9 – Inkens [cont.]

  “Veli? Are you going to talk to me? We can work this out. You surrender, these people live. I can’t say the same for you, but… I’m sure self-sacrifice when needed is one of your people’s morals or whatnot.” Inkens worked up another one of his demented grins.

  “Hey… Hey, your thugs forgot something,” Veli answered, a tone of rising confidence suddenly in his voice.

  “Really… And what did they forget?” Inkens asked.

  Veli patted the cloth above his right hand as a vindictive smile emerged on his face. I could see the one on Inkens’ disappear.

  “Did you fools check his wrists?!” Inkens shouted at the guards.

  Too late.

  Veli rolled back his sleeve, exposing his spinel. Before anyone could react, he hit Fletcher’s arm with an electric disk that left a faint trail of smoke in the air. The captain stepped backwards in pain, releasing Ruby.

  In the ensuing confusion, Martin turned around and grabbed one of the nearby soldier’s rifles, then flipped it and fired, felling its owner.

  “You worthless… Stop them!” Inkens shouted.

  One of the guards advanced towards Veli, raising and readying his shotgun as he did so.

  “Veli!” Ruby yelled after she reached down and pulled out a plasma pike that had been concealed in her right boot.

  Veli caught it, fired it up, and took a swing at the guard, hitting him and knocking him down the stairs. The last guard quickly came in to replace him. Knowing Veli was able to handle things, we gave him some room.

  The soldier aimed his rifle at the felile, but before he could fire, it was cut in half. He then pulled out a plasma dagger and took stabs at Veli, while managing to block a few hits with the small weapon. But it didn’t take long before the felile disarmed and then disabled the guard.

  “Oh, honestly, must I do everything myself?” Inkens growled as he pulled out his own sidearm.

  But Veli was simply too fast for the old man, and without even turning his whole body around, he swung the pike downward, decapitating the pistol right at the barrel. Veli swiveled around and pointed the tip of the pike at Inkens’ face, ready to strike him down.

  “Well, then,” Inkens said coolly. “That’s enough of that—I’ll have to deal with you later. Pilot, ready my escape ship.”

  “Yes, sir,” the pilot replied.

  This time, Inkens was too quick, even for Veli. He dropped below the floor as if a hatch had opened below him and vanished. Within a couple seconds, the floor returned, Inkens’ chair now empty. He had escaped through some sort of small emergency elevator.

  Martin stated, “Forget it, he’s gone. We need to get the prison—”

  “Attention crew, attention crew. Objective is compromised. Kill the prisoners. Kill the prisoners,” the captain announced over the speakers.

  Veli responded by leaping over to the captain’s chair, and then jabbing his pike straight through the seat. He then threw him off and down into the emptying control center below. It may have been brutal, but Veli had become something unstoppable by this point. It was as if he were enjoying what he was doing. None of us were going to get in his way.

  “You four—go rescue them.” Rupert ordered. “I’ll see if I can switch off those laser grids from here. Hurry!”

  Veli rejoined us, and we started our run to the cells.

  “Wait!” Martin stopped us. “They’ll be defenseless; we’ve got to get the pikes first.”

  “They’re in storage room 2-C, directly ahead of you once you get down there,” Rupert reported from the engineer’s chair. “Okay, this carrier has three escape ships. One of them is a private shuttle that Inkens is probably about to get away in. All of us can fit into one if these capacity numbers are correct—so you need to go down and secure one.”

  “Escaping? Aren’t we going to land?” I asked.

  “It’d be better off destroyed. I’m changing the flight path so we—ah… so it goes right into a mountain. We could make impact in about five minutes, so do please get a move on.”

  “Got it, Rupert.” Ruby replied. “Watch out for yourself.”

  “Where do you think you’re going, sweetie?” the captain, hunched against a window, chuckled in pain.

  Ruby looked at him for a moment before knocking him out with a strong punch. She cracked her knuckles afterwards, the smallest look of an enjoyed moment of revenge on her face.

  “You okay, Vince?”

  “Y-yeah… We came to get you guys… Yeah.”

  “Well, thanks. Hey, things might just work out.”

  She gave me a small pat on the shoulder, and we took off for the weapons cache. The few soldiers blocking our way were quickly dealt with, and it didn’t take long to find the storage room, where we opened a capsule filled with pikes, spinels, and daggers. Martin closed it again, slung it over his back, and then heaved the cumbersome stash out of the room.

