The Apostates (69 page)

By this time the armored column had
noticed the parked vehicles, and the mad scramble to occupy them once more. The
armored convoy increased its speed and then maneuvered so that the lead
vehicles passed Pride’s parked A.P.C.s. The lead vehicles veered across the
highway and boxed in Pride’s own column, while the rear vehicles mirrored the movement
lead vehicles, creating a “bowed” formation that blocked Pride-Swarm’s parked. The mystery convoy had L.O.V.E. markings, and Pride despaired
because they were surrounded and if the fighting started his militia would pay
dearly. He considered surrendering in that moment. His turret gunners waited
impatiently for the order to fire.

“Convoy: please identify yourself, immediately.
Failure to comply will result in hostile action,” a female voice demanded over
loudspeakers mounted on an A.P.C.

Pride-Swarm’s interest was piqued: he surmised that had it been Rangers in the armored column they wouldn‘t have bothered to request identification because they had identity transponders that broadcast to other Rangers. Pride-Swarm walked out from among the cover of the armored vehicles. He was unarmed. Pride-Swarm attempted to address the lead vehicle.

“My call sign is Pride-Swarm: I command
this force. We are an Apostate militia dedicated to combating the Church and
Regime of New Megiddo. I have been tasked with liberating the New York B.A.G.
venue. I was instructed that there would be a second Apostate force that I
would rendezvous with.” Pride-Swarm awaited the convoy’s response. He started
to sweat because he was vulnerable at that moment, and the inhabitants of the
convoy took their time to respond.

“Pride-Swarm you say? Who was the chief architect of the Apostate movement?” the voice behind the loudspeakers questioned him. This question verified for him that these were members of the Apostate movement.

“That’s an easy one: I was tasked by Graham Wynham to liberate as many B.A.G. venues as possible and then instructed to link-up with another Apostate force in New York. I am assuming that you are it.” Pride-Swarm smirked under his armored helmet. Another moment of silence crept by.

“So, you claim this force is Apostate and that you were in communiqué with Graham Wynham?” The voice on the loudspeaker questioned further.

“Well, yes: I am his son. Now that we got that out of the way—would you mind telling me who you all are?” Pride-Swarm was annoyed and expected some reciprocity. After a moment of deliberation, the A.P.C. that had questioned him opened its rear ramp. A woman exited the vehicle, and she strolled over to Pride-Swarm. Pride removed his helmet. He shot the woman a smirk.

“You’re Graham Wynham’s son? I guess the
guy really was committed to this cause,” Gale exclaimed.

“Yes, it had sorta become a family
enterprise. But, he realized that if it were just his family operating against
the Church and Regime that we would be found out quickly and
exterminated. He knew the Apostate movement needed a broad base,” Pride-Swarm
confessed.

“He definitely knew how to use unorthodox
recruiting methods to achieve his “broad base”. Sorry, I’m Gale-Whirlwind. This
is Angel-Seraphim.” Angel approached the scene from Gale’s rear, to get a sense
of what transpired.

“Ladies: pleased to meet you. Yeah, my
father needed to find people who had nothing more to lose for his movement.
What better way to recruit than from the ranks of the “deceased”?” Pride asked
rhetorically.

“Yeah well, its quite a rude awakening
when you are “born again” and found out that you failed in taking your own
life.” Gale was still bitter about that.

“Think of the difference you are about to
make in the world: a clean slate, free from the taint of New Megiddo,” Pride
countered.

“Well, that still remains to be seen: how
this all ends,” Gale retorted.

“Fair enough. So, now we know we are all
on the same side, how about we combine our columns and hurry on to New York?
Graham had informed me that representatives of the Neo Railroad would be
waiting there,” Pride suggested.

“This is what I have heard as well. Okay,
let’s get the show on the road.” Gale and Angel hastened back to their A.P.C.s.
Pride-Swarm found himself admiring the physical qualities of the one named
Gale-Whirlwind, but, he put those thoughts out of his head to pay attention to
the task at hand. He hurried back to his vehicle as well, and the engine roared
to life. Soon both columns had mixed into one massive convoy that traveled over
the toll bridge to enter Staten Island.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

Inquisitor Rodrigo narrowed his sword blade to the fine point of a rapier and executed a series of thrusts toward Hades-Perdition’s mid-section. The first couple of thrusts connected, then Hades side-stepped to safety. The Inquisitor did not expect Hades’s armor to hold up to the punishment: he was unhurt. The Inquisitor lunged for another thrust. Hades parried with the flat of his blade, knocking the rapier blade aside, then he returned a thrust with his claymore. This left the Inquisitor with no other option but to use his unprotected hand to deflect the strike, which cut his palm. The Inquisitor jumped back several paces to regain his composure and reassess the situation. Hades stood upright, with his sword held casually by his side; incredulously so.

