Relias: Uprising (53 page)

 Sable kept an eye on the Berserker as he looked for a gap to attack Sable.

 The Skirmisher’s punches were systematic, had a beat, and Sable was memorizing it.

 Punch… punch… punch…

 And Sable attacked.

 Immediately she snatched his wrist, snapped it, pressed her knee against the man’s chest and yanked against his arm. There was a fleshy pop as it dislocated. Sable shoved him back with her knee, elevated her foot and kicked him brutally in the chin. Her leg extended fully and his head snapped back. He crumpled to the ground unconscious.

 Behind the fallen soldier, the Berserker appeared with his axe in mid-swing. Though her body ached and her muscles burned, she didn’t have time to consider the pain. Taken off guard, Sable rolled. The axe impacted so close that it shaved bits of metal off of her back armor plate in a spray of sparks.

 The Berserker effortlessly dislodged the axe and swung again. Sable rolled again.

 The Berserker continued to swing manically. The axe head impacted all around Sable, getting closer with every impact.

 There was no time to get to her feet. The frequency of each swing was so swift that taking time to switch positions would get her killed.

 And the axe was getting closer with every swing. Her mind raced for a way out.

 She had only one. The razor flail.

 Sable rolled once more, away from the flail. As she kept an eye on it, it disappeared behind the axe, which nailed the ground just inches from her face.

 The Berserker lugged the axe upright and the razor flail came back into view.

 Sable watched the Berserker as he put momentum back behind the axe and swung it downward.  Her heart racing, she waited until the last possible second to dodge.

 The axe was in midswing. It blurred as it raced towards her forehead.

 It was a few feet away. Sable rolled.

 The axe blade clipped her back and showered embers across the street. It took several rolls to reach the weapon and she snatched it up and whipped it back towards the axe. It coiled around the handle and Sable pulled it tight. Still in his blind rage, the Berserker hoisted the axe up with amazing force, ripping Sable from the ground and launching her into the air.

 With her waist just above the level of the Berserker’s head, Sable adjusted herself in midair and put the armored toe of her boot into the side of his helmet.

 The visor cracked and bits of it fell to the ground revealing portions of the Berserker’s face. Before he could grab her, Sable landed on his chest with one foot on his shoulder, shoving his face backwards and planting a solid punch in the giant’s trachea.

 He coughed but the strike had no lasting effect. Before she could take another blow he grabbed her around the waist, his fingers wrapping completely around her and he hurled her straight at the ground.

 There were several pops as her armor distorted and several ribs broke. She blacked out for a second and came to just in time to see the bottom of the Berserker’s foot falling towards her face.

 She rolled just as the soldier’s cleats slammed into the ground. Sable tried to get to her feet but stumbled and screamed in pain; her leg had popped out of place.

 The Berserker was already charging her. She had no way of attacking. Her fists weren’t powerful enough, her legs were useless.

 But there was a fully loaded Obliterator resting on the ground next to a downed Knight.

 The Berserker swung hard. Sable ducked it as the blade whistled through her hair and she dove towards the rifle, her hand held out and falling on the handle.

 Then she stopped.

 A blow to the back flattened her against the ground. Her back arched beneath the sharp, shredding pain that blazed down her spine.  She felt one lung pop like a balloon while the other lost every bit of air it contained. She tried to get to her knees.

 Her legs no longer worked.

 With one hand, its strength diminishing with each passing second, Sable reached back towards the area of the impact to feel what had happened. 

 Feebly her hand rubbed against the steely surface of the axe blade buried vertically in her back where her spine was. The sharpened edge of the blade had disappeared in her back from what little she could feel. It was several inches, enough to put the blade through her armor and into her back, splitting the vertebrates like small stumps of wood.

 Slowly her hands lost feeling , a coldness running along her arm. She could no longer hold them up and she felt nothing. They fell to the ground, useless and immobile. In her mind she panicked. But slowly, gently, the panic diminished and Sable reached a dark, conclusive, hopeless calm. She heard footsteps coming towards her. She couldn’t roll over to defend herself. She couldn’t even look back.