  We returned to the holding cells where upon entering, a digitized voice made an announcement over the speakers, “Alert. Alert. Aircraft has suffered damage to navigational systems. Unable to re-establish flight path. Inbound obstacle approaching, time to impact is four minutes at current velocity. Recommend evacuation of all personnel.”

  Martin handed Ruby and myself pikes, and took the two available rifles. With someone possibly on their way to fulfill an execution order, we turned around to guard the door of the cells until the barriers were down.

  Martin quickly spoke up, “Everyone. We’ve come to get you out—for real this time. There’s a weapons capsule here. I know most of you can use a pike, and we’re here to provide.”

  Ruby helped by grabbing a handful of the weaponry and scattering them on the floor, tossing a few back to the other room as well.

  “I almost got the cells open,” Rupert came through on the speakers. “I’m slowing us down to the slowest possible airspeed to give us another minute or so. Bad news, though—Inkens just got off. Guess we won’t be seeing him for a while. Wait—wait, this should do it!”

  The lasers promptly disappeared. The prisoners fled their cells, most of them grabbing pikes or daggers. There were about fifteen captives in all, and they made the corridor a very tight squeeze when each was scrambling to the exit. But Jeg managed to worm through and meet up with Veli and the other two hunters.

  “Good work, Veli,” Jeg said. “Listen—you, Ornue and Mala, you need to escort the elders to wherever you’re going.”

  “There’s an escape ship of some sort below deck,” Veli informed him. “Right, we’ll get them down there. It’s top priority.”

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “Ha. I think I’ll have myself some fun,” Jeg said with malice.

  Before we could say anything else, he sped off, his red pike already ignited and scorching the air.

  The elders walking as quickly as their old bodies could take them, we cautiously made our way to the operations room to meet Rupert, who had moved to the middle section of the aircraft, now devoid of activity.

  “It’s all right, don’t rush,” Veli said. “Watch your step.”

  “The flight technicians… I think they already made it to one of the escape ships,” I assumed.

  “Then there’s only one left…” Ruby replied.

  “Yeah. I locked it down, but that won’t hold for long,” Rupert said as he rejoined us. “Let’s go. The elders will be safe here for the moment.”

  Martin smiled and tossed him his extra rifle.

  “Time to leave, then,” the boss sighed just a bit.

  Sasha fired up her two new plasma daggers and gave them a test swing, while Jess armed herself with a stolen pistol and took in a nervous breath. Pelter was given a knife, just so he had some means of self-defense.

  “Elders, keep going on ahead while the other hunters protect you,” Veli said. “We’re going to clear the way.”

  Leaving behind the rest of the felile, most of which were able to defend themselves, I went with Martin, Rupert, Veli, Ornue, Malahej, Ruby. We made our way quickly through the confining corridors of the plane.

  “Through that door, there should be the first escape craft,” Rupert explained. “Be ready for anything.”

  But as we approached, a technician seemingly came out of nowhere and slipped by us. He went through first and we gave chase. We entered the room in time to see him crawling into a vessel packed full of crewmen. He shut the door, and the ship launched out of the side. Once it began to free-fall, it fired its rockets and flew off in the opposite direction. Cold, strong wind blasted in before the bay door slammed shut.

  “Never mind them. Come on, to the next,” Rupert pushed us.

  The door in front of us, which led to the other escape ship, burst open. Three soldiers were a split second from shooting us, but Martin and Rupert fired first, forcing them to duck behind the wall. Veli and Ornue ran in, took them by surprise, and swiped with their pikes until the guards fell.

  We hurried into the next chamber to find it entirely empty, and the last escape ship left vacant, just waiting for us.

  “Here we go. We might only have less than two minutes, so let’s go back and get the elders,” Rupert ordered.

  “They got here first! Shoot them!”

  Two soldiers had emerged from a room ahead of us and were lowering their guns to fire when Sasha, closest to them, managed to slither between and behind the pair, where she used her daggers to cut the oxygen canisters on their backs. They quickly became disoriented, and it only took a few more seconds until they dropped to the ground.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Nice work!” Veli commented as she switched off and pocketed the weapons. “Let’s get to the elders before there are any more—”

  “You’re not going anywhere!” A soldier had suddenly appeared from behind, having come from the previous shuttle bay. He cocked his machine gun and was ready to tear into us. “You think you can escape, just like that? Death to those who betray the human emp—” he went silent.

