Knight Parade Fourteenth Chapter Sojourn

Chapter Fourteen

Sojourn

The group has full gear and weapons on, five days worth of rations. It's always good to have extra, water, some Homage money and a small amount of gold Mike got from Tony, just in case the Homage money is no good. St. Peter is just over a day out so they hope to get as far as possible today, camp tonight, and then ride into St. Peter early the next day. The morning is absolutely beautiful, another great day on the plains. They stop for lunch as the sun gets high and it seems to Mike they are making very good time. But as the day moves into mid-afternoon they notice smoke on the horizon.

Mike is the first to notice it and bring it to everyone's attention shouting as they ride, "Heads up boys, what the heck is that?"

Justin looks to the horizon and answers, "Not sure man, but we sure as heck are going to find out. Let's ride."

They approach the smoke to discover that it is a farm house, or was a farm house, it is still burning but is about half gone. There are hoof prints all over the yard from multiple riders.

Mike dismounts, and the rest follow suit, Mike takes charge commanding, "Alright everyone, split up and look around the house and grounds but don't go to far, yell if you find something."

There is no way to know how the fire started but most of the windows are smashed in. As Nick makes his way around the west side of the house he notices the remains of bodies burning in the sitting room.

Nick shouts his discouraging discovery to the others, "Darn boys! There were people inside, someone meant for them to die, frigin idiots."

That's when Mike feels it. "Someone is watching us. Seven o'clock from me, but he can't be sure," Mike thinks to himself. " But I sure as frig am going to get the drop on this asshole ."

He makes his way over to Claire, who is the closest to him, and whispers to her. "Do not react to this but we are being watched OK. Now I am just going to make my way over to my horse slowly. Keep doing what you're doing. When I get to my horse I am going to go full throttle and see if I can get the drop on his whoever it is. When I take off get the boys together and follow me. OK babe?"

Claire responds in a worried tone, "Careful love. We'll be right behind you."

Mike does just as he said and makes his way to the horse very naturally and once he mounts the horse, yeah I know I said mount, and then gives her heck. Going all out, Mike completely startles the man watching them. This forces the man to back up so fast he falls down and quickly gets up, making a run for it. But Mike, on horse back, is catching up to him very quickly.

As soon as Mike sets off on the horse Claire shouts as loudly as she can, "Boys, we have company! Saddle up fast, Mike needs help!"

Claire is on her horse in an instant and is hauling ass toward Mike. Now Justin and Nick are of course caught off guard but when Justin sees Mike riding hard, yeah riding hard, frig you people are sick. He catches on to what is going down and races toward his horse. Nick is behind the house and darts toward the rest of the group and is the last on his horse but is close behind Justin.

The man Mike is chasing down is in the grove of trees behind the house and thus has good cover. Mike's horse cannot go all the way into the grove without guidance so Mike jumps off and finishes the race on foot. Mike is on the man just strides after the dismounts. The man has a couple of inches on Mike and probably twenty pounds but Mike has momentum and surprise on his side. Mike tackles the man and they both go down in a heap. The man is on his feet very quickly though, coming up with his long sword in hand. Mike answers, jumping to his feet as he pulls both his blades and gives them a twirl. There is no real tactical advantage doing this but it just makes Mike feel cool, and it looks pretty darn cool too. Any who, the man comes in on Mike hard and Mike is able to parry the attack to the side using his right blade. Mike then thrusts his left blade into the man's open right side, piercing the man through his leather armor. The man screams but still comes down hard with his long sword which Mike is able to block. But the force of the blow pushes Mike back and the man sees his advantage and comes along with a side swipe. Mike is not positioned well to block this new attack and when he does block he drops his right blade and his opponent's sword catches him on the shoulder blade. Mike brings his left blade up knocking the long sword to the left. Mike grabs his dropped blade and backs off to get some separation and begins to circle his opponent. Now Claire is racing through the grove and is just about on the scene to help Mike. The stranger is wounded and, with the addition of Claire to this fight, is outmatched and he knows he needs to finish this quickly and makes a very rash move. He comes in hard on Mike with blade raised over his head, which Mike knows exactly how to handle. Mike blocks with his left and comes right in close to the man and impales him with his right blade through the lungs and into the heart. The man looks at Mike with wide eyes and slumps forward as fluid begins to fill his lungs. He coughs up some blood and dies as his heart comes to a stop. It is, at this moment, that Claire comes in with blade in hand and moves in beside Mike.

