Page 56 of Protected By the Convicts
Chapter Twelve
REN
Ren was living a fucking nightmare as he watched the guards drag Hannah onto the platform. No matter what Ren did, he couldn’t push through the crowd to get to Hannah. Dresden held her tight until Griggs jumped up and tore her from the manager.
“Fucking let me go!” Ren screamed at the miners holding him back. They were cheering Griggs on as he stripped Hannah’s shirt and then her bra.
His poor Hannah cried out in terror, unable to escape the massive miner. His brave Hannah wormed an arm free from the guard’s hold and punched Griggs in the face which did nothing except cause the beast to grin as he punched her right back. She sank to the ground, out cold.
Griggs tossed her over his shoulder like she was a prized kill and paraded her off the dais, letting miners in the crowd grope her as he pranced through the crowd.
All thought, everything Ren ever cared about in his life, disappeared right then. His sole goal was to get to her before Griggs disappeared with her. The men holding him released him, hoping to get close to Griggs, to touch Hannah as Griggs strolled through the crowd.
Too many men stood between Ren and Griggs. He couldn’t reach her!
“Move the fuck out of the way or I’ll poison the air you breathe down in those fucking mines!”
A path cleared. It was too late. Griggs and Hannah were gone.
* * *
SERSIE
The second the guard released him, Sersie turned and punched him in the face. And kept punching and punching until the guard was down and unconscious. Fights starting breaking out everywhere. Someone grabbed Sersie’s left arm. Sersie swung and punched. Vaughn ducked and grabbed him by his shirt.
“We have to follow Griggs. Before he gets too far with her!”
Sersie shot out after Vaughn, delivering a few punches along the way trying to get through the melee. Weapons fire shot overhead. He ducked long enough to avoid being hit. As he rose, he felt a sting in his side. He couldn’t take the time to see what the problem was. Griggs had Hannah slung over his shoulder and he was nearing the edge of the clearing.
Vaughn stopped short at the fork in the path. “Where’d he go?” The panic in Vaughn’s voice nearly unhinged Sersie. Seconds, mere seconds was all it had taken for Griggs to disappear into the jungle. He and his unit would brutalize her.
“You take left. I’ll go right,” Vaughn said.
Sersie said nothing as he banked left. There was nothing to say. No matter which of them found Hannah, Griggs would kill them. Neither of them could match Griggs in a fight. Not that the goal was beating Griggs. Give Hannah the chance to run. . . that’s what they needed to do, give her a chance to escape. Even if Sersie could only last two minutes against Griggs’s fists, he’d take it.
As he ran through the dense brush, Sersie kept his eyes peeled for any plants he could use. He wouldn’t have the time to dig up roots for anesthesia or acids to use as weapons. Every second counted, and he was slowing down; the pull in his side now unrelenting. He reached over to his left side below his ribs. His hand came away bloody. Someone had knifed him.
He held the wound and kept going until he heard movement up ahead. He slowed, searching for a vantage point, and again scanning the trees and brush for anything useful. That’s when he spotted a vondi barb, a vine which produced small barbs at the end of the yellow flowers, the poison which contained a paralytic agent, not enough to bring a man Griggs’s size down, but enough to slow him.
He snapped the vine, snagging his hand on one of the barbs. His last two fingers quickly grew sluggish from the poison. Sersie crept closer to where he’d seen the foliage moving.
A punch to the gut caused Sersie to go down, too fast. He’d lost too much blood. He wouldn’t even survive long enough for Hannah to run.
“Fuck! I thought you were Griggs,” Ren said, pulling Sersie up by his shirt.
“He must have taken the other path,” Sersie said, fighting nausea. “Vaughn and I split.”
They found Vaughn twenty minutes later at the shack Griggs’s unit occupied. It was empty of all possessions and there was no sign that anyone had been there in days.
“They knew,” Vaughn said. “Dresden gave them advanced notice, so they’d take her and disappear where we’d never find them.”
* * *
KY’LI
A proper hunt entailed a dangerous animal and a high probability of severe injuries if not death. Ky’Li hadn’t engaged in a proper hunt in four years, before his squad had been sent to the front lines in a war that could not be won, in a war they should have not been fighting, but that was for Daraan’s leaders to decide, not a solider such as Ky’Li. His leaders signed the contract with The Company; Ky’Li merely agreed to all their rules by way of his training and duty to Daraan.
As for the hunt itself, Min’Rom, Sa’Ve and he had cornered not one but a pair of hovaths. That kill had hardly seemed challenging as he and his fellow soldiers had outnumbered the hovaths. Hovaths were deadly but smart opponents to be respected if not feared. Unlike the prey Ky’Li now hunted.
