As the train continued down the tracks (and I continued to fight off motion sickness) the sky grew dark and the stars and moons became visible.
"Huh, would you look at that." Craig commented. "That's kinda nice..."
"What, haven't you seen a night sky before?" I asked him. He chuckled.
"Nah, not out here. I've seen it in cities before, but you usually can't see the sky there, smog usually blocks it up." He explained. I smiled slightly.
"I used to be able to see this every night from the window in my room." I told him. "There was also this clearing by my village I would go to look at the sky... That's actually where I was when my village got taken."
"Lucky you." Craig chuckled.
"I don't feel lucky." I muttered. I thought for a moment. "You said part of the reason you turned against Glukkons was because they made you shoot your friend-" I started.
"Well it was mostly because I realized they don't care about us, but yeah." Craig interrupted.
"Right... Was there anything else that happened?" I asked him. "I'm just having a hard time understanding what led you to essentially betray a people you had been raised to serve."
"Well... I was scared." Craig said. "Our pay has been getting smaller and smaller lately. We're practically working for free now. Everyday a handful of us die in the factories, and what's left of their bodies become food. We're almost salves to them, and one day it just hit me, we were going to end up slaves to them. They need us more than we need them, and they sure as hell don't care about what happens to any of us! We die, we get replaced, and I don't wanna die. So when they sent a patrol of us out to scout for any of you left over gem hoarders, I was just gonna take off, go find that Mudokon Fort..."
"Guess I kind a ruined your plans, huh?" I commented.
"Yes actually you did." He muttered. "Don't know why I did that, something came over me I guess... Don't make me regret this."
"I could say the same to you, pal." I said with a smirk.
"Can't believe you convinced me to go back to the very place I escaped..." Craig grumbled.
"Like I said, I want to get as many of my people out of there as possible." I reminded him. "Especially my family. I've got a little brother in there who's only six, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let him die..." I chuckled. "Though, maybe we'll get there and find that my brothers have already started saving everyone!" I suggested. "Maybe Charles and George have already brought everyone together and are in the process of escaping. Charles has always been the brave one, I'm almost sure that he has it in him to fight and save everyone!"
"Well that depends..." Craig started. "Does he have a gun?"
"Well no..."
"Is he bullet proof?"
"No..."
"Does he have previous knowledge of the layout of the building?"
"Not that I know of..."
"Does he have powers of possession?"
"Of course not that's ridiculous."
"Then if he's tried anything he's probably already dead." Craig concluded. I sighed. There went my sudden burst of optimism. Though it had only been a day, it felt like an eternity since I last saw my family. I wondered if Father was still mad at me, probably not since his Glukkon buddies betrayed him. I also wondered if my siblings were mad that I of all of them was the only one spared... I wondered if in their place I would be upset too...
I had fallen asleep before train reached the storage house. Losing everything you've ever known takes a lot out of you I guess. Craig nudged me awake as we approached the tall looming building.
"Hey... We're getting close." He said to me. "We have to get off here or they'll see us when the train arrives."
The image of Magog Industries Butchery and Storehouse will be forever burnt in my mind as the most terrifying place I'd ever seen. Pillars of smoke towered above it, the exterior metal and rusted, with the large Magog Cartel logo I used to see on the crates of food we'd get from them. Together the whole thing was bigger than my entire village put together. Even from a distance, I could hear the building, with all the inter works, the grinding metal, I could hear it all. It was very unnerving.
"Come on Eileen." Craig grumbled. "We have to go!"
I first lowered Craig down the ladder to a point where he could fall without breaking his fancy metal legs, before climbing down myself. My ankle was still sore from twisting it, but I had been able to ignore it thus far.
"Well! Here it is!" Craig announced.
"How are we getting in?" I asked him. He laughed.
"A better question would be how are we getting back out!" He smacked me lightly on the back again, something I was assuming sligs just kind of did amongst themselves. "Come on, I know a back entrance."
I followed Craig to a large drainage pipe that led under the storehouse, as we continued to walk, the way was only lit by the red light from Craig's mask. He stopped and looked up, shining light on a hatch.
"Alright, so I'm gonna warn yah... This hatch only opens from one side. Once we're inside, we won't be able to take this way out unless we find a way to blow it up, and that's gonna draw a lot of attention, but it's locked on the other side to keep slaves from getting out." He explained. "Once we're in, there's no turning back."
