Afterlife

14

Diego stared down the jaws of the massive tiger as he strained every muscle in his body attempting to reach his sword that was only mere inches outside his grasp. The fact that the creature hadn't killed him yet was a miracle at best, as he did everything in his power to hold the massive beast back with one arm, his strength rapidly dwindling away under the power of the tiger's strong body. Diego tried to make one final grab for his weapon, but stopped when he felt forced to release a yell of pain as the tiger began digging it's claws into Diego's forearm, making it even harder for him to hold the creature at bay, he would have to use his other arm as well or he would be done for in seconds. He immediately threw his other arm into position, holding the creature back as best he could, but his strength was almost spent... he wouldn't last much longer.

Just as he was about to accept his fate, Diego heard a familiar swing of a heavy object, along with the sound of it impaling itself in the tiger's side. The creature released a yelp of pain briefly before it's body went limp, nearly crushing Diego with it's weight. "Are you alright?" came Santino's voice from a short ways off. He must have thrown his axe.

"Si, but could you get it off of me now... please?" Diego called from under the massive tiger's dead body, struggling to free himself from the weight.

"Yeah, I got you," Santino replied as he came over and began pushing the tiger sideways off of Diego until he was able to wriggle himself the rest of the way free.

"Thanks for the save," Diego then said as he looked over at where Santino's axe was deeply imbedded in the tiger's side.

Santino waved off Diego's thanks as if to say 'Don't mention it,' then gestured to Diego's bleeding forearm saying, "You better go find Xavier. That looks pretty bad," as he walked over, grabbing the handle of his axe as he strained to pull it out of the creature's flesh.

"Trust me... it hurts just as much as it looks," Diego put in as he retrieved his sword from the ground and returned it to it's scabbard before gripping his arm, trying to hold some of the bleeding at bay as best he could. He then looked over at Santino with a slightly annoyed expression as he saw Santino starting to rip off part of his shirt to use as a bandage on Diego's arm. "Oh come on, what are you doing? You know Xavier hates it when you do that? Especially after being out in the field for two weeks. Your shirt is filthy."

"Well," Santino replied as he made the final tear before walking over to Diego saying, "Xavier can holler at me as much as he wants when he gets back, but for now I'd rather you didn't bleed out in the middle of the woods." He then grabbed Diego's arm and began tightly wrapping it with the black cloth, making sure it would apply enough pressure to slow the bleeding, but not so much as to completely cut off his circulation. Once he finished tying it off, both of them immediately jumped into action, weapons at the ready when they both heard someone clearly running in their direction.

Diego holding his sword out with his free hand, and Santino holding his axe in one and his pistol in the other, both pointed in one direction, they awaited to see what or who was coming towards them. They relaxed slightly, however when they saw it was just another IP. Due to the large amount of area needing to be covered, they would usually have at least four groups out in the field at any given moment, to make sure that no areas were left unguarded. This particular IP was one they actually recognized from Jones' group. (Groups are named by their reigning leader's last name) Realizing it was a friendly, they allowed their weapon's to drop as the boy stopped running when he finally reached them, taking a moment to catch his breath.

"What are you doing over here, Dan?" Santino questioned as he holstered his gun, "This is our patrol area."

Once Dan, an American boy with blond hair and blue eyes, about the same height as Diego, had managed to fully catch his breath again, enough to speak that is, he stood up straight and said, "Sam sent me here to tell you we got a big dino comin through."