Clouds of Tyranny (4 page)

After exiting through the front door they
made a left to a narrow alley behind Locke’s shack: Terra traversed
first and trotted a good thirty paces and waited for Locke to catch
up. Locke took a deep breath and squeezed himself into the small
crawl space: the metal edge of his safe house grazing against his
puffed stomach. Ahead, he spotted an overhang about shoulder level
at which he and Terra would have to do a kneel-crawl in order to
make it through. He dropped to his knees and pulled himself with
his hands as his legs pushed along the rock-covered ground for
several yards. At last he sensed no restriction above his head and
could finally rise without bumping his head. He planted his right
hand, palm down, against the ground and rose from his knees only to
see a glistening gun pointing at his head. He stared down its
barrel for a few seconds before looking past it to its owner;
Terra. He stared into her face as she shivered; she was frightened
but not afraid to kill. All Locke could do was kneel there and
wait… “What do you want from me?” whispered Terra, “I didn’t do
anything wrong. Why are people trying to kill me?” Locke sat there
with his weight rested on his knees and threw up his hands like a
villain caught in the act, “ I’m not trying to kill you. I’m trying
to save you. Please…trust me.” Terra stood there for many moments
thinking to herself…

She envisioned the previous day, the last
time she saw her pond and cottage, when the imperials took shots at
her and attempted to apprehend her unprovoked. She stared down at
Locke; his face was of a man with no fear of death but his features
were sincere. “Terra,” he said, “I can protect you from the
Empire…please let me.” He reached his hand up towards her, knowing
that all she had to do was squeeze and he would be no longer of
this realm (she knew it too), but then she would be all alone and
that scared the both of them. She lowered the gun but didn’t fully
let her guard down, “Tell me,” she whispered, as to not arouse
suspicion because she could hear movement in the center of town and
faint discussion of a malicious nature. “What do you want to know?”
said Locke as he looked into her eyes. “What do they want from me?”
“Your powers to use for their own corrupt plans of holding the
entire continent prisoner. Then, when they’ve finished with you…”
Terra looked into Locke’s dark brown eyes and saw only truth inside
them, “Then…?” “They’ll dispose of you like a piece of wood that
wont burn.” Locke began to rise to his feet, no longer feeling a
risk of being shot by Terra, he knew that she knew that she needed
him and that he was of no threat to her. He stood there looking
into her eyes, eyes filled with dread and fear, he wanted to hold
her just in an attempt to give her ease, but didn’t and simply
walked past her. “Can we go now? Smith will tell you more when we
get to HQ,” said Locke turning his head to look at her. Terra was
staring down at her shoes, then raised her head and nodded an
affirming yes. “Who’s Smith?”

Locke and Terra stealthily
traversed through the tight corridors and beneath the crawl space
of the shack until they could see the western tunnel of Sangrohl; a
tunnel short enough that they could see the light peeking through
from the other side. However, two imperials were blocking their
access. Locke leaned back behind the wall that was concealing their
presence and began to think as the imperials stood around the
corner. Terra stood there gripping her gun, “Locke!” she whispered,
“Here, just shoot em.” “That would be very stupid, the sound of the
discharge would echo through the town. Hell, the old couple living
on the top of that mountain would hear it. Think before you act,
Terra,” he said sternly and quite rudely for that matter. She
sneered and leaned her back against the wall, waiting for him to
come up with something. He turned toward her in an attempt to
apologize for his arrogance, but before the words were spoken he
noticed a change in her appearance. “What happened to your
scratch?” said Locke as he noticed that the large cut that had once
lain below her left eye last night was now gone and only a smidge
of dried blood remained in its absence. “Oh,” she said rubbing her
cheek, “I heal incredibly fast. Heh.” He gave her a look that
said
I’m not stupid!
“Locke,” whispered a choppy voice from several feet away.
Locke and Terra looked around in all directions. Terra elbowed
Locke and pointed to a house adjacent to them where an elderly
woman in a wheelchair slightly waved. “Old Mag,” said Locke
explaining to Terra as he waved Old Mag over. “Who?” said Terra
into Locke’s ear. “Just be quiet and follow my lead.”
“Kay.”

