Striding away into the darkness, with the executioner’s sword still clenched in his fist. Gavin aimed for the nearest panel and found it at waist height. Kneeling, he began to open the panel and attempted to flip a few switches, failing to do so because of the size of the combat exoskeleton’s hands.
At his command, the steel glove covering his own hand opened like a clam shell and peeled back. Allowing Gavin to use his own fingers to activate the switches. He pressed several of them to no effect. Something sizzled and crackled like angry electricity somewhere in the distance, the echoes thereof making it hard to tell exactly where.
As he finished pushing the last switch on the panel, Gavin swore in disgust. The gauntlet closed and covered his hand once more, sealing with a hiss. Moving out from the wall and into the maze of boxes, he moved towards the next nearest electrical panel. The temptation to simply shove the stacks of wooden and metal boxes out of his way was great.
The thought of potentially damaging something valuable before he could even get a chance to play with it stayed his hand. For the time being, at least.
Weaving through the narrow aisles, Gavin shifted his shoulders from side to side to avoid knocking anything over. He found himself doubling back and heading in the wrong direction. Absent mindedly he began to drag the heavy sword behind him, the tip scraping against the concrete floor and gouging a permanent marker of his path behind him.
After a few more turns Gavin realized that he was advancing alone. The twins were not with him. He messaged to them silently, demanding a status update. They responding with a single word.
Searching.
For what, he asked to no response. The sound of something moving echoed over his head. Gavin paused for a moment to search the area around him with the exoskeleton’s abilities. Aside from the two men with him and the two synthetics, nothing revealed itself in the chamber.
Finally, the path turned back in the right direction and Gavin found himself ducking to pass beneath some type of lift for heavy equipment and cargo. A good sign, he thought as he passed the lift. The kind of thing that would be found along with what he sought.
Ahead of him a short wall loomed, reaching five meters or so above the floor. Not even beginning to approach the ceiling of the chamber. Another electrical panel was set just high enough for him to reach without kneeling. He peeled the cover back to reveal a single large switch. The exoskeleton’s hand closed over it and pulled.
A loud pop sounded from within and the smell of ozone accompanied a strand of smoke. There was a crackling noise from within the wall. And then nothing.
“Fuck,” Gavin swore out loud and slammed his fist into the wall in frustration. The armored hand smashed deeply into the stone, leaving an imprint behind. The impact echoed throughout the chamber for several seconds before fading away.
Suddenly light flared from a single spot above him and began to spread. A bright LED strip along the upper edge of the short wall came to life and slowly began to grow in intensity, illuminating a small space around the wall. Gavin looked up at the light, tracing its path as it moved away from him to his right and to his left.
As he gazed up at it, he realized that it wasn’t a wall at all. It was a platform, set in the approximate middle of the chamber. He couldn’t see what was on top of it from his view point, so he began walking backwards. Gavin walked into something and reached back without looking to shove it out of his way.
Boxes crashed to the floor and broke as he moved into the space they had just occupied. Looking up, he saw the edge of something on top of the platform. The shadows cast by the awkward lighting from below made it difficult to tell the exact shape of what he was looking at. But there was no mistaking it.
He had found his prize.
A roar of triumph split his throat as he tilted his head back and screamed. The scream degenerated into laughter. He wasn’t sure, but Gavin thought he felt tears forming in his eyes. After so long, here it was. Within his grasp.
He stood still, looking up and not taking notice of the figures moving up behind him. When his neck began to hurt, he looked back and saw Ryan and Zhou, flanked by Varg and Virgil. The two men looked nervously from Gavin to the platform. The twins remained stone-faced as always.
“What is it?” Ryan asked, daring to speak out loud.
“That,” Gavin began, not bothering to look back at the man. “Is the future.” He remained silent for a moment, judging how best to describe his plans to a man with such a limited intellect before wondering if that same miniscule mind even needed to know. He was probably going to be dead very soon.
