by Casey Herzog
“Let’s go.”
“You first.”
Callum’s proud smile lasted only a minute as the gates were torn open and heavy boots announced the return of the guards to the cell block. They had come back with rifles in their hands and looks of determination on their faces. The sergeant tilted his head and shrugged with a smile when Callum turned to look at him, searching for an answer.
“Sorry soldier. Back to your cell you go…” A custodian moved forward with a rifle, grabbing Callum firmly by the arm and beginning to drag him to the elevators. A signal was made and the firearms were loaded, several prisoners finally realizing what was coming next. Frightened shouts and furious curses followed, but the guards began to station themselves in front of the bottom aisles of each block, aiming through the bars at the captives inside. Fillmore was yelling at his ally below, but the young guard looked lost. They’re going to kill us all, Callum knew, resisting the two custodians pulling him towards the elevator with force. I have to do something right now. What can I give them that they need? Come on, think!
There was nothing. Nothing to give the Coalition’s guards, nothing to stop them from committing a massacre. Callum had his hands tied behind his back. The confidence he’d had just a few moments before had died with a whimper.
No, there’s still something I have. I will always fight against the odds, even when it’s stupid to do so. This time, however, my stupidity might be the salvation of us all.
A single deep breath of anticipation escaped Callum’s lips as he stopped walking. The guards angrily attempted to throw him into the elevator cabin, but he had already decided what would happen next.
Callum’s hand grasped the wrist of the guard on his left, pulling the man’s arm into an awkward position and eliciting a painful yelp. Without stopping, he stamped a foot onto the man’s ankle and sprained it, knocking him to the ground. A single fluid moment later, he’d taken the rifle right off him.
The second guard was too slow to react, lifting his firearm quickly, but still too sluggishly to have the chance to stop Callum — such was the soldier’s speed. Callum hit the rifle’s barrel with his own weapon’s butt before smashing the weapon into the man’s jaw. He pulled the unconscious man around, using his own body weight to swivel both of them on the spot and fired into the air before aiming his rifle at the highest ranking officer in the yard.
There was silent awe as everyone present took in what had just happened. Several guards tried to flank Callum, but he lifted the rifle a few inches and shot furious glances at them.
“I will kill your lieutenant. Don’t fucking push me.”
“We have no time for this, prisoner. Put the weapon down, you’re not going anywhere. If you know what’s happening next, you must understand. Humanity before everything else; your lives will be sacrificed for a good cause—” The click of a rifle’s charging handle being pulled back echoed from behind the lieutenant, and Fillmore’s guy shook his head slowly as he, too, lifted his rifle at the officer.
“I can’t let you do that, sir,” he said. The guards all around the infiltrator aimed their weapons at him, but he was clearly not interested in protecting his life. There is an importance to Fillmore that causes men to sacrifice even their lives for him, but what is it? Callum wondered.
“You would shoot me over the lives of the prisoners?” the lieutenant asked in shock. “After all we’ve been through?”
“Not the lives of the prisoners, sir, but the lives of several prisoners I need to help leave this prison alive.”
“You are fucking insane…You’re one of the patrollers aren’t you? The protectors of the University? We have a filthy snake within our forces!” the lieutenant cried angrily, but Fillmore’s ally didn’t lower his rifle.
“Maybe so, sir, but you need to stop this. Right now.”
“We must unite,” Callum said loudly, breaking the tension. He pointed his rifle at a guard attempting to catch him from behind, but continued talking. “Russell will kill us all, whether you’re Coalition, patrol or simply just a prisoner not kissing his boots. Wake up and fight him, we need united forces!” His words were aimed at them all, from those who believed in him to those who wanted him dead. “And if you’re holding out for the bastard’s arrival to the prison to turn on us, let me tell you,” Callum added to the prisoners around him, “I’m going to fucking kill you right now.”
The soldier looked ahead, over his hostage’s shoulder, at the lieutenant, and they shared an understanding of sorts, despite the fact that no further words were said. The Coalition officer finally gave a nod and lifted his hand in a signal. All the weapons were lowered.
“This isn’t your average veteran,” the lieutenant conceded. “He’s something else. Look, soldier, you try anything stupid mid-fight and you’ll pay for it; even if it’s with my last breath, I’ll strangle you.” He smiled.
Callum let go of his hostage and sighed in relief. He’d done it.
He turned to Fillmore and saw the man smiling. It’s over, he said with a signal. Yes, it is, came the answer.
There was hope. Finally, they had a reason to believe that they could w—
BOOM.
The very ground shook when an explosion detonated a couple of miles away.
The lights flickered and several systems shorted. The power generators had been hit.
Guards shouted incredulously and prisoners rose dizzily from the ground, while Callum turned slowly as he saw the chaos beginning to ensue.
