by Rick Graham
He opened the door and tried to poke his head out to see if the shooter had a line of fire to the door. Nope.
Several people that had been on the street before the attack were hiding behind vehicles or building walls, some ran here and there seeking better shelter. Varius sprinted from the front porch of the inn and made a beeline across the street to the outer wall of the red building. He half expected the attacker to shoot at him crossing the dirt road, but perhaps he did hit him earlier.
A young woman in a plaid green dress that had pressed herself up against the wall screamed when the inquisitor approached her.
“I’m not going to hurt you” he said, but her eyes didn’t believe him.
Varius slowly looked around the corner at the window. Nothing.
He carefully watched the window as he moved for the front door of the building, his gun held up just in case. He opened the door and checked the corners as he entered. An old bearded man was hiding behind a chair in the corner of the room.
“Are you the only one in the room?” Varius asked half pointing his weapon at the cowering man.
“Y…yes” he replied shaking in fear.
“Where are the stairs to the second floor?”
The old man pointed to his left. “Down the hall and around the corner.”
Being an inquisitor meant that you found yourself in all sorts of dangerous situations. Typically, on your own. Sure, the higher ups may send you some Republic Troopers, but those brutes didn’t have a whole lot of finesse in instances like this. Varius knew that in this town he was being targeted. He had authority to kill anyone he deemed a threat, and some inquisitors would simply start shooting a town like this up to get out. But being so blatantly aggressive would only add to the number of attackers he would be up against.
Hoping that his judgement of the hiding man wasn’t wrong, Varius moved further into the building and began walking down the hall. The air was musty, and the paint of the hall was peeling in some spots. Alachua was clearly a town suffering from Assembly’s long drought. Right now, his concern had to be focused on dealing with this attacker and getting his bag back. Then he was going to go to the Sheriff’s office and have a long chat about the lack of security in this hell hole.
Coming to the end of the hall Varius saw a doorway opening that revealed a stairwell. Keeping his weapon at the ready he ever so carefully began walking up the creaky stairs. His heavy boots made a muffled thump with each step.
As he reached the door to enter the second floor he tried to quietly open the door with this left hand. The door swung open to a long hallway with doors on either side. Some of the rooms were closed and others were opened. He didn’t say anything, but his heart sank slightly at seeing so many potential places to be attacked from as he would have to clear each room on his own. Maybe the troopers would have been helpful.
He placed his right shoulder up against the hallway and moved to check the first room on his left. The door was opened halfway and just before Varius kicked it in and cleared it he could hear coughing and gurgling coming from further down the hall.
Walking with deliberately quiet steps he moved up to a closed door on his right.
“Ah…” a voice groans from inside the room followed by a bloody cough.
“Can’t believe tha’ bastard shot me!”
Varius reached up to the door handle and twisted it slowly. He threw the door open, sees the man on the floor, and then clears his corners. The man was laying on the floor in a pool of blood looking up towards the ceiling. Aiming his pistol at the man Varius carefully entered the room. A hunting rifle laid on the ground beside the blood.
“Jonnt, is that you?” the man asked as he tried to roll to see who it was.
Varius was shocked to see the man’s face. “Sheriff Tome?” he asked.
“Ho…it’s you.” Sheriff Tome said as he laid his head back on the floor looking up.
Blood gushed from a chest wound that the sheriff was trying to cover with his hands. His face had already gone pale.
“Why did you attack me Sheriff?”
“I’m not tellin’ you nothin’!” Tome hissed before having another coughing fit.
Varius knew time was short, and that Tome would die soon. He got down on one knee while keeping his body positioned to defend if someone came in from the door.
“Sheriff, do you know what happened to inquisitor Kopen?”
“I already told you boy. I’m not tellin’ you anything.”
Looking away from the dying man, Varius thought about his options. “Here’s the deal Sheriff. You can go quickly, or I make the last few moments of your life terrible.”
Tome pulled together his strength and stretched up towards Varius’ face.
“I’m not tellin’ you…” he was cut off as Varius backhanded his face sending blood spattering across the room and the wall.
“I don’t have time for your defiance Sheriff. I am here to find Kopen and you will help me, or I will have this entire town fire bombed and burned to the ground.”
That got his attention. Tome looked back up at the inquisitor. “You wouldn’t…”
“I would, and will. Now, tell me!”
“I can’t.”
Varius squinted slightly. “Why not?”
Tome coughs more blood up. “Wooooh” he rolls to the side in agony clutching his chest tightly.
Varius reaches down and twists the sheriff back towards him. “Tome” he said as he looked into the dying man’s fading eyes.
“I have one regret Inquisitor.”
“…What’s that?”
“That I wasn’t a better shot” Tome said as he began to laugh to himself.
Varius stood up and aimed his pistol at the sheriff’s head. The laughing stopped as the sound of the shot filled the room. Knowing he only had one lead left, but not knowing how many others of the town’s folk were set to come after him, Varius decided he needed to keep to himself until he could get his bag back.
