Dancing with Shadows

by Bridie Henderson

“I’ve given myself clearance and now I’m revoking yours,” he muttered, funnelling his rage into his arm as he swiftly arced his blade, ending the question on the soldier’s lips before it could be asked. The prisoners had been deathly quiet as Liam entered their line of sight but as he mowed down the soldier some started to yell out in delight. The ones whose spirits had not been entirely broken. He leant down, picking up the prod from the soldiers dead fingers as another rushed towards him.

  “Traitor!” he yelled, pulling his prod free from his belt.

  “Whadd’ya’ know. You’re the first one who’s been right about that,” Liam muttered with a sardonic smirk as he easily knocked the smaller man’s prod out of the way with his own before embedded it into the man’s heart. He watched the man drop like a rock, writhing and convulsing on the floor and he couldn’t help but smile a little. “How does it feel asshole?” The prisoners were in full riot now, some banging against the bars that held them caged and others just shouting pleas of freedom. Colt and Diana took down the soldiers they were fighting with relative ease and that was it. All that was left was to release the prisoners and somehow get the hundreds of people in here to somewhere that wasn’t coated in silver so they could escape through a portal… easy, right? Liam turned to the nearest cage, eyeing the five men that were crammed inside it. They eyed him wearily, clearly unwilling to trust him off the cuff. Not that he blamed them. This prison had a reputation for mind games designed to break the prisoners down, piece by piece. Some sort of psychological warfare. Just as twisted as everything else in this damn city.

  He examined the cage, an odd lock kept it sealed and he could sense the silver in the bars… “How the hells does this open?” he asked the prisoners inside, none of them spoke. Four of the five took a step backwards, his large visage and blood covered face intimidating them into submission. He could tell, just from the look in their eyes, they had been broken already. Damaged, possibly beyond repair… hells he knew how that felt. He felt it now.

  “Please… I’m not going to hurt you, I swear it,” he pleaded, gripping the cage as he did. The last man, possibly the smallest, with dark, mocha skin and eerily blue eyes which stood in contrast to the rest of his face nodded tentatively to the prod, still in his hands. “I won’t use it on you. Here I’m throwing it away,” Liam pulled back his arm preparing to throw.

  “No! It is the key,” the man’s soft voice, barely above a whisper reached his ears before he could release the prod and send it soaring. He turned back with a confused frown… had he heard correctly. This? He looked down at the prod and then again at the lock. He could see it now. The odd lock had two perfectly circular holes, not one odd shaped one like usual locks. He looked up at the man who stepped away from the bars, doing his best to huddle in the middle of the small cage with the other men as they watched and waited. It was then that Liam realised the full ramifications of opening the cage. These men, these people in every single cage, would suffer for their freedom.

  “I’m sorry… I’ll do it as quickly as I can. Brace yourselves,” he muttered, swallowing past the thick lump of regret and remorse as he deftly stuck the prod into the lock. The prod sizzled as electricity flowed from the prongs. Even though he worked quickly, he could still see the light blue trail dancing over the bars and hitting its targets in the centre of the cell… two screamed out in agony but the others were silent, biting down as they bore through the pain, blood trickling form the corner of their lips and down their chins. The lock dropped off and he quickly withdrew the prod, releasing a ragged breath as he stepped inside and helped the men stay standing.

  “By the Gods, I’m sorry,” he murmured, pulling them one by one from the cage as he shouted how to open the other cages to Colt and Diana. Colt got straight to work, picking up a prod from a fallen soldier and starting on the cages to his right with his mouth set in a grim line, but Diana looked at Liam with dismay in her eyes, her skin turning a slight shade of green as she comprehended the full weight of their mission. She closed her eyes for a moment, a tear falling down her already puffy cheek before shaking herself, as though she was shaking away the empathy and emotion, in order to do what needed to be done. He finished helping the men from the cell over to the far wall near the corridor they had come through. It was the only wall not lined with cages. His hands shaking he moved to the next cage on the left hand side wall. He knew he needed to work quickly, get the pain over with so these people could have a chance at freedom but he glanced up anyway and immediately wished he hadn’t.

