The rest of her careful walk through town was as uneventful as her dash through the ruins. She began growing nervous, firmly believing that anyone who said “no news is good news” was an idiot. Keryn expected to be shot at. She expected to be chased through the streets with Terrans in hot pursuit. She expected to escape with the pits of hell opening behind her and consuming the world as she ran. That’s the way it had always been. Quiet made her worried.
Arriving back at the abandoned department store, she gave a cursory glance through the gloomy night and slipped inside. As of yet, Keryn had no need to rush. While she was confused about the lack of Terran activity in town, she knew she still had a few hours before “daybreak”, a sick joke of a term with all things considered. Still, no one would miss her until then, and she wasn’t even sure they would even if she didn’t appear in her work group. The Terrans knew that there was nowhere to go; the entire world was a frozen wasteland and all the food stores were being held within the city. The survivors could flee, but they would be signing their own death warrant as they trudged through the unforgiving cold.
Moving past the manikins and into the back of the store, Keryn paused as she considered how to hide the much larger Terran rifle amidst the clothes and assorted odds and ends left in the back of the department store. As she pondered her dilemma, a rack of clothes rattled behind her. Spinning, she aimed the rifle at the metal rack, seeing no one but having trouble believing that two noises on two separate occasions within the department store were sheer coincidence.
“I know you’re there,” she said into the thick darkness of the store. She wished she had time to pull out her flashlight. “Show yourself.”
Keryn tensed, ready to fire, as a man emerged from behind the clothes rack. The gloom of the department store left only a silhouette standing, his hands held high in a universal sign of surrender. Keryn didn’t feel in much of a mood to accept his surrender and she kept the barrel of her weapon trained on the stranger.
“Why don’t you lower your weapon so we can talk,” the man’s voice called out in the darkness. “We only want to talk to you.”
Keryn only had a second to ponder his use of the word “we” before two more men materialized out of the shadows. Flashlights flared to life underneath their assault rifles, lights that shone into her eyes and blinded her to her surroundings. Squinting against the sudden light, Keryn begrudgingly lowered her own weapon, but kept it resting firmly at her side.
“Alright,” she said angrily. “You have me at a disadvantage, so I guess we’ll talk. Just get those lights out of my face.”
Through the bright light, Keryn could make out the silhouette nodding to the two hired guns on either side. On cue, both their flashlights went dark, leaving blue spots dancing in her vision. She blinked furiously to get rid of the blindness, but found the darkness within the store even darker after having been exposed to light. By the time she was able to see clearly again, the silhouetted man was standing at her side. He bent down near her hip and removed something from beneath the display table. Keryn heard a click and suddenly the entire back of the store was bathed in a soft yellow light. The man shifted the small lantern out of the way before standing again.
Keryn stared at the Uligart who stood before her, the soft light reflecting off the sharp bones that protruded from his cheeks and solid jaw line. The designer clothes he wore layered about his body, and accentuated by a combat vest bustling with weapons, offset his razor sharp bone structure. The Uligart smiled disarmingly as he ran a hand over the short bone ridge at his hairline and through his well groomed dark hair.
“Please,” he said, gesturing toward a chair that one of the other two bodyguards placed behind her. “Please sit.”
She quickly examined the bodyguard as he placed the chair behind her and resumed a defensive posture around the Uligart. The bodyguard who had moved the chair was an Avalon, his dark clothes a stark contrast to his pale skin and wings. Though Avalons rarely wore much around their bodies since it limited their ability to fly, the bodyguard wore a combat vest bristling with grenades and extra ammunition for the modified assault rifle hanging across his chest. Keryn nodded appreciatively at the pistol grip, silencer, and recoil suppresser attached to the rifle, noting that all the modifications were military design and very expensive on the open market. Looking over the Uligart’s other shoulder, she observed the Terran bodyguard who stood on the other side, carrying much the same armament. Her nervousness fled her as she looked back into the disarming smile of the Uligart. Whoever these people were, they weren’t working with the Terran Empire.
