Kin of Exile

by Tyler Bunyard

  Karrel glanced toward Angel, but he had lowered his head and was shaking it as if to say, “You’re on your own with this one!”

  The young female was still starring down Karrel, and the awkward silence that had followed was beginning to eat at him. “Well, pretty-eyes? You’ve got something to say? Or do you just enjoy looking at me?”

  Karrel was frozen; he didn’t want to make anything else worse, but he also didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, Angel began to snicker, which eventually turned into an uproarious laughter. The girl behind the counter clutched her stomach and began laughing as well, wiping a tear from her eye. Angel approached the woman and Karrel watched as the two of them casually smacked their hands together. “That never gets old, Kailey,” Angel said.

  Still laughing Kailey replied, “It gets the new guys every time.” She looked at Karrel and gave a gentle flick of the chin to him. “Cheer up! You aren’t the first person who thought the burger was a weird symbol. You can thank Dane for that one… Our fearless leader wanted to create an emblem for the guild, but we thought he was joking when he said he was going to make it a hamburger. A thousand arm-bands later and… well, we’re kind of stuck with it now.”

  Angel shook his head smiling, muttering under his breath, “Classic Dane…”

  “So, Angel,” Kailey began to ask, pointing at Karrel, “What’s with red-eyes over here? You guys looking to collect all the colors of the rainbow?” Angel sustained his genuine smile as Kailey continued to poke fun at the group. “You’re gonna have to tell me where you get those colored-contacts. I still don’t believe those eyes are natural.”

  “Okay, okay, miss second-in-command!” Angel replied, “If you must know, we offered him the chance to assist in our shenanigans, so he’ll be taggin’ along with us from now on.”

  “Hey, you wanna add another handsome heart throb to your group, who am I to stop you?” Kailey winked at Karrel. She then stood up a bit straighter, presenting herself in a more professional manner. “Now, about that order you guys made.” She started typing on a nearby keyboard. The computer screen that held her gaze was ancient but seemed to be working as it shed blue light upon her face. “It seems like it’s ready to be picked up. What the hell does Johnny do with all these old processors?”

  “No clue,” Angel shrugged.

  Kailey looked over her shoulder, and shouted as loud as she could, “Hey! Rick!” There was a moment’s pause. She shouted once more. “Rick!” Once again, the only thing that could be heard was the deafening ambience of the facility. Kailey shook her head. “For the love of– Angel, you wanna just head back there and get your package? We got an FNG working the backroom today. He can’t tell the difference between a frying pan and a firearm.”

  Angel bumped Karrel’s shoulder as he hopped over the counter. “Be just a minute,” he said, as he disappeared into a doorway leading to the back room.

  Kailey payed no attention to Angel’s acrobatics, treating it as the norm. She tilted her head slightly to the side, as she inspected Karrel. “Soooo… You must be pretty special if you’re tagging along with those three maniacs,” she said. “You do realize that they enjoy being the frontline, right? Not on the frontline, but the actual frontline, itself.”

  She had no idea how much that had worried Karrel, but he did his best to show no concern to the warning. “I’ve heard that comes with the job, yeah,” he answered.

  Kailey was tapping her finger on the counter as she eyed Karrel suspiciously. She had a coy smile on her face, yet at the same time seemed to be deep in thought. “You can do some weird things then, can’t you? Like your friends?”

  Though she was trying to be playful with her interrogation, Karrel caught wind of Kailey’s legitimate curiosity. He leaned in closer to her, smirked, and shrugged slightly. “Maybe…” he alluded.

  Kailey pulled back, slightly disappointed, but still enjoying the chat. “I’ve seen what Dane can do, but you guys definitely take the cake,” she said. A light flashed on Kailey’s computer screen and she peaked over to address it. Hitting a few buttons on the keyboard, she once again brought herself back to her professional demeanor. “It seems like Angel found the package in the back. Now all I need is for one of you to sign off for it. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you did it for him.”

  “Sure, what do I need to do?” Karrel asked.

