Druantia: Shari’s Freedom Fight (Shari vs. Carla)
By Wyldewood

Two hundred years ago, when the viral weapons were let loose that almost destroyed the world, no one would have guessed that the two small sleepy towns of Holopaw and Rocky Pond in Florida was worth even stopping in except perhaps for gas and a quick snack from an old style country store. Each boasted a population of just a few hundred and the only real border between then was a highway that saw only a moderate amount of traffic as people chose more modern and larger highways to get where they were going quickly. It was a very rural area, and its remoteness had been its salvation and eventual emergence as the new Southeastern Territory seat of power, as the outbreak of the viral infection had almost completely missed the towns.
The specifics of the how or why have been lost over the years but, suffice to say, this safe area was eventually discovered and soon grew as those deemed safe health wise sought refuge there and as the population grew so did the area’s influence. The two towns merged in to one called New Hope Pond or just New Hope and when civilization collapsed it emerged first as the new capital of Florida and eventually for what was left of the southeastern part of the former United States, that would eventually reform in to what was now called the Southeast Territory.
It was to this capitol city’s arena that the captured Amazon soldier Shari found herself sent to, locked away in the deepest part in a series of damp and dank caves and chambers hollowed out of the stones, the only known exits being out a steep stairwell that captives came down but never went up, and via a spiral ramp that was heavily secured and protected that led to the Arena area. Here the most dangerous and deadly women were sent, condemned to fight in the arena until they died in combat, and Shari found herself thrust in it, her heavy manacles removed at the base of the steps in a small chamber with several weapons drawn and pointing at her from several sides except out the door to the area. If she tried anything one or two guards might die with her, the other weapons held by the others would without a doubt be in her body by then and her life forfeit. Shari had enough sense to know this was not the time to fight or try to escape and allowed herself to be put in the complex. The heavy steel door thudding closed behind her and massive bolts and bars closing from the other side, essentially announcing her fate was sealed to all.

Shari would soon discover close to forty chambers made up the main part of the complex, each could sleep two comfortably in the chilly place, but with barely a couple dozen women down there condemned like her. Each had their own room, and most of the other rooms remained empty. They were not the only rooms there however, a trio of tunnels led to deeper areas where light almost didn’t exist due to poor maintenance, and no one essentially went that way as there was no need to. Her first three weeks before she even saw herself in an arena fight were rough ones as she found herself in fights against some of the other women in there determined to establish her place in the proverbial pecking order. By the time her first arena fight had come and gone, she had managed to establish herself in the fifth highest ranked place among them; three others had in fact beaten her to keep their positions above her. The other she found herself matched against in her first arena fight and she was the first ranked among them and Shari almost died in the arena at her lethal hands, the guards coming in force to separate them and keep them both alive as it was not a formal death match.
Little did Shari realize as she was led back below to have her injuries attended to prior to being sent back down to the caves that two people were watching her with a great deal of interest, their names were Carla and Judy. Carla had indeed been quite busy since their return from the Bahamian isle with just the name and description of Tonya and with Shari as her prisoner, Judy the freed prisoner had also come to the mainland and she had already been busy in her brainwashed duties as a mole and was starting to cause bits of trouble and mischief while not being caught or identified. She realized that Shari had to be freed somehow and she had to be the key if possible to doing that, towards this end, she had when she heard of the upcoming fight that had Shari in it, talked Carla in to getting a pair of tickets for them to ‘go see the arena fights’. After Shari had lost her fight, Judy was ready to begin her own attempt to try and free Shari, by tricking Carla in to putting herself at risk against Shari.
She began it after all the arena games had ended and the two had secured their riding horses and begun the two day trip back to the coastal town where Carla was based at. “You know,” Judy began when they were discussing the arena fights. “That Shari has a lot of information in her, not just about the base where you rescued me but the whole operation. Where the various bases are along the coast, where some are in the other continent and how they communicated with each other.”
A side glance at Carla and she could see that Carla was definitely listening and tried to close her little trap on Carla. “She used to taunt me, when we fought in the ring there, and dared me to try and duel her in her many duels she liked if I could defeat her, she’d reveal to me some of the information and let me try to escape on the isle above giving me an hour’s head start before she would chase me down.” Sighing as if in frustration, Judy continued, “I never could really defeat her; it was always a draw between us after an hour or so, and the one time I did win and she let me out, she caught me quickly enough as I could find no way off that damnable isle, so I was stuck there until that day they brought you in and somehow managed to free me and the others. I’d still like to know how you did it! How you managed to beat her when I couldn’t!”
Carla allowed herself a smile of her own and she replied, “Perhaps I got lucky, or perhaps it was something else. Suffice to say, I won and now she is in the arena and we are free, be satisfied with that.” It was part dismissal and part telling Judy that Carla didn’t want to talk about it, and Judy took it at that and said no more. It had been enough however to get Carla’s own thought processes going about that encounter. When the two arrived at the town Carla was based at, the two went their own ways and Carla went to see the commander and revealed the info that Judy had divulged. The commander for her part promised to relay the news back to the city of New Hope which would then perhaps result in intensive interrogation of Shari to make her yield that information.
With Carla’s own surviving group now graduated and the next group not set to begin for another three months or so, Carla volunteered to carry the information back to New Hope, citing her own personal interest in the matter, and the commander allowed her to do so. Four days later, Shari would find herself taken from below the arena under very heavy guard to the military headquarters and subjected to severe interrogation, even to the point of some torture, those in charge of this operation feeling her information was worth taking it to this much of an extreme. Carla with time on her hands and another couple months before she was needed back on the coast for training the next group stayed in New Hope for the next week and followed the attempts to break Shari by almost daily contacts with the commander. Shari however had remained stubborn; refusing to talk or even acknowledge she might have information of any kind, and even to talk to them about any subject, even her name.
After a full week of trying to get anything from her, they decided to send her back to where she was under the arena until they could come up with a better way to get her to talk. Carla knew they could make her talk, Judy had given them the key in the form of the dueling challenges, and Carla had brought that point up a couple times, but the commander apparently chose other methods, citing the fact that Shari was considered very dangerous, or if the officer responsible for the interrogation did have it tried, the attempts had failed and Shari had remained silent. As Carla returned to the cottage she had been renting while she stayed in the city, the matter of the duels that Judy had spoken of kept surfacing in her thoughts, and Carla instinctively knew they held the key to make Shari talk for a bit. Carla considered trying the more formal Arena challenge route but quickly dismissed it, she felt she could take Shari in a straight fight, but that was not a duel, which is what Judy had said Shari wanted it to be, and she seriously doubted Shari would talk with hundreds or thousands watching either fight or duel from the stands. A glimmer of an idea began to come to her mind however, based in part on historical information and rumors she had heard. The idea grew, and Carla decided to do some research in to the historical and geographical records of the area, matching the information to rumors to see if her idea was a feasible one. The results of her searches were to use her own thoughts ‘interesting!’
The following night, a bit after the midnight bell had sounded, deep within the complex where Shari stayed, a figure dressed in all black from a mask over the head down to the feet carefully stalked the hallways. The light as always was dim, and barely lit the hallway, though the figure also shifted to avoid coming in to areas where the lights had their best influences, staying in the pockets of darkness as it went to one chamber after another and looked in until finally it found Shari’s.
Like the others, Shari was also asleep, and as she usually chose to during those times, she slept in the nude, and the figure paused as if to watch and consider her several long seconds before it woke her up by clamping a hard black gloved hand over her mouth. It brought Shari to instant wakefulness and she seeing the figure over her in black, started to fight back then realized the figure was making a shushing motion with their other hand. Subsiding for the moment and extremely suspicious, Shari paused and the figure spoke the voice barely above a whisper and somehow sounding altered from behind the mask and yet vaguely familiar.
“If you want out of here and a chance at freedom, say nothing, make absolutely no sounds, and don’t even bother to dress, just follow me!”
Removing the hand from Shari’s mouth, the figure rose and started towards the door and peeking both ways gestured to the now sitting up Shari to follow her. Shari debated following this stranger to see what its game was, and also shouting out a warning of the intruder. The words of a possible freedom for her was enough to keep her silent for now as she rose and padded after the figure. She soon realized it was a female under the black cloth when they got close enough to lights to better see her form, the identity however remained unknown as she led Shari in to the deepest areas of the complex, an area virtually no one used, and small cave ins and cobwebs abounded everywhere, it was here she led Shari, and after furtively looking around, she touched a stone in the wall and a small stone door that looked a part of the wall swung quietly aside and the figure gestured for Shari to go in. A small flickering light could be seen glowing from somewhere beyond and to one side. Curiosity by now also had Shari, few ventured down this way, and as far as she knew, no one had ever mentioned knowing about secret chambers or passages, but this one clearly did. Glancing around in turn and seeing no one in sight, Shari ducked down and went through the door with the stranger right behind her and pushing the door closed behind her even as they both stood fully up.
It was one of the natural caves they stood in, maybe a hundred feet across with a pair of natural tunnels leading off of them. Except for the secret doorway, a few crates to one side on which an old style oil lantern sat providing the only light for now, the place looked like it had never been worked. Scowling now, Shari turned to face the other woman and demanded, “Who are you, why are we here, and why should I believe you?” The woman’s response was not with words but by action as she reached up with both hands and in a smooth motion stripped the mask and hood piece off her and in the dim light revealed herself as Carla. Shari’s eyes widened in shock as her hated enemy revealed herself and then narrowed in rage, it carried in her voice as well and there was no attempt to stay quiet either, though with stone walls around, it was doubtful anyone would hear her or Carla. “What the fuck are you doing here bitch! And what’s this crap about freedom for me!” Carla looked at her levelly and her response was quiet, but signaled she was certain of herself in turn.
“I know some of your secrets, I know you are aware of many of the bases and other things about the group you and Tonya belong to, and I also know the militia tried to force it from you and failed. I also discovered that you’re the daring type and like to duel people in fights and you might be willing to offer your secrets if someone can beat you in one of your duels.”
Pointing at the two tunnels leading out she continued, “The series of caves and tunnels those lead to stretch for miles, and branch off in every direction possible. You could try to take me in a straight fight, maybe even defeat me and then steal the lantern and try to find your way out, but I’ll tell you right now, there’s less than three hours of oil in there, it can take you days to find the right route by chance and that light will have gone out long before that leaving you in total darkness and with many dangers that could claim your life as you grouped your way around in that dark.” Pointing to herself, Carla continued. “I know the way out to the surface I used it to get in here. You said you like to duel for the information?!? I’ll try one of your duels, you choose it and if I accept we both have prizes to fight for. If I beat you, you give me some of that information, and it has to be useful, and I’ll confirm it! If it’s true I’ll come back and offer a second chance to duel me and even a third. Each will be based on confirming your information is right. If they all prove right, the fourth time I come back I’ll help you escape and none will be the wiser on how you got away. If you can defeat me in the duel of your choice however, I’ll lead you out at once giving you your freedom.”
Pausing and watching the scowling Shari, Carla started to slowly circle the dangerous woman forcing Shari to turn in order to follow her, her own actions meant to show threat and intimidation, a tactic that Shari was used to employing against others when she was raiding with Tonya and not having it done to her. Carla clearly was trying to rattle the super soldier a bit mentally by these tactics and pressure her, even as she stated. “You’ve got three options here, accept my duel offer and try to defeat me up to three times to gain your freedom, even though you will be selecting what duels we do. Or you can try and defeat me in a straight fight, which under these conditions can only be to the death and take your chances to find your way out if I die at your hands somehow. Finally, you can turn around and go back to the arena and fight there until you die.” Shari took several long seconds and just glowered at Carla as she tried to consider her options and perhaps find another in all that Carla had said, before she said anything.
“That little bitch Judy told you about me, didn’t she! It’s the only way you would know about the duels for information deal I offered her, and now you come to me to use it against me, isn’t it!” It wasn’t so much a question as a statement of fact coming from Shari, and Carla recognized it as such, but chose to answer anyway. “She let it slip out in part, and a few carefully placed questions by me in turn got a lot more of the details, enough to make me do this without anyone else’s knowledge.”
Carla paused and her next words came as a partial surprise to Shari. “If those in High Command had known I would have been coming here, they would have forbidden me and kept me from attempting this. Now have you made up your mind yet, or are the choices too hard to think about!” Gesturing at the lantern Carla reminded Shari, “Your duels were for an hour with Judy, and we will limit it to the same, I remind you that there’s barely three hours of lamp oil left in there and we’ll need most of it after the fight to escape if you can defeat me, so what duel do you have in mind!?!”
The careful choice of words and emphasis she chose to use on some of them was a careful and deliberate calculation by Carla, she was making it clear that she was down here without the others knowing it or they would have stopped her, and she also made her feelings know without saying it directly that she didn’t feel Shari had what it took to actually defeat her. The implications were not lost on Shari, nor had she forgot that the woman standing before had beaten her back at the cave complex twice in a row, with her ending up here as a final result. For her part, the temptation to just attack her here and now, to kill her where she stood even if it meant going back to the arena afterwards to eventually die there was very strong, and her fingers twitched in anger as she fought her own inner battle to decide which of her options to take. Shari had already tossed out the option to just turn around and slink back to her room, not as long as Carla who she hated now even more stood before her, which left just the two other possibilities, fight her to the death or risk the duels, even though she could choose them.
Shari’s eyes narrowed at her enemy, and her mind flashed back to that fateful date in the ASS cave outpost when Carla had beaten her not once but twice, it had not been a good fight that was certain, the one before her definitely had fighting skills, perhaps even better than her own. Shari was not yet willing to admit this smaller woman before her was superior in her ability for a straight fight, but since she was willing to bend enough to let her pick the duels, she decided to go that route there was always the time after she got the bitch to lead her outside that she could then start a fight and kill her, or better yet recapture her and take her back to the outpost and make Tonya eat her words. Her own voice a low growl she said “Yeah, I’ll play your game and choose my duels, and the first one will be bearhugs for submission!”
In the dim light, Carla gave Shari a tight smile as she looked over the powerful woman and then with a quick movement slid the shoulders free of her black suit and the one piece outfit slid down to her waist leaving her own upper body as bare as Shari’s already nude one. “Mind if I ask why you choose this?” Carla asked, and the sneer was on Shari’s face. “I saw how easy Tonya took you down with hers, if she can put you out in just a couple minutes, I can damm well make you scream ‘I submit’ in an hour!”
