Tourniquet

[woodyloveslinkin]

Justin - I'm with Ravyn.

 

Next chapter.

Chapter 16 – The Millennium Year

 

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July, 19th

Dear Log

I went to work today, well, that was an achievement, I swear Spyral is not going to get me anywhere in the corporation world, I’m only going to end up going to the bank and filing for bankruptcy. I think my folks were right when they lectured me about wasting my time on trying to run a business on the sidewalk of New York City. I hardly get any customers nowadays.

There was a blackout today when I was away, now the television doesn’t work. It must’ve short circuited. I hate these electricity companies. All they do is provide us with electricity and slap us with a massive bill at the end of the month, one that charges us for the electricity we in the long run never used. This month’s bill was only $400. How am I supposed to pay that with a business that’s going to drive me into debt? Plus, when you think about it, who does that money go to in the end? Those damn politicians who never fulfil any of their promises to fix up the major roads with truck-made potholes every three metres in the centre of them.

I read something disgusting in the newspaper today, as I sat and drank my morning coffee at Gloria Jeans down on Twenty-Fourth Avenue today… another rape and another murder.

Disgusting isn’t it what this world has come down to?

I know whoever committed that atrocity would get away with it, because the FBI and the cops are too lazy and sit on their asses all day, disgusting whatever sporting event interests them the most.

You know what else I find disgusting to the point of vomiting, Log?

Those young hooligans that drive around my street and public roads at ungodly hours of the morning, driving at speeds that are most obvious to the eye that they are at least doing twenty or so miles over the speed limit. Someone’s going to get killed and someone’s going to end up crying behind bars wishing that they had never gotten behind the wheel in the first place.

This world is unbelievable with the things that people can get away with.

They don’t need a slap on the wrist Mr President, they need to reintroduce the death penalty, and they deserve to suffer at the hands of the people that had suffered because of them. It’s not justice otherwise. I find it personally insulting and appalling. Someone needs to do something about this.

The Olympics are going to be held this year in Australia. Goodie, another political holiday for the politicians and another excuse for them to waste the public’s money to travel overseas. Goodie, another social reason to drink, spill grog over one another and great drunk because your country won a gold medal in the I-don’t-care event. Goodie, another entertainment reason to sit in front of your television to watch the airing of an event I really didn’t know existed (truly, I found out what the hell equestrians did for a living the other day…they basically ride horses and act stuck up because of it).

The door slammed and Sarah looked up from the scrappy old book that belonged to her father once upon a time. Brad was at the door, as she had been too deep in thought to realise that he had been standing there. Sarah was at her desk now and was deep in thought about a lot of things.

“How’s the reading going?” asked Brad, not wanting to ask too many questions about why Sarah was reading something that most of her associates strongly recommended for her not to read it.

“Grand,” answered Sarah, closing the scrappy old journal and placing it in the top drawer of her desk. She had walked to the very top of the building to her own private chambers to where her bedroom was to retrieve the old book from the top drawer of her bed side table. She thought she would have some privacy in here, but she assumed wrong. She wasn’t going to exile Brad for interrupting her reading. She could always read it later on, and she knew she was slacking off in her work today. “How’s our new associate going? Any major side effects?”

“We’ve managed to extract the memories but because the Eye is still being prototyped and still being tested on with other materials, the team down there has denied me access it,” answered Brad, waiting for Sarah’s outrage to begin. Sarah remained calm as she had already thought of a resolution to the problem. “We’re just storing her memories of her sister somewhere else for the time being.”

“Tell the team, if you are not guaranteed unlimited access to the Comet’s Eye within twenty-four hours, I will make sure the next forty-eight hours of their lives will be spent being automatically charged with defying direct orders from me and being shipped off to Mars,” ordered Sarah, smoothly, as Brad nodded. “That should settle your barricade. Where is Joanna now?”

“She is in her chambers resting,” answered Brad. “Do you want me to go and get her?” Sarah shook her head, as she got to her feet. The day hadn’t changed and she was still wearing the same corset fitting. She walked around the desk that she had previously had the scrappy old book against and walked over to Brad. “Is there something bothering you?”

“Is Spyro available to talk?” asked Sarah, as she felt like she had to talk to Spyro, as Brad shook his head. “What has happened to Spyro?”

“Someone or something pushed her into overdrive last night and she collapsed, no one was there in time to catch her, so she hit the floor and bumped her head, don’t worry, she’ll be up and running in a couple of hours,” answered Brad, who was on the cliff’s edge about when Sarah would lose the plot completely and exile someone. Sarah nodded, slowly. “You’re not mad?”

“I am not mad up to the point of me knowing who and what did that to her,” answered Sarah, as she felt her stomach grumble with hunger. “What was on the dinner menu tonight that I missed out on?” Sarah had been occupied with filling out papers and signing exile forms to even think about joining Joanna and her associates at dinner.

“Cold chicken salad,” answered Brad. “Do you want me to go and tell the chef to prepare you a decent meal that doesn’t look like vomit?” Sarah shook her head. “You need to eat something.”

“You are starting to sound like a human version of Spyro, Brad, I do not need that,” Sarah noticed, as she concluded that she wasn’t going to make the effort to go to the dining room and eat something. “Just, tell the chef, make anything. I do not care if it is from McSpyral or Spyral Fried Chicken; I just want something that does not end up with me walking all the way to the dining room.”

“Alright, your wish is my command,” Brad smiled as he went off to the kitchen downstairs to tell the chef what Sarah had just told him.

“As always,” Sarah smiled as she saw the last of Brad leave her sight. Sarah on the other hand just wanted to read the rest of the events that occurred the day of July 19th, 2000 in her father’s eyes. She turned around, crossing her arms and ended up sitting back down on the chair that she spent hours at signing all types of forms, including those of the exiling nature. She uncrossed her arms and crossed her legs. She opened the top drawer where she had stashed her father’s journal, picked up the scrappy old book, and placed it on the desk, closing the drawer with the other. She flickered through a couple of pages, eager to start off where she had been interrupted by Brad. She was surprised at herself that she didn’t order his immediate exile for his rude interruption of her reading time. She came to the page that she to leave it on. “Okay, here we are. Show me this dreadful world that I cannot help but to know more about, my dear father.” She scanned the paper for the last sentence that mentioned the horses in it. She found it and smiled as she continued her reading.

I am still wondering why we have the Olympics. Is it an international holiday? No. Is it an international event and a bad excuse just in general? Yes. The Olympics is for pony-prancers really, when you sit down and look at the gloating athletes holding their thousand dollar gold medal just inches away from their lips, where they had been previously kissing it. God…do they even know where those medals have been? Why kiss something when you don’t know where it has been? Kind of pointless, don’t you, think Log?

I do, if you couldn’t tell by that rant of mine.

Oh and another thing I have to mention to you before I go, Log, is that there was another high school massacre in Virginia. I wish the parents of the shooter feel happy now that their son/daughter just took the lives of… oh damn, what was it now…? Oh yeah, three teachers and TWENTY-FIVE students. It’s pretty damn well obvious that they and their child have a blatant disregard for the lives of others, I mean, I’m not fan of the health system here, but seriously, if the kid has issues, put them in a fucking mental asylum or just shoot it. It really isn’t that hard to obtain a weapon licence nowadays.

I bet it was that Goth singer (I don't remember his name) that did it this time around like the other high school shooting he got done for, that freak, all the teenagers love Goths these days, don’t they? They just don't conform to anything (insert sarcasm here by the way, Log,) and that just makes them so radical, doesn’t it?

My theory has it, if you put a teenager who obviously shows signs of mental disturbance near Goths, they are bound to either kill themselves with a shotgun (much like that grunge star back in the 90s, what was his name? I don't remember) or go on a high school shooting massacre like this one that’s just happened. I mean, teenage angst is one thing, I’ve been through it and hell, it wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but seriously, teenage angst gets to a certain extent where it is classified as being teenage angst. When will this generation learn, Log?

Anyway, I’m out for the night and thank God for that, I’m about to fall asleep in front of you, wouldn’t want that to happen now would I?

 

Jonathon

Sarah closed the book, and pushed it aside thinking about what her father had just told his journal which he had named Log. She buried her head, after crossing her arms on the table and hid her face in those newly crossed arms. She thought about the images she was picturing when she had read her father’s words and what kind of society that he had been living in at the time. The thought of politicians having complete political power, no one getting automatically punished for their crimes and the social atmosphere around what was called schools. Of course, Sarah had heard of this terminology, but she had only had read it in the context of the laws of the New World. Kids killing each other, because they had been educated and influenced by music to commit crimes, which in the New World, it was not known and hadn’t happened because of the reinforced law, no education means no schools and no tertiary colleges.

What an awful world the Old World was…

 

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[woodyloveslinkin]

Chapter 17 - Romeo

 

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Los Angeles was a place of sunshine boulevards and wonderful shopping malls were Mel could not walk down without having a skateboard hit her or having a bunch of guys whistle at her. Mel could not figure out why, she was only wearing shorts and a tank top most of the time, and of course hiding behind a pair of sunglasses. On the days that she was walking the shopping malls of Los Angeles…

Mel came back to reality as Ravyn stood in front of her, waving her hand up and down to bring Mel back down, as Mel realised that she was sitting by the window, just staring at the corner of the window. Mel looked lost and shook her head.

“What? What’s happening?” asked Mel, wondering what she had missed out on. “What did I miss out on?”

“Nothing much,” answered Ravyn. “Rob dropped by while you were in your land of I don’t want to know what land you were in to be honest. He had this for you.” Ravyn showed her friend what Rob had given her to pass on because Ravyn didn’t trust Rob entirely after what happened the previous evening, with the all scenario consisting of Ravyn being a spy for Spyral and all. To be all honest, Ravyn was more shocked then anything; she had never encountered such a ridiculous accusation. There were several pieces of paper with messy writing on it with blue ink scribbled all sides of the paper, as though they, as in Mike and Rob, as Ravyn had naturally assumed, had scribbled either random words on the piece of paper or their thoughts. Ravyn in all starters hadn’t even bothered to decode the message because it only took her one glance at the pieces of paper to know that she didn’t have the energy to try and read it without getting a headache from overconcentration. “Looks like you’re going to be occupied for a while.”

“It’s a code that’s why, I don’t think the two of them are stupid enough to put everything into plain writing,” explained Mel, trying to figure out what type of code it was. She frowned while she was thinking. “Ah.” Her facial expression changed as she had a light bulb metaphorically appeared being turned on above her head. “They are sneaky bastards; I’ll give them that much, Pig Latin.” Mel was under the suspicion that Bella had given them help for a second or two, as she was fluent in Old World French, as the New World French had been modified to be easier to write, much like Braille but not for the blind.

Jonathon, Sarah’s father and the first ruler who had everyone’s lives wrapped around his little finger, had travelled to France many times in the Old World, was appalled by the French, that he concluded that the French language may still be regarded as a Proper Language but on the contrary that it had to be modified, because of the French’s political and social power over the Old World. Even though he had been recommended to classify such a culture as a Proper Language he ignored his advisers and modified it. So there were no French speaking social birds around in the New World, but it was to be a read-only language, and was converted from text with accents and descents on letters, to a series of little dots each individually representing a certain character of the alphabet, much like Old World Braille.

Which in all truth, the word alphabet, now to speak of, had been politically corrected as well, it was classified as omegabet because of the billboards that advertised Spyral products were owned by a department of Spyral called Alpha and therefore no Old World term cannot integrate itself into any dimension of Spyral’s Utopian Walls without being considered ill, offensive or questioning the New World’s reign. According to Jonathon but there were many things that Sarah had changed since the passing of her late father, which was for the worse of society in which she did not realise it.

Of course, she didn’t realise it, and that’s why Mel wanted to get over the Dark Hills so quickly and like the rest of this troupe’s aims, teach Sarah her true place in society, like Mel had been wanting to do for so long but she was too busy living in fear and at the same time trying to resist the regime at once.

Mel got off the window sill, as she realised what Rob and Mike were trying to say but couldn’t get the conclusion because her brain was working a million neurological miles a minute. She knew it was Rob and Mike’s handwriting because they had different squiggles in certain characters and different loops. She started to walk over to the kitchen, while Ravyn frowned in curiosity and confusion of what Mel was going to do.

“What are you looking for?” asked Ravyn, still not sure. Amongst this unsureness she knew she had forgotten to do something, but didn’t know what. She missed having Joanna reminding her what she needed to do or what she hadn’t done for the day, and Joanna’s disappearance from her life was somewhat abrupt and confusing, as her sister hadn’t been home to collect her things if she was truly angry at Ravyn’s Old World instincts. There were a lot of things that confused Ravyn about this New World generation.

“A pen, or a pencil, or just something I can scribble stuff down on, they’ve made this more complex than I realised,” answered Mel as she ran into the pot plant that was sitting against the wall near the kitchen undisturbed and unwatered for a couple of days. Mel looked up from the piece of paper that she had received and frowned at the series of ferns that had managed to grow out of control for a couple of weeks now. “Damn you pot plant.”

“Don’t take it out on the plant it did nothing to you,” replied Ravyn, as she walked past Mel who looked like she was going to beat up the plant just because she was the one that run into it. Ravyn stopped as she entered the kitchen space and knelt down. She opened the second last drawer and pulled out a 2HB pencil that had red and black spiralled all over it. Mel stopped at ripping at the pot plant, smiled, and walked over to Ravyn, where Ravyn passed her the pencil. “Here. I found a pencil for you. I don’t know where the pens are though. Joanna usually knows. I can only remember where she puts the pencils. But since I don’t know where she is, she’s no use right now, sadly, I do miss her a lot.”

“Hmm…that’s nice,” muttered Mel, not caring much about someone who was from the New World line of people, but only caring slightly because she was Ravyn’s sister overall. Mel moved away and sat at the wooden dining table that looked centuries old by the fact that Joanna didn’t like table at all, but they couldn’t afford a new one so both of the sister’s had to live with the old one. She started scribbling things down on the back of the pieces of paper that she had been given by both Mike and Rob.

“I’ve got to take the trash out, shit, I forgot about that, I hate this old age thing, I really do,” said Ravyn, slapping her forehead as Mel took her eyes off the piece of paper and looked to Ravyn. Mel gave her a queer look, in which Ravyn wasn’t sure what she had done or said to deserve a look. “What? Was it something I said or something I did?”

“Take it from me, it’s not an old age thing, I’ll explain it later after you come back from taking the trash out,” Mel told Ravyn, as Mel went back to fixating her eyes on the pieces of paper and the codes scribbled down on it. Mel frowned as Ravyn moved a couple of steps to take the trash out and looked back up at Ravyn. “Do you know Old World Pig Latin, Ravyn?”

“Nope, only the New World and that’s because Joanna found it amusing,” answered Ravyn, as she picked up the trash bag that had been tied up at the top. “Taking this down now, have fun with the Old World Pig Latin, Melissa.”

New World Pig Latin had changed dramatically and to know and remember how to write Old World Pig Latin, was a gift but not common knowledge like it was back in the Old World. Well, Mike and Rob were gifted enough to confuse Mel as she had only learnt New World Pig Latin because of the New Worlders that lived next to her used to say stuff about her to her face in New World Pig Latin. It was more of an accustomed thing than more of something that she was forced to learn.

“That’s the problem, I thought I would, but I’m not,” mumbled Mel, as she slumped down into her chair and crossed her arms, as the front door of the apartment was pushed open and Ravyn disappeared out of sight with a trash bag that was headed for the dumpster downstairs. Mel sat back up, thinking that the only thing that was left to do was to try again. She couldn’t figure it out; it was starting to hurt, as she tried writing down combination of words individually instead of trying to figure out what a sentence meant. She wrote hide and then scribbled it out. So she tried again. She wrote hiding and then she scribbled it out. She hated anagrams because in the Old World schooling anagrams were for book worms and she wasn’t one of them. “God fucking dammit Rob and Mike, you make me want to say…” She froze with fear. Then she realised what she had said. “I just said God. I’m a goner now.” She thought of the supposedly new generation of guards that Viking had told to her and Ravyn the other day about and their habit of being forceful and annoying. “I better start running.”

Ravyn had finished lugging the trash into the dumpster by this stage. She turned around and started to head back up to the apartment, as she felt a strange tinge run down her spine. She didn’t know what it was or what had happened but she sure felt like something had happened that wasn’t there.

“Meow,” a strange cat meowed with black, tan, and dark purple markings on it, as Ravyn’s attention was diverted to the cat that sat on the brickwork of the surrounding garden. There was a black patch in the middle of its white forehead as it stuck its ears up, indicating that it was alert and ready.

“Now, why haven’t I seen you around before?” asked Ravyn, as she walked over to it, as it sat in front of the dead plants and flowers. She picked it up and held it in her arms. “What’s your name, mister?” She noticed the checked collar it had around its neck, of the colours red and black. She looked at the nametag that was a shiny piece of metal with the name Romeo engraved into it. She wasn’t sure who owned the cat because she hadn’t seen the cat around before, and soon she realised as she flipped the little metal coin-like tag over that there wasn’t anymore details on the back concerning who owned the cat. “Romeo…where art thou Romeo? Come on boy, you’re coming with me.” It was either take the cat or go to the pound and since Ravyn was claustrophobic and didn’t like to see the sight of animals being locked behind invisible bars, she wasn’t going to let the cat sit there. As soon as she turned around with the cat beating its multicoloured tail against her, she saw Mel running like an Olympian or like as though she was starting to run for her life. Ravyn turned around to see if Mel had done something illegal.

Her queries were answered by four guards who had started to solidify on the opposite side of the road to the front of the apartment complex. The reason for the four guards, this time, unlike Viking’s encounter with the law a couple of evenings ago, was that Mel had dropped the G word twice, and thus, one crime is equal to two guards, and two crimes in one shot, is equal to double the guards because double the crime that had been committed.

“I said something I wasn’t supposed to say, twice,” Mel told Ravyn, as Ravyn stood aside for Mel to start running for her life. Ravyn was going to say something but Mel was metres away by that stage. “I hate this world.” Mel knew the feeling too well, as she could feel her heart pumping away in her body. Both Ravyn and Mel were out of sight within seconds of Mel running away, as Ravyn saw the guards become solid. They were the meaner version of the guards that were implemented before the virus came along and swept the old guards up like dust in a desert storm.

Mel took a sharp corner, as she could see the guards chasing her out of the corner of her peripheral vision. She was shortly going to run out of energy for she could not keep on trying to out run these new guards. Then it hit her, what was the thing that she told Viking to do when he had gotten himself in a knot with the law? Go to the junkyard. So Mel took another sharp corner which nearly ended up with her scraping her flesh against the brick wall but only ended up with her making a racket with her knocking over a couple of trash cans. She looked back to see where the guards where, and they were right on her tail. So she tried to speed up and she knew that would only wear her down even more, but she did it even more.

She kept on running and took another sharp turn and then another and then another, until she had assured herself that the next left was the entrance to the junkyard. She kept on running, hoping if she closed her eyes she would be in the junkyard soon. She closed them but opened her eyes seconds later, as she took the entrance to the junkyard. She jumped over a couple of pieces of scrap metal and ran into the centre of the junkyard, not bothering to hide because she knew the guards were allergic to metal. She stopped in the centre and turned around to see the guards walking towards her proud and strong in their uniform.

“Melissa Phoenix, under the Act of Anti-Sacramental Acknowledgements, we are here to place you under arrest,” said the first one, as Mel was shocked that they weren’t exploding as reaction to the various metallic atoms which were present in the junkyard and that these ones could interact. “Resisting such arrest will warrant an automatic death penalty.”

“We have a match to you for other crimes related to the Act of Anti-Sacramental Acknowledgements and the breaking of the Act of Alcohol Consumption and Distribution,” the second guard told Mel as he had run her name through a name matching program that was integrated into them which had was Spyro’s doing.

Mel tried to make a run for it, as she tried to catch her breath, but the minute she turned around to try and jump the junkyard’s fence, two more of the guards appeared behind her.

“I got told I had forty-eight days to pay that fine,” Mel tried to explain, thinking about the fine that she had been recently slapped with for getting drunk as she tried to catch her breath, turning around to face the second guard.

“Sorry, excuses are for babies,” said the third guard, which was now standing behind her, as she turned around, finding herself suddenly cornered.

Two of the guards which stood in front of her raced forward but Mel was too slow to try and escape, grabbed her by the neck and slammed her to the ground as two of the guards that were once behind her had placed their heavy feet on her back and made sure she couldn’t move her upper abdomen. Mel couldn’t say anything, because she had been slammed that hard to the ground that not only did she have a face full of dirt but she had started to cry in pain.

One of the guards reached into its pocket that had been sealed off been could only be opened if the thought of doing such a procedure had to occur.

What Spyro had done in other words, she had tied a direct connection between the mechanical data inside the guards to their pockets that contained the syringes, so the pockets could be triggered off only by the data readings that the guards were receiving, then Spyro would transmit pocket data back which contained binary ones and zeros which were encrypted with an acceptance code that only Spyro was programmed to contain.

The guard pulled out a syringe that was filled with an aquamarine fluid, despite the colour aqua had been banned but shades and combinations of aqua had not been banned, as aquamarine was the primary colour that most of the sedatives were in the New World. The guard squirted it at first, so the fluid squirted out the top as the rest of guards held down Mel who was trying her hardest to get free by squirming repetitively, and injected it into the back of her neck, as the aquamarine fluid disappeared from the syringe and into her bloodstream.

It had a rapid effect, and Mel was now just a limp almost-corpse. She wasn’t dead, she was just heavily sedated. The guards laughed at Mel’s body laying there as they had found it amusing how quickly Old Worlders could be easily sedated compared to New Worlders who took over a minute to be sedated properly to this extent that Mel had reached.

They grabbed her by her feet and arms and carried her through the streets of Los Angeles to show off the newest criminal that they had caught, and eventually into a prison cell at the very bottom of the Spyral headquarters as she was unaware of what type of fate she was about to face.

 

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[Ravynlee]

Wonder what's going to happen to Mel?? Aww I got a little pussy cat to take care of... amusing when I can't even take care of myself. Wonder how he got there, and also how Sarah's going to react when she finds out

Sorry but the Pig Latin thing cracked me up. In all this out-there technology the rebel forces have reverted to the age of art of '-ay' Wow. Mike and Rob talking Pig Latin, let alone writing it XD haha all I can say is best of luck anyone trying to decipher that. The gaurds not reacting to the metal like the previous lot was an interesting development. Wondering as always how this is going to pan out. Good.

[FireHawk]

Woah sounds like trouble for Mel.

 

I didn't know there were shades of Aqua...either....

[Jeezy]

the awesomeness continues

[woodyloveslinkin]

Okay this took me over a day and a half to write. *phew* over and done with. It's the longest chapter I've done (8 pages!!)

 

Chapter 18 - Old World Revolution

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Ravyn stood amongst the people that had arrived for the second meeting with her arms crossed and looking down at the floor, wondering what to tell Rob and Mike that they had just lost one of their vital assets to Project Tourniquet. Bella had keeping an eye on Ravyn for a while now, as Bella had her suspicions as well about Ravyn, but since she had passed Rob’s test, Bella didn’t do or say anything, as she sat down at the couch next to Fox. Bella wore her blue dress to this meeting with her silver hair flowing out like usual, while Fox who was right next to her, slumped back into her chosen seat, arms crossed and unhappy that she had to be stuck in a room with a bunch of random people who happen to come from the Old World generation. Bella got to her feet and started to excuse herself as she walked through the crowed and as she started to walk over to Ravyn, as she hadn’t been formally introduced to Ravyn.

“Are you alright?” asked Bella, as she stopped in front of Ravyn, as Ravyn’s attention was diverted to her fellow New Worlder. Ravyn didn’t say anything, but she just nodded. “You seem a bit lost. That’s why I asked.”

“Okay people, why is there a feline creature roaming around in this room?” asked Mike, getting up on the table and holding Ravyn’s newly found pet, as Ravyn had brought Sarah’s cat along to the meeting and let him loose somewhere near her arrival in the room because she didn’t want to stand around looking like a crazy cat lunatic. “I hate cats.”

“He’s mine,” Ravyn took responsibility of owning up to the cat ownership part.

“Why is he here?” asked Mike. “I mean, for all the places to bring a cat, why did it have to be where I am?”

“Because I didn’t want to leave him alone at my place,” answered Ravyn, as she detached herself from Bella’s attempted conversation and pushed her way through the crowd that were either in deep in conversation or drinking some sort of drink that they had been served with.

“Where’s Melissa, Ravyn, now that I think of the people not here?” asked Rob, as he had been counting the numbers to the second meeting. Ravyn stopped halfway to her destination and turned to her side, where Rob stood wanting an explanation. “It’s just, I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but we cannot afford to lose numbers so quickly. The larger we have the better that is what makes us a majority.”

“I’ll have a quiet word to you about her after this meeting,” Ravyn answered, not knowing what she would say and how Rob would react in the end about Mel’s arrest, probably by now, Ravyn assumed, she would be on a death wish. “If you would just excuse me, I have to get my cat back before he butchers it.” But Rob wanted to know what had happened to Mel and why she wasn’t here, because Rob had detected the awkwardness and hesitation that was obviously present in Ravyn’s answer. He walked over to where Ravyn had stopped to converse with him, grabbed her by the shoulder and started to walk to the other room, as Mike saw the events panning out in front of him and followed Rob with the cat in one hand. “Excuse me, but you don’t grab me by the arm and drag me into –” Ravyn’s objections to Rob’s actions was shortly muffled by him placing has hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t make a scene.