Old Mag’s physical
appearance made it appear as if she was the one that tried to eat
Hansel and Gretal with her pointy nose, bony fingers, and wrinkles
that seemed to be inside of wrinkles. The elderly disgusted Terra.
She was glad that she didn’t have to see her mother like this: ugly
and helpless. Old Mag rolled herself in front of Locke with her
rusted, squeaky chair. Upon her approach Locke leaned down to
whisper with her; Terra couldn’t hear a word, but they obviously
were good acquaintances. “Good luck,” said Old Mag as they hugged
each other tightly. Then she did a quarter turn, nodding at Terra
as she made her way toward the imperial guards. Locke gripped
Terra’s hand tight and said, “Get ready to run…quietly.” She nodded
affirmingly and got in a sprinter’s mark. They watched as Old Mag
talked with the guards waving her arms in the air and crying.
“Fine!” yelled one of the guards as he took his rifle and hung it
around his back so he could have the use of both hands. He began
pushing her in the opposite direction of the tunnel and the
escapees as the other man began calling out with hands cupped
around his mouth, “Saaaaaatch! Come on cat!” “No no no,” said Old
Mag annoyed, “Like this: here Satchy Satchy!” “Are you kidding?”
said the guard. “Just do it!” ordered the guard that was now here
valet. “For the love of…Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere Satchy Satchy!!!” Old
Mag couldn’t help but giggle under her breathe as Locke stood there
smiling. Terra kneeled against the wall waiting for Locke to say
‘Go!’ He watched for the perfect opportunity, “Way to go Mag.”
Finally, the three feline pursuers were out of sight, “Go!”
whispered Locke to Terra. Terra ran as Locke followed by a nose
making sure that, above all else, she made it safely. She ran into
the shadows of the tunnel and Locke followed after he took a last
look around for spies, and then entered the tunnel. Inside Terra
was standing waiting for Locke to explain their destination,
“Well,” she said with arms crossed against her chest waiting for
some sort of explanation. “Well…you look nice…I guess?” said Locke
puzzled. “No, why are we going to HQ, or whatever? Am I just gonna
hide from the empire forever?” He walked past her as he explained,
“Okay, I’m just a commander of the Returners. You’re my mission and
when I get you back to headquarters I will have another mission. So
just save your questions for the boss. Never order me around, your
just a job, this is not personal for me.” “You put a blanket on
me!” “Yeah. So you’d be rested and strong enough to travel! Cant
have you getting sick; you’ll just slow me down That’s all!!!”
Locke stopped and realized that she was no longer walking and that
he was yelling at a frightened little girl. He stopped and turned
around to look at her, “Look, you’re a very gifted per-“ he stopped
mid sentence to see her looking at him through a blurry window of
tears that filled her eyes. He felt awful, but just stood there
staring; he wasn’t good at apologies and worse at sensitivity.
Terra could no longer contain her emotions and dropped to her knees
and began weeping into her hands blabbering about random things,
“I’m supposed to cook potato soup and pull the cabbage today. I’m
dirty and cold and and…” her crying was so intense she couldn’t
muster any more words. Locke rolled his eyes, he knew he had to
make some kind of physical contact with this girl to show her she
may not be home but she’s not alone. He walked over and kneeled in
front of her and put his right arm around her lightly rubbing her
back consoling her. She responded by wrapping both of her arms
around the back of his neck and burying her wet face into his left
shoulder crying even harder now, trying to get it all out so they
could move on. If it were up to Terra, she would cry all day, but
Locke wanted to go and it would be smart to get as far from the
empire as possible. Locke had saved her life so the least she could
do was wrap it up and get moving. She pulled her face from his body
and placed her arms at her side as she stood as Locke helped her up
by holding her hands. “I’m okay now.” Said Terra as she wiped her
tears from her face with her long skirt. Locke felt as if he should
say something…”Uhhh, I can make you some potato soup
tonight.”
Stupid,
he thought, but she smiled at the kind gesture. “Thank
you.”
Oh crap,
thought Terra,
We’re having a
moment.
“Lets go,” said Terra. “Yeah!”
said Locke unusually loud making her flinch.

Locke emerged from the tunnel first with
Terra trailing behind him; he gazed upon the green moors leading to
the home of the Returners, within the Wayfarer’s Wall. Terra exited
the shadowy tunnel out into the green pastures with the sun beaming
down on her face. They took a minute to admire the view: not a
house in sight, fluffy green fields leading to the Ire River in the
distance to the west. Just barely inside her field of view she saw
the legendary Wayfarers Wall; this ten foot high wall not only
bordered in between two countries but travelers used this landmark
to decipher where they were in the continent, every three miles or
so was a staircase ascending one side of the wall and draping over
the other for easy passage over the top. Upon each set of steps was
marked by an emblem indicating whose territory it belonged to such
as Velxeer, Cormire, etc.

