New Zion
Chapter 26: An Audience

A bearded man watched from the back of the room as Scout spoke to the people gathered before him. There were twenty-three there, but that wasn’t anywhere near the amount that the room could hold. Scout brought his speech to a close.

“If any of you still have questions, I will be available for the next half hour,” he finished. The man waited for every person to stand before making his move. He stood up and pulled out a sword.

“You are under arrest, ringleader!” The man yelled. Scout looked up in shock. The man pulled out an ID card. “I am Don Namhaid’s representative, Curtis McBride. Everyone in this room, stay where you are,” Curtis said as he started making his way to Scout. The people looked at each other, shifting their feet.

“What’re you gonna do to him?” a Berg Leute asked.

“That’s none of your business,” Curtis replied. The Berg Leute’s eyes squinted.

“Tell us. You aren’t part of the police; you make money because of us, so we have a right to know!” The man exclaimed. Others began to nod. Curtis lunged forwards, charging through the crowd. He cut a few people on his way through and swung at Scout. Scout brought out a blade and stabbed Curtis in the gut, leaving the blade in his body. Curtis dropped to the ground as Scout sidestepped his blade. Blood began pooling around Curtis’ body. Scout looked at the people around him.

“This is how the Namhaid Family operates. Everything I told you is true. Do any of you recognize this man?” Scout asked. They all shook their heads. “That’s exactly the point. You don’t remember him. The reason is that they used the bell on him. He used to be a notorious criminal that they wanted to use,” Scout explained, gesturing towards Curtis.

“Then how do you know who he is?” the man asked. Scout looked at the man.

“Through records. Everything is in the handouts I gave you,” Scout said. “Now, what do you all think about all of this?” Scout asked. The people started nodding. They finally all looked at the Berg Leute, who nodded.

“We’re with you,” the Berg Leute said. Scout nodded.

“Good. Now, go out and spread the word; but only to those you know, and let them spread it to those that they know. Anybody you don’t know, do not talk to them about any of this; without exception. Don’t attack any of them either. Just because you don’t know somebody doesn’t mean that they are a bad guy here, ok?” the people nodded. “Good; now go. I’ll take care of the mess in here, and those of you that were cut, you’ll receive first aid here,” The people quickly filed out of the room. All that was left in the room was Scout, the Berg Leute, Curtis and the two people that had been cut.

“You may rise,” Curtis rolled over and pulled Scout’s blade out of his abdomen. Scout watched in fascination as the blood flowed back into Curtis’ body.

“Damn!” he cursed as he got to his feet. “The pain never fades away,” he said as he held the blade out to Scout.

“This is the third time, and I am still just as amazed as the first time,” Scout said. “However, Swordsman, this tactic feels kind of… wrong,” Cole looked over at Scout, pulling off the fake beard and wincing as he did so.

“You saw how the people didn’t believe you. We needed to add some authenticity, but we couldn’t do that without losing control of the situation,” Cole said. He turned to the Berg Leute. “Good job, Brawler,” Brawler smirked.

“I see the role that you’ve put me in. It’s just like when you first addressed us: you wanted someone who would voice the concerns of the crowd,” he said. Cole nodded.

“Yes. Good job to you two as well,” Cole said to the two people with cuts. One shrugged.

“It’s not like we did anything. All we had to do was let you cut the blood bags,” one said. Cole shook his head.

“Your reactions were perfect, and if you had been standing any closer I would have actually cut you. So I say, good job,” Cole said. The men smiled and went to the front raised platform that Scout had been standing on and pulled out a bag from underneath it. They changed shirts and started to walk away. “Now remember; these have been done differently through different ways. The basic plot remained the same, but if we want this to feel genuine to everybody, we have to use different stories each time,”

“But you told them to not talk to anyone they don’t know; we picked the starting people because they didn’t know each other,” one man said. Cole shook his head.

“But we don’t know all of the people they know. Besides, everybody is going to know soon enough. We need to ensure that there is no chance of anybody talking to each other about this, otherwise it would all fall flat. We can’t let that happen. It’s been a week now, and we used this tactic three times. We can’t risk it being too obvious,” Cole explained. The man slowly nodded before leaving with his buddy. Brawler and Scout looked at Cole.