  “All I need is your full name, so I can add it to the database. Then you should be good.”

  “Oh, okay. The name’s Karrel Kerstabest.”

  Kailey froze. Her eyes widened as she slowly brought her attention up from her computer. Her mouth was locked in a marginally open position, and she had started to shake ever so slightly. She stared at Karrel. The seconds that flew by produced an awkwardness so thick that Karrel found himself being smothered by it. Kailey finally spoke. “Kerstabest?” she asked.

  Karrel wasn’t understanding what was going on. “Yeah…? That’s my last name…” he assured.

  Remaining motionless, gawking at him, Kailey’s eyes examined Karrel’s entirety. After another long pause, she finally asked the question that had been burning inside of her. “Do the names Magus and Araysanol have any meaning to you?”

  Karrel took a step back away from the counter, disbelief washing over him. Both Kailey and Karrel stared each other down with bewildered looks. “How the hell do you know the names of my parents?” Karrel demanded.

  The competent girl behind the counter instantly lit up, and all manner of professionalism dropped as she jumped into the air, shrieking with joy. “I knew it! I knew it!” she squealed. “You look just like a younger version of your father, Magus.”

  “Have we met before?” Karrel was perplexed.

  “No, no, no! We’ve never met, but I knew your parents. Hell, everyone here at least knows their names,” she was almost gloating at this point. Karrel’s blank visage halted Kailey’s star-struck speech. A puzzled expression overtook her once again. “I know they never brought you or your sister to any of the bases, but still, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you…”

  Having lost his parents at the age of twelve, Karrel chose to bury his memories of them. However, this talkative girl was dragging those dreadful thoughts back into the light. Curiosity was getting the better of him. Karrel’s question was genuine. “Why?”

  As though she had lost control of her herself, Kailey’s arms and body dropped a few inches, yet she was still fixated on Karrel. A moment passed before she could overcome her astonishment. She finally broke the silence. “…because up until five years ago, your parents were the leaders of the Survivor’s Guild.” Kailey looked all around the facility gesturing to the various areas. “All of this. It was their doing.”

  Karrel was stunned. He did not know how to react. He remembered his parents having some sort of involvement with the Survivor’s Guild, and they were adamant protestors of the UWP, but they never seemed to have much freedom considering their successful business endeavors. He never payed much attention to their work, as he was young at the time.

  He did remember them talking about increasing their infrastructure worldwide, though. He also knew it forced them to take dangerous trips across the wastelands, and they had been spending more and more time away from home– The truth dawned on him, and he cursed his younger self for the obliviousness. Though his gaze was still upon Kailey, in truth he was looking right past her. “My parents were leading the Survivor’s Guild…” he muttered to himself.

  Karrel felt a smack from behind on his shoulder. A large hand was now covering it. “Why are you staring at her?” Puck blurted out. He and Dane had apparently finished their work and had caught up to Angel and Karrel.

  “Please, who doesn’t stare at Kailey?” Angel shouted, coming out of the back room with a box full of electronics.

  Kailey got excited, now that her superior officer was there for the revelation. She glanced back and forth at Angel and Puck. “Did you know?” she inquired.

  Simultaneously the two
boys answered. “Know what?”

  She was shaking with excitement, but Kailey controlled herself. Taking a deep breath and attempting to make her voice sound as official as possible, she announced to the group, “May I present to you all… Mr. Karrel Kerstabest.”

  Angel dropped the box of electronics to the floor and Puck slowly took his hand off of Karrel. Dane’s clipboard slipped from his grip, clattering to the floor. His disbelief could be heard, muttering through a loud whisper, “One of the kids survived…?”

  Suddenly, a blaring noise echoed throughout the facility. It was a loud, low-pitched beeping sound, and it had started to periodically erupt. Everyone in the base seemed to stop what they were doing, and murmurs began to travel from person to person. Karrel peered toward the crowd and saw that a few of the people were getting pushed out of the way, as someone attempted to approach him and the group.

