Akicita nocked a jet arrow, drew his compound bow, and let fly.
Pinned to the ground, a vicious black beast hissed and died. Its fur shifted colors, with neon streaks appearing as it breathed its last. Another creature took its place.
Akicita repeated the motions again and again. Blistering sun beat down on the brittle prairie grass around his feet while sweat dripped from his face.
Like darkness incarnate, the swarm of ebony Infected pressed closer. Jaws filled with needle-sharp teeth gaped. Piercing crimson eyes tracked Akicita's every move.
"Hah," he laughed breathlessly. He drew a long dagger and stabbed what used to be a hare. Now, it was a midnight caricature flashing carnivorous fangs and eerie red eyes. Akicita whirled and ran.
The swarm paused to devour their fallen fellows.
Spinning back, he shot at the closest Infected. He retreated another step, and another, firing as he went.
"A few more …" he gasped.
On the third step, his left foot sunk into a soft burrow. His ankle twisted; he fell backward. 'Don't scream.' His head slammed down on a rock, and his quiver emptied of arrows. Stifling a curse, he rolled away from the closing Infected. He dropped his bow and fumbled for his daggers.
'Just get to your feet!' His ankle betrayed him; he fell again. Prone, he swung a blade at a hellish ground squirrel.
"You don't have me yet," he snarled, rolling with his momentum.
It paused and cocked its head.
Akicita tumbled like a half-lame acrobat.
The squirrel didn't pursue and was joined by two more black beasts. They froze. In synch, they pulled their heads back at an unnatural angle and shrieked.
The sound stabbed Akicita's ears. An agonized scream escaped his lips. In the echoing aftermath, he pulled himself up. His injured ankle protested, but he ignored it.
In unison, the three remaining Infected pressed forward.
Akicita braced himself, but tension ate at his nerves. 'There's no sense in waiting here.'
Before he could commit, he heard an ululating cry on his right flank. A bush rattled on his left and instinct whispered; Akicita turned his head left.
A fox jumped out of the bush. Vermillion eyes met Akicita's. It surged toward him, fangs bared.
Akicita threw himself away from the Infected fox. He slashed at the new opponent.
Blood spurted from its face.
The fox fell back, half-blinded. In the opening, a ground squirrel latched onto Akicita's wrist.
Icy numbness crawled up his arm. He wrenched away, smashing the creature.
The squirrel sank its claws into his wrist.
The fox leapt at Akicita. Another squirrel tore at its wounded face.
Akicita stabbed the squirrel gnawing on him.
The fox shredded its small attacker. A solitary red eye turned back to Akicita.
Liquid fire poured through Akicita's veins, causing him to clench his teeth. 'Don't cry out — you'll only draw more!'
Red haze overlaid his vision as a shadow darted over him. A glint of gold flashed. A single shadowy wing obscured Akicita's sight as he succumbed to the darkness.
*****
Akicita burned. Cold hands tugged and pulled, clawed, and scratched. Weakly, he pushed them away. More returned. Sussurating voices crawled into his brain, carving their demands deep into his flesh.
"No, please, I'll be good. Don't …" The new voice cut through. It sounded strange — high and frightened.
Is that my voice? Is that how I sound? He shook his head, trying to break free.
"Will you indeed?" He knew that voice. His brain refused to associate a face with it.
But I know it. Akicita froze. The hands slowed until all but a few merely held his burning flesh. Those few stroked and petted.
"Such a pretty thing," the voice crooned. A shadow loomed. "And you will behave?"
Why can't I see his face?
More hands came, pressing harder and harder; Akicita drowned in cold hands but still burned. He struggled again — fighting, always fighting.
"Hey." A new voice. This one resonated. "Hey, boy."
A warm hand grasped his shoulder and shook it. Startled, he recoiled. His body refused to move.
"Don't touch me!" Akicita rasped. His voice was dark and rough in his own ears.
The hand released him. Akicita gulped air. Forcing blurry eyes to focus, he looked around wildly.
