[Gallop, Gallop] The sounds of hooves hitting the soil.
[Shriek! Shreik!] The sounds of the critters out for blood.
[ARRGH!!!] Screams reverberating in the background.
"What is going on?
We were in the wall, yeah the wall…" Marcus was struggling to open his eyes.
"What happened next?
Argh! My head hurts…I can't remember.
The door opened, th-then..." He was starting to put his thoughts in order.
"Daaad!!" He screamed as he opened his eyes.
Nearly two hundred horses riding away from the wall into the 4th sector, a truly large number.
They were dwarved by the massive horde of critters that were directly in their way; they were nearly tripple of that of the horses.
Running against them to the wall, collision was certain.
The horses had two riders each, their hands were in cuffs, the rider in front of himself was Leo.
"The helll is going on!" Moore thought.
He tried to move his right arm to clean his eyes, it wasn't moving.
He looked down, it was dangling; his right hand was broken.
He tried with the left; It was cuffed to the right side of the horse.
The bleeding from the previous injury still hurt.
"What's going on Leo!" He asked, screaming for answers while ignoring the pain from his arm and head.
Leo turned to him, his eyes had lost all light.
"How did we get here?..." Leo gazed into the void.
***
Some time ago, inside the relay camp.
As Marcus passed out on top of his father's body.
"Tch, what a mutt, it's always the commoners giving birth to clones of themselves." Curth said as he rubbed off his blood stained hands with a white cloth.
"Just because he was a little high up in the ladder he thought he could order me around, I a noble!
Take this, ya' bloody mutt" Curth was saying as he stepped on Kenneth.
The others were terrified at the sight of this, Lorent stood beside Leo, he whispered something to his ears then walked to front of everyone else.
"What's going on here?" Lorent asked.
Curth looked at Lorent in the most undermining look, as if looking at a turd.
He raised his right hand.
"Seize them!
Put them to the ground, put down any that resists." The soldiers at the gates, and the ones that had recently came in followed Curth's command.
They - Leo, Moore, Jennah, Leah and Kenneth - were subdued and put to the floor.
Curth walked up to Jennah.
"You see, an order came in earlier in the day.
Wanted criminals dead or alive.
Funny story ya' see;
Woman cheated on her husband, husband finds out, in a panic she kills the man and runs away with her lover and her daughter.
Sounds familiar to ya'? " He bent down as he looked Jennah in the eyes.
Jennah was trembling.
"Hand over the rifle." He requested of the soldier on uniform who was holding Moore down.
He stretched his hand forward and received it.
"So…
Where was I?" He put the muzzle on her head.
"Mom…" Leah couldn't stand the sight, emotions were swelling up inside her.
"Dead or alive no bounty.
See, I particularly gain nothin' from keepin' ya' alive, nor do I gain anythin' from killin' ya'.
Just sayin'...
But I have an absolute gripe with commoners.
'nd if there's anythin' I hate more than commoners;
It's a noble that mingles with one." He put his finger on the trigger.
"No!" Lorent screamed, as he desperately shook to free himself from the soldier.
It was to no avail however, he had been drained from their journeys.
Leah tussled as well, she sought to stop the man from harming her mother.
"Now you stay right there, I'll attend to each 'nd everyone of ya' " He directed this at Lorent and Leah.
He then took the gun away from her face.
"Ya' see this fine fella over here just gave the order from HQ, 'nd it goes somethin' like;
'If push comes to shove, use the prisoners in the tunnels to hold back the horde for as long as possible, 'nd wait for the battalion.'
Any survivors would be granted freedom." Curth caressed the rifle in his hands.
"They were cells inside the walls?
How do we escape this, should I use that?
No it might hurt someone" None of Leo's conceptions seemed probable to him.
He looked at his father lying in front of him, the one he had always held in high regards.
"He's still human…" Leo realised, his safest link was just as vulnerable as everyone else.
But deep within he trusted his father could pull off something.
"Now ya' both are criminals, same with the man on the ground over there.
I'm giving you tw-
No, three choices" Curth had a little smirk on his face.
"Wh-" As Lorent tried to speak, the muzzle of the gun was put in his mouth.
"Ah, ah…Let me speak.
First choice…" Curth waved his index finger, then used it as the indicator for the first choice.
***
[Gallop]
[Shreik!]
The ride was rough, the shrieks were getting louder.
