Blood&Silver Part 1: Walking Chaos

The Planets name is Exodus. And once a rotation, the hardest of them sign up. Hundreds of groups or individuals sign up for the competition, only one comes out. Three rounds. No Rules. To win freedom.

The cage door swung open.

Fifteen groups made it through the murderous Gladiatorial round to make it here. Fifteen groups had sacrificed everything for their final death wish; the Freedom Run. Only one group can make it through.

And the others must die.

Priatare leapt out of the metal cage and roared, shaking the Earth, his three horns gleaming angrily. He unsheathed his two-handed hammer and charged through the desert. His twin was right at his tail; Machaera spun his tri-blade over his head and overtook his twin brother.

Walkers were gathering, their groans and roars heard far away.

Oh Oraera.

Three Walkers made themselves known right in front of the twins, and were quickly dispatched to the centre by a twirl of the Tri-Blade.

The other mesh cages opened and the other groups burst out, roaring and screams filling the air.

Khaos, a thing not male but not necessarily female, drifted out of the cage to the left like a dream and before everyone’s eyes sent his twin swords through the back of one of the other groups and then twirled the bloodthirsty swords out of the fresh corpse and they were plunged straight through the head of an enraged Gorilla of a man, sending him to the centre along with the other guy.

I lunged out of the cage and sprinted to help the Triperior twins in their bloody melee with some Walkers, feeling my Romanian Laser Gun banging against my back that I won back in the Flag Round, which was only for emergencies.

The twins were too busy fighting the Machine of Walkers in the forward they forgot their flanks, in which the Walkers started to close in a noose formation. I unsheathed my two 12’ Inch Shivs and they found their way into a Walkers head, its veins spraying me like a fountain. It collapsed as I pulled out my Rusty knives. I turned around to hear a growl.

A monstrously hairy creature towered over me and roared, but it turned into a blood clotting gasp and it tumbled to the floor, narrowly avoiding me.

“Hail Slaenzsh!” Maelstrom hissed through her Vampiric fangs, the evening sun glinting on her fangs as she pulled her moonstone knife out of the small of the beasts back.

I bounced over her and plunged my ever thirsting blades through another mutant’s eye, blood bursting from the vulnerable socket and soaking me. I held in an urge to vomit because with my empty stomach I couldn’t afford to waste.

“Come on, we’ve got to get out of here!” I screamed at the top of my voice and I caught the eye of Machaera, who nodded.

The stench of rot started to fill the air and I gagged as I sprinted.

 I heard a scream somewhere to the west of me and regretfully turned my head in that direction. The farthest group was getting ripped apart by a huge hoard of Walkers.

I gulped and pumped my legs harder, lest those Walkers overwhelm us.

Going into the city wasn’t the safest plan ever, but we couldn’t work out a plan of attack in the cage, so the plan was suicide.

An Ork Raider ran ahead of me. He’s not getting to the Safe Point.

I threw one of my Shivs through the back of him and kept running, leaving the blade behind.

No time.

My tattered cloak flew in the slight breeze.

I leapt over some piled up debris of a wrecked building.

But I did something wrong…

I felt Gravity do its ever faithful work of bringing me back to the Earth and my feet hit the ground.

But I felt a sharp pain flying throughout my head and cried out, the pain intense and I was suddenly falling…

 

I woke to a distant scream and bolted upright instantly, ignoring the pain throughout my wiry frame. My eyes flashed open to behold a dark wrecked corridor, the pollution terrible.

I heard a tear through the air and ducked, hitting the floor.

“I’m dry!” Echoed a foreign voice through the corridor, but I didn’t care. If this was hell, then I preferred it here.

Brother.

Peaceful sleep started to embrace me, my vision starting to go black and blue, with hints of green.

A painful slap awoke me from my daze and my darkened vision cleared to reveal a familiar face. “Stay wid’ me yer’ Soma Brygonian!” A roar invaded my eardrums.

My brain suddenly kicked into gear and I bolted upright, my hand going to my belt and the Shiv found its way into my grazed hand.

