The Way of Death

by James Von Ohlen

  At least they had wanted to capture the pair alive. If they hadn’t, Reiji was sure he would be dead. Their mistake, he concluded as he cut down another two men, leaving just one person remaining with them in the smoke filled room. The garrison commander.

  “You cannot possibly get away with this,” the woman began to speak, the blade in her hands trembling. She took a breath to speak again but choked and began coughing. The smoke was beginning to obscure Reiji’s vision. It was past time to get the fuck out of there. The woman stopped coughing and continued.

  “Cent-Sec knows where you are. And they won’t stop until they get their gear back and your head along with it.” The woman pretended to cough again and charged at Reiji, getting the point of the broadsword through her throat and out the back of her neck as a reward for her efforts.

  Reiji could feel the tip of the blade glance off of the bones in the back of the garrison commander’s neck. He wrenched the blade, twisting it, and then pulling it out through the side at an odd angle. Blood poured forth from the wound and the woman’s neck seemed to give way, her head flopping to one side as she fell to the floor, gurgling.

  He had no reason to doubt her words. Cent-Sec knew where their missing APC was, and likely where one of their missing combat exoskeletons as well. They would be coming soon if they weren’t already on the way. And then there would be more men trying to kill him.

  Being a wanted man was really starting to get very fucking old. But Reiji really had seen no way around the circumstance that had led to this.

  As the APC had come to a stop outside the walls of the castle, Reiji had been hailed by the head of the guardsmen on shift. They’d identified themselves as Fort Houston, an outpost of the Alcosa Minerals Company. There was some data in the APC’s banks about the fort being charged with guarding the sole transport across the canyon and preventing the free flow of bandits out to the areas where the most valuable minerals were being mined.

  The mines themselves had become popular targets of enterprising criminals in the waning days of the Coalition Colonies Government’s presence on Lexington. The foundries didn’t care where the ore came from, so long as it showed up. And the contractors building spaceships or tanks or rifles or armor or whatever else it had been didn’t care where their ingots came from either. All paid, hard physical credits, even in the most suspect of circumstances.

  The bottom line of the major companies had started to be affected, and they had all pitched in to build a series of forts to protect the lines between mining pits and refineries. Fort Houston was one of them. Also one of the largest and most important due to its location guarding the sole crossing of the canyon.

  Upon acknowledging the communique, Reiji and Tod were cleared to enter the fort as members of Cent-Sec. In the stone walls of the keep a steel gate opened and two men walked out, ridiculously small in comparison, waving the vehicle forward with electric lights in hand. They seemed disinterested in the task at hand, as if they would rather be sleeping. Reiji didn’t blame them.

  The APC entered a large paved courtyard that reached all the way to the edge of the canyon, the end hanging over a thousand meter drop to the ground far below. A mix of torches and electric light illuminated the yard, showing no clear way across the canyon. Reiji wondered for a moment why such a place would be called a ‘crossing’.

  The two stewards walked along beside the ACP, guiding it to a square platform embedded in the pavement with hand signals. Some type of dull black metal. The vehicle sat there for a moment as radio chatter filtered in and out of Reiji’s communications gear. If it meant something beyond the inanities of life in this place, it was lost on him.

  “Tower one, this is tower two. Transport preparation completed. Send the Cent-Sec guys our way.”

  With that, the stewards stepped back off the platform, one waiving to the pilot’s cabin as he did so, made an about face and headed back for the comfort of their posts. The APC shuddered for a moment and Reiji suspected treachery.

  But none showed itself.

  The platform that he had parked on rose a few meters off of the ground and then began moving towards the edge of the canyon. Reiji prepared to throw the vehicle’s engines into full reverse, fearing that they were going to be dumped off the cliff and into the open air beyond. But no such thing happened.