Terra’s face beamed as she
looked at the beautiful scenery and gazed upon the crystal clear
lake where she saw a family of saber wolves drinking from the cool
water to replenish their energy. Less than a hundred feet from the
pack were two rabbits having a thirst quencher as well, but the
wolves didn’t bother to attack the delicious and helpless
rodents.
It’s like the water brings peace
and kills hate,
Terra thought to herself.
Locke looked over at Terra and saw her smiling away at its beauty,
this was the first time Locke had seen her really smile, she was
gorgeous when she was happy. Locke hated to break the mood, “Come
on, that’s our destination…” said Locke as he pointed to the
Wayfarers Wall. “Hmmm?” said Terra, “The other side of the wall?”
“No. The wall itself.” They began walking toward the wall across
the grassy plains; finally they could let their guard down seeing
as how there was no threat of predators here in addition to the
fact that the Empire couldn’t step foot in this land for the
penalty would be war with Velxeer; this area of land was officially
Velxeer kingdom. If the empire so much as went for a stroll on
these plains, King Luther would consider that an invitation to wage
a full-scale war.

“Do you even know how to
use that?” said Locke looking at her left hand as it gripped the
silver .45 caliber pistol. She bent her elbow bringing her hand up
to her view, “It’s rather simple isn’t it?” She pointed the gun
into the air and gripped it with both hands and turned her head
away as she tightly shut her eyes in preparation to fire the
weapon. BANG! BANG! BANG! She fired the weapon three times and with
each discharge it kicked her hands back a full foot almost causing
her to lose the weapon to the ground. She opened her eyes and
looked at Locke who was wide-eyed at her fear of an inanimate
object. “See…” she said as she snickered at Locke. “Yeah, easy as
pie…” said Locke as he rolled his eyes, “but just to be safe, maybe
you should practice when we get home.” Terra felt rather insulted
by this and the thought of ‘home’ didn’t feel her with joy. She
tightened her grip on the weapon, turned and fired; this time no
struggle between the weapon and her hands. The bullet pierced
through the left side of a sunflower spreading half of its petals
in different directions. She turned back to Locke with an angry
look and started walking towards the wall. Locke shook his head
from side to side and chuckled,
Thinks
she’s a marksman,
thought Locke to himself
as he hustled to walk along side her.

Several minutes past as
they walked in silence, neither of them knowing what to say,
Terra’s mind repeating the words Locke said to her
you’re my mission – Just a job, then he hugs me
when I’m feeling down. What’s with this guy? Acting tough so I wont
think he likes me? Was the hug just to shut me up? Jeez, wish I had
more experience with men, what is he thinking? Am I just a job to
him? Oh god!!! Do I like him? Is it a deep feeling inside my soul
or just a physical attraction fueled by the fact that he killed in
order to save my life? Does he have a woman? Terra, get a grip,
just wait, you’ll know soon enough. If his heart belongs to
someone, I’ll find out when we get ‘home’.
“So…” said Terra casually, “Where are you from, originally?”
Locke answered without looking at her; his eyes stayed focused
ahead as if waiting for something to pop out, “Born and raised in
Listka, an island to the south of this continent; remnants of a
former continent destroyed in world war three. Left when I was
seventeen. Stowed away on a boat with a friend from the same town
to get to the eastern continent and after five long years of
traveling my travel companion and me joined the Returners. The
Returners will change this land for the better. I joined because it
seemed like everywhere I went was under the control of the empire
and it made me sick seeing the fear in peoples eyes. Small
villages, big towns, didn’t matter, the Empire was everywhere
raping and killing and taking what wasn’t theirs.” Locke’s jaw
tightened as he thought in between sentences, “ I remember the day
I couldn’t take it anymore; I was in Korsla, a little village south
of Turklane, and held a girl in my arms as she slipped slowly into
the reapers grasp. Couldn’t have been a day over eleven years old
and she had been viciously raped numerous times by numerous
imperials.” Locke’s lip quivered as he continued; reliving that
day, “Raped…in every place imaginable. Beaten while they did it
because she couldn’t help but scream, any girl would scream out of
desperation and pain, right. I looked into her eyes, eyes that were
dead from the torment and pain within her body and mind. I wanted
to get help, but she begged me not to go and that she
wanted
to die; she
didn’t want to live with this memory. After she passed I laid her
lifeless body on the floor and sought out vengeance; I seeked out a
resistance group I heard rumors about. Sure, I could have killed
the men that raped that poor child, but that wouldn’t protect
anyone else and it wouldn’t bring her back. The smart thing to do
is to end the Empire’s reign of terror as a whole.” As they walked
Terra looked at Locke and into his quaking soul, this man has
experienced a lot of pain; that young girl is just the tip of the
iceberg. She went for his hand to supply some comfort but wasn’t
quick enough. “There,” said Locke as he pointed to the wall that
was a few yards away now. Terra looked forward to see not only the
wall, but also a short stalky man of about five and a half feet
standing there, no doubt waiting for them. Terra slowed her walk,
but Locke placed his palm on the small of her back assuring her it
was safe, which made her comfortable enough to continue.