Sanctuary

Jess remained standing over Josh, listening for trouble and listening to the quiet conversation as the other two women tried to open the door. Another man arrived, gasping for breath. His attempt at conversation seemed to be ill received by V.

How strange. Jess glanced down at him, frowning. He looked sad somehow.

“You collapsed,” she said, staring in the direction that the newcomer had come from. Her finger rested on the trigger of the rifle. “The Command Centre door is still locked. Hunter has gone. The city is overrun.” She stepped back into a shadowy shop doorway and continued to look around for trouble.

 

Zefie kept her rifle pointed in the direction the newcomer had appeared from, waiting for whatever it was that had been chasing him to come crashing round the corner. Nothing came though, and Zefie wondered if what type of They it was had been distracted by other, easier prey.

Behind her she heard the man talking to V, and gritted her teeth in irritation. Couldn’t he see V was trying to concentrate on the door?

She tried to block the noise out, concentrating on watching for They. The Dragoons would be here soon. It was inevitable. Zefie just hoped V had the door open by then.

 

“You collapsed,” Jessica said. “The Command Centre door is still locked. Hunter has gone. The city is overrun.”

Joshua watched Jessica step back into the shadowy doorway.

“Yes, thank you for reminding me how hopeless our situation is.” He muttered under his breath. He looked around. The man with the knife had disappeared, and his place had been taken by a young man with a ponytail.

He also saw the other two survivors he had spoken to earlier. They were young women, one with dark eyes and a headband, the with shoulder long honey coloured hair. The latter seemed to be messing with the data pad next to the door.

“Varenna? Varenna Shepherd?”

 

I kicked over the dead corpses of They. This rail gun is pretty damn good. My arm stung from a graze at the shoulder from They. I quickly looked around for Zeffie but she had disappeared into the crowd. I need to bring this thing to the front line of the wall. I rushed into the crowd of people pushing and shoving to get to the safe haven. The people of the Sanctuary were disoriented and scared pushing and shoving each other to just get to the Wall. I made my way in trying to clear a path way for myself to the Wall. My biggest hope was to see her again; alive and well would be great. I shutdown the Rail Gun for now using it to part people. People started to bump me back in my wound as it bled down my arm turning my white lab coat red. I saw the crowd part to the West. I thought all the military would be due east. That is where They would be trying to get their army in. I parted with the crowd and ran for the East gate.

 

Darmetrius eyed the woman eying him, her jaw clenched tight. Was that directed towards him, or does she really hate They? No matters, he needed friends and so did she. Especially if They was closer on his trail than he thought. He extended his hand to the lady with the rifle.

"Don't shoot me, mama, let's be friends. My name is Darmetrius, or if that's too many syllables, call me Lin."

 

"Hello, Joshua," Varenna said, still looking at the keypad. She ignored everyone else except to say, "Unless someone else shows up who knows this code I suggest you all stop distracting me while I try to remember it."

Her voice wasn't angry, merely distant as though she had been dragged back from a memory a long way off.

 

"Hello, Joshua," Varenna said, still looking at the keypad. "Unless someone else shows up who knows this code I suggest you all stop distracting me while I try to remember it."

Joshua sighed. She was right, off course. There would be plenty of time to talk once they got into the CC. He looked at Jessica, who was still pointing her, no, he corrected himself, his gun aimed at the recent arrival.

He swallowed hard, than asked no one in particular, “Shouldn’t there be more people here? Or at least some high ranking officer to open the door?”

 

“Shouldn’t there be more people here? Or at least some high ranking officer to open the door?”

"I wouldn't be opposed to that." he said, noticing the woman at the door giving him a stern look. "Sorry." he said to her with a smile, motioning as if he was locking his mouth up and throwing away the key.

 

Vishka directed his thoughts to both Drengi and the scared man who followed them.

Damnit, there's Threshers bearing down on our position! They've no doubt been called in to siege the command center. Everything in their paths will be destroyed. Move!

Vishka found his physical prowess somewhat lacking. Over a year of stagnating in that prison had left him soft. He could still run faster than the humans, but it felt sluggish to him. He was once the fastest Dragoon in the Horde. And look where that had gotten him. Captured.

The large steel doors to the command center -- as Dre remembered them -- came into sight. He froze. There was a group of humans outside, presumably trying to gain access. They would no doubt attack him if he came any closer. But if he didn't warn them of the Threshers, they would be annihilated. Dre wasn't far behind, but he had no time. He reached out to the woman who stood by the control panel.

She was concentrating. Her mind was focussed -- unfurling before him -- which made it easy to know her. Varenna. But he couldn't speak. Whenever he tried, all that he managed to send to her was an odd code which seemed to emanate wildly from her subconscious.

54FG67H9P90... 54FG67H9P90... 54FG67H9P90...

After a few tries, Vishka stopped. It made no sense to him.

