The crowd gathered by the entrance burst into applause from the gate behind me as I feel a bolt of lightning electrify me. There is a newfound sense of emotion in the air. We’re pissed off and blood-hungry. Right now, I feel invincible, like nothing can stop me. I feel reborn.
One of Jason’s men sprints past us into the desolate desert sensing the mistake of his leader.
“Leon, wait!” shouts Xander.
It’s too late.
The runner’s fate is met with the tip of Leon’s spear pinning him lifeless to the ground as thousands of volts of purple electricity surge through his lifeless corpse.
“You killed him!” yells Xander.
“They’re damn cannibals! They killed our men! I’m not gonna let one of ‘em live to see another fuckin’ day!” roars Leon.
“These people shouldn’t be responsible for the actions of someone else! If you kill these men and women, you’re no better than they are,” Xander pleas.
The rest of Jason’s people aren’t far behind. They exit the cave and line up as the guards ordered them to.
Look at them. They must know what happened in Argo. The sheer panic on their face tells me everything I need to know. Their eyes find one of their own facedown with Leon’s spear sticking out of his back. Immediately they grow uneasy.
A deadly stillness lingers in the air. The moon shines bright enough to see the hatred in Leon’s eyes.
“This isn’t the way,” says Xander seconds before Leon rips the gun from one of the guard’s hands and blasts Medea in the head beside him. The wife of Jason falls lifeless to the sand.
Chaos ensues.
All the men and women from Argo begin to scramble wildly trying to flee from their dismay.
Leon mows them down unmercifully. One by one they fall scattered in the desert sand until only we are left standing.
Gunpowder and smoke consume the air around us. A hint of fog floats a few meters from the ground. All is quiet.
Despite everyone’s mixed emotions, I’m actually with Leon on this. Fuck these motherfuckers. It’s either us or them.. and these days it’s too risky to chance it. Two of our men would still be alive if it weren’t for us saving them. People can’t be trusted.
Another one of Jason’s men takes off running towards Leon from the entrance, knife in hand. Probably hiding, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
Leon’s back is turned. No one else sees him.
He leaps, knife above his head behind Leon.
I tackle him in the air landing with the tip of my sword through his abdomen.
His knife lands edge down in the sand beside him.
Something grips me as I slowly reach for it.
It can’t be.
This.. this isn’t possible.
I pull a black-bladed knife from the sand. Its handle is wrapped with a blue, blood-stained rope. The omega symbol, red, smeared with blood. Kalli’s knife.
“What’s wrong with ‘em?”
“Not sure. Maybe he’s dehydrated, or something.”
“I bet he still has a bit of that Lethe poison in ‘em.”
Their muffled words creep into my ears, jerking me back to reality. My eyes open to Xander and Leon standing over me. The
sun blinds me as I try to lasso my equilibrium. With my head still spinning to the point I start to taste acid in the back of my throat, my eyes somehow manage to find Kalli’s knife lying in the sand next to me. How did this get into the hands of the cannibals? One of them must have scavenged it from the dump after Lethe cleaned out our apartment. Now it’s found its way all of the way back to me.
“How long was I out for?” I ask, wiping the sand and sweat from my face as I try to claw myself back to normal.
“Only for a few. Your face turned ‘bout ten different whites and you were out,” laughs Leon as he hands me his open canteen. “You good though? You hit pretty hard.”
“Yeah.” I reply, “I’m good. Just my past reminding me of something I need to take care of.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” interjects Xander. His voice, concerned, but more so offended.
Clutching the handle, I rise to my feet. “This knife right here belonged to the love of my life, well, my first love. I’ve known her ever since I was last reborn. She was perfect in every possible way. They took her from me, trapped her in their servers. I have to go back and free her and the countless others trapped inside Lethe’s machines.”
One of the younger guys interrupts excitedly from the remains of a fallen cannibal. “Guys!! You’re going to want to see this!”
Xander nods at Leon and curiosity leads us over to him.
Standing over a dead man still bleeding from a hole in his neck is the young soldier holding a belt with four metal balls attached to it. Long-handled levers connect at the top of the black metal spheres.
“Grenades!” shouts Leon excitedly. He snatches the belt from the kid’s hands and tosses them to Xander after meticulously observing their every detail. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the mountain this excited.
Xander walks a step closer to me, slings the belt across his shoulder, and takes the knife from my trembling hand. I see my wrath reflecting in his eyes.
He carefully inspects the knife for a moment before lifting his head, “I believe this is meant to be.” He nods in agreement with himself. “What are the odds of this knife making it back to you like this? What are the odds of you being in that particular infirmary in the specific city at the same time we were? Out of all the caves in the Outlands, you find yourself in ours. This is your purpose in life, Palin. Every moment has led to this one.”
Leon quickly rises to his feet and interjects, “Yeah, I’m callin’ bullshit. What’s the purpose of having a purpose if ya don’t know ya purpose ‘til after it’s too late?
