The Duns

Day One

Chapter Thirty-four

Catherine

Day One

My morning is messy to say the least.
Aunt Eliza is pissed that I came in late, and chooses to spend what can be the last hours of our life talking about how much my parents (may their souls rest in peace; I love and miss the both of them) did not raise me to do this.

I am wearing a typical Duns outfit, fitted with enough weapons and a gorgeous layer of iron- something you get used to- coating it protectively. Because we have a new outfit for each day, rusting hasn't even bothered entering any of our minds.

I tie my hair up with a strong, sturdy black ribbon, matching my clothes, pull up my socks and slide on a pair of sleek black shoes, something the designer and myself came to a conclusion to. My neck is bare, my clothes cutting off a little lower in the shape of a 'V'. The sleeves reach out to my wrists, and the pants to my ankles.

As I stand before the tent opening, a step away from Today, I take in a deep breath, eyes closed, waiting for the memories and emotions to hurt me now, and fuel me later.

And they hit alright.

Mom and Dad run across my mind, hand in hand, happy, smiling, standing in front of our home. Shailene skips along the side path as always, a grin lighting up her face as she waves. To Sotos breaks into my thoughts, the people I met there, the friends I made.

They don't take up too much time, my memories, because the majority of things that matter to me are here, by my side, and they will fight, by my side, and die here, as I stand by their side.

I walk out.

The sun is rising steadily, timelessly, across the horizon and I observe our men scuttling confidently into batches and groups and grabbing every weapon in sight- a look of pure courage on their face.

I can do this.

I join them as they walk towards the battlefield where I suppose Peter and the others are already collected.

Almost as soon as I see him, I am in his arms, and he presses his lips against my forehead hurriedly, to get in as many as he can in this time to spare. A few seconds later, he pulls away, and gulps down the tears formed in his eyes. Then, I turn and walk away to my position in the format to fight for my life- something I've learned that only I must defend.

Minutes later, the Snakes approach, 200 yards away from us, their horrendous hissing heating up the atmosphere, their hair blowing in the slight wind, their yellow suit just about camouflaging with the backdrop.

Though I know it is a while before it happens, time sprints by in seconds and a boisterous, deafening horn is blown indicating the beginning of Death's Rise.

I sprint ahead, yelling in excitement, not a single thought running through my head other than the need to stay alive. Okay fine, who am I kidding. A million thoughts scrambled around in my mind, from reminders to not trip over rocks, to Peter, to Aunt Eliza, to the loaded pistol in my front pocket and the stinging dagger in hand, to the Snake three steps away from me.

Three... two...one. I leap up into the air, my dagger turned to the ground, my left palm stretched out to the Snake's pathetic face and I raining come down, place both my feet around the female's neck and stab her, once, twice, thrice.

Blood pours out of her forehead like tea from a tea pot.

Now on the floor, I press my hand against her split open head and stand up, walking (hopefully) heroically to my next target.

Just as I pull out my gun to fire out some bullets, my throat is soaked in a wet mess of saliva, my chest heaving breathlessly and a tongue coils its way around my skin. I'm stuck. My dagger slides out of my grasp and I punch pathetically at the Snake's thighs, unable to properly reach for any of my weapons.

A cry at my shoulder pulls me away from the Snake, and I see an Oi Alloin man holding my attackers head victoriously. He nods and says, "I may have had your back this time, but watch out, Ma'am, there isn't always going to be an Angel to come and save you."

And just in that second, a hidden Snake pops out of nowhere and plunges his nails into my saviors back and then it happens, then it really properly hits me: this is war.

I turn towards the Snake, making eye contact, and watch as his slowly loose its confidence, as mine slowly gain their strength.

He runs.

And obviously, before he has taken his second step, my second kill lays sprawled across the soil, soon to be accompanied by many of his friends.

All around me chaos ensues, a glistering black versus a dull yellow every where I look. Men and women poke and punch each other, slicing off heads as if they were slicing a vegetable.

The ground is flooded with a mixture of both bloods- ours and theirs- and dead faces are almost indistinguishable. I plod through the bodies to help out a fellow soldier.

-

Later in the day

The end of Day 1 rises as the Snakes slither off the battlefield hours before the sun sets- their loss a little too harsh- but it would be ridiculous to think they don't have reinforcements- they just underestimated our strength.

As a light wind picks up, and the sky turns into a deep orange, almost our entire troop gathers at the field, gloves on, picking and placing the Snake's dead bodies near each other at the opposite end of the forest to be on the safer side as we burn them up, with no sign of Maximus' team returning to take them back, this is perhaps the only thing we can do to help right now.

In case of our soldiers, we place them in caskets and watch as our reinforcement team drives them away, a layer of thickening smog clouding up our hearts as they do the sky.