The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty Six

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty Six)

The first Myrmex guard swung at Vagabond but he ducked under the blow. The second swept low at his legs, toppling him. The third and fourth grabbed hold of him and tried to hoist him into the air but Vagabond simply slipped out of his coat and scrambled away.

Just as he had thought, the majority of the Myrmex were workers and took no notice in him. The glare from the tower beat down on them like an artificial sun. He ran for the hive, the four sentries hot on his heels.

Alerted by the commotion more sentries were leaving their posts. They converged around him as he neared the hive. In moments Vagabond found himself surrounded. They closed in, whistling their curious high-pitched whistles.

Vagabond licked his lips and began to whistle himself. The Myrmex regarded him with confusion but continued to advance. An alarmed look crossed his features and he tried again. The Myrmex drew in closer, tendrils slipping from their proboscises. A panic was rising his chest, he was losing time.

A pair of clawed hands wrapped around his waist and his whistles became screams. His ribs felt ready to shatter and the Myrmex's claws were digging into the flesh of his sides. Blood ran down his wildly kicking legs. Another of the insectoid creatures tried to grab him by the feet but only managed to pull off one of his shoes. It stared at the boot with confusion, its tendrils probing beneath the tongue.

There was only going to be this one more chance, Vagabond took a deep breath and whistled.

And this time the tone was just right.

The Myrmex reeled with confusion; some stepped back and some drew closer. The one holding him began to make high pitched squeals and let go.
The impact with the ground was jarring enough, the wounds on his sides only made it worse. Vagabond gasped.

This only served to make the Myrmex even more disoriented. They had been trained to intercept all intruders, but this strange intruder had sung to them with the voice their Queen. Their eyes told them they had a human in their midst but they were hearing their mother's song. The song of they had hatched to and heard all during their pupal stage, it resonated with warmth and love and memories of a simpler time.

And when he began to whistle again, they fell to the ground and began to mewl like hungry hatchlings in need of the sustenance that only a Queen could give.

Five minutes more of the song was all it took to completely undo their conditioning. Vagabond ran for the complex, knowing that by the time replacements arrived it would be too late.

One way or another.

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The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty Five

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty Five)

The screen read DIAGNOSTIC IN PROGRESS but the image was beginning to flicker. Storms of data flashed across the screen, each lasting longer than the last until they had erased the message from the cracked glass. Moments later Lily's face resolved itself out of the storm and she slumped against the tree she'd been leaned against.

She'd never tried to come back like that before, it had been exhausting. Even now she wondered why she'd even bothered, he'd betrayed her. She'd outlived her usefulness and he'd turned her off like an unwanted toy. If she had been alive she would have raged and wept. Lily wiped the grime from her monitor. Those memories, the memories of the original Lily had made a fool of her again. She had trusted him, even loved him and what had it gotten her?

A dead mother and a cracked monitor that's what.

The redness of the sky deepened. Lily looked to the east, the sun should have risen by now but there was nothing on the horizon but darkness. She mused that maybe it knew something she didn't.

“I love you Lily.” his voice echoed through her stored memory, taunting her. He had seemed so sincere, the way he'd held her and tried to protect her. The whole amnesia thing was probably just another one of his lies!

She straightened up. Of course she had to wonder why he had done it and his admission before hand. Was it simply the result of a guilty conscience? Was he trying to make her hate him? Was he trying to get rid of her?

Lily paused in mid-step. That was it. Of course!

He was trying to get rid of her.

“Oh no.” her voice caught in her throat as it all became clear to her. He had done it all on purpose! He left her behind to protect her!

He really does love me! She thought as she started after him. If her eyes had been real they would have been brimming with tears.

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The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty Four

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty Four)

Alone on the outskirts of the Myrmex Hive Vagabond tried to push thoughts of Lily from his mind. It had been a cruel thing to do, but it was better this way. Bad enough he had gotten her killed once, he damn well wasn't going to let it happen again! But of course, if he failed at this it wouldn't really matter would it?

The hive was anthill-like in structure, built from stone blocks and scrap. It was fortified with weapons and technology scrounged from the remains of the New City. The Myrmex toiled ceaselessly on it and the tower that rose up out of the center. The tower was the source of the brilliant red aurora that blazed down over the land, casting strange hive shadows. It would take an army to get in there, Vagabond thought to himself.

And that army would take heavy losses.

Vagabond retreated from his vantage point and sat up against an outcropping of weathered stone. He wondered aloud, “What would the Hanged Man do in a situation like this? Or Jason for that matter?”

Cackling grimly, he chided himself. How could he know what to do when he didn’t even know who he was at times?

