Nusac

Chapter 20
The New Guys POV

I round a final corner around a few trees and practically run the rest of the way to the hut type thing because I think the girl is gonna pass out soon.

I hold one of the logs that forms the stretcher with one hand and hammer on the door with the other hand.

The seconds tick past until the door swings open. The girl comes out and rushes to the one on the stretcher, I cant understand what she is saying but I did hear the word ‘faith’ in there somewhere which I take to either be a similarity between languages or perhaps the injured girls name.

The women talk for a few moments saying things again I cant understand, the blonde girl then turns and says something to me… do these people not realise I cant understand a word of it? She goes to the other end of the stretcher and places her hands on it, okay I get it now… we’re moving the injured girl inside.

I have to negotiate around a few obstacles before we place the dark haired girl on the empty table.

I stand next to the table with the pain stricken woman whilst the other dashes around the hut grabbing things from everywhere in the hut, she brings out a pestle and mortar and begins to crush together what looks like various herbs and plants.

I place my hand on the dark haired girls shoulder. ”How you holding up?” I try to smile to reassure her but it’s kinda hard since I haven’t got a clue what is actually happening.

”Yeah don’t worry about me, I heal pretty fast, I’ll be back to normal in a few days.” She replies quietly.

I see her eyelids fluttering as she fights to stay awake. ”Okay, you have to keep talking, we have to keep you awake… so tell me how exactly you are The Slayer…”

She smiles through the pain at me. ”I take it you knew B then?”

From the small amount I can remember when one Slayer dies another is called. So either this girl is some sort of strange mutation or my old pal Buff is dead. ”Yeah. My names Pike, I knew Buff back in LA.”

The blonde woman begins to cut up the pant leg of the injured knee and the dark haired girl flinches. ”Funny she never mentioned you.” Is this supposed to make me feel better? The blonde woman reaches the knee and the dark haired woman cries out from the pain. Her head pushes back so she’s pushing her back off the table and the blonde woman stops instantly. ”I’m Faith. Nice to meet you.” She forces out between gritted teeth. Holding her hand out for me to shake. She laughs at me as I take her hand. ”That’s gonna take some getting used to.”

What is she on about? The blonde talks to Faith again, I don’t know what she said but I’m guessing it was something along the lines of ‘brace yourself’ because after Faith nods, the blonde immediately presses some of the weird gunk from the little bowl onto Faiths leg. She looks like she wants to scream but nothing seems to come out, after what seems like a few minutes but was probably only a few seconds Faith stops trying to move away from the pain and lies still.

”What the hell was that?” I ask looking from Faith to the bowl.

”That was fucking painful! That’s what it was… but now not so much, was some sort of anaesthetic.” She stops talking and takes a deep breath, the bright red colour leaving her face from the silent screams. ”This is Namine by the way.” Faith says nodding towards the other woman. My eyes find the woman and I raise my hand in greeting, she does the same with a smile.

Namine walks to the other side of the table dangerously close to Faiths knee. ”I don’t think she should be touching that.” I say pointing to Namine who now is lifting Faiths leg to put her hand under the mangled knee.

”Just don’t watch her, it’s gonna be pretty gross I think.” Faith replies to me. I look around at other areas of the room just so I don’t look at Faiths knee. My neck snaps back around when I hear a loud sort of crack and crunching noise, I force down some bile that has settled in my throat, she so didn’t just do that… did she?

”Oh God… I think I’m gonna Ralph.” I say not taking my eyes off the knee which yes I admit is looking a bit more knee shaped now.

”She died…” Faith says gently.

I look at her as if she’s got three heads, what the hell is she talking about.

”You asked how I could be The Slayer, B died.” She says this so matter of fact-ly that I cannot think of anything to say back to that. ”She got better.”

Nothing even goes through my head as I say… ”Huh?”

”Well she died, drowned really and she was dead for a few minutes but then this guy, one of her friends gave her CPR and now she’s all better.”

I visibly straighten up at this bit of information. ”Oh, I guess that’s okay then.”

