21st Century Orc

by Gregory Loui

  “Next time, you’ll find nothing,” said Gore, jerking her chin out to the streets behind the cop, pushing away the cop’s exploring claw. “Now, don’t you have actual criminals to catch?”

  “I know ‘em when I see ‘em,” rumbled the cop before arching his head back into the howl.

  A suffocating moment later, the cop loped down the street, weaving in and out of the flickering street lights.

  When the cop’s tail disappeared behind a street corner five blocks down, Gore let go of her breath at last and sagged to her knees, collapsing on the cool concrete. She, glancing at her watch, waited a full minute before she picked herself up.

  Just in case the cop came back.

  Once Gore made sure no lingering eyes followed her, she closed the garage door and shut off the Magnum Orcus. Her fingers lingered on the steering wheel, however, for a little longer. Her claws traced the etchings of monsters and orc heroes carved into the wrought iron.

  Her mother’s smile flashed before Gore as she stopped on the symbol at the center. A flower surrounded by swords and flames. Their family’s symbol. An ancient symbol derived from before written history, long before the war with the elves three hundred years ago. Though the exact meaning had been lost along with Gore’s mother.

  The sight of her mother’s cocksure grin flashing before Gore’s eyes, she thought of the happier days when her mother took Gore and Bones out on a wild drive through the Blight deserts, where sand and jagged peaks filled the earth up to the horizon, where giant insects and walking plants danced under the blistering sun. When her mother’s strong laughter boomed across the road over the roar of the Magnum Orcus. When Gore did not have to worry about the future. When she didn’t know the meaning of the words fear or pain.

  If only she was here. Gore could use her now.

  Then her brother knocked on the Magnum Orcus, drawing Gore out of her little reverie.

  “Help!” wheezed Bones between gasps and hacking coughs.

  As she rose and walked around the Magnum Orcus, rubbing her hands, glancing down at her scars, Gore sighed, “Coming!”

  She opened the back to release a thick cloud of intoxicating gas. Enough that even the merest whiff almost sent her into the clouds. And her brother sat in the center of the cloud, listening to something with his headphones on. Gore assumed whatever it was was idiotic.

  “You were smoking Blight bug?” asked Gore, snatching the pipe from her brother’s hands and smashing the glass tube with her wrench. Then she kicked the remains of the pipe into one of the many cracks in her garage wall.

  “Hey…” managed Bones through a grin that split his face from ear to ear. His dull eyes rolled up into the back of his head. Streams of vapor spilled out every orifice in his face. “That wasn’t… wasn’t… wa…”

  Biting back a sigh, Gore rolled her eyes as she bent down and lifted her brother from the trunk. She gasped, feeling her brother’s bones through his green skin. Bones truly lived up to his namesake. He couldn’t have been more than a hundred pounds at most.

  For a brief moment, emotions welling up from what she had assumed had dried up long ago, Gore opened her mouth to say something, to comfort her brother.

  “Damn, girl!” said Bones, interrupting whatever idiocy might have spilled from Gore’s lips. “You got some major biceps since I last saw ya. Been working out? Hehe… no boy will ever love a she-beast…”

  As she opened the door to her apartment and began the awkward, unwelcome journey of dragging her brother up the stairs, Gore chuckled and cursed in the same breath, “Nothing ever changes, does it? Not the world. Not us…”

  Once a fool, always a fool.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Idiot brother

  Once Bones had returned to the realm to the living, after an hour of nonstop giggling and hazed murmurs, after Gore had forced him to drink a gallon of water and change out of his ragged clothes, the two siblings sat on opposite sides of a torn couch balancing atop the roof of Gore’s apartment. Above the siblings hung the two moons, twin orbs of gold. Beneath them lay the city of angels, burning with glint-powered light like a forest lit on fire, despite Gore’s watch signaling the time as two in the morning.

  “Lovely view,” said Bones as he sipped a cup of coffee. He tapped the headphones resting on his ears. “Really does wonders for the mood, looking down at all those little lights clustered, huddling in between a forest of concrete. Almost as if… as if, at any moment, those sparks might all rise up into the night sky…”

  Glancing out of the side of her vision, keeping her face pointed towards the distance, Gore raised an eyebrow. When did Bones ever try poetry? Not when she knew him. Though she wouldn’t disagree with him.

