Quiet

That is all Shadow Heard as he leaned against the wall. It pressed in on him from all sides threatening to overtake him. The sun was barely crested over the macintosh hills throwing shadows across the ground of the slave pens. Shadow looked over to where Red June and Close Cut were sleeping. He could see thier rising breath as mist in the cold air. They were huddled against eachother shivering under the ragged blankets the slavers gave them. Shadow exhales deeply not noticing his breath didn't come out as a mist. Shadow hears voices on the other side of the door followed by the grinding of the lock. He shrinks back into the shadows waiting for the slaver to bring food into the pen. The door swings open to reveal a girl with mint green skin and dark green hair holding a tray of old fruit and what looks like tan rocks which might have been old bread.

"Hey you!" Shadow calls before he rushes her. She drops the food and draws a 9 mm. handgun which Shadow kicks out of her hand. He tackles her to the ground and punches her once knocking her out. Shadow drags her into one of the slave shacks and sits her on a chair to which he ties her to. Shadow pulls up a small stool and placesn it in front of her. He sits down and waits for her to wake up. A short while later she stirs and apon seeing Shadow she tries to break the rope keeping her hands tied down.

"Let me go!" She whines as Shadow stands up and moves the stool closer.

"No." Shadow says simply now looking at her curiously.

She stops struggling and stares at his curious expression." What do you want?" She asks trying to sound strong.

Shadow smiles." I want you to deliver a message to someone on the outside." He says taking his hood off.

She looks curiously at his brightly colored hair." Where and why." She says." And whats to stop me from telling my friends about you? I could have you hauled off to the arena!" She spits.

"Oh I'm counting on you hauling me to the arena." Shadow whispers with a smile.

"W-what?" She says with wide eyes.

"What is going to take to deliver the message huh?" Shadow asks." Money, guns, food,?" Shadow says.

She puases and thinks for a moment then a small smile forms on her face." I'll do it and i wont have you hauled off to the pits." She says

" I need to get into the pits!" Shadow starts. She cuts him off.

"I will have you taken there at the right time but you have to give me something." She says with a wider grin.

"What?" Shadow asks.

"I think you have an idea." She says.

Shadow sighs." May I ask your name?"

"Wintergreen." She says.

"Wintergreen I'm infected." Shadow says.

"I don't care." She says quickly

"I just want you to know the risk." Shadow says standing up and walking behind her where he begins cutting her bindings with a sharp rock he found. When the rope falls away she turns and tackles Shadow to the ground where she draws a pocket knife and puts it to his throat.

"Alright.....kill me." Shadow says.

"Whats to stop me from doing it?!" She asks panting and digging the knife deeper into Shadows neck.

"Nothing....." Shadow says he says keeping a stoaic expression.

"You are too trusting! Trust will get you killed out here! It's everyone for themselves now!" She growls as the knife shakes in her hand.

"Everyone has good in them......Its finding it that is the problem for most people." Shadow says gently putting his hand on the knife and gently taking it from her shaking hand and throwing it to the other side of the room.

Wintergreen begins shaking and tears begin to fall from her eyes." How is it you are so nice? why hasn't this god forsaken land taken your conscience yet?" She asks getting off of him and sitting against the wall. Shadow sits next to her.

"Because I wont let it.....There's someone on the outside....She's relying on me to keep her safe but......." Shadow stops." I have to stay strong.....for her sake."He finishes. He stands up and holds out a hand.

"Ill deliver the message and get you to the pits." She says taking his hand

"Thank you Wintergreen." Shadow says with a smile.

"If I do bring the message I want one thing in return...." She says as Shadow pulls out a worn down pencil and picks up a peice of scrap paper from the ground.

"And what is that?" He asks writing down a few lines.

"I want you to take me with you." She says nervously.

Shadow pauses and looks back at her." What can you offer the group?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Im could train you in hand to hand combat." She says." And I am good at recognizing edible plants and I can even make some herbal medicine if you get me the right ones." She says.

"Are you looking to go anywhere in particular?" He asks folding up the message and drawing a crosshair on the front.

"Where are you headed?" She asks picking up her knife from the other side of the room.

"At this point I'm headed to Manehattan."He says tossing her the note.

"Why?" She asks putting the note in her pocket.

"I'm trying to find.....someone." He finishes unsurly.

"Just someone?" She raises an eyebrow." Is this someone the person you made that promise to? The one you need to stay strong for?" She asks.

