Nuclear Rising

by Christian Smith

  Only now, the black prison gates at the front were completely wide open.

  Guards were strewn across the patchy dirt and concrete that led up to the glass doors. Some unconscious while other were just moaning painfully.

  There were small fires still burning along the perimeter of the building.

  Apparently, the people didn’t like their loved ones being locked up.

  And so Vonn and I, both shrugging to each other simultaneously, stroll up through the glass doors untouched, unscathed and undeterred in finding Bree.

  Entering the large atrium where sits an unmanned desk, and behind it a series of elevators, I whisper to Vonn, “I think we were on the fourth floor – I remember one of the fat guards complaining about walking up four flights to get up there.”

  He nods, and before we get too far we hear a shuffling behind us and turn, immediately alert.

  One prison guard dressed in black armor, who I immediately recognize as the short, stocky one that had kept watch over my cell is dragging a taller guard across the floor desperately trying to get him to one of the small rooms down the hallway.

  He freezes, suddenly realizing he isn’t alone.

  Vonn and I look at each other stoic-faced.

  I see the stocky guard reaching behind his back and my trigger finger reflexively acts, shooting a bright blue light into his chest, which only makes him lose balance and fall hard onto the polished tile flooring.

  “Look,” I say, walking up to the confused guard sprawled on the floor, the other injured guard grasping a knife wound in his leg. “You have two choices right now – either you try to fight us, and you will lose because that man standing behind me has a real gun that will go through your armor, or you take your friend, get him first aid and you let us go on our merry way and we’re all winners. Your choice.”

  The stocky man wrinkles his overgrown, auburn eyebrows and with a quivering lip and stutter, replies, “I know you, prisoner – you’re the one I took over to Decker’s place. And you came back here of all places – you must have a death wish.”

  My finger shoots the gun again, this time pounding the man further against the ground, making him grasp his chest in pain.

  “Your choice. I should make you pay for all the people you’ve enjoyed torturing for who knows how long. But I’m not here on a vendetta – I’m here to save the blond girl, and I promise you if I hear from her that either you or your men have done anything to hurt her permanently in any way, I will let her personally take a knife to any body part of her choosing, and I’m guessing that body armor doesn’t cover too much of your man parts.”

  The guard breathes a heavy sigh, eventually raising both his hands in the air while shaking his head.

  “Okay,” he says quietly.

  “I’m sorry – what?”

  “Okay,” this time he speaks louder. “You and your man there can go. Fourth floor, Cell 412. But good luck getting into her cell – you’ll need a guard to do so, and I’m in no shape to travel anywhere now.”

  I bring my foot against the man’s groin, making him wince and cringe as I bring my foot tightly against the fabric there.

  “Just checking,” I say smugly. “Can’t wait for our return trip – I really hope you’ve been good to her.”

  Turning away, I kick the man’s gun across the hall, where Vonn and I make our way to the elevator and after a brief pause, step out onto the fourth floor.

  The lights above us blink intermittently like strobe lights as a buzzing sound rings out in the air. A stench of oil and metal fills the foggy hallway from a hose that’s become detached from wall, emanating a hissing sound to complement the buzzing. An eerie, mechanical voice repeats the phrase, “Emergency, lockdown recommended,” over and over again, adding to the dreamlike imagery before Vonn and I.

  “Not at all creepy,” I murmur.

  “Stay frosty,” Vonn replies quietly, drawing his pistol.

  Through the misty hallway we emerge, turning right to head down the long, white corridor where the cells were located. It seems the entire place was abandoned for all we can see, which isn’t more than ten feet ahead of us.

  A couple shadowy figures pop out in the dark and I instantly pull the trigger on my glowing blue pistol. Before too long though, I realize those menacing shadows are actually just ficus trees lining the hallways.

  “You showed them, eh?” mouths Vonn, shaking his head.

