As soon as we got on top of the stairs the scenery that opened in front of us was ruthless. Blood and flesh splattered across the walls while bodies of both guards and miners lay cold on the hard stone. The curious thing was that the ratio was fifty-fifty, but we had no time to stop and think. We rapidly checked our surroundings as we sprinted through the tunnels. Muù was lucky enough to pick up a rifle that he held with his lower arms while the others carried the pickaxe.
Tunnel after tunnel we ran up from the twentieth floor, the lowest, to the seventh without a single fight. Only once we reached the sixth did we see a group of slaves fighting against a bunch of armed guards. Their rifles were deadly. With just a glance I saw the two slaves at the front falling without even being able to say their prayers.
“Rookie, get behind me!” Shouted Muù as he readied his rifle.
He placed it close to his right eye and boom. Two shots were fired. Only two shots out of the forty and something magazine he had, yet two perfectly round holes formed in the heads of the two foremost guards of the group. They fell on their knees, empty as if void of all life they once possessed. It was quick. Too quick for the other guards to change the formation so the wave of slaves washed away the three unprepared guards. It was gruesome.
“Don’t stand there like a fucking stockfish rookie!-” Shouted Muù to wake me up from the sight “-Ya’d be already dead if I wasn’t here!”
“I owe you one!” I replied, happy that he was there with me.
We kept going up the floors, sometimes fighting together with other slaves and other times sneaking around a group of badly trained guards. All in all, I didn’t do much other than throwing rocks at them and steal the magazines from their bodies while Muù did all the killing.
I never asked him what he did before becoming a slave. And even if I did I probably wouldn’t have received a real answer. Muù never was one who liked to talk about his past but I was sure that those were not his first kills. The way he moved, the precision with which he shot…they were too strange for someone who picked a gun for the first time.
The real chaos began once we broke through a group of ten guards trying to stop the slaves from going out of the first floor. After them, only the camp separated us from the outside.
We could all hear the heavy gunshots, the lasers and the explosions that shook the ground. Outside of the iron walls at the end of the big cave we called base was a real battlefield, not like the skirmishes that we faced inside the tunnels
A robotic voice spoke loudly in the guard’s language as soon as around half of the full group of slaves entered the base. It was impossible for us to understand what that voice meant. But we all had a rather clear idea of what it was trying to do. The remaining guards were about to rally.
“Run rookie, RUN!” Shouted Muù as he began sprinting with all his might towards a broken-down wall.
I followed him blindly. I had no reason to think in that situation and, as such, I hid behind a small stone wall close to his. Right before hiding, I saw with the corner of the eye a group of guards getting busy with some kind of machinery on one of the watchtowers.
“SHUT YOUR EARS!” Shouted once again Muù as he plugged his ears with the palm of his hands.
I copied him just in time. A rain of bullets began falling from that watchtower. The machine gun they had set up was now dropping the bodies of our comrades like they were frail twigs in the wind. The blood began forming lakes and rivers.
The smartest ran and hid behind walls, heaps of rocks and bodies while those who went crazy began a suicide charge towards the watchtower.
I looked around. Searching for a way to solve the situation.
[The only way to leave it’s through the entrance. That entrance is guarded by the two watchtowers which one of them has…fuck! Now both of them have machine guns! The guards in the yard are staying under the watchtowers unless they want to be filled with holes by friendly fire….Think, think, think….Shit, that’s it! That tower’s got the base crumbling!]
I was excited. For the first time in more than three years I felt excitement. I just wanted to run full speed towards the exit, screaming at the top of my lungs and cleaving down whoever was in my way. Just like I did in my loved videogames. But this was the harsh reality and, even if I had lived once again, I had the feeling that this was my one last life. In that case, I had a plan.
I waited for the moment where the closer machine gun stopped firing and slid as fast as I could to Muù’s position. With my hands, I signaled him to let go of his ears and began explaining my plan.
“Muù, left watchtower, on the right angle, you see that?” I screamed in his ear, trying to not be shut up by the gunshots in the background.
“See what?”
“It’s damn broken down you blind fuck!”
“You don’t mean-”
“I do mean.-” I interrupted “-The guards on this floor are carrying grenades. We steal one, throw it there, hope for the tower to collapse and use the chaos to rush up to the right one using the debris!”