Mike grabs his shoulder and the thick blood covers his hands as he says, "Frig!"

Claire looks at Mike's wound and asked with a concerned tone, "You OK love?"

Mike exhales deeply as he winces at the pain in his shoulder and answers, "Yeah babe, thanks."

Claire looks from Mike to the dead man on the ground and asks, "Who the heck was that?"

Mike answers as he walks over to the man to get a closer look, "Not sure. Let's see what he's got on him, maybe it will tell us something." By this time Justin and Nick have shown up.

Justin asks, winded from his run, as he surveys the scene, "Everyone alright?"

Mike responds as he looks through the man's things, "Yeah man."

Going through the man's small pack and pockets Mike finds some Homage money, forty dollars worth or so, the long sword of course and a dagger. But Mike also finds a highly polished black stone in the man's pocket.

Mike takes out the stone and spins it around in his fingers. The stone shines in the light and Mike asks, "What the heck is this?"

Claire answers trying to get a better look at it, "Is it an opal?"

Mike responds turning it over in his mind, "I don't think so babe, it's more like a polished black rock. But what the heck is it doing in his pocket? There was nothing else in there. It seems it had some sort of importance to him."

Justin also walks over to get a closer look and adds, "Maybe it's an heirloom or keepsake."

Mike answers slightly sarcastically, "OK, but why keep it on you when you're out burning people?"

Justin shrugs as he says, "Yeah, good question, I don't know."

Mike looks at it one last time as he puts it into his own pocket and says, "Well, we might as well hang on to it. I guess we'll just put the money in our group fund."

Nick finally breaks his silence and blurts out, "We have a group fund?"

Justin laughs and looks at Mike saying, "Apparently we do now, well now what?"

Mike stands up, looks around and begins to try and tie off his bleeding shoulder. He follows up by saying, "I'm not sure, but let's look at what we know. We know the house was burned down. We know this guy was watching the house. We know he is probably with the Homage group. He has their money and the dress is basically the same. So maybe the Homage burned these people for not complying with them and this guy was just watching to make sure the job was done right. You know, to make sure that nobody came out alive or came by to witness what happened."

Claire nods as she helps Mike with his shoulder wound agreeing, "Yeah, that'll work."

So the gang finishes looking around the farm place without finding any more real leads. The fact that any good information was burned up or stolen doesn't help them either. They decide to ask around in the next town to see what they can find out. Finally, after a sufficient examination of the farm place they head back out on the dusty trail.

By this time the shadows the sun is casting are getting longer and the feeling of the darkening earth is fast approaching. They push on as far as possible with the given light and then setup camp. Mike still has a flashlight with some backup batteries that they use until they get the fire going. The fire dances in the blackness of the night and the sweet smell of dry pine brings back great memories of camping out from their childhoods. As they eat their rations they chatter about the following day and agree they should be in St. Peter before noon. Once in town they will split up in pairs Mike and Claire, and Justin and Nick to try and cover more ground and see what they could find out. After they finish their meal and the fire begins to die they decide to get some sleep as the road was long and very tiring. Mike looks forward to bed, not like that you sick frigers, he is growing accustom to sleeping next to Claire. He is to the point where he feels weird when she is not there. Mike finishes kissing and cuddling with Claire and gets comfortable enough to start finding the first stage of drowsy sleep. It is then he thinks he hears something just east of the fire.

"It's too quite Mikey," the voice in his head says, "There should be crickets or other noises of the prairie night."

Mike fanes sleep as he perks his ears as best he can. His blades are about a foot to his right and he lets out a fake snore and rolls over facing his weapons. He hears the noise again as it moves to the west, around the camp. Mike then feels a strange warmth in his pocket. "What the heck," Mike thinks to himself as his mind begins to race. "It's that darn black stone. Now that's frigin' weird."

Mike's heart is now racing. He is not sure what to do.

"Should I wait for the person, or thing, to make its way into camp and then maybe attack? Or should I alert the others and scare off whoever or whatever it is," Mike deliberates in his mind.

