The Battle for Allegra: Sanctuary

Season One: Episode Six

Caleb Fast

Copyright © 2020 Caleb Fast

www.calebfast.com
First Published in 2020 by the Author on Amazon
All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.
For information regarding permission, please email the author at calebfast@calebfast.com Please direct all further inquiries to the author at calebfast@calebfast.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real-world people, events, or locations are entirely coincidental.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

One

Two

Three

DESPERATE PLEA!

The Story Continues,

Other Books By Caleb Fast

One

The Bulwark, Allegra

To say that the Bulwark had seen better days was an understatement. Seemingly everything that could burn had either already been scorched and reduced to ash, or it is still on fire. Fortunately, Matthew can’t feel any of the heat from the firestorm outside, thanks to the mech’s thick armor that he and the twins are inside of. That which couldn’t burn hadn’t escaped the damage dealt by the Beets’ attack. Large chunks of metal from various constructs are splintered so badly Matthew can’t even recognize what they once were.

Matthew rises to his feet from the copilot chair he is in and cranes his neck to look along the trench line. Sure enough, the desolation appears to be just as severe everywhere he could see.

Matthew can’t help but sulk when the vainness of his worry for Rav’ian and Marie finally strikes him. If the destruction all around him and the twins was any indicator, there shouldn’t be anyone left alive.

“I’m sure they’re both fine,” Louise assures Matthew when she sees how worried he looks. Nodding resolutely, Louise continues, “Marie and Rav’ian both seemed very capable at defending themselves.”

Frowning, Matthew continues scanning the Bulwark hoping to see any signs of life. Discouraged by the lack of movement, Matthew bites the inside of his cheek out of concern before muttering, “So did a lot of people.”

“From what I heard, there were a lot of bunkers all over,” Alois adds optimistically, “I’m sure plenty of people were able to find cover in time.”

“I sure hope so,” Matthew says with a frown as he drops back into his seat.

“Well, we’ll have better luck finding people on foot than up here,” Louise reports after everyone had been staring outside for several still moments.

Knowing Louise was right, Matthew starts to get up when he realizes that the Fulcrum may try to reclaim their prize. Worried, Matthew points out, “But we can’t just leave the mech sitting out here though. Anyone could come along and steal it again.”

“I’m sure your Toaz friends would be willing to watch it for us,” Louise shrugs. Without waiting for a response, Louise rises out of her seat and walks to the back of the mech. Louise taps a few buttons and checks a few systems before she finally offers, “You and Alois can start your search. I’ll drop Firefly off with the Toaz and then find you.”

“What if the Fulcrum people try to hunt you down before you get back to us?” Matthew asks as he recalls the ambush that they had been caught in that morning. If it weren’t for them all fighting together, Matthew was sure he would be dead right now. Or, at the very least, be a prisoner to the Fulcrum.

Louise and Alois exchange a look that makes Matthew feel very uneasy. He is about to say something when Louise finally starts, “Matthew, you know that guy Alois and I were questioning?”

“Yeah, the guy you said told you everything,” Matthew nods as images of the man flash before his mind’s eye.

“We lied to you about him,” Alois admits, “He’s dead.”

“Oh,” Matthew breathes as his heart skips a beat. Part of Matthew had questioned the twins’ original story about how the man told them everything and how they had let him go, but he still hoped it was true.

After seeing the twins fight and kill so many gassers and seeing how passive they were when Jonas died, Matthew knew they were stone-cold killers—or at least a lot colder than he was. But, even with all the pain Alois and Louise could inflict, Matthew can’t help but feel a little safer with them around.

Provided they don’t ever turn on him.

But, even if the twins didn’t turn on him, Matthew isn’t sure how he felt about them lying to him. Sure, their initial lie allowed him to think nothing bad had happened. However, now that he knew what they did, Matthew isn’t sure how to feel.

Seeing that Matthew is conflicted about their actions, Alois goes on to explain, “We left his body outside of the Fulcrum bunker with a note. It was a warning to leave us be.”

“Seems rather excessive to me,” Matthew grumbles, “Besides, how do we know that they won’t come out after us out of revenge?”

“We’ve dealt with people like them before. We’ll be fine.” Louise tries to reassure Matthew.

Not convinced, Matthew presses, “And if we aren’t?”

Alois steps between Matthew and Louise’s seats and confidently declares, “If they try anything, we’ll just have to send a stronger message.”

“And the last message was a very strong one,” Louise tells Matthew with a grimace. Shuddering, she quickly adds, “I hope we don’t have to do anything like that again.”

To appease any remaining doubts in Matthew’s mind, Alois quickly adds, “But as I said, we’ve dealt with people like them before. One body on their doorstep and they should avoid us from now on.”

“I just hope you’re right,” Matthew sighs. Looking between the twins, Matthew notes that they both are wearing looks of distaste. Nodding to himself, Matthew thinks, Maybe they aren’t all that bad.

Louise turns away from the cockpit window and reminds Alois and Matthew, “We’ve only got two hours until nightfall so we should get moving.”

Worried for Louise’s safety, Matthew prompts, “And you’re sure we should split up?”

Nodding slowly, Louise offers, “We can stick together if you want to, but that might delay our rescue of your girlfriend.”

“I—uh. She’s not—uh,”

“Don’t worry, I know she’s not your girlfriend,” Louise assures Matthew with a laugh. Smiling mischievously, she quickly adds, “I’m just teasing you, no need to fuss.”

Admittedly still at a loss for words, Matthew stammers, “I—I wasn’t fussing, you just caught me by surprise.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Louise makes a show of her rolling her eyes. She and Alois exchange a look and begin chuckling at Matthew’s expense.

Several excruciatingly long moments pass as the twins poke fun at Matthew and Marie. As much as he hated being the subject of their jokes, he had to admit that they were on to something. He did have a bit of a thing for Marie as much as he hated to admit it.

Sure, Marie was absolutely amazing, but Matthew was spoken for. He had a girl waiting for him back home. Matthew lets out a long breath as he closes his eyes and he draws up an image of Dixie. She personified everything he ever wanted in a woman. Or at least he thought she did. Now that he was so far away from home and seeing so many new things for the first time, Matthew can’t help but wonder if his love for Dix was premature. Similar to one’s first crush, Matthew feared, his love for Dix could be jaded by an absolute lack of knowledge on how the galaxy spun. He didn’t know anything before he left Sinclair and now, he had seen and heard about things that no one even dreamed about back home.

What if Dix doesn’t like who I become after all this? Matthew thinks to himself in worry. He hated the thought, but he knew that men seldom returned from war the same. Factor in everything Matthew had learned about the Coalition in his first few days here, and even more fear seeped into his bones. The fear left Matthew feeling as bone-cold as he did on the nights that he slept outside exposed to the frigid nighttime breezes over the ocean back home. A cold so absolute that the idea of warming up beside the fire sounded more painful than pleasant due to the starkness between the cold and the heat. Matthew feels a tear well up in one of his eyes as the realization hits him; he wasn’t going to return home anything like how he had left. Doing his best to hold back tears, Matthew thinks, I’m going to end up just like the grumpy old veterans from my father’s crew… Dix won’t stick around me after all of this, she can do so much better for herself than what I will become.

Louise suddenly snaps out of the teasing mood that she had been in and she announces in a very businesslike tone, “I think it would be best if I dropped the two of you off here, otherwise the Fulcrum people will see and hear us coming.”

“Yeah, these things definitely weren’t made for stealth,” Alois agrees with a chuckle as the Firefly lets out a long loud whine before it lowers itself closer to the ground so Matthew and Alois can disembark.

The Firefly stops after a few seconds and Louise looks to her controls before she tells the others, “This is as low as we get, get out of here and get moving. I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can.”

“Before we go, I have something I have to ask,” Matthew addresses the twins before Alois has the chance to open the rear hatch of the Firefly.

“Which is?” Louise prods after a moment.

“How can we be sure that the Fulcrum won’t target you once they realize that we are coming after them?” Matthew asks, hoping that the twins could see his thinking. It was one thing to scare them off and then leave them alone, it was entirely another to proceed to hunt them down.

“They should be able to see that we are just reclaiming what’s ours,” Louise shrugs, “If not, I can handle myself.”

Alois stands at the rear hatch for a moment and he frowns as he thinks about Matthew’s words. He opens his mouth to say something before he clamps it shut again and he turns and swings the door wide open. Stepping out, Alois assures Matthew, “As we said before, we’ve dealt with people like them in the past, they won’t be ones to initiate anything after what we did.”

Nodding, Louise affirms, “Yeah, they’re scared of us and it will take a lot of convincing from the Fulcrum leadership to convince their goons to come after us any time soon. Besides, they’re probably going to be busy dealing with the gassers just like everyone else.”

Matthew considers arguing but he knew that it was futile. He hadn’t ever been in a situation like this before and, as the twins have stated several times now, they are the experts here.

Shoving down the mess of emotions that are raking through his chest, Matthew rises to his feet shakily. Resigning himself to the task of rescuing Marie no matter the cost, Matthew makes for the rear of the Firefly in order to catch up to Alois who had already left the mech and slipped out of view.

“You forgot your stuff, hotshot,” Louise reminds Matthew after he had taken a few steps.

“Oh, thanks,” Matthew winces as he realizes that he was not putting on as brave of a face as he thought he was.

“Just keep your cool, Mudskipper,” Louise directs Matthew as he returns to his seat and gathers his gear. She continues as he straps everything into place with quivering hands, “Alois will keep you safe and I’ll be back before you can miss me.”

Matthew nods wordlessly to Louise before he turns and finally leaves the cockpit. He was as ready as he was ever going to be and there was no point in tarrying inside where nothing would get done.

“Godspeed!” Louise calls out to Matthew once he reaches the hatch.

“Thanks,” Matthew says as he steps out. The moment he is through the door Matthew coughs. The air outside of Firefly sears his lungs as Matthew’s entire body tries to tell him that there isn’t enough oxygen for him to survive out here. Squinting against the acrid air Matthew’s eyes begin watering in an effort to clear away all the filth that is suspended in the air all around him. Still coughing, Matthew staggers out the door without wishing Louise Godspeed in return.

Much to Matthew’s concern, Alois is currently engaging with a handful of gassers that are emerging from somewhere beyond his limited field of vision. Curious, Matthew peeks around the expanse of hull that is obstructing his view and he sees that the gassers are slowly filing out of what appears to be a bunker.

“Oh no…” Matthew whispers to himself as he takes in a surprised gasp. He had hoped against all hope that the countless bunkers would keep more people safe from the gas, but he now saw that that might not be the case. Matthew’s lungs burn at the air he had just taken in and he immediately wishes that he still had his mask. However, it seemed luck was not on Matthew’s side since he had lost it several hours ago. Matthew quickly pokes his head back into the Firefly and he takes a quick breath of fresh air before pulling himself back out. He would have to make do with the cool, clean air that was escaping the Firefly’s interior for the time being.

