Chapter XVIII

The Incident

After their adventures at The Mountain Base Inn, both Jack and Dave haul the still heavily intoxicated and out cold Dmitri through the door and onto a couch, as Barca closes the door. Where Vernon, Charlie, Abi, Jimmy and Brutus are waiting for them. It was clear, that whilst the house was big, it clearly hadn’t been designed with the likes of Brutus in mind. As he had to sit down most of the time, as otherwise his head would be bent down to stop it from colliding with the ceiling.

“What happened?” Charlie asked as she hurried over to check Dmitri, as she didn’t know how booze would react with his condition. Meaning that the captains little adventure at the inn this evening could have potentially shortened his life.

“He downed multiple shots in one go.” Dave said as he sat down on a chair sweating a lot as Dmitri was a lot heavier than he looked, and even with Jack helping him, it had been hard work carrying the wounded Dmitri back across the square to the house. “Black Walks to be specific.” Dave finished in and exhausted tone.

“Gods.” Charlie said, she knew the reputation of that particular drink and instinctively leans down and fells Dmitri's neck before withdrawing. “Well, he's still alive at least.” Charlie finished, as she stepped back relieved, that particular drink was known to have killed people at their peak physical health, which made her wonder why Dmitri had decided that that drink would have been the best one to take in his current condition.

“I know. I checked.” Jack said before looking around the room, where a lot of the people were looking at him curiously. Then remembering he still had a grin on his face from the news he had received. He took his leave and headed back out of the door, back in the direction of the inn.

“What in the gods name, has made the kid seem so happy?” Jimmy, said, from what little he had seen of the kid since leaving the manor, he had been mostly moody, although he did seem happier nowadays, it was odd to see him grinning like an idiot.

“I don’t know.” Vernon said with a curious look on his face, that statement however wasn’t entirely true however, as always, the old butler was able to make a pretty good guess at the situation, but he chose not to say anything just yet. That wasn’t his news to break after all.

“He doesn't look good. What happened after you left?” Brutus said as he turned the conversation back to Dmitri, who was still out cold, he had decided to stop by their house and intrude in their place, just as they had done to his. Not that they had seemed to mind the extra company.

“He was bitten by some animal.” Jimmy said, the missing leg still didn’t sit well with him, as he felt that anyone should have two legs, and it felt weird to see someone with only one and then a stump. And not a pretty stump as well, the cut had been crude and bits of rotting, blackened skin hung of the amputation.

“Mountain wolf by the looks of it, ripped his leg to shreds.” Barca said remembering the beast all to clearly, although if Dmitri hadn’t taken the lead in that instant, it would have been Dave who would have taken the full force of the beast. Which almost certainly would have killed the kid.

“Mountain Wolf, that means...” Brutus said, he knew what it meant but before he could finish. Charlie finished his sentence.

“...He doesn't have long to live, yes.” Charlie said sighing, and now with the alcohol in his system to boot, those days may be upon them much sooner than they would have wanted.

A few weeks had passed since Brutus had arrived and Jack had received the news that would seemingly change his life for ever. As it meant that his remaining here was no longer a question but a certainty. That past week however, Vernon had been unable to confirm his suspicions as he had hardly seen the kid, that was until this evening when he had been persuaded to return for one evening. But still he didn’t ask for Jack to confirm his theory, he wanted to ask him in private, as to not embarrass him in front of the rest of the group, and more importantly his younger brothers.

“Where is this inn that you were at. Patrolling these lands gives a man a thirst.” Brutus asked looking at the room at large, he had had little time to see the town as a whole since his arrival as the governor had kept him busy, patrolling the wilderness. It was also rumoured that he was going to be used to patrol the mountain passes as well, not that the wear-bear minded this task.

“Across the square.” Dave said simply and was thanked as Brutus clapped him on the back, damn near sending him crashing to the ground, causing Jack, Nick and Martin to laugh at his misfortune.

“Good man, I'll be down there until the early hours. Haven't had a good drink in months.” Brutus said as he walked out of the door and out into the clear night sky.

That evening found most of the group sat around the table eating, even Jack, who had been persuaded by Vernon to join them for at least one evening. It hadn’t been easy, but eventually Erika had managed to convince him to spend time with his family, whilst stating that she could look after herself for one evening. Vernon sighed at this thought, as he was now almost certain that they would be leaving him behind when the time came. As they continued to eat, Bruce rushes through the door, sweaty and out of breath, with a pale look on his face. Fearing the worst Codsworth gets up and does a mental head count around the room, but they were all there, other than Brutus, but he preferred to go out into the wilderness anyway.

“What is it?” Codsworth asked, as he couldn’t for the life of him think of the reason why Bruce would have run all the way here, since after all they were all accounted for. It took a few moments to get an answer as Bruce stands there clutching his chest gasping for air, before regaining his breath.

“Attack... At the inn.” Bruce said pointing out the open door, where voices could be heard moving away from the house and in the direction of the inn. It wasn’t the usual voices however, not those of people going for a last drink before turning in. it was hushed and wary. Hearing these words though, Jack, now the one who was fearing the worst, gets up and runs straight out the door, at break net speed. Followed by Codsworth and Charlie, the commander having only now realised the mistake in his calculations and with the young scientist wanting to be there for Jack if the worst had indeed happened, they were the ones after all who had asked him to be away from the inn this evening after all.