 

Three shadows loomed out of the darkness, rushing for them. One figure led them – impossibly fast. Jess stepped out of the doorway and aimed the gun, unsure what she was seeing. It looked like a Dragoon but it had stopped. The other two looked... human. Even if the figure looked like a Dragoon, it couldn’t be. Humans and They were enemies. It made no sense. If you shoot a human, you’ll be in trouble.

“There’s someone there,” she said to the others, raising the rifle to aim. The shot was steady, but her finger hesitated. What should I do? she thought, licking her lips. There was no superior there to issue an order.

 

“There’s someone there." Joshua looked at where Jade was aiming.

"Thank god, more people," he sighed, and suddenly realised Jessica was aiming at the arrivals. "Damned Jess, put away that gun! What are you going to do, kill them before they get here! They're probably civilians, or perhaps miltary."

He walked up to Jess and put a hand on Jess' shoulder. "It's ok, just put down the gun." He looked at the figures that where drawing nearer. "Maybe one of them knows the code. Perhaps they're here to tell us we already drove of the..." Joshua stopped talking.

One of the figures seemed awefully big for a human...

 

“Don’t put down the gun!” Zefie snapped, lifting her rifle up. One of the figures approaching was too tall for a human, and as they got closer the outline became clearer. It was Dragoon.

For a moment it didn’t matter to Zefie that it was with two humans; it was one of Them and therefore an enemy. Then it occurred to her that the humans weren’t dead. She frowned, confused. Dragoons didn’t accompany humans, didn’t even take them hostage. They killed them and moved on.

So what was going on?

She glanced at the others. V was still concentrating on remembering the code, and no one else seemed prepared to speak. Taking a breath, she took two steps forward, rifle aimed.

“Who are you? And why,” she demanded, “Are you with that?”

 

The humans had spotted him. He'd underestimated their ability to see in the dark. They were aiming at him, but they didn't fire. The air became thick with the maddening sense of confusion. It overwhelmed Vishka's thoughts, making his mind murky and slow.

“Who are you? And why,” she demanded, “Are you with that?”

Vishka was too confused to understand the woman. He tried to block it out, but couldn't escape the sensation. It was a bombardment. No doubt the experimentation he'd endured had affected his ability to process large volumes of mental feedback. Perhaps it was an insurance policy.

Either way, he knew he was in a bad situation. Vishka dropped to the ground, going prone, in an attempt to make himself less of a target.

 

It was a Dragoon. Two people and a Dragoon. A Dragoon.

Panic erupted in a small corner of Joshua's mind and spread like a wildfire. It's a Dragoon, it's going to kill you. It's going to kill Jessica, it's going to kill V, it's going to kill the other girl and it is going to kill the man with the pony tail.

Joshua noticed he was backing towards the gun case, and he remembered it still held a MN-SA. Suddenly, he felt an overwhelming need to be armed. If that thing comes any closer, god help me, I'll shoot it. He swallowed. Why was noone opening fire?

 

I began to close in on the Eastern steel gate. There was a group of people. I flipped the goggles on zoom for a second to see who was there. The cute grungy Zefie caught my eye immediately and a smile was slapped on to my face. Something else caught my eye something a lot bigger than a person sorta like a Dragoon but why are they all just standing there and not trying to kill it. Don't be too hasty. Assess the situation. I sprinted towards the group.

When I reached there I turned my attention to Zefie and said," You run too damn fast." I laughed a bit then looked at the rest of the group. "None yall happen to be able to stitch me up would ya," I asked looking around showing the side of my shoulder where the bullet grazed.

 

V swung around from the access panel at the news that one of THEM had come up behind the group. She snapped the carbine up to firing position and searched the slate darkness. There was no bulking figure of a dragoon, what was everyone talking about? She didn't want to make a target of herself by turning on the small light by the scope.

"Where is it?" she asked tensely. It was unlike one of Them to hide, she would have expected some mauling by now.

Nothing happened other than some tense chatter. She finally turned on the rifle light and trained the carbine the direction everyone was looking. She didn't see the dragoon until the small light shed onto its form - lying on the ground. V was confused, what had happened to it? She hadn't heard a single shot.

 

"What the hell?" Darmetrius asked after raising his AK-47 in the direction of the unknown ruckus.

It's been one helluva past couple of days. Thank GOD he decided to bear arms. He almost considered leaving his place bone dry. Not a good idea when They are lurking, and possibly watching at this very moment. It's so damn dark out there, he had trouble seeing anything. He didn't eat his carrots as a kid.

All of a sudden, nothing. No sound, no mysterious figures, nothing. This wasn't beginning to freak Darmetrius out, but he kept calm. Call it a man thing, he couldn't let any lady know he was shaken by something, no matter how menacing that something was.

 

Jack took the batteries from the gent who approached him.

