Steel Fire

“We have rounded up thousands just like you, and in the end they all cried for salvation. What makes you so different?” the man in the government uniform continued his ranting.

Frederick growled and spit at him. The restrains around his hands and feet buckled as he lunged forward from the chair. The man sneered and drove him back with a swift kick. He held an electrified poker between them and pointed it between Frederich’s eyes. The young man stared at it, emitting a low growling.

“What hole did you spawn from?” the man said, and hit him with his free hand. “You are like an animal.”

Frederick didn’t respond as he swallowed the blood in his mouth. Breath escaped from his mouth in what might have been a laugh.

“Sometimes I think the Fertility Board’s efforts are futile. There may always be beasts like you.” The man stabbed him with the poker again. Electricity burned through Frederick, taking his breath. When it had finished, he collapsed to the floor.

“Luckily, there will always be men like me to clean up the trash. We all serve the Republic in our own way,” the man said in his haughty city accent. He waved the electric rod around like a wand as he spoke, emphasizing every word.

Frederick sat up and stared at him.

“We know how you learned about the concert, but I want their names,” the man said. “Let me rid the Republic of that filth, and I will make this process easier for you.”

Frederick felt his mouth fill with blood again. He spit it out on the man’s uniform. The man just chuckled and hit him again.

“Tell me about your contacts and I will let you go.”

“Liar,” Frederick said and accepted the next blow. “Not that I care about the others, but still- Go fuck yourself”

His voice sounded strange. He felt a warm sensation spread from between his legs as he forced himself upright again. The man looked at him with clear glee.

“What’s that I hear? Are you not a true believer, Frederick?” He tapped the poker against Frederick’s cheek, but there was no shock this time.

For a moment, Frederick thought the man had also heard the explosions in the distance, but it seemed he was as deaf as he was blind.

“Fuck that shit. I was going to turn them in as soon as I had my fun.” His expression was like stone. “Maybe I could have used it to advance my career in Enforcement. I’m sure I’d be your boss in no time.”

The officer shocked him again before replying.

“High test scores don’t make you smart, shitstain. If you’re so smart, then why are you the one on the ground right now?”

“The only thing that matters,” he sputtered, blinking away the tears, “is that you get back up again, idiot.”

“What does she see in you, I wonder,” the officer whispered. There was vile wistfulness to his question. “You’re a disgusting aberration. ”

He turned away and checked the one mirror in the room. His next words were a whisper.

“What makes you so worthy?”

Frederick let out a chuckle despite himself. It sounded more gurgling than he liked.

“Turn that smug prick face to me and look me in the eyes while you ask me again.”

André turned to Frederick and smiled.

Friedrich’s body seemed to move on its own as his vision narrowed and a single protracted roar took hold of his mind. Handcuffs snapped like twine, and his hands locked around the agents throat before the man could utter a sound. Friedrich gleefully drank in the panic in the man’s eyes as his grip tightened. He twisted and twisted, savoring the feeling. Eventually, something snapped and the body went limp. The roar would not leave his mind as he threw the carcass aside and lunged at the one-way mirror. It bent under his weight and the third time he threw himself against it he created a hole large enough to pry further open and crawl through. The people on the other side were scrambling for the door. One drew her gun and that was the one he jumped first. His teeth sank deep into the skin and tendons of her wrist and he yanked her off her feet. The gun went off when it hit the ground. The tall ‘albino’ grabbed the agent by the throat and crushed her windpipe as he used the body for leverage to throw himself at the other two. In their panic, they put up little resistance while Friedrich hit them until he felt bones break against his knuckles. He finally let loose a feral roar as grabbed a head and smashed it against the door frame. Blood dripped from him as he walked out in the hallway. Half of the blood was his own, gushing from cuts made by the mirror. Instinctively, he applied pressure to the deepest wound on his shoulder. It had stopped bleeding by the time he reached the end of the corridor, just in time to bump into another set of agents. He jumped on them with another beastly cry.

Her scent had been on some of them and now it was in the air itself. Frederick followed it, his mind blank except for yearning. Explosions sounded in the distance but meant little to him. He checked doors feverishly, opened some of them and killed anyone inside that wasn’t her. Some of them wore goggles. He discarded the bodies without a second thought and continued his search. Finally, he found the door that smelled the most of her and tore it of its hinges. She was there. An unconscious man with a gun lay on the ground between them. Reason returned to Frederick. He looked at her questioningly.

“I heard you coming,” Maria said and picked up the gun.

“You are formidable,” Frederick stated, plainly.

Maria winked at him and pulled him out of the door opening. “It wasn’t that difficult. He liked me.”