But this decision is made for Mike as the creature comes out of the tall grass and into camp. Mike is not sure how to react. He has never seen anything like this before. The creature is very slender. It is not very tall, maybe four feet and it has wide eyes and slender lips. Its skin is a brown-green color almost the very same as the surrounding prairie grass. Its lanky fingers are claw like and it has very long, sharp teeth behind its slender lips. The creature is sniffing the air and treading very carefully. It is acting like a scared animal and Mike decides to treat it as such. He very slowly gets up and turns facing the creature. With Mike's movement the creature freezes and stares at Mike.

"Easy there little guy. Who are you?" Mike asks as he stays in a crouched position.

The creature bears its teeth and hisses at Mike. Sounding very similar to a pissed off Siamese and with this noise Claire sleepily turns over to see what is going on. When she sees the creature she lets out a yelp. Mike very quickly tries to cover her mouth with his hand but the creature backs up a couple of paces. Of course Claire's yelp also wakes Justin and Nick who sleepily try to gain their bearings after they see the creature. The creature hisses again and backs up with the look of flight in its face. Much the same as a deer tenses up after it realizes it has stayed in front of the hunter too long.

Mike tries desperately to keep the creature from running and says quietly, "Shhh, easy there, it's OK. Who are you?"

"Disrupter...Intruder," the creature hisses at Mike and then turns and leaps like a great cat into the darkness, disappearing.

Nick blurts out the obvious, "What the heck was the frigin' thing?"

Mike shakes his head and runs his fingers through his lengthening brown hair and answers, "Yeah, don't know man. I heard it wondering around the camp and I was trying not to startle the thing."

Justin walks over to where it disappeared to and asks, "What do you think it was doing here?"

Mike gets up and walks over to Justin answering, "It looked like it was just curious. It didn't seem to mean any harm."

Claire asks, also standing up to join the boys, "Was it a troll, or a goblin, or something?"

Mike turns to her and answers, "Maybe Claire, I wouldn't be surprised by anything any more out here."

Nick interjects his own nugget of wisdom saying, "Remember what the Walker said. This is something that those that rule you did not anticipate. They have awakened great powers that cannot be completely understood or controlled."

Mike agrees with Nick, very impressed at his insight into the matter, "Good call man. Well I suppose the geniuses that we are probably should have set up some sort of watch. So I'll take the first and wake you up Justin after a couple of hours, all right?"

Justin nods agreeing, "That'll fly man. Let's crash, crap just keeps getting weirder and I suppose things will continue to keep getting weirder."

The night goes on with no further incident. They wake the next morning, quickly eat and get on the road again. The goal is to make it into St. Peter as soon as possible. There are a lot of questions to seek answers too and they have to start back home by tomorrow morning. The sun shines very warm on their backs as it makes its way through the eastern morning sky. The sky is absolutely cloudless and it is a beautiful prairie morning. Mike feels hope in the air and is ready for what lays ahead. St. Peter comes into view on the horizon maybe an hour after they have started out. As they are coming closer to town they decide they best stash some of their goods to keep from being "confiscated". But they each hide one short sword under their horse's saddles. At least this way they will have some weapon on them and if these short swords get confiscated it will not be that great of a loss. They keep the Homage money on them and Mike hides some gold in his boots. Just to make sure they have some sort of currency in case they need it. None of them like the idea of leaving their goods unprotected but it is worth the gamble. They most certainly would lose their stuff if inspected. So they hide it as best they can. They take off and as they are approaching St. Peter's limits, around ten in the morning, they can see the welcome wagon on the way to head them off. Homage guards, from the looks of them, there are four of them in this patrol group. They also seem to be in quite a hurry to get to Mike and the gang. But the gang just continues on their path into town as they know that this run in is inevitable.

As they are intercepted the first guard demands, "Halt and dismount!"

The gang obliges the Homage guard and dismount while the rest of the guards commence searching the group's belongings and find nothing of real value. To the groups good fortune the guards are not very thorough with the search and miss the short swords. The guards are obviously not very excited about their given task and commence with questioning them.

The first guard directs his question at Mike and his gang, "Where do you hail from and what business do you have in St. Peter?"

Mike takes the lead and answers defiantly, "We are from Sutherfield. We are here to procure supplies for my Grandfather's farm." The lead guard looks from Mike, to Claire, to Justin, to Nick and then back to Mike rather questioningly.