“Get back in your lousy holes!” Alois’s voice demands as he takes a brief break from shooting. He drops the magazine out of his weapon and quickly replaces it. Alois then charges forward, shooting the whole way.

Matthew briefly wonders where Alois might have gotten his new munitions when his eyes fall onto a small open hatch beside the entryway of the Firefly. Peering in, Matthew is greeted by a plethora of filled magazines, quite a few grenades, and a lot of other odds and ends. He pokes around for a moment as Alois continues shooting and he lets out a discontent groan when he fails to find a replacement mask. He would have to find a mask soon if he was going to make it very long in this foul air.

“You going to help Alois, or should I?” Louise’s voice questions from within the Firefly as Matthew stocks up on ammo and grabs himself some new grenades.

Matthew peeks around the corner once more at Alois, who is currently standing his ground several paces away from the afflicted bunker. The initial trickle of gassers has grown to a steady stream that Alois clearly cannot handle for much longer.

Taking hold of the ladder that extends to the roof of the Firefly for support, Matthew leans out and he carefully lines up a shot with his free hand. After emptying the remainder of his clip at the emerging hostiles, Matthew pulls himself back to a standing position and he reloads. Frowning, Matthew decides that it was in everyone’s best interest if he admitted defeat and let Louise deal with the threat.

“Go for it!” Matthew prompts Louise as he braces for the Firefly to stand up and swing around to bring its weapons to bear.

“Alois, fall back!” Louise’s voice rings over some loudspeakers that must be affixed to the exterior of the Firefly.

“Got it!” Alois’s voice comes back in reply and Matthew watches as Alois makes a run for it.

A moment later the sound of quite a few electric motors whine and Matthew sees that Louise is using one of the larger shoulder-mounted cannons to render her aid to Alois’s war effort. Realizing that Louise was about to fire such a large caliber weapon, Matthew quickly moves to cover his ears.

“Goodbye gassers!” Louise shouts in a voice loud enough that Matthew can hear her through his hands that are covering his ears.

Matthew presses his hands even tighter against his head and he then feels the Firefly shudder as a massive gun report races through his bones while momentarily deafening him as well. He had expected a big blast, but this was a lot more than he could have imagined. Not even a second later—and long before Matthew could have recuperated—the sound of an explosion echoes from the direction of the bunker that the gassers had been coming out of. Matthew continues covering his ears for a few seconds as the lights from the initial explosion and the subsequent fires illuminate his surroundings.

Slowly removing his hands, Matthew chuckles and admits, “That was a lot bigger than I expected.”

“What?” Louise shouts back to him.

“That was really big!” Matthew calls in to Louise who appears to be just as deafened as Matthew was right now.

“Yeah!” Louise nods, “Next time we will need to close that hatch though!”

“Oops, sorry!” Matthew apologizes in a loud voice as he realizes that his actions inflicted the pain on Louise.

“Well that’s a new one,” Alois shouts loud enough to be heard from below.

“Yeah,” Matthew agrees as he coughs once again at the air that feels almost as thick as water. Without saying anything more to Louise, Matthew slams the hatch shut behind himself and he decides that his best bet would be to get to the ground. I just need to get beneath the smoke. Since smoke rises, the ground should be a safer bet, Matthew reasons to himself, Then I will be able to breathe.

“Alright, what’s the plan, Mudskipper?” Alois prompts as the hatch behind Matthew seals itself shut with a high-pitched whine that Matthew can just hear over the ringing in his ears.

“I—” Matthew wheezes, still unable to speak. Coughing, he focuses on moving and he forces himself down a few steps that take him from the small recess where the hatch is on the Firefly down to the ground below. Once he is on the ground, Matthew tries again, “We—”

“Put on your mask,” Alois instructs as he points to his own respirator.

“Don’t… have… one…” Matthew sputters pathetically.

Pointing over Matthew’s shoulder Alois says, “You’ve got one on your pack right there.”

Confused, Matthew reaches over his shoulder where Alois is pointing, and he feels around for the mask. Sure enough, Alois was right, and Matthew quickly pulls the piece of equipment to his face. Pressing the godsend of a mask tightly against his face, Matthew coughs as he takes a few breaths of the mix of bad air that had been caught in the mask when he put it on, and the fresh air that the unit is gracing him with.

A few moments pass and Matthew finally has enough oxygen in his lungs to be able to speak again. Taking one more deep breath Matthew finally responds, “I don’t have a plan.”

“It’s up to you to think of one on the way then,” Alois shrugs as he starts toward the nearest trench.

Matthew follows after Alois, deeply thankful for the mask that he is now wearing. He wonders for a moment where it might have come from when he realizes that Louise had likely given him hers. He smiles, happy that she would look out for him like that. It’s good to know that they really do care about me. Matthew thinks with a smile as he looks back to the Firefly which rises back to its full height with another loud whine.

“Louise must have stuck her mask on your pack before you left,” Alois says as the Firefly starts toward the trenches on its own heading.

Nodding, Matthew agrees, “That’s what I was thinking.”

“She probably has a backup. Either that, or she has a plan to pick up a new one.”

“I hope she’ll be fine without one…”

Alois lets out a loud laugh that knocks his mask loose. He quickly reaches up to fix it back into place before he assures Matthew, “Trust me, she’s heartier than you would think.”

“I can assure you that I have put that together already,” Matthew laughs as he recalls the day’s previous excitement. In just a few short hours, the twins had taken him from a Beet killer to a hunter of men. Or, more accurately, men and mechs.

Matthew watches as Alois drops down into the nearest trench and he can’t help but hold his breath as he listens for any signs of danger. Hearing none, Matthew closes the remaining distance between him and the hole and he jumps down beside Alois who is carefully scanning the trenches that their current dugout leads into.

“Where are all the bodies?” Matthew asks when he sees that there isn’t any sign of a fight around him and Alois. With all the damage that the bombardment had caused earlier, Matthew had expected to see a lot more evidence of the hurt it had brought.

“Everyone must have left when everything started,” Alois reasons as he slowly starts down the nearest trench that would take them toward the Fulcrum bunker.

“Think they all made it to safety?”

“Couldn’t tell you.”

“I wonder how many people we lost…”

“Don’t worry about that. Worrying won’t change anything about the past, it will just get you killed now.”

“Well there isn’t a lot for us to be worried about right now,” Matthew points out as he motions at their eerily still surroundings. The only signs of life that Matthew can see are a bunch of sodden footprints in the mud that he and Alois are presently trudging through.

“That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t focus,” Alois reminds Matthew as he leads the way around another bend.

Matthew silently follows Alois around a few more twists and turns when the telltale sound of gunfire finally cracks over the roar of the fires that are blazing all over the trenches. Worried, Matthew scans Alois for a reason to be scared. Seeing none, Matthew sighs and tells himself that he is just overreacting. Shaking his head, Matthew thinks, I’m on the frontlines of a planetwide war. Of course there will be gunfire.

“Got a plan yet?” Alois asks as he stops just shy of an intersection in the trenches. He peeks around the corner as he had done several times now and then he settles against the wall he is leaning up against.

“I didn’t know that you were serious about having me make the plan,” Matthew admits with a frown.

“Well, I was serious.”

“I don’t have a plan though,”

“If you don’t come up with one then we are going to be walking right into the Fulcrum bunker.”

“Are you serious?”

“I don’t kid around about these kinds of things.”

“Well, I’m sure that they are expecting us, so there’s something that I have to factor in…”

“Why would they be expecting us? They’re going to be busy fighting off the gassers like we were.”

“I’m sure they will be, but odds are that someone found out about our little raid on their complex. There’s no way that no one mentioned to them that we were stealing their mech. If that’s the case, then someone in the Fulcrum will likely figure out that we might be coming for them next.”

“And then you have the Toaz who might be interested in recovering their nurse too,” Alois adds after a few moments.

“Exactly,” Matthew nods, “So we won’t want to come from either the north or the southwest, since that’s where they would expect either us or the Toaz to come from.”

“So, we approach from the east?”

“I think we should approach from the southeast. We don’t know what’s going on on the easternmost lines, since that’s the front. The southeast should be our best bet.”

“See there? You’re already the Mudskipper that Louise and I knew you could be.”

“I’m not sure if my plan means anything,” Matthew argues. He isn’t even trying to be modest by saying it, he truly doubted that a plan to circle around merited any recognition. There was nothing special about it.

“It does when you see what I see,” Alois fires back as he motions with his head around the corner that he had stopped at.

“Well, what do you see?” Matthew asks as he cranes his neck slightly to try to see around Alois.

“Don’t look now,” Alois says as he pushes Matthew back against the wall. Motioning for Matthew to turn back the way he had come from, Alois proceeds to fill Matthew in on what he saw, “I saw some Fulcrum guys waiting for us down that way. Several of them were hiding.”

“So, I was right then?”

“They’re either waiting around for some of the gassers or they are waiting around for us.”

“And I take it you have a good feeling that they are waiting for us?”

“There’s no reason to be hiding from gassers. Gassers don’t shoot at you.”

“Not yet at least,” Matthew laughs as he retraces his and Alois’s steps.

“You know, that is odd…” Alois mutters to himself.

“What’s odd?”

“The gassers aren’t shooting at us.”

“So?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about them. If they can walk and make sounds, then why can’t they do other stuff too?”

“Are you saying that you want them to shoot at us?”

“No, but I am saying that I wouldn’t be surprised if they started doing just that.”

“I don’t know, walking is one thing. Shooting at something—shooting accurately especially—is entirely another.”

“I’m not quite convinced,” Alois maintains, “There are some weird things out there.”

Matthew nods, realizing that Alois is right, but he doesn’t immediately say anything. He isn’t sure what to think. Taking a few more steps, Matthew finally veers off from their original path in order to circle around both the Fulcrum roadblock and their bunker. Sure, circling around to approach from the southeast would add a lot of time, but it was a safer bet. Matthew also hoped that approaching from the rear would prevent any excessive bloodshed. Lord willing, he and Alois would be able to get in and out undetected.

Chuckling, Matthew shakes his head and pledges, “If the gassers start shooting then I am blaming you.”

“That’s fair,” Alois shrugs and laughs. Shaking his head, he is quick to point out, “But you are the one who said that the gassers aren’t shooting yet.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Matthew grumbles, knowing that Alois was right.

“Speaking about gassers, you hear that?” Alois inquires as he raises his weapon and trains it on the lip of the trench that they are in.

Matthew pauses dead in his tracks and he warily raises his eyes above him. He listens intently for several moments to the gentle crackle of a nearby fire and the popping of gunfire that is close enough to make him nervous but far enough away that it didn’t pose an immediate threat. Matthew tries to listen for anything else, but he fails to hear anything. After a few long moments, Matthew finally asks, “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Alois chuckles, “I just thought it would be convenient if some gassers showed up right then.”

“Wow, thanks so much,” Matthew grumbles sarcastically. Shaking his head, Matthew starts down the trench ahead of him once more and calls back to Alois, “Come on, we’ve got a bunker to crack.”

