Elias ran as fast he could to reach the abandoned mountain fort as guardsmen, around two dozen of them chased after him and fired their crossbows at him. But unlike his previous escapes, this time his will to continue the fight was sapped. It has been years since he joined the resistance to protect his city-state against ever-growing Iron Republic, but most of his operations were already discovered by Republican agents or if they succeed, it only attracted large armies that pillaged and burned everyone and everything that dared to challenge the authority of Republic and its Grand Chancellor.

Rain started pouring and made his climb much harder but also slowed down his pursuers. Elias hid behind massive boulder and moved to the next one once he was out of sight of guardsmen. He paused halfway to gain some breath, but he couldn’t stay for too long as guardsmen were eager to find a rebel leader whose capture (or killing if he resisted) would earn them a promotion to officer core. As he calmed himself down a bit, he started feeling strange pain and warmth in his left side. To his surprise there was a huge dark red stain on his shirt that was spreading to his dark leather pants and his cloak. That’s why he was so slow, he thought.

He took out his dagger and ripped a piece of his worn out cloak to make a bandage for the wound. It pain grew but he knew he didn’t have time to remove projectile right now. As he finished covering his wound, an arrow slightly grazed his right cheek. A lone guard stood against him, reloading his crossbow.

“I found him! I found him!”

Elias charged at him, hoping to silence him before others arrive, but it was too late as other guardsmen poured in from all sides and encircled him. Dressed in long gray and green coats with pith helmets. One of them, a short one with dense black beard and mustache stepped forward with a crumpled warrant in one hand and foggy glasses in other, reading loudly the content of it.

“Stop right now, you rebel bastard! Surrender your weapons now and you may live to see another day. By the order of Grand Chancellor, you and your re-”

His speech was cut short by Eliase’s throwing dagger which hit in the neck, choking on his own blood before falling dead.

-“Kill him!!”

Guards charged at Elias who drew his two daggers, ready to take as many guardsmen as he can with himself to death. A tall, muscular guard with two-headed axe from behind him swung at Elias, but to his surprise Elias dodged, turned around and cut his throat, leaving him suffocating on the ground while he charged at two swordsmen to his left. He blocked the swing of the first guard and dodged the swing of second swordsman from the side, hitting his comrade instead across his face and sending him to the ground in agony. Guardsman tried to swing again, but Elias tackled him to the ground and slashed his neck, killing him instantly. He turned around to others who were now hesitant to attack, frightened by the speed of his attacks.

“Is that all you got you bastards?”

“Draw your crossbows.” Five of them sheathed their swords and drew their crossbows on their back, pointing them at Elias.

-“Well, shit. You guys actually get supplied with that stuff?”

“ Fire! ”

A hail of arrows flew towards Elias, who calmly stood there with his eyes closed, accepting his defeat. But before any of arrows could hit him, he was suddenly tackled to the ground by a hooded figure. Raising his shield to protect Elias who was still in shock, he turned to him with furious look in his eyes.

-“You idiot! Are you trying to get killed?!” shouted the man, holding the shield with one hand and Eliase’s hand by the other. Elias instantly recognized his raspy voice.

-“Aleks! You survived!”

-“We all survived, but we couldn’t-” Another hail of arrows made Aleks focus more on the enemy, “I’ll explain later! Roxana and Mendy should be here soon!”

The duo was was pinned to the ground as enemy arrows constantly flew towards them, their only protection being large square oak shield that became heavier with each volley of arrows that got stuck in it. A dozen of guards charged at them with spears and swords only to get struck down by arrows from nearby gorge. Two figures stood there, and fired one arrow after arrow, protecting the duo from melee attackers and diverging crossbowmen’s attention to them.

“It’s them! Elias, get up! We have to break through before they reload! Now!”

Elias nodded and picked up his daggers while Aleks unsheathed his saber and both charged the guardsmen. Elias threw daggers at crossbowmen, picking them one by one, protected by Aleks who hacked the way forward with his saber. As the number of guardsmen was quickly dropping and as the rebel duo got closer to them, the commissar and his adjutants started panicking, nervously looking at each other.

-“R-Reinforcements! Call the reinforcements!” The adjutants took their horns and blew in them, alerting all troops nearby.

Aleks and Elias realized there’s no much time for escape left. They ran beside commissar and his few left troops, who quickly stepped aside to let the duo through the narrow passage

-“We have no time to deal with this cowards.” said Elias while pulling Aleks by his arm, “Follow me! The secret entrance should be somewhere around here!”

***

Scaling through the fort’s sewer system was hard as rain filled almost entire system and mixed with bat guano, while the bats constantly flew over them in panic, sometimes even attacking them. Elias held a small torch in his hand, followed closely by Aleks whose long beard and shoulder length hair were full of garbage from sewers and tried to pluck them out of it.

