Chapter 25
Garden of Minos
Jinx
Pain.
Pain was the first thing that she noticed, that told her that she was awake, as well as still alive.
She hurt down to her cells, not a sharp, stabbing pain, but a duller hurt that permeated her.
Everything hurt.
She wanted to just slide back into the peacefulness of oblivion, but she knew she couldn't, though it took her a while to remember why not.
The last thing she remembered, she was doing something, what had it been, oh yes, running, no wait, falling, it was definitely falling.
Slowly bits and pieces came together. Her running, and then jumping through the blades of the wall. Her getting her side torn open. Getting hit with something large. Her gun getting destroyed. And then she remembered the creature itself. The creature that was still out there somewhere, maybe even just on the other side of the wall, waiting for her to get up.
And then she remembered what had come before, and the strength that she'd been trying to build up inside vanished. She deflated as she remembered more and more of what had happened, and the realizations built up in her. She'd failed as a friend, as a person, and now, as a hunter. She'd lost the only things that she'd ever used to define herself in a positive light, leaving her as nothing but a broken monster.
Even as her depression grew, so did the pain, both mentally and physically, till she could hardly stand it. At least the physical part she could alleviate somewhat, so she focused on her left arm and slowly brought it back to life, willing it to slide around to her back, where she kept her Insti-health vials.
Just as she was thinking that having a cybernetic arm did come in handy sometimes, her hand made it to her back, only to find nothing.
It wasn't just that her last vial was missing, but so was her grenade mod. And her shield. And now that she was checking, so was her belt.
This demanded her to make the supreme effort that it took to force her eyes to open, even just a little bit. Her eyes felt crusty, almost like they'd been glued shut, and she wanted to rub them to try and get it loose, but her arms, even her cybernetic one, weren't functioning just right at the moment, so instead she was forced to squeeze them shut and try again. This time they pried open just a little bit, allowing them to be stabbed by the blinding light. It took a few more tries to get them open and to get used to the amount of light, but eventually she was able to get a look at her surroundings.
What she found, surprised her. She was no longer on the deck of the ship, where she'd assumed that she must have crashed into, but instead, she seemed to be in some kind of room.
It was made of metal, not that that was much of a surprise, but it seemed well lived in, with a desk against one wall that was covered in books and papers. There was a dresser that was fancier then belonged in a place like this, pushed against the wall near the desk, and on it were more books. In fact, there were piles of books all over the place, from beautiful leather bound editions to trashy looking romance novels, there were all kinds and all sizes stacked haphazardly on each other.
The rest of the room didn't hold anything of interest to her, there were no decorations on the walls, most of it was covered by shelves that held books and other miscellaneous things, but none of them looked like they would help her at this moment. She couldn't spot her guns, nor any of her gear for that matter.
She ignored her body's protest and tried to shove herself into a sitting position, only to have her side scream in pain bad enough that she just flopped back limply.
Feeling the cold sweet pop up across her body, she took a moment to recollect herself. A minute later, after her breathing was back under control, she managed to lift just her head up and look down at herself. There was a thin blanket that had once been tossed over her, but was now bunched up and hopelessly tangled. She got her left hand free of it and managed to pull it up enough to get a look at the rest of her.
To her surprise and relief, she was still dressed. The bottom of her top had been cut away and there were bandages wrapped tightly around her midriff, but other than that, it seemed that whomever had brought her here had left her alone. In fact, the only things that she could feel were missing were her gear, and her boots. Not that she had a lot of gear left at this point.
Just as she flopped back down on the bed, the door opened, startling her.
She hadn't heard any of the tell-tale signs of a person approaching, in fact, she realized, since she'd woke up, she hadn't heard anything at all.
Panicking slightly, she tried to bring her hands to her ears, only to be stopped by the pain in her side.
The man who had just walked in, saw her trying to move and hurried over to her, motioning with his hands to lay back and be still.
