The Way of Death

by James Von Ohlen

  “I stayed, because I was ordered to.” His lip curled for a moment. “I’m just following my orders.” He looked on the verge of breaking down into tears. Reiji wanted nothing so much as to slap him. He found himself shifting his weight to leap forward and deliver and open handed blow without having to think about it.

  “Price,” Reiji spoke in a low tone that he hoped was non-threatening despite his posture speaking of imminent violence. “The men who gave those orders are probably all dead by now. The Coalition Military Forces don’t exist on Lexington outside of a few old recruiting movies that play on continuous loop. I can’t even tell you how many times I saw them when I was a kid. I think it might be okay if you left your post.”

  “But where would I go? We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere. I could run off into the desert and get eaten by something or I could just walk in circles until I died of dehydration and exposure. Maybe some of the tribesmen out there would find me. Kill me and eat me, or take me as a slave. Who knows what kind of shit they do. And where the fuck did they come from?

  “Most of them here are the descendants of soldiers left behind at this installation when everyone else left. They were supposed to go to, but the transport shuttles never came back. A few men and a few women, and plenty of food and water. What did they do? They just started fucking and having kids. Why not, there’s nothing else to do. Fucking and not bathing, dirty fuckers. They’re probably not going to survive, but infantry grunts never were all that great at future time orientation things like that. Too stupid. Spend all their time fighting.

  “Apparently some weren’t retards. They managed to create a few patches of crops to supplement food stores here. Used irrigation ditches from the wells up here to carry water down to places where there was actual soil. They still didn’t bathe though. Fuckers smelled worse than shit. I had to make a rule about anyone wanting to come inside. How they had to bathe first. A long ass time later and I still make their great-great-grandkids or whatever fucking generation it is do it.

  “And despite that, they just kept right on breeding. And then others eventually started showing up. People lost or actually living out there in that shit. Sometimes they were just looking for a safe place to stay. Running away from someone. Sometimes there were fights. But before Overlord went really crazy those didn’t last long. Military equipment against whatever lost miners and hunters had? I’ll take my standard issue laser rifle over a rock drill at 500 meters any fucking day.

  “But there’s no fucking way I’m going to go out there and live like that. My best bet then would be to take a rifle from the armory and wander off into the middle of the desert and fire it so that Overlord takes me out. What else could I do?” His gaze fell towards the floor when he finished speaking and his shoulders slumped. A man defeated.

  “Interesting that you should ask,” Reiji said. He moved to a chair adjacent to a desk in the room. Slowly, dramatically, he sat down. He leaned back and put his feet up on the desk, spattering it with dirt and dust from his boots. Tod stood motionless in the doorway, silently taking in the room before him. Reiji smiled as he spoke.

  “I have a proposition for you.”

  “IT will take a few minutes to download, and it will take me a few minutes more to sift through data,” Coms Officer Price said as he sat at a control terminal. A dozen or so small screens came to life, hovering in the air before him where they were projected. Reiji hadn’t seen tech like that in a very long time.

  All of it totally unnecessary for a man with a neural interface implant, but still there was an impressive back-up system.

  Price inserted a data plug into the implant behind his ear and closed his eyes to concentrate harder on it. His eyes fluttered but never opened.

  Reiji’s search for Gavin was about to bear fruit. The desert and the elements had conspired to obliterate the man’s path from the relay station after he betrayed his assembled army. Attempting to follow him into the desert without knowing where to go would have been suicidal at best for Reiji and a death sentence for the boy.

  He’d wondered why Gavin hadn’t taken a truck or the APC when he left. Reiji had assumed it was to avoid being tracked by Cent-Sec. There was likely some type of tracking device in each vehicle. Reiji had found one in the APC and disabled it after a few days on the road, but doing so had required the use of his neural interface implant. A man without one, like Gavin, wouldn’t have been able to do so.

