Chapter Thirty Six
“You know what I read recently? An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. To that asshole, I say this: claim your enemy’s eyes before losing your own, and you’ll be the last one left to see. Sounds like a fucking battle plan!”
–Hades, “Some Philosophical Shit”. 4 Years After.
* * *
“Where are they?” Leah asked.
The Beholder cleared his throat. “Almighty, eternal God, heavenly Father, comfort and strengthen this servant and save them through your g–”
Leah silenced him with a single swing, her machete cleaving through the neck. The Beholder’s severed head rolled but once before stopping near the pile of others who had shared the same fate.
She sighed. “Not a single one of them saw anything, huh?”
The battle raged behind. The Beholders had set up all sorts of fortifications around Elysium, but none of them had expected such a large force to rise when Leah revealed herself. She’d started at the Lodge and marched straight through Pandemonium, collecting anyone willing to take back their home. Now, it felt like the entire city was doing their part, from workers throwing Molotovs to Hunters burning through their expensive armor-piercing rounds to bring any of these fuckers down.
And Leah sat front and center. Relaying orders through the radio, striking fear into the Beholders when they saw their defeated enemy resurrected, and killing anyone who crossed her path.
Half her body might still be on the fritz, but she could still shoot a rifle, and no one was sitting this fight out.
One of the Beholder humvees rounded the bend, its minigun turret spinning into action. But before it could cross the yard, an RPG launched from a nearby apartment, striking the hood. The humvee twisted against the concussive force and capsized. A mob rushed the downed Inquisitors before they could escape.
Leah smirked. Not even their trucks would stop this army.
She studied Elysium, her companions behind. “How we looking up there?”
“We’re making progress,” Dwayne said, “but the Beholders have a lock on the main gates. They’ve got an M4 raining hell against anyone who enters the courtyard.”
“Shit… What about the loading dock?”
Flamingo shrugged. “The path is welded shut, señora. We could concentrate explosives there.”
Leah considered the possibility. “No, those doors are too thick. Even if we broke through, the catwalks give defenders a massive advantage. The entire area would be a killing field for whoever entered from the ground floor. Unless we work around this, we’d be throwing troops right into the meat grinder.”
“Why not just hit them with missiles then?” Dwayne asked. “Elysium or not, so long as we have both Charon and Fran back in the mix, that’d be more than enough firepower.”
“Can’t. We’ve got allies in there, and that’s too much collateral damage to be worth the chance.”
He scoffed. “Why do you care about a couple humans?”
“It isn’t just them in there. Don’t forget that this is their latest baptism-factory. There’s no telling just how many friendlies are trapped in there, or where the Beholders placed them.”
“Still seems like an unnecessary risk for us.”
She met him in the eyes. “You’re half-right, Dwayne. It is a risk, but one we have to take. Those people trapped in there are part of this city, same as you and me. We can’t sacrifice our friends just to make the fight easier. That’s what separates us from them. It has to be that way.”
More than that, Leah couldn’t have it both ways. She couldn’t allow so many to put everything on the line to bring her back, only to not do the same for them. Anyone who could still be saved deserved having that chance, and she’d be damned if a single crippled worker was left behind, all alone.
No, that wouldn’t happen on her watch.
Dwayne watched the complex back. Though the ballistic mask kept his face as unreadable as ever, the slightest grumble in the back of his throat made it clear that he’d taken the sentiment to heart.
“Got any bright ideas then, boss?” he asked.
“To break into Elysium on foot? You’re talking about the fortress that Hades spent well over a decade building up against attacks like the one we’re doing?”
“Yeah, that place.”
She rubbed her scarf. “Don’t have any good ideas, but I sure have a couple bad ones.”
“Suppose anything’s better than standing here with our thumbs up our asses.”
“Gather around then because I’m only going to explain this once.”
Leah ran through the plan from there, with the rest of her allies standing beside. The battle raged in the backdrop, but the Pandemonium troops were on a full offensive now, and not even the heavy caliber mortars or armour-piercing rounds could slow them down for long. The Beholders were soon on the retreat, slipping into Elysium where they stood the best chance.
“You’re right, boss,” Dwayne said when Leah finished. “That is a stupid plan.”
“It’ll minimize casualties,” she emphasized.
“Well, yeah. Especially since you’re the only one getting killed trying to sneak around that fortress all by yourself.”
“Please, señora,” Flamingo pleaded. “Let someone else take this assignment. We cannot lose you now.”
“No.”
“But there must be others who can do this too.”
She shook her head. “I’m not about to bring child-sized rezzers into this death trap with me. Whether we like it or not, I’m the only Hunter thin enough to squeeze into that vent who also has the skills to see this through.” She grinned. “Besides, I’ve already died once before. Everyone else will just think it’s another sleight of hand if I go down a second time. May even make me a martyr when the dust settles.” She shrugged. “So, what’s there to lose? Worst comes to worst, you guys go with Plan A and drop the hammer. Got it?”
