Reddened Wasteland

by Kyle Perkins

  “Alerik is a good man, but he doesn’t know our way. You will go on to teach the next generation. You and you alone. Let fate be your guide, old friend,” she said, her voice growing weaker with each passing moment.

  “Cinine, I won’t let you down. I will make sure anyone even partially responsible for your death pays for this,” he said, gritting his teeth.

  “Just let it go, Valek. It didn’t matter if The Union did it, or old age, I was meant to die right here, and right now. Do not belittle our beliefs by giving power to the man that shot me. That Elias didn’t kill me, fate did. I need you to understand this now more than ever. Be an example Valek, lead our people into a golden age,” she said as she closed her eyes.

  “I will lead our people back to Earth. When I get there, I will spread tales of your bravery and leadership. I love you Cinine… Thank you for everything you have done for us. You won’t be forgotten,” he said, standing up and wiping the tears from his face.

  He looked down at his lifeless leader one last time and felt anger surge through him. He decided to finish Elias, whether Cinine wanted him to or not. But when he turned to walk towards the man that killed his mentor, he found a puddle of blood, but no body. The man had escaped while he talked to Cinine.

  “NO!” he yelled as he began following the trail of blood, smashing his mace through soldier after soldier to cut himself a path. He thought he must be nearing the guy, but then the trail just ended.

  He looked around, hoping to get a visual on him, or find a clue as to where Elias went, but he had just vanished. Valek slammed his mace into the ground as hard as he could, causing debris to fly up.

  “I will find you, and when I do, I will make sure your death is as slow as nature will allow!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

  ***

  Saskia stepped into the control room, carefully watching the large man in shiny armor who was holding Aldain up by his throat.

  “Hope I’m not interrupting some romantic moment,” she said as two Liberty’s Hammer soldiers approached her with their swords drawn, “You can fuck right off,” she said as she pointed her pistols at the heads of both men. It hurt like hell to hold the one up from her injured shoulder, but they didn’t know that. She just hoped this stand-off wouldn’t be too lengthy.

  The man holding Aldain by the throat gestured with his free hand for his men to stand down, “C’mon guys, don’t you know how to treat a beautiful woman?”

  “You can cut that shit out right now, I’m not into blondes,” Saskia said with her guns still aimed at the men.

  “Fair enough,” the man chuckled, “Why are you here?”

  “I promised someone I would watch that prick die,” she said, jerking her chin towards Aldain.

  “Oh, well you came just in time. I guess I’ll carry on, then,” he said right before he threw Aldain to the ground.

  Saskia lowered her weapons and walked to the center of the room. As she walked, she noticed Aemon in the corner of the room at the end of a sword.

  “Nice to see you also got that weasel. You may need to kill him twice,” she said.

  “Oh we plan to burn the bodies,” he smiled, “Saskia, right?”

  “And how do you know my name, pretty boy?” she asked.

  “Thought you weren’t into blondes,” he chuckled and raised a brow, “Well, you are all over every fucking TV in the settlement.”

  “Oh yes. That…” she said, “And your name?”

  “Thorin,” he replied. Then after a moment, “Wait… If you’re here, does that mean Alerik is alive?”

  “That is some mighty fine detective work.”

  “Doesn’t matter, you will all be dead soon enough,” Aemon said from the corner of the room before a guard hit him in the stomach.

  “If Alerik is here, then where is he?”

  “On the roof, probably about to broadcast,” she shrugged, “Why? Got a crush on him or something? Need an autograph?”

  “No! He can’t! We need the radio for reinforcements,” he shouted, gesturing for his men to move out.

  “Alright, I fibbed a little. I’m not only here to watch you kill Aldain. I’m also here to make sure you don’t get in Alerik’s way,” she said, smiling with her pistols raised, stopping the men in their tracks.

  “You have got to be kidding me! This is bigger than you or Alerik! Are you crazy!?” he screamed.

  “Maybe a little,” she said, firing two bolts into the heads of Thorin’s men.

