21st Century Orc

by Gregory Loui

  “Yeah, yeah. Now can you help me open this drawer,” hissed Gore as she leant her entire body away from the drawer. Damn, what was the desk made out of? Steel? Or elchite?

  As if he could hear Gore’s thoughts, Bones whistled and traced his claws across the grain. “Ooh… this is Hemair wood from the Blood forests deep within the Blight. Ultra dense and strong. Yeah, you’re never gonna break this open. We gotta think about finesse. Give me those lock picks. I’ll—”

  A cold wind ripped through the office, colder than death itself, cutting through into the orcs’ bones and choking the very life from their veins. For a split second, whispers crept out from the shadows almost like a disappointed teacher. For a single heartbeat, a hundred eyes glared at her, accusing. For the briefest possible instant, blood curled in the air, filling Gore’s nose.

  Then the moment ended and the office settled down, papers floating down into their neat little towers around Gore. Her eyes whipped about, searching for the presence she had sensed earlier. That deep malevolence and fear that lingered in the shadows. Ancient beyond measure.

  She found nothing.

  “Well, that wasn’t ominous or anything,” muttered Gore as she turned her attention back to the drawer. The wood gave. “Hm…”

  Without even the slightest trickle of strength, just the brush of her claws, the drawer slid open to reveal a stack of papers. And atop the stack, lay the spare keycard.

  “Ka-ching,” burped Bones, stepping to the side while Gore snatched up the keycard and exited the office. “Now the way’s all clear, right?”

  Holding the keycard in front of her, trying avoid the accusing glare emanating from the picture of the Dean, Gore smiled and murmured, “All clear. Now, follow me. The lab’s this way.”

  The two orcs tiptoed down a floor, avoiding another sentry golem patrolling the halls as they skulked down the row of labs. All but one of the labs were dark. Dropping into a crouch as alarm bells rung in her head, Gore blinked. All but one. And as luck would have it, it was the seven dwarves’ lab. The one she needed to get into. Just before she could walk into the lab, Gore cursed, “Shit, get down…”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Thieves and orcs

  Without a moment of hesitation, Bones face planted in the stones, his naked rump high in the air. Gore’s brother murmured, “What’s happening?”

  “I don’t know. Someone’s inside the lab we need to be in.” Gore edged her head up into the light and peered into the lab. “Blight… you’ve gotta be kidding me. Tawny?”

  The elf sat in the middle of the lab, tinkering with wires, sparks flying at her face and bouncing off dark welding goggles. Gore raised an eyebrow. Without her little gang around her, the elf seemed almost bigger, sharper than before. For once, the elf didn’t have any makeup on and had pulled back her long hair into a practical ponytail. The intense energy emanating out of the elf’s eyes could knock Gore into next week. What in the world?

  “I thought you said that elven bitch was a cognitive science major. What’s she doing in a engineering lab?” asked Bones as he settled into a sitting position.

  “Well, apparently she’s a renaissance elf…” Gore tapped her chin while she scanned the rest of the lab, looking for anyone else. “Hm, if I remember right, she’s double majoring in industrial design.”

  “Hehehe… what an overachiever.”

  Then somewhere in the distance, a toilet flushed and footsteps rang down the hallway. Gore and Bones exchanged a glance. They cursed as one.

  “Blight. Find somewhere to hide,” growled Gore, eyes whipping about, searching for a hiding space. A few carts and vending machines were throughout the hallway. No. Those were hiding places for people smaller than a six and a half foot tall orc. Her eyes settled on one of the other labs. One marked with a hazard sign. “Well, stray drakes can’t be picky.”

  “Say it, sister,” murmured Bones as Gore lunged for the door.

  Inserting the key card into the slot and shoving the door open, Gore dove into the lab, hands reaching out to flip off the lights before they came on. Her shoulder bulldozed into a barrel. As the barrel tipped over, her legs slipping out from under her, Gore hissed and grabbed the barrel’s lip. Just in time.

  But before Gore couldn’t even breath a sigh of relief, Bones smashed into her, sending both Gore and the barrel tumbling. Gore hissed, jumped and slid under the barrel, cushioning the fall with her own body, preventing any noise.

