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“Where do you think you’re going?” Raven Face asks the question.
“Just sort of generally away…” I indicate in a generally away direction. I am trying to keep this relaxed. Maybe this can still work out okay.
“Come here, lite. You’re ours.” They come toward me with arms outstretched, two oversized muscled monsters wanting what does not belong to them. In this moment, I realize how very naive I have been. There is no help out here for me. There is no reason for anybody to give me aid. I am out here like scrap for the scum to pull apart. They will take what is useful to them and they will leave the rest.
“SHE’S MINE.”
The declaration comes from on high. It is not spoken so much as it emanates through all existence and reality in one brutal, deep moment.
A shadow appears above us suddenly. A stealth bird must have come up on us. You don’t see them until they de-cloak. Ever.
Rath falls from it, a good mile up, his massive body tumbling through the air without the slightest bit of concern. He lands one knee up, one down, one big palm shattering the concrete into cracks which run out multiple feet in a ring around his frame.
I guess his augmentations are back online. There’s a golden ring around him, energy from the fall dissipating around the outside of his personal forcefield. My two would-be captors draw back, but they can’t get inside the enclave. Their compatriots have decided to sacrifice them. The gates remain closed as Rath rises and moves toward them. He’s not even looking at me. His death glare is on them. I’ve seen it before on screen. I’ve never observed it in person. Not even when he came to get me at my apartment. I saw anger. I saw punitive, bestial, furious intent. I did not see this particular glare which can only herald a brutal end.
Those two are not going to survive the next minute. I know that as surely as I know anything. He is on them in an instant, his claws extended, his body glowing bright rave-red beneath his dark purple skin.
He kills effortlessly, and without emotion. He kills in the same way I’d open a can, just opens them up with his claws as if they were portable snacks. There’s blood everywhere instantly.
Nobody comes to their aid. I am sure those inside the enclave have scum weapons, but to use them they’d be opening themselves up to surveillance, not to mention the wrath of Rath. There has been more than one instance of a hunter running rampant through an enclave and killing a few hundred scum in a single hour. Once a korabi hunter draws blood he becomes absolutely fixated on killing everything which even remotely needs killing.
Rath turns to me, flexing his claws. I could try to run, but I don’t. There’s no way I could outrun him now. My body is overloaded with adrenaline and whatever hormonal concoction accompanies the sight of slaughter.
“Please,” I say. “Make it quick.”
He grabs me around the waist and holds me against his side, like I am a sack of scum. I find myself horizontal and face down. I close my eyes and wait for him to slash me to pieces.
But he doesn’t.
I guess he intends to turn me in.
Strange. Rath never turns anybody in alive. I feel him crouch down, and then he jumps. High. Really fuzkin' high. The other arm, the one not holding me, reaches out and grabs the bottom rung of an unseen ladder. He clambers up it and throws me inside the cloaked shuttle which is not cloaked now that I’m inside it. It’s a circular saucer type arrangement designed to transport four korabi warriors and one human prisoner. The human prisoner bay has restraints in it. I find that out when Rath puts me in there and they clamp around me automatically, holding me around the waist and the ankles and the wrists.
“Why are you doing this? You don’t take prisoners. And you don’t turn bounties in alive.” I have so many questions. Maybe the answers don’t matter. Death is inevitable one way or another.
Rath doesn’t answer me. He gets into the pilot’s chair and he starts navigating.
I have a good view from where I am. For a last view, it’s not bad. Megaris is an amazing city. I’ve barely seen any of it. My apartment was owned by Gettem Corp, and it was only a short work from their offices. Everything I needed was within a fifteen minute walk. Aside from the surveillance footage, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Megaris from the air. It’s different when you’re seeing it in person.
There are thousands of buildings just as big, or even bigger than Gettem. There is commerce taking place at levels I couldn’t even begin to understand, I’m sure. I was privy to a lot of information in my work at Gettem, but I only ever saw a small slice of data really. From this height, I can see how the quarters I’ve come to describe in my work are actually parts of various concentric circles. At the very rim of Megaris is a massive wall. I never knew that was there. I never thought of the place as having a boundary. It seemed to me to be one large, eternal city which bordered only itself. The concept of anywhere that is not Megaris has never really bothered to introduce itself to my brain. Now I see something I’ve never seen in any surveillance footage. I’m seeing great tracts of green and yellow and blue weaving off into a distance I did not know existed.
