by Ramy Vance
The force of Stew’s body dented the tank and rocked it to the side. As Stew and Sandy watched, their eyes wide and hopeful, the tank slowly tipped over, fell on its side, and skidded across the ground. That was enough to get the attention of the orcs ahead, who turned to see what was happening as Stew hit the ground, looking for his cat.
Two of the orcs turned back and headed toward Stew. One of them pulled out a plasma rifle and fired. The shot hit Stew point-blank and sent him flying through the air. He hit the ground and grasped his torso. The shot had burned through part of his chest, and the skin was seared off. Stew roared in pain and rage as his eyes lost their true color and turned bright red. His body swelled again, and he grew even larger as if the pain were fueling his rage. He didn’t wait for his cat. He bolted toward the two orcs who were pelting toward him.
The orc fired again and Stew dodged to the side, now on all fours, bounding toward the two orcs and connecting with one of them. They tumbled across the ground, the orc the first to his feet, pulling out his axe and slashing at Stew, who grabbed the axe mid-swing, pulled it back, and ripped the orc’s arm off. Stew lifted the orc and snapped his neck, then threw the body at the other orc.
As the orc sailed through the air, the bones in his body started to pop out and the body swelled as if it were filled with poisonous gas. Once the dead orc’s body hit the other orc, it exploded in a mushroom cloud of green gas.
Sandy rode up to Stew. “You need to shrink,” Sandy said. “Then jump on.”
Stew closed his eyes as he tried to concentrate. His body didn’t return to its normal state. “Can’t.” Stew huffed. “Can’t get small.”
“Oh, shit, that’s not good.”
Stew waved away Sandy’s concerns. “Not now. Later. Now kill. Now kill everything.” Then Stew bent over on all fours, his body still swelling but now taking on a leaner, tighter look, as if the bulky muscle that had been used for strength was now being used for speed. He took off toward the rest of the convoy, which was beginning to loop back around to deal with the lost tank.
Toward the front, Suzuki and Beth had nearly closed the gap between them and the convoy. They were both trying to pick off as many orcs as they could, but they had overestimated how many of them there were.
One final push was all it was going to take.
Beth stood atop her battle cat as it got closer, and she leapt, landing on the back of one of the orc’s steeds. She stabbed the orc in the sides repeatedly until he slumped over and she tossed him off the horse, now in the thick of the rest of the orcs. She flung her daggers into the crowd, still tethered to her through the alien tech, and swung them around, cutting up all the orcs in her radius. Most of the orcs managed to speed up in time to keep from getting caught in the flurry of death, but Beth was able to cut down a good chunk of them.
As the orcs rode toward the tank, Suzuki enchanted his axe and sped his battle cat up. He threw his axe into the back of one of the orcs toward the front of the convoy, hitting him in the back and killing him. The orc’s body burst into flames, and as the rest of the orcs rushed past their fallen comrade, Suzuki closed his eyes and concentrated on the most recent rune he had carved into his axe: explosion.
The body of the flaming orc exploded, setting on fire two other orcs and their horses. The rest of the orcs scattered to get away from the flames.
Most of the convoy had been destroyed, and what was left was heading toward the tank. That was until Stew sailed through the air, grabbing one of the orcs off his horse, turned in mid-air, and tossed him at another orc, knocking them both over before his shoulder cannon whirled and fired, burning through both.
At that point, the rest of the orcs fled as the Mundanes converged on the only one stupid enough to have returned to the overturned tank. The orc jumped off its horse and ran toward the tank, turning suddenly and drawing its sword to face off against the four Mundanes.
The orc spat on the ground and slammed its sword against its shield. “You’ll never fucking take me!” the orc shouted. “I will not give up my master’s spoils.”
Suzuki looked at the rest of the Mundanes. “I don’t know, four on one is pretty fucked up,” he said.
The rest of the Mundanes nodded. Sandy stepped forward. “You sure you don’t want to just, you know, go?” she asked.