“So, what now?” Scout asked. Cole let out a long breath.

“Now, we wait,”

“Cole, you need to stop doing that,” Cole looked up at Aria from the computer in front of him. They were the only ones in the Armoury of the trailer. She was holding his shirt from the previous meeting. There was fake blood on it and a cut through the abdomen.

“Don’t worry, the blood is fake,” He said. Aria squinted her eyes.

“Show me,” she said. Cole looked away.

“Show you what?” he asked. Aria stepped around, placing herself between him and his desk.

“The scar,” she said. Cole didn’t move.

“Do you think that I’d actually have Scout stab me?” Cole asked.

“I don’t know. Now take off your shirt and show me the scars,” she said again. Cole avoided eye contact. “If you don’t, I’ll do it myself,” she threatened. Cole finally nodded and took off his shirt. Aria’s ear twitched. Scars criss-crossed his abdomen, overlapping, curving in every direction. He pointed to one on his abdomen, just above the hip.

“This was from the last meeting,” he said, then pointed out one on the right side of his chest, “The meeting before that,” and he finally pointed at a scar on the side of his ribcage. “the first meeting,” he said. Aria reached out with her hand, but stopped and pulled it back.

“A-and the rest?” she asked.

“Wear and tear. Some are from fights, some practice, some stupid mistakes,” he said.

“But none cover your heart or face,” she said. Cole nodded.

“I’ve never been hit in the heart, and I avoided getting hit in the head as best I could to keep from getting scars, and possibly dying if my brain is destroyed,” he said.

“So, how does it work?” she asked. Cole shrugged.

“My mom says that every molecule in my body has been infused with Rift particles that pull towards each other. So when I cut myself, the blood leaves my body, but flows back in, and the wound seals. But the Rift Particles don’t revive the cells; it only pulls them back together. So, I scar. And I would also assume that if someone did enough damage to my heart or brain, then I would probably die. It’s pretty much just convenient for fighting because it keeps me in the fight for longer,” Cole explained.

“Do you still get tired, or hungry, or thirsty?” Aria asked.

“Sort of,” Cole glanced at Aria, then looked away. “I feel hunger, fatigue and thirst, but the Rift supplies me with just enough energy to survive if I went without. Of course, I’d be so tired that I wouldn’t be able to do very much other than survive long enough to get the food. But I imagine that’s only a temporary fix; after all, in order for our cells to survive they need energy from the food, and hydration from the water. And I’d probably go insane if I didn’t get sleep, just like everybody else,” Cole said.

“So… You can still die. Do you know how long you’ll live?” she asked. Cole shrugged, finally looking Aria in the eye.

“My mom thinks that I’ll live longer than the average human life span, but that’s partly because of how I was designed,” he said. Aria cocked her head.

“Designed?” she asked. Cole nodded.

“Yeah. I was a test subject of some kind. My mother’s womb couldn’t support a child, but they were both geneticists of sorts. So they worked around that, and decided to take it a step further and picked the best traits that they could replace from each of them, and I was… conceived, I guess,” Cole said. He gestured at the computer; the image of a fetes floating in a test tube present. Aria stared for a while.

“Is that… you?” she asked. Cole nodded.

“Yup. I was a week along,” he said. “They tweaked the DNA so that I would grow big enough to be ‘born’ sooner, and then they did some other alterations that they thought would make me live longer,” Cole said with a sigh. “Seems like my parents on both sides of the world are crazy,” he said.

“Where did you get this information?” Aria asked. Cole pulled out a small metal box from the computer, no bigger than his thumb.

“My mom must have slipped this, along with my parent’s rings, into my backpack before I left Earth. They must’ve been protective of their research as well, because in order to unlock the box both rings have to be within a few centimeters of it,” he said. Aria looked closely at it.

“So this makes you feel… bad?” Aria asked. Cole smiled slightly.

“What makes you say that?” he asked. Aria’s nose twitched.

“Well, your eyes, and that smile you just gave me,” she said.

