Neither of us had the energy to respond, at least I didn’t, Gerald very well may have and had just been waiting for me to do the talking, but Will decided to fill in the gap for us and went out the front and started having a chat with Bri and Ronald.
I was proper bloody gone, like, seriously just… it was like I was on another world as I stood there, trying my best to stay that way.
“We… we can’t, can we?” I asked hopefully.
Gerald shook his head and nearly fell over, “No, nope, we’ve just gotta… we’ve gotta stay awake now.”
I should’ve just sent Will away, I know that now. It would’ve been so much better if I’d just told him to come back in a few hours and let Gerald and I catch up on some much needed cuddling and sleep.
But I didn’t.
“Eggs and bacon.” Will announced as he came back through the door, “Lots and lots o’ eggs and bacon. Sound good?”
“And coffee?” Gerald mumbled to the best of his ability.
“Course!” Will replied, practically shaking the whole cabin with his cheerfulness, “Wouldn’t be breakfast if we didn’t have coffee to go along with the eggs and bacon.”
I don’t know why, but the way he was saying bacon and eggs angered me deeply. The fact that he was sober wasn’t doing him any favours in my books either.
“So, what’ve you two got to do around ‘ere besides playin’ Tarthirious all night?”
“Well,” I said as if I had some great follow-up, “we um… Hm…”
“We go for walks!” Gerald exclaimed, saving me from potential embarrassment.
“Aha! Yes, we go for walks!”
“Alright, alright, settle down.” Will laughed, “Christ, has bein’ up ‘ere turned you into bloody Labradors?”
Okay, so maybe we were a tad over enthusiastic about being allowed to go for walks, but it wasn’t like we really had much else up there, much less anything that we’d want to share with company.
‘Oh look, we’ve got a bathtub in a dimly lit murder basement. And there’s also some mostly removed black mould.’
Neither of those things are things you share with friends, or anyone other than a team of forensic scientists trying to figure out where you hid the bodies, but even then you’d have to be nuts to turn yourself in.
“That’s alright though,” Will said, reminding me that I was still awake, “we’ll just talk for a while, maybe even not in a way where we’re all standin’ on different ends of the cabin?”
I did think it was a bit odd that we’d spent so much time standing during our conversation, especially with how zombie-like Gerald and I looked. It was as if Will was-
“Hello?”
And that’s when I realised that Gerald and I had been staring silently at Will for a while, our eyes burrowing into his soul as he-
“Look, if you’re gonna eat me just get it over with, would you? This whole thing is unsettlin’.”
“Oh… yes.” I said like it was a completely valid response, “Well, I suppose we could…”
“Yes, or…” Gerald followed on after I fell silent.
“Mmm… Or perhaps even…”
“Alright, seein’ as you guys’re havin’ a bit o’ trouble finishin’ your sentences, I’m gonna go ahead and assume we should all take a seat.”
I don’t know if that’s when I started hearing the sounds of a sickly engine, or if I’d heard it coming up the mountain over the past few seconds, all I did know was that it was hammering, and I mean really hammering its way up toward us.
“Hey!” Will shouted excitedly, “Food! Didn’t think it’d get ‘ere this quick. Eh, must’ve already been on its way or somethin’.”
Even then I knew something was off, but it wasn’t until Will went to push the door open and was met with resistance that I started to think that things were about to get dicey.
“Stay inside,” Bri commanded gruffly through the door, “don’t move.”
The vehicle was out the front of the cabin at that point, its engine coughing and wheezing after going through the ordeal of climbing the icy road, but I wasn’t hearing the sounds of doors opening.
“Oi!” Ronald barked, “ID, now! And keep your hands on th-”
I’m not sure what came first, the sound of gunfire or the vehicle’s door sliding open, what I do know is that both Gerald’s and Will’s first reaction to the thousand tiny holes appearing in the cabin’s wall was to run over and tackle me to the ground.
After that there wasn’t anything I could do other than listen to the gunfire dying down as splinters and dust came to settle on us before the cabin door came flying open and a group of armed men in balaclavas came busting in.
We didn’t put up a fight, they were armed to the teeth and I’m guessing the others knew as well as I did that if one of us messed around we’d all pay.
Before long we’d had our hands zip tied behind our backs, sacks forced over our heads, and been pushed into a van that peeled off right as the door was slamming closed behind us.
It was the UBR, judging from the fact that one of them had called ahead to their command and said they’d had a ‘big win for the rebels’ and that they were ‘one step closer to a united Britain’.
‘This is it,’ I said to myself as the van thundered its way down the mountain, ‘this is how I die.’
Kylia: Chapter 12
My eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden light change as the sack was ripped off my head by one of the gruffer gunmen, who took a good chunk of my hair along with the black fabric.
I wasn’t about to let him know that he’d hurt me though, I refused to give him the satisfaction, even if I was bloody pissing myself about the whole ordeal.
We were on our knees in a warehouse, the van that’d been used to kidnap us parked over by the rolled down garage door it’d come through before we’d been dragged out.