  To Reiji’s surprise, the platform began to extend over the air of the canyon, rising as it did so. Some type of anti-grav platform he surmised. If they could keep it working, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than building a bridge across the huge canyon. Reiji increased the sensitivity of the night vision gear on the APC, but still couldn’t see the bottom of the canyon below. Relax, he told himself. If the anti-grav was going to fail, it likely would have done so decades ago.

  His heart skipped a beat as the platform came to a stop somewhere in the middle of the canyon, the edges barely visible as a black edge over the yawning pit. The castles guarding the passage showed only as pinpricks of light in the far away darkness.

  “Tower one, this is tower two. Preparations for arrival not completed yet. The carriage has been paused. Will advise when transport is renewed.” The words came to Reiji over the vehicle’s radio wave scanner. Something about the way the words were spoken struck him as odd. Untrustworthy. That was when he was sure that he was about to be betrayed.

  During their journey, he’d reviewed logs of intercepted radio communications. They were few and far between and most had been meaningless garbage. Hermits talking about the weather and the news broadcasts about who’d won the latest football tournament. Occasionally there were a few Cent-Sec messages sent as well. They meant nothing to him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t coded.

  Who knew what was actually being said? Look out for a halfbreed with a retard, a tank, and a combat exoskeleton. Oh, and we’ll pay you a lot to kill them and get our equipment back.

  There was always the possibility that he was just being paranoid, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t happening. And he’d noticed over the course of his life that paranoid men tended to live longer than their less afflicted comrades. Better a tin-foil hat than an early grave.

  “Tower two, this is tower one. We copy.”

  No overt tones of tension or fear were discernable in the words. Maybe it really was just a case of Reiji looking for enemies where there were none. The platform rocked and fell a meter or so before the height wobbled and then stabilized. It began moving again as Reiji’s bowels clenched. He looked to his right to see Tod, still sleeping soundly. Unaware of what was happening around him.

  For once, Reiji found himself envying another man.

  The remainder of the passage lasted approximately five minutes. When Reiji could make out the details of the castle guarding the far side of the transport, Tower two if the overheard communications were to be believed, he could see a few men milling about the courtyard, but nothing that overtly concerned him.

  The transport platform moved over solid ground and then settled into an indentation in the courtyard of Tower two. Two men walked out to the vehicle, moving slowly and unconcerned. One of them waved to the pilot’s cabin and pointed to the gates built into the wall around them, already beginning to open.

  Engines hummed as the APC turned towards the gate and began moving forward. The gate opened fully, revealing a long passageway through the gatehouse, some fifty meters in length according to the vehicles distance indicator.

  Halfway down the corridor, Reiji began to think that they might actually make it through the crossing without incident. And then a giant stone block fell, landing a meter or so from the front of the APC and completely blocking its advance. There was enough room on the sides for two men to move, side by side, but there was no way around it for the armored vehicle.

  Reiji shifted gears into reverse, and was rewarded by another block almost falling on top of the APC. He didn’t know if the block weighed enough to crush the vehicle, but he was glad he hadn’t found out. Reiji pushed the en
gines, adjusting them for torque output and pushed against the block. The huge chunk of granite refused to yield. For the time being, the APC wasn’t going anywhere.

  Men began entering the tunnel at both ends, wearing armor and carrying weapons. Clubs that he was about to find out were the shocky sticks Tod referred to. For a brief second, Reiji smiled. Fools seemed to be lining up lately to get cut down by him and his blades.

  He turned back to look at Onryo, imagining what the Oni would look like with a fresh coating of gore on it. Then he realized that he couldn’t deploy the combat exoskeleton. The door into the rear compartment of the APC was blocked from opening by the fucking boulder these assholes had almost dropped on him. He reached over and shook Tod’s shoulder, rousing the boy from his sleep. Reiji noticed that the boy had cut his hair sometime while the older man had slept. Close cropped like his own.

  The shaving kit that Reiji had used a few times on their journey lay on the floor near the copilot’s seat. The boy was learning a few things on his own, it would seem.