Carla just nodded her head in acceptance and started to circle Shari ready to seek the best bearhug, the tight smile still on her lips. Carla was no fool, against Shari’s power for a full hour she might very well cry a submission, but Shari didn’t know about how she had also endured Tonya’s bearhug. Endured it and used it against her in a fight she had ultimately won. For her part, Shari started to turn but she was more interested in closing the distance between them and with a sudden rush she brought them to grappling distance seeking to capture her and draw her in. Carla showed some of her own agility and athletic style by a sudden ducking under the arms and spun behind her, her own arms coming up and locking around just under the breasts and tightening hard while Carla’s fingers reached up and sank in to the breasts of Shari, probing and clawing. If Tonya had a weakness as bad as she had showed, it was possible that Shari did so as well. Carla planned to find out real fast and if she showed similar signs, she would not hesitate to exploit them.
‘Pay dirt’ was the initial thoughts that Carla had as she heard a hiss from Shari as the fingers dug in and she started to concentrate more on the claw and not so much the bearhug. It was the wrong move as Shari suddenly and with a mean streak half twisted and her elbow came up and back catching Carla squarely along side the jaw breaking her claw and hug attack and the hold completely long enough for Shari to twist like a venomous snake her own arms now coming up and around enfolding her and trapping her arms at her side with an outside grip and began to pour on the pressure.
“Bitch!” growled Shari, “I deal enough with that move with those fools in there, I’ve become resistant to the move and won’t let you try it too! You think your puny little claw trick will make me quit!” Carla’s own response was a hiss of both pain as well as expelled air, the pressure was high, dangerously high, and she tried desperately to draw air back in to her and found almost none coming in. The rate was slow enough that within a couple minutes she would be too light headed from the lack of usable air to resist her foe and her next move, and she suspected it would be very unpleasant. For her part, Shari seemed to know exactly how much pressure she had on Carla, and there was an evil grin as she watched and saw the play of thoughts on her face, and realized that Shari was deliberately draining her slowly so she could then play with her in a weakened state. “Oh Yes!” she hissed softly, “I owe you a lot for putting me in this place, and you are going to pay for that, first here as I take the first repayment refusing to force your surrender until the hour is almost over, and then after you surrender and lead me out of here to the outside, we are going to settle this once and for all!” Ramping up the pressure just a bit, Shari started to bend forward slowly stretching Carla back in her tight hold and adding back breaking pain to the measure as she grinned wolfishly at her face just inches from her own.
Carla began to struggle in earnest as she realized that her plan to draw Shari out may have backfired on her. She was not a quitter however, never had been, and didn’t plan to start now. If she was going to lose this fight, she would go down swinging. She had before she came to look for Shari realized the risks she had been about to take, that she may not survive the encounter, but the lives she could possibly save if she could get info from Shari was enough to make the effort, to accept those risks, and she drew on that thought to draw some inner strength now and with a grunt she thrust her own arms under Shari’s and managed to secure her own bearhug with the inside grip and started to pour on the pressure in turn.
It was enough to get a grunt and hiss from Shari in turn, and for a fleeting couple of seconds a look of concern as she suddenly found her own breath cut way down, Carla’s own inside grip giving her a partial advantage that offset Shari’s own greater strength as she could close her arms and achieve the tighter hug. Shari countered the effort by shifting her arms down a bit lower towards the waistline and then jerked Carla off her feet and started to bend her even further back using her own body to do so. The move also had the desired effect of breaking the grip Carla had around Shari and she could breath a lot easier with the arms no linger cinched shut. The battle was definitely starting to shift in the favor of Shari and Carla started to falter as the pain levels soared and she seemed to weaken severely.
Shari had her where she wanted her and could have kept her there easily, but she wanted to push Carla harder, hurt her even more and for a few brief seconds, partially released her from the terrible crushing pressure and dropped her back to her feet. It was only a couple seconds however as she let go completely and then thrust her own arms under Carla’s and took the inside grip for herself and jerked her back up off her feet and began to bend her back once more increasing the arch and the devastating effects even more. Carla was in serious trouble, her chest heaving for air that was barely getting in and her mind half filled with white hot fire from the pain that was arching up and down her back and spine. It was very possible she realized that Shari would snap the spine and she had to stop her now. It was time for a desperation move, and it wasn’t a true meaning of a bearhug, but at this point Carla was willing to fight fire with fire by bending the rules to a breaking point before she abandoned the duel completely to save herself.
Her own arms free now of the tight embrace, she threw them around Shari’s head and before she could react, closed them tight drawing her nose and mouth deep in to the cleavage and locking them tight for an airtight seal. It was a breast smother hold but in a way also a bearhug, just around the head and using the other parts of her body as well, just as Shari used her chest to bend Carla back and all but snap her spine. It had the desired effect as Shari dropped her to her feet and let go of the bearhug to try and pry the arms from around her head and break the seal. It gave Carla a few precious seconds of free breathing and she gratefully sucked in the air even as she struggled to keep her arms tightly locked against Shari’s own strength. To keep Shari from returning to the killer bearhug Carla half leapt and half clambered to get her legs up and around Shari’s own waist and locked in a tight scissors and started to crush there as well, forcing her body partially away from Shari and making the crushing effect harder to achieve. It didn’t stop her from trying however as Shari realized Carla was holding tight to the hold and she could not break it at the moment after a half minute without air, she went back to the inside grip bearhug and tried to pull Carla in tight for the crushing hug that would stop her air cold as well and try to outlast her hated enemy.
Again, Carla resisted her attempts to draw her in, throwing a good deal of her own power that she could spare in to keeping their bodies from close contact. It was succeeding in part, though Carla could feel herself being dragged slowly closer and closer. Shari felt it too but her air was getting bad real fast and she briefly abandoned the bearhug and using touch to guide her landed several hard blows to the stomach and side of Carl and scored a solid shot to the Solar Plexus that left Carla gasping in sudden pain as her air was expelled in one shot, and her legs unlocked involuntarily and she almost fell to the ground. The partial fall however did jerk Shari’s head down and with a hard wrench she suddenly jerked her head free of the smothering hold and backed up a couple paces, breathing heavily as she sought to get her bearings and sighted in more fully on Carla before her. “Bitch! This is bearhugs! Not smothering” she snarled. Carla’s own voice held almost as mean a snarl as Shari’s as she retorted, “A bearhug is locking the arms around a part of the body and applying a crushing force, and I did just that, crushed your dumb face with my arms in to my breasts. Beats your using your chest to bend my back which was not exactly a bearhug either!”
For a few seconds neither spoke, both breathing hard and then almost as if on cue they both lunged for each other the sound of flesh smacking in to each other resounding in the cave as both sought the best bearhug possible, and this time Carla seemed to get the advantage moving just a bit quicker to get the inside grip and clamped down hard. Undaunted, Shari did the same with the outside grip and they both writhed as they powered their respective holds. Carla however was using a very specific pattern as she seemed to writhe, and was trying the same deal on Shari that she had used on Tonya back on the outpost isle, and for the first several seconds, it seemed like nothing was happening but then Carla saw the first signs of the arousal in Shari’s eyes and knew she found the weak spot and dug in for the painful struggle as she had to endure the returning bearhug herself until she could arouse her foe enough that it affected her attack. Through gritted teeth even as she labored for breath, Carla went once more for the mind games trying to taunt Shari about how firm her breasts were and how they would pancake her own breasts soon enough to show she was the superior woman.
Intuition and seeing strategies had never been one of Shari’s better skills, she was much more at home using her strength and in out and out fighting and terrorizing people. The result here however was that Carla didn’t seem to be able to scare much less terrorize nor did she realize that Carl had been slowly drawing her in to a trap set to weaken her erotically, and even now as the erotic glow was spreading on her face, she still worked and concentrated on both her bearhug and now at Carla’s goading the battle between their breasts and found a fascination in the fact that despite her power, Carla’s breasts were actually flattening hers and slowly enveloping them as well. The sexual stimulation slowly increased as they continued and Carla found herself starting to breathe easier as the pressure on her eased up as Shari went deeper and deeper in to an erotic fog. Taking a chance at breaking the fog however, Carla was bit by bit ramping up her own bearhug pressure and was succeeding.
The climax came almost without warning to them both as Shari hit a point of no return and suddenly soared rapidly to a climax in just a few seconds, the reflex almost putting Carla out in turn as her arms closed involuntarily and came close to breaking ribs with the intensity of her own climatic writhing. It lasted maybe 8-10 seconds but then she half slumped in Carla’s arms severely weakened and dazed and Carla realized she had her best chance now and threw everything she had in to her own bearhug, and started a chant of some kind as well using it to draw upon and tap some hidden reserve in her. The powerful attack broke the erotic fog of Shari’s in seconds but she also realized she was unable to breath either, Carla had her set perfectly and was not about to ease up until she was unconscious or submitted.
For Shari, submission to the woman who had her trapped was not an option she would consider, but the powerful attack and the still writhing and grinding that Carla was expertly applying was also sending her back towards a climax and this time she was aware of it and tried desperately to claw at Carla’s face to force a break. The move seemed to just make Carla even angrier and she suddenly applied a huge burst of crushing pressure and Shari heard her rib bones creak to the point that they sent signals of pending breakage. It was enough to stop the attack and moments later, Shari started to franticly tap Carla’s shoulders signaling her surrender of the duel between them.
It was enough for Carla and she released her hold at once and let Shari fall down on her back, her breath coming in deep and sharp gasps as starved lungs sought the air just recently denied and then her ribs cried in pain as Carla herself still breathing hard from her own exertions grabbed the nearby foot and twisted Shari over to her stomach and expertly folded her legs back and in to an X pattern and straddled the legs pinning them under her and reached forward and grabbed a handful of hair and jerked back drawing the head up and arching her back in turn, a bit of payback for the back breaking attack of earlier but then Carla shifted from hair to lock her hands under her chin for a classic Camel Clutched and reefed her even further up and back leaving the black Amazon squirming under her.
“Now,” Carla growled in Shari’s ear, “You lost this duel of your choice I want locations of your bases, and I want them now!” Shari’s eyes bulged partially with fear of her precarious position, partially with fear of the woman who had her trapped that was, and more so in fear of retaliation for betraying the Hive to her, and she was thinking franticly and decided to co-operate in part and name just three of the smallest and often unattended outposts. “One at Raccoon key”, she grunted “another just north of the abandoned rocket place” and then she hesitated hoping that the information would be enough but a sudden increase to the clutch hold arching her even more and Carla’s voice saying “I’m sure there are more, . . .Tell me!” was enough to make her blurt out “Just up a ways on the old Suwannee river”.
Carla started to reef back some more and demanded more locations, but Shari at this point balked, she knew she had more information but was unwilling to use it, holding it as a hedge against the next promised duel. In an attempt to get free, she started to grab at the hands under her chin to unlock them, but Carla’s hands and arms shifted and wound around her head trapping her in the classic Camel Sleeper position and Carla said in her ear. “I’ll be back in eight days to give you another chance if this proves right; if you lied you will have only this second beating at my hands to remind you of me.” If Carla said anything more beyond that Shari wasn’t really listening as she went under to the hold’s effective powers that even she could not resist if she wanted to.
Releasing the hold she had on Shari, Carla stood up and stretched trying to unkink some of the strain from her back, Shari had definitely hurt her with her attack and it had been a lot closer than she liked to admit. For now however, she had some work to do. Leaving the lantern where it sat, Carla opened the secret door and dragged Shari out the entry and in to the hallway where they had more room and she picked Shari up and carried her about a third of the way back towards where the prisoners were and left her propped against a wall near a light that still worked in an abandoned room and retreated allowing Shari to wake on her own and find her own way back to where they lived, and to wait hopefully for Carla’s return.
Once back in the secret cave, Carla slipped the rest of the way out of her black suit and stuffed it behind one of the crates and drew her regular clothes out from there and quickly changed. Picking up the lantern, Carla gave the small cave an once over and satisfied she left no identifying clues around, turned and entered the tunnels. She had enough lamp oil left to get out, maybe an extra half hour if she moved quickly and made no wrong turns. Once out, she would soon have the information before the commander and not go in to the details of the how, if need be saying she got it from questioning the former prisoners and came to those conclusions.
It was enough, the commander bought the story and within the hour radio messages had gone out to local militia posts to check the locations and report back. Within three days, the reports were back as scouting units found the bases, two were quiet with no activity observed but their existence was very real, but the scouts didn’t try to get too close as they had to only confirm they existed. The third one out on Raccoon Key was however occupied, at least three of the powerful women could be seen on a small ship docked there, and that had been enough for the scout team to make a very hasty retreat to avoid being spotted in their own small boat. That was enough for Carla as she heard the news, and she made plans to return as promised to give Shari her second chance to duel for her freedom.
Little did Carla know it but her planned rendezvous was going to be side tracked when she got there. It was not long after Carla had disappeared in to tunnels on her way out that Shari had revived and swore quietly to herself for loosing the fight and started to get up. From somewhere in the darkest corner of the room came a nasty snickering sound, and Shari froze as she strained to see who was back there and demanded that she come out where she could see her. The faint pad of footsteps sounded and a figure strode barely in to the perimeter of the light and Shari scowled at who she saw. It was Plague, the top ranked fighter among the women who had just recently almost killed her up above in the arena. In her weakened and bruised state, if Plague was looking for a fight, she might have even less of a chance against her now and this time there would be no guards to pull her off either if it went badly.
An inch or more taller than Shari was and close to twenty pounds heavier, she was a skilled fighter who knew how to use her body surprisingly well. The only thing she wore was the blood red leather loin guard that she seemed to always have on, and nothing else. A smile twitched on her lips and she said with sarcasm dripping from her voice. “You seem to have a friend that I may want to meet, someone from the outside who likes to wear all black but who didn’t see me as she led you towards that secret room and neither of you saw me slipping behind you the whole way.” Stepping closer there was a voice of threat to her voice and she said “Who is she, and why was she here! I was not aware of another way out, and if that is a way out, you are going to tell me all about it!” It was an unspoken threat, but Shari recognized it for that and tried to bluff her way out.
