by Aman Gupta
“Yes. I don’t even remember their faces. I don’t need to,” said Troy. “The ring tells me all I need to know. It only turns blue when worn by us. A litmus test to prove your allegiance. As long as you’re wearing a ring that’s blue, you’re on my team.”
A couple of hours passed. Troy and his remaining army of 7, were anxiously waiting for their partners to return so they could kill Karen, Eric, and Joey, and move on from Orange Town. Troy was walking up and down the road with a rifle in his hand. Suddenly, he heard movements coming from far away. He looked at the horizon and saw his army marching towards him.
“Such a poor bluff,” laughed Troy.
Karen glanced at them and recognized someone familiar, but didn’t say a word.
***************************************
Vik and Emma were hiding behind a small house, as they saw Mortan tied up on the road a few yards ahead. A group of people was on their knees while Joey was standing in the middle of the road. They saw a man grab Karen by her throat, which prompted Eric to take him down.
“What is happening?” asked Emma.
“I have no idea,” said Vik, trying to understand the scenario.
“Why are we just hiding here? We should be helping them,” said Emma.
“How? All we have is a single handgun, while they have dozens of rifles,” said Vik. “There’s too many of them.”
“We can’t just stand here and do nothing,” said Emma. She was frustrated as she felt she was abandoning her friends and Karen.
“We have no choice but to wait here. Wait for a mistake,” said Vik.
“We need to find a way to tell them that we’re here,” said Emma. “Eric or Joey.”
“It’s risky, and it wouldn’t do much good. We need to get our hands on those rifles,” said Vik.
“They’re getting up,” said Emma. “They’re coming here.”
Vik and Emma got down and crawled towards the back of the house. After a minute, they got up again and went to look at what was happening. They saw the group beating Mortan’s body. Emma and Vik looked at each other. Mortan was lying lifelessly. They realized he was already dead.
“I’m going,” said Emma as she stepped out of hiding. The anguish on her face was blatantly visible.
Vik grabbed her by her arm and pulled her away before they could see her.
“Let me go,” said Emma.
Vik put his hand over her mouth and told her to calm down. But she kept shouting into his palm. Vik shushed her repeatedly.
“I know they’re your friends, and naturally, your emotions are starting to take over your reasoning. But they know you’re out there, and they’re counting on you. As soon as those people see you, they’re probably going to kill you or worse. You might as well have blown your friends’ brains out yourself. I need you to take a deep breath and calm down. I promise we’ll get them out of here, but you need to trust me, okay?” said Vik. “I’m going to take off my hand, and you’re going to stay calm. Promise?”
Emma nodded. Vik removed his hand and let her go. She took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. Vik asked her if she was alright, to which she nodded.
Vik looked down at the street. He tried to hear the conversation between the man and Karen. He could only make out the word ‘dozen.’ He saw that man talking to a group of people, after which they started walking in the opposite direction. He realized that they were being sent on a reconnaissance mission.
Emma came by and asked what was happening.
“Let’s go,” said Vik.
“Where?” asked Emma.
“I think we just found an opening,” said Vik.
They went back to their bicycle. They had ditched a few yards away. Vik explained to her what he saw.
“What’s the plan?” asked Emma.
“We should kill the ones we can,” said Vik. “And take their weapons.”
Vik tried to outflank them a few blocks away but failed to reach on time. Emma spotted two who were moving a bit slow after thoroughly checking every house. The rest of the group was nearly 3 blocks away.
“Or maybe we can take out two of them,” said Emma. “Those two over there. We take their weapons and take out the rest of them and rescue everyone.”
Vik thought about it for a minute and then smiled. “See, you can be smart when you’re not emotional.”
“Sorry, and thank you for what you did back there,” said Emma.
“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get everyone out, preferably alive,” said Vik.
They got off the bicycle and cautiously moved towards the house where the two people, in sanitation worker uniforms, had gone inside to check. Vik saw them through the window and asked Emma to go around the back, while he distracted them. She tried to give him her gun, but he declined.