“I will not flee. Ever.”
Sandy nodded slowly as if she understood a great truth. “You’re wounded,” Sandy said. “Your leg.”
The orc looked down at his leg. He was in fact wounded, a large cut running up his thigh.
Sandy pointed at the orc’s leg, and the joints in her hand twisted and cracked.
The orc screamed in pain as the wound in his thigh stretched all the way down to his foot. His femur pushed out of his skin, and he fell to the ground. Sandy walked over to the orc and knelt beside him. “I am not going to kill you,” Sandy whispered into his ear, “but I am going to get information from you. Do you understand? You are going to talk, or you are going to hurt. Do you understand?”
“I will not talk!” the orc shouted.
Sandy stood and waved her hand over the orc. Giant bones erupted from the ground and encased the orc, hiding him from the view of the rest of the Mundanes. She walked back to her fellow MERCs. “You guys let the giants out. I need to help Stew,” she said.
Suzuki pointed to where the orc was. “Sandy, what the fuck do you think you’re going to do?” he asked.
Sandy looked back casually. “I’m going to torture him until he tells me what I want to hear.”
“Jesus Christ, are you serious?”
“Our intel has been shit. Myrddin isn’t giving us enough information.”
“Sandy, we can’t do that. That’s not—”
“Suz, that’s not you, and it doesn’t have to be you. It’s not Stew, and it doesn’t have to be him. But it’s me, so just look away, all right?”
Beth rested her hand on Suzuki’s shoulder. “Come on, we need to get those giants out of there.”
Suzuki nodded and followed her. He didn’t want to think about what was going to happen to that orc. He wanted to push it as far from his mind as he could. But he knew, deep down, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t any worse than what had been done to Beth. It wasn’t any worse than having just mowed down a dozen orcs. The only difference was that he didn’t have to have this blood on his hands.
Still, Suzuki couldn’t help looking over his shoulder at Sandy kneeling in front of Stew, who looked more like a monster than a human, his shoulders bulging with muscles, his eyes large and red and his mouth wide, covered with blood, the rest of him slumped over, supported by his massive hands. Sandy had his face in her hands and was kissing his forehead. Slowly, Stew’s body began shrinking, his muscles deflating, his bones shortening, until he looked like his normal self again. Once he had returned to normal, he ran over to join Beth and Suzuki, while Sandy made her way to the bone cage she had created.
Stew leaned against the tank and pushed until he was able to flip it over. Suzuki couldn’t help but note that even in his regular state, Stew’s strength had nearly tripled. The tank must have weighed at least a ton. And on top of that, the tank was filled with giants. Once the tank was flipped over, Stew ripped the door off.
Inside there were at least twenty giants. They were chained together, and their hands had been pulled down to their feet and chained there as well, so they were forced into an extremely uncomfortable position. Their heads had been covered with black bags. They trembled in the sunlight.
The Mundanes were too shocked to move at first. Finally, Suzuki climbed into the tank. He reached out for one of the giants, who screamed at the touch of Suzuki’s hand. “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Suzuki whispered. “We’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to free you.”
Suzuki cut through the giant’s chains, then Stew and Beth climbed into the tank and helped Suzuki free the rest of the giants. They removed the giant’s head coverings and exited the tank to give the giants
room to step out and stretch to their full heights.
The giants looked around, confused at first. Then the largest one turned to Suzuki and knelt so they could be eye to eye. “You freed us, little one,” the giant said. “We are forever in your debt.”
Suzuki smiled and extended his hand. “Don’t even worry about it,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”
The giant smiled, a sad-looking spectacle.
There was no joy in his expression.
It was the smile of one who was only hanging on by a thread. “Many of our brothers and sisters died when we were captured. We may be the last of this tribe,” he said slowly. “It means a lot to us all that you did not allow us to become playthings for the Dark One. One day, we will repay you.”
