The Third Kingdom

Richard slipped his arms around her waist and lifted her up. “Keep doing what you’re doing! Don’t stop! I’m going to get us to the woods!”

Samantha’s arms kept twirling even as he lifted her. The wind kept blowing and gusting up a dust storm around them as Richard hoisted the slim young woman up, sitting her atop his shoulder. He held her tightly by the waist to steady her as he started running.

Richard knew that she had to be getting tired from the effort, but she didn’t slow the pace or complain. She kept it up, and kept the curtain of dirt and debris rotating around them in a massive dust storm that blanketed the field all around. Richard had no idea how large the dust storm was, but he did know that it was hiding them and that was what mattered.

Before it had become opaque, though, he had seen that it was not some isolated little whirlwind. It was massive, covering a lot of ground and enveloping the entire swarm of half people charging out of the woods and coming after them.

It was sweltering hot inside the rotating dust cloud. Richard could hardly breathe from the heat. His nose was filling with dust, making it difficult to breathe. He didn’t slow though. This was their only chance.

He ran until he heard the dirt and flying debris hitting the leaves and pine needles of trees. He could hear it pelting wet trees. He could hear the litter of the forest floor pulled up into the whirlwind and clattering against trunks. He could hear tree limbs whipping in the wind. Some of those limbs snapped in the gusts.

Richard suddenly spotted the deer trail and without pause plunged into it, into the woods, Samantha still up on his shoulder twirling her arms, still calling the wind around them.

CHAPTER

40

Richard had to swing Samantha down off his shoulder as he dove into the woods for fear that he would smack her face into a limb and break her delicate little neck. He held her against his right hip, slung on his arm. He had to duck forward himself as he ran into the deer run to keep from hitting low limbs and saplings that were bent in over the tunnel-like trail. Like others Richard had used before, the deer trail was not very tall but it was wide enough. As he ran, small saplings leaning in here and there slapped at his arms.

Samantha’s arms finally stopped their frantic flailing and spinning. She slumped, panting with exhaustion from the effort. He could see that it had taken every ounce of strength that she had.

Now, it was up to him to get them away from the horde of half people who had been after them. He didn’t think that they had seen which way Richard had run, but he imagined that they could probably guess that he would head for the woods. He expected them to show up at any moment.

Through the blur of branches, brush, and green flashing by, Richard spotted one of the half people. He was dressed better than the man Richard had beheaded, but not much better. As soon as he spotted Richard and Samantha he raced in from the left side. As he got close, he bared his teeth. Richard could see that he was missing a few. His jaws started snapping in anticipation of catching flesh and ripping it off.

Without pause, as soon as the man was within reach, Richard put his hand behind the man’s head and used his momentum to propel him forward. Richard, bigger than the lone man and already running while he carried Samantha under his right arm, used his hand on the back of the man’s head to steer him onward, moving him so fast that it not only took control of his direction but almost took him from his feet.

As they raced up on a tree, Richard ran the man’s face hard into the thick trunk, right over the stump of a dried, broken-off limb, driving it straight through the man’s face. The impact was so hard Richard could feel the man’s head crack apart like a melon on a rock. With fluid movement, Richard released the man as he smacked into the tree and kept running. That was one attacker who wouldn’t be following them.

After he had gone on a short distance more, Richard stopped to listen for signs that they were being closely pursued. He panted, catching his breath as he quickly appraised the situation. He tried to breathe as quietly as possible so he could listen. Samantha pushed at his arm, wanting down, so he eased her down to the ground.

She bent forward, her mass of black hair hanging down around her face, hands on her knees, as she panted, trying to catch her breath after the exertion of creating the windstorm.

“That was brilliant,” Richard whispered to her.

She could only nod as she gasped for air. Richard let her recover as he listened for sounds of the half people in hot pursuit.

And then in the distance he heard them crashing through the woods, coming toward him and Samantha. It sounded like hundreds of people charging through the woods. Even though they were still a ways off, it wouldn’t be long before they reached their prey.

“Can you run, or should I carry you?” he asked.