Everything about the situation seemed grim.
"Leo, how do we escape this!" Marcus cried as the critters were only getting closer.
"Look, beside you, can you grab them.
My hands are cuffed as you can see, let me free them." Leo showed his cuffed arms to Marcus.
Marcus turned, to his right, a spear and a sword were tied to the right side of the horse they were mounted on.
"So, can you grab them?" Leo asked.
Marcus finally understood the sick joke that had been played on them.
He sighed.
"Free them?
How're you going to do that?" Marcus asked Leo, he was confused as to how he would uncuff himself.
"Wait Leo… your eyes…"
***
"I see those kids at the back look a lil too much like y'all, i'mma assume their your lil mutts.
So…first choice, [Bang!] I shoot ya' heads off, personally my favourite choice but I don't make the rules...well I do anyways.
Second choice, ya' get on the back of one of those horses, ride around 'nd somehow manage to survive then get ya' freedom back.
Or ya' know, die while ridin'.
Hahahaha… [cough]
Third choice, you have ya' kid take the brunt of it for ya'." Curth took the gun out of Lorent's mouth.
Jennah and Lorent's eyes widened, so did their children's.
"So? What'll it be." Not a shred of empathy in Curth's eyes.
He looked at Jennah once more and frowned, as she mouthed something.
-
"To hell with me?" Curth deciphered her lip movement.
"Ya' truly disgust me." He put the muzzle to her head.
…
[Bang!] Curth had pulled the trigger.
***
[Gallop, Gallop]
[Shrieks]
The sounds were getting duller to Leo.
"Why are your pupils black?" Marcus was startled.
"Is that really important?
You know you asked me how my palms turned out this way, didn't you?" Leo's voice was stale, he just looked at his arms with deep focus.
***
"MOM!" Leah screamed, as the body of her mother shook a little bit, then stopped.
She just laid there lifeless.
Leah struggled to leave the hold of the one holding her.
"Tch, knock the little lass out." Curth ordered.
Her oppressor took to the task, and with a swift chop to the neck she was knocked out.
"Je- Jennah." Lorent felt defeated.
Leo looked petrified, same with Moore.
Both kids had gone through multiple terrible events in the span of a day.
Moore was the first to break.
"Argh! Argh!!!" Moore screamed, and shook.
With one signal from Curth he was knocked out.
"Moore…" Leo's ears bled and rung from the sound of the gunshot.
Leo's pupils twitched, his neck itched, and his hands shook.
His mental fatigue that was starting to disappear came back in full swing.
It was starting to weigh on Leo, each terrible event stacked on the other.
Moore wasn't alright either, he trembled too.
"She dead, ain't she.
Well that's a shame ain't it, So what's your choice going to be.
Three choices, three seconds.
Three-" Curth bent over and took something from Kenneth's pocket as he counted down.
"..." Lorent said something, it was muffled.
"What d'ya say?
Don't tell me you chose your kid so quickly.
Scaredy cat!" Curth and the other soldiers burst into laughter.
Leo's pupils narrowed at the thought of his dad abandoning him.
"Did I permit ya' fellas to laugh?" Curth said this, raised his hand and the laughter ceased.
"That's more like it.
So…back to ya'.
What was ya' response?" He poured gunpowder through the muzzle of the rifle.
"Fuck you…" said Lorent coyly.
Curth's ear twitched.
"What's that?
didn't hear ya'." Curth asked, he was done with what he had been previously preoccupied with.
"FUCK YO-" Lorent attempted to scream.
[Bang!]
"Yeah, that's what I thought…
Bloody mutt, the whole lot of ya'." Curth walked over to Kenneth's body.
The gunshot reverberated through the tunnel.
"Dad?" Leo had frozen.
***
All the sounds of the surroundings were completely dulled to Leo, he just looked at his hands .
The world meant nothing to him any longer as he had nothing to lose.
All he could envision was that moment when he felt unbound.
[Voom!] The flame sprouted; this time it was red.
His palms caught fire without the substance that seeped out.
The bandages burned, the cuffs melted slowly.
Those weren't the only things burning, within him his heart was ablaze.
He took a deep breathe in with his mouth.
It pumped something other than blood through vessels his body had never utilised.
His bones felt stronger.
As he breathe out, smoke followed.
He could feel it, he was on the cusp of something new.