ALBA

by HL TRUSLOVE

  END.

  Add The Open Fields (Chapter 21, L.21) to map.

  * * *

  Go to The Open Fields (Chapter 21).

  20.17

  It’s pitch black when you decide to enact your plan. You’ve been here for long enough to get an idea of the layout of the compound – the grunts sleep towards the fences, the more important raiders sleep towards the middle. You know precisely where to find the higher-ups.

  You carefully move your blankets off of you and stand up. Around you, the other foot soldiers grunt and mutter in their sleep. Satisfied after a moment’s quiet that nobody else is awake, you turn your attention to Anna.

  It’s good, in retrospect, that Anna has such a big mouth. If she didn’t, you wouldn’t know about her prized knife that she loves to show off to anyone who’ll give her an ear (and also those who don’t). You know she keeps it under her pillow, confident that nobody will risk taking it from under her sleeping head.

  Tonight, you take advantage of that.

  You have nimble fingers, and it’s easy to slip a hand under Anna’s pillow. Your hand closes around the hilt of the weapon and you slowly pull it free, holding your breath as you go so that you don’t move her head too much. The last thing you want is for her eyes to bolt open and have her come face to face with you… there’s no way you could explain your way out of this.

  As you pull the knife free, her breath jumps.

  Everything seems to go silent. Seconds drag by as you watch the raider hover between sleep and consciousness.

  Thankfully, she turns over and keeps sleeping. You’ve never been more relieved to hear her piggish snoring.

  You sneak out of the barracks. You’re lucky there aren’t many guards out tonight. The largest group is always around the balloon building, with a couple at the gate – it’s sort of expected that the grunts are too scared to do something like this. It’s a very easy journey to the other bunks.

  The door isn’t locked. The moonlight shows six sleeping bodies, some of Dagger’s inner crew. They all have nice beds with plush mattresses which they snuggle down into, snoring loudly. You feel a bit jealous, having only a simple military cot in your own barracks… and then you remember you’ve been sleeping in a tent on the ground for most of your journey and you feel even more indignant. Walking on your tiptoes, you silently make your way to the nearest sleeper. He’s a large man you’ve seen by Dagger’s side. With glee, you realise she’ll definitely notice if he’s gone.

  It’s a quick operation. You place your hand over the sleeping raider’s mouth and slice open his throat. His eyes go wide and his body convulses as warm blood pours from the wound, but soon he’s completely still – dead. You don’t want to push your luck by attacking any more members of the inner guard, so you steal out of the barracks silently, back to your own bed.

  You replace the bloody knife under Anna’s pillow, and once again she doesn’t wake, merely rolling over in her sleep and muttering Dom’s name. Your eyebrows raise… that is an interesting development…

  You get back into bed, but the adrenaline doesn’t allow you to sleep. If your plan worked, you know what should happen. You’re still worried about getting caught. Rather than dozing off, your head is full of all the terrible things Dagger could do to you. Before you know it, the sun is rising and it’s almost time to start the day.

  The door swings open, banging against the wall, startling everyone out of their sleep. The other members of the inner circle are standing there with fury in their eyes.

  Here we go…

  “Who did it?!” screams the one at the forefront, her face a mask of fury.

  “Did what?” asks Dom, rubbing his sleepy eyes. She walks over and grabs him by the collar, hefting him up until he’s at face height with her.

  “You know fucking what you scum! Zak’s dead! Which one of you fucking did it?!”

  Nobody answers. This doesn’t make the inquisitor happy.

  “Right! Everyone get up!” she screams, and the grunts all scramble to their feet. Slowly and methodically, they begin to strip the beds and check each raider over, looking for any clues they can find. There’s no doubt they’ll find the bloody knife, but it’s then you look down to check yourself and feel the blood drain from your face. Your hands are stained red, clear evidence of the crime from last night. You shove them behind your back, unable to do anything else, and pray that they don’t spot it.

  Thankfully, they get to Anna’s bunk first and when the knife is uncovered the inquisitor holds it aloft in triumph. Anna’s face pales.

  “But, but I—”

  “Looks like we found a culprit, eh?” laughs the inquisitor.

  “Wait!” says another voice, and Dom steps up, shaking but firm. “Why would she hide the knife under her pillow if she’d killed someone? Surely she’d—”

  He gets cut off when the inquisitor slaps him in the face and he staggers back. A couple of the grunts bristle, uncertain and unhappy.

  “What will you do to her?” you ask, trying to egg this on in any way you can. The inquisitor smiles in a way that seems almost predatory.

  “Oh, I’m sure Dagger will think of something. And the rest of you? I’m sure she won’t be happy you housed a traitor…”

  The grunts begin to speak in earnest now, shouting in anger against the bosses. It’s now or never, you decide.

  So when you walk forward and punch the inquisitor in the face, it sparks the rest of the barracks to action.

