Kat's Era by Amy Fawcett and Taran Chahal (read aloud books .TXT) 📕

never yelled at anyone before so that meant that Kat must have really annoyed her. All Kat wanted to do was curl up and cry, but all she could do was nod in agreement with Lily.

“What is it Kimi?” asked Lily softly and Kat felt her gut twist. Kimi took a deep breath and spoke in a whisper

“Please forgive me, Kat’s right I am a coward, but it’s just that I’m scared. Please don’t get mad at me but...”

Kat’s intense glare once again stole Kimi’s courage. But Kimi was determined not to be stopped by Kat, so instead she stood up on her toes and whispered in her brothers ear the direction of the weapons locker. Almost as soon as her heels were on the ground Hitoshi was walking towards the East side of the island.

“Huh...where are we going..?” Kat’s small voice broke the silence and almost through Lily’s fury. Almost but not quite. Kat’s question was answered by dirty looks from Kimi and Lily and not at all by Hitoshi.

Kat was feeling like a complete outsider and a total loser. They had been walking for almost the whole day and the sun was now setting. Kat let out something between a shiver and a shudder and wondered for the millionth time since they had started walking what was wrong with her. It seemed the other three had no problem trusting each other and even though they had been walking all day and still not found anything no-one had questioned Kimi’s knowledge even though she was known amongst the small group as a ditz. Kat would apologise, but it wasn’t something she had done often before and she didn’t really know how. Also, her pride and self confidence were damaged and apologising would damage it even further.

“Uhh... Could we take a rest?” Asked Kat in an even smaller voice than before “It’s just that, I’m really tired, and we’ve been walking a long time and....”
As Kat’s voice trailed off into the uncomfortable silence, Lily realised that this was as close to an apology she was likely to get, and that if she wanted stay friends with Kat she was going to have to take it.

“Alright.” she said “we’ll rest.”

And then she sat down on the ground, without looking at Kat once.

After a short rest, Lily stood up and began to walk in the direction that Kimi had been taking them for the past day.

“Wait... um… I don’t think it’s that direction” said Kimi, who was staring intently at a small scrap of tissue that she was holding.

“Lemme see” said Hitoshi, snatching it off her

“What is it?” said Kat, with her usual boisterous manner, for a moment forgetting that she was in disgrace.

“It’s a map... right?” Said Hitoshi “I think it’s this way up - not that way up”

He handed the map back to Kimi, and her face cleared.

“Oh right,” she said, blushing slightly “Um... I think we’ve been walking in the wrong direction the whole time...”

Kat groaned, and Lily rolled her eyes ever so slightly.

“But I know where we are now” Kimi smiled “We’ll be back on track in no time!” her ditsy optimism starting to annoy Kat again.

“Right then” Lily said “Where to now?”
☯

Everyone continued to walk for several hours before anyone even mentioned stopping for a rest. Kat couldn’t see any landmarks. She felt well and truly lost. Just as Kat was about to make a snide remark about Kimi’s inability to map-read, Kimi stopped short, and Hitoshi, who had been walking behind her crashed directly into her.

“Well...” she said doubtfully... “This should be it!”

“Didn’t it say something about a waterfall?” Commented Hitoshi

Kat looked around, shielding her eyes from the early evening sun with her hand. Her eyes widened slightly, and a broad grin took over her face.

“Gu-uys! Look be-hind yooouu” sang Kat.

Everyone turned round. In the distance there was a waterfall. It was Literally Massive.

“Well.” said Lily in a bored voice “I guess that’s where we’re going.”
☯

Even lily’s heart beat rose at the sight of the metal locker, embedded deep within the moss covered wall of the cave behind the waterfall. Kat couldn’t help but smirk, she had known all along that Kimi was hiding something, and this just proved her right. But one look at Lily and Hitoshi’s face and the smirk faded. They both looked so shocked and betrayed.

Five minutes passed in silence, nobody moved. It seemed that everyone had just been blindly following Kimi.

Kat’s loud sigh broke the silence - did she have to do everything herself? She walked over to the locker and twisted the combination dial slowly to the left till she heard the distinctive “clunk”. She repeated the procedure twice more till the metal door swung open. Everyone else gazed blindly into the distance, not quite registering what Kat was doing.

Lily, Kimi and Hitoshi were shocked out of their own thoughts by a familiar “eep!”. They tilted their heads to look at the pile of assault rifles and other assorted weapons that had seemingly appeared in front of them with confused expressions plastered on their faces. As Lily’s eyes scanned the pile, her eyes came to rest upon a limp arm protruding from under a heavy looking kit bag. Her eyes widened and she raced over to the arm and tugged on it. Slowly she pulled Kat from under the mountain. On first sight Lily was sure Kat was crying, but then she realised, as she hugged her friend, Kat was merely laughing.

