Chapter 42: Machete

FieryKathy

After my strawberry union with Sam we continue on our way through the devastated landscape around us. Overgrown ruins of what once used to be houses, several craters, and destroyed highways, all making way for newly grown forests, as nature reclaimed what had humanity ruined.

“You would think this is a reference to the big climate crisis.” Élise pauses to look into the wreck of a car. Its eerie shadow stretched out because of the rising sun in our backs.

“It probably is.” Hilda says while grabbing her binoculars. “Just give me a second, I’m going to climb up that building over there to get a better view of the surroundings.”

“Allright.” Having had enough of the rotten innards of the car, Élise sets up her machine gun’s bipod on the roof. “Just in case.” She winks at Sam who’s getting a bit restless.

“You okay Sam?” I walk over to her.

“I-I’m fine. It’s just that I’m not that enthusiastic to get shot at now that I think about it.”

“It’s not that bad, if I have other shooters to compare it too anyway.” Élise says, eyes focused on the road ahead. “I mean, the pain is unpleasant, but really, nothing to be afraid of.”

I give Sam a big hug. “It’ll be okay, Sam.”

“Thanks.” She smiles.

“Getting stabbed in the gut is a lot more painful.” Nikki comes up and sits herself against the wreck of the car.

“Ah yeah, thanks for reminding me about that.” Sam instinctively grabs the side of her stomach.

“No problem, but before our glorious leader returns from her scouting mission I’d like to thank you again for keeping Amicia safe. I don’t think we can say it enough.” Nikki smiles at Sam.

Élise nods. “Our kitten here might be a goddess of sorts but jumping in front of her to confront a lunatic is bloody brave.” 

“So it’s fine that you are a bit nervous, we all know you are the biggest badass here.”

“On top of that, you are irrevocably part of the family as well.” Élise looks back for a second to give Sam one of the most sincere smiles I’ve ever seen her do.

“Awh, you all are going to make me cry.” Sam wipes a tear out of her eye.

“Noooo. If you cry I’ll start crying too!” I squeeze Sam tighter.

We get interupted by Hilda swiftly but silently running over to us.

“Sorry for interrupting but I think I’ve seen a couple of guys a little bit away from us. I didn’t want to alert them by shooting. Can you come with me Ami, to deal with them?”

“Why not me?” Élise pouts.

Hilda points at her machine gun. “Ah yes, very subtle.” She takes out her pistol and screws a silencer on it. “If we don’t want to alert everyone we have to do it like this. Your time will come in a bit.”

“Allright.” Élise nods.

“Just stay like 300 meters behind us, in case things go wrong.”

Sam and Nikki nod as well. 

Hilda takes me along through the more overgrown areas towards our targets. It doesn’t take long at all before we catch sight of them.

“How many are there?” I whisper to Hilda.”

“I counted ten but there might be more, so watch out.”

We go closer and start stalking our prey. Just as Hilda said, they do appear to be with ten. 

After a couple of minutes the enemy splits up in two groups. Hilda signs at me to follow the left group, while she follows the right. While whispering “Be careful. Remember to start with the tail of the pack.” Into my headset.

I nod and continue following the left group.

The group I’m following carries mostly assault rifles, for as far as I can identify them, the guy at the back has a side-arm as well.

When they space out a little bit more to get through a rougher part of the terrain, it’s a clear sign for me to pounce. I take my combat knife and my machete from my belt and take them in my left and right hand respectively. I rush from cover, trying not to make any sound or at least make as little sound as possible and it doesn’t take long to get to the last guy in line. He didn’t get a chance to react before I grab him from behind and slit his throat with my machete. I softly put him down on the floor before going for my next target. I use my knife for the second one in line and just like the first one, drop him silently on the undergrowth. Luckily for me the other three guys don’t appear to have noticed anything and continue on their merry way. This allows me to slip behind the third guy and repeat what I’ve done to the two guys before, quietly dropping him. However this time, when I put him down, a glass bottle, of what I assume was some kind of alcohol slips from his pocket and drops on the floor, breaking it. This alerts the other remaining bandits. “What the fuck! Rob, when are you going to learn not to bring glass on missions?”

