Tattoos and Rail Guns Chapter 20: Stairs and Treaties Are Negotiated

The Rochester-Fallon had not fared well during the cataclysm, a fact that Walker was beginning to appreciate. The lobby had been ransacked, with tiles and carpet shredded and destroyed and the desk itself was smashed. The elevators were definitely out, with doors broken down and cables hung down the shafts. This forced them to use the stairs, which were a ramshackle mess, with handrails barely hanging onto the walls and trash filling the stairwells. Given that the building was a hundred floors or so tall, they prepared for a slog.

Walker sighed as he realized just how much walking they were doing. Rodriguez smiled as he recognized that sigh. “Cheer up, kid; we only need to go up to the fiftieth floor or so.” Walker glared at the sergeant behind his back but Rodriguez smiled knowing he was doing it.

Douglas looked around the lobby. “I'm on the record as hating this idea, right? Just making sure.”

Samuels smirked at him. "Yes, you are. And, yeah, we should have gone looking for the lieutenant. But here we are.”

Rodriguez checked his ammunition. “I would have if we had an idea where to look. I have the dachshund waiting for her when she shows up. Meanwhile, we may as well as poke around the building while we have some time, especially if what Morganna said was true.” He tweaked the sights on his rifle. “Besides, I have a feeling we'll need that intel when the lieutenant hears about the uptick in activity.” He aimed at an object. “And no; we aren't checking out other locations. If there's an uptick in activity this building is part of that somehow.”

All three sighed.

Douglas squinted at the area. “Fine. Just keep close then.” He bent his head to one side. “I really don't like the flow in this building.”

Samuels checked his own rifle. “All the demon traffic messing things up?”

Douglas looked at him. “Yeah, as well as the rifts in the area. The sooner we're out of here the better.”

Walker synched up his tablet with his eyepiece. “Okay, Sergeant; I'm ready. We should have a back-up video feed.”

“Good. Douglas, let us know if anything pops up on your scans.”

“Roger, sergeant.”

“Then let's get going, gentlemen; we have a climb to deal with.”

The group headed up the stairs. It may have been a boring climb, but the group stayed tense. They knew this was the heart of enemy territory and they had no idea what defense the tower still had active or which demons they would encounter. No one said a word, even breathing seemed to be put on hold.

They encountered a few minor demons, ones that seemed to be drawn to the group more out of curiosity than as part of any patrol. Before firing the first time Douglas motioned for the other to hold a moment; he barely whispered a word and made a quick motion, then nodded. Rodriguez shrugged, then fired. His rifle flared and the target exploded into goo, but there was no report. Douglas smiled as his eyebrows raised and lowered quickly; Rodriguez gave him a thumbs up. The minor spell helped them to quietly sneak up the stairwell.

Fortunately, there were no cameras in the stairwell or they would have had to scrub the mission. It was still touch-and-go, however, and the going was slow thanks to the demons looking them over. They eventually reached the forty-ninth floor.

Rodriguez motioned for everyone to be quiet and then opened up a compartment in his cybernetic arm. He pulled out a small drone, just larger than a fly, and then tossed it. It took flight and then disappeared up the remaining flights of stairs. Rodriguez concentrated on the long, torturous minutes required for the drone to cover the distance. His eyes flew open and he motioned to Douglas: He circled the group and his hand opened quickly. Douglas nodded and grabbed everyone; a blue flash surrounded them and then faded. A mere handful of seconds later a huge serpentine form slithered past their former location.

Well outside the building, within sight of Fort Solace, a blue flash left the four men.

Walker immediately went to his knees and then lurched forward, emptying his stomach on the ground in front of him. Samuels, unaffected by the teleport, immediately radioed in their position and status, hoping to react faster than the defenses of the base. Douglas took a moment to relax.

Rodriguez nodded to Douglas. “Thanks for the rescue. One more second and we would have been lunch of the biggest snake either of us has ever seen. That thing was bigger than a tank and I only caught a blur of it.”

Douglas returned the nod. “No problem then.”

Rodriguez appraised their position and then turned to Walker. “Tell the base to have a flivver ready to go for us at the west entrance. We need to track down Lieutenant Sawyer and go back up.” He looked at Douglas. “There was something red and fresh and I don't think it was paint. It looks like they're about to do something and do it soon, and we're the best group to do something about it.”

Samuels smiled. You have no idea how wrong you are, sergeant.

* * * * *

Back on the fiftieth floor that they had just run from, a light began blinking and a screen went active. The screen showed something moving down a cavern quickly, footprints digitally highlighted. Deezle the Defiler smiled as he put down his burrito. He started typing, working to quickly correlate what he was seeing with some sort of map coordinates. Once he had that, he looked at his area map.

“I have you now, tattooed one. Oh yeah. Time to let fly the dogs of war.”