The others begrudgingly accepted.
Heavy machine gun fire began to target the primary Elysium batteries. Mortars and missiles flew in retaliation. What few humvees remained under Beholder control zipped around for the Eastern front, where they still held the most robust defense. The recovered Pandemonium trucks barreled at their heels like sharks out for blood. Everyone in a cloak was forced into retreat, their allies laying down covering fire from the safety of their stolen bastion.
And Leah limped forth with Flamingo and a squad of his best. Bullets clattered against their riot shields as they closed the distance, the El Dorado Hunters interposing themselves between the shots and her. Some viscera burst free where the rounds cut through gaps in their wall, but they had chosen the path well. Only smaller automatic rifle rounds could hit them from this angle. The more powerful M4s were still concentrated near the main entrance.
They reached the edge of Elysium, and Flamingo and his crew launched grapples onto the roof. More bullets flew, but supplemented by Dwayne and his crew’s covering fire across the street, they could not land a killing blow. The Hunters scaled the wall and disappeared onto the roof.
But Leah had a different goal. With their enemies sufficiently distracted, she squeezed a small amount of plastic explosives against a steel-plated grate and planted a receiver. The grate snapped free with a pop.
Had this been normal times, Leah would have been finished. An alarm would’ve gone off, guards would close in, and an entire army would bear down on this spot.
But it helped that a fucking war was happening. A cavalcade of RPGs exploding and soldiers screaming over each other made for a nice distraction.
Leah turned back to Dwayne and nodded, then set her timer. Ten minutes. She slipped into the air conditioner vent while the Beholders continued to focus attacks on everywhere else but where she lay.
It was a tight squeeze. Leah once again had to dislocate a shoulder to give her that extra bit of mobility as she wriggled through the vent, her small sack of supplies dangling behind. The metal chafed against her skin, and her weapons clattered every so often, but she forced herself to move at a quick, even pace. Time was of the essence, and every second counted. Too many lives depended on her seeing this phase through.
A group of Beholders rushed down the hall, their AR-15s awkward against their white-cloaked bodies. They pushed for the main entrance, a fervor in their gaze.
Leah delicately unwound the screws to the vent behind, opened the grate, and slipped through. Before more reinforcements could pass by, she popped her shoulder back into its socket and drew her 1911. The oversized suppressor slipped on with ease. Eight and a half minutes.
Explosions rocked the walls and shouts weren’t far behind, but Leah limped down the hallway with all the speed her weakened body could handle. Oh, how she wished this battle had been delayed another few weeks when she’d return to full strength. She and Evelyn had agreed on as much when they first came together. But then Liam returned at the worst possible time, forcing them to accelerate their plan, and shit got cranked to eleven soon after. Abraham called an emergency meeting with his loyalists, no doubt ready to spring whatever trap he’d planned with that endless horde of hollows.
Leah perked her ears as she moved down the halls. This was calmer than she’d expected. Only a few Beholders crossed her path, and she was quick enough with the 1911. Her .45 ACP rounds pounced in near silence, the higher grain bullets exploding through undead heads with ease
She checked her timetable. Seven minutes. This was going faster than she’d expected. Interestingly, many Beholders were dead along the way, and their friends were just as shocked as her.
Had this been Liam and Evelyn alone? Workers revolting? Internal fighting? Couldn’t say for sure. All Leah knew was someone was killing the Beholders from within. This made the path forward far smoother than she could have anticipated.
And yet, Leah still struggled to make it through, her ruined muscles refusing to move at full strength. Even as she butchered whichever Beholder that happened to be unlucky enough to go through the same hall as her, so many more weren’t far behind. She was but a small piranha swimming through the ocean. With each drop of blood spilled, more predators circled closer still. It wouldn’t be long before they had her surrounded, with or without this stranger’s assistance.
And so Leah moved onward, once again alone in her quest. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t slow. Not when so much more was at stake. The world was burning down and her friends’ lives were on the line, and she couldn’t give two shits about herself so long as everyone else made it through.
A small group of Beholders clustered around her final destination, their guns aimed away from where she approached. Before the advantage could be lost, she put them all down in a volley of suppressed gunshots. Only their death gasps resonated out, buried against the louder cacophony beyond these walls. Five minutes, fifteen seconds.
Barrels and boxes were scattered about the many resources that got sent in and out of this locale. A great sheet metal gate spanned the length of this chamber, rivaling the Styx itself. Pallets and shelves sat to either side, stretching out from the lanes of traffic where the trucks could stop. A catwalk ran along the length of this room, providing a vantage above all else.
Leah took in all in sight, remembering her own words. There was no better way into Elysium than here: the loading dock.
Provided that someone else made it through first.
