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  The others nodded, so I pointed in the direction where the path slowly sloped down. "Then we go this way!"

  I started forward as the coeds collapsed in giggles. When I was sure none were looking, I glanced back to smile at Steve before turning back to start scanning the path ahead.

  Twenty minutes, then thirty, then more passed as the scenery changed little. The stand of berry bushes on the uphill side of the path grew thicker as we continued. The downhill slope to the right of the path gradually grew less severe, but soon had another thicket of bushes, walling us on the path. I increased my vigilance and pushed forward a bit more, worried about the fact that we had nowhere to run, should we encounter trouble.

  The others were straggling behind me a bit. The smoother path of the road was much easier on the feet of the ladies and the coeds were chatting rather cheerfully behind me. Occasionally I could hear William or Eddie try to insert himself into the chatter, but nothing seemed to be happening until the path made a leftward bend around a stone outcropping and I saw a scene of carnage ahead.

  I stopped immediately and scanned the area for movement and found none. Ahead the path split. One route continued directly ahead and continued down, the other branched off to the left in a near right angle and headed up a narrow valley between two ridgelines. However, it was what lay on the ground at the crossroads that had me halted.

  The coeds must have realized I had stopped, and I heard several gasp. Lying ahead of us were several bodies. Most appeared to be men, but one horse lay on the ground. The horse's corpse appeared to have pinned a knight of some kind because the man who had been riding was trapped under it, a lance still clutched in his right hand pointed directly into the air.

  Nothing was moving and I was about to walk the short distance forward to investigate when Steve suddenly was standing next to me. "Everyone has stopped just behind us," he said. "What is that?"

  "Let's see," I said and finally started forward. The bend had concealed the scene until we were only about sixty feet away. As I approached, I was surprised that there were no flies or other signs of scavengers. However, I did not let that stop my investigation. I started with the mounted man. I was no expert, but I did notice that there was not much blood. This was puzzling me until I heard Esme call out. "It looks like he was clubbed in the head. The horse was probably brought down, and he was clubbed while trapped under it."

  I looked down and found that both of the horse's front legs were broken. The situation made more sense. I started looking around. There were more than twenty other corpses in the area, and evidence suggested that other bodies had been dragged up the side path.

  I decided to kneel down and look at the body of the knight. He was wearing armor made up of linked rings of metal. It fit tight against his shoulders and chest. Over that he had thrown a gray cloak. The man had brown hair that was stained with blood where the right side of his skull had been caved in by a heavy blow.

  The cloak had no visible bloodstains on it, although there was a dirty misshapen footprint on the part that was lying in the ground. Steve gasped in surprise as I reached around the man's neck and carefully started to remove the cloak. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

  I looked right at him and then waved my hand around the crossroads. "I know it goes against modern American principles, but here and now, we need the clothing and weapons, and it's pretty clear that these men won't be using them anymore. I figure we should grab what we can quickly."

  "But it's..." Steve said. He then stopped and gazed off in thought. Lydia came up and looked at him.

  "He's not sure he wants to do it?" she asked.

  I had removed the cloak and tossed it to Lydia before noticing that there were several bags hanging from the saddle on the dead horse. I started tugging at these and found two were full of liquid while the others contained dried fruits and meats. "Well, we are grave robbing in a way, even if these men haven't been buried. But we need everything and they don't."

  "I'm surprised that whoever attacked them left the bodies almost untouched," Lydia commented as she accepted the bags from me.

  "I don't think they left them all untouched," Heather said, causing Lydia and me to look at her. She was standing near the trail that led up the gully and looking at some marks on the ground. When she noticed our attention, she pointed at the marks. "Something big was dragged away."

  I looked down at the horse. "You don't think there were more horses?" I asked.

  Heather knelt down and looked more closely at the ground. "I don't know. I've never been camping or anything. There are marks here that don't look like footprints though. Maybe another horse?"