“Shut your trap, seriously, no one wants to make a scene,” Rob ordered sternly, as he kicked a door open and threw the woman into it. Mike shortly followed with Romeo in one hand and walked into the room, closing the door behind him. He dropped the cat, as he wiped its fur off his hands and against his pants. “Now, what has happened to Melissa?”

“She got arrested and she got caught for saying G-o-d, not only once but twice,” answered Ravyn, trying to remain her calmest after being shoved around.

“Didn’t she run to the junkyard?” asked Mike, also curious to know more. Ravyn shrugged, as she didn’t know the answer, she saw what she saw, and that’s all she could tell for now. “So she didn’t return home after that little encounter with the New World law?” Ravyn shook her head, as she felt Romeo brush up against her with his tail raised and all. “Great.” Mike wasn’t the only one that felt disappointed and angry, as Rob by now had sat down in the corner with frowning through his pair of glasses. “Are you sure she’s not hiding out in some abandoned house in the middle of nowhere?”

“Look, I don’t know what is wrong with you but when I say something is something unless I tell you I’m unsure about it, I mean it, I might have some memory difficulties, Michael, but I don’t belong in a mental asylum,” retorted Ravyn, angrily, mainly this was due to the fact that she kept on feeling like they were biting at her throat over things she had no idea about or she felt like they weren’t believing her. “You hear me? Or do I have to make myself a little bit clearer for you?” Ravyn bent down, picked up the purring cat, and held it in her arms.

“Okay lady, Ravyn, or whatever the fuck your name is, I’m only doing what I need to do and that is to ask questions and try to keep some order and prevent fights from occurring between us Old Worlders,” Mike defended, offended that someone had the guts to call him by his full name and not by the name he was given by a couple of mates back in the Old World. Ravyn stood up fully. “We hear you loud and clear about Melissa, now we will get off your back about it.”

“Just shut up the pair of you, you are like a bunch of siblings arguing over a broken toy,” complained Rob, as Ravyn’s and Mike’s attention was diverted to Rob sitting in the corner, as he was deep in thought. “I don’t know who or what caused it, but if I get a bigger headache than the one I am destined to be with right now, I will both make sure I will leave you behind in the Dark Hills. Failing to shut the fuck up and listen to what I’ve got to say, will inevitably end up in ultimate death. You hear me loud and clear, Ravyn and Mike?” They both mumbled an uncertain and unconvincing yes to Rob, as Rob exhaled deeply. “I’ve been thinking how we can bring Spyral down…wait, hold on.” Rob stopped and thought for a second to himself. He knew that Spyral had just recovered from a massive virus attack, what would happen if the Old World generation launch another virus attack that would bring every computerised system and program that Spyral used? “I need someone who can create a virus that will show those sons of bitches who really has control over society.”

“Chaz…” Mike slowly whispered to himself, as he remembered that Chaz, who to Ravyn was known as the drunkard at Jeezy’s Chinese Palace with the Saki bottle in one hand and in the other a death plea, in the Old World was a computer engineer and viruses, was his thing. Mike remembered a story that Chaz had told him about how he had brought a network of computers down simply with a couple of mouse clicks and typed in a couple of words.

“Repeat for us all who don’t speak at that whispering tone of voice,” Rob requested, as Mike shook his head for a minute and then left the room abruptly. “Wow. That was pointless.” But Rob soon found out why Mike had done what he had done before, as he re-entered the space where Ravyn stood with a cat still in her arms and with Rob sitting in the corner. He wasn’t alone, Mike had grabbed Chaz from out of the crowd and dragged him to the room. “Chaz…you want Chaz to work with the viruses? For a minute or two there Mike, I thought you were serious.”

“Hey guys,” Chaz said, with a smile. He looked scruffy as usual with his blonde liberty spikes spiky as ever and the man reeked of bourbon and gin. “What’s been happening?”

“Haven’t you been paying attention?” asked Viking from the door, as he leant against the doorframe and crossed his arms, as everyone’s attention shifted to Viking, looking much like James Dean in his famous Old World movie A Rebel Without A Cause, today with his black leather jacket that obviously had been patched up at the elbows over a white singlet top. “We’re taking over the world, Chaz. Damn, you come to my restaurant basically every day with Melissa and you don’t know what we are doing? How much have you had to drink?”

“More like, the question is, when was it the last time you had a drink?” asked Mike, as he stepped away from Chaz because of the smell that Chaz had a reputation to give off. “Or a shower, man?”

“I don’t know the answer of those questions,” answered Chaz, scratching the back of his neck. “Stop confusing me with all these questions, they confuse the heck out of me.”

“Well, at least you’re able to stand up still and not wobble from side to side, that much I’ll give you,” Rob thought of it as a compliment, but knowing dear old Chaz the drunkard of Los Angeles, Chaz wouldn’t have the brain cells to process it because of the excessive alcohol consumption.

“Cool, we’re taking over the world,” Chaz slowly reacted to Viking’s earlier sarcastic comment. “What do I get to do? Drink myself stupid again?”

“No Chaz, you do that everyday it’s time for something different,” answered Mike, patting Chaz on the shoulder. “Like Viking just put it to you, we’re taking over the world.”

“Totally awesome,” replied Chaz, smiling. “What do I get? Or more so, what do I have to do to get it?” Chaz stopped smiling.

“You dealt with viruses back in the Old World didn’t you?” asked Mike, as Chaz smiled again and nodded. “How long can you make a powerful virus that can shut down Spyral?”

“Not too sure there, depends how drunk and how stupid I am to even think about taking on such a corporation,” answered Chaz, as Ravyn and the troupe felt like they were just going around in circles with Chaz and that he was just an effort that wasn’t going to be worth it in the end.

“Dude, that’s why we are here, remember, because you hate Spyral because what they did to your kids and Celeste, remember, we are here to take over the world?” asked Mike, as he was the only one that had faith in Chaz and his computing abilities. “Do you remember what you told me about them and what Spyral did?”

“My Celeste….” Chaz trailed off in his sentence as that name run a million memory slots in his head. He then started to go into a trance about the days that he and his wife were happy with their two kids, Marco and Thomas. Then he started to think about what had happened when the New World had come about. Marco and Thomas got slaughtered in a brutal clash between Old World demonstrators that eventually all died in the end and Celeste, his wife, the brutal death that she got by the first ruler of Spyral, for such a little thing. Chaz woke up from his trip down memory lane and looked sternly into Mike’s deep eyes. “Yes, yes I do. What they did to them was awful–”

“This would explain why you tend to drink your emotions,” Ravyn interrupted, as she couldn’t help but to say it out loud, what everybody was thinking. “Here’s a recommendation I strongly I advise you to take. Stop drinking your emotions, and get your act together. You are going to go through your Old World technology which I know nerds like you still keep such crap, give whatever you can for this project, and dammit, take a shower, because you stink!”

“So what do I get in return then?” asked Chaz, still thinking of the rewards of such a challenge.

“Freedom,” answered Ravyn, bluntly, as she started to pat Romeo who was asleep in her arms by now. “How’s that for a decent reward? Nobody telling you what you cannot and can do and nobody making you feel like a nobody.” It was time to reimburse the fact that Chaz smelt like something that had just come out of the dumpster. “Did I mention a decent shower?”

“Revenge,” answered Viking, as Chaz turned around and faced him. “Couldn’t put it better myself, just pure revenge. Revenge is what I’m in this project for. Again, I fought for this country and this is how I get repaid by being suppressed and dictated to?” Now it was Viking’s turn to go back down memory lane. “They raided my house when the New World begun and took my three medals that I had earned fair and square. You guys do not have a single clue how it felt like to fight in Saigon and to be shot several times in the ass in Berlin. That was painful, let alone seeing what kind of society I fought for.”

“I didn’t know you fought in the Third Great War,” Chaz commented, looking mildly interested.

“You don’t know a lot of things,” Rob retorted, as he got to his feet and started to walk back and forth across the room behind Ravyn. Ravyn turned around and stood next to Mike and Chaz, while Viking still lingered in the doorway. “Chaz?”

“Yeah,” answered Chaz, looking more alert than anything now, ever since his little trip down memory lane.

“Go outside, firstly, get Bella in here, I know what she’ll be useful for,” Rob ordered, still pacing back and forward. “Secondly, go have a shower the bathroom is just the next room over, before you do anything else. And the third thing is, draw the people’s outside attention and gather the computer geeks. I want that virus as soon as possible, for very good reasons.”

“One problem Rob, I don’t know who Bella is though,” replied Chaz, as Viking slapped his forehead and Ravyn sighed.

“I’ll go get her for you,” Viking volunteered.

“Before you go to get her, get Fox’s ass in here as well,” Rob ordered, as Viking stopped in his tracks, nodded at Rob’s order and disappeared out of sight. Rob stopped pacing back and forward “Now Chaz, how quick do you think you can get that virus into Spyral’s system?” Chaz didn’t know so he shrugged.

“Don’t know, how strong do you want it to be?” asked Chaz. He couldn’t help but to ask the question. “Why do you want a virus to begin with?”

“I was just thinking, it would save us a heap of time–”

“Because the Dark Hills aren’t real,” Ravyn interrupted, suddenly remembering something an Old Worlder had said to her once at the markets. Her memory was coming back again as she smiled as she started to recall the details of the conversation.

“What are you on about, nut case?” asked Mike, as he frowned and looked Ravyn’s way. “Shut your senile trap, seriously. Haven’t you heard the tales of the guards roaming around the Dark Hills like as though it is their breeding ground? You think of why no one has lived to tell the tale?” As Rob’s objections were heard in the background about calling people names but Mike ignored them.

“Of course they have to be real, they are on all of the New World maps,” Chaz added onto Mike’s rebuttal, as Fox, Bella, and Viking stood at the door. “I might be a drunk, but I’m not stupid.”

“Don’t tell me shut my senile trap you two, I know what I am talking about!” snapped Ravyn, angrily. “Someone told me at the markets one time that they are not real because they are holograms, they are diversions set in place by Spyral.”

“What about the tales?” asked Rob, not wanting to take sides; he couldn’t help but to investigate further into a claim. “And what about getting past the two stations?”

“Legends, myths, fairy tales, folklore,” answered Fox, as everyone turned around to see Fox standing next to Bella. Fox walked into the room and stood in front of Rob. Everyone’s eyes followed her every movement. “You think of why Benji and I hang out at the abandoned warehouse just metres from the entrance to the Dark Hills? Sure the guards chase us off, but there was one time where we hid inside some crates and after the guards had decided that we had gone, the Dark Hills just simply disappeared, as though it was an apparition or what Ravyn is saying, a hologram. And as for the stations question, I don’t know, never ventured past that warehouse. But I know what I saw and it wasn’t something solid.”

“Chaz, time to go,” Rob said as he had remembered that he was going to send Chaz off to have a shower firstly and then gather up the computer geeks. Chaz smiled. “The towels are in the bathroom. Don’t be like Mike and clean up after yourself. You might be a drunk but you’re not an animal.” Chaz smiled again, as Mike missed an insult but didn’t care as Chaz farewelled everyone in the room and left the scene to go and rid himself of the foul odour he carried around with him. “Bella?” He didn’t want to linger on the topic of Ravyn and Fox being right about the Dark Hills.

“Yes,” answered Bella, as she stopped looking to the ground but she was still in touch of what was happening around her. She looked at Rob. “What can I do?”

“Give me maps from the Old World and give me maps from the New World,” answered Rob, as a plan was formulating inside of his head, as he remembered what Bella used to do as a living before the New World came around. “And while you’re at it, if you can get together a team out there who has got skills in planning and mapping from the Old World. And if it’s not too much, get Spyral’s map of the building, plus the stations. Those stations are not just watchtowers, we need to remember this fact, but they are like mini-villages of guards, this is where guards are stored.”

“Gotcha,” replied Bella, nodding her head as Rob nodded his as well, but he was more doing it because he was nodding to the his own thoughts. She left the scene as Chaz had previously done but went the other way into the living room rather than going to the bathroom to have a shower.

“Someone is on a roll,” Fox muttered to herself, as Rob shot her a look. “What? It was a compliment. I am even starting to wonder what the hell I am going to be used for. I can’t read and I am basically useless.”

“I’m getting to you,” replied Rob, as he looked Mike’s way, as Mike was looking at the cat in Ravyn’s arms with a deadly look. “Mike, stop giving the cat deadly looks. It did nothing to you.” Mike looked back to Rob.

“It is right there, it did something, and it dared to set a paw near me,” Mike defended, innocently sticking by his Old World hatred of the feline creatures. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing right now, just thought I might want to remind you that you are going to remain as civil as possible, I’m still thinking about what I am going to do with you,” Rob explained as he looked to the James Dean replica still standing in the doorway. “Viking.”

“Let me guess, what you are going to do with me, you’re going to put me in charge of creating an army of people specifically chosen by me because of my army experience?” Viking asked, but he had guessed wrong as Rob shook his head. “What is it then?”

“We’ve already got our little army, it’s your turn to start devising a tactical team with those people outside, to respond to any emergencies, that may and will most probably occur,” answered Rob, as he drew a breath to continue his answer to Viking’s query. “Work in conjunction with Bella to draw up tactics, and devise the safest passageway through the…” He stopped in his sentence and looked to Fox and Ravyn’s exasperated looks as he was going to mention the Dark Hills but thought it was better to start believing what the two women were trying to say rather than just ignoring them and their words of advice and experience. He looked back to Viking. “Through both Winter and Dark Knight Stations and the safest place to enter Spyral’s headquarters. It is not going to be a safe passage overall, that I know, but do your best.”

“Will do,” Viking nodded his head, as he left the scene to join Bella in the living room where Bella was having trouble silencing the room to say what she did. “Hey! The woman and I have something to say! Listen for your freedoms sake!” The room fell silent as he joined Bella at the front of the room. “Shut up and listen all of you, this is not a request but a direct order. Don’t defy orders.”

“Then what do you want us to do?” asked Ravyn, as she had stopped patting the cat while Mike looked at the cat in her arms still with the same shallow look he gave to every other feline that he had been in contact with. “I’m pretty pointless to be honest.”

“At least you can read,” Fox snorted, as Rob’s attention was all over the place. He shook his head as he turned to Fox and looked her in the eyes. “It’s true. Don’t try to deny it, I can’t read it and that makes also very pointless. Why am I even in this project?”

“Because you’re going to lead us to the Dark Hills through your shortcuts that you and Benji take to the warehouse,” answered Rob. “You are never pointless Fox, you hear me? Don’t ever doubt yourself that is what I’ve brought you up to be. Do not be like that. You are worth so much more than that to just doubt yourself like that.” Fox nodded as she smiled at the fact that Rob did care about her a lot and that she hadn’t realised the full extent of how deeply Rob cared for her and what he would do for her. “You want to know why I want to be in this project and why I am so hardcore about getting stuff done sooner?”

“Because of Melissa’s situation with Spyral?” asked Mike, as all eyes were on him, as Ravyn rolled her eyes at him, as Fox jumped to a conclusion of her own.

She turned around so that she faced Rob with her eyes wide open and mouth as well; wide open anyone could fit a three course restaurant meal into it,

“What’s happened to Melissa?” asked Fox. “What has Spyral done to her, Rob? Have they captured her?” Rob nodded, as Fox started to swell up with tears. “Are they…going to kill her?”

“I don’t know to be honest,” answered Rob, honestly, as Ravyn knew the answer immediately.

“They are,” answered Ravyn, as everyone’s attention on her. “She dropped the word enough times and she said something to me about how she’s already up for a number of other things. I don’t know how long she has to live though; I think that’s another reason why we should hurry everything up.”

“Don’t worry about Melissa right now, Fox, we have to organise this within a matter of days,” Rob explained as Fox and him were back in eye contact again. “That’s not the real reason. Do you still want to know the real reason?” Fox nodded slowly. “Because I want you to go and have an education, I want you to have an education, go to college and do something worthwhile for your life, rather than bumming around here, like there’s no tomorrow.” Fox started to cry as she threw her arms around Rob and Rob held her in his arms. “I’m doing this for you.”

“See, why can’t all men be all sentimental like that?” Ravyn asked herself as Mike looked her way to give her a queer look. “Not you. Holy mother of a cat, not you.”

“You’re not useless, and I am not saying that just for the heck of it,” Rob assured as he pulled Fox off him. “You’re going to help us, regardless of you being illiterate or not. What I have planned for you is that you and Benji are going to come with us. You may not know how to read properly but you two have a good sense of direction and a good memory on you. You’re going to help us. Understand now?” Fox nodded, as she wiped the tears that had slowly started to dry up with the sleeve of her black top. “Now, go outside, join Mike and Bella on the podium and start planning to fight for what you believe in.”

“Thank you…” Fox sniffled, as she was trying to find the right words to tell to Rob. “Thank you so much, Rob. Just for everything.”

“Just go before I change my mind,” Rob said, as Fox smiled again as she slowly left the room as Ravyn’s and Mike’s eyes followed her outside of the room. Just as everyone was looking at the door, Chaz come back in, looking cleaner and wetter. “How come you’re back so soon? Didn’t you shower like I told you to do?” Chaz nodded. “Then what is the problem we have?”

“You ran out of shampoo and conditioner so I had to cut the shower short,” answered Chaz, smiling as though he was proud of something. “But I have to say, your shower rocks. But yet again, I hadn’t had one for a couple of weeks so I wouldn’t probably be able to remember the last shower I passed out in.”

“What are you on about?” asked Ravyn, frowning. “That made no sense at all.”

“Do you remember the third thing that I told you to do, Chaz?” asked Rob, as Chaz nodded eagerly. “Then what was it?”

“Go drinking?” asked Chaz, wanting confirmation on his query, as Mike walked next to Chaz and placed his hands on his shoulder. “What? Wasn’t it that?”

“No, the third thing was go outside and gather your army of nerds,” answered Mike, as Chaz’s light bulb moment had just occurred as he suddenly had a relapse moment of the memory that contained Rob telling him such orders. “Do you understand? Or do I have to put it on paper for you?”

“No, I remember now, thanks for that man,” answered Chaz, shaking his head but then resorting to nodding his head at his own recollection. Chaz waved to everybody in the room and went to the next room where Viking, Bella, and Fox were telling the group of people what they were going to do.

“And here comes the fourth part of the plan,” said Viking, at the top of his voice, as he welcomed Chaz over to the man-made podium which was a coffee table of Rob’s.

“Again, I’m pointless, I don’t know what I can do,” Ravyn repeated, as she couldn’t help but to feel like that she was pointless and didn’t feel right being in the project. “Like I said in my introductory speech, I give advice that’s basically about it.”

“I know about Joanna, Melissa has told me, it is for sure that Spyral has got her and doing something to her in which in all truth, I don’t want to think of such methods,” Rob replied, simply smiling sympathetically. “I know that you have memory lapses and I am not going to be ignorant of it.”

“So?” asked Ravyn, a bit confused about what Rob was end up setting her up with. “It’s because of the memory lapses that only prove that I am useless.”

“You and Mike are going to team up to dig out some Old World technology so different groups of people that are working to get into the area, as there will be various groups just not just us, like walkie talkies and Old World GPS’s,” Rob explained looking from Ravyn and Mike.

“They destroyed the satellites remember Rob,” Mike remembered, as Rob closed his eyes as he knew that but he had forgotten all about it. “GPS’s relied on satellites. Remember?”

“Shit yes, okay, well in that case, you’re going to dig up anything that we can use to communicate, like pagers, mobiles and walkie talkies,” Rob restructured his instructions to the pair.

“Do you realise we are going to rip off each other’s heads?” asked Ravyn, as she recalled the little episodes that Mike pulled over Romeo’s presence. “Have you not seen the little evil looks that Mike has been shooting my cat?”

“The woman has a point,” Mike agreed with Ravyn. He lowered his voice, so no one would hear him, but Ravyn still managed to hear him. “Sadly.”

“I don’t care, just think of it, your freedom is at stake, whether you choose to fight about it or do something about it, only becomes my problem when I have to leave you behind because you’ve fallen behind the rest of us,” retorted Rob, as Mike and Ravyn both nodded and decided to agree on something for once in their hostile meeting. “Come on, we can’t stand around and act like sitting ducks, go outside and rise against with the pack out there.” Mike couldn’t help but to laugh at Rob’s attitude that sounded like he was a Great War leader. Rob pointed at the door as Mike followed the direction to where Rob’s finger was pointing, Ravyn slowly followed, but she was stopped. “Stay here Ravyn.”

“Okay,” replied Ravyn, a bit surprised that she was asked to stay back, as Mike had completely left the scene. “What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything,” answered Rob. “I know you’re feeling much like Fox, quite useless. But you’re not, and I want you to know that. All the time that I’ve known you, you seem to be a bright woman. Don’t doubt yourself from now on, that’s all I ask of you on a personal basis. Okay?”

“Sure thing,” answered Ravyn, smiling a little bit as Rob was doing Joanna’s role in reinforcing Ravyn’s useless attitude. “I’ll try, how’s that?”

“It is better trying than not trying, that’s what this project is all about,” answered Rob. “I’m sorry to hear about your sister.”

“I secretly knew that Spyral had done something to her, but I wasn’t ready to admit it, she means more to me than anyone in this project can imagine,” Ravyn explained. “I thank you for acknowledging Joanna and the attitude you have towards everything. I don’t know if you deserve this after the New World accusation, but we all make stupid mistakes I guess sometimes.”

“I apologise for that, again,” Rob found himself repeating old apologies for old mistakes, as Ravyn walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. She pulled back. “Wow. I’m with you I don’t think I deserved that.”

“It means nothing more than just thank you,” explained Ravyn, as she smiled and walked away still with Romeo in her arms, as she was planning to join Mike who was standing next to Bella at the manmade podium.

Rob stood there scratching the back of his neck, confused about what had just happened. Was it a dream or did she really kiss him? He shook his head telling himself that this was a big project and the last thing he wanted to do was to start having feelings for one of the Old Worlders who was fighting to get her freedom back. Like Ravyn had clearly stated, it was nothing more than just a thank you and Rob felt somewhat relieved that he just got complimented on his actions and his thoughts.

****

[woodyloveslinkin]

Chapter 19 - Umina

 

****

It was a lonely night outside as the neon lights of the Los Angele’s billboards glowed through the Dark Hills and illuminated through the various stations. Joanna looked down onto the surrounding watch villages known as Winter and Dark Knight Station, that were not just watch towers but they thrived on energy and production. She saw the guards scattering through different pathways under the full moon in the velvet black sky without a wisp of cloud to be seen, as the bitter cold wind behind her blew her hair over her face, as her curiosity of such a great creation now known as the New World had been cured. She had always wandered how it was like to work at Spyral and now that she found out, as she crossed her arms, still fascinated by the guards movements down the hill. They were like little ants running around an ant’s nest from this distance, as she was standing outside the very front of the corporation’s headquarters, with the front doors swaying in the wind on their hinges.

Brad was standing just before the entrance into the corporation’s headquarters with his arms like Joanna, crossed, but he was smiling, satisfied that whatever was in Sarah’s hands right now was the best way to go. What Sarah had in her hands right now was Joanna’s future as a great employee and Brad knew that Sarah was going to make it worth everyone’s while with this little scheme that Sarah had in her brain. Brad was very proud of how far Sarah had come, especially in the last couple of years or so. From a person that was hard to get out of bed in the morning, to a productive leader. Brad knew that Sarah now understood the term production is not only an introduction it’s the squirrel in the mural. Meaning that, production and all efforts along with it was not only the introduction to a role but it’s the basis for everything.

Joanna didn’t know that Brad was watching her from behind her, as she stared over the hill that the Spyral headquarters were nicely located on.

“Are you liking the view, Joanna?” asked Brad, as Joanna jumped at the sound of his voice. He chuckled at Joanna almost hitting the roof in surprise that she was being watched from behind. Joanna turned around, trying to catch her breath. “Did I startle you?”

“You did a little bit,” answered Joanna, as Brad started to walk towards Joanna. “What were you doing behind me?” Brad stopped next to Joanna and fixed his eyes to what Joanna was gazing at before.

“Just checking to see if you were alright,” answered Brad, smiling a little bit. “It’s a nice view. Prime position. We get to look over the stations and their activities, and we can see past the Dark Hills. Prime real estate, I say. I wish I had to chance to thank Jonathon for the position, I really wish I could.” Joanna turned around to what she was looking at before.

“I take it by that comment, you worked with her father,” Joanna realised, as Brad nodded and she could see his response out the corner of her eye. “You must feel proud, I know I would be. Not saying that working for his daughter is anything bad, but, still, working for the creator and the deity of the New World. It must’ve been really something, in that case.”

“It was, good times, we were close friends, thus, why I was put down to take care of his daughter, he put a lot of faith in me, and I’ve never let him down,” Brad replied, remembering the days where Jonathon and him created and developed a global network that entwined with each other technologically speaking and of course, socially speaking. “I never worked with him, though as close as I do with Sarah.”

“She’s a good person,” Joanna couldn’t help but to comment. “She seems sensible and likes to get her priorities straight. Organised as well, did I mention that?” Brad didn’t respond, but merely focused his attention on the scattering ant-like creatures below him. He frowned as he felt something was wrong with the guards down at the closest station near them, Winter Station. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know if it is the guards down there or what, I feel like something is wrong,” answered Brad, still trying to make up his mind to see what was the matter with himself. “I’m not Spyro or anything like her, but I can always feel in the air that something is wrong. I’m like Sarah, I don’t like to feel this way, and I like to resolve it quickly.”

