1.18.1

Sole Survivor

Astrid’s flagging spirit blossomed anew.

She darted to the voice. Her companions converged to cover her back.

Inside the pitiful accommodations, a teenaged male, pale and sickly, went wild-eyed at the appearance of a young woman at his window.

“You—you’re from the outside?!”

The anemic boy stumbled to his feet and came to fall against the glass. It seemed to take all his strength to remain upright. His sandy hair and pale eyes matched the ash hue to his skin. Devoid of care and sun.

“You’re a Channeler…” Astrid eyed the pendant that dangled from his neck.

“We all are. All those that are here.”

“I’m sorry. I think… I think you’re the only one left.” Astrid did everything could to blink away the pain that seeped behind her eyes.

“What?”

She didn’t have any answers, or any comfort for the distress that poured from the boy. Hands clutched over his ears and temples, then rubbed at his gaunt face.

“No, that can’t…” the captive paused in heartbreak. “We haven’t been fed in days. To keep us weak. I haven’t been able to feel them. They’d been quiet, but I thought, maybe they’d been moved, or…”

“I’m sorry. We’re going to get you out of there,” Astrid promised herself.

“Why? I don’t know who you are!” His expression twisted in distrust. “How do I know you’re not with them?!”

Astrid leveled her gaze with the teen’s crystal. She gathered the energy left in the radio she’d drawn and pressed a palm to the barrier between them. She pushed the power into the willing receptacle just on the other side of the glass.

It was easy, too easy, to connect through the distance to something so familiar.

The prisoner’s pendant lit, faintly, and with a start, grey eyes flashed to her in disbelief. “You’re… you’re one of us?! H-how!?”

“Not all the Statics fear us. We’re trying to stop this.”

“We can’t stay here, we need to get moving,” Karth reminded her.

Quickly, Astrid prioritized. “Can you tell me your name? Where are you from?”

“Gavin,” the boy answered. “My name is Gavin. I’m from Sanctuary Argos.”

“Argos?” Astrid rushed closer against the pane. “Do you know Gi? Gi Mae?”

Gavin faltered. “I... I did. I don’t think… I don’t think he made it out.”

“What do you mean you ‘don’t think’?”

“It was chaos,” Gavin explained. “There was a series of high-pitched pulses, screams, and then an explosion. Of power. Not heat, but light. It swept the whole grounds. Most people died. I saw them. Those that survived, at least, the Channelers… they were brought here. Gi wasn’t among them.”

"What happened?" Astrid reserved countless questions. "Gavin, what started it? Do you remember anything?"

"It was bad for awhile," Gavin's lips trembled, as though speaking of it alone haunted him. "We lost people, even before the end."

“Astrid, we have to go!” Tenya pivoted from her post at the end of the hall.

Astrid stepped away from the cell with a scowl. “I’m not leaving him in there to die!”

“We can’t take him with us,” Karth rejected immediately.

“Commander, look at what they’ve done to them! We can’t just—”

Anders passed a look to Karth, then crossed to her, even as she rambled a refute.

“Astrid, look at him.” The soldier interrupted her and gestured to the boy. “He’s weak. He has no armor, no weapons, no training. If he comes with us now, we’ll just get him killed.”

“What am I supposed to do?” A wave of helplessness rolled over her.

“The best thing we can do to help him right now is finish the mission. The sooner the better. He’s safer in there, out of harm’s way. We secure this facility, and we can get him help,” Anders tried.

He leaned in until only his eyes, rife with sincerity, filled her vision. “Astrid, you have the power to save him. All you have to do is help us complete the task at hand.”

With a swallow, she nodded and pulled herself away.

She looked to the prisoner, a Channeler like herself, trapped and all but condemned.

“Hold on,” she pled of him. “Please.”

“Alright…” Gavin hugged his haggard body in a thin arm. “I guess I have no choice. Be careful.”

It took everything in Astrid to peel herself away from the compartment. She rejoined the others, frown set and heart furious.