My sharp pain came aching back and I groaned again, sucking in a breath.

I staggered to my feet, wincing in pain. I put my knife in an arc in front of me, my small sword finding flesh and a gurgling howl escaped its lips.

I fell to the floor to be caught by the swift pose of Maelstrom, who then helped me get back to my feet.

It was quiet.

A fire started growing and the whole group gathered around it, warming their bodies.

“Are we safe?” I groggily asked after a while to the resting Maelstrom on my shoulder. My love.

“As safe as we can be.” She replied and I caught her drift. She lifted her head and our lips collided and sparks ignited, and I’m not talking about the fire.

In our world, life is short and bloody and you had to make the most out of it as possible.

Too bad for us, huh?

“Oi, quit yer’ little tongue dance, ‘cause we’re got ‘dem Walkers hea’n this way!” Machaera nodded grimly, his Tri-blade hanging off gruesome trophies.

“Shizanhower.” I cursed and got to my feet.

Khaos was up in an instant, and I think under that Iron Mask of his, he was grinning with glee, which unsettled me.

He mumbled something in an ancient and unspoken language that made my hairs stand on end. He uttered the final words with something like ‘Heil Gnorhnekh.’

“They’re blocking our entrance as well.” Priatare muttered, cursing loudly. Blood was matted on his Hammer.

I think Khaos had his throat ripped out as a child, but his pure black eyes that showed through the mask had a gleam to them, but not a word was uttered.

“Let’s just smash through them!” Priatare grinned evilly.

“Suicide and I prefer to get to the LZ in one piece. No, the only solution right now is to get to the High Ground.” I nodded weariness overtaking me. “Then we can get some rest.”

But my mind was somewhere else.

Murderer, thief, liar, disgrace.

Brother.

Bandits.

Kidnapped.

I grimly tied everything down tightly onto me, no need to attract any more attention from the Walkers than necessary.

It was going to be a long night…

 

I was leader by default ever since our whole group was smashed apart in Round 2, losing our leader and his whole posse of Successors. Khaos was thought to be lost until he appeared out of nowhere.

Wait…

I quickly snapped my head from side to side, my heart doing flips.

“Where’s in Khazlid is Khaos?” Priatare asked, wary. He read my thoughts exactly, and after what happened in Round 1, where he killed four members of our own group because they were helping in a melee with him. The only reason we’ve kept him is because he was a really good fighter.

“Gnorhnekh be cursed, Khaos was here a minute ago.” Maelstrom cursed loudly. Khaos, Maelstrom and I shared in the same religion, where there were five Gods: Slaenzsh, God of Trickery and Deceit, Gnorhnekh, God of War and Death, Oraera, Overlord God and God of Time, Space and Darkness, Brood the God of Plague and animals, and finally Lumières, the God of Wisdom, Life and Knowledge. There are other smaller Gods in the Religion, but these are the main five Gods that are worshipped. I look to Oraera as my idol, Maelstrom Slaenzsh and Khaos; he’s part of the Gnorhnekh Cult.

The Triperior however, they’re the mystery. Since their Civil War, where half the planet went to worship Khaos, our cult, and the other half went to the Cult of Darkness, which was led by an Ancient  no less, a man who had re-plants into him before the Age of the Messiah which imbued him with Supernatural Powers and Immortality, so they say. But of which religion they come from, I have not yet deciphered.

 

“Gods be cursed, get the hell down!” I hissed violently at the Twins, who instantly shut up their bickering and stared on, their weapons ready.

We have been hearing these strange groans since we lost trail of Khaos and they were getting stronger, the inhumane throats obviously are probably following us.

I saw Machaera wince slightly in pain and concern wrote itself into my brain.

No, this can’t be.

“It isn’t, just a fleshy ‘s all.” He grumbled slightly.