As she went around the back, Vik plodded inside the house through the front door and hid behind a couch. The living room was pretty much ransacked and destroyed. He looked around for an object which he could use as a weapon. He found a broken desk lamp on the floor. He dragged it with his feet and picked it up. While the two of them were looking away, Vik smashed the lamp on the back of the man’s head. The woman turned around, but Vik speared her through the wooden wall. Emma entered the house through the kitchen window but the man saw her. He pushed a table towards her, and she fell down on the floor. Her gun slipped away from her hands.
As she crawled for her gun, the man jumped on the table and leapt on Emma’s back. Vik and the woman were engaged in a fist fight of their own. Every punch that Vik landed, didn’t do much to subdue the woman, while her kicks were damaging to Vik’s ribs. Vik saw her assault rifle on the floor and went for it. The woman reached first and picked it up. Vik hit her in the kneecap. He put her in a chokehold and slammed her head against the wall, repeatedly. It took around 7 blows to the back of her head, before she was knocked out. The glow in her ring diminished, which looked odd to Vik.
He picked the rifle and went to help Emma. The man was pointing the gun at Emma, while his back was towards Vik. Emma raised her hands, attempting to distract the man when she saw Vik. Vik was wary of shooting the man as he didn’t want to raise an alarm if they were to be successful in their stealth mission.
He walked slowly towards the guy and slammed the rifle on the back of the guy’s head. The guy went down. Emma stomped her boots on the guy’s hands to get her gun. The guy let go of the gun after few seconds but overpowered Vik by kicking him down. Emma aimed the gun at the guy.
“Don’t. They’ll hear it,” said Vik.
The guy began choking Vik. Emma ran through the house, looking for a heavy object. She saw a pillow on the couch and grabbed it. Vik saw Emma approaching with a pillow. With all his strength, he pushed the guy away, and Emma shot him through the pillow. Breathing heavily, Vik grabbed the pillow from Emma’s hand and her gun. He put the pillow on the guy’s face, placed his knee on the guy’s chest, and fired three more shots in the face.
He saw that the guy was also wearing a glowing ring, whose light was fading away. He told Emma to get the ring from the woman’s hand while he took the man’s ring. As soon as he removed it, the ring stopped glowing. He put it back on the guy’s hand, and the ring started glowing again. Emma came back with the ring.
“It was glowing, then it wasn’t,” said Emma.
“I know. It’s weird,” said Vik.
“What should we do now?” asked Emma as she tried to put on the ring. “These things don’t work on us.”
“I’m going to suggest something that’s going to sound weird, but,” said Vik.
“What?” asked Emma.
“I want to try cutting off their hands,” said Vik.
“Eww..what?” said Emma. “Please tell me you’re not serious.”
“Unfortunately, I am,” said Vik. “Could you get me a knife from the kitchen?”
“How do you know it would work?” asked Emma.
“I don’t,” said Vik. “But we ha
ve to try.”
“We should just leave the rings here,” said Emma.
“I don’t know. These seem important,” said Vik. “They might help us to blend in, if we are forced to improvise.”
“Okay,” said Emma, hesitantly.
She got a knife from the kitchen and gave it to Vik. He put the ring back on the guy’s hand and cut the left hand while Emma looked away. As the knife pierced the skin and flesh of the guy, Vik was startled. It felt like cutting a soft rubber cube. Vik looked at the guy and realized he had just killed an Emulation that Olivia had warned him about. Or maybe the guy wasn’t dead yet, he thought.
He wanted to tell Emma about it, but he felt compelled to protect her from this new dimension to which the world had been exposed due to his actions.
“Don’t look away. You’re doing it to the woman,” said Vik.
“No way,” said Emma. “I can’t imagine you’re doing it too.”
“Not my first time cutting this thing,” said Vik.
“Cutting dead bodies,” he recovered from the fumble.
Emma looked at him.
“That came out wrong. Back at Nucleus, Anthony used to teach me stuff,” said Vik.
“Thanks, that is so much better,” said Emma.
