Chapter 23
Silence before the Storm [https://i.imgur.com/drVHsH3.png]
“I have a plan,” Jack said in a conspirational manner.
Mad Dogs looked at him with great expectations. Zaun and Linus had calm inquiring gazes while Orla had an angry and judging look. And yet even she couldn’t help but await what was the plan their old geezer came up with. Mad Dogs left the corner and returned back to the junction of four underground corridors to speak undisturbed.
“Tell us,” Linus asked, “How should we progress from here?”
“The machines are called constructs, right? Well, in my world we have similar things. We call such a Construct a robot.” Jack tried to explain,” But you see, nobody uses them in warfare with no human supervision. Do you know why?”
“They would rebel? “Linus asked.
“They would run away,” Orla proposed with confidence.
“Jesus, no! That is not how robots and artificial intelligence work, they aren’t sapient like humans,” Jack stopped himself and thought over this matter a bit more,” I will be first to admit, I know too little about our Construct friends around the corner. I can only speculate, but if they work anything close to robots in my world, all we need to do is to put forward an unexpected situation and they will go haywire.”
“Surprise attack?” Linus asked.
“Not necessarily. If these things are human-made or, umm, Eldritch-made, then these Constructs have their limits. We need to exploit their lackluster ability to improvise. Do you catch my drift?”
Youngsters looked at Jack with blurry, tired looks. Even Zaun didn’t seem as sharp and focused as his usual self. Danger and stress were putting their toll on young minds and all Jack could do was sigh in resignation.
“Let’s talk about it later. We will have to make some solid plans. For now, let me show you the living quarters of those creatures, and let’s rest for today.”
“We can’t do that and you can’t decide important matters alone, again.” Orla said pulling up her helmet and spitting on the ground, “Fallen Eldritch Priests from the surface can come after us any moment now. We need to move and find a safer place, if they will catch us resting, we can already say our last words.” Orla said.
“At least we will die well rested,” Jack smiled, “After an explosion like that, everything up there is gone for miles. Nobody will come after us or even suspect us to be alive. Besides, what do you propose? Run into the city crawling with the Eldritch?”
Orla was silent.
“If you will feel better, we can vote. Let’s vote. Why not? Democracy shall prevail!” Jack said.
“Shut your mouth!” Orla pushed past him towards the tunnel leading to the supposed living quarters of Eldritch previously inhabiting this underground mansion.
She bumped Jack off her path with her shoulder and strolled forward without looking back at him.
Jack just slowly watched the girl go.
“Don’t worry!” Linus said to him, “We just need to rest and calm down. She will be back to her old self in no time.”
“It is okay, Linus. I don’t mind,” Jack said with ice-cold calmness in his voice, “Zaun, go help her and Linus to find the rooms with those soft round beds.”
“Where are you going?” Linus said furrowing his brows.
“I will go after some of our supplies in the tunnel room. We will need something to eat and drink. Food is smashed, but it is still edible.”
“Then I will go help you.”
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“No!” aggressive denial from Jack made Linus slightly jump up.
“I need to be alone for a bit,” Jack said with a frost in his voice.
“Sure, I understand,” Linus said amiably and he went after Orla,
Zaun followed Linus.
After a few steps, he looked back at the junction and Jack was already gone.
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Living quarters consisted of a maze of interconnected rooms. Rooms were separated by the same translucent membranes and in far corners of this maze were rooms with beds in them.
There were four rooms which could be called bedrooms. Three of the rooms had small round beds with colorful pillows. Rooms were full of abstract-looking red stone figurines and scrolls with actual illustrations on them. Scrolls reminded the human books, usually made for children, with stories of grand heroes or the Emperor himself. These Eldritch scrolls followed the same theme as human children's tales, and illustrations on scrolls showed dragons and other creepy Eldritch monsters facing off against the small blobs of eyes and arms. Those were heroes of Fallen Eldritch Priests and these rooms were rooms of children laying dead in the tunnel room they arrived at.
The scroll she was reading fell out of her trembling hands and Orla jumped into the bed without removing any piece of metal from her. She just laid there face down and her body shook as she cried into a pillow.
Tears dripped down her cheeks and nose stump. Salt burned her wound and tears after passing it were colored crimson.
Crimson tear drops fell down on the bedsheets.
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Linus removed his helmet and slowly stripped down every last bit of armor on him. His muscles were burning like an inferno. He barely felt his legs after the last day of physical exercise. He would not whine. Never. He would die before he would allow himself to ask his team to slow down for him.
And yet, he was on his last legs.
After armor, Linus removed his leather clothes and thick gambeson which he wore under the metal shell.
Linus looked around the room. He occupied the master bedroom. It had a large and lavish bed in a weird circular form. The Interior of the room didn’t leave any shade of doubt about the intelligence of Eldritch Priests. The room had paintings of Eldritch sceneries on the walls, and a small table with a strange round chair beside it. On the table stood an inkpot with a feather dripped in ink and scrolls were placed in all corners of the room. There was some furniture, glass vases with plants, and even something reminding calendar on the wall.
But Linus was too tired to think about the morality of their previous actions. He didn’t care about the deaths of Eldritch or his prospects for the afterlife with his new sins. His mind didn’t wonder about the purpose of magical trinkets in all the rooms they went through. No. After every piece of clothing left his body, he barely got himself to the bed.
As soon as his head touched the pillow, he was out cold.
Right before he fell into the dream world, he heard the sad muffled crying of Orla. His heart clutched into his chest and daggers of pain shot through it.
That night Linus didn’t see a single good dream. There were only nightmares.
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Zaun didn’t choose to sleep in the bed.
First, the large man went through all the rooms in the living quarters and checked every last corner for something hiding and waiting to strike.
When there were no hidden foes to find, he checked on both his childhood friends.
Zaun smiled when he saw Linus sprawled naked on the bed completely passed out.
Zaun cried when he heard Orla silently crying in her small bed.
Zaun went back to the first corridor. First, he removed his helmet and iron boots. Then he removed the rest of his metal armor and placed it in a neat pile on the ground.
In his leather clothes and with his feet bare, he traveled forward silent as a mouse. He traveled back to the junction of paths and turned right towards the tunnel room.
After a short walk, Zaun reached the artifact room. Zaun silently crossed it and went forward without stopping. His feet didn’t make a sound and his breathing was silent. Zaun moved like a ghost through the corridor towards the tunnel room.
From the distance, he already started hearing sounds slightly muffed by the entrance membrane.
Zaun reached the membrane and silently pushed his head through to look at the right side of the room where corpses of small Fallen Eldritch Priests were left.
A human figure was hunched over them.
“YOU BASTARD! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!” Jack screamed and hit the corpse of Eldritch with his mace. Its flesh had already turned into an unrecognizable paste.
“WE WERE FRIENDS! NOW THEY KNOW! NOW THEY HATE ME, YOU BASTARD!” inhuman screams left Jack’s lips.
“Splash! Splash! Splash!” meat flew on all sides as Jack's mace fell down repeatedly.
“I WILL KILL ALL OF YOUR KIND, YOU FOUL DEMON!” Jack screamed.
He picked up a different corpse from one he just pulverized and started gouging its eyes out. One after another he removed them from the eye sockets and threw them on the ground where he smashed them with his boot.
Suddenly, something made Jack turn around in a sharp motion. He looked at the membrane separating the tunnel room from the corridor leading toward the artifact room, but there was no one.
He ran towards the membrane and looked into the corridor behind it, but the corridor also was empty.
Jack stood there for some time just looking at the empty corridor in front of him in silence.