  “Bones, you jagder,” mutter Gore as she set the barrel down. “You utter ass…”

  “Ah, you love me,” chuckled Bones, flopping around on the floor like a fish. He squirmed over to the window.

  “No, I don’t,” growled Gore while Bones peeked his head out to examine who had flushed the toilet. “What do you see?”

  “A dwarf,” murmured Bones.

  Gore’s eyebrow’s shot up as she took a place at Bones’s side, growling, “Wait, a dwarf? Is it — Howard… I knew that jagder had something against me.”

  Howard, dressed in a pristine lab coat with his beard shaved into intricate swirls, stood next to Tawny, guiding the elf with one hand. Tawny whispered something too low for Gore to hear, causing both Howard and Tawny to laugh like maniacs.

  “Huh, looks like they’re having a good time. She seems much nicer when she’s without her posse. Almost like she’s a actual person,” murmured Bones, shaking his head. Then his eyes twinkled. “You think they’re a thing?”

  Gore snorted, though she had to press her hand against her mouth to stop the noise from carrying. Wiping her mouth, she glanced up and then chuckled, “I doubt it. There’s no way a elven girl would ever be interested in a dwarf male. I mean there’s a lot of elf boy and dwarf girl couples, but never any dwarf males and elf girl couples.”

  “Fascinating…”

  Gore raised an eyebrow but Bones seemed genuinely interested, his eyes clear for once.

  “I’m sure she’s just using him, tugging him along with flirtations and promises of friendship. Dwarves are too shy to speak up for themselves.” Gore’s lips twisted. And dwarf boys always ignored her, even if she was the only competent female in class.

  “You have a fairly limited worldview. Debbie clearly demonstrates otherwise.” Bones smirked.

  Gore smiled, her eyes sliding to the side as she remembered some fond memories. Distracting memories of wilder, drunker days. “She’s an exception that proves the rule. Now, are we gonna continue with the tribal commentary or get to work?”

  “Why not both? I don’t see how we can get in there without them noticing. And…” Bones gestured to the Dakka. “You won’t let me…”

  “As tempting as that offer is. No. Just no,” growled Gore, shaking her head. For a brief moment, she envisioned both Howard and Tawny bleeding out on the white lab floor. She chuckled but bile rose up in her throat as the mental image congealed in her mind. No. Not even bullies and obstacles deserved to be murdered in cold blood. “Too much evidence.”

  “Hehehe… for a moment, I thought you actually went soft on me,” laughed Bones, eyes flashing gold as he pat Gore on the head. “You’re adorable when you show that soft side, you know?”

  Gore opened her mouth and closed her fist to reply but then Howard said, “… beat Gore. You sure you wanna keep working on this? It’s three AM. Not like you need to prepare anymore.”

  Heart skipping a beat, almost unable to comprehend what the dwarf said, Gore raised an eyebrow and edged a little higher. She glared at Tawny’s face as the elf welded a new strand of glint to her project. The intense look of concentration only deepened at the mention of Gore.

  “No,” hissed Tawny, snatching her wand from the ground and waving it over her project. Glowing dust fell on the wires. Cheater, Gore growled. “There’s no way in the Blight I’m going to let that orc win. She’s no right to come in here and claim what isn’t hers. Just because she’s a—urgh… I’m a women, I faced discrimination. I had to scrape and claw for everything as well. I�
��m not going to just let this chance with Agnis fall through my fingers.”

  “She’s an orc. Working with barely any tech. Most of the replicator parts I gave Debbie couldn’t possibly fit into that weird, black box she’s developing in Professor Potter’s lab. Trust me, I’ve seen the blueprints. They’re for a car.”

  “A car? Why would she need a car? She takes the bus everywhere!”

  “No, I don’t,” growled Gore, rising up. “Blight, Howard’s telling her about the upgrades to the Magnum Orcus. What if they realize I’m participating in the Underground Grand Prix?”

  “Relax, idiot little sis,” chuckled Bones, grabbing Gore’s shoulder and yanking her down before she could do anything stupid. “They’re upper-middle class college students. The social-economic sphere that they inhabit can’t possibly comprehend what sort of illegal activities we engage in.”

