Chương 130: 43 - THE FOURTH REDEEMER PT. 5

The pilot of the helicopter died in the crash. But Vienna managed to grab her duffle bag of weapons and supplies, along with a few military dry food packs. But most importantly, they found that the helicopter had crashed into a few superpowered creatures. They dropped loot. One of the little coins jumped onto Tyene, and then the two women were superpowered too. That made surviving the wilderness a hundred times easier. It didn't take long for Tyene to become accustomed to the powers.

Vienna never liked hers, preferring to use her guns when she needed to. But the guns were loud and usually attracted the demons, so she was forced to get used to hers too. Several days passed. Then several weeks. And then a few months. Since Vienna was never informed of Corlander's location or where the pilot was ordered to take them, it was the perfect excuse not to go. But that also left them pretty directionless. The only motive was to survive and search for things to help them survive.

It was rare to run into others, and usually when they did, they had a mind to take advantage of two helpless-looking women wandering out alone in a world with no more rules. Vienna never needed much convincing to remove them from this mortal coil. Eventually, they started avoiding other people altogether. That meant Tyene was stuck for a long while with nothing but a socially inept, trigger-happy stalker to talk to. And Vienna wasn't much of a conversationalist, to put it simply.

Not that Tyene ever felt compelled to be friends with one of her stepfather's drones. But she was going a little crazy. She found herself talking to the demons. She stared at a dead rodent on the ground. It was six feet tall, of course, because animals couldn't just be normal anymore. And it was burnt to a possum-shaped piece of giant charcoal.

"I think this one may have gotten a little overcooked. But I haven't seen any other animals to eat for a while. Should I even eat it? Or do you guys want it?" They were three black-skinned hounds with fire burning on their backs sat down behind her. They were demons, but these ones were hers. One of the loots she found allowed her to summon the Hellhounds, to which she always treated more like regular pets than the vicious demons that they were. The biggest one wagged its flaming tail.

"Then bon appetit." The hounds happily went at the corpse as if it were Thanksgiving dinner, almost bringing a smile to her face. But almost out of nowhere, Vienna appeared right behind her wearing an old green military jacket she looted from the helicopter. Tyene jumped when she appeared.

"Jeez. Don't scare me like that."

"I apologize, my lady. But I've caught enough food to meet our caloric requirements." She had two dead turkeys hanging from her shoulders.

"You can just say dinner," Tyene said, annoyed. She wanted to eat something that she caught for once. But because the powers she found were fire hounds and magma, she could rarely catch food before it burned. They had found a house on the side of a mountainous wilderness. It wasn't anything fancy, just a wooden shelter with a gas stove and a couple of beds inside. The cut-up turkey meat on the stovetop sizzled as Vienna cooked it. Tyene sat in the corner of the room, staring at her.

"Why are you even still here?" Vienna's head didn't turn. It wasn't the first time the question had been asked.

"I don't know what reward you're expecting to get out of guarding me. There's barely anything left out there. I doubt Corlander is still paying your boss, which means you don't get paid either, or whatever your arrangement was. There's nothing making you keep an eye on me for this long. If I were you, I would've cut and run a while ago. I mean, don't you find it annoying having to keep up with someone all the time?" She didn't get a response.

"I can take care of myself now, you know. I've got these powers and the hounds. I don't need you anymore, so I'm sure there are better things you could be doing." Vienna flipped the meat on the stove. A few more uneventful weeks went by. They had to move because the wildlife in the area just weren't showing up anymore. They didn't know if they had hunted them all already or if they had just migrated somewhere, but if they were going to keep a steady food source, then they had to find the food.

They walked around the mountain for miles, Vienna sticking almost inches from Tyene's back.

"You know, I liked our agreement from before better. When you were staying out of sight." Tyene told her bitterly.

"If you're going to follow me, I'd rather pretend you're not there. Like I always have."

"Negative, ma'am. I need to minimize distance between us in case of another beast attack." The hellhounds appeared, pouncing on Vienna. They bit at her jacket and forced her to the ground, holding her there. She didn't struggle. She knew who summoned them.

"God damnit," Tyene yelled.

"Why don't you just take the hint already!? I don't want you here! I spent half my life begging for the chance to get away from that man. And when I finally do, you have to walk around inches from my face, reminding me of him! I don't need anything from that murderous bastard, least of all you. If I have to tell you to leave again, then I'm just going to kill you, understand?!" Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

The hounds gnawed at Vienna's jacket, teeth burning her skin. Yet she still lay there with those same expressionless eyes.

"If you wish me dead, then I understand. My life is yours to take." Tyene rubbed her head, suddenly unable to justify her anger. She wondered if Vienna was brainwashed or if she even had a mind of her own. There was just no reason for her to be so submissive, when both of them knew Vienna could snap her neck whenever she wished. It just wasn't how people worked in Tyene's world. There had to be something she wanted. Something she was getting out of this that Tyene just couldn't pick out.

But she hated that line of thinking. Because that was another piece of Corlander in her. The hounds disappeared into a puff of fiery smoke, and Vienna sat up as Tyene turned to keep walking.

"There's something seriously wrong with you if you think your life is worth this bullshit. But I guess German was right. You really just have nothing else."

