Dear Readers,490Please respect copyright.PENANAJMzEErdAaP
Finally finished this installment! I've got a lot of projects running at the moment, so I can't promise a timeline. Thanks for bearing with me! Happy reading!490Please respect copyright.PENANAFUE9rAGyC7
--AK
“Where are you going?”490Please respect copyright.PENANAJJFxTDo84g
“”Sorry, can’t answer that.”
“Who are you guys?”
“You call us Nightstalkers; I thought that was pretty obvious. Haven’t we met before?”
“How could I forget?” I looked down at his hand, the one missing two fingers. It looked like it had healed neatly, and the boy didn’t seem to have any trouble killing Enforcers with just seven fingers. “You’ve never told me your name.”
“Sorry. Can’t answer that either.” He gave me a little smirk. there was a considerable amount of mischief in those brown eyes, and I hated it. I couldn’t understand how someone could joke around after an ambush like that, especially when he had lost four friends.
“Hey, Marlin, we’re ready to move out. Dead are buried and we left the scum out for the crows. We should get moving before the whole damn army comes down on us, huh?”
Marlin. His name was Marlin
I glared out at him and he rolled his eyes. “Sam gives the order to move out; go ask him.” The other Nightstalker saluted and sprinted away to find their leader.
“So, you know my name now. What’s yours?” Marlin was obviously a very easy-going individual; he looked to be a year older than myself, with a hint of stubble growing at his jawline and a fierce, challenging look behind his eyes.
“046730,” I automatically answered, and then groaned in frustration. “Natalie. My friends--friend--calls me Nat.”
“Well, consider me your best friend from here on out, Nat.” Marlin smiled a genuine smile before taking a big, silvery square package out of his pack. “Here,” he said, holding it up. I’m going to need to tie this around your arm.”
“Why?” I instinctively pulled back at his touch, feeling goosebumps spread up my back.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said reassuringly. Those eyes… I knew I could trust him. Heck, last time he saw me he lost half his and, and yet here he was, still trying to help. I held out my arm reluctantly, turning it in an attempt to hide my tattooed identification number. Marlin tied the metallic fabric around the spot, explaining that it was an extra precaution to prevent the Enforcers from tracking us by our supposedly-disabled nodes outside the city. As he finished, another Nightstalker jogged by and told us that we were moving out. Marlin hefted his pack up onto his broad shoulders and picked up an old, battered rifle, motioning for me to follow him. I obeyed with a wince, aching from my many small, freshly-healed wounds.
At least I wasn’t dead; being invincible had it’s perks, I supposed. I realized the nightstalkers must have known about my “condition,” under the assumption that the bearded man from the demonstration was working with them. That would explain the odd looks, I thought to myself as we passed a group of ‘Stalkers who were eyeing me curiously and exchanging whispers.
“Is Alicia okay?” I blurted out. In all the excitement, I had almost completely forgotten about the Rehabilitation Subjects. Marlin looked puzzled for a moment.
“Oh, you mean the other girl, don’t you. The one from last time?” He asked. I nodded. “She’s fine; they’re all fine. We’ve had to sedate a few of them because they wouldn’t come with us, but everyone is alive so far.”
“Can I go see her?”
“It would probably be best to not,” He advised calmly. “They’re all in shock. As soon as we arrive, you can visit with her.”
Just then, a Nightstalker who looked a few years younger than me ran up to us--and almost into us. “Are you the crazy girl? The one who won’t die?” He asked, gasping for breath.
“Excuse me?” The kid just shrugged. “Sam want’s to see her. Something about her friend.” With that, the kid turned back around and sprinted back toward the head of our column. I glared at him as he went, briefly wishing they had given me lasers for eyes.
Don’t think like that, I had to remind myself. They did nothing good for you.
“Dammit, Sam!” Marlin scowled under his breath. “Always undermining my authority!” He hiked up his pack and started jogging to the front. “Come on, we better figure out what he wants.”
We picked our way up the column and I began to realize that the horror story that Solstice had painted of these rebels was far off the mark. They weren’t particularly vicious, I surmised, except when confronted with Enforcers using innocent people as human hand grenades. They didn’t seem to posses any kind of special equipment from what I could tell, either; most were between the ages of fourteen and forty and carried a ragtag mix of modern and outdated weapons. These guys must really fight well, I realized as I watched a pair of soldiers walking side by side; one carried a modern pulse rifle, and the other an actual sword from ancient times.They seemed to favor dark clothing from centuries past, as well; instead of the usual plain tunic, they seemed to bear a variety of short and long-sleeved shirts and pants made of an odd, tough blue-black material. Overall, they seemed like a patchwork bunch, and they definitely didn’t have fangs, wings, claws, or whatever other nightmarish rumors the Enforcers spread.