  The scars on the side of the boy’s head stood out clearly without the cover of hair, but somehow seemed less harsh than the first time Reiji had noticed them. The dark reddish-purple of the flesh had faded slightly to a more natural tone. The shape of the skull underneath was more normal as well. Rounded where it had been irregular and uneven before. Something was definitely happening to the boy. For better or worse remained to be seen.

  “Tod,” he began, calmly so as not to excite the boy too much. “We’ve got a fight on our hands. And I’m going to need your help.” The boy nodded and smiled, wiping sleep away from his eyes. Reiji assumed that he didn’t fully understand what had just been said.

  “Come with me,” Reiji continued as he moved to the rear compartment. “Get your blade and your med kit.” The boy moved quickly to obey, copying Reiji’s movements as he slung the broadsword across his shoulders and grabbed a Kevlar pouch that he’d prepared from the other med kits a few days ago. A variety of nanobot filled syringes were in each pouch. Two pouches total, one for each of them. Reiji attached his to his belt. In easy reach for himself and, more importantly, for the boy.

  “Remember,” he spoke evenly, looking the boy in the eyes. Something stirred there. He wasn’t sure how to describe it. Animal cunning perhaps. Possibly even the hint of intelligence. Or was it anticipation? Was the boy looking forward to cutting someone to pieces? Reiji pushed the distraction aside and continued. “If I’m wounded, use the medicine in this pouch on me. If you are wounded I will do the same for you.”

  Tod stared at Reiji, saying nothing, but nodded once. His knuckles grew white as he gripped the handle of his oversized kukri, and then relaxed into the grip Reiji had taught him. Perhaps the boy did realize what was about to happen.

  “And stay close to me,” Reiji continued. “You watch my back, and I watch yours. We’re not going to fight all of them. We cut a path through and we run.” Tod nodded once more and shifted his weight anxiously from foot to foot. To Reiji’s eyes it looked like the boy was warming up for his nightly workout. There might be hope yet of getting out of this alive.

  The door of the pilot’s cabin opened and Reiji stepped out, broadsword gripped in both hands. He carried the smaller blade, not entirely confident he could wield the Claymore in an effective manner. Voices echoed down the tunnel from both directions, signaling the approach of roughly twenty men from each direction.

  Two against forty, Reiji noted. It was difficult to imagine worse odds.

  Tod stepped beside Reiji, passing his blade from hand to hand and breathing quickly. A few men on in each approaching group raised what looked to be grenade launchers and aimed them at the two. Reiji considered his options briefly, seeing few. If they meant to fire explosives at him, he and the boy were as good as dead.

  A dull thud sounded as the launchers fired and Reiji relaxed, even if only slightly, when he saw the payload go airborne, trailing white smoke behind it. In almost the same instant he realized that the men marching towards him from both sides were wearing gas masks.

  Tear gas.

  The initial volley of canisters landed near the pair, already spewing the noxious mix of chemicals they carried out into the air. Tod ran to one and picked it up before he started choking and threw it away.

  “With me! Now!” Reiji shouted to the boy who ran to his side as the two began putting distance between themselves and the rapidly expanding cloud of gas. Perhaps realizing what Reiji intended to do, several of the men carrying the gas canister launchers simply opened the ammunition and carried it with them. Spreading a cloud of tear gas around the soldiers as they marched onward in formation, clubs brandished.

  They weren’t going to make things easy, Reiji realized as he closed to within twenty meters or so of the frontline. The airborne droplets of chemicals began to sting his throat and his nose as his eyes began to water uncontrollably. His throat began to constrict and he found himself fighting for breath as he continued moving.

  In what seemed to be no more than a few steps, Reiji and Tod were among them. Both choking and hacking frantically as the burning smoke swirled around them. Reiji realized that the batons were something more than just clubs when one scored a glancing blow on his shoulder.

  Pain flared across that entire half of his body. Burning and stinging its way out from the point of impact and leaving him reeling and weak in its aftermath. He missed a half step and another blow caught him in the lower back. The broadsword he gripped clattered to the ground and Tod screamed in anger a few steps behind him.

