Reddened Wasteland (22 page)

“Oh
please tell me the great Cinine can do better than this,” he laughed, taunting
her.

Cinine
wiped away the blood that was trickling from her nose, “Did your father not
teach you any better? That hit was pathetic,” she snorted.

“Really?
You want to spend your last few breaths mocking me? I heard you were a great
speaker. Shame,” he said as he dodged an attack towards his midsection from
Cinine.

“You
getting tired yet?” she smiled.

“A
sense of humor. I like that. Too bad it will no longer serve you,” he said as
he raised his gun, “Don’t worry, I won’t mess up your face.”

“Time
messed up my face worse than you ever could,” she chuckled. She refused to give
the little shit an ounce of her fear.

“Perhaps
you’re right, Cinine,” he said as he fired a bolt through the center of her
chest, causing blood to spray out of her back as she fell to the ground.

Valek
looked over as he saw his leader fall and immediately darted blindly through
the crowd, miraculously avoiding any indirect attacks. Elias was still standing
with his arm extended, and Cinine was crumpled on the ground before the Union
elite. Valek brought his mace down with blindingly quick speed onto Elias’s
arm. Despite all the noise of the battle around them, the loud snapping of bone
could be heard as the weapon connected.

Elias
spun around and attempted to fire a shot into Valek’s head, wielding the gun
from his uninjured arm. Valek moved just enough to avoid the bolt, though it
did graze his ear. He ignored it and returned a left hook to Elias’s jaw.

Elias’s
head snapped to the side and he stumbled backwards, holding his broken and
bleeding arm. When he looked back up, Valek was nearly on top of him, already
deep in his personal space. Valek slammed his mace into Elias’ stomach, the
Union elite hunched over and collapsed from the blow, gasping for the breath
that it had knocked out of him. As he crawled towards Valek, he received a
heavy kick to the side of his head, knocking him out cold.

Valek
hurried over to Cinine and kneeled beside her. She was still with them, but
barely.

“Please
don’t do this Cinine… You can’t die!” he yelled as he pulled her face up into
the light, “Don’t leave us. We need you!”

“Oh
Valek, you know better than anyone that our time to go is predetermined. Don’t
feel bad for me, I will be reborn. It was always going to come to this…” she
coughed up thick blood onto the front of her armor.

“No
Cinine, you can’t! Just hang on, we’ll fix you. We’ll find somebody—” Valek
straightened and looked from side to side, but there was nothing but war and
death, as far as the eye could see. There was nobody around to fix her. This
was it. She really was leaving them. He looked back down at her.

“Oh,
stop your whining, you big baby! I’m the one dying, here,” she attempted to
laugh but it came out more of a gurgle.

“This
is not a time for jokes, Cinine,” he said, pain soaking his voice.

“I
can’t think of a single better time for jokes,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Fine,
laugh it up… Just tell me what I need to do next. We are going to be lost
without you.”

“Nobody
will be lost, Valek. You will be there to guide them. I have taught you so much
throughout the years. There is nobody better suited to take my place. It is
your time to shine, now,” she said.

“What
about Alerik?” Valek said in disbelief. She’d become so attached to the man, he
just kind of assumed she would name him as her successor.

“Alerik
is a good man, but he doesn’t know our way. You will go on to teach the next
generation. You and you alone. Let fate be your guide, old friend,” she said,
her voice growing weaker with each passing moment.

“Cinine,
I won’t let you down. I will make sure anyone even partially responsible for
your death pays for this,” he said, gritting his teeth.

“Just
let it go, Valek. It didn’t matter if The Union did it, or old age, I was meant
to die right here, and right now. Do not belittle our beliefs by giving power
to the man that shot me. That Elias didn’t kill me, fate did. I need you to
understand this now more than ever. Be an example Valek, lead our people into a
golden age,” she said as she closed her eyes.

“I
will lead our people back to Earth. When I get there, I will spread tales of
your bravery and leadership. I love you Cinine… Thank you for everything you
have done for us. You won’t be forgotten,” he said, standing up and wiping the
tears from his face.

He
looked down at his lifeless leader one last time and felt anger surge through
him. He decided to finish Elias, whether Cinine wanted him to or not. But when
he turned to walk towards the man that killed his mentor, he found a puddle of
blood, but no body. The man had escaped while he talked to Cinine.

“NO!”
he yelled as he began following the trail of blood, smashing his mace through
soldier after soldier to cut himself a path. He thought he must be nearing the
guy, but then the trail just ended.

He
looked around, hoping to get a visual on him, or find a clue as to where Elias
went, but he had just vanished. Valek slammed his mace into the ground as hard
as he could, causing debris to fly up.

“I
will find you, and when I do, I will make sure your death is as slow as nature
will allow!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

***

Saskia
stepped into the control room, carefully watching the large man in shiny armor
who was holding Aldain up by his throat.

“Hope
I’m not interrupting some romantic moment,” she said as two Liberty’s Hammer
soldiers approached her with their swords drawn, “You can fuck right off,” she
said as she pointed her pistols at the heads of both men. It hurt like hell to
hold the one up from her injured shoulder, but they didn’t know that. She just
hoped this stand-off wouldn’t be too lengthy.

The
man holding Aldain by the throat gestured with his free hand for his men to
stand down, “C’mon guys, don’t you know how to treat a beautiful woman?”

“You
can cut that shit out right now, I’m not into blondes,” Saskia said with her
guns still aimed at the men.

“Fair
enough,” the man chuckled, “Why are you here?”

“I
promised someone I would watch that prick die,” she said, jerking her chin
towards Aldain.

“Oh,
well you came just in time. I guess I’ll carry on, then,” he said right before
he threw Aldain to the ground.

Saskia
lowered her weapons and walked to the center of the room. As she walked, she
noticed Aemon in the corner of the room at the end of a sword.