She checked her timer. Four minutes, fifty seconds. No time to waste. Leah scaled the nearest shelf, threw open her bag of supplies, and went to work. Her devices would need to be placed perfectly for this to work, and that assumed the others reached their positions in time.
One by one, she got everything ready…
“Enemy!” a Beholder shouted nearby.
Dammit. Leah dove off the shelf before the bullets started flying. Barrels and boxes hissed against the gunfire. She rolled from one to the next, keeping ahead of the shots before they could land, then sent volleys of her own in retaliation. It was no use. The Beholders had summoned reinforcements and claimed the catwalk before long.
“Do you see where the traitor went?” one shouted.
Another sneered. “No, this is one of the heretics.”
“Then he is still free!”
“Kill her!” another ordered. “They must be working together.”
Together? So, she wasn’t the only one suffering from a turncoat problem lately. Who else had broken through their indoctrination to get them so spooked?
“Stop! I know this heretic!” another more familiar voice rose above the others. “Come out, Leah. I know you’re in there!”
Leah grit her teeth. This motherfucker right here…
“So that’s how it is now, huh!?” she shouted back. “Having a seat at the table wasn’t good enough for you? Thought you’d throw everyone under the bus to get it all!?”
The asshole snickered. “It is as I told you before, Leah. These people are quite a beauty to behold. They get so much more accomplished than we could ever dream.”
She checked her satchel again. Three and a half minutes. Still had a third of her devices not placed.
She sighed. This would have to do. There was no way to plant more. Not without them becoming wise to her trap.
“Always wondered which of us would fold,” Leah called out, hoping to buy more time instead. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Someone had to have given Abraham the heads up about my plan to assassinate him, and of everyone on the Council, you were always the greediest piece of shit, Sinclair.”
“Believe what you will,” he said. “It matters little now.”
Leah stepped into the open, her arms in the air and eyes fixed on the Beholders in front. Her former ally sat in their center, his simple cloak a pure white between the squad of black. A simple yet clear rejection of the world he’d come from before.
Rifle barrels narrowed onto her, but nobody shot. They wouldn’t. Not until their new boss gave the order.
She focused on him instead. “Tell me, Sinclair, was it worth it? Is their God’s love more worthwhile than that of the people whose lives you threw away?”
His whitened teeth glinted under the fluorescent bulbs, his skin as polished as ever. “So narrow-minded, Leah. Who says I have wasted anyone’s life? By my count, your combative nature has driven us to this place. You were the one to try to purge their hierarchy, after all. The Beholders merely responded.”
“Without your intervention, this would have been over ages ago.”
“And without yours, we’d be amidst a gilded age as we speak.”
“With you sitting at the top, huh? A couple more bookshelves full?”
Sinclair scoffed. “Do you really think all I care about is lining my pockets with a few pics?”
“Can the bullshit,” Leah said. “We both know why you did it.”
“Do we now?”
“If not for power and profit, then why choose the Beholders over the rest of us? Instability is hardly your modus operandi.”
He beamed. “Don’t you understand, Leah? Because this is for profit. Not just mine, but for us all. What the Beholders have created is the greatest profit in this world.”
Leah blinked. “Huh?”
“You still don’t see it, do you? By putting all our faith in the hands of the Lord, the Beholders are capable of toiling endlessly without cost. No hidden fees. No resources spent. No bureaucratic waste. Only the power of collective faith is necessary, and faith in Him is infinite.”
His scarlet eyes burned bright in the dim room. “This is the ultimate form of our capitalist system. The perfection of industry! Through the strength of the Lord, our entire economy will enter a new frontier. One devoid of the inefficient suffering that we have become so accustomed to. An endless, flawless growth!” He stared down his nose at her. “Don’t you see how much better that is of a goal than a few meaningless books?”
Leah stared at Sinclair. At this adviser turned enemy. She watched the merciless titan who placed profit above all else.
And she guffawed, loud and long. Oh, what a fucking joke this is. Sinclair’s eyes twitched as Leah laughed out loud, too trapped in the hilarity of it all to care about his sensibilities or trigger-happy grunts. She slapped her knees, chest hunched, trying to keep her sides from splitting.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping a tear away. “I really thought you were playing some four-dimensional chess here, Sinclair, but you’re more of a fucking moron than I first thought.” She looked into his eyes. Into the forced faith beneath. “You really thought you’d be spared, didn’t you? Was it your ego that made you think they wouldn’t baptize you too?”
Those same eyes twisted to fear as he inched forth. “What do you know of the Lord’s power, Leah? You never got to Behold what we have! He will save this world, and there is nothing you can do!”
She stole a glance at her watch. Only a minute and a half left. She just needed to buy a little more time.