“You are batshit crazy, you know that rookie?-” Muù shouted with a grin on his lips “-It’s a damn suicide plan but let’s fucking do it!”
We split up, each of us running in a different direction and hiding behind a wall every now and then to send signals to the other. We didn’t even have to speak to understand that we had to search for as many grenades as we could. Though it was a difficult task since most of them were picked up by the slaves who rushed for the door. I was sorry for them but at least they were creating a big enough distraction for us to snoop around mildly undisturbed.
Others began following us as soon as they heard our plans and thanks to our numbers growing a set of grenades was found rather rapidly. Then, the signals started spearing.
“They found ‘em!”, “Grenades found!” and “Regroup!” began filling the little sporadic voids left by the lack of bullets. Once I reached the group I found Muù holding four grenades held together by some sort of string of leather. With a cheeky smile full of excitement and adrenaline he explained in some more detail the plain to everyone.
We weren’t many, only around a dozen in total but at least it was better than just us two. Furthermore, if too many people were to move towards the same position it would attract too much attention. Something that we definitely didn’t want.
The wait was grinding on my nerves. Every second felt like entire hours as I watched the bullets fly around the camp as they broke through bodies and softer walls alike. We were waiting. Waiting for the right moment to strike. Everyone with their eyes glued to the left tower just like owls.
Then it came. The moment to run. The gun had stopped firing. Be it overheating or reloading we did not care. With Muù leading the rush we sprinted through walls and broken down houses tripping, falling, standing up and collecting cuts and bruises. Though none of us felt pain nor fatigue. The adrenaline, the fear of death and the hope for something better were pushing us forwards, careless of whatever happened to us.
A guard noticed us and began screaming trying to alert the others of our presence. He was too slow. Half a mag of bullets began speeding over my head, fired by a couple of the guys that stood behind me. The noise alerted a group that stood near the dead guards who were trying to fend off some of the more tenacious suicidal rushers armed with rifles. It was too late, Muù had already thrown the grenades.
“COVER!” He screamed at the top of his lungs as he hurled backward behind a pile of debris. We all did the same until the loudest noise I had ever heard deafened us all and made our ears ring with pain.
Smoke, light and flying debris began shooting from the site of the explosion. But only when the satisfactory view of the watchtower collapsing on itself came before my eyes I realized that my plan was actually possible. A surge of newfound adrenaline and energy began rushing through my spine as I screamed my courage. The whole group followed.
The guards on the ground were too confused to understand what was going on and those on top of the right watchtower had a smokescreen of dust and debris that covered their sight of us. So we took advantage and ran up the makeshift stair of debris. The target? The other tower.
The people in the back also took advantage of the confusion created by the explosion and, invigorated by the opportunity, they began to rapidly flood the guards on the ground with their numbers. Theirs was the task of opening the door from the control room under the towers.
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My smell had gone awry ‘cause of dust, blood and metal, my hearing was also damaged since I had my ears still ringing. Furthermore, my sight was blurry due to the dust and little fragments of stone in my eyes. Nonetheless, I kept running with the same rifle I picked up before hiding and with all the shots unfired. It was bliss. At the moment closer to death I felt most alive.
The second tower was unprepared. The machine gun couldn’t turn ninety degrees so the guards tried using the guns they had. Yet the four guards couldn’t do anything against the surprise of seeing a dozen full-armed slaves rushing through the thick dust. In the blink of an eye, they were all lying on the ground. With both towers now clear and no threats reaching us, one big guy taller than any of us took control of the gun and almost ripped it off its support just so he could aim it at the guards standing in front of the door.
Bullets began raining on them from above and from the front. We didn’t wait much before they were all overwhelmed.
Shouts and screams of happiness and joy began filling the walls of the cave. People were jumping, hugging, crying over their lost friends and holding their loved ones. Everyone behaved as if we had already won…but I knew better.
With just a glance Muù signaled me to get ready as he took the foremost place on the tower and cleared his throat.
