by CW Tickner
Damen smiled and lowered the rifle.
‘People will need to learn how to use these,’ Harl said. ‘They can practice here, but conserve as much ammo as possible.’ He was thinking of the Aylens and how much fire power it would take to bring one down. It seemed an impossible task. ‘Damen, select twenty men and give them a rifle each and some clips. We’ll lead them towards the main council chamber. The rest can stay here. But have everyone try out these new weapons so that they’re familiar with them. We may need reinforcements.’ Damen nodded and marched back to the doorway leading into the tunnel. He waved people forward and they filed into the room, muttering as they took in the mass of weapons.
As they passed through the doorway, Kane showed them a rifle, explained its purpose and how to use one. Each man and woman moved up to the firing range, took three shots and returned to wait outside. Damen stood next to the shooters as they fired, and picked twenty from those that hit the target at the end of the range.
Uman returned and let out a chuckle of satisfaction when he found a thick rectangular shield tucked underneath a desk. He heaved it out and inspected the angled sides before peering through a slit of thick one-way glass set in the centre. It looked pristine, almost as if it had never seen combat. Uman saw Harl looking and beamed at him.
The armoury door burst wide open, knocking men back as they queued. Harl turned to see Elo, the woman he’d first met with Damen’s hunting party, come barging in, her face twisted with worry.
‘What is it?’ Harl asked, noting the blood splattered on the woman’s short hair and dented armour.
‘A group of scouts are trapped in the warehouse cavern outside the council chambers,’ she said, wiping her face with a bloody hand only to leave dark streaks across her cheeks. ‘I don’t know how many are left, but they’re surrounded.’
‘The old queen’s chamber,’ Kane piped in.
‘How far?’ Harl asked.
‘Not far,’ Elo said, ‘but they won’t last long.’
‘Move out!’ Harl called to Damen and the twenty men waiting for orders at the side of the room.
He snatched up a pistol and headed to the door as the group made a run for the cavern. He just hoped they weren’t too late.
Chapter 44
I have solved the breeding dilemma. In order to slow sales to allow reproductive time I need to increase my prices until I find a balance of specimen to multiplication and steady profits.
Damen brought his rifle up to eye level as they reached the warehouse. He crept in front of Uman and Harl, then raised a fist to signal the soldiers behind them to halt. The reinforced double doors lay twisted and broken on the hard-packed dirt, revealing the carnage inside. Flashes of blue light lit up the smoke-fogged room.
Harl peered around the battered doorframe. The only things visible in the cavern centre were the shapes of men huddled behind containers and rusted machinery; everything else was hidden by the smoke. Closer to him, a large crane extended up to where a circular walkway ran around the wall. Brick pillars were the only things supporting it, but many had been blasted by so much rifle-fire that they looked as though they were about to collapse.
An air draft shifted the smoke above the crane and Harl caught a glimpse of what lay there. Holes impregnated the cavern walls like a honeycomb. There were hundreds of them, perhaps thousands. Kane had mentioned something about it on their way to the cavern. It was once a breeding place for hiver larvae, but now it was used for storage, with each alcove packed with boxes and crates. Harl shuddered. The thought of hivers crawling all over the walls and flying through the air made his skin crawl.
Some of the enemy had taken up position there. They were crouched in vacant larvae holes as they fired down on the helpless scouts. Others leant over the rail on the walkway, adding their fire to the assault. The sound of rifle-fire was deafening. Each shot screeched as it flew by, only to hiss and explode when it struck something.
Harl eyed the nearest stairs leading up to the walkway.
‘Damen,’ he said, ‘take half the men over to the pillars and cover the scouts. Uman and I will lead the rest up onto that walkway. If we can take the high ground, you can help the men in the centre.’
Harl nodded at his men and sprinted into the cavern. Darting right, he made for the crane. The metallic beast blocked his view but offered cover, towering like an Aylen’s skeleton over the fight below.