“Nice
to see you also got that weasel. You may need to kill him twice,” she said.

“Oh
we plan to burn the bodies,” he smiled, “Saskia, right?”

“And
how do you know my name, pretty boy?” she asked.

“Thought
you weren’t into blondes,” he chuckled and raised a brow, “Well, you are all
over every fucking TV in the settlement.”

“Oh
yes. That…” she said, “And your name?”

“Thorin,”
he replied. Then after a moment, “Wait… If you’re here, does that mean Alerik
is alive?”

“That
is some mighty fine detective work.”

“Doesn’t
matter, you will all be dead soon enough,” Aemon said from the corner of the
room before a guard hit him in the stomach.

“If
Alerik is here, then where is he?”

“On
the roof, probably about to broadcast,” she shrugged, “Why? Got a crush on him
or something? Need an autograph?”

“No!
He can’t! We need the radio for reinforcements,” he shouted, gesturing for his
men to move out.

“Alright,
I fibbed a little. I’m not only here to watch you kill Aldain. I’m also here to
make sure you don’t get in Alerik’s way,” she said, smiling with her pistols
raised, stopping the men in their tracks.

“You
have got to be kidding me! This is bigger than you or Alerik! Are you crazy!?”
he screamed.

“Maybe
a little,” she said, firing two bolts into the heads of Thorin’s men.

While
Liberty’s Hammer was distracted with Saskia, Aemon used the opportunity to free
his dagger and plunge it into the neck of the guard standing over him in the
corner. He dashed to a spot on the wall where he kicked open a laundry shoot
hatch, quickly diving into it.

“Great!
Just fucking great!” Thorin yelled.

“Good,
now it is just you, me, and this cocksucker,” she said, pointing down at
Aldain.

“Yeah,
thanks to you. Oh, and just so you know, we are now trapped up here with no
reinforcements. So it was nice knowing you, I guess,” Thorin said as he stomped
down on Aldain’s chest. The man looked pitiful and vulnerable without his fancy
armor. Saskia wondered what the Liberty’s Hammer guys had done with it. She
noticed several of the bodies in the control room had gaping slashes through
them, likely from the gloves. It was then she noticed blood trickling out of a
large gash across Thorin’s thigh. That also explained why they stripped the set
off of Aldain. Plus, he’d be easier to torture this way. It was practical
thinking.

“Listen…
It was never me… It was always Aemon running the show. I am just a puppet that
he uses. I never had any real power. You have to believe me. Look. Let me live
and I’ll help you find him,” Aldain pleaded.

“Shut
the fuck up,” Thorin said as he kicked Aldain across his cheekbone.

“You’re
making a mistake! Please! I can be so useful. The information I have is
unmatched, and it dies with me. I could give you anything you want!” Aldain
screamed in a panic.

“I
don’t want your help, you piece of shit. Don’t you see how far we made it
without your help? With you working
against
us? You are nothing to me,
and you will die a coward’s death,” Thorin said as he raised his sword.

“Can
you just get this over with?” Saskia rolled her eyes with her guns aimed at
Thorin.

“Please…
Please don’t...” Aldain said just before Thorin’s sword slammed into his chest,
causing blood to fling out onto the floor.

“There,
now don’t you feel better?” Saskia asked, “I know I do.”

“Saskia,
seriously, we need to get to the roof, you can’t let Alerik do this,” Thorin
pleaded, “So many lives are at stake.”

“Just
sit tight and get comfortable, we’re not going anywhere,” Saskia said
defiantly.

Thorin
stomped over to the corner of the room and slammed his back against the wall
and slid down. “Hopefully Velar will talk some sense into him. Although, the
thought of her up there with her old boyfriend is just the icing on the fucking
cake,” he groaned.

“Wait…
Velar is up there too?” she asked, not bothering to mask the distress in her
voice, “But… we thought… I thought… She’s not dead?!”

“Of
course she’s not dead,” Thorin looked at her suspiciously, “Wait… that bothers
you? Don’t tell me you’re hung up on the guy, too. That is just great!” he
said, laughing hysterically, “Well don’t worry about it. We aren’t going
anywhere for a while, remember?”

***

The
elevator finally came to a stop and the door slid open. Alerik and Lucius were
on opposite sides and each peered out onto the roof. There were a few guards by
the radio tower making their rounds. Alerik pulled off Velar’s backpack and
began rummaging through it until he found the device. Lucius had completed it
during their walk to The Union building. It didn’t look like much, but Lucius
assured him that it was in working order.

“We
need to take out these guards.” Alerik said as he pulled his pickaxe off of his
back.

“Right,
stick to the shadows. Human eyesight is seriously lacking,” Lucius said with a
smile as he snuck out of the elevator.

Alerik
moved out towards the air intake and hid behind it. As he looked out, he saw
Lucius moving from shadow to shadow, encroaching on the handful of guards.

A
guard began moving towards the air intake almost as if he had heard something.
Alerik wasn’t going to waste this opportunity, very seldom do Union soldiers
stray from their herd.

Alerik
picked up a pebble off the ground and tossed it to the opposite side of the air
intake, causing the guard to walk over and investigate, out of sight from the
other guards. As soon as the guard turned the corner, he swung his pickaxe into
the face of the guard with such force that his head stuck to it.

Alerik
lowered the guard to the ground slowly and peeked back out to see Lucius behind
two other guards, just under the radio tower.

“Hey
guys, I think I’m lost,” Alerik yelled as he stepped out into the light.

The
two guards quickly spotted him and aimed their guns at his head. Lucius used
the diversion to get right behind them, he used his immense strength to snap
both of their necks with his hands. As the two guards fell to the ground,
Alerik felt a cold barrel press against his neck.