The LoST 6

The Lone Shadow Templar

6: Escaping Reality

How many times did he have to die before I could accept it?

Everything that was once warm and soft in my heart was now rock hard and iced over. There’s only so much a person can take before breaking, before becoming someone else, something else. All it took was time.

I slammed his body down, feeling his bones break upon impact. Rolling over, I felt the wind of a stream of bullets ricochet off of the ground where I was just a second ago. Coming to a stop behind a wall, I whipped out my knife once more, blood stains still wet from its last victim.

Gunfire erupted once more, pinning me behind my wall of solitude. Their desperate voices quavering, hiding behind the staccato chattering of bullets. It was cowardly, but it worked. I couldn’t move.

I knew they were moving up slowly, covering each other’s backs like good soldiers would. Closer and closer; I could almost feel the heat of the muzzle flashes.

Then I noticed the lone grenade on the body of one of their fallen comrades. Bringing my knife up to check where their reflection stood around the wall, I waited a few moments for two of them to reload and shot my hand out.

A lone grenade hauntingly rolled out from within the shadows. I heard their voices yell as the gunfire abruptly stopped. Then, the explosion, the infernal fireball that consumed their bodies and charred their souls. I waited until the shockwave stopped ruffling my bangs and stepped out into the smoking corridor.

Their bodies were still burning.

Up ahead, I saw a dim light coming from underneath the crack of the door. Holding my knife at the read, I walked up, slowly at first, then faster and faster until I was sprinting at full speed. The two on the opposite side of the threshold didn’t even have a chance to react.

Jumping up right as I reached the door, my foot slammed into the metal, bringing it off of its hinges, sending both guards sprawling to the ground. Yet when I looked up, there were three bodies.

Quickly, I forced my knife into the neck of one of the downed guards and elbowed the other one in the nose, sending a stream of blood splattering onto the ground. He took a failed swing at me and I slammed the blade into his chest, my nose an inch from his, waiting for his breath to cease.

She was groaning in pain.

I looked up and to my surprise, saw Aaru. Then, I shifted my eyes to the left and saw two more dead guards inside a dingy old bathroom. Of course… after all, she did used to work for these bastards…

“Aaru are you ok? Can you walk?” I asked, pulling her up to her feet.

“Nat?” she murmured, clutching her head with both hands.

“Yea it’s me, where are the others?” I asked out of habit before realizing I already knew the answer.

I walked over to a specific cell block and aimed my rifle down at the handle, blasting away the lock. Kicking the door open, I came face to face with a bored looking Mip, who was sitting coolly in her bound chair.

“About time, honey,” she grinned wryly.

“Cut her free,” I instructed Aaru, handing her my knife, before moving on.

It didn’t take a psychic to tell where Felix was; I could hear him screaming from a mile away despite the alarms.

Shooting the door off its hinges, Felix actually fell out, still attached to his chair. I almost laughed as Aaru and Mip scrambled up to me and handed me my knife. For some reason, Aaru was handling a grenade. With a quick slice, his ropes fell apart and he straightened himself up.

“I’m sorry Nat, I’m so so sorry,” he rambled, breathless.

“Don’t talk to me about him.” I spat and led the group back the way I had came.

Suddenly, a shadowed figure appeared from the entrance to the cell blocks. He lazily toted an L96A1 in his right hand. I could make out a smile through his black mask.

“Run…”

The three of them sprinted in the opposite direction while I kneeled and took aim just in time. I saw the flash of the shot right as I pulled my own trigger. Our bullets seemed to fuse in midair before ricocheting into a new trajectory. He pulled the bolt back on his sniper rifle, ejecting a still smoking shell.

I fired again, missing his head by mere centimeters. He loaded his gun, the tip of the bullet lined up with my head. Without thinking, I whipped my knife in his direction and sprinted after the rest of the group. I heard the impact of steel on concrete and swore under my breath.

Another shot reverberated off the solid cement walls and I heard something crash from above. Looking up, I saw a flurry of steel bars and scaffolding start to rain down upon our heads.

“Get out of the way!” I screamed as I caught up to Aaru. I pushed her body to the side just as a steel rod slammed into the ground beside her.

Scrambling back onto my feet, I suddenly saw something fly over my head towards the wall. Aaru had chucked the grenade far out in front of us at the dead end. Immediately understanding, I aimed my rifle as the bomb bounced once on the floor.

