Chapter 16

"Ahh! AHH!" he screamed, guttural and uncontrolled. He was a raging fireball, a glowing torch flailing in an aimless dance.

"Arkv!" Fruyt yelled. "Get to the floor! Get to the floor!"

Arkv wasn't paying attention. He started to run again, bundling forward on panicked, clumsy limbs, screaming in such a horrible, brain-etching way. The guilty machines followed but refrained from firing again despite him being within range. They knew the damage had been done.

Fruyt reached him and was quick to barge him roughly to the ground. Arkv hit down hard, still screaming innately with distress, but the intervention brought some sense back, and he started to roll across the floor in an attempt to put out the fire.

((There!)) Marco shouted. He pointed to an object placed neatly beside a small transporter. A thick fabric covered it.

((Let's grab it,)) Santorelli said, already running a beeline to dodge the machines that tried to trap us. They seemed somewhat lenient, though not entirely off-guard. Two of the machines started to turn, following Santorelli's movement across the hangar to the covered object. If he and Marco weren't quick enough, they might have suffered the same fate as Arkv.

"Hey!" I barked at the machines, waving my arms. I jumped closer to them. Jake and Menderash caught on, and together we berated them, shouted at them to grab their attention.

Jake ran dangerously ahead of one, just out of their apparent firing range. "Here!" he shouted, stamping his right foot to the ground to accompany his bellows.

Was it needed? We couldn't be sure. The machines seemed to watch us like an unamused but patient audience, just waiting for a punchline to rear its welcomed head. Marco and Santorelli had freed the fabric from its home and, untracked by any machines, sprinted to the groaning Arkv. Small flames licked from his smoking tendrils as Fruyt desperately rolled and covered him, granting some relief but unable to extinguish the fire. His body was blackened and burned. When they wrapped the fabric over him, and the flames had been extinguished, it brought no end to his pain.

And despite their efforts to carry out first aid, the adversarial machines refused to fire again. They followed, curious and attentive but little more than witnesses as Arkv was bundled towards us like a smoking mummy. Cradled over the shoulders of Fruyt and Santorelli's Kelbrid morphs, his screams had descended to croaked groans. Fruyt laid him down before us and started to unravel both the fabric and the medical bag wrapped around his waist. ((I have to treat him here! Guard us! Don't let them attack again! I'm assuming command of the task,)) he ordered. Then, to everybody else, ((Alert, alert, alert! Arkv has been debilitated! I, Fruyt, assume command! Continue as previously instructed. Standby for further orders!))

We formed a quick circle, allowing Fruyt to treat Arkv between us, but the machines had fallen back somewhat. They were still there, and they still surrounded us in a circle much like our own, but they remained out of range and unmoving. They were satisfied with our position.

((What is this?)) Menderash questioned. ((What is significant about keeping us here?))

Jake was startled, and though he hid it well, his jerky movements were a clear sign. A sticky hand was massaging his chin obsessively, scratching a non-existent itch. Through the shuddering, he was lucid enough to rebut Mendy's suggestion. ((Nothing. They're keeping us together, in a group. We're cornered.))

We were silent, but for the saddened words of encouragement Fruyt was offering the horrifically wounded leader. I tried to keep my eyes gazing outwards at the machines, but a cruel part of me couldn't help but glance at the charred mess lying on the ground, sizzling still with undying heat. Fruyt's remedies simply weren't enough.

((Somebody's coming!)) Marco called out. ((Emergency entrance!))

I was looking the other way. Thinking that the machines were no longer a threat if we kept our positions, I swiveled around to see for myself. In front of Marco was the bland stairwell leading to the emergency entrance. The door had quietly opened, and a calm collection of Kelbrids entered the hangar, highly armed and highly irritated.

((Hold your fire,)) Fruyt said solemnly. ((They have us.))

((To hell they do!)) Santorelli replied.