As Gavin sifted through his thoughts his vision suddenly turned red, the exoskeleton blaring an alarm through his mind. He turned to his left, lifting his blade to face whatever it had identified as a threat. Just as quickly as the alarm had sounded, it died, leaving no hint of what had set it off.
“What the fuck was that?” Zhou asked, his voice shaking. “Something moved, man. Something moved!” He gripped his blade tight and held it at high guard, shifting his feet to a fighting stance. Ryan did the same and two turned their backs towards each other like veteran hunters that trusted one another with their lives. Gavin wondered if they’d still do that if each knew about the other what he knew about them. Untrustworthy scum. Barely even human.
The twins reacted strangely, forearms splitting open and shredding the lower arms of the jackets they wore. Projected forcefield blades sprang to life, crackling with a sound that reminded Gavin of the electrical work he’d just played with. The synthetics moved to flank him, obeying their default programming as bodyguards.
Gavin strained his senses to see or hear anything, all the while being reassured by his combat exoskeleton that there was, in fact, nothing out there in the odd shadows thrown by the LED lighting edging the central platform.
Nothing.
He was inclined to agree, but the two men thought they had seen something. And something seemed to have activated the combat functions of his synthetics. So quickly that they hadn’t bothered to roll up the sleeves of their jackets.
The heavy blade moved in Gavin’s hands, coming up before him in a double-handed grip. If there was something hostile out there, it would have made its move by now.
“Stand down,” Gavin spoke out loud. The twins instantly relaxed their posture. The projected forcefield blades emerging from their forearms died and the housings moved back into their bodies. In a few seconds they went from looking like combat machines to once more resembling men.
Alarms suddenly forced their way into his vision once more, highlighting a large box hurling through the air. Aimed directly at his head. Men and machine alike leapt out of its path as it sailed by and slammed into other crates in the distance. Gavin turned and rolled to his side, rising to his feet and bringing his blade around to defend himself.
There in his view, outlined in harsh threat-red, strode a combat exoskeleton. Reshaped and reworked to look like the armor of a samurai warrior from Old Earth, with a blade gripped in each hand.
REIJI stepped forward from concealment, grinning through Onryo’s perpetual snarl. Gavin, or at least who he assumed was Gavin, stood before him, clad in a combat exoskeleton of his own. Not a problem, he thought. That could only delay the inevitable.
“Gavin,” he spoke through the Oni, his voice warped with static and anger. The other exoskeleton shifted its stance to face him better. Reiji looked at the twins. “Varg and Virgil,” he said, naming them. Passively, they turned their heads to face him, otherwise slack and relaxed. Unconcerned.
“And you two shit heads,” Reiji motioned at the two men with one of the blades he carried. In reality, he couldn’t remember their names. Or much at all about them for that matter. Maybe one of them had liked to play cards. If they stayed the fuck out of his way, he might let them live.
Growling sounded at his side, and Reiji once again remembered that he wasn’t the only man here bearing a grudge. Tod stepped from the shadows, blade in each h
and, facing the two men. Two of the men who’d tortured, raped, and murdered his entire family.
The head of Gavin’s exoskeleton swiveled back and forth looking from Tod to the Oni.
“The farmer’s retard,” he spoke, voice warped. “Somehow you survived boy.” Despite the mechanical tone to his voice, he sounded somewhat impressed. “Who’s your friend? I might want to know who he is before I kill him.” Gavin began laughing as he finished the statement and shifted his grip on the huge blade he carried.
His laughter grew more intense as Reiji released the faceplate of his helmet. With a hiss, the Oni’s grim visage rose and was replaced by Reiji’s own. Scarred, misshapen, and covered with the black stubble of a days’ old beard, it was unmistakable.
Gavin’s laughter came to an abrupt halt and a static-laced choke took its place. “No. Fucking. Way.” Gavin spoke, taking a step back and adjusting his stance.
