Chapter8
By shadows/of/flame
"Why can I only see purple?"
The deep purple of Torns damaged hand clashed with the red scarf bound tightly around it and he winced inwardly.
The pain was overwhelming, but finding Tess and the resistance movement against the Baron was more important to the ex KG commander than a stupid hand.
As he walked through the desolate streets, he wished that he had healed his hand before he left, but there was no time for wishful thinking.
Yet he trudged on half-willingly, not wanting to glance back even if Ashelin sent a whole troop of KG guards after him.
The KG was his past, and he was over it.
As he rounded a corner, Torn recognised the distinct. familiar sight of the Slums.
Only a few months before, when for the first time in history, the shield wall had dropped, the Baron had lost so many men fighting for a section of the Slums, he pulled out, leaving the place to be destroyed by Metal Heads.
When the wall was re-programmed, the dead part of the Slums had been left out to preserve eco, and renamed Dead Town.
The tattooed wonder edged through the slums, ignoring the piercing stares coming his way, making the hair on the back of his neck prickle.
He had forgotten that he was still in his KG uniform when he left the Palace, and that might have been a deadly mistake.
Getting help from Tess was not going to be as easy as stealing candy from a baby.
In fact, far from it.
Torn was walking without thinking, and tripped over a protruding pipe sticking lazily out of the ground.
Even though it had probably unearthed since the last earthquake, that tiny fact did not stop the string of curses coming out of Torns mouth as he fell flat on his face.
Trying to get up, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it...
A tiny, cracked concrete door with the very same emblem engraved onto it as the place on the map was marked with.
His heart raced slightly, and he walked slowly forward, wondering how he would open it.
Which was why he was so surprised when the door suddenly slipped open, and a scantily clad woman stepped out.
She took one look at him and screamed, grabbing her gun and aiming it at Torns armoured chest immediately.
"Shadow! SHADOW! Theres a KG here!" she hollered, backing slowly away from the ex commander.
"Wait!" Torn croaked, peeling off his armour, wincing as his hand brushed against the stiff metal. "I can explain everything - I am no longer a member of the KG."
The blonde girl glared at him and folded her arms across her chest as she listened to him, eyebrow raised stiffly.
"I quit the KG because they were torturing an innocent little boy. He was only about 16, and I couldn't bear to think what was going to happen to him... I need your help, please."
Torn wasn't used to begging, but he felt it was necessary to prevent this dangerous looking young rebel woman from blowing him to pieces.
"In what way!"
"I guess I should tell you my story..."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You're Tess right?" the brunette dreadlocked wonder asked, fearing that Ashelin had got it wrong.
"Yes, thats my name..."
"But I want to know one thing." The Shadow interrupted, stopping Tess from speaking.
"Two in fact. One, where did you get a full city map from? They are almost as rare as Precursor orbs themselves. And two, who in the KG knows the location of the Underground well enough to send you here, and also not to rout us out?"
Torn looked away, his eyes narrowed in the pain of a horrible past.
"Oh! Your hand!" Tess gasped, rushing to get bandages and oil so she could bind it.
He hesitantly let her inspect it under the weak candlelight, and she shook her head in disappointment.
"Shadow, could you spare some Green Eco for this foolish KG?"
"I'm not a KG!" Torn exclaimed stubbornly, but his attention was drawn to the eerie glow now surrounding his hand.
"What... is this?" he gaped, looking at his hand actually healing in front of his very eyes.
"Its Green Eco. The Shadow is a Green Eco sage, able to cast it almost at will. Although, there is a limit to his powers." Tess explained, finishing binding Torns hand in silence.
She fastened Torns scarf back on, and the Shadow spoke.
"Tell us who told you to come here." The Shadow murmured, and the ex commander continued his story.
He had left out all of the last days he spent at the Palace, he had only told of the cells and the barracks.
Then it came to when he left, and the part with Ashelin...
He fell silent for a few moments.
"Her name is Ashelin. She is the Barons one and only daughter. We used to be quite close, but I ab... abandoned her when I left the Krimzon Guard. She is also the one that gave me the map."
The Shadow furrowed his brow, his eyebrows disappearing into the depths of his hair.
"The Barons own daughter wants to overthrow him? Something seems amiss here, but for now, welcome to the Underground."
"W... Welcome? To what?" Torn gaped.
Tess giggled, fondling Torns ears as the Shadow left the room, grumbling something about kids.
"What, have you not been paying attention?" she giggled, cleaning up the mess the Shadow had left and pinning their new city map, courtesy of Torn, up on the wall behind her.
"You're a part of the Underground now, an underground movement secretly working to overthrow the Baron. Everyone knows about us, not what we are doing, but we have reputations as rebels. Of course, no one knows our location either, so if you dare tell anyone..."
Tess flashed Torn a vampire smile, and left the room, her words lingering for moments after.
"We'll hunt you down and hurt you REAL bad! Oh, by the way, get a good night sleep, and be careful of your hand - duties start tomorrow."