Sitting, Keryn took the chance to start the conversation. “You seem eager to talk to me, but haven’t bothered to introduce yourself.”
The Uligart’s smile broadened, his blue eyes flashing mischievously as he sat in a chair across from her. “My name is Alcent, a simple merchant until I was taken as a prisoner by the Empire’s arrival on Othus.”
“You are not a good liar,” Keryn stated, her eyebrows arching. The smile didn’t falter on Alcent’s face. “You see, your men are carrying military modified rifles, the asking price on the open market being well beyond anything a ‘simple’ merchant could manage.” She pointed toward the bodyguard over his left shoulder. “Your Avalon is carrying high explosive grenades strapped to his chest, grenades that even on the black market here in Miller’s Glen would be next to impossible to come by.” Her gesture carried past the bodyguard and fell back on Alcent. “But, most importantly, you hardly look like you’re a prisoner.”
Alcent chuckled appreciatively, leaning forward in his chair. “If you keep my secret, I’ll keep yours.”
Keryn mirrored his move and leaned forward in her own chair. “And what secret do I have?”
“You know how to get out of this city,” he whispered into the space between them.
Keryn leaned back, surprised. Her mind ran through the possibilities that she had been followed during her stealthy departure from the city. During that time, she had only moved from the house to the store, then to the sewer. The Terrans hadn’t seen her at all, so was it possible that someone else, someone like Alcent, had? As she pondered this question, another memory rose in her mind, a memory of retrieving her weapon from the store.
“You were in the store when I came by yesterday,” she said, suddenly having a new appreciation for the Uligart.
Alcent shrugged. “Guilty as charged. One of my men saw you moving through the city after curfew and we followed. You can imagine my surprise when I saw you enter this very store and retrieve a fairly impressive array of weapons. I would have introduced myself then, but you seemed a little on edge and I have a great adversity to being shot.”
Keryn’s brow furrowed as she continued. “Exactly who are you people?”
“We are the closest thing Miller’s Glen has to a resistance,” Alcent replied, quickly adding, “aside from yourself and anyone else you may have under your command.”
“And the Terrans don’t know about you?” she asked, eager for more information about the Uligart’s group.
“No, not yet. But they’re starting to grow suspicious. They’ve had a few equipment malfunctions that can’t simply be explained away by every day wear and tear. A few of their Soldiers have also gone missing, which I think they almost expected after their aggressive invasion. We’ve been content with a little sabotage now and again, but the Terran’s are growing suspicious. Our timetable is being moved up, and we’re caught without a plan.”
“So you are approaching me now,” she surmised. “It can’t just be because I know how to get out of the city. Getting out of the city doesn’t mean a damn thing unless you have a way to survive out there. Otherwise, you’re just trading one death sentence for another.”
“If it were simply getting out of the city,” Alcent replied, “then I would have just followed you the rest of the way yesterday and found the way out for myself.” He eyed her clothes and grime-covered skin. “Though I already have a pretty good idea of how you escaped.”
His remarks drew some light guffaws from the bodyguards. “No, I’m interested in you because you move like a soldier. More importantly, you have the single-minded ambition to escape the city. So far, aside from my own organization, you’re the only other person I’ve seen with a deep-seeded desire to overthrow the Terrans here in Miller’s Glen. I can use your information about what’s going on outside the city, but I would prefer just to have you… you and whatever plan you may have already surmised for getting off this freezing rock.”
“Flattered,” she replied coyly. She took a moment to think about his offer. “I have others in my group. Not many, but exceptionally well trained. If we join you, what guarantee do we have that this will be anything more than a suicide mission against a much better prepared opponent?”
Alcent leaned forward again, blood flushing his face red. “I want my revenge! I lost a lot of good men during the invasion, people I cared a lot about. I won’t stop until I see every one of the Empirical filth sent straight to hell!”