The Inquisitor understood the heft of Hade’s sword. He decided to take on a broad-bladed configuration so that he could not be parried so easily. Hades stood en guard. He preferred for his opponents to come to him. So, the Inquisitor launched another attack: this time with a shallow overhand arc, which was countered by Hades, who nearly landed a push-cut to the Inquisitor’s neck, but he shifted at the last minute for Hades’s blade to scrape against the leather of his overcoat. The inquisitor delivered a punch straight to Hades’s forehead which stunned him for a moment, but then he turned his sword around to use the cross-guard to hook the Inquisitor behind the knee, which tripped him up and sent him down to land on the flat of his back. Hades drove his sword blade down, attempting to skewer the Inquisitor where he laid. The Inquisitor countered: blocking the strike horizontally with his own sword blade, and then delivered a kick to Hades’s genitals. This caused Hades’s to groan in pain and forced him to back-off into a defensive stance. The Inquisitor tumbled to the side and jumped back onto his feet. He stared at Hades while his left hand bled.

“It appears we are at an impasse. Perhaps there is a place for you in my new Regime, after the fall of New Megiddo. That is if we stop this needless fight,” Inquisitor Rodrigo suggested.

“You and I: we share too much history.
This only ends one way, Roddy,” Hades used that name; he knew it would get to
the Inquisitor.

“Y-you called me—how dare you!” The Inquisitor was infuriated and renewed his attack. He feigned several thrusts: high then low, each mirrored by Hades. He prodded for an opening, trying with all his ability not to leave an opening of his own for Hades to exploit. Hades seemed to be a veritable wall: there was no penetrating his defense. The Inquisitor glanced at the ground to the right of him. He spied Kate’s side arm lying there. For a split second, he deliberated honor versus victory: he declined the dishonorable action.

Hades beat-off every attack that the Inquisitor made, but the Inquisitor had excellent blade-control, so he did not make wild attacks or left openings. As far as fencing ability was concerned they were evenly-matched. Both men knew that the only way for this match to end was to resort to grappling and dirty tactics. Hades’s stuck to his usual tactic, and would let the Inquisitor make his attack. This constant “turtling” tactic infuriated the Inquisitor because Hades refused to lash out. But, it also elicited the desired reaction Hades wanted from the Inquisitor; frustration. The Inquisitor knew that he played into Hades‘s hands and that further angered him. He began to think much less of honor and more about ending this engagement quickly. The Inquisitor subtly tracked the location of the handgun. He advanced with a lunge attack that forced Hades to side step and beat it off with a quick stroke. The Inquisitor dove for the handgun, then, he took aim and squeezed the trigger multiple times. There was only one bullet left in the chamber. The bullet screamed toward Hades. Striking his claymore, it was deflected up, and the bullet tumbled and grazed Hades’s forehead, which hit him like an uppercut. Hades stumbled backward and landed on his backside, dazed from the impact of the bullet. Through blurry vision, he found that his sword had been snapped in two from the bullet impact.

Hades took deep breaths to center himself: chasing off the panicked state that had nearly overtaken him. He willed his vision back into focus and watched the Inquisitor’s moves intently. Hades feigned shock and disorientation, and he ignored the pain that he genuinely felt. Hades desired to lure the Inquisitor in. What Hades thought was going to be a gentlemanly duel, steeped in honor and tradition, had turned into a deadly game of deception. He lamented the loss of honor in the world. Even this man, who had claimed to have valued the lost arts, was a cheap poseur. Hades thought he had known “Roddy” well; not well enough it seemed.