  “What the jagd?” hissed Gore, more shocked at Bones’s use of words with more than two syllables than anything else.

  Bones scoffed, “I can speaked good too. Now, hush. I think they’re talking about you again.”

  “I’m a popular conversation topic. Now, shush.”

  “Damn,” hissed Tawny as a burst of sparks almost consumed her face. She jabbed out with her wand and formed a translucent sphere of energy around her to contain the blast. As she waved around her wand and forced the wiring back into place, she murmured, “What will it take to get rid of that pest? She was almost expelled and yet she managed to get away with an academic suspension. Now, she’s making a car and entering the magic fair? She doesn’t know when to quit.”

  “Careful there, I almost detected a hint of admiration in your voice,” laughed Howard, pulling out a fire extinguisher from the wall. He sprayed down both Tawny and her project.

  “Hey!”

  “Oh, oops. Sorry~”

  Tawny glared at Howard for a long moment before she sighed and growled, “I just recognize a threat. To you and me and everyone in the college. If she becomes successful and starts bringing in more orcs, what will happen? There’ll be no room left for people like you and me. People who had to earn their place rather than orc redemption or other beast race initiatives.”

  A growl rising within her, Gore almost leapt for Tawny’s throat. How dare the elf say that Gore hadn’t made her way into Elvenheim through her own hard work. How dare she say that Gore only got in thanks to some twerp in a suit.

  Gore had to fight —physically in some cases— everyday throughout high school just for textbooks and the right to go to class. And every night, she had stayed up till sunrise studying. She had earned that four-point-oh on her transcript. She had earned her college acceptance letter. And she had earned her place in the world of academia.

  Gore would not let anyone steal from her. Not elves, orcs or gods.

  Then Howard murmured, “You know it wasn’t too long ago that people said the same thing about dwarves. When we started flooding the country from the Sanguine Seas. When we built your whole damn economy by sacrificing our bodies to build your demon railroads.”

  “But that’s not the same. You were civilized. You didn’t riot in the streets. You didn’t—”

  “Because you elves lynched us and beat us and broke us whenever we tried to speak up for ourselves,” growled Howard, his voice fierce enough to cut through steel. Gore whistled. Damn. A fire raged within the dwarf. A fire not unlike the one she hid inside her own heart. “We learned to be quiet.”

  “I, um… no. That can’t be right. We would never be so uncivilized.”

  “Read a history book. You’ll find worse shit than any orc war band. Ever heard of the dwarven relocation camps? Or the mass lynching of orcs near the border?”

  “We… Leaf above.” Tawny shook her head. “Don’t try to guilt trip me. Please don’t. We need to focus on the present and moving forward. Not on the ancient past.”

  Howard snorted, “The past is one I and many other ‘tamed races’ still live with. You can compare the past to the present and see progress made, or you can compare the present to the future and see what progress still needed.”

  “Kick her out. Kick her out. Kick her the jagd out,” whispered Gore under her breath, crossing her fingers, wishing with all her might that someone above would answer her. But the orc gods died long ago.

  “Look. I’m sorry about the injustices you faced. I really am… but I can’t do anything about it. So can we please focus?” asked Tawny as her eyes bulged and lips quivered. “Please. I won’t bring up Gore again if it bothers you. I just need to use this lab for a little while longer.”

  “And so she pulls out the wounded gryphon tactic,” muttered Gore, shaking her head in disbelief. Unbelievable.

  Howard fell for it hook line and sinker, sighing as he trudged to the side and muttered, “Fine. You can continue working. Just… I don’t know. All this crap about our peoples’ history is too confusing. I doubt we can ever find a way around it.”

  True, Gore muttered to herself. And the situation would never change with people like those two controlling the conversation. When people like Tawny try to secure their own place without a regard to anyone else on the same path, making success a limited resource. When people like Howard refused to stand up for what was right and just let the issues lie festering under the surface, ready to boil up once more at any moment.

  And when people like Gore still existed, when there were people and the “others.”

  Gore shook her head. Too much philosophy. Not enough stealing.

