Knight Parade Sixteenth Chapter Finding the Figurine

Chapter Sixteen

Finding the Figurine

About three weeks pass for our gang to basically get back on their feet. At the end of the rest period Mike calls for a training meeting to work out battle code.

Mike is not happy, as the rest of the group is not either. But that will happen when you get your ass kicked on a regular basis. They have lived thus far on guts, quick thinking and dumb luck. Now all of these things can get you far but they will not keep you alive forever. Not that you can live forever, anyway, but what do you do?

So Mike, with some help from Grandpa, put together a rudimentary code so they can communicate as a group in the field. This will include basic offensive and defensive formations based on given situations. The planned night arrives and the whole gang is there ready to train.

Mike takes up station at the front of the stage and whistles loudly to get the gangs attention. Mike, getting down to business quickly, instructs, "Alright ladies. I have been working on some new battle plans to help us work together as a group. This way we can hopefully adjust better to changing battle patterns. So we don't get our asses kicked whenever we decide to go after somebody. I have two basic offensive and two basic defensive schemes to work on. Now, no one get pissed, but I have broken us down into what I see are our strengths on the battlefield. The first will be a wedge or "V" attack formation I call it a Red One. Basically, I want Justin and Tim at the inward point because they are the biggest and strongest, then going back on the V will be Nick and Pete, then Paul and myself, and finally Claire. Now don't get mad babe but you are the quickest one of us and let's face it you are more dangerous with that darn bow than probably any of us with a blade. We will use this attack formation when we know that the enemy is basically in front of us. The second attack formation will be a basic flanking maneuver. We will again have Justin, Tim and Nick advancing in the middle. We will then have Pete flank to the right about fifteen yards behind the main attack front. Paul will be the same to the left. That leaves Claire and myself. Claire will also be to the right but thirty yards back from the main group and I will take the same to the left. We will use this when we know, or are not sure, if the enemy is more spread out or have scouts or flankers of their own. I have been calling this, if you think you geniuses can handle it, Red Two. On the defense side I have been working on a formation that is basically a circle. We group together in a defensive circle giving enough room between each other to fight but stay tight. We can then put our wounding in the middle of the circle. We use this when we are surrounded or we have wounded to protect. I call this Blue One. The second defensive measure will be used when we have out backs to a wall or some other terrain that would constitute us being in a line. In this case I want basically the same setup as the Red One but for defensive posture. It will put our strength in the middle for a frontal assault and keep our speed and shooters to the side. If it's cool I would like to train on these. Let's make sure we are communicating out there and can get into position depending on varying circumstances." After this rather extended rant Mike looks around at his friends hoping to find approval from them. They all stay rather quite and looks at Mike and then at each other. Mike begins to worry he has gone too far with this thing.

Finally Justin breaks the silence chuckling, "Just frigin with you man. Look at you Mr. General, and you guys call me el capitain. That sounds great, lets do this thing."

And they do just that. They work on communicating in the field and knowing who is going to be where in what circumstances. Now they aren't great at first but after practice they have done better than Mike had thought. Mike is also working on more formations which he hopes to implement over the next few months. With more practice like this they may actually look like some sort of team out there.

Finally after a couple of hours Mike whistles again and says loudly, "You guys looking frigin tight out there. Maybe next time we won't get the crap kicked out of us. Well I have one more thing to discuss with everyone. This may sounds corny as crap but I think the group needs a name."

Pete blurts out, "How about the dirty Sanchezes!" Which of course gets a huge laugh from everyone.

Mike just shakes his head as he laughs, "Frig man, enough with the dirty Sanchez crap."

Pete answers barely audible through his laughter, "Yeah, but it's still funny as crap!"

Mike can only agree with his friend, "All right, yeah it's funny as crap. But I was thinks something a little more dark, you know, create some fear."

Nick answers, remaining more serious than usual, "What about Dark Rebellion."

Mike nods his head with pride in Nick and responds, "That's more like it. Thanks Nicky. But I was hoping for something that conveyed power, your know force. We're not a one hit wonder here. We're gonna keep going, keep marching."

Pete decides to chime in saying, "So like the Death Knights."

Mike give Pete a worried look and tries to nicely change that line of thought, "You know man you freak me out sometimes. Let's keep away from hard core death and crap."

Claire speaks up trying to bring these boys back to some sort of common sense, "How about Rebellion Parade, or Justice Parade?"

Finally genius sparks and it comes out of Justin's mouth, "Knight Parade, it's dark, but not too dark. I conveys movement and purpose."

"Knight Parade, "Mike says proudly nodding his head, "Heck yeah I like it, all in favor?"

A resounding "Aye," resounds from the group.

Mike concludes, "Well the Ayes have it. Good work Parade. Practice and train hard. We will get together again next week." With that the Parade say their goodbyes and take off to their respective homes.