“Where are we?” I asked as I struggled against my restrained wrists, looking between Gerald and Will on either side of me without bothering to hide how hopeless I felt.
“I don’t know,” Will replied stoically, showing absolutely no sign that he was scared in any way, shape, or form, “but I reckon we’re on a dock somewhere. Heard some seagulls before.”
“Shut up you two!” one of our captors growled from behind us, “Or I’ll put a bullet in you!”
To my surprise Will didn’t bite back, instead doing as I did and falling completely silent, allowing our UBR hostage takers to return to their hushed conversation.
I was absolutely terrified, and the sounds of guns getting checked over and reloaded weren’t helping.
‘Just think of something else,’ I told myself, ‘just think about… anything. Stop thinking about how at any moment you could be shot in the head. Don’t picture the bullet going into your head. Don’t imagine it exploding out the front of your face. Stop it. Stop it.’
My mind went on like that for a while, the ‘Stop it’s eventually turning into a song that calmed me down a bit, until one of the UBR guys came over and started setting up a tripod, another coming over shortly after to stand beside the first while carrying a rather hefty looking camera attached to a laptop via a USB cable.
“Would you hurry up?” the heavy lifter whinged, “This thing’s bloody heavy you know?”
“Do you want it to fall over the second we set it up, hm?” the first responded bitterly, “Then shut up and hold on, this’ll only take me a minute.”
“So, what?” Will laughed mockingly, “You’re gonna do us on live telly? Like you did that Bishop bloke?”
“Shut. Up.” the one behind us warned, “Redmond’s the only one that matters, you’re just ‘ere to up the ante mister… Oh yeah, Detective. We caught ourselves a fookin’ detective, did we boys?”
The gunman’s little taunt was met with a few laughs from around the warehouse, but Will was far from done, and for that I admired him.
“Oh yeah, great job on catchin’ a couple o’ unarmed folks. Stick a gun in
my hand and see how long it takes for you to get me down, yeah?”
“Or, and this is just a thought, we could not do that and just leave your sorry arse tied up. I reckon Imma stick with that plan for… now… Oi, you guys hearin’ that?”
There was nothing at first, the calls of a few gulls and some lapping waves, but nothing out of the ordinary.
The UBR blokes were obviously hearing something else though, they’d all fallen completely silent, and judging from the fact that they’d also become completely still I guessed that they were scared.
“What? You guys scared o’ birds or somethin’?”
“Mate, I suggest you… They’re surroundin’ us. Everybody arm up!”
Just like that everyone in the warehouse stopped what they were doing and started running around like headless chickens, each scrambling for their guns and ensuring their weapons were loaded.
And then there were three loud bangs on one of the rolling doors.
“This is the Military Police of London, and we have you surrounded!” someone shouted through a bullhorn, “We have body armour and high-powered weaponry! You have hoodies and fifteen-year-old AKs! Make this easy on yourselves and just surrender!”
“I’d take the deal kids.” Will suggested calmly, “I doubt they’ll be as polite with their next off-”
Bang.
“Kylia? Kylia?” Gerald repeated, his words ringing hollow in my ears as they tried to recover from the gunshot.
The fuckers had shot Will, they’d panicked and they’d shot him, and I couldn’t stop looking at him, his face smashing into the ground as a puddle of red grew around it, a fine mist spraying out the back of his head as I reeled against the sensation of it all.
I wanted to puke, cry, and pass out all at the same time, but I couldn’t do any of it.
“Kylia. It’s fine, it’s all gonna be fine, I promise.” Gerald said, his voice as calm as he could get it, “You’re just going into shock. You’ve just gotta look at me.”
The banging on the metal door restarted, but it was different, there weren’t voices calling through anymore, and it wasn’t fists pounding on the door, it was some kind of high-powered nail gun, the hydraulic hiss that followed each bang giving it away.
I was distracting myself trying to figure out what the sound was, I knew that, but every time I went a second without thinking about it my eyes would refocus and I’d be forced to stare again.
“Just look at me, okay? We’re gonna be fine. They’re gonna get in here and we’re gonna be fine.”
“Shut! Up!” the one who shot Will barked, desperately trying to hide the panic in his voice.
That’s when I heard what sounded like a drill start to whir.
“You hear that? They’re almost in. Just look at me.”
I felt tears start to roll down my cheeks and turned with a weak, hopeful smile to Gerald, the left lens of his glasses shattered and his nose bleeding profusely doing nothing to hide the smile he was beaming at me.
“Will you marry me?” he asked with so much confidence that it wiped away all of my fear.
I was so lost, everything was so loud, but nothing was more deafening than the fast heartbeat in my ears.
Suddenly every part of my body warmed and I started nodding uncontrollably, “Yes, yes, yes.” I choked out between little happy laughs.
Gerald’s smile when I answered will be locked in my mind until the day I die, and that first kiss as an engaged couple will forever be the best kiss of my life.
“I love you.” I said as the door beside us blasted open, flooding the room with white smoke.
