You never really did know how it was going to turn out. They were living in a dangerous world now, one in which you didn’t get anywhere without taking some risks.
Before him, the crowd of guards parted and the man he knew as Jaks moved through the group towards them.
‘Shut up,’ he said. ‘Drop your weapons. Ah, ah, ah, slowly, please. On the floor, thank you,’ he directed them. Nero did as he was told, placing his shotgun, pistol, and dagger on the ground before him. Nyx did the same with her sword.
Nero hated letting go of his newly enhanced gun, but there was little he could do about it really unless he wanted to end the day in a shallow grave or worse.
Nero looked up at Jaks after setting his weapons down. The man, who was wearing dirty trousers with knee and shin pads over his boot tops, and what looked like some kind of modified sporting shoulder pads that had been transformed into armour with spikes and metal plates attached, gave them a smug grin that Nero immediately wanted to wipe straight off his face.
‘Bind them,’ Jaks said and crossed his arms as several guards moved forward to follow his orders. Nyx resisted for a moment, shoving them away. ‘Nyx, no, don’t. We’ll get out of this, I promise,’ he said.
‘Nice words,’ Jaks said. ‘Keep telling yourself that, makes the reality easier to deal with, I suppose.’
Nero looked back at him, giving him an evil look. He’d be the first to go, he thought as the guards behind him tied his wrists.
‘You lot, take her to the queen; she has plans for her. You five, take him to the cells. He can wait there until the queen decides what to do with him. The rest of you, get back to your posts, we’re done here,’ Jaks said.
Nero was shoved and pushed towards one door, while Nyx was led the other way. Nero looked back and caught a final glimpse of her as she was led through the far door, looking back, searching for him, pleading with him to help her, but there was nothing he could do.
‘I’ll find you. I’ll come for you, and I’ll find you,’ Nero shouted back.
‘Nero,’ she called, before the door was shut, drowning out the sound of her voice. Out the door, Nero found himself in a long corridor that must have, once upon a time, looked quite grand before the apocalypse. He didn’t resist, he just walked forward. Following the directions of the five guards that were with him, he took note of everything he saw of the layout of the building, trying to create a mental map of it in his mind, to anything he noticed in the corridors that looked useful, interesting, or valuable. If it was something which might aid his eventual escape or rescue of Nyx, he paid special attention to it, because he knew that he would escape. It was only a matter of time. He’d been imprisoned in camps many times before, and each time, affected his escape eventually. No cell was full proof, no guard immune to bribery or making mistakes. He’d free himself before long, that was for sure. It was only the when of it that was variable.
The group turned another corner, and they seemed to be making their way towards the rear of the building, if his sense of direction was right. The guards commented on his capture, joking about it or talking about how the queen would abuse Nyx. He didn’t react. Instead, he listened. There was always something useful to be learnt, and in this case, it seemed that Nyx was likely being taken to the queen's harem of girls if what these guys were saying was true.
What was it with these despots? Nero thought. Why were they always taking slaves and forcing them to be their unwilling sexual partners? It was clearly a power thing. Nero just thought it was sick, and the thought of killing the queen and freeing the girls in the harem made him smile and gave him something to focus on.
Something moved behind him as a female voice grunted in effort half a second before he was pushed forward by one of the guards and thrown off balance. A gunshot went off. The guards yelped and called out in shock as Nero fell to the floor. He rolled, doing his best to cushion his fall and caught a glimpse of a figure in pale wrappings standing in the middle of the guards, cutting them to ribbons as another firearm discharged. Nero finally came to his feet in a crouch and looked up at the melee behind him as the final guard fell to the floor, his body limp as blood poured from a gaping wound on his chest.
Standing amongst them, facing away but turning towards him was the girl with the katana blade. She stood ready for a moment more, looking at the bodies before looking up at Nero and walking towards him.
‘Sorry I couldn’t act sooner, there were just too many of them back there,’ she said as she moved behind him to cut his bonds.
‘Where’s Nyx?’ he asked.
‘The blonde girl? She’s with the queen. I couldn’t get to her, sorry,’ she said, as she sliced through the final bond.
Nero turned as he stood. ‘Tell me where she is, I’ll go get her,’ he said.
‘No, there’s no time, you’ll never make it,’ she said as Nero turned to look at the bodies in the hallway, spotting his guns on the floor, which one of the guards had been carrying.
‘You wanna bet?’ Nero said as he walked over and retrieved his weapons.
‘That is not a good idea, the guards will be here any moment, we need to get out of here; we need a plan of attack. I want my sister out of there, too, but charging in there is not the way to do it,’ she said.
Nero racked the foregrip of his gun. ‘I beg to differ,’ he said, when the sound of feet, and lots of them, approaching drew his attention. Turning around, a stream of men and women, all of them armed, ran into their corridor, the ones at the front raising their weapons on seeing Nero ahead of them.
‘Or not,’ he said as he turned to run. The girl did the same and took the lead as gunshots echoed up the corridor. ‘Lead the way, we need to get out of here,’ he said. Yeah, yeah, he thought, I was wrong. His bravado had gotten the better of him for a moment there. As they ran past a side corridor, several more guards could be seen down it, heading their way.
