An Untitled Novel

The four approached the nearest ship, a foreboding open door leading into a dark, empty unknown. As they entered Spiro began methodically moving from corner to corner as Basil and Cicero lagged slightly. “Nobody’s home” Spiro whispered, though Basil jumped when he heard Spiro speak, momentarily pointing his rifle at him. “Whoah” Spiro said in an oddly calm voice, face momentarily illuminated by Basil’s weapon light. Spiro quickly motioned for Cicero and Casio to guard the door, and after a few moments of silence Spiro asked “Are you alright?” in the same calm voice as before.

“No, I, um, no.” Basil replied hesitantly. “For a moment, when you walked around that corner, I swear I saw the guy I killed in the courtyard when everything started. Last night, all I dreamt about was me killing him or him killing me.” Spiro nodded and placed his hand on Basil’s shoulder. “You had no choice in that situation, but the fact that you feel guilt means that you’re a good person. But right now, you need to focus; doing this means that we might be able to prevent thousands of yous and thousands of him if we stop all of this now. The Lizard King started an unjust war and there’s no telling what he’ll do if his surviving followers keep hold of Elthrice technology.”

Basil tried to correct his posture and take a deep breath, but was disrupted by Cicero. “Someone’s outside” he whispered, prompting all four to take positions next to the door while remaining out of sight. Spiro, however, made a quick hand signal that Basil interpreted as “stay” and moved around the corner in a fluid motion. Several bursts of automatic fire sounded off, followed by a couple of single shots moments later. Basil rushed out the door, closely followed by Cicero and Casio.

“They’re the Lizard King’s men” Basil stated in a manner that was half a question, seeing Spiro standing over a handful of bodies while scanning the surroundings. Spiro silently nodded. “How sure are we that the defenses are still active? Could they all have survived?” Cicero asked, and Basil shrugged. “It sounds like they have to be, at least the parts that disabled the wormhole device. But I don’t know.” Spiro interjected with a confident statement, though spoken loudly as if his ears were ringing.

“At this point, it doesn’t matter. We’re here without an army, and going back to Domum would put us too late to stop the enemy’s army, but we can still pull this off if we’re tactical about the situation. Those structures over there, that’s where I’d set up camp if I were stranded. There’s no guarantee nobody heard my shots, so we need to set off now before they can respond to our presence.”

Spiro immediately set off while seeming to scan the horizon, the other three following close behind. They had only been walking for a short distance; however, when they started walking past debris and small structures buried under dust. However, the small structures quickly became immense, and Basil began to be distracted observing them. Every one had a simultaneously alien but familiar feeling; cylindrical buildings with large holes instead of doors or windows which jutted out of the ground in a grid pattern, separated by what appeared to be roads.

Basil’s observation was interrupted, however, when they walked around a corner and saw a stunned looking soldier; as well as several others at a distance. The three raised their rifles, but in one graceful motion Casio turned the one soldier into several parts of a soldier. Gunfire erupted from the building the rest ran into, a large building that seemed to loom above the rest. The four were outnumbered at least three to one and lacked cover compared to the Lizard King’s men. Basil dove to the ground and readied himself for the feeling of bullets sailing through his body, but it appeared the four still had the upper hand with considerably better ranged weapons than the smooth bore guns that the Lizard King’s men possessed.

Basil looked down his sight, and a soldier appeared in a hole that looked like a window. Basil squeezed the trigger, and no more soldiers were visible through the window. Another took his place, and he, too, fell back into the room. Cicero seemed to be struggling with the automatic fire, but Spiro seemed to be taking well placed shots in quick succession; handling both automatic and semi automatic fire with incredible proficiency. Basil saw several others running out the door, weapons in hand. He took in a deep breath, breathed out, pulled the trigger, and watched nearly half a dozen men fall to the ground. Basil looked over and Spiro nodded.

The world fell quiet.