"So be it." I told him. I couldn't turn back now, not knowing that I'd be leaving my people for death.
"Alright, as long as you're sure..." Craig opened the hatch and I quickly climbed through, only to find myself in an empty room, with a tall female Katkireen dressed in rags staring down at me.
"I thought I heard somethin' coming this way..." She muttered. I had never seen her before, it was likely she wasn't from my village. I bowed to her.
"I am Princess Eileen Meekarien of the Eastern Village, and I have come to save you!" I told her. She laughed.
"How precious, a princess who thinks her title actually means something here..." I was deeply confused. "Look kiddo. I came here with the rest of my village on our own terms, they feed us, and in turn, we work. It's better than starving out in the west."
"Oh so you're from the western village!" I exclaimed. I had never met a Katkireen outside of my own village before.
"That doesn't really matter anymore, but yeah, I was born out there." She said. "With the Eastern's now here, all the villages are in one place. Granted, there's not a lot of us anymore...not sure what happened there..."
"What happened is they started eating you!" I yelled. Meanwhile Craig managed to hoist himself up through the hatch, but held it open slightly to stop it from snapping shut again.
"Hey, you want out?" He asked her. She laughed.
"I'm not falling for that! I'm just gonna go out there and get shot at!" She knelt down in front of me and ruffled up the fur on the top of my head. "Look kid, I'm not playing your silly game, I have work to do." She then left, with me being more confused than ever.
"Craig? What was up with that?" I asked him. He thought for a moment.
"Uhhhhh... I don't know all the details cause this happened long before I worked here, but there's still a handful of voluntary Katkireen workers here, all the non voluntary ones were already slaughtered about a week after they got here, I'm assuming that the rest of the voluntary workers will be slaughtered with your village." He explained. "I dunno there's probably a bit more to it than that, but that's all I know."
"Alright... So then we should have a week to get everyone out, right?" I asked him. He nodded.
"As long as they're not ahead of schedule, that should be right, though it would be nice if we could not take a week to get them out, personally I'd only like to be here for a couple hours..."
"It's going to take more than a couple hours, Craig." I retorted. Before Craig could say anything back, a loud siren went off.
INTRUDERS IN THE FACILITIES. ALL WORKERS REPORT TO ZULAG 6 UNTIL THREAT IS TERMINATED. A mangled voice sounded over the intercom.
"Well great. They know about us." Craig muttered. "That took all of two minutes."
COMMENCING OPERATION A7
"What's operation A7?!" I asked Craig frantically.
"I don't know but I don't want to find out! Come on!" Craig grabbed me by my arm and dragged me down a hall way before stopping abruptly and feeling around on the wall.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I yelled at him.
"JUST SHUT UP FOR A SECOND!" He yelled back. "I FOUND IT!" He slammed his fist against a panel. It slid up under the other panels revealing a key pad. Craig punched in a series of numbers, and the panel slid back down, and a large portion of the wall popped open into a door revealing a small room. Craig dragged me inside it with him and slammed the door behind us, fastening several locks on it. The room had a couch in it, a strange cube shaped device I didn't recognize, and a fridge. I sat on the couch and felt a cool breeze blowing down on, I looked up and saw a vent panel.
"This is one of the Glukkons panic rooms." Craig explained. "I found out about these while I was talkin to 001, big boss' right hand slig. There's a couple of them in every zulag in case the boss comes down and some sort of riot or other danger breaks out, they just stay in here until it calms down. It's completely off the map, even got its own ventilation system in case they have to gas the place." Craig opened up the fridge and pulled out a couple Scrab cakes. "They even got a fridge and a TV!" He tossed me one of the cakes. I looked back at the cube shaped device.
"Oh so is that a TV?" I asked. He nodded.
"Sure is!" He pressed a button on the TV and the screen lit up, a slig standing in front of red curtain with a microphone and several screens behind him.
"Magog on the march! News, you can't abuse!" He announced.
"Oh hey I used to know that guy!" Craig said, pointing at said slig.
"We've got an update from the Magog Cartel!" The slig continued. "They will be making their final shipment of Katkireen Cuisine and Black Blooded wine for a chalked up price, so if you're into that kind of stuff, better be prepared to empty your wallet!" Craig looked at me and chuckled.
"Do you things really have black blood?" He asked. I glared at him.
"I'm assuming you don't, then?"