Jinx looked up at him. He was old, late fifties at least, but more likely pushing late sixties, even counting how rough the years had been on him. He had wild grizzled hair that was pulled back, even over his growing bald spot. His beard matched his hair, but looked like he had trimmed it at one point in the last year or so. His clothes were old, but well cared for, and over his ears he wore large sound canceling headphones, which made Jinx realize that she could feel similar pressure on her own head, which would explain her lack of hearing.
He motioned with his hands again, and Jinx stopped trying to get up, though she was still tensed slightly, not knowing who this was, or what he wanted with her.
He ignored her as soon as she stopped trying to move and turned away from her, digging through the piles on the desk until he came up with a notepad and a pencil that he had probably found in some engineers' effects.
He started scribbling on the pad, pausing frequently and often scratching out what he was writing. It didn't take long before he stopped and reread what he'd written. Nodding he turned it around and held it out in front of her so that she could read.
Hello, my name is Mentes.
I found you near the wall. You were injured, so I brought you here.
You need to stay still, or your injuries will worsen again.
Don't worry, I didn't do anything to you but treat your wounds. I'm a married man after all.
Jinx looked at him and asked "Where am I? Where's my stuff?"
He cocked his head and suddenly looked like he got something since he started scribbling again.
We have to wear these headphones, they keep the Piper's voices out of your head.
Jinx read the line and motioned for him to hand her the pad. He looked worried, but she just raised her left hand and motioned with it. Seeming to get it, he handed them over and she did her best to write her questions down.
Where am I? Where is my stuff?
He read it over and quickly answered
You are in my house. It's built near the inner wall. No one ventures in here, so it's mostly safe from the bandits. Your stuff is in the next room. I didn't want you to wake up and hurt yourself trying to get to it. Now relax, I'll go get you something to eat, you need to build your strength back up. We can talk later.
Jinx flopped back down as the man left her. True to his word, he came back in a little while with a bowl of some sort of thin soup, and after helping her sit up, let her feed herself as long as she could.
He also brought her stuff in and set it on the end of the bed, but warned her that if she went for it, he would have to remove it. That when she got stronger, she could have it nearer her.
She asked him to retrieve her Insti-health vial from her belt, that it would drastically speed up her healing, only for him to tell her that he'd already used it on her. In fact, he believed that if he hadn't used it before he started to drag her back, she wouldn't have made it to his house, let alone till morning.
After she finished eating, Jinx drifted off to sleep without intending to. It seemed that her body needed to heal.
The next time she woke up, she still hurt, but nowhere near as bad, at least physically. Mentes returned and after helping her get up, he lent her a shoulder to and from the bathroom. After which they spent some more time writing back and forth, both of them seeming to get more comfortable with the method of communication.
It was during this that he asked Jinx how she'd gotten away from the Piper, which she figured out meant the creature. She skated around the real reason that she was there alone, and instead told him that she had been a hunter, and that it was entirely her instincts that had saved her. When she mentioned killing one of the heads, his expression changed dramatically. He hastily wrote that she had to be the first person to actually hurt the creature, and that when she recovered, she might actually be able to kill it. And then to her surprise, he begged her not to. It wasn't out of some misguided affection for the beast, but that living in the shadow of the creature was the best defense he could have against bandit attacks.
Jinx 'listened' to him, but told him that she would have to kill it eventually, that she needed something from one of the ships that was within its territory, or at least she'd heard that it was.
He replied wondering what she could possibly think was worth risking that much to find.
She had to admit that she didn't know, only that it was being transported on the Ranger's Iron, at which point he actually dropped the notepad in shock.
Quickly picking it up, he scribbled so fast that it was almost illegible that that had been his ship. He calmed down a little and went on to explain that he had been a crewman on the Ranger's Iron, when they were attacked by pirates that had been hired by a corporation to steal something onboard, but as they tried to evade the attack, they had been sucked into this place alongside the pirate ship.
He was below deck when it had happened, trying to repair the damage done to the ship during the attack, which was why he had been wearing ear protection at the time, a fact that had saved his life as it turned out. When the ship came to a stop, everyone else on board turned slack-jawed and glassy eyed. And then they started walking, like they were in a trance. He tried to snap them out of it, slapping a few, but they just kept walking, so he followed them, only to see them getting devoured by the Piper.
