Allie's War Season One

by JC Andrijeski

  “I suppose I understand,” Terian said. “...In part, at least. The way you were raised, you would have had plenty of practice in both lying and submission.” He bit gently on the end of the hiri, sucking resin. “And yet, in all of these months, I find it astonishing that I have yet to see a response from you that did not feel amazingly well-scripted. I believe all of this actually bores you on some level, am I right?”

  Revik stared at his hands.

  When the silence stretched, he gave a sort of barking laugh.

  Terian smiled, settling his weight back in his chair. “If you do not wish to speak of the succession order, perhaps we can speak of other things. Tell me about Elise, Rolf.” He ashed the hiri. “How did you come to marry a human? How did you come to be in Germany at all?”

  Revik’s mind remained lax. Images seeped through cracks. Her dead eyes grew into her living ones, smiling at him, laughing as she waded through blue-green grass, trailing dark hair. He caught her fingers, then the rest of her, and it was familiar, so familiar...but deadened somehow, far away. She was taking off his clothes before he’d caught his breath, asking him, and he lay on her, could barely hold it once he was inside.

  Time rushed forward. He was older, bigger. She looked small to him now.

  She blindfolded him, taking him into her studio. A wall of their house, painted with the sword and sun...

  Everything went dark.

  When he opened his eyes, he lay on the cold tile, naked, shaking with pain.

  Tears poured down his face. He didn’t know where he was. He felt Terian with him briefly, his friend, laying an arm on his shoulder, laughing as he told another story about that hooker he’d loved in Paris...

  Terian-2 clapped his hands. “Wake up, Revi’! Wake!”

  He opened his eyes. He heard her voice, but too far away this time; he couldn’t make out her words. Walls dripped like liquid mercury around him. He was afraid he’d get some in his mouth, but he was so thirsty still, he almost didn’t care.

  Terian set down a new glass of water. He stood, watching Revik drink. Revik calculated the length of his arms, the range of motion provided by the chain.

  He mapped out every centimeter, every millimeter...

  “...like Alyson?”

  Revik opened his eyes. He blinked. “What?”

  “Elise, Revi’. Do you remember?”

  “She slept with him,” Revik managed. “Had his child.”

  The light evaporated. He dug frantically in the dark, his fingers broken and bleeding. He was starving to death slowly, so thirsty he can’t swallow. Laughter came from outside the iron door, a shock of light after the lock screeched from the wall. Merenje opened the door, drunk, stumbling at the top of the stairs. He had a woman with him, her eyes were green—

  “Want to play with an ice-blood, girl? A real one?”

  Revik yanked on the chain, yanked, and his wrists bled...

  Terian slapped him, hard. “Who did you report to, Revi’? In those years?”

  Revik saw a black swastika on a white circle, blood red behind. Bodies piled in pits, like bleached white dolls. Out of bullets. He was out of bullets. They wanted him to beat them to death now, hit them with gun stocks in the back of the head, rocks, run them over with panzers. Memories slithered forward. She ran through the field, trailing dark hair. Brown eyes laughing, teasing him to follow, to chase her.

  Leaning down, Revik sank his teeth into his own wrist, holding the vein right where his canines would pop it.

  He rolled his eyes up, fixed his stare on Terian.

  The Sark chuckled. “You would not.”

  Revik bit down, hard.

  Blood squirted into his mouth. He was hungry, so fucking hungry. He drank his own blood, feeling sick, strangely relieved. It would be over now. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the seer rise, saw his mouth move just before everything started to gray.

  HIS EYES OPENED. Time passed, or not.

  He couldn’t move his head. He tried to lift it, then his arms. Terian squatted beside him, his yellow eyes calm.

  “You will remember more now, Revi’,” he said. “I can’t say I envy you, when you do...but perhaps you will feel free again, yes?”

  Revik saw a tube running down, dripping liquid, mingling with his blood.

  Something squirmed on his neck and throat. Something alive.

