go… One… Two… Three…

I carefully let myself down from the tree. It reminded me that I fell out of a tree and got stuck between the branches on the way down a long time ago… I felt how Rachel was clamping on my arms as her chin rest on my shoulder as I walked over to the others… But… I heard a soft whimper as Rachel grip tightened around my arms… And… I felt how a tear was hitting my shoulder… As I turned my head, I noticed she looked anyway…

Nicole: Sssh… It’s ok Rachel… We’re leaving now ok…?

Terry was searching the bodies for something. He got out a few cartons, but I didn’t know what it was…

Terry: Yeah, let’s go, right now.
Lattei: … Yeah, you got everything?
Mahabi: Yeah.
Nicole: You guys ok…?
Terry: *nods*
Mahabi: I’m fine…
Lattei: *nods slowly*
Mahabi: You still got a few clips Terry? I’m out…
Terry: No, I’m out too…
Mahabi: Damn it…
Terry: Thanks to this son of a dog!! *kicks corpse*

We got our stuff and walked away without saying anything and without looking back…

We didn’t talk for hours. Every once in a while, you hear someone sigh and we only talked when it was necessary… We spend the night in a tree, and took cover from the pouring rain. We sat on the branches and tried to stay dry by holding blankets over our heads. And what’s worse was that it was a cold night… We didn’t get much sleep…

Walking went slow the other day… Everyone became so tired of the same routine each day and it was exhausting… We haven’t eaten all day, and water became scarce too. Luckily, it was raining the night before, so we just stuck our hands holding the bottles outside the blanket and just wait until it was filled up…

But as night came over us again, we came across this really big river. There was a bridge in the distance that has been shot to pieces, but it’s still possible to cross over it.

Terry: … Who’s up for a skinny dip?!
Nicole: … I’ll pass.
Lattei: There’s no way you can swim that distance…
Mahabi: Yeah, and besides, the current way too strong…
Terry: You think the bridge will hold…?
Lattei: … By the looks of it, yeah… It misses a few chunks of concrete and reinforced steel cables, but it should hold us…

Terry: … Oh fracking hell, not again…
Nicole: What…?!
Terry: Lattei, sword!!
Lattei: What?!
Terry: Gimme!!

Terry yanked from the sheath a sword out that Lattei was carrying. Terry listened closely and turned around so all of a sudden. He pointed the sword downwards, and we could see a hedgehog’s face… He was crawling through the bushes…

Terry: Don’t you fracking move, or I’ll gut you like a fracking shish-kebab!!!

The hedgehog got up slowly from the bushes… Once he got in the moonlight, we noticed he was brown, fluffy and had a shackle around his neck… He didn’t really seem that old, but he looked all baffled as he didn’t say anything… Terry pressed the sword against his throat…

Terry: Who else is out there…? Call them out…
???: Oh shoot, they got Axel…
Terry: Lattei…!!
Lattei: Got it.

Lattei backed Terry up by standing next to him, sword ready. As soon as we heard they were coming out of the bushes, Terry violently pulled the brown hedgehog over and pressed the sword against his throat again. The hedgehog seemed to be calm though… He didn’t say anything, but we understood why he was so calm once they all got out of the bushes… More furries got out… Like… A lot… They weren’t armed, but we were so outnumbered that Terry had to let go of him…

Terry: … Dayumn… Where the hell did they all come from…?
Lattei: No idea…
Tigress: What the hell is the matter with you?!! Huh?!! We’re on your side!!
Terry: … That’s what we thought when we encountered a smaller group like yourselves earlier…

Hedgehog: What?
Mahabi: Yeah. They tried to steal our stuff…
Terry: Hell, they even threatened us by pressing guns to our heads…

Hedgehog: I don’t believe that…
Terry: That’s not my problem whether or not you believe it.

Mahabi: Let’s go.

I looked at the group before continued our way. They all looked baffled at each other and we walked off…

But not long after that, we got caught up by them…

Tigress: Where you guys heading…?
Terry: Azerbaijan.
Hedgehog: Why?
Lattei: There’s an underground base there.
Mahabi: With refugees.
Nicole: *nods*
Terry: Way better then spending the days outside…
Tigress: Is it possible we… We could tag along with you?
Lattei: Depends.
Tigress: Whadda ya mean?
Terry: You got weapons?
Hedgehog: Yeah, sort of.
Lattei: You know how to defend yourselves?
Tigress: *shows claws*
Mahabi: You want our supplies?
Tigress/Hedgehog: No.
Hedgehog: … We got our own.
Terry: Good, tag along then.