“Stability is the success of the New World and stability is a necessity not a want,” Joanna automatically responded as she had this line drilled into her head. “I don’t understand what the matter with the Old World generation is and why we are still allowing them to live in our ever so flawless New World society. Why are we allowing the Old World generation remain in contact?” She looked to Brad for answers as Brad looked back to her.

“Because picking them out individually is a terrible job to do and no one wants to be in a job that is that terrible, I mean, sure, it is the ideal that Sarah is after, New Worlders only, but Jonathon tried to do that on the first hand, the only thing that he really failed at,” answered Brad, trying not to dawdle on old memories of Jonathon, the first ruler of Spyral. “Lunar Strain is proving to be a great success as we are one step closer to finally finishing the project and implementing it. Memories of the Old World are not legalised in this world that has been generated for us and they must be destroyed. Only if Sarah approved the revamping of Project Narcissi Extraction and combine with Project Lunar Strain would be a very powerful method of getting rid of the Old Worlders and their ideas. The various bunches of them are just lunatics, you know?” Joanna nodded, remembering what Sarah had told her about them being daft. Then it struck Brad to what he needed to let Joanna know. “Have you met Spyro?”

“Isn’t that the most complex and sophisticated program in the world that replicates like a sort of mother to Sarah?” asked Joanna, remembering what another Spyralan had told her about Spyro but she never really had a chance to meet this Spyro, that she had been hearing a lot about.

“Spyro is a program with integrated human emotions and human characteristics, depending what patch you put in her when she gets serviced, and I don’t think she tries to mother Sarah at all, she’s just doing her job, hacking into things and she does play a fair big role in maintaining Spyral’s technology,” answered Brad, as he nodded to the idea of finally showing Joanna who Spyro was to Sarah and the corporation. “Come, I’ll show you.”

“Alright then,” Joanna agreed also nodding her head, but her nod was in agreement to Brad’s offer.

“This is Spyro,” Brad introduced Joanna to the program that was limited to the Mirror Board room and of course the Mirror Board itself. Brad and Joanna had taken only a couple of minutes to reach the room, where Sarah was sitting on the chair in front of the board. Brad originally didn’t know that Sarah was even there until after his introduction and as Sarah stood up form her seat to face the pair that was standing at the doorway. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I intrude on anything?”

“Next time, knock before you speak,” answered Sarah, bitterly, as Brad could detect the bitterness in her tone. He had gotten use to detecting the bitter tone and back down to whenever she decided to use it. Sarah wasn’t in her corset attire this evening, she was in a t-shirt and track pants as she was about to go to bed. “I have to go anyway. Early day tomorrow I have meetings with China and Russia via the Roo Network. Good night to all.”

The Roo Network was a series of complex matrixes integrated into holographic networks where invisible fibre optic cables were entwined into a more complex version of a Sphinx which it was called Lacuna. Lacunas were half the size of a Sphinx and almost the size of a coin. Conversations could be booked through the Spyral headquarters with times, dates, New World identity (as found in Joanna’s pendant) and locations. Sarah had unlimited and anonymous Lacunas as each Lacuna had a Sim Catalyst – Spyral Identity Memory Catalyst, in which she used to the outmost of her power and of her reign.

“I will talk with you tomorrow about this matter,” said Spyro, as Joanna’s eyes lit up as she saw an animated woman’s head appear that emitted off a strong blue light. Sarah turned around and smiled at the program and the program smiled back at her. “Take care dear.”

“I will,” replied Sarah, as she turned back around and walked over to Brad and Joanna who were still standing in the doorway, as Joanna’s mouth hadn’t gone back to its shut position and it was still gaping open like a slobbering dog. “Did your mother ever tell that it is not polite to leave your mouth open like you want to play fetch?”

“I do not remember my mother,” answered Joanna, closing her mouth after giving her answer to Sarah who was quite offended by Joanna’s gaping mouth. “I apologise.”

“Like you should apologise, and like you should not remember who your mother was, memories are uncalled for right now Joanna, and I do not need such filth near me,” Sarah strictly ordered, as she left the room without a goodnight or anything more from her.

Joanna and Brad looked back to Spyro who was curious to know who this new person that was standing next to Brad was.

“Curious?” asked Brad, walking over to Spyro, but Spyro’s eyes remained on the walking Joanna as she approached Brad. “In this technologically advanced Stone Age Spyro, not giving an answer usually resorts in some sort of agreement but have I not integrated this into your system already?”

“Sorry, curiosity killed the cat,” apologised Spyro as her digital head moved to where Brad was standing. “May I ask who the newbie is?”

“Newbie?” Joanna muttered under her breath. “You know colloquial speech?”

“Hey kid, I might not be human that can jump off tall buildings unlike you, but I bet I’m ten times smarter than you,” answered Spyro, as the digital woman looked back to Joanna who wasn’t sure about Spyro.

“I’m going to defrag you tomorrow and get that rudeness out of you,” Brad concluded as he had never seen or even heard of Spyro being rude to anyone. “I didn’t even know that had been integrated into you.”

“Bradley, yet again, I outwit you,” commented Spyro, smiling at her own intelligence, still with her digital eyes on Joanna. “I apologise for the rudeness. A virus has been mucking me about lately and it’s starting to feel like it is digital cancer. I didn’t quite catch your name, what is it?”

“Joanna,” answered Joanna, feeling a bit relieved that Spyro wasn’t normally so rude and disheartening all the time. “You’re Spyro, I take it.”

“I can be anything you want me to be honey,” Spyro couldn’t help but to throw in a sexual joke and she laughed at her own joke. Brad smirked but he decided to restrain his laughter. “I don’t want to scare you dear, and again, I’m sorry if I scared you. I’m not normally like this.” Spyro turned her blue digital head to Brad. “Bradley, I missed the part of your purpose here. Could you just repeat it to me?”

“I don’t need to repeat it because I didn’t say it in the first place,” retorted Brad, as he slowly realised what his real purpose was. Not to bring Joanna here in the mirror room and teach her the ins and outs of Spyro’s programming. “I was having a chat to Sarah about her mother and she spoke of something very interesting. I’m not asking if you’re stupid or not but you remember Project Narcissi Extraction?” The woman’s head nodded on the screen. “Am I correct to hear that Sarah’s mother died in the process of it?” The woman nodded her head on the screen again.

“Did she really?” asked Joanna, realising that she should be more sympathetic towards Sarah now because of it. Everyone nodded. “I didn’t know that.”

“We know who killed her,” answered Brad, turning to Joanna, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that had the killer’s name on it. “And we have drawn to a conclusion that you would be the best person to bring her to us. She wears an Umina which is a pendant that has the Spyral logo on it, it was given to experiments.”

“Why can’t we use the signals transmitted off it to find her?” asked Joanna, a bit confused.

“Because it is old technology and I am not programmed to find old technology,” answered Spyro, as everyone turned their heads to the digital woman. “But when she opens that pendant it releases New World technology which I am able to pick up on, but since it is old technology, its remote signal is cut off whenever it is closed. Uminas were designed to keep updated on technologically advancements, but it seems this one has been tampered with, and can barely cope with being updated. The signal is only strong when it is open.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” asked Joanna, as Brad gave her the piece of paper and she opened it. “I barely know the streets of Los Angeles.” She looked down at the name and read it. She looked back up again, concerned. “Where do I find this Ravyn?”

“Thanks to my Old World memory that was nicely put into me by Jonathon, I will integrate Old World memories into your pendant once Sarah implants it into my motherboard,” answered Spyro. “Once that has done this will be your survival tool amongst the Old Worlders. It will connect to your brain via electromagnetic signals into the pores of your skin. But heed caution Joanna, if the Old Worlders see the pendant you will end up in a messy situation. And the pendant needs to remain in contact with your skin or the electromagnetic signals will be disrupted and may not work properly.”

“And anything else you might want to add?” asked Joanna, smiling sarcastically. “It causes death in the end?”

“No, not at all silly, the Old Worlders might be the cause of your death if you are not careful,” answered Spyro, as she ignored the sarcasm that she could detect in Joanna’s voice. “I’ve heard many New Worlders say that they are ravenous beasts almost when they are around anyone from the New World generation. It’s such a pity when you think of the beautiful things that the New World has given out to these people, they choose to destroy it rather than to appreciate what Jonathon gave them.”

“What happens if I get caught?” asked Joanna, still not too sure.

“Deny it or failing that, do a runner,” answered Brad, as Joanna’s attention was still on the program in front of her. Brad also wasn’t looking at the person he had just answered to, but was still looking at Spyro. “How much time do we have to work with, once you’ve sorted out the pendant?”

“Not very much, I don’t know, but Sarah needs to give me that pendant by at least late tomorrow to kick start this project,” answered Spyro, as she closed her eyes and looked like she was going to sneeze. She did sneeze. She opened her watery eyes and tried to refocus but she started to fade out for a second and came back in stronger. “Sorry, I’ve got VIF.”

“What’s VIF?” asked Joanna, a bit confused.

“Virtual Influenza, I’m the only program in the world that can get it,” answered Spyro. “That damn Mississippi has given me all types of health bugs. It’s not good for me. Someone needs to get rid of it.” Joanna looked lost in Spyro’s ramblings. “It’s the name of the virus that’s going around. It was named after the Mississippi River before it got accidentally blown to bits before the Third Great War by Virginia. But yet again, you’ve got to think that the virus was around long before the Third Great War.”

“Okay enough of your randomness let’s get back to basics,” Brad said calmly, as he turned to Joanna, who was still holding the piece of paper in her hand with Ravyn’s name written down on it. “You have to find her, trick her, and weave your New World talents around her. You have to revenge Felicity’s death. Joanna, you have to kill Ravyn.”

****

[Ravynlee]

Okay since I was slack and read but didn't review the previous update I am going to reply now and once I'm done reading the most recent update I will edit this post and respond on that one.

Okidoki.

 

Firstly. One major quip with the end of the previous update. I think towards the bottom you skipped a sentence. It read;

Like Ravyn had clearly stated, it was nothing more than just a thank you and Rob felt somewhat relieved that he just got complimented on his actions and his thoughts.

But what you left out was 'but then he thought 'to hell with it' and Ravyn ran back into the room, threw him on the floor and the pair singlehandedly repopulated the species of Old Worlders, okay, her, Rob and Mike, and maybe Chas if he regularly showers.' :lol:

 

Okay, okay, I put bad thoughts into your head and sunk to new lows of depravity, BUT in all seriousness I read that last paragraph and I was all awwwww for that parting sentiment. It's good she has memory lapses because as shy and demure as the pair of them collectively are (when not rising up against the establishment) the last thing either one need at the moment is averted eye contact and giddy-love-struck stares while they are trying so hars here to keep focussed. But having said that I think this New World needs a bit of Old World loving, not in the literal sense :-P Haha. I meant that New Worlders seem so detached and emotionally supressed with that Inva that the fierce rush of emotions you get say during a crush/infatuation/love/lust or even staging an all-out rebellion would inherantly trigger.

I have to say I laughed at Viking's portrayal as the cool 'rebel without a cause' James Dean type (again another awwww moment, but in a sincere way) and the way Chas, as always seems the case, is the comedic relief with his drunken relapses and questional hygene methods.

You had me questioning a few motives throughout this first update, for a second I almost thought that Rob was having 'feelings' for the now absent Melissa and THAT was what triggered this whole Gung-Ho plan in breaking down Spyral's walls, but then again maybe not. Maybe Rob's just a sucker for a damsel in distress, bless him. The kiss on the cheek could signal a sudden shift in his directives, and throw a giant spanner in the works bewteen already tentative relationships as jealousies flare. AND having said that, I also wondered for a second if Mike and Ravyn were getting a bit too close for comfort. Their exchange actually made me smile because they talk to each other like kids on a playground, the kind that throw insults at each other during recess and are passing notes and shy smiles during class or something. Hmm. Weird. His aversion to Romeo might effect that one somewhat.

Great to see Rob standing up and taking charge. He's not typecast as the dynamic type (that's usually Chester or Mike) but I am appreciating this new blossoming responsibility he's adopted, albeit begrudgingly as parent figure for Foxx's sake. Bottom line, got to love a man in charge. In this case anyway... real life, meh, that's a whole other topic

And this development about the gates not being real? I was a bit 'uh okay' when I first read it, but when I thought about it, actually I can see the reason behind it. It's good old fashioned psychological warfare. Spyral doesn't need to spend so much in defences if it has its citizens living in absolute FEAR, fear has its own advantages. It's like Chinese whispers. It grows with each person adding their fear to it until the story is faction (fact and fiction blended) - sort of like how a politician reigns, especially if he's corrupt. I appreciate this mind-game technique with Spyral more than all out bloodthirsty slaughter. It shows they really have advanced on a cerebral level. I like that. Well thought out actually. Kudos.

 

As for the recent update - what the hell? Joanna doesn't remember who I am?? *lol* (Sorry, in joke, can tell we're siblings now with failing memory, right? haha) But back to seriousness; Sarah kidnapped Joanna to 'reprogram' her to find me and kill me? Smart, in theory. Knowing that we have a connection and Joanna has already confessed she wouldn't rat me out to save herself to Sarah, seems the royal brat has found a new way to use Joanna's one great weakness against her - me. Oh no, poor Joanna! (Well poor Ravyn too, but yeah). Can't wait to see how this known New Worlder (who has already rubbed a few key players in the Old World Revolution the wrong way) plans on winning her way into the Old Worlder's good books to get close enough to Sarah's mother's killer. OMG the intrigue! Haha awesome!

Just one thing on a critical point, watch your repetativeness. If you have to use the one word several times in the one sentence try and find new words to use in place of it. I think you used the word 'bitter' three or so times really close together in one paragraph and it dirsupts the flow when you're reading it. Just a head's up, is all That and maybe limit the explainations of New World technology. Gets a bit much to digest at once in places to the point you could explain these new terms etc more coherantly and simply without making it sound like the reader has to be a rocket-scientist to get it. General explanations can often be the best, and saves you trying to 'justify' it later on if you have to. Again just a thought. I'm no expert, just... lending advice. Other than that all good. Building tension of all kinds well. Keen as always to see where you take this.

[woodyloveslinkin]

Chapter 20 – Protégé Moi

 

 

****

 

“Brad!” yelled Sarah in the middle of the hallway, as she turned around with Joanna by her side, like a puppy to its master, to see where Brad had gotten to. She wasn’t in a nice mood today as her meeting with her two Spyral associates in Russia and China was cut short because the virus had started to infect even the Lacunas. Sarah stood there in the middle of the hallway, in her yellow and dark blue corset attire with the same matching boots, with her arms crossed wanting answers from Brad. Brad appeared out of a doorway, stopped and smiled at Sarah. “Do not smile to me like I am a little girl. My meeting was cut short with the two associates in Russia and China because of that stupid virus. I thought you told me someone had found a way to get rid of it?”

“I don’t remember recalling such a claim,” Brad shook his head. “May I ask where are you off to at this time? I have a meeting with our associates in twenty minutes.”

“I recall cancelling that if I am correct,” said Sarah, as she wasn’t sure whether she did or not. She turned to Joanna. “I did. Didn’t I?”

“Yes you did,” answered Joanna, smiling, as Brad noticed the pendant around Joanna’s neck where the her black shirt bared her neck. Sarah nodded and turned to Brad and smiled.

“May I ask, where are you going?” asked Brad, as he pointed to Joann’s rose pendant. “You have seemed to get through Spyro pretty quick, don’t you think?” Sarah shrugged. “At least we can get it underway then.” Brad knew something was up but he didn’t want to question Sarah for Sarah wasn’t in a nice mood, or so it appeared to be that way. “Do you care to join me for a meal downstairs?”

“I have stuff to do, and so does Joanna,” answered Sarah, as they waited for Brad to leave. All he did was give an unconvincing look and walk back into the room that he had exited to answer to Sarah’s yell. She turned back to Joanna. “Again, like I told you before, you tell anyone that I am coming out with you, and if you tell anyone that you are out without total clearance from Spyro, I will have you done with treason against the throne. Do you comprehend, Joanna?” Joanna nodded eagerly understand what she was about to do with Sarah. “Good, now, to get those cloaks and the remotes. We are going through the Roo Network, Joanna, we are not going to walk like slaves but we are going to teleport to a place where people cannot see us appearing.” Sarah and Joanna started walking again but further down the hallway, as Sarah was keen not to be seen so they walked rapidly to the room that was not far away that held the things that Sarah wanted. The remote which looked like a small coin was what controlled the Dark Hills and the other things, two black cloaks.

“I still don’t understand why we are venturing out so soon Sarah, I mean, I’ve forgotten already why you want to come out so quickly, there are people here that are going to notice that you are missing,” Joanna rapidly whispered but loud enough for Sarah to hear it. “I’m sorry I don’t understand.”

“That is okay, I have asked myself that question many a time even now I am questioning, but even if it is dreadful I need to find her, I need to know what she looks like so I that bitter sweet taste of revenge will remain ever so tasty in my mouth,” replied Sarah, turning down another hallway and going straight to a room that had its door closed. She opened it and hushed Joanna inside quickly. “I want to know what she looks like dead and alive. That is why I am sending you out so soon; despite it is Spyro’s call not mine. She has to give you clearance for some odd reason that I somehow approved of.” Sarah closed the door quickly behind Joanna, as in front of them on a table was the small remote coin device and two black hooded velvet cloaks. Sarah rushed over to the cloaks, picked up the small remote and her cloak. She put the cloak over her as Joanna followed such actions with the small remote still in her closed palm and once she had fully hooded herself, she placed the remote inside one of the pockets. She searched through one of the pockets that were hidden inside the cloak and pulled out one of the guard’s Sphinxes. She looked at the small holographic device. “Idiot guards, leaving these around in stupid places.” Joanna had fully cloaked herself and hooded herself. Sarah looked to Joanna. “Are you ready to experience something awful? I am going to show you the Old World.”

“People are going to notice that you are missing,” Joanna repeated.

“I know, I do not need to be told repetitively Joanna,” Sarah replied firmly. “I have cancelled all my appointments for today and Brad seems to be busy with something else. And Spyro, well, you should know the answer to that. Thus, I will not be staying very long down there with you.” Sarah sighed as she placed the small Sphinx on the ground and she closed her eyes. Joanna hurriedly stood next to her as she also closed her eyes. Both of them felt within seconds of the process of the Sphinx doing its magic, like they were as thin as air. Both of their bodies started to evaporate.

In a matter of minutes the two cloaked figures were walking down the dark streets that were illuminated by neon billboards that advertised Spyral products and street lamps. No one suspected a thing when the two cloaked figures walked through the fog that was scattered across the pathways. No one suspected that one of those cloaked figures was indeed the most powerful and controlling person anyone could imagine.

Sarah stopped. Joanna followed her actions as she had also stopped because she had no idea where she was going.

“Are you okay?” asked Joanna. “Do you know where we are going?” Sarah turned around to see a line of people, walking down the way that the pair had just walked. There were two women and two men. Each of different statures. But what captured Sarah’s attention was the cat that the woman was holding in her hands. “Are you okay?”

“Do not repeat yourself Joanna, it becomes irritating,” barked Sarah, as she turned her attention back on the mini version of herself. Sarah knew Romeo hadn’t been around for a couple of days but how did he end up down here and in some strange woman’s arms? “Why is my cat down here?”

“I don’t know sorry,” apologised Joanna. “Orestes or Romeo?”

“Romeo, I saw Orestes a couple of minutes just before I met you in the gallery,” Sarah explained, still in confusion. “I just saw my cat in some strange woman’s arms. How did he get down here?”

“I don’t know,” answered Joanna. “Do you want me to do something about it? Do you want me to go get him?” Sarah shook her head, thinking she had a better plan to do. “I’m sorry I don’t know what to do then.”

“We are going to follow them,” Sarah concluded, automatically detaching herself from Joanna, as Joanna caught up to her. Sarah was walking at a quick pace, but not too fast that she would catch up to the line of people. Joanna wanted to say something but she was afraid to say something now because Sarah had her mind set on something and she was going to do it whether Joanna liked it or not. And plus, Joanna was starting to get scared by the various glances that people passing by on their bicycles and on the sidewalk were giving her. It freaked her out that much that it had started to send shivers down her spine. Now, they were just a couple of metres behind them and they could hear what their conversation consisted of.

“Excuse me, Mr-I-have-not-had-a-shower-until-my-friend-gave-me-one, that’s not how the events of that night went, I don’t know if you were too drunk to remember but you kept on shoving my sister around that night with Melissa,” retorted the short woman with the long hair that was loosely tied back hair and the one that had Sarah’s cat in her arms. She frowned at the man on her right with the blonde liberty spikes. “Why do I even bother with you Chaz?”

“Because I am loveable?” answered Chaz. He shrugged. “There’s no other logical explanation when you come to think about it.”

“Can we please have order for once?” requested the really tall man with the hat back to front. “I don’t wish to get another headache just because you lot cannot get along.” He turned the woman that had previously spoken. “I have to say, you are worse with Chaz then you are with Mike, Ravyn.”

“Don’t start comparing me thank you!” retorted the small woman by the name that the tall man had just given her that had rung so many alarm bells in Sarah’s head that she stopped in her tracks, Ravyn. Joanna stopped as well, wondering what was happening. Was this the woman that killed her mother? That woman?

“Is she the person I’m meant to be trying to find?” asked Joanna, after realising what her name was, as she turned to Sarah who was in shock. “Is she?” Sarah nodded. Sarah looked at her and frowned.

“I am going to go back, now, you have to stay here though, take that hood off as well, now that you mention it,” Sarah ordered, as she felt uncomfortable being here so suddenly. She didn’t know that she would react this way to seeing her mother’s killer, holding her cat, which in all irony, was her mother’s cat as well.

“You can’t go, you haven’t gotten Romeo back,” Joanna reminded Sarah, as Sarah’s eyes started to glaze up with emotions.

“I will wait for the cat when you bring her corpse back to the headquarters, I do not wish to continue this trip to this wasteland anymore,” Sarah requested. “I wonder what she would look like dead, I wonder…” Sarah trailed off in her sentence, as she told herself that if she couldn’t face Ravyn right now, despite the fact that Ravyn had no idea who Sarah was, as Sarah’s real name was not disclosed to the public, she couldn’t possibly continue this trip. “Take your cloak off and give it to me. You shouldn’t be wearing this if you want to befriend Ravyn and her army of traitors.” Joanna nodded and followed Sarah’s orders as she took her cloak off, taking her hood off first. Sarah reached into her pocket and pulled out the remote. She opened her palm out straight and looked at it. “I’m taking a walk back. I want to do some things to the Dark Hills before I forget. I need to protect the Dark Hills from the virus or the virus will completely diminish the Dark Hills’ secret.”

“How can that do that?” asked Joanna, sceptical about the power of the small remote that looked like a silver coin.

“It has its ways,” answered Sarah, as she Joanna handed her the black velvet cloak and Sarah held it in her hands. “Keep in contact with me, won’t you?” Joanna nodded. “You know what to do in case there is an emergency don’t you?” Joanna nodded again. “Good. I look forward to your report and I will tell Spyro that you were cleared by my standard that is why I have put you up to this challenge. Be a good girl now, and complete this challenge. Make her suffer like my mother did. Farewell for now Joanna and good luck.”

“Good luck to you,” farewelled Joanna. “I will not fail you.”

“That is always nice to hear,” smiled Sarah, as she started to walk the other way with her head down so that no one could see her face as she held Joanna’s cloak in one hand. Joanna didn’t go anywhere, she saw Sarah walk off into the black of the night.

Joanna sighed, as she turned back around and started to walk as the four people that they had been following had disappeared out of sight. She guessed what way that they had walked and kept on guessing until she found herself lost in a market place. She stopped and looked around, trying to see if there was someone who she could ask.

“Excuse me,” Joanna tried to say to a stranger that passed by, but the stranger ignored her, grumbled something under his hat and walked off. There was another stranger that passed by her, so she tried again. “I’m sorry but I’m lost…” No luck again. She turned around and sighed thinking that she’s been assigned in a place that she didn’t know very much about and find this person called Ravyn.

“Joanna?” asked a voice from behind, as Joanna responded to her name being said. She saw the woman that they were following before, the one with Romeo in her arms. Joanna smiled, looking utterly confused by the situation. She didn’t know what to say or do. Ravyn was so over-excited to see Joanna, and Joanna didn’t know why. “Joanna, little sis…”

“Hi…Ravyn,” Joanna answered back, as Ravyn came up, placed Sarah’s cat on the ground and hugged her sister. Joanna just stood there stiff as anything while her apparent sister hugged her. Joanna patted Ravyn on the back gently.

Ravyn frowned, as she knew there was something wrong with her because usually Joanna would be over the moon to see her other sister. She let go of Joanna and pulled back.