A man up on the walkway spotted him and shouted the alarm. Blue flashes streaked down, scorching the ground around Harl and Uman. Uman cursed and raised his shield to protect them both as more men joined the attack. Harl ducked behind the shield as another shot raced towards his head. Raising his pistol, he fired over the top of the shield as they closed in on the crane and then skidded to a halt behind it.
Harl glanced back and watched as Damen led his men into the cavern. They swept left below the walkway, and then ran from pillar to pillar, dodging fire until they reached a point where they could cover the scouts in the centre of the cavern. They were safe, for now, so he switched his focus back to his own attack as Elo slid in beside him.
‘What now?’ she asked, ripping off a volley of shots.
A man screamed above them and tumbled over the rail, landing with a thump on the dirt floor between them and the nearest set of stairs.
Harl pointed to a dented steel safety barrier at the foot of the stairs. ‘There. That’s our way up.’
He waited until the enemy focused on Damen’s group and then broke from cover and raced for the barrier. Shots peppered the ground as he ran, their light blinding. He blinked to clear his eyes, staggering forward only to trip on a dead body and tumble to the floor. A strong hand hauled him up and he found himself being dragged along by Elo, even as she fired with the other hand. She thrust him forward and he stumbled into the barrier, collapsing to the floor behind it as Uman and Elo skidded in after him, their faces wild.
The shots pinning them shifted away as his remaining men sprinted across to the crane to provide covering fire. Three of them darted back out and raced to close the gap. Gunfire peppered the ground around them as they ran, light blazing through the air. Then one of the men fell, arching his back as he clawed at a hole burnt into his spine. The sight of him writhing on the ground was sickening.
Harl sprang up and fired shot after shot at the guards perched on the walkway. Hitting one, he ducked back down, a cold smile on his face.
‘Elo, Uman, there’s a pallet of boxes up on the walkway. If we can get there we’ll have a better position to take out the guards and protect our scouts. Take the stairs fast and fire. Keep low. Don’t stop until we get there.’
Uman nodded and Elo grinned as she took sight along her gun barrel.
‘Go!’
Harl launched himself over the safety barrier and bolted for the first stair. Uman followed, keeping the shield up with Elo at his heels.
A scream came from behind. Harl glanced back down as he began to climb the stairs. His remaining men had reached the safety barrier, but one had collapsed behind it, his rifle falling from burnt fingers as his companion gave covering fire.
Anger surged through Harl. The stairs rattled under his feet as he took them two at a time. Blood thumped in his ears as he ran. Every step was a strain, a waste of time. He roared and willed all his strength into his legs. He could hear Uman pounding along behind, impact after impact clanging into his shield, but Elo was lost in a battle frenzy. She rammed a fresh ammo clip into her rifle and raised it to her eye.
‘Take that, hiver-bait!’ she screamed as she shot one of the men on the far side of the walkway. He staggered back and toppled over the rail. ‘Enjoy the ride, sucker!’
Harl pounded up the last few steps just as a soldier popped out from behind a crate on the walkway ahead. The man fired, but Harl dodged to the side and then squeezed his own trigger as the shots flashed by. The man dropped, clutching his stomach, and writhed on the walkway until his movements died away.
‘Good s
hot,’ Uman said, as he and Harl crashed into the metal boxes. They ducked down out of sight and Elo slid in beside them.
With Uman’s shield blocking the group on the opposite side of the cavern and the boxes shielding them from those on the walkway ahead, Harl took a moment to look around.
Most of the remaining fire came from a group of guards across the cavern. Others were hidden in the honeycombed wall above and below the walkway. Their gunfire rained down around Damen as he finally reached the trapped scouts.
The men on the walkway began to creep closer together, edging their way through the gunfire to where their hulking commander barked out orders from a loading point that extended out over the centre of the cavern. It gave them a direct line of sight down to where Damen had joined the scouts behind the shelter of an immense water tank. Steaming water gushed from holes blasted through its thick metal sides.
