- lucky? We were thrown to the bottom of the pit and took all our things! What is luck here?

- The fact that in their place could be Butchers. These guys, of course, are also goats, but at least they don’t eat human flesh.

Hearing about the tastes of the Butchers, Cynthia darkened even more. Realizing that we were unlikely to get out of the pit without any help, the woman squatted down.

- All that we had, they have already taken. Why do we need them then? - reasonably she asked.

- Why do they need you, it is not difficult to guess. Well, they will most likely interrogate me with passion. Maybe even torture, I replied.

- What for? To find out if we have any caches nearby?

I nodded shortly in response. Suddenly I felt a strong pain in my chest, as if someone had attached a burning torch to it, which is why I began to choke. Trying not to panic, I tried to regain my breath by taking slow breaths through my mouth.

- Hey, what's wrong with you? - anxiously exclaimed Cynthia, from the attention which did not cover my condition.

“Nothing,” I said in syllables, and lay on my side, putting a bandaged arm under my head.

Emma

Having walked at a fast pace for 10 kilometers, and getting tired, I decided to take a short break. Putting a gun on the ground, and taking out a pair of sandwiches from a backpack, I sat down on a big rock. It's good that Steve gave me a map. Without it, I would definitely get lost. After a rest, and after satisfying my hunger, I wanted to continue on my way, when I suddenly noticed a guy walking towards me in bloody clothes. The guy's right hand was wrapped with some kind of dirty rag. Pity is pity, but caution never hurts. Instead of rushing to meet him, I immediately grabbed the gun, and took the guy on the sights. After taking a few steps, the poor fellow staggered and fell. Only when it became clear that the guy was alone here, and no one would come after him, did I still dare to approach the dying person. When I turned the badly wounded poor fellow on his back, the rag from his hand finally slid off, and at the sight of what she was hiding, I felt bad. The hand was missing - in its place was only an ugly stump. Opening his eyes, the guy began plaintively to ask for water. I simply did not have the heart to refuse him.

- What happened to you? - I asked the guy, trying not to look at the ugly stump.

“Butchers caught me,” he said so softly that I barely heard him.

“You can't tell more precisely. Only very sick butchers are capable of such a thing! ”I thought, wiping the neck of the flask from which the guy had just drank water.

“Butchers now know about our camp,” the guy spoke again. - If you do not warn our ...

I could not make out the following words of the poor fellow. Trying to understand what “ours” are in question, I remembered the thugs from whom Steve had stolen explosives.

- Do these “yours” live in the northern gorge by any chance? - just in case I clarified.

- Not. Our camp is about three kilometers to the north. Not far from the river, ”the guy said, pausing between words.

Even the conversation was given to a poor thing with difficulty.

- Sorry. No luck to your friends, ”I said, unable to find words of encouragement, and began to get up, but the guy grabbed my hand.

- Please warn them! - the dying man begged.

I gently unstick his hand from his.

“Sorry, but I'm not on my way.” Yes, and I do not want to meet with your friends.

- Warn them! - again repeated his request to the dying. - These damn cannibals ...

Not finishing the sentence to the end, the guy began to cough, and when he stopped, he started bleeding from his mouth. Without another word, the guy quieted down forever, and his eyes glazed. Covering his eyes, I went back to the stone, and picked up a backpack. I didn’t have the desire to intervene in any gangster clashes, so I just went on. However, my conscience did not allow me to go far. I did not promise to the dying guy, but on the contrary, I directly said that I would go my own way. Maybe I was a soft-bodied fool, but as soon as I remembered what these monsters did to the poor fellow, and imagine what fate awaits the friends of the deceased guy, I could not go further on my way without even trying to change anything. Gangsters or not, but I must warn them of the danger! Realizing that I was only wasting my time and wasting my life in vain, I turned and ran towards the river. And although I ran as fast as I could, the Butchers beat me to it.

When I reached the river, the shots had already subsided, and the battle between the two gangs had already come to an end. Hiding behind a large boulder on a hill, I watched as the winners (and there were no doubts that it was the Butchers,) collect weapons of killed opponents, and see if any of them were lucky enough to survive. There were only two of them. Seeing how one of the bandits makes a fire, I involuntarily shivered, sincerely sympathizing with the loser survivors. For a moment, a crazy thought crept into my head to try to distract the Butchers to themselves, and give the prisoners the opportunity to escape. Immediately I remembered spending the night in Purgatory, and a similar situation, when I was ready to enter into a deliberately losing battle, but Ben stopped me. Thanks to the effect of surprise, I could shoot one, a maximum of two thugs, but there were about 10-12 of them.

Realizing that I could not help the losers in any way, I turned around and was dumbfounded when I saw a thug thirty meters away from me, whose neck was decorated with a necklace of cut off ears. In one hand he held a bloody machete, and in the other a severed human head. Apparently, the thug caught up with one of the victims, who managed to escape from the doomed camp, and now returned to his friends, not forgetting to grab the trophy. Blinking in surprise, the thug threw a severed head at me, which I managed to dodge, and rushed at me with a machete. I immediately threw up my gun, and, not having time to aim normally, I fired, hitting the Butcher in the stomach. The thug's eyes widened. Dropping the machete, the thug who had rested on his feet grabbed his stomach, took a few steps forward, and collapsed to the ground like a podkoshenny. Dumbfounded at the dead man, I could not believe that I had just killed a man, and only a few moments later I realized what it threatened me with.

If the Butchers find me next to the body of their comrade, they will certainly be the fourth. And they will find if I continue to stand here and stare at the dead man, because only the deaf would not have heard the shot. Without becoming time-consuming to search for the murdered thug, I abruptly fell off my seat, and rushed to run. Fearing to look back, I ran forward without dismantling the road. Instead of getting out the same way I came in and hoping that the pursuers would lose me, I rushed towards the abyss due to the collapse. Having scored the maximum run-up, I tried to jump over to the other side of the gorge, losing my hat in a jump, torn from my head by a gust of wind. Having flown over the abyss, and clinging to the edge with both hands, I tried to climb up. Either I was so frail, or the backpack and the gun hanging behind my back turned out to be too heavy, but I could not climb onto the ledge. Suddenly, my left hand slipped, and I almost fell down.

Turning my head back, and seeing how the thugs rushing up to the precipice were getting ready to push me with lead, I closed my eyes and opened my right hand and flew down.All life flashed before my eyes for a split second. I didn’t break to death just because I landed right on a wide two-meter ledge, which all this time was literally right under me. As soon as I rolled over on my side, and moved away a bit from the cliff, as my retreat was attacked. The pursuers walked along the ledge with automatic bursts, only miraculously not hitting me. One of the bandits ... Read more →