by Justin Sloan
He continued to retreat to the shadows, deeper and deeper, until he found a doorway to the back room. Before disappearing through it, he turned, pointing at Apex, and said, “Bring me her fucking head, or I’ll have your balls on a platter.”
The last thing he heard before ducking out of sight was a comment by Apex, once again confirming his opinion the Prince was a fucking lunatic. Well that was just fine by him, because the next time he saw Apex, the man would have this vampire bitch’s head rolling across the floor like a soccer ball, or would be dead himself. The Prince motioned to his followers and warned them to get him armed and ready, just in case, though he sure hoped he wouldn’t have to get his hands dirty.
***
Even the birds were too exhausted by the heat to chirp in the sweltering mid-afternoon sun. Valerie couldn’t imagine how horrible it must’ve been for Robin under her old assassin clothes.
“It wasn’t so bad up there,” River said. “What gives?”
“Up there we were at a higher altitude and had the wind,” Martha replied.
They left the other pirates behind to guard the ship and be ready for a quick getaway, figuring infiltrating with a small group would be better. So, just the four of them—Valerie, Robin, Martha, and River were walking along the dirt path that traversed the hill.
“What the hell could they have slaves working on out here anyway?” Valerie asked.
“It’s not about working on stuff,” Martha said. “It’s about uncovering something.”
“You’re going to keep it so cryptic?”
Martha laughed. “Honestly, it’s not like I know what they’re after either. But I’ve heard rumors. Like that there was a place up here, hidden out where people didn’t go in the days before the Great Collapse. Back then, it was cold. People had no reason to explore this far in the cold. But there’s one among the pirates who claims there used to be something out here, something like your Area 51.”
“And they’re trying to find it?”
River beamed, happy to answer this one. “They already did, supposedly.”
“And…?”
Martha shook her head. “That’s where our knowledge stops. I don’t think anyone knows what they’ve found down there, other than the ones who did the finding.”
“If they found anything at all,” River interjected.
“My nephew, the skeptic,” Martha sad.
“I’m just saying, I’ve heard multiple stories. One is that they’re building some big weapon, or a cache of weapons, with the idea that they’ll set up an army and be ready to take over.”
“Take over what?” Robin asked.
“Everything.”
Valerie frowned and was about to say that didn’t seem likely, not with the numbers she had seen, but Robin spoke first.
“That fits with what was happening with the Black Plague. They had us training to be killers, and I wondered where all the weapons came from.”
“So… No aliens?” Martha said with a frown.
“There are definitely aliens,” Valerie answered. “But that doesn’t mean there’s necessarily an Area 51 style place around here.”
Coming around the hill, they found the sandy valley that led to a series of tents and several buildings, along with lines of people training.
“Looks like the formation of an army isn’t so far-fetched,” Valerie said.
“This is all too familiar.” Robin knelt beside Valerie, hands clenched into fists. “But if they’re slaves, like I was, forced to do this against their will, they aren’t the enemy.”
“So… your idea about fitting in?” Valerie asked, turning to Martha. “With what group?”
Martha looked flustered, but then pointed past the groups to more tents, practically camouflaged against the brown of it all.
“There,” she said. “We won’t last long if everyone knows each other, or the Prince spots us, knowing who we’d be… as the only outsiders. But that’s where I’d bet they’ll be.”
“Then that’s where we go,” Valerie replied. “But if this turns into yet another blood bath, I’m going to be pissed.”
“How could it not?” Robin replied.
Valerie just sighed. “Well, let’s get it over with then.”
She stood and started walking. A moment later, Robin hissed and pulled her back.
“Are you forgetting something?” Robin asked. “I can’t just walk up there like this!”
“Actually,” Valerie looked her up and down, an idea dawning on her. “They probably haven’t heard about what happened to the Black Plague. How would they have?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“What?” River asked as he and Martha caught up. “Be serious about what?”
“She wants me to walk in there like this and pretend I’m here representing the group that enslaved me. But what I don’t get, is what that will accomplish.”
“You say you were attacked, that you’re here for more fighters,” Valerie replied.
“They aren’t vampires.”
“You’ll make them into vampires. Well, not really, but that’s what we say.”
“And then…?”
“By then, we’ll have seen what we’re dealing with, and be ready to make a move.”
Robin shook her head, but then said, “Fine,” and continued walking on.
“There you go,” Valerie said with a smile, and followed.
All four walked right past a group of fighters training with swords. The closest group paused to look at them, but seeing Robin in her all black, they quickly turned back to their training. It seemed she wasn’t the first of her type that they had come across.
Valerie held her head strong, telling herself not to lose her cool or give anything away. Two men with rifles stood outside of the largest tent, so that’s the one she went to, walking straight up to them, and passing through into the tent.
Not the best guards, she thought with a smirk.
The tent was filled with men and woman in various pirate attire, some in dismal black covering all but their faces, others with extravagant hats and others still with bright reds and yellows.
It was almost laughable, Valerie thought, if it weren’t for the fact that they were all killers.