  The first cell, 401, houses a thin, spindly man with shaggy hair cowering in the corner by his toilet, rocking back and forth while he covers his ears, chanting something to himself as we do so. We press on, a couple of empty cells, another one with a woman shouting at the ceiling, and it seems as we walk further we run into more sane people, with some just pleading inaudible words to Vonn and I as we try to sneak past. We pass my cell, now unoccupied, and immediately a swelling of rage begins to surface, and I only quicken my pace to get away.

  Until cell 412.

  Bree’s cell.

  Vonn and I stop, peering through the clear glass where a beautiful blond-haired girl sits on her bed with knees drawn up and head buried into them. Though she isn’t rocking restlessly, she isn’t shouting, just a sweet girl who seems tired and misses home.

  I tap against the glass hard with the bat.

  She looks up, first fear in her round, green eyes, then absolute relief and unbelief as she wipes away some tears. She’s yelling happily at us, shouting something about how glad she is to see us, but we can’t hear a thing with the glass.

  Vonn steps back, and before Bree or I can react fires a round of bullets into the glass. The glass doesn’t shatter though as the bullets ricochet in all directions around us, flashes of light sparking against the walls.

  It doesn’t even shake or wince.

  “Vonn!” I yell, my whole body shaking and ears buzzing. “Warn me next time.”

  “It seems it’s bulletproof.”

  “You think?”

  “I guess we’ll find a guard then,” Vonn concludes quietly as I over-emphatically roll my eyes toward him.

  But before we can go hunting for a guard a bullet whizzes through the air, glowing bright, fiery laser red as it hits Vonn in the shoulder.

  “Ah!” Vonn cries out.

  Voom. Voom.

  Another two laser bullets float past Vonn and I, who are now ducked tightly against the white, tile floor. A small fire starts up on one of the walls behind us.

  “Shoot back!” Vonn yells, gritting his teeth in pain just to the right of me.

  Fumbling for a split second, I pull the small pistol out and begin firing blue lasers through the air while Vonn hits his trigger as booms and clicks issue through the dark. Another couple red lasers split between us, nearly burning our arms entirely.

  “I can’t see anything!” I whisper feverishly to Vonn. “It’s just like-“

  “What?”

  Another shot from Vonn’s gun hits something with a distinct thud.

  The realization hits me.

  “It’s just like laser tag.”

  Vonn snorts, dodging another red laser light.

  “We can’t see them, but I’m betting they know exactly where we are, because of this blue light we’re sending right toward them. They must be covering their lights or something.”

  “Yeah so.”

  “Here, cover me Vonn.”

  He nods, sending a rain of bullets into the dark. I pick up the glowing blue gun and scuttling over to one of the ficus trees in the hallway, stick the pistol into the plump foliage with ease. Dodging another laser bullet, I army crawl back to Vonn, who’s hunkered against the wall, grasping his wound.

  Whispering, I say, “You okay Vonn?”

  He nods silently, replying, “I’m out of ammo though.”

  “Let’s hope this works then, huh?”

  After several seconds, a shower of red laser light sprays the poor little ficus with hell’s fury, engulfing the foliage in flames. The footsteps of the men draw closer,
one of them barking orders to the others as one of them continues to fire into the dark. Three guards march down the hallway, and Vonn and I are able to see their shadows as both he and I do our best to slump to the ground like a couple dead bodies.

  They’re within several feet now, the three huddled together tightly as they come up to the ficus, eyeing the tree with confusion as they glance around the hallway.

  “You see this Brett?” One of the guards says, spitting. “I swear we got shot at. Someone’s playing us like fools.”

  I can see one of the guards legs close to me.

  A quick nod to Vonn.

  I swing my bat, hidden by my side.

  A yell rings out in the dark.

  The guard’s leg buckles, dropping a red, glowing rifle to the ground which Vonn jumps on, immediately shooting two of the guards in their foreheads before they can even react, their bodies dropping to the floor with vicious thuds.

  A shot flashes before our eyes, hitting Vonn in the arm holding the gun. He drops to the floor wrenching as I run toward the guard swinging a raised bat.

  A red light charges in the gun.

