Firesign 1 - Wage Slave Rebellion

by Stephen W. Gee

  Gavi’s sword was resting against his throat.

  “I don’t care what kind of barrier you have, this is going to hurt,” said Gavi. She pulled his arm further back, making him wince. “And I’m pretty sure even if I don’t get you in one cut, I’ll get another chance. Understand?”

  The pockmarked man nodded. Gavi flinched at the sudden movement, but relaxed. “Just say yes or no very quietly if I ask you anything else.” She thought about this. “Actually, just don’t say anything at all. Mazik, did you guys get the other one?”

  There was a torrent of cussing, and the sound of persistent struggling. “Doin’ all right,” said Mazik, his voice strained. “Stop struggling so much dammit! Don’t make me kill you!”

  “Mazik?” said Gavi again.

  “We probably shouldn’t say each other’s names. Could be bad later on,” said Raedren, in a rare display of appropriate paranoia. He walked over to Gavi, pulled a shirt out of a nearby box and shoved it into her captive’s mouth. Then he pulled the man’s other arm behind his back and held them together. “Unless you want to kill them, that is.”

  Gavi sucked in a breath, embarrassed at her own short-sightedness. “Well, it’s not like—it’s a pretty common name,” she finished weakly.

  “I want to kill them,” said Mazik. “Hold still dammit! I’m fuckin’ serious here! I’ll do it, don’t tempt me, you little piece of—stop that!”

  Thwack!

  Making sure her sword was still trained on her captive’s neck, Gavi stepped back to give Raedren room to bind the man’s hands. She turned to see how Mazik was doing.

  Mazik was locked in a fierce struggle with the other cultist, who was kicking and thrashing like a two-year-old who really didn’t want to go to bed. Even compared to before, the slender man’s madness was shocking, his eyes wide, his head bucking, and his face twisted around the cloth that had been jammed into his mouth. He also kept fading in and out of sight, like the picture of a television set on the fritz. Every time he did that, Mazik hit him, bringing him back into focus.

  “Need some help?” asked Gavi, her eyes back on her hostage.

  “No, I’ve got this,” said Mazik. There was a louder thwack, and then the slender man’s eyes crossed. He slumped over and fell silent. “Phew,” said Mazik, wiping his brow. Then he punched the unconscious man one more time, just for good measure.

  A few minutes and quite a lot of tying later, the trio stood in front of the now unguarded door. Mazik rested his head against it, listening.

  “There are people in here,” said Mazik, a slow grin growing on his face. “And I don’t think they’re just chatting.” The grin grew wider. “In fact, I don’t think they want to be here at all.”

  They opened the door. Light from the room’s two candles illuminated the scene: boxes, crates, stacks of paper, discarded tools, old furniture … and nearly two dozen people, all tied up and sitting on the floor.

  “Would it be too crass to say ‘jackpot’?” asked Raedren as the captives turned to look at them, their eyes growing wide as they realized what was happening.

  “Yes, it would,” said Gavi.

  “I’ll say it then,” said Mazik. He carefully closed the door, and then pumped his fist into the air. “Jackpot, motherfuckers!”

  *

  It would be an understatement to say the victims were happy to see them. Ecstatic couldn’t even begin to describe it, though it was a good start. Aegis could be a good place to live, but it was a phenomenal one for dying. These people had considered themselves already dead, doomed by the monsters in human skin that captured them. To be given hope now was more than some of them could take.

  “Here, let me untie you,” said Gavi to the frightened messenger who was once nearly saved by two Men. Now he was overcome with joy, his head swimming as he rolled to one side, ignoring the pain in his broken wrist as he tried to process what was going on. Not far away, the pale Man cried silently, happy that their heroics hadn’t been for naught. He just wished…

  Mazik cut the bonds of a man wearing a tattered, dirt-stained suit, then caught him as he pitched forward. “Wo-ow, watch it,” said Mazik, grabbing the businessman by the shoulders and stabilizing him.

  The businessman looked up at Mazik and fell to his knees, sobbing. “Thank you, ’ank you, ’ank oo so much…” he said, his voice full of snot, tears, and relief. Mazik patted him on the back and moved on.