“What’s wrong Joanna?” asked Ravyn. “You look like you’ve just been reprogrammed or something.” Ravyn couldn’t help but to laugh at her own joke, because she was the one with memory problem not Joanna. Out of all the people to have memory problems, it wasn’t Joanna. Joanna smiled simply and shrugged, not knowing what to say. “Is everything okay?” Joanna looked past Ravyn as she saw the other people that Ravyn had been seen previously walking with her, as Joanna realised that she better hide her pendant. She fiddled around with the back of her necklace as Ravyn shook her head. Ravyn turned around to see who or what her sister was looking at. “Don’t mind them; they already know you’re from the New World.” Joanna stopped as Ravyn turned back around to face her sister, as her other friends had came and joined her.

“So you’re her sister?” asked the tall man. Joanna nodded softly as she placed both hand by her side. “Nice to meet you, Rob’s the name. You’re Joanna?” Joanna nodded again without saying a word. “You seem to be the opposite of your sister at times. She never learns to shut up.” Ravyn shot Rob a nasty look that obviously meant something that a whole heap of cussing would be involved if verbally spoken. “Just kidding.”

“Oh no, not the crazy biatch from Jeezy’s,” said another in disbelief, as Joanna stood there confused. Joanna stared at him blankly, not knowing what to do or say. “Just call me Chaz, no need to call me sir again.”

“I don’t think we’ve meet, have we?” asked the other woman who was standing next to Chaz with her arms crossed and looked like she was in a foul mood. “The name’s Fox. Nice to meet you Joanna.” Joanna didn’t say or do anything because she didn’t know what to do. She had been placed amongst these strangers that she was supposed to remember but she couldn’t. She couldn’t figure out if the pendant that she wore was supposed to help her remember who these people were or not. She smiled again as she nodded her head. “Alright then, now we’ve got sorted out who’s who, are you going to be in Project Tourniquet?”

“Fox shut it before I make you shut it!” barked Rob, knowing that Fox’s curiosity had just landed herself in trouble with Rob because she had broken the rule about mentioning the project. Fox backed away from such a question.

“Where did you go?” asked Ravyn as she looked back at her sister, as that question had lingered in the back of her head for a couple of minutes. “I mean, I was worried sick that you had abandoned me to leave me and rot in this New World. Do you not care about your own sister Joanna?”

“Went for a walk and got lost,” answered Joanna, still looking anxious and uncomfortable.

“Uh huh,” replied Ravyn, unconvinced by her sister’s response to the question that was obviously going to be posed. She crossed her arms, as Romeo started to lick his paws his he had sat down next to his new owner, waiting for her patiently to pick him up. He stopped and looked up, looking away, as someone in the distance was whistling to him. He got up and left unnoticed.

“Good boy,” whispered Sarah soft enough not to be heard by strangers that were passing by, as she crouched down on the ground as her cat had obviously had responded to his call. Sarah picked him up, as she stood in amongst the crowd of people in the marketplace. She had been overseeing her protégé’s actions without even being noticed by anyone. Anyone who stood in a market place under a black velvet hood and now with a cat in their arms was not going to be approached and asked who she was. There was only one bitter thought running through her head as she watched Ravyn continue her interrogation of her sister and her whereabouts the past couple of days. And that thought was – Ravyn must die.

 

 

****

:skull:

[Ravynlee]

One thing that really struck me as odd in this update was Sarah's disorganisation. She seemed to have a huge character flaw for having been previously built up as an all-seeing, all-knowing kind of omnipotent powerful ruler of sorts. Don't know whether it was deliberate but she seemed... scatterbrained. I thought it was a tad uncharacteristic. No matter. I would have thought also that in order for Sarah's little scheme to work she might have 'planted' some kind of story to help Joanna better integrate with the rebels. In fact if I didn't know better I would think that Spyro's mississippi virus has somehow effected Sarah, like she's part mechanical or something, because her sudden change is akin to what happened to her beloved computer program/blue lady 'person'

 

Like the tension at the end - very 'cloak and dagger' lurking in the dark there. And very good to see you didnt go crazy explaining the ins-and-outs of the technology they used when teleporting, even if for the most part you've touched on that already. Flowed MUCH better this way. Well done.

[FireHawk]

For some reason I could see a lot of the last part of chapter happening in New York City in like an alleyway. I liked your descriptions Joanna and Sarah walking I feel that really set the mood when you said the glow from the neon billboards.

[woodyloveslinkin]

Okay two things. This took up 13 pages in MS Word, so I'm gonna split it into two posts, and sorry mods if this is a bit too gory for LPF. Man, this chapter reminds me of Kill Bill now that I think of it.

 

Chapter 21 - Until Death Do Us Part

 

 

****

 

The jails of Spyro, as Joanna had previously found out wasn’t exactly paradise and Mel was soon finding what Joanna had previously experienced was what some people would describe as, a living nightmare. Mel wasn’t sure that it was the jail itself or the thought that was lingering in the back of her head that was lingering in the back of her head that she going to be left here to rot to death in this jail cell or be killed another way. She didn’t want to think about but because there was a guard sitting on a white chair asleep with a happy look on his face while he dreamed away, she wasn’t sure that she would live to see the end of the week. He had been previously trying to get her to walk through the empty space that was in front of her. She knew about the bars and the psychological effect on people. Mel had more brain cells then to walk through something that was going to give her a nasty three thousand volt shocker which would be like frying eggs for breakfast. She wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t an egg, anyway, she smugly thought to herself at one stage of the failed attempts of the guard’s, she didn’t like eggs.

She looked down at the maroon prisoner’s suit she didn’t remember putting on, but she didn’t remember a lot of things. The last time she had actually could remember something that was precise recollection of a memory was when she was surrounded in the junkyard by a bunch of guards that had been improved so that they could resist metallic atoms and they could even interact. She knew not all guards in the Spyral headquarters weren’t just mechanically or digitally created, she knew there were humans as well. A fine example was the human one taking a nap with an old newspaper from three weeks ago from Spyral’s headquarters which was the Spyral Daily. Like Joanna, she sat against the wall hoping to find a way to escape. But unlike Joanna, who had moved around from different sides of the cell, Mel hadn’t moved much, because her backside had fallen asleep that many times she gave up trying to keep it awake.

“Oi, guard, wake up lazy ass!” Mel managed to yell, but it came out croaky. The guard jumped and woke up, as he moved his head forward and the newspaper fell off his face and onto the floor.

“What?” snapped the guard who was annoyed that the person that had to wake him up was unimportant and was a traitor to the New World. “Keep your mouth shut. Prisoners don’t talk when not being spoken to.”

“Not what it says in the world that I was brought up in, you think of why I am here; I had the guts to break a New World statute,” retorted Mel, as she knew the guard was getting angry about the fact that she wouldn’t cut her smart attitude. Mel knew he was from the New World generation and she could see the bumblebee pendant that he proudly showed off that hung nicely in front of his red and black Spyral guard uniform. Mel smiled at her own thought as she saw the gleaming bumblebee pendant hanging off its silver chain. “Isn’t it ironic that at birth you are guaranteed a stupid New World pendant, but not guaranteed freedom and the feeling that you’re protected by a constitutional law?” The guard got off his seat that he had been sleeping and walked over to Mel, trampling his old Spyral newspaper in the process. She looked at him standing on the other end of the invisible bars and smiled at him like as though she was an Ivna addict, or in Old World terms, a heroine addict. “It’s ironic, don’t you think at all? Not even for one second, isn’t it just hysterically ironic that you have to laugh about a thought?”

“You Old Worlders, you are all the same,” smirked the guard. “You don’t appreciate this perfect world that Jonathon created for us; you don’t appreciate anything that Sarah does for you. You know, if it wasn’t for the failure of Project Narcissi Extraction, you wouldn’t even remember what the smell of reality would smell like. You should be grateful, bitch.”

“No you’ve got me all wrong, the only ungrateful person is that girl who rules over us, that goddess who acts as though she’s Hera and Athena in one, that Sarah, and she’s the only ungrateful bitch around here,” Mel retorted, still smiling like an Old World heroine addict and a New World Ivna addict in one. “You may as well just shove the Magna Carta up my ass while you’re at it because it’s already been shoved up this world’s ass.” The guard looked lost a little bit, but he tried to hide it but Mel could detect confusion. Mel knew that bringing up an Old World document that was stolen in the Third World War (and the usual suspects were of course the Japanese, as their pro-Old World society concluded such a theory) do this to a person from the New World generation that produced idiots and sheep that followed the shepherd off the cliff. She stopped smiling. She never smiled when she was fed up with someone’s stupidness.

“The what-a-cart?” asked the guard, showing his confusion eventually.

“The Magna Carta, for my sake I’m just going to call it The Great Charter, so I don’t get stupid questions to give you stupid answers to from now on,” Mel rolled her eyes at the guard. “You New Worlders are as dumb as Chaz when he’s hitting the bottle.” The guard shook his head, ridding his head of the confusion Mel had placed within the walls of.

“You better readjust that attitude soon or you’re going to have your ass whooped, no one speaks to Sarah that way,” the guard told Mel, as Mel shrugged it off. “You better be polite. Ladies shouldn’t speak like that, even not to someone who could easily come in there and hurt you very badly.”

“You know what? I am so scared right now I’m just shitting myself,” Mel replied back sarcastically, putting her resentment for the New World out on clear display for the guard. “I really am scared.”

“She doesn’t speak like that and if she does, she has every right when it comes to pain in the asses with mouths that were programmed to keep shut,” the guard was obviously on the end of his tether with Mel and Mel could see this easily by his fed up look on his New World face. Mel decided to push it even further, to make him come into her prison cell and try to hurt her. Mel shook her head, and laughed at her own thought, which consisted of him taking her own. Maybe it was because Mel always won against the boys back in her teenage days that tried to attack her both on and off the playgrounds of the various schools that she was subjected to attend. “You should pity yourself for the tongue you let loose. In fact, in another decade your species will be gone. You Old Wolders, think you’re so special don’t you? Always strutting around the streets of Los Angeles acting like you own the place, don’t you?”

“They call us Old Worlders for a reason, we were here before you, I don’t envy you guys, I despise you with passion,” Melissa retorted bluntly and honestly. “We were around long before you were born boy. And trust me; I’m not that old as well. There is not a single person who is older than me and is from the New World, so don’t say you’re older than me, little boy.”

“You’re just asking to have the daylights beaten out of you, aren’t you?” asked the guard, smirking. “You think you can take me and my technology on, don’t you?” Mel didn’t say anything but all she did was get to her feet and faced the guard, careful not to get too close to the invisible bars. “Look at you, you’re a weak Old World woman that thinks that can take on a New World man…that’s the ironic thing I’m laughing at, you should be as well.” Mel frowned and looked to the floor, crossing her arms. “You don’t even attempt to get electrocuted just because I tell the truth about your species.” Mel looked up at him.

“So, because I’m the opposite sex and from the opposite and the best generation of people, does that make me automatically weaker?” asked Mel, still frowning a bit about the anti-feminine comment that the guard had previously said. “We, the Old World women, at least have the balls to take on retards like you.”

“So is that an offer? You want to fight me?” asked the guard, as he laughed at Mel’s responding nod. “Fine. Bring it on bitch, there’s no way you’re going to beat me.” The smiled as he pressed a remote on the wall near him. He entered a clearance code and the bars disappeared. He looked back to Mel, and nodded. “No bars bitch. Bring it on; let’s see this Old World power you speak of.” Mel wasn’t sure if he had really gotten rid of the bars and bent down to grab a small snowy-white pebble off the ground. She stood back up right and threw the small pebble through the bars. The pebble flew with precise accuracy through the air and it didn’t get fried like eggs. “Typical Old Worlders, curiosity isn’t just enough, is it?”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Mel replied smoothly, as the guard started to walk towards her with his fists in a ball. Mel stood her ground, waiting for the guard to make the first move. The guard made the first move alright, he swung at her head with his left hand, but missed as Mel ducked his attempted blow as she stood back up again quickly, grabbed him by the shoulders with both hands and knee-butted him in the stomach. He grabbed her hair that had been tied back and made her swing around so that he placed his arm under her throat, attempting to choke her to death. He let go of her hair, as Mel held his arms in both hands, trying to pull him off her. So in that case, Mel resorted to the childish way of fighting; she dug her nails into his arm, and dragged her dug nails into skin, so that she lifted up a layer of thin skin. It like a carpet burn intensified ten times over, as he withdrew his arm, and replaced it with a knife. He laughed as Mel froze, knowing she had never been in any brawls with knives or any other weapons involved.

“You think I wouldn’t use this, right?” asked the guard, as Mel smiled as she thought of the most obvious thing to do, which, knowing the guard, he would believe anything. She turned her head towards the door and faked a smile.

“Oh hi your Highness, Sarah, is it? Can I call you that?” asked Mel, as the guard did what Mel was expecting to do. The guard dropped his knife so it fell to the floor and looked to the door. Mel detached herself from pretending that someone was at the door and turned around. She gave a punch to the face and another to the upper jaw. He stumbled back in pain, so that he was clenching his face in agony. Mel swept the knife with her feet aside, so it was out of reach for the guard and her, as she wasn’t on planning on killing this guard. The guard looked up and ran at her, grabbed her prison uniform’s collar, swung her around and pinned her against the back wall.

“Now you listen here little bitch, you’ve done something wrong you are going to die for it, basic principles of society, learn to like it once you’re dead and begging to be taken back into this great society,” the guard told, as dark red blood poured out of the corners of his pale pink lips.

“Too bad, I’m going to die either way,” retorted Mel, as she smiled and head butted him, sending him backwards, so that meant Mel was now free of his grip. Mel walked up to him and looked at the guard who was in pain. “Did that hurt?” The guard looked up at Mel, grabbed her by both her shoulders, and kicked her in the stomach, sending Mel back against the wall in pain, as she clenched her stomach.

“Yes it did,” retorted the guard as he walked over to his desk that had various time-wasting ornaments and instruments on it, and picked up the chair. He threw it against the wall so it split into fragments. The pieces of the chair flew across the room and landed in various places. He walked over to the metal pieces that were once the leg of the chair picked it off the ground and started to walk over to Mel with it.

She looked up from clenching her stomach in agony as she realised what he had just done. It was a makeshift crowbar he had in his hands. But she was slow to react to the image of him carrying the makeshift crowbar as he swung the crowbar and got her fair smack in the stomach. She fell to the floor, still in pure pain, as he dropped the makeshift crowbar and resorted to other painful methods of fighting people. He dragged her across the room by her ponytail and threw her onto the floor, conveniently right next to the knife that had been swept aside by her own feet just moments ago. She coughed and splattered as she tried to get back up again, but she was pinned down by his heavy Spyral boots. She coughed up blood, making it spill into a puddle next to her, as she tried hard not to choke on it or to swallow the blood.

Once she had finished coughing up the blood that could resemble almost a red wine colour, she laid down as blood dripped down her mouth like as she was a vampire that had just had its daily intake of blood. The guard removed his foot, and ripped open the back of her prisoner’s uniform, by grabbing the gap between the collar and her neck. He ripped it off to reveal her back. He pulled out a metal ruler that he had been playing with from out of his pants and started to slap her with it violently, while she cried as heavy rouge red marks were being made and eventually blood started appearing. She tried to get up but she was only pinned down, and then she saw the knife. She smiled a little bit, as she thought to herself that she had no choice, he was going to kill her before her actual punishment date. She started to reach for the knife, while he was too busy smiling at inflicting pain on the Old Worlder that chose to defy New World order. Her fingers crept along the floor, as she had her arm stretched out as she cringed again, trying to ignore that pain, and trying to put happy thoughts into her head.

She was going to get out of this alive, she wasn’t going to die. She closed her eyes and felt the sharp blade of the knife dig into her closed palm, as she felt a trickle of blood pour out of her hand. She retrieved her hand quickly not wanting to the guard to know that she had a defence weapon. He stopped as he wiped the sweat off his forehead and unknowingly removed his foot from pinning Mel down. Now was the time. Mel rolled over, as the guard noticed and tried to pin Mel down by treading on her throat. Mel didn’t know what happened. Her hand moved towards the foot that was about to start choking her to eventual death, as she felt blood from her mouth trickle down the side of her face. The end of the already bloody blade of the knife touched the boot and eventually made it through the boot and into his foot. But before he had time to react to the stabbing, Mel retrieved the knife from inside his foot.

He pulled away quickly, hopping furiously on leg, as Mel got up to stand upright. She could picture herself to be a star in an action movie that she had seen back in her Old World days, but she decided not to because this fight had to end and she needed to go and kill someone else who was higher in the ranking of Spyral’s sons of a bitches. She walked towards him, closer, and closer; she came to him, as he started to walk backwards, just so that he was a metre or two in front of the desk that he had been sitting at when his shift had started. He stopped and smiled, knowing that he could take her on, she came closer, but he then started to run up to her. Grabbed her arms up so that they were both in the air and forcefully applied bone crushing pressure to the wrist that held the knife. He tried to sway her from side to side to throw her off balance but it didn’t work. She started resisting him trying to push her up against the back wall and started pushing him towards his desk. She was slowly getting there, as her shirt was starting to fall off as well and she just couldn’t afford to take a moment to try and fix it right now.

Almost there….

Almost there…

She accidentally dropped the knife so it fell onto the floor, so the first thing she did was to react to it quickly and trip him over so he landed the opposite side to the knife so that she could get to the knife quickly. He did indeed trip. He tripped backwards though because he had lost his balance and he smacked his head on the corner of the desk.

Mel stood there as she saw the guard fall to the ground, as though it was a slow motion replay of events. His head hit the floor and spilled out a pool of blood. She fixed her shirt up quickly as he was expecting him to start moving soon, pulling the uniform loosely over her back, knowing that it wouldn’t stay there but it would do. She didn’t look at the guard she automatically dived to the floor and picked up the knife, ready for an attack of any heinous nature. She stood back up again, as she looked to the body still lying in the expanding pool of blood. Then she realised it, the blow to the corner of the desk was what killed him.

She stood there in a moment of shock as she realised what she had just done, she had just killed her first person ever, let alone the first person she had stabbed, along with the first time that she had ever used a knife in self defence. She shook her head as she realised that she couldn’t stay here for the guard who was on the next shift was starting soon. She bent down to the corpse and ripped off his shirt and pants, as she realised she would need something to wear.

It only took her a moment or two to put his clothes on that were too big for her, but she fixed the pants problem up with his belt and rolled his sleeves up on his shirt. She had also taken everything that he had owned, money, keys, maps and all sorts of things. Mind her she didn’t leave the guy completely naked, he still had his underwear on and a white singlet underneath. She chucked her now ripped uniform over the top of the corpse and made sure she had everything. She nodded a couple of seconds later and stepped over his body. She opened the door after taking a deep breath in and a deep breath out, telling herself to stay cool.

No one was outside in the chamber hallway that she had just entered, as she closed the door behind her. She took a small step and then realised she had no idea where she was going or where that little bitch would be. She was going to do everyone back home a favour; she was going to take on Sarah herself.

[woodyloveslinkin]

She continued her walking down the brilliantly lighted room as she noticed the antique archways and furniture that the long chamber hallway had been decorated with. She gazed at the various paintings that Mel herself had been lost forever since the starting of the Third World War, according to a couple of sources that she had been speaking to about. One painting that she had remembered seeing in her lifetime on the internet and in various other places like art galleries and museums caught her eye particularly. This painting, she realised, had been an Old World favourite. It was framed nicely with diamonds embedded into the wood of the frame and underneath it read – Sunflowers, Vincent Von Gough.

Since its disappearance the Japanese were blamed for the theft of the painting and that’s one of the reasons, she remembered once as she was viewing an article of Spyral Daily, why Jonathon wanted Japan to be brought down so badly.

“Son of a bitch,” Mel whispered to herself. “What a little liar…” She looked around to see if anyone was around to hear her and even see her. She looked back to the painting as she came closer to it. She placed both hands on either side of the frame, lifted it up off its hook, and placed it in front of her on the ground. She picked it up; it wasn’t the lightest thing in the world but she knew she had to somehow get this out of here to prove how much deceit and how many lies Spyral produces. She walked down the hallway, in a hurry to get out of this place with what she had in her eyes intact. She approached another door and she opened it. It only led to another hallway but there were no paintings or any exquisite furniture or lighting, it was just ordinary and it was bare as a desert. She closed the door behind her, putting the painting down on the floor and picking it up each time she had opened and closed the door. Then she froze as she heard voices coming her way along with footsteps. She didn’t want to be caught was her first reaction and the second one was look for an escape route. She saw a door right next to her where she had frozen still with marble fills on it and it said something in Latin but she didn’t want to stand around trying to figure out what it meant in English. She placed the painting carefully on the floor, opened the door, picked up the painting, walked in, closed the door with one foot gently.

What she didn’t know was the English translation to the Latin that was carved in with marble fillings in the door. It read in English – Here lays Jonathon and Felicity let them rest in peace. Despite the English in the names, all of it was in Latin.

She turned around and looked at the expensive marble and all the jewels that had been sitting around, and the bronze statues of the cats just near her, sitting up right with their ears up right. They reminded Mel of the ancient terracotta warriors in China and how they were meant to protect…Mel didn’t know, he was just someone who was a major historical Chinese figure to her. Underneath it read on a brass panel with engravings of – The Protectors. She placed the painting against a nearby wall, making sure it wasn’t going to slide sideways.

She turned her attention back to the bronze cats and the engravings on them. The because she hadn’t seen anything that implied it was a room where Sarah mourned and where Sarah had asked the tombs of marble questions about what she should she do because Spyro was being a bitch to her. Mel looked around at the various bowls and goblets that had been encrusted with jewels of emerald, amethyst, moonstones, rubies, and diamonds. She thought they must be playing with gold here, not thinking for a moment that these were gifts for the dead to help them in their journey to achieve a safe return back to life.

She picked up a goblet as she ran her finger around it, she felt that bumps and she felt the various patterns tickle her skin on her fingertips. She couldn’t help but to be a bit curious about these things, despite the fact that she felt like Spyral was using emeralds and other expensive gems for toilet paper. She placed the goblet down back on its marble shelf, and as soon as she had placed it back down, she heard breathing, not hers, but someone else’s.

“How dare you corrupt these sacred tombs!” yelled a male voice from behind her, as she spun around with her fists in a ball preparing to fight. His eyes flared up as he realised who she was. “It’s you! You traitor!” He looked like he had just been offended by something Mel failed to do or what she did do.

“Hi I’m Melissa, I’m about to kick your ass,” Mel introduced sarcastically, smiling. She knew she was going to get done for the painting and everything else under the sun, so she didn’t even bother trying to explain herself.

“In that case then,” replied the man, rolling up his blue shirt’s sleeves. He looked at Mel with a nasty look on his face and like Mel, had both his fists curled up right to fight. “Hi, I’m Brad, I’m about to teach you the definition of not breaking the law with some ass kicking ways of convincing you.” Brad didn’t have any weapons near him this time unlike the previous fight with the guard.

Both of them ran at each other, meeting each other half way across the room. Mel was the first person to receive the first blow, as Brad had gotten her in the stomach. He grabbed Mel by the pressure point just around the neck and attempted breaking her neck with one hand, by twisting her neck but he failed. He threw that idea off his shoulders, and threw to her to the ground. He sat on top of her, as Mel had covered her face with her arms. Brad wasn’t going for face, but instead of the face he started pounding into her stomach. Mel cringed at several things, one of them being the pain and the thoughts, why hadn’t she bought the knife with her and why hadn’t she brought the crowbar as well? She knew she could win this fight though, with or without either tools.

She removed her arms from her face, and pulled Brad’s goatee. He cringed in pain as Mel was starting to pull the brown hairs out from the roots, and already there were several broken hairs in her hand. She kneed him in the part where it hurts for most human men, as he cringed again and got off her, only able to stand up just.

“You fight good,” commented Mel, getting to her feet and walking towards Brad who hadn’t moved very much because he was trying to see if he could quickly recover from the pain that was drilling at him like there was no tomorrow. “But not good enough.”

Brad stood up straight and walked toward Mel, as they drew closer and closer. Brad was the first person to get to the other one, as Mel’s mouth was flowing out blood like water in a strong current. He threw her to the wall and pinned her against the wall. He looked into her deep eyes and smiled.

“It’s such a shame, the beautiful ones are always the traitors,” Brad commented, as he head butted Mel, and blood started to seep out from her cracks in her skin.

She didn’t go limp or fall down and cry in pain, but she was crying by this stage, but she stood tall as Brad repetitively punched her in the stomach. She couldn’t do anything because her arms were pinned behind her back and against the wall and she couldn’t move them. She raised her leg and pushed him back with a kick. He maintained his balance as Mel came running back at him. He was too slow to react, as Mel smacked him fair smack in the bridge of his nose. They heard a crack and then Mel heard a thump.

Brad fell down onto his knees, as Mel quickly moved back out of her way to see what was happening. His expression was blank and he fell face first into the ground.

What Mel didn’t know what she had just done was that she had hit him that hard that it the broken bridge of his nose had sent cracks up into his skull and split his skull open. Instant noodles in other words. But another thing that Mel didn’t know what she had just done she had just attracted another person to the bloody scene.

“Brad?” asked the girl with the dark purple corset fitting and French hairstyle who had just walked in to see the end of her friend. The girl looked around to see the limp body that had now started gushing out pools of blood around him. “Oh my! Brad!” Her yelling couldn’t bring him back, as she rushing over to him, not seeing Mel in the near distance. She rolled Brad over to see a blank face and a face that was smothered in his own blood. “Brad, can you hear me? Do you know who I am? It’s Sarah, you know, Sarah, you’re friend, you’re loyal friend, greatest ruler of all.” She stopped for a second. “Who did this to you?” Sarah had started to cry as soon as she realised that he couldn’t be saved.