  Before he’s able to get another shot though, my bat crashes down on the man’s head, a sickening crack ringing out in the still, dim hallway as the guard’s head immediately begins to trickle with blood down his face, his eyes wide as he tries to grasp the wound with his arms flailing wildly in the air. Convulsing, he slumps to the ground with the other two guards, now dead.

  A repulsive pit forms knots in my stomach, but I turn away, unable to look at the guards on the floor.

  Running over to Vonn, whose eyes are shut tightly while he cradles his arm, making a hissing noise with his mouth.

  “Vonn,” I say. “Vonn, are you okay?”

  Another nod from him and a weak smile are all I get. But I stop when I look up, seeing Bree looking down at both of us, her lips parted just slightly while she wrinkles her forehead, obviously worried.

  Vonn whispers between gritted teeth next to me, “You need a guard Quinn. At least a hand.”

  I try not too look at them, but shuffle over to them, trying in vain to get the guards to move, but they’re way too heavy to drag.

  “A hand Quinn.”

  Gulp.

  My throat is tight when I realize what I have to do – I didn’t want to think about these guards, who they were, who their families were. But they were going to kill us. Vonn. Bree. Even Brig all depended on me. It has to be done.

  And without another thought, I pick up one of the rifles, and putting my finger on the trigger, fire it directly at the elbow of one of the skinnier guards.

  It hits, the width of the laser light splitting the forearm away from the rest of the arm.

  I try to cope using comedy. “Thanks for the hand, bro.” It doesn’t work though.

  With the guard's hand in-hand, I bring it over to the blue glowing screen next to Bree’s cell and place it squarely in the middle. My stomach does somersaults for a second, until an audible beep is heard and I toss the arm into the dark again.

  The glass screen lifts.

  A smile from Bree makes me forget what I’d just done. What I’d just seen.

  I look into her eyes, and say, “Looks like we have a lost nomad needing a guide.”

  Bree shakes her head, muttering something about being an idiot as tears roll down her cheeks.

  She throws her arms around me, her warm, soft skin of her arms covering my neck as wet drops leave salty specks on my own cheeks. Then around Vonn who winces in pain, but secretly smiles.

  I glance at her, beaming like an idiot as I say, “Let’s go home and get Brig.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Like a Lamb

  An acrid smoke trails the breezy evening air as we step out from the Black Purgatory, a smattering of fires haphazardly lighting the dark as a waning scream of a woman greets us from somewhere a few blocks away.

  I glance over at Bree, knowing far too well that her prison breakout had just begun. We still had to make our way through the city undetected, somehow finding a way to leave the city and make it back to Vantage before Brig was killed. Oh, and all that without us dying in the process.

  Bree smiles back, her full lips though dry and chapped, still look just as soft and full as the day I met her. Her emerald green eyes seemingly darker and deeper set than normal and her hair falling in greasy waves across her shoulders.

  But looking at her was like taking a breath of fresh air. Like I’d found a lost something.

  “Did they hurt you?” I ask as we traipse across the courtyard of the prison, heading toward the massive gate.

  She shakes her head “no,” pursing her lips as if to say more.

  “Did they?” I reach out, grabbing her arm, which makes her flinch slightly. “Because if so, I made a solemn promise to a very weak guard that you could stab him any place – anywhere you want!”

  Bree’s eyes are locked on the stone path, now lit up by rising moonlight. “The guards didn’t try to do anything other than make stupid threats. I’m used to that. It was that horrible doctor and his probing and his mind games – I can still –“

  She trails off, obviously still in shock.

  “Well it’s over now,” I say, reaching my hand around her shoulder and giving her a side hug. “We’re leaving this place – there’s nothing left here for any of us.”

  A sudden halt at the gate stops Bree and I in our tracks as Vonn lifts his hand up, signaling for us to dart against the wall.

  We do, and just in time as a patrol of four guards meanders past, as we overhear one of them laughing, talking about how he had dragged a screaming mom from her two kids earlier today. Another guard boasts about how he’d done it three times in one hour.