“No one that would interest you or be interested in you, her interest is only in me right now.” That said Shari turned to head for the door, but Plague’s voice held her after just a step. “I don’t care if she’s interested in just you, I’m interested in her, now you’re are going to tell me what you know about her and I mean everything or else you will deal with me, and what happened up there in the arena will looks like a child’s fight!” To emphasis her threat, Plague started towards Shari, her stance one of a fighter ready to go offensive or defensive instantly and Shari instinctively knew that Plague would make good her threat. Shari may have been down there less than a month, but she had heard enough stories about her mean streak and the recent fight had proved it on a personal level. It was either fight her to try and avoid revealing the information so Shari could hopefully escape, or else cave in here and now and tell her all and hope it didn’t screw up the next meeting between them.
It was a lot of negatives adding up fast for Shari as she realized she may well be heading for another defeat, this time possibly a fatal one, and when it came push versus shove, Shari decided to cave in here and tell her all, figuring even if she did have the information where could she go with it or do anything about it. “Her name is Carla; she’s one of the better fighting women on the Druantian side seems to be a leader of some kind among them, we managed to capture her but she managed at our base knock me out, what happened to Tonya afterwards I have no clue, as when I woke again I was on our scout and raid sub bound tightly and she and the other prisoners were free and in control taking the sub and me back to the mainland and I wound up here as my punishment.” Shari went silent, but it was not enough for Plague and she pressed the matter further. “What was she doing down here then, she sure wasn’t here for a social visit, and after you two went through the secret door I hid in the darkness to see what may happen next and saw her drag you out and carry you back here before she returned to that secret door.”
That was something Shari was not so willing to reveal, and it may have shown on her face as Plague scowled and her stance shifted just a bit. Shari saw it as well, and knew she better yield the information or Plague would probably beat it from her. “She found out about my dueling passion and how I used to play with the prisoners in fighting duels and decided to use the same tactic on me for high stakes. If she wins I reveal something about our group if I win however she’ll lead me to the exit she came in by and let me escape.” That got a definite look of interest from Plague and she pressed the matter further, “And I presume you lost the duel this time since you were out cold when she dragged you back from there. Will she back again?” Shari nodded yes to both and said, “She’ll be back in eight nights to duel me again and a third time eight nights after that for a final duel, if I can take her I win my escape.”
Plague still wasn’t letting go of her search for information and continued her pushing for it. “And what if you lose three times, will she give you a fourth or a fifth? Perhaps keep coming back until she pumps you dry and then throws you aside like some trash!?!” By now alarms were starting to go off in Shari’s head, all this questioning couldn’t be good for her and she realized that Plague might be planning to intervene somewhere along the way. Knowing the fourth time Carla came if it went that far, she would be taken out, Shari decided to lie about that. Shaking her head ‘no’ she said. “I have only three attempts to gain my freedom, if I fail by then she abandons me here to finish my life in the arena.” Now glowering at Plague herself, some of her frustrations and resentment starting to arise as she becomes more certain she will interfere somehow she demanded to know what Plague wanted to know all this for. Plague for her part just waved her hand in dismissal and told her. “You need not concern yourself about that what I do and how I do what I do is my business and no one else’s, and I seriously doubt you could convince me otherwise.”
The curious and special inflection to the word ‘convince’ was not lost upon Shari. Down there among the condemned, if a person wanted something from someone else and they were unwilling to share or give it up, there was an unwritten rule that allowed challenge by a mutual hold to settle the matter, and they loosely called it ‘The Duel of Control’. Shari was certain that in a straight fight right now, she would lose, but if they dueled for the right to have Plague not interfere for a while, and the right hold was chosen and agreed to, she might just win and Plague would be bound to honor the deal.
“I don’t want you to interfere in what’s happening between her and me!” Shari growled, “and if need be, I challenge you to the duel of control to try and keep you out of this!” Plague’s own response was a snort of complete disdain. “You think you’ve got what it takes to stop me?!? You lost to me in the arena! You lost to two others in fights down here, and since you challenge me I get to choose the hold. What makes you think you even have a chance to stop me?” Shari’s eyes burned with barely controlled anger now rising in her and she snapped, “Because I want out of this place, and I have a possible way and I won’t let you stop me, and if the duel will work, then I challenge and if that’s not enough. . .” Shari said no more, her own body shifting in to a combat stance showing her own willingness to risk a fight to the death to keep Plague out of her attempts.
For her part, Plague narrowed her eyes as she studied Shari closely, saw her conviction and willingness to fight all the way, and would have been glad to take her on and out, but once they discovered the body and saw the death was not natural, there would be repercussions against them all, not just her, and such tended to eventually fall back on the one who did it. That was not something she would care to deal with. In a one on one she could take any of them down there she was certain but if they knew she killed Shari and the repercussions fell on them all they would not hesitate to turn en masse against her and she would pay dearly for it. With a snort and shake of her head, Plague hid her quick thoughts and said, “You want the duel, you’ve got it! I choose the figure four leg lock; let’s see how long I can make you suffer before you finally pass out unable to take it any more!”
Moving out more towards the center of the room where there was a bit more light to see each other coming in from the hallway lights, Plague reached down and with a quick motion released her own loincloth and as it fell, stepped out and kicked it aside and motioned for Shari to come forward, since Shari challenged her she had to be the one first locked in and would have to counter and reverse the hold initially. Shari stepped forward ready to fight, her own eyes scanning the powerful legs of her foe and mentally comparing them to her own for strengths and weaknesses and then suddenly stopped her eyes locked on the right thigh of the woman before her. There on the inside normally hidden from site by the loincloth she wore was a dark red tattoo, and it was the same color and symbol that was tattooed on her own leg in the same spot. Plague was a member of the Amazon warrior group she also was a part of, and held the same rank as she did, though for the life of her, Shari could not ever recall seeing or hearing of this particular version of them.
Pointing first at Plague’s tattoo and then her own matching one, Shari demanded, “Who the fuck are you to be wearing that sign! There are no classes among us called ‘Plague’ or with your looks!” For the first time, Plague actually had a bit of amusement to the smile that she normally had, one that usually meant trouble for the person seeing it. “Curious, aren’t you! Well I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you, since you are one of us, even though I still plan to kick your ass here. My formal designation is Raven A4, we were created to replace the highly defective Petra A3 class and at the time of my capture, there were perhaps a handful of us created so far and on the field of battle for real condition testing. For myself, I thought we were doing well enough, in the battle of Augustine I had managed to kill over twenty in single combat and even up to a group of three before enough of them gathered and overwhelmed me at a seven to one ratio. One of them managed a hard blow to the head rendering me out and destroying my link so I could not send signals any more, just receive them. Apparently those above us didn’t like what they saw for a few days later when I found myself in here, I heard a signal to return to base for deactivation. Of course I could not do so, or even respond to say where I was.” Plague’s smile grew a bit sour, “Soon after that, all communication ceased on my frequency, I’m presuming it means all the others have been recycled and they stopped using this frequency no longer needing it. As for my name, the others gave it to me mostly in the form of a curse when I established myself as the supreme fighter down here and they lost consistently both in the arena and down here to my lethal form, a loss you already felt once and now will again! You challenged now lie down and get ready to be locked in I plan to teach you what it means to be ‘plagued’ by me before I claim this victory over you!”
Shari’s own eyes had widened briefly as Plague identified herself, she had indeed heard of the Raven class, it had been short lived as she had said, only seven of them created with four destroyed in the field and the other three recalled and recycled. Apparently one of the four supposedly destroyed in the field actually survived and now stood before her. It was no small wonder Plague had done so well in the arena, but her somewhat boastful claim of what was in store for Shari just raised her own anger a bit more. Like it or not, she now had to face the challenge having given it or forfeit her sole claim to Carla to try and escape through her, and she was not about to do that.
Settling down on the floor and leaning back a bit, she waited as Plague stepped forward herself and grabbed the legs, and quickly wound them around her own and dropped back putting Shari in to the hold and instantly cut down on it getting a sharp cry of pain from Shari and a look of near agony on her face as she realized that Plague was quite willing to do major damage to her including breaking her leg and moments later pulled herself together and started to fight back with a hard twisting roll that turned them both over and reversed the hold back on to Plague getting a sharp howl of pain from her side and she slammed a fist in to the hard stone and hissed “You’ll pay for that bitch!” and started to lever herself back over to take control of the hold again. The duel quickly degenerated in to series of rollovers and rollbacks, neither woman able to really keep the other on the receiving end for any extended period of time. Within ten minutes both women were despite the chill of the place sweating profusely from their exertions of trying to get and keep control of the struggle. The air filled with hisses and cries of pain and then lower moans as breath started to labor as they took damage and retaliated. Shari had initially tried to concentrate most of the damage against the knee of her foe it being the larger target between that and her lower legs which was also a target. Plague on the other hand was attacking both more or less equally and both were feeling the effects. Shari began to realize that the knee and the muscles around it were too heavy to blow out with this hold as she was trying to do, and started to shift the attention to the lower legs which didn’t have as much meat and muscle on them as she did, and trying to raise the pain up enough to make her pass out that way. As they fought, she was also trying to desperately figure out a secondary attack if possible. Such was allowed in these duels so long as they did not conflict with the declared primary hold. Thinking a bit on the class as a whole, she remembered a briefing on obsolete models when she was in her training stages about the series, one of the reasons they dropped them was they tended to have a poor constitution and stamina, wearing down much too fast in a battle. If this was so, maybe she could utilize that detail it would not be pleasant but if she could control her pain, the longer the fight went on the better her own chances to come out ahead as her own stamina and constitution she felt was better. Question was would she be able to?
Throwing most of her self preservation caution to the wind, Shari began to attack and counter a lot more aggressively and within a few more minutes of back and forth, she began to realize results as she found herself staying on the side of dishing it out longer and longer. The duel had also been slowly taking them away from the center of the room as well and they were close to a door that was open near the back and Shari suddenly realized if she could just reach that door at the right time and position, she could use it to her advantage.
It would take several rolls in the right direction however and a few shifts to a different angle, and that would take time, even more so, so as to not tip off her foe she had the door as a target. By inches and feet, the two slowly fought across the floor and it was becoming a bit of pure hell for both. Shari was holding her foe at the disadvantage longer, but Plague seemed to be starting to tap in to additional reserves of strength, every time she came back on top and could dish it out she seemed to pour more and more power in to the hold and it was becoming pure agony to not pass out for Shari as she pulled herself together and forced the roll a bit closer.
In fact she had almost forgotten what her goal was as she concentrated on holding her own position and punishing Plague every time she was able to trying to weaken her until she almost bumped in to the door and realized as Plague had rolled her once more that it was within reach if she could just roll them once more and then lunge for it before she realized the setup was happening. A shift of position by Plague suddenly and Shari realized that she might be in trouble as well. Plague had also seen the closeness of the door and was trying to now shit them around enough so she could try for the door as well and that could not be allowed to happen.
Drawing deep on her reserves and stamina, Shari went for the rollover again and found her foe fighting fiercely against it as it put her at the disadvantage and had realized Shari’s position at last. Rolling the opposite direction both their legs became a screaming mass of pure agony for both women as they struggled to be the one to reach the doorway. Pressure rose, muscles stretched towards breaking and the faint creak of straining bones came from both their legs as breaking bones became a distinct possibility. Shari’s knowledge of the raven series had been right however, they did not have the resilience to maintain the effort for an extended period and bit by bit the roll turned in her favor until it was impossible to stop any more, and Plague reversed directions in a desperate last attempt to force them to keep rolling so she came out on top going the other way and within reach herself.
The move almost succeeded as she started to turn them again but for that brief two seconds or so Shari was at full offensive power, she lunged and caught the one door knob and moments later her other hand came up and snagged the knob from the other side and she pulled her body in close and up against the side of the door and got the desired effect. Their tangled legs dragged upwards allowed her to press in on Plague’s own at an unnatural angle far worse than the normal reversal of the hold would allow and Shari went to use it all with what she had left eliciting an unearthly scream of pain that echoed around the room and down the hallway and a minute later running feet announced the arrival of others responding to the scream who found them locked in the duel and started forward to break up the fight.
Shari, scowled at them and snapped one word “Duel!” and the attempt ground to an halt and the new arrivals backed off and stood there watching. The word was enough, they understood this was a formal fight and duel and to interfere was considered among themselves as taboo!
Worse for them both however and in particular Plague who didn’t have any she called friend, they were now witness to the duel and word would get around of it and who had won, a duel that was rapidly shifting in favor of Shari as she ground her legs against Plague using the door to add the extra pressure and it was clear that Plague was fading fast as her struggles were visibly weakening and her moans grew more plaintive. This seemed to add fuel to the fire in Shari and charged her up as well and she continued a relentless torture now to the legs of her foe and then drew her closer to herself at long last increasing the angle on the trapped legs of Plague to an acute angle and poured the pressure on. A final scream of pain echoed around the room and Plague went suddenly limp and stopped all movement. One of the newly arrived witnesses started forward and checked her lifting and dropping an arm it fell limply and straightening up grunted “She’s out looks like you won this duel.”
Exhausted herself, Shari let go of the knobs and slowly rolled them over on their backs and unlocked their legs. It took the extra help of one of the other women to get to her feet and she had to support herself on them a minute or two as her own legs screamed from the standing pressure but then began to respond. “What were you dueling for?” one of the witnesses asked and Shari looked at her and just said “It’s a personal matter, drop it huh?” Looking down at the still unconscious woman, Shari managed to strike a victory stance and even look a bit cocky doing so and it was not lost on them. As a whole they all turned and with Shari among them they left the room heading back towards the used living areas.
It would be a good half hour later before Plague woke up wincing in pain and realized from being alone that she had lost the duel. With the arrival of some of the women, she now could not lie about the duel and that she had won it not Shari, too many had seen the loss and no doubt was telling others of the loss as well. This was one fight she had to concede to the dark skinned warrior, and publicly would. But privately. . . . that was a different matter. Carla was going to be back she said in eight days from then, and there were ways to make sure Shari missed that meeting so she could secretly intercept her. With a curse at the shift in standings herself dropping a bit in prestige among the other fighting women and Shari rising in turn, she rose and wincing headed to the door for her own solitary return to the living areas, even now making plans to ensure Shari missed that meeting.

Part Two. . . .
For all outward appearances, it looked like Plague was keeping to her word and would not interfere or even speak of what she and Shari had been dueling about. Besides she had her own hands full over that next week as word got around of the very rare win against Plague and others sensing her weakened state tried to fight her as well, each seeking a win and a change in the standings and pecking order in an attempt to send Plague even lower among their ranks. Three fights would occur in the next three days and in each Plague emerged the victor. However, each fight was also getting even meaner and more violent, the last leaving the loser with a broken leg and broken ribs and an emergency trip to the arena level and the hospital there. This in turn would cause some hard questions to be asked by officials that none of the fighters would speak to or even acknowledge they had the right to ask. This was a matter between the condemned fighters and they had their own code of honor and silence, these officials as far as they were concerned would get no answers from them, and they made it very clear in their own way.