  Punches are thrown, knives are pulled. There’s no better way to describe what’s going on than a riot. You join in for a while, fighting when you have to, all the while making your way towards the door. As soon as you’re close enough, you throw it open and run. Reinforcements have clearly been called because more people are coming to the barracks, but you don’t slow down. Instead, you head straight to the hole in the fence and slip through, quickly, going to where you left your pack and digging it free.

  You only stop when you get to the top of the hill. Breathing heavily, you turn to look at the scene behind you. The fight is ongoing and now that your blood isn’t pumping so loudly you can hear the sound of gunfire. You see a couple of small fires have broken out around the compound.

  You smile to yourself before deciding it’s best to leave the scene before anyone realises you’re missing. You head towards the open fields opposite the camp, still grinning.

  END.

  Add Resolve to your character sheet.

  Add The Open Fields (Chapter 21, L.21) to map.

  * * *

  Go to The Open Fields (Chapter 21).

  20.18

  It’s evening in the camp, and things are the same as always. A couple of raiders are playing cards, but you can’t be sure what they’re gambling with. Some are snoozing, some are making idle chit-chat. Anna is showing off that stupid knife of hers.

  It’s time to spread some ideas.

  “You know,” you say, out loud to anyone who’ll listen, “that balloon seems really important.”

  “Duh,” says Anna, attempting to do a knife trick that looks like it will slice her fingers off, “that’s why everyone guards it.”

  “Yeah, but you know who’ll get to ride in it? Dagger and her lot. We won’t.”

  A couple of raiders look up at that.

  “Why do they get to be the important ones?”

  “Because... Dagger’s the boss,” says one of the others, but with a note of uncertainty in his voice. You shrug.

  “Who made Dagger the boss? Dagger did,” you reply.

  “I could be a good boss…” Anna mutters.

  “You could, Anna,” you lie. She would be awful. “If we had the balloon, nobody would stop us.”

  And then, before you know it, you’ve convinced everyone to make their way to the balloon workshop, weapons in hand and rebellion in the air. The guards stationed there barely have time to ask what’s happening before they’re descended upon by discontented raiders. Everyone piles into the bui
lding and begins to try and work out how to get control of the machine.

  “What is happening?!”

  Everyone goes silent at the sound of Dagger’s voice. They turn to see her with a dozen of her inner circle. But, there’s strength in numbers, and the grunts vastly outnumber them. From the back of the room you scream “attack!” and they do, a wave of raiders slamming into the bosses.

  You take advantage of the fighting to slip out, dodging between kicks and punches and knives. As you go, Dagger stares at you, opening her mouth to shout, but being silenced by a blade to the face – Anna. You don’t stop to watch the carnage, instead leaving through the hole in the fence you used to infiltrate the place.

  You only stop when you get to the top of the hill. While digging out your bag, it seems the whole base is crowded around the balloon room. You can see bodies littering the ground, and you get a sense of smugness that your plan worked so well.

  You turn around and walk towards the fields opposite the base. You don’t look back.

  END.

  Add The Open Fields (Chapter 21, L.21) to map.

  * * *

  Go to The Open Fields (Chapter 21).

  20.19

  You know enough about engines, both of the New and Old Worlds, to be able to tell exactly what you need to do to mess things up. You’re also pretty sure you have enough knowledge to be able to take one. One less vehicle in the hands of raiders is surely a win, you decide.

  There’s a workshop on the other side of the small building, containing woodworking benches. A pile of sawdust sits on the floor. From the Old World or not, sawdust in oil is going to make an engine have difficulty. You scoop up handfuls of the stuff and shove them into the fuel tanks, thankful that you’ve studied enough old blueprints to know how to locate them. Soon you’re sure that at least two of the vehicles won’t be able to run.

  You turn your attention to the third. It sits heavy and silent, the largest of the three machines. You pull open its door and get behind the wheel, studying the interior.

  It’s pretty much what you thought it would look like. There were some motorised vehicles back in the vault, not many and rarely used, but you took enough interest in them growing up to work out how to drive one.

  Someone’s left the keys in the ignition. You turn them and it fires to life around you. For a moment, you wonder how you’ll get out of this place, when you notice that what you thought was a wide door in front of you is, in fact, just tarpaulin.

  Definitely something you can drive through.

  Surprised shouts fill your ears; you look in one of the side mirrors and can see raiders have entered the room. They are not happy to see one of their machines occupied. Trying to call upon a memory that you aren’t quite sure is your own, possibly just something you’ve read about before, you slam your foot down onto one of the pedals underneath you.

  The machine slams backwards, hitting a couple of the raiders. You hear them crunch behind you. Eyes wide in panic, you look down next to you at a handle, currently on ‘R’. You grasp it and shove it into a different position, hoping desperately that ‘D’ will give you more luck.

  It does.

  The vehicle surges forwards this time, heading towards the front of the building. There’s an ear-splitting rip as the tarpaulin is split to threads where you crash through it. More people shout in confusion as you launch the thing out of the garage and through the tight turns of the camp, not stopping when you get to the fence and instead bursting through.