“You mean a damsel in distress to rescue,” Alois amends.

Two

The Bulwark, Allegra

“What’s our headcount up to now?” Alois asks from behind Matthew.

Matthew glances back to Alois for a moment to see what the man might be talking about before he suddenly slips. Catching himself before he falls all the way into the filthy mire beneath him, Matthew then returns his focus to the task at hand. He had to cross this section of trenches to save Marie.

Matthew grimaces as he looks down at the newly formed stains on his uniform. This ‘water,’ if he could even call it that, was some of the most putrid liquid he had ever seen. And now here he was, wading through a muddy trench of it alongside Alois. Up until today, he would have never entered such a filthy mess, but preferences like that change quickly when someone’s life was on the line.

The boggy mixture of ash, water, dirt, and who knows what else reaches all the way to Matthew’s waist and he can’t help but feel thankful for the mask that he is still wearing. If it weren’t for the mask’s filters, Matthew was sure that he would be throwing up from the smell right now. Even with the filters, he can still make out the scent of rot that the bilge carries.

“What do you mean by our headcount?” Matthew asks after he yanks his foot out of a patch of mud that he can’t even see through the swampish muck. The mud feels as if it is tugging at him, beckoning for Matthew to join it at the bottom.

“How many gassers have we killed since we left Louise?” Alois clarifies.

“I don’t know,” Matthew answers honestly. He had little interest in keeping track of his kill count on a good day, a bad day like this further removed his urge to keep track of such things.

Alois grunts behind Matthew as he rips his own foot out of the quicksand-like mud that had caught Matthew a few moments before. Matthew glances behind him and sees Alois stumble out of the hole before he recovers and eventually asks, “Think it’s over twenty yet?”

“I really don’t know. I don’t care either.”

“Well, we need to keep track because Louise is going to be counting hers.”

“Let her, I really don’t care,” Matthew maintains as he hopes that Alois would just drop the matter. He really didn’t want to dwell on the idea of ending the life of another person—even if they were a gasser.

“I’d say we’ve killed at least twenty gassers for sure,” Alois rambles on as he and Matthew begin rising out of the deepest part of the flooded trench.

Matthew sighs, knowing full well that Alois wasn’t about to move on. Closing his eyes, Matthew thinks, When things calm down around here, I’m taking a week off. Well, maybe not a whole week, I don’t know if I would be allowed to do that… maybe just a day?

Matthew continues thinking as he works his way out of the cesspool of a trench and he doesn’t realize that he had tuned Alois out until his thoughts pause long enough for Alois’s voice to be heard again, “…with all those gassers we ran into when you took that wrong turn I’m sure we’re well past twenty though. I think we could tell Louise that we made it to sixty or more, what do you say?”

“Alois, please, I really don’t care!” Matthew begs, “I don’t like keeping track of gasser kills, it makes me sick.”

“You’ll get used to it sooner or later,” Alois assures Matthew, “Or at least sort of used to it… what I’m trying to say is that you will learn to deal with it a little better. Some people get to the point where it doesn’t faze them at all.”

“So, where are you on that journey?”

“Far enough along that it scares Louise sometimes.”

“Does it scare you?”

“Used to.”

“Used to?”

“Well, you can get over that too. You get to the place where you realize that hating yourself doesn’t do anything to alleviate guilt. When you realize that you start to feel less guilt. Once that happens, you’re home free.”

“Home free?” Matthew parrots Alois’s closing statement to himself. He hated the idea that anyone could get to the point where killing something that looked like them didn’t bother them. How could anyone get to that point?

Sure, the gassers were actively trying to kill him, but did that make them any less human? Even the gassers that he had killed today that were once Arrandorrans and Toaz made Matthew want to cry as he pulled the trigger. Maybe there was still enough of the person that used to be inside of the gasser still. Maybe that little remainder was fighting against what the gas did to them to try to regain control. What would that make Matthew if he killed them? He would be condemning them then and there!

Matthew’s chest aches like he had just inhaled a bunch of boiling hot smoke. His heart hurts in a way that made him wonder if someone had ripped his chest open long enough to beat his heart like a punching bag. Nothing about the last few days felt right to him. Now that he thought about it, even the thought of killing another Beet made him sick.

“You know that you will have to learn how to deal with killing things sooner or later, right?” Alois asks Matthew as the two of them take the final few steps out of the waterlogged ditch.

“No, I don’t!” Matthew finally snaps, “I can struggle with it every time and I will! I’m killing people that I spoke to just a few hours ago! That is supposed to bother you! That’s what makes us human, we don’t just kill people!”

Alois looks at Matthew for a moment before he says, “If they try to kill you then they lose their right to be called a person.”

“No, it doesn’t!” Matthew cries out, wondering what could possibly be wrong with Alois. There is no way that anyone could look at things with such a dispassionate view of what made a person a person.

“Then why wasn’t this an issue for you earlier?” Alois asks.

“Why wasn’t what an issue?”

“Killing stuff.”

“I’ve never killed a person before today!”

“You killed the Beets, aren’t they people? Or did they lose that title when they attacked you? Were they suddenly less alive when you realized they were your enemy?”

“I—I… Well—”

“Or those flying lizards that you told Louise and me about, were they any less alive just because they were snatching the fish that you killed in order to feed their offspring? You killed them too.”

“Well, that’s different—”

“There’s nothing different about it. Don’t hurl stones at me if you aren’t ready to get them thrown back. The galaxy is a lot more black and white than you think. Things can lose their right to live if they threaten your own livelihood.”

“Is that why you tried pulling your knife on me?” Matthew asks as he remembers how willing Alois had seemed to be to kill him when Matthew had challenged them.

Alois walks past Matthew and he takes a seat on a rickety bench that is sitting beside the wall of the trench that he and Matthew are in. Removing his boot, Alois lets the water drain out and he watches as it drips to the sodden ground below. Looking back up to Matthew, Alois finally replies, “You went for your own knife first, as soon as you did that, you crossed a line.”

“And I suddenly wasn’t worth anything to you,” Matthew states, hoping against all reason that he was misunderstanding Alois.

“It was your choice, not mine. Anyone who threatens those I protect forfeits their right to life. So long as you don’t threaten me or Louise again, you are on the list of those I protect.”

Completely dumbfounded, Matthew simply stares at Alois in silence. There was no way that the man could see things the way he said he did. As Matthew stares, Alois turns his attention back to his feet and he empties his other boot of the water inside of it before he busies himself by wringing out his socks.

Seemingly content with his work, Alois then puts his socks and boots back on. Standing, he looks around for a couple of moments and then his eyes settle on Matthew, “If you are just going to stand there then I will find my own way to the bunker. If we don’t get there soon then Louise won’t stand a chance.”

Matthew watches, still completely lost, as Alois then marches off. Something about the hollowness in Alois’s eyes. In many ways, Alois suddenly reminded Matthew of the feral dogs from back home. The dogs, like Alois, weren’t outwardly aggressive, so long as you didn’t interfere with their pack. The moment you did, then you were forever a threat to them. Sure, you might be able to win their trust by leaving out scraps of food and showing them various bits of kindness, but at the end of the day, they were animals. Animals that were, for the most part, in it for only themselves. The was no trusting them in your darkest hour.

“Wait up,” Matthew hears himself saying before he had the unction to stop the words from pouring out of his mouth. Almost unwittingly, Matthew begins following Alois as well.

I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to storm the Fulcrum bunker. I don’t want to follow Alois. I don’t want any of this. Matthew thinks his brain rapid-firing everything that was wrong with what he was doing. Taking an unsteady breath Matthew then tells himself, But I have to do this. For Marie, for Rav’ian, for everyone. Just like back at home, sometimes you have to work with people you don’t like for the good of everyone.

At that last thought, Matthew’s mind wanders back to his years as a fisherman. Sure, this had only been a few days ago, but it suddenly felt like a lifetime had passed.

Matthew’s memories quickly settle on a week where his father’s fishing ship had been out of commission due to a storm that nearly sank it. Rather than sit things out and wait for the repairs to be completed, Matthew’s father had decided to send out his crew to work on some of Crail’s other fishing vessels. He had explained that there was no time to sit around because they had to meet the Coalition quota. No number of excuses could stave off the Coalition’s rage when a quota wasn’t met, so Matthew’s dad did everything he could to make up for his inability to fish.

In order to truly make a statement and lead by example, Matthew’s father, Heron, was the first to volunteer to work aboard another ship. This ship, everyone knew, was captained by Heron’s most bitter rival, McCluskie—a man who truly was in it for himself. Whenever things went bad for McCluskie he weaseled his way out of the repercussions. Time and time again, that left Matthew’s dad to pick up the tab.

Then, despite Matthew’s begging, Heron signed up Matthew to work alongside him on McCluskie’s glorified piece of driftwood. Heron explained that Matthew had to be willing to take on the worst task before he asked anyone else to do anything like it. In this case, that meant that Matthew and his dad would fish with a man everyone knew hated them. With the example set, they could ask the rest of their crew to work on the friendlier boats.

Matthew chuckles as he recalls the happier times from those long nights on McCluskie’s boat. Sure, there weren’t a whole lot of good times as McCluskie took advantage of Heron and Matthew’s efforts, but Matthew’s dad had a way of making even the worst things more bearable. All the long nights and even longer days were accompanied by grand stories from Heron, stories that Matthew knew he would never have the pleasure of hearing again. During that dreadful week, Matthew learned that his father was much more of a man than Matthew thought he could ever become. He did things that no one else could dream of doing, and he then made sure that no one glorified him for it.

Heron had shared stories about his time as a soldier. About how he had fought off terrible foes and taken on impossible odds. He shared about how he had done all of this to earn the right to his land on Sinclair. He recounted tales of his darkest days which seemingly all crescendoed into impossible victories. It was on that dreadful boat of McCluskie’s that Matthew learned about what it meant and what it took to be a man.

Alois suddenly speaks up, pulling Matthew away from his memories, “I know you don’t understand where I’m coming from, and I am okay with that, but I need to know that I can trust you to have my back.”

“I’m with you,” Matthew assures Alois as a hint of pride wells up in his chest. As far as Matthew is concerned, he was going to be a hero and he was going to make his father proud. What he was about to do was just going to be the first grand story that he would have to his name. This one daring rescue was going to set off a chain reaction of triumphs. This chain reaction would then undoubtedly change the tide of the war. Or at least that’s how Matthew was painting the picture for his own conscience.

“Good,” Alois’s always simple reply reaches Matthew.

Alois slows to a stop and Matthew keeps his distance. Listening carefully for several moments, Matthew tries to hear what might have caused Alois to stop. Hearing a few hushed tones, Matthew realizes that he and Alois are not alone. Curious, Matthew eventually asks in a whisper, “Any idea who they are?”

“Shhh,” Alois urges as he cranes his neck in an effort to better make out the voices.

Matthew makes a face, admittedly off-put by Alois’s shushing. He is about to say something when he opts to bite his tongue. Knowing that Alois had a reason to be listening so intently, Matthew knew it had to be something important. Matthew quickly resolves to try to listen in on what was being said as well.