Plague however had not forgotten the loss to Shari or these fights and knew they came as a result of her loss to Shari in the duel. The eight day mark was fast approaching and she still had it in her mind for herself and not Shari to be the one to see Carla. However to do that, she first had to pull in some favors from some of the women she had herself conquered and who owed her some favors. From these, she gathered certain items that she mixed secretly to create a fine virtually tasteless powder and then when the mid day meal came around on that day, she bullied the meal delivery woman in to letting her add the powder to Shari’s meal before it was delivered and succeeded. Not realizing her meal was spiked, Shari ate well and the powder went to work in her system creating a strong need for sleep and she laid down to rest and went deep in to an induced sleep, one that would last at least the next twelve to sixteen hours, and more than long enough for Plague to make her own move.
Had she known of it, Plague might have enjoyed the irony of the situation she had just created. Shari had herself pulled the same ‘treat the food’ trick routine on Tonya to make her fall in to a deep sleep so she could get at Carla back at the outpost, and now without realizing it, the tables had been turned and Shari now got the same treatment and Plague would be going after Carla in turn. Once she was certain that Shari was out of the picture and asleep in her room, Plague made herself scarce, biding her time and slipping from one unused room to another when no one was about in the tunnels that connected the rooms in their holding area and secretly getting herself out from that area. Still watching for possible followers herself, she was going deeper and deeper until she was very close to the secret entry and with the hidden door in sight, concealed herself in the darkness settled down to wait for Carla’s expected arrival.
Her wait would last but a matter of seconds before she had contact but not quite the way she had expected. Carla had already arrived a couple hours earlier, and had been deeper in to the same darkened area herself to rest and wait for night time when she would seek out Shari again. Her hunter instincts had warned her of Plague’s approach and in the very limited lighting of an area Plague passed through, saw her, and realized it was not Shari. As Plagued settled down, her back unwittingly towards Carla she had noiselessly close the several feet between them and then attacked with no warning, her body hitting Plague hard and with total surprise. Before the woman could react or respond she found Carla’s legs wrapped around her head and neck in a vicious figure four head scissors, the leg across the throat and pressing hard and at least one arm trapped and pulled up behind her leaving her squirming and effectively immobilized.
Carla’s voice deliberately kept low and for her ears only came from the darkness and there was no doubt about the threat of her words as the leg across her neck tightened all but cutting her air off. “You’re not Shari, and you have just a few seconds to explain yourself or you die here and now!” Half gagging and trying to keep her own voice low Plague got her words out and hoped they would be the right ones. “Know your secret meeting here and getting Shari’s dueling for her secrets about us, I know some secrets as well.” Struggling to get enough air to breath, much less speak, Plague had a hard time continuing, “She won’t be coming tonight, made sure of that, I want to duel you for freedom, same you willing to duel Shari!”
The legs around her tightened and her air seemed to cut off, Carla’s voice an angry hiss. “You lie, there are no others of her group down here, we just captured her, and the other one got away!” Her limited air fast going bad, Plague used what she had knowing she may soon be dead in her current position, and willing to tell all to save herself now. “Been here two years now, not new here, fight of Augustine was caught there and been here since.” The legs didn’t tighten any further to a lethal point where the bones in her neck would break, but for the next few seconds there was just the silence except for Plague trying to drag what little air she could in to her as Carla absorbed the information given, then Carla’s other hand grabbed her head by the hair and drew it back, and Carla said “Don’t fight this, and you may live long enough to get your wish, one wrong move and you’re dead meat!” Moments later the legs shifted on her head just a bit coming off the throat but wrapped tighter around her head and the pressure suddenly came up full power making her squirm, but not for long as she realized she was now in a sleeper style scissors and then sensations faded and she went out.
Carla kept the dangerous hold on for several more seconds to make sure she was down for the count before unlocking the legs and going over to the secret door opened it allowing the faint light of the lantern inside to come in to the hallway and partially light up Plague, even as she grabbed her arms and dragged her in to the secret cave and quickly shut the door behind her. Carla then turned back to examine the woman on the ground in the better lighting there. Immediately she realized this had been the same woman that Shari had fought in the arena and lost to, and was also impressed with her size and physique, this woman was easily taller and heavier than even Shari was. The build and looks were enough to convince Carla that at least on the point of being one of them, she was probably telling the truth and that made her one of the enemy. Big question of course was did she really have usable information if she really had been down here for the last two years as she claimed to be. Such information she knew might be badly out of date and as such really worthless to be risking her body and life in a duel with this mystery woman.
With time to spare since it would be a number of hours until darkness and the time for her to go get Shari, Carla knelt down next to the unconscious woman, and rested her hands on her body and closed her eyes. One hand on the forehead and the other on the chest just above the breasts, Carla seemed to go in to a meditative trance next to the woman for several long minutes before she opened them again and stood up and looked at the woman. Carla had tried to probe the woman using an unique skill she had developed as a ‘hunt mistress’, tried to get a sense of whether or not she was worth risking the attempt. Her probe had been somewhat unsuccessful, but had been good enough to confirm she was of the group that Shari belonged to, though not from the same area. And there was something else, a certain aura she had about her, an aura that she had not sensed in either Shari or Tonya. It wasn’t a good aura like most she knew had, nor was it the dark one that she easily picked up off of Shari and Tonya. Somehow, deep down, Carla gained a sense that this woman despite her clear power was not really evil and might be worth the risk of a duel.
Carla decided she would give the woman before her the chance she wanted, but just one chance, and they would be under her terms not the mystery woman’s. When Carla had made her first trip to this cave to contact Shari, she had come fairly well equipped, and taken the opportunity to hide most of the stuff in the left over crates that had served once as a camp for the ones who had explored here so long ago. She had brought more with her this trip as well, things she thought may be necessary to handle Shari, or should the Black Amazon win one of the duels, to make good her own word to help her escape. From that, she now selected a stretch of rope, it wasn’t very thick to the point a person like Shari or this woman could not break it, they could in fact do so, but not without a visible effort and several long seconds in which Carla knew she could react to the attempt and respond in turn. This she cut in to two stretches and pinning her arms behind her, Carla quickly wound the wrists together and then a second winding around the elbows as well making getting leverage to snap either very difficult for even powerful women such as she was.
Satisfied that she now had her as she wanted her, Carla sat her in an upright position in the open away from the rough walls where she might rub the ropes to break them, and kneeling before her slapped her awake. Carla had been masked and hooded in black the whole time, much as she had been when she first went for Shari to avoid recognition, the gear stayed on even now to continue to hide her true image as Plague woke up and saw her, started to struggle and Carla held up one hand and snapped out an order to stop struggling.
Plague for her part, recognized her voice, and had the sense to heed her words and froze as she was then slowly relaxed even as she watched Carla with wary eyes. The fact she had taken on Shari and won had not been lost on her, the fact she had also caught her out as well and could have killed her but did not, at least not yet had been also enough to impress her, despite her clearly smaller and lighter size, the woman before her could obviously fight, and was not afraid to. In a sense, Plague liked that, she admired a woman willing to fight no matter what as this one seemed to. Despite her own controlled state, Plague tried to establish herself as in charge by opening the conversation. “Told you I would duel you, just as you did with Shari, I want my freedom as bad as she does and I’ll trade information if I lose the duel just as she did. For my duel, I will choose. . . .” Her words were cut off at that point as Carla leaned forward her hand coming down and clamping over her mouth and her other hand firmly on a breast and she shoved hard and down forcing Plague prone on her back, even as she moved forward avoiding the legs and expertly straddling her waist and leaned close to Plague’s own face.
“You don’t give the orders here to me, for the moment, I rule, I control, and I say what is and is not to be, you came unbidden and unwanted and interfered in a matter you know little about. I know you are among the condemned, and I would have every right to kill you as an escapee. If we duel, and that’s a big if, it will be as I choose, not you. Now tell me and keep it short and sweet, what kind of information you think I can use, and it better be good, because if it is not. . . .” Carla’s other hand came off the breast and also rose and joined the first hand, the fingers pinching Plaque’s nose shut, the palms barely above the mouth and if they closed, the hands like that could easily stop all air, Plaque trapped under Carla, her arms trapped behind her on the stone floor would slowly, painfully die from lack of air, and she instinctively knew that Carla would probably do it. Yet there was also something about the woman who seemed to easily control her, at least for now. She realized that Carla was willing to let her talk, and probably duel her as she said, and if she did win, Carla would honor her word and lead her out of there. For a chance at that freedom, Plague would be willing to do what she would never do for any other person; she would trust her to keep her word.
“Couple years ago, we were heading to far side of Augustine where a hidden weapons cache was reputed to be stored, old government stuff but usable and convertible for our use. We had not expected to find a fighting group there of your people and almost 20 to 1 of us, we killed a lot of you” and there was a note of pride in her voice despite her precarious position, “But we still found ourselves in retreat as we took too much close in damage.” At that point Plague paused and tried to read Carla, but her all black garb hid her well and her eyes, the only really visible part of her she could see in the limited light were cold as she watched Plague in turn. “I’ll tell you where the cache is hidden if I lose, deal?”
Carla grunted softly as she considered the possibility of a large weapons cache. If this group had wanted it this bad, they may have returned though she did not recall any other fights up in that area, and after that battle, they had increased patrols of the area sharply. Perhaps they may have decided it wasn’t worth it, but such a cache should be removed from a possible later attempt, if they remember its there, though whether or not the local militia would use it or destroy it would be up to the local commanders, and not her.
Carla spoke in turn, “Here’s the deal then, I pick the duel, if you win I lead you out, but you go blindfolded and tied until we are outside so you don’t learn the route and lead your friends back, you get just one shot at this, if you lose you go back to the arena.” Leaning very close to Plague’s face there was no missing her threat in the next words “and if I ever see you again interfering, I will not hesitate to try and kill you, and I suspect if Shari is around she may just help me because she knows your presence will wreck her own attempts to win free of here.”
The offer was a lot less than what Carla had offered Shari, but it was an offer none the less and for Plague, it was enough. “I accept the offer, name your duel.” Was all she said. Like most of the fighters in the condemned area, Plague didn’t have much to wear; even now she wore just a simple leather pair of shorts and a leather top. Leaving her still tied, Carla’s hands drifted down from the nose and mouth and gripped the top with both hands and suddenly rose jerking hard on the top. The thin leather ties were never meant to take that kind of pulling to them and easily snapped leaving Carla standing over her holding the top in her hands and then throwing them off to one side. Warning Plague to make no move if she knew what was good for her Carla stepped to one side and reached down and grabbing her shorts yanked downward dragging them off the bound woman over her feet and they sailed off in the same general direction the top had leaving Plague bound and laying there nude a slow scowl on her face, she was not liking this stripping of her one bit and if her hands and arms had been free they would be fighting even now and damm the risk of not leaving this way. Silently to herself, Plague swore she would make Carla pay for this when they did fight, then her own eyes widened a bit as she watched Carla step back and start to peal her own clothes off, and then glittered as essentially her own body was revealed showing her own form, it was solid not anywhere as muscular looking as she was, but she could sense the power that laid behind the flesh. In fact the only thing that remained on was the black mask that covered her face and head. For several long seconds the two women studied each other probably cataloging strong and weak points to possibly use, but the call was Carla’s and she made her choice as she told Plague to roll over on to her stomach.
Slowly, somewhat reluctantly, Plague did as she was ordered, she had agreed to the deal, but it didn’t mean she had to like it and face down she felt even more vulnerable. Turning her head, she watched as Carla stepped around to her feet and grabbing both ankles bent her legs back and crossed them in to an X pattern.
Spinning around, Carla quickly stepped between Plague’s legs while facing away, and for a split second, Plague toyed with the idea of fighting back but with her arms tied, even if she twisted and used her legs to trap and scissor the woman over her, her own movements were limited at best and she suspected this woman would have a lot of ways to escape and that would blow her one chance at freedom.
Barely had the thoughts raced through her mind and she realized it was too late anyway as Carla had seized her ankles and thrust them between her own legs and locked them behind her legs and even now arched back and an involuntary cry of pain escaped from Plague’s lips as her lower legs and knees screamed at the pressure being brought to bear. Carla wasn’t anywhere near done however as she twisted her body above her and then reached back and with a few deft moves released one then the other rope and hurled them far away from the two of them so that they could not possibly be used as a part of the duel.
Arching further back and increasing the pressure Carla slid her hands in to the armpits of Plague and lunged forward the movement drawing the powerful woman’s back in to a painful arch and Carla from above her told her to reach up and back with her own hands and grip her underarms the same way. Plague did so, but was having a hard time focusing her attention as the pain on legs and back were horrid and she said as much to Carla.
The comment drew an almost amused chuckle from Carla and she said, “You expected a duel to be pain free? Here’s the deal, we struggle for up to two hours here, you must force me to submit before the time runs out or it’s considered a loss, you make me pass out you lose as well, though I can make you pass out as often as I want to without penalty. If you want to be the one not hurting then you need to work us in to a roll and get on top, the top delivers the pain and the bottom receives, that’s how this is reversible, your time starts now!” And Carla heaved forward drawing the arch even deeper and getting a surprised scream of pain from Plague and she involuntarily let go of Carla, getting an amused chuckle from her and she suddenly arched higher and the pain increased by almost double.
Realizing the error and she had to hold Carla down to avoid the extra pressure, Plague twisted desperately to try and reach her foe and then screamed again as her twisting brought more pain to her legs. But then Carla slowly lowered herself a bit and seemed to allow Plague to recapture the arm pit grip, and she said suddenly,
“That’s your only freebie for this duel, you screw it again, I’ll take every advantage I can!” and she thrust forward again trying to arch her even deeper. The words and the move both annoyed and ticked off Plague, she knew how to fight, though she had to admit this move she was in was not something she was used to in terms of punishing holds. Still the words rankled and they also triggered another memory of a similar reversible fight barely a week ago with Shari, and that made her inner fire rage higher and she swore that this time it wasn’t going to happen the bitch currently over her was about to pay dearly for her comment!