  Tao Ein at night could be mistaken as beautiful. The night hid the decrepit and crumbling buildings at the fringe, leaving only the central jewels illuminated. Gore’s gaze started at the Narrows, from the orc district, where Gore lived and where crumbling ruins leant against one another with barely enough space between for any roads, structures built over one another in artificial mountains. Then her gaze swept up to the industrial districts, where towering factories belched embers into the night sky. A sharp line split the city, a concrete wall cutting houses and hopes in half, keeping the orcs from jobs and a good life. Same with all the districts.

  Ignoring the elvish suburbs separated from the rest of the city by the river, where green overflowed in a dense jungle, Gore turned her gaze downtown to the gleaming skyscrapers, blades cutting through the smog and darkness, glittering, gothic architecture fused with high tech steel and glass, gleaming as a beacon of hope. She glared at what forever lay out of reach.

  It was quite the view, if one could ignore the scent of piss and thousands of unwashed orcs and other less desirable races rising up from below. A sweeping marvel of engineering and massed life, countless buildings sweeping up from the coast and sprawling over the surrounding hills.

  And a terrible place to live.

  “Whatcha listening to?” asked Gore, turning her attention back to her brother. Bones’s lips whispered under his breath, too low for Gore to hear.

  Her brother ignored her, not showing even the slightest reaction.

  Gore sighed and snatched the headphones off Bones’s pointed ears.

  “Hey! What was that for? I was getting to the good part!” said Bones, setting down his coffee as he tried to snatch the headphones back.

  “What are you listening to?” demanded Gore again, planting her off hand against her brother’s face to keep him away as she examined the headphones. She lifted the headphones to her ears.

  “…And so the elf raised his sword high, bringing it down in like a shower of stars, crushing the hordes of orcs all around him, cleansing the world of their filth…” crackled the headphones with their signature glint-power hiss.

  “The Chronicles of the Star Jewels?” Gore raised an eyebrow. “Why are you listening to elvish literature?”

  “It’s interesting. What? I can be sophisticated. See? I just used a six syllable word,” smirked Bones, trying to squeeze past Gore’s claws. His hand scraped against the headphones for a brief second before Gore leaned back out of his reach. “Now, give me back my headphones…”

  “Five syllables,” said Gore, mind racing down the road. Why would Bones try listen to elvish literature? He’d never shown any interest beforehand. In fact, Gore had been able to reliably scare Bones away with a book, like scaring a rock goblin with soap.

  Had her brother changed?

  No, Gore shook her head. No. The world couldn’t change so much.

  “What?” asked Bones, poking Gore in the shoulder.

  Gore rolled her eyes. “Sophisticated is a five syllable word.”

  “Oh.” Bones stopped for a moment and counted on his fingers. “Oh… hey! You still haven’t given me back my headphones!”

  “Fine,” grumbled Gore, handing Bones his Blighted headphones.

  “Thank you, bitch.” Bones punched Gore in
the shoulder. A light punch for once.

  “You’re welcome, bastard.” Her eyes burning red, Gore punched her brother in the shoulder. But unlike him, she didn’t hold back.

  Bones toppled over the side of the couch. For a moment, he groaned and glared at Gore. A growl built in his throat. Gore frowned and clenched her fist. Then Bones laughed, arching his head back to the moons above. Pausing for just a heartbeat, Gore followed her brother’s lead.

  The two siblings sat there laughing at each other and their lives for a while before it finally subsided, fading into that awkward silence between almost strangers.

  Returning her gaze to the city below, the light flickering beneath her, Gore’s mind retread old memory roads as her smile faded, into the Old Narrows, before the flames cleansed her past. She had almost forgotten how to laugh with her brother. Felt good, like she had ripped out her chest and cleared away all the pent up emotions. Almost normal.

  Though in truth, it was never so simple.

  “So why’d you come? You need to lay low?” asked Gore, breaking the silence. She never had much patience for mind games. Or politeness. “Why d’ya want to risk your life in the Grand Prix?”

