Knight Parade Fifth Chapter Instigation of Parade

Chapter Five:

Instigation of Parade

Things continue on for almost another week in the same manner, fixing up the old farm place and making sure it is relatively self-sufficient. After that week Mike has his first chance to go into town, despite the reservations of his parents. Mike has almost been too busy to miss his friends. But late at night, while being kept up by the soft snores of his younger brothers, he misses the trust of his friends, the joking, the comfort, the feeling of power that a young man gets when he's with his close friends. Of course he also misses Claire, her face he misses the most, as it is much more pleasant to look at than any of his friends, which I suppose is a good thing.

Unfortunately, the only means to get into town now is horse back, or walking I suppose but even walking ten miles is going to take awhile. Mike is getting better with the horse but he would be lying if he said that it didn't make him nervous to be riding into town by himself. It was kind of like driving in heavy traffic with a clutch for the first time, you know what to do but it still scares the crap out of you. Mike finishes his morning chores which includes preparing the cows for milking, which he does not care for but is doing more often, and feeding the sows. He rushes through these chores in anticipation of getting to town, much like a child rushes through Christmas breakfast to get to the presents. Mike loads up the horse with some extra clothes and water and his grandmother packs him a sandwich lunch. Larry makes sure to get the point across to his son that he needs to be very careful and get home before dark. Finally, after much delay Mike starts off the north drive on his way to town. But about halfway up the drive he notices a figure on the back of a black and white stallion, with a small cloud of smoke circling his head, which of course can only be one person, Grandpa.

As Mike rides up Tony hails him, "So heading into town hey son?"

Mike with an excited air in his voice, "Yeah, it's about time I got a chance to get away."

As Grandpa pulls out a smoke and hands it to Mike he chuckles and says, "True, true."

Mike takes the smoke appreciatively and responds, "Thanks Grandpa."

Grandpa turns to his right saddlebag, reaches inside and says, "I also want you to take these," he hands Mike an old blade, just about a foot and a half long, and a small revolver. "Now that gun is loaded and make sure the darn safety is on and keep it out of sight. Guns usually cause more problems than they solve, but wear the blade. It will convey the aurora of preparation which may keep you out of trouble, but above all have a good time and find that lady friends of yours."

Mike blushes slightly and says, "I will Grandpa, thanks."

Grandpa begins to guide his horse back to the home place and yells back to Mike, "Ride safe son."

The ride to town is rather uneventful, the horse behaves itself fairly well. But when the town is finally in site, Mike gets a bad feeling. It is pretty much the same feeling he got the day the world shut down, not good, not good at all. It is then that he notices them, riders to the north, it looks like five of them. They seem to be patrolling the south east side of town. Unfortunately, they see Mike too, they take a long look at him but make no moves toward him, it seems a lone rider does not worry them very much.

"Did the town start some sort of local militia patrol," Mike wonders to himself. He has not heard anything about such a thing. Not that the family on the farm is at the center of local news, but they do hear regular reports, and rumors. I suppose one can be swapped for the other depending on who you talked to, but the family knows enough to be dangerous, most of the time.

Instead of heading into town straight from the southeast Mike decides to circle around to the west side of town. This approach is closer to Justin's house and besides that, he is curious to see if there are other riders on that side of town too. As he circles around he is not disappointed, he sees another group of five riders on the southwest side of town. Mike watches them for a minute and decides to head into town directly, but this time the riders decide Mike is worth their attention and begin to ride toward him. Mike decides the best plan of action is not to ride full out and give the impression that he is trying to avoid them but to continue at a steady pace and seem not to notice them. Given that option they will either give up on him or over take him. Then he will have to see what they want. It seems that the later will pan out and as Mike is just about to ride into the out skirts of town the riders overtake him.

The first rider yells as Mike as he pulls his horse up to Mike's, "Halt!"

"Crap," Mike thinks to himself, "I know that voice, this is going to be fun." As Mike wheels his horse to face the riders he slides the revolver his grandfather gave him under the horse's saddle. Of course the horse doesn't appreciate this but he needs to hide it somewhere.