“Oh you fucking bitch,” said Mel, as soon as she processed the name Sarah through her head. She looked up from the corpse and stood up as soon as she the girl with the blood dripping down her face. “You’re a fucking bitch and I hate you! I’ve had to live through hell and back because of you! You’re fucking bitch and you’re going to die you whore!”

Sarah smiled as she realised she was going to be attacked by this crazy lunatic and that this was the person that must’ve killed her beloved friend. She stood her ground as she drew out a knife from the top of her corset top, as knives could easily fit down there. It was only a small knife but it was mighty. It had Spyral’s symbol on the end of it and Mel distinctively knew this girl was a New Worlder, her being probably the only Sarah that she could think of right now and that she was proudly showing off her Celtic cross that many said that the ruler of the lands had. Mel wasn’t afraid that Sarah had a knife in her hands. Mel was dead set on killing this brat, as she had put it many a time to Rob and the gang.

Mel approached her and tried to punch her with her fists but Sarah dodged it by blocking it with both arms. Sarah raised her foot that had her heavy dark blue boots that nothing could pierce through, and pushed Mel back forcefully against the opposite wall.

“That is not nice to call someone a whore, Melissa,” Sarah said as she walked towards Mel who was getting back up to defend herself while at the same time attack and kill Sarah. “Oh yes, I do know you. So do not act surprised.” Mel came at Sarah again, but Sarah dodged her kick by moving out of the way and stepping backwards so that Mel only kicked thin air. Mel knew she was getting sloppy in her attacks because of her energy levels had been drastically reduced since being attacked twice. But while Mel was kicking thin air, Sarah stabbed Mel’s foot with her knife, spun it around quickly while still in her foot and retrieved it, pulling it back out of her foot. Blood splattered the floor and her knife. “Try again.”

“I may a bit out of…focus, but I am going to come out of this fight alive,” replied Mel, stepping backwards away from Sarah, as Sarah stood her ground. “This is going to be the end of Spyral, there will be no such thing by the time I’m done with you.” She fiddled around with the keys that she had taken from the guard. She slid one off its key ring and stood fiercely with it. It was small but she knew keys were mighty as defence weapons. She stepped forward again cringing in pain, and again, attempted to gauge Sarah’s eyes out, but Sarah was too quick for her once again.

She grabbed hold of the key, dropping her knife to the floor, and started to struggle with her opponent, trying to force it back towards Mel’s way, with both hands on it. The key wasn’t just an ordinary key, it was a long rusty key and whatever skin it pierced into, it would end up with blood poisoning most likely. Both of the sides were strong, but one side was failing to keep her energy levels up, and Mel knew she was that side. It was a grid lock while both sides protected their way of living, one was fighting for the Old World generation and every Old World ethic that she had been brought up with, while the other one was fighting to protect every New World order and ethic from shattering into a million pieces, and of course, to revenge her associates death.

Finally one side almost gave up, and Mel shifted the weight of the struggle to the side. Sarah’s palm was getting sweaty and she was losing grip. Sarah lost her grip, just as Mel tossed the key onto the floor. Sarah’s initial reaction was to pick up the knife, but then she remembered the Wakizashi that was placed by her father’s side as it was said that it was the sword that had killed him. It was only to be used in New World tradition to avenge a beloved one’s death.

Despite the Japanese origins of the sword, it was still tradition and it was to be fallen under the category of a banned item, every single sword except this one. Sarah turned away and ran to the other side of the room to get it, as she knew her little Spyral knife wasn’t going to inflict death. Mel ran after her, leaving behind bloody footprints, as both of them passed memorials for her parents and flowers that had been watered daily.

Sarah stopped as she past the two black marble tombs at the very end of the room, she picked up the sword detaching itself from the white clothed table in which it was barely placed on. She opened it from its jade scabbard, revealing a silver short sword, Mel stopped in her tracks for a second.

“You oppose the Japanese and yet you use their weapons?” asked Mel. “I know Spyral was full of shit but I didn’t know that you were all full of shit.”

“We take their weapons for a reason, if you give me a couple of minutes I can go get another one so I can kill you quicker,” answered Sarah, sarcastically, as she stepped down from the memorial that she had stepped up to retrieve the weapon. Mel laughed at the hypocrisy as she continued to spread blood around the memorial site. Sarah continued to walk with Japanese sword in one hand, looking dangerous and angry as hell. “Prepare to die.”

“Prepare to kiss my ass in hell,” retorted Mel, as she showed Sarah what she had picked up before she started running after her. Mel was going to attack Sarah with her own knife.

“If you are so smart, did you know that these were used in ritual killing against foreigners, much like your kind in the Old World?” asked Sarah, smiling, as Mel stood her ground and Sarah came closer. “Do not mistake me for not only knowing New World information. I know much more than you will ever know about your own world.”

“I am going to enjoy you kissing my Old World ass,” commented Mel, as Sarah drew nearer and nearer.

Sarah took a swipe at Mel with her Japanese sword, but Mel dodged it by stepping backwards. Sarah by this stage was furious that Mel hadn’t bled to death or ended up dead another way. Again, another swipe but this time, Sarah had got part of her target, as Sarah dug the sword into Mel’s left arm that was holding the knife. Mel cringed with pain, as she grabbed the blade of the sword and pulled it out, after Sarah let go of the sword, as she had deeply dug it further. Mel dropped the sword to the ground and stumbled backwards, holding the fresh wound with the spare hand that had pulled the blade out. Sarah picked the sword up again, as blood rushed out of her arm.

“You are weak!” Sarah laughed and mocked Mel in one. “And disorganised! I have not been wounded! You do not know how to fight! That is hilarious! You come in here to take Spyral on and you have not had the proper training, both physically and mentally. That is actually quite funny!” Mel looked back up through teary eyes as her hand was now stained with more of her own blood. Mel held the knife in her hand firmly, raised it within a blink of an eye, and threw it at Sarah. Mel knew she hadn’t aimed for her heart or even aimed at all, but it still got Sarah.

Sarah held the knife in her hand that had been thrown into her bare shoulder. Sarah cringed with pain, as blood poured out of the deep wound. She held the knife with her spare hand and pulled it out, still cringing with pain.

“Damn I missed your heart,” commented Mel. “Oh wait, you don’t have a heart. Sorry, my mistake, and just when I was thinking you are the tin man from Wizard from Oz, who ended up having a heart.” Sarah looked at Mel with the same expression that she had always been giving Mel as she clutched her wound. “You have no heart to do this to your people. You sadistic son of a bitch!” Sarah gripped the knife tightly and threw it back at Mel, but she missed, it narrowly scrapped past Mel’s right ear and it stuck into the wall right next to the exit of the room. “And why are you so perfect? You just missed me! Perfectionists do not miss bitch!” Mel tried to put on a brave face but both parties knew she was getting weak. Sarah started to walk towards her with her bloodied blade as she removed her hand from her new wound that Mel had just made. “You walk proud but you’re going to lose Sarah! Bye bye beautiful! I’m coming out of this one alive!”

“I am not the one that is losing blood so quickly, remember this fact Melissa,” replied Sarah smoothly, as she took another swipe at Mel again, aiming for her stomach, but Melissa bent her stomach back narrowly missing the blade’s impact and the tip of the sword only just missed touching her stomach. Sarah withdrew her sword to her side and smiled.

“You think you’re so proud and strong,” Mel retorted. “I’ve got news for you bitch, you’re not! You hide behind these walls all day and toy with us as though we are puppets!”

“You speak as though you are going to win, you speak as though you are a leader, you are not Melissa!” yelled Sarah, strongly. “You are small and insignificant! We are all players in this game of life and I am winning above everybody else!” Mel dropped to her knees suddenly as she felt like she was going to collapse. Mel tried to stand up properly but she couldn’t, she could only limp like because her foot was still bleeding. Mel felt dizzy and she couldn’t focus properly. Sarah smiled, as both of them knew Mel was starting to lose too much blood from the wounds that she received from all of the battles that she attempted to win but only had succeeded at two so far. For the second that Mel closed her eyes, trying to gain control of her balance and her coordination, Sarah slipped behind Mel grabbed Mel by the throat and held the Wakazashi’s blade under her throat. Mel opened her eyes and looked down at the knife. “Any last requests before you bloody my corset with your filthy blood?”

“Fuck you, you stole my favourite painting,” answered Mel, remembering that the painting was still leaning against the wall near the door that she had previously entered through. She couldn’t fight back, she was weak right now, and she needed much rest. She attempted to get up and fight Sarah again, but Sarah pinned her down by putting pressure on her shoulders forcing her back down to kneel in front of Sarah.

“Fuck you, you dirty my parent’s tombs, this is now war against your generation,” retorted Sarah, as she slit Mel’s throat with the traditional blade in her hands. The blood spurted out from Mel’s throat onto the floor below her and Sarah even caught some on her other hand that held her throat in place. She fell to the floor with the blood still spurting out of her throat and she fell to the floor, as her dead eyes stared at the doorway at ground level. Those dead eyes stared at the crying and mourning Sarah walk through the door, slamming it behind her, and into the hallway that Mel had heard those footsteps and had to hide in here.

Project Tourniquet just had its first funeral on its hands.

 

 

****

[Ravynlee]

AWESOME!!

I loved it! I loved the gore (heaven help me), loved the description, and I ADORED the sarcasm.

I'm sorry but Mel made this update for me. 'I'm Mel, and I'll be the one kicking your ass' was a brilliant line! Loved her parting words about Spyral stealing her favourite painting, and the hypocrisy she drew attention too with Spyral's hate for all things Japanese. Poor Mel. I was so wanting her to win. I sort of guessed she was doomed but she did put up one hell of a fight. I laughed at Brad tacking a run at her all Kill Bill style - almost heard the theme music in my head at that point too, sort of had that feel.

Sounds mean but I sort of wanted Sarah to suffer. She didn't suffer enough. But at least we know if nothing else Project Tourniquet will be inspired now like never before, shame it had to come at such a hefty cost.

She's fuelled the fire now on both sides with her death - hope Mel's death will not have been in vain. Have to wait and see. Thanks for that, quite an extraordinary update really. Very well done! :thumbsup:

[woodyloveslinkin]

Again, my apologies for the longness of this chapter, so two posts.

 

Chapter 22 - War of the Worlds

 

****

Rob and Chaz sat at the coffee table with various microchips, with Chaz’s old laptop beside them. Again, another thing that Chaz had possession of and that was considered illegal and therefore was placed on the banned item lists. Laptops and computers were to be useless nowadays and they were from the Old World, a world that failed in the eyes of Spyral because of such technology like laptops. The last thing that Spyral wanted was to possess or have its citizens possess pieces of technology that was bound to cause the collapse of the whole world.

Chaz was typing away with gadgets sticking out of the laptop, blinking different colour lights from a green one to a fluorescent pink light. Rob was trying to find something in the micro chips that would help to spread the virus that Chaz had completed halfway. Give him another fifteen minutes with the thing that Rob was looking for and the virus would be complete.

Rob frowned through his glasses as a looked at the micro chip that he had in his palm, as he picked up a screwdriver that was on his left. He started to unscrew the micro chip’s main processor unit.

“Where’s your army of nerds today?” asked Rob, breaking the silence in between the two friends, as he stopped unscrewing the main processer unit of the micro chip, putting the screwdriver back where he had picked it up from. He dug his fingernail under it and lifted it up. He flipped over the microchip so that the now removed main processer unit was now bare and on the table.

“Doing what they do best, being nerds,” answered Chaz, looking up from his laptop quickly as Rob held the detached processing unit in his hands so that Chaz could hear it. “Oh. Let’s see if this works.” Chaz picked up the chip from his friend’s hands and inserted it into the side of the laptop. “Let us see what this baby can do.” It made a couple of noises for a couple of seconds. A notice popped up on the screen, as Rob wanted to see whatever results Chaz had received. He tried leaning over the coffee table to see what had appeared on Chaz’s screen, but Chaz just closed the screen of the laptop. “Ah, wait your turn Mr Impatient.” Rob raised his hands innocently, as he went back to leaning against the couch on his side of the coffee table. He lowered them and placed them on his lap. Chaz lifted the screen of the laptop back up again, as he smiled as he saw the notice on his screen. “Thank you! Someone in heaven or something like that. The virus is almost complete.” Chaz lent back against nothing and fell backwards.

“Idiot,” Rob smiled, as Chaz had ever opportunity to get back up but he remained laying down on the carpet. The front door was pushed open so much that it nearly came off its hinges as he didn’t see Chaz get up from lying on the floor and reattached himself to the screen in front of him. “Dammit, you guys.” As he saw Fox, a hooded figure which was either Mike or Viking, make that two hooded figures that had be one of them, as the first hooded figure was wearing blue and the second one was wearing red. All of them were carrying various boxes of things, as they placed it on the table a couple of metres away from where Rob was leaning against the couch. “Can you not hurt the door like that? It does have feelings and I sure have them when I have to fix the hinges on that thing.” No one apologised. Each of them placed each of their cardboard boxes on the table, as both hooded figures revealed themselves to be Viking was the one hiding underneath the red hood and Mike was the one that was hiding underneath the blue hood.

“Hey,” greeted Mike and Viking, almost simultaneously, like as though it was a criminal choir.

“What do you have there?” asked Rob, looking to the boxes that Fox had started to unpack, various Old World ornaments, maps and lists of people.

“Stuff,” answered Viking, blankly. “Is Bella or Ravyn here, or what about the other one, that New Worlder, Joanna?” Rob shook his head. “Damn, in that case then. They must be at the markets.”

“What do you want off them?” asked Chaz, as he detached himself from the laptop’s computer screen and onto Viking’s hooded appearance. “Anything that either one woman can give you, I can give you.” Chaz smiled at his sexual comment, as he went back to fixing his eyes back on the computer screen.

“Keep those thoughts to yourself, I beg you,” Viking replied, looking mentally wounded as well did everyone else who just happened to be in the room. Viking turned around and started to help Fox unload the objects out of the various boxes.

Mike ignored both Fox and Viking unpacking the Old World items on the table, as he went and sat next to his dear old friend. Rob looked at Mike as though Mike was expecting something of him or that Mike knew something Rob didn’t. Mike leant against the couch as well. He looked to the floor and whistled.

“What?” asked Rob, a bit confused by Mike’s actions. “What did I do?”

“Oh I heard about a little kiss someone from the project gave him the other day,” answered Mike, as Chaz looked up for a second from his laptop and rolled his eyes as he looked back to the screen in front of him. Fox actually stopped and listen but Viking just told her to ignore Mike as he just wanted attention. Fox shrugged as she went back to unpacking the Old World objects. “Tell me about it this blossoming love you’ve got happening, boy.”

“As if!” laughed Rob. “So you think that a friendly peck on the cheek means something?” Mike shrugged as Mike looked at his friend, detaching himself from looking at the floor. “We’re just friends.” Mike shot him an unconvinced look. “Look, Ravyn said it plain and clear it meant nothing than just a thank you.”

“Oh people do bend stuff around, don’t they?” asked Mike, hypothetically, as his expression changed on his face from an unconvinced look to a surprise look. “I got told it was Bella, who gave you the kiss. Oh, so does that mean you and her are on together?”

“Mike stop it, he’s said it once that Ravyn and him are only just friends, just your gob, and accept that,” Chaz lectured Mike, as Mike was quite surprised that Chaz was giving him a lecture lot alone being sober enough to retain such information. “And while you’re at it, grow up a bit. I’m trying to get something done.”

“Someone has learnt to grow up,” Viking commented, as he turned around and applauded at Chaz’s maturity. Fox shot him a glare that told him to stop him to stop it, but Viking ignored her. Viking stopped applauding and smiled at Chaz. “When was the last time you hit the bottle?” Chaz looked up from the laptop and smiled sarcastically, fixing his eyes on Viking.

“When was the last time your momma –”

“Rob!” a voice came from downstairs interrupted Chaz’s insult which in all truth Chaz found annoying and rude, because it was such a good comeback. Rob frowned and he stood up as Chaz also stood up to see what the matter was. Rob and Chaz met at the window as both of them stuck their heads out the window and looked down. “Rob!” Joanna couldn’t help but to freak out and both of the upstairs Old Worlders knew why she was freaking out. There were Spyral guards swarming the streets of Los Angeles like ants in a colony. “There’s a new order out and it’s chaos!” There was a woman that came up to Joanna suddenly and started to beg for help. Joanna looked to the woman. “I’m sorry I can’t help you. But please, just let go of me.” The woman wouldn’t let go of her. “Let go of me!”

“Let go of her!” barked Rob. “It’s the last thing you want to be said in your eulogy that you were harassing a stranger!” The woman looked up at Rob and scampered back off.

“What kind of order?” asked Fox, who had also run up to the window next the one that Rob and Chaz were looking out of order. Rob looked to Fox for a second, as well did Chaz, but both of them looked back to Joanna.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s a war or a New World order, but they’re taking Old Worlders off the streets and they’ve got my sister and Bella!” Joanna yelled back, as she was looking worried as ever. “You have to get them back!”

“Where are they now?” asked Rob, taking his glasses off so they wouldn’t fall down onto the ground below and putting them on the window sill, careful not to knock them over.

“They are at the marketplace still, but a whole heap of guards won’t let them leave the area, there’s talk of like a concentration camp or something for the Old Worlders, I don’t know! I don’t know what’s happening!” Joanna replied back almost in tears because she was that confused. In all truth, she knew that the pendant was working its magic and it had brought back memories she didn’t she had, like the one where it said Ravyn was her sister, that memories shocked her a bit. “You have to do something about it, Rob!”

“We’ll be down in a second, hold on!” replied Rob, as he spun around and both Fox and Chaz pulled their heads out of the windows. Rob summoned everyone in the room with his hands gestures. Everyone followed his order and met in the middle of the room. Rob stood next to Mike. “Okay, this is my plan, get makeshift weapons and we’re going to start telling these guards who’s boss. But beware I have no idea that these are either human guards or those stupid robotic ones. Chaz.” Rob looked to Chaz. “If by any chance we all get captured, one of us needs to get that virus. Stay back until it is complete and then give it to me. And then I’ll pass it onto anyone who gets captured.” Rob looked back to his fellow friends. “I don’t know how we are going to plant the virus, but we are going to do it.”

“I know how to plant the virus,” Chaz volunteered to share his information, as everyone’s eyes were on him now. “Get into the mainframe system and insert it into a hub drive. It’s like a USB almost, its effect is automatic, but there are no USBs no more that have up to a hundred gigabytes worth of space on it like this one does. Last time I checked it had completed at eighty-nine percent. Give it another five and I’ll be done.”

“Okay, you hear him everyone?” asked Rob, as he looked back to everyone else. Everyone nodded in agreement. “You know the drill? Get a weapon and attack!” Everyone nodded their head and disappeared out of sight within a couple of seconds of Rob finishing his sentence. Rob followed the last person to leave his sight which was Mike and followed him into his room, as Chaz went back to his laptop and stared at it anxiously, waiting for the transferring of the files to be complete.

Mike walked back out from the room, remembering what he had packed from the shelter that they had just arrived back from. While Fox found just a plain old wooden baseball bat, in one of the various boxes of junk Rob had lying around the place. Viking grinned at her and held up a metal baseball bat.

“I win,” smiled Viking holding the bat up in the air with one end. “Let’s make a game up. Most guards down wins. The winner gets as many drinks bought by the loser. Do we have an agreement young lady?”

“You’re on,” answered Fox, as Viking and her shook hands on the deal. “But I’m telling you now; I am going to kick your ass.”

While outside Mike had found a crowbar that he had found stashed away in the old tin shelter a couple of blocks away, Mike smiled, as he thought he would be the only one with a crow bar. Rob came out of the room that Mike had left him in, with the brother crowbar of the one that Mike had in his hands. Mike saw Rob standing in the archway with the crowbar and his jaw dropped.

“Dammit, I thought I was going to be the only one with a crowbar,” Mike complained, as Fox and Viking came out with one wooden bat and one metal bar. Mike saw them and pointed at Fox’s weapon. “Just a warning, that isn’t going last against the guards if they are the retarded robot kind.”

“It’s better than being defenceless, I suppose,” Fox replied, with a slight smile on her face as she shrugged. “I mean by that, by saying they aren’t going to not attack me because I lack a weapon. By the sounds of it, they’re going to attack me because I am from the Old World and I don’t have a New World pendant. It sounds more like the case than anything, really.” Rob wasn’t paying attention to what Fox was saying but he merely focused his attention back on Chaz who was still glued to the notice on his laptop that was counting down to the minutes that the virus that would eventually bring Spyral to a standstill long enough to fight their way into their gates. Rob was now convinced that the tables had turned and there was going to be another plan, one that he hadn’t thought of until now. There was no plan anymore, just get into Spyral and take that brat down, he told himself, as he gripped his weapon firmly.

“Get that virus to me as soon as possible and that’s a direct order Chaz,” ordered Rob as Viking and Mike were both going to put there hoods on, but decided not to because there was no point. They were either going to be killed or something done to them just because they didn’t have a New World pendant. “Okay, we’re off to the market place.”

“See you in ten,” Chaz farewelled, as everyone walked behind Rob who was now feeling like a strong historical leader ready for battle. They walked out the door, as Fox was the last person to leave the apartment, slamming the door behind her. Rob barked at her for slamming the door. “I hope.”

It was only a matter of time that Rob and his army of the Old World generation reached Joanna who was almost at the point of tears by that stage. She stood there with her black hair tied back in a tight plait with loose bits hanging out the sides. She had rolled her pink shirt’s sleeves up so that she could ran back and tell the rest of the crew about what had just happened.

A couple of guards that were passing by had corpses of Old Worlders hanging over their backs while red blood stained their red and black uniform. It wasn’t noticeable, aside from the dampness the clothes shown under the neon billboards. One of them stopped a couple of metres down the road, and put the corpse of the Old Worlder on the ground. He had just spotted a Japanese traitor, Mike. The guard ran back to Mike.

“Surrender yourself you Japanese traitor, immediately!” yelled the guard, as various guards walked past and repeated the same thing as their work colleague just did.

“Stand aside everyone,” ordered Mike, firmly gripping the crowbar posing it as a baseball bat with both hands and holding it as though he was about to hit a ball as everyone stood back as they watched Mike take on a guard. “This one’s going to be homer.”

“Better make it two homers,” added Viking, standing next to his friend with his baseball raised. “Come on New York Yankees.”

The guard came into close range as Viking and Mike worked as a team to start bashing the guard up with the two makeshift weapons that they had found a couple of minutes ago. While they were busy with that Rob and Fox watched in horror as more guards came to the other guard’s rescue. They weren’t going to let that happened to Mike so they did what friends did best, stand up for their friend and gang up on the guards. But the only problem between Fox and Rob as they ran up to the guards and starting pounding their faces in, was that there were getting outnumbered quickly. These guards were human and they were putting up a good fight.

Fox squealed as she got pulled by the hair from behind, dropping her weapon onto the floor, as they had now been encircled with Mike and Viking beside them.

“Fox!” yelled Viking and Rob together at the same precise time. They turned to the guard that was dragging Fox away by her red ponytail. Mike was too busy bashing in heads because he was the one that was getting attacked mostly.

“Help me!” cried Fox, as she tried to reach for any of the Old Worlders in the distance as she was being pulled away from the circle of guards surrounding her friends. Viking tried to bash his way through the guards, as did Rob, but it was hopeless the guards kept on piling up, and Mike, well, he was too busy being the victim of historical racism. “Rob!” They were out of sight by now, as she was dragged through a stall and started to cry tears of fear. “Mike! Someone! Please, just someone help me!”

“This day started out grand! Dammit!” yelled Rob, as he withdrew from fighting the guards as he had another idea. Rob held his weapon firmly in one hand and instead of trying to fight one guard at the time; he had decided to just attack the guards as a whole. He hit one guard in the stomach and the other in the back of his neck. He realised the quicker he did it, the more room there would be to get out of being circled because he realised that guards had stop coming to this spot. Mike and Viking were quick to pick up Rob’s new technique of fighting the opponent.

The guard continued to drag the young adult Old Worlder girl through the various stalls of the marketplace. They passed all sorts of things, like now broken glass vases, dead monkeys that had been skinned and hung up from the ceiling of the stall. She also saw through the blindness of the tears that guards were trashing all the stalls of the marketplace because a variety of Old Worlders were the ones that provided the variety. She cried some more, as she knew that resisting would result up in more pain. She found that walking backwards was proving to be nauseating and the lanterns that lit the marketplace were getting nauseating as well.

“Please, stop, whoever you are!” yelled Fox, in pain, as the guard stopped and Fox felt a bit relieved that he had let go. Fox turned around so that they faced one another. The guard wore a smile on his dirty human face revealing his broken teeth. The guard raised his left hand and slapped Fox so hard across the face that she fell to the ground. She found herself almost swallowing dirt at one stage. She tried to get up, but by this stage the guard had pulled out a long black whip. He held it his hands until she decided to lever herself up using her arms that was now covered in dirt. He hadn’t stopped grinning, as the tail of the whip went backwards and whipped her several times on the back. She fell to the dirt covered ground crying, as blood started to appear through the rips that the guard had just made through his whipping. Blood had also started to stain her light green shirt as well, because it also seeped through the shirt itself, not only just the rips. “Please, don’t…” She could hardly speak because she was in that much pain and anguish. But her cries went unnoticed and ignored as the guard raised his whip. She could hear him raising it, she couldn’t move because she was now pinned down by his heavy guard boots. There was a sudden thump and then Fox felt him fall to the ground. She rolled over to show the person that had just saved her some more pain her dirtied face that had a bloody gash on it, where the guard had sliced her skin open with that one slap.

