Years of being on the run from law had fine-tuned Grandis’s reaction time to the unexpected to near perfection. She could make life or death decisions in the blink of the eye, hide herself in a crowd at the smallest sign of being tailed and avoid anyone with a badge at the drop of the hat. It was because of her excellent reaction speed that she was able to not only dodge the shot, but also grab Nadia and push her away from the line of fire. The bullet missed Grandis’s side by a bare inch; Grandis could almost swear that it had brushed against her dress as it went by. Clutching Nadia’s body to her chest, Grandis rolled onto the dirt path. When Sanson and Hanson had seen the artistic weapon, they had scrambled for cover towards the brush to the right of the path. Grandis had rolled to the left, so she could give the shooter two different locations to shoot. Seeing the party separated, Gargoyles henchman momentarily paused. He had no idea who to shoot first, the two women or the two men? This momentary confusion gave Grandis enough time to throw herself behind the nearest tree to the side of the path. Now with the hard bark blocking the shot, Nadia and Grandis were momentarily safe from getting shot.
“Damn it,” the henchman hissed at seeing not only had the men gotten away, but the women were hiding behind a tree. He sneered and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead to get the sweat out of his eyes. If he didn’t do this job right, losing his rank in Gargoyles army would be the least of his problems. When it came to failure, Gargoyle had no patience for anyone that had a loss on his or her records. Entire platoon had been executed for retreating from battle. He could never forget the public hanging Gargoyle gave the men, calling them traitors and unpatriotic. Some people whispered that Gargoyle was insane and out of control, but nobody ever acted to stop him. Being on the receiving end of the masked general’s displeasure was not something anyone ever thought about. If he didn’t return with the Blue Water, then he would be the one in the gallows, hanging for all to see. With all that firmly in mind, he slowly advanced towards the two cowering women. His gun poised, finger tightly wrapped around the trigger and eyes wide open, he was ready to strike.
“Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot.” Grandis cried out from behind the tree.
“Double damn it.” His steps came to a stop ad he stood motionless not ten feet from the tree. A part of his mind wondered if she really had a gun or if this was one of her bluffs. He knows almost nothing about Grandis, except that she was sneaky and wanted by every major country for theft. She could be bluffing, but she couldn’t of earned her reputation for simple bravo and lies. No, underestimating Grandis would only get him dead, but returning without the Blue Water would only get him killed. Better to be killed by this thief, then by Gargoyle, who took exceptional joy in getting his prisoners to scream for death before he granted the request. He would have to slowly move to Grandis step by step and when he got a clean shot, BANG! The sound of hushed voices came from behind Grandis’s cover. He gritted his teeth, they were plotting to kill him, and he just knew it.
“You have a gun!” Nadia hysterically whispered into Grandis’s ear. Grandis’s hand was wrapped around Nadia’s back tightly. The thief didn’t want the girl that she considered a sister to get even close to the line of fire for their assassin. Her other hand was holding a revolver, unlike the man, Grandis was holding it lightly and not in a ready for action manner.
“Shhhh,” Grandis hissed into Nadia’s ear. “I only carry it for show. I’ve never fired a gun a day in my life.”
“Then why tell him you have a gun?” Nadia whispered hastily. Her stomach was starting to feel queasy from having Jean pond his tiny fists against her gastric lining and scream out her name. His voice echoed from her stomach and into her ears. He was desperately crying for her to answer him and tell him she was all right. The sound of the gunshot had been so loud that it had even broken through the layers of skin surrounding Nadia’s stomach. Moments before the gunshot, he was tossed around as Nadia went flying. Blind to the world outside of the stomach, Jeans only consolation was the steady beat of Nadia’s hart, which echoed through out the fleshy sack like stomach.
“Jean, calm down, I’m fine.” She whispered softly so not to be heard by the man standing not ten feet away from the tree. Actually, it was more like nine feet now.
“Nadia!” Jean screamed again. Her voice had been to low for him to hear, so her statement of heath went unheard. Nadia bit her lip at hearing Jean still call out for her. She dreadfully wanted to answer him louder, but she was afraid to say anything with the man not nine feet from where she was sitting. Did I say nine, what I meant was eight, definitely eight.
“Grandis’ what are we going to do?” Nadia said quietly so only Grandis could hear.
“I’m going to shoot him,” Grandis said gravely.
“But you said that you’ve never fired it before.”
“There’s always a first time for everything.” Grandis tried to smile, but it came out looking fake and plastic. Sweat had started to run down her forehead as the gun hung limply from her fingers. Her forefinger fumbled to find the trigger and came to rest on it tightly. Grandis took one more breath before she started to count to three before jumping out and hopefully shooting the man.
“One.”
“Almost there,” the man growled as he took an attentive step towards the tree. He had been taking some steps every few minutes and was now five feet from the hiding due. With half the distance taken away, he was able to see the long red hair of the larger of the two girls. Another step and he could probably see enough of the redhead to get a clean shot off.
“Two”
“Nadia!” Jean screamed for possibly the twentieth time. No reply had been given to any of his cries for help or begging for Nadia to answer. Many different scenarios were running through his mind as he stood on the uneven floor of the stomach. Nadia could be knocked out or captured or maybe her mouth had been covered. The theories became more extreme as time went on, if Nadia didn’t answer him soon, he would very likely go mad.
“Three!” Grandis screamed as she jumped out from behind the tree with her gun pointed at their attacker. Before ether one of them could fire a shoot, a whirling sounded from behind the man and a net was thrown onto him. Finding himself trapped in some kind of net, he tried to struggle out of it, but then he felt it. Like a cold burning sensation it raced through his body from his toes into his brain, he couldn’t even scream before he fell into a blackness and crumbled to his knees.
“Huh?” Grandis said in uncertainty. Her hand with the gun fell to her side as a group of men walked up. One of them was carrying a strange harpoon gun that had a string attached to the net. What made this harpoon gun so strange was that wires were attached all over the hunting tool.
“What happened?” Nadia poked her head out from behind the tree to see what was happening.
“I don known,” Grandis mumbled as she carefully viewed the men. Their outfits screamed navy, but Grandis had never seen any navel officers decked out in those kinds of outfits. The one that caught her attention first was the oldest of the crew, an old man with graying hair and a mustache. He was wearing a captain’s hat and sent out a feeling of leadership and charisma.
“Looks like the Intel was right, one of Gargoyle’s men was coming to the main land,” The old man said to the men with him. All of them nodded solemnly and looked at the downed man.
“Electra will be pleased to hear that her electrocuting harpoon gun was a success. I got to tell you, when I first fired that thing I was worried that I’d be turned into toast.” The men laughed lightly at the joke. Nadia just frowned, it wasn’t that funny. The old man looked up from Nadia and Grandis’s assassin to the two girls who were just standing there gawking. An uncomfortable silence filled the road as they looked between each other.
“Hi,” Nadia grumbled uncomfortably.