Any thought of sleep was overshadowed by the decapitated bodies imprinted in the back of his eyelids.
Brit groaned and got up from his dimly lit cot, noticing that Regal and Jeringy’s beds were devoid of their sleeping selves. Everyone who had seen the results of the massacre back in the Piranha's headquarters seemed to have difficulties getting any sort of rest, leading to a very irritated yet silent crew. As Brit strolled out of his room and onto the deck he wondered what could have led to the bloodbath that used to be a crew of scavengers. In truth, he already knew what had happened, but his brain was still trying to understand how someone he’d known for over five years could have caused so much deadly destruction.
He’d seen the boat Henarie had stolen floating amongst the wreckage of the remaining Piranha boats, and there had been a clear set of footprints belonging to someone the size of Henarie, but there was no way someone he’d never seen engage in battles before cause that vast amount of gruesome carnage. Right?
The two boys were leaning against the railing of the ship staring out at the red horizon of fog when Brit joined them. They spent the next few minutes wordlessly gazing into the nothingness before Regal broke the silence.
“How?”
“How what?” Brit asked.
“How could Henarie have killed so many people?” elaborated Regal.
“I don’t know. They say you lose your humanity when you kill someone, so Henarie must not--”
“Not about that,” Regal interrupted. “I mean, I’ve never seen Henarie even participate in combat training since she’s always in her room sulking. How did she single-handedly kill so many people without getting killed?”
“Wait, hold on, we don’t know Henarie killed anyone.” Jeringy piped up.
“Oh shut up, Jer, I know you have a crush on her so your opinion doesn’t count.” retorted Regal. “One set of footprints, the boat she stole, the placement of bodies in the corridors, the repeated set of strikes indicating a style of fighting belonging to a single person, and her body was nowhere to be found. Hmmm, I wonder who could have done it? Could it be the same person who we literally know nothing about? Naw, that’s too easy!”
“Are you trying to start something because you’re really starting to get on my nerves.” Jeringy pulled up to his full height. “You know what, you’ve always been a dick and you piss me off! You always do things without thinking about how they’ll affect other people and you constantly fuck with me because you know that’s the only way anyone will ever pay attention to you. You try and pretend that you’re this funny, happy-go-lucky person but you’re just trying to escape. News flash, you can’t get away from yourself so go play your games somewhere else because I’m sick and tired of dealing with you and that past you carry around!”
Regal’s eyes narrowed and darkened as if a switch had gone off, causing Jeringy to flinch back.
“Alright, guys settle down.” Brit stepped in between the two. “We all just need to take a rest. Jeringy why don’t you go back to the cabin and catch some shut-eye. Once we’re all rested we can talk like proper adults.”
Conflict flashed over Jeringy’s face but after he took a look at the murderous expression on Regal’s face he quickly turned on his heels and marched to the cabin area.
“You know he didn’t mean to bring that up, right?” Brit tentatively said once Jeringy was out of sight.
Regal’s shoulders deflated and when he leaned on the guardrail it seemed like that was the only thing supporting him.
“I know,” he stated, “but you know how I get when anyone brings up that topic.” He rubbed his hands over his face as if trying to wipe away the lingering expression. “Jer’s right but I didn’t want to hear him say it. I’ll apologize when I see him. For now, what’s our next move?”
Brit stared out at into the murky red fog and took out the little black receiver displaying the remaining two dots indicating the trackers. Four of the trackers he’d placed on the Scout and the robot had been decommissioned somehow, but because they didn’t find their bodies anywhere at the Piranha base he assumed they were still alive and had somehow escaped and were heading to Onto. All of Brit’s plans were riding on an assumption, but if they couldn’t find the two at Onto they would track down the bag and sell its contents--if Eimose was willing to risk his life for it there must be something valuable in it.
“A weeks time will get us to Onto. If we’re the only ones on the robot’s trail we shouldn’t run into any trouble retrieving the bot.”
“And if we’re not?” asked Regal.
“Then we better pray to the gods we have more guns than the others.”
______________________________________________________________________________
“I’m not too sure about this plan,” Terra said nervously.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I don’t know what you’re not sure about. I’ve seen you take out a small army of Combatants, and those things can take down small countries. Just trust the plan.” Eimose defended, his breath coming out short since he was squeezed snuggly between two crates.
“The thing is, Neiman has been telling me that something on this ship doesn’t feel right. Even though he can read two human lifeforms, his readings didn’t sync up to when the guard was walking down the hallway. According to him, the human readings haven’t moved from the helm of the ship, so how could there have been someone walking in the corridor at the same time?”
“I’m sure it was just a mistake. Plus, you were kind of having a meltdown so maybe you just didn’t hear his warning.”
