“You two, get moving! It’ll be clear by the time you get there!” one sniper called out to us after beheading one of the beasts from half of a mile away. We all nodded, Eddy stayed behind, and Danni and I began running to our destination.
We were about quarter of a mile there. We could make out Ortiz’s figure waving to us, signaling that it was completely clear. A few fires were around, and Tank was putting them out one by one. The other soldiers were scouting the area to make sure there were no stragglers. I couldn’t believe it… could this madman’s entire line of defenses be decimated so quickly, even by an alliance as strong as the iron hearts of the guerrillas and as tactical as the ingenious minds of U.S.P.L.?
That question was answered against my will. A vault in the side of the tower slid open! It revealed a fierce array of massive machine guns. The barrels started spinning quickly, revving up for a split-second genocide. Their very first victim was Ortiz, who didn’t even have time to react as he wasn’t facing the turrets; he was savagely gunned down as his mech exploded into a fiery ball. Time seemed to slow down when I felt my heart skip a beat.
I was firmly rooted to the spot. It felt as though a jolt of electricity was passing over my body, and I was powerless to move. A lawless hero had fallen in the most pitiful way, and the blame lay with a man who was too cowardly to look his victim in the eye when he struck him down.
The others tried to scatter away, but they were also caught by the machine guns’ desire for extermination. Only those that were able to get behind Tank were able to avoid doom; as always, Tank stood resilient and marched forward. The cackling machine guns adjusted themselves to point towards Tank and annihilate him as well, but all that they received were their bullets back as they bounced off of his metal hide. Sparks flew from his body with every shot, and the few soldiers that were crowded behind him were ready to run, but he kept his lethal advance. Once Tank was so close that the pounding of bullets sounded like one long shot, he revved up his drill and drove it straight into the guns at eye level. They exploded in a symphony of sparks, and Tank fell to his knees the moment he knew his idle, cowardly foes were defeated. He was far from finished, but his internal repair system was immediately hard at work.
“TANK! TANK!” Eddy was yelling to the machine he built with his own hands, the three of us running to the scene. Eddy pointed in the direction of the burning hunk that was once Ortiz, and Tank understood. Sparks flew from his chest and he strained to stand, but he obeyed his master’s orders without fail. Tank had extinguished any fires that were on the debris of Ortiz’s mech by the time we reached him. We each fell to our knees when we reached him, but Eddy was the only one who dared to see what had become of Ortiz. I saw the steam rise off of Eddy’s hands; the metal was still boiling hot, but Eddy didn’t care for the mortality of his flesh at the moment.
The window sprang open, and Ortiz’s body slumped out. His face and half of his body were charred, and the other half was bruised and bloody. He struggled to reach for us, and we eased him out. He meant to scream out in agony the moment we moved him, but blood came spurting out instead. He looked around at us, as if he was trying to say “How could this have happened…?”
“All I need from you is to not let my men know I died with my back turned, and to not give Miller a chance to get away…as long as he pays, that’s all that matters…”
His eyes half-shut. His body slouched over, and his eyes rolled back, his mouth slightly agape. I stood up, and clenched my fists. Eddy picked up the body of Ortiz, and grimly walked over to one of the fires that were still burning. Eddy tried to take a deep sigh but choked. He placed Ortiz into the fire, cremating him and allowing his ashes to rise, releasing his soul. He turned and looked me straight in the eye.
“You need to go.” Eddy bitterly commanded. I just nodded, and faced the entrance into the tower that had been revealed when the vault slid aside. We faced the mouth of hell itself, and took the very first step inside…
Darkness rose upward. Lances jutted out from every direction, but had a very mathematical positioning; they were all evenly spaced apart. Each one was sharpened to a point, ready for an unlucky victim. The tower itself was perfectly round, leaving a large circular gap in the center of the spikes.
“How do we get up…?” Danni shakily asked, still in shock from Ortiz’s sudden death.
“I don’t know…” I replied, craning my head upwards to see if there was any sort of stairway in sight… there wasn’t.