  A glowing, hot pike punctured straight through his armor and then retracted. The soldier became limp and collapsed to the floor. Jeg stood triumphant behind him, smiling widely. His cloak was bloodied and torn—signs of previous close combat.

  “That was close. Thanks, Jeg,” I said as my heart skipped a beat.

  “Glad you could make it,” Veli added. “Now help us out here.”

  “Yeah, no problem. The metal men aren’t actually that tough at all,” he bragged and took a few steps towards us. “I’ve really been having quite an easy time dealing with the miserable—”

  Something came from the shadows behind him. I froze in place.

  “Look out!” I tried to yell—but I had no time to warn him. Only the faintest breath escaped my lungs before it was too late.

  A shot rang out, time stopped, and we could only watch.

  Jeg looked at his robe and put his hand on his chest. A look of surprise and shock replaced his smile in an instant.

  “What is…” he whispered.

  He felt the expanding red stain on his cloak. As his hand trembled, his face took on a look of despair before he fell to the floor. He stayed there quietly, his breathing now his only movement.

  “So, how’d that feel?” the soldier behind him said with vigor and took aim at the rest of us with his smoking rifle.

  I could only picture in my mind the look of pure rage in Veli’s eyes, as I was too fearful to see for myself.

  Before another second had passed, he let loose with a scream and charged. The soldier responded and fired a few shots, all of which missed or were deflected by the pike that came down faster than light. Veli landed in front of the armored man and hesitated for just a moment. The soldier, his gun jammed or empty, tried to back away.

  Though I couldn’t see the man’s face, I knew he was now the one that felt fear—maybe even regret for what he had just done.

  But nothing could hold Veli back. He plunged his pike with such force into the soldier’s armor that I could hear the air burst out from his throat as he dropped to the floor. But Veli wasn’t finished. He stabbed at him, and once more—and again and again, until there was only stillness. He fired out another scream. The smell of burnt metal filled the air.

  Afraid that he would hurt himself, I came to my senses, ran up to him, and grabbed him by the shoulders, knowing I was risking my own life. He thrashed about, but I managed to get hold of the pike to switch it off. I tossed it away and held Veli with all of my strength until he calmed.

  My felile friend looked at me for a second longer with emotionless eyes, until they began to water. The whites of his eyes had grown unnaturally dark, but that darkness quickly began to fade.

  He was petrified. He hardly even breathed. I stepped back from him and turned around. Ruby was kneeling down by Jeg, her lip quivering just slightly as Rupert desperately tried to stop the bleeding.

  But I could see that he already knew that none of his on-hand equipment could save the young felile. Ornue and Malahej were also completely still as they gazed down at their fallen leader. Martin was resting his head on his palm, shaking it slowly as he held back from any visible emotion. Sasha and Jess merely looked away and remained quiet.

  It wasn’t right. We came all this way with not a single casualty until the end. We probably all thought that this dramatic rescue attempt would be something we could celebrate later.

  “Veli…” Jeg coughed. “Veli… come here…”

  Veli managed to crawl over to Jeg, his body visibly shaking.

  “Take care of… Ornue and Mala… And… listen, have some trust in the humans… They’re friends… I can see that now… I would’ve never expected them to come after us…”

  “Jeg, no. No…” Veli whimpered.

  “Be strong, Veli. Don’t… ever give up. I trained you better than that… Be… strong…” Jeg slowly raised his hand, which Veli embraced as he tried to hold back any more tears.

  “Jeg, please… We can’t lose you. We’re so close…”

  “Life is unfair. That’s… that’s just the way it is. Hm, Veli… your eyes… There’s confidence now…” Jeg managed to exhale.

  “We’ll save you! You can’t…”

  But there was no reply. Jeg’s free hand fell onto the now crimson grating around him.

  “He’s…” Rupert murmured and stood up. “Veli, I know it’s tough, but we have to go,” he commanded forcefully.

  “No!”

  “Please, for everyone’s sake, we have to go!” Rupert tried again. “Do you want anyone else to die?”

  “I… I swear…” Veli whispered. “I swear, I’ll kill them…” He then shouted uncontrollably, “I’ll kill all of them!”

  I had to grab his shoulders and pin him against the wall once more.

