Slaying demons, p.10
Slaying Demons, page 10
part #2 of Damsel Series
Not that she understood why that was. In the end, it was probably down to the idea that real people wouldn’t be helped that much, if they knew that a killer form of magic was taking people out, rather than a virus. She didn’t love hiding things like that, but was willing to go along with what people with more experience told her to do. Not blindly, but the truth was that she, Hannah de Peyser, wasn’t really needed in the world saving portion of things.
So she tried to focus on what she could do, given her skills. Getting food for people from large corporations, and setting up extra exposure for them, on the show. That, it was decided, would be done by sending crews out to the offices in the city, or other locations, instead of bringing the men and women out to camp with them. Connie thought it would add contrast and show that Hannah was actually doing something other than whining and complaining constantly.
She grinned at that, when it had been said. She honestly doubted that she was going to be looking good, when the show came out. There were only three people on the screen so far, after all, and Kate was the star of the show. Max was the survival expert... That meant she was the one who had to look bad. Stupid and inept, if not truly making life harder for everyone else.
Still, when it was time for lunch, instead of eating, they were taken out on a ten-mile hike. A thing that she was given clean socks for, even if her shoes were the same pair she’d tucked her feet in the day before. The forty-four made a lump under her clean, tight, t-shirt. That was a strange thing, with lace around the collar and cuffs, in a decent salmon color. The jeans she had were old though and nearly fit the location. In short, she seemed unprepared for what was going on. The large folding blade slide into her front left pocket, well enough, at least.
She also had an emergency transponder on her waist, because Max had insisted they all carry one on them, at all times, if they were outside of camp. It might have been cheating, but none of them wore masks while walking. A lot of it was up hill, and doing that made it too hard to get enough air, so they risked dying of the new plague. Not that birds and squirrels were going to pass that to them. She didn’t think they could pass that along, at least.
Then, what she didn’t know about magic was vast and varied.
Still, her daily hour to hour and a half of funny walking, done at good speed, meant she was keeping up with Kate and Max pretty well. It was the crew who struggled to keep up, for once. Then, Eric had to run ahead, setting up shots, to show them walking up, every few miles. It made the whole thing take a lot longer than it should have, if they were just walking. As if to prove they weren’t in a park, even if they were making noise, they nearly walked into a cow moose, who was on the hiking trail they were using.
Hannah froze, on seeing it, her right hand held up, to get the others to stop, since she was the first to see it. The thing was huge, compared to what she would have imagined it being like. It’s back was higher than her head, and it didn’t have any horns, or antlers. There was a baby with it, which meant that Max went wide eyed and waved them back, a bit frantically. Eric tried to get video of it, and the little one, as the rest of them moved away. Hannah, not knowing what the danger was, other than wild animals, moved in and pulled Eric by the arm, gesturing for him to be silent, as she did it. That didn’t really work, the man shrugging her off, not seeing who was doing it.
“You’re screwing up my shot.”
The words had the bigger of the two animals turning to look at them, even as Eric was pulled away by force. The animal didn’t charge them, but it did huff, and walked over, warily. Scared, Hannah pushed the camera man behind her, losing track in her head of what anyone else was doing. She drew the gun on her side, fighting with the tight shirt and calmly put the safety to the off position, pushing it up with her thumb. Then she moved into a cradle stance, turned to the side and used the red holographic sight to focus on the right eye of the moving beast.
Shaking a bit, she spoke. To the animal, as if that made any sense.
“Sorry there. We aren’t a danger to you or your little one. We’re just out for a walk here. Why not go the other way and we’ll do the same? No need for this to be a problem.” She held her ground and the animal, seeming almost confused, stopped, then stared at her for well over a minute. She didn’t move, and neither did it. Not until it suddenly turned and walked away, collecting its child up, another joining them, from off to the right of where Hannah stood. Then they vanished, making the forest rustle a little bit, as they did it, moving to the right, off the trail.
Blinking, not really certain it was safe at all, Hannah put the weapon away, after engaging the safety. Connie came up then, everyone else following her.
“Please tell me you got that, Eric?”
The blond guy nodded.
“Hell yeah, I did! I don’t know how it will look, what with all my shaking and nearly wetting my pants, but I have it.”
Max moved up, looked in the direction the animals went and then tilted his head.
“We need to hurry and be careful. Those are probably the only moose in the area, since the cows move away from the bulls and it’s not mating season. We don’t want to go up against a mother moose with only a pistol or two. I should have brought a long gun. We’ll do that from now on. You can use that, Hannah?”
She nodded, since she’d had some training on that kind of thing.
“A bit. It’s not my everyday carry, so I’ve only put in a few range hours with that kind of thing in the last month.” She didn’t think that would be impressive, but everyone except Kate looked at her as if she were saying something insane.
Only Max seemed happy to hear about it.
“Good. I have three with me. Right now, we need you to take the rear, and I’ll cover the front, just in case they come back. We need to make noise. Sing or something.”
Hannah grinned at the words, since she could carry a tune, but only just that. Kate on the other hand was actually good that way.
