SAVING THE DAMSEL

Chapter 4: His Face Exploded

Castle: Midnight:

Victor wore his thick Wasteland suit. He smirked at his brother. "Follow me; I have something to show you in the Wastelands."

"Are you planning to kill me?" Thackeray grabbed his thick jacket and helmet.

"No," Victor said without emotion. His eyes mimicked a blank canvas.

Both princes entered a crystal elevator, and in less than a minute they were at the underground entrance to the Wastelands, but not further down, to the kingdoms below the surface.

Wendy snored, and sounds echoed as distant music.

Hundreds of the hidden passageways existed for half-frozen travelers, but most were unused, except for unreliable supply trucks.

Thackeray passed through the underground graveyard for the departed protective domes.

Sharp headstones marked each one and spiraled upward.

Workers dug a fresh grave and carved the name, Wendy Kingston, into the granite.

"Is this what you wanted to show me? Why are they digging my daughter's grave?" Thackeray asked.

Victor lunged at him with his burning laser dagger.

Thackeray twisted the fiery weapon out of his brother's polished hand. He stepped on it and broke the light blade into embers.

Victor attempted to pull out another dagger. "I don't want to kill you, but I'll do anything to save our people and to retain power, of course."

His brother kicked the weapon out of his hands. "My not leaving you with shattered bones is a mercy. And I don't care if Petunia's lurking troops try to kill me."

Victor glared at his brother. "Your daughter will become a monster, and I'm sorry. When she falls, evil rises."

"I don't care what that stupid prophecy book says. Wendy will never betray her oath! She will never fall. The book keeps rewriting itself, and I'll find a way to save her."

"That creature is no longer your daughter." Victor clutched his glowing dagger. "Alva found Blackstone, and we'll meet with him later."

Both men bribed the guards at the exit to the Wastelands. Dozens of tunnels existed for centuries.

The prince's helmets mimicked those of Earth's astronauts, and their jackets kept them warm, but only for a moment.

Snow fell over them.

A glowing sign flashed, Windchill is not factored in. -68 °F (ca. -56 °C)

The ice walkway froze in such a way that it didn't melt when stepped upon by their thick leather boots, and the princes walked on it, like any other asphalt-covered road.

The broken wasteland stretched into the horizon. Icy rocks, covered with algae patches, and alien-like blue, bioluminescence, mushrooms, were the only plants that survived.

Skeletons of sirens and massive fish glistened in the moonlight underneath the frozen lake.

The princes walked further.

Rat-like creatures with three tails ran across Victor's boot, but he didn't scream.

A three-pound adult dragon flew from the sky and dragged the rats into a small fire cave. Tufts of smoke bellowed outward.

Victor followed Alva's men one by one with a knife in his left hand, but half of the men froze to death before the princes reached them.

Victor giggled to himself. "I told them that the one who survived the longest could be named the next prince. They let their greed destroy them."