Oh shit. 

They look back and see me right after I dropped the third guy to the floor. “Holy... “ Is the last thing I hear before I quickly rush the guy closest to me and manage to stab him in his chest with my machete, going clean through his body armour.

I didn’t know a machete could do that.

The last guy foolishly approaches me with his weapon trained but before he manages to pull the trigger I quickly spin around and kick the assault rifle out of his hands with a tornado roundhouse kick. He backs off, a bit shaken by the kick and draws his knife.

“That was stupid of me, won’t be happening again.” He smirks as he takes a defensive posture. We stand there, watching each other's moves for a couple of seconds before I make a move and start closing the distance foot by foot.

“Not a big talker, are you?” He backs off a bit more.

“Hmm. Depends, just not to you.” I come even closer, making him fall back further and further.

“Just coming closer won’t do you any good.”

“Don’t worry, I was just waiting till your foot hit the tree trunk behind you.” I bluff.

He quickly looks back, falling straight into my trap and rush towards him and take a swing with my right hand. Miraculously he manages to dodge my machete’s blade and counters with a swing of his dagger. His dagger glancing off my off-hand weapon. Before he can make another swing I give a low kick on the back of his knee, bringing him out of balance. I follow it up with a slash of my machete during his fall. Unable to block my incoming attack he gets hit with the full force of my hit, severing his left arm.

“Urgh, you bitch!” he cries out before I slash his trachea with my combat knife.

“Well, that was that…” I sigh, wiping off the blood of my weapons before putting my machete back on my belt. 

“Put your weapons on the floor right now!” I suddenly hear a man yell at me from behind me.

I turn around and see a guy with Hilda in a choke-hold, her silenced pistol pressed firmly against her temple. Her face is pretty bloodied.

“Sorry Amicia, he caught me by surprise.”

“Shut up. Now, put down your weapons.” 

He is definitely going to use us to kill our entire party or just kill us the moment I put down my weapons…

I let my machete drop from my belt and slowly get to my knees to put my combat knife on the ground. When I do so he takes the gun away from Hilda’s head and points it at me.

“Good girl.” He says with a smirk.

With my hand still on my combat knife I nod at Hilda and she quickly nods back.

That was the moment Hilda was waiting for as she elbows him hard in the stomach and gives me the window I need. I throw my knife underhandedly at the guy while performing a combat roll to the left to avoid a possible shot from the bandit. A shot indeed goes off but hits the tree behind me and once I’m upright again I see that unlike the shot, my throw didn’t miss its mark. My knife embedded in the skull of the last bandit, the body of said bandit slumped against the tree behind him. Hilda slightly shivering on her knees.

“That was an incredible throw.”

I run up to her. “Th-thanks. Are you okay?”

“Just some cuts…”

“Let’s get Sam to look at it once she’s here. So, what happened?”

“Apparently they had a guy coming after who I didn’t notice. I managed to disarm him, but he subsequently disarmed me as well. And the rest you know…”

I give her a quick hug before I can hear a group of people running at us.

“Damn, looks like we are too late.” Élise calls out.

“Are you all okay?” Sam comes over to me.

“Hilda needs a bit of your attention sweetie, I’m just fine.” I smile, making place so she can look at Hilda’s wounds.

“Did Ami do this all by herself?” Nikki goes around and looks at the slaughter.

“Yeah, I was amazed as well. You should’ve seen how she took out the last guy. Ouch!” Hilda hisses a bit when Sam cleans her wounds with alcohol.

“Didn’t you say the pain was relatively okay in this shooter?” Sam looks back at my sister.

“It looks like they dialed up the pain a bit more.” Élise gulps.

“It’s fine, really. I’m just a baby.” Hilda sticks out her tongue.

“Being in melee just felt really natural. I think it might be the class that’s helping me.”

“Mhmm.” Sam nods. “I don’t know how to do wound treatment either but it feels like I’ve done this a million times as well.”

“Scary what VR can do. One turns you into a goddess, the other turns you into trained killers.” I say.

The rest agrees. “Scary indeed.”