Despite the strain and pain, Plague started to study the hold closer and realized quickly the basics she needed using the power of her arms she drove her hands deeper and further forward until she could actually grip Carla’s shoulders and start to draw her back closer easing the arch on her back and at the same time used her own powerful legs in an attempt to throw Carla’s legs further back as well taking up every bit her arms gave back to her and stretching her out more and more slowly flattening and then suddenly collapsing the arch dropping her heavily on to her back and instincts kicked in and she rolled keeping Carla stretched out until she was on top and as she rose, she eased her stretched legs and lunged up and forward.
The resultant hiss of pain from Carla now under her was music to her ears as her own back arched up and back, but Carla obviously knew the hold well enough and didn’t need help to figure it out, within seconds she was struggling to stretch Plague in turn to collapse her own arch and roll her back under. Powerful as she was, she wasn’t so well built to keep her back arched, all of it was concentrated on the arms and legs and Carla seemed to know it and with the legs locked as they were, Plague’s own legs were somewhat useless despite her struggles to power Carla out of her back straightening attempts. With a gasp, Carla broke Plague’s arch and forced them in to a roll coming out on top once more.
Within minutes the struggle began to settle down in to one of short but painful attrition for them both. Plague soon realized Carla could match her in the legs despite the lack of muscle because of how they were intertwined, but she also realized she could power herself forward better than Carla thanks to her height and arm power and bend the woman’s back a lot deeper than she was doing to her, and hold her there longer. Problem was, her foe seemed to be able to handle it fairly well, even humming a song at times it seemed as if she was enjoying the attempt to break her and make her submit. Carla when she did get on top definitely did bend her back and had a peculiar wiggle to her lower body that was playing havoc on her lower legs and knees that got more than wincing from Plague, but rather moans and sharp cries of pain, and she would do her best to return the pain in kind driving the arch on Carla deeper and deeper when she returned on top.
A good hour would pass as the struggle continued, both were sweating profusely by now from their respective struggles and Plague could see she was finally getting past Carla’s apparent limits, her song had stopped minutes ago, and she was hissing and moaning herself and writhing not to work on Plague’s legs but rather in serious pain as her back stretched and bend tighter and deeper under the assault of Plague’s arms. More time passed and Carla could be seen as seriously weakening as she spent maybe a quarter of the time on top now and as they came close to the two hour mark, Carla appeared to reach her limits and cried “Enough! I yield this duel and will lead you out!”
Plague was glad to hear those words, the struggle had been exhausting for her as well and she had just about tapped all her own reserves to keep the assault up, another three to five minutes and she would have been exhausted and the struggle would have shifted almost to Carla’s advantage, though Plague was not about to admit how close they had been. From beneath her, Carla told her to roll back over to her stomach as she was the one who had locked the hold and would also have to unlock it from above. Uncertain if this was a trick or not, Plague hesitated several long seconds then Carla’s voice came again and said, “It’s one of the drawbacks of this kind of duel, only the one applying it can also unlock it, now roll over or would you rather we be stuck here by your mule headed stubbornness!”
It was enough to get Plague to roll, and Carla letting go of her own grip sat up and slowly undid the tangled legs and stood up and suddenly hopped to one side and back a bit though not without wincing at the pain shooting through her legs. Plague slowly rolled over and sat up then rose herself and also winced, a sudden oath escaping her lips as her own legs lanced red hot needles through them and her back reminded her of what it had endured as well. Fixing Carla with a slow glare she said, “I won, now take me from here as you promised, and one more thing you call me mule headed again, and we will fight all out to settle the insult.” Carla just looked at her slowly and a half wicked smile twitched her lips and she said “I might just try you on that one day, but for now I have a promise to keep!”
Going to one of the crates, Carla opened it and extracted a hood similar to the one she wore and tossed it to Plague and she deftly caught it and studying it swore as she realized they had no opening for the eyes. She also saw Carla bending and picking up something and realized they were the ropes that had bound her earlier and immediately balked. “No way am I going to let you tie me again and hood me with this so I can’t see, you promised to lead me out not play games!”
Carla’s own voice tired but with a snarl of its own snapped back. “Yes and you will and I stated very clearly that it would have to be bound and blindfolded so you can’t see the route and lead your friends back in!” Plague’s own eyes narrowed dangerously as she considered Carla and she started forward menace in her threat, and Carla seeing it dropped in to a combat stance of her own. “Try it!” she snarled. “And this time one of us dies, are you willing to throw your freedom away for that!” The words stopped Plague, her eyes scanning Carla, her tense and poised body, and her own instincts sent their own warning message that the woman before here would do it, she would fight to the death to have it her way and she might be good enough to even kill her! For several seconds the scene seemed to freeze as both sides made their points, and then Plague apparently caved in and straightening up, she slowly lifted and pulled the special mask on, and then turned her back towards Carla and held her hands behind her back, apparently yielding this small victory to Carla.
As Carla stepped forward she quickly bound the wrists together and then once more looped the second around the elbows making it hard to move the arms, and coming to one side she said. “Unlike you and your terrorist friends, I always keep my word, even if it may be bad news for me. Wait here a couple minutes while I get the lantern to guide us out and refill it.” Plague heard a few sounds and then faintly through the cloth she sensed light and Carla touched her elbow. “I will guide from this side, follow my hand motions for forward, left, right and stop, obey quickly and we can be out inside the hour, try something dumb and. . . .” No further words were said, but Plague got the hint. As they moved forward, Plague still wanted to know more about the strange woman beside her, she was one of the enemies, yet she was willing to risk a struggle and having lost was honoring her word to free her? What kind of people were these enemies anyway? Or were these kinds of ways just limited to a few like this Carla person?
As they worked their way out, Plague tried to still get a notion of where they were and where they were going but Carla seemed to be able to distract her, more than once her senses seemed to tell her that they were crossing and re-crossing their path, but Carla generally kept her silence, even a few careful questions were responded to with short answers that gave no real information, and after a bit the scent of fresh air on a breeze came to Plague’s face, and she made one last query, “Were you serious about wanting to fight me again? Even after you lost?” From the side there was an almost amused chuckle from Carla and she said “Yes I would, and I also was serious about hunting you after one hour’s freedom so best make your move in that time.” For several seconds, Plague was silent and she said, “You know I might just take you up on that offer, don’t be surprised if you hear of some messages from me with clues on where to find me, I’d like to see if I can take you fully all out!”
The breeze was getting stronger by now and then suddenly Plague could see a fair bit of light ahead through the mask suggesting the way to the outside was just ahead, and Carla briefly let go of her arm, presumably to release her ropes. What happened next caught Plague by surprise as Carla attacked from behind leaping up her legs locking around her waist and her arms wrapping around her head in a sleeper hold. It gave Plague a moments pause and then she tried to fight back trying to find a nearby cave wall to back in to and smash Carla against it to break the hold. The sleeper was good however and she found herself dropping suddenly to her knees still struggling as blackness washed in and Carla’s voice came to her. “You’re too dangerous to just untie right now so you’re taking a brief nap and when you wake the hood, rope and I will all be gone. Just remember I’ll start hunting you in one hour!” Blackness reached for Plague, and still struggling to rise, she went out and fell forward on her face.
For a few seconds more, Carla kept the hold on tight making sure she would be out for a few minutes. Much as she disliked doing this, Carla was going to keep her word of giving Plague her freedom and she quickly released the ropes and removed the hood and stepping out of the cave entry she swore quietly, it was already late afternoon and in a couple hours it would be dark, she could hunt Plague, but she also had her rendezvous with Shari in several hours from now that she didn’t want to miss. Add that that the fact she was half exhausted from this first fight, and her legs were very sore and she realized her ability to meet Shari’s duel this night might be similarly compromised. Her eyes narrowed as she considered breaking her word to Plague, but then with a perhaps fatalistic shrug she turned and headed back in to the cave entry for her date with Shari. Plague’s own last few words ringing in her ears that she would be leaving a message on where to find her, coming back to perhaps haunt her. She suspected given her violent nature, those messages would not be pleasant. After she was done with Shari for the night and came back out, she would start to hunt Plague.
At the moment Carla considered Plague to be probably more dangerous than Shari was though both women were dangerous in their own right. But after seeing how Plague had defeated Shari in the arena and felt some of the power herself, she had to give Plague priority. As she penetrated deeper in to the caves, she reminded herself that she could have lasted longer in the duel, probably all the way to the two hour time limit she had set and beyond, and half wished she had said three rather than two hours, she had not expected Plague to hold out as long as she had, and she had herself decided to throw the fight in the end and let her go in order to save herself for her confrontation with Shari, which she suspected would be harder this time given her condition now. Returning to the cave where the secret door was, Carla refilled the lantern once more noting her supply was getting low and she’d have to bring in more the next trip, set the lantern on the crate like before and checking her gear slipped back out in to the hallway and deep in to the darkness and the corner where she had been resting earlier to catch an hour or two nap before it would be late enough to safely go find Shari.
Meanwhile, Plague had while this was happening had woke up not long after Carla had returned to the cave and seeing herself free and the open cave entry just feet away, she slipped to the cave entry, saw herself in a deep woods halfway up a gentle hillside and no sign of human life close by. The remnants of an old style auto road laid about a hundred yards below her though with fuel as scarce as it was, there was no signs of traffic and she had not expected any either unless someone came along using it while riding a horse. Remembering Carla’s warning of just one hour before she started the hunt, Plague swept the woods top to bottom trying to spot the woman but saw no sign of her and decided it was time to get going. Circling the hillside to get a better idea of what was around, on the far side she saw a farm just a couple miles away and she grinned, chances were they had riding horses, and a look at the sky told her darkness was not that far off, they would likely be inside and she could snatch a horse easily enough and use it to escape the area and perhaps put too much distance between herself and Carla for her to find her until she was ready for her to find her, and when that time came. . . .
The couple hours that Carla had to sleep did a lot for her and her own internal clock woke her close to the time she wanted and standing up had to wince a bit as she started walking, the duel with Plague had caused her own legs to tighten up and they were stiff now. Setting the pain aside, Carla stalked down the hall slipping from one pool of darkness to the next until she reached Shari’s room and checking carefully and seeing her asleep slipped in and tried to wake her up. Surprisingly, the big black Amazon failed to respond, and Carla spent several precious seconds trying to rouse her, at one point ducking to the side of the door as footsteps sounded in the hallway ready to attack if someone came in to the room. The footsteps however and then passed beyond the opening, and she tried for a couple more minutes before she realized that Plague’s cryptic comment about Shari being out of the picture was not just a knockout or the like, she meant literally she was out as well as figuratively, and the notion came to her mind of how Shari boasted her drugging Tonya and wondered if this had now happened to Shari.
One thing was certain, Shari was out, she was not responding, and the longer Carla stayed in the occupied area the greater her chances of getting caught. A last unsuccessful attempt to wake the woman and then Carla had to retreat, a thoughtful frown on her face as she headed for the secret cave and once getting there she realized she had to make some fast choices. Either wait several hours until just before dawn and try again for Shari, or else head back outside and start her hunt for Plague and come back the next night for Shari, she should hopefully be back to her usual self by then, and they can proceed as originally planned.
The notion of hunting for Plague for just a couple of hours and then returning for the dawn attempt was also considered but immediately rejected, at best she could give an hour or two for such a hunt, she was already tired from the earlier struggle and if Shari was good to go by dawn they would have their duel with Carla already partially hurt and more than a bit tired, she was already short several hours of sleep from normal for the last 24 hours, to face Shari even more tired and possibly hurting more if she was able to catch up to Plague and had to fight her to capture her made no sense, and seemed to her a formula for a definite loss for Carla.
Desires, instincts, and several possible scenarios of what may happen the next several hours quickly played through Carla’s mind, and with a half frustrated sigh she picked the lantern up and started back for the cave entry to look for Plague. Shari wasn’t going anywhere, and it would be better for her to come for her the following night well rested if possible, Plague on the other hand was a dangerous person and she was out there and loose and that put her capturing ahead of Shari.
Once in the outdoors, and a look at the setting moon and Carla knew she would have just a few hours at best before dawn and most people would be up and about, if Plague had not been captured by then things could get ugly. With her own trained eye, finding Plague’s trail did not take too long and Carla began to follow it moving as quickly as the clues would allow her to, it didn’t take too long before her trail came to the fields where the farmhouse laid and Carla’s heart rate skipped at the thought of possible carnage there and she broke in to a loping run for the place, slowing only as she got close. A search of the outer perimeter of the home showed no signs of a forced entry and she turned her attention to the barn and almost immediately saw the one door ajar and her senses went in to high gear as she found another way in and slipped in side, there was no sign of Plague, but her eyes told the story easily enough, the empty horse stall, and missing gear from a point where similar gear was laid out for three other horses told her that Plague was mounted and no doubt putting distance between them even now.
Going outside, she found the horse tracks fresh enough to be Plague’s and with her eye followed it to the field and saw the track heading towards a nearby road and followed it. Her worst fears were quickly confirmed as the track turned on the road and quickly became jumbled with other horse and wagon tracks. Following her now was out of the question, and she knew enough of the area that a half mile away this road joined a main road, one of the older paved ones still used locally, and that would definitely end any chance of tracking the hoof prints.
Mentally consigning Plague to her list of things to do soon, Carla turned her attention and own feet back towards the cave and headed for the secret cave where rather than wait in the darkened hall again as it was getting towards the time when the fighters within would be awake and may accidentally wander that way, she settled down in the secret cave itself, the lantern lit and sitting on a crate while she withdrew towards a darker far corner to settle down and rest. She realized by now that her fatigue was getting bad and decided to drop the idea of looking for Shari this morning. ‘Let her wait’ was Carla’s last thoughts as she drifted toward sleep.
That ‘wait’ would turn out to be a lot shorter than Carla had expected or wanted, as just a few hours later towards mid morning Shari woke suddenly with a start and realized just how late it was as she heard the murmur of voices in the hallway, and saw the remnants of her breakfast on a nearby table apparently eaten by one of the other fighters who had sneaked in while she slept and stolen a free meal at her expense.
It took only a few more moments to realize she had slept out the night, and worse she had not been met by Carla and that raised all sorts of suspicions and alarms at once including wondering if the woman had taken the info and run, leaving her stuck there. Shari had a stronger hunch however of what really happened and she rose and quickly searched the complex and her suspicions became a lot firmer when she could find no sign of Plague in the area. Trying to look like she really didn’t have anything to do right now, and to blend in with the area and fighting women up and about, Shari knew what she had to do next. Drawing on her own memory, she started to slip from the main area where they all lived and once out of sight of the others in the little used areas, her movements became a lot faster as she retraced the route taken a bit over a week ago and after some searching found the secret door and glancing around, to ensure she saw no one, opened it and slipped in, closing it behind her and looked around the secret cave and saw Carla herself rising across the way.