  I looked over to where most of the group had gathered. "Anyone know anything about tracking?" I called out.

  Silence was the response. Eddie and William pointedly looked away. When no one responded, I glanced at the hedge on the downhill side of the path. "How about someone check the hedge for any openings. I get a feeling we might want to get off the road."

  Natalie moved along the edge of the thicket, carefully pushing against some of the branches. Once she had started moving, I looked down at the body. A quick scan of the body revealed one small pouch tucked into the man's belt. When I pulled it out from under the leather, I could hear a clang as if the pouch contained several handfuls of metallic coins. I slipped the pouch into one of my back pockets and then moved over to one of the other corpses.

  The corpse I approached was a man lying on his face. He had another gray cloak on his back, and was holding a spear in his right hand. I could see no wound, but the cloak had fallen so that his right hip was visible, and the ground underneath that spot had a brownish-red tinge unlike the light tan of the rest of the ground.

  My first move was to try to take the spear. Unfortunately, the dead man's hands were stiff and I finally had to resort to breaking two of his fingers before I could slide the spear free. Once it was free, I paused for a moment to look at it.

  The spear was about six feet long, including a blade of some five inches or so. The shaft was well over an inch in diameter and had a surprisingly solid feel. However, just the one spear was not all the group needed and I set it down. Then I reached around the corpse's neck to free the cloak.

  My hands were shaking a little as I fumbled with the brooch holding the cloak. Part of me expected the corpse to reach out and grab me. But my fears were unfounded, and a moment later I slid the cloak from the corpse, pulling it away from the body.

  As the cloak came free I discovered that the man had been wearing a pack underneath it. The rolled up fabric at the top was clearly some kind of sleeping pad. The rest of the pack felt solid and full. Immediately, I thought that this might prove to be quite valuable. I tried to lift it off only to discover that the left shoulder strap was wedged in under the corpse's stiffened arm and hand.

  I looked around to see Lydia and Steve working on removing the cloak from another corpse. Nat was standing near a spot in the thicket and waving. I was about to turn to find Heather when she shouted. "I found what looks like a trail. Probably a route deer or antelope use. We'll have to crawl at first, but the thicket is only about twenty feet deep here."

  "Everyone, gather by the entrance to the thicket path unless you are going to help grab stuff. Esme, come get this cloak!" I shouted and then threw all my weight and strength into lifting the pack off the corpse's back. The right shoulder strap slid free immediately, but I found myself lifting the body entirely off the ground by the left shoulder until the weight broke through the body's stiffness. There was a loud crack as the shoulder dislocated. I fell backward holding onto the pack as the body fell to the ground.

  I stumbled for a moment and then straightened up, holding the pack. It was surprisingly heavy and I knelt on the ground to set it down. The corpse had rolled over and I heard Esme gag as she approached to grab the cloak. "What happened to him?" she asked.

  I stared at the torso, which had a huge gash through the leather jerkin and a number of sausage
-like tubes protruding from the hole. I was no expert, but from the brownish ooze coming from the tubes it appeared that the man had been disemboweled in the fight. "I don't know, but I don't want that to happen to me," I whispered.

  Esme said no more, but did throw the cloak over her shoulders and fasten it. It covered her down to below her knees and she smiled. "Much warmer. Get more for the others." She then dashed over to where Natalie stood before looking back at me.

  I shrugged and turned to find another nearby corpse. There was another man lying on the ground just ten feet away, so I picked up the pack and walked to him. Much like the other man, he was lying face down, but this man was missing most of his scalp and the ground around there was stained the same reddish-brown as the ground under the other man's hip. "At least the blood of these men is red," I muttered as I set the pack down and began to work on the man's cloak.

  I had just gotten it off and was standing up to stretch when Heather walked up. "I can take the cloak," she told me. I looked at her to find that she was still wearing my sport coat over her bikini top, but was now carrying several cloaks.

  "No weapons?" I asked.

