A Machine Called Earth

“Get your hands off her!” Shouted Hector, staring at the commotion that took place within the room. However he soon realized, that words were not sufficient here. For Theo and Lady Endolinn were clawing and snapping at Hope, held down on the bed, as though they were rampant dogs, or ravenous beasts.

The slightest of morning light had peered dimly into the sky, and through the small window of Hope and Jessy’s room. For the first time the grey, pale skin of Theo and Lady Endolinn were faintly visible.

Hector felt a rush of anger, one which he hadn’t felt since the ‘Train Incident.’ When he saw Charlie drop to the floor, blood gushing from his leg. It was an anger which he tried so very hard to never feel again. For the last time it happened, he blacked out. He remembered not of what he did. But he was commended for the many deaths which he took, though his actions were unknown to him. He was blinded by an uncontrollable rage.

Now, as he saw Hope squirming to get free from the cannibalistic psychos which we holding her down, attempting to make a meal out of her. Rage swirled in his mind, and he pulled the pistol from his side, and drew it up.

Just then, Theo bent over, reaching down to take a bite out of Hope’s neck. As his jaw drew shut, Hope let out a great cry. Hector quickly aimed and fired his pistol, and with such deadly precision, it landed in the temple of his skull. Killing Theo instantly, and the force pushed him back to where he fell to the floor, with a thud.

Lady Endolinn, who had previously ignored Hector’s shout, turned and sneered at Hector. Leaping at him with cold steely eyes. Hector knew that he killed Endolinn’s love. He knew the rage and wrath that was leaping towards him. For it was them, who were in the act of taking Hope from him. As she landed with such inhuman speed and ferocity, she stabbed him in the shoulder with the knife reserved for slitting Hope’s throat.

Hector dropped to one knee, as he was taken back from the force of the blow. But his rage was still flowing through his veins, ignoring all pain. He quickly picked himself back up, and pushed Endolinn into the picture frame which hung on the wall, opposite of the bed. The glass of the frame shattered on impact. Fragments and shards, stabbing into Endolinn’s back. She let out a chilling scream as she dropped to the floor.

Hector quickly ran to Hope, who was bleeding at an undetermined rate, for there was not enough light in the room to examine the injury properly. He grabbed the small green, knit-worked blanket from the foot of the bed, and held it to Hope’s neck, putting pressure on the wound.

However this was no time to stay. Hope had got up and had pulled the covers which Jessy was hiding under, and had grabbed his hand.

“We need to get out of here.” Hope said, her voice trembling, and eyes wide. Hector needed not say anything. He grabbed her hand and led them down the stairs and out of the house. Outside, the air was crisp and there was a grey light surrounding them, as there was fog which had engulfed the surrounding forest around the Inn. There was no rhyme or reason, nor meaning in the bearing they took. Out of great fear, they just ran. For adrenaline was pulsing through their bodies as they heard the trailing screams of Lady Endolinn following them from the house.

For within the house, as Hector, Hope and Jessy, left. Lady Endolinn picked herself up from the floor, and stumbled through the house in pursuit. Completely unfazed by her injuries. She was furious. More beast than human. The curse had definitely taken her, although her and Theo’s physical mutations were minor, just a graying of the skin, and beastly claws and teeth, it was their minds which had ventured into a realm away from humanity. And although her husband she had lost, it was the escaping of here meal which really took her over into a murderous rage.

As they ran, it became impossible to know how close their pursuer was behind them. Or if they were still being chased. For they had not heard any sound from Lady Endolinn apart from her screams coming from the house. But they ran at such pace through the trees, small branches nicking and scratching them as they passed through. Zigzagging through dry cedars and bounding over fallen pines, they ran. The fog still thick.

It wasn’t until after they had jumped down into a dried riverbed, and scrambled themselves up the other side, where they ran into a small clearing, that they finally slowed down. Hope began to feel faint, and had to sit down. She was exhausted and out of breath, but more so, she had lost a lot of blood.

Hector, who was in front of the others, stopped and turned around as he heard the crackling of the dried leaves as Hope dropped to the ground.

“Hope! Are you alright?” Hector said worryingly, as he ran to her side. But her response was not very reassuring. For she had no response. She had lost a lot of blood, and couldn’t come up with the words to speak.

Hector got Hope to lie down, where he cradled her head in his lap. With his hand, he pushed down on the now blood-soaked rag, applying pressure on the wound. But the running escape they made, caused much more blood to pulse out due to their increased heart-rates. Her face was pale, and her eyes struggling to stay open. Jessy stared at Hope with concerned eyes, as he crouched on all-fours in the thick layer of dried leaves.

