Fast and silent

It's a dark rainy night when John wakes up. He runs his fingers through his hair, his eyes are still heavy. The first thing he grabs before getting off the floor is his knife. He has to know he has it. It's his only chance to make it through another night.

The cold rain beats on the tin roof of what used to be someone's shed or work shop. After the US was invaded by China, and after Russia bombed the country, no one really owns anything. Two years ago the biggest concern of John's was graduation. Now he has to worry about Chinese Death Squads and Russian Un-manned aircrafts.

John likes this little shed, but staying put is how you get caught. His stomach growls and he knows it's time to hunt. A house twenty yards away is a good place to start.

He moves stealthy in shadows of a privacy fence. Quietly in the dark is how he lives. Five feet from the house he hears a scream. It's not comming from the house in front of him, it's the one behind. His blood turns to ice, moving is way to difficult. He peaks through the slats in the fence and sees the Chinese Death Squad pulling a girl out of the front of a falling down house. She is not fighting, there are six men standing around.

John decides 'evil resides where good men take no action' so he hops the six foot fence and sprints to the closest solider, he slides his knife in between two ribs and into his lungs. Time is not a friend to John. He reached his knife over and slides it across the next ones neck. The third and fourth go down just as quick. But this fifth one hits him right in the face with the but of his gun. John looks up at a Chinese man, pointing a gun at his head.

The China man says something in Chinese, levels his gun. Then an arrow comes poking out of his neck. John is having trouble understanding what's happening. He sees the last member of this death squad holding this little girl as a human shield. He is holding his side arm to her head, then pointing it at John, and back to her head. It takes thirty seconds for this Chinese man to realize John isn't holding the instrument that killed his partner. He spins around to face the opposite direction but never makes it. Half way through his spin and arrow makes a hole in his head. The China man lifeless body lands on top of the little girl.

John springs to his feet. And races over to the small child. He pulls the soldiers body off of the child and asks her to be very silent. Someone in the shadows has a very dangerous weapon and lethal accuracy. Two shots from the same direction, the shooter would have moved. He grabs his knife and turns the opposite direction to circle the house. Before he turns the corner he hears a twig snap behind him.

In the wooded areas a twig snap is an accident, in the remains of a broken down house it's not. John knows the shooter is aimed straight at his chest. He is not going to die like a coward. He is going to look death in the eye. John drops his knife and turns to face death like a man. He sees the shooter. She is tall. She is pretty. And she has her arrow aimed directly at his heart.

The little girl standing staring at her new role model, sees who she is aiming at. She runs up to John and wraps her arms around him, burying her head into his chest. The shooter removes the tension from her bow and lowers her aim. She walks up to the two dead soldiers and removes her arrows, placing them into her make shift quiver. She turns to walk away, John manages one word "help".

She stops, "No"

John stomps his own fear of this women to the ground. "Please, she needs your help."

Something stirs inside of the mysterious women. "If you can keep up, and keep quiet. One sound, and I'll kill you myself."

John crouches down to look this frighten child in her eyes. "We are going to move very quickly now. Do you think you can keep up?"

The child nods.

"My name is John, if you have any problems keeping up, tap my arm, ok?"

She nods again.

"Now the most important part is being quiet. You can't make any noise, ok?"

The little girl expression changes slightly. "I have been living on my own for over a year. I think I know how to be quiet."

That startles John just a bit. And causes the mysterious women to chuckle. He accepts it "Ok little one, take my hand" and with that he reaches for his knife and puts it in his belt.

It's a long hard night of running and hiding. John's plan of getting to the forest was a complete fail. He could see the POW camps setup in the forest. The roaming patrols checking the different levels of security fencing.

POWs are anyone they round up, voluntary or otherwise. They are used against the people that are still fighting. John doesn't consider himself a fighter, he's just trying to find a safe place to live. Maybe have a garden, and to stop having to rummage through people abandoned houses.

He does, however, have a strong desire to kill as many soldiers as possible. It's like an itch he can't reach, except with his knife.