Escape from Endeavor by Daniel A. Jones
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Daemon had felt four people coming toward him from downriver so he moved back away from the clearing and toward them. They had fanned out and were moving slowly, so he shouldered his rifle and shifted positions to where he figured the farthest one from the river would pass and climbed a tree to wait. He knew it was reckless of him to attack four armed people but if he could hurt just one of them it would help even the odds.
It still amazed him that people refused to look up even when they were hunting. Steven Bosworth had been sneaking pretty well and almost got past Daemon before Daemon dove out of his tree. He had promised Angelica that he wouldn’t kill anyone if he could avoid it, so he didn’t dive on Steven feet first but instead he had his hands out to grab and pull the man to the ground. Even with Daemon’s weight spread over a larger area he still landed with a lot of force on Steven’s back. Daemon instantly began wrestling to get control of Steven before realizing that Steven’s arm was broken and he wasn’t fighting back. Steven was in shock and was screaming in terror as his mind shut down. Daemon punched him once to knock him out before getting to his feet.
Eleanor saw Daemon stand up, brought up her rifle and fired.
Luckily for Daemon, she missed in her haste and anger. The bullet went buzzing passed Daemon’s head before impacting with tree a few yards away. Daemon dove for cover, cursing.
Eleanor cursed her bad luck and moved behind a tree herself. She had a good view of the tree Daemon was hiding behind so she took aim and waited.
Daemon took a few breaths to calm himself and focus on his ability to feel the presence of others. He could feel Eleanor but no one else. He knew there had been four, so two of them were missing. He decided if he couldn’t sense them then they weren’t a threat, and slowly stood up with his back to the tree, careful not to give Eleanor a target but the tree was just a bit too small and his shoulders were a bit too wide.
Eleanor didn’t have much of a shot but if she hit him he might recoil to the other side far enough for her to get a better shot.
The bullet hit the tree and deflected just a little so it only grazed Daemon’s shoulder, tearing through his shirt, ripping and burning skin and muscle as it did. He slammed his mouth shut, holding back a yell as he spun to take better advantage of the tree’s protection. The pain quickly faded as he started to regenerate and heal the damage.
Eleanor smiled at the small red mist that had appeared when her bullet hit the tree. She knew she’d hit him. He hadn’t jumped far enough to break cover but at least he was bleeding now.
Daemon felt a new presence coming from the south, and then another… three aggressors total were coming his way from the south. He had to get out of there fast or he wouldn’t get out of there at all. He pulled his ax from his back and got ready to run. He took a firm grip and showed the head of the ax to the shooter but nothing happened. He heard something moving and knew it was time to make a run for it.
Daemon never looked back. He ducked low and ran as fast as he could, zigzagging from tree to tree as he went.
If he’d looked, he might have seen Eleanor falling from behind the tree, the hilt of a knife protruding from the base of her skull and another from the middle of her back. She’d been so focused on watching for Daemon she hadn’t known Mystique was sneaking up behind her. Mystique had intended to slit her throat but had thrown her knives instead when she saw the blade of Daemon’s ax come out from behind the tree. Mystique had barely enough time to grab her knives before Daemon was out of sight.
Mystique was able to make up some ground chasing Daemon because he was dodging bullets that were never shot. She just had to get sight of him from time to time to make sure she was heading in the right direction. Daemon ran for about ten minutes before stopping. Mystique almost gave herself away when she didn’t stop fast enough.
Daemon took a few minutes to look around to see if he could sense anyone following him. He thought he’d heard something behind him but when he couldn’t feel an enemy presence, he ignored it. He didn’t think his sister and Sara were too far ahead; a few hours’ run and he should catch up to them.
Daemon ran in a pretty straight line, as straight as he could in the woods. He needed to get to their campsite and retrieve his gear before following the girls. It only took him a few minutes to get back to their camp and collect the weighty packs that were going to slow him down, but he was confident that nobody from the hunting party was following him. Daemon was so confident, he didn’t bother to look back.