The first guard sees no harm in letting them continue their trip into town relents and states, "Complete your business and leave. But be warned there will be no toleration 1of unruly behavior. We have the same rules here as in Sutherfield. You may go about your business."

After the guard patrol leaves the Mike and the rest of the gang saddle up and ride into town which is very quiet. In fact, there is no one around at all, it's extremely unnerving. They ride down what is considered the main drag and decide to try and go into a local store to keep up the front that they are there to buy supplies. As they walk in, they see the store owner sitting behind the desk reading a newspaper. After they have all entered the store the owner puts his paper down and asks, "What can I do fer ya folks?"

Mike asks as he walks up to the counter, "Do you carry any soy meal?"

The store owner answers half interested, "Sorry, but we haven't seen much of that since before, well before, ya know, things changed." The store owner then goes back to his paper.

Mike answers, rather annoyed at the store owner's lack of interest, "Yeah I understand, thanks anyway. Sir, where is everyone?"

This finally peaks the store owners interest enough to put down his paper as he responds, "Oh, yeah mean how quite it is around here, eh?"

Mike is even more annoyed that he has to answer such an obvious questions. But answer he does, "Yeah."

The store owner continues, "Well ya see, there is man, a stranger, talking all sorts of nonsense to folks on the other side of town hall. It's just east of here."

Mike's attitude perks up as he realizes that he may finally be on to something and asks, "Really, how long has he been here in town?"

The store owner answers, intrigued by Mike's interest, "Well I believe this is his third day in town."

Mike has a revelation and smiles as he looks around at his companions and it seems they understand just what Mike is thinking.

Mike continues his questioning of the store owner, "Sir, if I may ask, we here are from Sutherfield and the Homage group there is really putting the screws to the town's folk. Are they giving you any hassle here?" With this question the store owner looks around carefully to the door and around the store.

The store owner leans forward toward Mike and answers in hushed tones, "Let me tell you boy, things are in rough shape here in St. Peter. It's hard to simply walk around town doing your business without getting stopped and hassled. And let me tell you business aint great around here and put on top of that the "taxes" those frigers are charging me. It's hard to make a living, I tell you what."

Mike smiles at the disgruntled shop owner and says, "Yeah, that sounds all too familiar sir."

The store owner seems to get even more nervous and says in an even lower tone, "Ya know boy, I hear that some group burned down a Homage base over there in Sutherfield. Is that true?"

Mike tried in vain to cover his beaming of pride at the mention of his gang's activity. But Mike answers as nonchalantly as possible, "Sure is sir, sure is. It was more of a storage building than a base. But yeah the Homage are pissed, really cracking down since then."

The store owner almost shouts out in excitement, "Hot darn, I knew it! Some folks here in town were saying it was just a rumor. Boy we need some of that around here. Give those frigers the what for, I tell you what."

Mike nods and answers, "Well thank ya kindly sir. We'll be heading out now but you look out for yourself."

The shop owner is now smiling like this news was the best thing that happened to him in week. Truth be told it really is. The shop owner waves as the gang leave saying, "Same to ya. Have a good one."

As he group walks out of the store and into the hot noon sun Justin asks, "So Mikey, do we get to pay a visit to our old Walker friend?"

Mike turns and smiles at his friend answering, "That's the idea brother, that's the idea. Let's go check out his little meeting and see where he's at with it."

Mike and the gang follow the directions that the store owner gave them and it does not take too long to find what they were looking for. The crowds are gathered around the Walker much the same as they had been in their own town. The Walker is spewing the same crap about how things have changed and that he needs to prepare the way for the Pureblood. Mike and his friends try and stay in the back. They do not want to be noticed by the Walker. They have other plans for him.

Mike turns to the gang and motions them to gather round and instructs in a soft voice, "I think he will be here until dusk, just like before. We should use the time to find out more about what's going on with the Homage group here. Let's split up like we talked about and see what we can find out. We meet back here half an hour before dusk. I want to follow this guy out of town and talk to him one on one."

So the group splits up and makes a tour of the town. They find many of the same occurrences here as they did back home. Here the Homage group has set up base in the old city hall. They have plans to build a new base of operations and barracks outside of town. They are also recruiting workers and guards for the new government. Mike and the gang get a rough count of the number of Homage in town and a good idea of their supply base. The Homage numbers here are roughly a third of what they are back home. More and more it appears that Sutherfield is some sort of base of operations for the entire county and maybe more. Mike and the gang have no idea how large the Homage area of influence may be but it may be but they all know it will be important to find out. They meet back at the appointed time and luck stays with them as the Walker is still ranting.

