Chapter 28

A very long, awkward silence followed Blaze's tale. Finally, Matt muttered "Shit."

"See?" Replied Blaze. "It's a past I shouldn't have wanted to know about, and it's not a pretty one to listen to."

"But you told me," Said Matt, "Because you think no-one else will ever find out about you if we don't ever get off Macbeth?"

"Yes," Blaze sighed heavily. "But there's something about you, Matt. Something that tells me I can trust you. You've got that same commanding aura that Bill's got, you seem to genuinely care, and have a maturity far beyond your years, when it comes down to it. No other person anywhere, save Bill and Lieutenant Bastion knows about this story, and having spent so long around you lately, makes me think that you would be the only person I'd spill this to anyway."

Matt was taken aback. He had lost count of the number of days he and Blaze had been berating and annoying each other, and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Blaze had told him everything.

"Well, now that you know who I am," Blaze started, "Do you now see why I didn't tell anyone? I'm a mass murderer. I wouldn't be trusted by anyone, and I don't want that to happen."

Keeler didn't think long before he replied, and when he did his voice was far more reasoned and mature than it usually was.

"Blaze, you're wrong there in many ways. First, they'd trust you even more if you told them the whole story."

"How could they possibly trust me if they know the truth? I worked for the other side."

"Plenty of people worked for Venom, who now work just about anywhere in the armed forces. For another thing, your sole purpose is not destruction. You've convinced yourself of that since you learned your past. You think that just because 2-FBW-something was made for destruction, it's your sole purpose in life. But that's wrong, Blaze. You are not 2-FBW-1-whatever. He died with Andross. His purpose was destruction, but he's dead now. He was behind the Redlands Massacre, but he's dead now. Don't you see? You're not him. You are Blaze Walters, and you've been free to make you own life for seven years, and you were doing pretty damn well until you found out about FBW. What happened to Blaze Walters then? You made yourself the way you are- now you can unmake it. When we get off this planet, you forget everything about your old self. Forget about the war, forget about the destruction. You just do something you always see us doing, find a new purpose, get alive. You've been dying inside for so long you may as well."

Now it was Blaze's turn to be stunned. Try as he might, he couldn't force himself to argue Matt's point. The young pilot was right, in every single way. What had he been doing? He had been slowly killing himself, reducing himself to what he saw in that file years ago.

"You… Do you really think the others'll trust me more if I spill my story? All of it?"

"I'm sure of it." Replied Keeler confidently. "They'll understand all of it. Trust me, even if a couple of them don't, we can explain it to them. That's the problem: you haven't been around them at all, so you don't realize that they're all good, decent people."

Blaze went quiet again. When his voice returned it had regained its former confidence and strength, the way Matt was used to hearing it, but this time it carried a sense of hope- not the old cynicism.

"All right. When we get off this rock, I'll tell everyone."

"That's the spirit." Matt almost applauded. "Thanks Blaze, for letting me hear it. Your story, I mean."

"No, thank you for hearing me out." Replied Blaze. "And thank you for helping me out."

It was some time later, in that blackness, when they started hearing explosions. They were distant enough to be little more than thuds which caused only the slightest vibrations in the mine, but the trio knew that a well placed hit could bring the whole shaft down.

"Cruise missiles or long range bombing, I think" Said Blaze. "Get Damon up, we're going."

Matt quietly roused the young boy and Blaze switched on a flashlight. The long, cavernous shaft that they had taken refuge in continued on straight for a near endless distance in both ways, and Matt wondered which way they had come from to get in. But Blaze knew, and he began to walk down the shaft quietly, shining the light as far as it would go.

That's when a couple of the enemy's troopers walked straight into the light beam from a side-shaft. One of them opened his mouth in surprise.

Half a second later, both were dead, one having been decapitated by Blaze, the other sprawled with a smouldering hole in his head, courtesy of a quick, accurate shot from Damon's silenced pistol.

Blaze turned off the light and strode back to the other two.

"They're searching for us. There's bound to be more of them out there." He whispered. "We killed these two quietly enough, so we can still surprise them. But stay close to me, this is going to be tricky."

The three then set off into the dark gloom of the mines, uncertain about their fate, but determined to put up a fight.