To his shame, he fled. He wasn't a fighter, he was just a crew-member and he couldn't think of anything else to do, so he ran.
By the time he stopped running, he had made it to the wall. He knew that the Piper wouldn't be coming after him right away. It might be a cold thought, but it had plenty of food between the ships, but he still didn't feel safe.
It was about that time that he realized that he still had on his ear protection and started to take them off, but as he did, he heard the strange song and turned to head back. But as he did so his hand let go of the headphones and they snapped back into place, shutting the sound off.
Realizing that the headphones had saved his life, he left them on ever since, with rare exceptions.
Eventually he made his way past the wall, and started looking around for any other survivors. He knew there must be some somewhere, because someone had to have built the wall.
He first tried to go straight away from the first wall, only to run into a bandit camp, so he went another direction. After a while, he eventually ran into a settlement, but after a short time there, he knew that he didn't fit in. There was something about them that rubbed him the wrong way, so he left.
He ended up wandering for a while longer, before giving up on the people there and deciding to live on his own.
His first attempt ended badly, as a roving group of bandits stumbled upon it and nearly caught him. He only managed to escape them by fleeing to the area between the walls.
Realizing that he would only be safe there, he built himself a new home on one of the ships, free from all of the bandits and people that lived here.
It wasn't that he didn't still interact with the towns, he did, but only in a limited capacity.
For a while, he traded with one of the settlements, but after a while, even that ended and he'd been alone ever since.
After he finished his story, Jinx 'asked' him a question.
Where is the Ranger's Iron?
Inside of the wall.
Where?
You still plan on going then?
Of course, I need to get something off the ship and then figure out how to get out of here.
It's impossible.
Probably, but I still have to try. But first I need to get the stuff off the ship, so where exactly is it?
He sighed and finally told her, but then he stood up and it seemed that the conversation was over. He told her that she needed more sleep to heal, but she had to ask him something.
Where's your wife? When I first woke up, you said you were married, but I haven't seen her, and from the sound of it, you moved here to be alone, so..."
He paused and went over to the desk and picked up a photo before walking over and showing it to her.
This is my wife, Ranni and our son Dexter. The truth is I ran away. She'd just passed, and I couldn't face that house anymore, so I left my boy with her parents and set off to get rich, and that didn't turn out so well. I always carried this picture with me. He wrote with a far-off expression. I regret leaving now. Not because I got stuck here, but for not being man enough to be there for my son. That's my only regret, that I couldn't watch him grow up. That I couldn't be there for him. That he must have grown up, thinking that I abandoned him.
Jinx watched the man in silence, not knowing what she should say, so she felt relief when he put the picture back and left the room.
Before she knew it, she was waking up again, not remembering even falling asleep.
It wasn't long after that, while she was shifting around, trying to get comfortable even as her side itched and ached, along with most of her back and leg, when Mentes returned with a bowl of soup.
Before she started on it, she 'asked' him what he'd meant when he said that it would be impossible to escape. Did he know something about what was at the bottom? And if not, what had he heard.
He took his time mulling it over while she ate, trying to figure out what to tell her and how, but eventually he filled up a page with his response and gave it to her.
The first story he told her was about the settlement that had been where the debris field now stood. They had been determined to get out, and that the source of the force that was keeping them there must be coming from the center of the ships, whatever was below the clouds at the bottom. To accomplish this, they had built a giant energy weapon, something that he couldn't even begin to explain how it worked, or rather, was supposed to work.
But what he did know was that the clouds weren't normal because when they fired the weapon, the beam hit them and reflected back up, tearing their settlement and the surrounding area to pieces.
The other reason that he didn't think it was possible was that the settlement that he had traded with had sent a team down with the same goal, and he had gone with.
They had gone all the way to the bottom layer of ships, ancient vessels that he couldn't even identify the makers of, things that didn't look like any ships he'd ever seen.
When they got down there, the first group had dropped down while him and a couple others prepared the gear for the second wave, but then the firefight happened, and all they could see was the strange colored lights flashing in the clouds.