"I'll tell you the story after we get out of here." Shadow says." Now I need this delivered to the eastern side of this camp. You should find three people with horses there. Give the note to them. Stay with them, the note explains all about you so they shouldn't attack if you show up unarmed." Shadow says before smiling and holding out his wrists.

"Uhhh what are you doing?" She asks.

"Well I need to be taken to the pits so I'm assuming you need to cuff me." Shadow says.

"We don't use cuffs around here." She says with a slight smirk.

"Then what....."Shadow is cut off as she punches him in the face with an incredible amount of force. Shadow stumbles back against the wall and when he looks back up Wintergreen was already slamming his head into the wall knocking him out. Shadow blacks out but the last thing he sees is two big slaver men breaking the door open and Wintergreen giving him one last smile before turning to look at them with a surprised expression.

Wintergreens POV

Wintergreen watched as Shadow fell to the floor unconcious. Behind her she heard a crash and turned to see Shredder and Bear breaking down the wooden door.

"What the hell is going on?!"Bear asks before seeing Shadow passed out on the floor." What happened?!" He says again this time directing the question at Wintergreen.

"He dragged me In here while I was bringing the food into the slave pens." She says.

"What did he do to you?" Shredder asks crossing his arms.

"He tried torture me into helping him escape." She says.

They both watch her skeptically for a moment before walking to Shadow and grabbing his feet."Lets see howthis mother fucker likes the pits." Shredder says with a malicious smile.

"No!" Wintergreen says before she can stop herself.

They both look at her curiously before dropping Shadows legs and walking towards her.

"I mean....I want to see him get beaten myself.....could we hold off taking him until tomorrow?" She asks with a sweet tone.

They look at eachother for a moment before nodding and turning back to Shadow and dragging him out the door. Wintergreen walks out of the small slave shack and into the pens. She stands there for a moment before pulling out the peice of paper and looking at it. She puts it back and walks to the gate. She knocks in morse code and the door opens a moment later. She pushes past the gate keeper and into the center of the slaver camp. Wintergreens stomach rumbles as she walks past the large oak tree library that served as the head slavers quarters. She walks past there and down a couple blocks until she arrives at the mess hall. The building must have once had vibrant colors on it but it was now crumbling andthe paint was slowly peeling from years of neglect and low mantinence. The sign over the door read Sugar Cube Corner. Wintergreen loved to imagine this place back before the plauge. It must have been filled with happy faces and friendly chatter. She wished she could experience that but now there was no chance of her ever having an even semi-normal life....or was there? There was something about that guy that gave her something she never thought she could feel. Hope. Hope that somehow he could give her a normal life and stop the infection from killing every last equestrian on the planet. She couldn't shake the feeling as she ate the few rations the slavers ussually gave the teens and under aged.

Quantums POV

Quantum sat in an old ruined chair he had found in a pile of trash. Sonata and Night Shade sat across from him chatting as they ate what little food they had. Qantum was taking ammunition inventory but it didn't look very good. They had a handfull of 9 mm. ammo and only 7 extra rounds for Shadows 45. He had around 47 shells for his shotgun but he went through them as fast as him and Sonata went through food.

"We need to stop somewhere to restock on ammo." He says bitterly throwing the ammuntion back into the duffle bag they kept thier extra weapons in.

"How bad are we?" Sonata asks worriedly.

"We wouldn't get through a firefight without having to use melee weapons." He sighs picking up a pouch of which contained the dried meat from the deer they killed a week before." What weapons do you use Night Shade?" He asks through a mouthfull of jerky noticing the lack of guns on her person.

"I don't like guns. They're to slow for me." She says unclipping the ragged cloak from around her neck and letting it slide off behind her. She reaches over her shoulder and unsheathes what looks like a single katana until she pullls it apart and the katana separates into two seperate swords.

"Dang I'd hate to see what you could do with those." Quantum jokes picking up a log from beside him and putting it on the fire. They continue joking and laughing for ten more minutes until they hear rustling in the bushes."SHHH." Quantum says drawing his 9 mm. handgun and standing up. He slowly walks into the brush only making a smalll amount of noise. Sonata and Night Shade both stand by with thier weapons drawn. A short while later they both hear alloud thump from inside the brush and a hurrryed movement. Just as they are about to go in after Quantum he reapears dragging someone out of the brush by their hair.