The chance to prove the Parade had become a team comes much quicker than Mike could have anticipated. Mike makes it his regular schedule to come into town every third day or so, to sneak away with Claire, if possible, and to train with the Parade. They are getting pretty good, Mike has to admit. Mike is also training on his own, working with the sword, the bow and also hand-to-hand combat. But Mike has reached a point where he has learned much of what Grandpa has to teach him. He tries to teach himself from books but that is only getting him so far. Mike has a base knowledge of combat, he is strong and fast but he will soon plateau with his given resources. Anyway, a week later Mike has finished up a very satisfactory date with Claire. He is at the base attempting to get ready for training with most the guys already there, excluding Nick, when Tim comes into the hideout. He is wearing a black cloak over his city guard uniform with a look of urgency on his face. His sense of urgency catches the Parade's attention as they move toward him.

Pete says loudly taking off his cloak, "Gather around Parade. I got some news we need to attend to."

Justin is the first to ask the obvious question, "What's going on brother?"

Pete pauses for just a second as he seems almost hesitant to even share his news and then speaks, "Well within the last week or so we have been getting complaints from farmers to the northwest about losing livestock. It seems something has been killing them. Something big enough to kill cows, but the guard really doesn't care that much about things outside of city limits. The guard is really stretched too thin with guarding city hall and trying to hunt down, well us I suppose, and to worry about farmers' problems. But this morning we got a report that a farm house had been attacked and the farmer's wife and two children were killed. The father got away and was the one who reported it to the guard. Well of course the guard said that this was out of their "jurisdiction" and the farmer was on his own. So I am not sure what was involved, what we can do, or if we should do anything. "

Mike runs his fingers through his long dark brown hair, lets out a long sigh and responds, "Well ladies and gents, we have an issue we have yet to really contemplate or discuss. Who are we and what are we really all about? Are we just going after the Homage or are we here to help people? Are we a terrorist group taking shots at the present government or are we friging Robin Hood and his merry band? What say we boys and girls?"

Justin chuckles and nods answering, "Well Mikey, I think we know where you stand, our suffering hero."

Mike smiles to himself, gives Justin the finger and says, "Frig off man."

Claire breaks in, more intensely than she really intended too, "What the frig good is it to train and train if we can't help people?"

Tim also speaks up nodding, "Well said my good lady. What the frig good is it? But we can't help everyone either but I'm onboard. We can't be full time heroes here and try to keep our cover in the process now can we?"

Justin looks around at his friends anxiously, he is worried where this may lead but knows something needs to be done and responds, "Timmy's got a point now doesn't he? We do have to help but let's go forward on a case by case basis until we get this figured out. I mean dead women and children I think that constitutes at least a look around."

This seems to be the general consensus of the Parade as all look around nodding their heads like some sort of bad lama convention.

Mike concludes smiling, very proud of his friends, "That's my boys. Alright Pete where was the murder?"

Pete answers still rather melancholy, "Old Meyer place about ten miles out."

Mike stands up and tries to motivate his friends to action, "Alright, well boys let's saddle the frig up. We need to ride."

They Parade gears up with face paint and leather masks, as has become their custom to hide their identities, and they ready their weapons and horses. They wait until night fall and split into two groups in hopes of drawing less attention to themselves. But by now they have detailed plans of the Homage patrol shifts making it much easier to get around them. The two teams take separate routes and rendezvous at the northwest corner of town. They head out from there under the cover of darkness. But it is about half out to the old Meyer place that Mike hears a scream.

Mike stops his horses stride immediately and whips around trying to pinpoint the source of the scream. Claire has also stopped to see what Mike is doing. Mike asks as Claire rides up, "What they heck was that? Claire did you hear that?"

Claire listens closely, and worries about Mike's sanity, and answers, "No love, what was it?"

Mike continues to survey the night intently, listening, he responds, "Someone screamed further west." Finally Mike finds what he is looking for and continues, "There, that farm place over there." The rest of the Parade has stopped by now and is looking in the same direction Mike is.

Justin was able to pick up the last part of their conversation and he rode up and asks, "You sure you heard something man?"

Mike is now absolutely convinced that something is very wrong and is getting very agitated and says for the whole Parade to hear, "Yeah we need to check this out."

Justin is rather unsettled that Mike is becoming so insistent but goes along with it rolling his eyes and saying, "All right brother, you are the "Disrupter.""

Mike does not find the humor in Justin's words and responds, "Frig off man, let's roll, double time Parade."

Mike takes point leading the Parade hard toward the farm place he heard the scream from and the Parade falls into line. As they close in the rest of the Parade begins to hear the screams. With that they are convinced that Mike is not completely crazy, he is still friging crazy, just not completely crazy. As Mike rides in the marble in his pocket begins to warm up almost uncomfortably and he knows what he will find at the house. They push the horses even harder and finally come into view of the farm house and nothing could have prepared them for the scene before them. The lamps from the house and moon light give just enough light for them to witness everything. There are two men on the porch fighting with four things, yes things, but things that some of the Parade have seen before. They are short and slender, greenish-brown in color with smooth skin and very, very sharp teeth.

"Now is the time of truth, let's see if friging training works," Mike thinks to himself.

Mike yells out the command, "Red Two."

