The Warlord Domination, Sovereign Race

Chapter 22 : Dead Zone.

Its been a lil' while since last upload. Sorry 'bout the wait, friends and enemies! :)
Above is one of Shax's thugs, just minus the snowy conditions.


Planet: Faoe

If any man is worthy of Zeelu’s curse it is King Emasse Shunt: Third King of the Great State order; for indeed, he has sent these poor, helpless men, women and children to a fate far worse than death.
    When the barge slams to a stop, the remaining Knights are joined by a small crowd of sloppy-looking ruffians, who, without hesitation, open the gates with stun pistols in hand!
    They rake the cell with blasts resembling sun fire, knocking everyone onto their backs- dazed; their vision blurring.
    The thugs are quick to press home their advantage. The sword weapons are pried from the captives’ weakened hands in an instant; and only moments later they are hurried through the rusty metal, mountainside complex; which, from the inside, looks more to Zeelu like an ex-warehouse, where someone once stored who-knows-what horrible tools and torture devices.
    The foulness of death and pain is all around, though there are no bodies anywhere. The stench pollutes the air with the most revolting odor, practically knocking most of the prisoners off their feet as they stumble down the steps deeper into the facility. Mex holds his hand to his face to keep from vomiting, while Ganju’s eyes roll repeatedly in dizziness.
    The prison guards handle them roughly, without respect for the young ones or women, as they rush all of them single file- Zeelu at the front- down another flight of stairs, across a makeshift hangar bay packed with rotted-out storage containers, and lastly through a series of baking-hot corridors which exit onto a long balcony, overlooking- whatever it is, Zeelu can’t see from here.
    The light from the two yellow balls of fire standing just above the horizon is brilliant; their heat, unbearable…
    The rough-skinned guards, wearing various types of eye protectors- no doubt to conceal their identities, as well as shield them from the deadly UV rays- surround them on all sides, wielding vicious-looking weapons, with serrated blades strapped onto the barrels.
    For the very first time in his life, Zeelu finds himself completely unprepared for whatever might come next.
    It happens quicker than he’d expected…
    The guards begin to close in on them, and to roughly push them back towards the edge of the balcony!
    “Everyone!” one of the prisoners shouts. “We must fight ba-!” He is dropped to the ground by a quick melee from the butt of a guard’s rifle!
    “HO!” a voice shouts from behind the guard’s human wall. They stop pushing and part at the centre, revealing the grinning face of the Wrog creature, Shax ‘Brute’. “Put them on the ground!” he orders the guards, nodding his head towards the prisoners.
    The guards immediately infiltrate the terrified huddle and, one by one, force them down onto their knees, mere inches from the balcony’s edge!
    Zeelu looks behind cautiously to observe the scenery below…
    It is not, in fact, a vertical drop- or rather, not a completely vertical drop- but a steep shale rock face, about 20 feet tall, leading down into a wide gulley below. On the other side is another shale wall almost identically steep and similar in appearance; and upon further observation Zeelu can see that the gulley is just three shale walls, two of which run off into the distance until they’re out of sight, running directly into the twin suns’ blinding heat. Not a good path to travel down. Zeelu swallows.
    “Enjoying the view, are we?” Shax calls out to them, arms clasped behind his back. He approaches, and then starts to pace slowly down the line of kneeling prisoners. He takes a long breath of the thick, hot air. “It’s a hot day, condemned men and women...” He pauses to glance at young Ganju. “And boy.”
    Ganju looks mad all of a sudden. “Hey! I’m a man!” he shouts.
    “Be quiet, Ganju!” Mex hisses at him, with a terrified look in his eyes.
    Shax just grins broadly, revealing rows of sharp teeth. “Then you’ll die like a man… screaming”, he says menacingly to the lad.
    Ganju gulps.
    “Slow…Excruciating…” Shax continues, resuming his pacing down the line. “Oh!...burning like a fish on the sand- I almost forgot. This is your fate.” He begins to gesticulate with his hands. “You won’t survive. Your loved ones will never know what happened to you…”
    His guards are all smiles as he turns to stare down at the one teenaged girl, and says, “It’s not exactly a painless exit, girl.” He doesn’t move on, and just watches her as she begins to tremble and weep. “Do you know what it’s like to cook like a pack of cheap meat?”
    “I’m guessing you’re going to tell her, are you!?” Zeelu shouts angrily at him from the far end of the line. “Because that’s Real big of you… picking on a small girl!”
    Shax starts to approach him…
    “Big, tough, alien freak picking on little girls!” Zeelu resumes, staring Shax straight in his yellow eyes as he draws nearer. “I guess that’s how bullies get their kicks… they don’t have the stomach to face someone their own size!”
    Shax is in front of him now and crouches down to face him directly. “Zeelu Atrosa”, he addresses him. “Captain of the- acclaimed- 7th Brigade… Man of the people- their hero, I assume.” He glances at the wide-eyed stares from the other prisoners.
    For a moment he pauses, but then leans in closer to the captain’s face and says, with a truly deranged look on his ugly face, “I am going to enjoy every moment you scream out in despair.”
    Before Zeelu can even react, Shax seizes his face in his fat, clawed hand and hurls him backwards over the balcony’s edge! Zeelu slides, back first, down the crumbling shale, until he rolls uncontrollably down into the wide gulley at the base, with his face hitting first! The guards roar in laughter as Shax stands up, pleased with his dirty work.
    “Put them in!” he roars to his thugs.
    It doesn’t take them long to react. Within seconds they begin pushing, punching or kicking the screaming people, without any restraint at all, into the valley below! One after another the people tumble down the shale face until every one of them is lying, quite overcome, on the rough stone of the trench floor. Many of them cradle various body parts in obvious pain.
    Stars swim before Zeelu’s eyes as he struggles to maintain consciousness. He flails his arms around himself wildly to get an awareness of his surroundings, and is surprised when he feels another person lying on the ground beside him, moaning miserably. It’s Mex; the poor fellow is crying in pain and distress.
    Zeelu clenches his teeth in fury and bares them openly in the direction of the howling laughter from above.
    Only one other thought- besides the dreadful rage he feels for Shax and his villains- enters his consciousness at this moment: “It’s hot down here… It’s intensely hot…”
   