"Who is that?" Night Shade asks as she watches the girl struggle.

"I don't know but she had a gun." He says showing a handgun similar to his. He throws her near the fire and stands over her with his gun pointed at her head." Start talking!" He growls.

"What is your problem!?" She asks trying to crawl away but finding her path blocked by the two girls." Okay okay! Im from the slaver camp but...." She doesn't finish because Quantum grabs her by the throat and lifts her into the air, his gun still pointed at her head.

"Give me a reason not to kill you!" He growls.

"I-I-If you kill me! You'll never break your friend out!" She says gasping for breath.

Quantum stops and puts her down." You know where Shadow is?" Sonata asks.

"Yes! And he has a plan to get out..." She says panting for breath.

"Ok what is it?" Quantum asks keeping his finger on the trigger.

"I dont know. He told me to give you this." She says taking out a piece of paper and handing it to Quantum who snatches it out of her hand. He unfolds it and reads it. After five minutes of reading he sighs and hands it to Sonata. She reads it and then looks worriedly at Quantum.

"We can't can we? I mean, we are really low on ammo." She says.

"We have to....."He says putting his gun away and handing the girl her gun.

She takes it and stands up." So whats the plan?" She asks.

"We take down the fence near the fight pits and ring the dinner bell." Quantum says with only a slight grin.

"And how do we do that?" Night Shade asks.

"I'll show you." Quantum says with a wide smile.

Shadows POV

Shadow stands in a doorway looking at two paths made of grey stone. He takes a step forward and hears the door slam behind him. He turns to open it but only comes face to face with a stone wall. He hears a giggle behind him and turns to see a flash of red and gold streak around the corner of the path leading off to the right.

"Shimmer?" He moves forward and peeks around the corner to see her run down another path leading off to the left."Hey Shimmer wait!" He sprints after her. Shadow runs for what feels like hours but every time he gets close she runs down a series of confusing paths. He finally comes to a clearing where Sunset shimmer was standing with her back to him.

"Shimmer?" Shadow reaches forwards and as she turns, gunfire rings out in the enclosed space and she jerks back against the wall, a gaping wound inher chest. Shadow jumps up and shields her as she slides down the wall. Shadow is thrown forewards by some unseen force and he lands with a painful crack against the opposite wall. He looks up to see four figures towering over Sunset Shimmer. They began coming into focus until Shadow saw clearly who they were. He jumps up and charges them drawing his knife as he runs. He grabs ones head and slits his throat before stabbing him twice more in the chest. He kicks one of the girls into the wall and elbows her in the throat. Her neck breaks and she topples over with blood running out of her mouth. Out of the corner of Shadows eye he sees a flash of silver and he moves just in time to avoid the other girls sword. She jabs at him buthe grabs the blade and punches her in the throat making her lose her grasp on the sword. Shadow pushes her back and drives the sword through her chest. He yanks it out and slices her chest. He drives the sword into her back finishing her as two arrows fly past him. He turns on the final adverseary. She fires another arrow from her crossbow. Shadow catches one ofthe arrows and, using his precision aim, throws it back at her, pinning her against the wall. Shadow walks up to her as she struggles to get away. He grabs her throat and slams her head back. He stares Sonata deadin the eyes as he slowly drives his knife into her neck.

"Shadow!"

Shadow sits bolt upright. He feels a cold sweat on his brow and his heart is beating a mile a second. He looks around for who said his name. He turns to see his sister Rose kneelingdown next to him.

"Rose?" He pulls his hood off and trys to take in her appearance. Her cloths are ragged and she looks like she hasn't slept in days and she has partially healed cuts and bruises on her face."What happened to you?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She says sitting him up.

"I came here looking for Sunset Shimmer." He says wincing at the pain in his head.

"She isn't here." Rose says sadly.

"I know I'm headed to Manehattan to get her back." He says now taking in his surroundings. They were in some sort of enclosed cage. Small amounts of light found its way in the barred windows on the walls. He could hear cheering coming from outside.

"How do you plan on doing that? No one leaves here in one peice." She says sitting next to him.

"I have people coming to bust us outta this shit hole." He grins as a loud bout of cheering erupts."where are we?" He asks standing up. He winces as pain shoots from something on his neck. He picks up a broken shard of glass from the ground and looks at his neck. There seemed to be a number 7 branded into his neck.

