Reddened Wasteland (20 page)

Velar couldn’t help be enamored with him in that
moment. He was a natural leader, a protector, self-assured, and gorgeous. Just
about everything a girl could want in a man. But still, he wasn’t Alerik.
Alerik was her guy. Or, she hoped he still was… that is, if he could forgive
her for the kiss. It took a will of steel to turn someone like Thorin down, a
weaker woman would’ve succumbed to him instantly. At least, that is how she saw
it, though Alerik might see it all a bit differently. She tried not to worry
too much on it, there wasn’t anything she could do about it at that moment,
anyway.

Finally, Thorin’s gaze met hers as he found her in the
crowd. He grinned and stepped down from the platform, cutting through the crowd
to reach her.

“Great speech,” Velar said once he was within earshot.

“I appreciate that, hopefully it got you as motivated
as everyone else,” he smiled.

“I have been motivated from day one, but I can’t say
that watching your speech didn’t do something to me,” she blurted before
thinking, “Damn it!” she thought out loud.

“Okay, Velar, you have to turn down the charm if you
want me to try and forget about you,” he winked.

She decided to change the subject, “A man ran by me
screaming something about water… what’s up with that?”

“The water has been shut off across the settlement. We
knew The Union were evil, but we never dreamed they would stoop this low. Now,
time is a critical factor in our assault. If we can’t end this quickly, so many
people will die of dehydration. The Union can hole up forever with their supply
while we are all left out here in the wind. I can only keep my men together for
so long. Starvation and lack of water can break any man’s resolve,” he said,
shaking his head as he started to walk towards one of the armored vehicles.

“Fuck! How could they do that? I would have never
expected The Union to endanger their work supply,” Velar followed closely
behind.

As Thorin reached the vehicle, he opened the passenger
side door and smiled at Velar, prompting her to get in.

She smiled back, knowing that may be the last peaceful
moment they’d have for a while. In that moment, the two were frozen in time. A
still image of hope and resilience as they both stood proudly for their cause.

Suddenly, a blast of hot air knocked them back, onto
to the ground as a bright white flash filled the room. Velar didn’t even hear
the sound. She was just smiling at Thorin, and then the next moment molten shrapnel
was flying overhead as sparks rained down onto them. Disoriented, she laid
back, staring straight at the ceiling as particles of dust washed over her and
the vehicle she was next to. All that she could hear was a loud ringing in her
ears as she felt her stomach contracting. A sharp, burning pain hit her all at
once and she brought her hand down to the source at her hip. She felt a warm
dampness. She had been hit.

“Thorin!” she screamed out loud, but couldn’t hear her
own voice.

She scrambled to get up off of the cold floor, but her
legs weren’t cooperating, they were shaking and she couldn’t find the balance
she needed. She felt warmth envelope her face and her eyes darted around wildly
until a worried looking Thorin came into focus. He was all she could see,
everything behind him was a blur. His lips were moving but no sound came out.

Thorin didn’t waste any time and pulled her up to her
feet. Muffled sounds started to register, it sounded like the world was
underwater. Somehow, she managed to get into the vehicle. Or rather, Thorin put
her there. She looked on through the front visor as the vehicle began to move.
People were walking around like they were in a dream, slowly and without
purpose. Some were holding bits of other people, and some were trying to hold
bits of themselves in. Their once shiny armor was covered in dust and spattered
with debris. Bodies littered the area, it seemed every square foot had a body,
or part of one, thrown onto it.

“This isn’t real. This is just a bad
dream. Pre-battle fears just manifested into this ghoulish nightmare. You’ve
been reading too many books. Just wake up,”
she told herself.
Deep down, she knew she wouldn’t wake up, because she was already awake, and it
was all real. She was in denial.

Finally, Thorin’s voice came above water, “The Union
has found us! DRIVE!” he shouted.

The vehicle accelerated and Velar’s head jerked back
as they blasted past the hangar archway. A handful of Union soldiers were
outside, waiting with their weapons drawn. The driver didn’t wait for orders
from Thorin, he just barreled a path through three of the men. Their bodies
made sickening thuds and crunches as the vehicle drove over them.

Velar turned in her seat as they passed the soldiers
and saw that their entire fleet was behind them. The Union soldiers didn’t even
have time to fire their weapons, the smoke and debris that blinded the people
inside the hangar also worked against them, the soldier were oblivious to the
torrents of armored vehicles pouring out of the hangar until it was too late
for them. Velar cringed and closed her eyes just before one of the soldiers,
who had a gun aimed at their vehicle, was crushed under a tire.

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Thorin yelled as they
finally reached the road.

Velar felt her stomach twisting as she opened her
eyes. She hoped she would have what it takes when her time to be brave came.
She wasn’t expecting her body to respond physically to the sight of death
up-close. She thought she could handle it mentally, but her body disagreed with
her. She threw up into her mouth a little before hanging her head out of the
window to spit.

“You alright Velar?” Thorin asked, a condescending
look on his face as he glanced back in the mirror.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied as she gave her wound a
closer inspection.

A small piece of metal was sticking out of her hip.
From what she could tell, it had not hit bone and was mostly in the fleshy
area. It would leave a mark, but she’d live. She cursed The Union for cutting
off the water, without it, the wound would likely get infected. Then she
realized that the events of the day would resolve that issue. If they won, they
could just turn the water back on. If they lost, well… infection doesn’t matter
to a corpse.

Directly ahead of them, The Union tower jutted out of
the city like a brooding symbol of disparity. The convoy had a straight and
clear path to the tower. The only thing standing in their way was a couple of
miles, and possibly thousands of Union soldiers and guards.

