Chapter 2- The Assassin's Messenger

A Chapter by K.E. Henderson

The meeting of my main characters! The Messenger meets the assassin (Get it?)

Chapter 2:

I had been running the last nine hours. I had made it to the Eastward camp in record time. I was running on about five hours of sleep in three days just to make it on time. The camp, I stopped at for water, told me Wes was planning on leaving a few days early. I ran harder and stopped to rest much less than what was healthy. I was exhausted so when I was met with the guns of the guys protecting the town where Wes should be, my knees almost collapsed when I stopped.

            “Name?”
“Parker! I’m a messenger. I have a very important letter from The Shadow and Mary Kade to Wes. I heard he’s here.”
            “He’s leaving.”
“Then let me in so I can deliver this.”
            He cocked his gun, “Watch your tone, son. We don’t even know if you are telling the truth. Wes didn’t tell us of any important letter.”

“Maybe he didn’t know because it was thirteen camps away.”

He shot. I hit the ground. These guys were awful. I just lay on the ground because I was out of energy. I couldn’t fight these guys. I was just going to get shot. I heard them approaching. I just waited. The one who had shot was obviously in charge. He yanked me up, “Why do you look so tired?”

“Maybe because I’ve had f*****g five hours of sleep in three days to get a very important letter to Wes and because of some stupid piece of s**t, rebel camps won’t get this vital defense information.”
That earned me a punch to the gut.

“Hey! Hey! Jack! What the hell is going on?” I heard the guy but all I could think was I was going to pass out.
I was on my knees. My hands were on my backpack. Jack started to explain and I wasn’t listening until I felt the other guys hand on my head, “Parker?”
I looked up, “Wes! S**t! I thought I was going to miss you. Here.” I handed Wes the letter, “Mary Kade said The Shadow only trusted me with it, which is why I’m off my route. I heard you were leaving early so I booked it here.”

“How long did it take you?”

I let out a sort of laugh, “A week and a half.”
“From Mary Kade’s?” His dark eyebrows were up, impressed.

I nodded.

He helped me up, grabbed my bag and practically carried me into town. He set me up with some water and a bed. I slept awesome. I was fully expecting him to be gone when I got up so it was a shock to see him sitting at a table right outside of my tent. I was wearing some new clothes. I had three more pairs in my bag. Wes always took care of me. I watched him. He was going over all the stuff on the table. I checked my watch. I had slept for ten hours. I wondered if he had been there the whole time.

I ran into Wes on my second month of being a messenger. I was fast even then. He realized I was efficient and quickly took a liking to me. He was forty then and only three years later he looked way older. His eyes shifted towards me, “Good morning, Parker.”

He also used names a lot. If he heard your name once, he knew it forever. A strength in being a Rebel leader. I sat in a chair and looked at everything. Maps, and letters. He was watching me, “It’s a very good thing you caught me.”
I looked up, “Were you really about to leave?”

“I was actually on my way out when I heard the gunshot. Did Jack shoot at you?” He pulled off his glasses and was staring at me intensely.

“I don’t think it was at me, but it was towards me, to scare me.”
Anger flashed across his face, “Why? Why would he do that?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know. I told him I had a letter for you. He wouldn’t let me in. I was tired and got mouthy.”

“That’s no f*****g reason to shoot at you, d****t. He’s getting his guns stripped. That was careless of him. Don’t you think?”

I shrugged, not wanting to get anyone in trouble.

Wes had dark brown wavy hair, laced with grey. He had a beard and glasses hooked to the front of his shirt unless he was reading, then they were on the bridge of his nose. He was probably one of the closest things I had to a father figure. If it counted since I only saw him once every few months, if that.

            He patted me on the back and smiled, “You’ve done good, Parker.”
“Thanks. I ran a lot.”
            “I know, you slept for ten hours.”
“You weren’t waiting on me to wake up were you?”
            He laughed, “No. I ended up staying to look this stuff over and finally decided to sleep a couple of hours. I am staying here another day. What are your plans?”

“I should get back. I still have a handful of love letters and who knows what else.”

“You didn’t have any trouble getting here?”

I shook my head, “Everything went fine, why?”