“Only a little more”, said Elias nervously looking for a hole in the wall that he was sure they should’ve found an hour ago. “Somewhere around here… or maybe…”

“Oh, cut crap already!, shouted Aleks, making an echo that scared another flock of bats and making the cacophony of wing flapping even bigger and louder.

“Just admit already that we’re lost.”

-“No we’re not!”

“We survived and fought our way trough only to choke on this shitty water.”

“I said we’ll be there soon! Have some faith in me for once!”

“I had faith two years ago when we started this fight, but now… you seem tired of everything. And I don’t blame you, we’ve all suffered same things as you. Just… don’t think you’re alone in this. Whole squad is with you, Elias. Till the end.” A faint smile appeared on Eliase’s face.

“Thanks, Aleks. I’m gonna make up to you for all my failures and all wasted lives. I promise.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The further they went the deeper water levels got, so much so they had to swim. The duo swum through the dark corridors until they reached a hole in the ceiling through which a sunlight emanated down below and shined on iron ladder attached to the wall and that led to the upper levels of fort.

“Finally. I started thinking we’ll drown here.” Elias let out a sigh of relief.

-“You bastard, I knew we were lost.” Aleks turned to Elias as if he was going to say something more, but instead started swimming faster, wanting to get out of the shitty water as soon as possible, “We’re gonna talk about this later.”

Aleks went first with Elias right behind him, carefully climbing on the wet ladder and followed by small flock of bats that attacked them in panic but were repelled by rays of light from the hole above and left them to climb out.

Aleks climbed into wide dusty room with rotten wooden racks with various weapons on them. Realizing he was probably in fort’s armory, he started blowing away thick layers of dust from them and inspecting them one by one. Elias entered not long after, coughing from clouds of dust that Aleks created.

“Gods finally decided to work in our favor, eh?”, said Elias with new glimmer of hope in his eyes, “With all of this this, we could train and equip a few new squads, right?” Aleks did not say anything, but Elias could clearly see disappointment on his friend’s face as he moved from rack to rack and inspected weaponry.

“I’m afraid not.”

“They’re rusty?”

“All of them. Bows are still usable but we already have enough of them.” Elias leaned on the rack and sighed in frustration.”

“Gods really do love to play with us, don’t they?”

“We’ll it’s not like we pray to them after all. I don’t see why would they help mortals who don’t ever ask for any blessing from the or respect their commands. My uncle was actually a priest of-”

“Aleks… " Elias interrupted him,” I was just joking.” Aleks gave him a confused look.

“I never understand your jokes. Nobody understands them, actually.”

“Hey, hey that’s not true, I always make Roxana and Mendy laugh. You’re the only one who somehow stays stone faced. By the way, where are they?”

“Well, close to fort, I guess. They said they’ll meet us in the keep. We should probably get going and prepare this place for overnight stay and get some rest.” The mention of rest made both of them yawn simultaneously.

“Now that you mention it, we haven’t really slept for days. I just want to laid down and forget this shitty day.”

“Alright then.” Aleks got up and headed for the exit, but halfway turned around “But let’s just make sure we examined all weapons and equipment. It’s possible we missed something if we’re this much tired.”

“Oh, come on. Do you always have to be so meticulous?”

“Yes.”

This laconic answers frustrated Elias more than any insult Aleks could throw at him.

“Fine, just hurry up! I can barely move my body.”

The pair checked rackets again, removing the sheets from them and shaking off the piles dust and did indeed found some weapons but in similar condition to previous ones.

“Told you. Now let’s go!”

“One moment. Don’t you see that racket with crossbows behind you?”

“Already checked it, Aleks. Now, let’s-”

“But don’t you see what’s behind it?”

Elias was on the end of his nerves, but decided to turn around and give a closer look.

A racket behind him covered a hole in the wall that led to the next room.

“It’s wide enough for someone of thinner build to get through.” Elias understood what Aleks meant by that and started walking back to the exit.

“Aleks, no, please-”

“ Mr. Findegan, you’re going in the wrong direction.”

“I don’t even remember this room on the map that I showed you.”

“ Just go through the whole and tell me what’s inside.” Elias finally relented and hurried towards the hole. He crawled through the hole and into a dark little room. With little light that was getting through the hole, the only thing Elias noticed was pile of wires, metal scraps and iron rods scattered across the floor. In front of him however, was a pile of huge iron horns, pair of sabatons and gigantic set of armor.

“Aleks, I’ll need some light here.”

Aleks gave him newly lit torch which completely lit up the room and left Elias in awe as he realized that it wasn’t just pile of armor.

“Elias? Do you hear me?”