“Took you long enough.” Sam did not look pleased, not one bit. “Your friend, Alicia, is it? She attacked several of the escorts and cut two of them with a piece of broken glass. I’d sedate her, but we’re out of stretchers. Please, for her sake, talk some sense into that crazy girl.” Sam crossed his arms, a thunderstorm brewing behind those violent purple orbs. I nodded and started toward the group of Rehab Subjects, hoping I could talk her down.
Alicia was in frenzy mode, that was for sure. Half a dozen Nightstalkers were pointing guns at her head. She refused to back down, though, looking like a cornered feral animal with her hair sticking out all over the place and a wild look in her eyes. She sported several shallow scratches on her face and arms and clutched a long, dagger-like chunk of glass in her right hand.
“Alicia!” I called out to her. She turned to me, but didn’t show any recognition in her features. I inched closer, breaking past the circle of weapons and stopped a few feet away. “Alicia, it’s me, Natalie!”
“They told me you died!” she growled, shifting her grip and swaying back and forth slight. “You’re lying to me! Who are you?”
“I promise, It’s me!” I hit the button on my stave and it retracted to its compact form, which I stowed in my battered belt. I helpd up my hands and stepped closer. “Please, Alicia, put the glass down!”
“You’re trying to trick me, I know it!” She screamed, brandishing her weapon uncontrollably. “They warned us about you! They said you’d all try to take us!”
“They’re helping us!” I nearly yelled, trying to be heard over her. “Don’t you recognize Sam? and Marlin?” I pointed behind me at them, hoping she’d remember. Who knew what kind of damage they had done to her memory in Rehabilitation? She pointed the jagged glass at me as I closed the distance between us to a mere foot.
“Natalie? ...Nat? Is that actually you?” She seemed to soften for a moment, slackening slightly. I smiled and held my arms up, offering a comforting embrace.
I should have seen it coming.
Alicia’s eyes darkened instantaneously and her face twisted into a sneer. Even my quickest reflexes couldn’t stop her from plunging her makeshift dagger seven inches into my abdomen. I grunted and coughed a mouthful of blood right into her face as the world flickered around me. I could feel every inch of the smooth glass sliding through my tissue and my knees buckled and I slumped to the ground, fighting hard not to pass out.
Alicia dropped the glass and swayed on the spot, suddenly looking dazed. People were shouting everywhere. I closed my eyes, wishing death would come, but knowing that only wave after wave of pain would visit me instead.
What did you do to me? I wondered as I slipped into unconsciousness.490Please respect copyright.PENANA8VVv4WR8Gj
“Natalie? Natalie!”
My eyes fluttered open to meet the violaceous ones looking back at me with a flicker of concern. I groaned and tried to sit up, gasping at the sudden fire in my abdomen. Sam put his hand gently on my shoulders to hold me down; his hands were warm and wet with blood.
My blood.
“The medic is one his way,” Sam said cooly, demeanor hardening the instant after our eyes met. People were standing all around us, staring and pointing. “He’ll remove the glass and stitch you up.”
“No,” I said through gritted teeth. “If you wait too long, it’ll heal like this. Pull it out!”
“I don’t think--”
“Shut up and pull it out!” I hissed, grabbing onto the front of his shirt and holding on for dear life as another wave of agony tore through my midsection. I groaned and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the pavement. Sam looked for a moment as if he was going to object; then, without batting an eye, he reached down and took a firm grip on the shard. With hardly an apologetic look, he gave it a swift and brutal pull, tearing it free from my flesh. I felt the blood spread from the wound, and then slowly subside. The people around us began gasping as the jagged cut knit itself back together. I waited a few moments before gingerly rolling onto my knees, taking a few deep breaths before I pulled myself to my feet. The Nightstalkers had become utterly silent, gazing at me with eyes the size of plates.
“Are you okay?” Marlin appeared at my side with an older gentleman who I guessed was the medic in tow. I nodded grimly as the medic stepped forward, mouth agape.
“Great Gods, the rumors are true!” He said in a hushed voice. Without hesitating, he reached out and prodded my belly through the tear in my tunic. I swatted his hand away promptly and her peered up into my face, baffled. “Solstice really does have invincible warriors!”