“…now what, Jane?” Matthew can just make out the first voice.

A woman coughs before answering, “Well, we cleared out all the gassed guys, why don’t we get back to the others?”

“Are you sure they want us to go back early?” the first voice asks.

Jane chuckles before she replies, “There’s clearly no one else back here, Tony. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“Think we should torch the bunker just to be safe?” the first voice that belonged to Tony asks.

“It can’t hurt,” a third person offers, “Make sure we really got everything.”

“But we know we got all of them,” Jane points out, “There’s no use in spending any more time in there.”

There is a brief shuffling as someone seemingly searches through a bag for something. The noise stops and Tony argues, “No, I’m with Juan. Let’s light it up and call it good.”

Jane lets out a discontent grunt before she says, “Well, you two can waste your own supplies lighting it up, I’ll wait over there.”

“Incoming!” Alois whispers urgently as he presses against the wall he and Matthew are leaning against.

“We’ll be back out here in a minute,” Tony reports.

“Keep an eye out for any more of the gassed people,” Juan requests.

“You got it,” Jane pledges, her voice much closer now than it had been a few seconds before. The squeal of a rusted and warped door opening cries out from where Juan and Tony were and there is a brief commotion as they slip in. A beat passes and Jane begins muttering under her breath, “Those idiots are going to get themselves killed. And what did they think I was going to do out here anyway? Of course I’m going to stand watch!”

“No, she’s not,” Alois whispers just loud enough for Matthew to hear. Before Matthew has the chance to beg for the woman’s life, Alois is already whipping around the corner.

“Wait!” Matthew urges as he darts after Alois hoping that he might be able to call him off of Jane before he kills her.

By the time Matthew is around the corner, Alois is already dragging Jane’s squirming form through the mud back to him. Matthew lets out a brief sigh of relief when he sees Jane’s terrified eyes look to him beggingly as Alois maintains his firm grip around her neck and over her mouth. At least she’s still alive, Matthew thinks as he loosens up and lets out a brief sigh. Following Alois back behind their corner, Matthew reasons to himself, Sure, things could be better for her right now, but this beat being dead.

Alois pulls Jane a short way away before he stops and tells her, “I need you to answer some questions for me, can you do that?”

Jane nods once and she loosens up noticeably. As she loosens up, the look of terror also leaves her eyes. As far as Matthew can tell, she is very ready to cooperate.

“If you so much as talk too loud I will kill you,” Alois threatens Jane as he prepares to release his grip over her mouth.

At this, Jane stiffens once more, and she looks between Alois—who she can just see at the corner of her vision—and Matthew. Matthew can see that the terror had returned to her eyes and his heart seemingly leaps inside of him as it tries to elicit an outward response from him.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Matthew finally speaks up, “So long as you cooperate, we won’t do anything to hurt you.”

Alois makes a face at this, and Matthew can see that Alois likely had different plans. Odds were that he had been intent on killing Jane once she told him what he needed to know, just like he had with the last man he interrogated. Matthew assumed that this was one of the many ways that Alois kept his people safe—he tied up every loose end.

Matthew watches as Jane slowly nods and he then nods to Alois as he requests, “Alright, she’s ready. Can you let her go now?”

“Don’t you try anything,” Alois warns as he slowly removes his hand from the scared girl’s mouth. When Jane doesn’t cry out for help, Alois then removes his other arm from around her neck.

Jane looks between Alois and Matthew as she slowly rubs her throat. Matthew can tell that she is gauging her chances if she either made a run for it or tried calling for help, which initially makes him nervous. The thoughts appear to quickly subside, and Jane resigns herself to her fate. Taking a deep breath, Jane finally asks, “What do you want to know?”

“How many people are guarding the Fulcrum bunker?” Matthew asks.

Jane chuckles, “We’re getting straight to it then? There are a lot of guys, I don’t know how many for sure though. There are definitely too many for just you and your… friend here to take on though.”

“He asked for a number, not an opinion,” Alois says menacingly as he takes a hold of Jane’s arm.

Jane lets out a quiet yelp and she quickly gives Matthew an apologetic yet pleading look. Seeing that she wasn’t going to be punished for her yelp, Jane reports, “I don’t know for sure how many people there are. I would say at least forty though—probably more!”

“Is that where you’re keeping Marie?” Matthew presses as he peeks around the corner that Jane and the others had been behind not too long ago.

“We need her—” Jane starts before Alois tightens his grip on her arm. Getting the message, Jane quickly changes gears and, dropping her head, she answers, “Yes.”

“How well defended is she?”

“Pretty well, as I was saying, we need her. If her guards don’t raise the alarm, then the people she is helping will.”

“Would my friend and I be able to get in and out without too much trouble if we were quiet?”

“I told you, there are too many people. There’s no way that you could get her out!”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear,” Matthew mutters, mostly to himself, as he lets out a long sigh. So much for the easy heroics that he had hoped for.

“Odds are that our people will let the healer go once she finishes helping us with our wounded. She refused to come to our bunker willingly, so we had to take matters into our own hands!”

“And how long would that be?” Matthew asks hopefully. From what he knew of James, the man didn’t seem like he would kill Marie when he was done with her. She was too valuable. It also wasn’t likely that he would keep her since they would eventually run out of wounded soldiers. They rarely did any fighting as it was, so they had no reason to hold her after that.

“I don’t think your friends would part with such a valuable asset so easily,” Alois argues, making a point that Matthew had overlooked in his optimistic worldview.

“Well there’s no way that you could ever get her out otherwise,” Jane shoots back defiantly, “Now let me go!”

“I’m the one calling the shots here,” Alois warns as he narrows his eyes at Jane. He tightens his hold of Jane’s arm, even more, to send the point further home.

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Jane points out defiantly. Turning to Matthew, who she can see is in charge, she begs, “Please, I don’t want the others to know that I ratted our people out! I won’t tell anyone about the two of you, I swear!”

“Oh, I know you won’t,” Alois chuckles, “Because they would kill you if you did.”

Nodding feverously, Jane agrees, “Exactly, so please let me go!”

“Not going to happen,” Alois shakes his head, “You are still of too much use to us.”

“What do you mean?” Jane asks, frightened.

Cocking his head, Matthew can’t help but wonder what is going through Alois’s head. Worried, he seconds Jane’s question, “Yeah, what are you thinking?”

“She’s our ticket in,” Alois announces, “All we need now are two Fulcrum uniforms—and I know just the place where we can get them.”

“Wait, please don’t hurt them!” Jane begs, “They’re just—”

Jane is cut short when Alois shoves a wad of cloth into her mouth. Jane tries to spit it out, but Alois was ready for that and he already has a full band of cloth wrapped around Jane’s head to hold the gag in place.

“Please don’t hurt her,” Matthew requests as he mentally kicks himself for not speaking up sooner. With how rough Alois is currently being, every dream of the grandeur of wartime heroics was fading. As far as Matthew was concerned, there was nothing honorable about manhandling a woman, like Alois currently was.

“She’ll be fine, I just don’t want her squealing on us,” Alois assures Matthew. He then ties up Jane’s arms and legs in a few smooth movements as he continues, “And I don’t want her running off on us either.”

Jane lets out quite a few grunts and squeals in protest as Alois finishes tying her up and Matthew can’t help but feel bad for her. But, our hands are just as tied as hers are, Matthew reasons, If we let her go, then we’re just as good as dead. Marie would probably suffer a similar fate as well.

“Let’s go get our outfits,” Alois announces once he is sure that Jane won’t be going anywhere.

Matthew winces as Jane’s look of panic intensifies at Alois’s words. He momentarily considers keeping quiet, but his heart ends up winning the internal argument yet again, “If it’s at all possible, can we avoid killing them?”

“Can’t make any promises,” Alois shrugs as he hoists Jane’s tied up form over his shoulder. He starts toward the battered bunker door that Tony and Juan had disappeared into a few minutes prior with Matthew in tow.

Jane begins making muffled sounds again as she tries to appeal to Alois and Matthew through her gag. It is obvious that she doubted Alois’s intentions and that she thought he would kill her friends. Matthew looks away from Jane and Alois as he slowly follows them, no part of him enjoyed watching Jane’s garbled pleas.

Grasping for an excuse to spare the lives of the two men inside the decrepit bunker, Matthew asks, “Do we really need the uniforms? What if we found another way to sneak in?”

Shaking his head, Alois stops just outside of the rickety old door. He sets down Jane with a lot more care than he had picked her up with before he tells Matthew, “Even if we didn’t need the uniforms, we still need to make sure that these two don’t sound the alarm when they don’t find our new friend, Jane.”

“Well, let’s do this then,” Matthew concedes after Jane stops gurgling with her own wordless protests.

“I’m going to open this door, now,” Alois informs Jane, “If you so much as scream, I kill you. And just know, if you alert your friends and they try to fight us, they will die.”

Jane nods in understanding and Matthew can see her swallow. Her eyes are wide with well-founded fear. After a few brief seconds of staring at Alois, her gaze shifts to Matthew. Matthew’s heart sinks even further when he sees the pleading look in Jane’s eyes. His heart didn’t sink because he felt any worse for all of this—he already felt absolutely horrible—but what caused his heart to sink now was the thought that everything was out of his control. It wasn’t up to him if Jane’s friends opened fire or not. It wasn’t up to him if Alois shot them dead in return. Matthew’s lip quivers and he is thankful for his mask. This way no one can see how bothered he is by all of this.

“Remember, they started this fight when they took Marie,” Alois stresses the reasoning for all of this to Matthew. As soon as he finished speaking, Alois swings the door to the bunker wide open and he readies his weapon.

Matthew stares into the darkened room beyond the door and he wonders why there wasn’t any lighting. Shrugging, Matthew decides this was rather unimportant and he prepares himself to delve into the shadows. Before he has the chance to take a step, two beams of light from within the bunker shine toward the ajar door, and Matthew instinctively shies away from the opening. Once he is away from the doorframe, Matthew looks over to Alois and sees that he had slipped away from the door as well.

“Jane, weren’t you supposed to stand watch?” Tony’s voice sounds from within the bunker as the echo from the door’s squeal continues resounding through the subterranean room.

There is a brief shuffle inside before Juan queries, “Jane? Is that you?”

“I’m going to check on her,” Tony volunteers as the soft plod of footsteps on packed earth nears Matthew and Alois.

Alois motions for Matthew to hide and Matthew presses himself further against the wall that he had retreated to when the duo inside the bunker flashed their lights at him. He draws in a sharp breath before he holds up a finger in front of his mouth—or more accurately his respirator—urging Jane to remain quiet. So long as she didn’t blow their cover, Alois would be able to take out Tony without much of a fight. All things considered; this was one of their best bets to get the uniforms without any bloodshed. Sure, the Fulcrum uniforms weren’t too different from the standard Mudder outfits, but the slight changes would, Lord willing, grant Matthew and Alois the cover they needed to get in, grab Marie, and get out without raising an alarm.

