Chapter IV: Last Militia
Stasia woke up in a cold, dark cell. Her body trembled in pain, she could barely move without feeling as if she was being torn apart. She put her hand on her leg. Blood. There was blood all over her.
"Don't move." a chilling voice spoke from behind her.
She was almost tempted to look behind her, to see who it was. But as she heard the man cock his gun, she knew she couldn't.
"Who gave you the newspaper?"
"I don't know," she said, half in defiance, and half telling the truth.
"Don't lie."
"I'm not lying. I don't know who it was. It was the first time I had ever seen him."
"What did he look like?"
"He was old. I think he had glasses."
"Turn around."
Stasia slowly turned around to see a gun in her face. She looked past it to see the two blue eyes looking straight at her.
"Why do you lie?" The man asked, hesistant. He seemed afraid. His leg was shaking.
"I don't remember exactly what he looked like. I only saw him for a few seconds," she was assertive in her answer this time.
"Just tell me!" he shouted, with a faint cry in his voice.
"I've told you everything I know," Stasia looked him straight in the eyes, penetrating his very soul.
"Please," he begged.
"Why should I? Why do you want the answer so badly? Is it because you don't want to kill me?" her words struck like a dagger in his heart.
"No, I don't want to kill you. I want you to tell me the answer," he admitted.
"Anything more I tell you would be a lie."
He thought over it. "I don't care."
"The man was named Illarionov. I don't know his first name. He told me that he was joining up with a rebel movement in Vladivostok to overtake the Orange Star Army," she said, trying her best to sound confident. The truth was, of course, that she had made the entire story up on the spot.
The man nodded and walked towards a wooden stairway. He stopped.
"I'll be back."
---------
The mission in Vladivostok had been accomplished. The Yellow Comet Navy was now retreating from the area, and Orange Star troops were moving in to assess the situation.
Olaf had been raising the flag of Orange Star over a tall building when they fired.
"Lieutenant Olaf! You will come down immediately for questioning!"
Olaf came down from the building, carefully. His body trembled with fear, as he knew the worst could happen. He could guess, that they knew about Vlad, somehow. Someone had figured it out, and someone had figured out that Olaf knew as well, and that he was covering for him. Such secrets would be punishable by death.
Once he reached the ground, the Orange Star soldiers grabbed his arms and dragged him to a pickup truck. They lifted him and threw him in the back, his head slamming against the floor.
The pain in his head almost drowned out his senses, all he could see was a blur, and the sound of the truck's engine starting fluctuated in pitch.
He faintly heard the slamming of one door. The next thing he saw was the image of a soldier, the butt of his gun coming straight down.
Black ink bleed into his vision, covering the lonely gray sky. Olaf raised his hand, and saw it, glowing in the field of darkness.
He looked around, turned his head, and saw the dark, lonely world. Slowly, he could see points of light appearing around him, glowing bits of dust floating in the air. The lights became bigger and bigger until they finally consumed the darkness. The dark abyss had become a small room, with a chair across from him, it's back turned on him.
Olaf looked down to see himself on his own chair, modest in comparison to the throne across the table. A plume of pink smoke came up from behind it.
"Hello, Olaf." A booming voice said. It seemed to come from the ceiling. Olaf turned to look for it.
"I'm not there. I'm here." The chair rotated around, revealing a strange looking man. He looked much like the Orange Star officer who had taken Olaf from his home, but he wore a black uniform, and held a cigar in his hand. From the cigar came the pink smoke.
"Who are you?" Olaf inquired.
"Why did you lie to us?"
"I don't know who you are..." Olaf laughed a little at his own foolish confusion at the situation.
"You lied to me, Olaf. You told us you didn't know what happened."
Olaf just stared at the man's forehead. The wrinkles on it seemed to curve around a central point. He stared at the point, noticing now that the point was bulging out of his head.
An eye opened out of the buldge. "Have you seen anything strange lately?"