“You’re up then, friend of mine.”
Blushing a bit, Katie started singing, it was a sweet and loud version of an old eighties’ song. Overkill. Hannah had to grin at the lyrics, when they were changed a bit.
“Moose appear and fade away...”
Then, when that was done, she joined in for the chorus of the next song, going off key several times. It wasn’t nearly as good as what Kate managed alone. Still, by singing, alternated with talking loudly and rattling constantly, they managed to get back to the camp, not stopping to set up any shots until they were across the stream, near the two new lean-tos, which were set up on the back side of the little cabin.
Then, since it was obvious that they had limited time to get things going, Hannah led Kate into the woods, where they collected enough fire wood for the night, and Kate took a turn starting a fire, using a bow drill. That took a while to make happen, but she didn’t give up. Even if it was clear she felt a bit frustrated by the time the thing started.
“I did it! Yay, me!”
Hannah clapped, with Max looking on, bemused at their antics. Then they had to make food for everyone. That night they were cooking fish, on sticks. Tiffany had managed to drive into town and bought that, enough for everyone, at a local grocery store.
It was frozen, but still had the heads on them.
They managed to lose two of them, in the fire, which Hannah snagged out of the thing with a stick, not wanting another burn. Her arm was feeling a bit better, but the bubbled flesh there with cuts under it, had been showing all day. No one had asked about it, even if it was clearly a thing and not her having been cutting herself for fun or to test out her ability to end her life.
She rolled her eyes, since she didn’t doubt who was going to be stuck eating the ash covered fish. That, it turned out, was actually not a real point, since by the time they had them all cooked, half of them had gone into the fire. Not enough to ruin them, but a lot of people had extra charcoal tasting fish that night. Still it was better than starving and while it could have used some lemon, it wasn’t horrible. They also had salad with it, and some bread, from the remains of the loaf that had been part of breakfast.
Max simply ate his portion, with its ashy covering, without comment. Kate grumbled a little bit, but Hannah just smiled a lot.
“Don’t whine yet. We didn’t even have to catch it ourselves. We’re out here for over a month, so you know that’s going to be happening. I need to get some animal furs to dress in and sharpen a stick into a spear.” She seemed playful, at least to her.
Kate actually giggled.
“No doubt! So far my biggest personal worry is that I don’t know what’s going on in the world. I feel totally isolated, even sitting here with you. So, what’s the plan for the night?”
Max looked up at the sky, pointed to the horizon and wrinkled his nose.
“Getting ready for that storm? It’s heading this way. The lean-tos won’t hold to that, at a bet. I’ll show you what to do for that. We need to hurry, and finish eating first. You won’t be holding a fire through that.”
The idea that they weren’t just going to hide in the trailers seemed ridiculous to her, for a moment. Especially since they couldn’t really capture it all on camera, being in the dark and all that. She nearly mentioned it, then sighed.
After all, it was the perfect kind of thing to get for the show.
“We’ll need lights. I can keep a cam with me, as I shiver and get rained on, all night. This will be fun, I don’t doubt. I nearly froze to death last night and it wasn’t even that cold. Not wet, either.” She wasn’t pleased with the idea, but knew she had to do it.
Mainly because she really didn’t want to. Being strong was probably going to be like that for her, for a long time. A thing she had to make herself do, to prove to herself that she wasn’t being weak.
Connie didn’t even act impressed, just waving to one of the others.
“Darnel? Pull camera six and make sure it has charged batteries. One of the water tight lights, as well. Show Hannah how to use that. Eric, you’re on watch for her, until you can’t have the equipment outside any longer. Lewis, Tiffany, I want full coverage on Kate. Then we get her inside one of the trailers for the night.”
That was a bit brutal sounding, but Hannah got the idea. It was a great idea to show her suffering, but if Kate got sick, they couldn’t just replace her with a prettier and smarter socialite, since she was the title character. If Hannah went down, then they had two other girls, who had each had more exposure in season one than she had, to work with. Both of them were more interesting to watch than she was, as well.
Max let them finish eating, but spoke to her, then, with Kate following, ignoring the others, almost totally. As if, to him, being on television didn’t matter at all. It was refreshing to notice that, for her at least.
“This is good experience, but don’t be too proud to head inside if you have that option and it becomes needed. We need to shore up one of the lean-tos. There’s no way you can do that in time, if you have to make ten trips from the woods. So how do you get that going?”
She thought, for half a second, then shrugged.
“We can use the material from the other lean-to and the pile of things from yesterday? How do we do that?”
The answer was, as it turned out, poorly. They layered things as well as possible, tied it all down and wove branches together, then tied it again, using heavy string that Max had in his things. A lot of it. After that, the space inside was nearly filled with pine branches.
“You’re going to be wet, and you probably won’t really be able to sleep. Make a pile of branches, as deep as you can to sit on, then use the rest to bury yourself in. It won’t be comfortable or cozy, but it might keep you alive. We have the option of better clothing? Take it. Wrap up in something that will help you stay dry. A tarp or blanket, if we can’t find you rain gear.”
