death & fate part 2

Tristan awoke to the despised buzz of his alarm clock. He slammed is hand onto it, wishing he could do the same with a sledgehammer. He had been rudely awakened from his best dream in ages. Even after the night, the kiss of death still lingered on his lips. He silently wished it wouldn't wash off. They had made love in his dream, long passionate love that made him smile at the memory. After a moment he quickly dismissed the thoughts for later. He looked around the room, death was asleep in the bed beside him she was turned away from him, he couldn't see her face, or the tears she was shedding. He turned to se fate, sitting up from her mattress. She was half naked, covered only by a blue, worn out comforter. She looked at him with a flat eyed irritation, the bags under her eyes indicated tiredness.

" sorry" he said in a hushed tone. " gotta get to work"

Fate rolled back under the comforter and returned to sleep. He really hoped she wasn't too ticked at him, knowing what she could do.

Miles to the north, a secret group was meeting to discuss plans. Their traits had attracted another group though, unseen to the common eye gathering just above them.

" have they given in to our demands yet" the leader of the group asked.

" no" his underling replied. "not yet"

" then we have no choice" he stated " contact he outsiders, and ready the teams, by dusk we will be in a new world"

" of course" said his subordinate " we will make this world right"

Above the meeting terrorists, the other group listened in. More present in this meeting than even the terrorists arguably.

" how long until you think they realize they're being double crossed " said greed, unheard by the human ears.

" midday " corruption guessed " not much later. "

" these fools don't realize their own follies" said power "in their quest for "libration" the will only bring the doom of themselves"

" you and corruption seem as intimately bound as greed and gluttony" came a voice that everyone there snapped attention to. There in the door stood a tall redheaded woman in a white, bloodstained mask. Her crimson red lips and demonically evil smile struck fear into all present. Greed and corruption both loved and feared her, poverty was tired of being bullied by her, thus hid. Power, respected her and feared her too. " what's wrong , you boys don't think I'd show up here of all places." The masked woman at the looked over at them with the smile of an eight year old about to butcher open his Christmas presents.

" we didn't know you'd be here so soon" corruption spoke and they all backed away a bit.

" the fools downstairs just invited me to lunch" she announced " I'm taking them up on their offer"

" well I'm sure you'll be having a bit of fun while here" power hoped he could at least be on her good side.

" oh power" the fiery red headed woman turned to him " you know you wanted me here more than anyone else, corruption you knew I was coming, greed now's your chance, but don't get your hopes up that I'll be loving you too much. Poverty" he turned to the girl in rags quivering behind a couch " I'll get to you as the day goes on. Get ready boys, because silence is taking the 9:00 Amtrak out of here. This city has been ripe for me for too long, it's time I took a bite. Stick around boys, it's gonna be fun"

"but of course" said corruption, stuttering in fear " our lady war"

8:30 time for a break. Tristan shoved the last box onto a transport crate. These things were bound for some other city elsewhere in the world via starshuttle. A world Tristan only knew from the news. He entered the break room, there she was, and he was glad to see he as usual. She sat at the end table, drinking the usual bitter coffee they had there. Tristan poured himself and cup and sat directly across from her. The rest of the break room was chatting on about the mindless nonsense and hypothetical crap they usually did. Tristan and this woman were the only two intellectual here, and they enjoyed each others company every morning.

" so Tristan" she began " you catch that bit on the resistance."

" you mean how the justice board here has had the balls to announce their defeat" Tristan returned " yea, undeniable bullshit"

" not necessarily" said he woman "all right, we can admit that a group like theirs can't be defeated through force of arms, even if you kill every last on of them, their ideas still liger and other groups take up the entire freedom fighter ideal in vengeance, but it does seem they have been silent for a while"

" Florence, if living In neo LA all my life has taught me one thing, it's that silence from a group like them, only means a buildup. Lets face it, they'll never be satisfied until they themselves rule the city, and probably every other city left the fractured nations"

" you do think hey might be willing to ally with resistance forces in other cities." Florence stated " they all really want the same thing"

" please Florence" he argued "their leaders want what all men in power want, more power. If not you'd think they would have allied long ago. It's not impossible to travel between cities and organize something like this , especially when they have the resources they do"

" what you mean the mutants" she stated " everybody knows that since the world war 3, the world is mostly inhabited by mutants created by the fallout of the nuclear sweep and biological and chemical warfare used in the latter stages. the only remaining civilization is in the walled cities around the world. They make up the last human societies. Outside the walls lining this city The survivors of the nuclear holocaust have proven quite spiteful to the remaining humans, it's why the only possible transport inter city is the amtrack orbital shuttles. No one dares to cross the wastelands, anyone who does never comes back. You don't think they would start working with humans, even if it is the resistance. If so the resistance could get in contact with neighboring cities. "

" then how do you explain the numerous accounts of mutant sightings within city walls, and always in resistance occupied districts. Districts one two and three are even supposed to have entire underground villages of mutant and human population used as a medium for human and mutant trade. Not to mention shelves of mutant made weapons keep popping up in resistance stockpiles when raided. Weapons that can only be produced in the wasteland " Tristan sated.