As he faces his five pursuers sitting up straight in his saddle Mike says, trying to hide the fear in his voice, "Well Ryan, long time no see, how goes it?"

Ryan smiles as he realizes his good fortune in finding Mike and instructs him, "Halt and dismount asshole."

Mike grasps the reigns of his horse tightly and responds arrogantly, "Now first off, why would I do that and exactly by what authority can you tell me what to do?"

Ryan looks back and motions to a rider behind him who points his crossbow at Mike. Now Mike is rather taken back here, as he has never seen a crossbow much less had one pointed at him. Also interesting is the fact that this guard does not have a gun, that would have seemed to be the obvious choice in this circumstance. But Mike knows that a crossbow bolt at this range in particular will not feel very nice, not very nice at all.

Ryan turns back to Mike still smiling and says slyly, "This gives me all the darn authority I need."

Mike laughs just loud enough to make sure Ryan can hear him and asks, "So you're going to shoot me with a crossbow, for what jackass?"

Ryan begins to turn red with anger and yells back, "Because I darn well feel like it, now dismount."

Mike, knowing that he is outmatched and out gunned, well crossbowed I suppose, says, "All right, asshole." He dismounts slowly, something that comes rather naturally with a crossbow pointed at you.

Ryan instructs Mike, now very pleased with himself, "Now throw that blade on the ground and move away, we're going to search you and the horse for contraband."

Mike backs away from Ryan and asks with a confused look on his face, "Contraband, are you on crack crap head, exactly what kind of contraband?"

Ryan answers as he looks through Mike's packs, "Weapons, money, food, you know anything of value."

Mike steps back and allows Ryan and his cronies to rummage through the packs on the horse. One of the guards slides his hand under the saddle and Mike thinks to himself, "Oh crap here we go." The guard pulls the revolver out and immediately brings it to Ryan.

Ryan takes the revolver from the guard and asks, "Well, what the heck do we have here?"

Mike answers arrogantly, "It's a cigarette lighter, you know, nasty frigin' habit I have." Ryan opens it up and lets the bullets slide out of the revolver.

Ryan looks sternly at Mike and says raising his voice, "Lighter my ass, I will be taking this and adding it to my collection." Mike opens his mouth to protest but thinks, "What the heck's the difference, it won't change a darn thing." The guards continue their search and find the food and water in Mike's packs and eat some of it and discard the rest on the ground.

As they finish and get back on their horses Ryan sticks in one more smart ass comment saying, "Have a nice day jackass, I have my eye on you."

Mike waits until Ryan and his guards ride off and then he picks up his blade and whatever other supplies he can salvage off the ground and saddles up again. Mike can't help but think to himself, "Even though Ryan is a jackass he has something up his sleeve and that cannot be good. Ryan has an eye on me huh. I better keep an eye on Ryan". Mike finishes his ride to Justin's house without incident, but what strikes him is how quite the town is. He does not see one person on his way to Justin's, it's spooky, like old west ghost town spooky. Mike rides up to Justin's and ties the horse off on a tree by the drive way. Now here's a picture, your horse parked in your drive way, but I digress.

Mike approaches the door and knocks, three times, four times, he knocks and no answer. Mike begins to think that no one is home when he sees the curtains flutter in the kitchen. The door quickly opens and Mike is pulled in hard and the door slams behind him.

"It's great to see you crap head," Pete says as he helps Mike up off the floor.

Mike slightly stunned says with surprise in his voice, "What the heck was that crap for brains?"

Pete says apologetically, yet still very happy to see his friend, "Sorry about that but things have changed around here Mikey, we're all downstairs, come on."

The house is completely dark, all the shutters and curtains are drawn, the basement is also blacked out, candles and a kerosene lamp are the only light. It takes some time for Mike's eyes to adjust to this lighting. All the guys are there and even though they seem rather somber it is good to see them, he misses his friends and they miss him too.

Justin gets up from the table where he, Alex and Tim are looking over some sort of plans, walks over and embraces Mike. He says in a heart-felt tone, "What the frig dude, what are you doing here, man it's good to see you."

Mike embraces his friend in a "I'm not gay" kinda way and answers, "Yeah brother it's good to see you too, and what the frig kind of greeting is that Pete?"