  He remembered Allie feeding him light, curled up in his arms when he first woke up in that bed in Seattle. Pain hit him, worsening as he wondered why he hadn’t kept her there, why he let himself fall back asleep, why he hadn’t followed her when she left the room. He remembered her fingers as she sketched, her jade green eyes concentrated...telling him she wanted to go after Galaith, the light in her eyes dying when he said he wouldn’t help her.

  Terian was right. Gods, Terry was right.

  Why hadn’t he asked her? Why hadn’t he asked her, in all of that time?

  A rusted metal building loomed over him, standing alone in the middle of a field. He looked up, and saw windows smashing outwards, glass shattering, pulverized to the consistency of sand. He heard his own voice, laughing into the sky, laughing, imagining that fucker Stami’s face if he saw him now. If he saw...

  Cass sat near him, chained to the wall. Giant insects crawled by her feet, touching her skin with softly probing antennae.

  “Cass,” Revik managed. “Don’t move. Be careful...”

  She grinned. Hey, big guy. You want one?

  Raising her foot, she smashed the hard brown shell of a fist-sized beetle with her bare heel. She picked it up, stuffed the whole thing in her mouth, crunching noisily.

  He watched her, feeling sick, faintly envious. Hunger tugged at the edges of his light, making his head sink lower, making it feel as heavy as metal.

  “They gave me too much,” Revik told her.

  It’s the wire, brother, she told him. The wire on your neck...

  Cass laughed, her mouth full of jointed legs. She flattened another insect, popped that one in her mouth, too. Jon stood over her, making chopping motions in the air with his hands. He wore a robe like the monks wore back home. Revik got dizzy, watching his flailing arms.

  Stop screwing around, Jon told him. Clock’s ticking, man...

  “...Do not misunderstand me,” Terian-2 was saying. “Over the years, I have found it patently not useful to judge the contradictory natures that arise within myself. Where they occur, I simply create a new vessel in which to house them.” He leaned closer, clasping lizard-like hands. His tongue darted out, wetting his lips, and Revik recoiled. “...You can see the symmetry behind this, can you not, my friend?” Terian’s teeth lengthened. “All parts culminating in their most authentic expression? There is no need for repression, Nenzi. No need to hold back any desires housed in the darker corners of your attic...”

  Revik swallowed, staring up at him. “I’m really fucking hungry,” he said. “Can I have some food?”

  Terian laughed. “Now that...that sounded like my friend! Is it possible I am reaching him at last? No, no...do not sleep. You have slept enough, Revi’...”

  Revik glanced at Jon. “Do you believe this guy?”

  Jon laughed. Him? What about you, man? He’s right, you know. You can’t just spend the rest of your life asleep...

  “What choice do I have, Jon?”

  You need to get laid, man. I mean bad. I hope Allie’s been exercising.

  “Gods.” Pain clenched in his chest “Don’t talk about her like that. She’s my wife, Jon.” Blood darkened the water by his hands.

  Someone slapped his face, disorienting him.

  “Why were you in Germany, Rolf?”

  Revik fought to see, couldn’t. His eyes were light, just light...he couldn’t see past it. Terian flicked his fingers impatiently. “Yes?” He tilted his head, as if listening. “You killed some humans? Really? Well, I ask you...so what? How many millions of seers have died at human hands, Revi’?” He leaned closer. “Tell me. Do you really care, eve
n now? Or is this an act, too?”

  Revik looked at Cass. “I care, Cass. I do care...”

  I know you do, big guy. That’s why you’re talking to me. She grinned, making the crazy symbol by her head. Better than remembering that shit...right? Maybe you were right to wait with Allie. She’s going to rip it open, you know. She can’t help herself...

  Revik pressed his face to the floor. The cold tile felt good.

  He was ravenous, so hungry he couldn’t think straight, couldn’t make himself want to. When he glanced up, Jon was throwing pieces of meat in the air, catching them in his teeth. He worried each one before he swallowed them, flecking the green walls with blood and Revik felt himself getting hard, watching him. He stared at his fingers, broken and bleeding, digging in mud.

  He was almost there. He could see daylight...