Everyone falls in line, it is like a well-oiled machine. Justin and Tim fall into the middle and take point and the rest take their places. Mike is so darned proud he almost forgets he has to go kill something. After that instant Mike falls wide to flank around the house and Claire follows suit. Part of him is very worried, he wants to go with her, to protect her, but he has to remind himself she is more than capable of taking care of herself. She is friging dangerous enough on her own.

Justin and Tim draw their blades and V-line it for the house porch and the four creatures there with the two men. One man already lies on the front porch, motionless.

"He does not look good," Timmy thinks to himself and he steadies himself for the change. The entire group on the porch, creatures and men, almost come to a stop when they see Tim and Justin. They are all in shock that someone else is joining this party. But the creatures do not stop for long and two of them spring out to meet Justin and Tim. Just as Justin and Tim are about to the house to join the battle two more of the creatures jump off the roof and land on them. Both are too preoccupied with the creatures on the ground to react to this and they are thrown from their horses as the creatures tackle them. But Justin and Tim are much bigger than these creatures. After the initial shock they are able to struggle with the creatures on them and throw them too the side. Unfortunately, not in time to meet the original two creatures that were charging them. Justin is able to catch his attacker and pin the creature's arms to its sides. Then the creature bites hard into Justin's right arm, digging in deep with its long teeth and even though it hurt like heck Justin is too pissed to let go. He head butts the creature hard almost knocking it out and then Justin grabs the thing's neck and twists until it pops. Justin drops the limb body to the ground. He then grabs the sword he dropped in the initial tumble and goes after the second creature bleeding badly from his right arm. It is a good thing he has been training to use his left in case of just such a scenario. Tim is not as well timed as Justin and when he throws his first attacker he is not able to catch the second. The thing digs its claws and teeth deep into Tim's left leg. Tim goes in to grab the thing but it is too darn fast and it dodges him and jumps up onto his chest trying to bite into Tim's neck. This time though Tim catches the darn thing and throws it against the corner of the porch stunning the creature. Tim has enough sense to also grab the sword he dropped. Just as he picks up his blade the first creature is back on him digging into his right leg this time.

"Little frigers," he thinks to himself, "Walking is going to get very difficult pretty soon here ."

But this time Tim is able to grab the thing by the neck and plunge his blade into its chest, almost cutting it in half.

Paul is to the left of Tim, with Mike to the left of him, and Paul goes up to the front corner of the house. From here he notices that Tim and Justin have their hands full but when he looks into the front window his priorities change. There is a young woman with a baby in her arms cornered by two of those things. Something wells up inside of Paul, something he has never felt before. It is a powerful feeling of protector, hero, maybe even savior. For a spilt second he feels he can do no wrong. This can be a very bad thing, especially if you are not sure what you are getting into. Anyway, very valiantly and without much thought, Paul breaks the window with his sword and crawls through which of course scares the crap out of the creatures and woman inside.

Just as Mike clear the corner of the building he hears the crash and at once knows what has happened. He thinks to himself, " That stupid friger just went into the house solo. Now what, frig! I can't just leave a hole in the back perimeter but he should not be in there by himself." "Dude, you have to trust that he knows what he is doing and that Tim and Justin have things handled up front," says a very soft voice in Mike's head. Mike decides to continue and move around the back of the house.

Paul quickly makes his way through the window which leads to a family sitting room but the two creatures in there are on him as he enters the house. One bites his left leg and the other jumps on his chest and sinks his teeth into his left shoulder. The woman in the corner simply drops to her knees and turns into the corner to protect the baby. Paul kicks the creature on his leg into the wall, stunning it. He then grabs the throat of the creature biting into his neck and tries to pry it off. This is to no avail and blood pours from his leg and neck and Paul is starting to get woozy. He then remembers thinking is a good thing and grabs the dagger on his belt. He sticks it deep into the side of the creature on him. Finally, the creature lets go and Paul throws it against the wall. But the other creature has had time to gather itself and jumps on Paul and bites into his neck again. This knocks Paul's dagger out of his hand. By now Paul is sick of this crap and wraps his own hands around the neck of the creature. He drops to his knees and squeezes as hard as he can until the creature goes limp. Paul squeezes just a little longer for good measure and then let's go of the creature. Paul then tries to stand up and his head starts to swim and he falls back to his knees trying to gather himself.

The woman turns to him from the corner, crying and asks, "Are you OK?"

Paul has to try and stop from laughing as he thinks to himself, "How the frig do I look lady? Do I look OK to you, stupid witch. Wait a minute Paul she's just been through heck go easy on her ."

But before he answers Paul's attention turns to the hall way leading into this room. From here he sees another creature looking at him and bearing his teeth. Paul thinks to himself, " Oh frig, thought I was real cool breaking into the house. Now I can't catch a darn break, frig."