I shook my head of any horrible thoughts and started to think of a rag-tag plan. When we first got to this position we saw a Rival Group heading for the same place we were to go, but they stepped on a Trigger-plate somehow and a Daemon Engine appeared from thin air, a Machine with a furnace in it, mainly used for melee combat or smithing. It absolutely ripped apart the entire group in seconds.

Forget it.

“Stay in tight formation, we’ll have to go through the hoard. We’ve got a better chance to survive that than we do the Living Furnace.” Maelstrom whispered to the group. They all nodded and we closed in a tight box formation; Priatare leading, Maelstrom and I at the two points and finally Machaera at the end.

We were perched atop a scrap pile with a wall of a building still left standing, probably a barracks or some kind of temporary set up, because it was made from smelting at a fast pace, the walls highly stretched out. We were at a hang overlooking our safe haven, probably only a hundred meters away and yet so far.

“We can’t afford the distraction, not with the other teams. No, the only way is forward!” Priatare nodded and despite himself, he grinned happily.

I sighed internally. Why does this have to be so hard?

“I don’t Szarching like it, but he’s right my love.” Maelstrom nodded silently.

I knew this was coming, I just Shizanhowing knew it.

“I’ll do it.” Maelstrom hissed sadly and my heart died.

Not her.

Not after what happened to my brother.

“No I’ll do it, you guys go on!” I slammed my fist into the ground and hissed in pain as my knuckles started to bleed.

At this moment, I think my life’s a joke. One big sadistic joke set up by the Gods to laugh at me. So I’m going to rub it in their faces and sacrifice myself for my friends. Or maybe that will just make their sides split open from all the laughter.

All this point in time, Machaera looked extremely in pain and grim. Then he piped up.

“I’ll do it.” He muttered.

Wait.

“No brother you’re making a mistake!” Priatare cried out a bit too loudly.

“Please brother, let me die honourably as Father would have it. I am a Triperior and I cannot live with the shame anymore.” He took away his hand from his right shoulder-blade to reveal a deep bite mark.

This can’t be.

It hit all of us like a bombshell. Their race, the Triperior, was some of the toughest nuts in the Galaxy and to think that a Walker no less took him down with only claws and teeth…

We’ve lost 29 of our number already, I don’t want to lose another one, but I nodded in understanding. We’ve lost two of our best killers to the Walkers this round; I don’t want to lose Priatare who was also brimming in tears.

They clapped hands and he nodded to me.

“There’s an entrance through the other side. I’m going to lead them into the trap, go into the rear of them and keep going.

It was a Triperial tradition to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good as they call it, one I would never have thought I would ever see.

Machaera unsheathed his Tri-Blade and a pair of knuckle dusters which I saw before now and jumped over the cliff to land at the bottom, roaring and kicking up sound as he approached the now shambling pack of Walkers.

I stared on in awe as Machaera twirled the blade over his head in one hand, catching three Walkers at once in the deadly twirl and the knuckle dusters fused into a giant metal shield. The whole hoard was stumbling after him, groaning and moaning the whole way.

There were hundreds of the undead.

“Let’s go now!” I hissed and pulled out my last remaining Shiv. “No shots unless necessary.” I whispered as an after-thought.

We creeped around the hoard, careful not to cause any more noise than necessary and slowly the hoard thinned.

“That building is our best option!” I whispered and they nodded. The Walkers lines had thinned from a hundred every meter to only a couple and I was confident we could get through them.

We slid down as one and full on sprinted for the next scrap pile. My heart started pumping, my breathing heavy.

The Walkers slowly wheeled around at us. Priatare gave a roar and five Walkers became pulp to his hammer. I stabbed at the nearest Walker, impaling the beast in the eye and kicking it off my blade. Another went to kill me but didn’t get far before a crossbow bolt went through its skull. I nodded to Maelstrom.

We ran off the street, Priatare smashing Walkers that came to close apart.

We scrambled up the piles through the darkened corridor.

Bad News was… We attracted the Walkers.

We sprinted through the corridors as one, the humanoids at our heels.

We got to the end and appeared ten meters from the LZ.

