by J. N. Chaney
“We are a warrior tribe.” Sulk shrugged. “Despite our technological advancements, we have realized one thing.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“War always remains,” Sulk said as if it were a matter of fact not up for debate. “We can kill each other with sticks and stones, blasters or viruses, but there will always be war in one shape or another. Even now when we go to battle with Legion, we are in for the fight of our lives.”
Again, I couldn’t argue with him. We were about to try and sneak around a contagious virus to gain access to war machines that would hopefully tip the odds of survival in our favor. Then we were going to kill him. I was strangely just fine with all of that. After everything we had to do just to survive on Genesis, having this virus trying to eradicate us, then falsely attempt to befriend us, then try to kill us again was somehow a bit too much. I couldn’t wait for this war to be over.
I slung the skull splitter over my shoulder. Next, I turned to the rack of weapons behind us. A thick blaster with a short barrel and a massive magazine caught my attention.
“Made for clearing a room,” Sulk said, following me as if he were my own personal guide. “The Dragon’s Breath is a weapon made not for accuracy but brutal stopping power. It fires a stream of smaller projectiles in a cone-like shape.”
Furious shouting and something that sounded like the beat of a drum came from the large chamber just outside our own.
“Hurry, the blood rite begins,” Sulk said, scurrying out of the room. “You don’t want to miss this.”
I picked up the Dragon’s Breath and followed him out of the room with the others. John and Stacy looked cautious but interested. Tong actually seemed eager to witness it.
The first thing I noticed when we exited the room were the Rung soldiers had disrobed from the waist up. They stood in a circle. One of them had a large drum he pounded in rhythm.
The outer circle of the soldiers held the children and young of the group. They looked on with wide eyes. Fear lived there, but it was an afterthought to courage. Even the tiniest Rung that couldn’t have come past my knees swayed to the sounds of the beat, looking enthralled and determined.
I took a back seat with the rest of my team as we watched on with bated breath. The process was intriguing to say the least, this technologically advanced race of aliens completing a ritual that was primitive in nature. Dama entered the circle where the warriors stood waiting, all swaying with the sound of the drum.
When Dama lifted her hands into the air, the rhythmic beating came to a halt. All eyes followed her motion as she lifted a dagger from her belt.
“The blood rite is a pact our warriors take in only the most desperate times,” Dama said in a stirring voice. “Let no one be mistaken. This is the most desperate of times we find ourselves in. Our blood will bind this oath. Our fighting spirit will see us through. If we fall, we do so in battle for those who come after.”
“For those who come after!” the twenty shirtless warriors in front of Dama shouted as one. Each of them lifted a blade from their person, slicing a long cut in the palm of their right hands.
They lifted their closed right fists into the air above their heads. They clenched their palms tightly, until a trickle of blood ran down their arms onto their chests.
“Legion is our enemy and one we take responsibility for creating,” Dama shouted. “Today marks the end of his reign once and for all. Together with our new allies, we right the wrong our ancestors created so many years before. Are you with me?”
The room erupted into a roar, all of the warriors buying into her words. Dama really knew how to give a speech. I half wanted to cut my hand open and yell along with them.
As the soldiers who participated in the blood rite began to gear up, I felt a tug on my right hand. I looked down to see a little Rung child.
I knelt down, looking at the kid. Her long eyelashes and the bright pink hair told me she was a girl.
“Are you the Chosen One?” she asked.
I looked around, confused as to how she would even know that term. Stacy and John shrugged. Tong evaded my eye contact. He was definitely the culprit, but why?
“Tong?” I asked.
“They already knew,” Tong said with a shrug. “Sulk heard Jezra talking about it back at our camp. He told Dama, and when she asked me, I had to tell her the truth.”
Great, so I’m the Chosen One for these people now too, I thought to myself. Well, if you’re already the Chosen One, might as well act like it.
“Sure, kid,” I told the small child. “I am the Chosen One.”
“You’re not going to let the Legion virus get us, are you?” she asked with large eyes. “It already got my mom and dad. I don’t want it to get me too.”
Aw, the poor kid. This made me hate the virus even more and gave me more determination to get rid of it once and for all. “It’s not going to get you,” I told her, placing a hand on her small shoulder. “You have my promise. I’m not going to let it.”
Her eyes never left mine. I could tell she wasn’t sure if she could believe me. I thought of Lou, then thought of what he might say to this grieving child.
“A friend of mine believes—believed that everything happens for a reason,” I told her. “I think I’m starting to believe that as well. And if that’s true, then I’m here for a reason. We all are. We’re here to end Legion and bring peace between the Rung and Remboshi. I promise you as long as I’m alive, I won’t give up.”
I wasn’t really sure where all of this reassurance and confidence was coming from. Maybe it was from seeing the blood rite, maybe it was the little girl in front of me who needed to hear these words so desperately, maybe it was Lou and his sacrifice, or a combination of them all.
“The man said you’d come to help us.” The little girl gave me a smile, wiping tears from her eye. “He said you’d come.”
