Red Waters

by Charles Rye

"That's why I came up here, you have to come see it," Koriphus replied gesturing for them to follow him.

  "See what?" Caliphar asked as he and Aurelia followed him down into the chamber.

  Before Koriphus could answer the question, Caliphar looked up to see the Destroyer suspended in the tube looking directly at him.

  Koriphus turned his back to Caliphar and faced the Destroyer, slowly lifting his hand up above his head, the Destroyer following his movement.

  "This is why I wanted you two to come down here,"

  "One second the creature was just staying as still as a statue and the next, it was following every movement I made‚" Koriphus explained turning back around to face Caliphar and Aurelia.

  Aurelia glanced at the Destroyer over Koriphus' shoulder and noticed it staring back at her directly.

  "And every time it follows my movements, the monitor goes crazy‚"

  "Watch,"

  Koriphus turned back to face the Destroyer and slowly moved his hand back and forth in front of the Destroyer's face, its black eyes following it.

  Aurelia and Caliphar glanced sideways at the monitor just as it began beeping wildly, the screen showing the Destroyer's brain activity was going berserk.

  "Holy crap‚" Caliphar muttered under his breath.

  "So what does this mean?" Aurelia asked looking at Koriphus.

  "Honestly I have no idea, maybe you can find some kind of research papers on this particular Destroyer," He replied.

  "We're having a little trouble with that, there's so much to go through and I really want to find Vixen‚"

  "That bitch just up and vanished right under our noses and I'm going to make sure we find her," Aurelia remarked.

  "Aurelia, come up here! Now!" Norenia called from the top of the stairs.

  Aurelia walked towards the bottom and peered up at Norenia, to see she was holding some papers in her right hand.

  "What is it, Norenia?" Aurelia inquired as she made her way up the stairs.

  "Sif just found these papers in a folder; they were attached to this‚ Best we could figure was it was some kind of map‚" Norenia replied handing Aurelia the papers and folded up map.

  "Thanks, I'll check these out now," Aurelia said with a half smile.

  She unfolded the map carefully; the edges looked worn and old.

  "Caliphar, get your ass up here now!"

  "Koriphus too!" Aurelia unexpectedly shouted as she glanced down at the map.

  "What's wrong?" Caliphar huffed as he and Koriphus came running up the stairs.

  "Sif found these, they look like research papers pertaining to Prototype. You should have fun going through and figuring them out, Koriphus," Aurelia replied as she turned to face them both.

  She handed the papers to Koriphus with a grin.

  "This is a map and I think I know where it will lead us, Caliphar and I will take a Jeep and go on ahead,"

  "Norenia, I want you to go find Zandrem and Royena, tell them to come find me and Caliphar and then tell Sif and Soraf where we went," Aurelia continued as she looked at Caliphar and Norenia.

  They all looked back at Aurelia with similar looks of confusion on their faces.

  "Well? What are you all waiting for?" Aurelia inquired.

  Koriphus swiftly made his way back down the stairs with the papers clutched in his hands.

  Norenia dashed off across the hangar to find Zandrem and the others.

  Caliphar stood still, the look of confusion stuck on his face.

  "I'm driving," Aurelia grinned wide as she suddenly grabbed Caliphar' arm and dragged him off towards the spare Jeeps.

  "Exactly where is that map telling us to go in the middle of the night into an open desert full of Destroyers and soldiers out for fresh blood?" Caliphar pondered aloud as he climbed into the passenger side of the Jeep Aurelia had chosen.

  "It's telling us where we can find our stolen weapons and possibly Vixen, if I get to her before the Destroyers do," Aurelia responded sliding into the driver's seat, shoving the key in the ignition.

  "That reminds me,"

  "Reminds you of what?" Caliphar questioned.

  She stuck two fingers into the corners of her mouth and whistled, which caused Zxeron to come running towards the Jeep and jumping into the backseat.

  "We're going in unarmed, we'll need backup and Zxeron is the best backup to have right now," Aurelia explained, scratching the large Destroyer's chin.

  "Better than nothing, let's go," Caliphar said with a grin.

  Aurelia started up the Jeep and put the pedal to the floor as she raced through the hangar doors and onto the tarmac, the tires squealing against the still wet ground as they practically flew past the gate.

  "Do you think maybe you could slow down just a tad, Aurelia?" Caliphar managed to say as he grasped onto the overhead bar of the Jeep, fearing for his life.

  Zxeron dug his claws into the backseat as he hunched down behind the back of Caliphar' seat to keep the rushing air out of his eyes.

  "No can do, I wanna get to Vixen before the Destroyers and soldiers do," Aurelia replied as she steered the Jeep through a path of jagged rocks and sand dunes.

  "I can see that, but is it really necessary to go nearly a hundred over the speed limit?" Caliphar remarked glancing at the speedometer.