Namine then says something to Faith and Faith nods again, I hope this isn’t as sickening as the last time. Faith looks up at me. ”I’m gonna rest a while now, get some sleep so I can heal a bit… will you be okay?”

I think about this for a second. ”Yeah don’t worry about me, get better.” The woman is practically out like a light. I sit down on one of the chairs around the table and offer Namine a small smile, she returns it and we sit in silence.

Namine gets to work cleaning up Faiths other wounds; I sit still and gaze around. Where the hell am I? What the hell happened? I haven’t had chance to think about all this until now. I was too busy helping Faith before.

The hut is quite large, there is a log fire in a small hole in what looks like a rock up against the wall but since there are pots and pans by it I assume this is some sort of primitive cooking device. There are numerous shelves around the room all with small pots or jars on them. Books cover one wall and I get up to have a look, I throw a questioning look at Namine before I take one down… I might not be able to speak the language but you still have to have manors right?

The cover of the book is a deep green leather with words I don’t understand on it, I am guessing that this is the language they speak. I flick through the book and recognise some demons, which seem to be labelled with how to kill them, I can only tell this because at the moment I am looking at a picture of a vampire. The vampire has a line coming from its neck to a small drawing of a sword and some words as well as a picture of a stake pointing to the heart.

I flick through the book a bit and find that I come to some blank pages, I close the book and put it carefully back where I found it then go back to sit at the table where Namine is also sitting, having finished cleaning Faith up.

“Ledo?” Namine asks me with a serious look. I have no idea what she said. “Ledo?” She says again with more force pointing to a cut on Faiths cheek.

”I don’t understand.” I say doing an exaggerated shrug to try and show her what I’m saying.

Namine furrows her brow for a second then she points at me then at another of Faiths wounds and says… ”Hurt?”

Ohhh I get it. I hadn’t even thought to look if I was hurt, I don’t feel any pain until I look at my palm, how come you don’t feel pain until you see the blood? I hold my left palm up to Namine and she comes over bringing some of the gunk she used on Faith and a clean piece of cloth I assume she is going to use to bandage the wound.

I wince slightly as she cleans the wound out with some water, she smiles an apology and carries on. Her hands are warm, soft and gentle as she cleans and wraps the wound.

Namine sits watching Faith sleep on the table for a while. She looks at me and once more her brow furrows. ”Eat?”

This woman so speaks my language, and I don’t mean English. I nod and she goes about lighting a fire and preparing food.

I walk over to the door where I left my backpack and guitar case and bring them over to the table with me, if I remember correctly I put some food in my bag for my all night cram session at the library. And then it dawns on me… I’m gonna miss my big test… Professor King is gonna be mad.

I place my guitar on the floor and put my bag on my knees as I sift through it pulling everything out to see what I’ve got in there, there is probably stuff in there that I haven’t seen in a year or so.

Paper, paper, more paper, some blank books with yet more paper, pens, pencils, ruler, ooh my penknife. I haven’t seen that in a while. What else do we have in here? I pull out a few textbooks along with a few fiction books. I didn’t realise there was this much shit in here! I open the side pocket of the bag and pull out four bags of chips, about eight chocolate bars and a packet of cookies.

What can I say? I’m a growing boy… okay I’m not but I like to eat! I open the pocket on the other side of the bag and pull out a few stakes and some knives. The final pocket on the bag contains more food, yes I said more… I find a jar of peanut butter and a spoon. You may think it’s gross we are all entitled to our own opinions so don’t judge me!

I open the jar of peanut butter and dip my finger in then eat the food off my finger. Yeah that’s some good shit. I put a little of it onto the spoon and offer it to Namine. She takes the spoon from me looking cautious, sniffs the peanut butter then sticks her tongue out onto the food, just tasting it with the tip of her tongue.

Her face lights up and she says “Is est bonus!” With a large smile whilst nodding. I assume that was something along the lines of ‘yummy’.

”You have peanut butter!” Faith practically shouts sitting up and grabbing the jar from me in one swift motion.