The Inquisitor was cautious, but also anxious to end the fight, and he smelled blood. Eager to capitalize on this momentary weakness, the Inquisitor wound up a huge swing and brought his blade around in a horizontal arc, knocking away Hades broken sword. The Inquisitor’s blade hurled toward Hades’s chest. Hades pushed himself backward, allowing the Inquisitor’s Blade to catch his armored cuirass, which the blade sliced through and grazed Hades’s flesh, but Hades had avoided the deep slash that the Inquisitor had aimed for. Hades’s armored cuirass fell into two pieces, and the Inquisitor was left wide open from that wide swing he took. In that instant, Hades used the broken tip of his sword and plunged it into the Inquisitor’s side below the arm, fracturing several ribs, and piercing lung. Rodrigo cried out in pain and felt his lung fill with blood. Rodrigo whipped his sword around, chopping at Hades’s shoulder in a downward motion. Hades moved quickly inside the swing to embrace the Inquisitor. He wrapped his arm around the Inquisitor’s sword arm, and with both hands twisted the Inquisitor’s wrist, wrenching the lion-head blade from his grasp. Hades then pulled down on the Inquisitor’s forearm, snapping the joint against Hades’s shoulder. A sickening snap was heard. Hades incapacitated the Inquisitor’s sword arm. However, the Inquisitor countered by pulling the sword tip from his side with his left hand and stabbed with as much force as possible into Hades’s collar bone. The strike did sink in slightly, but all the blood on the shard just caused it to slip-up into his hand when it impacted with Hades collarbone, which resulted in more damage to the Inquisitor’s hand. Hades launched a strong left hook into the Inquisitor’s temple, which sent him careening backward, disoriented, weak, and coughing blood. He spat a mouthful to his side.

“Well, it’s been quite awhile since we had
a tumble like that, eh Evan?” The Inquisitor managed to get out, between
blood-soaked coughing fits. Hades stood upright. He walked over and collected
the Inquisitor’s lion-head, sword-cane contraption. He kept it at the ready.

“It certainly has, Roddy,” Hades replied.

“You know, you hurt me deeply. You were the only one I ever felt anything for. Then you went off and messed around on me. Did you think I would not find out?” The Inquisitor wiped blood from around his mouth and struggled to keep himself upright.

“Well, Roddy: it was just good, clean fun.
It happened all the time in the field: gay or straight. I didn’t know you would
take personal offense. But, then I also had no idea you would use the full
force of your power to try to assassinate me for it either.” Hades confessed to
Rodrigo.

“You just didn’t understand my endless feelings for you. Once you scorn me there is no end that I would not take to make my pain be known to you.” Rodrigo worked himself up with repressed rage but was robbed of it by the fact that he was dying.

“Well shit, that’s an understatement. You
were willing to sacrifice it all just to get your revenge.” Hades assessed his
former lover’s frame of mind.

“This is true, and it cost me everything,
now. Well, my time is nearly here. Regardless, I am glad it was you, my love,
that were finally the one who laid me low.” The Inquisitor beckoned Hades
toward him. Hades complied holding the cane-sword at hand.

“It has been a privilege to have known you,
Roddy, and to be the one to put an end to you.” Hades knelt down, bringing his
face closer to the Inquisitor’s face.

“Kiss me. I love you,” Rodrigo confessed.

“I love you too.” Hades put his lips to
Rodrigo’s lips and they shared an old, familiar kiss.

“Now, go to sleep!” With that, Hades drove
the cane-sword through Inquisitor Rodrigo’s heart, twisting and jerking upward
to make sure the job was done. The Inquisitor let out one last gasp, then
expired thereafter. Hades shed one tear; but only one. He retrieved the
cane-sword and wiped the blood off with the late Inquisitor’s overcoat. A great
sense of relief had befallen Hades. His vow, and his mission, was at an end. Hades
tore off the L.O.V.E. patch from Rodrigo’s uniform. Hades could now love again.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

Pride-Swarm, Gale-Whirlwind, and Angel-Seraphim rode with the column through upper Manhattan. They had been fighting running battles periodically with Ranger and regular forces through the streets on the way to the Bronx. Their objective was the old Yankee Stadium, which was being used as a B.A.G. venue for the region. The Apostate militia met stiffer resistance the closer they came to the Bronx. The Apostate armored column came upon Macomb’s Dam Bridge. Gale ordered the A.P.C.s drawn up in a protective circular formation, in an open area that looked to have once served as a park.

Gale, Pride, and Angel exited their respective A.P.C.s to assess the situation. Using field-glasses, Pride-Swarm observed both ends of the bridge and noted the significant fortifications: a formidable bunker commanded the approach to the bridge, and a barricade barred entrance. He wasn’t quite sure, but Pride thought he had caught hints of movement up in the metal girders high above the platform. He was certain that this meant concealed snipers.