Needed

The rush. The rush of running at slightly over 50 miles per hour. It is a violent one, yet peaceful all the same. I dodged trees and such as I ran. Each time by mere inches. I had been running like this for how long? I came to a sudden halt on one foot in the middle of a clearing. I looked down at my arm...and realized I had forgotten my watch. I sighed silently as I thought of what I had passed, remembering having crossed the border from Kentucky into Tennessee. I had forgotten my watch in the panic of realizing that the only thing I cared about in danger of being captured by the Hunters. In fact I hadn't remembered much at all. What I was wearing and my combat knife that I had passed on the way out of the door were all that I had on my person. My ears twitched as I listened to a twig snap.

My jade colored eyes dilated as I heard the low gurgling of the handler communicating with his underling. I was gone and sitting in the top of a nicely sized tree. Shortly after, the tracker leapt over a bush and was catching my scent off the air. I closed my eyes, hoping that he would not be able to find me. Trackers are quite ugly, slightly over 5 feet tall. They are bald, pale, and almost anorexically skinny. They're heads are lumpy, and they have no teeth. As I said, ugly. They are humans, well, they used to be humans... Until the Hunters decided to warp them, and twist them, and mutate them into the ultimate tracker. Sickening, eh?

The forest that I had been running through for the half hour was extensive, and confusing. I still didn't know how I managed to escape the raids. Hundreds had been slaughtered since the hunters had decided to mobilize in full, and I had begun to hide in the shadows, Knowing full well that I was the only one who could ever have a chance at stopping them, simply trying to keep my enemies from killing me. There had been a good few close encounters, but I had managed to keep my head about me and escape. This one however, would be difficult. I'm tired, and hungry. My ability to fight is drastically reduced. As I stayed crouched, high atop the tree, most would wonder how I kept my six foot three inch tall frame completely motionless. The answer is, training. Years and years of training to fight, and to rigorously disciplining my body daily. Even so, this last month has enhanced my skills even further. No greater training than real experience.

At this point the handler Stepped out from behind the bush as well. They are ugly. But not the repulsive, locked away ugliness of the trackers. Ugly as in raw power, the look of something that could crush anything in its path in a millisecond. Their average height is between 7 and 8 feet tall. They are overly muscular and are quite strong, and fast, despite their size. They have no lips, and have no skin covering their gums. They are also bald and their skin is almost armor like, and a rancid maroon color. Like trackers, they were once human, but mutated by the hunters. The trackers are their bait, and their target finders.

As the tracker and handler were leaving, something very, very unfortunate befell me. My stomach growled. The tracker snapped his head around, coming to a halt, facing right in my direction. The high pitched snarl that was emitted by it covered my cry of frustration as I snapped open the cover for my combat knife, dropping down from the tree. As I unsheathed it I launched myself at the small tracker. The handler saw me going after it, but did nothing to intercept my blow even though he was a mere 3 feet away from my target. I slammed into the tracker, slicing as hard as I could into his chest. As he began to fall I grabbed him by his ankle, and threw him at the handler. He was swatted aside with no thought, no remorse. They had truly been stripped of all humanity.

The handler was all over me, taking punches at me. I blocked as best I could but my defense was quickly penetrated due to my lack of nourishment and my sleep depravity. The handlers fist, nearly as big as my head, slammed into my face. I was knocked off balance and began to fall backwards. Before my body touched the ground I was hit again. This time, full force. I was knocked 10 feet to the side, slamming hard into a tree. As I shook the blood out of my eyes from the gash that had opened up in my head the handler was already attacking me again. This time with a powerful clothesline that knocked me through the tree. As I lay on the ground, I coughed up a good glob of blood. The handler slowly walked over to me, knowing that I could no longer do anything to defend myself. He grabbed me by my throat and lifted me out of the dirt. As it was choking me and I began to lose consciousness my thoughts fluttered to a fairly recent picture. A picture of a beautiful girl with soft brown hair and aqua blue eyes. My scream startled the handler causing him to lighten up his grip. "I wont die here! I promised her!" With that thought my consciousness returned as did a small part of my strength.

A swift punch into the arm he was choking me with, an uppercut to his elbow, snapped his right arm. I was immediately dropped. Taking advantage of this I unleashed a punch to his abdomen that sent him bouncing a good 15 feet back. After skidding to a halt he began to stand. Before he was even off one knee I was on him again. I ran at him full force, grabbing his forehead and using the momentum, slammed his skull into the ground with enough force to make a hole three feet wide and one foot deep. I heard his skull crack, and was fairly certain he was dead. I stood from the carapace, and gave him one more kick in the head for good measure. I leaned against a tree for a moment, trying with the utmost futility to wipe the blood from my eyes, then stood up and ran off again. I knew I had no time to be resting. Not until she was safe, and she wouldn't be safe until she was in my arms.