But just at that moment when the creature seems ready to spring in his direction a wooden chair comes flying out of kitchen. It comes with such force that it smashes into the creature and sends it right towards Paul. The chair and the creature both fly into him. This leaves Paul on the floor disorientated, losing blood and lying in a pile of broken chair with an unconscious creature. Another scream from the woman brings Paul around for a second and Paul is able to crawl to his dagger and slit the creature's throat before he passes out.

Pete and Nick have gone around the right side of the farm house and see four creatures through the south side window. They are struggling to carry a trunk down from a flight of stairs. Paul takes his long sword and smashes in the window which of course startles the creatures. Two of them turn to face Pete and Nick while the other two creatures continue in the attempt to carry the trunk. Pete climbs into the window first and is met almost immediately by one of the creatures. The second creature jumps on Nick as he is still crawling in the window. The creature on Pete digs his sharp teeth into the hand that is holding his sword forcing him to drop it. The creature then begins to scratch at Pete's face. But Pete is able to manhandle the creature grabbing his neck with his left hand. Pete throws it against the nearest wall.

Nick is knocked to the ground with the momentum and surprise of the creature jumping on him. The creature bites into Nick's face digging through his cheek and part of his lip. Like some sort of twisted, kinky kiss the creature locks onto him and all of a sudden goes limp. Nick throws the creature off of him wiping blood that is pouring down his face. He looks at the creature to see what the heck has just happened. It has a single arrow through its neck and he knows who has comes to his aid. He looks up and all he sees is Claire going around the corner notching another arrow into her bow.

Pete walks over to the creature he has thrown against the wall, grabs his sword and guts the creature as it attempts to gather itself. Pete makes his way to the window to check on Nick and meets him as he is climbing back into the window. Blood pouring down Nick's face.

Pete asks in a disgusted tone, "Frig dude. What the heck happened?"

Nick smiles and laughs through the blood responding, "Yeah, small problem. But it's all good. We need to catch those little frigers."

Nick and Pete then run after the two creatures that have the trunk. As they begin to make their way down the main hallway and toward the rear of the house the front door burst open and Justin and Tim come charging in. This startles one of the creatures that came out of a hallway right of Justin and Tim. This creature first sees Paul and zeros in on him down the far side of the hall. But Tim is quick to think, for once, and he grabs a nearby chair which he hurls down the hall. This strikes the creature and sends it hurling into Paul.

As Tim realizes what he has done he cries out, "Oh frig! Sorry Paul, I bet that hurt."

Pete turns to Justin and says, "Two of 'em went this way with a trunk. Nick and I got it, you guys keep moving."

Justin nods his agreement and instructs, "Gotcha ya man, keep moving! Timmy, go make sure Paul is OK. I will keep moving back down the hall alright."

Tim is already moving toward Paul and yells back, "Gotcha ya brother."

Tim makes his way down the hall and makes it to Paul who is bleeding and unconscious. As he knells down to check on Paul a woman with a baby in her arms begins to scream in the corner. This of course scares the crap out of Tim as he turns and pulls his blade. The woman screams even louder.

"Frigin-a," Tim thinks to himself, "I am not good with women anyway and this one is screaming with a kid. What the frig do I say now? But hey, she is pretty. Wonder if she is married? Not now jackass, frig you're sick !" He chastises himself.

Tim then takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and tries to focus on what the woman needs.

"Whoa there lady, sorry, sorry," Tim tries to calm her as he drops his blade, "I do not want to hurt you. I want to help, I am not with those things OK?"

With that the woman calms down slightly. Well as calm as you can be when your family is attacked and killed by short slender greenish, brown creatures.

"Are you OK? Is your baby OK?" Tim asks with a very concern tone.

Very hesitantly she nods her head.

"Good, OK. Then I need to make sure my buddy is OK. You just chill out and we will get rid of those things and get back to you OK?" Tim tries to reassure her.

Again the lady very hesitantly nods.

Tim then kneels down by Paul and says, "Hey man, wake up man," as he taps his cheeks to get Paul to come around.

Paul stirs slightly and Tim quickly binds his wounds and checks his pulse. It is still strong and then Tim reassures the lady he will be back as soon as he can. He then he makes sure Paul is comfortable and makes his way back to Justin.

Justin has gone down the other hallway and sees stairs at the end. As he reaches the landing to go upstairs he sees a young man looking down at him and then quickly races away.

Justin cries out quickly, "Whoa man, I'm not going to hurt you."

Justin races up the stairs after the young man and on reaching the top he sees two men. The younger is bleeding badly and the older one is holding an obviously broken arm. Both ready baseball bats when they see Justin emerge from the old style staircase.

Justin lays down his blade and holds his arms out trying to be non-threatening, "It's OK brother, I'm here to help. I mean you no harm you guys, OK?"

The older man yells back, "Get back asshole, we don't want to hurt you."

Justin again tries to calm the men, "Listen brother, I sure as heck do not want to get hurt either. I want to help. Those things are out of the house, are there any up here?"

"No," the old man says lowering his bat as does the young man.

Then the young man says, "My wife and baby, are they OK?"

Justin says as steadily as possible, "I did not see them brother but my friends and I will help you find them. Now if you're OK, I need to help out my friends at the back of the house. We will finish these frigers off and be back OK."