  Heather shook her head. "I've checked. Several of the corpses have some kind of leather sleeve attached to their belt, but it's always empty, and a couple might have had bows, as there are broken arrows on the ground next to them, but no bow or quiver."

  I nodded as I looked down at the pack on the corpse. "Those that killed them took the weapons they wanted, but left the bodies. Almost as if they wanted them found eventually."

  Heather said nothing more, but walked over to the group of coeds and others who remained standing near the thicket. She handed out cloaks to the others and then stood there waiting. As she did, I examined the corpse again. To my surprise, I did find a small dagger with a six-inch blade wedged under his pack. I pulled that out, fitting it into my own belt and then went to work removing the pack.

  I ended up fighting with the corpse for several moments until I finally could pull the pack away from him. This time, the final separation was accompanied by the crack of bones breaking and when I finally staggered away to add the new pack to the spoils, the left arm of the corpse was folded over the back of his neck. Eddie snarled something, but I ignored it as I struggled to pick up the spear and the first pack I had taken. Once I had everything in my arms, I made a slow progress over to Lydia and Steve, who were standing next to one corpse, staring at the ground.

  Neither said anything as I walked up, so I looked down. Immediately I had to swallow a gasp of horror and surprise. The corpse was of a short and stocky man, perhaps only four feet six tall, but probably two hundred pounds of solid muscle. He was wearing elaborate armor made of metal scales that had runic inscriptions on it. The face had probably once been bearded, but someone had taken a knife to his chin and cut the skin away, leaving a raw bloody wound revealing the jawbone.

  Steve noticed me. "He's not human."

  "Nope," I sighed. "I've heard of dwarfs in worlds of fantasy, but never thought I'd encounter one. How many like this?"

  "Four," Lydia replied. "Him and the trio over there," she said as she pointed to the far side of the crossroads, where three more heavily armored corpses lay. "All have had their face cut, but nothing else. Why?"

  "Like scalping, I'd guess. Don't all story dwarfs have beards?" I asked. "Meanwhile, what have we found in the way of weapons? I see Heather gathered lots of cloaks."

  "Sixteen cloaks," Steve said. "I have one pack, and you have the two. I did find an axe. It's definitely not primarily for cutting wood with the spikes on it. I think Lydia found a knife."

  "Spikes? On an axe?" I asked.

  Steve held up the axe. It had a large single blade. The tip ended in a sharp point and behind the shaft there was another large spike. It looked lethal.

  Lydia coughed. "In addition to the knife, I found a leather sleeve that contains some rods that look like arrows, but nothing like a bow, just this strange device." She held up a metal and wood contraption that had a stock much like a rifle, but instead of a barrel had a wavy piece of metal at the end. A loose metal wire connected the two ends of the crosspiece. I held out my hand and she handed it to me.

  I started my examination by holding it much like I figured a man would hold a rifle. Immediately I found a large wooden lever underneath. I examined the top part of the device to find a strange metal piece just above the lever. It swiveled easily for a moment, but then locked into place. When it did, there was grooved slot on top and the piece facing me had another groove about the size of the wire. I pondered for a moment and then gasped. "A crossbow."

  "What?" Steve asked.

  "They had them on Earth. You occasionally hear about them if you study the Dark Ages of Europe. They are much slower than a bow, but supposedly they require much less training to use. This must be one."

  "But it doesn't look like a bow. The string is loose," Lydia complained.

  I shrugged, but Steve was nodding. "No it doesn't, but that might be to make it travel better. I remember years ago I took an archery class. One of the instructions was to unstring the bow when not using it, so the wood kept its spring longer. I'm sure that it's just unstrung."

  I handed the whole thing back to Lydia. "It might be a good find, once we figure it out," I said. "Now... ."

  Before I could say more, a huge crash echoed through the area. The sound came from up the side path and we all froze, as something seemed to approach. The crash of breaking branches and leaves was angry, and I pointed towards the group standing at the entrance to Nat's path. "Go!" I shouted. "Go, go, go, go!"