Pete sits down at the table with Alex and Tim, folds his hands, smiles and says, "Yeah sorry man, can't be too careful."

Mike and Justin finish their quick hug and Mike walks over to the table and asks perplexed, "Careful of what exactly?"

Justin also sits down at the table, runs his hands through his blond hair in frustration and answers, "Man things are bad, real bad, and I think they are going to get worse. No one goes out, they're scared with those Homage riders all over the place"

With this coaxing Mike relays the story of his run in with Ryan and his cronies.

All the boys seem to nod in unison and Justin responds, "Yeah that sounds about right those frigers are walking all over everyone."

Mike looks over the plans that are lying on the table, they look like blueprints to something. Mike asks with a worried tone, "So the Homage are behind this huh, but what about the cops?"

Justin moves uncomfortably in his chair and responds looking over to Mike, "No cops man, ever since the government stopped sending their pay checks the cops have cleared out or just quit."

Mike asks cracking his knuckles anxiously, "So there's no authority."

Justin responds standing up and beginning to pace, "Well at the town meeting some people tried to round up volunteers for some sort of patrol but people are too scared."

Mike looks around at the rest of the guys, they are all listening to Justin intently. Mike asks the obvious questions, "Scared of what?"

Justin continues to pace the floor getting more worked up with each step he takes. He begins to lecture as if in some unseen classroom, "That darn Homage group man, black cloaks, people are calling them, because all their guards wear black cloaks when they are out "patrolling." They came into town a few days ago and started to threaten people with bows, swords and various other forms of violence if people didn't start paying "protection" for services rendered. Then over the next couple of days they went around raiding houses and confiscating guns and other "illegal" materials."

This news brings Mike to his feet and he tightens his hands into fists and ask, "Didn't some people fight back?"

Justin stops pacing and plops into a lazy boy by the television. He responds with a reserved tone, "Yeah, but the black cloaks are organized and there were more of them than those that resisted, a few people got killed. Not pretty, not friging pretty at all and that's when we decided to do something about it."

The expression on Mike's face turns from worry to surprise and he asks, "Really, like what?"

"Check this out," Justin says as he makes his way over to the far east wall of the basement and lifts up the tapestry hanging there. He opens a small door that blends in amazingly well with the rest of the wall. This is usually where Justin hides his booze and porn, when he has it. This is a false wall that had been put in the last time the house was remodeled to square up the room, thus creating a small walk space behind the wall.

Justin motions Mike over and says quietly, "Look at this." Behind the wall is a virtual armory of weapons: swords, knives, shields and various armor.

Mike sticks his head into the door farther and asks, his voice muffled by the wall, "El capitian, what the heck did you do, knock off the National Guard or something?"

Justin hesitates slightly and answers, "Something like that, army surplus most of it, some other stuff we found lying around."

Mike pulls his head out of the door, yeah I said pulls his head out, about time right? Mike responds sarcastically, "Lying around my ass."

Justin leans back against the opposite wall and says, trying to get the conversation back on track, "Yeah, so we decided to do something about this, we are not just going to sit around and take this crap from these idiots."

It finally dawns on Mike what Justin has in mind and asks in a reserved tone, "So you're going to form some sort of militia, right, who else is in on this?"

Justin smiles and looks around the room and answers, "Just us and now you."

Mike looks back in through the door at all the weapons and then back at his friends. He rubs his temples like he has a bad migraine and says, "Just us, yeah, guys we don't know how to use this stuff."

Pete stands up from the table and answers excitedly, "Dude, that's why we train, see." He proceeds to pull out a stack of books from behind the table on martial arts, sword play, and various other forms of self-defense.

Mike shakes his head and says, "Guys this is friging crazy."

Justin stands up straight and responds defiantly, "No what's crazy is sitting around on our asses and not doing a darn thing man. You don't seem to realize this is serious, come on if you don't believe us we will show you."

With that being said all the guys get up, make their way to the armory in an orderly fashion, grab weapons and armor, and place on dark capes. Mike watches this curiously morbid parade closely and after they are all suited up Justin hands Mike a short sword and cape.