  While Liberty’s Hammer was distracted with Saskia, Aemon used the opportunity to free his dagger and plunge it into the neck of the guard standing over him in the corner. He dashed to a spot on the wall where he kicked open a laundry shoot hatch, quickly diving into it.

  “Great! Just fucking great!” Thorin yelled.

  “Good, now it is just you, me, and this cocksucker,” she said, pointing down at Aldain.

  “Yeah, thanks to you. Oh, and just so you know, we are now trapped up here with no reinforcements. So it was nice knowing you, I guess,” Thorin said as he stomped down on Aldain’s chest. The man looked pitiful and vulnerable without his fancy armor. Saskia wondered what the Liberty’s Hammer guys had done with it. She noticed several of the bodies in the control room had gaping slashes through them, likely from the gloves. It was then she noticed blood trickling out of a large gash across Thorin’s thigh. That also explained why they stripped the set off of Aldain. Plus, he’d be easier to torture this way. It was practical thinking.

  “Listen… It was never me… It was always Aemon running the show. I am just a puppet that he uses. I never had any real power. You have to believe me. Look. Let me live and I’ll help you find him,” Aldain pleaded.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Thorin said as he kicked Aldain across his cheekbone.

  “You’re making a mistake! Please! I can be so useful. The information I have is unmatched, and it dies with me. I could give you anything you want!” Aldain screamed in a panic.

  “I don’t want your help, you piece of shit. Don’t you see how far we made it without your help? With you working against us? You are nothing to me, and you will die a coward’s death,” Thorin said as he raised his sword.

  “Can you just get this over with?” Saskia rolled her eyes with her guns aimed at Thorin.

  “Please… Please don’t...” Aldain said just before Thorin’s sword slammed into his chest, causing blood to fling out onto the floor.

  “There, now don’t you feel better?” Saskia asked, “I know I do.”

  “Saskia, seriously, we need to get to the roof, you can’t let Alerik do this,” Thorin pleaded, “So many lives are at stake.”

  “Just sit tight and get comfortable, we’re not going anywhere,” Saskia said defiantly.

  Thorin stomped over to the corner of the room and slammed his back against the wall and slid down. “Hopefully Velar will talk some sense into him. Although, the thought of her up there with her old boyfriend is just the icing on the fucking cake,” he groaned.

  “Wait… Velar is up there too?” she asked, not bothering to mask the distress in her voice, “But… we thought… I thought… She’s not dead?!”

  “Of course she’s not dead,” Thorin looked at her suspiciously, “Wait… that bothers you? Don’t tell me you’re hung up on the guy, too. That is just great!” he said, laughing hysterically, “Well don’t worry about it. We aren’t going anywhere for a while, remember?”

  ***

  The elevator finally came to a stop and the door slid open. Alerik and Lucius were on opposite sides and each peered out onto the roof. There were a few guards by the radio tower making their rounds. Alerik pulled off Velar’s backpack and began rummaging through it until he found the device. Lucius had completed it during their walk to The Union building. It didn’t look like much, but Lucius assured him that it was in working order.

  “We need to take out these guards.” Alerik said as he pulled his pickaxe off of his back.

  “Right, stick to th
e shadows. Human eyesight is seriously lacking,” Lucius said with a smile as he snuck out of the elevator.

  Alerik moved out towards the air intake and hid behind it. As he looked out, he saw Lucius moving from shadow to shadow, encroaching on the handful of guards.

  A guard began moving towards the air intake almost as if he had heard something. Alerik wasn’t going to waste this opportunity, very seldom do Union soldiers stray from their herd.

  Alerik picked up a pebble off the ground and tossed it to the opposite side of the air intake, causing the guard to walk over and investigate, out of sight from the other guards. As soon as the guard turned the corner, he swung his pickaxe into the face of the guard with such force that his head stuck to it.

  Alerik lowered the guard to the ground slowly and peeked back out to see Lucius behind two other guards, just under the radio tower.

  “Hey guys, I think I’m lost,” Alerik yelled as he stepped out into the light.

