It was like the Little Men were the protagonists of a video game, and the members of Charlie’s ambush force were just the NPCs designed to be fodder.
The scene was a slaughter; one Charlie couldn’t bear to think about as her squad fell to the vicious wrath of the Little Men. They fought with small swords that tore through her friends like wheat.
She wasn’t sure why the monsters had left her for the time being. She was sure they would come back for her once they were done. The smart thing to do would have been to run for it. Flee back to New Hobart with her tail between her legs. But she couldn’t abandon the team she’d put together, even if she remained completely paralysed, doing nothing to help.
Charlie’s body told her to leave, to head back past those blocked drains near Northcote Circuit and save herself. Her mind told her to stay and fight – after all, the captain goes down with the ship. Torn between them, all she could do was watch as her foolishness resulted in lives lost.
How could she ever forgive herself for this?
Charlie fell to her knees as the last of her squad collapsed. Why had life been so cruel to her? She wished she’d gone on a different path. Why couldn’t she have lived a simple life, completing something like drain unblocking? Essendon would have been her location of choice, up in Victoria. Close to the airport, plenty of drains to unblock to keep her life busy.
Instead she was here.
Footsteps approached, and Charlie looked up to find the Little Men standing before her.
“We will spare your life, raider scum,” said one of them.
“Your people have terrorised New Hobart and the Tasman Wastes for too long,” said the other. Return to your leader, and tell them that we are coming for the Ivory Skull. Once we are done, the people of this land will be free from villains like you.”
With that, the tiny figures sprinted off, into the dark depths of the sewers, leaving Charlie only with a dozen bodies and a conscience heavy enough to drag her down into the murky waters.