I ran down the scrap pile, but gravity had other ideas. I tripped on a piece of metal and Mother Gravity threw me back into the bottom. I shielded my head as I hit the ground, hissing in pain as it lacerated my whole arm.

I staggered to my feet, ignoring all the pain and focusing on my goal. Brother.

My arm hung limp and started to go numb in the pain and I groaned in pain. I grabbed the Shiv I dropped and started sprinting through the small pack of Walkers that Priatare was smashing apart with his two-handed hammer.

Maelstrom glided past me, leaving dead everywhere.

I limped ahead on my one good foot and stabbed at a Crawler.

I heard a scream behind me and regretfully turned my head, hoping to the Gods that it wasn’t what I thought it was.

Our luck had run out.

I grabbed the faraway Priatare by the shoulder.

“Look at me, look at me!” I yelled into his ear. The Triperior turned his head to look at me, tears flowing down his face.

“He died for us, so let’s not make it in vain.” I stared him down. He nodded grimly and with a turn of his back another five Walkers had been pulped.

But he was slowly faltering, his brain in memory lane.

And the Walkers... Started Running.

Impossible.

They were slowly gaining on us, stumbling while trying to go faster.

My feet were swept from under me and I hit the floor, groaning.

And it was there, teeth bared in an evil grin.

Its head exploded in a bloody firework, splattering me with gore.

“Get up, we ain’t losing you now!” Barrelled Priatare. I quickly scrambled to my feet, ignored the pain in my left ankle, and sprinted to the field.

I was thrown a meter into the air and landed on soft Earth, sandy and clean.

A burning smell emitted from all around me and an electrical shield blazed behind us.

We had made it.

I saw Maelstrom smile at me and I limped over to her, returning the favour.

We embraced each other and smiled in relief.

Electrical energy burst out as Walkers started frying against it.

Oraera, I thank you.

The only thought I had on my mind was Brother.

Finally, after all these years, my toiling and hardship would end. All the thievery and murdering for him would end and I can now save my brother. I can finally, with my team behind me, take revenge on those b******s that made him a slave and demanded money for his freedom.

“We did it, we’re finally free!” I smiled, exhaustion overwhelming me.

“Signis Lapsus, we’re finally free.” Maelstrom laughed. We embraced each other in passion, laughing into each other’s shoulders. I heard in the distance the crackle of the Electro-fields frying the starved Walkers.

I opened my eyes, feelings overwhelming me.

But the dawn of the day was interrupted once again by an electrical crackle and it unveiled something I never wanted to see again.

A black costume clung to the figure and a Grim Reaper mask hid its features. A long over-flowing cape bristled in the stale air, its red trim casting a long shadow over the figure. The only thing under that mask to see was pure black eyes and bits of its sickly pale skin.

Khaos.

I quickly broke off the hug.

“No.” I muttered.

I tried to throw her out of the way in the darkness.

I was too late…

Two shining blades slid through her chest, sticking out of her silently. She was sent to the centre before she hit the ground.

“NO!” I cried as I stood there stunned.

My Shiv found its way into my only good hand.

The Centre is when I stop.

Pain is weakness leaving the body.

Revenge.

I snapped my head around to the barrier to see Khaos laughing and muttering, standing on a titanium box and threw one of those blood thirsty blades through the hull.

There was just dawn. No electric field, no barrier against the Walkers and their meat.

I gulped.

Chaos couldn’t describe what happened next.

Walkers, now sensing that our haven was broken, stumbled through the Haven gates and other monstrosities burst in with them.

I was at once limping to the tin box as the ships called, but Khaos beat me to it.

He’s not getting away that easily.

I stabbed through the eye of a Walker and limped at a more energetic pace to the ship, my only hope for saving my Brother.

The Bridge was slowly rising up.

Sprint!

I glanced back to catch the eye of Priatare who simply nodded grimly and it said; Kill the Traitor, before he turned back and crushed another Walker beneath his feet.

I now had nothing to lose.

Khaos must die!