“Actually, I’m the only one,” I growled, scowling at him, and all the other slack-jawed gawkers.
“But--”
“You heard her, she’s fine!” Sam shouted suddenly. “We have to reach the city before dawn, let’s get moving!” The little crowd of rebels ceased their murmurs to re-shoulder their gear and round up the silent, terrified-looking prisoners from Solstice. Sam slung his own pack over his shoulder and hefted his battered rifle , taking place at the head of the column without looking back. Marlin fell into step with me as we began winding our way up a broken alleyway, following the dim green glow of some sort of chemical-filled tubes tied to every other Nightstalker’s pack.
“They didn’t harm Alicia, did they?” I asked Marlin in a low voice after several minutes of walking in silence.
“She was sedated a moment after she attacked you,” he answered, giving me a reassuring look. “The city has started brainwashing their prisoners to attack us after we rescue them. We’ve lost several people to instances like that. That’s why we sedate ‘em, if we can.”
“Sounds like something they would do,” I agreed darkly. “Sam said something about reaching a city before dawn. I thought there are no cities outside Solstice… It seems like a wasteland out here.”
“It wasn’t always a wasteland,” Sam said with a sigh, kicking a large chunk of rubble away against an alley wall. “I mean, the buildings have always been crumbling, and the streets have always been ruined. But everything out here had gotten worse since that lunatic in his shiny tower started bombing everything in sight to try and kill as many of us as possible.”
“How many of you are there?”
“What are you, a spy or something?” It took me a moment to realize Malin was joking. “You ask an awful lot of questions,” he said, cracking a smile. “You’ll see soon enough.”
“Can you blame me for trying to wrap my head around my situation?” I asked after a pause. “Do you even know what they did to me back there?” I felt my face heat up and my voice catch in my throat. Marlin stopped and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I don’t blame you at all for that,” he said softly. “I was born here, outside the wall. But many--half, I’d say--of our people come from inside Solstice. They come to us broken, scared, and unsure. I get it; take whatever measures you need. Just remember who the real enemy is.”
“Thanks, I guess.” I said stiffly, giving him a tight smile and shrugging his hand off my shoulder, turning to follow the column once again.
“You know, there is one person who actually knows what you’ve gone through.”
“Is that so?”
“Sam was the Executive’s pet once, too.”
“Good for him,” I said, clenching my jaw. “I was never anyone’s pet.”
“Right. Sorry.” Sam gave me an apologetic look and allowed me to start walking again, bringing up the rear of the column once again.
The alleyway we were travelling down widened out into a full lane, which seemed to have been well-kept and neatly designed in another lifetime. A huge building stood before us, a great domed steel-and-glass affair, overgrown with vines and scorched by the bombs Marlin had mentioned earlier. The entryway seemed to be blocked off by that remains of several ancient vehicles designed for transporting many people at once. Sam held up and hand and signalled for us to halt; it was only then that I realized the group had gone eerily silent.
Somewhere ahead of us, an owl hooted, low and mournful. Sam raised his cupped hands to his mouth and hooted back. The skin on the back of my neck stood on end as several figures materialized out of the darkness as if they were shadows themselves. They weren’t called Nightstalkers for nothing, I supposed.
“Glad to see you back in one piece.”
I looked up sharply at the voice I recognized. The bearded man from the training session at the beginning of the day--incredible, really, that I had last seen him just that morning--approached us, a huge rifle cradled in his arms. “We heard the fighting all the way over here, it sounded quite… lively.”
“Yeah, well, the Enforcers decided to pack some heat tonight,” Sam growled, signalling to his troops to set up a perimeter. “They put explosive vests on all the hostages. They were really set on killing someone tonight.”
“We all know who that someone is,” Marlin cut in with a grin. “Shall we get out of the open? I’d like to be in bed before midnight, please.”
“Not a chance, Marlin. You’re on sentry tonight anyway,” Sam said bluntly, eliciting a groan from his companion. “However, I agree; Let’s get out of sight.”
“What is this place?” I asked no one in particular as the perimeter was collapsed and the hostages herded up a wide flight of concrete stairs. We were ushered into a massive atrium full of broken glass and tiles, twisted metal, and decades-old garbage pushed up against every one of the large pillars that stood from the floor all the way up to the crumbling, rusted dome.
“They used to call it a train station,” the bearded man answered after a short pause. “People used to come here to travel all over the old city in big metal transports.”