She just worked, as the wind picked up. When she had the inside of the little branch and string hut filled with more greenery, she rummaged through the kitchen supplies and found a couple of garbage bags, which she rather ruthlessly stole. Those were wrapped around her, with one of them being opened and turned into a poncho, using her knife to make a hole for the head and some slits for arms. The rest were placed around her in a way that had to look ridiculous. Not that she cared.
For a moment, until Darnel brought her a camera, and a waterproof light, she’d actually forgotten that she was doing a television show, and not just trying to survive the storm. As the rain started, everyone but Eric vanished inside, with Kate doing it a bit reluctantly. Seeming worried, for her. Then, the woman was smart. She got something that no one else there probably did.
As Hannah buried herself in pine branches, she explained what was happening with her, in that moment. She spoke to the camera that was propped up next to her.
“This, being buried alive, is pretty close to the worst fear I have. I am not having fun here. I better live, or I’m so going to haunt someone.” In that moment, she meant it. That would probably be Connie, of course. Everyone else was just working there. The woman was backing her silly play up though, for ratings.
Once she was covered, except for her face and part of her head, she went on, the light next to her showing that the world outside was getting very damp, incredibly quickly. The branches over her were actually keeping most of the downpour out, for the time being. Which she commented on.
“Not that the dryness will last. The wind is getting kind of intense.” She started to shake, but was just honest about that part.
“Don’t worry, this is just mortal fear, not hypothermia setting in. I’m decently warm. It isn’t even the storm scaring me yet, just being buried like this, in a small space.” She gasped for a while, but didn’t start crying.
Even if she was terrified.
That did get worse, when the wind threatened to pick her little structure up and scatter it. At the same time, the thunder and lightning rattled her to the bone. She held firm in the face of that, trying to seem glib.
“If I die... Kate has to take over the food bank project. We need to make sure people have food, right now. Also, guys, all of you helping with that, thank you!” She listed the names of companies, mainly because that, the idea of her thanking major corporations for self-serving charity work was funny to her. Especially if she ended up dying from a lightning strike. After a few tense hours, that threat moved on, and so did the worst of the rain, and as dawn broke, the wind did as well.
It meant that she was up and out first again. This time, getting a fire started was almost impossible though. Everything, nearly, was soaked through. She had to head to the woods, and dig under logs and downed trees to find anything at all useable. Most of that was damp enough it was hard to get started. Cheating or not, she went and got a match, as Eric came out, to watch her do it. The man didn’t call her on her lazy ways, not starting the fire using a bow drill.
She still had to use five matches, and then blow for half an hour to have a blaze that didn’t threaten to go out immediately. This time everyone was out by the time she was getting the water, which meant she had help, from Kate, who had makeup on already. She looked to have had a chance to clean up already as well.
Hannah literally had sticks in her short blonde hair, and, she was pretty certain, pine needles in the crack of her behind. She was warm enough though, and still wearing her hobo rain coat. A thing she decided to keep, for the rest of the show. It had, probably, saved her life, after all.
Then, with Kate doing half the work, they got something going for breakfast. That day it was vegetable stew, from several large cans. That and cowboy coffee.
Everyone else acted like the storm the night before was a minor enough thing. Hannah felt differently on the matter, but smiled and was friendly, even if she felt ready to drop from exhaustion. Being weak, after all, wasn’t an option, that day.
Chapter seven
Hannah was grumpy as fuck and was about to take it out on someone else, when the police truck pulled up. They didn’t have lights on, and weren’t speeding, but when the man driving got out, not wearing a face mask, he seemed upset. Like he was about to start screaming at them for taping a show, out in the middle of nowhere.
His voice though, was firm, but not aggressive, when he spoke.
“Hey, folks. We have a missing child. Lost in the storm last night, as far as we can tell. Her parents and an uncle were camping about five miles south of here. Have any of you noticed anything?” He seemed worried, which made sense. That storm was intense enough that Hannah didn’t want to do it again.
Connie waved at the man, to get Lewis to covertly get him on camera.
Kate spoke, walking forward, but staying about ten feet back, for social distancing purposes.
“No. At least I haven’t. Um...” She went very still then, grimaced and closed her eyes. Then she glanced at Hannah. “We’re shooting a television show here. Life of Kate. Reality T.V. The thing is, I have a contact, a real psychic, who specializes in finding people. If we can get the girl’s name, just the first name, we might be able to help locate her? I can’t promise anything. Regardless, if there’s a search, I’m in.”
That was firm enough that Connie groaned.
“Well, there goes today then. Crap.”
Hannah nodded, but then spoke, ruining any chance of having Connie be her secret friend for the next month.
“Don’t be a bitch. A little kid is lost...” The truth was that the studio already had footage of her using her weak and not really a super power psychic ability. Having that twice wouldn’t really mean much, given that. “I’m the contact who’s been learning to find people like that. Even if it doesn’t work, I’m in on the search, too. I won’t leave some kid out here alone.”