  And he’d apparently known it. A smart one, that motherfucker, Reiji thought. But not smart enough to make sure that I was actually dead. That would come back to haunt him, Reiji vowed.

  With no way of following Gavin into the desert and with a metric fuck-ton of hostile soldiers bearing down on him, Reiji had been growing desperate for a way to find the man, and quickly at that. When he’d begun perusing the data plugs strewn about the installation, he’d inadvertently struck gold.

  A cache of data detailing the purpose of the installation and the network that it was part of had shown him the way. Naming the exact location of the central node of the planetary coms network. Providing a direct interface to any still functioning surveillance and communications satellites.

  From there Reiji assumed he would be able to peruse the data available until he found Gavin’s path and destination. Then he would hunt him down from there.

  It had been far more than fortunate that Price had been here. As it turned out, the network interface was heavily encrypted. Without Price to provide access, Reiji might have spent the rest of eternity trying to find a way in. And it was also fortuitous that the man was desperate.

  Desperate for human contact and even more so for escape from his post. A simple promise from Reiji, one that he wasn’t sure yet if he had any intention of keeping, and the man was hard at work. A promise of freedom in exchange for a promise of information.

  Price would track down Gavin, and Reiji would take him along in the APC. Out of the desert and back to civilization where he would find very little resembling what he remembered. Maybe he could get a job with Cent-Sec. As Reiji thought about that, he supposed he was going to have to kill Price.

  The man knew who Reiji was now, and could add a position to his name. Last known whereabouts. Any decent hunter might be able to pick up the trail, no matter how careful Reiji was.

  Price’s fate would have to be decided in short order. Reiji played with the handles of his blades. Always at his sides, even in this place of no evident threat. Tod was likewise armed, following Reiji’s lead at almost all times.

  Except when it came to eating and sleeping. Reiji ate when hungry and stopped when he wasn’t. He slept when he was tired and never spent more than a few hours at a time sleeping. The boy had happily torn into the food supplies in the Coms Station. He’d eaten more in the past two hours than Reiji had in the past week. And he would likely spend the next twelve hours or so sleeping. Reiji hoped that whatever changes were happening would finish soon. There might not be enough food for them to make it out of the desert otherwise.

  After a few minutes Price removed the data plug from his implant and turned towards Reiji. His face was pale and his lips trembled. Reiji had seen the look before. On the faces of men about to deliver bad news. Bad news that they were afraid they would be held responsible for.

  “What is it?” Reiji asked.

  “I found the guy you’re looking for,” Price began. “He’s got himself a combat exoskeleton, two military grade synthetics. Machines that look like men, intended for espionage and to act as bodyguards for high rankers. That type of shit. Nothing like a spec ops unit, but still pretty powerful.”

  Reiji knew exactly what he meant. The twins.

  “He’s got two men with him as well,” Price continued. “And between the lot of them, they’ve killed a few hundred people over the past few weeks. Burned a lot of shit too.”

  “I don’t give a shit if they ate a couple hundred people, Price.” Reiji answered with a growl. “Where the fuck is he?”

>   “Well, as of one hour ago, he’s here. All of them. They’re all in this installation.”

  AFTER some hours spent looking for the door in the dark of the night, Zhou, of all people, finally found it. One of those useless fucks that was only still alive to serve as cannon fodder, should the need arise. Gavin shook his head when the position had been reported to him. Perhaps not completely useless.

  The data Gavin had found at the Cent-Sec installation was accurate. And why wouldn’t it be? It predated those incompetent fuckwits at Cent-Com. This was intelligence from the old days. When the Coalition still held the reins on Lexington. A time when a man such as himself could come to a backwater and make his fortune before returning to the home worlds to spend the rest of his very long life in the lap of luxury.

  And if things had changed since then? Unlikely, but at least he had a starting point to pick up the trail of his prize.

  Gavin wouldn’t let himself hope too hard about what was supposed to lay beyond, but he couldn’t help but feel excitement. His pulse increased and his breathing rate along with it, as he was informed by the combat exoskeleton he wore.

