Finches

Chapter 14 - Souffle Saves The Day

Colt was in a predicament. He couldn't run with Shelly, because it was clear she had no intent of leaving until the gang of thieves had been served their due justice. He couldn't run by himself because he'd come to realize that he wasn't getting to the Authority base without her. Don't tell her he said that, of course.

So that left him with his one option: to fight. It wasn't ideal by any means. There was one of him and about eight of them, and the one of him probably couldn't beat any of them in a battle, much less all eight. But, as he knew, it was his one option. Ideal or not, that was what he had to go with.

"So, are you gonna wait for them to come to us or..."

"Relax, I'm going," Colt said, then he realized, "Wait, that's not a bad idea."

"Well, it kind of is," she said.

"I've got this," he told her. "I'm an officer of the Authority, remember?"

The plan was to stay where he was, and pick off the thieves one by one as they challenged him. It would be easy. What could possibly go wrong?

It took a minute, but eventually Colt heard hurried footsteps as the thieves drew closer to them. The tree leaves started rustling around them, and the first person who emerged was Stuart. Seeing as the man had been behind him, Colt hadn't gotten a good look at him. Now that had changed. Stuart was even bigger than he'd thought, with shoulder blades that stretched out far from his XL-sized chest. His legs were shorter than his chest was, and looked ridiculously skinny and small compared to the rest of his body. He had a normal sized, bald head, which was made to look smaller than it was due to the shoulders on which it sat. He wore the same dark green clothes as the rest of his gang, but the outfit looked extremely tight on him.

Colt decided he would point his out to Stuart. "No wonder you're so cranky," he said. "I mean look at those garments!"

Stuart growled and trudged toward him. He had a knife in his hand, and Colt had to stop himself from laughing at the sight. Someone needed to get this man a larger weapon.

"Colt..." Shelly warned from behind.

"Don't worry," Colt replied. He didn't move, staring up at the large man as he moved closer. "I've fought this guy before. He ended up with a piece of bark in his leg."

That reminder didn't seem to help Stuart's mood any. The big man charged him, as Colt had expected, and he dodged around his legs. He was faster than Stuart, he knew that much. So he'd use that to his advantage.

Stuart tried stabbing in with his knife, but Colt sidestepped the blow and swung his sword at Stuart's massive chest. This move didn't go exactly as he'd planned. The big man simply swatted his sword out of the way.

"What was that?" asked Shelly.

Colt turned back and flashed her an irritated look. "I don't see you helping any."

Shelly just shrugged, unbothered. "Don't have a weapon."

Stuart had taken Colt's moment of distraction to swing at him. Colt was able to dodge it just in time but was left off balance. He swung his sword several times, but Stuart dodged them all without much effort. He tried another strike at the chest, but this time Stuart saw what was coming, grabbed the flat side of Colt's sword, and used it to flip Colt onto the ground.

Colt coughed a couple times, the impact to his back winding him.

He'd managed to keep hold of his sword so he attempted to strike Stuart's legs from his spot on the ground. Stuart simply stepped out of the way, though, and sent a boot straight to Colt's face, bloodying his nose and blurring his vision.