"Welcome to the fight pits bro." She says looking through the bars at two people fighting eachother in the center of a large arena surrounded by cheering crowds of slavers and even what looked like a few people from New Ponyville.

"Whats this number for?" He asks rubbing his neck.

"The number tells who you'll be fighting from the opposite side of the pit." She says. She trns her head and shows a number 14 on her neck." What number do you have?" She asks looking at his neck. She gasps and backs up.

"What?" He asks as the crowd cheers again.

"Thats Noi's number!" She gasps.

"Who?" He asks curiously.

"She's a Zebra soldier who was caught in the Macintosh Mountains two years ago. Noone has ever beaten her before." She says.

"Zebra eh.....well her win streak is about to be broken." He smiles.

"If no ones beaten her what makes you think you can?" She asks.

"I've studied imperial Zebra fighting styles." He says stretching his legs and arms.

"Well you'd better be ready." She says looking out the window.

"Why is that?" He asks pulling his hood up.

"You're up next." She says as the door opens and a black and red slaver walks in with an AK-47. He gestures for Shadow to follow him.

Shadow hugs Rose and whispers in her ear." I'll get you out of here." Before he is dragged away.

Shadow is led down a hallway and to the door leading into the arena. The slaver pushes him through the metal door and locks it behind him. He steps into the arena and the crowd starts cheeringand yelling. Shadow can now see the building he came out of was a large hollow oak tree with a balcony where a large man with a green spiked mohawk watched him closely. Out of the opposite building a girl with striped black and white hair and pale skin walked out clamly to thunderous applause. She walks towards the center of the arena. Shadow walks at the same pace as her and they meet dead in the center of the arena. The girl observes Shadow curiously and she bows to him. When she looks back at him she is surprised to see him bowing as well. She smiles slightly and nods to him but not being able to see into his hood she couldn't see anyone smiling back. She moves back a few feet and moves into her fighting stance."Good luck." She says in her native language. Before the bell sounds and the fight begins. She immedietly starts circling Shadow and is surprised to see him tottaly relaxed. She charges him and trys to deliever four quick jabs to the pressure points located on his neck and chest but she only strikes at the air and almost topples over from the momentum of moving so quickly. She looks around for Shadow and finds him standing behind her. She gets back into her stance and trys to deliever a fake leg sweep but she is surpised when and takes a quick step back and when she spins to elbow him he leans back allowing her elbow to miss his face by 12 inches. He stills stays completly relaxed and the crowd is going wild about his none offensive fighting style. She starts becoming angry and she charges with the intentto tackle him but when she comes within 2 feet of him he steps to the side and sticks out his leg tripping her. She falls but recovers by rolling and coming out on her feet. She takes a breath before turning and readying herself. When she turns Shadow is nowhere to be seen. She turns around just in time to see Shadows fist as it makes contact with her face. She stumbles back and trips over a peice of rebar sticking out of the ground. Shadow takes his chance and jumps on top of her, pinning down her legs and holding her arms down. Shadow raises his fist and is about to bring it down on her face when he hears a far off explosion. He pins her arm down with his arm again and leans down and whispers in her ear.

"Listen closely to what I'm about to say Noi." He says as rapid gunfire is heard this time closer drawing the attention of some of the slaver guards around the arena."I have someone coming to break me outta this shit hole and I can get you out too.....But you need to trust me.....do you trust me?" He raises an eyebrow and stares into her violet eyes. She nods slowly as an explosion is heard going off from inside the oak tree bulding. Shadow turns his head in tim to see the door swing open and a slaver guard shot off of his feet by Quantum who was holding some type of semi automatic shotgun with a drum magazine.

"MOVE YOUR ASSES!" He yells as a barage of automatic gunfire peppers the doorway forcing Quantum to retreat back into the saftey of the building. Shadow stands and grabs Nio's hand. She looks at him with apprehension before pulling herself up. Shadow pulls her towards the doorway as Quantum leans out and fires two shots. The first shreds the leg of the slaver in the balcony above the door. The second strikes a slaver, who was running across the arena towards them, directly in the chest. The buckshot tears open his torso and throws him back five feet where he lands in a heap and moves no more. As Nio runs past Quantum, He pulls a round disk out of a duffle bag, Shadow had never seen before, presses a button making a red light flicker to life, And he drops it right in the middle of the doorway.