Nero fired once down the side passage, catching one of them clean in the face. The girl darted right, and then left, trying to lose the oncoming mob as Nero fired back each time he caught sight of them rounding the last corner.
The girl slammed through a doorway and charged up a set of stairs. ‘We’re going up?’ Nero asked, unsure that this was a good idea. Had she really thought this through?
‘It’s the only way out, trust me,’ she said without slowing down. Nero really didn’t have much of a choice, he thought. She’d saved his life by killing five guards, damning herself in the process, so she must have a plan.
The girl bounded up the flights of stairs, taking two or more steps at a time, her legs pumping hard. Nero did the same, feeling the burn in his quads and calf muscles as he went. They must have gone up maybe three floors or so before the girl ran through another door. He’d not been keeping track, and instead concentrated on not collapsing and trying to keep up with her.
Running through the door after her, he found himself in another corridor as the sound of chasing guards followed them up the stairs.
The girl ran around another corner, and then another before approaching a door and darting through it. She held it open and urged Nero to follow her.
‘Come on, quickly,’ she said, finally closing the door behind him. They were in a fairly dark room, a small one filled with junk of all kinds. The girl shimmied sideways between piles of boxes and other stuff towards a glow on the far wall. Following, Nero found himself standing before a window, which the girl was heaving open. He stepped up next to her and gave her a hand. Between them the sash window slid upwards, allowing the cool evening breeze to blow in. The girl climbed through the window.
‘This way,’ she said.
Nero shrugged and followed. He was bigger than she was by a good foot or so, but he made it through without too much difficulty to find himself on a small ledge on the roof of the building with sloping tiled rooftops on all sides, creating a secluded shelf. He stood up and his head hit something. Looking up as he flinched, he spotted a rope tied to the top of t
he window that disappeared into the growing darkness out over the wall of the compound they were in and into a neighbouring building.
‘Aaah,’ Nero said, suddenly understanding as the girl closed the window behind them.
As the girl stood, all around below them floodlights started to flare into life and shouting could be heard. Nero stepped forward towards the edge and looked down. Off to the left and right of him, he could see guards, men and women, carrying flaming torches, walking around the building.
‘They’re hunting us,’ Nero said.
‘An alert will have gone out about your escape. They don’t fire up the generators and turn on the floods without a damn good reason,’ she said as she handed him a metal bar that was bent in the middle, creating a shallow V-shape. ‘Follow me.’
Nero watched as she held her own bar above the wire, letting it sit in the middle of the upside down V before stepping off the ledge. The girl shot off into the night, out over the compound wall. Nero looked back at the window and could hear shouting coming from within the building. They were close.
‘I’ll be back,’ Nero said in a whisper as if he were talking to Nyx before he hooked his own bar over the wire and stepped off the ledge. He felt a flutter of fear in his chest as he stepped off into nothingness, with only his hands keeping him from a potentially fatal fall, but gravity took over, and the bar started to zip along the wire.
The metal moving over the high tension wire created a high pitched buzzing as he fell. He heard shouting from somewhere below him, and then suddenly gunshots.
Nero heard the ffft of the passing bullets as they zipped passed him, but failed to hit. They’d spotted him.
Below him, the wall whipped past, and the building ahead loomed out of the night. The wire disappeared into a yawning black hole where a window once was. He spotted the approaching floor and as he reached it, let go of one end of the metal bar to drop and roll to the ground. He carried a little more momentum that he had anticipated and rolled over a couple more times than he’d planned, but he came to a rest unhurt with a feeling of exhilaration.
‘You made it,’ the girl said as she stepped up and took the metal bar from him, placing it on the floor to one side. ‘Were they shooting at you?’
Standing up, feeling a little shaky, he nodded to her. ‘Yeah, they spotted me,’ he said.
‘Shit, then we’ll have to move quickly,’ she said.
Nero looked up at her as she thought it through. She was a black haired Asian beauty, and her look was quite striking, but although he could appreciate her beauty, he didn’t feel at all interested in her. All he wanted to do was to go back into that compound and find Nyx. But to do that, he would need this girls help. She would have intimate and detailed knowledge of the layout of the compound. She might even know how to get back in without passing through the front gate.
‘So, what do I call you?’ Nero asked her.
‘Call me Kat,’ she said.
Nero nodded; it fit her well. ‘I’m Nero,’ he said.
‘I know,’ she answered.
Nero nodded, walked back towards the window, and looked out at the compound beyond the tall walls that surrounded it. He felt desperate to get back in there and find Nyx, and it was a feeling that he was not very familiar with. That connection to another person was something that, before Nyx, he’d not really felt since he was much younger. Not since his mother had been alive.
It was alien to him, but also gave him something to focus on, something to drive him forward. He wondered if Nyx felt the same. Was she longing to be back with him, to escape whatever situation she found herself in?
He made a silent promise to himself that he would not rest until Nyx was freed and back with him on the roads of the wasteland.
A thought occurred to him then, and he looked back at Kat. ‘What do you mean, you know?’ he asked.