Mike grabs the cape but not the sword and says, "Thanks but I'm already packing."

Mike shows Justin his grandfather's old blade and continues, "Besides, I think the rest of you are well armed enough," as he grips the blade at his side.

The gang sets out the back door and moves through the neighborhood between houses trying to avoid the streets as much as possible. But the town is fairly quiet, which they expected, and the overly-armed and less than well-trained group move toward the center of town, toward city hall. As they move closer, Mike begins to hear sounds and indistinguishable voices, very unpleasant voices and screaming.

Mike whispers to Justin as they make their way down a narrow alley, "What the heck is that?"

Justin puts a finger to his mouth and looks around frantically, "Quiet, this is what we have been talking about, quick ditch in here, we can follow the inside of the buildings to city hall so we aren't noticed."

The whole group falls in line and ducks through some abandoned buildings. They make their way through these building to a building with a fairly good view of city hall. Then Mike sees something he did not expect and will never forget. Right in front of city hall, there are stockades with three men bound and being severely whipped, covering the ground in blood.

"Where are the weapons?" The Homage guard with the whip shouts "You know where they are, now tell us," as he whips the poor idiot again sending blood and flesh streaming into the air. A red mist of blood coats the entire square with the ferocious beating these men are taking.

The man being interrogated screams through his sobs, "I don't know anything, stop, please stop."

The first thought to jump to Mike's mind is a tactical one, a thought he did not expect. The square is filled with almost twenty of the Homage in black cloaks, far too many for any sort of frontal assault. But Mike's mind continues to work the problem over. There are seven of us, two on each side, three up the middle, if we had some darn bows we might be able to make this things work. But his thought process is interrupted by Justin's voice, "We have stayed too long already, let's bail boys." The gang filters out and Justin steps in to stops Mike as he goes by and says. "You see man, what we're talking about, something needs to be done."

Mike takes one last look over his shoulder and grips the hilt of the blade at his side and says in a reserved tone, "Darn straight, sorry I didn't get it earlier."

Justin puts a hand on Mike's should and says apologetically, "It's cool man, sorry we had to show you this way."

The gang returns the same way they had came. As they make their way down a side street they almost run into a Homage patrol on the street, but Paul notices them as they are about to turn and saves them just in time. They get back to Justin's and it is already getting dark. This of course means Mike needs to get home fast before he gets into too much trouble with his parents. So he says a quick farewell to his boys and they plan to meet sometime next week when Mike can get into town, and Mike saddles up and hurries home.

But it seems that Mike is not meant to get home on time this evening. As he is almost to the outskirts of town he hears a scream, faintly, but it's there and it is a familiar voice, Claire. So Mike quickly turns the horse around and heads south where he believes the scream originated from. As he approaches the screams he dismounts and ties the horse off in an open garage and quickly runs down the alley. Then he sees the second scene of the day that he will never forget. There is Claire, pinned down by a couple of men on an old trash heap in the alley with her pants torn off and her shirt ripped open exposing her. One of the Homage guards is holding her down and the other is on top of her working his own pants off.

Claire screams through her tears, "Leave me alone you frigers, God darn it, please stop, help!"

Barely aware of it, Mike mutters "help me Lord," and charges, his mind working like a flash. Later when he tires to remember that night most of it is a blur. With speed he did not know he had, heat flows into his hands as he quickly draws the blade from his side and moves in on the pair.

"I believe the lady said to leave her alone!" Mike yells as he charges in startling the pair.

The pair quickly spins around to see who there new admirer is. The guard holding Claire quickly draws his sword and without a word lunges at Mike. The only thing that Mike has ever really learned about martial arts is how to side step. You leave your leg out to trip your attacker, and in this case it actually works. Mike follows this move up very quickly with the sword, plunging the blade right into a kidney and then quickly withdraws it. This guard goes down in a heap bleeding out all over the ground.