Not a one looked up, or not until she approached the nearest group and said, “We need to speak with the Prince.”
The pirate glared at her, a darker man with a shaved head and tattoos on his arms. He nodded toward Robin and said, “You with her?”
“That’s right.”
“Then you need to see Apex before you see the Prince.”
“Yes, Apex,” Valerie replied, trying not to laugh at that name.
The man stared at her, then scoffed. “You must be new. He turned and pointed to a man at the far end of the room. He wore a baseball cap, dark shades even though they were in the tent, and had a gray beard. His T-shirt was tucked into a pair of cargo pants.
“Of course,” Valerie said, feeling her story falling apart already. She started walking over, hoping the others were close behind. One man looked up at her and started to stand, and she sensed his aura of violence, so she gave out the slightest bit of fear. It was enough to sit him back down, and she smiled at the look of confusion in his eyes.
Only, a funny thing happened by the time she had reached Apex. For one, she decided that she wasn’t here to play games. Not a single one of these jackholes stood a chance against her, physically. All that mattered was the safety of those slaves, and seeing their release.
So, when she stepped up to Apex, she had already decided that the charade was off.
“I’m Valerie, the liberator of New York. The Dark Messiah’s Justice Enforcer.” She stood tall before him, each hand on a hilt of her swords. “You’re going to let the slaves go.”
Apex turned to look at her and she saw herself in the reflection of his shades. He also saw her companions behind her, staring in shock. His aura came across like a chilled drink, refreshing but slightly of
f-putting. Finally, he reached up and took off his sunglasses, and she saw that he was missing an eye.
“Just like that, huh?” he asked.
“There’s no other way around it.”
Apex smiled. “Well then, we’ll just have to do as you ask. Problem is, those fighters out there? They’re mine. They’ll kill you as fast as they’d kill their own fathers if I told them to. Isn’t that right, assassin?”
Robin took off her facemask, eyes full of hatred. “I was never one to believe in brainwashing and all that. Sorry.”
A hint of annoyance flashed across Apex’s face, and then he motioned to the group of pirates that surrounded him.
“Any of you here wanna be rich?” he asked. When they nodded, he smiled to reveal his blackened teeth. “Wonderful. Teach this bitch a lesson.”
Two pirates rose first, and Valerie laughed. “Last chance. You’re sure you want to do this?”
Apex just continued to smile.
“All right,” Valerie said. “But do try to keep your blood off my dress.”
“I thought we were playing it cool?” Robin said, drawing her sword. Martha and River had already stepped away, blending in with the crowd.
“We have a world waiting on us,” Valerie said, drawing both swords as the pirates advanced. “We don’t have time to play it cool.”
Swords clashed. Soon the room was up in arms, but Valerie pushed the nearest attacker back with a kick and then sliced into the next.
“Go!” she shouted to Robin. “Check the slaves, see if your parents are among them.”
“But you—”
“I can handle myself,” Valerie said, and continued dodging attacks, slicing through opponents, and simply dealing with these assholes.
***
Robin put her mask back on as she darted past attacking pirates, hacking her way to the doors. She caught sight of Martha and River slipping out under a tent flap, and made her way over to them after exiting.
“Get back to the ship, bring it around and fire on the tent with all you’ve got.”
“But… Valerie?” Martha asked.
“Trust me, she’ll be just fine.”
The two ran off, and Robin turned to the groups of slaves. They had all stopped fighting and were turned, looking toward the tent, most with confusion, some with determination. Before they had their chance to join the fight without knowing what it was about, she had to act.
She ran over to the point directly between them and the tent, lifted her swords, and dropped them.
“We are not here to fight you!” she shouted. “We’re here to give you your freedom.”
A woman stepped forward. “You’ll get us all killed, along with yourselves!”
“Who are you to stand there and tells us how it is?” another demanded.
“I was like all of you,” she replied. “But… worse. There’s a reason I can’t take this mask off, not in the sunlight, anyway.”
A gasp rose out from a few of the fighters, and one said, “So, it’s true? Your kind do exist?”
She nodded.
“We have no reason to believe her!” the first woman shouted.
“You do!” Robin replied, stepping toward them. “My mother and father, they are among you!”
There was a pause of silence, and then a new one stepped forward, one no older than sixteen, she guessed.
“Not among us,” he said. “Not if they were old enough to be your parents.”
“What do you mean?”
“The old… some were too sickly, and they…”
“They were killed,” the loud woman finished for him. “The rest are in Toro as the pirate counsel’s personal slaves, or servants, if you want to play pretend.”
Robin took that one hard, stepping back with the shock of it. She had thought this could be it. So close, yet so far away.
“And when I go after them?” she asked. “What awaits me?”
The boy shook his head, eyebrows raised. “You want to go in there? We’re not talking some outpost. We’re talking a city of old, entirely populated by no-good cut-throats, murderers with no loyalty but to themselves. More than likely, your parents would be serving one of the pirates in the city center, or the fortress, as they call it now. None of this running in guns blazing shit, or they’ll be dead along with every other slave in the city. So, are you ready to commit to that?”