After they meet up near the Walker's gathering they try and remain inconspicuous away from the crowds. Keeping a watchful eye on the Walker Mike again instructs his gang, "OK boys and girls once the Walker is done I think he will head west out of town. It's the quickest way out and he seems to be heading west anyway. So here's the plan, we split up in the same groups and flank him on his way out. Once he is safely out of town we angle him in and see what else he knows, al right?"

Justin and Nick nod and Claire voices their understanding, "We're on board love. Let's do this."

They wait rather impatiently for the Walker to finish up his theatrics and Mike is right. The Walker does head west as he leaves, basically where Mike believed he would. Mike and Claire and Justin and Nick angle him out of town as planned. But when the Walker turns his first corner to leave he reaches in his long, black, cloak pocket and throws something like dust on the ground creating a large cloud of black smoke. The gang losses site of him as he disappears into the dust

Mike is at a loss, he thinks to himself, "What the frig? OK, he probably can't really disappear, right? Well maybe he can, but we're going to go with no on the disappearing thing. So he must be around here somewhere and he will continue to head west, so let's double time it to the edge of town. It's the darn prairie, he can't hide for long, right? Well, hopefully."

Mike conveys these thoughts to Claire and they try hard to increase their speed. When they finally get to the edge of town, sure enough, the Walker is making his way out of town. It seems to Mike that the Walker must have doubled-back slightly and headed a little further south and then out of town.

Mike stops Claire as she is about to run out into the prarie after the Walker. Mike says in between his heaving breathing trying to get his wind back after the fun, "Claire, let's use the edge of town for cover. We'll follow him from here as long as we can keep an eye on him."

Claire nods her agreement and scolds herself for being so stupid, "OK love, let's keep moving."

They follow this plan but soon the Walker begins to move too far away and they are forced to leave the cover of the town. As soon as they leave the town the Walker notices them and increases his own speed and Mike and Claire increase theirs to match. At the same time it seems Justin and Nick have finally caught on to what the Walker is doing and emerge from the edge of town. The Walker is tall and has long strides but he is not as young as Mike and Claire and they were gaining on him. Now do not get me wrong here, women can do just as much men and Claire is much quicker than Mike in short distances. But Mike has been training harder than Claire and as she tires and slows Mike continues to pursue and begins to really gain on the Walker. It does not take long before Mike is on top of the Walker and just as Mike is planning how to best attack the Walker stops abruptly. He unsheathes his long sword and swings around wildly. Mike, who just barely rolls to the right to avoid being decapitated, pulls his blade.

Now remember that Mike only has one blade which is rather weird to him. He has really started to like having two blades in order to block and parry better. But you do the best you can with what you got.

Mike's game plan is to hold the Walker off until the others arrive to help. He is afraid that he may be badly outmatched by the Walker, and he is right. The Walker comes in straight away with his blade and Mike side steps and parries but Mike is knocked right on his ass from the velocity of the blow. The Walker is tall, strong and amazingly fast as he comes back around on Mike's right. Mike tries to get out of the way but the Walker catches the edge of Mike's right shoulder slicing through the leather armor and biting into his skin. Mike does his best to ignore the pain and comes around fast with his left, not his strong hand but it is currently working better than the right. This catches the Walker off guard and Mike lands a good hit on the right side of the Walker's abdomen. The fabric hisses as Mike's blade cuts through it. The Walker howls in pain and comes down with his long sword. Mike rolls out of the way and backs off trying to get some distance between himself and the Walker.

Walker screams with pain and anger at Mike, "You are no match for me Michael son of Larry and now I will finish the job. You have lingered longer than you were supposed to and have caused enough disruptions to the grand plan."

Mike gives his blade a twirl which again has no real tactical advantage but looks cool and give Mike some needed confidence. Mike screams back as he begins to feel heat in his chest spreading to his limbs, "Frig you and your grand plan! You're too much of a darn pussy to kill me. I'm gonna shut you up with your darn talk of frigin purebloods and preparing ourselves."