  Driving on the grass is a bit more difficult, but you don’t stop. The terrain makes you bounce a bit. A couple of times you almost lose control of the steering, but you stay focused and tight-gripped.

  You keep driving until the fuel runs out.

  The sun is setting by the time the engine begins to stutter and slow. To be honest, you were lucky to push this strange machine this far. It rolls to a stop, a strange landmark in an otherwise open plain.

  You get out and stretch, taking in a big lungful of crisp air. Inside the machine was stuffy. You’re glad to be out of it.

  There’s little around where you’ve stopped, except… you’re sure you can see smoke rising just before the horizon. You narrow your eyes but can’t make it out any better. You shrug and climb into the backseat of the vehicle.

  You can explore tomorrow. Tonight, you’ll take advantage of having somewhere warm and reasonably comfortable to sleep, you decide.

  You drift off easily.

  END.

  Add Resolve to your character sheet.

  Add The Battlefield (Chapter 26, L.26) to map.

  20.20

  You’ve already pushed your luck. No sense in tempting fate even further.

  You snatch up all the bullets you’ve put in a line and shove them into your pockets. The first shot from a raider goes off, sinking into the grass beneath your feet and firing a sprinkle of dirt into the air. You look over to the group approaching and see the leader reloading their rifle, looking at you with fury as they do so.

  You run.

  Your pack slaps on your back as you go, fleeing down the other side of the hill so quickly that your feet get tangled on themselves and you find yourself falling a little. You can’t afford to slow down, though, as another couple of bullets whizz by you, one grazing your shoulder. You feel warm blood begin to stain your coat. It’s something you’ll have to deal with later. Instead you go as fast as you can to vacate the area.

  Bullets rain down on you, and though occasionally they nick your flesh, none of them injure you enough for you to stop. You keep going until the firing ceases. Your legs feel on fire and your chest burns, but only once you can throw a look over your shoulder and be sure they’re gone do you allow yourself to fall to the ground and catch your breath in an open field.

  It was close. If you hadn’t run they’d have had you. You were far too lucky, and some day, that luck is going to run out.

  But for now, you’re all right.

  END.

  Add The Open Fields (Chapter 21, L.21) to map.

  * * *

  Go to The Open Fields (Chapter 21).

  20.21

  You keep firing but by the time you realise there’s no way you can take them all down, they’re on you. You swing the butt at the leader, missing wildly, then try to run. A bullet to the calf makes you stumble and fall to the ground. There’s laughter as you’re dragged back to base, a hand under each armpit, your bloody leg out behind you.

  Dagger stares at you when you’re thrown in front of her with a sigh.

  “I thought we made a deal, outsider. I thought you were sensible.” She rolls her eyes. “Well, throw them in the cell. The slavers will be pleased to see this one when they come round.”

  You open your mouth to object, but only get out the word ‘no’ before a sharp knock to the back of the head drags you into unconsciousness.

  END.

  Add The Cell (Chapter 16, L.16) to map.

  * * *

  Turn to The Cell (Chapter 16).

  20.22

  You don’t flinch as you pull the trigger. The bullet bursts through Dagger’s skull and embeds itself into the chair behind her. Her body goes limp.

  You can’t bring yourself to care. This woman wasn’t only dangerous, she was evil. If she’d been left alive, who knows what she would have done.

  The room is eerily silent as you take a moment to inspect it. The only things of note are a map on her wartable and the dagger on her belt. You take them both before you leave the building and walk out the front gate, an orchestra of silence guiding you as you go.

  END.

  Add Dagger’s Fate (E.15) to your character sheet.

  Add Cruelty to your character sheet.

  Add Dagger’s Dagger (O.13) to your inventory.

  Add The Metro (Chapter 22, L.22), The Windmill (Chapter 23, L.23), and The Caravans (Chapter 24, L.24) to map.

  20.23

  You fire but not at her head as you’d do for a killing bl
ow. The bullet clips her shoulder and she howls in pain, allowing you enough time to cross the room and hit her square in the head with the butt of your rifle. She’s knocked out immediately.

  Her body is limp in the chair, and you quickly explore the room. There’s nothing much of interest here apart from a map at the wartable and her dagger. You pocket them both before leaving the camp. When she wakes up, she’ll find herself utterly, utterly alone.

  You’re not sure if you’ve done the right thing. The thought nags at you as you leave. Maybe she would be better off dead, but as you consider that option Gaia’s face crosses your mind. She’d probably be glad you showed mercy, even here.

  You sigh to yourself, turning back to look at the compound. It’s still and silent. You can’t go back now, even if your choice was the wrong one. You push onwards and let the sun warm your bones.

  END.

  Add Dagger’s Fate (E.15) to your character sheet.

  Add Dagger’s Dagger (O.13) to your inventory.

  Add The Metro (Chapter 22, L.22), The Windmill (Chapter 23, L.23), and The Caravans (Chapter 24, L.24) to map.

  20.24

  You consider lying, saying you need to use the privy, but think that would be too embarrassing. Instead, you gesture to the guns around you.