Episode 15

The man didn't even know she had taken the viper from him until it was too late. The gunshot echoed through the room like great thunder. She was on her feet and dashing for the elevated area and the robed men upon it.

She knew she didn't have enough bullets in the viper to make it through the crowd, and even if she did, she would still have to get through the massive doors that barred her from leaving. The way she saw it, she had one chance.

The younger robed men tried to halt her approach, but they would not be successful. One by one, they fell to the floor. The whole area was splattered with blood, for she left none of them alive save the Archon himself. The Bwbach were trying to get to her in time, but before they could stop her, she drug the Archon from his throne onto the floor where she held the heated barrel to his head.

"Come any closer, and your leader's brains will get splattered all over the floor!" she shouted. The room came to a standoff.

"If you kill him, you will still die!" a man shouted out from the crowd.

Scarlet gave a slightly maddened smile. "Yes, I imagine I will. But first, I will have killed every man who could have qualified as a leader for you all… I wonder how long this twisted little system you have would survive without its leaders." Scarlet leaned over to the old man. "Tell me, can your people afford to live without you?"

The man who had been carrying her shotgun had come to the front, holding the weapon up.

"You obviously don't know what kind of gun that is," Scarlet scoffed. "Shoot that, and you'll hit me, but you'll hit him as well."

"What are your demands then, girl?" the Archon finally asked.

"I want all my stuff back, a full canteen of water, and unconditional safe passage through all of your territory."

"After all the death you've brought?" There was a hint of disgust in the Archon's voice.

"I did ask nicely the first time."

"So be it. You will have all that you requested..." The Archon was cut short as a knife flew through the air and into his chest. A man from the front of the crowd raised his fists in the air and gave a bellowing shout. The whole thing took Scarlet by surprise.

"We don't need some weak old man to lead us!" he shouted.

"And I suppose you think you should be the one to lead us!" came the voice of a challenger.

Within seconds, the whole room broke out into a bloody brawl. It wasn't what she'd wanted but it was the only opportunity that she had. She made a run through the crowd. She felt herself showered in blood as a man next to her had his head cracked open by a blunt weapon. She could hear her shotgun fire off. Screams and war cries filled the air.

Suddenly, she felt a harsh grip on her blood-soaked hair followed by a piercing stab through the right side of her abdomen, below the ribs. She gave out a shrill from the pain. Looking down, she could see the tip of a blade protruding out of the front of her body. Time seemed to slow as she watched the blade disappear back into her body. She felt her breath stolen from her as the blade was ripped from her. Her right hand instantly found its way to her wound and she turned to see who it was who had stabbed her. The face of the woman who'd wanted to kill her came into view.

Scarlet dropped to her knees. The woman had the look of a rabid beast, a wild smile on her face and her body trembling with complete satisfaction. Scarlet's fingers quickly found their way around the knife that had been in her right boot. As the woman bent down to bury her knife deep into Scarlet, the redhead lifted her left arm to block the woman and drove her knife into the woman's neck.

Blood spilled from her neck over Scarlet's hand and fingers, hot and sticky. She watched the woman's face surge with shock before it washed into a deadened stare. The redhead instinctively tried to wipe her hand and knife off on her jeans, but it was of little use. Her left hand was back on her wound, her blood steadily seeping from it. She pushed herself to her feet and continued to navigate her way through the mess of fighting people.

She gave out a yelp as she was knocked to the ground by a falling body. Suddenly, she felt someone grab her right arm. She jerked, trying to free her arm as her head quickly turned to see who it was that had a hold of her. It was the man that had wanted breeding rights to her.

"Let go!" she shouted.

"Easy girl," he said as he twisted her right arm behind her. "Now, do you want to get out of here, or not?" She heard him say in her ear. She shook her head yes. "Then you have to let me help you." Untwisting her arm, he pulled it over his shoulder. He drug her through the crowd away from the main gates.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You don't think the main gates are the only way out of here, do you?" he said.

She supposed that there would be more than one way in and out of this place. She could feel her head becoming hazy. The man was doing more dragging than she was walking. They had wound their way through a maze of corridors, and she doubted that she would have been able to retrace her footsteps. Sweat had begun to make runners down her skin. She couldn't tell if it was from shock or from the intense heat of the Bwbach home. The sound of the fighting had faded away behind them. She felt herself drop to the floor and the man's hands rubbing over her face.

"You're going into shock," he said as he looked down at her wound.

She lifted her left hand to look at her palm and the blood that had successfully coated it.

"Don't worry, sun-walker. I'll take care of you."

She felt his arms reach under her legs and across her back. He seemed to lift her off the floor effortlessly. With that, her head rolled back as her arm dropped to her side and her world went black.