" but what gain would they have from working with each other. " she asked.

" what isn't their to gain from each other" he answered bluntly " the wastelands are barren and near uninhabitable, and the drones that keep an eye on the bandit activity report little no producible food. The resistance gives them food harvested from the agricultural flotillas on the sea as well as power packs from the solar harvesters in space, and medical supplies that pretty much don't exist out there. In return the resistance gets cracks on weapons left over from the war and handmade by the mutant craftsmen, as well as valuable metals from the uranium and chromium mines and old age untraceable electronics from the junkers, plus they have a pact allowing the safe passage through mutant territories"

"And your basing this theory on" she implied.

" everything Iv'e seen and heard from contacts, and the news they feed us" he responded " you cant tell me they don't have anything the wasteland tribes would want or vice versa"

" true enough" she admitted " but then why hasn't the government set up trade then"

" easy" he answered " the united northern American government still lies on unfriendly terms with the mutants. For that matter most governments world wide seem to be on ill terms with the mutant tribes"

" cant imagine why, the entire mutant population wouldn't be soar at the remaining governments of the world. I mean they have kind of been left for dead." she commented " but you don't think they would also be soar at the rest of the human unaltered population"

" not entirely" Tristan returned" I mean the enemy of my enemy is my friend right"

"true enough" she returned " so I guess well just see"

" I suppose" he ended.

" all right kids, breaks over" came the voice of the manager " we got to finish these crates by sundown, back to work"

Everyone got up and headed off to their assigned crates, Tristan an Florence said their goodbyes or now. 8:55, slow start for a long day. Tristan hauled box after box onto the massive cube. Each was carrying some kind of processed good, mostly things made in the factories of the city. The nations were practically run by the corporate leaders of the world. They buy the politicians, who set it up so that the only ones who vote are those who have attended at last one year of higher education. However college and other forms of said are only affordable to the wealthy and upper class. So they don't even bother to campaign in the poorer districts. Corruption was the way of the world now. Tristan laid back against the wall, catching his breath for a moment. He looked at his watch, 9:00 exactly. Suddenly, a crack echoed over the city. Followed by a series of distant roars Tristan knew to be the sound of explosions.

"what the hell was that" a nearby co-worker asked.

immediately afterward alarms and sirens bean to echo the city. And a single repetitive message began sound all over the city.

" attention all citizens, the first second and third wards are to be evacuated immediately. Please follow the standard routes of evacuation. All other citizens are to return home and await further instruction. Thank you or your co-operation, have a nice day" the monotonic voice reiterated it's message and over and over again.

" guess this means we got the day off" his co worker implied.

" lets roll" Tristan informed quickly assessing the situation " before the guns come in"

moments later the entire warehouse was running out of the facility and barreling down the street. Over head, the military was soaring towards the northern end of the city. The first second and third ward, the lights and sounds of a heavy battle could easily be seen flashing from the outer warehouse. It was a 30 minute run to his apparent in the 12th ward, aka the docks. He spotted Florence looking north she was frozen. He ran to her.

"Florence " he called " Florence we have to get out of here"

" my home is in the first ward Tristan" she informed " my son is in there"

" I'm sure he's fine" Tristan assured " those are military transports, the'll be puling the civilians out after they drop off their troops, now we have to get out before anything bad happens"


" no " she screamed and ten barreled off towards the northern end of the city.

" Florence" he called out, but suddenly, a set of artillery shells fell from the sky like a pinch of hail and doused the area in flames. Napalm shells. Florence was lost in the smoke, he wouldn't be seeing he for a while.

Around him, the fires were consuming everything, buildings, cars, people. The screams were a symphony of pain that brought a whole new realm of horror into Tristan's mind. The area was doused in splotches of inferno. And throughout the unfolding madness, he heard a horrifying cackle, it came with the sound of screaming, shouts of cannons as they burst their warheads to their prey, roar of flames as they consumed all that burned, the fire of machine guns. It was laugh that twisted the psyche in ways unheard of. There at the center of the madness he saw a woman dressed in long dress that appeared to be made of knives, and a mask that covered all of her face except her mouth. Her open and warm mouth howling this demonic laugh. Around her an old man with slicked back long hair and maggots crawling under his skin gazed around. he paid visit to those who were in the flames, raking at their backs with his claws. Another, swept over anyone around, and they fled with no consent to who was in their way. All the while the redheaded woman continued to laugh in her twisted form of ecstasy. Tristan could only be transfixed by the scene before him.