Dew glittered on brown stalks of grass, jutting tall against the rosy sky. A hint of frost nestled in the shadow cast by a lone tree. A small banked fire, surrounded by a wide swath of disturbed earth, flared under Akicita's frantic gaze.
"Calm down, boy. There is nothing to fear now."
Akicita looked back at the man in front of him. His dark skin gleamed in the sunlight, and his golden eyes stood out in stark contrast. Thin braids of black hair were bound up in a high tail. The flesh on his right arm and hand was shiny and runnelled like melted wax. Scarred or not, the hand's grip was sure on the haft of the sword. More hilts protruded from several sheaths strapped to the man's kneeling frame.
Akicita swallowed. He dragged his eyes off the naked blade and looked back up, finally noticing a black leathery wing. It arched defiantly above the man's left side.
"Who are you?" Akicita asked. "Where did you come from?"
The man grinned, flashing sharply-pointed white teeth. "I could ask you the same."
Akicita glared up at him, fighting off a flare of unease. The man remained kneeling and twisted the blade tip in the grass.
"I'm … Akicita."
"Aki …. cita," the man repeated as if savoring an unfamiliar spice. "Hmm. And how does Aki...cita come to be in this place, playing with a swarm of the Infected by himself?"
Akicita's temper flared. "I came here alone! And they attacked me! What was I supposed to do?"
"Hmm. Where does Aki …. cita come from? No traders here carry such an … odd weapon." The man waved to his left.
Turning, Akicita saw his bow, arrows, and daggers laid a row.
"My bow!" he cried. He tried to crawl to it.
The man made no move to stop him.
Akicita put weight on his left wrist. The arm collapsed. He yelped as his face smacked into the ground, and then groaned.
"Have a care. The Infected bit you before I arrived." The man's golden eyes scrutinized Akicita.
Akicita rolled to his side. He looked at the neat bandage on his wrist. "Then … you killed the fox?"
The man inclined his head without looking away. "The fox and a squirrel. Though you were ... adequate for the task of the rest of the swarm. If you had stopped them from summoning, you might have won free."
"Summoning," Akicita repeated. "That strange cry? "
"Indeed. Speed is essential when dealing with a swarm. It is common knowledge. What did your clan teach you?"
Akicita's laugh was bitter in his mouth as he turned his face back to the ground.
"So, Aki … cita. A stranger, who travels alone with a strange weapon, and, when bitten by an Infected, does not exhibit symptoms. Do I have it right?"
"No symptoms?" Startled, Akicita twisted back toward the man again. Rote knowledge sprang off his tongue. "Symptoms always appear between three and four hours after contact. I'll turn savage; you'll have to kill me long before then." A whisper of memory floated through his mind — a hard chair and a bored voice droning.
"You, boy, were unconscious, burning with fever, for a day and a half. If you were going to … turn … you would have done it long since. And so … you are a mystery. Aki … cita."
"Stop saying it like that! Who are you, anyway? Who runs toward a summoning scream, if everyone knows about it?" Akicita shouted. Rage flared and his head began throbbing. His vision tinged red, and he glared through the haze.
The man huffed a small laugh. "My apologies. I am Bilal. I travel and hunt the Infected, and I take other odd jobs as they come my way. Dealt with quickly, a summoning can mean a good reward from the locals."
Akicita kept glaring until his exhaustion caught up. He sighed and looked down. "I suppose you'll want something for helping me? What's your price?" His lips twisted at the bitter taste of the word.
"Hmm." Bilal seemed to ponder. "I have no need of gold; I am no merchant. Answers. Who is Aki—"
"Stop it! Call me Cita, okay?" Akicita cut Bilal off. "As for answers …."
Bilal arched an obsidian eyebrow, waiting.
"I want them too. I … don't know how I came here. And I don't know how I survived a bite from the Infected."
Bilal raised the other brow, considering. "Well, Cita. Let's find out."