The Break

Three separate self launching detonators tore apart the west wing of 257 e. mahogany. Through the roar of explosion waving over the building, elizabeth heard smithins radio that the alarm at the nearby department of investigations had been set off. One one thousand. Two one thousand … Twenty one thousand. It was time to go. She tapped algers rafenner on the shoulders and they snuck to the back door.

algers rafenner was a professional lock pick who stole from mobsters because the thrill was higher. When elizabeth finally tracked him down, she didn’t offer him any money; she simply said he couldn’t unlock the prisoners at the mahogany building. He was there to prove her wrong and that was it.

At the back door, algers pulled out a strange instrument resembling a handsaw. He arranged the equipment on the door and after some sparks with minimal noise, the door swung open while the lock and handle remained in the lockset.

Once inside they rushed down the adjacent stairwell to two floors underground. The political prisoners were there and so were security. But that was expected and algers, who was wearing lieutenant garb, rushed in shouting, “We need to move all the block 32 prisoners to the ridner facilities. Now. They’ve breached the west side. We need to move now!”

This eruption caught the four guards off guards but they quickly recovered. “We received no communication from captain ganes. Who are you?”

“I’m general marshway’s private assistant and he sent me because the blasts disrupted all internal communications. The insurgents will be here in minutes we have to go now!”

“I’m going to contact ganes just to check.”

“I just told you communication is down and we don’t have time. But fine don’t believe me. When the rebels take the prisoners, you’ll have to answer to the general.”

At this moment they heard the firecrackers and gun shots that elizabeth had set up far down the westward hallway. One of the guards immediately checked the west door only to slam it shut to protect them from a rocket that exploded green against the padded door.

“Get them out now!” alger screamed his head off, “Take the east door to the back exit run! I’ll cover the door!”

The guards immediate set to releasing all twelve of the block 32 prisoners.

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For the past few weeks, jacob, under the magistrate’s instructions, had seeded the press with hints of a building Foggistani conspiracy that was theorized to end with its complete infiltration of nilbmah society. And even to jacob’s surprise, he didn’t have to stretch the truth vary far. In every major economic, political and social arena there was a camouflaged Foggistani rook with at least a finger on the reigns. Whether their intentions were benign or nefarious was unclear. Of course that didn’t stop jacob from convincing the nilbmahian public of the latter. And he must have done a good job because the magistrate had called him (as opposed to jumping him in the middle of the night).

“Today the nilbmah government will officially declare war on Foggistan. I have one more assignment. Publish these articles tomorrow in an early edition of the press.” The magistrate passed jacob a folder of papers, which he perused.

“Wait! How do you know this is going to happen?” But the magistrate had vanished.

It was happening a day sooner than it should. The same day as elizabeth’s break. Maybe that was poetic, but still he needed to talk to Jessica. He would be late.

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The guards assembled all of the prisoners and started taking them out the east door. As soon as the first two guards exited, elizabeth, who had worked her way around to the east side of the room, jumped out and tazered both guards. And before the remaining two guards could assist their companions, alger knocked them out with the butt of his rifle. elizabeth and alger quickly found the keys and uncuffed the twelve prisoners, who surprisingly didn’t seem surprised.

“You’re elizabeth garner, right?” asked one of the prisoners.

elizabeth was shocked. “How did you know that? Did you know I was coming?”

“Of course,” the same prisoner responded, “jacob told us.”

But elizabeth didn’t have time to sort all this out. “Come on. We need to go. This way.”

Only halfway down the corridor they heard it. A pterodactyl-like screech thundering down the hall. They all turned to see a red terror barreling toward them. It tore at the walls and ceiling with its gigantic wings. No one had time to recognize this beast as an AssMachestani emissary of legend; they just booked it.

At the end of the corridor when the rest of the group took a right towards the nearest exit but elizabeth turned to face the fiend. She pulled out her pistol and fired twice before dashing off to the left. The enraged emissary followed her while she shot as she ran.

Even after climbing up a flight of stairs, it was gaining on her. After turning a tight corner, elizabeth found closet and hid before the emissary could see where she went. But she didn’t have much time because it would come back and sniff her out – she knew this instinctively. Ready to rush out when the beast passed, she put her hand up to the door and hit something. It was a box. And even though opening up this random box was the last thing she had time for, she did just that. It was like something else took over. She pulled the slender box off the handle and in the dim light from the vents, she read the note written on its top: “I hope this helps. jacob.”