  Eddie and William were the first into the hole, but the entire group streamed into the passage and out of the intersection. I let Lydia and Steve lead as I slid the spear into the straps of one of the packs and then followed, ducking my head to avoid the thorns on the bushes.

  I could hear the others crashing through the thicket, but it was clear they were trying to hurry quietly. Most of the crashing and cursing was coming from far ahead of me. I just concentrated on pushing the two packs in front of me and listening for the approach of whatever had been crashing through the forest. My distraction nearly had me tumble to the ground as one of the packs suddenly started to fall in front of me. I hastily grabbed it with my left hand and kept it from falling. It took several moments of silent strain before I lifted the pack back and could look ahead.

  The thicket had come to an end, as the path ended at a sheer drop. To my right, a stone ledge sloped downward at a rather sharp angle. I could see Steve almost fifty feet ahead of me on the sloped path. He had stopped and was looking to his left. From the way he started to move, it appeared that the path had a switchback.

  I set the packs ahead of me again and started a crawl down the slope. The leather packs pulled at me, but the rough ground kept them from gaining any momentum. It was a struggle against gravity and my own fatigue to cover the fifty feet, but I finally reached the switchback as the noise behind me started to become clearer. I had just made the drop from the original ledge to the one leading back towards the thicket when I could hear voices at the crossroads.

  "Fuck! What is this?"

  "Some bloody battlefield! Looks like some little men got beat up!"

  "Damn, what should we do?"

  "Search them. Strip the bodies of everything."

  "What?"

  "You heard me! Take everything. It's not like they are going to rise up and hit you with a lawsuit."

  I realized I recognized the last voice from the clearing. It seemed that we had been fleeing the other group. However, before I could decide what to do, the voice called out again. "Shit, someone's already been here. Look at the footprints, those aren't from any boots."

  "That other fucking group! I'm sure that conman William or that bitch Liz is in charge by now. If I find those two, I'm going to kill them. It's their fault I ended up in the damn elevator!"

  "Kill all the men. They got all the cute women."
<
br />   "What about the women?"

  "We keep them. They'll need a man. We just won't let them refuse, just like that Lisa. She's going to regret not going with us."

  I slid my free arm into the straps of each pack and carefully lifted them to my shoulders. The weight was staggering, but I was able to crawl down the switchback and then continue on at a slow pace. Behind, the voices rose and fell as the other group began looting the bodies. At first the voices made it sound disorganized, but the voice of the dominant man who had organized the group soon took over and began issuing instructions. Before I reached the end of the trail, he had the group working systematically and searching each body thoroughly.

  The path had not curved again until I was far from the entrance to the thicket. I looked back and could see that I was now more than one hundred feet below the road and about three times that distance beyond it. The path itself had emptied onto a small clearing next to a stream. The natural curve of the land had created a small dam to the right and there was a pool of clear water on the far side of the clearing.

  Ahead I could see most of the group lying down on the grass. Steve saw me arrive and waved me over. I crawled the last few feet and then collapsed, letting the packs fall to the ground.

  Lydia came up to join us. "I can't believe we just ran from the other group," she sulked.

  "Did you hear them?" Steve asked with a snort. "I can't say all of them are scum, but it sounds like their leader would have happily killed Ron and me and raped you and the other ladies."

  "Not sure Elizabeth is a lady," a voice said behind me. I turned to find Heather walking up, carrying several cloaks. She smiled and held them up. "Need one?"

  I looked up and realized that between the hiking and the search of the battlefield, the light was starting to fade from the sky. "It's that late?" I asked.

  Heather nodded. "Darkness is definitely coming soon. It's just as well; we're all dead on our feet from fatigue and stress. You haven't paid attention, but just about everyone stopped talking during the hike to the battlefield. I know I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Right now, I need a bit of food and then some sleep, but we should probably try to start a fire, if anyone knows how."