  Raedren grunted as he dragged the unconscious cultist into the room and shut the door. The other cultist was already lying in the corner, all his limbs bound and a gag shoved in his mouth38. “The coast is still clear,” said Raedren. “Do you want me to go outside and keep watch?”

  “No, that’s okay,” said Mazik. “Help us untie everyone else so we can get moving faster. We’ll deal with them if they come.” He turned back to the middle-aged alchemist whose bonds he was currently cutting. “So, any idea who these bastards are?”

  The alchemist shook his head, his comb over flopping around his scalp like a scab that was nearly peeled off. “No idea.”

  “They’re casters of some sort,” said the man next to him, a gruff old veteran who was embarrassed he needed rescuing at all. “They use a magick that makes ’em invisible. I never even saw ’em coming.”

  “Mostly invisible,” said Mazik, his eyes flashing blue. “Which reminds me, we need to thank K and her friends again.”

  “Writing your victory speech already?” asked Raedren.

  “Already got it right here,” said Mazik, brandishing a folded-up piece of paper. It was actually his grocery list, but that didn’t stop everyone from laughing. The former captives were so grateful to be rescued that they would have laughed at anything.

  “Do you know if anyone else is being held elsewhere in the building?” Gavi asked a woman as she unwound the rope from around her arms. The woman was the same age as Gavi, but she was looking up at Gavi like she was an angel who had descended from the heavens specifically to save her.

  “They take someone away every few days,” said a young man nearby. Captivity apparently hadn’t tamped down his spirit; he sat upright and proud, the fires of defiance radiating from every centimeter of his body. “Women usually, though not always. We’ve never seen any of them after that.”

  “When was the last person taken away?” asked Gavi.

  The young man frowned. “Earlier today.”

  Gavi glanced over at Mazik and Raedren. Mazik caught it, and she sidled over.

  “We need to get them out of here first,” whispered Gavi.

  “But what about this other person? We might still be able to save them,” said Mazik.

  “True, but we shouldn’t risk everyone else,” said Gavi as Raedren joined them. “I don’t think it’ll be easy to protect all of these people if we have to fight more than a couple of cultists.”

  “You can say that again,” said Raedren, who was the one who would actually have to protect them.

  Mazik grimaced. “Yeah, I know. It’s just…”

  “Maz doesn’t like the idea of leaving anybody behind,” said Raedren. “Also, he hates losing.”

  Mazik shot him a look. “Will you stop reading my mind? It’s like we’re a damn married couple.”

  “Only a little bit,” said Raedren. He thought about it. “Okay, more than a little.”

  “Awwww,” said Gavi, poking Mazik in the side. She dodged out of the way of his retaliatory swipe. “You don’t have to be so coy. It doesn’t suit you.”

  “It would look much better on me,” said Raedren, patting his chest. The others ignored him.

  “All right, we’ll get everybody else out, but then we’re coming back in to search for others and crack some div skulls,” said Mazik. He twirled his knife and moved to cut another person’s bonds, but a thought occurred. Pressing the knife into one of the freed captive’s hands, he retreated to a corner and prayed.

  “K?” said Mazik after a minute.

  “I’m here,” came his girlfriend�
��s voice immediately.

  “What’s the situation? Are the guards en route?”

  A long pause, then, “Sorry, I was talking to them. They’re getting ready to head out now.”

  “Great,” said Mazik. “How long until you get here?”

  Silence while Kalenia asked. “They’re telling me that some will start arriving in fifteen minutes, and the rest will arrive in another fifteen or twenty after that.”

  “Okay, good to know. Tell them we just freed some captives and we’re leaving with them now. Then we’ll go back in and take down the perpetrators.” Mazik cracked a wry smile. “Hopefully we’ll have everything wrapped up by the time they arrive, or at least get things close enough so they can run in, finish off the last few, and then clean our bodies off the walls.”

  “…don’t say that,” said Kalenia, her voice noticeably pained.

  A wince of regret. “Sorry, babe. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Remember, Rae is with me, and Gavi will keep me from doing anything too stupid. We’ll be fine.”