((Don't be stupid! Now is not the time for your gung-ho heroism!)) Fruyt seethed. Then, he spoke outwardly again to the other parties. ((Holding Party captured. Engineers, do what you can. Brou'gn, assume command in my place. Get us out of here.))

Ten Kelbrids had arrived, eyes trained upon us, tuned to each movement, ready to punish transgression. One of the Kelbrids wore a crimson scarf, indicative of an officer. The silver stripes of fur that decorated the majority of Kelbrid bodies were broad and splendid on him, zig-zagging over his limbs and torso, rather than minute, near-miss-able details like on most others. When he turned from the stairwell, I counted six golden stars glistening from the silky fabric hung over his front. He was our captor. His small army surrounded us, a few steps inwards of the now-redundant hovering machines.

He surveyed us, finding his spot between his soldiers. "Who is this?" he spoke with an atypically silky voice. "Rebels? Imposters?"

((Say nothing!)) Fruyt insisted.

The officer waited patiently for an answer, but none came. "You will be taken prisoner, and you will answer us one way or another. Who are you, and why are you here? Explain."

"Bite me!" Santorelli burst.

Fruyt sighed and shook his head lightly, still crouched over the groaning body of Arkv.

"Bite you?" the officer squeaked. He turned quizzically to one of his soldiers, who responded with a blank, unknowing grimace. He swiveled back to Santorelli. "I will not do so until given substantial reason to."

"Fuck you," was Santorelli's witty retort.

"Bite me. Fuck you…" The officer contemplated, genuinely baffled. "This one is peculiar. Soldiers, observe him carefully."

After receiving a few angered stares from the rest of us, Santorelli quietened, resigning to cursing inwardly rather than outwardly. We all remained silent, refusing to disclose an answer.

The officer looked down at Arkv. He was growing more aware of the situation but still moaning in the agony of his burns. "Your friend is in need of immediate medical care," he said. "We will take him to the station's medical arm. He can still be saved. Allow us to take him."

Fruyt did not move. He stayed hunched over the fallen leader like a protective shield.

"Take him," the officer told his soldiers. "Get him medical care immediately."

Three subordinates approached Arkv's position. Within two steps of their advance, Fruyt had grabbed and raised his hidden pistol, something more fatal than the paralysis gun. He held it with warning at the soldiers, who immediately cocked their firearms and ceased their movement.

"Don't be stupid!" the officer yelled. "We will save his life! You can do nothing to help him here!"

I waited for any order to come from Fruyt. I could do nothing until then but watch from the side, await the first crack of fire from either side as weapon barrels pointed to one another. I couldn't intervene, and nor did Fruyt want me to. We stood like statues in a circle around him.

The three soldiers moved forward, but Fruyt did not retaliate. He made his decision and re-aimed his weapon. He took the barrel to Arkv's head as he lay on his back.

"Goodbye, brother," he said.

With a blinding fizzle, Arkv's moaning ended.

The soldiers hesitated but kept their crosshairs locked. Fruyt jumped up and away from the body, his own weapon returning to face the enemies again.

"Murderer!" the officer exclaimed. "We could have saved him!"

Fruyt huffed. "Your turrets did the damage. I merely ended his suffering."

"Soldiers, seize him!"

Nine armed Kelbrids were now in play, Fruyt their primary target. We couldn't let them take him. I gripped harder at my paralysis gun and raised it threateningly to the nearest Kelbrid. My hand shook, but he was close enough that my aim did not require precision. My feet took me backward as the Kelbrid line closed in.

((Do not let them take you,)) Fruyt said to us. ((For Enrich, we give our lives. For Enrich, we share no secrets.))

The first three Kelbrids increased their pace. Our threats would not hold them back. They were within feet of Fruyt, who was by far the calmest of us all.

((Brou'gn, take us home,)) he spoke. ((For Enrich. For justice. For all.))

And he turned his weapon to his own chin. He pulled the trigger, and the blast shot through his skull and to the ceiling above. He collapsed to his knees and then flat to his front, parallel to his leader's body.