“You guys wouldn’t have noticed if the sky had fallen in!”

Lily whacked Kat over the head with a bundle of bandages.

“Ouch!” Whined Kat.

“I won’t forgive you this time!” She warned jokingly, then turned around suddenly.

“Did anyone else hear something?”

Hitoshi looked round the waterfall.

“It’s Aleksy. Somehow he’s found out about the weapons”

Kat turned to glare at Kimi, but Kimi looked so shocked, she realised it couldn’t be her that had told them the location.

Kat picked up two swords, and stared determinedly out at the approaching enemy.
☯
Aleksy had somehow got hold of a sword. Long, thin and sharp, it glimmered in the light. Kat stood frozen. She would have loved to gut him there and then - after all he had made them run like cowards earlier - but it didn’t seem particularly honourable. She was just about to turn around when Aleksy leaped forward, swinging his blade in a wide arc. Kat only just managed to dodge and counter, bringing their swords together with a clang. The blades were heavier than she was used to training with, but at least he seemed uncomfortable too. She hoped that he wasn’t just hiding his skill with fake incompetence. She continued to fight, but her mind was elsewhere. How were Lily and Hitoshi faring?

Kat was brought sharply to her senses when Aleksy slashed her unguarded right leg. Her eyes blazed with fury and determination.

Aleksy gritted his teeth. He moved forward, bringing his sword down in a wide sweep. Kat blocked hard - it was quite an obvious strike. Aleksy quickly reversed his grip on the handle so that the blade was moving sideways, not downward, its arc changing in a flash. Kat's block would have stopped the original strike, but now Aleksy’s sword came at a flatter angle, and it bit home under Kat’s arm. Kat gave a little gasp and stumbled backwards surprised by Aleksy’s superiority with the sword. She was losing blood. She needed to finish this and fast. She pretended to fall to her knees from fatigue, and when Aleksy came for a final strike, she stabbed upwards, through the heart - there was no way he was recovering from that!

Jadzia staggered forwards screaming Aleksy’s name. Her hands outstretched towards Kat's throat. Kat blocked upwards following it with a blow to the solar plexus with the heel of her palm. Jadzia staggered backwards gasping for air. Kat also staggered back as the adrenaline from her fight with Aleksy drained away leaving her feeling sick. The wound under her arm began to throb and it left her right arm useless. Jadzia recovered first - the result of a good night’s sleep - and made to strike out at Kat, when Hitoshi suddenly appeared, countering the strike, and following with a flurry of blows while shouting at Kat to move away. Kat ran over to Kimi and Lily, and collapsed from pain and fatigue.

☯

Hitoshi had the element of surprise – an advantage proved by Jadzia’s bruised cheek and bleeding nose. However, she was at least as strong as Hitoshi, from hours of training.

Jadzia bore down on Hitoshi, forcing him to switch from offensive attacks to blocks and counter-attacks. He had already analysed the situation. Jadzia clearly valued strength over intellect in a fight, and he could use this to his advantage.

He allowed Jadzia to fight him until he was backing up to the river bank. He deliberately left a gap in his defence, knowing that she would strike, and then deftly leaped over the river while Jadzia fell head-first into the deep water, with the power of a blow that would never hit Hitoshi.

☯


Kat had allowed Lily to bandage her up but that was all. She refused to rest, preferring to head straight back into the battlefield. There were some seriously strong fighters, and the enemy was many. Kat was often was often fighting two or more against one, and the odds were rarely in her favour.

She was, at that moment, fighting a boy called Aaron. He on his own was not stronger than her, but three of his friends had joined him, and it was all she could do to block their blows, let alone give out any of her own!

All it took was that one instant. Kat was tiring, and her reactions had slowed from their usual lightning speed. They’d managed to surround her. She knew it was only a matter of time.

There. That pause. That oh-so-slight hesitation. That one crucial moment. She let her guard slip for one second. A distinct thud. There, the back of her head. She was going to die. She was dead. Her vision blurred, but just before it faded completely she saw two figures appear on the scene. Hitoshi and Lily.
She hit the floor smiling.
☯
Kat groaned back to consciousness.

The fight was over, and the waterfall seemed stained red, although it may have just been the reflection of the blood-soaked ground. Kat’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of the body splayed on the ground next to her, clearly dead. It was the body of her best friend, who had been her only sort of family for all of her fourteen long and lonely years. She was injured too, but she couldn't feel it through the overriding pain from Lily’s death.

Suddenly she heard movement behind her. She had thought everyone was dead. She spun round in shock just as Hitoshi sat down heavily beside her. He looked awful. His face was stained with tears and blood. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one to lose a family member in the fight. There was a large gash in his right leg, and his left arm hung limp beside him. They sat and cried, without a word passing between them.
☯
The Helicopter landed silently on the crimson-red ground. The