A bit overdue. A second one coming soon
after this.
Vanya's Journals, Entry 22, Part 1
The leather-bound book appears to be nearing its end - no more than a few entries are left. For a moment, you stop reading, glancing around for a fourth journal, but after several minutes you give up. Mr Frog's laboratory, where you now stand, is well ordered, dusty as it is, and there don't appear to be any journals following this one of Vanya's. You glance forwards through the pages of the one you hold, skipping ahead, wondering if Vanya died at some point. The final words read, "To lose her a second time... I hope I never see him again." As it sinks in, you wonder... what exactly did she mean?
Urist explained to me once why soldiers fight for their countries, and he did it in a manner I could understand... I found it difficult to believe at first, but eventually I accepted it... because when it comes right down to it... it's true.
Corporations, countries and fortresses are a lot like people. They have personalities, they can be good or evil, and they can be that infamous gray area. And just like people... they have problems. Some people can learn to love them despite these flaws; they can learn to devote their lives to them. And when the one they love is in trouble... they'll do anything to protect it from harm.
They have fights too, just like people. Sometimes they fix it with words, but other times it breaks into fistfights and bloodshed... They have little quarrels and grudges; they have dreams and desires. None of them want to die... and they're willing to fight for their survival.
There's always more than one way to look at something.
~~~
The gorlaks that surrounded us numbered twenty at least, and I was having trouble staying calm. "Urist..." I whimpered, "What are we going to do?"
"We are going to stay calm," he said, looking back at me coolly. "Mr Frog trained me in an advanced combat and training simulation room with others like Fischer herself. We will be fine."
"You'll be fine!" I cried out unhappily. I scooted closer to him as the gorlaks slowly, cautiously approached. "They're going to kill me, though!"
Urist's response stopped me in surprise. "I thought you wanted to die." A wry smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"I..." I didn't know what to say. "I... I don't know..."
Knowing that Urist loved me changed things, but I didn't want to tell him that. Suddenly I had something to live for. It didn't matter if my sister had been real or a dream; it didn't matter that Mr Frog believed I was a failure. "I don't want to die anymore," I said, looking away. My eyes wandered back to the gorlaks that surrounded us, growling sinisterly.
"I am not going to let you die. Just stay close."
Somehow it calmed me, and I stood behind him, my back to his, watching the huge, tusked faces as they came ever nearer. They were protecting their nest... they saw us as a threat. They also clearly weren't intelligent to realize we were just passing through.
"Now!" I heard Urist yell, as he grabbed my hand, yanking my arm almost out of my shoulder as he barreled through the nearest side of the ring with me in tow. The gorlaks appeared just as surprised as I we bowled them over onto their backs.
The gorlaks remained behind us, growling and roaring at us as we escaped. "Urist, that was brilliant!" I laughed, as we ran through the caves. Everything was pitch-black again, but I didn't care. When you come seconds away from losing your life, little things like that feel trivial. I was safe.
At least, I thought I was, if only for a few minutes. "We went the wrong way," Urist finally said in his deep undertones.
“What?” I was silent for a moment as I processed it, my merriment fading from my face. What do you mean, 'the wrong way'? We escaped... We're headed back to Spearbreakers now... ...aren't we?"
I couldn't see him, but I could imagine the slow shake of his head, as he chuckled grimly, “It is always ‘what?’ with you.” He slowed to a stop, and I matched my pace with the sound of his to keep from slamming into him. "Fortunately, we have the guns," Urist said in somber satisfaction, and I heard the creaking hinges of a chest opening, the sound of someone digging through metal objects within. "You will need to carry one of them."
"What?” I began. “No! I'm not going to -" Urist pressed a cold metal object into my hands, and I stopped, feeling of its shape. It wasn’t hard to discern that it was a weapon.
"If you do not put it to use, we may die as we pass back through," Urist warned.
I puzzled it over in my mind, my feelings mixing and conflicting with each other like oil on water. "I don't want to die..." I whispered, my voice like an echo. "But... I don't want to kill anyone... or anything..."
Suddenly I heard the chest slamming shut, and it startled me. "Come." Urist took my hand and began to lead me through the dark at a slower, quieter pace. I felt over the heavy weapon in my hand, testing its weight, and then I realized... I didn't even know which end was the front.
Urist and I walked a while farther, pausing every now and then to listen, or in Urist's case, look. Before much longer, I was able to make out the reflection of moonlight on the muddied crystal pool, far ahead of us between the gently waving corridors carved through the rough, cracked rock.
