Checking his watch, Austin saw that it was indeed at least 10 minutes after the time the Gates normally close. After looking up and seeing the sun set over the wide open Western Gate, the moon just visible to the southeast of the sky, Austin's dreadful feeling increased like a widening pit in his stomach.
As they dispatched to their various destinations, Austin, with Zach, heading to the Flat Shack, just knew something else wasn't right but he couldn't figure out what exactly that was other than them being under attack. And, as every cell in his body repeated the words that 'Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something is wrong.' π he felt the Voice's presence in his head and he tried hard not to think of it it as a bad omen.
Along the way, Zach and he had not spoken. They equally felt that they shouldn't. If whoever was attacking them was still here, speaking would only give them their location before they even found their friends. Also, the pressure they were both probably feeling wasn't something to be distracted from in a situation like they were in right then.
And so, when he felt the burn of a gaze to the hairs of the back of the neck, he crutched down low, hiding behind a bushside tree, knowing Zach did the same somewhere close by, though Austin couldn't have been sure where considering they only locked gazes briefly before diving for their hiding spots; he didn't see where exactly Zach hid at.
He had immediately taken into account anything and everything in his inventory he could use as a weapon. He had a short dagger, a thin, short coil of rope, a quiver of arrows half-full at best and a rusty old, wooden crossbow he still wasn't too inclined to think would not break at any given moment. The crossbow and it's arrows were long range weaponry and the only short range weapon he had available to him was the dagger but he had no idea how many attackers were on their trail. If they were both outnumbered, then a dagger may not be the best of a weapon to have in his hands. And the rope was no better, either. Considering all these weapons, aside from the short dagger, were long range weapons, he didn't have high hopes on attacking their opponents and walking away unscarred, especially with attackers of whom he felt were closer than a crossbow's optimal range, but further then a dagger's stabbing range.
'Damn it,' Austin thought to himself, frustrated that he had lost his second dagger in their battle with the Annihilators earlier that evening. 'Remember, Austin, anything can be used as a weapon with the right mix of materials.' he heard the Voice say in his head, and he swear that the Voice was quoting someone from somewhere, but he didn't have the energy to try to remember who at that point. 'You have all you need right now, Austin. Focus. Look. What do you have?'
'Anything can be a weaponβ¦' Austin thought repetitively. Looking at the coil of rope and the dagger and the crossbow, he almost exclaimed out loud his 'Of course!' when the idea came to his mind right before he immediately went to work.
He unbound his rope, pulled his dagger in his one hand, heart beating so loud in his own ears, he tied the rope to the hilt of his dagger. Though the rope was bare the length of a pillowcase, it was still long and sturdy enough to do what Austin needed it to do: Enhance the damage range of the dagger.
As if by some primal instinct, Austin's senses expanded; his earing picked up the slightest tapping of sound, his smell picked up the gagging scent of blood and rotting corpses, his sight allowed him to see more clearly and sense of feel increased to the point that the slightest touch wind in the spring air that hit his skin made the hair on his arms and legs stand straight up. And, as he took in a breath, he focused on movement, his eyes caught a few feet behind his tree-side bush he was hiding behind. The vibrations on the ground and another blur of movementΒ that caught his eyes told Austin that there were two people following Austin, at least. He even felt the presence of the two Scavengers: one to his left, probably closing in on Zach location, and the other was coming from Austin's right, closer towards him based on the vibrations Austin felt on the ground from the cannibal's footsteps.
As he, Austin, tested his improved dagger, unsure how he knew how to use a makeshift weapon like he had in his hand, but glad he did, he still found himself wishing that he had more daggers with him π Or at least some more arrows; his quiver was nearly empty. The vibrations of his would-be attacker's footsteps on the ground around him reminded him that he didn't have the time or luxury of being picky; He had to make due with what he did have available.
Staying low, crouching as he moved as silently as he could to not be detected, Austin rolled over to his right, right into another bushbed just as his attacker π a skeleton-thin boy, maybe 17, wearing dirty rags for cloths that smelled fiercely or blood; Austin knew it was a Scavenger - checked behind the bush he was just briefly hiding behind. The guy had no muscle; he was only bone π a walking, living, armed boy, who had a pistol in his hand, and a dirty-looking dagger in his other one. The worst part was that Austin recognized the boy from the first time he entered the Labyrinth: He was the same boy that had decided to eat on the Annihilator guts.
Austin had barely took a step back upon seeing the boy, when he accidentally stepped on a twig. The sound of a snapping twig was like a BANG in the eerie silence.
The Scavenger boy must've realize someone was just hiding in Austin's bush because he smirked as he looked around, eyes beady and pupils tiny and jumpy from either insanity or malnourishment π Probably both. But right as he spotted Austin, it was too late; Austin struck.
Rushing forward, Austin swung his roped dagger like a rope at the cannibal, the sharp end finding itself lodged into the Scavenger's throat as Austin yanked it π not hard enough to pull it out, but hard enough and at the right angle so that Austin had both pulled the boy towards him and, with the same force, he was projected forward simultaneously knocking the boy unconscious with the back of his hand, the SMACK sound that came from the backhand punch audible.
His success was short-lived as Austin only barely managed to pick up the sound of the second one before he was tackled to the ground by the second Scavenger, a girl, maybe the same age as the first, but Austin had never seen her before. She clawed her surprisingly sharp nails into Austin's chest, drawing blood. If it wasn't for the sound of the gun - of Zach firing the gun dropped by the last Scavenger - and Austin using the last of his strength to stab the sharp end of his dagger through the girl's side before kicking her from atop of him, Austin surely would've been dead.