Just a moment later, it happened.
The lights illuminating the yards switched off, and the prison was thrown into pitch-dark blackness…
…and then every single cage door, in every single block, opened and the captives were free to roam once more.
The peace in the Coalition prison was minutes from collapse; now, there would only be bloodshed and vengeance.
Callum lifted his rifle and spun around as captives stepped out of their cages and cheered while the guards got into a desperate formation as best they could. He knew they were outnumbered and that Russell was close enough to hurt them now.
The fight for the prison is imminent.
The killing is about to begin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Wilderness, Part II
Relief turned to horror when they reached the sign. It was macabre: a burned skeleton hanging from an oak tree with a wooden plank in its grip.
Halfway there, boys… it read, the etching done crookedly with a blunt knife.
Dante cursed, Keith punched the tree trunk, and there were several complaints, but eventually calm and control returned to the group. They had gotten past increasingly frequent pitfall traps, tripwire and annoying, small creatures that bit at them from the bushes without revealing themselves. Subhumans randomly showed their face every so often, but they were mostly uncomfortable distractions at best. The memory of the female demon they had slaughtered also gave them hope and peace for a while, but hope and peace could only last so long. If we could kill that monster that had hurt so many students, we can deal with anything he throws at us. At least that’s what we hope, Dante thought.
The sounds of other students had gone from rare to nonexistent, and the group had begun to wonder if they were all alone in this hellish forest.
“Seriously,” Servant asked, abandoning his typical extravagant tone and behavior, “Where is everybody?”
Dante wished he knew. There was a dead stillness creeping in since they’d left the muddy clearing behind, replacing the chaos they’d been hearing before with a worrying calm.
“That monster we heard, shouldn’t we have heard it again?” Animal asked.
“It’s as if we stepped into a whole new world and never noticed,” Dante thought out loud. Both Animal and Observer were better from their wounds, although he’d warned them they needed rest. Whichever way they all wanted to see it, they hadn’t come out of the fight entirely unscathed. “We need to get out of here no matter what. We need to real
ize that fighting may no longer be the best choice when facing a threat.”
“I agree with ye, Dante.” Keith had been the only one who hadn’t seemed uplifted by their victory against the female killer. There was something different to him now. Guilt? Dante wondered. The short boy had been the one to crack her neck.
A whimper interrupted them, and Keith made signals for them to fan out and seek cover behind the tall, thick trunks of the trees surrounding them. The absolute darkness had cleared slightly, but Observer’s eyes were still needed for better illumination. The rain continued to patter down softly, keeping the air cool and their clothing damp.
“Hello?” Servant asked, shifting forward to look at the source of the sound. Dante was closest, and he could certainly see movement a few yards ahead.
“Watch out. There’s something there, lying against the tree.”
The group approached the trembling thing; gradually surrounding it until there was nowhere the unknown life form could run.
“Help…”
Servant’s eyes opened wide and he lifted a hand.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m hurt.” It was a young boy, his body covered with a dark cloak and his hand at his side. He’d been wounded somehow and had probably sat beside the tree waiting for someone to save his life. Or to ambush them, Dante thought.
There were looks at Dante in expectation, but he wasn’t so sure. This could be another trap. I have to know more before healing him.
“Who are you and why are you alone?”
“I’m a First Term student, just like you. I was abandoned by my group after that thing hurt me, the dinosaur thing…I…” the kid winced and clenched his teeth in pain. “I’m Jaeger. Please, help me with the pain. It’s too much…”
Keith nodded at Dante and the Healer grimaced. He didn’t like healing strangers, but perhaps Jaeger deserved to be comfortable at least, if not in their trust yet.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked when he was done, and the boy stood awkwardly, pushing back his hood and gingerly touching the area where he’d been wounded.
“Much better. Thank you, uh…”
“Dante.” The Healer was still uncomfortable with the boy, but he would make sure to keep both eyes on him in case of any surprises. There’s something weird about him just being out here alone. Surely the beast that hurt him could have finished him off? “Did you manage to outrun the beast, or did it shift its attention to something else?”
“I just ran, and my group never followed me. It didn’t go after them. I heard its heavy footsteps and its strong breath following me, but I somehow got away where the forest got thicker. I’m really not sure what made it stop or turn from me.”
Dante looked at the rest. None of the boys seemed as suspicious as he did, but weariness was also making them complacent.
“We have to tie him up.” Jaeger looked at him with fear in his eyes at the suggestion, but Dante was certain they needed to be careful around him.
There were awkward glances at the Healer, but finally Keith reached up and began to fashion some crude rope out of the lower branches of a tree. He did it silently and impatiently, and Dante realized how changed the boy was after killing the woman.
“Don’t lag behind, kid, we don’t need stragglers in our group,” Animal said with a scowl as he made sure that Jaeger couldn’t free his hands.
