A Story of Cinders: From the Ashes

Chapter 53: Still of the Night

           

It was near midnight when Red and Ana made it to the walls of Pinnacle. The gates were sealed shut and guarded by heavily armored Zhar-Ptitsa Military Police. Red and Ana peeked at the guards from behind a small crag about a hundred yards away. "Well, looks like we won't be using the front door," Ana whispered to Red.

     "Of course we can," Red responded. "There's only two guards there."

     "Yeah, but how many more are behind that gate?"

     "Good point, but do you have an alternative?"

     "I might just... Help me find a lower point on the wall." The two crept around, behind the ridgeline for as long as it would take them. At that point, the cover of darkness would help hide them. Quickly, they darted from the end of their cover around the corner of the wall. Red kept her eyes forward, looking for people, as Ana looked up at the top of the wall. It was all level at the top, but the ground rose and bobbed in several areas, like waves of the earth. Eventually, Ana found a decent enough place, and stopped Red as she started digging in her bag. "What are we doing?" Red asked. Ana answered her by producing a long, thin rope from her bag. On one end was a small, metal hook. "We're going over, and then rappelling down," Ana said, throwing the hook at the top of the wall. It snagged the top with a dull clinking sound. Ana pulled the rope, making sure it was secure. "The tradeoff for this rope being light is that it only has a tensile strength of about two hundred twenty five pounds. So we're gonna have to go one at a time." Ana wrapped one length of rope around her left leg, so that the rope ran across her left foot from outside to inside. She reached as high as she could, then pulled her legs up to her chest. When they couldn't go higher, she stepped on the rope with her right foot so it wouldn't slip out, then reached as high as she could again. In this way, she inched her way up the rope all the way to the top of the wall. There, she pulled herself over the top of the wall. Only about seven feet below her there was a rooftop she could drop to. Beckoning for Red to join her, she leapt to the roof, landing hard. It was a flimsy tin roof that buckled slightly under her impact. She froze, fearing that any movement may send her falling into someone's living room. Slowly, she reached a hand forward, crawling away from the impact, looking for a way down. Red landed much more gently next to her, rope in hand. Ana put a finger to her lips, and slid over to the edge of the roof, taking the rope from Red. It was still about thirty feet to the street below. Fortunately, there were no soldiers around there. Ana took the hook and stuck it on the building's gutter, then cast the rest of the rope over the edge. She went down the rope the same way she made her way up it, but with a much gentler landing. Red was just behind her. When they were both on the ground, Ana pulled on the hook, trying to tear it through the tin. But it would not budge. They elected to leave it there. Hopefully they wouldn't need it anymore.

     Now they were in the city proper. The next task would be to find these artillery guns. According to Will, they were near the manor. But that was about a mile to the southeast of where they were. That was a lot of ground to cover with the soldiers out. Fortunately, it was only the night watchmen they had to be concerned with. They were in much smaller numbers than the garrison itself. Red took point here, guiding Ana through the narrow back alleys, climbing up drainpipes onto rooftops, leaping from one roof to another. Eventually, they climbed through a window on the side of a quiet building. Immediately, Ana recognized the room as Charlie's. They were in the House of the Rising Sun. And it was much quieter than it should be. They went downstairs to the bar. It was completely empty, save for the lone bartender cleaning house. "Excuse me," Ana asked. "Why is this place so quiet? Last time I was here, it was rowdy all through the night."

The old bartender, Bernard, was cleaning a tumbler. He smiled and shook his head. "It must have been a couple weeks since you were here last," he said. "Yeah, this used to be a pretty lively place at nights a few weeks back. Then the Saint left town. And the Zhati rolled in. Nobody's allowed on the streets after ten anymore. It's obliterated my business." He put the glass back underneath the bar, then went for another one. "So when's the Saint coming back?" he asked. Ana and Red shared a confused look. "I remember you two from the town's last party. You work for him," he said, pointing at Red, "and you're a friend of another of his employees," this time pointing at Ana. "What are you doing back in town?" The two were silent, unsure of whether or not they could trust this elderly man. He seemed to read their mind. "If I was with the Zhati, I would've had you two arrested by now. Or shot you both. I wouldn't be asking you questions."

     "So I take it you're with his guerillas, then?" Red asked.

     "There's about eight hundred of us ready to fight."

     "Only eight hundred?" Ana asked. "I thought he was pretty popular."

     "That's only our fighting force. There's thousands more supporting us or helping in other ways. Most of the city's in on the resistance." Red walked off to the side, reporting what she had heard to Will.

     "Right now, we're here to sabotage those artillery guns so we can move in to the city safely. Once those are done, they'll probably be at the gates by the afternoon," Ana said. "What else can you tell us about what the Zhati have done in here? We need to send him all the information we can get."

     "They have fortified positions at every city gate with machine gun pits. The front gate even has a laser cannon."

     "So we'll have to take the walls then. Or air drop in. Do they have any anti-air?"

     "I don't believe so."

     "Awesome," Ana said, making sure Red passed that down to Will. "Do you know where Karlov is?"

     "He's still in the manor. But he does have an escape route."

     "We're gonna need the guerillas to take care of that. Think you all can do that?"

     "Easily. There's one more thing I need to mention. This isn't confirmed, but best be cautious. I've heard they brought a bomb in. Adskoye Plamya." They were all quiet for almost a minute. That was one of the bombs Karlov dropped on the Day of Fire. Red spoke for Will: "find it."