 A boot was placed across her shoulders to hold her down and her body jerked. With a woody, wet squeak, the axe was removed from her back like a hatchet from a tree stump. She heard the Berserker inhale sharply as he prepared for one last finishing swing.

 It was several seconds of dreaded silence.

 There was a yell. Pained, enraged, it rang through the streets in a broken cry.

 The axe’s trajectory changed by several inches. It embedded into the street just inches from Sable’s face. Her face was blank.

 The Berserker flailed his hands behind his back to rip off the new assailant.

 It was Hendrick. His face distorted in blind fury and sorrow, he dodged each of the Berserker’s reaching hands. He had torn off the Berserker’s helmet and pounded at the man’s temple with his Blazers.

 The Berserker thrashed violently. Hendrick held his grip.

 One last punch knocked the Berserker’s head to one side. Before  he could recover, Hendrick pulled his chin up, drew his knife and jammed it into the man’s neck, burying the blade to its handle. The Berserker’s hands quivered with pain as his attempts at removing Hendrick became more frantic.

 Like a hacksaw through raw meat, Hendrick cut through the Berserker’s neck in a crude, sawing motion, going from one side of his neck to the other. Hendrick gritted his teeth, enjoying every last second of the soldier’s agonizing death.

Sable was motionless on the ground. The image constricted his gut and he jammed the knife deeper.

 The Berserker’s back arched and his body tensed as the knife tore loose, tearing through the rest of the Berserker’s neck while only a few inches of muscle and his spine kept his head attached. Hendrick tossed the knife, put his hands around the Berserker’s head, jerked it to the left and twisted it violently back to the right.

 There was a grotesque snap as the Berserker’s head came loose. His massive body collapsed to the ground while the head, hanging by only a bit of skin, flopped freely back and forth. Hendrick had hurled himself from the Berserker’s back, tearing the wolf skull mask from his face and sprinting to Sable’s side.

 He fell to his knees and saw the wound on her back; it wasn’t healing itself. His face hopeless, frightened, he grabbed her shoulder pads and rolled her to her back, sliding one arm beneath her neck and supporting her head.

 She took a gasping breath as she came to rest in Hendrick’s arms. Her breaths were shallow, rigid. From her shoulders up she quivered. Everything else, her arms, her legs, laid still. Hendrick looked her from head to toe, unable to believe what he was seeing;
Not
willing to believe it. He stuttered as he tried to find words to say. Nothing came to mind.

 Sable coughed sharply. Blood ran out from the corner of her mouth and ran down her cheek. “At least… at least you made it.” She wheezed, her words barely audible. Her glowing eyes were dimming.

 Hendrick looked to her with surprise, shocked that she could still speak. Then, in an instant, he recomposed himself and nodded down the street. “You did too. Come on, the shipyards just down there and we’re gonna-“

 Sable shook her head. It silenced Hendrick.

 “Not this time…” She said smiling, her optimism surprisingly strong even now. “We’ve made it through a lot of fights but not… not today.”

 Hendrick shook his head angrily, frustrated. He wanted to save her. He had to. Nothing was ever outside his control. “Shut up. Just shut up, okay? I’ll carry you if I have to but I’m not-“

 “Seraphine made it.” Sable interrupted with a whisper, closing her eyes as a bolt of pain shot through her. She coughed again. More blood ran from her mouth.

 “Come on, get up!” Hendrick demanded, yanking her to a sitting position. “Get up and run! There’s nothing that-“

 “I can’t feel them.” Sable said. Her eyes distant and face sullen, her lower lip began to quiver. She shook her head hopelessly. “I can’t feel anything.”

 Her shoulder’s began to shake as Sable’s emotions became stronger and stronger. Tears pooled up at the corners of her eyes. As her lower lip stuck out she looked away, bursting into sobs.

 Pain tore at Hendrick’s chest as he watched her suffering, dying. He had always thought he could do anything, yet here he stood with Sable in his arms, paralyzed and dying, and he could do nothing. He wanted to say something, but as he had often been in Sable’s presence, Hendrick found himself without words.

