Chapter eight: Back from the dead...
(Back with Abe and the others, they stood at the final barrier between them and freedom...)
Surveying their surroundings Abe had concluded that this was the final fence, once they got through it they would have to walk through the desert and make it to the lush foliage in the distance over the horizon.
There were no slig guards, just a few slogs guarding an empty office box, a few metal kennels beside them, it was still in the early hours of the morning so no guards would be on duty at the office yet. "Can you take control of slogs?" Imp was the first to ask the most obvious question, Abe shook his head, he had tried earlier before they met up, trying to rescue a couple of slaves, the beasts had no minds to take over.
"Can't mind control something that doesn't think that much." Abe said simply looking ahead, "There's should be a button in there that controls the front gate." Sid said standing beside Abe, leaning on his bamboo stick for balance.
The gate was large, and almost blended in with the tall chain-link fence, they could only tell it was there when they got a closer look and noticed the hinges. There was a high voltage sign with a modokon picture with crosses for eyes so they definitely couldn't attempt to climb it, the slogs were another problem, especially since they were trained to obey sligs mostly.
The third and most frustrating problem was the locking mechanism, Abe immediately recognised the small, oval green screen. "Slig voice locked..." He said thinking out loud, Luna gave Abe a concerned look, "That's gonna be a problem." She concluded, although stating the obvious.
They stopped when they heard Imp crack his knuckles, making Sid cringe a little in disgust. "Well, I guess its my turn to contribute..." Abe didn't quite know what Imp meant as he watched him wander towards the box office with a cocky look in his eye.
Imp stopped when he was just a few metres away from the slogs, sleeping and still oblivious to the modokons presence for the moment. Luna raised a paw about to say something but Sid shook his head making her stop, 'If there's one thing that kids good at, its breaking things...Or sometimes setting them on fire..." Sid said this with a rather casual smirk looking onwards at the scene, causing Luna to raise her brow a little confused.
That's when Abe noticed it, the land mines just outside the office door for security, they were only active at night to stop sligs from blowing themselves up during shifts. The slogs by some stroke of dumb luck were sleeping no more than a metre away from them, he watched with intent as Imp picked up a nearby bottle-cap and tossed it in the direction of the land-mine.
After a few loud and quick explosions, smoke and a lot of pained yelping. The way to the office was clear, well almost, they still had to open the slig voice lock. Still coughing from the smoke Abe asked, "Ok, what now?" He choked out watching the crazy modokon still smirking to himself.
"That's where my old trick comes in handy..." Imp said cockily reaching to pull something out of his back pouch, smoke and dust all over the crazy modokons face. "This I gotta see..." Sid mumbled eye rolling, finally with a smirk, Imp pulled a small plastic box out of his back pocket.
"A tape recorder?'" Abe concluded tilting his head, recognising the device as something the sligs occasionally carried around, Imp nodded, "How'd you think I got those paramite pies for everyone last week?" He asked with a confident smirk, all while pressing a few buttons on the side.
"The sligs really oughta upgrade their security systems..." Imp smirked pressing a button on the side of the device.
"You crazy, stupid, genius..." Luna smiled at Imp with crossed arms impressed, the said modokon mock bowed at her and then pushed a button below the screen, "Hi." The machine asked detecting movement near it, Imp pushed at button on the tape-recorder, "Hi." The recorder repeated, this was followed by a series of sounds and laughs they'd heard sligs make occasionally.
Imp pressed the button again after recording the whole thing, playing all the sounds back in perfect order, "Bleh" The machine finally said, as the door rose upwards and letting the four of them come inside the small security box office.
There was a panel with hundreds of buttons facing the window, a few office chairs and a set of stairs facing the opposite side of the room, if you went up the stairs you could see over the fence and into the horizon.
"I gotta admit Imp, I'm impressed." Abe praised the younger, suddenly it started to make sense why the modokon got in trouble so often, with that tape-recorder, Imp could get into all slig lockers, even the sleeping quarters if he wanted to, he most likely would've already tried at least once.
Imp just smirked stoking the device like a pet, "Found this little baby left behind by a careless slig on one of my last shifts...I never let it out of my sight." He mused stroking it some more, Abe raised a brow at the modokon, "Do you and the tape-recorder need some alone time?" He smirked, and Imp furrowed his eyes as a response, a little annoyed.
"Shh, I'll always love you..." Imp whispered to the device, and pressed the button so the machine played the same words back to him. Sid rolled his eyes, "And to think, three minutes ago we thought he was a genius..." The old mud muttered joining Luna at the control panel, trying to find the button to open the gate.