The old man reluctantly says, "OK."

Justin then makes his way back down the stairs.

.....

Pete and Nick make their way out through the back of the house and see one trunk. They assume that it is the trunk of the two creatures they are following. It is sitting just inside the back door and there is another trunk sitting outside. This truck has one creature standing by it and they can hear screams and combat.

"Sounds like Mikey and Claire have their hands full," they both think to themselves.

Just as they begin to move toward the back door to join the battle they are jumped from a side room by two more of the creatures.

"Now why the frig didn't we check the side rooms as we went down the hall," is the only thought that goes through Nick's head as one of the creatures grabs onto his shoulders and bites into his neck. The other creature bites right onto Pete's ass and pulls out his side dagger and plunges it into Pete's right side. Pete screams in pain and does the only thing he can think of. He backs into the wall as hard as he can. This stuns the creature enough for it to drop the dagger and fall to the ground. Pete wheels to face the creature and kicks it in the head as hard as he can. Again and again he kicks the creature's head until it lays motionless on the floor with blood running from its ears and mouth.

Nick, unfortunately, does not have the same instincts as Pete and desperately tries to grab the creature off his back. But to no real avail, as the creature moves around just enough to avoid Nick's grasp. The creature holds its locked jaw on Nick's neck and mercilessly claws at Nick's shoulders. Nick begins to feel woozy from the quick loss of blood from his neck and just then Pete grabs the creature from Nick's back. He gives this one the same pummeling as the other, leaving it dead on the floor next to his companion.

Pete says with complete shock, "Crap man, your bleeding like a stuck pig," as he cuts strips off of Pete's cloak and uses them to bandage Nick. After he finishes he leans Nick against the wall and instructs, "Just rest here man and don't move. You do not need to lose any more blood."

Nick nods in half-conscious agreement and rests against the wall.

.....

Justin races down the stairs where he meets Pete and the dilapidated Nick.

Justin begins to declares his findings upstairs when he notice Nick, "It's all clear upstairs they made one heck of a mess and there are... crap what the frig happened to Nick?" As he realizes that Pete is just not resting for the heck of it and has bloodied bandages around his neck.

Pete answers rather sarcastically, "You know how your mom always told you not to run with scissors. Well she should have mentioned slender green dudes."

Justin nods slightly relieved by Pete's sarcasm and agrees, "Gotcha, that's friged up and your sick, but gotcha."

Then they hear Mike yell, "Drop him babe, frigin, drop him."

Just then Tim comes around the corner to see Justin and the others and also hears Mikey. The whole group bolts for the back door. As they make their way outside they see one of the creatures fleeing and a figure in the shadows snapping one of Claire's arrows in half, smirks and then disappears into the night. The last creature also disappears into the grove of tree behind the house in the opposite direction as the shadowed figure.

.....

Mike heads around the back of house turning the corner of the house he has his bow ready for anything that may be back there. Apparently not ready enough though as one of the creatures tackles him just as turns the corner knocking him on his ass and the bow out of his hands. The creature bites hard into Mike's shoulder but Mike rolls the thing over using his weight to his advantage. He slips out his side dagger and into the side of the creature. Continuing the roll Mike simply tosses the creature off him and is quick to his feet. In front of him at the back door to the house are seven of the creatures with two trunks that they are trying to haul out into the night. Mike begins to charge and sees Claire round the corner. With one fluid motion she has taken down one creature with a perfect neck shot and already has another arrow ready. Mike charges with both short swords in hand and three creatures charge him. Two of the others charge after Claire and one stays with the trunks trying in vain to drag one by himself away from the house. Claire easily takes down one of her chargers with another arrow. Then, knowing she does not have time to notch another arrow, drops the bow and draws her short sword and readies to meet her attacker.

As Mike charges he has the advantage here and he knows it. Yes he is outnumbered but he is charging and he has time to plan how to make this attack work. Mike heads straight for the middle creature and just as he is about to meet them he slides left. He swipes the neck of the left most creature with his right blade dropping it. This takes the two other creatures off guard. He spins with his left blade outstretched, catching the middle creature in the side. This is not the fatal wound that Mike had imagined in planning this but it coaxing a scream out of the creature. This gives the other creature time to react though. It leaps on an off balanced Mike biting into his right shoulder and sending him stumbling. But Mike is quick to react. He drops his left blade and tears the creature off him and plunges his right blade into the thing's chest and drops the limp body. The last creature takes one look at Mike and then at his dead companions and decides fleeing is the best option here and tries to run off into the night. But being wounded, the best the creature can muster is a slow limp. Mike, very cockily, throws his right short sword catching the creature square in the back and dropping it.

Claire sidesteps her attacker and sticks her foot out. The creature trips and falls on its face but it is quick and rolls over and is on its feet. Claire is quick too though and as the creature is standing up Claire meets the creature with a blade to the neck dropping the creature as it grasps at its throat, blood seeping through its fingers.