“Reiji Ikeda. The one man I wanted dead the most out of that entire crew. How the fuck did you survive?” The exoskeleton’s head looked back and forth between Reiji and Tod, seemingly drawing its own conclusion.
“So, the retard somehow survived and then managed to follow us to the coms-relay. And then this same retard saved your life? That’s about it right?” Gavin sounded incredulous as he spoke.
“You have some magic powers or something kid?” He asked Tod, receiving no response. “Doesn’t fucking matter,” he shrugged his shoulders as he spoke. “You’re both about to die again.”
Reiji said nothing as Onryo’s faceplate hissed shut and locked into place. His feet shifted to a more appropriate stance and his blades rose. Niten Ichi coming to him as naturally as walking.
“Ryan, Zhou,” Gavin barked. The names of the two shit heads that Reiji couldn’t remember. “Deal with the retard. If he survives this time, you do not.” The two men shifted their blades and began stalking forward towards Reiji and Tod.
“They’re mine, Rage,” Tod spoke in a low tone from Reiji’s side. Fury simmered beneath the surface of his words. Tod adjusted a pouch fixed to his belt. It held the revolver and single round of ammunition that Reiji had taken from the saloon in Milton. The boy had asked for it before the pair had descended from the coms center above.
Initially Reiji had been hesitant to arm the boy in such a manner, but he’d been persistent and seemed to know exactly what he was asking for. After adjusting the pouch, he checked his grip on the twin kukri blades and stepped forward. There was no doubt in Reiji’s mind that these two assholes were about to get royally fucked.
“And that leaves you, halfbreed,” the mechanical voice of Gavin’s exoskeleton intruded on Reiji’s thoughts. “I will deal with you. Permanently this time.”
There was a blur of motion and the exoskeleton surged forward, Reiji moving to intercept it, and the battle was joined.
ONRYO surged with blinding speed, blurring with the shadows thrown by the odd light. The other combat exoskeleton moved equally fast and they slammed into each other with a loud clash of steel on steel. The pair grappled for a second and exchanged a few blows with their blades and then fell into a large stack of heavy wooden boxes.
The huge boxes fell on them and the pair disappeared from view.
Tod wasted no time in moving to the fight. A blade in each hand, he aimed directly for the two men that had accompanied Gavin. Ryan and Zhou. There was no way he would have forgotten their names.
The time he’d spent in their presence had only been a fraction of the time Reiji had spent with them, but Tod had a much more powerful reason for remembering these two.
Vengeance.
Tod had originally thought it a game when Reiji had grabbed him and pulled him back as they walked towards what promised to be a good meal. He’d laughed. But when the man had told him to go hide, something in Reiji’s voice had scared him. Tod had scurried away to what he felt was a safe place.
The same place he hid from his brother and sisters when they played hide and seek. He remembered trying to find his sisters and his mom when Reiji had told him to hide, but then he remembered that his dad had told them go to the secret place earlier. When angry looking men, all armed, had arrived uninvited in their yard. They’d gone into the shelter and stayed in there all day. Tod hadn’t liked that. His sisters were a lot nicer and more fun to play with than his brother.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he distantly remembered.
A heavy beam crashing down on him in the barn. His brothers face looking down at him, smiling as he saw the inevitable conclusion to his work. An unforgettable grin. Tod stared at it as it fell, frozen in terror, and it smashed into the side of his head. His eyes had stopped working then, but he could still hear. One of his sisters crying and the other telling his brother to go get help. The boy had refused and insisted that he wanted to stay and watch Tod die.
That motherfucker hadn’t ever given a shit about him. The two had been trading beatings from the day both were old enough to walk. But his sisters, they had saved his life. Kept him going and stopped the worst of the bleeding until his parents could arrive and repair what damage they could. Then things had been very different.
A few days later his eyes started working again. The world became dull after that. Colors not as bright and flavors not as strong. It was a lot harder to talk and to think and there always seemed to be slobber running out of his mouth. People assumed he was stupid, and that wasn’t far from the truth. His few memories of that time all seemed like he was viewing the world through a thick fog.
