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English
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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1,800
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1/1
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11
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1,420

Guard Your Soul

Summary:

Will is being hunted for being different.

Work Text:

Guard Your Soul
by Lopaka Tanu

 

Fighting off the urge to gasp, Will held his side. His hand was damp, but it wasn't something he could deal with just now. There were far too many of them. He had to keep very still and very quiet if he wanted to get out of this one alive.

"Did you see the fucker?" Head low, the woman searched under the rail cars. The light of her flashlight swept up and down the tracks.

Her companion searched the tops of the cars to either side of them. Their movements were in synch, speaking of long years of practice. "No. It saw your god damned flashy jacket and moved off too quick!"

She paused to cast a quick glare at him. "Don't start with me." The threat was clear in her voice. "I'm getting sick of your complaining all the damned time."

Will wished they would both shut up. They had been following him for the past five miles, bitching every inch of it. More than likely they were related.

That would fit with the rest of them. Families tended to stick closer together in this. Outsiders were rarely allowed on the hunts.

An empty can rattled further down the track.

Swinging her flashlight towards it, the woman brought out a second one. This one had a gun attached to it. She aimed it where she had been searching before to keep both areas covered. That meant she was experienced and more dangerous than previously identified.

"It's an old coke can. Stupid rats!" The muzzle of the man's gun flashed before the can went flying. There had been little sound when he fired due to a silencer.

That made Will close his eyes. Of all the morons with guns in the city, he had to find a pair that actually knew what they were doing. The wound in his side flared with pain and he choked himself to keep a gasp down. It was bleeding harder now.

Exploding brick fragments were sometimes worse than the actual bullets. The projectiles were definitely more destructive at close range.

"Quit wasting ammo, you dumbass." She smacked the man in the arm with her gun-mounted flashlight before shoving it back in her shoulder harness. The original went back to searching under the trains as they headed off.

The fire in his side let Will know he may have forgotten about it, but it remembered him. Tears rolled down his face. Yet, still he did not make a sound. Too many people depended upon what he held.

Her boots skidding off a disintegrating railroad tie, the woman narrowly missed falling. As it was, her flashlight went flailing with her arms. The beam shown over the cars at odd angles until she regained her balance.

Unfortunately, one of those odd angles revealed the eve of a passenger car's roof. Will's eyes reflected the light like twin mirrors, blinding him. He put up a hand to block the flashlight, but was too late.

"Found you, cock sucker!" The man's gun took quick aim at Will.

Before he could get off a shot, Will dropped to the ground. Putting out his hands, he landed hard, but didn't stop. Once on the ground, he rolled over the rails under the car.

The woman's shot ricocheted off the rail to the right of Will's head. "Damn it!" She fired twice more in his general direction out of anger. "Shoot him!"

"I'm trying." Firing his riffle, the man tried to locate where Will had disappeared under the car.

Coming out from the other side, Will put a hand down in the gravel to push off. The muscles in his arm protested, but he rocketed up off the ground to his feet. Light haloed him through the empty car windows and he had to duck.

Seconds later, the windows exploded outwards as bullets came flying through.

Will ran for all he was worth across the abandoned train yard. The hitch in his side was just an annoyance to be ignored it as he put on a burst of speed. In the distance, he could hear the rest of the hunting party. The shots had attracted them and they would soon be upon him.

It was worse than he had thought.

There was a strong chance he would not survive this night. Closing his eyes for a moment, he took a deep breath. He gasped out with a cough as the wound in his side suddenly spasmed. Groaning, he lost control and swayed on his feet.

Clutching at his side, he fell against the nearest object, a brick wall. Opening his eyes, he looked around and realized he had found a building. In the dim light of the moon, he could make out the ruins of the train station. The old red bricks had crumbled in several locations.

"I've found some blood!" It was another man's voice, lower than the first one's.

Will swallowed thickly. They had arrived at the train yard.

He searched for anything that he could use as a weapon. There was no way he was going down without a fight. With some sense of relief, he found an iron hand rail half broken off.

It was a small matter to break off the pipe near the concrete. His pain gave him extra strength as he twisted it free. The sheering of the metal free shrieked out over the yard and echoed back off the dilapidated cars.