Mike watches Claire drop her last opponent and cannot help but smile at this girl thinking to himself, "Man she frigin rocks, darn."

Then he feels it, something is watching him from the shadows behind him. He spins, completely forgetting about the last creature by the truck. Mike spins, holding his remaining blade in front of him in a defensive stance. Then he sees the eyes of a man in a hooded cloak stepping forward just enough for Mike to make out that it is a man. For an instance he thinks maybe it's the Walker but this man is too short and not lanky enough. Besides his piercing green eyes Mike cannot make out any other traits of the man. He hears the man give out a low chuckle and the last creature by the trunk turns to look at the man and the man turns and takes off into the night. Claire has another arrow cocked just for this last creature but just as she is about to let fly Mike cries out to her.

She looks and sees the hooded man turn, Mike bolts toward him and yells, "Drop him babe, friging drop him."

Claire takes aim, she is within range and has an easy back shot. But she is not keen on shooting someone in the back but the desperation in Mike's cry is more than she can resist. She is determined to do as her love asks. She shoots and the arrow flies steady and straight, did I mention Claire is darn good with the frigin bow. But then something very interesting happens. The man turns and catches the arrow in midair and looking, no, more like scowling, back at Claire he snaps the arrow in one hand. He laughs at her and turns again to run. Claire reaches for another arrow but by the time it is cocked the man is gone. Mike then arrives at the last place the man last stood and begins to search into the night. The rest of the Parade come out the backdoor just as the man disappears.

Pete yells out seemingly unable to control the volume of his voice, "Holy frigin crap! Did he just catch that arrow?"

Claire answers his question at she walks up to meet the rest of the Parade, "He sure as heck did. Just like a slow pitch softball, frig."

Justin asks Claire as he tries to keep one eye on Mikey who is franticly searching the area where he last saw the shadowed man, "Who the frig was that, the Walker?"

Claire shakes her head as she also tries to keep an eye on Mike, "No, not tall or lanky enough."

Tim turns to look at Claire beginning to check his wounds interjects, "So someone new, fantastic, I love it when the cast expands, more conflict and drama."

Justin finally takes his eyes off of Mike, looks at Tim shaking his head and says, "You're such a crap Tim."

Tim looks up at Justin, smiles and answers, "You love me man and you know it." Tim begins to look through the belongings of the dead creatures and each he finds has a black marble on them. Just like the one Mike had found earlier. Tim holds them up as he finds them and shows them to Justin.

Justin nods his acknowledgement to Tim and turns his attention back to Mike saying, "Hey, Mikey you got anything over there buddy?"

Mike continues to look around for a moment and then turns and says in utter frustration, "Not a darn thing man, not a darn thing, darn it!" And with that Mike turns and walks back to the others.

Justin takes control of the situation instructing, "Come on boys. There are wounded in the house. Hey, where the heck is Paul?"

Tim answers, "He is on the west side of the house and needs some help, I bound him but he is probably unconscious and needs to get back."

Mike finally gets back to the group and on hearing that he responds, "Crap, let's roll. Keep the teams and tend to the wounded."

Almost as an afterthought Justin interjects, "There are people upstairs that Tim and I will tend to. Petey look in on Nick and check that side of the house. Mike and Claire can you find Paul?"

The group seems to be in agreement with this and they break up to tend to the others. As they walk back into the house they see Nick propped up by the wall and he smiles at them as they walk by. They all stop for a sec to make sure he is OK and then head on to their assignments. But Pete sits with Nick checking his bandages and trying to talk with him. Mike and Claire make their way down the hall toward the west side of the house. They see Paul bandaged and leaning against the wall with a young woman standing over him with a wet towel washing his face. Very kindly she left his mask in place but is washing away some of his face paint. As she hears Mike and Claire approaching she turns quickly and screams. This wakes the baby lying on the ground not too far from Paul. The baby also screams piercing the silence with a spirited dampening cry.

Claire speaks up trying to keep everyone as calm as possible, "Its OK hon, we're here to help. That's our friend there. Can we take a look at him?" The woman looks very skeptically at them and finally nods and backs away from Paul. As Claire and Mike walk up she hands Claire her bloodstained towel. Mike kneels down and checks his breathing and pulse which, given the circumstance, seem OK but they need to get back to base to rest.

Claire then turns to the young woman now holding her partially screaming baby and asks softly, "What's your name hon?"

"Diane," the young woman replies shyly, "Diane Young and this is my baby girl Evie."

Claire leans in and looks at the baby girl with her vibrant blue eyes and slight tuft of blond hair on the top of her head. Claire smiles widely at the baby and says, "She's beautiful. Are you OK?"

Diane nods and smiles, she is very glad to see a friendly face, then answers, "Yeah, a little shook up but I'm not hurt, thanks to that young man."

Claire looks over at Paul, very proud of the jackass, turns back to Diane and responds, "I'm glad we could help. Now let's get you back to the rest of your family, I believe they are upstairs."

Diane responds, this time with more hope in her voice, "Thank you so much."