  Terian’s eyes were dead, burnt glass. “You see,” he said. “I am becoming increasingly certain it wasn’t by accident that Galaith and I stumbled upon you in Germany like we did, Rolf. Nor a coincidence that you exactly fit our most desired recruitment profile. Estranged from family, few friends, no strong political beliefs, willing to kill humans...willing to follow questionable means for morally justifying ends. You could have guessed we’d concentrate our initial efforts in the Reich...”

  Terian smiled, waggling a finger at him.

  “You always were the clever one, Rolf. Were you Vash’s man, all along? Were you, Nenz?”

  “Why do you keep calling me that?” he managed.

  “Do I need to bring her here for real? To get you to talk? I seem to recall you were at your most malleable when you thought I had your wife in custody, too...”

  Revik saw her then, and his heart clenched until he couldn’t breathe. Allie watched him from where she lay twisted on the floor, her neck broken. Her green eyes stared at his, dead-looking, a smoky gray.

  He let out a groan, reaching for her. “No. Gods...please.”

  “So when did their plans go wrong, Rolf? Was it when we killed Elise?” Terian leaned closer, his amber eyes hard. “Did you blame the Seven for that, too? But that was your fault, wasn’t it, Rolf? Dragging a vulnerable human into the middle of your very dangerous game? A bit arrogant, yes?”

  Revik tried to concentrate on his words, couldn’t. “Give me food. Please.”

  “Will you talk to me, if I do?”

  His sickness worsened. “Yes.” He fought tears. “Just don’t hurt her. Please.”

  Terian regained his feet. Revik clutched the empty water glass to his chest. When he was younger he could size someone’s range and limbs in a single look. Back then, he’d always known what space his body possessed, what he could do in that space, limitations, strengths, possible weapons...in case anything bad happened, which it frequently did.

  Terian reached down, leaning over him.

  Revik waited until the seer started to tug the empty glass from his fingers.

  ...and caught his wrist.

  He whipped his legs around, smashing them into the back of Terian’s calves. Throwing his torso backwards as far as the chain allowed, he yanked him forcibly to the floor.

  His other hand shattered the glass.

  The seer fell on him. Revik rolled, half-pinning the Indian seer under his chest. Working his fingers quickly into strands of his hair, he jerked the head back. The Sark’s eyes showed white.

  “Rolf, no! This won’t help you...!”

  Revik ground the shard of glass into the seer’s throat.

  A thin spray of blood hit him in the face. Sliding the glass in as far as he could, he gasped, crying out, seeing himself covered in blood and fresh wounds and scars, naked, bearded, in a hundred mirrors. He tore through muscle, veins and skin, then ripped the shard out. Blood sprayed upwards in a hot arc. The white throat pulsed, pouring thick fluid.

  Revik stared down, watching, feeling his mind clear as...

  The seer’s eyes gradually lost light.

  Gradually, the blood pumped more slowly from the jagged hole in his throat. Revik continued to stare down, but the seer felt dead. He smelled dead.

  Realizing he wore more than a collar, that it wasn’t only drugs affecting his mind, he ripped the inducement wire from around his own throat. He stared down at the twisting, organic coil once he had, then flung it to the ground, looking in the room’s corners.

  Gasping, he fought to clear his head, to think.

  Jon wasn’t there. Neither was Cass. All he saw was his own reflection, replicated over and over. This might be more inducement dream, too.

  If not, he had minutes, maybe seconds.

  Flipping to his side, he brought the back of his neck down to his hands, fumbled his fingers over the length of the organic-metal collar he still wore. It took him a few tries to activate the thumbnail switch. By the time he got it open he felt light-headed.

  He thought he heard a noise in the outside corridor and grabbed the dead seer’s hair. He flipped back to his side, turning on the slick tile, angling the body’s face towards the back of his neck, trying to align it with the retinal scanner.

  Nothing happened.

  Revik craned over his shoulder, saw the corpse’s eyelids half-open, smeared with blood. He picked up a smaller shard of glass, slicing his fingers as he fumbled with it. He used the edge to shave off the body’s eyelids, careful to not puncture the eye, wiping blood off each iris. The lids kept slipping from his fingers but he got most of it, prayed it was enough.

  Shifting to his side again, he struggled to grip the blood-soaked hair, to hold the eyes in position. Dread, adrenaline and fear nearly made him black out.