The said modokon growled in irritation as she eyed the hundreds of the buttons on the control panel, "I wish this thing came with an instruction manual..." She muttered rubbing her temples, she then realised someone was breathing down her neck, "Oh come on Luna, everyone knows its always the big red button..." Before Luna could stop Imp from doing something stupid, he leaned over her shoulder and punched the big red button on the middle of the control panel.
"Security breach, guards will be here in thirty seconds to blow your brains out. Hope you enjoyed your stay at Rupture Farms..." A machine said in a mechanical voice through a speaker above them, a alarm started blaring loudly in their ears, "You moron..." Sid muttered trying to cover his ears like the rest, Imp shrugged, "Honest mistake..." The youngest argued back and the others shot him annoyed looks.
Through all the frantic chaos, Abe had managed to find a lever on the wall beside the stairway. Quickly pulling the lever downwards, they saw the gate start to slowly open through the glass window. "Lets go!" He called out to the others making a dash towards the door.
As they frantically made a dash to catch up with Abe who was standing before the doorway with his back turned to them, Luna gasped in surprise, "Abe what's wrong, we've got to get outta here!" She called out as him, Sid and Imp skidded to a halt just before the doorway.
Abe didn't hear them, he was too paralysed with fear and shock to move, as he stood face to face with the glowing red eyes of two slig masks glaring at them all in the doorway, guns raised.
"Remember me?" Cal snorted holding the guns barrel on Abe's forehead, the said modokon whimpered with fear. Bud stood beside him pointing his own weapon around Cal and towards the other modokons behind Abe.
Luna frantically looked between the gate, now nearly completely open, and her best friend at gun point. "Cal please..." She pleaded in a desperate attempt to make the slig listen. "Don't move bitch!" Bud snapped at her, causing Luna to jump a little startled at the outburst, she raised her paws above her head where they could see them.
Cal's eyes shifted between the modokons and Bud, a proud and sadistic smirk forming on the corner of his mouth, although hidden by his mandibles. "I've waited a long time for this..." Cal smirked about to pull the trigger, they were all so distracted however, that even Luna didn't feel Nova wriggle out of her pocket.
The tiny fuzzle growled baring its teeth as it leaped to Abe's defence landing on his shoulder for a moment before quickly hopping onto the tip of the gun barrel and scurrying along it till the fuzzle was boldly facing Cal, right in his face.
The slig just stood there in shock, even lowering his gun in surprise as he watched the tiny defiant little fuzzle leap onto his face, latching itself onto one of his mandibles, he screamed as Nova dug its sharp teeth even further into his flesh, causing blood the gush out everywhere and even drip on the floor.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Sid used his bamboo stick to knock Bud over, who all this time was watching Cal scream in pain. Bud stumbled backwards as his mechanical pants couldn't right themselves, he continued to stumble until he hit the back fence opposite the box office.
Cal turned around and watched helplessly as his friend tripped and landed back first on the electrified fence. For a brief moment, he saw a look of fear in the sligs eyes, before he screamed in pain as the electricity seeped though his body and singed his flesh, the rotten smell filled the air.
As Bud's body finally stopped twitching and all that could be heard was the few groans of the sligs last breath, Cal turned back to the small group of modokons gaping their mouths in shock at the scene. "You...Killed...My...Best...Friend!" Cal growled angrily pulling Nova off his mandible and throwing the fuzzle on the floor, half of the segment coming off in the process, the others grimaced, if Cal was in pain he wasn't showing it.
Abe raised his paws, "But..But!" He started to stutter, glancing over a for a second to watch Nova scamper along the floor and back to Luna, who picked up her pet in relief, he then could've sworn Luna gasped looking up from Nova in fear looking Abe directly in the eyes.
Time seemed to slow down as looked at Sid and Imp, both too terrified to move. He could see the fear in Luna's eyes, he could see she was worried for him, "Such a kind heart..." Abe thought in his head looking at her, he then faced Cal again, he took a deep breath as he watched the slig raise his gun, seeing the hatred in the sligs eyes.
Cal breathed heavily still glaring at them with a look of pure hate in his eyes, as the blood dripped down from his broken mandible, forming a small puddle of blood on the floor bellow him. With whatever strength he had left, Cal watched helplessly in surprise as Abe managed to shove him backwards, catching the angry slig off guard, Abe and the others sprinted out the door, not wasting time in heading through the gate, just a few metres past the gates entrance they skidded to a halt at the cliff before them, the angle not visible from the box office, the rest of the desert could be seen beyond the cliff and onward was the lush jungle in the distance.