Claire leads Diane and her baby upstairs to rejoin her family and Mike stays with Paul to make sure he is OK.

Tim and Justin make their way up the stairs and as they reach the top of the landing they see the same two men in the hallway that Justin had seen earlier. Fortunately they are not nearly as apprehensive as before on seeing Justin. But Justin is careful to walk slowly and keep Tim behind him to make sure not to spook the family.

Justin speaks calmly as he moves toward the men, "OK, the creatures are gone now and the house is clear, is everyone alright?" Justin looks over the older man with the broken arm and asks, "May I look at that?"

The older man answers gladly, "Yeah, if you would."

Justin tenderly grabs the man's arm and inspects it closely and says, "Well, I am no doctor but I think I can at least set it with some help."

Tim tries to help out Justin and asks, "Is anyone else hurt?"

The younger man answers shyly, "N, but I do not know where my wife is and my two uncles went down stairs some time ago. We have not heard or seen from them."

With that both Tim and Justin's faces drop. They had almost forgotten about the two men that were on the porch when they first approached the house. Both are dead, they were not in time to save them from the creatures.

Tim decides to give the good new first and answers, "Your wife and baby are just fine. They are downstairs, I found them while we were moving through the house. But um, this is frigin hard. If your uncles are the two men on the porch we saw when we came in. I am afraid they are both dead."

There is a very strange mixture of joy and disbelief on the face of the young man finding out his wife and baby are OK, and that his uncles are dead. The old man has to turn his head from Justin as his eyes well up with tears. The young man then turns to the door he and the old man were guarding and knocks, unlocks it with a key around his neck and sticks his head in.

He says loudly to the people behind the door, "It's OK everyone, you can come out. They have gone." There is a mixture of sighs and thank-goodnesses as the young man opens the door wide. Then a cluster of gasps escape the people as they see Tim and Justin in full gear with their masks and black and white face paint on. They again huddle together in the back of the room. As the door opens wide Justin and Tim see a mixture of ages of children and women huddling in the room, all very terrified. From what Tim can observe there are three older women and a mixture of younger teenagers and some younger children.

The older man reiterates, "It's OK everyone, you can come out now. The creatures are gone."

The whole family cautiously emerge from the corner bedroom and look around skeptically. Just them with a crack and a scream Justin is able to set the man's arm and finish the binding.

"Thank you so much, for everything," the older man says looking down at his arm with both pain and relief, "if you had not been here we would, we'll I hate to think what would have happened."

Justin very proudly answers, "It is our pleasure to help where we can. Now do you know what those things were and what they were looking for?"

The old man answers cautiously, "Not sure, I mean we have been hearing of attacks on farms in the area lately, unexplained stuff, this must be what's been going on."

Justin continues his questioning, "Well, they were carrying trunks out the back of the house. What were in those?"

The old man gets a confused look on his face and answers, "I don't know anything about any old trunks in the house. Are you sure they were taking them out?"

Justin also gets a confused look on his face and asks, "So maybe they weren't taking them out but brining them in. That's strange."

The old man very suddenly gets rather defensive, "Hey, I don't know those creatures but they don't seem to bright now do they?"

Justin decides to leave that alone and continues, "Have you seen those things before?"

The old man continues, "No, none of us have but strange things have been going on since, well since things started to fall apart, ya know."

Justin nods and answers, "Yeah, I suppose so."

It is then that Claire comes up the stairs with Diane and her baby. When Diane sees her husband she rushes toward him crying and he moves to her.

The young man embraces Diane and asks softly, "Are you OK honey?"

She nods through her tears and adds.

He continues, "And is little Evie OK?"

Again she nods and buries her face into his shoulder and he holds her tightly. Tim cannot help but think to himself, " Lucky idiot. Next time take better care of your wife," as he frowns at the both of them and diverts his eyes.

Tim then looks over at Justin and says trying to move things along, "Well brother, we have wounded and we should probably rock out of here."

Justin still believes there is more to find out here but he knows Tim is right and answers, "Yeah man, we do need to bail. Well folks if everyone is OK my friends and I will be going."

The old man smiles, holds up a hand in thanks and answers, "We will be OK."

"Wait," says one of the older women in the back of the group. "What about Hank and Tyler?"

Justin looks confused before he realizes she is speaking of the two men on the front porch. The old man walks over to the two older women and huddles them together whispering to them. Then one screams and the other begins to cry and races past Justin and Tim to the front of the house. The others in the group begin to cry again and one younger girl falls to her knees sobbing.

"Frig ," Justin thinks to himself, "This never gets any easier, dear God I hope it never does get easier."

Claire breaks the silence deciding that they really need to make an exit now announcing, "Well boys, let's get the others together and ride. We've seen enough crap for one night, let's save some for later."

Tim could not agree more responding, "Heck yeah, I hear that."

But as they turn to walk away Diane says, "Stop."

She walks over to Tim, her husband is now holding Evie, she says, "Thank you and your other friend so much. Without you I and my baby would be dead, we are in your debt."