“Jane, if this is one of your pranks, it isn’t funny,” Tony warns as his footsteps near the doorway.

A laugh sounds from within the bunker before Juan points out, “She does have a knack for scaring us.”

“And this is one of the creepiest ones to date,” Tony confirms, “The dead people all around here don’t help either.”

“Nope,” Juan agrees, “Hopefully we can get this fire started already.”

“Jane, this isn’t funny—” Tony peeks his head out of the doorway and Alois immediately grabs it.

Ripping the man out of the bunker, Alois envelopes him in a far-too-tight bear hug as he strangles the breath out of him. Tony squirms around but he can’t move too much, thanks to Alois’s firm grip. Realizing all was lost, Tony changes gears and he tries calling out a warning to his companion, but his cries are negated thanks to Alois’s hold over his mouth. As the seconds slowly tick by, Tony’s movements grow slower and slower and his eyes rove his surroundings with less and less urgency.

Nearly a minute passes and Jane finally lets out a fearful whimper when Tony finally falls completely still. Alois holds the man for a few more seconds, despite Jane’s muffled pleas, before he finally drops Tony’s still form.

Tony crumbles to the ground and Matthew catches his breath. Did Alois really just kill him? Matthew wonders to himself in awe, And did I really just stand here and watch!? Matthew’s thoughts are cut short when he sees Tony’s abdomen rise with a shallow breath. Sighing, the fear that had been gripping Matthew’s chest leaves him and he thinks, Alright, he’s alive. One down, one to go. I can do this.

“Tony?” Juan’s voice sounds after a few eternal, still seconds. Matthew lets out a breath that he had been holding when he realizes that Juan had somehow missed Alois’s takedown of Tony.

“See?” Alois asks Jane who is still looking at Tony since he hit the ground. Jane slowly lifts her eyes to Alois who casually offers, “That was painless enough.”

“Tony, I know you’re out there, you’re not going to scare me,” Juan says with a laugh. He hammers away on something metallic inside of the bunker for a few more seconds before he calls out, “Guys, come on, I need some help with this thing.”

“Think you can knock him out if he doesn’t come out?” Matthew asks Alois when Juan doesn’t make any immediate moves for the door.

“It’ll be a lot harder,” Alois admits, “I don’t know.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Matthew frowns as he looks down at Tony’s unconscious form.

“Tony, come on already!” Juan demands.

“I’ve got an idea,” Matthew announces as he turns Tony over and quickly strips the man of his jacket.

“Better do it quick,” Alois advises as he stares into the darkened bunker.

Dropping his pack, Matthew then begins pulling on the muddied jacket. Knowing that looks wouldn’t be enough, Matthew tries his hand at imitating Tony’s voice, and, using his impersonation, he asks Alois, “Think this voice will fool Juan?”

“You could have had me fooled,” Alois confesses. Nodding once, Alois adds, “Just don’t do too much talking. It may sound good enough to me, but Juan knows this Tony guy better than I do. He’d be able to pick up any differences.”

“Got it,” Matthew affirms in his Tony impression. Taking a deep breath, Matthew prepares himself for what he was about to do. If all went according to plan, he would have Juan’s uniform and the guy wouldn’t know what hit him.

“You had better hope he doesn’t actually look at you,” Alois points out, “And you should lose the mask since our friend here didn’t have one.”

Matthew nods to Alois as he hastily buttons up Tony’s jacket. The jacket is adorned with Fulcrum insignias and several odd badges that attest to the man’s various feats, but their meanings are lost to Matthew. Taking a deep breath, Matthew prays that the jacket would be enough of a ruse since Tony’s pants matched his own. Removing his mask, Matthew cautiously inhales the air around him which is a lot less smokey now. Content, Matthew surveys his disguise and nods approvingly at it.

“Try the hat too,” Alois recommends as he stoops down to pick up Tony’s hat that had fallen into the mud during the scuffle.

“Good idea,” Matthew thanks Alois in his impersonation of Tony’s voice as he jams the hat on. Hoping to further conceal his identity, Matthew then pulls the cap’s rim low over his face, just to be safe.

“Perfect,” Alois nods. Looking down at Jane, Alois asks, “What do you think?”

At first, Jane looks shocked at Alois’s asking for her input, but she quickly recovers. Scanning Matthew, Jane bobs her head side to side in a way that told them that the look could be improved.

“Tony, come on! I need your help already!” Juan’s voice calls out from the bunker with a lot more irritation than it had held earlier.

Matthew winces at Juan’s demand before he asks Jane, “What else do you think I should do then?”

Jane’s eyes squint as she thinks, and she then motions with her head at the muddy ground.

Nodding in understanding, Matthew scoops up some mud and he dirties his face. Having applied a good amount of the filth, Matthew smiles to Jane and says, “Thanks,”

“Bring Jane with you,” Juan requests, “We’re going to need her help.”

“Jane’s busy,” Matthew lies in his best Tony impression to date.

Juan grumbles under his breath for a moment before he calls out, “Tell her to get un-busy! And what took you so damned long?”

“I had to pee,” Matthew lies.

“You took your time peeing,”

“Well, I had to get some privacy,” Matthew offers, wondering if that was at all in character with what the real Tony would do.

“I’m sure you did, now get in here and bring Jane!”

“What should we do?” Matthew whispers to Alois.

“I don’t know,” Alois shrugs, “Think of something.”

“Um—why don’t we see if just you and I can do it?” Matthew requests, his mind racing. Taking a step into the bunker, he adds a lie that he hopes would sell the idea, “Jane’s in one of her moods again.”

“You always got to try doing things yourself,” Juan grumbles. Throwing a tool across the bunker, Juan angrily shouts, “Fine! We’ll do it your way, as always.”

Matthew quickly closes the distance between him and Juan and he does his best to step around the handful of dead gassers. In retrospect, it would have been wise to pull the flashlight off of Tony. Juan is hunched over what appears to be an old generator that came from who knows where. His flashlight is trained on the opening that his head is in which, Matthew hoped, would make it so Juan would have to really look at him to see through his ruse. So long as he didn’t give Juan a reason to look up, everything would be fine.

“What do you need lifted?” Matthew asks, still hoping that his Tony impression was good enough.

“Are you really that stupid?” Juan demands as he pulls himself away from the old piece of machinery. He turns to Matthew and he says, “As I said before, we just have to turn the crank to see if the engine is seized. We aren’t lifting anything.”

Matthew lets out a brief sigh when he realizes that Juan hadn’t made him yet. Odds were that Juan couldn’t see a whole lot because the rest of the bunker was so dark. The flashlight had partially blinded him, much to Matthew’s benefit. Taking the last few steps, Matthew stands beside Juan and he makes like he is about to try to turn the crankshaft with a large breaker bar. The bar is currently stuck on the crankshaft’s pully bolt on the front of the large engine, assumedly right where Tony had left it.

“Alright, this really is a three-man job, but let’s see if we can do it with two…” Juan starts as he focuses on poking around inside the open hatch that his flashlight is trained on.

Matthew waits a beat as Juan’s head dips back into the open hatch. Making the most of his time, Matthew takes several deep breaths to steady his nerves. Hopefully, Juan goes down as easily as Moon and Walskie did on my first day, Matthew thinks as he examines the man. If I can’t knock him out, then I’m in trouble. Things could get ugly really quick… I need the perfect opening.

Matthew is soon rewarded with the opportunity he had been waiting for, and Juan turns around and begins fiddling with some wiring. In one swift movement, Matthew rips the breaker bar off of the bolt and he brings it crashing down on the base of Juan’s skull.

“Ow, Tony, what are you doing!” Juan shouts as he rears his head upward as he spins around. Reaching up with one hand he feels the spot that Matthew had hit. Scowling, he demands, “What the Hell is wrong with—"

Before he can think, Matthew swings the bar at Juan’s head once more, cutting the man off midsentence. Matthew misses his mark slightly, and he ends up hitting Juan’s wrist instead. Much to Matthew’s benefit, the sound of breaking bone accompanies the crash of the steel on flesh.

“Ah!” Juan cries out as he rips his now-broken wrist away from his head where he had been cradling his wound. With his good arm, Juan then rips the breaker bar out of Matthew’s hands, and he seethes, “How about I beat you over the head with this now?”

Knowing that he was now at a disadvantage, Matthew charges straight for Juan before the man can react. Matthew leaps into the man’s chest and he wraps one arm upwards behind Juan’s head as his other arm works to immobilized Juan’s good arm.

“Wait a minute, who are you?” Juan asks as he struggles to free himself from Matthew’s grip. Evidently, his eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness. Either that, or he finally realized that his friend wouldn’t be attacking him so aggressively.

“Matthew!” Alois calls from the entrance to the bunker. A moment later, Matthew hears the safety on Alois’s weapon click off.

“Hold on!” Matthew tells Alois as he puts all his effort into reaching the wound he had made on Juan’s head.

“Matthew?” Juan parrots Alois as the gears in his head finally start working.

Juan loses his focus long enough from saying Matthew’s name that Matthew is able to press his fingers into a bloodied, wet patch on the back of Juan’s head. Juan cries in pain as Matthew presses as hard as he can, and Juan drops to the ground. Matthew falls with Juan and they struggle for the upper hand on the earthen floor of the bunker.

Juan quickly rips his good arm out of Matthew’s grip, and he swats Matthew’s hand away from his head wound. A moment later, Juan kicks Matthew square in the chest, sending Matthew careening through the air.

Matthew crashes to the ground about a meter away from Juan and he looks over to Alois. Alois has his weapon trained on Juan who is rising to his feet as best he can with just one arm. Holding a hand up to Alois, Matthew shouts, “Don’t shoot!”

“Then hurry up!” Alois demands. Glancing somewhere outside, Alois says something else that Matthew can’t make out. Frowning, he looks back into the bunker to report, “We’ve got gassers incoming!”

Matthew rises to his feet as fast as he can, and he makes another run at Juan as Alois steps out of the bunker and begins firing at the gassers outside. Juan is all too ready for Matthew this time, even though he still is on the ground. Kicking wildly, Juan makes contact with Matthew more than a few times.

“Get away from me!” Juan cries out as he fends for his life.

“Just—give—up—then!” Matthew tells Juan between his various attempts at getting to the man. The moment Matthew finishes his demand, Juan delivers a perfect kick to Matthew’s mouth and Matthew’s lip splits open. At this, Juan relents momentarily and Matthew breaks through his leg-defense. Knowing that he didn’t have much time, Matthew straddles Juan’s gut and he wraps his hands around the man’s throat.

Juan struggles for breath and he tries to kick at Matthew from behind. As he kicks, Juan also swings both his good and bad arm at Matthew’s face in hopes that that would make Matthew loosen his grip. Matthew squints his eyes to try to keep them from being clawed out and he does his best to ignore the pain of being kneed in the back as Juan struggles to free himself.