"Go!Go!" Quantum yells handing shadow his handgun, along with four extra magazines, and his knife which he straps to his belt. Shadow walks into the room he was previously in where Sonata and Night Shade were both with duffle bags similar to Quantums.

"Lets get outta here." He says as Wintergreen comes out of a room to the left with a duffle. When she sees Shadow she runs into his arms and hugs him.

"Thank god you made it!" She says happily.

"I hate to break up the reunion but we gotta go before they gather and break down the doors!" Quantum says as an explosion from the entrance of the building shakes the ground." And that our signal to get out of here." He says walking to the back door and throwing it open. Bullets rain down on the doorway leaving deep holes in the wall. Sonata pulls Quantum back just in time to avoid serious injury. Just then the door upstairs flys open and bullets scatter Shadows group breaking Shadow and Wintergreen away from Sonata, Quantum, Nio, Night Shade, and Rose Bud."Dammit!" Quantum leans around the wall and fires randomly."Is there any other way out over there?!" He asks.

"We'll get out you guys just get out of here!" Shadow yells across the barage of bullets. Shadow draws his handgun and leans around the wall and fires four rounds.

"We'll wait for you two miles east of town!" Quantum yells as Everyone retreats back into a hallway leading out the front of the building.

Shadow turns to Wintergreen and hands her his gun." Keep them back while I find something nwe can use!" He says over the gunfire. She nods and starts firing blindly around the corner. Shadow runs over to a corner of the room where there were several green ammunition boxes and what looked like a large safe which was slightly propped open. He searches through the boxes and finds a small amount of bullets for his handgun and tons of clips for a larger caliber weapon. He gathered everything into a small backpack and he went on to the safe. He opens it to see what the large caliber bullets were for. There sat an Ak-47 aussualt rifle but it seemed different from the Equestrian made model he had seen guards in The Compound use. He grabs it and loads a magazine into it before pulling back the lever loading a round into the chamber. As he turns to walk away the butt of the gun topples over some seemingly empty wooden crates and three baseball sized spheres roll out. He takes two and puts them in his bag while keeping one on hand. He uns back to the wall and signals for Winter to stop firing. He moves her back a few feet and he pulls the pin on the grenade. He quickly leans around the edge of the wall and with three seconds left he tosses it to the top of the stairs where it explodes in an unsuspectiting slavers face. He sighs in relief and he he is about to run out the exit when two grenade roll through the door Quantum and his other friends left through. They land a foot from him and his imediate reaction was to kick one back through the door. He grabs Wintergreens hand and drags her up the stairs as the grenade exploded and bullets fly through the door. He pushes Wintergreen through the door and he slams it shut behind him. He backs away and looks around before pushing a dresser in front of the door. He turns and starts searching the room. He finds a door leading out to the balcony and a locked door that lead to another room. He kicks the door in causing more noise than he meant to. He walks in with his handgun drawn and looks inside carefully. In the center of the room was some type of shrine with pictures of a lavender girl with a young green haired boy all over it. There were candles lit and there was a large lavender gem at the top of the shrine and below it was a ring with a strange smokey white stone laid into the center. He walks over and grabs the lavender gem and the ring. He could trade these for bits in New Ponyville. A quick search of the rest of the room reveal nothing but some 44. magnum rounds and a couple of 45. rounds. He walks back out of the room while reloading his handgun.

"There wasn't really anything in there lets just focus on...." Shadow is cut short by her.

"Shadow!" She says. Shadow looks up to see a man with purple skin and a green mohawk presse a 357. magnum pistol to Wintergreens back.

"Don't!" The man yells as Shaow tries drawing his handgun. He pulls back the hammer on the gun and digs it deeper into her back.

Shadow raises his hands in defeat." What do you want?" He asks.

"Let me think...." He walks to he walks to the wall and pulls a lever. A hidden door opens and the lavender girl from the picture walks out. As soon as she sees Shadow she lunges. Shadow simply grabs her by the neck and puts her in a headlock. He draws his knife and is about to stab her when the man yells."WAIT!" He yells. Shadow pauses for a second and then thrusts the blade throught the back of her head. He yells and the the mans gun goes off and blood blossoms from Wintergreens side. Shadow drops the girls body and watches as he throws Wintergreen to the side. Shadows vision blurs and reddens on the outside. He roars and charges him. He pulls back the hammer and fires a round at Shadow hitting him in the center of the chest but he doesnt budge. He swipes the gun out of his hand and starts punching him in the stomach. He keeps punching until the get to the balcony door which was open. He keeps punching him until the reach the balcony railing. He is still punching him and by now blood is pouring out of his mouth from the internal bleeding. Shadow punches him twice more before uppercutting him making him lean back against the railing. His eyes go blank as the railing gives way and he falls out of site landing with a sickening crack on the edge of the arena. Shadows vision slowly returns to normal and he can feel a throbbing pain in his chest which he ignores. He runs to Wintergreens side.