  “I’ve lost loved ones, too. But it’s not the time to mourn. You’re a felile—you can get past this. Your elders told us how you don’t talk of death as a finality, but an end to one journey. You know your teachings, and we have to get off this plane before everyone dies. Do you understand? We have to get everyone off now, or this was for nothing.”

  He drifted off a bit, but got to his feet and wiped away tears.

  “Veli, we haven’t much time,” Ornue said solemnly. “The elders… They’re almost here.”

  Ornue and Malahej walked over to Veli and helped steady him.

  “Jeg leaves first,” Veli said quietly.

  The other two agreed with quiet nods. They picked up Jeg, leaned him up against a corner in the shuttle, and buckled him in. Ornue then removed his vest and used it to cover Jeg’s blood-soaked robes.

  “Stay here, Vince…” Veli said just above a whisper. “Rupert, get it running. We’ll be right back…”

  Rupert entered the attached vessel and sat down in the small pilot’s chair. He looked over the controls of the craft and tapped a few buttons to get the engines started, while the carrier’s system informed us that we only had a minute left before we crashed into the mountainside.

  Ruby and I took two of the seats in silence, while Martin took a spot near Rupert. Things became noisy again when Pelter, Jess and Sasha piled in, who were followed by the other felile. All of them noticed Jeg in the corner, but no one said a word.

  We only had thirty seconds left by the time the elders showed up. Veli and his friends guided them to the back of the craft and tried to slam the door shut—when suddenly Fletcher, bruised and shaken, came onto the scene and pried it back open.

  “Please! I don’t want to die here!” he begged half-heartedly.

  Veli stood from his seat and approached the captain.

  “You see him?!” Veli snarled into his face and pointed at Jeg. “My friend was just murdered. He died because of you!”

  “I’m sorry. I… I only wanted the money!”

  “Then it’s yours! Everything here is yours!”

  Veli grabbed onto the captain’s coat and pushed him onto the floor. No one tried to stop him. He slammed the door shut and returned to his seat near Jeg. All five of the elders gazed at the slain felile.

  “Brace yourselves…” Rupert said over the silence.

  With a jolt, the craft’s couplings released, and we were thrown out of the side of the plane, only a few hundred meters from the mountainside. We dropped like a rock at first, but Rupert soon fired up the thrusters to get us moving forward. We took off over the island and headed back towards the beach where the villagers were waiting.

  I glanced out of the window to see the giant imperial aircraft smash into the mountain, where it exploded into a fireball and threw shrapnel and engine parts in all directions. The escape ship was hit by a blast of air and some of the debris, but stayed in one piece.

  “I’ll kill all of them…” Veli repeated, muttering angrily.

  I pretended not to hear him.

  No one else said a word during the duration of the trip down to the destroyed pier, where the other felile waited on the beach.

  We gave Jeg a proper felile funeral that night, amid a small waterfall surrounded by blooming flowers. The villagers built a simple grave out of shining volcanic stone and the elders said a few words, as did the members of Jeg’s hunting group. Furnlo, who personally trained all village children in pike combat, eulogized that he may have been headstrong at times, but was deep down a very courageous boy who would sacrifice anything for his friends. Almsy was apparently close to Jeg as well, as she could hardly get any words out without choking up.

  As I watched all of this, it occurred to me that what Inkens had said simply wasn’t possible. These people cared so much for one another, and they could extend those bonds to us. The way that they had taken us in, fought by our side, gave respect to those lost—I was confident they would show us the same compassion in time. And I knew that if Inkens were ever seen by any of us from this day forward, he wouldn’t escape again.

  “He was more than a leader…” Veli said mournfully as he stood by me in the moonlight. “He was my closest friend, since we were young. He was the only one that would defend me during lessons. And when I was assigned to his group… It was different between us, you know. I just can’t believe how uncaring and hateful the imperials can be…”

  It took me time to build up the courage to reply.

  “Not all humans are bad, Veli. Most are good at heart, but they just don’t know the truth. If anyone saw what we did today, they’d have to stop believing in this way of life. It’s just that… people always think they aren’t strong enough to ever have an impact.”

  “There is more good in the world than evil. There always is. That’s what the elders tell us. I want to believe it, but evil feels so much stronger.”

  “But it isn’t. You have to remember that.”

  “I guess I should be grateful… I still have my parents—so what do I know about loss? My tragedies are probably just beginning.”