    As the prisoners slowly recover from their gashes and bruises down below, the monstrous Shax ‘Brute’ pulls up a recliner chair to the edge of the balcony and settles in to watch them bake in the blazing hot suns. His own highly-sensitive Wrog skin is more than protected by a sun canopy held over his head by a short, snappy-looking henchman.
    As they continue to roast, by the by, he pulls out a flask filled to the brim with cold, clear water, and pours it down his greedy mouth, not caring about the stream of it washing all over his thin-furred face and down onto his dirty black coat of leather with synthetic armour.
    The prisoners notice alright, though. Some of them, including young Ganju, lick their dry lips, as if somehow expecting this monster to take pity on them.
    He smiles evilly and takes another generous gulp.
    Almost driven mad by the possibility of getting water, (they haven’t been given any by either Shax or the Brazen Captain before him, for over two days!) a few of them rush over to the steep shale wall and claw at it like lunatics in vain attempts to climb up. It is to no avail though; most of them don’t get more than a few feet up before they slide back down- back into the wretched death hole.
    Shax and his cronies chuckle away, making vile comments to each other. Zeelu won’t sully his honour by joining the prisoners in their useless attempts, which only increase those thug’s enjoyment, but instead uses his returning vision to get a better understanding of their plight…
    As far as the thick heat waves will allow him to see, there is nothing but the two tall, shale walls running off into the sunlight; heat cascading off them like some humorless jester’s vision of a waterfall… ‘Waterfall…water… The driving heats are maddening!’ he thinks, annoyed at his body’s need for shade, but barely able to contain the feeling of desperation tugging at him.
    Ganju, long after the others have despaired, still keeps attempting to ascend the shale; until after one last fruitless try, he falls back down onto his back. The guards roar out in laughter again, jibing to each other about what a manner of fool the boy is.
    Zeelu is slightly proud of his rebel son. The boy carries the spirit of a true Atrosa in him!
    But the insults from above only spur the lad on again. He runs at the rock once more and scrambles against it with renewed determination. “I’m Thirsty!” he screams. “I’m getting that Water!”
    As they guffaw on, Shax stands up out of his seat and pulls a flask from his pocket. “I like your vigor, boy!” he calls down. “So here! I think that deserves a little reward!” He tosses the flask down. It lands just below Ganju on the gulley floor!
    Before anyone else can react, the boy jumps down from the wall and snatches it up in his hand! Zeelu is about to scream caution, but Ganju is already popping it open, and-
    Slosh! Burning red liquid bursts out, splashing all over his face and hands! (Oh, and I wasn’t using a figure of speech when I said ‘burning’!) It scalds his face, causing the poor lad to yelp in surprise and pain.
    The biggest round of laughter yet bursts out from you-know-who and his band of barbarians.
    Ganju’s face is red with burning, but even more red is the lad’s flood of intense anger! “YOU SPAWNS O’ ROACHES!!” he screams in uncontrolled fury. (And by the way, those are pretty harsh words on Faoe. For grownups only, people!)
    Zeelu rushes forward to try and restrain his son before he does something stupid…
    Too late; he’s already done it! He’s scrambling up the shale again; this time heading straight for Shax!
    And…he’s doing it! In his blind fury the light-weight young fellow is actually climbing successfully, ripping and slapping the rocks behind him, and using that momentum to ascend higher and higher!
    There are no more guffaws coming from those thugs now; only dumbfounded staring.
    “GANJU!!” Zeelu screams after him, trying unsuccessfully to follow. “GANJU STOP, NOW!!”
    But his words fall on deaf ears. Ganju climbs with all his might; his small body helping him to glide over the stones before they can slide out from beneath him.
    He has almost reached the ‘Brute’! And he wears a look on his face that would be more than enough to save him from a mother’s spanking!
    Shax actually looks a little scared- or at least surprised- but his reaction however, is still quick and decisive…
    He pulls out a fat-barreled musket from a side holster, and aims it directly at the red-faced boy’s torso!
    “SHAAAAAX!!! WAIT-WAIT-!!!” Zeelu screams as loud as he can.
    THUNG!!
   