Walker howls at Mike with a look of crazed madness in his eyes, "How dare you speak of the pureblood that way. You are not worthy. You are nothing Disruptor and I will end your insolence now."

As he raises his blade above his head and strikes down hard at Mike. But Mike is able to pull off a block, side-step combo in an attempt to dodge the strength of the Walker and not be knocked back on his ass. By this time Claire is finally arriving and Justin and Nick are close too. Their trap is closing in quickly on the Walker.

Mike asks with a growing smile on his face as he gains confidence with the arrival of his friends, "Is that the best you got witch? Your pureblood is crap, and you're crap, come on."

By egging the Walker on Mike has diverted his attention away from Claire and the boys, which is Mike's goal. The Walker comes in again on Mike who is simply trying to parry and keep out of the Walker's way. Claire catches on to this as she arrives and tries to come in low on the Walker but he seems to sense her without even seeing her. He brings his blade down fast to block her attack and pushes her back onto her ass too. She does not know how strong the Walker is and did not steady her attack properly.

The Walker screams out as his rage builds and the wildness in his eyes has becoming frightening to witness, "Darn you girl! How dare you?" The Walker brings his blade around in a wide arch to keep Claire and Mike away. The Walker then backs off to get his bearings and it is then that he notices Nick and Justin are now in the battle.

The Walker screams again with such force that the gang is forced to cover their ears, "Ahhh! The followers of the Disruptor! Do not trust him children. He will abandon you to seek his owe cause. Mark my words, the road ahead is difficult and none of you are worthy to walk it."

Justin screams back trying to stop the Walker's verbal assault on their ears, "You talk a whole lot of nothing asshole! Now drop it. You may be big and strong but I really don't think you can take all four of us on."

Mike then realizes that they have been too consumed with the Walker to notice that more guests are about to arrive at this party. He hears the hoofs of the Homage horses almost on top of them.

Mike whips around trying to keep one eye on the Walker and one of the Homage. Mike yells, "Crap! We got company boys." With that all of them, including the Walker turn, toward the incoming guards.

Justin yells and he moves to the side with Nick, "Frigin-a!"

As the six Homage guards ride in their leader demands, "Halt all of you! Drop your weapons!"

The madness of the Walker continues to flow as he screams, "You do not command me Adam son of Kyle!"

The Walker takes his long sword and catches this guard directly in the chest as he rides up to the Walker. The blade sinks in deep with a loud squish and crack spraying blood in an arch. The guard is knocked off his horse and lands with a thud. The rest of the guards draw their swords and come in at the group, treating them all as the same enemy. The second guard comes in on Mike who ducks the attack and comes around hard. Mike is only able to hit the guard's leg as he is still mounted on his horse. The cut is deep and blood sprays everywhere. The guard screams making the horse buck and is thrown to the ground.

The third guard takes a swipe at Claire which she easily dodges as she rolls out of the way. The fourth guard swings and catches Nick on the shoulder but Nick is able to take out the back leg of the horse as his attacker rides by dropping the horse in a heap. This throws his rider into a tumble about ten feet forward. Justin decides to go after the fifth guard's horse instead of waiting for the guard to attack him. Justin charges, which he decides about half way there, is not a very good idea. He swings and strikes the horse in the chest but the impact between the two knocks Justin down. He rolls quickly to the side to avoid being trampled to death. The horse is bleeding badly but is still carrying his rider.

The final guard also goes after the Walker but the Walker is able to duck his attack and comes back around with his long sword. He catches the guard square in the back almost severing his spinal cord and knocking him from his horse, dead. The guard that Mike attacked tries to stand on his one good leg and comes after Mike. But Mike easily disarms him with one shot and then slits his throat with his second attack. Mike then turns quickly to help Claire, who needs no help of her own. She has somehow mounted the horse of her attacker, gotten behind him, and slid her short sword into his back. She easily pushes him off the horse and takes over the reigns herself.