  “Mr Soldier?” a small, soft voice he recognised called to him. She was dirty, covered in dried blood and excrement but he would have known her pretty little face anywhere.

  “Pretty girl? You… you’re alive…” he stuttered. Poppy… her name was Poppy. Her name, and her brother Aiden’s, had been burned into his memory from the moment he had heard them, much like her face had when he’d carried through the forest.

  “Are you here to save us again?” she asked, the light in her eyes had faded a little but he could still see her sweet innocence, not yet lost completely beneath the dirt and grime that covered her.

  “I… I am… but it’s going to hurt, Poppy. I wish it wasn’t… do you understand?” he asked, hoping she would say no so he didn’t have to hurt her. This prison wasn’t just designed to condition the prisoners but all those who kept them imprisoned. No-one could survive doing this regularly with their souls still intact, hells he wasn’t sure he would survive past this very cell.

  “I understand… they do it every day… but it’ll be okay if it’s the last time, I can take it. I know you don’t mean it,” she added the last in a whisper and he closed his eyes against the meaning behind her words. So little time had passed and yet she seemed to have grown much faster than a child ever should. Gods he wanted to do this for her, to set her free but he didn’t know if he could. He just wasn’t strong enough. Despite his earlier claims, he wasn’t a monster after all. He started to take a step back but Poppy reached out a tiny hand, barely large enough to fit around his fingers and touched his arm.

  “Please, Mr Soldier… I don’t want to die here,” she murmured, her large eyes spearing through him like a hot blade through butter. Gods, I’m going to the hells for this.

  “Step back, Poppy… and close your eyes.” She did as she was told and the other members of the cell did the same though many of the older ones kept their eyes pinned on him. Most of them were children, he realised belatedly… little girls. What kind of animal did this to little girls? Apparently, he did. Without giving himself a second to reconsider or back out of it, he jammed the prod into the lock, closing his eyes against the screams and smell of burnt flesh as he pulled the lock free and disengaged the prod. He dived in immediately, picking poppy up in his arms. Her small frame was still shaking and he could feel the slight burn of electricity as it left her body and the cell bars.

  “Poppy? Look at me, baby… please, Gods please,” he whispered, quickly moving from the cell. She groaned, a soft, pained sound but she was alive. “Thank you,” he breathed, not certain who he was thanking but definitely grateful.

  “Mr Soldier?” her voice was weak, barely audible but he nodded to tell her he was listening. “What’s your name?”

  “Liam, baby… my name is Liam…”

  “You saved me again, Liam. Are you my Guardian Angel?” she whispered, just before her eyes rolled back and her head lolled to one side. He released a shuddering breath, reluctantly handing her limp form over to one of the waiting women from the cell. The men he had released first were on their feet helping to pull them out. The first man who had told him how to open the cells had grabbed a prod of his own and was working on the next cell. The area of freed prisoners was growing as Diana and Colt helped more to the edge of the room, their eyes dark and clouded with their own misery. They worked quickly. Diana finished emptying the cells in the centre of the room and moved to help Colt with the stacked ones on the right as Liam and the prisoner c
limbed up to do the same on their side. Fifteen minutes and over two hundred prisoners later and they were finished. The floor was crowded but you could have heard a pin drop. The prisoners didn’t make a sound as they waited for instruction on the next step.

  “Which way, Liam?” Colt murmured from beside him.

  “You trust me now?” Liam asked, bating for more time so he could think.

  “Well I don’t want to kill you, if that’s what you mean?”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Liam muttered, his eyes darting from one side of the prisoner hall to the other.

  “Stop stalling, which way?”

  “We have two choices… go back the way we came until we get to a corridor that’s not lined in silver. Upside, we’ve already cleared it and we know what to expect. Downside, it will be a while before we hit it and that leaves us open.”

  “Option number two?”