A maniac gleam filled Vagabond's eyes. Scrambling to his feet he began to run. The Myrmex had two weaknesses, the first was that they were simple-minded; the warriors fought, the guards guarded and the workers built. That meant that while sheer numbers of Myrmex might seem impressive, the majority of them wouldn't react to him unless he threatened them directly.

The four sentries at the edge of complex tensed at the sight of him barreling out of the swamp. Their proboscises quivered, they raised their clawed hands. He was coming straight at them.

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The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty Three

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty Three)

There was enough hard radiation in the chamber to kill a normal human in seconds but Adiramled was beyond such concerns.

Once, over a millennia ago this had been the reactor chamber for the Monarch's glorious New City. Delivering heat and light to the sprawling thirty mile wide, seventeen level deep underground complex. It had been a sight to see, a city of the future they had called it, monitored and protected by technology generations beyond what was available anywhere else. There was a digitized library full of wonders to rival Alexandria, there were mechanized sentries on every street corner, there were hospitals that could cure any ailment, heal any wound.

And there were pleasures to be had as well.

Such pleasures. Adiramled smiled as he entered the reactor chamber and began to disrobe. There had been drugs of every type and virtual reality pleasure domes where you could defy the laws of morality and anatomy. The Monarchs' favorites- the privileged few such as himself- had the power of kings. They could take whatever they wanted, they could kill with near-impunity and their credit was always good.

Those had been such good times. Adiramled stepped forward, trembling slightly, his bare feet padding over the floor.

The remains of the New City were a mile above them, nothing more than a tomb now. It had been destroyed when the Monarchs' Jihad had spilled over to Earth. The destruction was not the Monarchs doing but their arrival and subsequent battle had caused cataclysm after cataclysm. The reeling nations of man immediately suspected the others of attempting a first strike and launched their missiles. The New City had been simply been too close to one of the strike zones.

Adiramled remembered that night as well. He remembered standing on the outskirts of Tientsin, watching as the waves of flame washed over everything, scouring the land. It might have been a trick of the flames but he was sure that he saw a pair of the warring Monarchs in the heart of the firestorm, their pincers flashing, their mandibles locked.

Those glorious giants carved in fire bore little resemblance to the creature nested in the back corner of the chamber. Ltolox had been gravely wounded when Adiramled found it, forced to cannibalize itself in order to survive. Gone was the mammoth god-beast, it was no bigger than him now.

Standing in the center of the room he watched as the shivering monstrosity slowly made its way towards him. Its pale emerald hide was stretched tightly over its ovoid skull. As it drew closer Adiramled found he could actually see his reflection in Ltolox's round segmented eyes. It reached for him with a trembling pincer.

Adiramled drew it up and held it in an awkward embrace. Ltolox's mandibles spasmed as it used what little power it had left.

There was an almost imperceptible hiss as their atoms began to mingle.

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The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty Two

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty Two)

Vagabond spoke little as they trudged through the swamp. The mire was knee deep and reeked of stagnation. Half-dead sycamore trees sprouted from the water, their gnarled branches hanging heavily. Both he and Lily carried metal bars salvaged from the trawler, primarily to use as walking sticks, but also because Vagabond was worried about what could be spawning in this squalid bog. The glow from the tower was close now- its light filtered though the trees like an artificial sun.

“What do we do when we get there?” Lily asked as she wiped the grime from her monitor.

“Storm the hive, steal back the Splinter, escape with our lives and live happily ever after,” he said, “the usual.”

“I hate it when you make jokes at a time like this.”

“When this is over I’m going to change my name into something more… ordinary.”

“You? Ordinary?”

He stopped suddenly, “You should choose it.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because if you pick the name then a part of me will always belong to you,” he winked. “Sweet enough? Like the old times?”

“How about Jason?” she paused looking at him uncertainly, “Is that ok?”

“I like it fine.” he kissed her screen gently.

She wrapped her arms around him, “I love you.”

Vagabond looked like he might burst into tears at any moment, “You would forgive me anything? Even now?”

“Yes.”

“I love you Lily.” They kissed, Vagabond crushing her to him. Then whispered, “Orchid.”

Lily froze, her loving face replaced by the words DIAGNOSTIC IN PROGRESS. Vagabond carefully leaned her against a tree and then continued on his way. That last kiss had nicked his lower lip, he dabbed at it and then continued on alone.

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The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty One

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty One)

The steel scaffolding of the tower stretched up into the night. Its top level was engulfed in a whirl of crimson luminosity that tinged the sky like an aurora. Adiramled stood in the heart of the churning incandescence, his vision protected by a pair of tinted goggles. This uppermost level was no more than four yards across and only accessible by a service ladder. He carefully checked the containment unit, a rectangular mass of thick wires and thicker metal.