“Has nothing to do with the fact that you can basically smell my emotions?” Cole asked. Aria broke eye contact.

“That’s a part of it too,” she said sheepishly. Cole smiled.

“Yeah. It sort of makes me wonder who, or what I’d be if I hadn’t been tampered with. I mean, would I be a completely different person? Would the Rift not have held me for as long as it did? And it raises a question; did my parents try so hard to get me through the gate because I was their son, or because I was their research?” Cole said, accentuating his point by holding up the box. Aria looked down at Cole.

“I… I don’t think that you should worry about whether or not you’d be a different person, or if the Rift may not have held onto you. You are the way that you are now, and I like who you are. And if the Rift didn’t hold onto you, then we wouldn’t have met. I don’t know about your parents, but I do know that much,” Aria said. Cole smiled, and reached up to her, pulling her down. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, stroking her hair until her breathing slowed.

She fell asleep fast He looked at the time and saw that it was the middle of the night.

“Time for bed,” he whispered. Her ear twitched, and he picked her up and carried her to her bed. Skyla and Katherine were already asleep. Cole put her down and pulled her blanket over her. “Thank you,” he whispered, closing the door behind him. Callum was standing there, waiting for him. He raised an eyebrow.

“I hope you didn’t do anything other than put her to bed,” he said. Cole gave him a flat look.

“No, I didn’t. Why are you standing outside their room, anyways? Wanting to peek?” Cole asked. Callum shook his head.

“Nope. I was waiting for you. I need to talk with you,” he said. Cole nodded and followed him outside.

“So, what is it?” he asked. Callum looked around.

“There’s something off here. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like…” he began. Cole shrugged, raising his voice a little.

“There’s nothing to worry about. Nobody knows who we are, which means that Namhaid doesn’t know either. We can still operate to help the people here,” he said as he went to lean against the trailer. He scanned the surrounding darkness of the field that they had parked the vehicle. He pulled out a key, and began twirling it around his finger. Callum looked at him.

“Cole, what’re…” he began, but Cole smiled at him, then dropped the key, bouncing it under the trailer. Cole knelt down to the ground and looked under the trailer to replace a wide-eyed Terra staring back at him, and he could see the feet and legs of five other people on the other side of the trailer. Cole dragged the Terra out from under the trailer and put his blade against its neck in one smooth motion. The Terra’s eyes went wide as it held up its hands.

“Who are you, and what do you…” Cole began, but then he noticed what the Terra was wearing. He let go, and the Terra dropped to the ground, its tattered burlap clothes crumpling. “You’re from the mines, aren’t you?” Cole asked. The Terra nodded. Its hair was long and dirty, and had a young face. “Callum, get some drinking water and some food,” Cole said. Callum nodded and got into the trailer.

“Now, who’s on the other side of the trailer?” Cole asked. The Terra looked up at Cole.

“Guards,” it whispered, its voice feminine. Cole nodded.

“Ok. I’ll take care of them,” he said. Cole walked around the trailer to replace five guards, getting ready to jump him. Cole smiled. They rushed at him, but Cole pulled out his plasma sheathed blade and disarmed the guards. Some lost their legs as well. Cole looked down at the groaning, screaming people in front of him, and knocked each one out before going back to the front of the trailer.

The Terra had begun twitching, and Cole could hear the growl of her stomach. She looked at Cole, who held out his hand. The Terra bit into his arm, gnawing on it. Cole winced, but didn’t move. Callum came back out and was about to attack the Terra, but Cole simply held out his hand.

“Callum, give me the food,” he said. Callum did so. Cole looked back down at the Terra. “I’m going to give you some real food now, ok? But before I do that, I’m going to need you to let go of my arm, and keep your mouth open for a couple of seconds, ok?” Cole said. The Terra’s eyes darted up to him, and slowly released his arm. Cole smiled and waited as the Terra kept its mouth open. The blood and flesh returned to his arm, and Cole held out the water. The Terra snatched it and started gulping it down. Cole took the water back, and it growled.