  The two guards quickly spotted him and aimed their guns at his head. Lucius used the diversion to get right behind them, he used his immense strength to snap both of their necks with his hands. As the two guards fell to the ground, Alerik felt a cold barrel press against his neck.

  “Back up slowly…” the male voice said as he put his arm around Alerik’s neck and pointed his gun at Lucius.

  “So, we’re not even going to talk about this?” Alerik asked sarcastically as he slammed his foot down on top of the guard’s foot.

  The man let out a loud yelp of pain, far too loud than was warranted by something as small as getting your foot stomped on. That was when Alerik turned around and saw the guard had a gleaming sword stuck through his midsection. As the guard slunk down off of the sword, Alerik saw Velar standing there with tears running down her face.

  He felt like he had just been punched in the stomach. He almost couldn’t breathe. He dropped his pickaxe and ran over to her as fast as humanly possible. Velar was frozen solid, unable to move. Once he reached her, he pushed the guard out of the way and grabbed her face, kissing her over and over.

  Velar was stunned for a second, standing in disbelief. He was kissing her, but she was too numb to feel it. She dropped her sword and just pulled her head back for a moment to double check that it was really him. Once it was confirmed, she began kissing him back, even harder.

  “I can’t believe it’s really you…” he whispered, staring into her eyes.

  “I can’t believe it’s really you…” she said, staring back with her hands around his waist.

  “I hate to interrupt a reunion, but Alerik, the mission at hand?” Lucius said, pointing to the tower.

  “Right,” Alerik said as he pulled the device from Velar’s backpack and began walking towards the radio tower.

  Velar smiled when she saw that he had kept her backpack, even through all that.

  “What is that device?” Velar asked, suddenly remembering her own mission. Had Thorin sent him, too? She was so confused.

  “It’s a device to divert control of the radio tower to me, and allow me to concentrate its signal to broadcast anywhere,” he said, smiling as he placed the device on the tower.

  “Wait, that will make the control room useless!” she screamed.

  “Yeah Velar, that’s the point. We didn’t know if Aldain would be in there, still attempting to broadcast. We needed insurance,” he said as he watched Lucius fiddle with it.

  “No, if you take the power from the control room, Thorin and Liberty’s Hammer will not be able to get reinforcements from the settlement,” Velar tried to explain.

  “You’re saying this as if it is a problem,” he looked at he with a puzzled expression.

  “Alerik, we have a bit of a problem, the signal is encrypted and password protected. I can’t take over as user until it’s fixed,” Lucius said.

  “Okay, well can’t you do it?” Alerik asked.

  “Yes, but it will take more time than we have,” Lucius said.

  “Fuck!” Alerik yelled.

  “Look, Thorin gave me a device to bypass the password, but it was so that they could send out a signal to the entire settlement. Without the settlement’s help, Thorin and Liberty’s Hammer will be killed!” Velar yelled. Why wasn’t he listening to her? What was more important than the people of the settlement?

  “Velar, we need that signal, there are bigger things at play than you could possibly imagine. You have to give me that device,” Alerik said, his tone condescending.

  “Then what happens to Liberty’s Hammer? They got me here Alerik, they watched over me and I can’t turn my back on them,” she pleaded.

  “Listen, if I don’t get that signal out, we all die, not just Liberty’s Hammer. I don’t have time to explain! Velar, you have to trust me, like you always have!” he responded.

  Velar looked into his eyes and could see the panic and knew he was telling the truth. Her body just wouldn’t allow her to hand it over. She knew it would mean a death sentence for Thorin. If what Alerik said was true, however, they would all die. But how, she didn’t know.

  Impulsively, she shot her hand out with the device clutched tightly and handed it to Alerik. She felt like throwing up and her heart was broken. How could she? All those people…

  Alerik smiled, “You did the right thing, Velar.”

  “Then why doesn’t it feel like it…” she mumbled to herself, swallowing back the lump in her throat.

