The Sheriff - A Cara Dune Fanfiction

Chapter 8: Discovery

When Rev wakes up she notices that Cara's arms are wrapped around her. She is suprised, but she doesn't try to wiggle out of her grasp. The heat of their bodies close together keep the early morning chill off of them, so she is grateful. But beside the heat advantage, it's not very unpleasant. Cara's big arms, bulging with muscle, makes Rev feel safe and protected. And Cara's scent is intoxicating. She smells like citrus, sunburnt skin, clean sweat, and slightly metallic. The metallic scent is probably from her armour. Rev lays her head back down on Cara's arm to keep resting, but she notices a creature creeping around the edge of the camp. It's an onodone. Rev tenses up. Before Rev can think of what to do, Cara picks up the gun laying in front of them, lifts her arm from Rev, and shoots the sand next to the onodone, scaring it off.

      "You missed, sheriff."

      "I didn't want to kill her. She's probably just hungry and wanted to steal our food."

      "How long have you been awake?"

      "A while."

Cara looks up at the sunrise.

      "The sun is already up, we should pack up and get going."

Cara moves her body away from Rev's, and unlocks the handcuffs holding their wrists together. Rev blushes, unsure if Cara noticed how much she enjoyed her embrace.

      As they are packing up they hear movement coming from the edge of the camp again.

      "Sheriff, did you hear that?"

      "I did. Keep your voice down, stay alert. We should hurry."

A spear comes flying right past Rev's face. They both look to where the spear came from. Up on the ridge surrounding the camp, a large group of hooded onodone let out a war cry and spears and blaster bolts start raining down on Rev and Cara.

      "Take cover!"

Rev follows Cara's orders and they both duck down behind a large boulder. They draw their blasters and start shooting.

      "Who are they, sheriff?"

      "I don't know. All I know is that those onodone want us dead, but we're gonna get them first. You take the right side, I go left. Go!"

The sheriff starts shooting towards the ridge with fatal accuracy, and the attackers fall down one by one. On the right side of the boulder, the attackers try to enter the camp from ground level. Rev shoots them all dead before they make it very far. It must be a very big group, because when one onodone falls, another immediately emerges to take their place.

      "My blaster alone won't get us out of here! I have to get to my pack and grab the heavy stuff!"

Rev peeks above the boulder toward their packs. Cara's drum blaster lay between them and their attackers.

      "You'll get yourself killed!"

      "No I won't. Here, try this."

Cara throws a small metallic ball to Rev. She spins it around in her hand and notices a red light blinking in the center of it.

      "Oh shit!"

      "Just throw it to the right, I'll throw one up on the ridge. They explode, and then you cover me while I run for my stuff. Got it?"

      "Yes I got it! Now hurry, it's gonna blow!"

They both throw the small, but powerful, bombs. They explode. Vulcanic ash flies high in the air and the shooting stops momentarily. Cara vaults from behind the boulder and sprints towards her pack. The cloud of ash settles, and the hooded onodone recover from the explosion and start aiming their fire toward Cara, but Rev does a good job at covering her. Cara reaches her pack and pulls out her massive drum blaster. As she's getting it ready Rev shouts from behind her.

      "Sheriff! To your left!"

Cara doesn't think twice, and she turns left and hellfire starts raining from the drum blaster. The attackers fall faster than Rev can count. Up on the ridge, the remaining onodone get scared and run off. Cara climbs up on the ridge easily, shooting the ashy ground around the fleeing attackers. Cara lets out a war cry of her own and Rev does the same from down on the ground.

      Cara climbs back down. They both breathe a sigh of relief. Suddenly, they hear one of their speeder bikes starting up. Turning around, staring in shock, they see one of the onodone driving off with one of their bikes. Cara tries shooting him, but the bike is too fast. Rev sets of running toward the other bike, she reaches it and sets off in pursuit of the onodone on the stolen bike. The driver turns around in his seat, mocking Rev, and doesn't see where he's driving. He drives off a cliff, screaming all the way down. His screams stop when the bike explodes on the ground below. Rev drives up to the cliffs edge and looks down on the burning wreck.

      Damn. That was half of our speeders. Rev says to herself.

She looks up from the wreck. In the distance, she spots two tall chimneys letting out thick, black, smoke. Cara walks up and stands next to her. Rev points at the chimneys in the distance.

      "I think we found the spice factory, sheriff."

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