Chapter 11 - Ten

Quickly deciding that my annoyance in having my meal stolen and enjoyed by a mere ghoul again is far bigger and worse than having to help the human out this single time I take action and, while the ghoul goes to take another bite, I aim and kick a stone that was laying beside me with strength, making it fly up and hit the head of the creature with a bang.

I have to control myself and the amount of force used since I did not want to blow my cover of 'fragile little human' up, but I still somewhat managed to miscalculate the amount of force I should use to appear human, or rather, the lack of force on the rock, and as result instead of only stunning the ghoul the projectile manages to make the creature fall on its back towards the ground, a deep hit on the side of the skull where the rock had imbedded itself, still there, which far from simply disorientating had almost been deadly.

Bennett fixed that slight problem by bringing the sword down on the twisting spasming creature, severing the head apart. After that, when suddenly all has quieted down, the soldier supports his body with the sword, gasping and letting the sweat drip freely from his forehead, closing his eyes and clenching his jaw hard while trying to calm down.

"W-well, that was a fun little adventure we had, uhm, kid?" He says to me while smiling, chuckling even, making me question if he had been hit the head too many times.

After some time he finally stands, grunting as his shoulder moves along and worsens the wound, only to come closer and pat me on the head.

"Let's go kid. Seems like I own you one, but I rather pay it once I know we are safe and sound." At that he starts walking out, giving one last glance at the creatures who almost took his life away today..

He stops once we are out in the open and under the orange blazing sun, still slightly covered by some reminisced clouds, and look over the trees and grass, a frown on his face.

"…Where are we?" He says, and not understanding what those words meant has begun to slightly annoy me. I try to follow his gaze, and follow him as he starts walking, but soon I realize that he had no idea where we are going since we ended up walking in circles and not even close to where we were heading before, on the swamp.

So sighing I simply start walking forward and, ignoring his shouts, guide us towards an area close to the swamp enough so that he finally recognizes the place, taking us towards the correct path after useless hours wasted.

I finally see all my effort pay off once we find a road far north and out of my usual path, and after a few minutes walking upwards, we stop at two metal things that later I would learn that were called motorcycles.

And yet they were not normal ones, they were made for rash terrain and used mostly by the army, so their wheels, beyond being bigger and having the seat higher, were not smooth like normal car wheels, but instead had parts attached in a circle with holes in between, so the empty spaces would embrace rocks and debris and give a smoother ride and be able to go to over uneven floor and even stairs.

Before stepping closer to his own bike, Bennett stops at the side of the other one, hand clenching into fists and eyes serene yet profound.

"Let's go."

We approach Bennett bike now as he helps me with the helmet, leaving the other vehicle behind, which probably belongs to Harper I soon realize, and waiting there I have a good view of the black and grey military pattern on the military bike, as well as to the markings on the asphalt as well, from other bigger vehicles with four wheels that had already left.

"Seems like we were left behind." He says under his helmet, his words hard to distinguish, but is not like hearing him clearly would make a difference since I still did not understand him, however at least I could tell he was not happy. "My boss will piss in my ears later, fuck me."

At that he puts the key in and starts the engine, sitting on it while giving the accelerator a few tries to heat up the machine, and only then patting the seat behind him to indicate where I should go.

I approach, not really sure how to do this, but figuring the only way around it is by passing my leg over and hold his back, this military vehicle not being very spacious and squishing us in the small sit.

"Put your legs over here, do not touch that part cuz is hot and it will burn your leg, and hold on tight!"

That's when I discover, for the first time, just how fun human vehicles were, especially this motorcycle, and since I did not fear the high speed nor the apparent lack of protection I could enjoy the cutting wind and the growing of the machine below us as we advance through the not so well kept road.

There was still a visible path among the wilderness, but it was clear that the forest is claiming the terrain back with roots upturning the floor and weeds managing to grow all over the place.

Many different smells hit my nose, too fast and too many for me to analyze any for longer than a second, and the surrounding area soon follows the same situation as we speed up, green blurring together in a velocity foreigner to me, having adrenaline pumping in my veins, a smile spreading on my face as the cutting wind hits my legs and single clothing hard, making the trip cold and dangerous yet thrilling and exciting.

No wonder humans could run away fast and survive for this long with these little toys they have, I have never been this fast before, only perhaps while rolling down a hill at full speed.

After a few minutes of that, however, we finally manage to reach the human's hideout, having us stop up above to have a better look at it while we are still up on a hill, and this far away we are still unable to see the details, however I can already tell what awaited for me inside was nothing that I have ever encountered before…

And I could not wait to find out.