The Red Nights - Volume 1 Chapter 68 A Brave Combat

Natasha slammed the door of her home while entering in hurryingly. As she was running towards her room Dana, who had been surprised by the loud noise, followed her to inquire. She stopped at the entrance of her room which had been left wide open and saw Natasha changing clothes, ” what is happening? “.

She glanced at her surprised without paying her much attention though. After she put on her boots, she stood up to do some hops before she stared at Dana. The latter analysed her from top to bottom and by looking at her outfit she concluded that something was wrong, she frowned while deciding to not let it go ” hey, tell me what is wrong, why do you seem so pressed to go out and by the way where is Ja- “.

” Listen, I really don’t have time to waste ” she stopped her coldly, she got a thoughtful expression for a very short moment then she told her ” look, stay here and I’m sure Lina would come to take you to somewhere safer ” she lowered her voice” at least somewhere farther from the barrier ” she paused, ” so until then just wait for her calmly here, got it? “.

After that Natasha reported her attention somewhere else, as she moved toward an armoire near where Dana was standing the girl stepped on her way with a severe expression, she landed her fists on her h.i.p.s and said: ” tell me what is going on? “.

Natasha didn’t reply directly, she bent over forth and slowly picked up the wooden sword she used during her practices. With a determined look, she told Dana ” I have some important problems to deal with ” and without saying more she moved to leave the house and the girl didn’t try to stop her as she began to get an idea of the situation even though it was too late to do anything about it. She decided to listen to Natasha’s advice and went to the living room waiting for Lina.

Natasha took a little while to arrive at the zone where was supposed to be the fight. There she a load of people running back and forth while shouting commands to one another. As she moved further she saw that while there would be groups of people pushing wrecked cars from one position to another and others carrying barrels and massive objects, she was surprised to notice that there were some few trucks, equipped with big shovels on the front and metallic cables attached to the back, they were put at the disposition of the people there to help to transport some items, pushing and sometimes dragging heavy automobiles which the workers couldn’t move.

[It seems like Donald has managed to get the help of almost the half of the town ] Natasha supposed as she was observing them doing their best to get the job done as quickly as possible, she had the impression that they were putting all those efforts not because they were scared to stay there but rather they understood the urgency of the actual situation and didn’t wish for Natasha to see the slightest issue while doing her job to protect them, they wanted to provide her with the best circ.u.mstances which would permit her to have the advantage during that battle. Considering that, Natasha could feel herself more motivated than before. [ I will protect this city all for sure, even if it costs my life I will keep you all alive no matter ] she said to herself while clenching her wooden sword in her right hand.

She walked through the agitated crowd trying to get near her assigned position as fast as possible and a moment later she finally arrived. There, she ran into Lina busy to give instructions to the workers while shouting at them some words of encouragement at times to times. When she noticed her friend only when she was at two meters from her.

” Don’t worry, we have almost finished Brad and Matteo did a good job ” Lina started saying while staring at the workers, ” it remains only some few spots we have to secure. In no time we will all evacuate the zone and give you enough time to prepare yourself and order your thoughts “.

” I suppose that you have arranged a place where you will stay to observe the fight, am I wrong? ” Natasha asked her even though she already knew the answer.

She took a short moment to respond, ” don’t worry it’s a safe place afar from here you will be fighting, I promise to not get in your way so please don’t mind me ” she waited ” I have ordered to Matteo to go pick Dana and bring her to the city hall, he even proposed to gather all the citizens there since it’s one of the places the most farther from here and he even gave the argument that people will feel less scared if they are together ” she laughed slightly and added, ” sometimes I’m surprised to see how considerate and mindful that kid can be “.

Natasha smiled softly, ” you’re right, he’s sometimes very impressive “.

A minute later, Brad stopped near them and squatted down out of breath. Even though he seemed quite in a hurry to tell them something the two girls gave him the time to catch his breath. After a few seconds, he stood up, his T-shirt looked all wet and his face was covered by drops of sweat, just by looking at him it was evident that he was amongst the ones who put a lot of effort into that operation.

” The work is done, all the barricades have been placed,” he told them with a little sense of proud he tried to hide ” I hope it will work as you have planned and will be enough to lead the enemy to this place “.

” Very good ” Lina praised him with a confident tone she said ” don’t worry it will work, rare are my plans which failed ” she raised her voice a little bit ” well you can go tell everybody to start evacuating the zone, hurry up we can’t afford wasting time “.

” I have already told them and as you can see they began to leave ” Brad replied.