"There it is..." I whispered, once again awed by its peaceful serenity. "But where did all the gorlaks -" Urist quieted me with a finger to my lip. I understood what he meant. We couldn't make a sound. I had hopes that we might not even have to fight any gorlaks at all, and that they'd maybe retreated into the shadows.
We reached the edge of the pool chamber, and I listened carefully, my eyes wandering over the darkened ripple reflections on the walls, as embedded sheets of gemstone shimmered with an eerie beauty.
Eyes ahead, Urist motioned for me to follow him, and I did, stepping as silently as I could across the little pool. I was quieter than a dwarf was, I'd noticed before. I didn't really know how that was even possible, and it’d never proved so useful before. I only wished Urist's little splashes in the water as he walked could make less noise.
I heard it before Urist did – the low, ominous rumble of a gorlak. I don't know how it managed to sneak up. I spun, looking behind us into the eyes of a huge alpha gorlak, readying itself to leap upon us. It wasn't even three feet away.
"Urist!!!" I yelled, throwing myself against him to try to knock him out of the way, just as I had done two years before at the depot. This time, however, either I misaimed my leap, or he stepped out of the way: I slipped beside him and fell as the gorlak charged Urist, knocking him onto his face in the cold pool. I scrambled for my weapon, trying to figure out which direction was the front, but Urist was ahead of me.
Urist spun, even lying down, and scooted backwards away from the creature as he fired rounds into its face. But the gorlak managed to take several step forwards, despite the hail of gunfire, lowering its tusked mouth for a goring strike. It stepped forwards, shuddering as the bullets ripped through its skin, leaving myriads of tiny holes, and then finally fell prostrate to the floor. Little specks of blood dotted the water around us, spreading slowly, and the around the dead creature it reddened to a deep crimson.
"Vanya, get up, we need to go," Urist said, grabbing my hand, and for once, he didn't seem calm. A quick glance around the room told me why: hordes of gorlaks were standing in the shadows just outside the room. They’d witnessed our actions… and they looked very, very angry.
"There's so many..." I breathed, glancing about at them in bewildered fright. I felt my legs raise me from the water beside Urist, felt the assault rifle level itself in my hands. "I don't want to die..." I whispered, and my voice increased in volume as I repeated it: "I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die!" Only minutes earlier I'd discovered the happiest thing I'd felt since my sister had died: love. I didn't want to lose it. “I don’t want to die...”
"Then don't." Urist said simply.
Biting my lip, I braced myself for the recoil and pulled the trigger.
Click.
Urist had given me Hans' empty weapon by mistake.
The multitude of greenish, tusked beasts rushed towards us, roaring in unison as they charged. I readied the gun like a mace - it certainly felt heavy enough. I only hoped it would be.
"Armok hear me!" Urist shouted, his voice echoing, reverberating through the caverns as he raised his subrailgun, and with a long, loud yell, he fired into their ranks, blood splashing and spattering everywhere. I turned away just in time to sidestep a charging gorlak, bringing the assault rifle down with a loud crack on the back of its head, watching as it careened away, stumbling and coming to an abrupt stop against a wall. A second gorlak charged - a third, a forth, a fifth, seven, twelve - it was all I could do to avoid being gored, ducking between them and jumping out of the way as they charged like raging bulls, oblivious to each other or anything around them. Several collided and fell, but I only glanced at them for a moment before smashing a second one in the tusks as it passed. I can't imagine how Urist was able to dodge so many and fire at the same time.
"Vanya!" I heard him yell, and I looked back at him in the center of the pool, all but his lower body concealed by the darkened, angry shapes of confused gorlaks that milled between us - I was standing at the edge of the room, separated from Urist by dozens of the creatures.
"Urist, I'm okay!" I called back, dodging another gorlak. Suddenly one knocked in the back from behind. I flew forwards into two more. They were slow until they charged and built up speed, but they were clumsy. Even so, there were so many.
"FOR ARMOK'S GLORY!" Urist yelled as a battle cry, raising his weapon and firing towards the ceiling. It cracked as the bullets from his subrailgun slammed into it. First splinters of stone and dust cascaded and scattered at the impacts, and finally entire boulders broke away with loud, resounding cracks, crushing the bewildered beasts below as they cascaded downwards. I tried to struggle to my feet, one gorlak after another knocked me aside, bruising my arms and legs. Finally I came face to face with an alpha gorlak that stood over me, ready to gore me with its tusks. A second stepped on my arm, a third on one of my legs - they may look short, but they're incredibly heavy.
I tried to get away, but I couldn't move, and I heard myself scream as the alpha propelled itself towards me in a furious charge.
I'd like to request Talvi added to the poll... Just to see if she'd get any votes. I doubt it, but hey, why not.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2273531 times)