She shrugged. “Sounds like another day in my life, lately.”
“Then I’m in,” he said, and started walking forward. Several others broke ranks, too, and joined him, walking towards her.
“You’re all going to get us killed!” the woman shouted. “Get back here!”
“We’ve been looking for a way to escape this,” the man said. “Whether this is it or not, I intend to find out.”
The others muttered in agreement, and just then a pillar of the tent snapped behind them, followed by the form of Valerie as she backed out, surrounded by ten pirates. In a flash, she had charged them, sword cutting through and sending blood to wet the parched earth.
They all fell back like wilting flowers.
“That one’s with us,” Robin said, and then motioned them forward. “Join us, fight for your freedom.”
She led the charge, and her group of new recruits followed close behind. A glance over her shoulder showed that only the one loud woman and a few stragglers remained behind. A second later, they were running for the hills.
Another wall of the tent fell down, this time to a new wave of bullets, and it was followed by Apex. He was smiling, in spite of the death and destruction being rained down on his people, and he simply pointed up.
Valerie and Robin both looked up at the same time, horrified to see the sun blocked out by two of the smaller blimps they had followed here.
As the blimps above started unloading shots on the ground around them, fighters on both sides started falling to the shots as Valerie and Robin dove out of the way, a tall, thin man stepped out to join Apex. Judging by the extravagant gold trim on his red hat and his long coat, this could only be the Prince.
“You just couldn’t handle her?” the Prince said to Apex in disgust.
He held two rail guns over his shoulders, larger than any Robin had seen before, and tossed one to Apex.
Robin ran for them, narrowly dodging the first rail gun blast that came her way. It hit the tent behind her, which burst into flames. Two pirates came at her from the left, cutlasses flailing, and she had to stop, dodge under the first attack and then step back to avoid the second, and that’s when the next rail blast hit her.
It was like a pillar of fire right through her side, and everything in her wanted to simply shrivel up and die.
She screamed out in pain as one of the cutlasses took her in the shoulder.
“FUCK!” That hurt, too, but this time she was too pissed to be distracted by the hit. Barely able to stand from the pain, she lunged for the closest guy, the one whose blade was still lodged inside her.
Teeth sunk into flesh and she spun, drinking his blood, eyes flaring red. The other backed up, then took off running with piss running down his leg. Another rail blast came, but she let the pirate in her arms absorb the blast. Blood trickled down her neck like the delicate fingers of a lover, and for a moment, she imagined Valerie there with her, consuming this man’s life.
And then she pulled her teeth away, licking her lips with a satiated, ecstatic disgust. This wasn’t her, or it hadn’t been. But now?
She let him fall to the ground, feeling her energy and will to fight return, and yanked the cutlass from her shoulder.
These guys wanted to play like that? Fine.
There was still a hole in her side, but she felt the blood working its magic, and was sure it wouldn’t be a problem for too long. Right now, she had pirates to kill.
At the tent, pirates were streaming forth, shouting about the flames and leaping into the fight. Smoke concealed some of the view, the chaos of it all adding to their fog of war.
>
Another rail gun blast hissed past her ear, hitting a pirate behind her that she hadn’t seen. She hefted the cutlass and leaped.
Mid-air, she saw the rail gun firing up to shoot, but she smiled. She knew she was faster. The blade knocked the gun aside and she was on the Prince in a second, except that, just as her teeth were sinking into him, Apex came at her with a large metal object that fit around his hand and provided a battering ram style strike when it hit her.
She went flying off of the Prince, rolling across the ground and coughing up dirt that had flown into her mouth.
This close to finding her parents, she wasn’t going down so easy.
A rail gun blasted the ground beside her, and she rolled aside again, then was up, claws out, ready for the three pirates who had emerged from the partially collapsed tent. She took out the first two with a claw to the gut and another to the neck, then picked up the third by the neck and balls, and charged the Prince.
Blast after blast took out the pirate so that, by the time she reached the Prince, there was only the head and pelvis. She tossed them at him and they made a nice thud that splattered blood on the two pirate leaders, and then smiled at the sight of Valerie. The older vampire had just taken down what looked like twenty pirates, and was moving in on Apex.
He spun and tried to use that battering-ram puncher, but she was too fast, dodging out of the way so that he was off balance.
When he spun back again, she was waiting, swords in hand, and skewered him with both swords, like a crisscross kebab, before pulling the swords out and across so that he split apart like he’d been cut open with very evil scissors.
“Argghh!” the Prince screamed and hit the rail gun across his leg so that it started sending sparks into the air. When he lifted it to fire again, the shots were fast, but erratic. More of the tent burst into flames, along with other buildings. He spun, not caring who or what he hit along the way, just trying to get a shot in on either of them.
Meanwhile, Martha’s blimp above finally scored a devastating blow against one of the enemy blimps, which exploded before starting to fall.