“Suits have been swarming lately. I don’t know if there are more of them or if they are just getting better but I don’t like it. That’s why I asked Shadow to watch. He said there are more but they are getting smarter. I just want you to be careful. They would love to get their hands on you. You know more than most messengers. There are rumors about you too, the fastest runner out there. We trust you and they know that.”

“They won’t get a peep out of me. I swear.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. They will do anything to get an inch of information.”

I was wondering what he wanted me to say. I was staring at the table, “I have nothing left for them to take. They’ll have to kill me.”

His eyes shifted, “Okay. Get some water and head out. I’ll talk to you soon. Hopefully we catch each other somewhere.”
I got some water out of an ice chest that he motioned to. I was about out of ear shot, “Parker!”
I stopped and waited for him to catch up, “You should really think about a gun or something. It’s dangerous out there.”

I smirked, “I don’t like guns. I won’t kill anyone, even if it means dying myself. I can’t do this to someone else,” I was referring to my situation. My whole family was dead and I wasn’t going to leave another kid with this hole inside of them.

His eyebrows rose again, “You never fail to impress me. Take care of yourself.”

We went our separate ways. I noticed Jack was not at his post as I left. It made me feel a little better; maybe the next messenger won’t get his head blown off. Two days later I was in between camps. Miles from civilization when I heard twigs snap. I stopped walking and crouched. My breathing was even and I watched where I thought it came from. I heard something else and this was much stranger and worse. It was behind me. I stood up, there was no way. It happened again. I knew it was a little kid’s giggle. It was quiet but unmistakable. I took a few steps towards it when I heard another twig. I whipped around. I hoped the kid was a trap but if it wasn’t, I wasn’t about to lead whatever was following me straight towards it. I took off running the opposite direction. I ditched my bag in a hole and made sure to remember where I put it. I hurtled a giant dead trunk. I turned to see if I could see someone chasing me. Sure enough it was three Suits. I remembered Wes’ warning and cursed. I ducked under a low branch. As soon as I straightened something hit my chest and hard. At first I thought it was another branch but then I saw the suit covered arm.

I had the wind knocked out of me. I was on my a*s and scooting away from them. It was six guys, most of them taller than my five foot six but all of them plenty thicker than me. Suits ate much better than Rebels and everyone ate better than messengers. The biggest lifted me by my shirt, “Hey little rebel.”

I kicked my feet. He was tall, over six feet, “How old are you?”

I didn’t answer, “Put me down!”

“Answer my question and I’ll put you down.”

“Eighteen.”
“Name?”
“What the f**k does it matter?”
He threw me to the dirt. I was locked in a circle of these guys.

“Did you find the girl?” One of them asked the other.

“No. She’s fast. She is little though. We almost had her when we found him.”
“A little far out aren’t you?”
I didn’t say anything.

“You are a messenger aren’t you? What is your name?”

I remembered what Wes said. So I lied, “Peter.”
“Oh yeah?”

I nodded.

“Then this is going to be fun.”

The first punch was quickly followed by more. After I was curled on the ground, they stopped. I sat up, “Are you going to kill me?”
“Eventually. It’s our jobs but you haven’t begged yet.”
“Why would I beg?” I was sitting on the ground because I knew running was useless.

He kneeled in front of me, “For your life. For your family, for everyone you love.”
I smirked and leaned closer to him, “They are already dead.”
Just like that, two quickly grabbed my arms. The bigger one held pliers. I clenched my jaw shut. He laughed, “I’m a bit of a collector.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a baggy of bloody teeth. There were about six of them.

One of his buddies squeezed my jaw. Big guy was still smiling, “You have some pretty white teeth. I just need one and then we’ll get the rest over quickly. Deal?”
His head exploded, literally. I fell to the ground quickly. His friends were panicking, searching for their guns. I watched two more get picked off before realizing someone was shooting them. I quickly stood up. I looked in the trees for a split second. I barely caught sight of him in the tree before I took off into the woods again. I went straight for my bag. I was heading for the next camp. I tried to forget those, now dead jerks. They deserved what happened. I rubbed my jaw. I saw something in the corner of my eye. I dead stopped. I was so confused. It was the little girl I had heard laughing before. She was singing to herself. I could see her profile. She had a long braid down her back. She looked about four. She was a cute little thing but she was all alone. Then I saw the Suit. He was sneaking up on her. I knew I had to get to her first. I was closer to her but he had his gaze trained on her. I picked up a rock and chunked it. It hit it’s mark behind the guy. He turned to look. I threw another, perfect timing. He didn’t see it was another rock but instead it sounded like someone sneaking up on him. He whipped around and I made my break for the girl. I swooped her up covered her mouth. We only had a tree blocking us from the Suit. Her eyes were wide with fright. My back was pressed against the bark. She pulled my hand off her mouth.