  Johnny muscled his way out of the crowd and shot straight to Dane. “We’ve got a problem,” he coughed, “A neighboring town is getting hit. A goddamn orange-streak opened, and one of the nearby hotspots must have noticed, because now they’re charging straight for the city.”

  “How close?” Dane asked.

  “They’re approaching fast, only about an hour out. With trucks, you might beat them by a few minutes. But the orange-tear opened inside the city! Dane, Sinwatch is under attack right now!”

  Dane nodded, his stone expression solidified. He marched over to the nearby counter and picked up what looked like an old radio. Punching a few of the buttons and clicking a switch on the side, Dane spoke into the device. “Alright everybody!” His voice was amplified through every loudspeaker inside of the facility. “We’ve got a hotspot moving in on Sinwatch. Yes, the attack is that close. I need any able-bodied fighter to pack their gear and be ready in five. Meet at the truckyard. Let’s axe these chodes!” He gestured to Johnny, who quickly pulled Karrel and began leading him toward one of the collection of armored vehicles near the facility entrance. Angel and Puck followed.

  Pursuing Johnny, and pushing through the wave of people now washing from each side of the base to the other, Karrel asked, “So we’re going to Sinwatch?” The group acknowledged the question with a nod of their heads. “And, what’s the plan?”

  Johnny replied, “Dane and his men will orchestrate the evacuation.”

  “What about us?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Puck hollered. “We kill as many of those bastards as we can find.”

  Chapter 11

  Welcome to Sinwatch

  With their heads hung low, weapons slung across their chests, the vacant silence between the soldiers was filled only by the occasional thump of the armored truck shattering debris as it scorched across the desolate plains towards the city of Sinwatch. A few of the armored men and women toyed with their rifles, making unnecessary adjustments to the sights. Kailey was quietly helping another young woman get accustomed to her body armor. It was easy to tell that she was new to fighting, but Kailey was doing her best to silently comfort her.

  Karrel was impressed by the fact that all the soldiers were wearing pads, helmets, or some other form of protection. Weapons and armor were hard things to come by, but the Survivor’s Guild seemed to be fully equipped. Whether that would help in the upcoming fight or not was yet to be determined. The pads and ballistic vests worked well against bullets, debris, and anything sharp flying in your direction. The pyretiffs’ molten globs and zweichars’ infernal breath however, could eat through the materials in mere seconds. Bullets were also not the most effective thing to use against these creatures. Karrel had seen pyretiffs absorb up to thirty high-velocity rounds before keeling over, and he had never seen a zweichar get shot to death. You needed something much bigger than a bullet to stop them.

  The creatures had organs, as far as anyone could tell, but their fleshy bits and bones were much more durable than a human’s. Ultimately, the ballistics needed to pierce through their thick muscle first, and as poetic as it sounded, it was true that demons lacked a heart. This just meant there was one less vulnerability to exploit. Nevertheless, as Karrel took a quick look outside, wind crashing against him and the fully-equipped, armored battle-trucks in the convoy, he felt that the Survivor’s Guild might be able to stand a chance.

  The iron-clad vehicles were large and well protected, yet they contained enough space to hold up to ten soldiers, not including the driver and shotgun seat. They had been spray-painted black everywhere except the windows and had an incredibly large Gatling-gun mounted to the top of them, where the gunners were sitting at the ready. Their large wheels crushed rock and stone as they traversed the road.

  Dane’s voice, coming through a radio in the truck, broke the silence. “Alright everybody! We’re two minutes out from Sinwatch. The north side has already been evacuated into the southern areas. We’ll be entering from the south side to establish a perimeter for our evacuation point. Our job is to get as many people out of there before the demons breach the city limits. Johnny and his crew will be entering through the north to intercept the initial wave. They’ll be culling their numbers and buying us as much time as they possibly can. That’s not gonna stop ‘em all though, so be prepared for a tough fight!”