Chapter 14
Nyx
Manhandled by several guards, both men and women, Nyx was dragged from the room. She looked back, desperate to see Nero once last time, and caught sight of him being forced through the opposite door.
‘I’ll find you. I’ll come for you, and I’ll find you,’ he called after her.
‘Nero,’ she shouted before the door was shut behind her and she was dragged along the corridor beyond. Thrown forward by the group, she staggered but managed to keep her feet and looked back at the three shotguns that were levelled at her. ‘I’d raise my hands, but…’ she said, indicating her cuffed wrists.
‘Walk, that way. Slowly,’ said one of the men.
Nyx nodded and walked up the hallway. There were doors to her left and another at the far end of the corridor. She soon reached it and one of the guards stepped forward to open it, letting her through. They were in a large room that extended off to her right, which she guessed would be behind the throne room they had met the queen in. Several large and small doors were spaced around the room, and there were a few others in here, passing through, going about their business.
The guards guided her to her right and then to a door on the opposite wall to the one she had entered the room through. She passed through another smaller room. There were more doors in here, another large one on the opposite wall to the one they had entered through, and two smaller doors on either side of that one. The guards guided her to the one on her left and pushed her inside.
‘Stand there,’ the lead guard said, pointing to the middle of the room while the guards took up positions around her, their weapons ready.
She wondered how Nero was getting on. What were they doing to him? Were they hurting him, torturing him, or just throwing him in a cell? She guessed they might just kill him, but if they wanted her to comply, to do as they wished, they might need him as leverage. Which left her wondering what they were going to do to her. That guard, Jaks, he’d said something about the queen wanting her. She had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t sound good.
Close by, the guard turned to her after checking the placement of the armed guards. ‘Strip,’ he said.
Nyx looked over at him and raised her eyebrows in surprise and confusion. ‘Sorry? What?’ she asked.
‘You heard me, strip. Take your clothes off,’ he said, slightly more forcefully and enunciating each word clearly, as if he were talking to an idiot.
Nyx scowled at him, hating his patronising attitude. ‘Yeah, I got it,’ she said with an exasperated sigh. She hesitated for a moment, feeling suddenly self-conscious and acutely aware of the three guys and one woman staring at her.
‘Now!’ the lead guard bellowed.
‘Fine,’ Nyx said and went about removing her coat, bodysuit and other garments until she finally stood there, utterly naked, with her arms crossed before her, feeling very exposed. Rex had forced various indignities on her, but at least he had allowed her to remain dressed around others in the Watchtower. This was a new low. Part of her wondered where this was going, but another part of her felt she could probably guess the answer to that question. Without hesitating, the lead guard took her by the arm and led her towards another door out of this room. Taking a key out of his pocket, the guard unlocked the door and opened it. Beyond was a large room, hung with drapes and paintings on the walls, soft, but dirty looking sofas and chairs stood here and there, along with a large bed off towards the far end of the room on her left. There were quite a few people in here as well, but they were separated into two distinct groups. Around the edges of the room stood armoured guards, several of them on a pair of balconies that overlooked the boudoir-like chamber. The other group was standing, sitting, or laying on the furnishings around the room, and they were all young looking adult women. Every one of them was naked and, by any measure, attractive. Nyx frowned for a moment, wondering what the hell this was, and then it clicked.
This must be some kind of harem, the queen’s harem maybe? She felt suddenly acutely aware of what she was now a part of, and what she now might be forced to do, and felt quite sick down to the pit of her stomach.
>
It felt like she’d taken a giant leap backwards all of a sudden and was back somewhere similar to where she’d been not all that long ago in the Watchtower. But somehow, this felt worse. Sensing movement behind her, she looked back to see a guard step into the room behind her and whisper something into the ear of the lead guard who’d led her in here. The messenger withdrew after giving Nyx an admiring glance. She ignored it and looked up at the man who’d walked her into the queen's boudoir.
‘Duty calls I’m afraid, but it’s been a pleasure,’ he joked. ‘The queen will be along shortly. I’m sure you will have lots of fun.’
Nyx only blinked, keeping her expression neutral; she didn’t want to show any kind of fear or disgust to him. She wanted to remain strong for Nero. She also wanted to escape, but saw little option as to how she might do that. For now, she thought she’d have to see where this took her while keeping a lookout for potential escape options.
The guard disappeared back through the door and locked it behind him. Well, she was stuck here, for the time being at least, she thought and turned back to the room itself. Several of the girls in here were looking at her. She gave them a thin smile that acknowledged that she was in the same hopeless situation as they were. She stepped away from the door, moved slowly into the room, and noticed how quiet it was in here. No one was talking loudly. She could see a few sitting in small groups of twos or threes speaking softly, but that was all. As she moved into the room, the other girls in here turned away from her, pointedly ignoring her. She felt quite alone and separate from them.
She was looking around the room, wondering what she might do, where she might sit, when another door further around the room opened up. The woman who called herself the queen stepped into the room, leading another naked girl in by a chain attached to a leather collar around her neck.
The queen walked over to the foot of her bed and glanced around the room, quickly spotting Nyx. The queen’s gaze lingered on her for a time, appraising her, looking her up and down as a self-satisfied smile spread across her lips.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 26