There was such a ruckus I hardly registered the first blow. Next thing I knew the boy carrying me had let go and when I looked down he was folded back on himself with half his head caved in from where my protector had bludgeoned him. The other boy began flailing his arms, piss spraying from his shrinking pecker as my protector – my savior – advanced, swinging his club. The first blow hit the boy on one of his flailing forearms and I heard it break like a tree branch. You could see it bend in the middle with the hand-end dangling and that arm was useless to him now. He screamed in pain and fell to the ground and rolled himself into a ball. My protector stepped forward, raising his club in the air. And I closed my eyes against the pending violence – I’d seen too much already. But it never came. Instead, my protector kicked the boy in the backside and half-said, half-grunted, “Go!” The boy was up and running for the woods as fast as an Olympic sprinter, I can tell you that.

Sorry, but my hand is cramping.… I must rest. Hopefully I’ll have time to finish.

* * *

Cont.

Argh! My hand is so tight and sore from writing, but I want to get this down before I go. I’ll do my best.

My protector had saved me from the two attackers, killing one and sparing the other. “Go, go,” he grunted, watching the woods and guarding my back as he pushed me toward the cabin. We got to the open door and he turned at the threshold to guard me as I shut myself inside. Without thinking – I’d have done none of this had I been using my head – I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him in. Even using both hands and pulling with all my strength, I couldn’t budge him. He turned and saw what I intended. “Please!” I said, pulling on this statue of a man. “Please, come!” And then he did, coming inside with a shocked and confused look in his eyes. I shut the door behind him and locked it, put my back against it and tried to slow my runaway breath.

My protector took one look at my naked body heaving breathlessly against the doorframe and averted his eyes. He balled up the blanket I’d been using as the canopy for my fort and handed it to me with his head turned. Chivalry may be dead in the metros, but it’s alive and well in modern cavemen! I wrapped the blanket around me like a toga. Feeling a bit like Aphrodite now, yeah? Perhaps that’s who’s been borrowing my mind these last several days. If so, I’ll give her something to blush about, yet.