Phase 1 - From despair comes hope

The crowd below moved in one fluid motion, a river of people travelling home after another day of struggles. This had been the same event every night for the past three weeks. As the sun fell, the people flowed and Zane sat perched above, watching. Eyes attuned to every movement through the large eyeholes of the red plague doctor's mask he wore to hide his face.

Zane had found the strange mask a few years ago and instantly taken a liking to it. He was told it had belonged to an ancient group of healers, they wore it for protection. Looking at it's appearance Zane couldn't see how any healer could have been comfortable wearing it. The appearance spoke more of death than life. It was that exact image that drew him to it in the first place. Zane quickly painted it red, the eyes provided enough vision but at the same time hid his features. The beak was short enough to not be a problem but create a distinct look, one that allowed his name to be remembered easily. The red shadow. A name he adopted in the underground. As far as Zane knew there wasn't a single person who knew his true identity.

The job had taken longer to scout than he had hoped. The place was located in a very crowded part of red-snake slums. Zane hated snake sector. It was the worst maintained sector of all twelve. That was saying something considering the region was being run by the Zodiac empire, an alien race that had conquered Earth over twenty years ago now.

Zane didn't know the world before it had become part of the Zodiac empire but he had heard stories. The humans had moved from being top of the food chain to being second choice. Zane watched the people below, beaten, lifeless. They had nothing left, there was no hope anymore only despair. People did what they could to survive and that is exactly what Zane had done.

The streets were his home, the struggles his only friend. They had taught him to be hard and resolute. Nothing was given to you, it had to earned or taken there was no inbetween. Zane made sure to learn all he could, fighting, stealth, cunning. At a young age he had learnt quickly the layout of all the sectors, and how to navigate them quickly as well as efficiently. This path had led him to become a man for hire, one of the best. Zane refused all assassination jobs, they weren't his style. Locating, stealing and retreiving were his specialty.

This job was actually simply, there was an item and Zane had been hired to steal that item. Simple and clean, the way he liked them. The only difficulty had been the location, Captain Mamba-drummer, known as the mad drummer, was the resident of the lair he had been tasked with robbing. That made Zane's task a challenge, not impossible but a challenge. This had prompted Zane to take more time than usual, watching, learning. Zane had to be sure he could get in safely, more importantly, he had to be sure he could get out safely.

The drums sounded.

Zane watched the people part in the street below, forming two uniformed lines either side of the street. Out marched the captain, surrounded by a dozen slithers. Zane hated slithers, they were pesky soldiers. Created on mass to do the whims of the Zodiac empire. Each sector had it's own unique form and slithers were the snakes. They were awkward to look at. As if a large snake had been molded into the body of a human. There head was a snake this continued down across the right side of the chest with the tip of the tail ending where a right are would be. The rest of the body was relatively human, except for the scales and green skin.

Zane waited until Mamba was out of sight. The crowd had returned to its drone like stroll in the sun-set lit street below. So Zane made his move. Raising the hood of the sleeveless jacket, Sliding off the roof, a shadow in the growing darkness. He fell, gripping small ledges and windows to slow his fall before softly landing in the street below.

Without pause he darted forward, shooting over the wall surrounding the lair. Zane had deduced that the best time to safely retrieve the item was when the Captain left his lair, the only time he left his lair. None of the monsters ever locked their doors, why would they? No one ever dared to even tread on the ground they walked. Zane wasn't any more courageous than others, he just made sure he never got caught.

It didn't take Zane long to find the window he was looking for, prying it open he slipped quickly inside. Mamba's lair was pretty simply, an old house that looked relatively untouched. It had a large front room, an unused kitchen and two small side rooms. He was sure the upstairs would prove just as uninteresting.

The room that held what he was looking for happened to be in the opposite direction, the basement. Another simple task, the zodiac creatures thought everyone feared them too much. So there was no lock on the door.

A subtle push and the door creaked open. Silence and darkness greeted him, a musty smell lingered, yet he had smelled worse. Zane quickened his pace, his time was short Mamba was never gone long. After rounding the first corner light flooded the cramped passageway, torches placed at regular intervals defeated the darkness and cleared a path of vision ahead. Zane could see the room he was after, the door stared at him from the far end of the passage.

Again Zane moved quickly, slithering past the other rooms to his left and right eager to get what he came for and leave. This door would also not be locked, though he had been told it had not been opened it some years.

Taking a grip of the handle Zane found it stiff and unyielding. It required a more solid base to pull from, placing one foot on the wall he tried again applying more force this time. Slowly the door loosened, the groan echoing in the flickering light. Zane felt the strain on his muscles, so he let go. Leaving a gap barely big enough for his size. It was big enough however and that was all he needed to slip inside.

Zane cast his gaze across the room and found, very little. To his surprise all he found was a single podium, no room of treasures or stolen items. A single solitary piece of, what looked like metal, sat broken in the center.

After a quick check for traps, to which he could find none. Zane spared a moment to look at the item he had been tasked with retrieving. It certainly didn't appear very spectacular. It was octagon in shape, a light grey in colour and at it's center a empty space sat. It looked like something circular fit, a disk or coin perhaps.

The most glaring feature was the damage, a long gash had been cut into it. Starting at the top right and ending bottom left. Whatever it was there was no way he was stealing it to be used. Zane snatched the strange device, placing it in his jacket pocket. Dashing back out the small gap and into the passageway. He was halfway back to the stairs when he heard it.

Zane froze. The sound, whatever it was, had come from around him. Standing still he listened. Had Mamba returned? If he had Zane knew his chance of survival had just hit near zero. The sound came again. Slightly stronger this time, it wasn't sound from above. It wasn't the sound of drums.

It took a moment for his brain to process exactly what he was hearing. Voices. Muffled, weak, strained. Yet they were voices. Zane turned his gaze to the other rooms he passed without a thought. Every instinct in his body screamed to turn away, leave and be safe. He had his item, he could secure his reward and move on. Yet something urged him forward, towards the sounds, towards the doors. It was stronger than the screams and so he listened.

Zane crept up to the closest door, there was a small gap enough to look through and see what was inside. Immediately and without thinking Zane threw the door open at the sight he found. He stood in the doorway, his masked eyes staring in disbelief at the beaten figure of a women restrained to the wall.

A/N

This is the first of four parts. You have met Zane our resident thief. He's journey has only just begun.

- End of Part 1 -