She leans in and kisses Tim on the cheek and he blushes something amazing, even through the black and white face paint.

"Anything I can do to help out mame," he says in an embarrassed tone and turns and walks down the stairs with Justin and Claire.

When they get to the bottom of the stairs Claire and Tim go and get Mike. Paul and Justin go to get Nick and Pete and they saddle up and make their way back to town.

As they ride off Mike starts the conversation, "So any good ideas on what the frig just happened back there?"

Justin does not break the intent look of deep thought on his face as he answers, "The old man said that the creatures attacked them just like others in the area have been attacked. But he also said those trunks did not belong to the family. I thought they were just taking them out but they may have been bringing them in."

Tim breaks in seemingly confused, "So like some sort of deliver?"

Claire answers, "Well not a friendly delivery that's for sure. Why kill the people you were delivering whatever it was too?

Mike breaks in sounding rather disappointed, "So it would have been a good idea to check out the trucks huh?"

Justin agrees, not believing his own stupidity, "Frig, that would have been a good idea."

Pete breaks in coyly, "Well, while you were working on your human relations back there I took the time to look at what was in those trunks our little friends were so interested in."

Mike shakes his head and laughs saying, "Good man Petey, although I do not condone looking through people's crap or stealing but in this case I think we can let it slide."

Pete responds very condescendingly, "Well thank you mom, you're such a crap sometimes Mikey."

Mike laughs answering, "What the heck do you do, huh?"

Pete bites back still remaining sarcastic, "I don't know, not be a crap maybe."

Justin is laughing but growing a little tired of the friging around and commands, "Frigin-a, that's enough what was in the frigin trunks Pete?"

Pete continues on his sarcastic roll, "Someone's a little touchy tonight aren't they." With that Justin gave Pete a "I'm going to friging kill you" look and Pete decides it is time to quit friging around.

Pete clears his through and begins, "Anyway, I have no idea what it means but those trunks were full of a mixture of sand and salt. I know I tasted it. Just can't keep crap out of my mouth ya know. So I dug around for a little bit and found this," he reaches around in his cloak and from a side pouch pulls out a black statue."

Claire shakes her head and chastises Pete, "Had to take it didn't you, you friging klepto. Do you not think they are not going to realize that is gone you stupid crap."

Pete replies sharply, "Yes mom, I did think of that and you know they will assume that those creatures or the family just took it. Anyway, we have two options of belief here. One, those people really did own these trucks and the creatures were taking there from them. Or two, the creatures own the trucks and they were bringing them into the house for some reason.

Claire is rather taken back by Pete's logic here and responds impressed, "That has to be the most thought out series of rationalizations I have ever heard come out of your mouth. I'm proud of you Petey."

Pete smiles and sits up straight in his saddle very proudly and responds, "Well thank you Claire. I have been working on that since I decided to steal that thing."

Mike tries to get back to the conversation asking, "So what they heck is it?" Mike leans in to look closer at the statue. It is not more than two feet high and solid black, it looks like an angel. It is a male statue, as it has a very overlarge penis, which Mike thinks must be an image for fertility. As Mike remembers what he can from Western Civ or Art History or something. It has wings folded on its back and it has a muscled chest, arms and legs. In one hand it holds a sword and in the other it holds a flame and its eyes are piercing. It's almost like it is looking at them. It gives Mike a very bad feeling. As Mike gets closer Pete can swear the figurine vibrated for a second but decides it was just the horse.

Mike recoils from the statues almost in disgust, "That thing creeps me out man put it away, I don't like it maybe, we should ditch it."

The same creepy feeling is occurring to Justin but he has other ideas saying, "Yeah, I don't like it either Mikey but I think we should hang on to it. It is the best clue we have to what those things, and the man out there, were up to."

Pete puts the figurine back in his cloak and asks, "So what they frig is going on here anyway. It keeps getting weirder and weirder."

Mike decides to recap and asks, "Alright, so what do we know? We know there are these little greenish creature things running around and some of them have these black marbles on them, which gets hot when you get around other ones. My marble was getting warm as we approached these things tonight and these things had marbles on them too. We know that the Homage group or at least some of the group have these marbles. They are somehow involved with the green creatures and thus with that guy we ran into at the back of the house. We can also assume, or reason, that the Homage group did not want to get involved in these farm raids because they knew something about what was going on out here and do not or will not get involved with it. And now, thanks to Pete, we have a black statue which it important enough for these things to kill over. Well frig, none of that really helps at all does it?"

Tim nods agreeing, "Not so much man, not so much."

Claire speaks up again asking with a defeated tone, "So what now boys?"

Mike answers very definitively, "We get back to base. Get Nick and Paul back on their feet. Keep training and keep our eyes and ears open and wait. Things will unfold, it's just a matter of time and we need to be ready."

The Parade makes their way back to base safely avoiding the Homage patrols. After they get back they get Nick and Paul comfortable get clean bandages on their wounds and get some much needed rest. Mike makes sure to wrap up the black statue and hide it out of sight in a corner as best he can, that thing is bad, very bad and it meant ill.