  "Do you see any speed limit signs out here?" Aurelia said with a chuckle.

  "Well no, but still‚"

  He got cut off mid-sentence as Aurelia steered the Jeep towards a rather steep sand dune.

  "Hold on!" Aurelia hollered as she drove up the dune.

  "Woohoo!" She screamed in excitement as the Jeep went rushing down the other side of the dune.

  Zxeron howled happily as he slowly straightened up.

  "At least someone's enjoying himself," Aurelia laughed glancing over her shoulder at Zxeron.

  Zxeron abruptly stopped howling and began to growl from deep within his throat, making a somewhat guttural noise that made Aurelia and Caliphar scan their surroundings.

  "What is it boy?" Aurelia whispered quietly as she felt the fur on the back of her neck stand on end.

  "Must be something we can't see, it's dark as Hell out here even with the Jeep's high beams on," Caliphar whispered as he peered at the dark desert landscape.

  "Shit‚" Aurelia hissed, having forgotten about the high beams being on.

  "I should' a turned them off‚"

  Zxeron's growling became more intense as he stared off into the distance ahead of the Jeep's high beams as a dark figure started to become clearer as it approached the Jeep at a fast run.

  "Yo! We gotta get outta here as fast as possib‚" the figure's voice became muffled as something grabbed it from behind and put a rag over its mouth.

  "Vorenzar, what the fuck are you doing out‚"

  Aurelia blew breath out of her nose as someone grabbed her and folded her arms behind her back.

  "Here‚" She muttered the rest of her sentence.

  "You gotta be fucking kidding me‚" Caliphar grumbled as rough hands dragged him from the Jeep.

  "You will all be very silent or you will be killed," a rasping voice spoke from behind Vorenzar, the figure's face was partially covered by a bandanna.

  "I'm getting really tired of this being captured bullshit‚" Aurelia mumbled as the man behind her handcuffed her wrists together.

  "Be quiet," the man replied as he slapped her across the face.

  Caliphar growled angrily at the man who struck Aurelia.

  "Calm down big guy, we won't hurt your girl‚ Much‚" the man behind him whispered.

  "Get the mutt too, that's the one we keep hearing about‚ The disobedient mutt that defied his owners,"

  A man wielding a cattle prod approached Zxeron, who was still in the Jeep and quickly struck him with the cattle prod causing Zxeron to collapse from shock.

  Going on a hunch

  "Any sign of them yet?" Royena asked as she drove through the dark desert.

  Sif and Zandrem were standing
in the back of the Jeep, holding onto the sidebars for balance.

  "Nope, not yet," Zandrem replied shaking her head.

  "Didn't Norenia say they were heading this way?" Sif inquired, glancing at the back of Royena's head.

  "She said they were following a map you found with a bunch of papers about that Destroyer they got Koriphus babysitting," Royena responded, swerving to avoid a jagged rock in the Jeep's path.

  Sif and Zandrem tightened their grip on the sidebars to keep from falling out the back.

  "Well we would've spotted them by now, we've been driving at least an hour or so‚" Sif replied.

  "Hey guys‚ is that a Jeep up ahead?" Zandrem interrupted, pointing off into the distance.

  Sif and Royena looked in the direct Zandrem was pointing and spotted the dark outline of a Jeep fifteen feet ahead of them.

  Royena pulled up beside it and killed the engine to their Jeep.

  "This can't be good‚" Sif said in shock when she noticed the other Jeep was empty.

  She and Zandrem jumped out of the back of the Jeep to check out the one Aurelia and Caliphar had taken.

  "There's claw marks in the backseat‚" Zandrem said pointedly.

  "They did take Zxeron, those could be from him for all we know, let's not assume the worst just yet," Royena said getting out of the Jeep as she looked up at Zandrem and Sif

  "Here, take these and look for tracks or footprints," She added, handing them each a flashlight.

  Sif took the flashlight offered to her and clicked it on, aiming it at the sandy desert ground and looked around the Jeep for signs of anyone being near it.

  "This isn't going to be easy, the winds are picking up and blowing away any sign of anyone being anywhere near this Jeep, apart from us," Zandrem said in a cynical tone of voice.

  "Well, don't raise our hopes too high now, Zandrem," Royena remarked sarcastically looking at Zandrem, her flashlight's ray going across the sand behind Zandrem.

  "Hang on‚" Royena continued, aiming her flashlight at the sand past Zandrem.

  "What's that?" She asked flashing her beam across something metal in the sand.

  "Are those keys?" Sif asked as Royena walked past Zandrem.

  Royena bent down and dug the object out of the sand before straightening back up.

  "Jeep keys‚" She replied holding up the keys.

  "That can't be a good sign," Sif said with a heavy sigh.

  "Well they could have been abducted, that would explain the lack of tracks around the Jeep," Zandrem remarked as she looked at the keys.