  Reiji feinted a fall and recovered at the last second to throw the nearest man over his shoulder and into the ground face first with a satisfying thud. He dropped just enough to grab his blade and shove it through another man’s thigh and leaving it there, hilt deep, before scooping up a fallen club.

  Tod was being swarmed by men, each striking at him with the stun-batons, and most blows were finding their mark. But surprisingly, the boy held onto his blade, and didn’t hesitate to strike back. The armor the men wore deflected most of the blows, but that didn’t stop blood from flowing. One man went down to his knees pressing his hands to his neck where he had been cut.

  If his friends got him help in time, he might survive.

  Reiji coughed violently and lost track of Tod in the stinging cloud. Someone moved near him and he hit them, hard, in the side of the head and then shoved the man out of his way as he collapsed to the ground. A blow hit his left arm, and it went numb for a second before feeling like it was on fire as it hung useless at his side. Reiji returned a blow of his own and someone swore. He was all but blind, stumbling through the stinging smoke.

  Tod yelled again and another man screamed. Sounds like the retard got one of them, Reiji thought just a fraction of a second before another blow smashed into his thigh, sending him to the ground. Tod screamed once more and then the unmistakable sound of a blade hitting the floor echoed through the hissing of the canisters dispersing the gas.

  Reiji tried to push to his feet, but a chorus of kicks greeted him, pinning him to the ground. Blow after blow of the truncheons rained down upon him. Someone screamed. He couldn’t tell if it was his own voice or not and then what remained of his vision blurred to darkness as his body went limp.

  He had no idea how much time had passed when he’d finally roused. He could see, but his eyes burned like he’d been out in the desert refusing to blink while staring at the sun for a few days. Reiji was seated against a cinderblock wall when he tried to stand. He only made it halfway before he realized that a solid iron collar had been fixed around his neck and a chain leading from it was fixed to the floor.

  If they had intended to kill him, he would be dead, Reiji figured. So he laid down on the floor and attempted to relax for a while, closing his eyes tight and hoping they would stop running soon. The stone tiles beneath him were reasonably cool. He couldn’t help but think he’d slept in far worse conditions. But where was the boy?

 
He turned his head to look in either direction around the room. Dimly lit, but still bright enough to see the far side. A door. No windows. And the opposite wall not very far away. The retard sat there, leaning back against the wall at an angle that made comfort an impossibility. He slept with his head hung off to the side. A crust of dried blood surrounded his mouth, but didn’t look to be his own.

  Apparently they’d worked the boy over, but he’d given almost as good as he’d gotten. An image danced through Reiji’s mind of the two being dragged side by side, the boy still occasionally kicking and spitting. Someone had tried to shove a gag in his mouth and Tod had bitten a finger from the offending hand.

  Hell of a lot of fight in that kid, Reiji thought as he looked at him. But not the kind that comes from being determined or from simply being a scrapper. That was something else altogether. Anger. Rage.

  Reiji laughed softly. The same word the boy used to address him personally. That was fine. Let the boy be angry. It will make him strong. And if I’m going to get out of here, Reiji thought, I’m going to need help. Help from strong people who don’t mind an unfair fight or two.

  The boy stirred but didn’t wake at the sound of Reiji’s light laughter. He’d been doing a lot of that lately, Reiji noted. Sleeping. If the two weren’t training or eating, it seemed to be all he did. A thought passed through his mind, not wholly formed, but leaving a distinct impression in its wake. A single word associated with it as well.

  Experimental.

  The boy was changing, day by day, right before Reiji’s eyes. Becoming something else. Something more than the simpleton who’d run off into the desert. To fight a dozen armed and hardened killers and two mechanical monsters. To die in an insane attempt to avenge his family.

  The sleep must have been a part of that. The changes being wrought within the boy’s body and mind required time and energy. Food and sleep. If they lived long enough for it to reach its end, Reiji would be very interested to see what would happen to the boy.