They all stood over the cliff with fear and doubt they could make it, Imp shrugged, "At least we tried..." He managed to choke out, they all turned around as Cal could be heard grunting in pain and sitting up, "Make...My...Day...!" Cal said surly as he fired a few gunshots, hitting Abe directly in the back a twice, the slig then fell back unconscious.
The next few seconds were blurred, the screams of his friends not clearly audible, "Abe...!" He heard Luna shout as he felt his body fall forwards and over the cliff, he couldn't feel the bumps and pain as he felt his body hit the rocks, in a few seconds he fell on his back on the hard ground, smashing his head.
Luna didn't think about she slided down the cliff and after Abe's stiff body, "You can't die Abe, you were supposed to be great...Something more than just a slave..." She whispered through her teary eyes, ignoring the bumps and bruises until he was finally standing on the ground next to him.
Kneeling down next to him, her hands cupped Abe's head protectively, letting the tears fall on his body as Luna wept for the blue modokon. Sid and Imp had managed to scale the wall, and walked over to Luna, standing beside her with depressed and mournful looks on their faces.
Nova jumped on his lifeless chest, and purred sadly rubbing its face against Abe's lifeless body. Suddenly Sid gasped as he heard footsteps, Sid pointed to the strange figure approaching them, "By the gods..." Sid gasped as he saw no other than a modokon shaman, Big-Face to be more precise, leaning over Abe and began humming in a chant.
Luna gasped as she met the eyes of another modokon, not a slave, a native. His face hidden under a massive mask, Big-Face continued to chant and Abe's body rose from her grasp and floated just a metre above the ground, the unusual blue glow of spirits and fireflies floating around it. Nova jumped off Abe's body just as it rose off the ground, and scurried into Luna's grasp.
Sid and Imp stepped back in surprise as the images of paramite and scrab spirits ran past them like ghosts, above Abe's body the fireflies began to form words, "Have...Faith...In...The...Blue...Spirit..." Sid and Imp read the words out loud as the fireflies formed them one by one at a time.
Suddenly Abe's body jerked back to life, he choked taking back his breath like a newly born modokon hatchling...Luna gasped and smiled with relief, "Abe, I thought I lost you!" She choked out happily pulling into a hug, Abe choked again, "Luna...Can't breathe!" Abe managed to choke out the words, Luna gasped again, "Sorry!" She said letting him go, only to have him hit his head back on the ground.
"Oops, sorry...Again!" She said helping Abe sit up, he looked at her and smiled, then turned his attention to Big-Face, who stood there with his arms crossed, nodding in approval. Big-Face then clapped his hands, then his body suddenly turned into birds, they all watched as the colourful birds fluttered away and into the moon lit night.
"What happened?!" Sid said now rushing to his side, "Your not a zombie are you?!" Imp gasped covering his mouth with his paws in sudden fear, making Sid roll his eyes, "Way to kill the moment kid..." Sid mumbled shaking his head.
Abe groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head, "Big-Face said the land is changing...Its imbalanced at best..." Abe started struggling to remember the words, "Wait, that was Big-Face?, As in one of the most powerful modokon shamans ever to be born?!" Sid asked in shock, Abe nodded, "That's what he said his name was..." Abe said he then turned to Luna and smirked, she raised a brow, "What?" She pouted crossing her arms and blushing, "I heard you call my name.." Abe said smartly, Luna jumped a little at the words embarrassed. "Well...I thought you were dead!" She said exasperated and turning away.
Abe chuckled a little, but then turned to Sid when a sudden epiphany hit him. "Sid spill it, how do you know so much?" Abe asked now curious, the old mud had supposedly lived in Rupture Farms his whole life, Abe couldn't help but wonder how Sid knew so much about the paramites and desert, he even knew they was a forest and about the spirits.
The others were now intently looking at Sid with hints of curiosity on their faces, Sid sighed, "I wasn't always a slave Abe..." The old mud twiddled his fingers nervously as he spoke, Abe tilted his head in puzzlement, he then nodded, "Then I'll need your help, now more then ever..." Abe finally concluded.
Sid blinked in confusion, "With what?" The old mud answered now even more curious, Abe narrowed his eyes as he thought, "Because Big-Face said there will be tests..."
(And there's another one of my annoying cliff-hangers, sorry this chapter was getting a little too long, more juicy bits in the next chapter :)
Let me know what you think, and review if you like. I think this is one of my better chapters :)