Olaf merely nodded, and pressed himself back in his seat in sheer terror.
The third eye looked into his eyes, penetrating. The colored part began to glow and eerie green, and it shined into his eye, blinding him. The green light consumed his vision once again.
"Wake up," he heard a faint voice say. The sound slowly bleed into full clarity. "Wake up!"
Olaf's eyes shot open. He was chained to a metal chair.
"What do you know about the rebel movement?" The voice said again. Olaf looked and saw a new sight, a man in a suit that held a large gun to his head. He felt the presence of someone else in the room that he could not see.
"I don't know anything. I already told you." Olaf's eyes darted to the window. He saw a girl walking with a soldier outside.
"Tell us you fool! I'm not going to ask you anymore! You tell me who's leading this or I'll kill you," the man in the suit said, his voice loud and demanding. "Blue Moon trash. They're all the same."
Olaf was angered by the man's insult, but he contained his anger. One wrong move and he would be killed. He still stayed in silence.
The man shot his gun, but carefully aimed to hit the floor. He cocked the gun again, and placed it right on Olaf's forehead.
"Tell me. Now."
"Okay, okay..." Olaf said. He wasn't going to risk anything. "The leader of the rebels is not apart of the Blue Moon militia... they're organized in the towns."
"Which towns?"
"The small towns outside Vladivostok. They're lead by..." Olaf thought for a moment. He had to come up with something, quick. "A woman."
"A little girl is plotting this?" The man laughed. "You hear that? A little girl is trying to defeat Orange Star!" He lifted the gun from Olaf's head to have a hardy laugh.
He paced around for a few seconds, then brought the gun back down to Olaf's head. "What's her name?"
"I don't know." Olaf said.
"You don't know? Why not?"
"I don't know much about the movement. I'm not apart of it."
"Then why are you covering for it?"
"Because I know someone who is in it. And I don't want them to be executed."
"Too bad. Tell us the names and we might let you live the rest of your pathetic life in one of the ghettos."
Olaf couldn't bring himself to give the name. He stalled his response for as long as he could. When he saw the man pulling back on the trigger, he sprung to action.
The energy within him exploded outward, and the chair came off the floor, flying at the man in the suit. His gun fired, shooting the soldier in the back. The chains around the chair broke apart from the sudden movement. Olaf's mouth bit down hard on the man's arm, causing his to shout in pain. As they hit the floor, he put his hand over the man's face.
The man tried to breath in, but Olaf would not allow it. He struggled for his life, but Olaf overpowered him. The struggle weakened, and Olaf removed his hand from his mouth.
Stepping up, Olaf grabbed the man's gun from his cold, dead hands. He searched the man's coat for extra rounds, and put them in his pockets, readying himself for the coming battle.
-----
Stasia walked through the corridor with the soldier. She figured that the soldier that she had convinced to not kill her went to a higher-up to deal with her. Typical man, never could take care of the job of killing a woman in cold blood.
She wondered why she had such thoughts running through her head when she was being taken to be executed. She would have thought that, in the last few minutes of her life, she would be trying to remember good times in the past. Something like that.
The man turned, and twisted her arm as he opened a new door. She noticed a wired, glass window. Probably sound proof. She had seen lots of rooms like this along the way, probably all execution or interrogation rooms, but she hadn't heard any of the yelling, or killing for that matter, that she would expect.
She stepped into the room. "Get down on you knees. Look down." The soldier said, his voice devoid of emotion.
Oh. It was going to be right now. No higher ups, apparently. She wondered what her old soldier had said to convince an equal to do it for him. Probably said he had other work to do. Wouldn't want to look too weak to kill a girl. He would be the laughing stock of his entire squadron, or whatever they called them.
She smiled at the thought. She heard the new soldier get his gun. She looked up, briefly, knowing she would die soon. Then she saw a figure in the corner of the window. He had a gun, and looked straight at her.