“Dean?” Stacy asked, securing her helmet. “We’re ready.”
“I’ll be right there,” I said, standing but looking back down at the girl. “What man?”
“The other man like you.” The girl gave me a look that said I should know what she was talking about. “He said you were brothers.” A chill ran down my spine as I digested that information.
The noise in the room picked up in volume as warriors all around us made last-minute checks.
“What did he look like?” I asked, searching the room around us frantically for any sign of Maksim. “When did he come here?” That was all we needed right now, another being that liked to throw a monkey wrench in the works simply by his presence. Maksim was pretty much the reason we were all here now and was definitely not welcome to join in the festivities.
My eyes roved around the room. It would have been impossible to miss him, right? Dama had not mentioned anyone else and neither had Sulk.
“Where is he?” I asked, turning back to the little girl.
She was gone, lost in a small group of children on the other side of the room.
“Hey, you good to go?” John asked, joining me. “You look like someone just told you they killed your pet butterfly.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I said, gripping the Dragon’s Breath tighter in my hands. I made my way over to the rear of the large chamber where a narrow access panel was being removed screw by screw.
Dama stood toward the front, decked out in dull grey armor with a visor that looked more like an ancient knight’s than anything high tech.
“Dama, was there another human that made it into your bunker?” I asked in earnest, although hoping the answer wouldn’t be what I thought it was. “He would have been tall, kind of skinny, possibly wearing a red handkerchief?”
Dama looked over to me. I could barely see her eyes through the narrow slits in her helmet. I wondered where they found this medieval design, how it could look this way centuries and universes apart.
“A human calling himself Brother Maksim came to us before Legion struck.” Dama nodded. “He warned us of
the onslaught. He told us to go find you, that you would help us. He also started on the tech that would be able to allow us to speak to one another.”
“What?” Stacy asked in disbelief. “You didn’t think this was important to tell us? You lied to us?”
“I never lied,” Dama said in a calm, cool voice. “Brother Maksim made me promise to keep it a secret unless you were to ask outright. You asked and I did not lie.”
“Okay, but you withheld information from us that is actually very important. Maksim does not always have our best interests at heart. He caused the crash that brought us here,” Stacy told Dama.
“This man is very dangerous,” Tong added in from her right side. “Where is he now?”
“Dead, or at least he should be,” Dama said. “He did not make it to the safety of this chamber. He was lost with the others in the belly of the bunker.”
A cold sweat fell over my body. If Maksim was anything, he was a survivor. Sure, Legion might have gotten down there somewhere, but I wasn’t going to bet on that.
“I’ll believe it when I see a body,” John said, reading my thoughts. We looked at each other in consternation. Somehow I felt that we would be seeing Maksim again, and soon.
“Anything else you’re waiting to tell us unless we ask?” Stacy asked Dama, practically towering over her. “This is life and death now. Any information you have. We need to know now, right now, before we trek through a nightmare maze toward the power armor.”
“There is nothing else,” Dama said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry this has brought you such anger. It was not my intention.”
“We’re in,” Sulk said from the front where he worked. Two other Rung moved a section of the metal grate that led to a narrow hall. “Are we still going?”
I exchanged looks with Stacy.
“Any more lies, or half-truths, or waiting for us to ask the right question, and we’re done here,” Stacy said, jamming the helmet on her head. “If we don’t have trust, we have nothing to talk about and cannot possibly work as a team.”
“Understood,” Dama said, making her way to the front. “I will lead.”
As Dama moved to the front, the tension of the moment dissipated a bit. I hadn’t noticed it until now, but the Rung warriors had surrounded us, ready to make a move if their commander ordered. Now that Dama was making her way to the narrow hall, they fell back and lowered their weapons.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said, joining Dama in front of the line.
“The Rung staying behind with the children will lock the grate behind us,” Dama said. “There’s no going back.” She eyed us to gauge our reactions to this news.
“I don’t have plans for tomorrow,” John said, hefting a heavy Rung blaster to his chest. “Let’s go.”
13
Dama and I were the first into the narrow hall. There was barely enough room for the two of us to move side by side. Pipes, wires, and vents lined the walls and ceilings of the hall. We had to dodge and duck in order to avoid the obstructions.
An eerie stillness fell over me as I searched the darkness in front of us with the aid of my helmet’s HUD.
The hall in front of us was visible for the next few feet, then all turned black.
“The lights to the rest of the bunker were shut off,” Dama whispered as we moved forward. “Your Dragon’s Breath has a light at the end of the barrel just here.”
I looked down to see where she pointed. She clicked a button, and true to her word, a narrow beam of light shot out to bring much too little light to the hall. It was a little better than nothing in penetrating the inky blackness.
“Lights on,” Sulk said from behind me, where he and Stacy came next.
Rung, humans, and the Remboshi in our party all obeyed. Soon, twenty-six lights shot forward, illuminating the darkness.