  “Veli…”

  “I’m… going to go be with them—my mother and father. It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other. We haven’t always gotten along.”

  “I understand, Veli. Take care…”

  “Don’t ever leave me, Vince,” I heard Ruby say by my side as Veli left. “When I took you out on that night… I never expected that it would lead to this. You’re already in so deep… I think we all are now.”

  “He’s special,” Tyu said as he emerged from the foliage and into the moonlight. “As a child, he kept close to his brothers, and never wanted to venture out of the village. He was shy and could barely hold a pike at the right age… Yet, there’s something in him that the rest of us don’t have.”

  “What do you think it is?” Ruby asked.

  “Whatever it is, I sense that it burns like a flame surrounded by the kindling to feed it. This power is contained for now, yet… potentially… unstable. But perhaps it’s just old instincts talking nonsense by this point.”

  “Are you saying Veli could lose control?”

  “Not so simply put. But he needs our support.”

  “Maybe all he needs is friendship,” I said. “We’ll watch over him. Could be we’re what the flame needs.”

  “It’s only been days since you two met…” Tyu replied. “But there is a bond already. There is something about the both of you. “

  “Maybe…” Ruby murmured. “We should set up camp somewhere safe, out of the sky’s view. We need rest.”

  “Yes, you’re right.”

  Without another word, we headed off, back to the beach as clouds covered the moon and blanketed us in darkness.

  The village spent three more days on the island holed up in the protection of a seaside cave, with the hope that we were keeping out of sight of any recon drones, or far worse, orbiting hyper-cannons.

  We were trying to come up with a way off by any means, but it all seemed hopeless. Our supplies were almost entirely gone, the escape ship didn’t have enough fuel to make it to any of the other islands, and even though Rupert converted the shuttle into a makeshift base, all it could really do was power an emergency beacon. The few ships in Hawaii’s ports were either unseaworthy or buried under so much rubble that getting them out would be a lost cause. The elders also needed medical attention, as their recent stress and lack of adequate care was taking its toll.

  But hope arrived on the fourth night, when a ship came in nearby. It first let out a wail, which was followed by an amplified voice.

  “Anyone here? Identify yourselves at once!”

  “Don’t be afraid! We’re here to help!”

  All of the villagers, most of them asleep, were awakened and got to their feet. We each quickly reached for a plasma pike—if we had one—and swung it in the air. Dozens of red and blue pikes glowed in the night, signaling that there were indeed people on the island. It didn’t matter who was out there, as we’d die if we stayed here any longer. If they were imperials, then we’d just have to fight them like we have before.

  But somehow, to our great fortune, a felile crew operated the ship. They came close to shore and picked us up in small lifeboats, the spotlights on the vessel lighting the way. As I boarded in the dark of the night, I came to realize that our rescue ship was actually an old submarine, most likely stolen decades ago.

  Once the village was secure, we set off from the islands and back out into open water. We spent that first night eating, bathing, and sleeping, the elders making a hasty recovery with the onboard medicine and clinic.

  The felile crew explained how they were part of a Chinese rebel force or something—the truth was, we were too worn down to focus on their story. But I did observe that the submarine was aptly named “New Courage,” and despite being noisy, rusted, cramped, and about a tenth the size of our former transportation, it provided enough living space for everyone. We could finish our journey in a nearly undetectable vessel with the assurance of safety this time.

  I could see the relationship growing between my group and the felile; that they truly were beginning to accept us as one of their own. Despite our shared losses, we knew that if we looked out for each other, we could overcome any obstacle. Perhaps at great cost, but with no sacrifice in vain when it was all over.

  I once more found myself wondering one night if we had made a difference yet. Had the other Resistance networks learned about us? Were our exploits, including taking an entire village across the ocean, whispered between the world’s other felile? Had we even done anything worthwhile?

  To me, it felt like we had only been running the entire time.

  And yet, simply by running, we had done something. We’ve kept people alive. We’ve kept a certain hope alive.

  We reached land in the early morning a few days later. A light fog lay on the sea around us, burning off from the rising sun in the distance. We were waking up to a new chapter of trials, and in this short time, we had all changed. We were done hiding. No matter what lay ahead, it was time to make a stand, go out into the world, and try to change it.

  And I knew that from whatever distance, Inkens was going to be an important part of my life from this moment on.