The women turned their heads and saw that effectively people started to move, there were some of them who had their vehicles and others who directly got into the trucks and all of them began to move to the same direction toward the inner of the city.

” That’s good ” Lina exclaimed, she looked at Brad who had now a different expression on his face and asked him straightforwardly ” what do you want to ask me? “.

He took a deep breath before he said: ” I want you to give me permission to fight “.

” No ” she responded straight almost immediately.

Brad, who seemed to have anticipated that response, tried to negotiate by giving her his reasons. ” I want you to hear me out first. I’m not the only one who suggested that some of the guys from Short-river just like I do, think about giving a hand to Natasha “.

” I don’t care about how many you are or how bad you want to help it’s just too dangerous for you ” she replied almost coldly. ” And anyway, you have already done more than you needed to help us so there is no point to risk your life for nothing “.

” I don’t think it’s for nothing,” he said while raising his voice a little bit ” I don’t mean to say that Natasha is weak or anything like that… what I’m trying to say is that it may be too much for her to stay alone, not only on the battlefield but also in her mind “, when he paused Lina glanced at Natasha.

She had always been able to tell whatever the latter had in her mind at that moment, just by taking a quick look at her face and even though she was trying her best to show only a strong attitude and an ensured feature Lina knew very well that Brad was right, [ it’s a for her too heavy burden to carry alone ].

Brad took a calmer tone when he continued ” I already know, Matteo told me that Jamal and the others didn’t come yet and they may not be able to make it in time. A battle can’t be won by one person and not only the enemies are stronger but they also greater in number, Natasha would need people to cover her back and we can do it… ” said to Natasha ” I-I believe that this is the reason why Jamal sent here a part of the weapons we took from the gangsters back in Short-river and expressly asked me to help you, he didn’t mean only to make the preparations for the fight, he wanted me to help you to fight “. He then, for the first time, raised his head to look at Lina in the eyes and with a great determination he told her ” I have done many mistakes and stupid things in my life and I know that I can’t possibly just erase them or ignore them but I have been given the occasion to correct those bad deeds, Jamal has opened my eyes and showed that I hope for forgiveness if I dedicated the rest of my life to do the right things without any regrets. So please, let me keep my promise I made him let me fight “.

” That’s so like him to say things like that ” Lina said in a very low voice while staring down with a melancholic smile, she then lifted her sight to gaze at the man before her who was staring at her with all his trust, she smiled at him before she said ” you finally look at me in the eyes. Well, I told you that but you have to note that it’s not even my decision ” she then pointed to Natasha with her finger.

The latter startled a little bit when Brad suddenly landed his sight on her. She immediately calmed herself and responded to him with all her serious ” if you promise to give your support from a distance away from the fight I don’t see any reason to turn you down “.

” I promise on my name and on the behalf of my mates to not get in your way,” he declared while nodding, after that he turned around to look at a group of seven people standing away whom the two women hadn’t noticed before but they were definitely staring at them since quite a moment, he lifted his fist forward and raised his thumb as to tell that it was okay. ” Alright, I shall go to join them and stay in position waiting for the enemy to show up ” he finally said to Lina and Natasha before he ran towards the group of people.

The two women noticed that among them there were two guys who were carrying bags, they put down the two bags, opened them and started to draw firearms which they distributed to everyone around and when they were all finally equipped they split into smaller groups of two people and ran towards different directions.

Lina and Natasha stared at each other silently for a moment and even though no one said a single word they seemed to have a deep discussion. Then Natasha said to Lina ” it’s almost time you better quickly leave this place “.

The latter nodded she stepped forward but instead of walking away she held Natasha in her arms ” I’m counting on you so you better make it alive ” after that, she gave her a kiss on her cheek before she released her and started running away.

Natasha waited for a short moment before she moved too to go place herself in position.

The battlefield was prepared in the way that the outlaws transformed into undead would be lead by a series of barricades to a dead end, stuck between two buildings and a high wall composed of wrecked vehicles and other metallic wastes that had been piled up years ago by a company of recycling which had proposed to clean the entire city, unfortunately, the company collapsed due to a bankruptcy and the project had also been abandoned. However, the traces of the work the company had the time to accomplish had been left behind, just like that wall of metallic materials.

The sun slowly down and as it disappeared in the horizon loud sounds of footsteps started to be heard in the zone. It was like a huge troop of soldiers was walking through the streets of the city. From where she was hiding Natasha could hear the footsteps becoming louder and louder as the enemy was getting near. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest, she was not scared nor she was stressed, Jamal had taught her how to get rid of those kinds of emotion before combat, she was rather feeling excited by the upcoming clash. Even though she was looking forward to jumping out from her hideout and starting to attack she knew that she had to stay patient and wait for the right moment.