Carla had herself slept a hunter’s rest so any not normal sound would instantly wake her and the scraping sounds the secret door made definitely qualified, and in the light of the lantern she had left near it saw it was Shari and rose herself, trying to appear awake and alert as she started forward. As she did Shari could herself see some of the scrapes of the previous night activities on Carla and guessing why, she immediately demanded to know if Plague had been there and where was she now.
Her own smile was grim as she considered Shari before her, she was somewhat rested but had not reckoned on Shari coming here on her own, but she was here now, and there was no sense putting off the duel any further, as for her demands about Plague, Carla was not about to admit that she had fought and lost to her, but she did have to get Shari’s mind off of the matter. “Yeah, she was here and picked a fight with me as you can probably guess from my looks. Let’s just say, she made a bad move and paid the final penalty, there’s a very deep chasm deeper in the cave complex with a river flowing through it, I dropped the body in there where no one will find it if at all until much too late.” It seemed to at least partially put Shari’s mind to rest if the looks on her face were any indication and Carla pressed the changing of the subject by getting it on to the duel. “You’re here for the duel no doubt, Plague gave me a rough time, but I’m more than ready for us to duel as well, same terms still apply as before, an one hour duel, to see if you either yield more information and go back the second time, or if I lead you out, have you decided what it will be?”
That had the desired effect, Shari’s mind immediately turned fully to the duel and she nodded. She had actually decided what it would be days ago and she made her choice now. “I choose to duel with the figure four leglock!” was all she said and there no doubt that she felt she had made a good choice if her voice was any indicator. Shari did in fact feel this was a good choice, her duel with Plague that had seen her defeat even her with it, and locked like that, she was certain Carla could not try any kind of sexual tricks she had used in the first duel, locked in that hold.
A small look crossed Carla’s face for her moment, Shari saw it but could not place it, as it was there and gone that fast as Carla hid her feelings at the choice and suppressed a small groan as she realized Shari had targeted her already injured legs, and by her own rules for the duel, she had no choice in the matter, and settled down in a half seated, half leaning back position to allow Shari to apply the hold. With a wolfish grin on her face Shari did so and even as she dropped down herself she launched her own attack to the legs and got a sharp gasp of pain from Carla as it hit the sore legs full force and realized Shari was not holding back at all.
Almost desperately Carla tried to turn the two of them over and reverse the hold and was briefly successful but only for a double handful of seconds before Shari threw more power in to the duel and turned them back over, almost too easily and Carla realized that this may be a duel she would lose. A chant started in the back of her throat and soon came to her lips as she tried to call on her unique powers to pull additional strength from somewhere to counter Shari’s own attack. Shari however was intent on grinding away at Carla’s legs and as she tried to use her abilities Shari began to apply a series of sharp jerks to the hold breaking Carla’s concentration and inflicting more pain and damage. Shari may not have been aware of Carla’s special abilities to withstand strain, pain, and draw extra strength and power from within, but her own method of jerking and grinding with this particular hold was doing more than enough to keep Carla from using her abilities, and the freedom fighter was very quickly wearing down under the assault, as muscles still sore from her duel with Plague took the full brunt of Shari’s attack now and started to fail in the form of strained and sprained muscles.
For the next ten minutes or so Carla took virtually all the damage, managing only two rollovers and each time able to reverse the damage for seconds before Shari over powered her and forced the dual back her way. Leg muscles screaming in warning of major damage coming and some moderate damage already taken, Carla made the only safe call for the duel and yelled “Enough! You win the duel, I’ll take you out!”
The next several more seconds the assault continued however and maybe even intensified causing Carla repeated her yielding the duel at a higher volume and added a warning that if she didn’t let go, she risked stranding them both there if her legs were damaged any further! The additional warning seemed to get through to Shari and she finally stopped her own assault though she was slow and almost reluctant to release her fierce hold on Carla’s legs and stood up. Carla’s own rising to her feet was a good deal slower with a few gasps of pain and a lot of wincing as she gingerly felt her leg muscles and then took a few tentative steps to confirm no major damage, but she was also definitely not going to be moving too well until she could heal herself either naturally or by invoking her special abilities.
Shari for her part stood just a few paces away a smug look on her own face of triumph and more than ready to leave the place. She said as much to Carla and also throwing in a comment that she was clearly the superior woman between them. Hurt as she was, Carla wasn’t about to let that last comment pass unchallenged and she reminded her in turn that she had won the first duel, and it was an open fight with her back on the isle that had landed her here in the arena in the first place. That reminder wiped the smugness off of Shari face and the moved threateningly towards Carla and snarled “Then maybe it’s time for a lesson in manners and to prove I am the superior woman between us!!”
Carla went immediately to a fighting posture of her own and started to circle in turn, she knew hurt as she was Shari might well take such a fight, and she was not about to let her try to if she could and used a bit of guile to get Shari to back off. Her own voice a snarl she reminded her “I took you once, and you do remember Plague, the one who trashed you in the arena and whose body now is in the ravine deeper in because she picked a fight with me here?” Her own voice dropped to a matching menacing tone, “You start this then our agreement for me to take you out is OFF! Because this will be to the death, if you’re dead you can’t be led out, and if you kill me the same occurs, are you ready to surrender your life!”
Shari’s confidence at the threat and warning almost evaporated on the spot as she realized that she was about to throw away her one chance to escape and she slowly straightened up, her own voice a low growl.
“You live for now bitch, and for now you control this situation but the time will come when you don’t have such an advantage and I will teach you a lesson you won’t forget, and maybe not survive either!”
Carla knew the threat was a real one, Shari had her pride and she also was her enemy and would never forgive her for what happened, sooner or later there would be a fight between them, a deadly one, and only one of them would walk away from it, for now she pressed her advantage home. “I’ll welcome that day when it arrives, but for now we need to get going.” Turning but keeping a half eye on Shari, Carla went by the crates and left the ropes she had brought along there and picked up the mask. She had been planning to tie Shari, but reading her mood, if she tried that Shari might decide to fight anyway, she was clearly close to her trigger point. Turning, she tossed the mask to Shari who easily caught it and started to examine it as Carla reminded her. “The deal was you go out blindfolded, this mask will do that and you can remove it when we get to the entry, we agreed to that term and I’m holding you to it, there’s no negotiating it so don’t argue the point.”
For once Shari didn’t threaten, or bluster though she clearly didn’t like it either and slid the mask on, the threat of Carla fighting to the death perhaps still in her mind and unwilling to risk that, she growled, “OK I’m blinded now, lets get this over with!” Carla nodded touched her arm getting a partial flinch from Shari and tensing and she said, “Don’t worry, I keep my word even if it’s not for the overall good, unleashing you on the world again sure is not such a deal, but I keep my deals like it or not.” As the two started the trip through the caves and tunnels, Carla started a whispered chant, slowly and carefully invoking her healing abilities to repair all the damage from the duels and later on shifted it to the one where she drew on her hidden strengths and stamina to bring her as close to full readiness as possible when they reached the entry. Shari’s words had not been lost on her, and she knew as soon as they were outside, her hold on Shari would be shattered, she would have no more need of Carla’s help and could and probably would turn on her.
Perhaps in an attempt to rattle Shari, Carla as they did pass the ravine where the waters rushed below spoke louder to Shari, “Hear those water sounds? That’s the ravine I told you about where Plague’s body went when she was foolish enough to challenge me to an all out fight.” If Shari’s face did hold expression it was hidden well enough by the hood that hid her face, though she did grunt softly in acknowledgement of the comment, perhaps even believing the story of the body being down there.
By time the tunnel entry was about to come in to sight, Carla was as fully healed as she was going to be in the time given and was ready for Shari to turn on her, and decided to make her own move first.
With the light of day just around the bend of the tunnel ahead but not yet bright enough to be seen through the mask, Carla made her move, tripping the bigger woman and sending her falling forward face first, Shari’s arms snapped down and stopped a hard fall but it was enough time to let Carla drop the lantern and leap up coming down with both feet to the small of her back and partially collapse the bigger woman and then straddling her waist grabbed her hair, jerked it back pulling the head further up and slid home a sleeper hold and went for it trying to take her out here and now. Shari instinctively rolled on her own back trapping Carla under her but freeing her hands to tear at the arms trying to take her down, Carla countered with her own legs around the waist in a scissors and poured herself fully in to that as well trying to hurt and distract the powerful woman above her and the two struggled fiercely, Shari heaving and twisting desperately for the better part of the next minute as the sleeper took hold and Shari slowly went under, fighting the whole way, her resistance to the hold apparently very high as the muscles protected the critical carotid from the pressure needed to put her down.
Shari did go however and after keeping her locked in close to a minute longer to be sure she was out Carla finally let go and rolled her off and stood up. As she did, she grimaced as her own back complained of scrapes and small cuts from their squirming around on the rough rock. That she would deal with later, for several long seconds Carla just looked down at Shari and then removed the hood and looked her over once more. All her instincts were telling her this was a big mistake to let her go, better to kill her here and now and be done with it, while she could not fight back any longer. Against it Carla’s own warrior attitude and respect for a strong fighting woman was fighting the call to kill her like this, and reminding her that she had given her word and she had a personal honor to keep that word. ‘Let her escape, heal yourself up!’ it was telling her ‘Give her the promised hour, then go after her and meet her in deadly combat. You took her before, and you can do it again!’ The desire to honor her word at last won out, but not before Carla stripped her of everything she had claiming it as a personal prize and then admiring her powerful body a last time Carla spoke, her words though not heard by Shari, there was respect in them. “You are a strong and powerful foe, you’ve got your hour and then I hunt! I know you will try to kill me rather than go back to the arena, and if it’s to the death, so be it.” Turning, Carla picked up the dropped lantern, relit it just in case Shari’s sleep took longer than expected, then turning, she disappeared around the bend in to the remaining daylight of the outdoors leaving Shari behind to wake up and see where she was and how she was and make her own way out of the cave.
Moving about a fifty yards or so from the cave entry to the edge of a small copse of trees, Carla selected and climbed high in to a tree and settled down in the notch of two large limbs and from there watched the cave entry. It took by Carla’s reckoning maybe 15-20 minutes before Shari made her own appearance, her face a definite scowl in the rapidly approaching twilight as she carefully searched the area looking for anyone, and apparently missing Carla as she hid in the tree top and seeing no one she stepped further out in to the open and scanned the area more slowly. Apparently satisfied she had the area to herself for now and also her bearings, Shari did a quick series of limbering up exercises before taking off her direction generally to the East, and a bit south in the direction of the rising moon. That made sense to Carla, she would no doubt be seeking the coastline to try and get back to her base camp and that would mean stealing a boat so she was heading for the shore. It would be a couple days travel at least as the closest coast line Carla knew was a good 50-60 miles from there. Fighting the yawning she was doing, Carla decided to catch a nap herself, she was still very tired from the back to back fights of this day, a nap for an hour or so while she waited for Shari to have her free hour made sense at least to her and settling herself more firmly in the tree, she quickly drifted off to sleep.
Fatigue however can even play games with someone like Carla, her mentally setting her internal alarm to wake in a hour or so failed as fatigue claimed its due, and when she did awaken, it was not twilight as she expected, it was dark already, the moon close to a third of the way to the zenith and Carla half cursed herself for her sleeping longer than she wanted to. Still, it had been enough, she felt fairly fresh, though Shari by now would have a good deal more time to put distance between herself and Carla. Climbing down from the tree she was in, Carla went over towards where she had seen the bigger woman going and soon found signs of her passage and began to hunt her down, it was time to catch the bigger woman and settle it between the two of them once and for all. . .
Part Three. . . .
Despite her own highly trained eyes as a Hunt Mistress, tracking Shari was proving to not be as easy as Carla had hoped. The fact it was night made it harder to follow the faint clues the land gave her, and from time to time old style roads would cross the trail and it was clear that Shari had enough sense to use them in part to lose her trail. Carla persevered however, she knew how dangerous the woman could be, and she soon found proof of that as the trail cut through a small farming community where a dozen or so farms lay close together and Shari had hit at least three of them. The first found the three farming women who lived there all brutally murdered, their bodies badly battered and broken, the farmhouse ransacked as well, her foe clearly looking for something she can use. One of the women, the largest had also been stripped and Carla guessed Shari was now at least dressed rather than in the nude state she had been when she left the cave entry. The second farm held a more grim discovery as the two women and a young girl barely in her teens were similarly mangled before death came to them, the farmhouse was likewise ransacked and worse, this group like many who lived in outlying areas had a weapons case for storing hunting rifles and it was clearly broken in to, any weapons it may have held, were there no more. The woman was now dressed and armed and if clues were any indication by time Carla found the third farm and its victims, Shari was barely an hour ahead of her as rigor mortis had not yet set in on the sole victim, though there were signs a second person may have escaped from the open window in a second bedroom.
In each case Shari’s trail was easy enough to find soon afterwards and still bearing east by southeast, the woman clearly looking to find her way to the coastline and probably find a ship to escape back to the Bahamian base where she had been captured. It would be a bit after dawn and a good twenty some miles further since Carla started tracking Shari when she got her worst clue yet of Shari’s willingness to kill. A wagon on a roadside, the couple, one man and one woman this time killed, and one of the two horses to draw it slaughtered as well, the other missing, presumably now being ridden by Shari in an attempt to speed her way towards the coast. It was bad enough the slaughter of women, but with the male population so low, every male dead or killed was a serious blow to the hoped for eventual recovery of the world, and this was a young man she saw, perhaps mid twenties and no doubt able to help many women become mothers, but now he was gone as well. This changed matters seriously as well in terms of returning Shari to the arena. The male population due to the viral infection had become very precious for their ability to help a woman reproduce. Laws were made to allow them to be with several women though they may choose to stay with one as well, their highly desirable status was bad enough that a law had been passed that anyone who killed a male deliberately or deliberately destroyed their ability to reproduce would be sentenced to death, either directly or as Shari had found herself, condemned to the arenas to eventually die there. Carla doubted if she caught and returned her she would be allowed that second chance at the arena, she would be executed immediately.