The light from the Xenon Splinter bled through the walls of its prison. It didn’t like being told what to do. He stepped back, avoiding the cables and wires that snaked along the floor, and admired his work.

There were no railings on this uppermost level, so he had to step carefully. He stood there, sandwiched between the raging incandescence and the open air. Soon this ancient artifact would rip a hole in the universe, and he would leave to begin his new life. Ltolox had already shown him glimpses of this so like what this world had been like but pure and innocent.

Innocent or not, they would pray to him.

Hungering for another glimpse of his future subjects Adiramled stared into the glow, reaching out with his mind. Anyone could posses the Xenon Splinter but to control it was a test of willpower. And he had no shortage of that. If he wanted to see the future he'd see the future, if he wanted to rain down lightning and thunder, all it would take was thought.

He could feel the Splinter trying to resist his presence, trying to fill his mind with nonsensical images of High Priestesses and crucified clowns.

Adiramled would have none of this. He redoubled his efforts, raping his consciousness into the crystal shard.

“What are you hiding?” he whispered, “What are you hiding?”

There was a sound like thunder, the tower trembled. For a terrifying moment it seemed as though Adiramled might lose his balance, but then he caught himself.

He glared at the containment unit then turned and began to climb down the service ladder. Below him in the crumbling remains of the New City the Myrmex worked silently. He paused and watched them wondering if they had any inkling that their lives were nearly at an end, or if they cared. Unfortunately there was no time to investigate that or the Xenon Splinter's little peccadilloes; Ltolox was hungering to consummate their alliance.

He began to climb down the ladder, careful not to slip.

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The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions): A Heart Full Of Dust Part Twenty

The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)

A Heart Full Of Dust

by

Al Bruno III

(Twenty)

...drive Vagabond to wakefulness.

A green-eyed cat gazed down at him.

Vagabond blinked, utterly disoriented. The black cat licked at his cheek, cleaning the wound she just made. He looked up, the night sky was still tinged with red. The dusty ground was speckled with blades of grass, to the east the Barrens slowly transformed into a stagnant marsh. They were close now, he could feel it in his bones.

But where were his travelling companions?

“Lily?” he called as he sat up straight. There was wreckage everywhere. The storm had torn the trawler to pieces and quite frankly he was surprised that it hadn't done the same to him as well. The cat bounded from his lap and quickly lost itself in the swamp. Something stumbled from beneath a pile of debris. “Lily?” Vagabond asked again.

“No, it's not fuckin' Lily,” Kurt said. There were massive wounds all over his body, a huge swatch of flesh had been torn away from his chest and though the damage was healing itself rather quickly, for a moment Vagabond was transfixed by the sight.

“Are you all right?'

“Why do you give a fuck?” He said as the wounds sealed closed one by one.

“I was just asking.”

“Yeah well thanks to you my trawler is fuckin' history.”

“Sorry.”

“And is that all that happened to you?” Kurt sneered with disgust and pointed.

Vagabond frowned, he dabbed at the blood seeping from the wound on his cheek. “Actually this happened after the crash. A cat scratched me.”

Derisive laughter filled the clearing, “That's fuckin' bullshit Fool and you know it. There are no cats anymore, they're all dead.”

“Whatever you say Kurt. Whatever you say.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“I wish you'd just...” his voice trailed off, he cupped a hand to his ear. Vagabond turned and ran back towards the wastelands, Kurt followed him.

They found them over the next dune.

A huge section of the deck had slammed into the ground here, shards of metal stuck upright out of the dust like primitive tombstones. Parts of the wreckage were still smoldering. Lily was stained with smoke and dirt but was otherwise unharmed. She cradled her mother's body, weeping tearlessly.

Vagabond drew closer, unable to speak.

“What the fuck happened to her?” Kurt asked. Rhea's body looked as though it had been ravaged by fire. Her blackened lips and nose were caked with blood as though something within her had hemorrhaged. Her eyes were glassy and open.

“She protected us,” Lily sobbed, “shielded us from the crash and made the storm go away. But it was too much for her. The Maelstrom... the Maelstrom...”

Cursing under his breath Kurt knelt at her side and began to check for a pulse. Vagabond tentatively touched Lily on the shoulder and she flowed up into his arms. “Why?” Lily asked, “Why did she do it?”

“She didn't want us to die.”

“But why did she protect me? I'm not even real!”

Vagabond cradled her monitor in his hands, “You were real to her, and you're real to me.”

Lily loosed a loud wailing sob. He held her tightly, whispering comforting words.

