Some notes: 1) Two warnings: some gore and one bad word. 2) Many thanks to everyone who's weighing in.
9. Ain't From Here
A few days passed in relative boredom. The remaining soldiers of Troop 50 spent their time lazing about the fortress playing cards and drinking. And if they weren't drinking, they were sprawled on the ground sleeping it off. Often they were so still it was hard to tell their gray uniforms from the stone floors. Jack managed not to step on anybody and deftly escaped their curious pastime of "hanging out."
Life, for the moment, had structure and rhythm. There was an order to the day at Tarrenko. Up at dawn, work, break for breakfast, work, break for lunch, more work, break for dinner, work, and bed. Since Jack had no soldierly duties to attend to, he spent most of his time learning the layout of the fortress and covertly assisting the staff. Buckets of water mysteriously appeared in the laundry room without anyone going to the well. Maids found rolls of bread in their apron pockets. The healers woke up one morning to find a pile of blankets in the middle of their cage.
Dawn broke one cold morning to find Jack was sitting on the steps of the main hall, scanning the snowy front yard. Behind him a few soldiers were playing a noisy game of blackjack in front of the fire. He ignored them. The touch on his shoulder startled him and he whirled around to see Ari.
"Morning, Kip."
"Good morning."
"I have a favor to ask."
"Yes."
Ari smiled. "You don't even know what it is yet!"
"And I do not care," Jack replied, smiling too. "What is it you need?"
"I need you to go to Tarrenko village and buy something from the artisans. General Digger's been screaming for a new necklace. I'd go myself, but there's so much washing. Of course, if Sniggla would do her share instead of sending me on errands…" She huffed in indignation. "That melon ball thought it would be so amazingly funny to send me to get something for that – that creature. I tell you, that maid is the lousiest lump of –"
"Ari."
"Sorry." She composed herself, smoothing back some fur. "Anyway. Please?"
"Of course. Point and I will go." Jack stood.
She nodded and fished in her pocket until she pulled out two gold coins. "Here. Give this to the guards to pay for it. You'll want to go to Barrack 419. And while you're there…" Her voice dropped to a whisper and handed him a small bag of food. "Go find my little Gui-Gao and give her this. Tell her Ari needs some of her best work on the necklace and all the girls send their love. Please?"
Jack was bewildered. He stuffed the bag of food down the front of his armor. "I do not understand," he said quietly. "What is 'Gui-Gao?'"
"Gui-Gao means 'broken throat' in Felinian." She opened her mouth to say something else, but a loud bell went off. "Ah dammit, there's the next load! Jaaaa – Kip, I have to go! Go out the main gate and take the road to the left! Hurry, now!" She picked up her apron and darted up a few steps into the hall.
"Wait! What does Gui-Gao do?"
Ari pivoted, running backward for a moment, and yelled, "She's a bead-worker! Go!" She spun around again and disappeared inside.
Jack scratched his head at this display. But a promise was a promise, and going to a village had to be more interesting than hanging around the fortress and listening in on drunken conversations. He trudged off through the snow and reached the main gate. Crossed spears appeared suddenly in front of him. Xio and Zip were standing guard duty.
"Where are you going?" Zip asked.
"To the village on an errand," Jack replied, trying to look as if this were routine.
"What sort of errand?" Zip pressed.
"I'm being sent to pick up a necklace for General Digger."
Xio snorted. "Oh, is that all. She gets a new one every week, I swear! You know, I never knew a woman soldier who was such a girly girl. Come on through."
Jack blinked at him, unsure of how to respond. He was saved from saying anything by Zip, who unbolted the huge door and pried it open a crack. Jack touched the front of his helmet in goodbye, squeezed through the gap, and stood outside the gate for a moment. The door thwacked shut behind him. Woods and snow and a road met the samurai's eyes and the scent of pine and clean, cold air were so overwhelming that he had to stand still for a moment and simply inhale.
The road was short. He reached Tarrenko and was rather disappointed; it was more a soldierly compound than a real village. Ipshens were on patrol around every corner. The few buildings were made of crumbling cement and mud brick. The snow on the ground was dirty, dotted with the tracks of hundreds of horses and people.