Then the hedgehog looked over to the others and nodded to follow… We were with a group of around 15 people. And so we set out to the bridge. Once we got there, it was a set back to discover there was no way to get over it. The road got blocked with a lot of debris as deformed steel structures were down. We had to climb over it to get to the bridge. Once we all got over it, we started walking the long bridge. The more we walked, the higher it became… I looked up in the distance and noticed the bridge was very long… Way longer then I imagined…

Terry: Where’s Rachel?
Nicole: She’s with Lattei.
Mahabi: *chuckles*
Terry: What?
Mahabi: *laughs*
Terry: What?!
Mahabi: Seriously…
Terry: What?! What?!!
Mahabi: “Gut you like a fracking shish-kebab…?” Dude… Holy shoot… Even when the odds are against you, you’re trying to be funny… *laughs*

Terry: Hey, I wasn’t trying to be funny, you know.
Mahabi: Hehehe… He was scared shootless...
Terry: …
Mahabi: … *laughs*
Terry: Oh shut up…
Mahabi: “Shish-kebab”…? Dude, how the hell do you come up with stuff like that man… *laughs*

Terry: *sighs*
Mahabi: You just fancied my tickle box… *laughs*
Terry: Oh just shut the hell up…

Not long after that… We heard something terrifying… Jet engines of gunships… It was too dark to see but at first, we thought they’re with the good guys. Terry, Mahabi and I got down as low as possible so that the gunships might not notice us… But… In the sudden burst of panic, people started running… And that’s when the gunships started to fire… I didn’t really know how many it were… But they came closer, so we had no choice but to run as well. I saw Lattei running in the distance, carrying Rachel as the bullets were whizzing by… A lot of people got shot off the bridge while we were still running as fast as we could. I heard ricochets all around me and at some point I tripped over something and fell down… Mahabi reached out a hand and dragged me along… I didn’t know what caused it, but we got hit by something… Mahabi got knocked down to his left and fell over the edge, dragging me along… I could barely hold on to a steel structure that was just underneath the bridge to support the pillars. I tried to hold on to Mahabi, but he was too heavy for me to hold as he was dangling below me unconscious… I yelled his name, trying to wake him up, but he just didn’t… And not long after that, I couldn’t hold on to him anymore… I saw how Mahabi fell a long way down into the big river below… I tried calling for help, but no one was answering me as screaming and yelling slowly faded off… Once again, I heard a ricochet, and a sharp pain in my right arm… I yelled it out and slipped… I fell a long way down and splashed in the ice cold water… And it just hurt so much… The cold water made it feel as if I was being stabbed with a thousand knives… I tried to stay at the surface, but got dragged down under water… And I couldn’t use my right arm… It hurt so much for some reason, but I didn’t realized what caused it… And not long after that, I got pulled under water…

Voices were echoing throughout my head… Unknown voices… But also familiar ones… I heard it… I’ve been there… I’ve witnessed it all… Limbs were floating gently across the water surface, as bullets hit the water at a fast rate… It was such a surreal sight… The muffled sounds of gunfire above the surface and people yelling… I saw another body slowly sinking towards the bottom… I couldn’t feel anything as my limbs turned numb by the ice cold water… And at that point, only one thought was running through my mind… “Let your lungs fill with water…” “Come on…” “It’ll be over soon…” “Come on damn it… Do it…” The clear bright water slowly colored dark red… Images of my life went by so fast… Blain… I saw him as well… I remember him all too well… Blain… I love you so much… I couldn’t go like this… Not without seeing him again and tell him how much I loved him… How much he means to me… Just one more time… That’s all… It slowly turned black as I got swallowed up by the darkness and the cold… No……Not like this…

I drifted upwards… I saw the surface got closer by the second… My head was kept above water as my eyes were wide open… I could see the clear night sky but didn’t hear anything… Every now and then, I could see the water in front of my eyes until I reached land… But even when I was shoved on land, I didn’t feel anything… I felt myself drifting away as I noticed Terry’s face above mine… He was yelling at me but I didn’t hear what he was saying… I couldn’t move… I didn’t blink my eyes… I couldn’t think… I got rolled on my right side and I noticed Lattei taking care of Mahabi as Rachel stands near by… Then I got rolled on my back again, and saw the pretty stars… Terry was doing something as he kept on yelling in my face… And then it felt like I was hitting the ground… Every feeling came back again… Pain, cold, everything… I regurgitated water and had really nasty coughs as I got rolled on my side again…

Terry: That’s it… Let it all out…
Nicole: *gasps and coughs*

Terry helped me to sit up right, but as soon as he let go, I fell down as I kept gasping for air. He helped me getting up again and leaned against me so that I stayed up. I kept panting and gasping my lungs out and kept on regurgitating water… After a while, I was so exhausted, that I just fell down…

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