  “We go out this way,” he muttered pointing to the door behind him, “Upside, there is a route leading directly outside that way and its close. Downside, we have no fucking idea who or what is waiting for us,” he finished.

  “I think we should head that way,” Diana murmured, gesturing to the door behind him.

  “How certain are you on that way outside,” Colt asked, frowning at Diana though Liam didn’t understand why.

  “Positive. It leads to the gardens,” he said with a confidence he felt in every bone in his body.

  “I like those odds, let’s move out,” Colt muttered, signalling Diana from where she stood about twenty feet away. She nodded and began corralling the prisoners towards the exit they had agreed on. They moved easily enough, like livestock from the days of old, but when the ones at the front realised where they were heading they stopped, digging their feet in to the ground in outright refusal.

  “What is it?” Liam asked and once again it was the man who had first spoken to him who stepped forward.

  “That is a bad place,” he muttered, gesturing towards the door. “People who leave through that door do not come back.”

  “There’s an exit through that door. A way outside… if we can get to any place that isn’t coated in silver we can get you, all of you, out of the city. We have a,” he paused, nodding at Colt to give him the disk, “it’s a-“

  “Portal disk,” the man murmured, taking a step forward to examine it. “You know Molly Azera,” he finished with a nod. It was a statement not a question.

  “Molly? Yeah… her sons, Aaron and Slade, they are here, in another part of the fortress, saving some other people. Please, we just want to set you free,” Liam pleaded as he pocketed the portal disk, praying they didn’t have to walk back through the corridors… he didn’t want to see the sheet-covered, metal table again. Didn’t think his sanity could handle it.

  “Okay,” the man murmured after looking him over once again, turning to the group and gesturing with some odd hand movements. With that they began moving forward as one, no more resistance. Liam breathed a sigh of relief and Colt nodded at him as they turned, heading towards the door in question. He stood on one side as Colt stood on the other and in unison they turned, kicking the door open, Liam aiming high as Colt aimed low. Nothing… not a damn thing. The walls were white once more, the floor clean. He looked at Colt with an eyebrow raised and they both stepped into the corridor, still weary. Every time this mission appeared too easy, it’s because it was. He might not be a genius but he could learn from a pattern when he saw one. He gestured at the corridor leading right and Colt nodded. Liam took the lead as Colt stayed behind to guide the prisoners through. Diana came through carrying a small child in her arms, her eyes cold and distant as the horrors she had seen echoed through her mind and eventually Colt took his place at the back.

  Liam walked down one corridor, then another. He could practically taste the freedom at the end of the tunnel. Another room filled with flayed corpses greeted them along the way, their skin hanging from wires on the ceiling and their organs displayed in jars of yellow fluid. He swallowed hard, his thoughts returning to Alex but he pushed them away… later… deal with it later. Another corridor, another blood smeared chamber and then there it was. The only thing standing between them and freedom. The door leading outside. He tried to push it open but it was locked tighter than a preacher’s ass on grace day and it wasn’t budging. He started kicking at it, his fury and frustration getting the better of him. It was minutes before he felt it budge… and even longer before it finally cracked open, bleeding in sunlight over them. He squinted and the prisoners behind him covered their eyes. He couldn’t imagine how long it had been since they’d last seen the sun. He took a tentative step outside but other than the gentle breeze and the rustling of leaves in the strategically placed trees there was not a sound to be heard. He took out the portal disk and clicked the button on the side as he placed it on the ground, just as he had watched Colt do before. The large purple vortex appeared and the prisoner who had spoken with him, let out a cry of relief.

  “Go on, go through… we’ll be following.”

  “No… you first,” the man spoke, still paranoid and suspicious. Not that Liam could blame him. He sighed, nodding his understanding as he turned and stepped through the portal. An uncomfortable and disorienting whirl later and he arrived on the other side. The cabin stood in the distance and a blade was resting at his throat when he opened his eyes.