But he couldn't stop to watch the snow fall or feel the wind on his face. His trip had to look routine. The barrack up ahead and to the right read 419. It was made completely of mud brick and looked ridiculously flimsy, like it had been built with inexperienced hands. Jack hastened towards it. Again he was stopped at the entrance. Again he explained his business. Again he was let through.
The barrack was simply a warm, overcrowded, enormous room. Four long tables ran from end to end and each table was full on both sides with creatures of all kinds and colors, chained in their places and working at different craft projects. Hands, claws, and fins were flying at a furious rate. Some were sewing. Some were making things out of clay. And everybody was talking. Shackles were clanking. The noise was deafening. This was the artisans' area.
Jack looked around and spied a likely spot to find Gui-Gao. He maneuvered around the workers until he reached the back corner of the last table, where several bead-workers were hunched over their projects, stringing delicate beads onto thread with shaking hands. He put a hand on the shoulder of a worker. The worker put down her web of beads and looked up at him. It was a blue-furred monkey creature, a fairly old one with bushy white eyebrows.
"Yes?"
"Sorry to bother you. I am looking for Gui-Gao."
The monkey creature smiled and gently elbowed the worker to her left, who Jack hadn't even noticed. The worker put down the necklace she was making, smoothing it on the table with her long bony fingers. She looked up at Jack through large sad eyes. Her straw-colored hair was matted. Her left eyelid and shoulder drooped unnaturally.
"Ah?" she said. The left side of her face twitched once.
Jack stared. Of course this person didn't recognize him with the beard, but he recognized her immediately. It was Kiki, the bent, broken artisan from Sankra's village. He absently felt his side, where the hidden pocket was on his old gi. The exquisite coin purse she'd made him hadn't survived his many journeys since leaving the village, but the memory burned bright in his mind. Then he realized the bead-worker was expecting a reply.
"Hello," he said. Then he turned to the blue monkey. "Would you excuse us for a moment?"
The monkey creature nodded and scooted down on her bench as far as her chains would allow, giving Jack some room. He sat down and whispered in Kiki's ear, "Ari says she needs a necklace for the General – your best work."
Kiki nodded with enormous effort, moving her head, neck and shoulders as one unit.
He shot a furtive glance at the nearest guard, who was preoccupied with his dirty fingernails. Gingerly, he took the small bag of food from under his breastplate and pressed it into the worker's lap. He leaned in again. "And the girls send their love."
The bead worker gave him a joyful if lopsided grin and clumsily reached for the middle of the table. From a pile of beaded things she pulled out a dazzling necklace of black and green beads, laced in a complicated web, and put it in his hand. "Ohhh uh Yehraaaah," she breathed.
"For the General," the monkey to his right translated quietly.
Kiki motioned him closer. He had only seen her take one thing from the pile, but she pressed something else into his hand and whispered, "Ohhh Ayeeee. Ah?" in his ear.
For Ari. Of course.
He nodded. Quickly stuffing the secret gift into his shirt, he took the first one and went for the exit. The soldier there sternly eyed the necklace and held up two fingers. Jack handed him the two gold pieces. The soldier nodded and let him through.
Gently untangling the necklace, Jack walked off through the snow, not really watching where he was going. He bumped into something soft.
"Oh, excuse me," he said and looked up.
Yazzi Digger grinned at him, bundled up in a red jacket with a matching muff. He blinked back at her. A chill rushed down his back. "General," he acknowledged with a slight bow.
"Ipshen. Have you got my necklace?"
"Uh, yes. I do. Here." He handed her the delicate beadwork piece, marveling at it even as he gave it to her. The colors were brilliant, the design fetching. He wondered how long it had taken "Gui-Gao" to make.
Yazzi held it on the end of one claw and sniffed, bored. "Not bad," she said. "But not brilliant. Usually I have my personal jeweler set something for me, but he's gone north, so there you are. Go back in there and get another piece that I might like better."
Jack was annoyed. Undercover or not, he didn't appreciate being treated as anyone's personal servant. He did his best to look respectful. "I apologize, General, but I already spent the two gold pieces allotted, and I have nothing of my own. I cannot get you another one."