“MY FELLOW SLAVES!-” Began shouting Muù, pumping his chest with as much air as his little body could contain “-We’ve conquered the base and slaughtered the cursed guards! But don’t rejoice now. Outside of those doors a battle waits us, One far more bloody than this one. Ya hear ‘em? Those are the sounds of ships firing. It will be one hell of a chaos out there and many of y'all won’t survive. But I ask you this…ARE YA SICK OF BEING A SLAVE?”
“YEES!” Screamed the raging crowd.
“ARE YA SICK OF FOOD THAT TASTES LIKE SHIT?”
“YEEAHH!” Screamed the crowd louder than before.
“DO Y’ALL WANT TO LIVE FREE UNDER THOSE STARS?” Shouted Muù with tears in his eyes and his fingers pointing to the sky.
At his words, the crowd exploded in cheerings with grunts and war cries, shouts and rages, shots and claps. He was good at rallying people. I couldn’t help but wonder who that man really was.
“THEN GRAB YER WEAPON, KISS YER FRIENDS AND GET READY TO SEE THE SKY OR DIE TRYING!”
Just like the scene of a film, the thick iron doors opened as soon as Muù finished his sentence. Bright and warm yellow light touched our skins for the first time in years. Under it, the cave lighted with new colors, sharpening the gruesome sight from the top of the tower.
The people below didn’t even wait for the doors to fully open. Like mad beasts only fueled by years of pent-up anger, unhealthy doses of adrenaline and sheer hopes they began rushing outside, running on the hot sand. Only me and Muù were left on top of the tower, the others who followed us were now climbing down to join with the others.
“Ya ok?” Asked me Muù as he placed his squat hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah, just having difficulty realizing that we’re halfway there” I replied, filling my eyes with the bloody sight of the damned hell that kept me chained for three long years.
“Then get ready rookie, ‘cause now it gets hella deadly”
“What’s the plan?” I asked as I followed him down the stairs of the tower.
“Ya saw those big, fat spaceships landing left of the door? We gon steal one and get the fuck out of this sandy mess!”
“What? How?”
“How? ‘Just run, hide and shoot yer way through. Trust me on this one rookie, we’ll get out of here”
“Lead the way” I said after I paused before exiting the doors.
“Then ready yer legs, fix yer eyes on my back and warm up yer trigger finger. Todays’ a story ya’ll tell yer kids!” He said with a grin as he assumed a sprinting position.
[I will be free!] I told myself as I followed Muù’s steps and ran out of the cave.
The place outside was a total battlefield. If the ground had trenches I would have been led to believe I was in an actual war. There were the same lizard-like guards that kept us in check inside the cave wearing what looked like high-tech suits firing with laser blasters and normal rifles a bunch of green-suited people armed to the teeth. The slaves were doing what they could. Flanking groups of guards, helping the green suits and assaulting stationary guns and four-wheeled vehicles. They were basically everywhere.
In the meantime, the sky was being the stage of a battle between spaceships. I couldn’t make heads or tails of whoever was the enemy and the friend. There were long spaceships that moved slowly and focused on the stationary guns and other big ships. Various types of small ships chased each other around and every now and then fired a series of lasers down the ground. And then there were the fat ships, some laying around others trying to take flight and others again trying to land.
Me and Muù were just small and helpless. With no high-tech armors, no big guns and no numbers, all we could do was to run and hope.
Shots fired from every direction, some even dangerously close to us, as well as explosions from grenades and ships’ lasers. I could understand less than half of what was going on around me so instead of thinking hard I shut down my brain and focused on my friend’s back. I followed and followed him, through dunes littered with bodies and broken down vehicles, through fallen spaceships on fire and groups of guards. And finally, after an indescribable time, we reached one of the numerous fat ships parked there.
“Listen here rookie,-” Shouted Muù in my ear as we hid behind the ship’s landing gear “-I go in and clear out eventual guards there. Ya keep watch over the entrance and kill whoever comes near, clear?”
“Yeah”
We both ran as silently as we could up the ramp on the back of the ship that led inside it. I took my position after I moved a box that looked sturdy enough to withstand normal bullets at least. I, then, placed my head and gun over the top of the box, having a clear view of the space below leading to the ship.
Muù rushed inside and began scanning the ship. Even as I looked at it from my position the ship looked bigger than it seemed outside. It looked like a big square with three little legs and one small head made of glass on the front. A turtle so to speak. The interiors too were bigger than expected so of course Muù would take time, though the wait was excruciating. Only when I heard four gunshots fired and Muù’s deep voice screaming “Clear!” did my forehead stop sweating.