Her wooden sword in one hand and the other hand stroking delicately Jamal’s dagger she was carrying in its case on her back as to collect from it some drops of his presence to help her to calm herself.

Just like Lina had said those monsters were not smart, they could be given a simple task to do and so it would be easy to draw them to the place they wanted and as expected, they just fell in the trap.

It was only when they stopped at the foot of the wall of wrecked vehicles they probably understood that something was wrong but it was anyway too late.

Natasha suddenly appeared behind them while they were slowly turning around to face her, she held her wooden sword with her both hands, on the level of her chest and closed her eyes to focus. In the previous days during her session of practices, she had discovered that she didn’t Jamal’s knife in order to obtain the katana to kill the undead moreover she also discovered that it’s way easier to transform her wooden sword into the katana rather than with the dagger.

Flames appeared from the palm of her hands quickly caught by the base of the sword and they rapidly progressed to the top and as the flames passed the wooden sword change into a long and splendid Japanese sword.

The next moment suddenly turned into a furious battle. Natasha hardly had the time to get a good stance as the outlaws jumped on her at a great speed that even Brad and his fellows who were hidden somewhere couldn’t react in time.

Hopefully, Natasha had very sharp reflexes, she quickly moved back in extremis before getting crushed in the shock which raised pieces of asphalt. Without wasting a second she corrected her posture and at the same moment took the offensive. She stepped forward and in one swing she chopped off the heads of the first small group of enemy and moved back to wait for the next wave just like Jamal had taught her. Some of them who dared to try an approach got stopped momentarily by a gust of bullets.

[ Seems like the guys came back to their state of mind ] Natasha made the remark while smiling confidently.

” Let’s go ” she shouted just before she resumed her offensive. She was moving and turning in the battlefield tearing people into pieces. The pale limbs of the enemies decorated with black veins were flying here and there, whenever she saw an opening or an occasion she would inflict mortal strikes to the enemies otherwise she would weaken them by ripping off their members, [ that is the only way to do so since they can’t feel pain ] she thought while thrusting her blade into one’s heart. She quickly pulled out as she was trying to waste the lesser time she could whenever she would attack and immediately started running laterally.

There was too many undead and each of them was as strong and fast as Natasha so to get the advantage over them she had to require her skills and to use the full potential of her brain to build strategies as she was fighting at the same time. The fact that she was trying to stay as mobile as possible, was because during her training with Jamal she was taught to avoid to be surrounded while fighting an enemy superior in number.

As the time was passing the fight was prolonging itself. Natasha had been struggling for hours but as the night was turning darker with the time it became difficult for her to fight. Brad and his friends, who had been supporting her since the beginning, had stopped their assault. She guessed that they were running out of ammunition or they just stopped because they want to take the risk to harm as even though there some streetlights here and there they were not enough to illuminate the entire zone and so it was still not easy to distinguish anything especially for people who were standing somewhere distant from where she was fighting.

One of the outlaws threw his fist aiming to punch her, the blow was so fast that she just caught a glimpse of it and mostly relied on her reflexes to block it, she put her sword before her face when the undead’s fist was at five centimetres to strike her. However, the blow was so strong that it sent her flying away, she hit a light pole causing it to curve. It was at that moment when stood up on her feet with quite a difficulty that she realized how tired she was. That was not the first time she got smashed but usually, she would immediately stand up to strike back. She had killed so many of them but they didn’t seem to diminish even a little.

” It’s not the moment to have negative thoughts ” she started saying with a loud and audible voice, ” no matter how many hits I have to take or how many times you throw me down, I won’t stop fighting until I kill you all. Do you hear me, you monsters? “, as to respond to her they all started running towards her but they were nothing to shake her down, she clenched tightly to her katana and shouted at them with all her lungs before she ran into the combat.

Using all her strength left, she cut, sliced and thrust, fighting like the most furious gladiator. She wasn’t caring about strategy anymore as she that her state it was pointless all that she could do was to not let the enemy surrounding her as it would make the battle even more difficult to handle.

One of them jumped over her trying to attack from her back but before that one could catch her she put a knee down and thrust her blade straight in its heart without turning around or even glancing at it. She pulled it out and as she was standing she cut off the entire arm of one undead and continued the movement by splitting another one’s entire body into two.