Already from this distance Jack could see that the entrance to the inn was already crowded as a group of around fifty people stand outside, looking down at the ground in front of them, a few looking up at gigantic from of Brutus. As Jack runs towards them and then pushes and shoves his way through the crowd, some making way willingly, others looking annoyed at the kid that was trying to push and shove his way through to the front. He found the person he was looking for and gave a sigh of relief.

Erika was sitting on the steps to the inn, with Brutus whose hands are soaked in blood standing next to her, and the corpse of Edvin Grimm, the same man who had assaulted Jack on the groups first days in this town, lying on the ground his throat ripped open. But that wasn’t all, as upon closer inspection. The man had almost been ripped in half, the man’s intestines were hanging out and part of his spinal cord was showing. However, the man’s head was the worse. Engraved onto it was the word ‘Rapist’ seemingly scratched into the man’s head.

As Jack comes running up to Erika, she gets up and he embraces her, just as Codsworth and Charlie catch up, slightly more warily than Jack had been as they moved more slowly through the crowds and saw the mutilated corpse. Codsworth almost retched at the sight of it before looking up at Brutus who only nodded at the commander. Jack on the other hand only had an eye for one person, and she was currently in his arms.

“Are you alright?” Jack asked, as he looked her up and down, before instinctively looked down at her stomach, before returning to her face. Erika nodded shakily before answering the question.

“I'm fine. That man... Came after me. Said I was mixing with the wrong people.” Erika said, looking down at the mutilated corpse. After she finished Jack looked up at Brutus who he now saw in an entirely new light. The wear-bear finished wiping the blood of his hands before telling his tale.

“The man insulted me and was preparing to assault this girl, she said she knew you. Couldn't let it slide.” Brutus said calmly, as if he had not just ripped a man almost in two. All things considered; the wear-bear new that it was almost a certainty that something like this would have happened.

He had entered the inn that evening with nothing on his mind, other than to wipe as much of it as possible with as much booze as he could get his hands on. That is when he had seen it, five men on one girl, that was when he saw red, and there had been no Dmitri to stop him this time. He had gotten up and walked over to the altercation, it was at that moment when the whole inn had turned around as the now dead man had lifted Erika up and put her lying down on the table.

If Brutus hadn’t seen red before, he did now. What he was pretty sure was about to happen was the vilest crime by his kind’s standards, worse than murder. Rape, or even in this case attempted rape, he had always been taught since he was a cub, was to be punished with extreme prejudice and so he had charged at the men, knocking the man’s four mates out of the way, and grabbing Edvin and hauling him off his feet.

Erika at that moment had seemed to sense that it was okay, as she got up and walked away from the scene, but unfortunately not quickly enough as Brutus had then proceeded to administer his justice. That was when she had collapsed and had woken upon by Karl Mo on the steps of the inn, along with its entire clientele. With Brutus standing above her, and in front of the pair, the wear-bear had dumped the ruined corpse of Edvin, which had almost made her want to pass out again.

“Thanks.” Jack said, looking up at the wear-bear with a newfound respect, whilst also kicking himself for not being there in person. Even as he ignored the rational part of his brain as it made the point that he would have been nothing more than an annoyance to these men and would have most likely been unable to stop the attempted rape. At the thanks Brutus merely nods, but his spirits are not lifted for long as Charlie comes over and puts and hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“Jack, we've got to leave this town.” Charlie said looking around at the faces around them, most seemed neutral, but others not so, these sculked away towards gods knew where, probably to go and round up their buddies. At this Codsworth concurred.

“She's right lad, word of this will spread. People will be comin after us now.” Codsworth said as he too, looked around and saw even more angry faces that Charlie had, whether they would act on their anger was so far unknown, but that didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t remain here any longer.

As Charlie drags Jack up to his feet, Brutus kneels down and picks up Erika and proceeds to carry the terrified girl back to the house, followed by Jack and Charlie, with Codsworth bringing up the rear, checking back every few paces to see if they were being followed.

After a few minutes, as they had doubled timed it back to the house, Charlie, Jack, Erika, Brutus came through the door, with Codsworth bringing up the rear, as the commander entered, he quickly closed the door and locked it behind him, for all the good it would do them.

“Barca, would you mind locking the rest of the doors.” Codsworth asked looking at the lieutenant who nodded, although the commander could see that he had his doubts. in truth though, he had his as well.

“Sure.” Barca said as he headed to the back of the house. Whilst thinking to himself that him locking the doors would do little to help if they were about to be attacked, as there were far too few of them to defend against and entire town.

“What happened?” Martin said, looking up from the couch, the seven-year-old wondering why they were being forced to stay in here if it was safe.

“I need you guys to hold the fort.” Codsworth said, he couldn’t have imagined a worse place to hold up in, but it was the only option they had right now, and he doubted that any of them would be here for much longer anyway. So, if the place did get trashed by an angry mob, they wouldn’t have to live in it for starters.

“Where are you going?” Bruce said, turning away from watching the back door, wondering why Codsworth would want to go back out there, if what he had seen back at the inn was true, he was not keen on these north-men, but understood if they were angry at them for ripping one of their kind quite literally in half.

“To see Mr McCoy, see if I can straighten this whole business out.” Codsworth replied as he unlocks the door and heads out, the mob hadn’t descended just yet, and he hoped that his meeting with the governor could stop that from happening. He and then locks the door again once he is outside and rushes to the town hall. As Charlie begins to explain to the rest of the group what had happened back at the inn, along with what she had scene.