"Thanks! But I'm sure these'll come in much more handy elsewhere." One of the techs approached him from the left with a cup of coffee. He took a bit mouthful, pretended to analyze it as he held it in his mouth, then swallowed and gave the tech a nod of approval.

He kept trying in vain to bring some kind of defense back online, but everything appeared to be thoroughly fried. It was then that the order came through. They were supposed to fall back and regroup at Command.

"Okay, everyone out! Go!" As everyone scrambled for the door, Jack grabbed the master set of keys, then pulled his bloodied shirt and jacket back on, and ran for the small closet on the far side. He fumbled with the keys, then unlocked the door. There, he found what he was looking for. He grabbed one of the dinner-plate-sized drives, then turned and shot a hole in each of the others that was there. If They were interested at all in Sanctuary's information system, They'd be out of luck.

With the most recent backup in his arms, Jack walked back to the center of the room, and began firing at all the terminals in the place. The terminals here ran off the servers from Command, so nothing would be lost except the hardware; which would be lost anyway. He slapped fresh clips into his guns.

Lastly, Jack turned to the door...and was met by one of Them. His pistol came up and he opened up. The Dragoon jerked as the bullets smashed into him. An instant later, Jack was charging through HQ and out into the street. He fired with his free hand at They who got too close, the bulky drive tucked under his other arm.

Eventually, he came upon the big door. The first person he noticed was Varenna, standing near the code box.

"We meet again." Jack said, smiling. "Need a hand with that?"

 

V looked up from the mysterious dragoon and saw Jack from the cyber cafe. It took her a moment to realize he meant the access panel and not the odd exhibit of They. She was glad to see him considering his apparent prowess with recalcitrant electronic things.

"Yes, do you know the code? I disabled the retinal scanner but it's been years since my father gave me the door code and I'm having trouble remembering it."

 

Jack stepped to the panel. He would have been given the manual override code along with 3000 other passwords to memorize along with it, many of which changed every two weeks. He began pounding in the few that he knew, none seeming to work. He tried some more obscure ones. Nothing.

And then, with a start, he realized that he was licensed, registered military personnel. He rolled his eyes, re-enabled the retinal scanner, and flashed his eyeball.

The panel answered with a beep and began to slide open.

 

V began to smile with deep relief.

"And that," she said, "is that! Now the question is...what is THIS," she prodded one of Vishka's legs with the carbine, "doing here, why isn't it attacking us, and what do we do with it? I suggest we get inside and leave it OUTSIDE."

 

"I suggest we get inside and leave it OUTSIDE."

"I agree, leave it out here, let's go in there and introductions and getting along and all that good stuff can begin."

He was hoping this "guy in charge" would see it his way.

 

Jack motioned where she was pointing. Instantly his eyes widened, and he almost dropped the drive.

"WHOA!" He whipped out his pistol and leveled it at the alien.

"Who let him in here??!" He took a couple of deep breaths, and realized it wasn't attacking. He lowered the pistol.

"And...why isn't he trying to kill us like his little buddies out there?"

 

As Artemis followed the men of hope, they had stopped. They were looking at something, but he wasn't sure why exactly. He had been looking down at there boots and his holy shoes and he wanted to take a better look at them, but he didn't know if he should. He looked up, but it didn't seem suspicious until a beam of light flashed and he saw one of those things beside a human. He wanted to test his luck as well and he looked down at his weapon as well and realized it was just a tazer. Was a tazer really going to do anything? He didn't want to risk it. And something the resonated human about it, in the sense that it seemed to back away. Artemis just watched the situation and didn't say anything, but he did wonder about it.
He waited till most of the situation die down and then he began to walk closer to the area. He noticed the woman from the cafe earlier poke the leg of the thing.
"If he isn't attacking us it would mean he would be friendly," Artemis called out, "I think its rude not to give him a chance..."
He noticed how odd that sounded coming from his own lips.
"I'm not a traitor or anything...its just...that I um, well I like the idea of giving someone the benefit of the doubt," Artemis paused, "I'm not saying things like you know...I'm just going to be quiet now...I made my point earlier."

 

A dry bang filled the air and left the gathered survivors staring at each other. Who had fired that shot? Had anyone been hit?

Joshua stood in an awkward position about twenty five yards away from the other, clutching his black gun case in one hand and a MN-SA in the other, his legs spread wide. Anyone with basic military training knew that this was the worst possible stance when firing a gun. No balance.

Joshua cursed under his breath. Damned, he stood twenty five yards away, and he had missed the damn thing. He closed his left eye, and squeezed the trigger again. Another bang, and this time the bullet slammed into the ground only inches away from V’s foot, leaving a small cloud of dust.

By this time, Joshua was cursing not only the Dragoon lying on the floor in front of him, but himself as well. Twenty five yards… he had to stop firing, before he shot one of his fellow survivors. He lowered his gun.

“We… We should get inside, be... Before more of those things get here.” He hugged his gun case and stumbled trough the command centres doors.