  “Liam?” James stood beside him, a deep gash on his arm but otherwise no worse for wear. Several dead soldiers lay dotted around the hillside, their limbs at odd angles. Where they had limbs…

  “James… we’ve got the prisoners. They’re not exactly trusting but one of them seems to know Molly. I’m going back now, alright?” James nodded slowly, removing his blade even slower but he did indeed step back eventually. Liam was starting to get a bit tired of all the distrust but hells, maybe if he made it back from this mission alive, it might end. Maybe. He turned around and headed back through the swirling purple mass until he found himself, feeling slightly seasick on the other side. He shook his head to clear the haze and looked up to find the prisoner eyeing him expectantly.

  “James and Molly are waiting for you,” he said, breathing through his nose to stop himself from throwing up. The prisoner nodded, walking towards the portal.

  “Thank you, soldier… you ha-,” his words were cut off by a loud crack as a silver bullet tore through Liam’s shoulder from behind. He shouted out in pain before he pushed the prisoner through the portal.

  “Go!” he shouted at the rest of them, withdrawing his blade from his belt and the prod he still carried. The prisoners surged forward, each clamouring to get through the portal as he whirled around, diving right to avoid another bullet. As he did a grunt sounded from behind and he caught sight of a male prisoner, one of the first to be freed, falling backwards through the portal, a deep red stain blooming on his dirty shirt. Without another thought Liam rushed towards a row of trees where the shot had originated, finding a soldier there, crouching like a coward behind the shrubbery. The soldier cried out as he plunged his blade into his back. He didn’t move as he heard another gun cock from behind him, whirling around when his senses dictated, his sword sweeping with him, disarming the soldier… literally. The soldier looked down at the bloody stump where his hand used to be, his eyes wide and his mouth open in a silent scream. Though he knew the soldier probably didn’t deserve it, he had no wish to see the man suffer so with another sweep of his sword, he decapitated him with one clean strike. Moving back through the trees he noticed that only half of the prisoners had made it through so far and there were more soldiers advancing from every damn angle. Diana was getting into trouble on the other side of the crowd and he rushed round to help her. She still held a small child in her arms, unable to put him down without leaving herself unguarded. He raced around the group, figuring it was faster than trying to fight through but it wasted precious seconds and as he leapt in front of her, the sword he might have been able to deflect st
ruck his raised forearm, leaving a deep, bloody gash in it. He yelled out, the wound taking him by surprise even though he had prepared for it. He pulled his dagger free thrusting forward before the soldier could gear up his next attack, plunging it through the soft part of his leathers, angling upwards to reach his heart more precisely.

  “Get them through the portal,” he shouted back at Diana, who nodded, carrying the child over to the portal and handing him to another prisoner, with strict instructions to hold on tight. She pushed them through the purple haze faster and faster and soon enough of them had entered that Colt was able to get out of the building, making it outside with a battle cry of his own. His left side was bleeding and his short, cropped hair was plastered to his head with fresh blood. He must have met a little trouble on the inside as well. Soldiers charged towards him and he parried their blows, striking where he could but really biding time until the prisoners were safe. Until Poppy was safe. He couldn’t save Alex but he could save her. A woman screamed from behind him and he turned to see a blade protruding from her chest. She looked down at it, the shock and pain clearly stamped over her dirt smeared face as she fell forward, sliding off the blade, silent and still. The soldier standing behind her smiled, his face clear and clean shaven. He looked nothing like the type of man that would find pleasure mowing down an innocent but then again… none of the Kings soldiers looked like the monsters they held within. Well maybe some of them did look like the ass end of a Mech mutt but he was yet to meet one whose blackened soul showed so evidently on the outside. It made it worse, somehow. The man beckoned him forward with a predatory grin as he reached out, gripping another prisoner. A girl, much younger this time… not much older than Poppy. She hugged her self tightly, tears streaming from clenched eyes as her lank brown hair fell over her face. He took a step forward, his hands raised.

  “Let her go… she’s just a child,” he said, his voice low and as calm as he could make it.