He made his way back to the inn and tried to remain calm as he opened the door. Mrs. Gorj peaked up from behind the front counter. Several others slowly stood up from hiding, no one said anything.
Holding his pistol down by his right side, Varius scanned around the room being sure to make eye contact with everyone to see if someone was going to go for a gun. No one moved.
Going up the stairs he went straight to his room without saying a word. The bag was right where he left it before the attack. He holstered his firearm, and reached inside. He found a small tin container and held it for a moment in thought. Removing the lid Varius pulled out a multi-colored bracelet with a heart charm on it. He slid his left hand through the stretch band forming the bracelet and tucked it beneath his black sleeve. Zipping the bag up, he slung it over his left shoulder and walked out of the room.
As he came down the stairs all eyes were again back on him. No one dared make any sudden moves. Many stories of the fury of inquisitors were told throughout the Republic’s worlds. Even backwater folks like these knew better than to provoke Varius’ wrath even further.
Just before going outside Varius stopped and turned to Deborah Gorj. “Thank you for your hospitality.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He left enough cash to cover the cost of his room. “Ma’am, I was wondering, where is your husband? I haven’t seen him through all of this craziness.”
Her eyes got wide before she caught herself and tried to act normal. “Oh, he…he came down with a dreadful cold. Been in bed all night”
Varius nodded and smirked slightly. “I’m sure he has. Oh, by the way…”
Deborah stood absolutely still unsure of what was about to happen.
“You were right. The bed was clean.” With that, the inquisitor exited the inn. He loaded his bag into the back of his hovercar and drove down the road heading for the edge of town.
Hours passed and the night came before Varius snuck back into Alachua. He decided that if the sheriff was dirty, then there was a
good chance even more were involved in the disappearance of Inquisitor Kopen. What didn’t make sense is what the group of attackers could have been after. It wasn’t for ransom money, because they were trying to kill him. Kopen must have found something else while looking for the missing girl. Something terrible enough that the townspeople made him disappear.
Before leaving his hovercar outside of town Varius went to his trunk. He put on his armored helmet that while he wasn’t a fan of wearing anything that encased his face he knew the added benefits of the helmet in the dark would be worth the discomfort. He also grabbed his 7A Commando Rifle. The biggest benefit of the laser rifle was that it could condense into a smaller size and become less cumbersome when not in use. The inquisitor reached up and connected the rifle to his back armor magnetically as it folded up. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. After grabbing several more magazines of ammunition he slammed the trunk.
He remained unnoticed on his trek back into town on foot as he moved from shadow to shadow.
Finding a nice dark hiding place up on the roof of the dentist’s office across the street to the inn he could keep an eye on Jonnt’s truck sitting below. Even though it was night the town didn’t seem to slow down as work traffic had turned into people heading this way or that to go to dinner or see a show.
The inquisitor got comfortable in the shadows knowing he could be there a while. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long before his target finally exited the inn. While remaining in the dark, Varius leaned forward and activated the night vision function in his helmet’s heads up display, or HUD, and zoomed in. Mr. Gorj was holding his side with his left hand while the other hand was holding a communication device up to his ear.
“What do you mean you can’t find him?” Jonnt said angrily as he walked up to his truck. “I told you to keep your people trailing him until he was outside of town!” he shouted angrily as he pounded the hood of the truck with his left arm. Jonnt winced in pain. “That damned inquisitor broke my ribs.”
Varius used the helmet’s function that allowed him to hack into the transmission between communication devices and listen in.
“I’m sorry Mr. Gorj” said a man’s voice Varius didn’t recognize. “We found his hovercar, but he isn’t here. His tracks show him heading back towards town though.”
“I want you and your boys to find him quickly. I don’t want him snooping around here anymore. I’m heading to the slaughterhouse, meet up with me later tonight” the inn keeper said as he climbed into his dented truck and turned on the ignition.
Drawing his pistol Varius connected an attachment to the side of his pistol. As Jonnt backed his truck up into the street and began to drive away, Varius aimed his weapon and pressed a button on the side with his left thumb that launched a very small tracking device. It hit the backend of the truck and grabbed hold magnetically. Jonnt looked up in his rearview mirror but shrugged figuring it was a rock or something and kept on driving.
On the bottom left of his heads-up display Varius watched as a small screen appeared with a small map and a glowing red dot. He changed the settings of his HUD so that it would display the direction and distance to his target. The inquisitor made his way down from the roof and continued staying in the shadows as he followed Jonnt to his destination.
Varius followed the inn keeper to the East side of town. Hiding behind a large piece of farm equipment he looked around the side of it and spotted the dented truck. On the other side of the truck was a long brown two story stonecrete structure. The hand painted signage on the front read, “Al’s Slaughterhouse”. A small light sat above the lone entrance revealing a lone man holding a scattergun standing watch.
Picking up a stick from the ground, Varius snapped it loudly. The guard heard the noise and slowly walked out into the darkness to investigate. He turned the light-torch mounted on his scattergun and shined it at a group of trees and then to the farm equipment on his left.