Stew stepped forward and unsheathed his sword. He presented it to the giant. “You could take up arms with us,” Stew suggested. “Having allies as big as you would make a huge difference.”
The giant shook his head as he stood up. “No, I am afraid that is the one thing we cannot do. Violence is not a part of our nature, and we wish for it never to be. There must be some on Middang3ard who remember such things. Thank you once more, and we will repay you.”
The giant motioned to the rest, and they took off running in the direction of the jungle. Stew knelt and looked at the footprints. “Shit, how the fuck can something so big be such a fucking wuss?” Stew grumbled. “Totally all right with letting everyone else fight their battles.”
Suzuki crouched beside Stew. “I think he’s right. Maybe everyone shouldn’t be like us.”
Beth came over to the two young men and sat down next to them. “No, he is right,” Beth said. “We’re soldiers. Mercenaries. Killers. It’s important there are people like us, but that doesn’t mean everyone should be. We do this so others don’t have to.”
Stew looked at Beth. “You really think so?”
Beth nodded her head. “We aren’t the same kids who used to sit around and play VR,” she said. “We all know it, even if we’re having fun most of the time. And that probably says something else about us, that we’re enjoying this. We’re warriors. It’s deep in us. I don’t have any shame about it. We’re strong enough for others. That’s the way it should be.”
Suzuki heard Sandy’s voice from behind him. “All right, I got our intel,” she said.
Sandy was covered head to toe in blood and held a sharp bone dagger in her hand. Suzuki turned to face her. “What did you—”
“I didn’t kill him. Turns out necromancy goes both ways. I still can heal. I didn’t know what to tell him. It’s not like I could say, go enjoy the rest of your life. He doesn’t have a life anymore. All that’s going to happen is he’s going to run back to the Dark One and get put back to work, not even knowing he doesn’t even have his own fucking mind anymore. It probably would be better if he was dead. But I couldn’t do it. Not like that. But he told me what I wanted.”
“And what was that?”
“We got more work to do before we hit that facility.”
Stew’s stomach grumbled loudly, and he lay back and groaned. “I know this isn’t the most appropriate time, but do you guys want to eat?” he asked. “I’m fucking starving.”
Suzuki looked around the battlefield strewn with bodies, covered in blood and viscera. “Surprisingly, I could eat, dude,” he said. “Let’s get cleaned up.”
21
During their meal, the Mundanes discussed what their next steps would be. Sandy had found out this was only one part of a larger caravan that had been split off from the first in an attempt to confuse the Mundanes.
It was, in fact, a decoy.
The orcs who had been sent were very aware they were probably going to die, but they had not expected any of the Mundanes to be willing to torture one of them for information. It sounded like the Dark One was not expecting that level of savagery from the Mundanes. Even though it turned Suzuki’s stomach, he knew this was a lack of foresight on the part of his enemies he could use to his advantage.
The second part of the convoy was much larger. There were no horses, just four tanks. Unlike the tank they saw today, these were armed—heavy artillery from what Sandy had been told. “What kind of artillery, though?” Suzuki asked, irritated at the vagueness of her descriptions.
A bone blade slowly pushed out of Sandy’s palm and she pulled it out, wincing. “Do you want me to go find out?” she asked.
“The orc is still here? I thought you let him go.”
“No, I said I didn’t kill him, and I healed him. I didn’t let him go, though. I wasn’t sure if we were going to have a use for him later. Does that bother you?”
Suzuki shook his head. He’d had a lot of time to think over what Beth said. The Mundanes existed so everyone didn’t have to become what they were becoming. Even their enemy didn’t think they were capable of becoming what they might need to. “No,” Suzuki finally said. “And I want to be there when you interrogate him this time.”
Sandy shook her head as she tossed the dagger in the ground. “No, you don’t, Suzuki. It’s going to get really bad in there. He’s a tough son of a bitch.”
“I know I’m not going to like it, Sandy. That doesn’t mean you should have to be the only one to do this. I’m going with you.”