“Fool...” Kurt stood and aimed Rhea's Desert Eagle at them.

Vagabond froze, Lily looked up in confusion. She tensed and stood protectively in front of her lover, “No!”

“This'll shoot right through you sweetie. And If that's what it takes... I don't give a fuck.” his eyes were deadly serious.

It was quiet, as though the wind itself was tensing in anticipation. Vagabond smiled and stepped out from behind the girl, “Kill me and you’re a bigger fool than I ever suspected.”

Kurt zeroed in on his throat, “Fuck you! Every time you talk I'm just gonna aim lower.”

“Ltolox still has the Splinter, do you honestly think that you'll be able to go and get it all by yourself?”

The only reply Kurt gave was to lower his sights to heart-level.

“Why do you think Rhea spared me from the crash? Out of love? She hated me ten times more than you ever could. It's because of me that Lily is in the condition she's in.”

Kurt stepped forward and dug the muzzle of the gun into Vagabond's gut,

“How far do you think the spray will reach? One meter? Two?”

Vagabond winced but kept talking, “Does the name Adiramled mean anything to you? He served the Pendaroth once - he's the one controlling the Splinter. That’s treason.”

Kurt lowered his aim further and twisted the barrel of the gun into Vagabond's crotch, “Shoulda' gone for the fuckin' head shot, it's gonna take you hours to die now.”

“The only reason that Adiramled hasn't killed us already is because the Splinter is struggling- trying to protect me.” Vagabond stared intently into his adversaries' eyes.

Kurt pulled the trigger.

Lily screamed.

Kurt pulled the trigger again, unable to believe that instead of an explosion of blood and screams all he was hearing was a dry click.

Vagabond's arms flashed out, he grabbed Kurt by his robes and threw him to the dusty ground. The pistol tumbled into the dirt. With a snarl he leapt atop him, his hands locking around his throat, “Did you honestly think that I could be killed by the likes of you?”

Her cracked monitor registering nothing but stunned disbelief, Lily watched as Kurt struggled to escape the choke hold. He swung his fists wildly but Vagabond held fast.

“I doubt you can heal brain damage,” he hissed at the man beneath him, “Maybe I'll just keep this up until you're a little stupider, or maybe I'll just keep working on you till you have the IQ of an eggplant. Would you like that? Hmmm?”

The red tinge in the sky darkened, Kurt hissed and gnashed his teeth. Lily rummaged through the wreckage until she found a chunk of metal roughly the size of a baseball bat.

“Listen to me. We don't have time for this.” Vagabond loosened his grip, “I don't want to kill you. I will if I have to, but I don't want to.”

Drawing a long ragged breath, Kurt released his grip on Vagabond's wrists, and let his right arm fall to his side. He and slipped it into his robes.

“There,” Vagabond sat back, trying to smile reassuringly, “Now maybe we can-”

Kurt yanked the knife from beneath his robes and lunged. Vagabond tried to block the attack but only succeeded in catching the blow in the meat of his upper arm. He shouted with surprise, watching with disbelief as Kurt drove the blade in to the hilt.

For Vagabond everything seemed to shift into slow motion; the blossoming of the wound. Kurt wrenching the knife free, a streamer of blood trailing out after the tip. Vagabond grabbed for the blade but only managed to cut his fingertips to ribbons.

Lily swung the chunk of metal at Kurt's head. There was a sickening wet crack and the back of Kurt's head caved in around her makeshift club. He fell back to the powdery dirt, his limbs twitching.

With a savage cry Lily bought the club down again and again until Kurt's face was a caved-in ruin.

Vagabond staggered over to Lily and restrained her. Her monitor and camisole were spattered with gore. He held her as tightly as he could with his uninjured arm and whispered, “Shhh. It's all right now. He's dead. Let it go. He's dead.”

The length of metal slipped from her grip, she made a choking sound and sagged against him. “He... he and mother they were going to...” she said as he pulled her away from the gory spectacle.

“Don't worry about it,” he said softly.

The warm blood from his wounded arm was soaking through her dress, but of course she couldn't feel it. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“The gun.”

“Ah,” he said, feeling as though he was going to need to sit down very soon, “I guessed it wasn't loaded. Your mother used sorcery to create bullets for her guns and when she died her bullets faded away.”

“You guessed?” she looked at him, “You took a terrible chance.”

He smiled weakly and began to search his pockets for something he could use as a bandage, “All life is risk.”

“If anything had ever happened to you...”

His pockets were empty save for a single rectangle of thick paper. Cautiously he drew it out. It was a tarot card, the Hanged Man was wearing his face, “Well bless my buttons and call me Columbus.”

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