The Zia'n Legacy

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

         “Just put the money from the register in the bag, and no-one will get hurt. There need not be any trouble here today.”

As the man tossed the bag over the counter to the barman everyone kept their heads down, not wanting to attract any undue attention. At the end of the bar, two men sat staring into their drinks, sipping occasionally. The larger of the two slammed his empty glass down on the tarnished surface for the fifth time that night, causing the gunman to swing his pistol round.

         ”You want to be a little more careful with yourself mate, don’t want me to get twitchy now do ya?”

Ignoring him, the man unscrewed the bottle of whiskey next to his glass and proceeded to pour himself another full measure, handing the bottle to his companion. Taking the bottle and nodding his thanks, he too poured himself another glass before placing the bottle back down on the counter. Moving his attention back to the barman, the thug shoved his gun in his face.

         ”You better get a move on buddy, before my twelve little friends in here get restless,” the gunman said, shaking the pistol in his hand.

With that, he brought the gun down across the side of the barman’s head, causing him to stumble backward gripping the point of impact. Standing again and regaining his composure, the barman continued stuffing money from the till into the bag at a furious pace, blood starting to seep from the fresh wound in his temple.

With the robber distracted by the barman, the end of the bar saw some movement as one of the two drinkers slowly turned round on his stool, leaned his back against the bar and gazed out the window into the night. He raised his head slightly, face hidden by the shadow from the wide brimmed hat he wore, and studied a car parked outside before leaning over to his partner and whispering something.

A shout from the side caused him to look around and see the robber snatch the bag from the barman.

         "Don't nobody follow me! Try to be a hero and you'll wind up dead."

The gunman waved his pistol around the room, causing people to flatten themselves against their tables further still. The man backed away from the bar, eyes darting around, his gun following them in sporadic, jerky sweeps. When he reached the door, he yanked it open and darted outside into the rain. Moments later there was a screech of tires as the car outside sped off.

Turning back to the bar and taking another long gulp from his glass, the smaller of the two men looked at the other.

         “It’s amazing. This city never ceases to dredge up an unending supply of idiots.”

With that, he sighed and turned back to his drink.

         “Another night of rain and crap,” said the man, grimacing at the thought of leaving the bar, and the whiskey, for a walk in the torrential downpour and howling wind.

Another half an hour passed before the two stood and walked over to the barman.

         “You might wanna get that seen to friend, looks like it might go nasty. Especially in this grime filled place.”

He winked and handed the barman twenty credits for the bottle of whiskey. As the two men swept out of the Splinter Bar, their trench coats billowing out behind them, the other customers were returning to their normal habits of drinking, smoking and passing out. Many had seen this kind of incident before, knowing it best just to keep your head down and wait it out. For the few who had not, it merely served to give them a taste of reality in Seventh City.

Stepping out into the eternally miserable weather of the forsaken city, the two men pulled their coats around themselves, offering them precious little protection against the elements. Water filled with enough germs and bacteria to start a small epidemic cascaded off the hats they had chosen to wear, very wisely it now seemed. Their breath misted in front of their faces as they stood hunkered under a nearby outcrop from one of the many apartment buildings, fighting to hold a conversation against the raging wind.

         “Well that was a nice bit of light entertainment for the evening, don’t you think?" said the smaller of the two, chuckling to himself.

         “Happens far too often, old friend,” said the other, solemnly.

Lifting his head up, the man’s eyes made contact with his ally, his expression echoing his disappointment in the world in which they found themselves. As he looked back, the younger of the pair, known as Maoric Drai, understood only too well the feelings of his long-time comrade.

Without saying another word, Thanatos Kale turned and started to trudge away followed soon by Drai, who had to walk slightly faster to keep up. As they walked down the street, the rain was funneled down between the high-rises either side of them by the wind, and was falling with such ferocity that it bounced twelve feet back up. It was almost as if the rain were attacking them, assaulting from every angle, angry vengeance for wrongs committed against mother nature. The occasional car that streaked past only served to increase the sheer volume of water hitting the men for a brief second before resuming the draining monotony of the rain.