We both flinched at the gunshot but it was the suit that went down. She screamed and kicked so I let her go. She took off. Panic set in. She was so little. There was no way she would last another day in this area. At this rate she wouldn’t last an hour. So I chased in her direction hoping to catch her before something else did. The suits were right, she was fast. She was giving me a run for my money. She used the branches to kick off and go faster.

“Wait, I’m not going to hurt you.”
She shook her head. Then she tripped. She let out another scream. Her hair was caught and I was quickly beside her trying to untangle her. She was holding her ankle.

She shoved me as soon as her hair was untangled, “Go!”
“No, you are hurt. You need to go to the doctor.”

She kicked at me when I tried to pick her up. She let out another scream and I heard another gunshot. We both flinched. I took four steps away from her and held up my hands, “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

“No! Go! Go away. No touch!”

“No touch? No I’m not, but we need to get you to a hospital.”

Her eyes were searching the trees. Her eyes widened, “Hurry! Troubles coming.”
“Trouble? Then you are definitely coming with me to a base camp.”
I picked her up. She screamed again and when I turned around there was a gun in my face. I held my breath. She had stopped screaming and was clutching onto me.

            The guys voice was deep behind his bandana. He was not a suit, “Drop the girl.”
“She’s hurt, she needs a hospital.”
            “Drop the girl so I can put three bullets through your skull.”
“You are going to let her go?” I stood my ground.
            He didn’t say anything. I put her down and she hobbled straight to him. I couldn’t see his face but his eyes were intense and pissed, “You like picking up little girls, pervert?”
            “No! I didn’t know she was a little girl!”

His hand was steady, unsurprisingly. I just watched him kill four guys, “So you just like little kids!”
“No!” He took a step forward and I fell back and crawled backwards.

He cocked the gun. I closed my eyes.

“Veevi! No!”
I opened my eyes. The little girl had her hand against his. He was looking at her, “Why?”
“Nice!”

“Nice? He’s nice? He’s a pervert, Dessie!”
“No! No! Hair Tuck. Help!” She was pointing at me, “Meanies run. He help! No Veevi!”
“Your hair got stuck?” She nodded as he talked, “Then the suits came and he helped you again.”
She clapped, “Dessie fell,” She grabbed her ankle, “He help.”
He holstered his gun, “I get it. He helped!”

He put a hand on her face, “Don’t run off like that again!”

I was scared shitless and just sitting there. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Shadow was protecting this little girl. She touched his face back, “Kay”

He stood up as if just remembering me. He removed his gloves and put them in his pocket before holding out a hand to me, “You going to get up or sit on your a*s all day, backpack boy.”

“That isn’t my name!”

“Then what is your name?”

“Parker. My name is Parker.”
“Parker? As in the messenger Parker?”
I nodded a little awestruck. He knew me.

He looked in the direction I had been coming from, “Did you catch Wes?”

I nodded again.

He was staring into my eyes, probably making sure I wasn’t lying. His eyes were about the only thing I could see. They were hazel, a deep green around the pupil and brown towards the outsides. Even his eyes looked like they belonged in nature.

I finally realized I had no idea what to call him, “What do you want to be called?”

“You mean do I like being called The Shadow? It’s a little weird but better than Parker. I personally like backpack boy better. What do you even have in there?”

“Letters, messenger, remember?” I was a little pissed at him mocking me.

He could tell I was getting annoyed, “By the way, when someone asks your name and you don’t want to give them a real one. Don’t give them one that will lead to your name. Peter? Really? Like Peter Parker. You really are an idiot.”

