This was a very disappointing story. A total lack of readership. But I don't blame you. I just didn't have a fire with this story. Personally, I blame the Alliance. Bunch of egotistical bastards. I just can't write from their point of view. The important thing is that I was able to introduce two new characters: Gredel and Rykers, who will play rolesin any future Warcraft stories that I write. I was also able to give some characterization to Eck in this part. Looking to the future, I'll start posting "In the Beginning" next Tuesday. For more information on that, you can check my profile. I hope you enjoy this, and I hope you've enjoyed.
Chapter 9
At dawn, or when Rykers assumed was dawn, three guards entered the cell. They didn't even look at her, they just approached the undead, batons in hand, grins plastered across their faces. The fourth guard entered last. A few bruises and bite marks covered his face, and his left arm was in a sling, but he still carried a baton in his right hand.
Two of the guards held Eck, and the fourth, the one that the undead had attacked the prior day, cracked his baton across his ribs, and his shoulder, and his jaw. The other two guards did their part, and held the Forsaken. When he crumbled, they lifted him back up and held him firmer.
The one guard who didn't take part in the beating stood a few steps away, enjoying the attack. He didn't notice as Rykers, who had prior been lying on the ground, motionless, slowly stood up and approached from behind. The paladin laced her arms around the guard's throat and took a firm hold of his head, before twisting it to achieve the desired snap.
The guards stopped beating Eck, and turned to Rykers, and in that time the undead broke free of his restraint and tackled one of his captors to the ground. Samsera the tauren clapped both hands together and crushed one of the human's skull between her open palms. She took hold of the last human and dragged him to the ground, before crushing him beneath her weight.
Even that slight exertion took its toll on the tauren, and she fell, crippled, to the ground, holding her chest. Eck clamped his jaws onto the human's throat and snapped his head back.Rykers cracked a baton across the undead's back. When the tauren rose to stop her, she swung the baton across the tauren's jaw.
"What are you doing?" Eck demanded. She swung the baton down again across his spine. A third time she attempted to strike him, but the baton broke when the tauren put her thick arm in its path.
"We had a deal," Samsera spat, taking hold of the undead and pulling him close.
"Yes, we had a deal to kill those four," Rykers noted, taking a second discarded baton from the ground. "And now they are dead."
When the undead had slipped out of consciousness, Rykers didn't know, but Samsera cradled the broken body, shielding him against any attack the paladin may have been planning. "You'll kill us?" she asked.
"No." Rykers walked backwards, and stepped through the threshold of the door and out into the hallway. "Monsters like the dark, after all," she said, before closing the heavy door and locking it shut.
There were no guards in the hallway, which was good. In her present state, Rykers was not sure how long she would last in a fight. She was tired, and weak from hunger and the beating she had suffered the prior day. Wounds were deep, burned and caused just enough pain to never let her forget they were there.
Footsteps around the corner. Guards, she thought, as she pressed herself against the wall and lifted the baton, ready to swing it and cave the skull of who ever would come. She held her breath. Her grip tightened. She lashed out from behind the corner.
Rykers wasn't sure what had happened, everything happened so fast. One minute she was turning the corner, and the next she was on the ground, the arm that held the baton twisted painfully behind her back, and a dense hoof was pressed against her back to keep her down.
"Gredel, let her go." The voice was a high pitched squeak, and belonged to the gnome that Rykers noticed in front of her. Her arm was released and strong hand took her around the chest and lifted her to her feet. "I'm sorry about that," the gnome continued. "I am Commander Wonki. This is Private Gredel." Rykers turned to the draenei who stood behind her.
"I am sorry for that," Gredel said. "You are one of the soldiers that the Defias had kidnapped?"
"Yes. I am Private Rykers. Defias? Are they all dead?"
"This is barely a base. It's a prison. They send anyone they can get and send them here. They probably try to break you for information, or more likely just for kicks. We've found a few others, mostly civilians.""There are Horde," Rykers said. "Two of them. In the cell down the hall. Second one. We have to finish them."
"Horde?" Wonki asked.
"Yes, a tauren and an undead. We can finish them off."
"Private Rykers, you are badly hurt, you are in no position to fight."
"We can kill them together," she pleaded. "The tauren is wounded, she can barely move. And the Forsaken is ready to crumble at any moment."
"Private Rykers, Gredel will get you someplace safe." She paused. "I will take care of the Horde."
Gredel looped one of Rykers' arms over her shoulders, and the draenei helped the human out of the base, allowing her to rest heavy.
"Get her with the others," Wonki ordered, before turning, and moving down the hall. She found the cell door, and upon realizing that she had no way of opening it, closed her eyes and summoned her voidwalker into the plane of existence. The shadowy demon undid the locks and turned the heavy knob, opening the door and rushing into the shadows, prepared to assault any hostiles in the interest of protecting his mistress. Upon only finding a tauren, wounded and dying from a bullet wound in her breast, and an undead, broken and cradled in the tauren woman's arms, did he settle into a position of calm.
"By the Light?" Wonki asked. "Sam, are you alright?"
"Bullet entered through the front of my shoulder. Mostly went through the meat. No serious damage. Jon said I was bleeding a lot though."
"What about Eck?"Samsera held the body a little tighter, squeezing the frail form against her until it almost popped. His head hung loosely on his shoulders, bobbing lazily. "His bodies just shut down. He's got nothing left."
"Will he be alright?"
Saturation wetted the corners of the tauren cow's eyes. "I don't know."
"You have to get out of here, now. I'll tell Gredel I executed you. But you have to get out of here.""I owe you one, Wonki," the tauren nodded, slowly struggling to her hooves. She almost fell twice before she gained enough of a footing to stand straight. She cradled Eck in her right arm, holding him close to her chest as if should her grip slacken he would crumble to dust.
"Sam, it might be better if you wait. Guards seemed light but we haven't gone any deeper into the base. You won't survive an encounter with any stragglers. If you stay, I can guarantee you'll get help."
The tauren chuckled her warm laugh. "There was a human in here with us. We decided to work together. That lasted just until she was free. Forgive me, but I don't have much faith in you Alliance. I'll take my chances attempting to escape."
"Please," Wonki started. "Please get out of here alive."
"I'll see what I can do," she smiled. With Eck in her arms, the tauren walked out, turning the corner and moving through the hallway, deeper into the base. Wonki gave Samsera thirty seconds, before she left the cell herself, and went off to lie to her partner.