“Seems awfully enclosed for flying transport craft,” I observed, stepping lightly over an odd shape on the ground. I realized, with a lurch, that it was a skeleton. A human skeleton, in whose arm was clutched a dusty, charred white helmet. The bearded man laughed and gestured me toward an archway off to our left. Sam and Marlin followed, with the terrified and sniffling Rehabilitation Subjects and the rest of the rebel soldiers close behind.
“Wasn’t any flying craft back in that time, not like we have now. These transports slid along on long metal rails, deep below the ground.”
“That’s weird,” I said plainly. “Underground… no one should live like a rat!”
Again, for some reason this brought a hearty laugh from him.
“Alright, everyone, halt!”
Sam held up a fist and we all came to a stop in front of a grimy, white-tiled wall. He turned and gestured for the hostages to spread out a little so everyone could see. I spotted Abigail, Jonah, and Alicia near the back, looking exhausted and confused. Alicia’s eyes met mine for a moment and she looked down, a mix of emotion on her face.
“Before we continue, allow me to clear a few things up for all of you. First, we are helping you, not hurting you; your leaders have convinced you that we are savages who murder and pillage for our pleasure. I assure you, only the opposite is true.” Sam’s cold eyes swept over the bunch, who looked dumbfounded.
“Wait, so you’re not going to kill us?”
Of course it was Westin who had spoken out of turn, looking a bit too brave for a bumbling idiot who had turned to mush in the heat of combat. He was the only one in the group wearing anything of an Enforcer’s uniform, and also the only one besides Alicia to have his hands bound behind his back. Sam gave him a hard look before continuing.
“Second, do not mistake our kindness for weakness; if you compromise our way of life in any way, you will be dealt with appropriately. Finally, as of this moment, you are guests in our city and will be treated as such. We expect each of you to integrate yourselves into our society, each on their own time.”
“What city?” It was Westin again. Sam didn’t even bother looking at him this time.
“I hope each and every one of you will eventually learn to fully enjoy the freedom and the safety that we can afford you from now on. Of course, we will be helping you adjust to the changes, and working out the, er, kinks left over from your time in Solstice.” He glanced at Alicia before turning to the filthy wall. He seemed to concentrate for a long moment before tracing a complicated pattern into the dust with the tip of his finger.
At first, nothing happened. Then, with a low rumble, the very tiles that made up the wall began shifting and rolling like the surface of boiling water. Gradually, a clear space opened up in the center of the wall, which grew wider and wider with each passing moment. I could feel a funny sensation in my stomach as a breathtaking scene began unfolding itself in front of my very eyes; A city, a very sizable one at that, seemed to bloom from a tremendous cavern below and away from us, a cavern that could easily swallow the entirety of Solstice, save the Wall.
The buildings were tall and earthen, ashy grey and brown as if they had been carved from the very rock itself. The thing that immediately set it apart from Solstice, however, was the obvious signs of life: transports slid almost lazily through the air, accompanied by the lights and faint sounds of a society at work. Solstice was clean, silent, and plain; this, however, seemed to be a living, breathing entity. I felt my heart swell a little. It was a lot to take in, sure, but it was still far more than I had hoped.
Sam showed us how the viewing area was actually some sort of large, glass elevator and ushered us aboard, where we began an agonizingly slow descent along the side of the cavern, having a spectacular view of the city the whole way down. Everyone was whispering excitedly, pointing out things of interest while the soldiers looked on stoically, with just a hint of satisfaction on each one’s face. When we got to the bottom station some time later, we were greeted by an entire entourage of soldiers and medical personnel, who instantly began separating the newly rescued and attending to their needs. I felt overwhelmed and lost; I stepped off to the side and took a few deep breaths, looking out the window of the station toward the skyline ahead.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
A tall man with a salt-and pepper beard, sharp features, and some sort of cloth facial covering obscuring the right half of his face had appeared behind me. His visible eye was lit up with a mix of pride and admiration; I had an immediate feeling that this man was very important, and probably a man I would need to make a good impression on from the start.
“It is, sir.” I agreed with a short nod, deciding the way he carried himself was indeed militaristic, and attempting to treat him as such. “What’s it called, sir?”
“No need for the formality,” He said, waving his hand and giving me a warm smile. “We call our proud city Equinox, Natalie. I’ve waited many years for this day, honestly; I hope you find a safe home here at last.”
What about his face and his voice was so damned familiar? 490Please respect copyright.PENANAWNUmYuyQSy