Concern mounting, Harl traced the run of the walkway with his eyes. If the three of them could make a dash around it then they could hit the enemy from their blind side. He pushed past Uman knowing Damen had mere moments.
‘I’m going around,’ he called.
‘Watch out!’ Elo cried. She barrelled into his back and shoved him forward as a rifle fired beside them. She howled in pain as a shot blasted into her and then collapsed to the metal floor.
Uman roared with anger and dragged her back behind the shield.
Harl twisted around and spotted the shooter lurking in a larvae hole beside the walkway. He dived forward as the man fired again, then rolled to his feet and pulled the trigger, blasting the man half a dozen times until he was a crumpled, bloodied mass in the alcove.
Harl collapsed back against the railing and clutched it for support. He watched Elo’s blank eyes for some sign of life, but there was nothing left of her soul. Her body was just slumped on the metal grating without any of the fire that had burned in it only moments before.
The guards on the far side of the walkway turned and fired. Blue streaks whipped past Harl to hit the railing, but he couldn’t turn away from Elo, couldn’t shake the horror of her death or the look of emptiness in her eyes.
‘Go!’ Uman yelled, tugging Harl from the rail as he wedged the shield between Harl and an incoming shot just in time to deflect it.
But Harl couldn’t move. He just stared down at Elo in numb silence as the battle raged around him.
‘Do something!’ Uman roared as the shield began to glow.
Something snapped inside Harl. The paralysing horror turned to anger, then gave way to a simmering focus on the enemy. He shook his head, snatched up Elo’s battle rifle and ran. The clunking of his feet on the walkway mirrored his heartbeat as he circled around the cavern, a wave of blue shots tracking him.
Damen must have seen what was happening as his remaining men stepped out and fired on the enemy just as Harl and Uman closed in.
With the enemy’s attention split between the walkway and the soldiers below, Harl knelt and fired. He pulled the trigger and kept it down, unleashing a torrent of shots into the tight-packed group. The men on the flank died immediately. The next rank turned to counter-fire, but opened themselves to Damen’s shots from below. They fell one by one, collapsing in a heap, or staggering over the railing to land, broken, on the machinery below.
Harl’s rifle rattled and clicked as it ran out of ammunition. He forced himself to release the trigger as he stared at the pile of smoking bodies in horror.
Cheers came from below as Damen’s remaining men thrust their weapons into the air and slapped each other on the back.
‘We won,’ Uman said, pride and disbelief spread across his grubby face.
Harl didn’t feel the same. They had won. But at what cost?
Elo’s body was wrapped in a white sheet and placed next to dozens of others. All of the bodies had been cocooned in the same way to signify their equality in death. They were arranged in a circle, giving the impression of a white flower, with each body symbolising an individual petal.
Harl stood alone on the loading platform as a forlorn silence settled over the warehouse. The bodies rested below him in a sea of broken crates and burnt machinery. Black scorch marks and drying blood coated everything. He had been a near stranger to Elo and yet she had sacrificed herself for him. He was distraught by it, and the guilt and pain shook his hands even as he gripped the railing for support.
He watched a weeping woman kneel and draw back a sheet as she searched for a child or husband. After several checks she let out a howl of despair and crumpled over a body, sobbing.
It was all so needless. If the Enlightened councilmen had just given up and surrendered then none of the pain would have been real. He wanted it over and done with. Why did people cling on to power like starving animals? He just wanted a simple life, to live with Sonora in peace instead of this constant struggle on the edge of bloodshed and war.
‘They will be through there,’ Kane said, joining Harl on the platform. His white coat was splattered with bloodstains and burn marks from the battle. He pointed down to a simple door nestled under the walkway behind a pillar.
Without waiting, Harl turned and jogged along the walkway, jumped down the stairs, and then strode over to the door, Kane in tow. Damen and Uman fell in behind them with a few other men.
