Chapter VI
A Walk to Remember
As Dmitri walks through the halls of the manor still angry over the refusal to allow him inside the cargo terminal as he finds himself in the kitchen. Not for the first time either, as this had been a common thing for him to do whenever he was pissed off with something, but as Dmitri grabs himself a drink, a shadow crossing the room catches his eye. At first he thought that he had just imagined it. But upon turning around Dmitri clearly sees the small figure of Dave exiting though the manor doors and out into the grounds and into the darkness.
“Fucking hell, Dave.” Dmitri said in an undertone before putting down the drink he had in his hand and rushing back to his own small room, compared to the other rooms in the manor, it was practically a broom cupboard, but compared to any other that he had stayed in before, it was almost too big for him, with his spartan nature of living, it was empty of any personal possessions apart from a stand where he would place his armour, and his gun, which he now grabbed of the small desk and headed out after the boy before he did anything stupid.
Out of the manor grounds the eleven-year-old Dave walks casually along the side of the road that lead to the manor without a care in the world, after all he had been coming out here for a long time now, and nothing had ever happened so why should this night be any different.
Dave had only been coming out here for the past few months, but his retreating out into nature was nothing new for him. He had done it on and off for as long as he could remember. Ever since the funeral of his mother, when he had run off into the wild outside the manor after not being able to cope with the pain anymore.
Like Jack he had hidden, but not in the cave, but out in nature where he had been alone. But like his older brother, he had been found, but by Vernon as well as Gerrard, when he had fallen down a small ravine and broken his arm, his first of many breaks.
The thoughts of the previous year’s events were far from his mind, and the man that had entered his home had not been seen for close to six months now. And he was sure that the adults had seen the stranger off.
That was at least until he saw a small light in the distance about a five-hundred meters away. He stopped in his tracks at the sight thinking, he had been coming out at night for almost three months now and had never seen any sign of life other than the odd deer. Which he had used for tracking practice, and despite what Dmitri had told him about it being too difficult for someone his age, Dave had quickly found that he had a gift for it, now that he had something real and more importantly, fresh to track down.
Returning his attention to the distant fire, and deciding on no real evidence at all that the light was likely just some hunters he decided to go and investigate it, since in his albeit limited experience, most people who came out in this direction to hunt were of no threat to him. Although as he walks towards the hostile light source, the thought of the stranger that had been in his home came to the forefront once more.
Once Dave arrives at the scene and lies down on a rocky outcrop overlooking a small valley, he observes two men in hooded black cloaks talking in whispers next to a small campfire and a black car.
“What the hell.” Dave said in an undertone, in all the time he had been venturing outside he had never seen anything like this before, and his fear levels began to respond to this new evidence that he was as alone as he hoped that he was. Dave was still deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice another cloaked man come up from behind him, until he was covered in the man’s shadow. Dave turns around and looks up at the man who looked like a fat giant to the boy.
“Oh shit.” Dave said. The man then grabs Dave and drags him down the road and into the valley where the two other men are still talking but stop when Dave is dropped by the fire and tries to make a run for it before getting cut off by one of the men, who was tall with a skeletal face and short black hair, who Dave guested to be the leader of the men.
“And what have we here?” The black-haired man said looking down at Dave with a leer, seeming like all his dreams had come true when he spoke.
“Caught this one snooping Patrick.” The fat one said addressing the black-haired man whilst smiling like a simpleton. Patrick stepped forward looking curiously at the boy in front of him. And Dave, who doesn’t know what else to do stands up defiantly. Thinking that it was better than remaining on the ground. Although it made little to no difference as the leader of the group was a lot taller than he was.
“What did you see boy?” Patrick asked looking down, still with that cruel leer on his thin, rat like face. Although his expression changes to one of anger when he gets no response from Dave, who simply stands still, not saying anything. This act of defiance however, only leads to Patrick punching him right in the gut causing Dave to keel over clutching his stomach, and as the tears of pain and anger start to fall down his face, the two other men laugh.
But not Patrick who as the leader simply stares at the terrified boy with no emotion in his eyes whatsoever, all he does is silently kneels down, but when Dave doesn’t moves to look at him, he grabs a fistful of his hair and makes it so that he is on Dave’s eye level. As Dave screams whilst his hair is almost pulled out of his scalp by the sheer ferocity of the yank, Patrick continues to speak in his unnaturally soft undertone of a voice.
“You think that because you’re a kid, that we won’t hurt you?” Patrick continues with a sense of glee at the pain he was thinking of inflicting. The second man, who Dave had observed this Patrick talking to from his hiding spot a few feet away, chimed in ready to enjoy the sport his boss was planning.
