The Yellow Band - Part 1

Vechus slammed the head of the monkey against the rock. It exploded. It was a grey-pink eruption. ‘Now we have lunch,’ he said. He held the limp body with a single gauntleted hand like he just won some kind of a prize.
Sylvia frowned. ‘You killed a sentient being. I don’t eat meat with reasoning powers.’
‘So? And since when are monkeys sentient?’
‘That was a Ghi-Nome, not a monkey. They’re about three feet tall and they wear furs. It was just wearing the Ghi-Nome monkey-suit.’
‘That’s a mistake it won’t make again,’ said Stilt. ‘I will go hunt up some tasty rats in a few minutes. We will have plenty of non-sentient meat for dinner.’
‘What’s wrong with it?’ asked Vechus. ‘It looks fine to me. Not too fatty.’
‘The closer something is to a human,’ said Sylvia, ‘the more likely you’ll catch disease from it. That’s why a human is relatively safe from catching disease from something like wheat but pretty likely to get sick from a sick cow or pig.’
‘Or a Ghi-Nome,’ said Stilt.
She just nodded.
‘Whatever,’ spat Vechus. ‘We’re in the middle of the Thruuva, we’re cut off and we’re surrounded by a fuckload of monkeys.’
‘Ghi-Nome,’ said Sylvia.
‘And we’re running out of poison. What am I gonna dip my battle axe in?’
‘Overkill,’ frowned Sylvia. ‘What’s the point?’
Chorgil landed in between them with a spinning summersault. The charcoal black butterfly mask came off the burned ruin that was his face. It fluttered in the air for a brief moment before it resumed its customary position.
‘Intimidation,’ said the Elf. ‘Nothing in their right mind fights Vechus.’
‘You fight him all the time,’ said Philippe.
‘He’s crazy,’ said Stilt. ‘The Dwarf does make a point though. We’ll have to start eating monkeys or Ghi-Nome or each other unless we break out.’
‘Sylvia could make them think we surrendered or something,’ said Stilt. ‘Or make the leader fall in love with her. Or fry them all with fireballs. For that matter, Chorgil could go outside and kill them one by one in a couple of weeks.’
‘Do you know how dangerous that is?’ asked Sylvia. ‘There are Wonton mercenaries in that camp. All I need is for one of them to come close while I’m casting a charm and it will rebound on me like a cut bowstring. Fuck THAT.’
Stilt faced Chorgil. ‘How about you then, Butterfly Boy?’
‘They’re expecting me. I’m expecting them. Here I have the advantage. They have some traps laid for me in that camp. I can sense them. Anyway, I’ve done this before. It would bore me.’
‘So if we break out,’ said Vechus. ‘Then what? We’re in the center of the Thruuva. It’s all bugs and humidity and jungle and disease for five hundred miles in all directions. Can we break out with enough supplies to make it? There are antriders between here and Mirm. Shit, there are antriders between here and Zendivett.’
‘Don’t think like they do,’ said Sylvia. She gestured towards the huddled mass of defenders in the courtyard. Most of them were moaning. The wounds drew a veritable cloud of insects. ‘Think like he does.’ She motioned towards Chorgil.
‘There is a good idea,’ said Vechus. ‘Let’s think like an insane Elf. There is teamwork for you. All right then. I will give it a try.
The Dwarf furrowed his eyebrows. ‘We kill everybody here and toss the heads over the walls,’ he said. ‘Burn strangeass runes into the foreheads. Lots of wriggly lines. We prop up the headless bodies on the walls with spears or something… In the morning the bastards wake up and they see this pile of fresh heads and a totally quiet city that’s manned by headless corpses. They freak and leave.’
For a moment there was complete silence.
Chorgil broke it. ‘That’s actually something I’d never done,’ he admitted with obvious reluctance. ‘I’m in.’
‘Wait,’ said Philippe. ‘We were hired to defend the city.’
‘Right,’ agreed Chorgil. ‘The CITY.’