“Well, there’s only one way up…” Danni gulped. She climbed up one of the spikes, took a deep breath, and pulled herself up onto another. I stared in disbelief. Didn’t she realize that one slip would mean being impaled?
“Well, c’mon!” she called to me from about five feet up. I noticed that she didn’t look down at me when she spoke. She must have been afraid of seeing the height and losing her grip, and I couldn’t blame her.
I inhaled, grasped one of the spikes, and pulled myself up, just as Danni did. We made our careful ascent into the darkness one step at a time. Once I was moving at a steady pace, we doubled our efforts; the longer we were up here, the greater the chance of Miller sending reinforcements or any other nasty curse became. Unfortunately, this curse came all too soon.
A snarling came from the darkness. A familiar hiss… Danni’s eyes and mine immediately shot downward, trying to find the source in the pit. The gaping darkness said that we were far from escape when we heard something moving, slithering beneath us. Now, we were forced to climb as fast as we could, risking a fall. The hiss grew louder and closer, and the only source of comfort we found was an object high, high up. It stood out against the darkness, but that wasn’t enough for me to make out what it was. Danni was much closer to it, and I realized that she was my only chance of survival when I glanced downward again: I could see Jahnged slithering between the spikes below me!
“HOW DID IT GET IN HERE?!” I cried out, knowing I couldn’t get an answer. We were both panting to escape it, but Jahnged masterfully scaled the spikes with ease. Even though we were in near complete darkness, its segments shone, giving away its whereabouts.
Danni had already reached the object that was high above us, and I could make out now that it was a box jutting out against the wall of the tower, overlooking the interior. She yanked on a small trapdoor on the underside. A blessing came out of it in the form of a man tumbling out. A distraction! Danni crawled in, and motioned me to hurry inside. I rushed up as fast as I could, my hands grasping the lances faster than I could think.
I was within reach! I reached for her hand, but our momentary blessing ended up shedding its disguise and revealing itself as a secondary curse: the now-dead body of the man that had fallen out was tossed up and hit me, sending me tumbling back down!
“LEO!” I heard Danni call from the room quickly falling away from my sight. My instincts acted fast; I grabbed onto two separate lances at the same time, stopping my plummet into the open maw of the darkness and the snakelike beast. My hands ached from the sudden impact, but I forced my mind to take control of my body and not let momentary instinct triumph. Coming down from the rush and back to my senses, I realized that I had fallen so far that Jahnged was now above me! It let out a sigh of a hiss, and slithered down to me. I flew into a panic and backed up against the wall between the spikes. Without warning, two of the lances above Jahnged jolted forward, retracting slowly in disappointment that they didn’t taste flesh. This caught Jahnged’s attention, and I heard Danni faintly.
“Leo, that was me! There’s a panel that looks like the picture on the doctor’s note! You’ll have to guide me!” Danni must have pressed another button, as a lance jolted out at lightning speed even higher above Jahnged, then retracting at a slow, predictable pace.
“You’re going too high! Lower!” I called. Two lances sprang out near Jahnged, but still not hitting the mark. It was beginning to catch on, and it faced me once more. It slithered down more stealthily than ever, moving down around the towe
r instead of in a straight line.
“DANNI! DO SOMETHING!” I screamed in panic. Three lances jutted out from the opposite side of the tower, stopping mere inches from my face!
“CHRIST! TOO CLOSE, TOO CLOSE!” I cried out. I thought I may have heard a very faint “Sorry!” from up there, but the sounds of the serpent grew louder. Jahnged was about five feet from me now, and stopped slithering down. I could see it retracting its head very gradually, and I tightened my grip.