Terra tried to give him a dirty look, but even if her robotic face could make expressions her mask was still firmly in place. She did feel a hint of amusement seeing Eimose struggle to get through the crates, so at least that made her feel a little better. After a bit of quiet grunting to get through, Eimose squeezed his way back with an object in his hand.
“I-9 720. Holds nine rounds and looks really intimidating.” He stated proudly, holding his weapon up so Terra could admire it.
“What happened to the plan of me just barging in and ordering the ship to change its course to Onto? Don’t you trust the plan?” she mocked.
“Always have a backup plan handy. Plus, don’t I look cool?” Eimose posed with his gun and put on his most serious expression, eliciting a laugh from Terra.
Terra had noticed that after she’d calmed down from her moment of weakness Eimose had been making an obvious effort to crack more jokes around her and do things he thought would lift her spirits. In fact, it was almost as if he were actually treating her like a human. No, this was the man who’d refused to call her by her name until just a few hours ago, and that was only because of the threat of death. His acting nice towards her was so that his plan would work and they would go to Onto, she shouldn’t assume that he was trying to be her friend.
Eimose motioned for Terra to follow him down the cramped corridor, where they turned and went up a set of ladders, where they found an unlocked door and squeezed inside the tight space.
“Alright, the doors are about twenty feet ahead. Neiman is still getting two life signs?” Eimose asked.
Terra nodded.
“Okay, so let’s just assume there are three people and play it safe since there was that odd reading. You barge in through that door and do some cool robot ninja move to scare the shi--crap out of everyone, then I come out showing off my cool weapon and demand the ship be redirected to Onto.”
Terra waited to hear more but it appeared Eimose had finished speaking.
“That’s it?”
“It’s not robot science. We just need to get to Onto and we’re already in a ship, so it’s already pretty self-explanatory.”
“What if something goes wrong? What if they are armed with EMP guns? What if you accidentally shoot a wall and then the ship explodes? What if something breaks and we sink on our way to Onto?”
“You really like looking on the bright side of things, don’t you?” said Eimose sarcastically. “This plan is going to work out fine. They might outnumber us three to two, but you’re pretty much invincible so I think the odds are in our favor.”
Eimose went silent and quietly snuck out of the room, letting Terra ahead of him so they’d be in position for their surprise attack. Terra paused at the door, an odd feeling of uncertainty striking her system. Neiman still couldn’t find what was wrong with the detector as to why it didn’t notice the guard earlier but at this point, it was too late to turn back now.
Terra kicked open the door and the last thing her retinas picked up were a dozen females armed to the teeth crowding around consoles looking up at her with wide eyes.
“By the order o--” Eimose’s voice trailed off when he jumped from behind Terra and noticed that there were more than three people at the control center. “Terra, you should do your thing now, we’re skipping to plan F.”
He was tackled to his side and his weapon was swiftly taken from him in less than a second.
“Terra!” He cried out, but Terra’s body didn’t move. In fact, her eyes weren’t even lit with a soft blue light.
“If you’re referring to that piece of machinery you brought with you, it doesn’t work in here.” A woman in makeshift dark armor approached him with a cocky grin on her face. “Now begs the question, what should I do with you? Ladies, any suggestions?”
“Dump him in the ocean!”
“Scoop out his eyeballs!”
“Cut off his dick!” That one elicited a few laughs.
Eimose cringed at the dialogue, chills of fear shooting down his spine now that the whole situation was registering. He was going to die. It wasn’t even going to be a short death either, to these women he was a toy they could torture. And what had they done to Terra?
The whistle of metal and the sound of something heavy dropping to the ground brought him out of his momentary panic, but what he saw filled him with more emotion than he could handle. Terra’s head had been chopped clean off her robot body, oil dripping from her neck.
“What the fuck are you doing!” He screamed, forgetting his fear. “Don’t you dare fucking touch her!”
The woman in the armor slammed her boot down on Eimose’s face and he heard the crunch of his nose breaking and could taste the copper of his blood pooling in his mouth.
“Worry about yourself, pig. When we’re through with you, you’ll be wishing we cut your head off.”
Eimose spat out some blood and looked through his hazy vision to Terra’s motionless, headless body and knew it was his fault. If only he’d listened to her doubts she’d at least be alive on the ship. They could have just waited until they’d reached the shore, any shore, and escaped on foot with the bag from there. But now Terra was gone and he was about to be tortured all because he didn’t think things through.
“Ma’am, look,” the voice belonging to the female holding Terra’s head said.
A collective gasp filled the cabin and the female wearing the dark armor looked at Eimose with a mixture of awe and revulsion painted on her face.
“You are the owner of this mask?” she asked, although it sounded more like an accusation to Eimose’s ears.
“I’m not an owner to anything. She was her own owner.” He choked out, blood dripping down the back of this throat.
“I see. It may seem as if today is your lucky day. I’ve decided to spare you.”
Then she kicked him again and he sank into darkness.