  I feel my fists clenching around my nail bat, but Vonn’s strong grip on my shoulder immediately dissuades me from doing something stupid.

  As soon as they pass we hastily half-run toward a darkly lit alleyway, heading toward the city wall where we’d originally entered in. The hope being that with so much commotion still going on we’d have a shot at sneaking past the guards.

  The once lively and brightly lit cobblestone shops now stand somberly as the fires have been extinguished, signs ripped down, and families taken away for being traitors to the guards.

  Total and utter chaos.

  We still had no idea what had set everything off, or whom, other than Celeste really losing her popularity contest to the people. I wasn’t even sure which side was winning or which side was the good side for that matter. Over the past hour, I tried everything in the world to not think of her, to not worry about her.

  Because I still love her.

  Vonn immediately stops us again as we turn down another dark street, pressing all three of us against a rounded bush sitting next to a two-story stone building. An angry mob of men charge right by us, carrying a bunch of makeshift weapons and flaming torches as they chant, “Down with the Queen, We’ll eat her spleen!”

  The pit in my stomach is becoming a massive black hole as we slowly rise up and charge, sprinting down the dark alley.

  We’re not more than twenty paces when Vonn tumbles headfirst into another dark figure, both of them sprawling to the ground as Vonn curses, rubbing his head. Immediately I reach my bat in the air, ready to strike at the unknown assailant until-

  “Stop!” the entangled shadow calls out. “Quinn! It’s me – Sledge.”

  “Sledge? Holy crap man!” I drop the bat to my side, making way more noise than I should have, eliciting a menacing glare from Vonn in the moonlight. Whispering, I say, “What are you doing here? Did you set this all up as some elaborate getaway plan? Where’s Rose?”

  As I help him up, Sledge says, “I was actually looking for Rose when I ran right into that solid brick over there. Seriously man, what are you made of?”

  Vonn shrugs quietly, seemingly annoyed as he huffs.

  I say, “But Sledge, didn't you set this up? Vonn said you cut some kin
d of deal with the guard or something?”

  He shakes his head. “I had nothing to do with this – it’s total mutiny out here. The deal I made with them…”

  “What? What did you do Sledge?”

  “Not important really,” he replies, furrowing his brows. “What matters is, it got Vonn and Rose out. Apparently you two got out just fine without me.” He nods at Bree and I.

  Not satisfied, I press even further, this time grabbing his arm tightly. “Tell us Sledge – what’s your deal? We’ll all get out of here together.”

  Another shake and a mumble, but before he can go any further, we hear a couple shouts from deep voices, just two small blocks from where we stand.

  Immediately on edge, Vonn quietly grabs my shoulder forcing me forward as we dart into the dark, just in time as several guards emerge into the moonlight, drawn by the noises we had made just seconds ago no doubt.

  We break away before they’re able to scout us out, skirting along the edge of a homestead with a line of fluffy green shade trees that cover us with deep shadows. When we’re out of earshot, Sledge taps Vonn on the shoulder, which only makes the military man turn back hastily.

  “What?” Vonn spits out.

  “Easy boy,” Sledge replies. “I just want to know what the plan is here? Where you heading?”

  “Out the gate of course.”

  A chuckle rises out of Sledge. “Really? That’s your plan, just sneak out of some of the most fortified places here in Pyre? It didn’t go over so well trying to sneak into the place.”

  “Yeah well,” Vonn nods, gritting his teeth. “That’s our best shot.”

  “No, it’s not,” Sledge says.

  “What?”

  “Part of the deal I cut was the exit plan too,” Sledge says, his voice barely above a whisper. “I arranged for our getaway using your jeep. We just have to get to it – just a quarter mile by the east gate there’s a garage. Less guards there from what I’ve been told. We just get past them and use this.”

  Sledge pulls out a piece of paper, stashing it in my hand hastily.

  “What’s this?” I say, unfurling a hastily-scrawled note with six numbers: 547892.