“Hold his face over the fire. That should make him talk.” The second man said with glee, his fat moon coloured face starting to sweat with the excitement. But as Dave is picked up kicking and screaming by the third man, and his face is forced towards the hot flames, Patrick speaks up, addressing his two colleagues with ill disguised happiness.
“Wait.” Patrick said calmly, as if in his glee he had just come up with a new interesting idea for what to do next with their new play thing. The third man stops, and glances at his boss with a look of a particularly dim witted toddler. Failing to notice that Dave’s head was now about an inch away from the open flames, he was so close in fact that he could feel some of hair begin to singe off. Despite the discomfort however, the brief pause was more than enough for Dave to make his escape attempt. He bites down into his captures hand causing the man to drop Dave onto the ground howling in agony and clutching his bloody hand. However, before Dave can scurry more than a few steps the second man grabs him and unwittingly kicks his only recently healed ankle. Dave begins to struggle and add his own howls of pain to the din. But all of this was to no avail as Patrick walks up to him, smiling a genuine smile for the first time. “You’ve got balls kid; I’ll give you that.” Patrick said smiling and seeming genuinely impressed, although that did nothing for Dave’s situation as Patrick turns to the fat man holding the still struggling boy. “Take him with us. Our Lord Griefful always wants fresh kids for the cause.” Patrick finished smiling at the thought like he was living some great memory.
This didn’t translate to Dave, who after realising exactly what the leader of the group had said as the fat man started hauling the struggling and kicking Dave over towards the car, he tried the old trick of attempting to bite the man holding him, but that didn’t work as well as it only resulted in him getting hit in the back of the head, almost knocking him out cold.
But before the fat man could advance more than half way towards the black car, from above the scene, a gunshot rings out. Dmitri stands at the crest of the outcrop illuminated by the moonlight his gun raised. Before jumping down from the outcrop some ten meters below into the small valley to face the group. The man holding Dave drops the boy and Dave, scared out of his wits now backs up against a nearby rock, clutching his throbbing ankle but the adrenaline of everything that had happened was so far keeping most of the pain at bay.
“Looks like we have company lads.” Patrick said smiling before drawing a long knife as his two companions do the same reading themselves for whatever would happen next. Seeing this Dmitri only nods in an exhausted way, as if he feared a similar outcome to every other encounter with his old organisation.
As the small fight ensues with Dmitri, the former captain realises that these people were even less adept as the ones he had thought a few weeks earlier, with the fat man bellowing like a wounded animal and making it easy to anticipate when he charged like a bull towards Dmitri, who swiftly put him on the ground with an easy slash to the wrist. The third big man was slightly more difficult in the fact that he didn’t loudly announce to the entire world when he was going to charge but like the others, his lack of any form of armour made it an easy kill.
As Dmitri quickly and efficiently killed both of Patrick’s two companions with ease, only suffering a small wound to his cheek when the big man had gotten a swing at him, before being put down by the better armoured soldier. Before he turned his attention to Patrick, who unlike both of his cronies had not taken an active role in the fight and stood simply content to watch the scene unfold before going the fray.
“I’d advise you to just come quietly.” Dmitri said as calm as anything, although a few beads of sweat had started to appear on his forehead after the battle, but that was the only visible sign that he was tiring. In response however, Patrick looks at Dmitri and smiles his cruel smile before beginning to bite down on the capsule that was in his mouth.
Desperate not to be in the same situation as before, and determined to take one of these people alive, shot his opponents jaw, breaking it and stopping him from killing himself. Dmitri however, was not taking any chances as this tactic alone had not stopped one of his targets from committing suicide. And walking up to Patrick, he rips out the capsule for good measure, bringing a few of his teeth out in the process.
At this, having been mutilated and tortured, Patrick collapsed to the ground clutching his ruined jaw, as two of Dmitri’s BOT's arrive at that moment, having been summoned by Dmitri as he chased after Dave, and haul Patrick to his feet as Dmitri examines his own cheek, bring up some blood on his fingers but not seeming to bothered with it. Before returning to the main problem, and walked up to Dave who was still backed up against the rock and looks wide eyed and deathly pale at the scene in front of him.
“It’s alright kid, you can get up.” Dmitri said looking at the terrified youth with concern, Dave seeing that the danger had passed, gets up and hugs Dmitri, which took the former captain aback, and he looked slightly startled at this Dmitri, but pats the boy’s head in what he hoped was a reassuring way, whilst looking at the dead bodies of the two men that he had just killed and the one that he hadn’t.
“How did you know I was here?” Dave asked, he wasn’t upset by this fact as he had just been saved by the man, but he still wanted to know how Dmitri had managed to track him out here in the dead of night.
“I saw you leaving the house and decided to follow. Lucky for you I did.” Dmitri said, adding the last part as an afterthought. That certainly was the case though, as he was sure that what those men had planned for the eleven-year-old was not going to be good in the slightest.