“Slowly, or you will die,” Cole said. The Terra blinked, and drank more slowly. Cole then gave it the food, which it nibbled on. Cole nodded. “Good,” he said. “Now, as you can see, we have a bit of a problem here,” Cole said after she had finished eating. She looked up at Cole.

“Problem?” she asked, eyes wide. Cole nodded.

“You have seen our faces, led Namhaid’s agents here, and if you get captured, there’s no way that you won’t eventually give in to torture and tell them about us,” Cole said.

“I-I won’t tell!” she stammered.

“I wish I could believe that, I really do. How about this; you stay with us for a while. While you’re here, you can help us out. After that, you’ll have repaid us for saving you here. How does that sound?” Cole asked. She slowly nodded. “Can you tell me your name?” Cole asked.

“Tesha,” she said. Cole nodded.

“Ok, Tesha. You’re going to help us free the rest of the miners,” Cole said. Tesha looked up at Cole.

“How?” She asked. Cole’s smile broadened.

“Two things. First, you’re going to be telling your story. Of course, there will have to be people that you know present so that you can tell them things that only you would know about them. Give the list of names to Callum here, and then we’ll get you some new clothes,” he said.

“What’s the second one?” she asked.

“Once you’ve changed, I’m going to need your clothes,”

Cole looked at the camp below him. He spotted the tent that Tesha told him had been hers and started walking past after the guard changed.

“What’re you doing outside?” the guard demanded. Cole looked up at the guard.

“I went to the bathroom. My guard said it’d be ok,” he said. The guard sighed.

“Damn idiot. Probably new here,” the guard said. “Which tent are you from?” Cole quickly clubbed the guard with the handle of his weapon and entered the tent to replace a female Berg Leute, a couple of humans, and a male Terra. They all looked up at him. Cole put a finger to his lips.

“I’m here to help,” he whispered. They looked at him sceptically.

“How do we know that? You show up wearing the clothes of our fellow prisoner. How do we know she wasn’t caught and you’re here to test us?” the Berg Leute whispered. Cole nodded.

“That’s fair. Guess you’ll just have to trust me,” he said. He turned around to the front of the tent and dragged the unconscious guard in. Cole checked foot size and cloth size.

“What’re you doing?!” the male human hissed. Cole didn’t look back as he started to get changed into the guard’s clothes.

“I’m trading clothes with this guy. I thought that’d be obvious…” Cole said. The prisoners looked up at him as he stood up.

“Now what? You’re going to start marching us out of here?” the Berg Leute asked. Cole shook his head.

“Nope. You’re all going to fight for your freedom,” Cole said. The group looked at Cole as if he were insane.

“With what? They have weapons, and…” Cole held up a red cylinder with string coming out of one end. “No. We will not use that to fight. We’ll just end up killing ourselves!” the Berg Leute sputtered. Cole sighed.

“Ok, this is getting annoying, Helena. Shut up and listen to me. That goes for you as well, Andrew, Molly, and Frank,” he said, looking at the Berg Leute, humans and Terra in turn. He paused at Frank, who looked him in the eye. Cole smiled. “Frank. You have the most experience with the blasting sticks, right?” Cole asked. Frank nodded.

“Good. Over the next few days, you’ll be pushing around a cart full of the stuff. I’ll make sure that I have someone here dressed as a guard supervising, and you’ll plant them around the camp. The ones that you’ll be pushing will only be able to blow up a single tent. My man will set up for the command center. When I give the signal, they’ll all be lit,” Cole said.

“What’s the signal?” Frank asked. Cole smiled.

“When I send a runner dressed as a guard. He or she will tell you ‘there’s a swordsman coloured by crimson’, at which point you’ll light the fuses. I don’t really care how you light them, just get them lit. The guards will be thrown into a state of chaos when the explosions happen. Make sure to pack a little extra under the command center, then run. That should be the first target. Once the guards are taken care of, get to the city. Once you’re there, set off another explosion. It doesn’t really matter where. I’ll then make sure that the people will help you. Any questions?” Frank shook his head.

“This is gun’ be good,” he said. Cole nodded.

“Let’s hope so,” he said.

©2017