“All right. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Probably wasn’t the greatest idea to eat first but, who knows, might help out your stomach. Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Sandy stood and Suzuki followed her as she walked over to the bone cage. She waved her hand, and part of the bone chipped and fell away. She stepped inside, Suzuki right behind her. The bone wall sealed up behind her.
The orc sat in the middle of the cage. Bones stretched out from the ground. His arm had been broken, and the bone that jutted out was fused to the bone cage. He looked up when the two Mundanes stepped into the cage. He spat on the ground in their direction when he met their eyes. “I’m not telling you fuckers anything else!” the orc shouted.
Suzuki knelt in front of the orc and cleared his throat. “My name is Suzuki. What—”
“I know what your fucking name is, human,” the orc interrupted.
Suzuki cleared his throat again and swallowed. He took a deep breath. He hadn’t thought this through. Had no idea what to expect. No idea what he was going to do. At the very least, he knew it was an interrogation. Possibly torture. “I said, my name is Suzuki,” he started again. “What’s yours?”
“What the fuck do you want to know my name for?”
“So I know who I’m talking to.”
“Does it matter who you’re talking to?”
“It would be nice to have a conversation. Unless you want Sandy to keep cutting you?”
Suzuki raised his eyebrows, trying to look as if he didn’t care either way. If he was honest with himself, he’d admit he would prefer not to see what Sandy was capable of doing to the orc. He knew Sandy had a thing for violence, but the callous way she had decided to torture the orc indicated a level of sadism Suzuki hadn’t known Sandy had in her. He would be all right not witnessing it firsthand.
Suzuki grabbed the orc by the chin and forced him to look at him. “I’m going to ask you some questions,” Suzuki informed him. “I would like you to answer those questions. We already know another convoy is coming, mostly tanks. I want to know what kind of artillery they’re using.”
The orc laughed harshly. “Why do you think it matters? It’s more than enough to deal with four puny humans,” he countered.
“Not too puny to have killed your entire troop. Right? Or were you all exceptionally weak?”
The orc’s face twitched.
Suzuki had touched something. He wondered if he could get the information he wanted to get without having to hurt the orc. Maybe it was just as much of a mental game as anything else.
Suzuki let go of the orc’s chin and leaned a little closer. “Is that why you got sent to be a decoy for us?” he asked. “Because you’re weak an
d expendable? I’m assuming that’s how working with the Dark One goes. The weak ones to the front to get chopped down. Anything else he feels like is superior, stronger, gets to live. But orcs like you? You’re just grunts, waiting to die, right?”
“We were not weak. We knew the risk. We took the sacrifice.”
“So, you knew ahead of the time this was going to be a sacrifice. You knew ahead of time you were going to die?”
The orc puffed out his chest and looked away as if he were thinking of something else. “It is an honor to know your duty and to fulfill it to your clan.”
“And that was your clan? Even with the different clan markings? It looked like you might have all been chieftains of another clan. What happened to those clans?”
The orc refused to meet Suzuki’s eyes.
The corners of his mouth did twitch, though. It was the first time Suzuki could recall ever seeing a break in the Dark One’s indoctrination.
Somewhere, beneath all of the brainwashing, there was still an orc, one who remembered their traditions, one who perhaps remembered their family. But more importantly than any of those things, it was an orc who was beginning to remember he was an orc.
Suzuki leaned back as he rubbed his chin. “Since when is it honorable to be a sacrifice?” Suzuki asked.
The orc snapped forward, gnashing his teeth. “What the fuck do you know about sacrifice?” he shouted.
Suzuki laughed. “I’ve sacrificed my entire life. Everything I ever knew. The kind of person I used to be. All of it gone, and I’m never getting it back. I sacrificed it all to wipe piece-of-shit acolytes of the Dark One off the face of the realm. That’s everything I’ve sacrificed. I might not be willing to do anything to get the information I want, but I know Sandy is.”