Vik cut the hand clean. The ring’s glow diminished further, but there was still some left.
“Your turn,” said Vik.
“No way. I’m not doing it,” said Emma.
“They probably cut Mortan too,” said Vik.
“You can’t have it both ways. You want me to be emotional or not?!” said Emma.
“For the next thirty seconds, yes,” said Vik.
He took her to the woman. Emma was dragging her feet the entire time.
“Why do I have to do it? You do it,” said Emma.
“No. Hurry before she wakes up,” said Vik.
“She’s not dead?” asked Emma. Vik shook his head.
Emma got down on her knees and held the knife against the woman’s wrist. Her hands were shaking. As soon as the knife pierced the woman’s skin by a millimeter, the woman got up. Vik grabbed her neck while Emma grabbed her feet. Vik shouted at Emma to get the pillow. Emma ran and got the pillow. The woman bit Vik’s triceps and chewed away a part of the flesh. Vik tried to control his screams. Emma arrived, but couldn’t get a good angle at the woman for a clean shot. Vik smashed the woman’s head against the wall, and she let go of Vik’s arm. He crawled away, and Emma shot her through the feathers.
Vik was holding on to his right arm. Emma saw it was bleeding and rushed over. He covered up the wound as he didn’t want her to see, but she insisted. She was shocked when she saw it.
“How bad is it?”
Emma almost puked on him.
“Give me that knife,” said Vik.
He got up and cut the woman’s hand.
“We’re even,” said Vik.
Emma tore away cloth from the drapes on Vik’s insistence, and Vik wrapped it around his arm to stop the bleeding. Emma assisted in tightening the grip and covering up the wound.
Vik gave her the woman’s hand, and kept the man’s in his pocket, after wiping away the red liquid, which Emma believed to be blood.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Vik.
Emma grabbed a rifle across the room while Vik picked up the woman’s rifle. As soon as they got out of the house, they saw three men and a woman standing outside, pointing their guns at them.
Emma and Vik froze where they stood. They looked, almost apologetic to each other. They gulped as they looked at death, manifested in the form of those four strangers, standing in front of them.
“Hand,” murmured Vik as he put his hand in his left pocket.
Vik rolled up his left hand into his full-sleeved shirt while holding the severed hand, partly covering the palm to obscure the illusion. Emma did the same with her right. The group looked at the hands and saw the ring glowing.
“What took you so long?” asked one of them.
Emma and Vik looked at each other and smiled.
“Nothing,” said Vik.
“Let’s go,” said the woman.
Vik and Emma nodded. Emma almost dropped the hand when she tried to hold Vik’s right hand. Vik smiled as Emma picked up the hand mid-way in the air. They roamed around with the group, before eventually turning back. Vik and Emma didn’t interact with the group and kept their distance.
“Why wouldn’t they recognize us?” asked Emma.
“I have no idea,” said Vik. “Maybe they don’t care.”
“It’s like they’re under a spell or something,” said Emma.
“Or they haven’t been programmed that way,” said Vik.
“What do you mean?” asked Emma.
“Sorry, I’m just blabbering,” said Vik.
“What’s the next plan of action?” asked Emma.
“Try to get others to safety,” said Vik. “Then kill them all.”
“I like it. Simple and straight-forward,” said Emma.
“All of my plans are that way,” said Vik.
“The ones I knew about or the ones I didn’t?” said Emma.
“Too soon,” said Vik.
Emma laughed before putting on a straight face.
An hour later, they saw Karen, Eric, and Joey from far away, as they were making their way back. Emma looked at Vik and nodded. They walked with the group in perfect synchronization to blend in. Emma used her red locks to hide her face while Vik looked at the ground while walking.
Standing only a few yards away from Troy, Vik nodded to Karen, while Eric and Joey looked at Emma. Eric had almost gotten himself free, but Karen and Joey were still struggling to get loose.
Troy glanced at the rings and saw all of them were still glowing. Vik and Emma had slightly obstructed the view of their rings to fool any onlooker about the diminishing glow of their rings. Completely satisfied, Troy turned his attention to Karen, Eric, and Joey.