"run" came the voice of death in his ear " run"

He obeyed, fleeing as fast as he could through the city. He didn't stop until he reached home. He busted in through the door, his father had gone off somewhere. He ran into his room and slammed the door behind him. Completely exhausted, he slid down into a curl and looked up. Fate was on her mattress, scribbling away in her book like nothing was wrong with the world.

" hey there" she acknowledged seeming too transfixed by her writing to give much concern to Tristan "see you made it back in one piece"

" fate" he asked " where's death"

" she's gone" fate casually stated " she'll be back by night though"

" what's going on" his question broke her trance, she looked directly a him with her jade green, striking eyes"

" you really want to know everything" she asked him " I'm not in the mood to keep secrets right now"

His gaze answered it perfectly.

" good" she began " I'll tell you"

Tristan waited, ears sharp.

" its the resistance factions here, they've been holding the city government at an ultimatum for a week. They planted a series of high yield explosives on the walls of the northern districts, they told the government to surrender control of the city to them, or they would blow the wall wide open and the outer bandits would be free to come in. the government naturally ignored them, corruption is the way this city function as you know. The government gathered some military force and prepared meet the mutants and the resistance head on. However, the powerful have yet again underestimated the impoverished. The mutants are pressing inwards, to the crater lake in the north. The military is putting up a quarantine wall, however they don't know how their going to prevent the mutant forces from simply taking a set of ships and crossing the lake. At the same time the resistance has begun a citywide assault. There are firefights throughout all landside wards. The military is strong enough to fight them off though, so its getting ugly for them. It seems that by the end of the day the resistance will be crippled beyond repair and forced to retreat to the mutant controlled areas. The outsiders though are going to have a substantial amount of newly acquired city space. There also double crossing the resistance. Their planning to take this city for themselves and all It's resources with it. Greed has taken his foothold here, power is sweating bullets, hatred has become rampant, brought by corruption, war has come to town"

" I see" he stated.

The battles thundered a bit in the background, shaking the windows. Fate noticed it, like there was something particular of this certain rumble.

" I have to go, business calls" she gathered her book and rose. On her way out the door she stopped just before Tristan. " by nightfall the fighting will quell, and death will come here, I want you to comfort her, no matter how calm she seems, understand"

" of course" he replied looking up into her nearly authoritative figure.

" good" she finished " I'll be back soon after"

With that fate left the room. Her footsteps seemed to disappear halfway down the hall. Tristan sat in his bed for the remainder of the day, listening the drums of battle in the background. They were like a lullaby to him, a Nightmarishly dark and horrifying lullaby that soothed the soul, like a requiem for someone sweet. He heard the gunfire from all over the city, airships crashing and shells and machine guns firing in a opera telling the tale of the end of his simple life. He cried for a moment, at the thought of what may come. Worst of all though, in the distance with the thunder he could still hear the maniacal laughter of the red headed woman. Taunting and belittling his conscience. She was already haunting his dreams. By nightfall, as fate had dictated, the distant thunder came to slow, then a halt and with a sigh the cackle of the masked red headed woman ended, for now.

Tristan looked up as soon as he heard the door open. There was death, as fate had stated, entering. He stood up to go to her. He had planned a series of things he could say to her, but now, with the look on her face, they all seemed like total rubbish. She was clearly concerned, something her mind. She had her eyes closed and her head down as she was making a b-line for her mattress. Her fingers to her temple and her pace stressed.

" death" he pleaded, it was obvious she was bothered by something, he couldn't imagine what.

" it's fine" she said as if she knew what he was trying to say, but she paused for a moment.

He stepped up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. For a moment she looked as though she were about to swat it off like a fly, but she soon relaxed. " you ok"

" I'm..." she tried to speak but stopped. Her eyes were filled with a sorrow Tristan had never seen before. The horror he had witnessed paled in comparison to the pain in her eyes. He instinctively tilted her into a hug on his chest. She grabbed his shirt, eyes now erupting with tears. She fell to the ground, Tristan knelt down to keep level with her, holding her tightly to his chest. He could quickly feel his shirt getting damp and his own arms starting to tremble. He could feel her sadness pouring out of her, like she was overflowing with despair. It ran cold through his body, and after a while, he too began to cry a little. She moaned and cried for hour upon hour, until she had drifted into sleep. He lay with her on the now tear soaked mattress. Never letting her go for a second. Her sorrow haunting his dreams.