Chapter Thirty-Two
I'm Not Afraid
The Old Farmhouse
November 7, 2059
9:50pm
"I'm the only one in any condition to find them. Leave it to me. I'll get it done." Riggs mumbled to himself as he wiped the cold sweat from his brow. "Yeah, right. Who the frag are you kidding, Riggs, ole boy? Yer got a 10mm hand cannon and a drone loaded with enough ammo to take out a mini-mall. Yet yer about to piss your pants. Pah! I'm not cut out for this drek."
Riggs had circled around the side of the house and now stood next to the open side door. His drone was at his side. Even though the armored unit of rolling death insisted that the room beyond the door was clear Riggs still had clammy hands and a constant urge to urinate. If he wasn't so scared shitless he would soil himself.
Riggs poked his nose around the edge of the door. "Frag! Frag! Frag! I can't believe I got myself into this. Gideon's down. Smiley's down. Shard......frag! Whatever can drove them nuts is going to have a picnic with my stumpy butt!"
The dwarf pressed himself up against the side of the house and took a deep breath. Again he cursed the fact that the door was too narrow for the drone to fit. "Okay, Riggs, stop slapping yourself. It's time to play the hero." He looked through the door again. "Frag I wish Lenny were here. I'd even settle for Smiley."
He mumbled to himself as he rolled into the doorway, looking too much like a waddling pengiun as he stumbled, waddle, dove for cover from anything the sensors on the drone might have missed. He ended up banging his head on a table.
"Ow! Damn! Curse the warts on a troll's butt!" Riggs rubbed his noggin as he frantically peered through this new space. To his relief the room was empty. Too bad that didn't calm his nerves.
"Come on, Riggs, deep breath and you'll be fine." He said to himself as he keyed his commlink. "Lenny, Nightsky. Come back to me."
There was no response. Only static over the wavelength. Riggs chewed his lip, wishing he was anywhere, but here. He'd be happy to sit on a toilet with a week's worth of constipation than be here.
He switched frequencies. "Alona? Alona pick up. Unclip the transceiver from Tart's shirt and talk to me."
The commlink crackled back. "What is it? Did you find them? Are they okay?"
"Not yet, but Riggs is on the job and he get his jobs done." Riggs clenched his teeth, he really forced that one out. He tired to infuse his words with confidence and prowess. No sense in having Alona as terrified as he was. "I'm sending my drone back around. It might not be able to fit in this door, but at least you can have some fire support from it."
"What if that thing decides to take target practice on me?" Alona's voice crackled back.
Riggs slipped up behind an old couch. His mind was split between two tasks on two completely different levels of conscious thought. Part of his brain was in the real world while the rest sent commands through the remote deck. "Not a chance. The drone's got your, as well as the rest of the team's, features saved on its friendly list."
The heavily armored mini-machine of death rolled on its wheels and spun away from the door. Riggs got up enough courage to make a dash into a narrow hallway. As he pressed himself up against the old, rotting wall he felt his knees turn to Jello. Fear and paranoia still ate at him no matter how many times he told himself that he could handle this. Every hidden corner could hold cold death waiting to spring on him.
A faint voice drifted down the hallway. Riggs strained his ears, but the crackle of the commlink flooded it out.
"Riggs?" It was Alona. "Hurry. Gideon's pass in and out. Shard's moaning like she's hurt."
Riggs keyed his commlink. "What about Smiley?'
"He's just laying there."
"Everything's frosty." Riggs spoke in a hushed tone. His ears twitched again as the ghostly sound grew a bit louder. "Hush up for a second. I thought I heard something."
"But-"
"Shhhhhh!"
Riggs tilted his head. He was sure of it. That was a voice he was hearing. Cautiously he headed down the hallway. The floorboards creaked under foot. Riggs winched at the groaning sound. He peered around the door at the end of the hall. The outline of a man sitting on the floor was clearly visible. Riggs gulped, sounding like he was swallowing his own tongue. His hands tightened over the butt of his gun. Cyberware lite up a targeting reticle in his field of vision. His trembling hand brought the weapon up.
The man turned his head, showing a face that had looked at what could have been, but wasn't. What should have been, but was taken away. What he could have had, but didn't have the strength or the will to hold on to it.
"Are you going to shoot me or say your damned glad to see me?" Lenny asked.
Riggs' eyes shot clear out of his skull. "Lenny! Oh frag me with a spoon am I glad to see you! Frag! I've been going out of my mind! Smiley's down. So it Gideon. Shard's passed out from drain. Tart's hurt. Alona's holding the fort down with a little drone support. Nightsky's no where to be found. It's like the whole world went mad. What the frag are you going back here in the dark like this? Aren't you afraid something's going to sneak up and bite you in the ass?"
Lenny chuckled, leaving Riggs to wonder what was so funny.
"What's so funny, bossman?" Riggs lowered his weapon and approached him.
"There's nothing here, Riggs."
"What? Nothing?"
"No. All of it, everything, was just a mirror."
"What the hell are you talking about!? Smiley and Gideon flipped out! Shard went all fetal on us. Something's royally fucking us up!"
Lenny looked at the short, plump dwarf. "Have you seen anything?"
"Seen? No, just you."
"We're okay then."
"Wha? How do you know that?"
Lenny stood, brushing himself off. "I never understand why Haiku's team came apart. I thought it was greed from Austin, but now I think there was more." He huffed, thinking of the words Haiku had said while she lay, paralyzed in the hospital bed in Azltan. "Abbott lost his mind before the team made it back to Austin. It happened to us too. Like Haiku, I thought it was a spell. It wasn't. It's something on the Orb. It reminds us of what we had. It let's them speak to us."
"Who, boss?"
Lenny looked down at the dwarf. "The dead, Riggs, the dead."