I regained my sense of direction and bounded towards my goal. I had to find her before they did. They would capture her just to bring me out of hiding. They would torture her. I tightened my fists at the thought, losing my concentration and dodging a tree by mere millimeters. As I neared her little town, a few miles out from Memphis, I came to a stop, perched on the roof of a two story house. I scanned the surrounding fields and saw a group of five handlers walking together... Not a normal sight. A familiar face was being carried by the biggest one and as far as I could tell she was unconscious. Her small frame was carried easily by the handler. I decided then and there that they would not get far. I had been running so hard that I knew my speed would be limited, so running was not an option. My muscles burned with every movement. I would have to fight. It was the only option. They were a good mile out from me and I knew I would have to go all out to fight five of them.

I would have to use everything I had. Something I had never done before. Not even in training, because it was dangerous. It would tear apart my muscles if done for too long. Our brains limit the amount of force that we can put on our muscles, but when your a blade child... you can destroy that limit, if only for a few minutes. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate. My whole body shook as I reached a questionable limit. With all the focus I could divert the boundary was shattered. I opened my eyes. My eyes had turned into a swirl of blood red and milky silver. My body burned all over. My skin was crawling and I knew that I would have to finish this quickly. I stepped off of the roof and landed lightly on one foot. With one powerful thrust I propelled myself forward, closing the mile long distance between us fairly quickly. I would stop them. Or else die trying.

The handlers turned towards me as I screamed, not so much in anger, but in blind fury. I went after the biggest one first, breaking his neck with a single kick. His body buckled under its own weight and I easily caught her. I looked down into her soft face and subconsciously whispered, "I'm sorry my Emily. I'm sorry it took me so long." The handlers have become aware that I have just rescued their hostage. My attention was turned back to my defense. I realized that my speed was incredible, blocking each attack with little or no effort, even though I was holding her in my other arm.

I dodged a punch from a handler, grabbing his arm and throwing him back. Another charged me. I hit him once in the stomach. His body collapsed onto my arm and I tossed him to the side. He fell without a noise other than the thud of his body hitting the floor. I ducked under another fist, sweeping the handlers legs out from under him. He crashed into the dirt. My heel slammed into the back of his skull, forcing his head into the ground. His head was no longer visible. The hunter I had thrown was trying to charge me from behind. Another kick to his chest sent him bouncing across the ground a good 30 feet. A minuscule movement from the comparatively small girl I had in my arms distracted me momentarily, allowing the final handler to land a punch. I was not braced for it and as such, it sent us both back. I covered her and held her tightly as we went. I turned slightly to take the brunt of the landing as we skidded to a halt. I laid her gently on the grass as I stood. I could think of nothing else other than the death of this handler. I was behind him and had a grip on both of his arms. I put my foot into his back and pulled back on his arms. I heard them dislocate, then break. I let go and he fell to the ground. I stomped his back, breaking it and probably smashing his spine.

Then my worries changed. As I rushed back to her side I was muttering without meaning to, "Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay." I crouched down beside her as she began to wake up. She looked up at me and said only one thing, "Holland?" "Its all right, your safe now Emily." "What were those things? They moved so fast. I tried to run bu..." "They're all dead. You don't have to worry." We were both nearing tears at this point. She looked up into my face, "Whats wrong with your eyes?" I then realized that I was still burning all over and I was beginning to have involuntary muscle spasms. My muscles were tearing themselves apart. I stared at the ground, focusing on one spot. As I put all my concentration into it the spiral of red and silver sank back to be replaced by the jade color I always had. The burning did not stop entirely, but was softened. The twitches all together stopped as she looked at the process I was going through. "What was that? Whats happening?" "I swear that I'll answer all of the questions you have once I've gotten you to a safe place." As I stared into her aqua blue eyes, my pain was erased, as I had forgotten all about it. She merely nodded at me as I picked her up, this time with both arms. I kissed her gently, just once. Then I began to run back towards the Kentucky/Tennessee border. I held her tightly as I ran. I had never ran while holding another person and as such was forced to slow down a little. Not because of extra weight, in fact she was as light as a feather, but do to the fact that I needed more room to dodge things. I silently prayed, thanking a god I did not believe in that I had been in time to save her.