[woodyloveslinkin]

“It’s alright,” said Bella, holding a crowbar quite similar to what Mike and Rob had in their hands when Fox last saw them, in one hand. Bella smiled as her silver hair blew in the wind that was starting to pick up. “Get up, come on, we’ve got to find the rest of the crew.” Bella offered a hand which Fox accepted and Bella helped Fox up. Bella hadn’t come out unscathed as well. She had several wounds on her bare arms, as she was wearing her normal Hawaiian flower print dress. “Where are the rest?”

“Back there somewhere, I don’t know,” answered Fox. “Where’s Ravyn?”

“Like what you just said, back there somewhere, I don’t know,” answered Bella, using Fox’s same answer as an example of what Bella did and didn’t know. “Come we’ve got to get out of here.” She noticed that when she had started to walk, Fox was having difficulty keeping up with the slowest of paces. She stopped and frowned. “What happened to you?”

“Just got hammered by a whip,” answered Fox, still crying in pain.

“Okay, well, you have to move, we have to move, there more guards on their way down here and rumour has it, the bitch from upstairs is coming down to fight as well, something real bad went down today,” Bella explained. “And trust me from what Benji’s been telling everyone, she’s pissed.” Bella looked away to see Ravyn, walking towards them hurriedly with something in her hands. She had been attacked as well; many a times but the generosity of the Old World spirit always gave her a helping hand. “You’re here!” Bella and Ravyn had been since separated a couple of seconds after Joanna had left to get help.

Now that Bella remembered that Joanna was a New Worlder, Bella started to question, where did that New Worlder get to?

“Yeah, now I am, after almost being killed a dozen times,” replied Ravyn, as she showed Fox and Bella in her hands. She held a couple of unlit fireworks in her hands. “Picked these up on the way, thought they might be of use somewhere down along this war track.” There was a sudden explosion as fire balls went into the dark sky and streaked the full moon with smoke. There were screams and everyone’s initial reaction was to duck and protect their heads. A couple of seconds passed and everything went back to being normal. The normal being that there was chaos along the streets, corpses of both Old Worlders, stupid New Worlders that decided to be heroes to their New World blood but greatly failed and of course, the human guards as well. “We have to get out of here. I need to find Joanna.”

“No you don’t!” objected Bella, as Fox’s and Ravyn’s eyes lit up as she saw someone come up behind Bella with a shiny blade. “This is Old World territory right now. The only New Worlders I’m speaking to are the ones I’m going to kill.”

“Move!” yelled Ravyn as her and Fox moved Bella out of the way just in time. The New Worlder only stabbed the air and met the wrong end of Ravyn’s foot in the middle of his face. The New Worlder man collapsed to the ground automatically.

“Thanks, you saved my life, I owe you one,” thanked Bella, smiling as the three women got to the ground and started to rummage through the New Worlder’s things. Bella managed to take some money while Ravyn and Fox found nothing worth taking. Bella put some of the money inside her dress’s pocket and gave some to Ravyn and Fox. They smiled as a thank you to Bella for sharing the stolen money, while Ravyn still held the fireworks in one hand. “We’ve got to find the rest of them before it is too late.”

They couldn’t run because Fox needed something to lean on to. So Fox hung one arm around Ravyn’s neck, as she placed her arm around Fox’s waist and Fox hung the other arm around Bella’s neck, as she placed her arm around Fox’s waist. They were always on the lookout for anyone that might attack them. They were almost attacked several times by crazy lunatics who were running after people with all sorts of weapons, clubs, crowbars, and baseball bats. Bella saw a tall man up ahead and automatically assumed it was Rob. She opened her mouth to yell out to him, as stalls had now started to be on fire. But Fox stopped her.

“It’s not Rob,” Fox cut off Bella before Bella had a chance to speak. Neither Bella nor Ravyn said anything in response to Fox’s correctness and continued to walk as fast as Fox’s body would let her. “There he is!” Fox looked forward at a man who was helping a woman to her knees, as she looked like she had been beaten up pretty badly.

“Rob!” yelled Bella at the top of her voice. Rob looked up to see who was calling his name. He smiled when he saw the trio. He looked back down at the woman, as she got to her feet, said something, smiled again, and waved goodbye to her. He ran over to the trio and looked at Fox, who was still in tears and looked crippled. “Don’t ask, she’s been beaten up badly. So has everyone else here.” Rob hadn’t come out unscathed he was pretty beaten up as well. Blood oozed out of wounds on his chest as his shirt had been ripped various times and blood seeped out of his mouth, as he had been punched in the mouth several times.

“Lucky I didn’t wear my glasses in this case,” commented Rob. Rob’s expression suddenly changed. “Where is Mike? Have you seen Mike? Has anyone seen Mike at all? What about Viking? Has anyone seen Viking at all?” Both Viking, Mike and him were all separated not so long ago and Rob was trying to find everyone so they could work together as a team, as always planned. Not one of the women nodded. “Holy shit this isn’t my day!”

“Rob!” yelled another voice, coming closer to him. Rob looked around to see who was calling his name, as he saw Chaz running with a pink coated USB stick in his hands. He held it up high so that no one could snatch it off him and he was running quick, dodging various spot fights between generations and the guards of Spyral. “I have it!”

“Good boy!” Rob found himself gleefully yelling at Chaz, after realising what he had just said, as though he Chaz was his dog. Chaz ran up to Rob and placed it neatly in Rob’s open palm. “Thank you so much!” Rob through his arms around Chaz and hugged him in a bone breaking hug. Chaz faintly smiled as Chaz was a bit underprepared for such a reaction. Rob let go of Chaz and put the virus into his pocket. He sealed the pocket firmly with closing the zip. He looked back to the ladies. “I need to find Viking and…Mike!”

“My man!” yelled Mike, who ran up to Rob and embraced him in a hug. Mike had been beaten up the worst out of the crew so far. He had sprained his wrist, had multiple concussions, and was bleeding furiously all over Rob. As with Rob, Mike and everyone else there except for Bella who had her crowbar still in her hands and Ravyn, if fireworks is considered a weapon, than she had her weapon, was defenceless with no weapon.

“We need to get you to a safer place, we really do,” advised Chaz, walking over to Mike on his other side and holding him as Mike had just collapsed over Rob and he caught his friend. “We have to get him out of here. He’s going to die!”

“No, not Mikey! Don’t die!” yelled Fox, seeing the limp but awake body barely standing as blood trickled down Mike’s face.

“I’ll try not to, little lady,” replied Mike, through heavy breaths. “I’ll not to…” Mike collapsed again, as this time he didn’t open his eyes. Fox started to cry heavier and there were some tears forming in everybody else’s eyes.

“He’s still breathing!” yelled Chaz, as he felt Mike’s pulse. “He’s alive! He’s just fainted, that’s all.” Chaz looked to a bunch of guards attacking a group of Old Worlders. Chaz frowned. “Hey! Ugly breaths! That’s my army of nerds you’re beating up! Leave them the fuck alone! I need them for purposes your tiny flea brains won’t comprehend!”

“Great the last thing we wanted was being attacked by more guards!” yelled Rob, furiously, as his energy levels were deprived and he couldn’t fight properly. The guards drew their attention on Chaz who looked as though he had just wet his pants by now. Rob laid Mike down on the ground on his back, and the two women who were holding Fox up had let go of her. Everyone was back in defence mode, one that not many of them were used to. Bella and Ravyn had to let go of Fox as Fox struggled to stand up on her own, because the two women knew that even though women were good at multitasking, it was going to be like asking the impossible trying to defend themselves and try to hold Fox up at the same time.

But what the three women didn’t know was that two guards were sneaking up behind Ravyn, Bella, and Fox, and neither of the two standing men could tell that there was a pair of guards behind their friends as well.

The guards came up to them, quickly snatched the crowbar out of Bella’s hand, while another snatched Ravyn's fireworks out of her hands, tossing both items onto the ground and muffling their screams for help by smothering their mouths with their hands. They had also been threatened with tips of knives against their backs. Rob and Chaz quickly turned around to react to the muffled cries for help, but as much as both of them wanted to help the trio of women they couldn’t. They were having too busy dodging bricks that were being thrown at them by a bunch of New World teenagers and trying to fight off guards with sharp swords.

“Ravyn…Bella…Fox…no, no, and fucking no!” Rob managed to say, as he saw the trio of women being dragged away. But he could also see that they were struggling to get away but their attempts were hopeless. Rob then saw a brick come his way and dodged it by moving out of its path. “Ravyn….not my fucking woman bitches!”

“Did you just call Ravyn your woman?” asked Chaz, as he picked up on the last sentence as he ducked a blow from one of the guards.

“It was just a slip of the tongue, that’s all,” answered Rob, shaking his head, still in the middle of a battle between him and a couple of guards using his bare hands that Chaz manage to instigate. “You need to get the special gift we’ve got for Spyral to them. There’s no way that they can fight off those guards with Fox being weak.” As Rob failed to miss a blow to the face and got punched in the face, he stumbled back holding his nose as it started to gush out with blood and the blood fell into his hand. He reached into pocket with the other hand that wasn’t catching the falling blood, unzipping it firstly of course, and held the USB in his hand. Chaz pretended to stumble back in pain, as he reached out for the USB and Rob quickly gave it back to Chaz to catch up to the trio of women for either one of them to plant it into the mainstream operating switch board of their system. “Go hurry up! I’ll take these guys down myself. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine!”

Chaz wasn’t sure that he liked leaving his friend to defend for himself, but he had to do it. He started to run and jumped over Mike’s body that hadn’t woken up from his fainting episode. He stopped and ran back to Mike. He knelt down beside him and started to talk to him as though he was awake.

“We are not going to let you, and you are not going to let us down, right?” asked Chaz to the fainted corpse of Mike’s. He talked softly because he didn’t want to give the New Worlders more causes to kill him. “I’m just going to put my shirt over your face, so no one comes up and stabs you, just because you’ve got some good old Japanese in you. You’re of the good Japanese, not the bad. Enough of the ranting, I have to go now.” Chaz took his shirt off to reveal all of his tattoos across his abdomen and his arms and placed it over Mike’s face, so that everyone who walked past him thought he was a dead Japanese man. Chaz got to his feet, wiped some dirt off his pants, and then ran down in between the flaming stalls. The light that came off the flames highlighted the sweat that Chaz had built up and was currently sweating.

He ran in and out of stalls as fast as possible as someone came up to him, running like hell as well.

“Good evening Chaz, going for a good run-for-your-life run?” asked Viking, who was topless as well, but instead of baring perfect skin and bulky muscles like Chaz had expected of him, he bore his scars from the Third Great War and various cuts. “I have always enjoyed a bit of good exercise.”

“Trying to find the girls,” answered Chaz. “Got this for them.” He raised his fist and opened his fist, to show him the USB which had the virus installed on it. “The present is all done. Just got to express post it but I’m out of money. So I’m taking a raincheck and resorting to send it via normal mail.” Chaz closed his sweaty fist, as both of them turned a sharp corner as Chaz was looking around furiously for any signs of the girls. Viking stopped in his tracks, sliding as he stopped. Chaz looked ahead and stopped, as he slid as he stopped. Chaz smiled as he saw Ravyn down on her knees with her hands bound and looking sadly to the ground, but he couldn’t see Fox or Bella anywhere. There were guards everywhere and neither of them knew how they would get through. Chaz smirked at his own plan. Run in and run out while running for your life.

“I think you’ve just found one of Charlie’s Angels, don’t you think?” asked Viking, smirking at his own remark. Chaz turned around and faced Viking.

“Correction, we’ve just found one of Chaz’s Angels,” corrected Chaz, as he turned around again. He took a deep breath in and exhaled in heavily. He closed his eyes, as he started to run towards Ravyn still staring at the ground with her hands bound by rope. He opened his eyes and slid to a halt when he arrived in front of Ravyn.

“What?” asked Ravyn, as the guards started to swarm on Chaz. Chaz held his palm out to display the USB that had the virus on it. “What? What do I do with this, Chaz?”

“Take it, download the file into the main motherboard basically,” Chaz said, as she picked the USB out of his hands and hid it in her hands. The guards grabbed Chaz by the scruff of the neck and tossed him aside. Chaz landed on the grand a few metres away

“Give me it!” ordered the guard, looking to Ravyn who looked up at him innocently. “What did he give you?”

“My freedom,” answered Ravyn, innocently. “Other than that, nothing much really.” The guard scowled her at her and ordered a minority of the guards present to get Chaz.

The guards were now after Chaz as he broke into a heavy run. He came up to Viking.

“Tag, you’re it,” Chaz tipped Viking on the back, as Chaz ran past him. Viking saw the guards and joined Chaz in his running away. Viking was quick to catch up to Chaz, as both men were now sweating like pigs and the light off the flames that feeding on the stalls illuminated both men’s sweaty chests. Viking slapped Chaz on the back, as Chaz cringed because of how badly it stung.

“Now you’re it,” replied Viking, as he picked up his pace a bit and had Chaz basically chase after him. Viking laughed at the fact that they were now playing the running game in between three parties and how fun it was. Viking went around the corner sharply as Chaz followed him. Viking jumped over a barrel that once had wine in it, and Chaz did as well. “You’re good, aren’t you?” The guards stumbled over the barrel of wine.

“Where are we off to?” asked Chaz, as he was starting to wear down. “I’m losing energy. Reminds me, how can you fight and yet have so much energy?”

“It’s called fighting in a war,” answered Viking. “We need to grab Mike and Rob. There are more coming and we need to hide as well. Somewhere that’s not in Rob’s apartment building.”

Chaz tried picking up his pace but he couldn’t, Viking was just too damn fast for him. Viking turned another corner as Chaz followed. He looked behind him to see where the guards were and they were a couple of yards behind him. Chaz told his body to pick up the pace or to be faced with death.

In a couple of minutes Viking had found Rob, trying to pick up Mike’s limp body.

“Is he alright?” asked Viking, running up to Mike and looking at him to see if there was any manage damage. “Is he alive?” Chaz stopped and slid as he finally came to a standstill. Rob swallowed hard and nodded.

“Only just,” answered Rob, looking like he wanted to cry almost.

“We need to get out of here, and quick, I don’t think I’ve lost the guards,” Chaz explained, looking back behind him. There was nothing just a flaming marketplace and dead corpses scattered everywhere. “I’ll grab this side.” Chaz walked over to the other side of Mike, and swung his arm around Chaz’s neck and Chaz placed his arm around Mike’s waist. Rob followed.

“There are reinforcements coming,” Viking explained to Rob, as they started to quickly move away with Mike’s feet dragging behind him leaving drag marks in the dirt. Viking walked along a battered version of Rob, who looked by this stage he was going to collapse and that he was only just pushing his luck by walking “We have to get out of here before they come and we need to find a place to hide quickly.”

“What’s happened to the girls, Chaz?” asked Rob, not wanting to be rude and interrupt Viking, but instead Rob chose to ignore Viking for the time being. As Chaz wondered where his shirt was, but shrugged it off thinking it was already no good before it entered this war.

“I’m sorry man, I only saw Ravyn, I gave her the present, but I didn’t see Fox or Bella,” answered Chaz, recalling what he said. “I’m sorry but I think both Bella and Fox are dead.” Rob tried to control himself, but he couldn’t. He just started to cry, while walking. “Man, I told you, but I told you that I think they are dead, I don’t know for sure.” Chaz wanted to continue his explanation but Viking told him to cut it short, as they walked to find a good hiding spot where they could hide and also let Mike recover.

Sarah stood in a white blood stained Chinese dress, on top of a building, as she looked down with her beloved tachi (which was part of her father’s huge Japanese swords collection that he had taken off the Japanese at the beginning of the New World) in one hand with people’s blood shining off its ancient blade. She stood, while the wind swept her black long hair across her face and the full moon with its black craters glowed brightly in the night sky behind her. She had come out of that bloody battle unscathed and she congratulated herself for being perfect once again.

“Welcome to paradise, soldier,” she muttered to herself, as she saw the friends walk off with two of them carrying their Japanese blooded friend from the building that she was standing on.

 

****

[Ravynlee]

You know, if I didn't know better I would assume that whole confrontation was a set up! Something about the last sentence with Sarah overlooking the procedings.. that was a wow moment. Loved that!

And I'm sorry I know it was serious but I HAD to laugh at Chas and Viking playing tag with the guards on their escape and all. That was fast paced and really got the heart racing. Rob's faux pas made me balk a moment. His woman? Chas's reaction mirrored my own in real life I can tell you, I was like 'what did he just say?' but then it was an 'awww' moment. Except the 'bitches' bit, darling Rob doesn't curse! XD Well... he's not a warmonger neither, but for the sake of the story and all...

That was a sweet sentimental moment in all the... um... manic mental chaos around them. Gotta love the big guy. No matter what we're paired as I still love him. Aww. I love him MORE when he takes control like this! *excited*

FINALLY we saw some conflict, it wasn't all talk on the unsettled streets under Spyral. Their tyrannical grip is weakening. Maybe. Awesome... but maybe... not so awesome. Like any batttle there's a heavy cost. Poor Fox and Bella (and Mike and me and so on) - where the hell are they?

Love it, overall love the pace of the chase scene, THAT was great.

And ended chapter on a very visual and expectant note.

AWESOME!

[Jeezy]

wow..i really had to catch up on some stuff....

 

I still love the story

[Greyfoxx]

OHHHH MYYYY GAWDDDD

 

love the update sis....i had to print it out to read it but omg it's soooo good

 

Yeah, like mum said, where am i!?

[woodyloveslinkin]

Okay please take NOTE before reading Chapter 23 - The Nolocaust.

 

NOTE - I do not intend to offend The Holocaust survivors/the lives that it claimed or any of the events in the actual event, so relatives please take warning in the following chapters concerning The Nolocaust and its camps. And I do not intend to directly or indirectly oppose the Jewish faith as this is a faction story (fiction with a mixture of non-fiction events mixed in between there somewhere). I apologise to mods/readers if they find this chapter and the ideals held in within the content offensive in anyway as it touches on a couple of sensitive historic and personal nerves (including Hitler's Nazi regime which I do not personally attribute any praise to). You have been warned and the reason why I warned you all is that this is a public forum I will not have trouble with this chapter hopefully later on the track.

 

Chapter 23 - The Nolocaust

 

****

Joanna walked the bare streets of Los Angeles, as she took in the destruction that had been created. The marketplace looked as though an atomic bomb had just hit. There was smoke present, creating a smoky haze around where she stood. She looked back on the previous evening’s events, as she thought how the events of the night penned out like a mental patient set loose. She had disappeared completely for the night and hid in someone’s basement, also sleeping there for the night until the violence had died completely.

It must’ve been the first time that she had seen the streets so empty. She couldn’t see anybody in sight. The only sound that she heard was the crackling of the fire in the distance, burning away at most probably the farmer’s hay supply. She was lucky, she told herself, for not only being part of the good generation of people in this world’s generation. She had to find Sarah and get to her immediately, for she was Joanna’s tourniquet almost, Joanna’s saviour who would protect her against being attacked from any Old Worlders, for she wore her rose pendant out in plain sight today. She was still in her pink shirt and her black hair’s curls had been twisted into knots, for her hair hadn’t been brushed.

She stopped and turned around, as she heard someone running her way. She was very wary today of who she was near her. She didn’t want to end up fighting for her life against an angry and rebellious Old Worlder.

“Meow,” Romeo meowed in front of Joanna, sitting down on its hind legs and started to lick its paws as Joanna went through the roof and felt like she had just been given a heart attack. Joanna turned around and picked up the cat, after of course thinking to herself that Romeo got around a lot for just a cat.

The footprints where getting closer, as she spun back around to see just a kid running gleefully through such destruction. Joanna now felt at ease, as she felt a bit safer. She stroked the cat that had now started to purr in her arms.

“What are you doing here?” Joanna asked the cat, not sure about where his owner would be. She wanted to find his owner for different reasons. “You seem to disappear than reappear a lot, don’t you little man?” The cat continued to purr, as she started to walk again, looking for any sign that would tell her that Sarah was close. She stepped over a number of dead corpses, thankfully, none that she recognised. A majority of them were Old Worlders who had fought for their lives in trying to defend their ways and their beliefs, as many rumours were around of what Sarah was going to do to them. A concentration camp had been set up and Old Worlders were going to be tortured was the primary rumour that inflicted much fear amongst that particular generation. Joanna didn’t care; she found no reason to care. She wasn’t really sisters with Ravyn, it was just Ravyn being delusional of course, or else Sarah would’ve told Joanna, right? She continued to walk as she saw someone up ahead in a white bloodied outfit throw logs on a massive bonfire. As she drew nearer and nearer she realised that it was Sarah, and they weren’t logs that she was throwing onto the fire.

Sarah stopped and noticed Joanna’s presence as a couple of guards rushed past her, almost knocking Joanna to the ground but Joanna stood her ground. Sarah had been injured, and had her outfit torn in several places around the collar. Sarah frowned as she wiped the sweat and dirt off her face. The inside of her palm was lined with cuts and grazes and decorated with dried blood. Her white Chinese dress had been soaked with various patches of blood. Her collar had been torn to the extent that it revealed a nasty shoulder wound that Melissa had inflicted moments just before Sarah sliced open all the main arteries in her throat, letting the blood spurt out from those broken arteries.

“Why are you still here, Joanna?” asked Sarah, crossing her arms as the smoke made her image hazy and distorted. Joanna was having trouble seeing her through the smoke that the bon fire that was fuelled by the burning of human corpses. “Why aren’t you with the rest of the traitors?”

“I’m not one of them so I felt no need to stick by them,” answered Joanna. “And if I did fight on your side, wouldn’t that be obvious that I am not part of their little group?”

“You could have stuck around to see some slaughtering of the worse kind of humans to walk this lonely planet,” retorted Sarah. “I am not labelling you a traitor, Joanna, I know that you are better than to do that to me.” A couple of more guards pushed past Joanna clipping her on the shoulder and most likely to cause a big bruise in a couple or more days. Joanna nursed her shoulder as the guards threw the corpses that they were carrying over their shoulder onto the bon fire in the distance, metres away from where Sarah was frowning.

“Why are you burning the bodies?” asked Joanna, not sure if she should ask that question in the first place. “I mean, are you just burning the bodies of the New Worlders that perished last night or what?”

“We are burning every body we can find so they do not reek of death and carry the distasteful scent of a half-complete victory over the Old World generation,” answered Sarah, as she started to walk towards Joanna. Joanna’s eyes were getting teary now and her eyes were highlighted by the glow of the fire. Los Angeles, when said it was never the same old place it used to be, it was highly emphasised that the days were night and the night was just the night. “Why do you have my cat, Joanna?”

“I found him just then,” answered Joanna, as Romeo jumped out of her grip and onto the ground. It walked along the bloodied ground with its tail up in the air, looking proud and strong as its owner stopped and knelt down to scratch, it under its chin. “What do you mean by half-complete victory?” Sarah stopped scratching her cat under his chin and stood up properly as she faced Joanna. “I don’t understand.”

“It is time for history to repeat itself I am afraid, that I have been given no choice but to do what all other Spyral projects have not done, to exterminate the Old World generation,” answered Sarah, as she knew that she would be faced with more questions from Joanna’s curiosity so she cut to the chase. “Before you ask me silly questions about what I meant about history repeating itself, is that…have you ever heard of The Holocaust?”

“Isn’t that a burger at McSpyral?” asked Joanna, as Sarah slapped her forehead. “I take it that as a no; am I right?” Sarah nodded as she looked back from cringing with pain because Joanna had no idea what Sarah would be talking about as Sarah realised that this was also a good thing, Joanna did not know of any Old World history. The pendant had been programmed to remember Old World terminology and some artificial memories, but not the history of the Old World generation.

“In a long story cut short, The Holocaust was the event in the Second Great War history that really brought out the definition of the term genocide,” Sarah explained, as she didn’t want to go into much detail. “Joanna, my faithful servant, my protégé, my dear New World friend, welcome to The Nolocaust.”

“Sounds interesting,” Joanna couldn’t help but to comment. “What does it consist of?”

“Hitler put the people who followed the Jewish faith –”

“Who?” asked Joanna, frowning in confused. “What a stupid name to give someone.”

“Do not interrupt me what I am speaking,” Sarah firmly ordered.

“My apology,” Joanna shortly apologised. Sarah ignored her pathetic idea of an apology and shrugged it off as she continued to explain to Joanna.

“Well that stupid name was the inspiration of my father’s Utopia ideal, and now, look around you! Destruction! This is bullshit, Joanna! This is not the world I was raised to perfect! Because there is always room for perfecta in this perfect world!” yelled Sarah, spinning around with her arms around and smiling sarcastically. She stopped spinning around and withdrew her hands to her side, as she looked to Joanna who was still confused by Sarah’s words and actions. Sarah didn’t know if she should tell Joanna this, it all being Old World knowledge and all, but then Sarah realised that if Joanna was told, Joanna could be Sarah’s heir as Sarah had no next of kin. She nodded at her own thoughts inside of her own head. “That man brought the world to his country’s doorstep. He made his country one of the most affluent and greatest of powers of the twentieth century. But he had to make sacrifices Joanna…I am not going to let anyone get in my way of my sacrifice making, because there’s no one to stop. That one man brought this world to you. Don’t you love it Joanna, this world? Do not you just love this world so much that you just want to hold it in your arms and never let go of it?” Joanna nodded, as she smiled along with Sarah. “I fought all night for this world and still, I cannot see why the Old Worlders choose to still defy me. Why, Joanna? Why do they choose to defy me continually? I am still curious to know why people cannot be more like you and I.”