  “So… what now? You think they’re going to leave?” asked Bones as he checked his watch. “Hm… yeah. We got only a few more minutes left before four AM. I’m not sure if we should stick around any longer after that.”

  “Agreed. But… I got a feeling Tawny’s gonna stay in through the morning. She’s something of a perfectionist… therefore, we can’t wait them out. Somehow we need to get them out of there,” growled Gore, eyes scanning the room, looking for a way to make Tawny leave. “Somehow…”

  “Quick, Gore. Think!” hissed Bones, his lips twisting into a smile as his eyes twinkled. “Use that big head of yours.”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” hissed Gore, racking her brain for any ideas. Her eyes settled on an glint box down the hallway. Risky. Could she take out the glint-power and scurry off with the blood gem before Howard or Tawny turned the emergency power back on? Could she avoid detection from both them and the sentry golems while she snuck into the lab?

  Rubbing her hands together as she shoved that idea to the side for now, saving it as a last resort, Gore looked around for other options. A gas leak? No, Gore shook her head. Too suspicious, and potentially dangerous. Fire? Same problems. Any other sort of distractions carried same or even high levels of risk.

  “So you gonna make a decision anytime in two thousand AT?” asked Bones as he flicked off the Dakka’s safety. “Otherwise, I’m just about ready to go guns blazing.”

  “No!” barked Gore, slapping down the Dakka’s barrel. She glanced down the hall at the glint box. Sigh, Gore rubbed her temples. Perhaps she needed to trust her instincts and choose the least worst option. “Gods damn it… wait, here and get ready to move on my mark.”

  “What’s gonna be your signal?” asked Bones, flicking the safety back on. His tusks gleamed yellow.

  “Darkness. Pure unrelenting darkness,” growled Gore through gritted teeth.

  “Ooh… sooo ominous. Just don’t jagd anything up.”

  “Don’t worry.” Blood pounding in her head, Gore crept out of the door and into the hallway, keeping her head low as she crept down to the glint box. She just needed to get inside and jagd some shit up. Simple but elegant.

  Ignoring Howard and Debbie’s laughter echoing down the hallway, Gore examined the lock and then pulled out her set of lock picks.

  Though Bones was the better of the two at lock picking, Gore could enter any damned building she pleased. As long as no magic shielded the locks. Gore crossed he
r fingers. Then she blinked and noticed a slot for a keycard next to the glint box.

  “Hm…” Gore inserted the Dean’s keycard into the slot. Nothing. Just a flash of red lights. Damn, Gore cursed to herself as she looked back at the lock. The engravings around the lock didn’t look promising. Gore rubbed her hands together. She didn’t want to break her backup set of lock picks. “Hm…”

  Unlike the gate at the bottom of the castle, the magic runes weren’t too intricate. Probably not powerful, Gore noted as she reached into her bag. She pulled out another set of pellets. Perhaps a acute glint-power overload could destroy the enchantment. And jagd up the wiring without Gore having to get her hands dirty.

  Two drakes with one stone.

  Gore inserted the pellets into her launcher, taking a step back and aiming right at the lock. Let’s hope this works, Gore growled to herself as she shot the pellets at the glint box.

  Sparks flew out, flowing out around the mass of blue ooze bubbling on the surface. Raw lightning arched through the ooze for a brief moment as the engraved runes flared across the surface of the glint box. Gore flinched. Smoke bit Gore’s nose, driving her back. The air hummed around Gore, the ground shaking beneath her feet.

  Then all the lights in the lab died. The castle went silent for a split second.

  “What the jagd?” screamed Tawny. Gore smiled, savoring the sound and saving it for later. “What the jagd is happening?”

  “I don’t know!” shouted Howard as a bang came from within the lab. A cascade of metal bouncing on the floor echoed down the hall. “Ow, jagd shit ass bitch. I think I broke all my toes!”

  “Just stand still, you idiot!”

  Stowing the launcher away in her backpack and pulling out the last piece of equipment, Gore started slinking back to the lab. As soon as they went out to check on the glint box, she needed to rush in and steal the blood gem. Easy peasy.

  Howard’s voice muttered, “Come on. I need to check on the glint box. This is probably a power outage from someone using too much energy…”