The emissary had over-shot the closet but elizabeth heard it pound to a stop and turn around. It screeched as it came closer. It knew its victim was near and closed in. She was out of bullets and she didn’t think the taser would do much.

She needed to run but she didn’t. She couldn’t help but open the box. Something in it shimmered. As she lifted the object up to get a better view, the emissary shrieked and launched towards her closet.

The Massacre Begins

In the dim phosphorescence of the glowing plants in the alcove, Lithuania could just barely make everyone else out. They were all sound asleep, in beds that fit snugly into small recesses in the walls. Winfry and Isa, asleep in each other’s embrace. Latvia. Estonia. Felix, with one arm wrapped tightly around his rifle. Not a good idea, but then again, he had his unchangeable ways. And then Marco, the warmth of his body flooding hers as he hugged her from behind. She held his hand, and couldn’t help but smile. The day had gone by so quickly. She felt she had hardly had a chance to enjoy Marco’s return. They had hardly spoken. It had all been one big, daylong group activity in search of the hollow. And then the wine-drinking. The copious wine drinking that had left everyone jolly and tipsy and prepped for bed. Everyone, that is… except Marco.

Winfry hadn’t noticed it, but she had. Marco had brought the glass to his lips, but hadn’t swallowed. Before she knew it, his glass was empty, though she could have sworn he hadn’t taken a sip. Perhaps he didn’t feel like celebrating. Hell, she wasn’t sure whether she felt like celebrating. What was there to celebrate, anyway? They were together, yes. That was a big deal. But they had also lost some of Felix’s finest men. And Timoteo. And Lithuania was still confused as to why the mist woman was good in the other world, but bad in this one.

Still, Winfry had said they had to drink the wine if they wished to remain. Whatever the hell that meant. Winfry did seem to know a lot of things for no apparent reason, and also to keep the source of his knowledge hidden, again for no apparent reason. It was bothersome. Especially when they were all surrounded by such uncertainty. When they had no idea what was next. What to do next. Their vague goal was to find where AssMachenstan was based. Which could be anywhere. Unless Winfry already knew. Which he wasn’t revealing.

Lithuania squeezed Marco’s hand. He was sound asleep. She sighed, resigned. Whatever the outcome, she was more confident now. Having Marco nearby felt like having the right gun in her hands. Or driving the right car. Or wearing the perfect bulletproof vest. With him, things simply fit. She felt whole.

She would never dare tell him that, of course. They were friends. Strictly friends. They cuddled at times, yes. And worked perfectly together. And the appreciation they felt for each other was no doubt far deeper than that between countless married couples. But things had no reason for getting complicated. They were fine as they were. He was back. They’d work together again. Things would get better. Things would go back to how they always were. And maybe… maybe down the line, things would get simpler. Avenues would open up. The stars would align. Their eyes would meet and… And things would get better.

Lithuania released Marco’s hand. She wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon, and the faint glowing in the alcove reminded her of her own blue luminescence when she produced magic. She figured she should practice. It was as good a time and setting as ever.

She slipped quietly out of bed and dropped onto the floor. As soon as her bare feet touched the ground, she felt a strange tingle rush over her skin, like static. She looked at the ground and noticed her feet produce blue sparks as they rubbed against the ground. Lithuania purposefully shuffled as she made her way for the exit, feeling more and more invigorated as she went. By the time she was outside, she felt highly caffeinated. Almost drunk.

She threw herself on the grass, and gasped with pleasure. It was wonderful. Every blade that grazed her bare skin released a blue spark, electrifying her more and more. She rolled in the grass, closing her eyes and losing herself to the pleasure of it. She started giggling. Laughing hysterically. Groping the ground, clutching fistfulls of grass, rubbing her face agains the floor, hugging the dirt. Her heart rate had accelerated wildly. She could feel the blood pulsating through her every vein—through her temples, down her spine, though her legs, up her thighs—

“Lithuania?” asked Felix.

“OH!” Lithuania screamed.

An explosion of blue, and she was somewhere else. Another explosion of blue, and she was back. Another, and Felix disappeared. One more, and he reappeared 20 feet away, tumbling down a tree.

Felix fell face first against the ground with a loud “oomph!” 

“Oh my God! Felix” Lithuania cried, disappearing in a burst of blue and reappearing at his side.

“What the—” he stammered, spitting grass. “What the HELL are you doing?!”

“I—I must be connecting with the magic in the earth, I think,” she said, helping Felix to his feet. He brushed himself off, indignant, like a dog who had suddenly and unexpectedly been dropped into a pool.