Digger snorted. "Imbecile!" She knocked Jack out of the way and marched in. The guards didn't stop her. Jack followed her. He was stopped at the doorway. So he stood and watched … and was immediately sorry.
Yazzi pushed her way across the room, knocking heads and limbs this way and that, much to the annoyance of their owners. She marched over to the cluster of bead-workers and began screaming at Kiki.
"You call this work! I could do this better, you worm! You haggard piece of filth! It's a miracle the empire let you live, and this is how you repay it!"
The unfortunate bead-worker was twitching in fear. Her breath was hitching in her throat – she couldn't speak if she had a tongue that worked. Her blue monkey friend, who looked like she'd seen this one too many times before, stood up and exploded at Yazzi.
"Then do it yourself! If you dislike my friend's work, get out of here and never bother us again!"
The entire room went silent. Yazzi snarled at the monkey, who remained utterly motionless, glaring the General.
"Raaaah!"
The movement was so fast that only Jack caught it. But to everyone else it seemed that Yazzi's thick, clawed hand had simply appeared in the blue monkey's chest, embedded up to the knuckle. With a disgusted snort, Digger ripped her bloody hand out of the artisan. The light in the blue monkey's eyes went out. She gurgled and collapsed. The chains went taut and there she hung, arms stretched and anchored to the table by her wrist irons, ass on the bench, her head snapped back, purple blood dribbling out of her chest and pouring onto the dirty floor. Everyone, particularly the person next to her, stared in horror.
Kiki found her voice. She started to scream.
The rest of the artisans began to scream too, and Digger was hard-pressed to be heard over the noise. "Take this one to the graveyard!" she yelled at a nearby soldier, pointing to the dead monkey. Then she pointed at Kiki. "And take this one to the Wall!"
The commotion hit another decibel. The bead-worker was still wailing for her friend, but at the mention of the Wall she turned a terrified roar in Yazzi's direction. Incoherent strings of vowels, spit, and sobs had no effect. The General stood by, hands on hips, and watched the soldiers cut her chains. She was hauled to her feet and nearly dragged out the back door of the barrack, since her limping legs didn't work very well. Yazzi watched this, bored, and waited until the soldiers had dragged their prisoner from the room. Then she calmly reached down into the pile of beadwork and pulled out another necklace.
Jack stopped thinking clearly right about then.
Taking care to avoid any doors or windows, he scuttled around the side of the building. From around the corner he could see the soldiers dragging her away. They marched left, dragging the shrieking woman between them, and then turned right. Jack checked behind him and saw Yazzi heading for the village gate. He looked in front. The coast was clear. His armor clanked as he darted after them.
"Wait!" he yelled, rounding a corner.
The soldiers stopped. Their prisoner stopped snuffling for a moment and turned her shaggy head.
"What?" the left guard asked.
Jack caught up to them. "Sorry. I am new here. I was ordered to go with you."
"Why?" the right guard grunted.
Jack shrugged. The guards looked at each other. It seemed as good an answer as any. After all, leaders weren't keen on explaining their orders to any grunt.
"All right Ipshen, come on. There ain't much to see, though. It's only the Wall. Y'ever been?"
Jack shook his head. He wasn't about to ask what it was, either.
"Final punishment," one of the soldiers said as he dragged Kiki along. He was talking just to talk. "Last stop for misbehavin' females."
Kiki squeaked. Jack had nothing to say. He nodded and walked silently behind them, following their miserable parade through narrow, quiet streets until they reached the edge of the settlement. He stared up at a ten-foot-tall cement construction as they walked by. It was thin, like someone had jammed a giant gray cracker into the snow. An indistinct rattling was coming from the other side, and a rumbling moan filled his ears.
The party came around. The wind began to whip furiously. As though some unseen hand had adjusted a radio, the muffled moaning snapped into full-fledged screaming.
"Well soldier, here it is," said the left guard. "The Wall."
It was fortunate that Jack was at the end of the procession. Had anyone seen the look on his face, the entire ruse would have been over.
