Gods of Rust and Ruin

by Azalea Ellis

  I squeezed a thin line of acid on the seamless metal surface supporting his slab. “This will give me access to the inner components of this thing that’s shackling you here. Please don’t move around too much. I’ll be working with some sensitive stuff, and I don’t want it thinking you’re trying to escape and setting off any safety mechanisms.”

  The acid did its job, and I took off the sheet of metal it had eaten through, and placed it gently on top of a machine that was attached to Torliam by tubes inserted into his skin in multiple places. Then I had a thought. “This is the one that filters your blood, right?”

  “Correct.”

  “Hmm.” I maneuvered the hoverboard gingerly around, examining the controls. “It’s like a fancy version of those old dialysis machines, right, Zed?”

  He looked at it for a second, peering down from his cramped space in the vent. “Maybe? I may have wanted to be a doctor, but I really don’t know too much about them. And I can’t tell much by looking at it from afar. Why?”

  I traced the tubes coming out from Torliam to the ones going back in, and then leaned down to see a large tube full of golden shimmer. Drop by drop, more of the Seed material joined it, being filtered from his blood. “I really don’t know what I’m doing,” I said. “But if I do this . . .” I flipped a switch, then pushed a few buttons when the screen on the machine lit up. “I think it might run backward.”

  I leaned down again, and sure enough, the golden liquid was being slowly sucked out of the tube instead of entering it. I turned to Torliam. “Can you feel anything?”

  He clenched his fist, the wrist of which had one of the many tubes entering it. “My strength is being restored. I . . . I thank you, Eve of the line of Redding.” He looked over at another machine. “That one pumps the sedative.”

  I took the hint, and pinched off the tubes leading from that machine, since I didn’t see an obvious “off” button. “By the time I’ve got you off that slab, hopefully you’ll be a bit stronger.” We might need his strength, because from the dizzying waves of cold that washed over my body, it seemed like my own was failing.

  I took out what looked like a gun, but had a cartridge on top filled with a clear liquid instead of bullets. “This is a binding agent,” I said, peering into the complicated guts inside the base of the slab supporting Torliam. “It’s going to lock the pressure sensors on the slab in place, right where they are now.” I reached in and began to squeeze the trigger slowly, fighting against the dangerous tremors in my hand. “So, when you get up, this thing will think all your weight is still on it, dispersed just like it is right now.”

  I finished that relatively quickly, warning Torliam again not to move, so that the binding agent could activate and harden.

  “I would not do anything to jeopardize our mission. Place your faith in that. I desire nothing more at this moment but to be free of this thing, and to be rid of this place,” he said.

  When the binding agent had dried, I twisted to look up at the clamps rooted in the slab, which dug into the flesh of his back along his spine. I could see where dried blood had run down into the tiny seams around the metal. I grabbed one and manually wiggled it with my fingers, and he grunted in pain. “Hold still. There’s a catch down here, I think I can draw the clamp right out, but it’s probably still going to hurt.” I used a claw to pry open the catch that held that half of the clamp in place, and then grabbed the whole base and pulled.

  Torliam stiffened and let out a prolonged groan as I drew on the clamp, his voice mixing with the squelching sound as the metal withdrew from his flesh.

  I pulled it all the way out through the slab, and brought it out of the bottom into the light. “Umm . . . no wonder that hurt. Are you alright?”

  “I can endure whatever pain necessary. Please continue.”

  “That’s not exactly what I meant.” I pointed to the tip of the clamp, which had an angled notch cut into it. Like a fishhook, the tip of an arrowhead, or a serrated knife. It was designed to hold in place, or to mutilate the flesh if drawn out the way it had entered. “I just ripped open a chunky hole in your back.”

  “That’s disgusting, Eve,” Zed said.

  Torliam glanced at the bloody half of a clamp I held in my hand, and then quickly looked away, focusing on my eyes. “Your people are indeed well versed in the art of torture, I have learned. Do not back down from what must be done.”

  “Well, maybe I can detach them from the slab instead of detaching them from your back. We’d still have to extract them later, but it would probably be better to have Sam do it, instead of me. He’s my healer.”

  He nodded. “If you can.”

  So I used the rest of the acid to eat through the metal keeping the clamps from sliding upward through the holes in the slab. Torliam continued to watch my every move, which was slightly unnerving. “Zed, tell me about what’s happened while I was down here,” I said.

  “Well, when you got taken, these really strong Players grabbed all of us and brought us to individual rooms. They almost caught Adam out of bounds, but he made it back in time. We were all talking among ourselves using those awesome VR chips, even though we couldn’t see each other, and we kept trying to contact you. We made sure to do it all mentally, no hand or voice signals, and Adam basically walked me through the whole interrogation.”

  “What did they want?”

  “Oh, basically they threatened us that your life depended on our good behavior. We were right about that, at least . . .”

  I nodded. When I had to start the plan so early, I wasn’t sure. We hadn’t put any protection in place for the rest of the team yet. I realized he’d trailed off, and glanced up at him. He was looking off to the side, jaw clenched as he remembered.