They walked this way for a good ten blocks, each busy with his own contemplative thoughts as the lightening started to explode in the sky above them. Each strike illuminated the night for a quick moment, accompanied by the thundering crash of clouds colliding, sending shock waves almost tangibly through the air. Nowhere could manage a storm like Seventh City, the frequent barrages by the forces of nature served as a complete sensory overload. It was no surprise that this particular place managed to produce three times the amount of mentally unstable individuals than any other city in the Thirteen Cities Coalition.

Walking along, Thanatos berated himself for not bringing the car tonight.

What was I thinking? As if a dry spell would last long enough to get us from as well as to the bar...

As his thoughts continued along that vein, he found his eyes slowly drawn to a set of tire marks left under the surface of water that now coated the road. They lead into a small side road between two of the gigantic buildings, freshly made by their appearance and the fact that they hadn’t been worn away by the traffic yet. As he looked at the marks on the road he suddenly felt every muscle in his body tighten slightly, sending shooting pain through all his limbs, his eyes clouding over as he stiffened up. As so often happened in these instances, he found himself cursing this particular ‘talent’ he possessed before slipping completely away into the darkness.

Complete blackness and silence...

No movement, no sense of surroundings...

A deep resonating throbbing, a feeling more than a sound...

Suddenly a flash of brilliant white light and intense pain, then he was in the side road, floating above the ground, nearly level with the first story windows. The rain appeared to have stopped; it was hanging in the air around him, clearly visible in front of his eyes, but it merely passed straight through him as if it were so much dust. The thunder and lightening were still present, although heavily muted now, barely even audible. He could see with complete clarity, his hearing amplified ten times over.

Looking down as the narrow road rounded a corner, he could see the dead end terminating in high walls. There was the car from outside the Splinter Bar, skidded to a halt across the road, blocking off her escape. The woman then came into focus, her torn clothing hanging off her body as the two men circled.

Another flash of light and pain and he was hovering above the car, looking down on the woman and her aggressors. Seeing her face, feeling the panic, fear and worry in her mind, he felt her pulse almost ready to erupt from her body. He could hear every word the men shouted at her, their leering glances, disgusting promises of fun.

Then it all went dark again...

The throbbing pulsing started to die away as he slowly regained some kind of feeling in his body. He felt the soaking, gritty road against his face, then the rain came back, hammering blow after blow upon him. Thanatos felt hands on his shoulders, pulling him to his feet as he slipped back into reality.

* * * * *

Walking along a couple of paces behind the big man, lost in a world of his own thoughts damning the elements, Maoric almost didn’t notice Kale’s body all but petrify before he collapsed to the floor.

Shit, Not again! he thought, darting forward to help his friend. By the time he reached him, grabbing the back of his coat and hauling him up he was already coming round. Helping the man upright, he saw his eyes roll down from his head, blinking slowly against the rain.

         “You ok man? Kale, pay some bloody attention! You with me Kale?”

The smaller of the two held the other up, supporting his body, staring deeply into his eyes.

         “I’m... Ok, Drai, don’t worry...” he replied, stepping away and shaking himself down a little to loosen up his muscles again.

         “What was that all about then?” his friend asked, looking worried.

         “It’s ok, nothing major. I had another prescient faze. We need to get in there quick time though,” said Kale, pointing through the darkness before starting down the side road at a dead run.

Knowing better than to argue in cases like this, Drai followed, catching up quickly as he was much faster on his feet. They ran down the road, their footsteps leaving great craters in the surface of the water, soon filled by the incessant downpour, coats flying out behind them casting huge shadows every time the lightening made itself evident. As they sped along, Kale shouted to his friend.

         “Remember the guy from the bar tonight? Well, we found him, and we got some work to do.”