“Well connect a little less, why don’t you,” he growled, swatting dust off his knees.

Another burst of blue, and Lithuania was in a city. On a road. Some place she had never been before, but which seemed vaguely familiar. She must have seen it on television, or on a holocard. Wherever she was, it was eerie, and it made her forget she had probably left Felix considerably confused.

She was standing barefoot in the middle of a dark, narrow street. It was nighttime, and it was drizzling. Tall apartment buildings rose all around her, built of bricks in a style that reminded her of earlier days. The dark, almost sooty quality of the bricks, wet and lined with moss, denoted how old and poorly maintained these buildings really were. Pipes jutted from concrete walls here and there, connecting to the ground or to other apartments. The chimneys leaned crooked, and all the windows seemed constructed at odd angles—rectangular or square, but never perfectly so, which gave the architecture a surreal, almost demented aspect.

Lithuania was suddenly painfully aware of her state of undress. She wore a nightgown Winfry had whipped up for her from the librem, and nothing else. Then again, the street was completely empty, and though many of the apartments appeared lit, Lithuania wasn’t entirely sure they were inhabited. Still, she was getting wet, and her nightgown was thin.

She stretched her hands above her, and slowly a disk of blue sparks manifested above her head—a sort of magical umbrella that sent whatever drops were about to fall on her straight into another universe. She smiled, unwittingly. Magic was, after all, kind of cool.  

She took a few steps down the street, intrigued. All she heard was the creaking of rusty old pipes and the soft sound of rain. On the ground she spotted a piece of paper—a newspaper. She knelt and observed it carefully. The Nilbmah Times.

Suddenly, a screech. Startled, Lithuania looked above her, at the building tops. The first thing she’d thought of was a pterodactyl, but that was obviously impossible. Then, in the distance, came another screech, followed by the sound of impact—like that of a wrecking ball hitting a wall. The earth shook. Lithuania became alert.

Another screech. Then another. Coming from different parts of town, all followed by tremors and the sounds of sudden wreckage. The screeches increased in frequency—in volume. Before long Lithuania heard thirty, fifty, hundreds of screeches filling the air, drowning out all sound, flooding the world with sounds of terror and destruction. There were still people in Nilbmah, after all. She could hear them screaming. Dying. The hairs on Lithuania’s body stood on end. It was terrifying. People were being attacked. People were being killed.

An explosion up above, and shards of glass came raining upon Lithuania. She threw herself to the floor out of instinct. She felt the urge to disappear—to return to the hollow, but she couldn’t. She had to figure out what was going on here.

She scrambled to her feet and rushed for the nearest cover—a large green garbage bin. Pressing herself next to it, she looked up, searching for the source of the explosion. The building tops were all aflame now. People were scrambling out the windows in a panic. And then she saw it.

An emissary of AssMachenstan—red, emaciated and enormous—crawling along the building walls, its leathery, batlike wings spread open, menacing. It tore the bricks off the walls as it crawled. It reached a woman who was desperately trying to escape out the window of her burning apartment, eyed her terribly with its empty, souless eye sockets, spread its fangs open—

Lithuania closed her eyes and screamed. She couldn’t help it. Blood splattered all over the street as the emissary wrenched the woman’s head off in a single bite. Lithuania’s heart was racing, pounding its way out her chest. Suddenly, she felt irresistably terrified. She had no guns. She had no armor. She had nothing but magic. And as she realized this, the woman’s head plopped right before her with crunch.

“SHIT!” Lithuania screamed, shrinking back against the brick wall as the emissary outstretched its wings and shot straight at her. In an instant, Lithuania closed her eyes, stretched her palms out before her, and the descending monster became swarmed in specks of bright blue light. It shrieked—lost control of its wings—plummeted straight towards Lithuania—

Sudden silence.

Lithuania opened her eyes. A wave of soft, blue light blew against her… Bathed her gently and sank onto the floor, where its glow extinguished. Lithuania looked at her hands, shaking. She had dissolved the emissary into a mere cloud of blue light. 

She couldn’t believe it.

Had she just defeated that thing just by willing it?

She really couldn’t believe it.

She rose, looked around her. The shrieks, the screams and the chaos were still very much continuing. The decapitated body of the poor woman hung, limp and dripping blood, from her windowsill. The city was bathed in the flickering glow of flames.

It was AssMachenstan.

And Lithuania wouldn’t let this stand.