Black Sunshine

Chapter 10 - Choices Made in Anger Most Often Affect the Chooser, but They Also Often Affect the Innocent

Nera stared through the window at the mass of cables and tubes that were going into Solana’s body and felt sick. Solana was suspended in the air with brackets holding her in place and looked less like a person and more like some sort of sick experiment. Green liquid bubbled lazily in a large vat behind her. She heard the faint sound of lots of voices chanting and the clanking of metal echoing from somewhere far off.

Three of the weird masked nuns were watching various gauges and taking notes. They didn’t turn around as Nera slowly opened the creaking door, and slipped inside. Ducking behind some conveniently placed crates, she surveyed the area. The warehouse contained metal walkways suspended by thick steel cables. There were a handful of open doors that contained more wooden crates like Nera was concealed behind.

She waited long enough to be sure that all she had to deal with were the three nuns in front of her. No more ambushes by significantly larger numbers. She had learned that lesson all too well.

This time Nera was ready for the magic that the nuns seemed to like to use to fight. She rotated the switch on the side, and felt her gun pull magic from the air. While the gun charged the nullification round, she aimed for the floor in between the three masked women. When she felt the whirring end, she pulled the trigger. A nullification round speared through the air, and with a soft whumph a large dome of dark blue light grew around the nuns speckled with constellations of sparkles.

The nuns were stunned by the loud crack of the rifle. Nera switched the rifle to mundane mode, and charged at the nuns. A quick burst of fire left the muzzle, as she shot at the first woman. Green light resonated in the air where the bullets hit a shield, which shouldn’t have been possible.

Nera could feel the lack of magic in the air as she entered the dome of anti-magic. It felt like a chill arctic wind running across her skin in spite of her clothing. She didn’t like feeling so cold, but it was better than a bunch of spells flying around while she was working.

The nuns pulled clubs from seemingly nowhere, and turned to face her. She pulled the trigger, allowing a flurry of bullets to punch into the green shields. She was frustrated that they seemed to have some sort of magic that she couldn’t nullify.

When she reached the leader of the nuns, she narrowly dodged a club, and drove the butt of her rifle into the woman’s stomach. The nun doubled over without a sound. Nera finished by slamming the woman’s head so it crashed into the ground. She spun around ready for the next.

She wasn’t ready for the grating scream that came from the nun she had kicked into the ground. She jumped back, aiming the rifle at the woman. What happened next she didn’t understand.

The woman was on her knees, her hands holding the mask, which had cracked in half. One half fell away exposing the face underneath. The face underneath was one of pure terror, confusion, and insanity. The mask began to crumble to dust. The woman’s eyes went up into her skull and she passed out.

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The other two looked at each other, cocking their heads at an angle, before looking back at the woman slumped on the ground. Nera gently prodded the woman with a foot, but she didn’t react at all. The three women stared at the body on the ground, and at each other for a moment.

Got it, Nera thought, Break the masks.

The other two ran at Nera wildly and soundlessly. She managed to grab the swinging arm of one, slipped behind her and twisted her head so the club of the other hit the mask. Nera felt the impact and dropped the woman. The nun flailed and screamed the same as the first one.

Nera swung her rifle like a club and shattered the mask of the sole remaining nun.

With the nuns dispatched, she spent the time to make sure that the handful of rooms along the wall were empty. Aside from crates in various states of being opened, and strange machinery covered in periodically blinking lights, they were. Finally, Nera looked over the edge of the metal platform she was standing on.

She hadn’t expected to see a sprawling cavern that had been dug out of the ground beneath the warehouse. At the bottom she saw what looked like hundreds of workers no bigger than ants bustling around as though nothing had happened above. There was a strange metal device that they seemed to be working on. Nera wasn’t sure what it was, but it was gigantic. She wasn’t sure how far the cavern extended past the edges of the warehouse, but from what she could see, the device easily dwarfed the warehouse.

It didn’t seem like there were going to be reinforcements from below.

Nera turned her attention to the horrible device that Solana was hooked to. She hesitated over the strange panel in front of it. She had never seen anything quite like it. Scrolling symbols moved across the glowing slab of what seemed to be glass.

She elected to ignore it and focus instead on getting Solana unhooked and away from this awful place.

“What did they do to you, Solana?”

Nera started by pulling the stickers connecting wires to her skin. The panel behind her turned bright red, and a screeching noise came from all around her. She shot the panel and it cracked and sparked. Luckily the noise also stopped. She waited, gun raised, for the sound of reinforcements that must surely be coming.

She held her breath until she couldn’t any longer. It seemed like no one was coming. She couldn’t help but wonder just what this place was. Finally satisfied that she could continue her quest to help Solana, Nera began pulling the tubes out of her skin. Solana bled a little but it quickly stopped.

She shuddered as she pulled the last wire out of Solana’s neck. It was long, and clearly went down her entire spine. It resisted being removed, and Nera fought back the desire to vomit. When Nera had finally removed everything, Solana was still suspended from strange hooks around her arms and legs.

A large part of her wanted to go down below and slaughter every one of those little black ants. And blow up the huge metal device they were working on for good measure. Maybe fill in the hole, and bulldoze the lot.

Ultimately, the larger part of her that simply wanted Solana safe and far away won out against her rage. She forced herself to take deep breaths as she stacked some of the nearby crates into makeshift stairs, and pulled her off of the brackets.

Solana began shaking uncontrollably. She remained unconscious but was letting out pained whimpering sounds. The shaking intensified as they left the warehouse. Nera could barely get Solana strapped into the passenger seat of her car.

With Solana convulsing wildly in the seat next to her, Nera sped away from the nightmares of the warehouse, hoping desperately that Doctor Shorque could fix whatever those monsters had done to Solana.

She silently swore that they would pay dearly for this.