  "It also means finding and killing whoever abducted them, if someone doesn't get to us," Royena said looking between Zandrem and Sif.

  "Then we should start looking for any other sign that might lead us in the right direction," Sif replied.

  "This should be fun‚" Zandrem muttered under her breath.

  Royena and Sif both looked up at Zandrem.

  "Should we go back to the hangar and tell the others?" Zandrem asked looking back at them both.

  "No need, there's a radio in the Jeep," Royena answered.

  "Then maybe you should radio the others, let them know what's going on," Zandrem replied.

  "Might as well, they'll need to know where to start looking if we go missing too," Sif interjected, glancing at Royena.

  Royena leaned into their Jeep and turned on the radio mounted to the dashboard as she grabbed the walkie-talkie attached to it, only to get a crackling sound.

  "What the heck? It's not working‚" She announced dropping the walkie-talkie, letting it hang from its cord.

  "That's impossible, there's nothing out here to interfere with the signal for Mordren in any direction," Sif responded joining Royena beside the Jeep.

  "Well apparently there is, we probably just can't see it," Zandrem interrupted.

  "There could be an underground base and those soldier types could be using something to jam the signal for all we know," She added.

  "Not a comforting notion‚" Royena replied.

  "Maybe we should head back to the hangar‚"

  "Drop to the ground, hands behind your backs!" a man's rough voice interrupted Royena mid-sentence.

  Sif, Royena and Zandrem looked around for the source of the voice before they all came to see a man in full military garb approaching them.

  "You heard me, on the ground, now!" He barked the order again, swinging his gun on its strap as he aimed it at them.

  "Yeah, we heard you but we're not going to obey you," Sif responded with a growl low in her throat.

  "You can't choose to not obey the man holding you at gun point," He snapped in anger.

  "I'm pretty sure that's what she just did," Royena said putting her arm around Sif's shoulders.

  "There's three of us and only one of you, did you honestly think we'd go down without a fight?" Royena continued, staring at the man.

  The top and bottom half of his face obscured by bandannas, leaving only his emerald eyes visible.

  "If you want to resist capture, I will be more than happy to shoot you where you stand," the man replied in a gruff tone.

  "You will drop dead before you can squeeze the trigger," Sif growled defensively.

  "I wouldn't encourage her to prove that," Royena interjected as the man glared at her and Sif.

  The man laughed harshly at them.

  Before he could utter a word, Sif had her hand around his neck and her claws digging into his flesh through the bandanna covering his throat.

  "How did you do that?" He gasped, dropping his gun in surprise.

  "I practice several different fighting styles, so I probably know more than you," Sif replied in a low voice.

  "I warned you," Royena spoke, grinning at the man.

  "Bitches‚" He muttered.

  Sif tightened her grip on the man's throat, making it more difficult to breathe.

  He began to grab at his throat desperately, gasping for air.

  "Not so tough now, are you big guy?" Sif smirked evilly.

  "Royena, grab some rope out of the Jeep and tie up this asshole," Sif said looking sideways at Royena.

  "You're not going to kill him?" Zandrem inquired with a confused expression.

  "No, not yet‚ We could use his help to find Aurelia and Caliphar," Sif answered as Royena proceeded to tie the man's arms behind his back.

  "We good to go?" She asked glancing at Royena.

  "We're all set," Royena replied with a nod.

  "Good, here take this," Sif grinned slipping the gun off the man's neck, handing it to Royena.

  "Come on, you're going to help us find your buddies and their hideout," Sif smirked as she and Royena dragged the man to the Jeep, forcing him into the back.

  "Don't move and don't give me a reason to shoot you,"

  Zandrem jumped into the driver's seat and started up the engine, Sif and Royena stayed in the back with the man.

  "Now tell us where to go," Sif demanded.

  "Go five Mordren North, stop when you see a No Trespassing sign," He mumbled.

  "Got that, Zandrem?" Sif asked.

  "Got it!" Zandrem replied, pressing down on the gas pedal.

  They began speeding through the desert, the Jeep's tires kicking up sand.

  After a while, they reach the five-mile marker, an old No Trespassing sign.

  "We're here," Zandrem announced as she killed the engine.

  "Now what?" Sif questioned looking at the man.

  "Do you have some kind of special word or handshake?"

  The man looked back at her, anger in his eyes.

  "You're going to kill me anyway, yes?" He spoke.

  "That was kind of the plan, yeah," Sif responded.

  "Then I'll tell you‚"

  "There's a device on the back of that sign, you must press the numbers in order to gain access," He explained.

  "What are the numbers?" Sif demanded.

  "Six, five, four, two, one, eight, zero,"

  Sif took the gun from Royena and
cocked it, pressing the barrel against the man's temple before pulling the trigger, blowing his brains out.