As Juan’s attempts to break away from Matthew drag on, Matthew’s grip grows tighter and tighter. I must be doing this wrong if he isn’t unconscious already! Matthew thinks as his fingers sink firmly into the flesh of Juan’s throat.

Juan continues gasping for breath to no avail and Matthew closes his eyes in order to avoid staring into the man’s bulging eyes. A few more seconds pass and Juan’s movements grow slower and weaker, but Matthew’s grip remains firm. As Matthew saw it, there was no way in telling if Juan was just putting on a ruse. The weak gasps from Juan degrade to a gargle and then Juan falls completely still.

“We’re out of time, just kill him!” Alois shouts from outside of the bunker.

Matthew slowly opens his eyes and he is greeted with a sight that he is sure he would never forget. Beneath him, Juan’s eyes are still open, but they are glazed over and slightly bloodshot. Shocked, Matthew immediately tears his hands away from Juan’s throat and he leaps to his feet. Juan’s head lolls to the side and a thin trail of blood seeps to the ground from between his lips.

“But I was just choking him…” Matthew whispers to himself in terror as he looks down to his hands. Hands that had now killed another human being. Matthew’s heart feels like it stops altogether as he thinks, I’m a killer now. Even if the Beets and gassers didn’t count, this did. What have I done?

“Good, you finally knocked him out,” Alois acknowledges from the door, “Now pull him out here and don’t forget his jacket!”

“He’s dead,” Matthew mutters as Alois turns and quickly fires a few rounds at an unseen target.

Alois looks back to Matthew and he urges, “Come on! We’re cutting it close here! I already cut Jane’s legs loose so she can walk. I’ll be carrying Tony; you carry your guy!”

Matthew tears his eyes away from Juan’s corpse and he watches as Alois stoops down and picks up Tony’s still form.

Matthew lets out a shaky breath and he drops to the ground beside Juan. He begins reaching for the first button on the man’s jacket when he suddenly vomits up the small amount of food and water that he had taken in over the last few hours.

Outside, several gassers shriek, and Matthew can even hear what he thinks is Jane’s own muffled cry of terror. Recovering as best he can, Matthew quickly pulls off Juan’s jacket and he is careful to keep both Juan’s body, and the clothes he killed the man for, out of the puddle of vomit that he had just made.

Wiping his mouth and eyes with his sleeve, Matthew takes one last look at Juan before he spins around and runs for the exit. The moment he is at the door, Matthew dives for his pack and he rips out an incendiary grenade that he had taken from the Firefly’s supply cache.

As he pulls the grenade’s pin, Matthew looks into the bunker long enough to see Juan’s body which is being illuminated by the flashlight he had been using. Something about the spotlight on the body made Matthew even sicker to his stomach, but he doesn’t have anything left in him to vomit up. Matthew throws the grenade at the far side of the bunker and it lands a lot closer to Juan’s body than he could have hoped for. Clenching his eyes shut, Matthew then slams the door to the bunker. He was never going to be the same after this.

“Come on!” Alois urges without looking at Matthew.

Alois and Jane are both standing a few paces in front of Matthew, but they have their backs turned to him. Tony’s unconscious form is draped over Alois’s shoulder as Alois continues doing his best to keep the horde of gassers at bay as they race toward them.

Matthew reaches over to his rifle that he had left outside, and he opens fire past Alois. Without taking his finger off the trigger, Matthew empties a mag at the nearest gasser with a guttural cry that leaves his throat feeling raw.

Three

The Bulwark, Allegra

“Don’t stop moving!” Alois urges as he continues fighting.

“My foot,” Matthew complains weakly as he looks down to his gnarled appendage.

He had managed to get his foot caught in some barbed wire which was buried in the mud nearly an hour ago and it hadn’t stopped oozing blood since then. Provided, it was rather hard to tell what was blood, and what was just mud right now though. Thanks to the drenched state of the trenches that Matthew and the others had been slogging through almost nonstop, everyone’s feet were caked with mud.

“You just need to hang on for a little while longer,” Jane tells Matthew as she frantically looks around. Frowning, she adds, “We just need to find a good spot where we can get you taken care of.”

“You know, I like her a lot more without a gag,” Alois chuckles, “Sorry about that.”

“As I said before, we’re on the same side right now,” Jane replies as she lays Matthew’s arm over her shoulder so she can help him walk.

“For now, at least,” Alois fires back, “There’s no way we can trust you once the gassers are taken care of.”

“That would happen a lot faster if you just gave me a gun!” Jane fires back, repeating her plea for a weapon. She had been asking for one since Matthew had convinced Alois that they could remove her gag. Matthew had started pressing Alois to remove Jane’s gag not too long after they made a run for it from the bunker that Matthew had torched.

“That’s never going to happen, love,” Alois shakes his head.

“Please stop calling me that,” Jane requests yet again as Matthew stumbles alongside her.

Alois grunts in response to Jane’s request and he focuses on shooting a few more gassers instead.

The gassers, much to Matthew’s dismay, had begun climbing up and out of the trenches in order to travel unimpeded by the narrow channels. Up until then, the trenches had served as the perfect kill boxes for the survivors to defend themselves from the masses of gassers. Now the gassers were literally everywhere, and the trenches were even more dangerous since the gassers could now come down from above.

Matthew had initially made a case for traveling up top, like the gassers, in order to make better time and have the high ground. Unfortunately, that plan backfired epically. The harebrained idea was what got Matthew’s foot destroyed by the barbed wire and it crescendoed with every gasser taking note of Matthew and his team. Since then, the constant flow of more gassers had kept Matthew and Alois’s guns very busy.

“Any idea how far away the nearest bunker is?” Matthew asks weakly as his injured foot drags in the mud. He didn’t have the energy to keep his foot lifted anymore, so it served as more of a dragnet for more sharp objects hidden in the mud than anything else right now.

“The closest one is the Fulcrum bunker to the west,” Jane answers as she points to their left, “And yes, I am well-aware that you two don’t want to go there, Alois.”

“She learns quick,” Alois muses as he slowly peeks around another corner. Tony is still draped over Alois’s shoulder which only slowed the group down further. Alois had tried letting Tony walk when he finally woke up the first time, but the man ended up making a run for it. Alois quickly caught him and put him in another sleeper hold. Since then, Alois had not put the man down, which really impressed Matthew who was dog-tired from just carrying his pack as he stumbled along.

“Is he always that way?” Jane whispers to Matthew.

“So far, yes,” Matthew affirms. He is thankful that Jane had seemingly forgiven him for killing Juan. Rather than hate him for killing the man, Jane seemed to be perfectly neutral about the whole thing. If Matthew wasn’t mistaking, he is sure that Jane only really cared about Tony. It was almost like Juan had just been a third wheel that slowed her down. Matthew lets out a pained chuckle before he cedes, “But I’ve only known him for a few hours.”

Staring ahead, Jane’s face contorts into the briefest of grimaces. She quickly puts her neutral face back on before she flatly says, “Lovely,”

“Yeah,” Matthew agrees with another chuckle.

Matthew and the others continue through the trenches in silence for several minutes as the sound of gasser shrieks rise from seemingly all sides. Spurts of gunfire are sounding from just about everywhere and Matthew reasons that the sounds of battle are drawing the gassers away from him and the others. As far as he was concerned, everyone that was shooting right now was saving his life.

“Is it just me, or did I just hear Louise’s voice?” Matthew asks when he hears the faintest hint of a semi-familiar feminine voice in the distance.

“You’re hearing things,” Alois states as he slows down considerably. He slowly puts Tony down and he begins poking at the trench’s wall on his left.

The wall isn’t too special, as far as Matthew can tell, minus the fact that it is bristling with splintered shards of wood and metal. Generally, the trenches were lined with planks of wood and sheet metal that were more or less smooth. These retaining walls served to hold the earth back. So long as the walls stood, no one would be buried alive. Matthew had seen quite a few sections of trenches that had either filled in when the retaining walls failed and he had seen even more that had been reduced to splinters in artillery strikes, like the one Alois is fixated on. Matthew frowns as images of the other destroyed sections of trench flash through his head as he and Jane watch Alois.

“Am I missing something?” Jane asks.

Matthew gently shakes his head as he answers, “I don’t think so.”

“This looks like it’s part of an old structure,” Alois finally lets the two of them in on his thoughts, “I think there might be a bunker in here.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Jane starts as she takes in the scene before her and Matthew, “But I don’t think there’s anything left in there. It clearly took a pretty big hit a long time ago.”

“Oh, it looks fine,” Alois argues, “The blast looks like it just collapsed the entrance.”

Matthew examines the remnants of a large crater that appeared to be rather old. Matthew hadn’t been on Allegra long enough to gauge just how old the crater was for sure, but he is confident that it was at least a few weeks old. Several rotting corpses lie all around Matthew and the others as another telltale sign that the bunker Alois is trying to unearth had been abandoned for quite some time.

Matthew exchanges a look with Jane that tells him that she thinks the same thing he is. Clearing his throat, Matthew offers, “I think we’d have better luck if we kept moving. Maybe we can find somewhere that’s… somewhere that’s still standing. We can rest up there and then head out later tonight or even tomorrow morning.”

“That’s right…” Jane mutters as she looks up to the twilight skies, “I forgot the nights were so long.”

“Yeah,” Matthew nods, “It’s hard to get used to.”

“You’re telling me,” Jane laughs, “I’ve been here for a week and a half already and I’m still not used to it. You’ve only been here… what? Two days?”

“I’ve technically been here for three days now,” Matthew clarifies.

“Three days, not bad,” Jane nods approvingly as she and Matthew watch Alois drop his pack and whip out a folded-up entrenchment shovel.

“Well, I was unconscious for one of those,” Matthew sheepishly admits before he laughs. It was strange to think that he had slept through a full 35-hours of daylight. Worse still, he had done that on just his second day on Allegra. Shrugging, Matthew adds, “Feels a lot longer than the three days though—and I’m not just saying that because the days are longer here.”

“Wow, you’re still such a Mud Pup,” Jane chuckles, “I’m surprised you managed to sleep through a full day uninterrupted though.”

“I was in the infirmary,” Matthew explains, “Got hit with some Beet venom.”

This really gets Jane’s attention and she eyes Matthew sideways for a moment in a mixture of surprise and skepticism. Nodding slowly, Jane observes, “And you survived? Interesting…”

“Yeah—” Matthew starts before Alois interrupts him.

“Just help me dig,” Alois urges, “I think we’ve finally caught our break.”

“Not much of a break,” Jane whispers to Matthew as she helps him hobble over beside Alois.

Balancing on one foot, Matthew leans against a nearby section of wall that is still standing for support. As much as he wanted to be a better help, he couldn’t. Being crippled, even if that only extended to his foot, was quite the hindrance.

Matthew, Jane, and Alois quickly find their digging rhythm where Alois and Jane dig while Matthew busies himself with pulling out any debris that impeded their work. Several comparatively still minutes pass and Matthew begins to let his mind wander as he continues clearing the way for Alois and Jane to dig. As his mind wanders, Matthew listens to the noise of the battle against the gassers all around him.