“Because they don’t appreciate the world that you have sacrificed many things for, let alone what your father sacrificed for us,” answered Joanna, nodding at her own answer. Sarah walked over to Joanna, placed one hand on her shoulder, and nodded slowly agreeing with her. “What are you thinking?”

“I should only answer to you about my thoughts when they are suitable to be released,” answered Sarah, who was thinking deeply about an issue that Spyro had nagged at her many times. “Joanna, you are faithful and you are dedicated to Spyral and its orders, right?” Joanna nodded eagerly, not knowing where this would lead to. “I am afraid that this war may claim me as its victim. I cannot choose Brad for this role that I am about to give you.”

“What happened to Brad? Is he alright?” asked Joanna, a bit worried by Sarah’s tone when she had mentioned Brad’s name. Sarah held some tears back and shook her head. “Is…he…dead…?” Sarah nodded slowly. “I didn’t hear of it in the streets and trust me, a lot of things that are awful about Spyral gets around a lot I’ve been noticing. That Bella person tells everyone everything about everything that’s going on in Spyral, but I didn’t hear of Brad’s death, or else, I would’ve come back sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t know.”

“What kind of things go around?” asked Sarah as she looked back into Joanna’s eyes. “You speak of them as being awful, what are they?”

“They say how horrible Spyral is to everyone in general and a lot of nasty rumours about how Spyral is going to bring on Doomsday and that everyone is doomed because of Spyral,” Joanna recalled someone telling her once. That person nearly made her cry telling her such awful things, as she remembered the moment where Ravyn told her to calm down about everything and that she was just overreacting. “They are all lies, right? All lies…?” Sarah nodded. “I knew they were all lies, anyway, just making sure.” Then Joanna remembered what Sarah was talking about before about Brad’s shocking and sudden death. “Have you avenged Brad’s death?”

“Yes, and she is now hanging up on a cross nailed to it and all, to let the Old Worlders catch a glimpse of what happens when you cross me too many times,” answered Sarah, remembering what Sarah had ordered to do with Mel’s dead corpse. She nodded her head slowly. “It was not a normal death; he was stained with the blood of murder.” There was a small silence in between the two women, as Sarah sighed. “Good friends then and now we are still, friends beyond the grave.” Joanna couldn’t help but to admire Sarah’s loyalty to her now deceased friend. “That is why, I am choosing you to be my heir if I die in this war or die from the result of fighting for this brave New World.” Joanna gleamed with excitement and appreciation in that smile she wore on her face that looked like it was going to fall off her face soon. “Do not say thank you, I have heard it enough times from you. And as much as it is in your New World nature to thank me for everything that I have given you and sacrificed for you Joanna, I strongly request and advise not to do it today. Do it another day when I have washed the blood off my hands. You have no choice or any say it in The Nolocaust, understand me now that you have chosen to accept the role of my heir. You will be by my side on a consistent basis. I have already set up a designated area where the camps are. The prisoners of this war that we have managed to obtain are on their way.”

“What’s going to happen to the Comet’s Eye?” asked Joanna, remembering at one stage that Sarah was going to do something with it, or so Brad had said to her. “You can’t leave it there in its compression chamber forever.”

“Who said I was going to leave it lying around forever?” asked Sarah. “I do not remember saying that. Did I say that, Joanna?” Joanna shook her head in disagreement. Sarah turned around and stood beside Joanna, as she looked at the bodies burning away on the bon fire and as the guards kept on piling them up in amongst the other burning bodies and the flames that engulfed them and turned them to ash. She looked around in other places of the burning part of Los Angeles, not looking at Joanna at all. “This perfect world has a perfect ruler who is a perfect woman who has a perfect weapon along with a perfect usage for the perfect weapon. Remember not only how faultless that last sentence was, but think of the impact it will have on everybody around the perfectness in this world of ours.” Sarah even amazed herself about how many times she had just said the word perfect in that last part of her speech to Joanna and was amazed that she didn’t get tongue-tied in the process. Sarah knew only flawless people could say such a thing without screwing it up. Sarah looked at Joanna directly in the eyes, as she stood proud and strong next to her new proclaimed heir. “I have learnt from the mistakes of the past as my father would’ve wanted me to do as he did so. I will make sure there will be no Old Worlders left at the end of this chapter of history.” Joanna was going to say something about something called Project Tourniquet but she didn’t know what it was to begin with, she had only heard other members speak of it then get hounded for speaking about it in front of Joanna. Joanna shrugged the thought of thinking it couldn’t have been that important.

However, despite Sarah’s belief and impression that Adolf Hitler actually committed complete genocide of the Jewish community of Europe in the Second Great War in the twentieth century and the years leading up to it, Sarah didn’t know or had read the chapter that lied buried underneath Spyral’s bunkers, which clearly explained that Hitler didn’t succeed in such an attempt to change history books. Her father had thrown that chapter of history into a pit while Spyral was being built because he didn’t believe such a thing, that Hitler actually failed at something so clever and well planned out. He didn’t want his successor to know of such an atrocity, in this case, it was his daughter which lacked the information of Hitler’s failed, not succeeded, attempts to rid the continent of the Judaism faith and other insignificant figures that Hitler didn’t approve of.

“So if Hitler can get rid of the Jewish faith, whatever that was full of,… do you think you can exterminate the whole Old World population of the world, let alone Los Angeles?” asked Joanna, a bit curious and treading on fine sand with Sarah because Joanna was starting to imply that she didn’t believe that Sarah could pull off such a thing. Sarah didn’t care she was too busy in her own little world.

“Little pebbles Joanna, cause big ripples,” answered Sarah, slowly smiling like an evil dictator and not looking to Joanna, but back into the glow of the fire, as it illuminated her smile. “Little pebbles cause big ripples…”

 

 

****

[Jeezy]

Keep writing girl

 

do you still plan to put it all in a book?

[woodyloveslinkin]

Sure am, I think that's what has been keeping me motivated to write more and more (and the thing that drives me to write those long chapters)

Oh yeah, thankies to all for your lovely comments and reviews.

[woodyloveslinkin]

Chapter 24 - Starzky and Hutch

 

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It was the usual morning meeting for Sarah as she strode down the hallway that had been decorated with the New World mourning colour of light lilac purple decked the halls in memory of their dead that they had lost on the battlegrounds. But Sarah wasn’t paying any attention to the other ones that she had lost, she was only thinking of Brad and the sword that sliced is killer’s throat which was now laying down on the coffin of Brad’s, still bloodied, as it was tradition not to let the blood be washed off one’s hands until the fight was over for good.

The fight for the New World had just begun.

Joanna, her heir, her protégé, and her beloved friend that she had come attached to so quickly, walked beside her with various pieces of paper in her grasp, as she kept looking down to see what the time was on her watch that Sarah had been given her to secure herself a place as her heir. She walked along with her black long curls bouncing along with the movements of her head and wore a red shirt, showing off her beloved rose pendant, with a pair of black pants. While her current leader was dressed in a yellow and light blue corset top with the light blue being the laces that were tied behind the Celtic cross that she proudly displayed on her chest. Along with the yellow and the light blue she wore a yellow skirt with light blue trimming at the edge, almost hiding her yellow boots. But it highlighted the artificial yellow streaks that had been dyed into her hair that morning by some nifty hands, as it coherently matched with the straightness of her black hair being fully out today.

Her associates lingered behind her in their black suits and matching black ties over their white shirts, as they displayed their shiny and newly polished black shoes that Sarah rolled her eyes at and refused to dress like the rest of her associates ever since gaining her status that was now in threat because of this clash of the worlds. She stopped suddenly, as Joanna stopped a metre or two, as she had only just realised that Sarah had stopped and now had turned around. Her associates came to a halt as well as soon as they saw Sarah standing still, looking their way with a frown on her face, and crossed arms.

“Now, tell me, is this meeting going to be another eventful waste of my time?” asked Sarah. “I have an attack on the Old World generation to plan and the last thing I want to do is listen to a bunch of rambling coming from an old hag about how he does not know how to fix a stupid virus. Talking of the virus, why is it still within these walls?”

“Has Spyro not told you?” asked the first associate, looking a bit suppressed and scared of Sarah. “We can’t exterminate it. It’s too powerful.”

“Okay in that case, are we one step closer to finding out who or what planted that virus in our walls?” asked Sarah. No one spoke up as no one had any answers and didn’t want to have their heads ripped off from Sarah. “I will take that as a no. Gentlemen, if this virus is the cause of us losing the war against the Old Worlders, I will have everyone in Spyral terminated for failing to terminate such a virus, understand?” She paused for a second and turned around to face Joanna, who was also looking a bit scared. “You are not included, as you have not done anything wrong concerning the virus. I do not punish people who have not sinned against me.” She turned back to face her associates. “I do not wish to continue the journey to our meeting room if I cannot get an answer around here. I do have better things to do. I wish to pay Spyro a visit before I continue my journey down to the camps.”

“Why do you want to be near a bunch of Old Worlders?” asked another associate, looking a bit confused by Sarah’s actions. “I mean, why would you want to be contaminated from them? They might have Old World diseases that we refuse to get rid of because of what generation they belong to.”

“We are New Worlders not farmyard animals Draven; we are immune to Old World diseases,” replied Sarah, smoothly. “The only thing we are prone to, especially me, is people’s bullshit about what other people can and cannot do. Now get rid of that virus, it is even starting to corrupt me and soon my corruption may end up with your expulsion off the planet. Do you comprehend or not?” Draven, the man with the sleek blonde hair gelled back nodded in his business attire. Sarah looked around angrily. “That was not only pointed at not only him but it was pointed at everyone, gentlemen!” Everyone immediately nodded and agreed with Sarah. Draven crossed his arms and frowned as Sarah bid her farewell to the gentlemen, as Joanna scattered along beside her. Draven didn’t stay behind but he chased after Sarah wanting to know what she wanted out of Spyro so badly that she had to depart the meeting when it hadn’t even started. Sarah frowned as she walked beside both Draven and Joanna now. “Am I leaving behind me a trial of gingerbread or dog biscuits this time, Draven?”

“Neither,” answered Draven, still walking alongside Sarah. “I’ve come to say that I’m sorry for your loss, concerning Brad.”

“No you are not, Draven,” retorted Sarah, brutally, still walking proud and strong, as Joanna started to shuffle through the papers in her hands. Sarah was too busy looking ahead of her to see what or who was coming her way to even notice Joanna shuffling through the papers. “You have not come here to pay your sympathies to my father and I for our eternal loss, so what is it, I ask you?”

“Why are you going to the base of Winter Station?” asked Draven, starting to annoy Sarah. “Think of the camps as breeding grounds for all sorts of things, including micro-organisms.” Sarah stopped, as Joanna stopped as well, but she was too busy rummaging through the pieces of paper. Sarah gave Draven a deadly stare. “I’m sorry, but am I telling you how to do your job?”

“Well no, you are only trying to be my father, that is all,” answered Sarah, sarcastically. “I hope you just picked up the sarcasm in my answer because if not, I would start saying goodbye to everyone else around you. A piece of advice Draven, do not, and I thoroughly promote this point since my time of reign had begun, do not tell me how to do my job and do not, and I repeat, do not act like my deceased father. You are nowhere near as a greater person or man as my father once was.”

One point that has to be mentioned about Sarah’s associate who went by the name of Draven, he was not of the New World generation as Brad was not either, as both had worked by Jonathon’s side. Draven was the defiant version of Brad and was only working at Spyral to save his backside from the reigns of New World order. Both Brad and Draven had be Old Worlders considering that they both worked with Jonathon to help establish and maintain Spyral.

Draven kept walking beside Sarah without a word.

“You need to sign these papers to get some statutes working considering the camps,” Joanna said to Sarah, showing her the pieces of paper that she had to sign. Sarah just pushed the papers out of sight not wanting to do anything about it just yet. Joanna looked at Draven and smiled at him. He smiled back in pure courtesy. Joanna refixed her eyes back on the papers that she was holding.

As much as Draven was dedicated to Spyral and had devoted his life to the corporation, he was about to snap it with Sarah. Her attitude was like a little brat’s attitude and although Draven was Jonathon’s best man at his wedding ceremony to Felicity, and had admired Sarah in her younger years (where she had not learnt to be so bratty), Draven was at snapping point with the insolent child that held the ultimate reign over every breathing, walking, and talking thing on the planet. Let alone controlling how people thought and manipulating nature to suit herself the most. But what really ticked Draven off was Sarah’s snide remarks about everyone who did the tiniest thing wrong. And also the fact that if Sarah wasn’t born, he would’ve been heir to Spyral’s glamorous throne and had things his way, he thought of these things as he walked along with Sarah not saying a word. Nor did Joanna say a word; she was immersed in other things.

They turned a corner and into the Mirror Board room where Spyro’s normal mathematic and scientific formulas were busy scrolling down the screen and the voice of Spyro’s humming away to a song that no one else could recognise. But there was no image of the digital woman to be seen.

“We can hear you, so do not pretend you are not here,” Sarah said, entering the room and started to make her way over to the chair that never seemed to move from in front of the scrolling screen. The digital blue woman’s face appeared and greeted the trio with a digital smile that seemed too life like to be anything like what Spyro really was, a program initiated by Spyral. Sarah sat down on the chair which hadn’t been moved for a long while, in front of the Mirror Board. She crossed her legs to reveal her yellow boots with the light blue shoe laces that laced their way up to her knees.

“What can I help you with?” asked Spyro.

“How many down from last night on our side?” asked Sarah, wanting to know the figures so Spyral can genetically copy guards to take the places of the fallen guards, both machine and human speaking.

“A lot,” answered Spyro, bluntly.

“Is that all you can tell me?” asked Sarah, a bit confused and a bit angry at the same time as well. The blue digital woman nodded. Sarah sighed as she closed her eyes, trying to maintain her patience with the program that was being difficult already.

“I have heard about your plans to copy Adolf Hitler’s in the Second Great War, only rumours though, Spytrax and Spytrical were the gossiping programs that told me,” the blue woman said.

Spytrax and Spytrical were twin programs in the programming world, in the real world; they would be described as being a pair of kids that would not shut up even if someone held a knife under their throat and blackmailed them. They had more ears than Spyro had, but Spyro was the one that hacked into their motherboards and disconnected their voice recognition controls when she had enough of them. They weren’t as sophisticated as Spyro because Spyro was the mother of all programs while Spytrax and Spytrical were attempted copies of Spyro, therefore, Spyro adopted them as her own two programmable children, but taught them nothing. Spyro feared that if she were the one to teach to them, they would hack into her motherboard and become more sophisticated and noisier than a bunch of monkeys placed with bananas in their hands.

Joanna stood there confused about who or what Spytrax and Spytrical were. She wasn’t sure what significance they were meant to be to her right now. Draven rolled his eyes, as he found Spytrax and Spytrical typical serial killer material. They were the evil twins from hell that no mother would want, unless of course the mother wanted two children come at her with knives in their hands. Spyro was the wise one that knew much more than her fellow programs and she knew what was best for not only herself, but for the corporation, and of course, Sarah.

“You hear correct, Spyro,” replied Sarah, firmly, placing her hands in her lap and waiting eagerly for Spyro’s response. Spyro shook her digital blue head, in disapproval of such a plan. “Do not shake your head at me. I do not need to seek counsel with every brilliant plan that I create.” Spyro stopped shaking her head and looked at Sarah as though she was a mother looking upset at her child to make the child feel guilty for doing something wrong. “Do not look at me like you are my mother. You are not my mother, Spyro. You have never been.”

“Your father was a great man for stubbornness, I have to say that,” the woman on the blue screen tried to explain, as Sarah was already at the point of shaking her head in disbelief.

“Do not make me permanently uninstall you, Spyro,” threatened Sarah, as she stopped shaking her head and started to frown instead.

“Why, because I am right?” asked Spyro, as she knew she was stepping on fine sand with Sarah. “You’ve got to hear me out before you uninstall me. After all, we’re friends, right?” Sarah didn’t answer her question, but continued her frown that she was giving the screen in front of her. “What you have read about Adolf Hitler’s regime out of the books that your father past onto you, isn’t true. He was defeated and he didn’t succeed in getting what he wanted, which was the complete genocide of the Jewish faith in Old World.” Sarah shook her head in disbelief. “Your father was the one that programmed me to be too smart for my own good and what he put into me about the Nazi regime wasn’t accurate when I compared that file to another one I found in Spytrax’s hard drive. Remember, your father did not create Spytrical or Spytrax, the teams who were trying to replicate my intelligence did. You are going to fall like Hitler, if you continue on with this plan. I don’t wish to see the end of Spyral, never do I want to see such an atrocity.”

“I think the virus has disrupted more than your ability than you think,” Sarah commented, shaking her head, and not believing what Spyro had to say for herself. “I think also Spytrical and Spytrax have been putting ideas in your head.”

“They have not been able to access my motherboard for quite a while now, and I am thankful of that,” replied Spyro. “What I tell is the truth and none other but the truth, as I know the journal does as well.” Spyro shot Sarah a nasty I-know-you-did-it look. Sarah rolled her eyes at Spyro. “You can’t fool me, I know you read the journal.”

“I have to go now, to talk to Spytrical and Spytrax and then uninstall their intelligence or whatever they have left of it, in fact, not today, tomorrow, got better things to do rather than those two programs play ping pong all day,” retorted Sarah, angry at the fact that Spyro was starting to change the subject and Sarah just had enough of Spyro’s lies today. If she was capable of detecting sorrow in someone’s voice she was capable of telling the truth. Sarah got to her feet, but didn’t turn around as she wanted to see Spyro’s reaction.

“What like this?” asked Spyro as the screen switched to a black screen with a white ball being hit by two white bars on either side of the screen. The bars moved in coordination to where the white ball was moving.

“Are you spying on the pair?” asked Draven softly, as he felt like speaking up for once; instead of letting the little brat do all the talking. Sarah turned around shot Draven an evil look. Draven was used to this by now and ignored her glare. The digital woman nodded her head faintly in the background.

“Get back to work Spytrical and Spytrax!” barked Sarah as the ping pong game came to a stop and the screen was wiped blank as two smiley faces, both black and yellow, appeared. Sarah’s and Draven’s eyes were wide open by this stage of seeing what someone had done to the twins of the programming world. “Oh, someone help me quick, what did they do to you two guys?”

“I dunno,” answered the one on the right which was Spytrax, as Spyro could be heard in the background giggling. The one that had just spoken turned around so disappeared out of sight and came back again and now was an unhappy face. “Spyro’s been spying on us again.”

Unlike Spyro who could change facial expressions almost automatically, these two had to disappear to refresh their emotional input database.

“Good, you’ve been slacking off by the looks of things,” Joanna spoke her turn. “I mean, I would love to sit around all day and play ping pong, but we’ve got a war to win.” Sarah stopped frowning, giving people nasty looks and thinking about giving an exile order to Draven’s name as she stopped and smiled at Joanna’s enthusiasm. “Do you know what the statistics for the battle loss is?”

“Depends,” answered Spytrical, the one still smiling like an animated Ivna addict, as Spytrax disappeared off the screen for a second. “Can you give me a second?” The animation didn’t even wait for an answer from anyone in the room that was human as it disappeared off the screen.

“Sure thing…where did it just go?” asked Joanna, smiling in confusion, as Spytrax came back onto the screen with a happy face.

“It’s been over a second, tell us, now,” ordered Draven, getting at the end of his tether with just everyone and everything today. “Or be prepared to be uninstalled immediately.”

“I’m back,” smiled Spytrax, with the happy smiley face on this time, as his twin program come back onto the screen. “Well, we have the statistics. Oh wait, hold on, sad face is needed.”

“Stay,” growled Sarah, before the animation had a chance to go away. It stopped and obeyed Sarah’s orders. Sarah felt like she was treading on thin ice because it was getting painful and discomforting trying to get the simplest thing out of anyone today. “Tell us with your happy face, I really could not care what face you break the news to me with. After all, you are only just a program I am going to end up uninstalling by the end of the day if you really knock all my marbles over.”

“A quarter of our army went down in that little clash you had on the streets,” answered Spytrax sensibly, as Sarah shrugged and told herself that was hardly anything. “Oh I heard about your little camp idea.”

“Good, shut up about it, because I am out of here,” retorted Sarah, as she expected Joanna to follow her outside to the hallway, but Joanna didn’t, only Draven did and that was because he wanted to get at her about something. Sarah stopped at the doorway to see Joanna waiting for Spyro to come back onto the screen while the other two programs were having fun. “Joanna, I am leaving and that basically says you are supposed to come with me as well.”

“I have to stay here to get some codes off Spyro to put some forms through,” explained Joanna, looking apologetic. Sarah rolled her eyes and walked her off. Draven followed her and walked with her on her right side. “She’s already proving to be more pathetic than you.”

“Then you have to question why are you giving you the reign after you?” asked Draven, as Sarah suddenly stopped and so did he. They looked dangerously into each others eyes. “Come on Sarah, exile me for being a smart ass like you’ve done with the rest of the associates that worked with your father. Come on, I dare you.”

“I’ve already been tempted to many a time, do not make me sign the actual papers,” retorted Sarah, giving him the same old nasty look as before. “The only reason I am keeping Joanna here with me, is because she’s a very valuable tool to me and this corporation and if I had a choice to blow the greatest asset we have right now, I would not blow it even if my life depended on it. The only reason why I am keeping you in this corporation is that I have promised myself that I will not exile any of my associates while the New World bleeds in this new war, especially of those who worked with my father. However, push me anymore further than you already have by defying and mocking my authority over you and this society, and I will be the one glorified for pushing you off the edge for that you are worth. Now, I believe you have another dog biscuit trail to sniff out. Good day to you Draven, and improve on those manner skills in our next meeting.” Sarah walked away just like that, as her skirt followed her swiftly in the breeze that was created by her walking at the fast and rushed pace that she usually liked to walk along these corridors and hallways with.

“I will have my revenge on you sooner or later,” Draven muttered under his breath, making sure that no one was around to see or hear him mutter such words that would’ve placed up under the treason statute of the New World. Hardly anyone walked these corridors anymore, compared to what it was like before the war had been declared on the Old World generation that still called Los Angeles home. Draven muttered something else under his breath, something along the lines of you spastic bitch and the usual cussing words that he had grown used to calling Sarah. Draven had been tempted to kill Sarah and put an early end to her life, but now, he had never felt so pushed to end that little brat’s life. And now that he was just that small distance away from the edge, he may as well just push himself over the edge, because she was going to do it for him sooner or later.

****

[Ravynlee]

“Little pebbles Joanna, cause big ripples,” answered Sarah, slowly smiling like an evil dictator and not looking to Joanna, but back into the glow of the fire, as it illuminated her smile. “Little pebbles cause big ripples…”

 

Brilliantly put! That one ending statement really made that chapter.

And Draven huh? Interesting inclusion. I had almost anticipated him to be Chester the town drunk's long lost son but since you put his age somewhat older having worked with/for/alongside Jonathan I guess that's unlikely. But that was a name I hadn't been expecting. Just what Sarah needed, yet another enemy trawling through the ropes to get at her. It's true though; bigger the fame, bigger the target; with Brad's demise I am thinking that Sarah has few close friends she can trully rely on now - and an interesting twist to see her embrace Joanna as the heir - didn't see that one coming! Way to pit sister against sister, and just when I thought this chick couldn't get any eviler!

(eviler? Well you get what I mean )

 

As for the Nolocaust, I can't see the offence in its inclusion in this chapter. I think it corelates well to the theme of one superpower doing everything in its power to dominate another if not all. Hilter tried to make the 'perfect' Arian race in much the same way Spyral has tried thus far to create a perfect society, so yeah, makes sense. The very notion of concentration camps makes me sick to the pit of my stomach having done my own research on it for my own benefit over the years, so it's likely to be something that will twist a few people's stomach - but I will say this, IF you choose to write about something that is a little taboo or risque or even borderline acceptable, if you want it to pack the full emotive punch you can't shy away from the reality of it. The Holocaust was gut-wrenching for all too many reasons, and not to 'cash in' or 'glorify' the atrocities of it but if you bring it up you have to give it due credit. No point glossing over it. That's why, as I sit here anticipating something truly horrifying (given your gore fixation as of late) I know it's not so much art for art's sake but it does serve a purpose. And in the context of THIS particular story it DOES tie in well - depending of course on the Jewish faith and who still retains it in the rebel faction. (Did we touch on this before, Rob's Jewish in this too, right?) Anyway if he IS then this new chapter drawing on an old past will certainly draw a lot of heat from Rob and Mike, given their ancestors were no stranger to these horrors. Mel's body on a cross - smacks in the face of Christianity/Catholocism. Really, short of bastardising the Hindu or Budhist or such faiths I think she (Sarah / Spyral) has pretty much given the proverbial finger to the ways, beliefs, and atrocities of the past. Cant see how something like mass slaughter will make a lick of difference to that evil bitch's way of thinking.