Not that it mattered, they were already here. Several flashlights beams swung out from the rails. More than one red dot from a laser scope zipped over the ground. None of them immediately located Will.

Using the precious few seconds he had left, he pulled himself up on the platform. Quickly, he set about searching for a small cubby or pocket in the bricks. If there was a place he could hide the package, someone might retrieve it later. Then this whole ordeal wouldn't have been for nothing.

As he was looking at the remains of an old fireplace his shadow suddenly appeared on the bricks. A flashlight had found him.

"Turn around, freak!" It was a younger woman, probably still in her teens. Her voice trembled as she shouted her order. "I've found it! Over on the station. I've found the fucking thing!"

"Mindy, watch your mouth!" An older woman came rushing closer. Her words echoed off the station.

They sounded like they had been screamed in to Will's ears, no matter how far away the woman really was. Everything seemed magnified from his pain. His senses were going in to overdrive and that was definitely a bad sign.

"Drop the fucking pipe, you son of a bitch!" It was the first woman, the one who had tried to kill him with exploding masonry. Technically, she had shot at him, but her aim was terrible.

Still, Will did as he was told. Carefully, he leaned forward to place his hands against the mantle. As he did, he dropped the clothed bundle in the hearth.

Obviously it wasn't discreet. "What the hell was that?" The woman was very observant. She cocked a shotgun. "Answer me, freak!"

"Medicine." Swallowing past the pain, Will stared down at the red bundle. It had been white when he grabbed it from the hospital. His vision suddenly blurred and he realized how much blood he must have lost by now. Jaw heavy, Will slowly shook his head. "It was only medicine."

The older woman snorted. "Drugs, of course."

Will didn't argue with her. She wasn't worth it, none of them were. He had failed and was what mattered. Yet, there was still a sliver of hope. Closing his eyes, he clutched the stone of the mantle. He kicked the bundle to the back of the fire place. Before they could react, Will tore at the bricks in the mantle with all he was worth.

With a deep groan, the bricks came tumbling down over the fireplace. They took most of the wall with them. This effectively buried the entire pit.

Dust shot up around Will in a red cloud. It stung at his eyes and made his nose burn where he breathed it in. That didn't matter for long.

In the next second, several dozen shots rang out. One struck him in the back of the head and he went down on top of the pile of rubble.

~~~~~~~~~

Wind tossed her curls about her face as she slowly climbed the stairs. The hat kept most of her hair in place and blocked out the dying sun. It was an hour until nightfall, and thus, curfew. Still, she had plenty of time to do what she came for.

Behind her, the blonde woman stood watch on the remains of an old train rail. Her boots balanced carefully on the metal for no other reason than she could. "Hurry up."

Ignoring the younger woman, she paused to stare at the rubble. Deep red stained the bricks. She had a fleeting thought that they may have been older than herself. It was hard to tell nowadays.

Walking over to the pile, she knelt down beside it. As she reached out for the bricks, Helen found it hard to breathe. A stinging in her eyes made them water. It did not matter. She was here for a reason.

She grasped the top bricks and began to shove them aside. They crumbled under her touch, but that did not stop her. Soon, she was shoving aside entire piles to reach her goal. It had to be here. This was the last place he had been and the hunters hadn't brought it back to the city with them.

When her hands hit foundation, she nearly cried. It wasn't at the front of the pile where she had expected. That meant she had to push deeper in. She grasped large stacks of the bricks and tossed them aside in her mad quest. Red dust covered her fine garments but she did not care.

Within minutes most of the pile surrounded her. It was not until she reached the back of the fireplace did she slow. Helen froze the moment her fingers grazed the soft material. For a second, she mistook it for more brick. Then she seized upon it.

Working furiously, she pried it from the bottom of a stack of more bricks. Eventually she jerked it free with a soft cry. While she stared at the red cloths, the bricks it had been supporting gave way. Their fall coated her with more dust, but again, she didn't care.

At last, she had it. His death, and countless others, hadn't been for nothing.

Looking over her shoulder, the younger woman frowned. "Is that it?"

"Yes." Unspoken emotions choked her throat. Staring at the package, for the first in nearly five years, Helen had hope. "We may finally have a cure...and a way to stop the Cabal."

 


THE END.......................