To the west, where Matthew knew the Fulcrum bunker is, the fighting seems to be the most severe. If Matthew isn’t mistaking, it sounds like the entirety of the Fulcrum gang is fighting over there. North of Matthew and the others, the fighting also sounds rather intense, but it seems to be a lot more spread out than that of the fight to the west. It almost sounds like they are running cleanup operations to route out the last of the gassers. To the south and west things seem a lot calmer, but there is the occasional spurt of gunfire and the rare explosion as well. And then Matthew hears the same voice that he had heard earlier.

“They disappeared around here,” Louise’s voice faintly sounds as it is carried along by the wind.

“But the sighting is nearly a half-hour old,” a Toaz voice sounds in reply.

“But we’ve got tracks,” Louise fires back. Matthew chuckles as he hears the fiery spirit in Louise’s response, even at this great distance.

“Is that blood?” the Toaz asks.

“Yes, one of them must be hurt,” Louise replies, “We need to…”

Matthew frowns when the wind shifts, and he can’t make out the voices in the distance anymore. He tries moving his head about in an effort to make out anything, but he fails to hear much beyond the fighting that is now upwind.

Clung!

Matthew jerks his head back to the task at hand at the sound of metal hitting metal. Looking at the pile of debris, Matthew sees that Alois and Jane have both frozen. Matthew sees Alois’s shovel which is still buried in the mud and his eyes follow it up Alois’s arms to his surprised face. Alois then begins looking between Jane and Matthew excitedly as if to ask, ‘Did you hear that too?!’

Without saying a word, the trio begin tearing into the dirt with a vengeance. Any doubts that they had are now dashed as they are all consumed with one thought, There’s something down here.

“I see steel!” Alois exclaims as loudly as he dared.

“I’ve got a handle!” Jane declares as she shovels away a large hunk of dirt.

Matthew rips a final large beam away from the work area and he is awarded with a sight of a steel door. The door isn’t massive, it’s barely large enough for two people to squeeze through simultaneously, but it’s a door. It’s an escape out of the current nightmare that they are living in.

“Finally!” Alois whoops as he and Jane quickly clear away the area around the door. The moment the doorway is clear, Alois takes a hold of the handle and gives it a tug.

Matthew darts out of the way as the door falls forward toward him and the others. Initially landing on his bad foot, Matthew’s leg gives way because of the pain and he lands face first in the mud. As Matthew slowly picks himself up, he finds himself staring directly into the face of one of the corpses that litter the ground outside of the old bunker. Matthew lets out a short, startled scream as he pushes himself away and he rises the rest of the way to his feet as a shiver runs down his back. Matthew fidgets for a few seconds afterward as the shivers continue, and he begins to wonder if any worms or corpse maggots might have gotten in his shirt when he was on the ground. He is about to reach into his shirt to check when he hears Alois whoop for joy once again.

“There it is!” Alois declares happily, drawing Matthew’s attention.

“We don’t know how deep it goes,” Jane points out as everyone focuses on a small tunnel that is just large enough for someone to crawl through on all fours.

“And I doubt it would be easy to crawl back out,” Matthew adds as he sizes up the meager hole. Crawling in was always the easy part, backing up was difficult when one got stuck.

“Well, I’m not going in,” Jane opts out immediately.

“I don’t think you’d be too good at guarding both Tony and Jane,” Alois remarks to Matthew.

“Great,” Matthew says with a frown. Sighing, Matthew thinks to himself, Well, I’ve been volunteered. Or, more accurately, voluntold.

“We only need somewhere to hide out because of you anyways,” Alois adds unhelpfully.

“I’m not sure how true that is,” Jane whispers as she helps Matthew remove his pack.

“Doesn’t matter,” Matthew shakes his head, “I’ll fit in there a lot easier than Alois anyways.”

Once Matthew’s gear is on the ground, Jane eyes his gun and asks, “Can I have a gun to help stand guard now?”

“Nope,” Alois dismisses Jane’s request once again as he swipes Matthew’s gun away from her.

“Seriously?” Jane asks incredulously, “If I was going to shoot you guys, I would have done it by now. I’ve had every opportunity!”

Taking a seat on Matthew’s pack, Alois argues, “We don’t arm our prisoners of war.”

“Come on!” Jane exclaims. She looks down at Matthew who is sizing up the hole once more and she begs, “Please? You know as well as I do that Alois won’t be able to hold off a horde of gassers.”

Matthew chuckles, knowing full well that he didn’t want to partake in this argument. As it turned out, perhaps he wasn’t getting the short straw after all. He would much rather venture into the hole than out here and bicker with Jane. Before Jane can press him for his response, Matthew climbs into the narrow tunnel with a flashlight in one hand and a knife in the other; there was no knowing what else might be down here.

“So, is that a no?” Alois inquires sarcastically as Matthew crawls through the darkness.

Once again, Matthew opts to ignore the argument, and instead, he proceeds onward. After crawling two meters or so, the tunnel is far too dark to see in. Frowning, Matthew reluctantly flicks on his flashlight. He knew that he was using up his priceless batteries, but if he didn’t, he might not be alive to use them much longer.

The flashlight illuminates the tunnel ahead of Matthew and he immediately sees that it takes a sharp turn upwards several meters ahead of him. He also sees that it gets a lot tighter.

Resigning himself to his fate and praying the whole way, Matthew presses on. He is quickly forced from crawling on his hands and knees to his elbows and knees. After forcing his way a little further, he is forced to lie almost flat as he worms himself on ahead.

With a dreadful sense of claustrophobia setting in, Matthew’s heart begins racing. He had never been scared of tight spaces, but something about the uneven and questionably secure earthen walls stressed him out to the point that his heart is beating in his ears. Not only that, but he feels like his chest is being pressed so tight that he can’t even take in a whole breath.

As he thought all of this, an explosion somewhere on the surface shakes the tunnel that Matthew is in, and he is showered in dirt clots. Please don’t let me die like this! Matthew thinks desperately as his heartrate rises even higher. Another explosion sounds and even more dirt falls, and Matthew offers up a brief, whispered prayer, “God, if I’m going to survive this war, then help me survive this night. If not, take me now.”

The moment Matthew’s prayer is over, the explosions stop. Not entirely convinced that he was still alive, Matthew tentatively opens his eyes. I’m still here… for now, at least, Matthew thinks as he nervously begins nibbling at his lip, Maybe I should have specified what ‘now’ meant though. Now could mean a few seconds from now, if you think about it…

“You still with us?” Alois asks, his voice echoing ever so slightly off of the soft dirt walls.

Matthew takes a deep breath and he takes a quick mental inventory of his appendages. He wiggles his fingers before him and then his toes that are somewhere behind him. Besides the pain that the wiggling caused Matthew’s injured foot, everything seemed fine. Content that those smallest appendages still worked, Matthew shakes the rest of his body around a bit and he nods, mostly to assure himself that he was still alive. Satisfied with his test, Matthew replies, “Yeah, almost there.”

“Well, we’ve got a surprise for you when you get there,” Alois reports.

“Can’t you just tell me what it is?” Matthew asks as he forges ahead.

There is a brief commotion of hushed voices well behind Matthew before Louise’s voice sounds, “Told ya I’d find you!”

“I told the others that I heard your voice!” Matthew declares happily, “They said I was crazy.”

“Did not!” Alois upholds.

Chuckling, Matthew counters, “You said I was hearing things. Last I heard, that was the same as calling someone crazy.”

“He could have been calling you a prophet,” Jane offers.

“A prophet?” Matthew laughs, “I like that, but I don’t think so.”

“I like Mudskipper more than prophet anyways,” Louise adds.

Before Matthew can sound his agreement to Louise’s claim, he finds himself at the end of his small tunnel. He has to worm his way onto his back, rather than his front in order to get over the lip that he had seen earlier. Pulling himself out of the tunnel completely, Matthew looks around the bunker that he is now in as he illuminates it with his flashlight.

Empty, Matthew notes to himself. At first, he is discouraged, but he isn’t sure what the reason was. He had thought that there would be corpses of people that had died down here when the exit had been sealed off, but there aren’t any. Instead, the bunker appears to be fully stocked with supplies, bunks, and even a generator, among quite a few other things. Realizing that he had no issue with the lack of rotting corpses, Matthew’s concern quickly turns into glee.

Sticking his head back into the tunnel that he had come from, Matthew calls out to his companions, “Come on in, this place is perfect!”

“Ladies first,” Alois’s voice offers.

“You just don’t want the tunnel to cave in on you,” Jane fires back before Matthew can hear her grunt and he sees her start down the tunnel toward him.

“You’ll want to go through the last bit on your back,” Matthew advises, “It’ll be easier to get out that way.”

Content that he had completed his job, Matthew turns back around, and he continues examining the bunker that he is in. Everything seemed so perfect. It seems almost too perfect, Matthew considers, Especially when you look at the dire straits that the entryway is in.

This bunker appeared untouched by the mud and mire of the outside world. It truly appeared to be untouched. At a complete loss, Matthew begins shuffling toward the nearest cabinet, but he stops himself when he remembers his foot. Looking down, he realizes that he is dirtying the pristine concrete floor below him.

Raising his injured leg, Matthew hops back to the pile of dirt that is obstructing the entry tunnel. Halfway there, he laughs to himself as he recalls a similar scenario where his mother had scolded him for tracking in bloody fish guts into their house.

Smiling at the memory, Matthew lowers himself to the ground and he gets comfortable as he leans his back against the soft dirt. Closing his eyes, Matthew lets the memory run its course in front of his mind’s eye.

The day had been a lot sunnier and warmer than most winter days back home. Not only that, but the fish had been a lot easier to catch, which was a very rare occurrence on sunny days. Excited to have nearly half a day of sunlight left, Matthew had quickly finished his fishing duties and helped pack away the day’s catch.

Once the various chores were done, Matthew raced home. He was set on cleaning up nicely and surprising Dix. The only thing that stood in his way, he would later discover, was a hunk of dead fish that had somehow lodged itself in the arch of his boot.

Matthew’s mom had been in the kitchen when he made it to the door, and he had excitedly greeted her. Once she got over her initial surprise, she looks down at Matthew’s feet and saw the bloodied prints that he had left behind on the whitened wood floors. Without even telling him what was the matter, Matthew’s mom had chased him out of the house with her broom. With him out of the house, she then proceeded to chase him out of the front gate as well.

Laughing to himself, Matthew remembers how the smell of fish and the dark bloodstains on the wood had never fully washed out after that day.

Sighing, Matthew’s heart sinks as he realizes just how much he missed home.

“What’s so funny?” Jane inquires as she wriggles out of the tight tunnel and gives Matthew a strange look.

“Just remembering home,” Matthew replies simply.

Nodding knowingly, Jane asks, “Feeling homesick?”

“A bit,” Matthew nods back. He is about to say more when Jane stops him.

“Woah!” Jane exclaims, “This place is perfect!”