“You ready?” Karth asked of her.

She chucked the now-useless radio aside, and clasped her next source, a guard taser, in her shaking fist.

“Yes.”

~~~

Karth, Tenya, Anders, and Astrid, marched through the cells with little interruption. With the majority of the block desolate, there seemed little need for guards or patrols.

Astrid was still enraged when they located an exit beneath a sign for the prison yard.

“We didn’t see a yard from the outside. It must be at the center of the structure,” Tenya guessed.

“We may be halfway then,” Karth estimated. “Ready?”

Astrid and the others nodded decisively.

Anders threw open the door, and Karth and Tenya advanced.

A handful of guards awaited, shocked that the team made it that far. But Astrid burst through next, livid and fuming.

She pushed between the commander and chief and threw her arm before her in an arc.

The two closest fighters flew back, and those behind backed away on impulse, guns raised.

“Channeler!” one warned, “Take it down!”

Tenya silenced the bastard before he could issue any more orders.

Anders lay a spray that sent the pack to scatter, Astrid tagged a rogue straggler in the leg when he tried to flank them. Karth and Tenya picked off those that remained.

After such a decisive victory the small strike team shared a determined nod. Then they wordlessly marched through the concrete yard as onward they stomped.

Again, two positioned themselves at the far door, and the second pair charged through into the next building.

Astrid felt the moment it happened. When the team stopped needing speech in order to communicate. She’d synched in.

Just inside the next area, another group, this time eight, headed them off around a corner, and the Aldebaran crew retreated behind the bend to retain cover.

Astrid felt the buzz of Statics approach up the hall while Karth and the others hastened to reload.

She drew once more from the taser in her hand until it, too, fell spent. She dove before the force of oncoming Statics and thrust the energy outward, into them, before they could encroach further.

Tenya slid out next, the first to replenish her pistol, and fragged the closest two.

Shots fired back at the women, and they ducked back behind the junction of the halls.

A bullet chipped away at the wall’s edge and cast stone flecks over Astrid’s armor. She tucked her head away from the blast.

Karth and Anders lashed out next, and alternating, the pairs covered for one another until the opposition needed to reload themselves, then the Aldebaran’s team took advantage.

The armor the targets wore made precision necessary to permanently decommission each one. Astrid still needed practice, but with patience, and a few hits to limbs, she managed to slow the enemy until the rest of the team could clean them up conclusively.

Astrid collected a second radio from one of the bodies and palmed it.

“That was a bigger group,” Tenya counted.

Karth agreed. “We have their full attention now.”

Even as he spoke, three more darted from a side passage and right into them. Eyes widened when the pack realized their mistake.

“On the ground!” Karth ordered, rifle raised. “Get on the ground!”

Instead, in their panic, the men went for their weapons.

Flashes of gunfire ended it before they could use them.

“Damn it.” Karth scowled.

“Reckless. Undisciplined.” Anders, too, scornfully observed the mess left in their wake. “What a waste.”

Tenya grimaced.

“Prisoners,” she reminded them. “They’re fodder.”

“They’re going to run out of bodies soon.” Anders readjusted his hold on his weapon. “They can’t have that many here or we’d have seen more by now.”

As they moved on, more doors passed on both sides. Being thorough, the team tarried at each to make certain no one could surprise them from behind. But every door only opened into small rooms for interrogation, interviews, or meetings.

When they did find off-shoot halls, of which there were few, the commander indicated a strategy to keep with the wider paths, and to follow the flow of fighters to their source.

“These aren’t cell blocks. We have to be getting close.” Karth nodded ahead to a set of doors marked with red signage. “Check there.”

“The infirmary?” Tenya hoped.

“Or another trap. Stay tight,” the man cautioned.

The team fell into position. They gauged each other for synchronicity and prepared to breach the entrance.

But before they could do anything else, a raucous thunder of gunfire, followed by shouts, then cries, boomed from the other side in hellish succession.