We moved forward slowly, quietly. We all understood that if a single infected saw us coming, it was over. The shared consciousness Legion controlled them with would know exactly where we were.
The sounds of the vent being screwed in place behind us made me cringe. It wasn’t loud, but any noise at the moment made me jump. The halls were so narrow, if we were found out now, it would be a massacre. The darkness wouldn’t help matters either, particularly if there was a panic to get away from the infected.
Dama used a screen on the back of her right vambrace to navigate our path. My breath inside my helmet felt hot and too rapid. I told myself it was the anticipation of this ordeal finally being over, not fear, that was making me hyperventilate a little. Okay, maybe a little fear. I needed a pep talk for myself.
Easy, Dean, I told myself. Control your breathing.
To say I was out of my element would be an understatement. On the edge of the universe in a nightmare situation against an intelligent virus, all I could do was put one foot in front of another.
The narrow hall came to a T intersection in front of us.
I glanced down at the map on Dama’s right hand. It showed a hall going to the right, then a larger room to the left.
“Lights,” Dama breathed.
Everyone turned off their lights together. The sudden darkness was overwhelming and didn’t help my anticipation level much.
“Sulk?” Dama asked.
I had to put my back against the wall as Dama did the same on her side to make enough room for Sulk to squeeze through. Three more hardened Rung came behind him. I noticed they sheathed their blasters and drew bladed weapons, ranging from knives to swords.
Sulk took the left, followed by one of the Rung. The other two warriors went right.
We waited in silence and darkness.
I looked over to Stacy. She shook her head, and I knew she hated this as much as I did. It was in neither of our natures to stand by and wait for others to do the work we knew had to be done.
Minutes stretched by endlessly as I felt my body become restless from staying in the same spot for so long.
After what felt like half an hour but in reality couldn’t have been more than five to ten minutes, Sulk popped his helmeted head around the corner, startling me, and I think Dama jumped a hair as well.
“Clear,” he said.
We turned on our lights again. It was only then that I noticed Sulk’s blade dripping with dark blood, which appeared to be consistent with infected black blood.
We moved out of the hall to the room on the right. It was some kind of cafeteria. Sulk and his counterpart had removed a vent, allowing us access.
My light played around the room, picking up a series of four bodies on the ground in pools of their own blood.
“We sliced their throats from behind,” Sulk said. I couldn’t see his face due to his helmet, but I could imagine the grin he wore.
“Won’t Legion know something is wrong, even if he can’t see us?” Stacy asked as the others piled in through the vent shaft behind us. “I mean, he’ll know he’s losing infected and which ones, since he controls all of them, plus they will be dropping in numbers.”
“He might.” Dama nodded in agreement. “We should press on and move quickly.”
“No argument there,” John said, sidling up next to us. “Lead the way.”
Dama did just that, ducking into a much larger hall at a light jog. We had a few kilometers of halls and levels to make our way through. Right now, speed and stealth were keys to our success.
Sulk took point with his three Rung assassins. The rest of us made up the middle of the pack with a pair of larger Rung that guarded our rear.
We ran without lights. At every corner and in every dark hallway, I half expected to see Legion. He was smarter than we gave him credit for. He would understand exactly what we wanted, and as such, he would be waiting for us.
Just over halfway to our target, Sulk and the Rung in the lead came up short. We nearly ran into the back of them as they stopped abruptly around a sharp corner.
“Don’t shoot,” a familiar and unwelcome voice said. “I’m not infected.”
Despite his injuries, he gave me a bright smile when he saw me. “Brother, you came.”
My weapon was aimed directly at his chest. My trigger finger twitched. It would be so easy to end him now, and at that moment, I really wanted to. He was the man who was responsible at least in part for bringing us crashing down to Genesis, as well as the man who ambushed me and bashed the back of my head with a rock. I wouldn’t be wrong in squeezing the trigger. It would be so simple. One big problem taken care of and a little vengeance in one act.
“Dean,” Stacy warned out of the side of her mouth. “Dean, I want to as much as you do, trust me, but maybe he knows something useful.” And with that, I came back to reality. I knew Stacy was right.
“What are you doing here?” I growled.
“Well, I guess we’re going to skip the pleasantries and get right down to business,” Maksim said with a heavy sigh. He seemed disappointed that I wasn’t greeting him with wide open arms and a smile. What a weirdo.
Behind him was a set of closed double doors. A faint scratching could be heard on the opposite side.
Maksim placed his back to the door then sank down to a seated position. He gestured with a thumb at the closed doors behind him.
“The stairwell to the level below where the power armor is being kept,” he said with a sadistic grin. “Filled with infected. Any of the ways down are. I thought this would be my best bet to try breaking through their lines. I was debating about going when you came. Now we can all go together, like it should be. Like it always should have been. Brother with brother, allies in arms.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying but failing to keep the anger out of my voice. I stalked over to Maksim, towering over him in what I hoped was a menacing way. “If you had it your way, we’d all be dead by now. What are you doing here? What kind of game are you playing now?”