Hoist takes a piece of over cooked rabbit from the make shift spit,
he looks over at Havelock and Lead, they're faces plain and saddened, the flickering of the fire shows a lonely tear rolling down the left check of Lead, hoist looks to the side of Lead,
the fire tells a different story, for behind them sits The Britt and The Turk sharpening their weapons, no tears, no emotion, just pure focus on ensuring their weapons are razor sharp, as The Britt lifts his shortened broadsword to look along the edge to see if the blade bears any flaws he notices Hoist looking at him.
"Something on your mind lad?" Asks The Britt in a dark booming husky voice
Hoist quickly looks away, then gathers up the courage to say
"Are we next to meet the end of your blade?"
The Britt grins at Hoist
"No lad" is the reply as The Britt apples some strange oil to his blade, Hoist watches as The Britt carefully places the sword in its scabbard, taking extra care not to touch the blade itself,
'Interesting' Hoist thinks to himself as his gaze returns to his two saddened friends.
"How could we not know!" Cries Havelock as he slumps his head into his hands
"Who really knows every mans secrets Havelock" replies Lead
"True, he was a good friend, but he held a blade to Hoists throat, aye, he was a traitor"
"To What" remarks Havelock
"Well I'm guessing that's what those two rhino size gentleman behind us could shed some light on"
Lead turns to his side to speak to The Britt and The Turk,
"Where the F....., SOMEONE WANT TO EXPLAIN TO ME HOW TWO MEN CARRYING MORE STEEL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE CAN SIMPLY DISAPPEAR WITHOUT A SOUND"
Hoist and Havelock quickly jump to their feet,
"Holy shite, where they gone?" Asks Havelock
"I've no idea" says Hoist
'crack'
Whispering,
"Ya hear that!"
"Yeah I heard that"
"Someones out there"
"Is it them?"
"I'd highly doubt it, those two blended into the darkness without a sound I doubt they'd be fumbling around out there like a couple of drunkerd fools"
Hoist Lead and Havelock slowly move closer to the fire, fear starts to take over, their eyes straining to look out into the darkness,
'crack' another twig breaks coming from their left side,
'swish' the sound of something moving through the thick brush swings their attention to their right side,
Hoist starts to tremble,
"RAAAAAARGH" a war cry screams out in the night, once perched sleeping magpies and galahs spring to life in startled manner screeching and calling from their slumber as they take flight,
Hoist turns to face his left side,
'THUD' Hoist hits the ground,
Havelock spins around to see someone kneeling above hoist raising his blade in the air, Hoist raises his hands and catches the downward thrust of his attacker.
"HEEEEELP" screams hoist as his attackers pressure is growing greater, forcing the blade even more closely to his chest, Havelock springs to action laying his dusty old boot into the ribs of Hoists attacker,
"CRACK" Havelock's body slumps as a blow from an old tree branch knocks him cold to the ground,
Lead steps up throwing a flurry of punches into the second attacker, the two men fall to the ground, now wrestling each other and throwing punches and kicks as they scream and roll across the thick undergrowth,
"Arrrrgh!" Hoist struggles to keep the blade from piercing his chest the breath of his attacker now foul and rotten almost makes Hoist vomit,
'THUD'
To his side lands a blade, Hoist recognises the blade,
"They're back!" Hoist says to himself
The young lad gathers strength from deep down inside, he releases the grip on his attackers forearms and leans to the side as his attackers blade finds nothing but soil,
Hoists hand reaches out for the blade thrown to him, he clutches it hard, and with an almighty thrust Hoist sinks the blade deep into the ear of his attacker, the blade catches on something for a split second, Hoist pauses for a moment as his attackers body starts to convulse,
"Push it deeper lad" says a voice, Hoists eyes look up to see the Britt walking past to render assistance to Lead who is still rolling and fighting the second attacker
Hoist follows the direction he was given
"HrrrAAAAAAGH" Hoist forces the blade even harder, the attackers hat falls off as Hoist realises that he has forced the blade clean through his attackers skull, blood and brain now roll out of the crevice from where Hoist has withdrawn the blade.