  He wrenched the head back, then fought to concentrate, crying out when it tripped the collar’s anti-sight mechanism enough to cause a jolt of pain. He nearly let the body drop.

  He felt the click as much as heard it.

  The prongs retracted, receding from his neck in one smooth pull. Gasping, he raised his head. The old reflex kicked in and that time it felt so good he groaned aloud.

  Without waiting, he focused on the chains. He already knew they were tied into the organics of the room. He looked for the right organic being...he remembered doing this before, as well, although he hadn’t done it in years. Within a few seconds, the being had stopped listening to the artificial intelligence that normally directed it, and was listening to Revik instead.

  He heard footsteps. They sounded real this time.

  Regaining his thread with the organics, Revik tried to talk to the damned thing, to coax the living metal to open. He was breathing in so much oxygen he nearly passed out.

  His vision cleared as an opening morphed in the wall, revealing a man with long, auburn hair. Terian-6 paused, seemed to take in the entirety of the scene—Revik contorted and cuffed to the floor, the dead body lying in a pool of blood behind him.

  “Oh, Revi’...”

  Terian-6 held the edges of the opening, his liquid eyes shining. “You have no idea how much fun I’m going to have with you.” He finished entering the room and Revik jerked back, startled when his arms moved with the rest of him.

  He looked down. The chains lay open on the floor.

  Terian-6 halted. He stared at Revik’s hands, his muscular body suddenly tense.

  “Revi’...” he said warningly.

  Revik threw himself at the seer, using the water on the tile floor to slide across the meters between them. He saw Terian fumble for a pocket, moving frantically so that he jerked his elbow into the wall. Their bodies collided just before they slammed into the green organic surface together.

  There was a loud crack as they hit, but Revik didn’t stop grappling for the seer’s neck. Grasping hold of his throat, he slammed Terian-6’s head against the glass, then again...and again, until the light eyes glazed.

  He didn’t realize the glass shard remained clutched in his hand until blood seeped through his fingers from the seer’s throat.

  Revik reached for the pocket the seer had been groping for, ripped a se
rrated knife from the cloth jacket. Without a pause, he flipped it open, plunged it into the seer’s chest to the hilt and cut downwards, sawing like he was dressing meat. Hitting bone, he pulled it out and stabbed him again, going deeper into the chest cavity. He did it again.

  And again...until he felt the shift in the other seer’s light.

  Revik held the dead weight against the glass wall, staring at its face.

  Hesitating, staring between the Sark’s eyes, he flipped the knife in his hand, letting the body slide down the wall to the floor before he knelt over it again, taking steps to ensure it wouldn’t come back.

  It wasn’t until he’d severed the head from the neck that he felt the urgency and adrenaline in his limbs begin to abate.

  He looked at the mutilated body, feeling light-headed. Ripping the deactivated collar from his neck, he leaned on the glass wall.

  He couldn’t pass out...couldn’t.

  He felt light again, his and others...a flood of presence so near and warm it shocked him, brought tears to his eyes. For a long moment, he let it hold him, trying to pull himself out of the dark, to feel something different.

  Slowly, he felt himself grow almost calm.

  There would be more bodies. Terian built redundancy after redundancy into every system he created. There would be more. Maybe a lot more.

  He remembered Jon and Cass then, and dragged himself up the wall to his feet.

  26

  RESPITE

  REVIK LIMPED DOWN a narrow, military-green corridor. He felt a larger room at its end. Naked, he still had only the knife he’d gotten off Terian-6 and the drone’s belt wrapped around his knuckles. Hitting the panel to open the second set of doors, he slid behind the wall before peering out, using his sight to glance lightly over the room’s landscape.

  His head felt clearer with the wire gone.

  He was pretty sure he wasn’t all right, though. He could still feel something else, drugs probably, clouding his mind. Now, with the sight-restraint collar off his neck, and having left the green tile room that shielded his light, the drugs fought to take him out of his body, to make him too visible in the Barrier. He fought it, fought his mind back into reasonably straight lines, fought to stay in his body, took a breath.