Chained to the flat cement wall by their wrists and ankles were perhaps twelve female creatures, some alien, some reasonably human. One was eerily still and limp in her chains. The rest were alive, but barely. They looked sick, with green blisters on their faces and bellies. Their clothes were torn and tattered. They were starving, beaten, bloodied, wind-whipped and freezing. Below each was a cold pool of slop.
"Hey! Soldier!"
One of the guards was talking to him. "What?" Jack asked.
"Here." A set of keys were tossed into his hand. "Unchain the dead one and kick it loose. We have to put up the fresh one."
"The fresh one?" Jack asked vaguely. He had the distinct impression that his voice was coming out of the air beside him, not from his mouth.
"Do it."
Jack moved towards the Wall in a fog, holding the key. He had to walk by a few prisoners, who moaned at him. "H-Help!" yelled a pink spider-woman as he passed. Only four of her eight legs were chained, and she reached for him weakly with her free limbs. "-elp!" she cried again. Eight tears streaked down her frozen face. "S-Soldier, please! Is – Is th-there any m-mercy left in your heart? Or has the Empress t-taken all of you, t-too!"
Jack couldn't answer her. Instead he paused next to her, where the dead one hung. The stench, even in the numbing winter air, was foul. He undid her cuffs and let her fall face-down into the snow. The corpse was thin and frostbitten. He stared down at it, thankful he'd never seen its face, while the other two soldiers pinned up the struggling bead-maker.
"Heeyaaaah!" she shrieked, lashing out clumsily with her legs. It was no use.
Jack pretended to pay the Wall no mind.
"Death by exposure?" he asked calmly.
"Sometimes," the right guard said, coming over. "Sometimes it's starvation, since no one bothers with food for 'em. But usually it's the 'green' disease because, well, all boys want is some action. And no matter what the season, they know right where to find it. See? Case in point."
The guard was motioning at a drunken soldier who'd stumbled out from the other side of the Wall. Without preamble, he unclasped the pants on his armor and walked up to the nearest body. Jack turned away, as did the other soldiers. None of the three men looked at each other. It was good for Jack that the other two didn't see him, because he was gritting his teeth in anger. He couldn't tune out the groaning of the soldier and the screaming of the woman.
It was too much. He had to act. Pretending to scratch the back of his neck, he grabbed the hilt of his sword.
"Eeeeeeeooooooo!" Kiki shrieked again, having watched the proceedings.
"Can it, little sister!" the left guard yelled. "If heaven is merciful, you'll be dead before evening!"
"Do not worry about her," Jack growled, his low mellow voice reverberating in the cold air. "You will be dead long before that!"
He drew his sword with a battle cry and ran at the surprised soldiers like a bullet, cutting both down in short order. The drunk staggered away from the Wall and drew his own sword, slurring and cursing and swiping stupidly at the samurai. Jack killed him with one stroke.
He paused to catch his breath. Three men were dead on the ground. His sword was hanging loosely in his right hand, dripping blood. Those on the Wall, even those who could barely lift their heads, were staring at him. The spider-woman smiled weakly. Kiki, eyeing the huffing man with the bright sword, gasped. Her eyes went wide. She'd seen a man who moved like that with a weapon only once in her life. Was it …?
Jack approached the Wall. "How long have you been chained here?" he asked the spider-woman. "What is your name?"
"J-Jissa," she whispered through badly chapped lips. "I've b-been here t-two days."
"Hold still. I will cut you loose."
She closed her eyes, bit her lip and heard the swish, and suddenly she was free. She hobbled onto the ground and skittered about lamely. The others on the Wall were quiet now, watching this strange man and wondering if they were hallucinating. Working quickly, he sliced through all the chains until every last prisoner was off. He solemnly sheathed his sword and for a moment felt like he had done something.
But then he got a good look at those he'd freed. Only Kiki, who was hobbling over to him with wide eyes and babbling incoherently, looked like she had a fighting chance. The others were done for. Most of them were slumped against the Wall, too weak to stand. An icy wind was bearing down on them all. Even the spider-woman was crouched down, coughing. Exhaustion, exposure, starvation, illness … something would get them, and quickly.