“Keep watch rookie, I’ll get this fat bitch flying in a bit!” Said Muù before entering the glass room that I soon learned was the cockpit.
I kept my position behind the box. Waiting and hoping that none would show up. I had yet to kill someone in the battle and the thought scared me. I had a rifle and a better position than whoever came to attack so I had nothing to fear but still…taking someone’s life weighed heavily on my mind.
[Shut up! Your plans have already killed people. And if I don’t kill I’ll be the one that ends up dead! Fuck! Those are the ones who imprisoned I shouldn’t feel pit-]
My thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of a group of guards dangerously approaching the ship. Five guys. Two with a high-tech suit and the rest with the usual turban and the likes. None seemed to carry lasers.
“Shit…Muù!? How long will it take? They are approaching us!” I shouted back at my companion.
“I don’t know. This piece of junk won’t let me start it!” Answered back Muù busied with pressing buttons here and there.
“What do you…Just do something! Press a button, pull a lever, I don’t know, just get us out of here!” I shouted now panicking thanks to the guards taking notice of us.
I had my finger on my trigger, ready to shoot. Yet I was hesitating. What if they have families? Friends? Children? Those thoughts began clouding my mind as soon as the eyes of one of the lizards came into view.
“I know I’m just…Yeah, it started! Now I just need to…Bloody hell with your fucking permissions!” Raged out the small man in the cockpit as he began to kick and punch everything in sight.
“Fuck Muù they are…Just fucking die you scaly fucks!” I shouted, finally pulling my trigger.
The closer one fell while the others, alarmed by the sudden death of their companion, hid behind piles of boxes and pointed their guns towards my position. A series of bullets began hitting the box, luckily I was in time to hide.
“Muù get moving!” I screamed as I unleashed a series of bullets towards a guard badly hidden, barely hitting his exposed left side.
“I’m trying ok?-” Answered the man “-It’s been more than ten years since I’ve flown one of these! Gimme a break!”
Other bullets began hitting the box this time creating holes through it and my right calf. As soon as the bullet hit, I rolled to the side, taking cover behind the metal wall of the entrance. As I had seen many times in survival videos online, I ripped a string of cloth from my shirt and used it to momentarily stop the bleeding.
Metal boots on a metal floor made a peculiar dull sound. One recognizable even in my not-so-lucid condition. One of the guards with the suit was already coming up the ramp. I grabbed my rifle tighter and prepared myself.
[It’s all or nothing!]
I rolled out from my hiding spot and rapidly aimed my gun at my enemy’s head. The finger pulled and the trigger answered, instantly the gun in my hands spit metal. Two holes formed on the black helmet that the guard was wearing while the other bullets cleaved the air without results.
I saw the eyes of my enemy. I saw their whites and the life flowing out of them. As if time slowed I saw his pupil enlarge and in his final moments, he looked at me. He looked directly into my eyes before losing his balance and falling off the ramp. My first cold kill. A cold feeling jittered through my spine.
One second later the ramp was raising up and finally closing that door between me and my jailers. The sound of that ramp closing and Muù’s voice shouting “I fucking did it!” felt like a gospel delivered directly from the angels into my pained ears. I dropped my gun and limped my way into the cockpit.
“Did we make it?” I asked with a pained expression on my face. My tone was full of doubt and uneasiness. I just wanted to hear good news after that experience.
“Sit tight and enjoy the view.-” Said Muù with a complacent smile on his red face “- We’ll be out of this planet before you can say ship!”
Upon hearing those words I crashed onto the leather chair behind Muù. Relieved but shocked. The pain in my leg was still pulsing, though the adrenaline was still helping me in subduing it.
In a sudden moment, I was pushed downwards on my chair as the engine of the ship began rumbling loudly. The ground appeared to be steadily drifting away from the cockpit. The ship was gaining altitude. We were flying!
“By the way rookie, in all those three years I’ve never once asked yer name!” Said Muù as he was bustling about with the joystick-kind of thing used to maneuver the ship and some glowing buttons on the side.
“Name’s Drake. Drake Jigan!”