Sarah7

Her cry was cut short as a loud voice called from behind the beast.

“Ho! Ho! You devil! Get out of here!” The man’s voice called from the darkness.

The wolf-like creature chanced a glance behind it, turning to the sound of the voice. It was at that moment someone burst from the bushes directly behind Sarah and flung a huge spear. It flew with deadly accuracy and buried itself in the beast’s neck.

The creature howled in pain and whirled to face this new intruder. Sarah was frozen with fear and her mouth hung open as the spear throwing man charged the beast. He pulled out a sword of some kind and with a yell he struck the creature full in the face with his blade.

His cry broke Sarah out of her paralysis. She lept backward toward the rock face and looked around frantically for something to defend herself.

The creature howled in pain, now cut deeply in the muzzle and still pierced by the spear. The man spun in place after the swing and shoved the spear deeper into the creature’s neck.

Suddenly, a blinding flash lit up the air around Sarah and a bolt of energy ripped through the creature. It was Max!

The man staggered back from the explosion and fell with a thud. Max lept in from the darkness with amazing speed and grasped the creature with its metallic claws and hurled it away. It landed somewhere in the darkness with a sickening crunch.

“I’m sorry, Sarah. I was delayed by more of those creatures. It will not happen again.” Max said. His voice was so calm. She expected him somehow to sound out of breath from his exertions and that reminded her that he wasn’t human. Or even alive. She shuddered.

Hearing a groan, she suddenly remembered the man who had saved her and she quickly stepped over to his side.

“Are - are you alright?” She asked as she reached out tentatively with her hands.

“Stay back, Sarah! He could be dangerous .” Max intoned and suddenly one of his weapons trained on the man’s head.

The man was large, dressed in drab grey pants and a leather like shirt that was covered with what looked like makeshift armor. Plates of metal had been hammered and shaped to fit his shoulders and chest. Attached at his neck was a heavy brown cloak.

His hair was black and shaggy, and he appeared to be roughly in his 30′s, but Sarah really had no frame of reference to know.

“Not as dangerous as your metal friend there.” The man said as he rubbed the back of his neck with a pained expression on his face. “I was beating that Warg. You didn’t have to interfere.”

“I was not interfering. I was defending Sarah.” Max said, somehow sounding miffed despite his expressionless voice.

“Sarah, is it?” The man said, opening his eyes to look intently at Sarah. His eyes were deep blue, almost like glass.

Suddenly Sarah felt somewhat self-conscious at the man’s gaze and nodded.

“Yes, I’m Sarah, and that’s Max.” She looked at the weapon still pointing at the man on Max’s shoulder. “Put the blaster away, Max. He saved me.”

Obviously reluctant, Max retracted the blaster and settled down on the ground, retracting his legs like before and resting his arms.

“The other creatures are destroyed, or fled. I believe we are safe for now.” Max replied. His head was still turned toward the stranger.

The man looked at Sarah and turned his head, thinking. He looked at her strange clothing, cannily spotting the body suit beneath the rags. Then a broad smile crossed his face.

He extended his hand and said “My name’s Creed. Nice to meet you, Sarah. I was certainly not expecting to find a girl and her ... robot out here in the wilds.”

She looked down at the hand and extended her own, somewhat reflexively, bemused. He grasped it firmly but gently and gave her a warm smile.

“I’d say you should watch out for those Wargs, but it appears you have ample defenses. Even if they are a little - rusty.” Max hmphed.

“Max saved me from that ship. I seem to have been in some kind of stasis, from the time the ship crashed.” Sarah said, while inwardly she was simply relieved that there were other people in this world. That, it seemed, had been her greatest fear. That the whole world she had awakened to was - dead.

“You came out if that?” Creed asked, incredulously as he pointed to the ship with his thumb over his shoulder.

“That wreckage has been a tomb for almost a hundred years. You’re pulling my leg.” He said.

Sarah glanced down at his leg. “Pulling - what?” she said, turning to the tattered remains of the camp.

Suddenly. A wave of dizziness overcame her as the adrenaline high she has been riding subsided. And her stomach growled loudly.

“Oh! What is that ?” She cried, and stumbled, clutching her stomach in renewed fear.

Creed caught her with a quiet speed. His strong arms held her gently.

“Sounds like an empty stomach. You never heard of that? When was the last time you had something to eat, girl?” He asked.

“I - I don’t know. ” she replied.

Creed was beginning to think maybe this crazy girl’s story wasn’t so far fetched after all.

He glanced over at the huge machine that was tracking his every move with uncanny accuracy and wondered what kind of mess he had stumbled into. He began to wish it was just the Wargs he would have to encounter tonight.

“Listen, I have some food back at my camp. Do you think you can make it? It’s only about half a click from here.”

Sarah swallowed hard and clenched her fists. She had fought robots and monsters and won, she was not going to let her own body stop her from surviving. Wiping her somewhat muddy face she nodded silently.

A big grin crossed Creed’s angular face. He picked up his makeshift sword and gestured for Sarah to follow her .

“Maybe on the way, your big friend here could retrieve my spear he so carelessly tossed away with the Warg.”

Max sniffed again and Sarah wondered how he was possibly doing that. “I am not a dog to fetch sticks.” Max intoned.

Sarah giggled, despite her tiredness and hunger.

“What’s a dog?” She asked.

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