“So, what is the plan?” Velar asked as the wind hit
her face, causing her dark hair to dance across her face. She wasn’t sure if
the attack on The Forge had changed their course.

“Most of our forces will meet the resistance, that is
surely gathering in front of the building, and cause a distraction,” he
replied.

“A distraction?”

“Yes, a distraction to draw the bulk of their
attention. That should allow a small group of us to sneak in from the side. We
will take the fight directly to Aldain in his control room, while you sneak off
to the roof. Once you get there, use this,” he handed her the device he had
shown her when he first disclosed the plan. 

“So it’s finally complete,” she remarked.

“Yes, this will override the tower’s fail-safes and
give us complete access in the control room, without wasting precious time.
Once this is in place, we can broadcast across the settlement and get our
reinforcements,” he said, smiling back at her in the mirror.

“How do you know they will come?” she asked.

“Because you can only kick a man so many times before
he kicks back,” Thorin said as a massive formation of men appeared on the
horizon like a thick blanket of fog.

“That’s not good,” Velar thought out loud.

“This is what we trained for!” he shouted as he stuck
his sword out of the side window and extended it forward in a symbolic gesture.

The armored vehicles with their mounted guns went
around him, speeding up and heading towards the hoard of men.

Thorin turned in his seat and looked straight at her,
“Are you absolutely ready?”

“This is what we trained for,” she parroted back with
a smile.

“Good, glad to hear it,” he said before he tapped the
driver. They all veered off to the left.

Four other Liberty’s Hammer vehicles followed as the
rest of the fleet went straight towards the tower. Velar looked in the mirror
at Thorin’s face and frowned.

“A lot of those guys aren’t coming back, are they?”
she asked.

“Probably not. This is their choice, though. They are
all volunteers,” he reassured her.

“Still don’t feel great about them being fodder,” she
hung her head.

“Don’t worry about them. They have a job to do, just
like we do. Let’s focus on one thing at a time, okay?” he urged.

“Just get us there. Let’s be done with this,” she said
as she pulled her sword off her back and laid it on her lap.

“We should arrive shortly. There might be a bit of
resistance, but I am expecting most of them to be concentrated in the front,
and in the control room,” he said as the building approached quickly.

Velar peered out of the side of the vehicle as they
pulled up to The Union building. It was completely unguarded with a single,
steel door marked
Service Entrance
. As soon as the vehicle stopped,
Thorin and the driver stepped out. The other vehicles arrived just behind them.
Velar climbed out and scanned the area nervously as the rest of the soldiers
were unloading. It was too quiet. For Aldain to put his entire force in the
front seemed foolish, even to her. Aldain was notorious for many things, being
foolish was not one of them.

“Get the door, quietly,” Thorin said to his driver as
he motioned for Velar to get close.

She moved in at his side, and watched the large man
move forward with two metal bars. The bars were attached to the back of the
vehicle with chains, and he stuck them behind the hinges of the door before
hopping back into the vehicle. Thorin motioned for the group to move out of the
ejection path while the driver slowly accelerated. After a couple of quick
tugs, the door flew off its hinges. Immediately, the group hurried inside,
sticking to the walls.

The building was empty. There was no large force
inside, not a single sign of life. Had they evacuated?

Velar had a peculiar feeling as the group took their
backs off of the walls and walked out into the center of the floor in a
tentative fashion. There were platforms rising and falling through a vast
column of empty space in the middle of the room. Just a pillar of nothingness
that stretched on forever in either direction.

She moved to the railing at the perimeter of the void
and gazed over the edge. “None of this strikes you as odd?” she asked Thorin,
who stood beside her with his massive sword out. He looked ready for action.

“Very odd. This doesn’t make sense. Once we hop onto
one of these platforms, they take us straight to the top. It seems too good to
be true, the building being empty like this. But, we have come too far, we
can’t very well turn back,” he said as he started making his way to the
platform.

She nodded as he walked away and began to follow with
the rest of the group. She was worried, but these men that Thorin chose to
bring with him were the best of the best. They had substantial armor and
colossal shields. There were only around thirty men as far as she could tell,
but she didn’t actually take the time to count. What they lacked in numbers,
these guys made up for in nerve and skill. She stepped onto the platform, and
her stomach twisted at the sounds from the battle outside that were bleeding
into the building. Guns were firing nonstop and a series of explosions caused
the ground to tremble.

Once everyone was onboard, the platform ascended with
a quick pull of the lever. Velar worried the weight of the men and all of their
gear might cause the surface to collapse, but it didn’t seem like it was
struggling in the slightest.

“Everyone, keep your eyes open. I think they are up to
something here…” Thorin said as he looked up into the hollow space above them.

The group scrutinized everything around them, looking
for any signs of life as they continued their ascent. Velar moved in close to
the large driver since he appeared to be the biggest guy of the bunch. She
couldn’t believe how tall the man was compared to everyone else. He stuck out
like a sore thumb. She wondered how they planned to be stealthy with this guy
lurching around, but her thoughts were cut short as a bolt ripped through the
man’s throat, spraying blood onto the front of her armor.

“Shield wall!” Thorin yelled and the men all slung
their shields over their heads, locking them in formation as a flurry of metal
bolts rained down onto them.

“I fucking knew it!” Velar hissed to herself.

“Protect Velar!” Thorin yelled as he pulled her to the
center of the group.

She watched as the large man who had driven them there
slid off of the platform, leaving behind a crimson trail. They were too high up
at this point to jump and find cover, so she knew they would just have to
weather the barrage. The shields seemed to be impenetrable, holding up well
against the swarm of bolts smashing against them, but the sound was deafening.