I sweated, wracking my brain in a frenzy for what I wanted my last words to be. I opened my mouth to shout, and as the very first syllable came out, I saw Jahnged launch forward. It was fast as lightning, and in the millisecond I could make out the details of how many teeth it had in its maw, those teeth exploded out of its mouth; dozens of lances gored it at once! They impaled its brains, its throat, every segment several times, its tongue, its tail… it was a mess of black blood and a corpse. The oil-like, vital liquid that it shared with its horrible brothers flooded from its body. It limply hung upon the spears until they slowly retracted, sending its body plummeting down once and for all…
“Am I good or what?” Danni called out. I could just feel the smugness she spoke with, but if I wasn’t mistaken, there may have been a little bit of relief in there too. I climbed back up carefully, all the way to the tiny control room Danni was in. Once I was inside, I found that it was a cramped, dark room. It was dusty and plain, its only redeeming factor being a panel with hundreds of round buttons and several monitors. Off to the left was a wooden door that looked comically out of place in a world of steel. I opened the door, and inside was a dark hallway with a red carpet. There was no illumination except for the light bleeding under the ornate, richly designed wooden door at the other end of this mysterious hallway.
“I’ll have to stay here to keep an eye out. Go get ‘im.” Danni punched my shoulder, and smiled. I was about to take the step forward, but she called me back.
“By the way, it sounded like you were gonna say something before. Before we managed to kill that thing, I mean. What was that?”
“I’ll… let you know another time. There’ll be a better time for me to say it.” I grinned. She nodded slightly and closed her eyes for half a moment, knowing fully what I meant. As much as I wanted to cherish the moment, it wouldn’t be right to let another second go by. I forced myself onward, closer to facing Miller and closer to sealing this chapter of the journey in my memories and locking it up.
Chapter 5
IN ITS WAKE
Each step brought me closer to the light wandering out from underneath the door. The red carpet underneath my feet cushioned my steps, making my approach stealthy and silent. I tried looked back to Danni, but the door was already closed. I reached out for the knob, and its coldness burned against the slashes and cuts on my hand. My hand was shaky upon it, and my other held the smoke grenade that Eddy gave me before. I just took a deep breath and closed my eyes while I twisted the knob and threw the door open.
Miller was inside! We were in what looked to be a room in a mansion. There was a homely blaze in the hearth to my left. The carpeted floor extended out into the room, solicitously gripping the floor. A bookcase stood in the corner, although I wouldn’t be wrong to think that its history was of evils. Quite unlike the library in the prison, I expected his tattered pages to recite murder and blasphemy. Miller sat at his finely crafted Italian desk. For all of his gradual descent from smoothness to fury, he seemed slightly taken aback. His amazement only further increased my shock. He wasn’t expecting this?
“YOU.”
My joints up froze up; I hesitated for a split second. I pulled the smoke grenade from my pocket and threw it at him. In the same second, Miller was already reaching for a switch on his desk. The grenade smashed into his hand. He ended up hitting a switch other than the desired one, and the entire floor gave out under us!
Every object in the room was plummeting. So little time to react. I could make out blurred pipes of all shapes and sizes whizzing by until I landed on a rusted, rugged floor, screaming out as I heard some bone or joint of mine give an audible crack. Miller landed nearby, giving a similar grunt. Most of the objects in the room that had fallen must have been caught on the dozens of pipes that were now above us. The few objects that did hit the ground shattered, resonating with an echo that seemed to extend for miles.
I realized that we were in some sort of squalid, rotten maze. Tunnels seemed to extend from every direction, some open, some closed. Miller and I were in small, flat clearing, though it was one of very few in the area. The air smelled of cold decay, and there was barely any way to see with such a lack of light. After the few trinkets had smashed, all that could be heard was the breathing between us two and the hiss of steam forced from vents both near-by and far off.
Trembling, I got to my feet. The lack of light and the humid haze made any sort of attempt at vision a nightmare. I tried to feel my way around, keeping my tread light. I heard Miller getting to his feet now, and I felt the vibrations through the surprisingly thin metal floor.
I sidled along the floor, clinging to the wall of pipes, maintaining a distance with Miller. The rust felt irritating against my battered hands. I squinted through the steamy mist, making a futile attempt at getting a bearing of my surroundings. Then, I heard the brushing of cloth.