He quickly opened up his app to activate his own robot dogs, his shepherds. Each one had enhanced hearing and a machine in the mouth. He sent them straight to the cavern to meet up with the drone that was already there. As a final touch, he decided to really put things in his favor and so-called up a trio of gargoyles to follow the shepherds. That meant that he had six of the dogs and three demons. Even if it wasn't enough to make that tattooed warrior sweat the data gathered should make it easier to come up with a better plan.

Almost as an afterthought, he called up the drone. He had it go into standby mode; it would virtually disappear into the cavern, waiting for him to take command of it. He assumed that the drone would be destroyed, but that was fine; as long as he got the footage he required so that the three of them could come up with a plan later on the drone would have done its duty and so would die an honorable death.

He only had one thing to do while he waited for everyone to show up: He grabbed his burrito and bit into it. He quickly stopped chewing, however; the location seemed familiar. The location seemed familiar, so he looked up the information on the site: It was a cavetown. Interesting; some kids are going to have an interesting story to tell. Assuming any survive the attack. He shrugged as he started on his burrito again. He decided to wait for everyone to converge while making a quick snack tray. The contents of the refrigerator were now his main worry, and how he was going to refill it.

* * * * *

Lieutenants Sawyer and Prowse were enjoying a quick meal with the chieftains of the cavetown in question. The meal was going swimmingly, especially considering the strenuous conversation before. Scythe had introduced the two to Hazard, the oldest of the boys, and Risk, the oldest girl, and the four of them commenced some rushed bargaining.

Risk started after gulping some water. “Our biggest problem is that Cavetown is for kids only; once a kid hit eighteen, it’s time to go. They’re given a final birthday party and then asked to leave. By spear point if needed.”

Hazard broke in. “We keep finding kids orphaned by the earthquakes. And we’ve had a few pregnancies. But we have limited resources. We just don’t have the room to grow.”

Risk frowned. “This means that we’re feeding the raider gangs. Well, the lucky ones; demons claim a few and there are the cannibals.”

Lieutenant Prowse took a bite. “Fort Solace has the inverse of that problem: We need new recruits. Demons and raiders preyed upon anyone who ventured into the wilderness, and of course there was the problem of retirement as those assigned to the fort retired. While the children of the assigned soldiers usually became soldiers themselves there was still the problem that they needed new recruits, and the raiders weren't exactly signing up.”

Hazard swirled his spaghetti. “Cavetown needs other supplies, of course; medicine and extra food would always be welcome as well as training in various skills. If your Fort Solace could supply that, we could not only help provide soldiers but also provide trained scouts.

Risk smiled. “Recruitment by the fort would also help to give the kids a place to go when they grew up. Throw in some weapons and clothes, and we may have a deal.

Lieutenant Sawyer took a sip. “I think this is all doable. W may even be able to throw in some basic armor, not power armor, granted, but some basic Hoplite suits and maybe some bullet-proof vests and helmets.”

Hazard took a bite. “Good. Risk and I could be some of your first recruits. We’re only a few months away from our own birthdays.”

Lieutenant Sawyer smiled. “I’ll suggest the treaty with General Martins when we get back. It should be a slam dunk.”

Now, however, there was celebrating. While that was going on, Kev was finishing up filling a second pool, deserted by the kids. Glorious stayed near him, almost protectively. As he finished, the pair headed to the dinner. On the way there the rest of the Green Skulls fell in the pair; Kev was a little put off by the unexpected company, but Glorious quickly introduced him to the other five, all teenagers save one, and all in leathers with green hair. The youngest was Spike, who was the obvious mascot of the group, with the others being the aggressive Nail, the laid-back Surf, Lace and her nails, and the poet Hyacinth.

Spike seemed to orbit around the others, while Hyacinth was more of a shadow. Lace acted like she could care less but Kev knew she was tracking everything and looked ready to pounce on any sign of weakness. Surf appeared relaxed, but Kev could see the muscles ready to spring; he had no idea if Kev was friend or foe and wanted to be ready to respond as needed. That left Nail.

Nail walked backward so he could maintain eye contact with Kev, who was ahead above the kid. “Neat trick with the pool. You're still a large and we're the defense force. I don't like you.”

“I am out of here as soon as the bargaining is over.”

“Good. We don't need you around here anyway.”

“I agree.”

Nail stopped, forcing Kev to stop or run him over. Nail looked at Kev's tattoos. “Yeah, well, I can get tattoos like those any time I want. They aren't that special.”

“You do not want to. Trust me on that.”

“Heh. They cost you what, a day's worth of food? A week's worth?”

“A lot more than that. And they would cost you even more.”

“Meh. I could work out a deal. I'm great at negotiating.”

Kev smiled. “That would be interesting to see.”

Nail opened his mouth to speak but an explosion behind him cut him off. Nail turned around just in time to see the three gargoyles and six shepherds come through the wall. The gargoyles saw Kev and charged at him while the shepherds did created a wall between them and the kids.

Kev only had time to touch a tattoo of a heart wrapped in chains before they were on him, covering him in a light blue field. The kids scattered but regrouped a dozen meters away.

Kev did not like their odds.

[The last chapter is here.]