    Time freezes for Zeelu as he stares wildly up at his son!
    The slug impacts on the boy and sends him falling motionless down the shale. He lands in a heap in the waiting arms of his father… Dead- dead upon impact. A lethal wound!
    Mex rushes over and, seizing the lifeless body, shakes it like a possessed man in a futile attempt to revive his best friend.
    Two or three women then run over to examine the boy for any signs of life, exposing the deadly wound to the heart! They all quickly look away, breaking into tears as they finish their examination; while the rest of the prisoners look on sorrowfully.
    But there are no tears for Captain Atrosa as he presses his cheek to his son’s cold forehead in emotionless shock (the kind of emotion some people feel when they get, say, mauled by a bear, or hit by a car). Maybe it is the feeling of denial, or maybe just the way the human mind reacts when a recent death causes it to go blank. He just holds on tightly for what seems like an eternity; afraid that if he lets go he’ll…he’ll……
    He’ll accept that his son is dead...
    He looks up to Shax with eyes void of all emotion. Even this heartless animal eventually looks away, not enjoying the misery he has caused as much as he normally does, but still manages to shout down, “He was a fool, Zeelu Atrosa! I just gave him a fool’s ending!”
    Zeelu doesn’t respond, but just holds his son closer, until the denial feeling slowly dies away…
    and is replaced by the most horrible feeling of burning, insatiable rage!
    Mex reaches over to take Ganju’s body away. Zeelu doesn’t stop him, nor acknowledge him in any way. Until at length, lips trembling as though all the fury of the fabled phantasms has washed over him, he chokes out, “I’m gonna kill that Freak... Blast him; I’m gonna make him feel Pain before the end.”
    Mex doesn’t respond, doesn’t know how to respond; so he just says, “I’ll bury him, sir…as honourably as I can.”
    “No”, Zeelu states firmly. “Bury him under bones.” He points to the opposite wall where bones- hundreds of them- are scattered all over- obvious victims of this place.
    Zeelu raises his voice in a manner like unto those of the learned men- aged men of wisdom; men who have seen the ways of the world and have learned from them. “His death symbolizes the death of all innocence on Faoe, as did theirs. He lies with the dead forevermore.” There isn’t any mistaking the authoritative tone in his voice.
    Mex swallows. Even though he doesn’t agree with the rather savage feel to it, he still obediently follows the command to avoid the hostility of the man he thinks of as his father.



    The day burns on…
    All is silent. No night ever arrives on this side of Faoe to give these pitiable men and women any relief.
    Hours pass…… So long…so hot. Mex can barely even focus anymore. Every thought in his cooking head is interrupted by that one, only, awful thought… Escape.
    Had he still the ability to focus on his fellow prisoners’ faces, he would see only that one, dreadful expression of despair… They are all going to die here!
    Mex is at the point of tears. They don’t come… his eyes are bone dry; there is no moisture left in him to spare for them. “Isn’t that sad”, he laughs aloud (though it sounds more like a wheeze). He begins uttering absolute nonsense in his deliriousness; until abruptly he breaks off in surprise (not a good type of surprise either)…
    Zeelu isn’t wearing the face of one who is delirious; he wears the face of one who is completely consumed by Hatred!
    Mex is afraid. He has never seen that look before! Suddenly he doesn’t know the man who has ever protected him, ever loved him. He doesn’t recognize the face of his own stepfather behind that mask of rage!
    Here, amongst so many others, Mex has never felt so alone; never felt so much like a complete stranger to everyone…
    Even Zeelu…

Alas, poor Zeelu...