The second wave didn't wait and jumped over, dragging much of the equipment after them.
It must have been one of those that exploded, blasting the clouds away briefly and allowing him to get an unobstructed view of the ground for a few seconds.
What he saw was a barren pile of smooth dark rock and out of the closing clouds, figures, like some kind of thin, hunched over things holding smooth rifles that seemed impossible and fired blue energy. Energy that was completely different from the kind that Maliwan guns fired. But the weirdest thing about these things was that they didn't seem to have heads, just curved necks that ended where the head should be and that they were a creepy whitish color.
Well, the clouds filled back in, and that was that. The last of the other people working on the supplies had packed their stuff back up as best they could and slunk back to their encampment.
That was one of the last times he had dealt with them, and it wasn't long afterwards that he stopped going to see them entirely.
Jinx read all of this and a smile started to creep across her face, a smile that seemed to disturb the old man greatly.
Spotting this she quickly wrote out
I know what's at the bottom, this is possible.
The old man didn't seem to believe her, but left her alone afterwards, almost like he was afraid of her.
Some time later, after she'd fallen back into a restless sleep, she was woken up by the door being thrown open and the old man flying through. He landed painfully in a pile of books as a large man made his way through the door and looked around. He spotted her laying on the bed and an evil grin spread across his face and he said something, but the headphones blocked it out, but whatever it was, she could tell that it wasn't pleasant.
Jinx made a dive for her belt, which was still slung over the foot of the bed, only to be brought to a sudden stop by the stabbing pain in her side.
The large man took advantage of this and casually stepped over to her and plucked her belt up and held it above her.
She made a grab at it, but with her limited range of motion, failed spectacularly, so she grabbed one of the books that was next to the bed and let it fly straight into his face.
He didn't take kindly to that as the humor left his face and he grabbed the front of her shirt, yanking her out of the bed and up to level with his face while shouting something at her.
Jinx tried to pop her blade, only for nothing to happen. She'd forgotten that the blade had been damaged during her fight with the creature, but she hadn't realized that some part of the Digi-blade's mechanism must have been damaged as well. Without that option, she took another approach and brought her cybernetic arm down on the inside of his elbow, forcing it to bend. As soon as it did, she shot her hand out for his face, but he twisted his head out of the way. Undaunted, she grabbed the side of his head, catching his ear between her fingers by accident, causing him to thrash and scream.
He grabbed hold of her neck and began to squeeze, while his other hand was flailing around at her hand, trying to get it loose.
Panicking as his grip closed off her windpipe, Jinx stabbed her thumb into his eye.
He seemed to let out an even worse noise as his hand loosened up on her throat and he dropped her unceremoniously onto the floor. As she fell, she snagged her belt from him and crashed with a whimper onto the hard metal floor.
Even as she tugged at her gun, she saw the large man rear back and aim a kick at her, but with her body in the state it was in, she couldn't do anything about it but try and back away, only to hit her shoulder on the bed just as he delivered a brutal blow to her side.
Jinx blacked out for a second as the kick landed right on her wound. Burning hot bile flew up her throat and onto the floor as she curled up and twitched.
Her mind was blank, the pain was overwhelming, so bad that she didn't even see him wind up again, not until the pain exploded again.
This time it took longer for the world to return and by the time it did, she saw the large man on the floor bleeding from the scalp. Wheezing, she turned her head to see another bandit standing there, shouting at the unconscious man. This one started directing more bandits as they came into the room.
Jinx knew that she couldn't fight, not in the condition that she was in, so she did what she could to survive, which mostly meant just lying there until someone picked her up and drug her out of the room.
As they did so, the bandit in charge yanked her belt from her hands and tossed it over their shoulder before stripping the headphones off of her.
The sudden influx of noise after so long without, caused her to wince, but the bandit didn't care, instead they went back to shouting orders and Jinx felt herself get lifted up by her armpits and she blacked out as they drug her out of the ship.
It took a while to get to their destination, during the trip she kept fading in and out of consciousness, but eventually she was brought into a large camp and strung up by her wrists.