  After decades of gathering intelligence. After a fortune spent. And after traveling thousands of kilometers through terrain that seemed to exist solely to kill men, his goal was literally a few dozen meters away.

  Behind a large metal door.

  Dull steel, and set in the sheer face of the rock that formed the base of the plateau reaching into the sky far above him. Somewhere up there was a military facility, unique on Lexington as far as Gavin could tell. A global communications hub no less. Control of the facility would be a great way to make a fortune, and fast at that. The rich of Lexington would no doubt be willing to pay a great deal to find out what was going on both on and off-world.

  Money, Gavin thought. There was already enough of that. He had bigger concerns. Power, for one. The communications facility far above would be a nice bonus, but the real objective was somewhere down here. In the tunnels below. Behind the odd sized door that he looked at.

  No more than a few hundred meters from where they’d parked the borrowed truck and dismounted to begin their search. The fact that they could drive something so monstrous this close to a military installation without being challenged told him that it was probably abandoned. Or simply lacked surveillance abilities.

  Either way, he had his white whale. Or at least its tomb.

  The door was large for a man, but small for an exoskeleton. There was no visible control point for it or any kind of scanner to interact with. Gavin’s exoskeleton found nothing when he had it search for wireless communications in the area. It really was looking more and more like a tomb by the minute.

  It only took a few minutes for the twins to cut through the thick steel door. Though, to say they cut through it would be inaccurate, Gavin mused as he watched them finish their work. They simply cut along the edges of the door. With a push it fell inwards, leaving a dark space in the face of the rock.

  The speed with which they accomplished the task almost made up for the fact that they hadn’t been able to find the door quicker. Or at all for that matter, Gavin thought as he eyed Zhou.

  Beyond the fallen door was a metal lined hallway with a grated floor. Arrows painted on the walls pointed towards the door, with text above and below boldly proclaiming EMERGENCY EXIT. The tunnel stretched into the distance, ending in a darkness so absolute that not even the eyes of the combat exoskeleton could pierce it.

  “You,” Gavin spoke motioning to Ryan with a wave of his hand. The other one had found the door and would be rewarded by not having to immediately risk his life. “Get a flashlight and go take a look.”

  The man looked back at him and then into the darkness of the tunnel, seeming to weigh his options as he did so. After a moment of hesitation, Gavin took a step forward. Ryan broke into a sprint, heading back to his pack in the truck. He climbed up the side and began rummaging through his meager belongings before returning with a sword in one hand and a bright LED light in the other.

  “When you’re ready,” Gavin spoke again, casting his voice through the external speakers of the combat exoskeleton. His tone of voice indicated that if Ryan valued his life, he would enter the tunnel there and then.

  The man disappeared into the bowels of the mountain, vanishing from view as he turned a corner in the tunnel. The light from his flashlight showed for a few seconds longer and then vanished as well. Either he had rounded another corner or it had died. Gavin listened and heard no cursing or bodies hitting the floor. He did hear a single set of footsteps though. He would assume his pawn was still on the board for the time being.

  An unacceptable amount of time passed in Gavin’s mind, though according to his exoskeleton, it had only been about ten minutes. Ten minutes of standing still in the cold night-air of the desert in the shadow cast by the plateau above in moonlight. Each second that passed, drawing him closer and closer to hacking Zhou to pieces. Never mind that he’d already proved far more useful than Gavin had expected.

  Finally the beam of the flashlight in Ryan’s hand returned. The man emerged from the tunnel and took a great breath of air and then turned towards Gavin in his steel shell.

  “And?” The exoskeleton asked in a voice laced with static.

  “There’s something in there. No people or defenses I can spot. But there’s a huge room. Like a giant cave or something. And there’s lots of stuff in there. Old crap that don’t look very useful.”

  Gavin didn’t give a shit about the man’s opinion of the utility of the items within. Only that he had made it in and out without being cut down, vaporized, pulverized, or otherwise killed in a manner that might be dangerous to even a man in a Coalition Military Forces combat exoskeleton.