         “Ah man, I hate evenings like this.”

The shouted conversation was a struggle against the wind, as was the running itself as they rounded the corner. Another twenty yards at full pelt and they were there, crouching behind the car, not yet seen. Each looking at the other, they counted to three before stepping out from behind the beat-up machine and walked towards the two men cornering the cowering woman.

         “Good evening gentlemen, such a nice night for a stroll don’t you think?”

Kale with a huge smile on his face, always somehow so intimidating in these instances.

         “And how are you my lady, good I hope?” added Drai, looking at the woman backed against the wall, fallen to her knees.

Feeling his temples pulse slightly, Maoric felt his friend’s voice in his head.

Make yourself ready Drai, this isn’t going to be pretty.

Aye Kale, I’m ready, unfortunately. Replied Drai.

Both men were standing with their hands inside their long coats, behind their backs. Drai pulled his twin wrist knives from their holsters, slipping his hands through the fastenings, feeling them clip into place above the joint. Kale had slipped his hands over the grips of his guns, making sure they were ready for a quick draw, checking that the safety wasn’t on. Both men calmed their breathing, heart rates lowering swiftly, the world around them seeming to slow and blur.

* * * * *

The two miscreants turned and looked at each other before regarding these new comers with surprise and anger. Jimmy glanced at his friend again before pulling the gun he kept in his belt, thrusting it Kale’s way.

         “The guys from the bar! What the fuck are you doing here?!”

         “We were passing, thought we’d stop in and help, you see?” retorted Drai, much to the displeasure of the murderous duo.

The other of the two, Jimmy’s cousin, was a much larger character, rough, always ready for a fight. Whipping out a six foot chain from under his denim jacket, he started to swing it in long rotations.

         “I suggest you put those toys away now lads,” said Thanatos. “Don’t want anyone to be getting hurt, now do we...”

Gradually Kale and Drai started to move to either side of the cousins, forcing them back to back against each other, the woman still shaking on the floor against the wall.

         “Fuck this shit!” shouted Jimmy jabbing his arm forward as he fired off a round towards Kale, followed by another and another.

Unfortunately for Jimmy, Kale had already ducked to the side and swung his fist up and under Jimmy’s outstretched arm, connecting with his jaw, causing an awful cracking sound as the bones gave way. Jimmy pivoted on the spot from the force of the punch, spraying blood into the air from the impact. His now broken jaw hung limp from the rest of his face as the blood started to seep down his neck.

As Jimmy first shouted, his cousin jumped forward, lashing the chain out at Maoric’s face. It missed by a hair’s breadth as Maoric leant backward away from the strike, using the momentum to spin around, extending his arm in a calculated swipe that gouged a large cut in the bigger man’s shoulder from the wrist knife. He fell to one knee crying out his pain and anguish just as Jimmy’s jaw was shattered by Kale, spraying blood in his cousin’s eyes.

* * * * *

Kale and Drai stood over the two fallen relatives, Jimmy and Blake, looking down at them, waiting. Kale glanced across at Drai who had whiped the blood from his knife on his sleeve.

As one, Jimmy and Blake lunged upward, trying to grab the two men still standing, both of whom were not where they were seconds before, causing the cousins to land face first on the hard tarmac. They struggled to stand, pushing themselves upright and launching themselves forward again incredibly fast.

Almost in slow motion this time, Kale saw the advance coming. He stepped smartly to the side drawing one of his guns, moving completely out of the path of Jimmy as he spun, bringing his gun to the back of the young man’s head. Without hesitating he pulled the trigger, just once. The net effect was that of Jimmy jumping forward from a crouch, only to have the front of his face blown off by someone who should have been in front of him, but was somehow behind.