 

Loved it, as always. And it STILL reads well/holds together for a sci-fi kind of story. This little world you've created has now come into its own. You've given it stability now. The sign of a good writer Keep it up.

[woodyloveslinkin]

Chapter 25 - The Islander

 

****

“Get up! Now!” yelled the guard standing at the doorway with a weapon in one hand, hitting it against the door, as his shadow against the bright lights from outside gave an eerie touch to the room, where a bunch of women had just been randomly shoved in with a bunch of mattresses on the floor. The guard walked away to leave the women to get up in the dark room, as there was no lighting but the only lights they had to survive by was the lights from outside that artificially grew the farmyard vegetables and fruits for the New Worlders and Spyral.

Bella was the first one out of the now reunited trio of the three women to sit up. Her once perfect long straight silvery hair was now in tatters, as she tied it back with an elastic that was wrapped around her small wrists during their sleeping time, or whatever little sleep that they managed to have. The women had been here for almost twenty four hours and they hated it.

Fox was the second woman to sit up straight, but didn’t do anything except for looking at the floor blankly. Like her friend, her red hair was ragged and not brushed. Her bare feet were cold and the white clothes that all the women in the various rooms had been given wasn’t very thick and kept little of the cold out when the actual night settled down on them.

They had to start work on the fields on an empty stomach that growled for the most of the day, and were only fed little, like a piece of bread or a cup of energy drink for the day.

Ravyn groaned as she rolled over and tried to think of her happy place that she would think of in times of need. She couldn’t remember much of the conflict that had been fought and most probably lost to Spyral. She remembered being dragged away from Rob and how she couldn’t yell out to him for help and how Rob was kept too busy with the guards to chase after her.

Wait, she stopped and thought to herself, why is it out of the few memories from that night was Rob always in them? She opened her eyes, as she looked around to see where she was. She hadn’t been dreaming, everything that she had dreamt about being put into a camp had been real and that she was living that nightmare that she had dreamt last night. Where every woman or anyone from the Old World, was to force to heavy labour out on the dank fields to try and grow a crop that was going to die anyway. She pulled the white sleeves of her top that she had been given over her cold hands and sniffled, as she just wanted to escape from this place, but she knew what had happened to the last bunch of people that tried to escape. They were beaten to death with all sorts of killing instruments. This couldn’t be real; she tried to tell herself on more than one occasion. It’s the Khmer Rouge all over again and it’s not even the Old World that she was living in.

“It’s time to get up,” Fox croaked, as she was the mattress with a single thin cover on the worn mattress that was in between Bella and Ravyn, almost like the piggy in the middle. “You saw what they did to the last woman that didn’t get up when she was told.”

“I don’t want to remember,” replied Ravyn, as she tried to block out the screaming and the cries for help that escaped the woman’s mouth that had chosen to go back to sleep and defy New World order. No one knew what happened to her after she left the building that everyone last saw her leave out of. There were rumours of cruel torture and intense descriptive rumours about how they sliced her throat and fed her organs to the dogs at the watch towers that overlooked the bordering lands of wherever they were. No one had any idea that Spyral could do anything like this, almost like as though they were planning the next generation of the Holocaust victims. But with every genocide attempt, there were always survivors, Ravyn told herself.

Ravyn sighed as she sat up, looking at her pale bare feet that looked like a combination of purple and blue. She swung her feet over and stood up on the ground, as she rolled her sleeves up from hiding her hands. Bella followed Ravyn, as Ravyn put her knotty hair back. Fox just sat there staring at the ground, not knowing what this day might bring for her, death, or survival.

“We need to start going if we want to be fed,” Bella urged Fox, as Bella walked around the end of her mattress, ignoring the rest of the women that had been shoved in the large room, and walked over to Fox. She knelt down beside Fox and looked her in the eyes, while Fox avoided direct eye contact with Bella. “What are you worrying about? If we do what is told of us, we’ll be set free. Don’t you think so?” Fox shook her head. “Why do you disagree with me?”

“Rob’s read to me about the sort of stuff we are all in now,” Fox answered looking at Bella, worried. “They are trying to get rid of us, just because we are not of the New World. Prisoner of War camps, it’s like the Holocaust almost. But have they not thought of that we are not intellectually smarter than them? I can’t even read.”

“Don’t think that way, we are going to get out of here alive, somehow or another, but don’t think for one second we’re going to die a miserable death, just do what you’re told and put up with it,” Bella told Fox, as Fox didn’t say or do anything. “You have to agree with me Fox.” She looked to Ravyn for support. “Don’t you think I’m right, Ravyn?”

“I can see where you are getting at,” answered Ravyn, crossing her arms but then uncrossing it as she saw a broken lantern on the floor nearby. As she crossed the room, different colours streaked across her face as the windows had changed and basically with every different window there was a different light trying to keep the crops alive by artificial light. She bent down and scattered the broken pieces of the shattered glass with her fingertips as various women around started to get up from their mattresses on the floor, not taking notice of what Ravyn was doing. “You can look at that way or you can just choose to end your life right now. Go up to the watch tower now and then act like a lunatic. And then be tortured, while they rip your intestines out and hang them around the place as though they are decorations to a forbidden religious event like C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s.” She picked up some shattered pieces of glass and placed them carefully in her other palm. She closed the hand that carried the pieces of glass and walked back to Bella and Fox who were now standing up fully, ready for another day of hard labour on the fields. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Spyral is coming out with a beta version of another world that they are planning to create. What are they trying to achieve really, and New World stylised race of Aryans or to create a world where Pol Pot failed to achieve?”

“We better keep our voices down about this,” Bella warned, as a couple of women were staring at Ravyn for what she just said. “The last thing we want to end up is part of a dog’s breakfast. I don’t know about you, but I would like to have my bile inside of me not on a mutt’s food plate.” A guard’s shadow firstly appeared at the door, as the women looked around to see not only was there a strong and fearful shadow standing at the door, but there was a guard decked out in his Spyral red and black uniform.

“This is the day for you, firstly, the great ruler of this world is coming down to have a word to you, choose to misbehave or cause offence to Spyral or the throne, and you’ll be seeking instant death!” barked the guard, looking around at the standing women who was had their entire attention on the guard. “You will not be working immediately as the last thing that she needs to see is, dirty peasants being near her. You are not to leave this room until I come back and then you will follow me to prepare to meet the ruler, the heir to the throne, and Jonathon’s closest friend who still is working with Spyral. Am I understood?” Every woman in the room mumbled in agreement and nodded their head. “Good. I don’t want to see any trouble.” The guard walked away as every woman in the room that had been crammed inside it felt a relief inside her body, but at also at the same time, a strange tinge of fear also ran down their spines as the thought of not being fed was now obviously present in the worried looks around the room. If they didn’t work for a day, they weren’t going to get fed. Which would mean that would have to starve themselves, until the evening where they got the only food that wasn’t even classified as a decent meal.

Fox turned to Bella quickly.

“Does this mean we’re not getting fed, Bella?” asked Fox, wanting answers, as she was confused. Bella didn’t know so she shrugged as she sat back down on the end of her mattress. Fox started to cry as Ravyn was quick to notice the watery eyes of hers and came to her aid. Fox sat on her mattress and hid her face in her arms. Ravyn came and sat down next to Fox on her mattress as Ravyn tried to give her a comforting hug, but even Ravyn knew it within herself, less work would mean less food. Ravyn knew what would be on the menu for tonight by the sounds of the announcement that was just made, breadcrumbs. Ravyn stopped hugging Fox as she looked to the cried and listened to Fox sniffling. “I don’t want to be here.”

“No one does,” replied Ravyn. “Take a look around this place and I will be gobsmacked if there is an individual that actually loves being here.” Then it hit Ravyn, the glass that she was still holding and the universal serial bus that Chaz had given her was still underneath her pillow that felt like a ton of bricks when slept on. “The virus…”

“What about it?” asked Fox, removing her face from her arms and looking to her friend. “It’s most probably back with Chaz, wherever he might be.”

“No, he gave it to me,” answered Ravyn, softly as Bella got up and started to walk over to join her fellow friends in another scheme which was being formulated. “It’s under my pillow…I think.”

“What do you mean…you think?” asked Fox, frowning a bit. “How did you get it anyway and not have it taken off you when you were searched for items?”

“I have my ways,” answered Ravyn, as Bella arrived at sat down next to Fox. Ravyn smiled as she got up and detached herself from her other two friends. She walked over to her flat mattress and lifted up the pillow. There was the USB that Chaz had given her, and surprisingly not stolen. “But one problem….” She trailed off in her sentence as she realised that she had to put it into the actual motherboard which she assumed was inside Spyral’s walls. “Dammit.”

“What?” asked Bella, turning around to see what Ravyn was doing, as Fox followed Bella in turning around. Ravyn frowned as she opened her palm which was still holding the shattered glass (Ravyn was surprised that she hadn’t cut herself while holding those shattered pieces of the broken lantern) and quickly placed the USB in it. She frowned as she realised that she was lucky enough to get pants with pockets in it. She quickly shoved all of the items that she held in that one hand into that pocket as the guard came back.

“Okay you miserable Old Worlders come on!” barked the guard, as Ravyn spun around. Bella and Fox got up and waited for Ravyn to arrive beside them. They walked of in their trio of friendships bound together by the hope of a better society and a better world.

Bella and Fox had an angel on their shoulder telling them Ravyn was up to no good now, and given their circumstances in this camp, Second World War style, they weren’t as patriotic and as eager to escape compared to what they were like when they were still together with the rest of Project Tourniquet’s members. Ravyn had that look on her face, as they walked outside into the darkness of the day, as their faces were illuminated by the various coloured lights and as they treaded carefully along the ground with their bare feet.

“Why do I have the feeling you’re going to end up dead at the end of the day?” asked Bella, as she kept her voice down, next to Ravyn. It was Bella’s turn to play piggy in the middle.

“I have to get into Spyral’s headquarters and I need to plant this virus, for Chaz’s sake, for the sake of our freedom,” answered Ravyn, quickly digging out the memory stick out of her pocket, showing it to Bella quickly and then hiding it away, so no one else could see it. “Chaz gave me the virus the other night and told me to put into the main system.” Then Ravyn almost froze in her path, but Bella dragged her along, trying to keep up with the rest of the crowd, as she remembered that she could now remember events that didn’t concern Rob’s presence.

“How are you going to do that?” asked Bella, trying to keep her voice down without yelling at her friend and calling her senile. “You don’t have a get out of jail free card and you certainly don’t have a choice but to do what you’re told around here. It’s bad enough they are going to starve us like dogs eventually and then there will be no Old Worlders left to try and bring Spyral down.”

“I want to see this heir of Spyral’s they’ve got now to precede this tyrant,” Ravyn commented softly. “If I provoke the heir I don’t get done for treason because I am not directly doing it to that two-faced brat.”

“What are you talking about, two-faced brat?” Bella pouted. “She never had two faces, just the bratty one face of a tyrant’s that one day I am going to punch and distort that pretty face of hers.” Suddenly everyone stopped, as Fox found herself being crammed between two women. She pushed her way free as she realised she had lost herself and detached herself from both Bella and Ravyn. “Where the hell is Fox?”

“Bella!” yelled Fox, as she put her hands up in the air. Both women could see it, but there were just too many people in the way and the last thing Ravyn wanted was to be trampled over.

“Just stay put, okay? We’ll see each other at the farms!” Bella yelled back, as Fox nodded to herself, but because neither Bella nor Ravyn were near her to see Fox nod to herself. She looked to Ravyn. “This better be worth my short attention span when it comes to people and things I hate.”

“Everyone in a line!” ordered the guard who was at the front of the bunch of women that looked like they were ready to just smack someone’s face in with a weapon of some sort. “Now!” There was a hustle and some noises made to try and get everyone into a straight line, as Ravyn moved next to a random woman that she had no idea who she was, but knew she was an Old Worlder because she wouldn’t be here and she also lacked a New World and moved to Bella’s left.

“Should I be worried that you’re going to make a run for the watch towers that line this place and try to do something stupid?” asked Bella, whispering it into Ravyn’s ear. Ravyn shook her head. “Good. Only the heir right and not to the actual brat’s face?” Ravyn nodded. “Again, what is it going to achieve? I got lost in that part.”

“Wait and see,” replied Ravyn, with a small smirk on her face.

“Shut up!” yelled the guard as he stood in front of the now straight line of prisoners that looked like an army drill with the soldiers listening to their commanding officer and awaiting instructions. “There is to be no speaking from no one. Those who oppose will be extradited to the jail cells of Spyral and awaiting exile.” Ravyn was about to be a smart ass and question why they weren’t going to get immediate death on the spot or torture, like previous cases got the privilege of being killed or have their internal organs be fed upon by ravenous beasts of all kinds. Then she decided not to as her mouth drop as she saw Joanna walking through the large and spiky gates of the camp with a young adult woman and an elder man.

Ravyn had completely forgotten about Joanna and now started to wonder what she had been up to since they left each other in the market place. She opened her mouth to say something but she closed it as Bella shook her head.

“The brat hasn’t changed since our last encounter, still in her imported corset outfits,” Ravyn heard Bella mutter under her breath. “And looks like Draven’s gone back to kissing some ass even more, first it was Jonathon’s and now looks like he’s kissing both the heir’s and the –” Bella stopped and yelled at the top of her lungs but still in a low mutter “Holy shit! Joanna’s the heir?! What the fuck is wrong here, I wonder! Not only did she double cross us and disappear when we were fighting, she’s actually backstabbed us, what a surprise!” Bella laughed at the last comment, as she realised she should’ve seen this coming as Joanna was a New Worlder after all.

“Keep it down!” yelled the guard, giving Bella an evil look. “Keep it down or lose the tongue, now which one do you want?” Bella bowed her head down as her response. “That’s more like it. Now everyone, be quiet.”

Bella raised her head again and looked to Joanna’s sister on the side of her.

“Am I just seeing things but what the hell?” asked Bella, as Ravyn then realised that everything made sense; the heir was coming down along with one of Jonathon’s friends and the ruler. “Are you still sure that you want to provoke the heir still?” Ravyn nodded as she remembered the things that really annoyed Joanna, like stupid little pet names.

“If it gets me in,” answered Ravyn softly as she couldn’t turn away from the feeling of being deceived by her own blood. She couldn’t even trust her own family, that’s how hurt she felt. Joanna had now been pronounced as the next ruler, and the last thing Ravyn wanted was a beta version of a more horrible world. “I am after all her sister; I know how to get to her.” The trio walked down together, as the ruler, or so it seemed wore her imported corset attire that Bella spoke of.

“Good day to you, filthy Old Worlders,” introduced Joanna, as the ruler and Draven stood behind Joanna, as Joanna held her hands behind her back and paced backwards and forwards, up and down the line. “As witnessed from the previous evening’s events it is now war against your generation of people who dirty the streets of Los Angeles with your daft ideals and dim-witted antics. But fear not, Spyral is here to help you. Do as we say and you will be set free.” The ruler smiled at the last sentence, as Bella and Ravyn both knew they all were going to starve to death before they had a chance to be set free. “We at Spyral are good in a way; we are only trying to do what is best for society. Don’t be fooled by us though, we are not babies and we look at everyone, even the New Worlders, with sharp eyes.” Joanna stopped in her tracks. “I explicity say this, you aren’t powerful you are all weaklings compared to Spyral and the generation of New Worlders that purify the streets of the City of the Angels.”

“Don’t be fooled by us Jo, we’re more powerful than you think we are,” said Ravyn, smirking at the Joanna’s nickname that she had always hated to be called by. Joanna frowned as the guard huffed and started to walk over to Ravyn. He grabbed her arm, as Joanna walked back and ordered the guard to let go of the Old Worlder that chose to speak up. The guard huffed again and retreated back to his original position as Joanna looked at Ravyn with curiosity. “What? And while you’re at it, you may want to correct yourself; it’s now the City of Fallen Angels.”

“What did you just call me, prisoner?” asked Joanna, full knowing who Ravyn was, but decided to act dumb anyway, because there was no point trying to explain herself to an Old Worlder.

“By the name you’ve always loved to be called by, Jo,” answered Ravyn with a smile on her face. “Isn’t that right, Jojo?”

“Don’t mock me, and certainly don’t call me by that name,” retorted Joanna, crossing her arms and looking at her deprogrammed Old World sister. “In fact, don’t speak of any addresses to me, I don’t want your filthy mouth saying my perfect and clean name.”

“You were always one for being up yourself, Jo, always the child that was the bees knees of society,” continued Ravyn, as Fox was down the line, praying secretly to herself that Ravyn would just shut her mouth. “Always wanting the attention off the folks.” Some people gasped as they realised that Ravyn and Joanna were relatives of some sort.

“Quiet!” ordered the guard, hushing the gasping.

“Are you asking for immediate death or am I just being daft?” asked Joanna. “Oh wait, reality check, I cannot be daft because I am one step behind the ruler of being perfect. I’m closer to perfectness than you will ever be, Old Worlder.”

“Go flaming nuts, you can shake me, but you can’t break me, biatch,” retorted Ravyn, knowing that would certainly rock Joanna’s boat on several levels. Bella pleaded with herself secretly to not let loose as well, as she was very much tempted to join Ravyn’s parade of contaminating Spyral’s authority over the New World. Bella then thought of Fox, and where she was and how she was going to survive by not having anybody read the seedling instructions for her. Bella shrugged at her thoughts thinking she better keep her mouth shut for Fox’s sake.

“Guards, take her to our cells!” ordered Joanna, as two guards came out of the darkness behind the line of women and grabbed hold of Ravyn’s arms. Joanna smiled evilly as Ravyn smiled back sarcastically. “You’re not going to be seeing too much of that attitude of yours for quite some while now.”

“Tootles, send me a postcard while you’re away,” whispered Bella, as Ravyn gave her a smile and she was dragged by both arms into darkness. Ravyn knew within herself that Joanna, just in general, was easy to provoke given that Ravyn screwed around with the right chords that held her together. Even though now Joanna was now the heir to the throne and had changed dramatically compared to a few days ago when they last saw each other, her chords that made her angry hadn’t changed, her being a New Worlder and all, wasn’t really hard to figure out.

“See that guy?” whispered the woman that once stood next to Ravyn but now had merged in with connecting the line of prisoners and now next to Bella. Bella nodded. “They call him The Islander, because apparently after the blast he was swept off his boat and forced to live on an island.” Joanna was still talking about life and death in the camp and trying to prove to Sarah that she was authoritative and could implement every word that was said. “That’s where Jonathon found him, on an island off Mexico.”

“You know what?” asked Bella, whispering as well. “I know him, his name is Draven and we were high school sweet hearts back in the Old World. He’s the biggest ass to walk the planet. Don’t ever go out with him, especially now that he works for Spyral. Unless you want your husband to backstab you of course, by all means, go nuts.”

“The name’s Mary,” answered the woman, still whispering, as she was careful not to move her lips too much. “Yours is dear?”

“No it’s not dear, it’s Bella,” answered Bella, as she smiled slightly at her own joke. “Better stop talking hey, Mary? Unless you want to be a Bloody Mary by the time that rat bag is through talking to us.” Both women smiled at Bella’s Old World allusion to the cocktail that was once served in bars and restaurants.

“You are Old Worlders! You are not loved by society and we cannot have you dirtying our streets!” ordered Joanna, continuing her pacing backwards and forwards in the line of prisoners. “Thus, we have proposition for you to change your ways and be accepted into society. We’ll do you a favour, we’ll rip you of those awful memories you have of the Old World so you don’t have to think about the politicians and the democratic bullshit back then. Choose to accept and Spyral will love you with all of its loving arms. Choose to deny such love from Spyral, and you will ultimately be killed from New Worlders.”

“I think she means that Spyral’s going to kill us all eventually, because we all hate New Worlders,” Bella corrected, whispering it Mary. Mary nodded in agreement with her ginger red hair also in knots in it and was starting to flutter in the breeze that was slowly picking up. “Spyral’s full of shit, period. No debate.”

“And no argument either,” Mary added, as Joanna stopped talking. They stopped talking because the last thing that they wanted to do, is end up like Ravyn because they were talking. They were even surprised that none of the guards had heard them whispering, let alone seeing their lips moves. Joanna started talking again as though she was the one that was ruling the world right now, not as the heir that was bound to make everyone’s life a living planet hell multiplied by ten. “They must think we’re lip syncing or something. Are they really that stupid?”

“You have no idea,” answered Bella, as she was about to roll her eyes, but stopped, because she realised that the guards would conclude that she was either talking while Joanna was giving her speech that was supposed to scare everyone out of their socks (metaphorically speaking as no one who was a victim in this scenario of a society gone wrong was wearing socks or even shoes) or she was rolling her eyes at Joanna, in all actual truth, Bella was tempted so badly to roll her eyes at Joanna. “I’m picking out a postcard for Ravyn, what should it be of?”

“You should wait until this society is destroyed before picking out postcards,” answered Mary. “It should be of Welcome back to the Old World with a dolphin jumping out of the sparkling blue ocean on it.”

“That should be soon in that case,” Bella faintly smiled, as the thought of Project Tourniquet’s perfect but yet broken ideal coming into play. She knew that Rob and the group were too dead set on getting back the Old World and its values that it had to be ignored due to the conflict in the marketplace between the two generations. She knew that Ravyn was going to somehow bring Spyral to a standstill with the virus that Chaz had obviously completed. But what concerned Bella the most, was, when was she and the rest of the Old Worlders were going to get out of this camp alive, let alone thinking about how they were going to do it as well.

“What are you smiling at, prisoner?” asked Joanna, noticing Bella’s faint smirk, as Joanna came back from her position at the end and looked at Bella directly in the eyes. “Is there something funny about what I just said?”

“No, I am only jealous of your beauty and your gracefulness,” Bella sucked up to Joanna, big time.

“You smile when you’re jealous of something or in my case, of me?” asked Joanna, a bit confused by Bella’s answer.

“Yes, I work in weird ways,” answered Bella, trying not to laugh in Joanna’s face about the amount of lies that Bella had just spoken to the heir. Not to mention how funny she thought Joanna was trying to act like she was already the ruler of the entire planet. “I apologise for my Old World ways, I’ll change them just for you.”

“That’s very nice to hear from you,” smiled Joanna, as Bella was trying so hard not to slightly show any indication of laughter. Joanna continued on with her speech. “More people should be like that prisoner, I just spoke to!” Joanna turned around and looked at Bella. “What is your name?”

“Ravyn,” answered Bella, knowing that the name would ring a couple of bells. In fact, she was so surprised that Ravyn hadn’t been taken away sooner but from Sarah’s order as Bella knew too well who Ravyn was and what she had done in the past concerning Project Narcissi Extraction. Bella was there, young she was, but she remembered the blow to the heart Ravyn did with a syringe to Sarah’s mother.

“You aren’t her,” debated Joanna. “The guards just left with her.” Bella thought to herself that it was pretty so damn stupid of Sarah, that the killer of her mother was standing here just minutes ago and jack all was done about her until she spoke and did something that was against the rules set down to the prisoners. “You lie!” Joanna looked back to Sarah for answers, in which Sarah in all truth was failing at the perfectionist image about knowing everything.

“I don’t lie to anyone, not even to myself,” replied Bella. “The woman you just took was Bella.” She looked to Sarah to see a confused ruler standing next to Draven. “And yes, little biatch, I am the one that killed your mother. She screamed like a little girl.”

“Imprison her immediately in our cells!” yelled Sarah, who was still standing next to Draven still with a furious look on her face which was a drastic change from a confused look that she had originally had when Joanna looked to her for answers. “Death awaits, Ravyn.”

“You want a postcard?” asked Mary, whispering to Bella, as Mary was a bit confused as well, given that they had only just met. Bella was grabbed by a pair of guards. Bella managed to nod and smile as she was dragged off, the same way that the real Ravyn had been dragged off to.

Bella had completely forgotten about Fox as Fox stood there alone and confused as ever. Fox didn’t know what to do or say, in fact, she felt like grabbing Bella and trying to free her from the grasps of the guards. But the only thing that was stopping her was the gut wrenching feeling that hibernated in the back of her head that told her that it was time to stay still and to not to grab Bella and try to run.

“Fuck that thought,” Fox told herself, as Bella was dragged past her. Fox turned around quickly and made a dash to free Bella. She grabbed the both of the guards’ hands and tried to bite them. Two at a time, she tried to bite, two hands at a time, which belonged to either guard. One of them shrieked in pain as Bella tried to free herself, but their one hand grip on either one of her arms was too strong.

Reinforcements were called in, and Fox found herself shortly holding out to Bella, as she was dragged in the opposite way. Fox knew she wasn’t going to the Spyral headquarters with the real Ravyn and the fake version of her, she knew she was going somewhere else. Fox wailed and screamed out for Bella, but not mentioning her real name, but more so screamed out the name Ravyn, but nonetheless Fox screamed out for Bella to help her, while Bella couldn’t do anything as she was immobilised by fear and now was blinded by tears that Fox was now a goner, or so she assumed.

Bella was now out of sight for Fox, as Bella thought the worst was going to happen to Fox, as there were rumours of the women being raped by the male guards and all sorts of stuff being flown around the rumour mill around the camp. They taped Bella’s mouth and blindfolded her, as Fox’s screams and cries for help became distant. The last thing that Bella remembered was the smirk on the guard’s toothless face.

****

Another moment