The door was scorched from the firefight and slightly ajar, as if company was expected. A faint yellow light flickered through the gap. Holding his pistol at the ready, Harl eased the door open.
The room was a mass of shadow. There was no sense of its size because the only light came from a bonfire of books and broken chairs blazing in the centre. Everything else was lost in darkness.
The remaining council members were standing around the fire, apparently unarmed. They exchanged nervous glances as Harl led the others inside.
A long-bearded councilman stepped forward. His robe gleamed blood red in the firelight as he glared at the newcomers.
‘You have come to kill us?’ he asked. ‘Or do you deny your interest in the Third Book?’
Harl wanted nothing more than to kill the man. He was horrified by the hatred burning inside him, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He just wanted him dead. Breathing slowly, he stared into the man’s eyes.
‘No,’ Harl said, finally. ‘There won’t be any more killing here, unless you threaten our safety. As for the book, it belongs to everyone. No one person or group should have control over it. Your reign over these people has ended, but you can still have a vital role. You could join us as equals and share your knowledge and wisdom.’
‘Like the traitor?’ the man asked, looking at Kane.
‘I betrayed no one, Eltor,’ Kane said. ‘The people should know about the ships and the technology. We have no right to keep it from them.’
Eltor opened his mouth to reply, but Harl didn’t want to get bogged down by another argument.
‘Enough!’ he shouted. ‘We don’t have time for this. We need to unite and free the people held inside the Aylen’s lair. Everyone has to work together, to learn together.’ He hoped that talk of learning would persuade Eltor, but he doubted it. Thinking of Elo he almost wanted them to resist.
Eltor shook his head. ‘You’re so righteous, boy, but you’ll come to see that these Passives-’ He spat the word and nodded at Damen, ‘-have stunted minds. They need a place in society and that is what we give them.’
Damen stepped forward and drew his knife. Eltor shuffled back and held a hand out over the fire. Damen froze. Eltor was holding the Third Book above the flames. The hands of some of the other councilmen twitched towards their coats, as though weapons were concealed there.
‘Eltor, no!’ Kane said, stepping forward.
Damen’s men spread into the room from the doorway and raised their rifles, creating a semicircle that faced the councilmen.
‘Please,’ Harl said. ‘You don’t need to do that.’
He took a step forward, his hands raised to show he meant no harm.
It
was a mistake. One of the councilmen panicked, drew a pistol from his coat, and fired.
Uman threw himself at Harl and knocked him to the ground as the shot blasted where he’d been standing a heartbeat before. Damen’s troops opened fire and the air came alive with searing flashes and screams as shots lanced across the room.
‘No!’ Harl cried from under Uman’s shield.
He saw Eltor open his hand and drop the book into the flames. The old man’s smile was cold as he watched the book fall into the fire, but then shots slammed into his body and he was thrown back onto the floor.
The other councilmen were too slow to react. They reached for their weapons, but died within moments, their bodies tumbling to the ground in a tangle of dead weight and smoking ruin.
Kane ran into the middle of the room in an attempt to reach the book. He snatched it from the flames, but was too late, and could only stare in dismay at the handful of smouldering pages as they fell from his blistering hands.
They were only ashes now.
Chapter 45
After much investigation I discovered they are unable to reproduce between specific ages. Only certain male and females are viable to breed.
They trudged out of the council room after searching the bodies of the fallen Enlightened. At first Harl had thought it was a bluff. Why would men who revered knowledge do that to the real Third Book? But Kane’s response showed Harl the truth.
When the battle ended Harl found Kane slumped on the floor with the ashes of the Third Book before him. His tears had rained down to splatter the wrecked pages. When Harl had laid a hand on his shoulder, he’d just looked up at Harl through the veil of his tears and shaken his head.
Little was said among the survivors as they left the cave system on their way back to Damen’s house. Sonora ran to Harl as soon as he came within sight of the door. She threw her arms around him and listened with growing concern as he recounted what had happened. By the time he had finished, Gorman was stood quietly next to them.