  Bones licked his lips. “In a way, let’s just say I didn’t get out of the ‘university’ for good behavior…”

  “Who do ya owe?” demanded Gore, rubbing her hands. She traced the little scars almost faded. Almost. Gore raised an eyebrow, considering how dire Bones’s situation could be. Given her brother’s proclivity towards spending cash and ignoring anything close to common sense, it would make sense that he’d go to some loan sharks. Maybe the Bone-picker or the—

  “Everyone,” said Bones without a trace of sarcasm.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Absolute Idiot

  Gore growled, “That’s not an answer.”

  “But it is the unfortunate truth.” Bones tapped his chin for a moment, eyes turning up into the air. “Let’s see… The Squirrels, owe them all three of my kidneys… the Iron Breakers, owe them about a hundred units of steel… and then the lower gangs, owe them all something around a grand each… Oh, wait, right, there’s the Warboyz, owe them about five kilos of pixie dust and a hundred grand…” Gore spat out her coffee, her entire body going cold. No one, not even the army, messed with the Warboyz. “Yup. That’s everyone.”

  “How’d you end up owing everyone money?”

  “Not just money.” Bones reached for his pipe. Only Gore had smashed the damned thing just an hour ago. He cursed, “Blight, damn it, little sis. You know how much that pipe cost me?”

  Ignoring her brother’s complaint, Gore slapped her palm against her forehead and growled, “Oh, that’s just typical. And I thought you said you went sober.”

  “Sober only applies to alcohol,” burped Bones, thumping his chest and hacking up a ball of fur. Chitin limbs and tentacles still wriggled within the scrap.

  Wincing and kicking whatever had jumped out of Bones off the rooftop, Gore said, “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Yes. It does.”

  “This is coming from the guy who miscounted the number of syllables in sophisticated.”

  “Hey! That’s—”

  “We’re getting off topic,” said Gore, gesturing out to the city below. The city teeming with gangs ready to tear her brother apart. If Gore had the courage, she would have thrown her brother from the rooftop. “So —if I got this straight— you want to use the Magnum Orcus to win the Grand Prix and pay off all the gangs with the prize money. And somehow you’re gonna stay alive in the the process.”

  “That’s right.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “Also right,” cackled Bones as he pulled out a blunt from a place Gore didn’t want to think about and lit it with a scrape of his claws. “Though, per usual, you drew a picture without all of the colors.”

  “Don’t go fake poet on me.”

  Bones took a deep breath of Blight bug, smoke hissing out of his ears as he smiled. Then, eyes flashing black as the Solemn Lake, Gore’s older brother murmured, “I owe everyone in this blasted world something one way or the other but there’s one person I owe the most, owe almost everything to. A new boss in the underworld. She goes by the name of Momma G.”

  “Never heard of her,” said Gore as she set down her cup of coffee, crossing her arms. “In fact, a part of me is making a really good case for the idea that you made her up.”

  “Oh. No. No. No. She’s real alright. Real as you and me,” Bones smirked as he rubbed the scars on his wrists. His eyes glinted gold and playful for a split second before he glanced back down at his feet and murmured, “Full of anger just waiting to be unleashed upon this world. But brilliant. Brilliant enough to get into that college you’re in —whatever it’s called. And terrifying beyond reason.”

  “Get to the point.”

  Bones stood up, teetering on the edge of the rooftop. He spread out his arms, embracing the sky, and turned around to Gore, said, “She wants to make a name for herself in the underworld. And the best way is to win the Grand Prix. So… I win the Grand Prix and she wipes away my debt. Plus, there’d be enough left over to set us both up for life.”

  “Or for you, about a day,” noted Gore as her brother stepped back to her side. “Bones… even with the Magnum Orcus, we wouldn’t have a one-in-a-million chance. The gangs play for keeps. They got the best cars. They got military equipment. They got armies. If we make even the slightest mistake…”

  Gore mimed slitting her own throat.

  Though in truth, their deaths would not be as clean. The Warboyz relished making examples of any upstarts. Gore tried not to think about it. And failed. She shivered, cold sweat beading on her forehead.