  “I would prefer to never get captured and put in an interrogation room again,” he said simply.

  Torliam snorted at that, with some amusement that I didn’t share.

  “Were you guys still being held when I set off the alarms?”

  “Yeah. Kris and Gregor actually broke Adam out with one of those non-lethal guns Blaine’s been having them practice with. Then Adam killed some people and busted Jacky out, and with the two of them . . . well, you know how she is. It was like watching a superhero film. NIX didn’t even have time to react. Everything locked down, but we got to the lab before you set off the second alarms, and then the backup power blew itself up. When I left, they were killing the guards who’d already been guarding inside the lab after the scientists evacuated.”

  “I see.” I’d have to thank the kiddos, and Adam. If not for his guidance of the team and their actions, we might all be in a very different position right now. “I really have to give that guy a raise.”

  “Do you pay us?” Zed asked archly. “Isn’t zero multiplied by two still . . . zero?” He pretended to count on his fingers.

  I shot him a mock glare. “Well, I see someone doesn’t want their holiday bonus.”

  “Sis, you should know by now that you can’t influence me with your grubby scheming. Bribery?” He lifted his nose in mock disdain, then grinned at me. “What type of bonus are we talking, here? ‘Cause, you know, I might be convinced of the error of my ways. I could even tell the others that we’re being paid with non-material coin. The coin of friendship and rainbows and all that.” He rubbed his hands together in a caricature of greediness.

  I had to stifle a laugh, but my amusement was quickly snuffed out when I ran out of acid. “Damn it!” I hadn’t finished removing the binding on all the clamps. I looked up to Torliam, who looked faintly bemused by our antics. “Sorry to say this, but I’m out of acid. Looks like you’re gonna have a few more holes in your back till we can get you to Sam.”

  “Do it.” He took a deep breath and seemed to brace himself. “And hurry. We must not waste time. Only the gods know what scheme our enemies are executing as we tarry.”

  I began to rip the remaining clamps from his back, wincing in sympathy. I’m far from squeamish, but even so, inflicti
ng that amount of pain on someone not my enemy was a bit beyond my comfort level. Luckily, there were only a few left, and I finished quickly. Then I released the shackles around his limbs. “Okay. Do you have the second hoverboard, Zed?”

  He quickly floated it down to me, and I caught it and held it beside the slab. “You should be able to move your arms, and anything above the level where your back was most recently broken. We need to take those tubes and monitoring patches off you, then get you onto this. You’ll float out of the room with me, so we don’t set off the pressure sensors in the floor. Ready?”

  Torliam nodded. “I have been ready for years.” He used his arms to push his torso up, suppressing any reaction to the pain it must have caused, and ripped away the myriad tubes, patches, and wires still attached to him.

  “Swing your legs over first. I’m going to need to adjust the resistance. These things aren’t exactly made to support people of your . . . considerable size.”

  Zed coughed. “Sis!” He gave me a cheeky grin. “I’m shocked. I thought you were a lady!”

  I sighed. “Get your mind out of the slums.” I couldn’t resist, though, and added, “And whatever gave you the impression I was a lady? Surely it wasn’t something I said or did?”

  Torliam’s lifted his legs one after the other with one arm, supporting himself with the other, and I adjusted the degree of strength variation from the hoverboard’s output. “Do not reprimand your sibling. She is only stating the obvious,” Torliam said. “My enviable size is no secret. In fact, it is legend among the females of my homeland.”

  My mouth fell open, and I stared at him.

  Zed’s voice was choked with disbelief. “Hey, Eve, I’m pretty sure our giant extraterrestrial friend here just made a dirty joke. Did you hear it, too?”

  “Erm.” I coughed, busying myself with the hoverboard. “It’s either a shared hallucination, or you just got one-upped.”

  Torliam didn’t respond to our commentary, too busy hoisting himself onto the hoverboard, which dipped frighteningly under his weight, and then righted itself.

  I took a quick moment to grab the blood clotting powder from the pack and messily shake it over his back.

  Then Torliam and I floated out the door to his cell, unmolested. Unfortunately, it was at that point that my body gave up on me, the stimulant pill ran its course, and I lost consciousness.

  I passed in and out of darkness, as if my life was a strobe light, catching only brief snippets of what was going on around me.

  Torliam, jamming the modified stun baton Blaine had created for this very purpose into one of the doors that blocked the hallway, forcing it open.

  Blackness.

  Zed, towing me behind him as he raced through the halls.

  A brief lance of pain as my hoverboard idled into the wall and jostled me. Zed was shooting air-burst rounds at a group of Players, dodging their return attacks of bright light. Two of them were down on the ground. A bright blue mist drifted past me from behind, but I slipped back into darkness before I could see what it did.

  Blackness.

  Zooming through the larger vents, Zed riding ahead of me on my hoverboard, steering us. His forehead had been cut, and blood covered one side of his face.

  The hoverboard falling out from under me, my stomach rising into my throat as Zed slammed both feet into the grate, ripping it right out of the ceiling.

  Something light blue wrapping around me and steadying me on the back of the hoverboard so that I didn't fall off.

