Battle On The Horizon

Chapter Eight

The slow movement of the tram calms us down after the last few events. We take seats close to the windows and wait for the tram to stop at the November station. "How exactly are we going to get answer's from the Libertatem, anyway?" Toppler asks,

"I don't know, you're the one who had the idea of chasing them, I thought you had it all planned." I say.

"Well, the Libertatem aren't exactly terrorists, they make sure that no one is harmed, but I'll admit, their antics are getting more violent lately." He sighs.

"Well, they shot down an airship that I was on, and then they fired explosive shells down on the walkway, I barely walked away from it." I add.

"I heard about that, it's a real miracle you survived, not many people were killed, but the entire airfield was pretty much scrapped."

As we relax in the steady blue tram, we slowly pass each island leading up to November. Each island seems to be the same size, and each island looks completely deserted, September is the only real island with clear inhabitants, but the only building we see is a windmill. Toppler hops up and pulls the level to stop the tram when we reach November station. 

"I'm not too sure if we have to move it back or just leave the tram here." Toppler says as he moves off the tram.

"Just leave it, we won't be here for too long, I just want to get my questions answered and then we'll be on our way." I say, dusting off my hands as I move off the tram. November is a little different from the other islands, because November isn't entirely flat.

A large hill pokes out of the middle of November and the island itself is quite larger than I expected. The station is also like that of January's, sporting a glass ceiling and potted flowers lie all over the station interior.

"Hmm..." Toppler ponders. "Where should we go? Perhaps we should just take a look around?" He asks. I nod in agreement and we walk outside the station and onto a small gravel pathway leading towards the hill. 

The island is completely deserted. It feels unnecessarily quiet on this island, judging from the state of the other islands, November is the most industrially quiet I have been on since I came up here. The island itself almost is completely plain, with only a few trees dotted here and there, and birds are happily singing away and flying about.

"Understandable to build a secret hideout here, no one would ever expect it, very cunning." Toppler chuckles.

We come to the foot of the hill, but we decide to walk around the base rather than scale to the top. While we walk around, a small biplane flies overhead and almost looks like it was going to land, but pulls away at the last minute. 

"That's weird." I say. "That biplane was going to land around here, no wonder it pulled away, how could you land on a island like this?"

"Maybe there's a landing strip around here, let's keep looking." Toppler says.

When we walk halfway around November's hill, we find a long rectangle strip, noticeable only by the two runway lights at the very end. The strip has no visible tarmac, just very thin grass. Toppler walks to the end of the runway while I look around, and behind us, I find the first stop towards finind the Libertatem Populi. A large iron door built into the side of the hill rests infront of the runway, which means that whoever owns the hill have built a handy airbase inside.

"Toppler! Come look at this!" I call out. He slowly walks back to me, examining the door as he join me.

"Hmm, these look like the doors that they put on those big hangers, these doors usually slide to one side. This is where that biplane was probably going to land." He says.

"Well, this is as close to finding the Libertatem as it is, so let's give it at try." I say, walking up to the iron door. I knock on the door a few times, but nothing happens.

"Hmm, maybe we could try opening it?" Toppler says as he grabs onto the metal bar on the very far corner of the door. He pulls on it with all of his strength, but the door doesn't budge. "Bugger, maybe you need a password or something." He sighs.

Just as Toppler gives the door a better pull, three ropes come down from the awning above the door and three uniformed Libertatem soldiers slide down the ropes and hold us up at gunpoint. The soldiers quickly stare us down and charge at us, Toppler manages to defend himself from a strike, but he is quickly knocked out by a soldier hitting him on the head with his rifle. I also manage to defend myself, but I am soon outnumbered and a soldier knocks me out cold with is rifle, too.

When I wake up, I notice we aren't outside anymore, and we've been placed inside of a small, metal room. The only things in the room are a bed, and the motionless body of Toppler, who lies down close beside me. After trying to haul myself up, I realise that we've been handcuffed. I slowly sit up and nudge Toppler with my head, he slowly stirs and he awakens.

"Bloody hell, my head... Where are we now?" He asks. 

"I have no idea, but we've obviously been captured, and we're not exactly going to break free anytime soon, we've been handcuffed, too." I point out, Toppler slowly tries to sit up.

"Well, the good news is they haven't killed us, the bad news is everything else." Toppler says as he slowly tries to stand up, he manages to stand up even without his cane, which now that I look for, is not in the room. I also notice that our weapons have disappeared. 

"Well, they certainly don't want us to go anywhere too soon." I say, standing to my feet. "I wonder what they want us for?" I ask, Toppler says nothing and places his ear to the door.

"I can hear guards talking outside, I can hear footsteps too." He says.

Toppler pulls back quickly when we hear the door being opened from the outside. The door opens and a squad of guards walk in, they sedate us and march us out of the metal room and through a series of dimly lit corridors, past steaming pipes and large armories, the group takes us to a large wooden door and the head of the squad knocks on the door. Another squard member opens the door and allows us to move inside.

The room we move into is very large, with the ceiling high above our heads. The floor is made of glass, and when I look down, the only thing stopping us from falling a thousand feet to our deaths is the glass itself. All of the walls are either taken up with large, old paintings or they have book selves built into them, in which nearly all of the book selves have been used up. Any other books left out are lying on a neat pile in the corner.

In the middle of the room, a large hollow circle surrounds the centre of the room, and a chair sits idle in the middle. The door behind us shuts and we turn to see that no guards have followed us inside the room. Me and Toppler are all alone, or at least for a few moments, when a woman wearing a long dark green dress slowly climbs down a ladder from one of the higher up book selves. She drops the books on one side of the desk and takes a seat in the chair. 

"Mr. Declain, Mr. Toppler." She greets, turning her chair to look our way. "I am Lady Valenzuela, leader of the Libertatem Populi, the Liberty for the People!" She yells.

"Now, gentlemen." She purrs while lighting a cigarette. "Take a seat, let's discuss business..."