  Karrel took a gander at the fast-approaching city. Smoke could be seen erupting from multiple buildings and the sky had been darkened because of it. However, Sinwatch was still standing. There were buildings that looked untouched, their windows not yet shattered, and their colors not yet blackened. None of the taller structures had been toppled over, and there was less and less debris scattered across the road as they approached. The area was comprised mostly of small buildings, with a few corporate-sized structures that had minimal damage done to them. These were all signs that humans were still living, and had been living for some time, within the city. It made Karrel nervous. His job, though it entailed the usual slaughtering of the sharp-teethed fiends, was to protect the citizens of Sinwatch. This was something he had never done before. He was unsure that he would be able to put his life on the line to protect random civilians whom he knew nothing about.

  The truck containing Karrel, Puck, Angel, and Johnny split from the rest of the group. The convoy headed in the opposite direction from them. The soldiers were getting more nervous, and Kailey put her hand on the shoulder of the frightened young warrior she had been comforting earlier. “Don’t worry Samantha,” she said, “We aren’t going with them on the north side. We’re just givin’ them a lift.” The reassurance seemed to do nothing for her.

  Puck tried to assist, “Samantha. I’ve seen Kailey pin a flipped coin to the wall with her pistols.” Kailey smiled and patted the two gun holsters strapped to her waist. “You stick with her, and don’t hesitate, you’ll do just fine. Besides,” Puck pointed back to Angel, Johnny, and Karrel, “we’re gonna be hogging all the action anyways.”

  Samantha gave a nervous smile and went back to performing fake maintenance on her rifle. Dane’s voice erupted from the radio once more. “Thirty seconds to contact! Lock and load!”

  The armored truck followed the road inside of the city, and the numerous vacant buildings could be seen whizzing by. Johnny opened a flap in the back of the truck that allowed him to talk to the driver. “What’s our E.T.A.?” he said.

  The driver shouted back, “We’re on schedule! We’ll be dropping you off in one of the more open areas of the northern side! Arrival time is thirty-five seconds!”

  Johnny reported the news, turning towards Kailey. “We’ll be getting off soon,” he said, “Think you can give us a bit of cover while we exit?” Kailey gave Johnny a thumbs-up. With one quick hand gesture, she had everyone in the truck grabbing their gear and loading fresh ammo clips into their rifles.

  The thirty-five seconds passed, and the armored truck came to a screeching halt. The jolt of stopping force brought everyone’s attention to the rear end of the truck. The black and red band-wearing soldiers all steadied their rifle’s aim at the door. The driver sh
outed from the front, “Opening in 3…! 2…! 1…!”

  The large back door slammed down to the ground. Two soldiers jumped out aiming their weapons to either side of the truck. Angel, Puck, Johnny, and Karrel all jumped out of the vehicle, Karrel drawing his green book out from his pocket. The remaining men and women remained inside, providing cover wherever they could.

  Suddenly, the solider left of the truck opened fire. She was steadily shooting two to three round bursts, all the while yelling, “Contact! Contact! Contact!”

  Karrel turned his attention toward the screaming woman. Two pyretiffs were barreling down towards the squad, their sharp teeth smiling at the fresh meat they had found. Behind them, a small trio of zweichars could be seen pointing their large black swords, directing another group of demons at the armored truck. Kailey, and the remaining four soldiers, peaked out from their cover, organizing themselves with the others into a defensive formation outside of the opened hatch. Kailey snapped her dual pistols to attention and pulled the triggers, as all six of the rifle-wielding combatants opened fire toward the two closest pyretiffs. Bullets rained down on the beasts, but for the first few seconds, the newly acquired puncture holes did not seem to slow them down. “Keep firing!” Kailey screamed. “Don’t let up! Not even for a second!”

  Another second or two of firing, and the pointy-teethed grins of the two demons were wiped from their faces. They tumbled over themselves, leaving a trail of orange blood as they skidded to a halt only a few meters away from their would-be meal.

  Johnny immediately started to bark orders. “Kailey, get your squad back in the hatch! Driver, once they’re settled, double back outside of the city and head south. Rendezvous with Dane’s team and help with the evacuation.”