“…”

“Hey! It’s not funny at all! Come back here!”

“…”

“Elias?”

***

Until recently, the keep of Fort High peak became over the course of the years a safe haven for rats in which they freely multiplied and expanded their territory to other sides of the fort. But all of them shivered and ran to their nests inside the walls the moment they heard footsteps and saw light approach ever closer to them. Two hooded figures entered the keep with torches in one hand and dagger in other, with bows on their backs, slowly walking towards the center of the large hall where general and his officers would discuss important military questions. Now there was only broken wooden oval table with wooden chairs thrown around in the center, while the corners of the hall were filed with thick layers of spider nets and rat feces. Seeing that they’re alone and in no danger, two figures sheathed their daggers and hooked up their torches on opposite corners.

“I think we’re safe here, at least from humans.” said one of them and took off her dark green hoodie, revealing a face of a teenage girl with blonde hair tied in a ponytail with a faint dusting of freckles across her nose that gave her more a childlike appearance. Beneath her hoodie was a simple green linen tunic with a light leather belt worn fairly low around her waist. She nervously looked around, disturbed by squeaking and chirping of hordes of rats inside the walls “You know, Elias told me that this probably isn’t a fort. He heard rumors about it being some sort of secret lab or something.”

-“Don’t change the subject, Mendy. We have to discuss with you some serious stuff.” ,said the other figure with stern tone and also took of her hoodie - young woman with curly brown hair and pale skin that was contrasted by her crimson red lips. Dressed in rusty chainmail, she walked with heavy thread of her leather boots around Mendy. There was anger in her tone and Mendy could sense it, which made her even more nervous.

“Roxana, y-you know how I feel about hurting other people… I don’t want to spill blood if there’s no need to-”

“No need?!”, Roxana bursted out, her pale white face suddenly turning red and her amber eyes furiously gazing at Mendy, “Our friends fought for their dear life, to escape from those republicans, and you still cant bring yourself to kill them!”

“But I wounded them and that was enough to make them fall back.”

“Are you aware of the fact that those guys would’ve killed you without second thought? Or maybe even raped you! When will you realize that either we kill them-”

-“Enough!!”, Mendy finally snapped, tears streaming down her cheeks, “I will never, never take life of other living being, even if it means I’ll die myself!” Roxana was surprised by this kind of reaction from a shy and aloof girl, but quickly regained her composure and snapped back at Mendy.

“Then you can leave resistance immediately! We didn’t start this movement just to scare invaders away, but to destroy them. They have to learn what happens when you fuck with the wrong people. You are free to go.”

This words shook Mendy to the core. She knew how demanding and harsh Roxana could be, but to think she would kick out her friend just like that. She wiped her tears and put on her black hoodie.

“M-Maybe you’re right.”, she said with trembling voice, still shaken by Roxana’s harsh words. “Maybe I should just go and fight in my own way.”

“Alright, then go.”

“B-but what about-”

“I’ll tell them you wish them luck on their fight on your behalf. No need for sobbing goodbye’s.”

This sentence hurt Mendy even more and she quickly walked towards keep exit, before turning once more to Roxana, hoping that she will change her mind and call her back.

But Roxana still stood in place, with her arms crossed and her amber eyes locking with Mendy’s, showing only contempt for the girl.

“Alright then”, she mumbled to herself, finally admitting defeat and leaving the keep with hurry. Roxana sat on the chair and burried her head in her hands, sobbing quietly. She already lost many friends in battles and the number of resistance fighters was dwindling and now she kicked her best friend out. A feelings of isolation and powerlessness came to the surface and her stoic and confident look started crumbling. She hated that feeling more than anything - she always presented herself as a strong, independent woman, capable to fight and lead as man, always in control of situation. Now she was in hiding again, fearing for her and her friends lives. Her breathing became heavier and she started sweating profusely. She ran to the windows, opening them to let some fresh air. A soft breeze entered the room, blowing off the dust and refreshing the stuffy keep. Roxanna leaned on the window and took deep breaths. The sweating slowly stopped and her breathing soon became normal again.

“I’m weak.”

She promised to herself that she would never become weak like this, but broke it again and again when failure and defeat seemed inevitable and she knew it. She clenched her fist in anger and lifted her head towards the moon and stars.

“Never. Never again.”

It was promise that she knew that she would break it again, but it was for her the only thing that kept her pushing forward ever since she joined the resistance. After calming herself down, she went back inside, but not before noticing some strange red light emanating from armory.

“What are those two doing down there-”

The red light suddenly dissapeared, only to be followed by an explosion that took out a huge chunk of wall. Shocked at first, she took her bow and arrows and headed for the armory, now assured that this wasn’t an ordinary fort.