It was a young man, but he didn't appear to be like the others. He had fear in his eyes as he raised his gun to the soldier's head.
Stasia looked at the young man, captivated. The new soldier looked to see what she was looking at, only to realize he was looking down the barrel of a gun.
The glass shattered and a loud noise filled the room. Her executor lay dead on the floor, his head bleeding profusely, and a blood stain on the opposite wall, complete with brains and bone fragments.
"H-- I--- sa--- ou!" The young man shouted above the ringing in her ears. She figured it was some kind of chivalrous shout of victory about how he had come to save her. She laughed, half because of how cliche this moment was, and half because she had cheated death by a mere few seconds.
The ringing subsided, but she was one her feet before that happened. She was running down the hall with her savior, presumably, attempting an escape from this complex.
He fired his gun, a man all the way down the hall falling to the ground. She heard gunshots behind them. The security had obviously heard them.
Her savior, however, would have to time to fear his enemy. He scrambled down the staircase, and they continued to run into the next hallway. A man jumped out with a gun and fired, missing them both. He was taken out by another shot from the savior.
They turned a corner, and ran down the next, short hall. He opened a door, and they stepped onto a catwalk over what appeared to be a cafeteria.
The young man looked around for awhile, then noticed a window. He ran to it, and looked below.
"Stand back." She backed up with him, and he shot the window. The glass shattered, and he leapt to the window. "Come on."
Stasia was in no position to argue. She ran to the window and climbed out, falling to the ground beneath.
------
Olaf had no idea why he had saved this girl. He knew that he might have been able to escape much quicker, and without as much trouble without her. But something about her, when he first saw her walking down the hall, stuck out to him. Some indescribable connection he had made with her made him have to get her out of here.
They climbed down the piping on the side of the wall, and fell into a small alley. After finding his bearings again, he noticed that there was gunfire. People were running across the streets.
He grabbed the girl's hand and ran out of the alley, and notice Orange Star soldiers shooting their rifles in the other direction. He ran out to join the swarm of people running mindlessly through the streets.
Through the loud noise of gunfire and screaming, Olaf heard a loud engine.
Suddenly, to his side, a small building exploded, bricks and wooden fragments flying out and hitting people. Olaf held his ground and pointed his weapon towards the building. A tank had plowed through the building.
The design of the tank was not what he had expected, however. It's treads were not covered like an Orange Star tank, and it's bolts seemed loose. Through the mud-stain he could see the shining of gold.
It was the Yellow Comet army. Somehow, the Yellow Comet army was breaking through and attacking this city.
Olaf looked around and saw an Orange Star soldier to the left of the tank, holding a rocket launcher.
"Run!" Olaf shouted to the girl. They ran as fast as they could to avoid the tank, which had exploded in a ball of fire. The surrounding buildings collapsed, blocking off the way that they had come from. More Yellow Comet tanks could be seen in the distance.
They kept running with the crowd. Orange Star reinforcements were coming the opposite way, with their own tanks and men. The stampede of people collided with the military units, and the civilians could not survive. Tanks and cars collided with the people, running them over, soldiers shot those who got in their way.
Olaf pulled the girl with him to the side of the building, keeping her back as the army moved through the streets. He looked into her eyes, and saw a fear that he had never seen before.
The Orange Star army was torn apart. Artillery fire rained across the city. Olaf knew that it was again time to run, as the Yellow Comet army would soon reach them.
They ran for another few blocks, avoiding death at every step they took as cannons tore apart the world behind them. Olaf stopped for a moment and put the gun in his pants pocket, and took off his militia uniform, and threw it back into the street.
The uniform flew in the wind, and even as Olaf and Stasia ran out of the battlefield, it remained. It would be the last time that Olaf saw the uniform of the militia. Only once again in his life, would he ever see Blue Moon unified.
So he ran, leaving behind the life of the soldier. He vowed to himself that he would never go into battle again. Fate, however, had other things in store for him.