Steel Fire

There was a song in her mind that filled every part of her body and drew her ever closer to something divine. She felt like crying and laughing at the same time. The Locust focused her delirious attention on the crowd and felt their adulation fill her up with a godly strength. If they asked it, she would move the moon for them. Every fiber inside her attempted to transfer the divine song into her guitar and out into the crowd, even if only to appease the crowd.

The Locust cried, and as tears flowed over her cheeks the crowd roared. In that moment, they would do anything for her, moving as one giant beast that was at risk of crushing itself every second. Somehow, her song maintained cohesion. As the song drew to a close, the beast died, but it was born again in the next song, and every time something wild was left behind in the mind of all spectators. Something that was very wild stirred in her, and she shuddered without missing a single chord. The corners of her mouth were ripped wide while in a mad smile as tears continued to stream down her cheek.

“I am in pain,” she whispered into the microphone, adding her backup vocals. Tyr, tall and proud, cradling the microphone in his one hand, continued the song as she repeated the lyric.

“You can’t keep me in the dark!” She joined in the chorus, and her voice was carried with Tyr’s across the crowd. It seemed to awaken a light in the eyes of her onlookers. She basked in it with a careless joy, swaying her body with the rhythm. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she was aware of the feedback loop that had been established. It strengthened her, and the crowd, but most of all Tyr. He stood in the center, strong and directive. He directed them all towards freedom and happiness. The Republic felt like something distant, a story told by old people about a time long since passed, but it was still around them. Between the smell of sweat and mud, there was the unmistakable scent of the nearby factories. Great plumes of darkness stretched over them, casting long shadows away from the setting sun. Lights came on in the great shadows and started to explore the muddy field. The Locust closed her eyes and screamed into the microphone.

Chaos erupted right at the climax of the song. The rattle from a machine gun tore through the melody and flood light focused on the crowd. A person in a trench coat stepped in front of one of the light and raised a megaphone. She barely managed to raise her voice above the music.

“You are being charged with socioeconomic endangerment level 3,” the woman announced. “Disperse and return to your work or studies now. There will be no second warning.”

The Locust could see her lower the megaphone, pause for a few seconds and raise her gun into the air. She fired into the air again and soldiers moved in from all sides. The Locust let loose a high-pitched scream and the people in the crowd spread out in all directions as one human wave, flowing through the loose formation of soldiers. The men and women in riot gear picked off who they could, beating the young people in submission. The Locust turned around just in time to see a truncheon coming at her face. She swerved past it, the world seeming to move slower, and drove a knife between the exposes part between the helmet and body armor. A cackle escaped her as she imagined the gurgling of the soldier. She pushed them aside and ran towards the side of the stage where another two soldiers wielding truncheons awaited her. Clearly they hadn’t been cleared to wield deadly force yet. Their mistake. She drew a pistol from her jacket, the two soldiers rushing forward in an attempt to disarm her. Again, as the world seemed to move at a crawl, she slipped in closer and emptied half of the cylinder into the first of her opponents. He let the blunt weapon slip from his grip as he grabbed his stomach. The Locust caught it and hit the other soldier in the back of the neck with it. The woman went down immediately. The Locust cackled again as she spun the weapon around in her hand and moved off-stage.

There was no sign of Tyr. Her body felt weightless as she sprinted across the field. Perhaps she could have taken on more soldiers or done more for the people in the crowd, but her thoughts weren’t with them. They were less than expendable. They were no concern of hers. The lights the soldiers had brought were in the distance now. Motorbikes were circling the area. The sun was almost completely below the horizon now, leaving the headlights as her main source of light. There was the light of the city of course, but that provided no sanctuary. The lights of this world did not sear the skin, but they revealed things that meant to stay hidden. She wasn’t ready to be seen right now. She had to find Tyr.

One gunshot drew the riders close to her. Hidden in a ditch, she found the perfect moment to jump onto a bike as it drove by. The bike swerved dangerously as she struggled for control. With mad laughter, she drew another knife and started to stab the rider in the back. The shock loosened the riders grip and they were thrown from the bike. It hadn’t been going that fast anymore though and they both rolled to a standstill with only a few extra bruises. The Locust laughed again and threw a dirt clot at the rider, who didn’t move. She stumbled back to the motorbike and pushed it upright. The engine was still running and the headlight sputtered but remained on. She turned the bike around and let the wheel spin, covering the motionless soldier in a fine layer of mud, before speeding off. She just couldn’t stop giggling as she accelerated as much as possible, right in the direction of the most headlights.

This world just moved so slowly when she was in the flow. The song still filled her body again as she moved the bike between the soldiers and started to kill. Her bike crashed into another as she jumped over and onto the rider behind that. There was another crash, and while they tumbled through the mud she managed to draw her last knife and they came to a standstill while she was driving it again and again into he chest of the drive. The whining sound of an engine drew her attention to another approaching rider. She emptied the remaining shots of her revolver into it, and turned to the two last motorists. They dismounted, taking a shield and truncheon from the bikes. The Locust took a truncheon for each hand from the soldiers around her and

shouted a wordless challenge.

She ended up beating them with their own weapons until they stopped moving. They were city kids, serving their mandatory service beating up country yokels. That must have seemed justified to them because the previous generation of country kids had also came to the city to beat up on them. She spit on the slumped forms of the soldiers, their features hidden behind helmets and shadow. They emitted a communal groaning sound that was barely audible over the sounds of the running engines.

Tyr came out of the night without a sound. He gave her a inscrutable look before picking up one of the motorbikes.

“I know it was unnecessary,” she said as she approached him. “It felt very good though.”

Without another glance, Tyr mounted the bike and tapped the seat behind him.

“I’ll get my own,” she said.

He nodded and somehow he managed to operate the bike’s throttle with the stump of his right hand. Mud sprayed over her as he took off. The Locust just laughed as she brushed it off, before taking a nearby bike for herself and following him into the night.

There was no plan, because her mind was beyond plans now, but Tyr had made clear to her what was to be her part in the events that would occur. She was a star player, one of the main characters, and all she had to do was play herself.

She was ready for the party to start for real.