Even though I couldn’t see his mouth I knew he had a smirk on. I could tell by the crinkling of his eyes. I let the air stream out my nose, “There’s a camp a few miles that way. Take her to the hospital.”

I stomped off. I did not have to stay and be mocked even by him. He may have been a bad a*s but really he was just a jerk-off. I was as disappointed as imagined.

The little girl yelled, “Veevi!” I don’t know what she wanted but it was his problem.

I didn’t even understand why his mocking me made me so pissed but it did. I took a deep breath and it calmed me.

“Hey! Parker.”
I jumped. He was right behind me. I didn’t even hear him, “What?”
“I’m sorry. That was uncalled for,” Something in his voice cooled me off.

I waited for him to continue, “My real name is Levi and that’s my little sister Destiny.”

She hobbled over, “Pawkoo,” She didn’t really pronounce the r’s and it was cute.

Levi and I bent down and examined her ankle. It was swelling. He looked at me, “You don’t think it’s broken do you?”

I shook my head, “No, but we should still get her to a doctor. There’s a camp just a few miles this way. You guys can stick with me. I know the easiest way.”
Destiny was all smiles, “Let’s go with him!”
Levi picked her up, “Lead on, backpack boy.”

I rolled my eyes.

Destiny was a little chatterbox for about the first ten minutes then she was out like a light. She was curled up against a total badass and all he was to her was her protector. She had no idea.

He cleared his throat, “So, I was just wondering, what happened to your gun. I mean you knew there were suits. I figure if you would have had a weapon in there, you would have used it.”

“I don’t have one.”

His eyebrows shot up as he watched me.

“I don’t like killing.”

“Even just now, with all those Suits around? You don’t want a gun?”
“Like I said I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“You’ve never killed anyone?”

I shook my head. He was quiet. He stopped and shifted his little sister so her head was resting on his shoulder. Her little legs dangled behind him. Her braid fell through his fingers. He noticed me watching him and looked at me. I watched my feet.

“Have any siblings?”

It was like a punch in the gut when he asked me. People asked me questions about my family all the time and it had never once bothered me. I wondered why it bothered me so much now. I realized quickly that it was because of the way he was holding her. I used to carry Josh the exact same way to bed when I babysat him. Seeing him get to hold his little sister like that just sent an insane amount of jealousy through me. I opened my mouth then closed it. I finally swallowed the lump in my throat, “I had a little brother.”

            I could feel Levi studying me, “I’m sorry.”
“He was five. He died two months after the first bombs along with my parents and grandparents.”
            Levi patted Destiny’s back, “Dessie is all I have left. Our mom died when she was born. Dad was killed two years ago.”
            “Isn’t it hard taking her everywhere? I mean, you are pretty much an assassin.”
He somewhat chuckled, “Most of the time no,” He paused.

“But sometimes?”
He nodded quietly, “I’ve thought about leaving her in a rebel camp. I did for a week once just to see if I could. I ended up nearly killed because I couldn’t focus. She screamed the whole time and refused to eat. Those days she lost almost five pounds. By the time I came back she was skinny and was getting sick. I decided I wouldn’t do that again.”
I never imagined the Shadow and I would be having a real conversation and so deep. I was mesmerized by him. Even as we were walking he made barely any noise. The only skin I could see was around his eyes. His bandana covered all the way to the bottom of his eyes. There was no way to tell what his nose or mouth looked like. It sounded like he had both. His hat was a simple beanie. It was pulled low to his eyebrows. His shirt was fitted and long sleeved. The muscles in his arms were very obvious. It was a deep green that probably helped him blend into the shadows of the trees. He had on camo pants. I feel like if it was anyone else it would be a little tacky but he looked ready to kick a*s. He had two guns attached to his shoulder holster along with ammo. One was attached to his hip. He also had wicked leg straps that held yet another gun and more ammo. His AK was strapped to his back. As I looked at him, I realized how lucky I was that he didn’t shoot me in the face when I picked up his sister. I never wanted to piss him off again.

His eyes went distant, “I don’t know why I told you so much. I usually don’t talk to people about such personal matters. Sorry.”
“No! It’s cool. I won’t tell. I’ve been told that I have that kind of face.”

“I guess you do, backpack boy.”
“My name is Parker! Par-ker! Not backpack boy.”

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