Riggs visibly paled. Suddenly his knees went from Jello to pudding.
"You're wandering how I know?"
"Well, duh, bossman!"
Lenny clapsed a hand over the back of his neck and rubbed the swore muscles there. He took a breath, centering himself with his surroundings. His priorities came back to him. His mind became tactical, organizing what his goals were and how he should go about accomplishing them. "It'll have to wait, Riggs. We've got work to do." Lenny pulled his gun from its holster. "Our first priority is safety of the team. Then recovery of the Orb."
Riggs forced a grin. "Ah! There's the bossman I know!" Riggs thumbed his chin. "But, er, aren't you worried about whatever it was that made everyone go loopy?"
"You didn't see anything when you came in, did you?"
"Well, no. I don't think Tart or Alona did either. We came in, Shard was curled up in a corner screaming that she was on fire. Smiley and Gideon were trying to kill each other."
"Good."
"Good?"
"No, I mean good, you didn't see anything. Whatever was causing the....hallucinations isn't working now or you would have seen it. Shard said there was a magician in here. Doubtlessly that mage used the Orb to affect our minds, but since you aren't affect, then logically that mage isn't doing it anymore. You haven't seen Nightsky, right? He may have gotten to the mage already. One less thing to worry about, unless he is also under its influence."
"Aye! So, uh....hrm.....what do we do?"
"We sweep this floor and we move into the basement. Bring up the Bison on remote and bring it down in front of the house so we can evac the injured."
"Right-o, bossman!"
"And Riggs?"
"Yes, bossman?"
"Stand up straight. Your knees are shaking."
10:00pm
"What's that Riggs?" Alona spoke into the commlink. "You found Lenny? That's great! What about Nightsky"
Lenny cut over the frequency. "Next priority. Alona, I need you to stay strong for everyone. The Bison is on its way down on remote. Get everyone ready to be moved. We are making our sweep. We'll be there shortly to help you move them."
Shard's eyes fluttered open. Lenny's voice came over her earpiece. A smile crossed her lips. The man's voice was warm and comforting as an old blanket.
"After you and the others are loaded the Bison will pull out on remote and head to the staging spot in the woods. Riggs and I will located Nightsky and the Orb, and follow you. If any of them, Gideon Smiley or Shard, start to look bad take the van back to Seattle. Don't worry about us. Priority goes to those most seriously injured. You will find my phone in the glove box. Dail Hector. Tell him you need a medical team. He'll take care of the rest. The van has a preset autonav to Dr. Ramon's place."
"Lenny?" Shard's voice was dry and raspy. She strangled out the word more than saying it.
"Shard?" Lenny came back. "You're awake, good. How do you feel?"
Alona scooted over. Tart was still in her arms, so she wasn't able to move much to check on the mage. She did manage to dig out a water bottle and hand it to the mage. Shard took both the bottle and the MP5 which Alona held with a deathgrip.
"My head pounds like the speakers of the Inferno, Lenny." Shard held her head and the aching pulse behind her eyes. Blood had seeped from the pores of her skin. Some of the drain she had taken was physical.
"Are you tapped?"
"Very tapped." Shard forced down a gulp of water. "Lenny, I was surrounded by fire. It was so real."
"I know, Shard. Don't worry-"
"No, listen! I knew that fire. I had been in it before. Exactly like it. Years ago when I was outside the shadows. Before I crossed over."
"I know, Shard. I saw something too. It's over now."
Shard squinted her eyes. "The astral plane stinks of it. My head spins just looking at it. It is just background, though. It's not active."
"Keep your wits about you. We are on our way once we sweep this floor."
"Copy that."
"Lenny out." He said and switched the commlink over to standby.
Shard let go of her collar. She had tightly clenched it, bringing the micro-transceiver's microphone to her mouth. She lifted her head, but a nauseating dizziness overcame her.
"Here, let me have that." Alona took the MP5 from the elf's hands. "You can't shoot like that."
Shard wasn't going to argue with her. "It has to be the Orb."
"Excuse me?"
"The Orb, the mage, or priest, used it......oh my head."
"Maybe you should rest. I think-" Alona cut herself off as the sound of a door breaking echoed through the old house. A shattered splinter of wood skittered across the floor. Alona eased herself around the corner to see a figure standing where the stairway door use to be.
It spoke.
"It's not the Orb, you know."
"Nightsky?"
"Oi?" Gideon grunted painfully. "Still alive?"
Shard steadied herself with her shoulder. "How do you know?"
Nightsky stepped into the dim moonlight that pierced thorugh an open window. He pulled a small statue, who's center piece was a black sphere the size of a tennis ball, from his coat pocket. He held it up for them to behold. A shiny, ocher beacon to the soul. ""It's just a thing. A tool. It opens a window to who we are inside. The part of us that we hide from the rest of the world and hold back with the chains of restraint. The part we are afraid to show other people for fear of what we may become."
Shard struggled to lift herself to her feet, but she was still too weak. Nightsky tossed the Orb over his shoulder like a discarded beer can and continued, tapping his finger to his temple.
"It's what's in here that gives the Orb its power. We tear ourselves apart. Each their own maker of their demise because of the guilt we carry inside. All the Orb does is make us see the truth that we all know, but are afraid to admit. Afraid to admit the things that we should have done, or have to do. We can't close the window until we've put it to rest."
Nightsky stepped forward. Alona curled up around herself and Tart. She had not heard him talk like this before. Shard was just as confused, not expecting him, of anyone, to have voice this kind of insight. She tried to focus her perceptions to the astral plane, to see if his aura was as it should be, but as she tried a splitting headache made it impossible.
"It won't go away until I've put absolutely everything to rest. So," Nightsky drew his manhunter. The heavy automatic pistol set its sights on Gideon. "Rest well, Gideon."
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