The Samurai's Companion

Chapter 4: Beetle Drones

"I'm a one man army. The world could go against me and I will still come out on top."

Floyd Mayweather

The dawn broke faster than anyone would have liked. Evie was jittering nervously while Jack groomed the horsefly. She constantly looked up at the sky, the clouds were tinged orange. She was so nervous that she could barely stomach the flavorless gruel that was offered to her. Evie couldn't understand how Jack could so calmly eat his breakfast and then get suited into his battle armor like it was an everyday occurrence for him. Wasn't he scared?

She watched him silently as she pulled her knees tighter to her chest. She wasn't the one going to battle yet she had lost count of how many times she had rubbed her sweaty palms against her jeans.

"The destroyer drones have entered the valley!" the lookout dog shouted down to them. "Everyone take cover!"

Evie jumped to her feet as the dogs began to run about in a panic. Jack mounted his steed and without a moment's hesitation- galloped away to face the danger head on.

"Evelyn, this way!" Rothchild waved to her through the mass of dogs. "We must get to a shelter!"

Evie followed after the pack into one of the sturdier looking buildings. Rothchild led her by the hand as they ran up many flights of stairs. They soon entered a large room where Drifus and Angus were waiting for them with grim expressions.

"Are you sure that this is safe?" Evie asked as they approached. "If the beetle drones manage to get past Jack, we'll end up being trapped inside here. We'll have no way out."

"This is the safest it's gonna get," Angus replied as he bit his pipe. "Unless you know of a safer place?"

A tremor ran through Evie and she sat down by an open window. "We should have ran. Rather than setting up all those traps that may or may not work- we should have run. We should probably run now."

"They would catch us," Drifus patted her arm. "Don't worry, Jack knows what he is doing and we will stay to support him. Right guys?"

Rothchild and Agnus agreed in a chorus despite not looking certain at all.

Evie whimpered and hid her face in her arms. Whatever bravado that she had felt earlier had vanished. Her anger towards Aku's wrongdoings withered as fear ate away at it. It was easy to imagine things going right but it was even easier to imagine things going horribly wrong. She did not want to watch Jack get torn asunder. There was simply no way that this was going to work. After imagining a dozen ways on how this plan could go to hell, Evie began to seriously consider booking it. Perhaps she could make the excuse that she needed to use the restroom or something. It was the cowardly thing to do but Evie wasn't brave. She never had been. As much as she hated to admit it, running away from her problems was her way of solving them.

A loud explosion from outside shocked Evie out from her traitorous thoughts.

Jumping to her feet, the young woman looked out of the window and towards the trenches half expecting to see the samurai's body in pieces. But to her immense surprise, it wasn't Jack who was getting caught up in the explosions, it was the beetle drones. Several of them were already in pieces and in flames.

Evie watched as Jack expertly pulled back his bowstring and fired from his mount. The arrowhead grazed the stone wick that was sticking out of a barrel, causing it to spark. Seconds later the barrels blew up, taking out dozens of drones with them. Evie's mouth dropped open and she leaned forward. Jack had fired from an incredible distance and yet he managed to light a wick? Then he grabbed four arrows and shot them through the blazing inferno. Each arrow hit it's respected drone in the head, taking them out.