  “We’re all going in now,” Gavin spoke. “Ryan take point. Zhou behind him. I will follow.” The two men had their instructions and nodded acknowledgement, Zhou doing so as he ran to retrieve his own gear. Silently, Gavin issued his orders to the twins. With him, just as always.

  The path was narrow and claustrophobic. Perhaps it was just the bulk of the combat exoskeleton making the passage seem tight and constricting, but Gavin couldn’t shake the image of the entire mountain of stone above falling on his head and grinding him into dust.

  Optical sensors allowed him to see into the darkness ahead of the lights carried by Ryan and Zhou. The bobbing beams worked back and forth as the pair sought out any obstacle or potential danger in their path. A function of the combat exoskeleton’s sensors mapped out the area ahead of Gavin, showing him that there was nothing meeting that description laying ahead of them.

  Not even dust, he observed as he looked at the concrete walls and floor. Either someone kept the place very clean, or there hadn’t been anyone in here in a very long time.

  The path turned left and right a half dozen times, intersecting with a few other hallways marked as ‘mechanical’ and ‘support’. Seeing what losers assigned to mop floors in the Coalition Military Forces did 200 years ago held no interest for Gavin. He would probably never personally set foot down those paths. Let some modern day lackey take care of it for him, he concluded.

  In a few minutes the path met a cavernous chamber, stretching away into darkness at the edges of Gavin’s enhanced vision in front of him and to the sides. Sensors reported to him that the room was a large rectangular box, several hundred meters on each side of the base and some fifty meters high. Boxes of equipment were stacked in small mazes that occupied a significant amount of space on the floor, periodically interrupted by cranes and other equipment for lifting and moving them.

  Whatever they held might well prove to be worth a fortune, but nothing there even began to resemble what had brought him this far. That, he thought, that was priceless. Worth more than this whole installation. Worth killing for and taking and running away like a thief in the night. Despite that, he knew that it was here. Somewhere in this huge chamber filled with darkness. So close, yet still hidden.


  Anger began to rise, and something akin to panic along with it. Gavin’s throat and chest began to tighten and his suit reported a rise in blood pressure. What if it had been removed or destroyed in the passing years, or worse yet, what if someone else had already claimed it? No, he answered himself, pushing the thoughts down and into the back of his mind. No. It is still here. I only need to find some fucking lights and turn them on. And then I’ll see it and this will all be almost over.

  “Find some lights,” Gavin spoke out loud and his voice echoed through the chamber causing Ryan and Zhou to start and bring their blades up. Was his mind playing tricks on him or did Gavin hear something moving out there in the darkness? His hand moved to the grip of his blade. The executioner’s sword. A fitting weapon, he thought as he drew it.

  The heavy blade hissed from its housing, even that small noise echoed throughout the darkness. Ryan and Zhou scampered to take cover between large boxes, lying in ambush, and forgetting that the lights they carried fully gave away their position to anyone with eyes to see. The twins remained at Gavin’s heels, passively scanning the chamber.

  After a tense minute, he decided to trust the sensors built into the combat exoskeleton. There appeared to be nothing out there after all. Just imaginary foes running wild through his mind.

  “I won’t say it again,” Gavin spoke through his external speakers. “Find some lights and turn them the fuck on.”

  One of the fools tripped and fell against a heavy wooden box, dropping their LED flashlight and sending it clattering. His curse and the noise of the dropped equipment alike echoing repeatedly. Gavin slowly turned his head to look at the man, noting that at least he’d managed to hold onto his weapon.

  A silent communication from one of the twins caught Gavin’s attention, drawing him away from his daydream of stomping on the head of the man who had fallen and utterly crushing the fool’s skull beneath his armored boot. What could be so important to pull him away from a perfectly good murder? Skimming the communication he found the suspected locations of some type of electrical panels.