The group stood and Spiro motioned for them to move in a tight formation towards the entrance of the building. Another shot rang out, but Spiro fired, everything falling quiet again. The group made it to the building’s entrance and formed a much tighter formation, Spiro motioning that he would go first through the door and take the left, followed by Basil who would go right. The room contained a long spiral ramp that went up, containing plenty of bodies and trash from the Lizard King’s men, but noticeably, there was no dust. Despite looking like the Lizard King’s men had dug the dust away from the front of the building to enter, the inside of the room was entirely free of dust and ash. The walls carried the same gray-green color as the other Elthrice metal objects did and appeared to consist of panels that looked as if they each served a different purpose unknown to those who had just taken the long-dead building. The four reloaded their weapons.

All that was heard was ringing in the ears of the four as they slowly made their way up the spiral ramp that circled the walls of the building. At the top of the ramp they saw what appeared to be another empty door frame to a roof, Spiro motioning for Basil to follow him through in the same formation as before. Basil only heard a thump as Spiro bounced off what looked to be an empty doorframe, but before he could even process it, he stepped through as if nothing was there. “What the fuck” said Spiro in a fleeting moment of more frantic speech, touching what appeared to be some invisible wall that Basil had stepped through. Basil didn’t respond, however, as his attention was turned to the Lizard King standing on the large flat roof.

“So you are one of them?” the Lizard King asked Basil. “No, but I take it your so called Wizard is Elthrice?” The Lizard King looked confused. “What is that word? If it identifies the ‘demons,’ then no, he is not.” Basil looked confused. “Well, those who attacked you didn’t have Orbital’s gear, and planetary defenses did not shoot you down, so he somehow got his hands on an (object) now, didn’t he? That would explain his bullet-proof ‘magic.’” The Lizard King looked uncomfortable when Basil said the Elthrice word. “It does not matter, this is over. Surrender now and I will permit you to live” the Lizard King said sternly. Basil shook his head. “It’s over, but not how you would like. It ended when that force field your Wizard tried to activate failed to stop me.” The Lizard King shook his head.

“This place is under the Wizard’s control. His magic sings to the machines of the dead Elthrice. You will die by my hands if you do not surrender. I have become immortal, and the dead peoples whisper to me. I am to build something great, wipe out the old, and begin with the new. I do not quarrel with you, but you will not be permitted to interfere with me today.”

The Lizard King’s voice sent shivers down Basil’s spine in a way he couldn’t understand. He did his best to focus and return to the situation.

“That’s called schizophrenia, my friend, but it appears we’re at an impasse” Basil shouted, taking several steps towards the Lizard King and out of the view of the other three as he unslung his shotgun. Basil spoke again. “One final chance to change your mind, remember though, I just cut through all your soldiers and can control Elthrice technology. As you once told me, a short war with overwhelming force is a mercy, and don’t think I won’t kill you if it will put an end to all of this.” Basil now stood face to face with the Lizard King. The tall man took on a melancholy face and began to speak as he raised an incredibly long broadsword.

“Basil, if you are the one who walks out of here, promise me that no harm will come to my son. He, the Wizard, and the Bloodthirsty King’s heirs are in the machine above us. If I am killed, I have ordered the Wizard to remand them to your custody, but only your custody.”

Basil nodded, knowing that there was likely no avoiding the confrontation. The Lizard King seemed to force a short smile and began to talk again. “Very well, now, unfortunately, I believe you will meet your end here, my friend.” Basil shook his head and spoke while ignoring ACE’s instructions to leave. “No, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m going to shoot you in the nuts with a bean bag round, then when you’re doubled over in pain I’m going to kick you in the nuts for what you put me through. Then we’re gonna go back and we can sing Kumbaya once you-”

The Lizard King charged at Basil, causing Basil to hit him in the stomach with the bean bag round. He laughed as he swung his sword at Basil. “You think that to hurt me?” Basil tried to wrack another round in, but the gun was knocked from his hand as the Lizard King hit it with the sword and slashed Basil across the chest. Basil made an attempt to unsling the rifle from his chest, but the sword swung back around and plunged deep into him.

The world froze, and he stared at the metallic object in disbelief. He felt his body go limp and could feel blood draining down both his chest and back. Holding the still slung rifle in his hand he unloaded an entire magazine of automatic fire into the sad man looking back at him, but it seemed to have minimal effect.

He realized his only way to end this was to somehow make physical contact with the sad man staring him in the face, but as he reached out his weak hand he saw the man take several steps back. The cold steel slid out of his body as he fell limply to the ground, world growing black.