  Alerik handed the device to Lucius, then turned back to Velar, “You don’t know how happy I am to see you. I thought they had killed you. Everything is going to be okay now,” he said, pulling her in closely.

  Velar felt at home in his arms, and a rush of familiar feelings came flooding back. It was almost enough to make her forget the horrible thing she had just done. Almost.

  “Alerik, what you just made me do, I can never forgive myself for,” she said soberly.

  “It’s okay. I can forgive you, and I’m sure your friends can too. They were after freedom, right? This is the only true way to it. Just taking down The Union is too short-sighted. There are some things you don’t know…” he said.

  “Yeah Alerik, speaking of not being able to forgive myself, there are some things that I need to tell you, actually,” she said, staring down at the ground.

  “Velar, trust me, there is nothing you could tell me that could be bad enough to ruin this moment,” he said back, petting down her hair with his hand like he always used to do.

  “I hope so…” her voice cracked.

  “It’s all ready. Just speak into the microphone clearly,” Lucius said.

  Alerik smiled at Velar before walking over to the tower and sitting next to the device.

  “People of Earth, my name is Alerik Jacobs. I am attempting to communicate with you from a large radio tower on your neighboring planet. Years ago, many colonists traveled to Mars to find a new viable home outside of our own due to an impending apocalypse. We are just now understanding that the story we have been told may be a complete fabrication, and you were probably in the dark until now, as well. We have been serving under tyranny since our arrival and through intense planning and incredible luck, we have been given this brief window in time to attempt communication with you. We are requesting aid from the good people of Earth, and hope that in our dire time of need, any of you that are still out there answer our call. You are our last hope, and if no help arrives, I’m afraid our time will come to an end here. If you are out there, I implore you to please respond.”

  Once the message was sent, Alerik stood up from his spot and moved back towards Velar.

  “Did I just hear you right? Did you seriously just attempt to contact a dead planet instead of getting reinforcements for Liberty’s Hammer?” Velar said with disbelief carved across her face. He’d gone crazy. How many times did those Union lackey hit him in the head?

  “That’s the thing, Velar. We have been lied to, and I believe the planet is not dead,” He replied.

  “So we went wi
th a maybe instead of guaranteed help… I think I’m going to be sick,” she bolted to the side of the building and threw up over the ledge.

  Alerik walked over and helped hold her hair.,“You just have to have faith.” He said as if it would give her any comfort.

  “Faith? What in the fuck are you talking about, Alerik? The only thing I have faith in at this point is that we are now fucked, for no good reason!” she said, angrily.

  Alerik shook his head. “Lucius, what’s taking so long for the response?”

  “I am not programmed with any data to help me understand how long this might take. Plus, there is no evidence supporting this idea that people are on Earth,” Lucius said in a matter of fact manner.

  “Thanks, Lucius,” Alerik said as Velar threw up again.

  “Listen, the day couldn’t get any worse and we are about to die. I need to get something off of my chest,” Velar said as she watched Alerik’s face start to fade into worry. She knew it wasn’t about what she was about to say, but because no one had responded. He seemed delusional and out of it, and may have cost thousands of lives. She pitied him, but she was also so angry at him. She hated that it made what she was about to say that much easier.

  “Okay, Velar, I guess we have a little time until they respond,” he said as he started playing with his fingers nervously.

  “Fuck, I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just say it,” she said pausing to grab his hands, “The guy that took me into Liberty’s Hammer… We thought you were with The Union… like really with them, and that you had moved on and you were involved with your partner… and well, he was confronting me and helping me through that time,” she said nervously.

  “Yeah, go on…” he pulled his hands away.

  “We kissed. I’m so sorry, Alerik. We heard the announcement about your execution, that you weren’t with The Union, and I was a mess. It stopped instantly, it went no further. I thought you were going to die, and it fucking killed me. I am so very sorry,” she said, a steady stream of tears flowing down her face.

  “I feel like I’m going to throw up now,” he said, hanging his head over the side and staring down at the ground. “Was that all that happened?”