Necessary evil

A wave of heat followed Gab as he left the foundry’s dump, unwinding the shirt from around his mouth and nose as he took a gasping breath.

Behind him a deep inhalation of air and the world began to shake as the great furnace rumbled to a start again.

He glanced down at the flickering red in his pouch.

Good, more than enough.

As he closed the pouch of dust he felt someone touch his arm, a near toothless Gor smiling up at him ingratiatingly.

“Been eating well haven't you?”

Gab grunted in response, tucking away his dust as the Gor followed him up the short march, his smile revealing a row of broken teeth.

“Saw you looking at some maps with the savage girl.” His smile widened. “Can’t get something like that in here without help.”

Damn, he’d gotten complacent, they hadn’t been nearly careful enough.

“You working for another house, The twelfth? Or someone powerful.” Asked the old man, his small stature and hairless skin marking him as another Gor, a cunning tribe with an instinctive sympathetic telepathy, not someone he could lie too.

“Something like that.” He mumbled evasively, looking around for a weapon.

The Gor hopped away. “Easy. Ain't looking for trouble, not about to tell any of the keepers.”

It felt like more of a threat than a reassurance.

“See here, an old man like me, doesn’t find nothing.”

He held out his pouch.

“Maybe you can help him out.”

Gab reluctantly pulled out his own, pouring until the old man seemed satisfied.

“There see..” The old man said, leering at him, “Don’t gotta be nothing but friends.”

Gab was left looking at his pouch as he started the march back.

Not nearly enough.

Awa was waiting outside the hole to the slave pens, her tail wagging happily as she saw him.

“Sorry” he told her, showing her the dust. “Not much today.”

Despite her racking coughs she didn’t complain, she never did.

“Magic box time?” She asked him after her coughing fit subsided.
“That’s right.” He patted her head, sitting before the radio. “Magic box time.”

…

“You sound troubled.”

The woman on the radio said gently, the sound of her voice reassuring.

“Is everything ok?”

Gab gritted his teeth in frustration. “Someone saw the prints, they’re extorting us for dust, think we’re working for another demon noble.”

The radio paused, the woman's voice considering, “I see. And what did you do?”
“Gave him what he wanted.” Said Gab bitterly.

“Excellent, that was the correct decision.”

The woman paused. “Give us a moment.”

Gab waited, listening to the static from the other side for what felt like an eternity until the woman returned.

“There’s a high probability they will sell you out as soon as tomorrow. And even if they don’t… We don’t need a liability like that.”

“We’re sending something through, it’s the best we can do at the moment.”
A moment later a short coil of steel wire appeared above the radio, falling to the stone with a clatter.

“Wait until he’s asleep, this should help you kill him quietly and in a way that won’t rouse suspicion.”
The radio began to hiss, the connection growing weaker. “We’ll contact you tomorrow to discuss how.”

Gab picked it up as the radio fell silent and felt Awa’s breath on his neck as she looked curiously over his shoulder. “What magic box say?

“There’s… something we need to do.” Gab clenched the wire in his hand.

“Something we have to do.” He whispered to himself.

…

“Not holding out on me are you.” Asked the old man as Gab poured, the radio’s instructions echoing in his head.

Give him the impression that you have more that he can extract for you, it should buy time before he tells the keepers.

“It’s all the dust I have.” Gab reached towards his water skin, covering it with his hand just as he'd been instructed.

Make sure it’s full and on display, we don’t know how a poison will affect them but sleeping medication… they won’t question growing tired.

“Now now.” The old man’s hand snaked forward, pulling the skin from him. “Thought we were becoming friends and friends don’t act like this do they.”

Taking a sip he flashed Gab a gummy grin, returning to a group of demi humans and throwing the water skin amongst them to share with a cackling laugh.

Wait no longer than tomorrow night, surviving at his age… he likely has some kind of arrangement with the keepers. A snitch if you will.

Gab waited, the dim lighting meant the only measure of time was the activity in the pen and sounds of snoring slaves.

He cracked open an eye, the toothless Gor and his cronies were motionless, deep asleep in the quiet slave pen.

It was time.

Wrap the ends in cloth.

He did as she had instructed, wrapping the cable in torn off sections of his shirt and clutching them tightly within his palm, his heart pounding as he slunk across the stone flooring, every scratch of his feet on the dusty floor sounding too loud to bear.

Slip the wire gently around his neck.

He wrapped the wire around the sleeping Gor’s neck.

He felt like he was going to be sick.

Place your knee on his back, push and pull.

He gently lay his knee on the sleeping Gor.

And most importantly… Get the beast woman to help.

That was the one instruction he wouldn’t follow, he couldn’t make her do something like this.

Gab breathed deeply, hands shaking as he psyched himself up to pull.

One, two…

The Gor woke up, his eyes wide and panicked as he saw the wire looped around his neck.

Gab pulled tight, straining for dear life, levering his body against the Gor’s as he struggled to pull the wire tight.

The Old man wheezed, managing to work a finger under the wire, gasping for air with a strength born of a will to live, beyond what should be possible for such a skinny creature.

Gab felt his hands slipping as the Gor kicked his legs, his knee slipping from his back as the Gor thrashed around gouging long cuts down Gab’s arm.

Damn.

Gab pulled, his muscles straining, if the old Gor made enough noise…

And then, blissfully, felt the pressure on the cable ease as the Gor’s hands were ripped away by a familiar grey form.

Awa pulled the twitching Gor to the ground, one hand stripping his hands away and the other covering his mouth to muffle his gargling breathing.

Gab pulled, he pulled until the Gor’s eyes went white, and kept pulling long after his kicking body had grown still.

“Hunt.” said Awa happily as he finally released him, rolling his limp body to the ground., “Awa do good?”

“You did Awa.” he told her, his breathing heavy from the struggle, shaking from the adrenaline and exhaustion. “You did.”

“Sell out.” Whispered Awa as she rummaged through his body, looking for dust as Gab’s eyes strayed to the still sleeping and heavily drugged group he was a part of.

Anyone he seemed close to.. Deal with them as well.

…

It was quiet in the mines at this time, and cold.

“Good work. I’m proud of you Gabriel.” The woman paused, worry evident in her voice. “Try and get some rest.”

The transmission ended, leaving only the empty sound of static and her cold electronic voice echoing through the mines.

He couldn’t stop his hands shaking.

Gab hugged his knees, watching the glow of the foundry in the distance begin to die down and slaves emerge from the great ring that circled around the entire mine.

“Not tired?” Awa took a seat beside him, rubbing at her eyes, her yawn exposing elongated canine teeth.

“Not really.” He whispered as she leaned against him, her shoulder pressed against his own.

It was warm.

Awa yawned, rubbing at her eyes as they looked up at the crack of sky high above, where the grey moon was beginning to peek before its larger red brother, casting shadows over the holes dotting the side of the mines.

“Do you think we did the right thing?” He asked her.

She nodded without hesitation. “Want to live.”

She frowned thoughtfully, her breath condensing in clouds of steam. “Hunt make feel bad?”

“Yes.” He looked down at his still trembling hands. “But maybe.. Not bad enough.”

She reached up, placing a hand on his head and running it back and forth, copying his ow clumsy way of comforting her.

“Alive, can regret, dead cannot.”

Sitting beside her he watched a ray of moonlight begin to filter in through the hole at the top of the mines, Awa closing her eyes in enjoyment as the light fell upon them, head lolling sleepily against his own.

A moment of rare peace.

“I suppose, you're right.”