“Just hold on Hope. You’re going to be ok.” Hector consoled. But looking at all the blood, he wasn’t so sure. His hands beginning to tremble, and the cold pain from his own wound began to show itself. Although the fear of Hope leaving this world, and watching the last breaths of life drift from her mouth, was enough to subside the pain of his own wound. Hector sat powerless. He had not the skills to mend such a wound. His hands were now covered in Hope’s blood. She became even paler, her eyes drifting off to some distant place. Her eyes facing toward Hector, but her focus, as though looking through him.

She began to grow cold, and her extremities began to shiver, the slightest shade of pale blue on her lips. Hector began to well up tears in his eyes. He knew there was nothing he could do.

Soon the fog began to lessen, and in the horizon, there was a thin line of light, just waiting to give birth to a new day. The golden rays just minutes away from reaching them. Slowly the sun began to rise. It’s light flickering through the trees of the forest, reflecting in the droplets of due from the cold morning.

“Just hold on Hope. The sun will soon be here.” Hector said.

Hope lay on the damp ground, which was covered in fallen leaves. Hector unsure of what to do, just sat there, keeping pressure on the wound. But to make matters worse, footsteps through the rustling of the leaves were heard. They were not alone in the glade. The footsteps were heard, coming from the direction they had traveled, in the direction of the Inn.

There Hector saw, through the trees, crawling up from the dried-out riverbed,

Lady Endolinn. This was the first time that she could actually be seen well enough to make an observation. She had long grey hair, and a tattered dress. A dress resembling one that someone might wear for a royal engagement or wedding. However, the state in which it was in, along with her chillingly pale skin and claw-like fingernails, Lady Endolinn, looked like some kind of corpse-bride.

A cold dread filled Hector’s heart as he witnessed her climbing up towards them, for he also was weary, and his wounded shoulder grew evermore painful, despite his greatest efforts to ignore the pain.

“Please, don’t come any further.” Hector shouted across the clearing, to where Lady Endolinn was, at the edge of the glade, making her way through the trees.

“Please, just let us go.” But pleading with Endolinn was no more effective then pleading with a lion or bear. For beasts do not pay attention to the pleading of their prey.

Hector then turned toward Jessy, saying, “Jessy! Run. Get out of here.”

But Jessy did not make a move. He didn’t want to leave Hector and Hope. And where would he go? He was but a child, in the middle of a dense forest, amongst the greatest of calamities of this world.

Lady Endolinn made her way closer, into the glade she went. Hector said once more, “Jessy get out of here.” But he did not move. Instead, he picked up a rock from the ground, and threw it at Endolinn. The rock flew across the clearing, and hit Endolinn in the head. Perhaps if it were a bigger rock, or if Jessy were stronger, it might have done more damage. But it was small and Jessy’s arm but a child's, it did nothing but infuriate Endolinn even more.

Endolinn stopped about ten meters from Hector and Hope. She still seemed crazed and hungry for a meal, but she stopped and spoke. “You’ll probably blame me for this.” She said, eyeing Hope’s fading body. “But I tell you. I cannot stop. My hunger has become uncontrollable. Truth be told, if you had not come, I would have devoured my husband Theo.”

“Then why don’t you just let us go.” Said Hector. “You have Theo to satisfy your hunger. You don’t need us.” Hector felt sick in the stomach, at those words coming from his mouth.

Endolinn laughed. “You think I would just let you go? Surely I would have killed him myself, but I cannot let his death go unpunished. In any case, there has not been a single soul that has come through here for years. Besides, like me, my husband’s flesh is foul. I’d hardly be able to stomach such flesh. But you. Your flesh is fresh, your blood is warm.” Endolinn’s mouth began to water, and with a smile, she said, “Anyways. I’m only human.”

It was obvious that Endolinn was finished talking. But Hector was still helpless. He had not the strength to run, let alone the speed to outrun the unnatural swiftness of Endolinn, and he would not leave Hope. He would not leave Hope to become a meal for some crazed beast. He knew with certainty that he could not live with himself if he allowed such a thing to happen.

Lady Endolinn bent into the position a tiger or wolf would make, getting ready to pounce on its prey. As she did this, she let out another vicious smile showing her unusually long, unusually sharp teeth.

As she began her pounce, before her feet left the ground, a projectile flew past Hector’s ear coming from behind. It was not a rock, for it traveled at a velocity far too great. It was not a bullet, for there was no sound of a gunshot. This projectile flew at such great speed towards Endolinn, where it inevitably made contact with her. The projectile clipped Endolinn’s head, throwing her head back, forcing her entire body backwards, until she hit the ground. Dead.

When she had landed, and became still, Hector saw that the very projectile that killed her, that saved their lives, was an arrow. Long and slender. But who was the one at the other end of the deadly arrow? Who was it that fired it?