Afterwards, a woman came in and searched her, though she wasn't conscious for most of it, having blacked out from the pain of them roughly patting her down. They pulled anything that they could off of her, from her tools to ammo, they even took all of the tools that she'd hidden in her clothes.
They spent a while looking over her cybernetics, trying to determine if they had any weapons hidden in them, but in the end, they must have decided that they were busted since they didn't do anything else to them and she found herself unshackled and thrown into a cell.
She had no way of knowing how long she was there for, since most of the time passed while she was blacked out. The thing that kept waking her, other than her growing thirst, was the growing pain in her side. She knew that all of the healing that she'd managed, had been undone, but she feared that there was something worse going on, that the kicks to her wound had broken something inside and that she wouldn't last much longer, especially considering how the area kept getting more and more painful and the bruise seemed to be getting larger.
It had got to the point where the brief periods that she was blacked out were her only respite, when the entire cage shook and started to move.
With a herculean effort she managed to push herself into a sitting position to watch the view change.
Eventually it stopped and someone started speaking, she tried to listen, but was only able to follow the gist of what was being said, something about having to fight to be allowed into the clan.
She considered it and decided 'Why not?'. If she won, she might get some medical care. And if she lost, well, then it would be over and considering where her life was at the moment, she couldn't see that as all that big of a loss.
Eventually the cage door rose and she pushed herself up, wheezing as she went, but then her opponent stepped out of their cage and the cold sweat that covered her seemed to freeze.
'What's she doing here?' Was the only thing that entered her mind as Gaige looked her way.
'Ah, I suppose it's fitting, her ending it for me, maybe that will bring her the closure that she needs.'
Pushing herself forward, she staggered out of the cage and into the arena. She noticed how Gaige's eyes went wide at the site of her, and she couldn't tell, but there was probably a hint of disgust in them as well, but it didn't matter.
Jinx stumbled forward for a few more steps before sinking to her knees and waiting. It didn't take long for Gaige to rush over to her, but to Jinx's surprise, no blow came, instead the other girl sank to her own knees and she grabbed Jinx by the shoulders.
Looking up at her, Jinx was surprised to see Gaige struggling to find words, so she helped her out.
"Do it. Kill me, I don't care."
The look that crossed Gaige's face was one of shock mixed with a bit of sadness and anger.
"What the hell? I'm not killing you."
"Only one of us gets out of this, and it's not gonna be me."
"Who says?"
"Look at me. Besides, what've I got outside of here?"
"Shut up. Seriously, shut up. I was meanin, who says only one of us gets out alive? Listen to me, we're both getting out of here, understood? I mean, if you die here, how am I ever going to set things right?"
Neither girl had been paying the crowd any mind as the boo's and shouts got louder and louder. But when the announcer shouted into the megaphone, Gaige looked up at them.
"If blood isn't spilled in ten seconds, we're gonna drop the bottom out of the platform and both of you are going to die."
"See." Jinx whispered "Only one lives, so kill me."
"Never."
"Fine, I'll have to do it myself."
She tried to move only to have Gaige grab her in a bear hug that sent a stab of pain through Jinx's side as she shook her head. "No." Was all she said.
"Please. Don't die for me, you know I'm not worth it." Jinx managed to gasp out pleadingly, but was only met with the shake of a head.
Her head rolled back as the hug caused waves of pain to roll through her. A sense of peace settled on her as she looked at the green sky so very far away and noticed something. Summoning her strength, she managed, in a far-away voice, to whisper "It's OK, you can be done with me, look, there's no more stars in the sky."
Gaige instinctively looked up at the endless green expanse above her, unbroken by any light from the stars, when she saw something twinkling above.
The announcer had apparently had enough since they shouted "Fine then, we have a double suicide folks." And grabbed a lever only for a red beam to hit the cage.
Everyone froze for a second and then the roof of the arena exploded, throwing shrapnel into the crowd and knocking the announcer off the dais.
Gaige looked up, through the shattered ceiling and smiled.
"Babe!" She said happily "You came back for us."