The only thing he vibrantly remembered was when he was hiding. Like Reiji had told him to do. The way the man moved had spoken of violence and mortal danger. Frightening yet alluring, like a flame must be to a moth. Tod had gone to the hollow space. A passage way that let him move through the spaces in between the walls.
He’d learned to do so silently over the years, mainly in hiding from his brother. The beatings hadn’t stopped after the ‘accident’, but then there had been no exchange. Just a never ended one way street of ass-kickings all delivered by his dear brother.
As Tod moved through the walls, he stopped in the places he’d found where he could spy. And he saw things that scared him. Men, filthy in body and mind, doing terrible things to his family. To his mother and father and his sisters and even his brother, though he felt only relief when they hurt that one. That one had deserved it.
The scars on Tod’s arms and back burned with dull pain as he watched the man beat his brother and cut him. Gifts from his brother to him. The kind that kept on giving whenever he caught sight of them. Reminders of moments of terror. One of his brother’s favorite games was trying to trick Tod into being shackled and then he would whip him and stab at him with dull blades. Enough to hurt him, and badly, but not enough to cripple him further or kill him.
All invectives that boys loved had been hurled at him repeatedly. Pussy. Fag. And the one that Tod had hated most, retard. It would have been something he didn’t give a shit about had he not been just smart enough to know what it meant. What he had become.
At first his parents had gotten involved. The beating Tod’s brother had received when they realized what he’d done had nearly killed him. But it hadn’t stopped him. And over time, the boys’ parents ceased to care. Just one of the reasons that Tod hadn’t cared when his brother had been tortured, raped, and killed.
Leaving the sight of his brother writhing in agony beneath the bulk of his rapist, Tod crept silently through the hollow space in the walls. He found his sisters’ room, standing in the familiar spot where he watched them play and listened to them gossip. They shared their dreams about being a movie star when they got older or moving out of the desert and into the city to be famous.
Now, all they did was cry as they were cut, beaten, and repeatedly raped. Almost all of the men Gavin brought with them had taken turns with Tod’s sisters. Each inflicting some new cruelty on the girls. The only people who he could remember showing him real love. And he watched
in silence, tears streamed down his face as they were abused and finally killed.
He wanted to lash out and kill the men, but what could he do? There in that house, even he knew that to make a single noise was a death sentence. Eventually, when everyone was dead, the men stopped using them. Tod saw some of the things Gavin had done to them at that point, and had been sick.
He’d run away, as fast as he could without making noise and he had hidden. Where he had first seen Reiji. Sitting funny and breathing heavy while he seemed to talk to himself with his eyes closed, but fluttering intensely as if he was looking around the room. The man had looked funny, but his swords had been cool. Eye catching. The kind of things that boys Tod’s age loved.
He’d fallen asleep back there, exhausted by what he’d seen. The smell of smoke had awoken him. Stumbling from the room into the burning house, he’d tried to find his family, anyone, until he remembered they were all dead. Running to the back he saw his bow, hanging on the wall next to his father’s. Only two arrows along with it. For hunting and not a toy, he’d been told repeatedly.
The bow was the only thing he’d ever been good at. He couldn’t remember anything being enjoyable, save for following tracks in the desert and shooting whatever was at the end of them. He’d found lots of good food that way. Especially the rams. Most people said they were gross, but it was the only thing he could actually taste. He loved eating them.
Out the back door and he’d found the trail of the men who’d just done all of this. They were easy to find. But there was too many of them. Not enough arrows. He just followed them, staying out of view. Finally when they’d stopped, it had been days on end in the desert. He’d spent them without food and water. Somehow surviving.
Had hatred made him that strong? The thought passed through his mind as the blades in his hands began to dance. Hatred and a hefty dose of advanced medical tech.
The Way of Death Page 35
