DEAD

Flint was the first to reach the girl's side. She propped on her knees and straightened up to have a closer look at the girl's face.

Just then Sarah joined her beside the girl, they shared a glance before Flint stretched her hand towards the girl's face, and putting her hand underneath her skull, she straightened the tilted girl's head.

The girl's head wobbled to the side, and Flint had to use her other hand to keep her head in place.

Sarah gasped in shock as she had a good look at the girl's face. While Flint snapped her eyes closed and shook her head. And reopened them.

It was obvious the girl's neck had been snapped in two. There was also a thin blood-covered bone jutting out of the side of her neck with a trail of flowing deep red blood spraying out of it.

And her right eye looked to have been pieced jaggedly. The damage was bloody and opened as dark red fluid dripped down from it and had painted the right side of her face and underneath her jawline red.

Flint stared at the injury, and it looked like what had caused the injury was the handle of the chair the girl had been bent over before the Mobile had been whacked.

Her eyes trailed down to the slowly dripping blood from the girl's chin. As a warrior, she was supposed to be used to seeing scenes like this, but the truth was that she had only seen cruel deaths like this since she had come into the human realm.

She had not yet been born when the wipeout of the Giants had taken place. She was brought out of her trance when she heard Sarah ask her a question.

"Is she…Dead?" Sarah asked faintly as she slapped her hands over her mouth. But her question was met with silence before Flint's answer dispersed it.

"She is…" Flint confirmed her earlier question. She didn't stop to relive the shock that the girl's death had brought on her.

"Help me hold her head up" Flint called out to Sarah. Sarah immediately reached forward to cradle the girl's head.

Flint released the hold she had on the girl's head, as Sarah was now holding on to it.

She moved back a bit and carefully dragged the girl's legs towards her, to create space for the girl's upper body to lay flat on the floor.

Their actions seemed to have gotten the attention of the children.

"So much blood…" A girl said, squeaking.

"What are they doing to her…" Another asked.

"Why isn't she standing up…" A concerned voice asked.

"Or…Is she Dead…" An almost inaudible voice murmured.

There were resounding gasps from the children. It seemed some of the children had at one point had that thought cross their minds, but didn't want to accept it.

But as someone else had voiced it out, it had brought out the reality of the circumstances.

"Hey, Leader Flint, is the girl dead?" A brave voice questioned from behind, wanting to hear the words from the horse's mouth.

Flint tilted her head up to stare directly at the boy who had asked the question before answering him. "Yes, she is."

At Flint's affirmation, there were screams of terror from the children. But Flint ignored that and continued "And this should serve as a reminder to sit down as Black had instructed," Flint started.

There was a gasp from somewhere nearby as a girl screamed at Flint. "How can you be so heartless! Someone just died and you sit there and talk like it's no big deal!!"

Flint snapped her head to where the girl was seated. It was a sickly thin girl with boring features and mattered pale brown hair. She had slant beady chocolate brown eyes, a worrisome large long nose, and thin pale lips.

"What did you do when she was crying out in pain earlier? Nothing!... And now you come out to play 'Miss Nice'. Why don't you just shut up? I am sure not everyone wants to hear your screeching boring voice." Sarah snapped at the girl from her place beside Flint.

The sickly girl bristled with anger, with her face red she bit back at Sarah "You!... Just because you move around with the Leader doesn't make you one…you are just like a dog who is loyal to its master!" She screamed out with her index finger pointed at Sarah.

"Hahaha! I like the way you think of me as a dog when you are the one with the features of a dog!" Sarah laughed out loud with her hands now wrapped around her midsection.

"How dare you!!" The sickly girl fumed in anger, she was about to retaliate when Flint's voice cut her off.

"Enough!!... And you keep shut and sit down!" Flint said, pointing at the sickly girl.

The girl opened her mouth to protest, but at the last moment she had a change of mind, so she looked away and plopped down on her chair.

"Good doggie!" Sarah chipped in, but she held her tongue when Flint sent her a glare.

"Sarah, the last thing I want is for a fight to break out. So ignore her, okay." Flint cautioned Sarah softly.

"Okay, I officially don't like her. But I would stop for now" Sarah said, like it was a difficult thing to do.

"Good," Flint said as she moved to position the body at the end of the rows of chairs with Sarah's help.

When they were done they slowly made their way back to where Ulanni sat waiting for them with a frown on her pretty face.

There was silence in the compartment and only the resounding bangs coming from the Musket could be heard.

The children didn't scramble around to look out the window like they had done before, as the death of one of them still weighed down on their consciousness.

Back in the driver's cockpit.

"It seems like we have gotten rid of most of them," Kabe said as he examined the map in front of him.

"Yeah, but we used too much energy." Sarah pointed out.

"Oh, and it seemed we drove a bit off the Life Line," Kabe stated as he zoomed in on the map.

The position of the Mussel Mobile on the map was blinking a deep blue. Sage turned to look at the map.

"Hey, just drive back in!" Sage replied.

"How much damage was done?" Kabe inquired back.

"Just twenty percent, that damn tree did some real damage to the rear," Sage answered while examining the projection in front of her.

"That's still good, considering the distance we have covered." Kabe nodded.

But Sage didn't respond as she appeared to have her attention glued on the projection before her.

"Just what the hell happened back there?" Sage said, staring at the column that showed the view of the compartments behind.