Mike turns to see the other black cloak still trying to get his pants back on. Claire rolls off the trash and tries to put herself back together but crying uncontrollable. The other guard still does not have his pants completely back on leaving an opening for Mike. Mike lunges quickly and bats away the attempt of the rider to defend himself and Mike quickly severs a neck artery and the guard falls, clutching at his neck making a gross gasping noise. The other guard Mike wounded is trying to get back to his feet and Mike quickly cuts his neck artery also.

Mike's only concern now is Claire and he runs over to try and help her. As he moves toward her she gets up and makes her way toward the dead guard closest to her. She has put her cloths back on but still looks a mess, her beautiful face and hair are a smeared with dirt but her eyes are burning with rage. She then begins to kick the dead guard and scream at the top of her lungs, "You mother friging son of a witch, friging idiot, asshole, piece of crap friger."

Mike runs to her and grabs her trying to be quite yet forceful with her he says, "Claire, Claire please, we need to go, there will be more of them quick, please we need to leave."

Mike knows there is precious little time to lose, he has just killed two of them and there will be more. This is not exactly a quiet affair and Claire is out of control, understandably so, so Mike needs to act now.

It seems action without thought is typically frowned upon but when taking an exam they always say, who "they" are I really can't say but anyway, to go with your first instinct. So it's funny how thoughtless action can many times be the best action possible. This works in Mike's favor as he grabs the cloaks off of the two dead men and places them on Claire and himself. He grabs Claire and brings her back to the horse and saddles her on the back, trying to console her as much as possible. He brings the horse through backyards and alleys toward Justin's house. He stops about a block short of Justin's and quickly straps the horse inside an open garage and he carries Claire back to Justin's. Going through the backyard and then busting in Justin's backdoor, Mike scares the crap out of the guys and it almost gets him killed. Paul pulls a blade on Mike and Claire as they burst into the house.

Pete drops the blade as soon as he realizes who it is and screams with shock, "What the heck!"

Mike places a sobbing Claire on the couch and blabbers at an amazingly fast rate trying to get all the information out at once. "Crap guys I have a problem, Claire was attacked by two black cloaks, and I went to help her, and they came after me, and I ended up killing both of them. Justin you need to get her home after she settles down some man, I need to take care of the bodies and ride out, it's way past dark and my family is probably having a conniption."

Justin puts both of his hands on Mike's shoulders, looking him straight in the eye and says with a steady tone, "Brother take a breath and calm down, we are all here and we will take care this OK. Now get the heck out of here, we will take care of Claire, take Paul and Pete to help with those bodies."

Mike takes a deep breath and relaxes. His racing heart begins to calm with Justin's words and answers, "Thanks man."

Justin smiles and reassures his friend, "No worries, ride safe man."

Paul and Pete grab their weapons and the three are off. Leaving Claire is hard, very hard, Mike wants to be the one to get her home safe. He wants to make sure that she is OK and safe but he knows there is no time for that now and Justin and the rest of the boys will take care of things. That's what they do for each other, they take care of things. Mike, Paul and Pete move quickly out of the back of the house and back to the garage where Mike left his horse. But his horse is not alone, there is another mounted figure in the garage. The three quickly draw their weapons. Once you have that first taste of battle you get a quick feel for drawing that weapon, some people get too good of a feel for it. The blade is in Mike's hand almost before he is aware of it. Paul and Pete are not as quick, yet anyway. But then the figure speaks.

"Easy there boys," as the figure moves out of the garage, and boy is Mike glad to see his grandfather.

Mike asks with surprise and relief in his voice, "What the heck are you doing here?"

Tony laughs as he brings his stallion out of the garage and answers, "Might ask you the same question boy, I would be extremely pissed if you hadn't handled those Homage so well."

Mike begins to feel anger rise in his chest as he asks his grandfather sternly, "You saw that, why the heck didn't you help me."

Tony answers with a calm, steady voice, "Easy son, I just caught the end of it and by the time I was able to help, you had the young lady half way back to the horse. So I decided to watch your back in case you were followed and let you handle the situation. But it's time to get back, the family is worried, let's ride."

Mike turns from his Grandfather to his friends and nods to them saying, "Thanks boys, I think I'll be OK from here."

Paul waves and responds, "All right man, ride safe and if you need anything."

Mike smiles answering, "I know who to call, make sure Claire's all right."