"You are free. What else can I do?" he asked.
For a moment, nobody answered, but he felt a pressure on the leg of his armor. Jissa was down in the snow, looking up at him sadly.
"You can do one thing, soldier," she said. "You can let us die."
Jack looked at her for a second. She held his gaze and he realized she was sincere. He hung his head bitterly. He didn't want to honor her request. It was … wrong. Hopeless.
He knelt in the snow next to her. "I cannot."
"You have to. A-Anyone with green boils on their bellies is d-dead anyway. It's the s-sickness that we get when we're over-overused by the s-soldiers. See?"
Jack looked at Jissa and her companions. It seemed that Kiki was the only one who didn't have the boils. He scratched his head. Another battle won, yet lost. It was a painful sensation in a long series of them. After a moment, he got up the courage to look at her one more time.
"May I take you someplace warm?"
Jissa's stoic façade crumbled like a straw house and she began to weep. Jack took that as a yes.
He picked up the spider-woman, carried her away from the Wall and brought her into a nearby building. It was an unused barrack, nothing more than a large empty shack with a dirt floor. Jack gingerly placed Jissa in the nearest corner and walked outside only to bump into Kiki, who was burdened with a large, green, coughing prisoner. She just nodded at Jack and hobbled in while he went out. Before long all of the dying were inside, packed together like sardines for body heat. Jack could find nothing to cover them, but they all seemed grateful to just be in from the cold. Kiki came back and saw all the women curled together on the floor. She knelt next to a purple creature on the end and smoothed some pink hair off her cold face.
Jack closed his eyes briefly and clapped his hands together once in prayer.
"Last rites?" Jissa wheezed.
He opened his eyes and nodded.
"Thanks."
Jack could not bring himself to say she was welcome. "Your resistance against the Empire was not in vain."
A glance. A false, cocky snort. "Whatever you say, dear."
"Just … please, rest now."
And Jissa smiled at him. "Okay."
Jack watched her. Most of her friends were already asleep, their lips blue. Their ordeal would soon come to an end. Kiki, shaking, hobbled over to Jack. Jissa closed all eight of her eyes. A cold wind blew in through the door, gently ruffling straggly hair on limp, cold heads and whipping through raggedy clothes that clung to used-up bodies. Jack threw an arm around Kiki and both of them watched as the spider-woman's rattling breath slowed and slowed. At last it grew so faint that neither of them could hear it.
The two living let their eyes roam down the row, stopping at every face. All was still.
Jack knelt and felt Jissa's neck for a pulse. There was nothing. He stood up with a quiet, closed expression, but Kiki knew what had happened. She tried to hide her face in Jack's armor and shook even harder.
"Do not cry," he whispered. "There is nothing either of us can do."
She untucked her head and stared at him, her face damp. "Eh onna, ahn ey? Eh o-onn!" she said with a sob, and wiped the back of her hand under her nose.
A deep, piercing ring startled both of them. It was a bell. Jack was jolted back to reality, back to his mission. With a soul-saving change of focus technique he'd learned from vicious experience, he ignored the sight in front of him, picked up Kiki piggyback-style, and hightailed it for the entrance of the village, keeping an eye out for soldiers. Luck was on their side for the moment. They met only empty streets and escaped.
The lunch bell had rung two minutes ago. Everyone else was in line for their Borko bean soup, but two soldiers had decided to forego food for the moment. They were walking towards the Wall, talking in loud voices to let the girls know they were coming.
"So who do you think would win, 24 or 58?"
"My money's on 24."
"Aw, you and 24! S'matter, you a sucker for aliens, or something? Guy's lost eight times in a row!"
"Clam up."
"You clam up!"
They reached the "right" side of the Wall and their argument came to a screeching halt.
"Holy shit," the first soldier said.
They noted the empty Wall and surveyed the carnage. Turned over bodies. It was no one they knew. Then they took a look at the kills.
"The weapon was a sword," the first soldier remarked. "A good one."
"And not the kind we have," the second agreed. "Whoever killed these guys … he ain't from here."
TBC