Escape

A low roar of inhuman voices was beginning to grow in the distance.

“I think it’s starting.” Gab said to the radio, his hands fumbling with the grip as he finished assembling it.

“Ignore it.” The woman sounded tense. "We're sending the barrel next, slot it into the slide and make sure it’s locked in, then the spring.”

He glanced down at the instructions, doing as she said as she talked to someone in the background. “Get it ready…”

“Done," he replied.

“Ok now line the slide up with the rails and gently pull it back until it locks in place. We’re sending the magazine and bullets next.”

There was an incredible roar from the other pens, startling the slaves around him, followed by the sounds of fighting echoing through the mines.

“Hurry it up.” Came the hushed woman's voice to those on the other side before a magazine appeared before him, followed by bullets materialising in groups of two or three.

A tortured scream of pain.

Gab loaded them, his hands sweaty and shaking as he pressed them into the magazine.

The clang of metal weapons.

Shit, he fumbled a bullet, the magazine spring sending it flying away before he could stuff it back in.

“We’re good.” He slid the magazine into the handgun, racking the magazine back.

“Awa.” He yelled.

Gab looked around, a terrible feeling settling into the pit of his stomach. Where was she… Shit, did she go to get food?

“Leave her, it’s far too risky. You’ll die.” Begged the woman, the fear palpable in her voice. “Please Gab.”

He paused, the advice from the woman had never been wrong, he might die, and yet…

“I’m going.” he whispered, stuffing the radio into his pants and getting to his feet.

“Wait Gab.” The woman said desperately, “We’ve got one last transfer to make.”

A distant voice began talking with the woman on the other side. “If we send anything else we’ll start losing the otherworlders again.”

“I understand.” The woman said. “Do it.”

A blood curdling scream, this time from the radio and a little earpiece with an attached camera fell to the floor before him.

“We’ll see everything you do.” The woman said, her voice coming from both the radio and earpiece as he clipped it around his ear.

Gab walked up to the mine entrance, the sound of battle growing louder with every step.

“You’ve only got ten shots, don’t fire unless you absolutely have to and if you do… make them matter.”

He walked outside into the hellscape.

“Good luck.” Whispered the woman in his ear.

…

It was too gruesome to be real.

He weaved through the melee, stumbling over the twitching body of a slave clutching at the bloody stump of his arm.

“Head to the dust collection point, if she left for food she’ll be there.” The voice of the radio was barely audible over the screams and clamour of violence.

A mass of slaves were rushing the gates where the keepers lived, leaping over the barricades and rushing for the dust and food inside.

Madness.

Gab stepped over the body of an injured Tah, ignoring the slaves stripping his body before crushing his skull with a rock.

He could smell the blood.

“Run the video through the program.” Yelled the woman on the radio. “Young female, canine features, grey colouring and hair. Find her.”

A massive beast tribe keeper roared, blood running down his fur as crushed a demi, stabbed over and over by those who had grabbed a hold of him.

“On your right Gab.” The radio warned him, and he pushed away a demi who was trying to stab him, running ahead as the massive beast man fell, too many bloody holes in his back to count.

“Gab four o'clock, on the rocks. Is that her?” A beast woman was crouched on the rocks, struggling to stay away from the battle.

“Awa.” he yelled up at her.

Her eyes lit up as she saw him, her muscles tensing as she leapt from the rock face and over the rioting slaves with incredible athleticism.

He grabbed her hand, dragging her back to the pens. “We have to go.”

She nodded, ears twitched as an almighty bang echoed from the foundry, a fireball stretching up into the sky.

“You should be able to make it back.” The woman on the radio breathed a sigh of relief. “They’ll be concentrated around the foundry and dust processing points.”

She was right and the few slaves they ran into on the way back gave Awa a wide berth, understanding the danger her tribe represented.

Most of the pen was empty leaving the few remaining slaves cowering in the corners of the cage, desperate to avoid trouble.

At the far end of the pen he pulled out the mirror, using it to find the key hole on the other side before sliding the one the radio had sent inside.

The door opened with a click, the sound followed by a low growl from Awa, as a ring of slaves gathered around them, some armed.

He pulled out the handgun, finger resting on the trigger as they froze.

“Please.” Begged one of the slaves, the old beastman’s woman. “Let us come.”

Awa looking at him imploringly, her stance softening as she saw the baby on the brink of tears.

The woman on the radio sighed. “What’s a few more.”

…

“Left here, you should be getting close to the exit.”

The radio echoed through the elaborate marble corridors, a solitary voice in a silence that felt eerie after the Cacophony in the mines.

“Boss man.” One of the beast tribe Slaves sniffed at the air. “Smell city.”

“Gab nodded at him. “Lead the way.”

The other Demi’s rushed after the beast man, looking around in wonder, many of them having lived their entire lives in the mines.

“It’s here…” The Beast man abruptly choked off his sentence, freeing before Gab and staring down at a corridor that faded to darkness.

Thud.

The sound of footsteps and the darkness began to move, the slaves before him paralysed with fear.

“I wondered what I felt… How unusual.”

Thud.

Sounded distorted, the air around them turning oppressive, every breath of it a struggle for Gab that filled his body with choking despair.

Thud.

The demon stepped causally into the moonlight trickling in through the window, and Gab felt an almost fear, his body seizing up in shock.

Beside him Awa had fallen to the ground, backing away to the wall on all fours before curling up into a ball and wetting herself as she whimpered in fear.

Thud.

The slave at the front collapsed to the floor, his body twisted and broken.

Thud.

Another collapsed, too scared to even run.

Thud.

The beast man turned and fled from the demon, screaming before freezing mid step, his body slowly being ripped in two.

Gab clutched at his chest, unable to think, unable to breathe.

He was going to die.

“It’s ok.” The woman's soothing voice whispered in his ear, a light in the darkness that threatened to consume him.

“Stay calm, we tested this on those we captured. It will work.”

The mother before him crumpled to the floor, crushed by some unseen force along with her child.

“Deep breaths.” Her voice was entrancing, overpowering even the Demons malignant Aura.

Gab breathed, head rising along with his hands.

“You meet my gaze boy…” The Demon stepped contemptuously over the body of the slave mother, setting his sights on Gab. “...what are you?”

“Finger on the trigger and place your left thumb over the other”

“No matter.” The demon stepped forward, raising his hand.

“Put his chest in your sights, level them, exhale.”

The demon's hand began to fall.

“And pull.”

Crack.

The demon stopped, squinting in confusion as his hand dropped down to his chest, utter disbelief filling his eyes as he saw blood pooling.

Crack, Crack.

He collapsed, as still as the mutilated bodies of the slaves around him.

The malaise in the air vanished.

And the world around Gab grew silent once more.