Miller began to hack and wheeze. His breath seemed shaky and ragged yet loud, as though he was trying to be intimidating; trying to keep something or someone away through vehement coughs. The behavior was entirely animalistic, as though his once-calm and formal demeanor had devolved into a struggle for safety. He no longer had a thousand puppets to command: he was left to fend for himself in a cruel, cold, and dank world of endless pathways among the steam.
I heard his hands clumsily brushing the filthy floor. Metal scraped, as though he found a fallen pipe and was dragging it along. The next few moments passed quickly, but with an uncertainty that kept me frozen to the spot.
The whistle of a hollow tube being swung through the air. A loud and exasperated grunt. A heavy metal pipe landing mere inches from my face. Steam screeching out of the now-shattered pipe in front of me. Inhaling sharply, feeling its heat fan out.
Miller was furious. His breaths became shorter and quicker, and I couldn’t stick to the wall forever. I frantically looked around, finding solace in a larger open tube across the room. I darted through the heavy fog, but not without having caught his eye.
As I took quick, light steps toward the open mouth of the pipe, my heart leapt when I noticed Miller right to my side. I stopped for a moment, the shock binding me to the spot once more. He reached out to grab my arm with a malicious grip, though I dodged at the last moment and crawled into the tube.
Inside, I found a narrow space illuminated by several red lights. It subliminally reminded me of the U.S.P.L. facility, but I had little time for nostalgia. I crawled inside, the rust and sharp bits of metal nicking every inch of my skin. The tube descended and turned the opposite way, making a sideways “U” shape.
Behind me, Miller was giving wicked chase, unsurprisingly. Being much taller than I, he had more trouble making his way through, though he was still able to claw his way forward with wrathful intent.
Now at the bottom of the “U”, the path seemed to progress onward for a much longer way. I found no other pathways, no way to confuse Miller and find escape. He would see me clearly bathed in the red light, and I would soon find out when this particular path would end…or how.
Though I knew clearly the reason of my being in this situation in the first place, there was little that I could do at this time. Too much had gone wrong, and I found myself running from Miller instead of the other way around. Even with the sort of fury that filled me with, I knew that the only way to find a solution would be to maintain a calm, clear mind…but that was easier said than done. Burybury and Ortiz stuck out clearly in my mind, and I desperately wanted vengeance, an inadequate payment for crimes that couldn’t
be atoned.
Nearing the end of the tunnel, I found a steel grate to another steel platform below. This area was also bathed in a red light, but a different kind. It was bright; it seemed alive, twisting, turning, burning. I clumsily shoved my fingers in the grid of the lid, yanking this way and that to set it free. I had little room to navigate, making the task all the more arduous. I heard Miller’s agitated grunts as he crawled closer, his dirty, bloodied hands digging into the rust of the pipe to move on. My hands became shakier every time I heard the unmistakable ripping of his clothes tearing against the unrefined confines; I was soon barely able to keep a grip on the grid.
The breathing stopped. Before I could look back, I felt that malicious grip yank my ankle. I shouted in surprise, trying to pull back. Miller gave a low and fiendish cackle, shifting around in the tight spot. I heard a quiet chink of steel against steel as he fumbled around with a switchblade!
I gave into panic, my body moving as if I was being electrocuted. I used every ounce of strength I had to pull away, but Miller used everything he had to keep me exactly where he wanted me. I turned my body just in time to see him raise the dull blade. I gave one last hopeless pull…
HISS! A thick, rich cloud of steam instantly filled the pipe we were trapped in. All of its force was concentrated on Miller himself, and he gave out an agonizing cry from the intense heat and pressure. I felt some of it on the ankle he was so intent on tearing apart, but I was able to pull away before too much damage had been done.
I had just enough time to strain myself to pull the grate off of the pipe, finally hearing it groan with reluctance, and finally pop off with a metallic shriek. I crawled through this space once more, leaving the claustrophobic heat of the pipe to enter a more searing one…
I saw the flow of burning acid beneath with only a steel platform in its way! I tightened my body for impact and smashed into the grate with force. Thankfully, it didn’t give out. Even after the scorching punishment, Miller followed my plummet soon after, hell-bent on my destruction.
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