Detaching himself from the trembling Dave, he walks up to one of the dead men and rips off a strip of cloth from the black cloak. Dave walking not far behind him, as if terrified to leave his side for fear of being attacked again. Dmitri didn’t mind this, having endured his own traumatic event at the same age, which now that he was examining the cloth by the light of the moon, was not the only similarity in both incidents. Before quickly turning to his BOT's.
“Take this man back to the manor and lock him up. I’ll question him later.” Dmitri said, he was determined now that he had a member of the secret organisation in his custody that this one would not get away as easily as his cowardly companions, who had chosen death over capture.
“Yes sir.” The BOT's respond, its red eye glowering down at Dave. Something about the way the BOT’s eyes were looking at him, made Dave feel like he was being X-rayed by the BOT. But Dmitri wasn’t done with his commands and the BOT returned to him.
“And don’t tell Alan yet.” Dmitri said. “Not until I’ve got the kid back. Understand.” Dmitri finished and looked over at Dave, smiling at the boy before turning back to his BOT’s, who each nod and begin to haul Patrick back towards the road.
Once on the road and heading back to the manor Dmitri turns to Dave, determined to find out everything he could about the kid’s newest hobby, thinking that he would be lucky if Dave would return to exploring the manor alone.
“How long have you been sneaking out for then?” Dmitri asked getting right to the chase and wanting there to be no misunderstanding about what he wanted to hear. For a moment, Dave doesn’t answer the question and fearing that the boy might still be in shock, Dmitri looks down at him, only to find Dave looking at the ground as they walked along the road.
“A few months.” Dave answers after the pause, seeming to come to his senses. This answer however, causes the furrowed brow on Dmitri’s face to get even larger in mild surprise. He had guessed that something was going on with the boy given how tired he had looked over the past few weeks, but nothing on this scale had crossed his mind.
“It's a miracle it has taken this long for something to happen.” Dmitri said, there was a harshness in his tone that he had not meant to be there. And he did feel slightly guilty for it being there as he knew what it was like to want to press on and explore when you are young. But that desire to be alone in the outdoors, had also cost him four years of his life, so he knew the risks far better than anyone else on this matter and that was the more important thing right now, as the last thing that he wanted was for anyone to have to go through the same experiences that he had been forced to go through.
“Normally I’m the only one out.” Dave said defensively looking up at Dmitri as he talked, that was the truth about it. For the entire time he had been leaving the manor by the moonlight. He had met nobody, saw nobody. That had been the reason he had come to the outcrop in the first place, he had seen the light and had been confused as to why people were this far from the city. Dmitri didn’t look cross after Dave had explained himself, just slightly concerned.
“You want my advice kid. Always take it as a given that there’s someone else out there.” Dmitri said looking around at the landscape as he spoke, it had been a miracle that something like this hadn’t happened sooner, as he knew the kinds of people that lurked in the hills and mountains, away from The Imperial City, and they were the kinds of people that even the corrupt police force would want to bring in. “That way you’ll never be surprised.” Dmitri finished as Dave nods in response before looking pleadingly at Dmitri.
“Please don’t tell my Dad… Or Vernon. About… About what happened.” Dave asked. Dmitri looks down at the boy for a moment before answering, thinking things through. The last time he had promised not to tell the adults of the manor something important regarding Dave, it had ended up with the boy gaining a broken ankle for his troubles. And this was a lot more serious than that excursion had been. All the same though, he knew that Dave probably had a good reason for keeping both Alan and Vernon in the dark, and based on that fact alone, and already regretting his decision, he decided to trust the boy.
“I won’t tell them kid. But only because you’re going to tell them eventually.” Dmitri said, adding that caveat as a way to keep his word, whilst also keeping Dave safe. As he would never have written the kid up in front of his father, but he also knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep a secret like this for too long. Dave looks down at the grown for a minute before asking the one remaining question on his mind.
“Why are we keeping him alive?” Dave asked looking at the figure of Patrick being dragged along in front of them. After all, the man had had no qualms about torturing and kidnapping him, only stopping when he was interrupted in his fun by Dmitri.
As Dmitri looked down at Dave, he could see the same anger that he had experienced when he finally managed to break out of The Answer’s clutches, and found people of the city unresponsive to his pleas for help. He therefore could relate to how Dave was feeling about the fact that he had not immediately executed Patrick on the spot.
On the other hand, he knew where that path led, and that was not something that he wanted the kid to go through.
“Because I have some questions for him. And a little revenge planned to boot.” Dmitri said before looking down at Dave with a smirk on his face. “For the both of us.” Dmitri finished, as the group continued in silence as the dark silhouette of the manor came into view.