  “Come on… we can totally do this. This will just be like old times. You in the driver seat. Me in the back, shooting at those motherjagders,” laughed Bones. Though Gore recoiled at the thought of going back to the old days, a part of her chuckled. “I just need to call cousin Kalask and have him—”

  “No,” said Gore, shaking her head as cold hands settled on her body. She shook. No. Not again. “Even if I said yes, there’s no way I’m gonna get within more than a mile of that bastard. And as for whether I’d even consider doing this?”

  Gore stood up and faced her older brother, locking her eyes with him.

  He seemed so small. Hard to believe that no more than a few years ago, he loomed over her like a mountain. Her rock in the storm as the whole world crumbled to pieces around her, even if he had left so many scars, even if he had driven her away. There had been a bond between the two, a bond that only those of the same brood could understand. Now…

  Almost-strangers lost in the city, crossing paths if only for a moment.

  Gore licked her lips, then looked away and murmured, “I’m sorry but I’m not gonna help you. I have a life I need to take care of. I’ve got a bright future in mechanical engineering that depends on a scholarship. If I jagd this up by getting caught by the police or a gang…”

  The depths of the slums beckoned Gore, whispering promises of the past, threats of the future. If Gore took a single step off her path… she would fall into that pit and never get back up. She could not afford to become just another orc. She had to rise above her people.

  “Gore…” said Bones. “Think of the glory. Think of the money. Five million dollar leafs. Even if I have to give most of it to Momma G, that still leaves us with an insane amount of money. If we win this, you wouldn’t have to go to college…”

  But Gore just shook her head and said, “I can’t drive if you’re gonna involve cousin Kalask and I won’t give you the Magnum Orcus.”

  “Come on. Please do this for me…” Bones clasped Gore’s shoulder, his claws pulled back. A slight warmth trickled through his fingers into Gore’s flesh but she did not accept Bones’s desperation.

  Gore shook her brother’s trembling hand off.

  “I won’t help you with your Blight-brained schemes,” growled Gore, ready to throw her
brother once more out of her life. Her hands curled into fists, scars shining bright in the twilight of city lights. And yet… Gore’s mother whispered in her ear. She glanced at Bones, eyes black. He was all she had left of her family.

  Family before all else. Even the world.

  Gore sighed and nodded. She said, “But… I can let you stay here for a little bit. Just for a few nights. But you have to sleep on the floor. And you have to buy your own food. And no smoking in my room. Deal?”

  Bones said nothing for a second that felt like a year. Then he nodded and said, “Understood, Gore. I’ll just crash for the weekend. I’ll be out of here by Moon Day.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Gore turned back around and asked, “What do you mean? You do know tonight is Sun Da— Blight… I gotta prepare for class.”

  “What?” This time, Bones raised his eyebrow in confusion as he settled back into the couch. He took another long draught of Blight bug. “Oh… right. Forgot you’re a student… but you know, you can’t keep the orc inside you hidden forever… just you wait…”

  Shaking her head, Gore looked at her watch as she paced across the rooftop. Three o’clock. If she went to sleep right now, she would get maybe two hours of sleep. Just an hour less than usual… “Yeah. See. That’s what happens when you actually try to improve your life. You have things to do other than jagding sitting on your ass and getting stoned.”

  Bones blinked at her through the haze, breathing in for at least an hour before he sputtered, “Oh, wait, what? Are you talking about me?”

  As she walked away from her brother, striding off the rooftop into the bowels of her dinky apartment, Gore slapped her hand against her forehead, said, “Jagding idiot. Wish I could just—argh!”

  But she couldn’t choose her family.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Interlude

  The Orc strode through the night, tasting colors in the air as sound waves wobbled in front of him. So many colors crawling out of the night. So much noise worming into his skull. So much life bursting in between concrete graves disguised as waves. He chuckled, wiping off the bits of Blight bug stuck to his lips. Even in the deep of night, the city was alive. Tao Ein’s second heart hummed, whispering to him, asking him to dive deeper into its twisted briar. He strode past the outskirts of the Narrows at the edge of the Dwarven District towards the mountain of houses and crumbling skyscrapers at the center.