Collision Course

 

We bury Kite and Cinder quickly under piles of fallen rubble, and Leon prays for them, asking for Anastasia's blessing in the afterlife. Jora, who knows some first aid, helps splint Krim's broken arm. Luc refuses it, and I decide not to push it since he looks furious.

"…Two of 'em gone, just like that," he says, looking down. "Not a great start."

"Cinder…" Leon murmurs softly.

He has a weary, tired, sad look in his blue eyes. If I recall, he was pretty close to Cinder. I mean, so was I. He was nice to me… as was Kite. And now, I'll never see them again. I can barely even remember what they looked like.

"Next time we'll kill him," Neo grits, fists clenched and fingers digging into his palms. "We weren't ready for him this ti-"

"Ready?" Luc cuts in. "You think anyone can be ready for a seven-foot-tall freak with a bat the size of car door?"

"I mean- I'm just saying-"

"No, no," Luc doesn't give him a chance to speak. "You're always saying, Neo. Flapping your gums doesn't keep people alive. Putting your back into your punches, on the other hand, does."

I stop what I'm doing and look suspiciously at them. I can sense the air changing, and the tension between everyone rising.

"Well we aren't all muscle monsters like you, are we?" Neo says bitterly, slowly getting mad too.

"Easy," Leon says, trying to break it up. "We all swung. Kite did too. Cinder-"

"Cinder froze up and lost his cool," Luc folds his arms. "He went in blindly against an opponent he couldn't match up to and that's why he's now in the ground."

He pointed a finger at Cinder's pile of rocks. I look at Leon, who's calm expression has suddenly turned sourly dark.

"Shut your mouth," he says to Luc. "He saved you, dumbass! He took aggro of you and-"

"And where'd that get him?" 

Oh shit. I can see Leon snap. What the hell is Luc doing? Is he trying to drive a wedge in the group? Leon darts forwards and suddenly he's got Luc by the collar, squaring up to him, furious.

"Say that again, you piece of shi-"

"Enough, both of you," Elemental says sternly, but neither of them are having it.

Luc swats Leon's hand off him and retorts back angrily.

"Don't tell me to calm down man. I'm sick and tired of dragging around people who can't pull their weight! You, you, you-"

He makes vague gestures at Neo, Dread and Jora, but he skips me for some reason.

"-we're not a rescue mission or a day camp! We're in a place where one small mistake can cost not just your own but everyone else's lives too!"

"You're yapping like you're untouchable," Jora protests, getting to her feet indignantly. "You almost had your head split open back there!"

"Yeah, but I didn't, and if it weren't for me, Elemental and Krim you'd be dead right there!"

Luc thrusts a hand at Cinder and Kite.

"Luc, stop it!" I say angrily, and Krim backs me up.

"Yelling doesn't solve anything, nor will it bring back the dead," he says. "Luc, give it a rest…"

But he doesn't listen, not even to Krim.

"I'm saying what everyone's thinking," he growls. "Weak links get people killed, so we should cut them off before they do!"

"So what? You're gonna leave people to die!?" Neo demands.

"If that's what it takes."

"You're crazy!"

"No, I'm alive. Big difference."

"Don't bullshit us!"

 

And suddenly it's chaos. Everyone's shouting, pointing fingers, name-spouting, grabbing collars, raising voices.

"If you fucking did something more back there we would've-"

"I wasn't-"

"I-"

"You-"

Leon's stepping forward again, fists raised. Luc's advancing on Neo, who's backstepping, and Elemental's stepping in front of him, reaching for his weapon. Krim's trying to defuse the situation, but everyone's too heated.

"Sword," Dread says, pulling my sleeve. "Do something. Make 'em stop."

Right, I should do that.

"Help me out," I tell him and Jora, and they nod.

I step in, and grab Luc from behind, pinning his arms to his side. Jora pushes Elemental aside, Dread steps in front of Neo, and Krim, taking the hint, puts out an arm to stop Leon.

"Sword, you-"

Luc turns furiously, but by instinct I sweep his legs out from under him, the same movement I saw Elemental make that one time, and suddenly Luc's on his ass at my feet. Elemental's eyebrow raises.

"Chill out," I announce.

"He insulted Cinder and Kite!" Leon protests angrily.

"If you really want to, you can fight him," I tell Leon. "Hell, you two can have a death match at the top of a mountain if you want. If that's what you really want."

I glare at Leon meaningfully, who's anger subsides and he backs off.

"Listen," I say. "I know everyone has their own thoughts and morals in this place, but please at least get the facts right if you're going to argue! It wasn't weakness or bad luck or chivalry or whatever that killed Kite and Cinder, it was that… thing with the bat. If you wanna direct your anger at something, then hate that piece of shit, and this crappy place, not each other."

I pause for breath, and I realize that everyone's eyes are on me, and suddenly my confidence crumbles. Thankfully though, Krim picks up on it and takes over.

"Sword's right," he says. "Besides, we all have one thing in common, right? No one wants to die, everyone wants to survive. And the way to do that is to keep moving forwards, right? If you let the deaths and killing get to you, and you stagnate in that well full of blood, then you might as well join them. But ya'll better than that, right?"

Luc's jaw clenches, but he lets it go and climbs to his feet. Then he looks at me and says,

"Nice kick."

He turns and strides off somewhere, probably to cool his head.

"What was that?" I ask.

"What? It was a nice kick," Krim grins.

I sigh and roll my eyes.