Seeing the light shining in his direction, Varius waited for the man to get closer and then tossed a small rock towards the trees. Hearing the noise off to the right, the man aimed his scattergun at the trees again and brought his weapon’s stock up to his shoulder. The inquisitor ever so silently snuck around the other side of the farming equipment and pulled out the knife mounted on his left shoulder.
The guard thought he heard something from behind him but before he could turn around his life was over. Varius lowered the guard to the ground quietly, and wiped his blade off on the dead guard before sheathing the knife back in its home. He took a moment to inspect the dead man’s face, but it wasn’t Jonnt. Blood gushed from the man’s head as Varius dragged him behind some trees outside the reach of the building’s lone light.
He set his helmet to search for human heartbeats as the inquisitor moved quietly up to the door. Drawing his pistol, he slowly opened the door. After carefully closing the door Varius turned back around and inspected the room. He moved to the left to hide behind a crate while his helmet automatically began to first scan the room and objects in it for information and threats, and then to scan further into the building.
The sound of a saw could be heard off in the distance to his right. Except for any closed doors, his HUD showed him a rough mini map of the first floor almost in entirety. Varius pulled up and examined a path down to the left where a person was located way off in the corner. The lone person was sitting in a chair holding some sort of weapon, but their head was lying up against the wall as if they were asleep. Probably another guard.
He zoomed out and inspected the path to his right that lead to the sawing sound. In the room he could see some sort of table up against the wall, what looked like chains holding up whatever it was the person was cutting and a trash barrel nearby them.
Varius decided to check on the person awake first. Checking his corners as he proceeded forward his helmet continued searching for human heartbeats.
As the inquisitor approached the slaughter room he spotted a pile of bones partially covered in flesh piled up on a table next to a large cauldron. Looking back to the person his helmet continued to show the red silhouette of the person continuing to work on the meat. Turning his attention back to the bones, something seemed off about them. The inquisitor picked one up to inspect it. He tried to think about the domesticated animals on Assembly but the bone just didn’t seem to fit with any. It was much too thin for the large bovines on the world. Yet too long to belong to any of the smaller creatures. Examining the bone, he began to think it was shaped like a femur. But that couldn’t be, that would mean…that’s when he saw it. Using his left hand, he brushed several other bones in the pile aside and pulled out a human skull.
“Cannibals!” Varius screamed in his mind.
Over 400 cycles ago the machine army lead by The Collector, a super powerful artificial intelligence hellbent on killing all humans, humanity came very close to extinction. Once the war was over and the machines defeated, Prefect Major Magnus II pushed hard for an agenda to rebuild humanity from the ravaging attacks that completely exterminated human life on so many worlds. Cannibalism in the Corre Republic was never tolerated before, but it became one of the harshest crimes anyone could commit. Anyone convicted was killed swiftly along with their entire family. Sometimes, depending on the extent of the corruption entire towns were destroyed to make an example out of them.
Before he was about to execute an entire town though, he had to have more proof. Maybe only a few were guilty of this extreme crime.
Setting the bones back down into the pile, he picked up a towel sitting on the table and wiped his gloved hands. He drew his knife and snuck into the room with the butcher. Under his helmet Varius’ face got increasingly angrier as the butcher was busy cutting into what was clearly a human torso. In between sawing, the man could be heard whistling some catchy tune. Without any remorse Varius grabbed the front of the man’s head and held it while he stabbed him at the base of his skull. Instantly the man went limp, but the inquisitor didn’t bother
catching him. The body fell forward in a heap. Using his left hand Varius reached down and rolled the dead body over. The man’s face was not someone he recognized.
Again, he wiped his knife off and slid it back into the sheath on his left shoulder. Inspecting his helmet’s map, the sleeping person had still not moved. Exiting the room, he continued to move as silently as he could towards the other person. Stopping just before entering the large room, Varius took a moment to assess the room. It was illuminated by overhead lights and had a bunch of crates and boxes spread throughout the large storage area. In the middle stood a long wooden table with even more boxes loaded up on and around it blocking the view of most of the room. The HUD displayed a red silhouette shape of the man in the corner still sleeping on the other side of the mess.
The inquisitor entered the room and headed straight ahead towards a fireplace that wasn’t in use. Varius would have kept sneaking towards the guard but something caught his eye. Next to the fireplace was a pile of clothes. Some of the clothes looked damaged, as if they were all torn up while others were intact. On the side of the pile though was a patch that appeared as if it has been torn off a shirt. Varius picked up the patch to examine it, on the top was an “I” with a white star with seven points above it.
He looked to his left and pulled his shoulder down so he could examine his own uniform. On the left side of his arm was a dark gray patch with a large white “I” but with three white stars positioned around it signifying his higher rank as an inquisitor. Varius lowered his head for a moment to think about the loss of Kopen. He didn’t know him personally, but it still stung slightly to know a fellow law enforcement brother had been lost.
After tucking the patch into a compartment on his belt, Varius changed his focus to the guard. His helmet alerted him that another heartbeat was detected behind the door. It was feint, and the initial scan seemed like it may have been from a child.