"It isn't my life that's worth it," Vienna mumbled. Tyene stared at her strangely. Then she grimaced, feeling a sharp pain shooting up her leg. When she pulled up her pant leg, there was a small gash that she hadn't noticed before. It must've gotten cut on some tree branch or something. It wasn't too deep, so the only feasible medicine needed was a dose of walk it off.

"Whatever. Let's keep going," Tyene said. But neither of them were doctors. Out in the woods, it was easy for a cut like that to get infected. The wound festered, and then it turned into an abscess the size of a woman's fist. It went numb for a while, and Tyene ignored it. That was until the rest of her leg went numb too. Then some days later, while they were walking, Tyene collapsed. Vienna had carried her until she found a small cabin at the bottom of a hill.

She commandeered it and rested Tyene on a cot of blankets found in its closets. The sickness hit her like an avalanche. All at once. She was too weak to move. The pain felt like it was flowing through her bloodstream. It messed with her head, making her feel drunk and causing her to see things that weren't there. It didn't feel like the kind of sickness a person came back from. She was going to die. From something so small as a cut on the leg. That was all she could think about while she still had her mind.

Vienna never left her side, taking care of her with everything she could. She tried cold water to lower the fever. She tried to find medicine, but didn't find anything above a basic anti-inflammatory. She fed her, changed her clothes, and treated the wound as best she could. But none of it seemed to help. Tyene was certain that she was going to die. She told Vienna this and told her to leave one more time. Her job was done. And Tyene was half delirious, but she thought she saw tears running down Vienna's face.

At first she thought it was a part of the hallucinations. The woman had barely ever shown any hints of emotion. She was just a drone after all. But it left streaks in the dirt on her face.

"Why would she be crying?" Tyene thought.

"Oh, it's cuz she failed at her job. That's okay. I wasn't anyone worth protecting anyway. There isn't anyone left who cares about me." Then she realized she was the one crying. Her mother was there, sitting next to her bedside, holding her hand.

"Please don't leave. There's no one to protect me from these strangers. Don't leave me all alone." Her mother sadly smiled and got up to walk out the door, leaving Tyene helpless and crying. When she woke up, she was in a pool of her own sweat, and all of her clothes were off. It was dark outside, and Vienna was gone.

"What the hell happened? Was I dreaming?" There was the clanging of dishes coming from behind her.

"Vienna, what— ahhh!!" She leaped to her feet, seeing the noise wasn't coming from Vienna. It was coming from a man. He had long dark hair, a black leather coat, and tattoos running up his neck. The black marks seemed to surround a number. 11, 423. The man was eating a steak dinner like he had just been served at a five-star restaurant, and he looked like he was savoring every moment of it, not being interrupted by Tyene's scream.

"Who the hell are you!?" He paused before turning his gaze to her.

"You look like you just woke up from a pretty rough nap."

"What are you, an anime villain? Quit being vague and answer the fucking question. And where's Vienna? Did you do something to her?" She pushed her hand out to summon her hounds just in case this was exactly what it felt like. But nothing showed up.

"As much as I appreciate a girl with a dirty mouth, calm it down some, will ya, bird? I'm trying to eat here." She pulled one of the blankets off the floor to cover her bare chest.

"Well, sorry. I guess I'll just pretend to be unconcerned about whatever's happening here."

"Don't get those kinds of thoughts in your head. Your friend's the one who undressed you. Your clothes were practically a swamp. Don't get me wrong, though, you are a catch. I've just seen better. Then again, today might just be an off day for you."

"Gee. Thanks."

"Your friend is gone, by the way," he said, finishing up his meal.

"What do you mean gone? Did you kill her?"

"Nah. Though she tried to kill me, which is always hilarious when a prop doesn't know who they're dealing with," he chuckled to himself.

"But I managed to calm her down. She wasn't happy that I managed to find you here, but once I told her there was a way to save you, she jumped to hear what I had to say."

"Save me?" Standing there, she started to realize she didn't feel as sick as she did before. In fact, she felt better than she had in weeks. Looking down, the abscess on her leg was gone too.

"There's this crazy super beast out there with the power to make whoever kills it immortal. They'll never have to worry about dying again. But it's a tough fighter. People don't survive even looking at it. But she ran off anyway."

"So that's why I'm still alive? Vienna killed that thing?"

"No," he said bluntly. That was me. I felt bad about sending her on a suicide mission." Based on his smirk, she highly doubted that was true.

"And I just happened to forget… that I had a second chance loot in my pocket. That thing healed you up in a few minutes. At least she didn't die in vain, right?"

"What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"Don't act like you didn't like her anyway. You know, you talk a lot of shit when you're delirious. I'm surprised she ever wanted to save a bitch like you." Tyene gritted her teeth.

"She didn't…" she hesitated, remembering that at one point this was what she wanted. To be free of her and everything Corlander represented.

"You can't know that she's dead."

"She might've bitched out at the last minute, who knows."

"This is my fault," she said.

"I told her that her life isn't worth this shit... Take me to her."

"What?"

"I said, take me to her. You know where the beast is, don't you? Vienna isn't some normal woman. There's a chance she's still alive. Take me to her." The man thought to himself, staring at Tyene's intensely determined expression. Then he smiled.

"Fuck it. I got time to kill."