"We're all tired and injured," I say. "Let's try find a place to get some rest."

It's been a long time since we've actually had a proper rest, because we have to constantly be on guard for the creatures that prowl the underground, but we're able to find a half-collapsed tunnel and bunker down in a sheltered hollow. Most of the group, exhausted, collapses as soon as we deem it 'safe', and soon all that's left is the quite crackle of the small fire I've lit.

 

I can't sleep, I don't know why, but I'm just sitting, staring at the dirt in the rocky cave floor. That's when Luc comes up, and sits down heavily next to me, still fuming a little.

"You didn't have to make me look like the bad guy back there."

"You made it pretty easy," I shrug.

"Well, somebody had to say it," he grins, fiddling with his knuckledusters.

"I have a question. I didn't exactly do a lot in the fight against that crazy bat guy, but why didn't you…?"

"You mean, why didn't I call you dead weight?"

"Yeah."

"Are you serious? After you were trying to cave my head in three days ago?"

Ah, he means that fight we had.

"You swung at us first like a madman."

"You looked at me wrong."

"You killed a Crawler with your bare hands in front of me."

"You kicked me in the face."

We both pause for a few seconds, then I say,

"Guess we're even."

"Guess so," he leans back against the cave wall, arms crossed. "Do you… really think they'll make it out? Dread, Jora, yapping kid?"

"I don't know," I exhale. "But I'd like to."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I've got."

We sit in silence for a bit, the only sound being dripping water in the background.

"You ever kill someone before this?" I ask, randomly, but then I regret it.

Luc's face turns to stone and for a second I think he's going to bash my brains out.

"I'd rather not say, because of the penalty," he says, not meeting my eyes. "You?"

"No, never," I venture.

We wait, half expecting my head to explode like a bloody cabbage, but nothing happens.

"Guess you're learning," he says.

"Doesn't feel like something I want to be good at."

"Then you're already behind."

Another pause.

"By the way, you saw what that thing did to Kite and Cinder. Do you think talking about teamwork's going to stop it from happening again?"

"No, but I know that turning on each other sure won't."

"…you really believe that?"

"I want to," I shrug. "Maybe that's what believing in something is. Wanting something so much that you pretend it's true until you actually think it is."

"Wow, deep words from the guy who still apologizes to corpses."

"Yeah, well, somebody should."

Luc snorts, and tells me to leave that part to Leon.

"Also, what I said about Cinder, I didn't mean it," he says, a little sheepishly. "He was… a good person. Better than me, definitely."

"He'd have laughed if he heard you now."

"Then maybe I'll make it so no one laughs at me again."

"Or give them a reason to," I say.

He glances over at me, studying my face. I don't what he saw other than a scared, tired guy covered in blood and dirt, but I feel like something changes.

"Sometimes I think you talk like you already how this'll end," he sighs, stretching.

"I don't, I just know how I want it to."

Awkward silence again, before he finally folds his arms and leans back.

"I think," he tells me, "You're weird."

"I think you're crazy."

"That's fair."

He gets up to leave, but before he does, he tells me suddenly and randomly,

"You're alright. Don't let anything or anyone drag you down, you have the kind of fight this place likes."

"Was that supposed to be encouragement?"

"Call it recognition."

He turns, and walks away into the dark somewhere.

Recognition, huh.

I lean back too, the fatigue finally catching up to me.

Could've sworn he still hated my guts.

 

I don't how long I sleep, but it's a peaceful, dreamless sleep, for once in my damn time in this damn place. That is, until Neo kicks me awake and pulls me roughly to my feet.

"What are you-"

He claps a hand to my mouth and warns me to shut up. Most of the others are awake, except Jora, who's getting shaken awake by Dread.

"What's happening?" I whisper to the others, who are poised around our hollow, peeking over rocks and fully armed.

"People," Neo whispers.

I move softly over to the edge of our hollow and peek out over it. There are shapes moving, closer by than expected, and instantly my heart's in my mouth. I duck down, and Elemental appears next to me.

"Do we engage?"

"What if they're friendly?"

"Think quick," I whisper. "Let's take em down without killing them. Do we have a count on their numbers?"

"Four max."

"Four?"

"Let's do it."

Silently, we fault over the edge and into the darkness, feet meeting the loose stones. I take two steps forwards, and I hear fast whispering, shuffling and shifting. Then silence. To me left, Elemental glides forwards. Then suddenly the dark erupts with movement. Grabbing, hitting, scuffling, scrabbling on stone, loose rocks flying. A girl shouts, and men grunt. I dive into the dark, eyes searching the shadows, and see an unfamiliar silhouette. I dive against them, pin them to the ground and let them have it on the ground with my hands, but then he shoots up and hits me in the ribs. Ouch. I reel back, and the guy comes after me, but Krim's shape hits him with what is apparently a flying knee to the face. He grunts, Krim shouts, Jora's yelling something, Neo's groaning, and then Dread strikes a clod of glowing blue stone and the whole place goes up in light.

 

We get a good look at each other, and I look down at the guy pinned under me.

"Oh," I say, realizing I've just beat the crap out of my friend Ronin.

 

To the side, Mist, with Dread in a headlock, stares at us, and Elemental and Artee look at each other in surprise, hands clamped on shirts and noses bleeding. Luc looks around, confused, having been advancing on Kino, who was pressed against the wall, terrified.

"For fuck's sake," Ronin groans. "Nice to see you guys again. Now get the hell off me."