Looking around at the room once more with Jane, Matthew agrees, “Yeah—"

“Except for that,” Jane mentions as she points toward some of the footprints Matthew had left, “I take it those were from you and not some freaky monster?”

“Yeah,” Matthew nods embarrassedly. He feels almost like he had committed some form of heresy by being the first one to muck up the otherwise pristine underground chapel.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t me,” Jane laughs as she removes her filthy boots and walks around the large room.

“Yeah, lucky you,” Matthew chuckles at the girl’s honesty.

Louise and Alois follow shortly thereafter and Matthew exchanges similar conversations with them. Sure enough, everyone seems very happy with the bunker.

“So, is this our new home?” Alois asks the question that had to of been on everyone’s heads. He finishes tying Tony’s unconscious form to one of the bunk beds before he turns around and explains, “Because it’s not like anyone is going to miss this place.”

“I know I won’t be parting with it any time soon,” Jane steadfastly declares as she reclines on the bunk that she had claimed.

“Maybe not, but you will be parting with that bunk,” Alois says as he picks Jane up with one arm and carries her to another berth. Once he sets her down, he enlightens the group, “I always get the bunk nearest the door.”

“But there isn’t a door,” Jane laughs.

Raising an eyebrow, Louise points out, “She’s not wrong, you know.”

“Eh, semantics,” Alois waves them off.

“There’s a big word for you,” Louise teases as she kneels in front of Matthew. She sets out several items that she had picked up from all around the bunker between her and Matthew. Surveying the items quickly, Louise nods confidently and she then carefully removes Matthew’s tattered boot.

“I picked it up back on the Cherry Picker,” Alois admits, “I like the sound of it.”

“The Cherry Picker?” Jane queries.

“That was their ship,” Matthew explains as he does his best to not cry out in pain as Louise pulls his boot the rest of the way off.

“Hmm,” Jane mumbles, “Strange name.”

“It was a salvage rig,” Alois defends the name of his old home.

“Well, I guess that makes more sense,” Jane offers a slow nod of partial approval. Turning to Matthew, she inquires, “Why didn’t you just say that up front?”

Matthew doesn’t reply as he clenches his jaw shut and closes his eyes as hard as he can to keep from letting out either a cry or a moan of pain. A moment later, Louise begins pouring water over his abused foot and Matthew loses control. Jerking his foot away from Louise, Matthew lets out a yelp and he holds his foot as close as he can, which—thanks to the stiffness that holding the leg up for so long had caused—wasn’t too close.

“Oh, man up,” Louise scolds, “If we don’t get your foot cleaned up then you’ll lose it.”

“That doesn’t mean that didn’t hurt!” Matthew defends his actions as Louise pulls his foot back over the bowl that she had set out.

“So, Alois,” Jane turns her attention to the man that had taken her bed, “Can I have the top bunk? I’m a fan of being close to the exit too.”

Alois eyes Jane for a moment before he relents, “Fine”

“Great,” Jane smiles as she skips over to her new spot and she happily crests the ladder to her perch.

“One more thing,” Alois says once Jane is topside.

Jane cocks her head and prompts, “What?”

“Well, you’re going to need one of these if you’re going to keep anyone from kicking you out of your new home,” Alois tells her as he finally gives the girl a rifle. Or, more accurately, he returns the rifle that he had taken from her when he and Matthew captured her.

“Is that a good idea?” Louise whispers to Matthew as she finally lowers his foot into the bowl before him. She watches Jane out of the corner of her eye as she gently pours some more water on top of Matthew’s foot.

Matthew takes a very deep breath to keep from squirming too much and Louise quickly finishes pouring the water on his foot. A second or two pass and the stinging subsides enough that Matthew can reply, “We’re about to find out.”

“Alright, but what about Tony?” Jane asks after quite a few very stressful moments.

“Well, I’m not about to give him a gun,” Alois shrugs, “He hasn’t earned my trust yet.”

“Huh,” Jane mumbles. Frowning, she looks down at the gun in her hands once more before she hands it back to Alois. Seeing his surprised expression, she explains, loud enough for everyone to hear, “I don’t have anyone I need to defend myself from down here.”

“Ha, cute,” Louise says just loud enough for Matthew to hear.

“I take it you’re sleeping with your weapon tonight?” Matthew asks quietly.

Shrugging, Louise casually answers, “I do anyways.”

“Of course,” Matthew nods.

“What does that mean?” Louise asks pointedly as she stops fishing through the bottles of medical stuff that she had taken from a nearby crate.

Feeling like he had just really fouled things up, Matthew stammers, “N-nothing… you just—I—well…”

“Slow down, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Louise teases as she flashes a brief smile at Matthew. Content that Matthew hadn’t meant anything outwardly offensive, Louise returns to the task at hand, and she adds a few things to the basin that Matthew’s foot is in.

“Thank you,” Matthew eventually gushes.

“Well, I couldn’t just let your foot bleed out all over our pretty floor,” Louise shrugs.

“No, I mean thank you for everything. You and Alois have done so much for me and I don’t even know you guys.”

“Well, we aren’t just doing this out of the goodness of our hearts. Sure, that’s a part of it, but it isn’t the main reason.”

“Well, what’s the main reason?”

“Well… Alois and I—we… the two of us haven’t had the easiest go. We’ve learned how to find people we can trust. People that will look out for us just as much as we will look out for them. Oftentimes those people are the ones that need a little more help from us, but, so long as we know we’re safe, we’re willing to do that.”

“Oh, well… thank you for picking me. I don’t know how I would have done anything that we did today without you two.”

“You’re resourceful, you would have figured it out,” Louise nods approvingly at Matthew. Smiling, she adds, “That’s just one of the added bonuses of our choosing you. Besides, your way with the ladies just won us a new ally.”

Matthew follows Louise’s gaze, and he sees that Jane and Alois are currently chatting like longtime friends. If Matthew was reading the duo’s body language right, he would say they were engaged. The two of them seem so entirely transfixed in the other’s words.

“You sure it’s my way with the ladies?” Matthew finally asks once Alois gets Jane laughing so hard that she starts snorting.

Chuckling, Louise admits, “I guess my big brother is a smoother talker than I ever gave him credit for.”

“Seems so,” Matthew agrees as his eyes shift to his submerged foot.

“I stuck in everything I knew would help pull out the junk in your cuts,” Louis explains when she sees that Matthew’s attention had moved to his foot. Nodding at her assortment of medical supplies, she says, “I threw in a bunch of Epsom salts and some antibiotic ointment. I put in some lavender oil to soothe the pain too. But don’t come after me for malpractice later, I’m no doctor.”

Chuckling Matthew reasons that Louise’s approach probably wouldn’t do him too much harm. Shrugging, Matthew opts to thank her instead, “It looks great, thanks. I don’t think I would have been able to actually take care of my foot anyways.”

“I’m glad to help,” Louise smiles as she moves to sit beside Matthew. A beat passes and she tells him, “Once we’ve soaked your foot for a while, I’ll dry it off and bandage it. We’ll need to find you some new boots too.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Matthew agrees as he looks at his discarded boot. The thing still did resemble a boot, more or less, but Matthew knew that it wouldn’t do him too much good in its current state.

Several hours pass and Matthew and Louise sit in peaceful silence despite their both being wide awake. Alois and Jane have long since fallen asleep in their respective bunks, leaving Louise and Matthew alone. Matthew isn’t sure if he isn’t talking because of his exhaustion or if he felt like he shouldn’t disturb the stillness and apparent holiness of their new sanctuary.

“Now that we’ve got a place to call home, I feel a lot safer,” Louise breaks the silence.

“Same here, this beats a tent.”

“It beats a lot of things. I don’t know if I’ve ever lived somewhere so nice.”

“Me either,”

“What do you think we should call this place?” Louise asks after a beat.

“You want to name it already?” Matthew laughs.

“That’s what Alois and I do,” Louise shrugs, “We name things.”

“I don’t know,”

“I was thinking we should name it Sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary?” Matthew cocks his head. He isn’t sure why, but he really liked the name already.

“Yeah, like a church.”

“That’s funny,” Matthew sounds as he lets out a soft chuckle, “I’ve been thinking this place felt awful church-like.”

“It’s so peaceful and pure,” Louise agrees.

“Sanctuary it is then,” Matthew declares with a nod. Looking around the room, thoughts of stained glass and tapestries play in his imagination as he considers going all out and making their new home a chapel for the frontlines.

Several minutes pass and Louise eventually breaks the silence, “Sorry we couldn’t save your friend Marie today.”

“We did our best, I’m sure she’ll be fine for another day.”

“I’m sure she will be too. The Toaz told me all about her. She sounds smart and resourceful.”

“From the little bit that I know about her; I’d have to agree.”

“It’s funny because the Toaz are convinced that the two of you are going to get married.”

“Huh,” Matthew grunts, “Weird.”

“Oh, don’t deny it,” Louise teases as she gives Matthew a playful shove that causes him to wince when his foot shifts in the bowl. Seeing that she had hurt him, Louise promptly apologizes.

“It’s fine,” Matthew assures her. Pursing his lips, he asks her something that had been troubling him, “What happened to the Toaz you were looking for us with? I heard them with you earlier.”

“Oh, they went back to their bunker when we found you. There was a whole team of Toaz that escorted me here. They were worried about you, so they pulled their people away from gasser hunting. You really made a good impression on them.”

“Sounds like I do that with a lot of people,” Matthew says as he makes a face. He isn’t sure how he liked being so popular with everyone. After growing up with such a small group of people in Crail, the idea of hundreds of people knowing him left Matthew feeling… strange. He didn’t have a grid for understanding what to do with so many people. Part of him felt like what he thought the early colonists would have felt like when their planet was years away from their nearest neighbor. He had grown up so alone and now the whole galaxy was open to him.

Nuzzling closer to Matthew, Louise leans her head on his shoulder, and, with a yawn, she requests, “Well, don’t stop being you, it might just save our lives one day.”

DESPERATE PLEA!

Thank you for exploring the future alongside me!

I’d love to hear what you think about my book!

Please drop an honest review of what you thought about it on Amazon or Goodreads!

https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B08GQ52LC7

Thank you so much!

Caleb Fast

The Story Continues,

Matthew finally has a place to call home, but Marie is still MIA.

Will Matthew and his companions save Marie in the next book? (That’s the question I’ll be answering!)

Read on the see what happens in the war for Allegra!

The Battle for Allegra Episode Seven:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P3R8JCF

Other Books By Caleb Fast

The Battle for Allegra Series:

Season One:

Conscripted (1)

First Kill (2)

The Hunt (3)

Relegated (4)

Retrieval (5)

Sanctuary (6)

Secured (7)

Harborage (8)

Revelations (9)

Promotion (10)

Season Two:

Awakening (11)

Arrival (12)

Dawn (13)

The Limit of Infinity Series:

Renaissance: The Limit of Infinity

Escapade: A Price to Be Paid

Overcomer: No Man Left Behind

Wayward: Long Way from Home