I heard another sniper shot and heard the bullet impact metal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a steel pipe shoot past me, imbedding itself into the wall opposite of the figure. Whoever the hell this guy was, he was damned good…

The grenade bounced once more and hit the far wall. I pulled the trigger just as Mip and Felix hit the deck.

The shockwave made me stumble sideways as it tore a hole in the wall. I felt a rush of the cool night air hit me full on, bringing me back into the real world. The four of us rushed out and immediately veered left, out of the line of sight of the sniper.

I don’t know how long we ran, but when we finally stopped, the sound of gunfire was far behind us, faded to blackness.

“Seems like you missed, False” Nass looked around at the carnage that use to be a row of jail cells.

“Did I?” False replied, lowering his sniper rifle. He pulled down his facemask, exposing his lips, “I never miss.”

Nass noticed the steel pole jutting out from the far wall; the end still seemed to reverberate from the impact. He chuckled slightly and turned back to False. “Next time, make sure we can catch them again.”

“We can,” False replied calmly, taking out a cigarette and a lighter. He shoved the roll into his mouth and covered the flame with his hand. Exhaling a stream of grey, he turned and walked off into the darkness, “We will.”

His masked image burned itself into my retinas. The flash of the bullet charging me down still jolted my nerves. His proficiency with that L96 sent chills down my spine. The way he looked at me through his tinted glasses. The way he nonchalantly blew away my bullet with his. The way he carried himself. His name was False, but that was all I could get from his thoughts.

“You guys alright?” I asked, catching my breath and ejecting an empty clip from my S-36.

“We’re bugged,” Mip immediately explained, “It’s in our arms. Give me your knife.”

I lowered my hand to the sheath only to realize the blade was still stuck in the Dominion’s dungeons. Swearing quietly to myself, I looked up, “Sorry, that sniper has it.”

“No worries,” Aaru stepped forwards, holding the pin to the grenade she had used to blow the hole, “It’s not deep and the wound is still fresh. I can dig it out.”

I left the three, with Felix squealing louder than the girls, and found a dead tree. Looking at it was pathetic: a lonely dead piece of rotting wood amidst a forest of lush green. It didn’t belong. Even the surrounding nature seemed to sense this, as it had grown around it, leaving a small circle around its base. It did not belong.

And neither did I.

I realized it, not knowing what to think. I was a freak, an anathema. The world would be better off with people like me gone. It was time for the Shadow Templars to pass on to legend.

Yet I still remained, and for what purpose? Was I to walk this land alone, forever an outcast like this wretched piece of wood in front of me? The gods were mocking me, forcing me to stay alive. But I was already dead in every way.

My only reason to live was gone.

I heard a sudden rustle behind me and instantly whipped around, training my weapon on the moving ferns. Felix’s head popped out, his face serious.

“Nat what are you doing out here?” he asked with a tone of concern.

“Thinking,” I replied. Then with a smile, added, “I can’t think with your girlish squealing.”

“You try getting surgery with a grenade’s… ah never mind,” Felix shook his head, “How are you holding up? We all heard the whole thing.”

“It hurts so much that it doesn’t hurt anymore. I feel nothing,” I replied coldly. “All the voices in my head mean nothing now. I just don’t care anymore.” My fingers trembled. “I mean, what’s stopping me from putting one in my head?”

“You know that has an odd tendency to fail with your lineage,” Felix scoffed. I know what he was talking about. Nova still has that non-fatal bullet in her head.

“But in all seriousness,” Felix continued, immediately erasing his goody smile, “You’re still alive, and everything that happens happens for a reason. Fate does not hold your death near. You’re meant to do something, to change the world. Why else would the gods bless you with your powers?”

“It’s not a blessing. It’s a goddam curse.”

“On the contrary,” Felix disregarded that comment, “What have you ever done with your powers but to use for good? Have you ever murdered anyone with cold blood? Have you burned entire cities and towns without batting an eye? No. You’re better than that. Aaron…”

“Don’t.”

“… would have wanted you to keep fighting.” His words brought tears to my eyes, “He would have wanted you to bring it all to an end so that his death would not have been in vain.”

A single tear trickled down my face, gathering as a droplet on my chin and then finally letting loose. I watched its descent, how it was perfectly spherical until it splashed to the ground, at last releasing all shape and form.

At that moment, I knew I would die. But it would only be after they were all dead.

Voices started floating into our clearing, muffled hostile voices.

“Nat we gotta go.” Felix’s fingers reached out for mine. Aaru and Mip burst through the underbrush and rejoined us. I took one last look at the dead tree, a mirror image of myself, and grabbed his hand.