  “Is it too early to put my name in for MVP of this quest?” said Raedren from off to one side. He held his stomach and winced. “Oh man, the pressure. It’s getting to me…”

  “Sorry, I can’t hear you over how I won that bet,” said Gavi.

  “Okay. Be careful. I love you,” said Kalenia.

  “I love you too. See you soon. Bye,” said Mazik, and then he severed the connection.

  Mazik turned to the others. “We ready to go?”

  “I think so,” said Gavi as she helped the last few former captives to their feet. Raedren was busy adding a few extra ropes to the captured guards’ bindings, just for good measure.

  Mazik walked over to the door and, after waving everybody into silence, stuck his head outside and looked around the cluttered corridor. There were no signs of movement.

  “We’re good to go. Everyone gather up,” said Mazik, ducking back inside. Gavi and Raedren joined him by the door as the newly freed captives gathered in front of them.

  “Here’s the plan,” said Mazik. “First, we’re going to get all of you out of here, and then the three of us are going to come back in for anyone else. I’ll be taking the lead. Gavi, Raedren, you two stay in the back. Everyone else, I need you to stay between the three of us.

  “Now, when we’re out there, I need all of you to be as quiet as you possibly can,” said Mazik, dropping his voice lower as he said this. “If we run into trouble we’ll try to protect you, but we’d rather get you out of here before we start lighting the place up. Watch where you’re stepping, don’t talk unless you have to, be careful not to run into anything, stuff like that. Any questions?”

  There were none.

  “Great,” said Mazik. He opened the door to make sure the coast was still clear. It was. “Let’s go.”

  It wasn’t until this moment that Mazik, Gavi, and Raedren realized how much better they had gotten at stealth. Even Raedren, who was the loudest among them, walked like the barest whisper of silk against a baby’s face compared to the former captives. Where once the trio passed down this hallway like silent wraiths, now their group clomped back the other way. The uncertainty, the frightened whispering, the shaky legs weakened by days and weeks of captivity….

  Well, they were doing their best.

  Mazik grimaced as he crept up to a corner. With all the noise they were making there was no way they would be able to sneak past anyone. If they ran into somebody he was going to have to—

  A door behind Mazik opened up, revealing a cultist with his hood down and bundle of unlit torches in his arms.

  Everyone froze.

  The cultist took a deep breath. “THE CAPTIVES ARE ESCAPING, THE CAPTIVES ARE ESCAPING, WE’VE GOT INTRUDERS IN THE BUILDING AND THE CAPTIVES ARE ESCAPING! HELP, HELP, HELP, THE CAPTIVES ARE ESCAP—“

  “Slugspit!” swore Mazik. “Everybody down!”

  Everyone between Mazik and the yelling man immediately dropped to the ground as Mazik’s glowing hand swept toward them. Blue mana leapt out, striking the cultist in the chest and hurling him into the doorjamb. Mazik didn’t let up—he fired another spell, and then another, his magick shattering the cultist’s barriers and cutting into the flesh beneath, boiling his skin, muscles, and bone. The cultist screamed and fell over, dead.

  Mazik stared as the cultist dropped. The thing he noticed was his glasses. The man had been wearing glasses, and even though Mazik’s spells burned away his robes and hollowed out his chest, his glasses were left untouched, the eyes beyond them registering only shock. Then the eyes dimmed, the life behind them running out, and Mazik shuddered.

  This all happened in less than a second. Then Mazik’s military training kicked in, and he shunted those feelings aside. Now was not the time for shock. It was time to move.

  “Fuck fuck fuck, not good!” said Mazik, swearing like a sailor, only without that much creativity. He craned his head. He could already hear people coming.

  “They found us,” Mazik yelled over his shoulder. “It’s time for Plan B. Run!”

  *

  Mazik hurtled down the corridor ahead of the group, a ball of mana floating in each hand and his robes billowing behind him like the shadow of a vengeful reaper. Behind him was something even scarier—panic, legs, and the dislodged debris of too many boxes all jumbled together to create a slipping, stumbling, and cursing monstrosity that fell forward as much as it ran. Only with the help of Gavi, Raedren, and the less panicked escapees was the group able to move forward at all.