Nick runs quickly to try and dispatch the guard he has knocked to the ground but is having trouble with his injured arm. He attacks high with his left which the guard easily blocks and Nick backs off reconsidering his position. The guard comes in on him and Nick attempts to block but is only able to weakly move the attack to the side. The sword pierces the tip of his other shoulder basically disabling him. But by this time Mike is able to come to Nick's aid and kicks the guard in the back sending him tumbling on his face and his sword flying. The guard gets up quickly and rushes Mike, who easily plunges his sword into the guard's belly. The last guard, although not knowing he is the last one alive, is preoccupied with Justin. The guard comes back around to attack Justin as Justin is still trying to get up. Justin badly parries the attack from the guard knocking him back on his ass. As the guard jumps off his horse to deal the final blow to Justin Claire rides up behind him. She lands a blow right on the back of guard's head, spewing blood everywhere and knocking the guard to the ground where he bleeds to death. Mike then faces off again with the Walker saying in a commanding voice, "Drop it jackass! We have some questions for you."

The Walker chuckles, as it seems the battle has calmed his madness, and answers, "You are no one to command me Michael son of Larry. I will never bow to you."

Mike begins to feel his frustration grow as the Walker continues to defy him ask harshly, "Do you really want to die jackass?" Justin, Nick and Claire, although worse for the wear, encircle the Walker with blades drawn.

The Walker chuckles again picking up on Mike's frustration he responds friging with Mike, "Four on one. Hardly fair, wouldn't you say?"

Mike's frustration is plainly obvious now as he screams, "Frig fair! We do things the way we do things, now drop it witch."

With that the Walker charges Mike, blade high, coming down hard. Mike steadies to block and meets the Walker's sword and it throws Mike back. He has never felt such strength. He is surprised the attack didn't break his sword, or his arm, with the force that the attack came with. Mike rolls out of the way and the Walker races past Mike, obviously seeing it is time to depart from this party. Claire is the quickest of the group and is able to take one slash at him as he races away. Her attack cuts through the very edge of the Walker's sleeve, cutting some fabric from it and nicking his hand. This draws a very small amount of blood. The fabric flutters to the ground and when it hits the ground it evaporates into dust. All four of them notice this but do not have time to ponder it as Mike senses that there are more guests about to arrive to this party again. The Walker then reaches into his pocket and throws some powder in front of him disappearing into it. From the far edge of town Mike notices torch light, as night has pretty much fallen. A group of eight guards are on their way towards them.

Mike's exhausted finally catches up with him as his adrenalin subsides. Mike breathes heavily as he says, "Frigin-a, we can't catch a darn break here. Let's ride boys we got more company."

Claire whips around toward town and says in frustration, "Oh crap, what the heck?"

One piece of luck for our group is the two horses left behind by the guards. One is good and the other is bleeding pretty badly but she'll run. They also have a big head start on the group of guards heading from town. Claire and Mike get on the wounded horse and Justin and Nick get on the good one and they take off toward the outcropping of trees where they stashed their goods. By the faint light of the moon they are able to reach their cover and stay low, avoiding detection by the group of guards. After they are sure the guards have given up they make their way to a near by abandoned farm house where they are able to dress their wounds and rest. When they ride out they keep the good horse they have taken from the guards and put the other horse out of its misery, as it was beginning to suffer.

As they ride they talk about the events of the day.

Mike lead the conversation asking the obvious questions, "So ladies and gents, what the heck is going on around here?"

Justin chuckles, shaking his head answers, "Yeah, I was hoping you had those answers brother. I do not know man it's all pretty friged up. Why the heck did that guy's fabric dissipate when it hit the ground and what not?"

Claire answers as she is staring out into the night, deep in thought, "No frigin clue boys. What about the Walker? He just frigin disappears when he wants and you know he'll be in the next town tomorrow or the next day."

Mike nods, agreeing in a discouraged tone, "Yeah spewing his crap. Anyway, we have six dead guards, all of which will be blamed on us. I am not sure if they could get a good look at us or not. Let's hope not or we got some serious frigin problems. Well, we learned more about what we didn't want to and not so much on what we wanted to."

Nick chuckles shaking his head agreeing, "Yeah it looks like this town is set up the same as our town. We know that the Homage influence spreads as least this far and most likely farther. But I think we can ascertain that our town is the center of whatever government they are looking to set up."

Justin nods in agreement and continues his thoughts, "And what about that thing that walked into camp the other night? What the heck was that? This is all way to frigin weird ladies and gents."

The group gets back home without any further incident and they take some time to lay low and get healthy. They all have been pretty banged up with the events of the last few weeks. They also take the time to gather information.