“I love you to-”
Two gunshots ruptured my right eardrum, forcing me to wince away for just a second, quickly looking back only to see Gerald’s head swaying from side-to-side, his eyes blinking hard as his mouth opened and closed confusedly, his tongue clacking against the roof of his mouth and his nose twitching like he smelled something foul.
It took him five full seconds before he finally slumped over into the building smoke, his eyes never looking away from mine as his body slowly disappeared from view.
The room was filled with gunfire after that, but I didn’t bother trying to take cover, instead staring blankly at where Gerald had been.
“Targets clear!” Sergeant Griegs’ voice boomed, “Find Kylia and the others!”
“Found ‘em!” an unfamiliar voice called back cheerfully from directly in front of me, his voice suddenly becoming filled with distress as he saw what I was looking at, “Two down! I repeat two down! Medic!”
Heavy boots pounded on the concrete as Griegs thundered toward me, dropping to his knees just a few short feet from me and sliding the rest of the way before collecting me in one of his arms as he scanned the room with his rifle in the other hand.
“You’re okay, you’re okay…” the Sergeant said defeatedly, “I tried. I promise I tried. I tried… I’m so sorry…”
“We’re going to get married.” I replied, my eyes filling with tears but my words coming out robotically and disjointedly, “I think I’d like it to be outside. With the trees. Gerald likes trees.”
Glossary of Terms
Nerfing: To nerf something is to make it less effective, and can be done to items, spells, and characters. This is done to balance the game so other players aren’t at a higher disadvantage than others for the sole reason of that particular something.
Glass Cannon: A Glass Cannon is a character who has an extremely high attack with little to no defence.
PvP: Player versus Player. Player versus Player refers to a combat wherein two players pit their characters against each other instead of against AI enemies.
Druidic Path: The Druidic Path is the doctrine of the druids that supposedly leads to eternal enlightenment by following the Path’s tenets. These tenets state all life is precious, nature is to be protected, and no one is irredeemable.
MoDA: Ministry of Druidic Affairs. The Ministry of Druidic Affairs is a group of members loyal to the Druidic Path as well as nature as a whole.
AOE: Area Of Effect: Area Of Effect refers to an attack, heal, or otherwise similar single action that affects an area of characters.
AFK: Away From Keyboard: Away From Keyboard is when a player leaves a game without exiting, usually to do something in the real world like go to the bathroom or eat.
QTE: Quick Time Event: A context sensitive event that’s typically triggered by a player entering a specific zone or performing a specific action. Typically it involves the player having to push a series of keys, or buttons on a controller, in order to work through what is essentially a glorified cut scene.
Fast Travel: Fast Travel is a videogame mechanic that allows characters to teleport to discovered areas. The reason for this is so that players have the opportunity to go from one area to the next without having to repeat the same journey.
Dox: To dox someone is to release their personal information in a public forum typically as a way to attack someone in retribution for doing or saying something.
Perma-Death: Perma-Death is a gameplay mechanic that states that if a character dies they’re dead for the rest of the game. With players this usually means they have to restart from the beginning as a new character but have the opportunity to find their lost items on their old body.
Rig: A term for computers that is used by gamers and those in the field of computer technology.
MPs: Military Police. The Military Police replaced and integrated the original members of the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service). They act as the protectors of law and order and have significantly more power than their predecessors.
OP: Over-Powered. Over-Powered refers to weapons, spells, or anything else that gives the player using it a distinctly unfair advantage.
HP: Health Points. Health Points are used to measure the damage that has been inflicted on a character. This is shown with a red bar in the bottom right-hand corner.
Mana: Mana is the energy that measures how much magic a pl
ayer can use. This is shown with a blue bar in the bottom right-hand corner below the HP bar.
Easter Egg: An Easter Egg is something put into a game by the developers as a bonus for those who put in the time to find them. Typically they have little to no effect on the game and give no bonuses to the players that find them.
XP: Experience Points. Experience Points are used to track a player’s level by recording how much the player has gained from completing quests and performing various other tasks around Tarthirious.
SP: Stat Points. Stat Points are used when a character is initially created and when they level up to upgrade proficiency in Attributes.
Attributes: There are four key Attributes in Legends of Tarthirious;
Strength: This determines a character’s strength in combat and when exploring.
Dexterity: This determines a character’s ability to do a variety of tasks, examples include tasks such as cliff scaling and lock picking, as well as their ability to wield and effectively use weapons.
Wisdom: This determines what kind of and how much magic a character can use, as dictated by their mana, as well as their ability to control it.
Intelligence: This skill affects dialogue options in terms of the character’s capability to convince NPCs to their whim, as well as the ability to understand foreign languages, how to identify ingredients, and many other tasks.
NPC: Non-Playable Characters. Non-Playable Characters are the AI who typically work as quest-givers, shopkeepers, companions, and others who are built into the game to serve, attack, or otherwise interact with the player.
Legends of Tarthirious : Books One-Four of Kylia's Story (Legends of Tarthirious (A LitRPG)) Page 53