  Mazik rounded a corner. A cultist stood at the next intersection. She shouted, and four more joined her.

  “Godsdammit!” Mazik hurled his readied spells like a pitcher in a hurry. The orbs flew forward, one splashing against a cultist’s barrier while the other clipped the ceiling, exploding in a shower of mana and shattered masonry. The ceiling groaned as boxes split open, spilling their contents into the hallway.

  Mazik did some quick mental arithmetic. If there are five here, there were six in that other room earlier, and there’s still that other person to find… He looked off to the right, where a few meters away another corridor promised to take them toward the main room of the warehouse. He decided to risk it.

  “We’re taking a detour!” Mazik yelled behind him. “Rae, get up here! Let’s bury these fuckers!”

  That’s when Mazik let loose. As tendrils of indigo mana splashed against his barriers, Mazik laid into the cultists, spell after spell detonating around them and filling the passage with blinding blue light. Then Raedren burst through the crowd, and waves of green-tinged force magick shot forward, picking up every crate, box, stack of paper, and bit of detritus in the hallway. The cultists went down in a hurricane of paper and old clothing.

  “I’ll stay in the middle,” said Raedren.

  “Thanks.” Mazik fired another nuke at the ceiling above the cultists. It struck and exploded, raining stone and wood onto their heads. Mazik took off down the other corridor, urging the others to follow him.

  Now it was a race. The three fledgling adventurers and their charges stumbled through the crowded hallway, acutely aware of the cultists behind them. But ahead the passageway opened up, and as Mazik kicked a toppled box out of the way and sprinted down the last few meters, they burst out into the main room of the warehouse.

  “Godsdammit!” swore Mazik. Not only was the warehouse not empty—the same cultists from before were still there, chanting and swaying as they cast their spell—but they were not alone. Up on the platform, the loitering cultist had been joined by another black-robed cultist, and they were bent over the altar struggling with—

  A cold chill ran down Mazik’s spine as the others piled into the room behind him. The chanting faltered as the cultists turned to face their unexpected guests, and Mazik watched as the two figures on the platform struggled with a young blonde woman in a diaphanous white dress. They were trying to tie her to the stone altar, and they had nearly succeeded, but she was still fighting t
hem, her entire body thrashing as she tried to gouge their eyes out with her last free hand. But it was no use—the two men finally managed to bind her last free arm and stepped away to a safe distance.

  Raedren and Gavi ran over to Mazik. “What’s the plan?” asked Gavi. All across the room weapons were being drawn, and the two cultists on the stage dropped down to join their fellows below.

  Mazik calculated their chances. He wanted to save her, but it was three versus seven and they also had two dozen people to protect, and there were another five somewhere….

  Mazik cursed and raised his hand, blue mana swirling around his arm as he whipped off his scarf. “Mazik Missiles39!” he said, and eight bolts of blue mana shot out, each one heading broadly for a different cultist. Six bolts struck home, and they all exploded.

  “Where’s that hallway we came in by?” asked Mazik, his head darting wildly as he fired again. The spell exploded in front of the nearest cultist, showering the whole group with a firestorm of blue light.

  “Over there!” said Gavi, pointing along the wall they just emerged from. Across the building they could barely see what looked like the stack of crates they hid behind earlier.

  The cultists emerged from Mazik’s spell and fanned out, barriers strengthening as they spat out spell words as fast as they could.

  Gavi’s eyes darted from the cultists to their charges and back to the distant exit. “I’ll take point, you hold them off, Raedren in the middle. Let’s go!” she said, her sword coming up as she set off.

  “Like it, love it, let’s do it!” said Mazik as he sprayed nukes behind them. Some of the cultists began opening up with spells from range.

  Green barriers wrapped themselves around Mazik and Gavi, while larger but weaker ones appeared in big sheets over the rest of the escapees. “Got it,” said Raedren as he jogged to the outskirts of the group.

  With the former captives nestled safely in the triangle of Gavi, Mazik, and Raedren, the entire group set out. The warehouse was rectangular in shape, and they were on one of the short ends now, scrambling along a wall littered with mountains of boxes and piles of discarded textiles, the ends of the great big storage racks looming over them to their right.