They kept going a few minutes after it was done.
The Healer walked with exhaustion, wishing they had some sort of respite, some rest that could keep them awake and alive. Webster had been specific in his instructions, though: they could not look back or stop, just keep going forward. There would certainly be penalties for those who took too long to find the clearing, and now death had been added to his examination. Dante wondered how much of this was actually sanctioned by Albridge and Co., and how much was just part of the professor’s perverse imagination. Imagine Webster kills somebody important — imagine he kills me? It wasn’t a matter of ego; Dante knew he wasn’t easily replaceable, and Albridge had openly showed his respect and interest in his abilities.
Traps were getting more elaborate, and Keith alerted them to a turret hidden between two branches in a tree several feet away from them. Animal was forced to climb a nearby tree and launch himself from it onto the mechanism, severing the wires and connections while keeping it in place.
“All clear,” he shouted from above, loosening his grip and falling gracefully down to the ground. Dante caught Jaeger eyeing him interestingly, and the Healer felt like letting the boy go. Jaeger caught his gaze and Dante stared into his eyes without blinking. I don’t like you, he told the boy silently.
There seemed to be shadows watching from the line of bushes all the time, but the group did their best to ignore them. The forest appeared to be getting more and more compact and suffocating as they advanced, a sensation that was beginning to give Dante great discomfort. Observer, however, was looking hopeful before long, and he informed them there would soon be thinner vegetation around them and more space to move in.
“I think the last stretch of land is softer than what we’ve faced until now. Keep it up, guys.”
A feeling began to grow within Dante, one that was as dark as it was certain.
It’s ending soon. He just has one last thing to throw at us before it’s done. The Healer smirked softly. And to think he wasn’t subtle this time; my friends were just too tired to realize it.
“Jaeger, is that a knife in your belt?” Dante asked distractedly as they reached the thickest part of the vegetation, walking slightly behind the boy.
“What, this?” he asked, nodding at a small, half-concealed sheath with a dagger in it. “Yes, why do you ask?”
“It has a familiar hilt, that of a knife held a thousand times over and shed blood on many occasions. Do you keep it sharp?”
“Yes,” the boy replied curtly. “I always have it shining and deadly, just like it should be. Why do you ask?”
“Curiosity,” Dante answered. “So tell me, how long were you sitting beside that trunk waiting for us and pretending to be hurt?” His sea-green eyes caught sight of the child’s minute reaction, and for a split second, he saw the expectation in Jaeger’s eyes. The others took an instant to even react to Dante’s words. Jaeger is superior to most of our own troops, Dante knew in an instant. He was never with a group. He hurt himself with the blade before we arrived, fully aware of how far we were so it didn’t kill him. He knew I could heal him.
Jaeger smiled and lifted his hands a few inches before anyone could react. The tight cord of branches that had held his wrists fell apart like it was nothing. The boy looked knowingly at Dante as his hand went to his knife and pulled it from its sheath.
The others in the group turned in shock and hurried to surround the new threat.
“Who am I?” he asked Dante, his grin spreading, “The knife, my face, you saw through it all immediately. You’re something else, Healer. So tell the group: who am I?”
Dante swallowed. It was true. As he’d previously thought, there had been no subtlety in this, no typical care in making everything elaborate. This was a way of proving a point.
“You’re a young Silas Webster.”
Webster’s dark eyes glinted softly, and he let out a soft chuckle. Dante sidestepped and prepared himself, standing strategically between the youngster and Animal — he’d already seen the feral student’s body arching into a pounce and trusted fully in his fellow group member’s ferocity to deal with Webster.
“Don’t!” the professor’s young form cried out. “Do you believe for a second you can defeat me? No,” he said, shaking his head, “This isn’t the fight I’m here for. I have the most unfair advantage you could imagine, and you wouldn’t last two seconds. I’ve just come to teach you a lesson. You see,” he continued, “from now on, we’ll have a new rule. Something like the old game of ‘Simon Says,’ you know?”
“What rule is that?” Dante asked, energy begi
nning to form in his palm. If this new apparition was the final threat they had to face, he was going to destroy it without a thought.
“Simon says,” Young Webster said with a grin, “No powers allowed.”
Dante lifted his hand and roared, releasing the power within it towards the grinning enemy. The force of the attack shifted the vegetation around him, but suddenly it evaporated into the air like nothing. Animal threw himself onto Webster’s back, but the boy spun and threw him off onto the ground hard. Keith came next, throwing punches at Webster, who dodged them with ease and knocked the shorter boy off his feet.
Webster laughed, leaping up onto a low branch and climbing up a tree, where he watched from with curiosity.
“What are you?” Dante asked. There was something strange about the young version of their professor, as if it carried energy of some sort.