She could feel the strong fire burning inside her which seemed to ask her to release it and as she was slicing the enemies before her that fire would grow bigger inside her. She could sense her sword in her hands becoming hotter but she could let it go another blow from the foe sent her to fly away and hit hard the ground this time.

” Stand up ” she started to tell herself as she was gazing at the outlaws getting near to her but she still couldn’t get onto her feet, ” you’re not tired, you still can fight so stand up ” she punched the soil and leaned on her fists to slowly sat up on her knees, she then leaned on her katana to completely stand up, however, her legs were then shaking of tiredness she had to put all her strength and still leaning on her sword to not fall again, ” I can’t die here you, there are people counting on me, there are people waiting for me, I can’t let them down… I can’t let him down “. When she finally got a firm stance on the ground she lifted her sword ready fight again, she was not sure her body could take it any longer but she didn’t care, ” I will fight until my last breath ” she shouted.

” That’s the spirit ” a someone shouted, just by hearing that familiar voice a wind of hope blew Natasha’s heart.

Suddenly, the place started to gradually be submerged by light, beams of lights appeared one by one from the roofs and on the windows of the buildings what caused the outlaws to be disoriented for a moment. Behind her headlights lit up so brightly that when she turned around she got blinded for a short moment, she had to put a hand before and squinted as she tried to look at what was in front of her.

There was a barrage of cars with their headlights illuminating her and the battlefield, as she concentrated more she noticed the shape of a man standing on the top of the car, which was in the middle, with his arms crossed on his broad chest. Natasha didn’t have to see that person clearly to figure out who was he. She smiled uncontrollably as she tried to get near to him.

” look out! ” the man shouted but it was too late, when she turned her the undead already got too close and even though she could counter with her abnormal speed she was just too tired to lift her katana. The undead had its hands before trying to grab Natasha’s neck and it’s mouth wide open like a dark cave where dark drool like ink was slowly flowing out, it was like it hadn’t decided yet whether to strangle her or bite her throat until crushing it.

Natasha almost felt like it was over when a long thorn-like object came to stick to the undead’s forehead, Natasha didn’t have the time to think about it and used her remaining strength to strike the chest of the undead with the handle of her sword and as she was pushing it as far as she could she felt that it was already undoubtedly dead. Almost at the same moment two other enemies appeared from each side of the first one and were running towards her she didn’t even get the time to take a stance to defend herself that two brown thorn-like, projectile just like the one of earlier, flew just near her and went directly to stab the two foes on the position of their hearts and they immediately fell down, definitively dead.

” How is it possible…? ” Natasha gasped, wondering how can they be dead since she thought that only her katana could kill them. Before she could think more she lost her balance and almost fell on the soil when someone quickly passed an arm around her waist to catch up and support her to not fell. A quick glance on the side permitted Natasha to see it was a woman. By the force of the habit she tried to pass an arm around her neck to get a stronger grip when the woman immediately stopped her, ” it’s not a good idea unless you want your arm to be covered of holes “.

Natasha was too tired to try figuring out the sense of those words and she even thought that she misheard. She let that woman carry towards the cars and there another woman who seemed older picked her delicately put her down leaning her back next to a pickup, she placed a bottle of water on her lips and told her to drink. That woman looked up and shouted ” how long can we keep them immobile with the light? “.

” I don’t know and I don’t plan to wait in order to verify it ” the man, Natasha was recognizing the voice very well, responded. With a very loud voice he shouted ” ready? Fire! ” and immediately gunshots starting to roar furiously in all over the zone, Natasha understood that it was the people place inside the buildings who were shooting at the undeads.

The man jumped on the ground as he approached Natasha the smiling face of Jamal slowly appeared before. ” You have been incredibly brave, I’m really proud of you ” with those only few words she felt that all the effort she had put in that battle was really worth it.

” What did it take you so long? ” she firstly asked him.

” It’s a very long story and you can see we really don’t have the time, that wall of bullets will not hold them for a long time ” Jamal replied while glancing away at the army of undead, he then reported his attention on Natasha and said ” I know you have been fighting for a while and that you are really exhausted but do you think you can keep it up a little longer? Carla will take half of the work and I will help you to deal with the other half so don’t worry about a thing “.

Natasha glanced at the young woman beside him who had carried her earlier and without thinking too much she nodded at him and responded to him ” give me one minute another bottle of water and I’m ready “.

Jamal smiled, patted her head before he handed her a small bottle of water. A minute later, after the rain of bullets stopped the three people, Jamal, Natasha and Carla ran side by side towards the combat determined to finish them off.