“You’re delusional, Sinclair,” Leah said. “You didn’t behold anything, and you aren’t bringing about some golden era for our race. Abraham used you to get to me, just like he’s used everyone else. Now, you’re no more than a puppet to him, to be tossed aside at the slightest inconvenience. These aren’t your choices anymore. They’re just his propaganda coming out of your mouth.”
“You are wrong!” he snapped. “I make my own decisions.”
“No, they only were your decisions. The second they threw you into that pool, you lost your autonomy. I warned you that would happen, but you refused to listen. Too full of yourself to think that anyone else could ever tap into that mind of yours.”
“Your understanding of beliefs is so rigid and fragile. Just because I have become a Brother under God, that doesn’t mean I’ve lost an ounce of who I am. How else do you think I anticipated this reunion?” He gleamed, the frenzy at its peak. “That is right. The others thought you would hide behind the rest of the heretics, but I knew you would find your way down to here. You could never put your fate in the hands of others. Your ego does not allow it.
“That is where you and I are different, Leah. Where I am willing to adapt to a changing world, you will always wallow in self-imposed ignorance. Why, this solo invasion of yours is the most predictable thing in the world. Kill the guards, open the door, and be the hero of the day. No one else but the almighty Leah could be assigned such a task.” He beamed. “That is your plan, no?”
Leah limped forth with a sigh. “You know, had this been a few weeks back, you’d be right. Never did see any reason to trust anyone else. Not really. I always figured that the only way to guarantee my safety was by putting all my faith in the one person who never let me down. Me. I’d done it a thousand times before, and I’d do it a thousand times again.
“But then I got humbled by my own hubris, same as you. That landslide didn’t just crush my bones. It broke my spirit. My soul. There I was, a completely powerless wreck who couldn’t so much as take a shit without assistance.
“And you know what terrible thing happened to me, Sinclair? Nothing. If I learned anything from those long weeks paralyzed, it was how much of a fucking idiot I’d been. All my fears about betrayal by others were proven false. They still found it in them to save me, even after I spent a lifetime shunning the slightest helping hand.
“That is what makes our relationships different from what your Beholder friends have manufactured. They’ve always viewed others as a tool to be leveraged or disposed of, no more than insignificant cogs to be replaced the second they step out of line. But we’re different, Sinclair. True friends don’t care how badly you fucked up. They always find it in our hearts to keep the door open.”
She smiled. “To think that it took this travesty for me to see that. I guess you’re right, in a way. I’d been stuck in blind ignorance. Too arrogant to see that my lonely prison was of my own making. But that is the nature of life, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been stuck in the dark. We can always find our way back to the light. And it will always be there so long as we reach out to our friends.”
Sinclair stared on. “Such profound words. And yet, you still fell into the very trap you purport to be against. Where my allies stand by my side, you marched against our army, all alone.”
“Oh, Sinclair.” Leah raised her timer with a grin. Five seconds remained. “Who says I’m alone?”
She thrust her half-empty bag of plastic explosives forth. As the timer reached zero, every bomb inside went off.
And not just there.
Plaster shot out from the roof where Leah had placed the other charges, strategically above the main door where the foundation was weakest. Smoke and fire billowed out, but it was the ropes that dropped through that put the rest on edge.
Her allies rappelled through the opening, their automatic spraying into the shell-shocked Beholders. Flamingo, Charon, the other Hunters, even Dwayne. All of them had shown up for this final breach, despite the risks. The room flashed bright with so many bullets being unleashed.
The Beholders crumpled against this sudden ambush. Why wouldn’t they? They couldn’t fathom placing so much faith in their fellow man. Leah trusted the others to see this attack through, and they trusted her to lay the groundwork. Not because of mutual self-interest or some collective faith in a higher power, but because they believed in the strength of each other alone. No more was needed to defeat this invading army.
Only Sinclair remained when the dust cleared. He gaped, hands quaking after seeing the odds tilt so horrifically against him. Red beams narrowed onto him as the others kept aim.
Leah closed in, her pistol back in hand. She beamed. “You really shouldn’t have let this conversation drag out so long, Sinclair. No one gets to monologue this hard without someone getting killed.”
“Wait–” he started, but Leah already pulled the trigger. The .45 pierced through his skull, and Sinclair fell without another sound. That’s one asshole down the drain.
Dwayne lowered his rifle. “Area’s clear, boss.”
“How’s topside looking?” Leah asked.
“Beholders still on the retreat,” Charon said, reloading his M16. “Looks like many are falling back.”
“Where they going?”
“No idea.” He held the radio close. “But whatever they’re up to, this breach has them more panicked than we thought it would. Abraham’s already evacuated, heading East.”
Leah shook her head. “It isn’t us that has them so worried.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because someone else has come through here first.” She studied the next hallway, leading deeper into Elysium. Black blood caked the walls and floor, with Inquisitor bodies eviscerated along the way. It looked like a bulldozer went through.
Who the hell could have caused this?