Realizing that tracking Shari by foot was now impossible, Carla considered her options for several seconds as well as her location and turning on the road began a steady running pace towards a village she knew was several miles away. Once there, she identified herself to the local peace keeper and quickly was given a mount of her own and a hunting rifle and she turned the mount towards the east and set it at a steady canter for the coast, keeping to the open roads and fields now. No longer was Carla going to follow the trail, she was certain it was the coast Shari sought, and she was heading there herself hopefully getting there well enough ahead of the powerful woman and then intercept her somehow before she could escape completely.
The miles passed quickly enough, and Carla was hoping as she arrived several hours later that Shari had chosen a slower route through the woods as before, if she stayed on her current heading she was sure to come out within a few miles of where the inland road she followed emerged. There was a sea road here, part of an old highway that wound along the coastline, a pair of smaller fishing hamlets was within the ten miles or so of here each with a hundred or so people in it, but there were several smaller areas as well where homes had been built close to the shore, small docks jutted out in to the ocean waters where smaller fishing boats sat awaiting their owner to take them out for a few days fishing, any of them would do for Shari, and there were too many for Carla’s own taste right now to check.
Her own horse already tired from the hard ride, Carla took a chance and turned to the nearest of the two small hamlets and once there used her rank and position again to exchange horses for now and with a fresh mount started a hunt along the coast road slowing at each home to quickly scan it for any sign of Shari. The hours would pass slowly and nightfall came close to dawn as Carla began her fourth sweep along the ten mile stretch and considered expanding the distance a few miles the next time when one home caught her eye. At this time, most folks had long ago turned in but there was lights coming from a few windows of this one, and slowing down even more she saw a clearly tired horse near the back of the house, the direction that Shari might come from.
Not stopping where she was in an attempt to avoid rousing suspicion in case Shari was there and watching Carla continued until the house was just out of sight and then dismounting her own horse tying it to a tree, she unlimbering her own rifle and sneaked back to the house. Her own rifle had a good hunting scope on it and she used it now to peer in the windows and hissed partially in relief as she spotted Shari in there and she was using her own rifle to threaten the people in there, two women were getting dressed and Carla was certain they would be outside soon as hostages to the boat at their dock and take Shari away from there. Shifting around a bit towards the front and still to one side, Carla hid herself in the trees and waited for some sign of Shari.
It would not take long as the door up front opened and three women came half shoved out the door stumbling as they went and Shari stepped in to view her own rifle clearly at the ready and pointed at the women as she herded them towards the dock.
As far as Carla was concerned, Shari had to go. ‘Too many deaths at her hand and now probably three more once she got back to her base.’ Were her thoughts, as Carla sighted on Shari’s head; she was a good markswoman, had to be to earn her way through the ranks and keep qualified. It would have been so easy to end it here and now as Shari was completely unaware she was in Carla’s sights her own guard in that respect let down as she concentrated on getting the women to the boat. Slowly her finger tightened on the trigger and then she lowered the end of the rifle and chose a different target. Moments later, a shot rang out in the night and Shari cursed as the bullet smashed in to the rifle stock inches from where she was carrying shattering it and knocking it from her hands. Turning, Shari reached and started to draw a revolver she also had taken and a second shot rang out slamming in to that and knocking it from her hand and leaving the hand tingling from the sharp impact. She then froze as she saw Carla step from the trees, the rifle clearly pointed at her chest. Shari had a second pistol stuck in her waist in clear sight, and she could try to finish grabbing and firing the gun she had but she knew Carla would have fired as well by then and she instinctively knew she would take major if not deadly damage judging from where she was pointing.
Carla’s voice was a deep growl but her words were clear enough for all four there to hear her. “You three, my horse is down the road to the left just a bit, take it and the three of you ride to the village and tell them to call out the local militia and come here, tell them no less than a dozen fighting women as this woman is one of the Amazon like terrorists and there may be others nearby as well.” All this time, Carla kept her eyes and gun locked solidly to Shari and she half saw and heard the three women react and take off down the road as she had told them, leaving the two of them alone.
Carla’s own voice dropped even deeper as her anger showed clearly, “You had your chance to escape cleanly but you had to go on a killing spree didn’t you! Kill women and even worse killed men! Your life is forfeit as far as I’m concerned, you want to try and take me with that last gun you’ve got? Try It!” For several long seconds, Shari stayed still didn’t move a muscle except for her head as she slowly turned it and locked eyes with Carla. Perhaps to prove her point, Carla suddenly lowered her rifle a bit and a third shot rang out badly startling Shari as she realized the shot had been deliberate and right between her legs so close to her thighs that the insides burned a bit from the passing bullet. “That was an attention getter” growled Carla as the rifle came back up and pointed at her chest, “One wrong move and the next one will be the final one and you’ll be a threat to no one ever again!” Shari’s eyes locked hard with Carla, perhaps trying to read her mind and decide if she would indeed shoot to kill, then slowly she reached down a bit with the hand slowly lifted the gun and dropped it on the ground and just as slowly she stood up fully. Her actions stayed slow as she reached for the shirt she wore and then undid it, removed it and dropped it on the ground, the pants followed suit and Shari was bare naked before Carla.
Shari’s voice was firm and showed neither remorse nor fear but there was definitely a bit of challenge in her voice as she said, “It’ll take them at least an hour to get there, organize, and get back here. I promised you in the caves I would teach you a lesson you would never forget and may not survive, dare you follow me behind the house where it’s nice and open and meet me one on one and see if I don’t make good my promise?”
It was challenge, Shari was daring Carla to follow her behind the house and face her hand to hand in a fight that was probably to the death, Carla had no doubts that Shari would kill and not try to make her a prisoner again. Almost as if daring her to be a coward, Shari turned and started walking towards the back of the house, her exposed back half daring her to shoot her in the back if she didn’t follow and fight her. Carla knew Shari was right, it probably would take a good hour for them to get back with the numbers needed to take her as a prisoner and be safe enough. And there was a certain respect for the taller powerful woman now walking away from her. When it came to a fight, Carla was perhaps best known to be unafraid to fight, certainly, no one had ever made her back down from one that anyone knew of, and Carla’s own face deepened in to a scowl even as she started to follow Shari, the rifle stayed pointed at Shari’s back anyway but Shari said nothing further and as she walked in to a fairly open area turned and faced Carla. “Well?!? Either shoot me and get it over with or face me and prove I’m not the superior woman over you! What will it be!?!”
Carla’s own response was to gesture with the rifle, “Back up a bit more bitch I want distance between us and down on your knees while I prepare to face you.” For a few seconds savage delight lit Shari’s own face, Carla had just agreed to the fight, and to get her hands on her, she was willing to meet Carla’s demands for now, she had every intention of making Carla kneel later and grovel for death anyway so why not oblige her now. Doing as she said, Shari backed up a few more paces and then dropped to her knees, she kept her hands also out and away from her body, no false moves would she make until Carla was ready and away from that weapon she held.
That didn’t take too long as Carla scowling herself stepped to the corner of the building and watching Shari’s every move set the rifle down against the building, then reaching up undid her top and then her bottoms, both within a minute on the ground next to the rifle and her boots followed suit seconds later. Slowly, Carla stepped away from the wall and weapon and started to close even as Shari now rose to her own feet until they were perhaps a dozen feet apart and the tension between them was perceptible had someone been there to watch, and then the two lunged at each other and the fight was on. Carla took the initial advantage ducking under Shari’s arm and stopping as Shari’s movement carried her an extra couple feet past her and she delivered a hard mule kick to the back of the knee, dropping Shari where she stood with a hiss of pain and Carla turned and launched a knee to the back of her head sending her sprawling face first. Shari twisted like a falling cat to her back and lashed out with a foot catching Carla square in the groin and sending her staggering back in turn doubled over in pain from the blow there and trying to focus on the rising shape of Shari through suddenly blurred eyes.
It was Shari’s turn to charge and use the knee aimed for Carla’s face and she barely reacted in time jerking her head up, the knee actually grazing her jaw as she came up and she countered to grab the raised knee to jerk up further and toppled the big woman on to her back once more. Instinctively Shari thrust with her free leg at Carla trying to nail her and break her grip on her leg but Carla was moving now and dodged it and captured the second leg and started to spin dragging Shari off the ground and sent her in a spinning centrifuge like motion the blood rushing to her head from the force trying to make her dizzy and after close to a half minute it seemed she was as Carla stopped letting her drop to the ground and she looked dazed. Carla went right to the attack as she twisted Shari over and turned her in to a full boston crab and went deep and back, digging in her heels against the expected leg thrust and arching the back as far as she could and strained to take it even deeper even as Shari roused from the pain to her back and began to struggle in turn.
She realized at once from the angle of her back and Carla trying to bend it further that the woman was not trying to make her submit; she was clearly trying to snap her spine and kill her. Any possible advantage she might have thought she would have playing against Carla for trying to make her submit evaporated on the spot and she thrust hard with her legs and shoved up with a groan as she tried to shake Carla loose from the hold. Carla found herself hard pressed to hold the woman in place, the legs were powerful and despite her feet dug in she lurched forward and then with a hiss of her own hurled herself back again countering the leg thrust as well as Shari’s rising body driving her chest down to the ground again and Carla began a series of savage jerks to the hold trying to bend the woman even further back and break her spine. Had this been an average woman, the severity of the attack would have either rendered her unconscious and her back probably broken by now. Shari own heavily muscled frame was all that was saving her for the moment and she used them as she thrust with her legs a second and then a third time before she finally threw Carla off her and lost her hold. Rising with fire in her eyes despite the pain screaming along her back, Shari charged and was met by Carla’s own attack as she took a step forward and launched a drop kick aimed at her chest.
The attack landed well, but this time Shari grunted hard from the hard impact and staggered back but didn’t go down, instead, she moved back up and caught Carla as she tried to rise and easily lifted her high and then brought her down hard across an extended knee leaving her coughing and gagging the impact being to the stomach it was bad news for the fiery freedom fighter as Shari easily flipped her over and now it was Carla’s back being bent as Shari stretched her over her knee and tried to break her in half. Deciding to add insult to injury, Shari’s one hand wrapped around Carla’s neck choking her for good measure while the other went between the legs fingers digging inside her womanhood in a vicious claw adding to the pain inflicted.
Realizing she was hurting bad, Carla went to the dirty herself the one hand siding up Shari’s own body to the face and seeking the eyes and raked hard getting a sharp yell from the Amazon and she rose quickly releasing her grip as she staggered back pawing at her face and trying to get her eyes to focus. Carla still hurting, staggered to her own feet and then backed up several paces getting a bit of distance between then before dropping to a partial crouch and waited for Shari while at the same time starting a low chant of her own in an attempt to draw strength and power from within to use against this woman, Carla was certain she would need it for this particular fight.
Getting most of her vision back from the teary blurring Shari glared at Carla and then with a snarl she charged her and launched a low tackle that connected around the waist and took them both to the ground. Her arms already wrapped around the waist and on top of Carla, Shari went for the bearhug and tried to shift it up to center more on the lungs. She was blocked by Carla’s legs however as she realized the probable next action and her legs snapped up around Shari’s own waist in a scissors and she poured all her own strength in to it trying to weaken the woman above her. Both women grunted and then moaned in pain as they took damage from each other. Locked together the two writhed across the ground determined to dish out the most damage possible. After the better part of three or four minutes, it looked like Carla was finally gaining an edge over the bigger woman if her anguished face was any indication. Needing a solid advantage, Carla went for a risky one by allowing Shari to start inching her way up her body letting her get closer and closer to shifting her arms enough to get the bearhug around her chest and closing her lungs down. Shari felt the little shifts and she grinned wickedly and fell for the bait and even started to taunt Carla on how she was going to slowly crush every bit of breath from her.
Carla didn’t respond she was saving her breath herself trying to charge her own lungs up even as she continued to weaken Shari with the scissors, letting Shari slip up a couple more inches and she would have the bearhug she wanted, but she would be positioned as well for Carla’s own trap and she seemed totally unaware of the risk despite the fact that one of her foes most potent weapons was mere inches from her own face.
Shari took those inches and she made her move, her arms sliding up and home closing with brutal force around Carla’s chest and a satisfied smirk crossed her lips and she started to say “Now bitch! It’s time to mmmmfff!” her last taunting words came out muffled as Carla lunged with both arms locking them around Shari’s head and tightening as well, the savage woman’s taunt muffled as her face suddenly went down and in to the deep cleavage of Carla’s breasts and the arms tightened further molding her pliant flesh and creating an airtight seal for a classic breast smother attack. Now it had become a very deadly point in the fight, if Shari could hold out long enough despite her temporary weakened state and deliver enough damage to Carla’s rib cage and lungs she would probably break the bones and survive the ordeal, but if she didn’t and Carla held out long enough, the lack of her own air combined with the crushing effect from the scissors would probably finish her instead.
For several long seconds the two concentrated their individual attacks, Shari seeking to break every rib in her foe to escape the deadly embrace while Carla held on to her lock around the head and poured her strength and spirit in to the scissors, initially as a sustained burst but after a half minute or so, Carla shifted the sustained scissors to a series of sharp pelvic thrusts that could do more damage instantly. Neither woman could breathe by this time, but Carla had the sense to try and charge her lungs while Shari had not expected the counter and was caught using her breath for the taunt and had lost most of it that way. The pelvic thrusts added insult to injury as the severe jolts were knocking what little Shari had left out in little bit, much of it already going bad anyway, even as Carla’s lungs in turn burned with white hot fire from their own air denial.
The half minute became a minute and then two and both women by now were vibrating from the acute pain their bodies were enduring, especially their lungs. Carla knew they were both at the edge where they would soon fade and she threw all she had in to a last massive series of pelvic thrusts to try and break the fierce grip on her but the hold did not weaken or falter and she started to fade to grey and felt the blackness coming on her and tried to fight it to draw another attack, and then with the blackness swirling around her she found herself with air and the terrible grip that burned her chest disappeared.
Half dazed, she took in the life giving air and fought the blackness still trying to overtake her and managed to push the darkness back and opened her own eyes and didn’t see Shari anywhere above her. Shock and dismay ran through Carla as she realized she had lost her quarry and sat up suddenly and then moaned and cursed as her world spun crazily for a couple seconds and she looked around and then scowled.