  From above, the view of the huge lab, one door blown open, smoke bombs spewing into the air, burning my lungs even so far up. From the hallway, one man stepped forward and knelt on one knee, with what looked like a small rocket launcher on his shoulder. His fellows closed in around him, some kneeling and some standing, holding up their shields shoulder to shoulder to guard him.

  We dropped down next to the ship, near the doorway. Adam threw up a shield of black ink, and then another one a couple feet behind that one, so that there was a double layer of protection.

  The rocket smashed against the first barrier with a boom so forceful it half-deafened me, and pushed me back with its force. Shrapnel exploded forward, peppering the wall and ceiling behind and around the team and ship. Adam’s first shield was gone when I looked down again, and the second disintegrated as I watched.

  He sagged, curly hair plastered to his forehead with sweat.

  Jacky shouted in rage, grabbed some clunky metal thing off a table near her, and threw it like a discus, making a whole spin before she released it with frightening speed. It flew straight at the guy with a rocket launcher, and smashed him backward out of their little human shell formation and into the hallway behind.

  By the way his chest had caved in, I’m pretty sure he was dead.

  Sam was busy trying to heal Blaine, who was standing beside Adam in a huge, skeleton-only mecha suit. His leg had a hole in it, which was leaking some blood, probably from a bullet wound. Blaine waved him off, moved his arms back till the elbows connected with a metal pack the rudimentary mecha carried on its back, which loaded ammo into the arms. He extended his arms forward, let out a battle cry, and the mecha shot its own little rockets at the formation of guards, blowing them backward to land amongst tons of their other downed comrades. Damn. That thing was pretty cool.

  I floated down past the catwalk to land behind Jacky. “Guys, if you’re finished playing around, we really should be leaving already,” I groaned.

  Another blank of darkness.

  Zed grabbed my hoverboard to steady it against the wall as the ship lurched about, and then we were through the ceiling of the wrecked lab, rising up out of what used to be the ground of the courtyard. “Guys, I’m debating having secret aircraft hangars open up out of the ground when I get my own evil lair. What do you think?” he said, voice strained.

  “Cliché,” Jacky said with a snort of derision.

  “Turret guns incoming,” Blaine said. “Both air burst and armor piercing rounds. They had better not work, or . . .” He cut off, as a huge explosion rocked the ship’s balance.

  I watched as the pieces of gun, wall, and bloody chunks of the gunman flew through the air.

  “They will think twice about shooting now,” Blaine said.

  Jacky whooped and pumped her fist in the air, jumping and floating for a little too long to be natural. “Hell yes! Keep blowing yourselves up, suckers.”

  Zed gave Blaine a respectful look. “You did that?”

  Blaine coughed and lifted the faceplate of his mecha suit to adjust his glasses. “Merely some simple sabotage to their weapons. They test and clean them once a month, and since it was highly unlikely they would have any reason to use or inspect them outside of that timeframe, I set it up so that pulling the trigger would result in the gun backfiring. With the power and amount of ammo those guns carry, it causes quite an explosion.”

  Another gun turret exploded as the ship gathered speed, shooting away through the air, over the mountains and river below.

  Jacky nodded wisely. “Boom.” She demonstrated the explosion with a hand motion.

  Birch stood on the edge of the control station next to Torliam, growling out through the front-facing window.

  Bunny moved up from wherever he’d been in the back of the ship, likely making sure he was protected with the kiddos and Chanelle, surrounded by the more cushiony, protective supplies.

  He saw Torliam’s back, seated at the control station at the front of the ship, and paused, just staring.

  “What . . . have you done?!” Bunny said, his voice rising.

  There was a moment of silence, and I felt a sense of foreboding rise up, helpless to do anything about it.

  “It’s an alien! It wants to destroy the Earth!” Bunny screamed at me, then reached behind himself and pulled out the gun from his utility belt.

  I lifted my good arm, but I was too far away to stop him.

  Chapter 13

  Go forth into the hollow lan
ds, where the fears of men live.

  — Ateus of the Fall

  Sam, who’d been standing disregarded next to Bunny, stepped forward while everyone else was still hesitating from shock. His left hand grabbed the wrist of Bunny’s gun hand, forcing it down while twisting painfully, and his right hand shot out in a straight punch that rocked Bunny’s head back.

  Bunny wobbled and jerked away, leaving Sam holding the gun and looking almost bewildered by what had just happened.

  “Back down,” Bunny snarled at him.

  Sam went hazy eyed and dropped the gun, stepping away with his hands raised.

  Bunny lunged toward the energy cell hooked into the wall, and began to pull on it. “Stay away!” he screamed.

  Torliam roared and half-turned toward him, reaching an arm out.

  I felt a wash of fear, partially artificial, and partially because he was sabotaging our escape, and about to crash the ship, with all of us inside it.

  I navigated my VR chip with a flicker of a thought.

  Bunny’s head exploded. Brain matter splattered outward.

  His body tottered for a second, then fell backward.

  Blue mist sputtered and died away from Torliam’s hand.