He pulled her out of the door opening in turn. “Must be nice when people like you.” Several armed officers ran past. Gunfire sounded in the distance.

“I like you,” Maria said, and kissed him on the cheek.

He snickered. “Shows what you know.”

She kissed him again, on the other cheek. “We need to go. I know of a place we can hide.”

He looked into her captivating eyes, only faintly noting the blood the last kiss had left on her lips, and nodded. “How could I ever let myself disappoint you?”

They moved quietly through the concrete corridors, Frederick at the front. The way to the exit was easy to deduce, but every corner they turned brought them closer to the gunfire. Neither of them dared to speculate what the cause may be, but they could hope.

The Locust bounded around the corner, already pointing a set of submachine guns in their direction. She only barely managed to redirect her fire into the walls next to them.

“I almost shot you idiots!” She cackled. Her hair was dyed crimson. Blood splatters covered her face and there was a new hole in her coat. “Couldn’t wait for me to spring you, huh?”

“The rest is dead,” Frederick said. “That’s what patience gets you.”

The singer let out a playful note. “That seems unlikely. Unless you-”

She trailed off. Maria approached her.

“We need to go now, ” the girl said. “There is a government commissioner here, and something worse.”

The Locust cocked her head. “Were you at the concert? I’m sure I would have noticed.”

“Listen to her,” the boy said.

“There is only one person I listen to, and so should you.” She spun around, making room for them to pass her. “Exit stage right. There’s always a reason for the pain. Time for the light to lead us from darkness.”

“As you say,” Maria said and walked past her.

“Whatever you say,” Frederick added and followed her.

They walked into an atrium that served as an entrance hall to the Enforcement station. Multiple layers of concrete barriers, centered around a central desk served to slow anybody making their way through. A truck had driven through the hall and now lay across the central desk. Bodies littered the rubble. Several armed people in black coats, eyes hidden behind goggles, had taken up position behind what was left of the barriers. They whistled tunes to each other while their gaze was directed firmly outward. An evening sun shone in through the hole left by the truck.

“You’re lucky I believe you,” the Locust said as she pranced across the rubble. The gunpeople ignored her, continuing their whistling.

“Why would we lie to you, Locust?” Frederick asked. He looked around for any weapons, but found none. He noticed one of the bodies was missing its head.

“You’re not,” the woman responded with too much confidence. She grinned when Frederick stared at her.

“They wanted to know who was behind the movement,” Maria said. She moved gracefully across the rubble and refused to look at the bodies. “They knew little and we told them nothing.”

“How nice of you, but it wouldn’t have mattered if you did,” the Locust smiled and spun around again. She twirled one of the submachine guns on the tip of a finger.

“Why do you say that?” Maria asked.

The Locust just smiled at her.

“You are pretty fucking crazy,” Frederick said, smiling back her.

“I know,” she said and sat down on top of the desk, staring at them.

The Locust made a shocked expression a moment before the alarm started. She cackled as the armed men and women sprung into motion. Maria and Frederick ducked down as the world came to life around them. The bewildered looks on their face only intensified the Locust’s cackling.

“Ah, shit, it was a trap.” she muttered and readied the machine guns. Explosions, smaller and more controlled this time, sounded through the building again. A rattling sound descended on them as the ceiling started to move. Heavy, stainless-steal shutters came loose and started to descend. One by one, they covered the exits of the atrium.

Frederick moved in a blur, bounding across the barriers and throwing himself between the last shutter and the ground. At first, the shutter moved mercilessly on, pushing him down, but with an otherworldly strength he forced it to slow. His body trembled, and he groaned in pain, as it finally halted just a meter above the ground. Blood streaked down his arms. His knees buckled and something cracked in his knee, but he held the shutter up. Friedrich cried out, wordlessly. After another titanic effort of will he grunted something that sounded like ‘go’.

“He won’t hold,” the Locust said and stepped closer. She seemed to consider her options carefully for once.

“He’ll die,” Maria said and jumped into action unexpectedly. With one leap, she was next to Frederick and pushed up against the shutter with one hand, supporting it as she dragged Frederick back inside with what seemed just a flick of her free hand. The young man skidded across the floor. Maria let the shutter descend, hissing in pain as she retreated from it. Blood, the color of the morning sun, fell in drops from her hand.

“No, Maria!” Frederick’s hoarse voice resounded across the atrium.

“That was pretty cool,” the Locust said, and switched off the safeties on her guns with a flick of her thumbs. “Now, spread out and kill as many as you can. Last to die has to clean the crapper in Valhalla.”