Pete begins to turn his horse back toward Justin's and concludes, "No worries man."

Mike and Tony wrap the bodies in some old sheets from a nearby house and bury them hastily under a nearby garbage pile as best they can. The bodies will be found eventually but they have no other choice now. It they get caught transporting two dead Homage guards on horseback that would be rather hard to explain. The ride home is filled with Mike's stories for Tony of the day. He starts with the run in he had on the way to town and then the meeting with his friends, to seeing the actions of the Homage riders, and finally to saving Claire.

After Mike's tale Tony takes a long drag on his smoke thinking about what it all means and finally says to Mike. "You know boy, you've started something very dangerous here. By taking the lives of those guards you are now the enemy, you will be hunted now, they will not rest until this is resolved."

Mike sighs deeply, this thought had already occurred to him and he was trying not to deal with it. He runs his fingers through his thick brown hair and answers defensively, "Yeah I know, but what was I supposed to do, just let them assault Claire."

Tony answers quickly to keep Mike from getting more excited about the situation, "No my boy you did the right thing, it took a great deal of courage to do what you did and I am very proud of you. But you need to know there are consequences for all of our actions, both good and bad. There could be some very, very bad consequences for this. But you fought well, I am very impressed, where did you learn to fight like that anyway?"

Mike laughs and answers, "Too many ninja movies Grandpa, too many ninja movies, but no Grandpa I don't know. It came so easy and it felt good, really good. Part of me wants to do it again, badly."

Tony shakes his head at his Grandson and says, "Ah the bloodlust, don't let it get you son. You need to keep a clear head if you're going to get involved with this thing. People who kill just to kill, are some of the most miserably creatures you will ever lay eyes on. If you want to be good, really good, you need to keep a clear head. Lust and revenge will cloud the mind like driving in a thick fog on an old country road. You won't be able to stop until it's too late."

Mike turns his gaze toward the ground and for the first time it sinks in. He has killed two men and he feels a weight of guilt on his heart like he has never felt before. These men have mothers, fathers, maybe sisters, brothers or even children. All of these people will hurt, maybe even hate at the news of the death of their loved one. Then the fear sets in, crap, there will be those that want revenge, not just family but friends too. If Mike lost one of his friends to the blade he would never rest until the person responsible was dead. Now there is someone out there that feels the same way about him, hating him with a death passion.

The rest of the trip home is a reflective one for Mike, thinking about what happened and the ramifications of his actions. He now knows that nothing will ever be the same. As they ride home Tony rolls Mike a smoke which Mike happily accepts, he needs this to help calm him and focus his thoughts.

After a few moments of silence Tony interjects, "My boy it may not be the best idea to mention this to your folks. I think it will upset them more than need be and they most certainly won't let you go into town again."

Mike shakes his head at the almost absurdity of what Grandpa has just said and answers, "Yeah, no crap Grandpa, they would go completely nuts if they found out."

Tony laughs and says nodding his head, "I'll help cover for you. Just tell your folks your horse was acting up on the way home, got spooked or something. That's when I found you. I helped you get the horse calmed down and then we got home."

Mike sighs, this is starting to get too complicated, and agrees, "Yeah, that story will fly."

Tony looks at his grandson for a few minutes. It is obvious that Mike is worried, going over his situation again and again in his head. Tony then adds, "I think it would be a good idea to do some training. You know, teach you to defend yourself. Maybe some hand-to-hand and sword training, I know enough skills to help you out. That way if you should run into trouble, you will be better prepared."

A light goes on in Mike's troubled eyes, and with it a sense of relief and Mike says, "Thanks Grandpa, I would appreciate it."

Tony smiles at Mike and the two continue the ride home, mostly in silence. Mike's parents are ecstatic to see him and Grandpa covers for Mike just as he said he would. That night Mike has the dream again, Tim drops him and he is falling like before but this time he hits bottom and after the fall someone is there, someone to help him up. But just as Mike is about to get off the ground and meet whoever or whatever is there he is awakened. It is the sound of the door opening, it is Mike's father coming in to wake his sons for a new day. Mike will have to wait for another night to see what happens next.