The Britt moves over to where Lead continues to fight the second attacker
"That'll be enough out of you" The Britt deals an overhand right punch to the back of the head of the second attacker, like a blunt axe on wood the thud could heard for miles, Lead forces the now unconscious body of of himself
"YA TOOK YA BLOODY TIME" yells Lead as he picks himself up,
"Sssssh now" replies the Britt as he bends down to pick up the second attacker,
'crack'
more branches break as The Turk emerges from the bush with two more bodies on each shoulder,
'THUD'
Hoist and Lead look down to see two bodies with no heads,
"Dear god!" Says Lead as his turns his shocked face to the side
"Who are they?" Asks Hoist
"That's what we're going to find out lad" replies The Britt as he lifts Leads attacker up with one hand, and holds him against an iron bark tree, the Britt turns to face Hoist and with an outstretched hand says to Hoist,
"My blade lad"
Hoist looks down at his hand still clutching the blade that saved his life.
The Britt takes the blade from Hoist.......
'THUD'
A scream cracks the night air as the once unconscious attacker is awakened from a sharp blade now pining him through the shoulder to the iron bark tree.
The attacker hangs some four foot from the ground,
"Who are ya, where you from, who sent ya," asks The Britt as he places his hand on the face of the attacker,
The attacker looks up at the Britt and doesn't speak a word, his teeth gritted tight, blood runs down his arm as he lifts his left hand to push away The Britts grip on his face,
"I'll not be asking ya a second time" growls theThe Britt
The attacker spits in the face of The Britt
"Have it your way then" says The Britt as he crushes the eye of the attacker making it pop like an egg under foot
"AAAAAARGH!" Screams the attacker
Hoist and Lead turn away
"TALK!" Barks The Britt as his hand moves to the attackers other eye
"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!" Says the attacker
The attacker struggles to breathe, the searing pain from the blade that has him hanging from the tree has now been over come by the pain of his burst eyeball.
"TOP POCKET, TOP POCKET!" Cries the attacker
The Britt removes his hand from the attackers face and reaches in his pocket and removes a folded piece of paper.
"Read this" The Britt hands the folded paper to Hoist
Hoist reads it out loud
"This is an open contract for the kill capture order of one Andrew Hoist, Jonathan Lead and David Havelock, quarter shall be given to Jim Sheathe, as he is acting under the direct order of Governor Hotham.
All items recovered from these three men are to be returned to the Governor at upmost haste.
A man by the name of Sergeant Coster shall be your contact for the tracking of these criminals, also, I have authorised the contracting of Boyd and Big Nugget.
All officers of the law and military are to give the above named men and associates quarter and safe passage.
Signed
Excellency In Command
William C Haines."
"Good god, what the hell we gotten ourselves into" remarks Hoist as his step staggers slightly,
"A fight lad, a fight that if lost, will see this country slip into the hands of dictators and corruption" remarks TheTurk as he turns to look at The Britt.
"So they're onto us ole friend"
"Aye" replies The Britt
"But we have two names now, Boyd and Big Nugget, it seems we need to catch up with these two and extract some more info from them, there's more to this than we know at a guess, and the fact that Boyd and Big Nugget were mentioned by name would suggest that they have valuable information to contribute"
The Britt and The Turk start giggling like children in a candy store,
Hoist looks down at the satchel holding the scrolls that have nearly cost him his life on numerous occasions,
"DAMNED BLOODY THINGS!" Hoist reaches down to grab the satchel and toss it into the fire,
"HOIST NO!" Cries out Lead
Hoist freezes as the razor sharp edge of The Turks battle axe rests ever so gently on his throat,
"I like you laddie!" Says The Turk, "don't make me end ya!"
"Stand down Turk" says The Britt as he leans down and picks up the satchel
"Easy now lad, this is of greater importance than all of us"
Groans come from the iron bark tree from where Leads attacker still hangs, The Britt looks over and nods at The Turk,
In a lightening fast move the battle axe slams into the throat of the attacker severing head from body, blood pumps itself out of the neck as the Turk removes the blade from the attackers shoulder,
'Thud!'
The attackers headless body slumps to the ground merely missing the unconscious Havelock who now is awakened by the sound,
Havelock sits upright rubbing the back of his head and groaning
"Aaaw, my bloody skull is killing me" Havelock looks up to see the head of a man resting upon a battle axe wedged in a tree,
'Flop'
Havelock passes out,
"Pick up your friend lads" says The Britt " we're making for the caves on the coast"
To be continued...........