"Oh odd that's weird!" Craig laughed.
"Says the thing that has tentacles on his face!" I retorted. "How long are we going to have to stay in here anyways?"
"Until they call off the operation." Craig explained, sitting next to me. "But until that happens! Might as well enjoy some scrab cakes!" At this point I decided I didn't want to learn how Sligs ate today, and turned away to eat my own cake.
OPERATION A7 COMPLETE, THREAT TERMINATED. BACK TO WORK! The intercom blared.
"Well, I guess they think they got rid of us!" Craig declared. "Alright, so what's our plan if attack?"
"Priority is to find my family and village, but I'd also like to get some of our stuff back." I told him. He sighed.
"Is there no way we can just forget about your stuff?" He asked.
"Craig they took all our stuff and in teen took our culture and years of history-" I started.
"Alright fine but don't be pissed if we can't do that..." Craig started unlocking the door. "You ready for this?"
"Hey you're the one with the gun, I'd hope you'd be ready." Craig opened the door and we exited into the hall. It was quiet, though the halls were still lit.
"Alright, follow me." Craig instructed. I followed him down the hall. As we continued along, there were no workers or guards to be seen.
"Is it usually this quiet?" I asked.
"No... This is odd..." He muttered. We entered into a large room, completely empty. "Alright, this is screwy." There was a large door left ajar at the end of the room. "Hey that's supposed to be locked!" We walked up to it, and soon voices could be heard. I ducked behind the door to avoid being seen, and listened.
"This sucks!" The mangled voice of a guard slig complained. Craig ducked next to me.
"Ah shut up!" The other slig snapped. "At least we don't have to deal with those gem hoarders..."
"Stay here, I'll be right back." Craig whispered, before leaving out cover and approaching the two Sligs. I pressed my ear against the door and continued to listen. "Hey what's happenin' bros!" Craig greeted.
"Hey man what up?" One of them responded.
"Hey, uh, do you guys know what happened to all those Kat things?" He asked them.
"Nah man, we got no idea." One of them said.
"Think they might be in Zulag 6 still." The other said.
"Alright, thanks!" Craig came back around the door.
"We gotta go to Zulag six." He whispered to me. "Come on, it's over this way." Craig led me down another hall and out onto a platform with a large circular device with the number five above it. He led me into it, and a door closed behind us. The device started moving down a track, and turned and opened onto another platform, now with the number six above it.
"Alright, we're here!" Craig declared. I followed him again into a hall, grinding gears and saws could be heard.
"What do they do here?" I asked Craig.
"Well this is the butchery part of the store house and butchery." Craig explained.
"What are they doing here?!" I exclaimed. "I thought we had a week before they'd be butchered?!"
"Well I'm hoping we still do! Just come on!" He yelled back, and then, we passed by a glass window. Two legged skinny creatures could be seen hanging skinned gutted slabs of meat above large buckets to collect blood. The meat was black. So was the blood. Words were escaping me. Everything was escaping me. Thoughts, breathe, hope.
"They're... Dead..." I gasped. I saw furs being held up on the walls. The heads were left on as though they were to become decorative rugs. I could recognize some of them. Charles. George. Mother. Eleanor... Father.
There was a sign on the glass window, the list of operations. On it it read 'operation A7, in case of threat related to live stock being taken, this zulag will be gassed and live stock will be butchered.'
"Eileen..." Craig grabbed my arm. "Eileen we have to go. We have to go NOW." He said with panic staining his voice. I was in shock, complete utter shock. Everyone. They were dead. Craig pulled me along as he ran, but I didn't run with him, just being dragged along. I didn't care. I didn't care about anything. Everyone I had ever known was dead. All the other forest Katkireen. They were all here. They were all dead. I was the last one. I should have died with them. I should have been taken with them. I should have died with them. I didn't deserve to live while they died.
"Come on Eileen pick up your feet!" Craig yelled.
"Too late... We were too late..." I mumbled. My sight was growing dark. "T-too... Late..."
(3rd person)
Eileen went limp, Craig still having a firm grip on her arm.
"Dammit!" Craig cursed. He pulled her over his shoulder, and and carried her along, her legs dragging on the ground. He looked around for an exit, and spotted the disposal pipe.
"Hey! There's the rogue!" One of the guards yelled. Bullets started flying his way, and he had to work quick, throwing Eileen down the pipe and jumping in after her.