“So, who is going to die first?” asked Troy. “The brunette, my favorite black brother, or the cute white one.”
“You don’t have to do this. You already said your fight isn’t with us. Let us go, and we’ll never return here. Please,” said Karen.
“The brunette makes a fair point. And won’t be the first to die. What about you, blondie?” asked Troy.
“To be honest, I didn’t even want to come. They dragged me here. Shoot them first,” said Joey.
“Oooh, a traitor. I hate them. What about you?” asked Troy, looking at Eric.
“Of course, you’ll want to kill me. You can’t beat me in a fair fight, and you know it,” said Eric.
“Nice try, but that doesn’t work on me. Plus, life isn’t fair, is it? So the blondie dies first, you second and the woman dies last,” said Troy.
“Wait, I need one more attempt,” said Joey.
“Okay, this should be interesting,” said Troy. “However, if you disappoint me, you’ll wish for death, but it won’t come. A forgotten respite from the torture I’ll unleash onto you.”
Emma and Vik put their severed hands back in their pockets and slowly rolled out their hands out of the shirt’s sleeves. Emma took out her handgun from the back and looked at Eric.
Eric mouthed a countdown. But Troy noticed.
“What, you like the redhead over there?” asked Troy. “She’s too pretty. Too pretty to go unnoticed. So why haven’t I noticed her before?”
“Now!” yelled Vik.
Emma threw her handgun at Eric, who picked it up and shot two men. Vik and Emma shot the 4 men, and the woman they were with, in the back multiple times. Troy shot back, but Joey speared him from the right, shoulder first into Troy’s mid-section. Joey felt like he had just hit a rock, though Troy lost his balance and fell.
“Untie us,” said Karen as she stood up and kicked away Troy’s rifle.
Eric untied Karen and Joey at the same time, while Vik and Emma started shooting at everyone far away. The group shot back. Vik’s bullets hit T
roy in the guts while he was trying to get away, though it didn’t do much damage. After running out of ammo, Emma picked up another rifle from the ground while kicked two of them towards Karen and Joey.
Eric picked up a rifle and began knocking down every man he could see.
Troy was crawling on all fours, while his men were dying around him. Eric asked Joey for cover fire and went after Troy, who had begun running. After a chase, Eric knocked him down.
“This is for my friend,” said Eric, and shot Troy in the chest twice.
The rings started flickering wildly, and the remaining three men started firing in all directions. Karen and Emma shot them lifeless.
“Woohooo!” yelled Joey, parading with a rifle in each hand.
Karen and Emma smiled. Vik laid down on the ground.
Karen went to the house that Troy had pointed to. Eric went with her, and they came back with Mark’s body.
“I’m not leaving him here,” said Karen.
“I’m not leaving Mortan,” said Eric.
“Okay,” said Emma.
“Okay, Joey, you help me carry Mortan. Vik, you help Karen,” said Eric.
“Who’s taking that guy over there?” asked Vik, pointing at Troy.
“Leave him,” said Joey.
“No, I think we should take him,” said Vik.
“Why? Because he’s an alpha or something?” said Joey.
“No. Wait, he’s a what?” asked Vik.
“Alpha,” said Joey. “Works for someone named Jester. Also, there’s some guy named Xavier and Mennids, or something that did this. He didn’t make any sense half the time he talked.”
Vik looked at Karen.
“Can I talk to you alone?” asked Vik.
“Sure,” said Karen.
They walked over to the side and began whispering.
“What’s that about?” asked Emma.
“No idea,” said Eric.
“Wait, you know what an Alpha means?” asked Karen. Vik tried to shush her and told her to keep her voice down.
“I haven’t been entirely honest about your creature from beyond thing. We need to take that alpha with us. That’s the only way we..” said Vik.
“We what?” asked Karen.
“We need to know everything about them. I knew someone who warned me against Alphas and Betas, and Apollos,” said Vik.