 “All I wanted was to live how I wanted!” Sable cried opening her eyes and looking towards the clear night sky, past the battle cruisers and into the starlit blackness. “I wanted to walk around without being afraid of being arrested and I just wanted to live how everybody had in the movies, Nate… I know they aren’t real  but they’re more real than the life I’ve never lived! I wanted to be free!” Sable paused as a wave of thick, heavy sobs overwhelmed her. Hendrick tried vainly to give some kind of comfort.

 “I’d forgotten why I fought against the Commune and I even thought of running out on everybody back in the Popus caves and being what I always wanted to and I was regretting that almost the entire way here but… But then you did what you did for me and…” Sable stopped, a new hopelessness and stifling regret climbing into her chest. “You reminded me why I fought and lived like I had for so long. I want a life! I want a family! I’ve always wanted to be a mother, Nate, I always have but I’ve… I’ve never had the chance!” Sable continued to sob, shaking in Hendrick’s arms, vocalizing all her hopes and dreams so that at least one person in the world would know her the way she wanted. He squeezed her tightly against his chest as he felt her life slipping away with every breath. “I want to love somebody and…” She stopped herself, looking to Hendrick. Their eyes connected like they had in the restaurant and the feelings returned, potent as they ever had been, a fact that made her death even more difficult to face.

 “Tell me you love me…” Sable asked Hendrick.

 It hurt him to hear her say that. It just drove a spike further into his chest. He shook his head. “…But your aren’t going to-“

 “Nobody’s ever told me they loved me in my entire life, Nate, please!”

 Hendrick shook his head stubbornly, refusing to confirm the factuality of her death. “Sable you’re not going to-“

 “Nate…” Sable whispered softly, putting her head into his chest. “I am… just please… “ She paused, resting her head against him, her breath ragged and shallow. “Do you love me?”

 There wasn’t anything else he could do. With hopeful eyes she looked up at him. Their glow had all but vanished. But knowing that this might be the last time he ever saw them, Hendrick realized they had never looked so beautiful.

 Hendrick pressed her head against his chest and nodded, squeezing her tight and breathing slowly.

 Sable released a long ragged breath as though a weight had been lifted from her. She smiled and coughed again. Then, she went still, almost motionless. Hendrick saw her head lulling away from him. He forced it upright.

 “That’s doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to give up.” Hendrick demanded, but seeing her fading away made him more desperate, more demanding. “We’ve got life to live, Sable. We can do anything you want and once we take down the Commune we…”

 Hendrick paused when he realized that, now, he was only talking to himself. Her breaths were so shallow they were barely noticeable, and Hendrick knew that it wasn’t long before she was gone. He lifted her head and drew her in as though for the last time.

 He held her tight, resting his head on hers, as he felt the warmth of her body, the soft touch of her skin. He held her for what could have been forever, and if he’d died right there alongside her he would have been completely content.

 There was an explosion in the direction of the shipyard that snapped Hendrick back to sobriety.

 Seraphine could fix her. He’d seen what she’d done for him and she could easily do the same for Sable.

 But not if she was dead.

 Hendrick put his other arm beneath her legs, gave Sable one last embrace and got to his feet, grabbing his mask as he did. With careful, depressed steps and a heavy limp, Hendrick made his way towards the shipyard. Sable hung limp in his arms, her weight being a constant reminder of what he had to do. And Sable wasn’t the only one who was reminded of why she fought against the Commune, fought for freedom. And looking down at her dying form, Hendrick knew that he could never give up, never let them win. For a long time it had been a pride issue, but now it was something more. It was for freedom, real freedom. It was for a life he had always wanted, and saving Sable was the only chance he’d ever have at finding that life.

 With distant, echoing gunshots and explosions winding through the streets, Hendrick adjusted the settings on his Blazers while keeping Sable resting gently in his arms. He was going to make it to the ship, get to Seraphine, and Sable would be fine. And it’d be a gruesome, bloody encounter for any Legionnaire that stood in his way.

Chapter 30

 Legionnaires poured across the shipyard by the thousands, bearing down on the hovering battle cruiser at dock. From the docking bays open doors on the cruiser’s belly, incessant gunfire kept several Battlecrafts at bay, hampering their attempts to land and, after receiving revised orders, kill Rush and the Ditrinity.