Shari was still there, and standing over by the corner of the house, she had picked up the hunting rifle and she now held it on Carla. Still breathing hard herself from what she had endured and trying to catch her own breath she had a satisfied smirk back on her face and her voice hoarse from the recent lack of air, she said, “Now, you’re coming with me! I’m taking you back as a prize and you’re going to serve us well for at least a little while, while I flaunt your capture at my hands to Tonya!” Slowly despite her pains Carla stood up, she had been fighting mad before for all the deaths she had caused in her bid for freedom, dared her to fight her hand to hand and now she wanted to use the rifle against her!?! Carla knew a secret that Shari didn’t at least probably not yet, but Shari’s action had just turned her fighting mad anger and turned it in to a roaring inferno of anger and it was directed solely at the women in front of her. Taking as deep a breath as she could and continuing to do so she said, “Won’t happen, I will either take you or force you to kill me!” and she charged at Shari. The distance wasn’t that great but it took but a second for Shari to line up Carla in her sights and squeeze the trigger. Her triumphant smirk then disappeared as the rifle’s hammer clicked and nothing happened, she glanced down startled and then back up as Carla left the ground in a high dropkick feet slamming in to her upper chest and slamming her back in to the wall of the house with a resounding impact that dazed and stunned her, the rifle dropping from hands she could not command right next to Carla and she in turn, grabbed the rifle and rolled to her own feet holding and reversing it.
The barrel end in her hands, Carla swung hard and low the stock of the rifle smashing squarely in to the one knee of Shari with enough force to break both the knee and the rifle stock and the big woman dropped to her knees in a howl of pain and repeated it as her weight fell on the crippled knee. By then Carla had drawn back the rifle out of reach even as Shari instinctively tried to rise to get her weight off her knee and the rifle swung a second time, this time slamming hard across her breasts, what was left of the rifle stock broke with this impact leaving just the metal of the rifle, and judging from the distinct cracking sound at least one rib had just broken maybe more than one, and the air gushed from Shari’s lungs from the impact. Carla drew back again and this time rather than swinging reversed the rifle and stabbed as hard as she could with the barrel straight for the solar plexus and connected solidly.
Pain exploded spreading from the impact point through her entire body and fully stunned, Shari fell forward and Carla still holding the metal of the rifle swung it up, around, and down with as much force as possible across the small of Shari’s back there was a sickening crunch and the metal actually bent a bit from the impact and Carla threw the now useless rifle away and grabbed Shari by the hair and dragged her away from the building where it was open and letting go she stepped back and snarled. “Get up bitch! That stunt with the rifle just cost you this fight and you know it! I was willing to fight you as equals because you dared me to, but you had to do that, now you’re going to pay the hard way because I’m going to first humiliate you and then rather than kill you which you so truly deserve I am sending you back to the arena!”
A mixture of both anger and fear sparked in Shari’s eyes, the fight she had figured she could win with ease had backfired badly, and the promise of a return to the arena for the rest of her life filled her with a fear she could not quite explain, she saw only two possible options at this point, the main one was to fight back of course. The woman Carla may hold the upper hand right now, but she didn’t know each of her group had rapid regeneration powers that just needed time to do their work, and as Shari started to rise she suddenly collapsed as her broken knee could not support her and worse, her arm on the same side was not responding either, the final blow to her back may have severed a number of her nerve command channels, though she could sense a tingling in her shattered knee that said the healing process was at work there, and the rest would come soon enough, for now she had to make Carla aware she was hurt, maybe distract her enough to not realize she was regenerating and then when the time was right. . . .
Shari’s own voice was a snarl “Bitch! You broke the knee and damaged the spine, I’m half crippled now, and you want me to fight! You better come to me then because I can’t get up!” For a moment, doubt crossed Carla’s face and then firmed in to resolve, she wasn’t going to trust Shari that much to tell the truth though her movements did seem to suggest she was, and she did after all just smash the rifle across the knee hard enough to shatter it. Slowly circling Shari, Carla closed to the injured arm side to avoid a possible grab and then lunged in and straddled the waist of Shari and the uninjured arms and jerked her up and to one side. It gave her enough space to slide a leg underneath and across the stomach and Carla snared her in a tight figure four body scissor and tightened down with the power of her legs with no mercy. Reaching across Shari’s back Carla slipped the opposite arm under Shari’s good arm and clamped on a crossover half nelson and used the angle to twist and lever the woman’s upper body around and towards a near face up position, even as her scissors kept the lower body trapped and locked in a face down position in what some would call a wringer hold.
The anger on Carla’s face so close to Shari’s own was not a pleasant sight to see as Carla slid up and increased the twisting leverage on the upper body making Shari gasp and groan in pain and despite herself she tried to fight back, the pain was very quickly becoming unbearable threatening to even overwhelm the repairs her body was already achieving because they would stop to face this newer more intense threat. Carla was not done yet however as she threw her free arm around Shari’s head and Shari seeing this and looking at their position realized the final humiliation was about to begin as Carla shifted and her breasts went over her nose and mouth and the arm tightened drawing her in to a potentially deadly smother. Shari knew Carla said she would live but in an anger as strong as she clearly was right now, she might just forget that promise, and take the smother to the deadly stage and she was not sure she could survive that, regenerating abilities or not.
Within a few minutes Shari knew she was in deep trouble, the tingling sensation had long faded from her knee and ribs leaving both saying they were not healed, and was centered mostly on her steadily twisted back and on her lungs trying to fight the effects of the smother and attempts to finish the damage to her spine, and she definitely had the belief in her by now that Carla may very well take her all the way. She had been knocked out once already when Carla cranked her back too far and pain screamed along her spine and she was now close to putting her out with the smother, she was even now fighting the fire of her lungs and the darkness around her. Her own eyes had locked with Carla’s several times and there was she knew a desperate look to them a look that Carla was apparently ignoring as she extracted her own version of justice over her. Just as her eyes fluttered shut, Carla released the smother and eased the hold just a bit letting her breath for several seconds and her head started to clear a bit, but then Carla leaned close to her ear and said, “That’s for the first of my trainees you and that blonde bitch killed, you still have plenty more to pay for!” and the agonizing back twisting reefed back up and the smother slid home again.
Several times more Carla punished Shari, each time whispering a name in her ear, the name apparently of her trainees who had died and by the fifth one, Shari was beyond caring, she was almost senseless from the lack of air and the damage she had sustained and Carla suddenly released her fully and unwinding she stood up and growled, “You have so much more to pay for and I don’t have the time to administer your punishment as it should be, the family you tried to kidnap should be back any time now and I’m going to look for them.”
Certain that Shari was too badly injured right now to ever be a threat again, Carla walked to the corner of the house and disappeared around the corner, little realizing she may have made a dangerous mistake as she knew nothing of Shari’s regenerating abilities. They were still working and doing overtime trying to cope with it all but Shari could feel it, but her mind was much more on Carla as she rounded the corner, the hate was still there but something else for the fight had shown a side of her that Shari found she could respect even if she seemed so weak compared to herself, and the thought came to her mind “Damm! I wish we had her as a model for one of our fighters, she’s damm good!”
That didn’t change the fact that Shari still had to get out of there either with or without Carla and the regeneration had returned to her shattered knee and was doing small wonders even now and Shari slowly rolled over, carefully rose to all four and then to her feet. Several feet away laid the shattered rifle and she picked it up and started towards the corner and waited her own hearing good enough to hear Carla returning and apparently alone as she heard no voices and just the one set of footsteps. Raising the metal for a bludgeoning blow as she came around the corner, she never heard or saw it coming as hard hands grabbed her hair from behind and jerked back and down causing her give a startled cry as she toppled backwards partially in to waiting arms. Thinking Carla had pulled a fast one some how, she looked at the face and shock, dismay, and sheer terror crossed her face.
Carla had also heard the startled cry and she broke in to a run coming around the corner but wide of the house in case it was a trap and literally slid to a halt at the sight before her. Shari half on her feet and half tiled back and being held that way by Plague. She had Shari’s neck in the crook of one arm and even now had closed her other arm around the head and neck from the other side in a classic neck breaking position. Seeing Carla ahead of her Plague gave her a half smile and then scowled down at Shari. “Figured I owed you a favor for getting me out of the arena, and this trash was laying an ambush for ‘ya.” Pulling up a bit on her grip she started to strain the neck of Shari slowly to the point of no return. Shari struggled as best as she could but her injuries were still way behind in regenerating and Shari turned her attention to Carla. “Listen up, you shouldn’t know this because in theory you’re my enemy as well. But since they abandoned me I figure I owe them a major payback. Each of us has the ability to regenerate and quickly that’s why she was on her feet so fast when you left her thinking she was crippled.” Cranking the neck breaker up a bit more, and ignoring the now frantic attempts to pry her arms from Shari’s neck Plague continued. “Only thing we can’t regenerate is the heart and the brain, everything else can heal, and it’s time for this one to be put down for good.”
Shari heard the words, gave a half strangled scream of “Carla, save me please I’ll go quietleeee!” the end came as a high pitched scream as Plague jerked up sharply and twisted the sound of breaking bones was clear and Shari went limp and Plague let go and surveyed her work, a half look of disgust on her face. “Damm these newer models are tougher than I guessed she didn’t break all the way!” She started to bend down to pick up Shari but Carla’s voice came to her, strong and hard. . . . “Enough! I thank you for the intercession and the valuable lesson as well, I remind you that I need to also capture you as well and return you of I can to the arena, you figuring to start a fight with me now?!?”
For a moment Plague’s eyes hooded and then she shook her head ‘no’. Carla nodded having control of the situation for now and suspecting there was something more about Plague she needed to know, for now however she raised her voice. “This was my fight, and I claim the right to finish it as it should be so stand away and let me do as I must.” Plague half grunted then stepped back but gestured at the one arms moving even now, the one good arm she had managed to not injure yet, “better to do it soon, she is regenerating even as we speak.” Carla’s response was a nod of her head as she closed and studied the big black Amazon. Her voice was low but all three women could hear her. “Only the brain and heart can’t regenerate, the brain needs air to survive if it lacks it, it dies and so will you.” Noting the one arms moving better she straddled Shari’s waist and her hands partially covered Shari’s nose and mouth ready to clamp down in a hand smother and Shari realized she was going to die.
From somewhere she managed a hoarse whisper, “Let me die a warrior please.” It wasn’t for mercy Shari knew she was dead meat but wanted at least to her mind a death worthy of a warrior. Carla considered it for scant moments and nodded her head in agreement, “I grant you that wish though it may not be a great struggle.” Letting go of her hand smother Carla looked at Plague, “She gets a warrior’s death struggle and I want you to help her, when I go in for the final smother grab her lame arm and throw it over my back so her good one can seize it and try a final time to crush me to death, this is end fight and this time one of us will never rise again.” Plague stepped close and nodded, “She doesn’t deserve it but I’ll do it because I owe ‘ya.” Carla didn’t comment she looked at Shari, “You understand what is to happen, fight with your bear crush and take me if you can.” Shari had a look in her eyes, no voice from her but her lips moved and formed two words that Carla took as a ‘thank you’ and then she dropped down and went to the breast smother.
Carla had half expected Plague to try something either to her or Shari but she leaned over and deftly threw the lame arm across Carla’s back and Shari found it and drew her tight and began to crush as best as she could with just one arm usable, even as Plague surprisingly stepped back several paces and watched. It really wasn’t much of a fight, Shari could not exert even close to her former strength but she did try and Carla moaned a couple times as her already sore back and ribs complained but after a half minute or so, the arms unlocked and Shari began to buck as her air went bad, and Carla grapevined her legs to keep her more or less locked down. By the three minute mark, Shari’s writhing had risen to violent contortions as her body ignored all else in a final involuntary attempt to find some kind of position to breathe and even this then faded as she went unconscious and with a final tremble she seemed to die. Carla did not release the hold however she knew a brain needed no air from her own teachings for at least three minutes before irreparable damage occurred and the hold stayed locked in. After a good eight minutes Carla finally sighed and released her hold and stood up and watched Plague carefully, if she was going to do something it would be now.
For her part, Plague had a look on her face perhaps partly approval and something else, but before Carla could say anything or even challenges made, she tilted her head and said, “Sounds like the cavalry has arrived to save you from Shari.” Carla listened as well and heard the rapid beat of many horses approaching, and she backed away to the corner and looked and sure enough a large group of locals came in to sight. A glance back towards Plague and she swore as she saw her disappearing in to the wood line, no doubt taking advantage of the arrival to make good her own escape. Carla glanced down at herself and then suddenly leapt for her own leather pants barely getting them back on to cover at least some of her own nudity before the running feet and shouts announced the arrivals of the ‘cavalry’. It wasn’t really much of a rescue now that Shari was dead, but Carla still put some of them to good use borrowing tools from the family that lived there and digging a grave not too distant from the shore, at least deep enough to reach the water line under the land and Shari’s body was dragged over and with no ceremony was dumped in the grave and quickly covered over and most of the locals left for their respective homes, the excitement of the night apparently a bust and over with. Only Carla remained behind, her horse returned and tied to the trees she had waited for the fishing family to go to sleep and quietly made her way in to the wood line, half hoping that Plague would show herself. She didn’t but Carla was certain she had not heard the last of her either.
Little did Carla know, but events were already beginning to occur. Most of Shari’s people are not even aware of the presence of them except those of the rank of commander and certain radio techs who are trained to recognize the signal. As Shari’s brain ceased to function for the final time, a small chip getting no more electronic impulses meaning the brain was dead triggered, a supplemental battery connected to it and kept charged by the brains electronic impulses and it began to send out a signal that gave last known location in the brain. The battery was tiny like the chip, it lasted maybe three or four minutes tops before it too died but it was long enough to have the signal reach the base where Shari and Tonya had been. A tech monitoring the radios picked it up and turning to Sarah crisply reports. “Getting a DT signal from Shari A5, co-ordinates as follows” and she rattled off a number group and tried to pin the signal down better before it faded. By time it had, they had managed to narrow it down to about a hundred yard area.
A few days later as night wrapped the community in sleep, two dark clad figures appeared from the waters and soon located Shari’s simple grave. With shovels they quickly unearthed the body and took it with them back in to the waters all disappearing from sight and leaving no clue they were there except for the now open and empty grave. Aboard the submarine where the trio eventually went to, Shari’s body was quickly inspected by Sarah and Tonya and confirmed it was her and then unceremoniously dumped in a storage area. Sarah ordered the pilot to continue the mission, the destination; a fishing town further north up the coast called Palm City.

To Be Continued in:
‘Sting of the Tale’