"Crap!" He says tearing away her shirt. He flips her over and checks for an exit wound. His hand is covered in blood."Theres a little bit of good news." He says. Shadow quickly checks around the balcony area and finds a very simple medical kit outside." This'll have to do." He mutters as the pain in his chest gets worse. He opens the box and a piece of paper taped to the top side falls out. He folds it and puts it in his pocket. A quick search of the supplies inside the box revealed some bandages, dissinfectant, a small bottle of antibiotics, and several syringes filled with clear liquid. He ignores the syringes and starts bandaging the wounds on her stomach and back. As much as he tried though he couldn't stop the bleeding so he stopped wasting bandages and put pressure on the wound while trying to think of a solution. Now Shadow wasn't some medical prodigy and he didn't pretend to be, but he did have a very basic knowledge of medical care and treating wounds in the field. He knew that if the bleeding wasn' stopping there had to be some major internal bleeding. He knew he could fix that but he didn't have any of the tools neccisary to stop it. All he could do now was apply pressure and hope it stopped. After fifteen long minutes he removes his hand from the wound. The bleeding has stopped but Wintergreen has lost to much blood for her to walk. He patches up the wound with the last of the bandages tries waking her up.

"Winter?" He shakes her. She stirs and Shadow sighs in relief. The blocked doorway leading downstairs suddenly lurches. Someone on the other side is trying to break it down. Shadow lifts Wintergreen and puts his arm around her. He draws his handgun and makes his way to the room the lavender skinned girl was released from. He looks down a long staircase that seemed to lead underground. He carefully proceeds forward keeping Wintergreen close as they decend. They come to a thick metal door with a round wheel on it. Shadow turns it a few times and the door swings open. Inside was some kind of garage setting. In front of the large garage door was a red four door Sedan. Shadow opens the back door and lays Wintergreen down in the back seat. She groans in pain as he sets her down and her hands clench the seat tearing the leather. Shadow fishes out one of the three syringes he found in the medic kit out of his duffle bag. He turns it over weighing the chances of it doing more harm to her. As he turns it he discovers a label on the side that reads Maud. Shadows mind flashes back to the grey girl when he first got into the camp. He takes the cap off the syringe and carefully injects the fluid into Wintergreens arm. The drug takes effect almost immedietly, making Wintergreen relax her grip on the seat. Shadow sighs in relief and gets into the drivers seat. After a quick seach he find a spare set of keys in the glove compartment. Attatched to the keys was a small remote that seemed to open the large metal garage door. Shadow puts the keys into the ignition and turning them. The car sputters to life and the headlights flare on. Shadow presses the door control and it slowly opens to reveal 15 slavers lined up all holding assualt rifles all trained on him. Shadow freezes in his seat as they all aim directly at him. They all fire at once and the bullets fly through the windshield striking Shadow. After he feels three more bullet tear into him Shadow ducks down and lets them waste thier ammo. The gunfire suddenly stops and Shadow hears footsteps approaching the car. He reacts by slamming his foot down on the pedal while staying ducked down. Shadow feels the car hit several slavers and even bounce as one goes under the car. Shadow sits up and floors it down the road, bullets burying themselves into the trunk as he drives away. He looks at the compass on the dashboard and keeps driving east. He counts the distance and arrives at the spot indicated by Qunantum. The car lurches to a halt and Shadow leans back in his seat and sighs. He looks down at himself to discover where the three other bullets hit him. He was hit once more in the chest, in the stomach and his shoulder. Blood was quickly draining from his wounds. He turns back in his seat and checks on Wintergreen. She was breathing fine and the bandages wasn't covered in blood so that was an encouraging sign. He turns back in his seat and breaths a sigh of relief and closes his eyes. He was going to need a lot of rest after this, in fact.....now seemed like as good a time as any for a nap. Shadow feels as his heart seems to slow down and he takes one more long breath before passing out.

Author's Note

This will be the first story in an extremely long series