I Am Fictional Real

Chapter 8: Rantorm's Use

        Excerpt from LACEI's infamous book know as The Last Stand:

        You are questionable in that regard, where your tongue is a snake in a constant loop of eating itself and nothing else. The lies that come from you have taken you judgement and thrown it into a fire that burns and burns and burns. You burn. A villain. I have allowed you to take my hand into the dark, and you have trapped me here where the only sounds are you snake tongue ripping away at my heart. What a monster, you are. You knew I was blind and took that even further than it needed to go. Now that I can see, I will take you down without ever thinking twice of your snake tongue.

     The lobby had hundreds of the monsters sitting around in a stillness that seemed uneasy at best. All of their eyes had not looked at us, but they were dead set on the farthest wall that was empty and had age stains from furniture no longer there. Rantorm explained not to bother them, for they were sleeping in some strange way. I couldn't question it. We all went farther in until Rantorm stopped at a room crudely labelled with an old sign "food". It was a large pantry of outdated food that was contaminated by the gases, and there were even some jars of... questionable goods. Our stuff was neatly packed into the corner.
      "I will pay you in a different way. I do promise," he mentioned to Alinak. "We're getting low on food here in the city, and those savages had raided us blind."
     I turned to Alinak. "Savages?"
     "Well, yeah," Alinak nervously laughed. "That's what Rantorm and I call other survival groups. They tend to raid the city like... savages."
      "Yes!" Rantorm exclaimed. "And, oh my, this one guy named Akalirng told me he would destroy all Phenomenons to exist."
      Ah. I turned to Alinak again, but he wasn't looking or trying to acknowledge that Akalirng was whispered of. Rantorm noticed the silence, and he led us deeper into a room with collected items from the city. There were large pules of junk all around, and Rantorm turned back. There was a glisten in his eyes, an overbearing happiness only a madman could have.
      "I'll allow you take three usable items, so three of you may come farther into the room," Rantorm told us. I was unsettled by this and opened my mouth to protest going in, but Alinak asked Two and I to come in. Two stepped forward with his gun in his grip and had my hands in my pockets. Rantorm led us into a connecting room that had much more pristine stuff in an orderly manner. Alinak browsed it.
      "Lanien," Rantorm said. I almost tried to look for my sister in the room but ended up looking into Rantorm's green eyes.
      "What?" I snapped.
      "I have a strange feeling that you and I have met somewhere before."
      "We haven't."
      "Just a feeling."
      He turned and walked on his heels like a child as he observed us searching through the rubble. Two found an old seed spreader that had seen better days, but Two claimed it could be rebuilt and used again. We took it. Alinak found an old bookcase he seemed fond of, and he let that sit next to the seed spreader. I... found a locket. It had an ornate design with a green gen inside. There seemed to be little rusted leaves on the chain that led down to the heart. There was a small inscription on it that read "Heart of the Forest".
     "I do still apologize for my actions," Rantorm sighed.
     Suddenly, a gunshot. Rantorm hid behind one of the piles of stuff, and we all pulled out our guns.
     "What's going on?" Alinak shouted out into the group ahead.
      "That wasn't us," Two mentioned. "There's no way one of our guns made a noise that soft."
       I didn't know how he knew it was that specific, but I didn't question it as another came down the hall. Someone screamed that there was a man down, but I couldn't see. No one could, because Rantorm had the place lit by candles in all of the corners, so we were relying on our other senses to guide us. Alinak went forward into the crowd to assess the damage only be bombarded by other people wearing some black suits. They looked like they belonged to the government, but that was impossible since this country was on a barely recovering track.
      "You again," Rantorm spat.
       The man in the front adjusted his mask. "You had friends over this time. What has brought you into this debt?"
       I had the locket in my fist, but the man was clearly focused on the bookshelf and seed spreader. Alinak stood in front of Two and I so we were less likely to get hurt. "If it's something we did, we an leave immediately," Alinak mentioned.
       The man glared. "We have not properly met, have we? You're that small farming community that likes to save Phenomenons rather than kill them, hm?"
       "Yes. Are you impartial to that action yourselves?"
       "Aye."
       He approached Rantorm and placed a hand on his shoulder. Rantorm was physically shaking, trying to find an escape by focusing on anything else but the eyes of this man, but the man used his other hand to turn Rantorm's chin to look right at him. Then he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Rantorm's head. All of us went for the guns, and I pointed my arm at the man.
      "Rantorm's use it up," the man mentioned, pushing the barrel to his head. "All Phenomenon's have a use, don't they? I do believe that Rantorm is a leech that feeds from this twisted idea he is a leader of monsters."
      "No," I growled.
       He searched the room to find the woman's voice, and he focused on me. He grabbed Rantorm's neck and held him in a choke hold as the gun pressed into his temple. I let my gun escape the compartment it was in to point at his face .My gun was flashier and higher tech than his.
      "What is your name?" I shouted. At this point the scared soldiers and monsters were surrounding this man's crew. They were outnumbered.
      "Larsik. I work for-"
      "Akalirng? You don't have to tell me what I can already guess." I pushed my hair from my eyes. "Sokilin wouldn't harm a fly if people like you didn't enslave us and torture us to make our bodies nothing more than energy sources. We are not useful for a moment, and then we are nothing. We are people. We have lives."
       "Your drivel... annoys the hell out of me," he growled. He attempted to shoot his gun, but the trigger wasn't working and his gun seemed locked. Confused, Rantorm took the opportunity to kick him in the balls. The man dropped the ground, and then guns lid towards me. Gradually, I picked it up and pocketed it.
       "You either get the hell out or we kill all of you," I spat.
       Larsik picked himself up and ran out of the door with his crew. Alinak rushed to the man knocked down, and Two rushed to Rantorm to make sure he was fine. I realized my power worked on guns, too. I suppose they were technology in a way. Before I had the time to go deep into it, Rantorm came up to me. His eyes were the same bright color they had been.
       "I owe you, L," he smiled.
        I nearly thought he meant LACEI, but he was talking about Lanien. "It's nothing," I replied. "We're in the same boat."
        He sighed. "Yes. We are."