Blake was faring no better as his cousin landed on the ground behind him. He had swung the chain round grossly over-judging the height and sending it sailing over Maoric’s head. His opponent stepped in quickly, thrusting his left hand up under the man’s ribcage, forcing the blade deep into Blake’s lung. Spewing blood, the man fell to his knees dropping the chain, barely managing to hold himself up on all fours. Lifting his right arm high above his head, Maoric drove his other knife down through the back of Blake’s neck, pinning him to the ground. As he stood and removed the blade from the fallen man’s neck, blood spurted upward before raining down, creating a crimson wash in the water around the body.

         “Well... I said it wouldn’t be pretty,” grimaced Thanatos.

         “No, pretty it wasn’t.”

The woman, stunned into utter silence and frozen to the spot looked up aghast at the two men.

         “Wha... I... Who...?”

         “You’re safe now, they’ll pose no threat to anyone again,” Kale explained.

         “You should leave lass, get on with you. Here take this.”

Maoric leaned in through the open window of the car and brought out a blanket from the back seat. He handed it to the shivering woman who snatched it up and covered herself before running away down the road and back into the main streets.

The two men walked around the car, yanking open the front pair of doors. Apart from the empty beer cans that adorned the back seat, there wasn’t all that much to see. Climbing into the passenger side, Drai reached under the seat and rummaged around, searching for what he knew to be there. Just as his fingers found the rough cloth of the bag, Thanatos, behind him cracked open the boot with a metal pipe from the nearby broken guttering.

         “Well well, look what we have here my friend.”

Bringing out the bag from under the seat and climbing out of the car back into the rain once again, Maoric strode round to see what Thanatos had been talking about.

         “Those two had a veritable armory on ‘em didn’t they. I wonder what all this ordinance is for?”

         “This isn't normal handheld, Drai, This is ship-mounting weaponry."

         "Why'd they be transporting that kind of power around in the trunk of a car?"

         "It’s of no importance to us. Grab one of those two and stick him in the passenger seat,” said Thanatos, indicating the fallen men lying prone on the ground, the blood pouring from their wounds all but washed away by the river of falling water.

Drai walked over and hauled Jimmy up by his feet, dragging him over to the car. He sat the man in the seat, shutting the door heavily. Kale had done the same with Blake, finding it a little harder trying to squeeze a six foot man into the driver's side of a small car. He slammed the door closed, the body left inside drooping over the steering wheel.

         “Let’s get going shall we? I’ve no wish to stay out in this god forsaken weather any longer than absolutely necessary.”

         “Aye Kale.”

         “No-one will notice these two missing.”

         “Not if it looks like an accident when they’re eventually found hey mate,” intoned Drai.

Upon saying this, he jammed his right hand wrist knife into the side of the car, the bodywork giving way easily under the force. As he stood up, pulling the knife from the twisted metal of the car, fuel started to spit and flow out of the hole, the petrol tank punctured. The vaporous liquid spilt out mixing with the rain, and soon the ground all around the car was shimmering as the petrol lay on the surface of the water.

         “And don’t forget the bag.” Shouted Kale against the constant roaring of the ceaseless weather as he turned and started to walk down the road, leaving the gruesome scene behind him.

Maoric stooped over and picked up the bag from where he had left it against the wall minutes earlier. It was soaked through, and Drai found himself thanking the TCC Council for abandoning the useless paper notes used in times past. Such money would have been useless now, but, as it was, the two men were walking away with nearly ten grand’s worth of credits.

As Maoric jogged to catch up with Thanatos, the larger man absent-mindedly drew one of his guns and rested it on his shoulder pointing behind him. The bullet found it’s mark exactly, and as the bulb of the streetlight high above the road shattered from the shot, sparks blossomed out and fountained down around the area where the car had skidded to a halt some time earlier.

Just as the men rounded the corner and started back down the large main street towards their final destination, a huge explosion was heard from the side road as one of the hundreds of sparks ignited the copious amounts of fuel on the ground. And so as not to annoy any particular clichés, from that explosion came one hubcap from the car, rolling out of the road and rocking to a stop in the middle of the avenue.