Bolt Action Serenade

Me and Billy, the barkeep, chatted for a while about his uncle and how it wasn’t just the feathers. He apparently had the occasional bird behavior urges and once after a major bender, woke up in a messy nest his family’s barn. His brothers never let him live that moment down and apparently sometimes still leave a bundle of twigs on his bed when they visit each other.

“Hey, sorry if this is insensitive, but your leg…?”

I chuckled and nodded “Remember that infection I mentioned? It was really, really bad.” was all I said on the matter. I did notice he still seemed somewhat tense and I figured I knew why. I glanced at the soldiers in the room with us, my escorts. I sighed “You can hear the accent, yeah I’m from Pitrak. But Uvtrayl saved my life and has been helping me recover and adjust to the shit I’ve stumbled into. New leg, fancy treatments, even a cute nurse to help me get around. Not sure I’d expect the same were things the other way around. I’ve been cooperating with your government, telling them everything I know.” All technically true.

“And you don’t think that makes you a traitor to the cause or something?” He asked with a raised brow.

“Hey, I’m a moderate.” I sprinkled that bit of additional truth in, I was with the moderate poor dead Bernson’s unit after all. “I don’t give a damn about winning or losing. I just want us to stop killing each other. Life’s better with more friends and fewer enemies as far as I’m concerned.” Completely, 100% true. No obfuscation needed.

He poured two more shots of the raspberry liquor and raised one “I’ll fuckin’ drink to that.” and like that I had another friend.

A few more minutes of mindless chatter with my new pal Billy and I suddenly felt a familiar prickling on the back of my neck. I sat up straight and looked around, but no directional sense followed. I waved the soldiers over and Billy froze.

“Ma’am, is something wrong?” One of the escorts asked.

“I have Sixth Sense and it’s going off.” I figured skipping directly to the point was probably the best option. All of them, Billy included, seemed to know what that Skill was because shoulders shot up and rifles were readied. “Billy, get down and stay down.” He just nodded and dropped to the floor, clearly not wanting to argue with guns out.

“Direction?” the escort asked.

“None, just… danger.” I keep my eyes searching the room, and the two other passengers present quickly realized they did not want to be here and scooted out to the rear car at a brisk walk. After several more tense seconds the lead escort started to look at me, likely to ask if I was sure. But I felt the pull and looked towards the forward car. “There.”

A few moments later the door slid open and four men stepped in, cheerfully chattering about some sports game they’d seen earlier. Their shoulders were stiff and their hands were in their pockets and they glanced around the room. Not as good at faking casual behavior as they thought. Sixth Sense spiked in intensity and my hand moved.

I pulled the sidearm off of the lead escort’s waist and shifted to the side as I raised my arm towards the ones my very soul was screaming were a threat. One of them started to pull his arm up and I saw metal in his grip. I pulled the trigger and a bloody hole appeared in his chest. The other men all drew their own handguns and started to aim but my escorts were faster and a series of overly loud bangs in the enclosed train car later, all four were down before they could get off a shot.

I realized after it was quiet that all of that had happened in maybe ten seconds. Probably less.

I stood there shaking, the pistol in my hand trembling until the lead escort carefully pulled it from my grip. I looked at the man and swallowed. “I… I think that was the first time I’ve killed a person.” and I could see the surprise in his face. “Also my ears hurt.” It seemed like an important fact at the time. Pretty sure I was in some kind of shock, but to be honest I’d already been through far worse in just the past couple of months so I shook it off pretty fast. Fast enough that some part of me worried for my mental health. Maybe I should boost my Willpower more.

“Ma’am, we need to get back to the general, now.” I just nodded and took a breath.

“Mind if I get that gun back till things are secured?” To his credit he didn’t need long to think about it and I felt the pistol’s grip in my palm again almost immediately. “Hey Billy, you okay?” a scared response in the affirmative answered, though it was more a squeak than words but he didn’t sound hurt at least. “Just stay hidden then, sorry about this.”

“Let’s go, once we’re with the rest of the unit we’ll see what the general’s next orders are.” he said it more for the other guards than for me. But I found it grounding. Guess some more of my forgotten military training was kicking in.

“Any idea who they are?” I asked as we were on our way through the next car.

“Hostiles.” Yeah, that’s a no then.

Thankfully we didn’t encounter more hostiles on the way back, but we did meet up with two more of the escorts who were coming forward to investigate why a couple were fleeing to the rear cars. The word ‘Hostiles’ was all it took and I was lead into my cabin quickly.

“What the fuck is going on?” Helanna asked, seeing the gun in my hand and quickly moving to draw her own.

I looked at the two of them, Jaina’s blouse had two buttons in the wrong holes. I raised a brow and saw her glance at Helanna and blush. File that away for later though, not dying first. “My Sixth Sense saved our asses out there. Four men, no uniforms, handguns. They’re dead and we’re fine.”

I felt a twisting in my guts. Wow, I really think that was in fact the first time I’d killed a person. I mean, considering that I was only level ten for two entire years after my Status became active, I guess I can’t be too surprised I never actually shot anyone.

“Is it still active?” I blinked and started to ask what she meant but then I noticed the prickle on my neck was still there. If anything it was getting worse.

“Stronger. No direction yet.” I responded and she poked her head out.

“Additional hostiles expected. No one gets near.”

Followed by eight responses of “Sir!”

Jaina was shivering in fear in the corner of the room, curled up on the floor to keep her down low. I would be making things up to her over this forever, I just knew it. Carmilla too, I could feel her nervous tension inside me building more as the minutes ticked by.

More gunfire erupted from the hall and I could see through the frosted glass as two of the guards went down. Yelling and gunshots filled my ears for several minutes. But eventually it all stopped. My heart sank as I noticed I couldn’t make out any of our escorts through the glass. It sank even further as a voice yelled from just outside where I could see in the hallway.

“General! You’re in a tactically disadvantaged situation right now, so do the smart thing and just give the Pitrak girl to us. You and the civilian will be unharmed and released I promise.”

To make things worse, a screech filled the air and the train jerked as the breaks brought us to a gradual stop. I glanced out the window and could make out the dark shadow of trees, stuck somewhere miles from any town most likely. This was well fucking planned.

“Yildren? You spineless shit!” Helanna barked out, putting herself down low between the hallway and Jaina. “Should have known your pig-fucking boss was behind all this.”

“He’s doing what you should be you insane old vulture, trying to save Uvtrayl from its enemies. Instead you spread your legs for them like a five copper whore!”

I snorted “More like an extremely expensive and exclusive one.” And she gave me a brief death glare.

Helanna responded “She’s cooperating you ass! Not to mention I’m actually following orders! The Prime Minister himself told me to keep her happy with us!”

I stared at her with eyes wide. That would have been something I wanted to fucking know. She gave me a vaguely apologetic shrug. We’d talk about that later.

“The man is a tottering old merchant! He made the country some money and now thinks he knows everything! The High Marshal isn’t so stupid and understands the danger that creature with you poses. She’ll doom us all, Devatius! Just let me remove a threat to our home!”

Helanna gripped her pistol, I gripped mine. This was gonna get-, I winced as the tingle turned into needles in my neck “Fuck, It’s hitting hard.” then confusion spread as I turned towards the direction my Skill was warning me of. Looking into the night outside I saw a pair of glowing red wings hurtling towards the car, and just a moment before impact made out a humanoid face twisted in rage.

“INCOMING!” I screamed just before the entire train car shook, lifting into the air. It fell again and hit the ground, rolling over a half dozen or more times, holes tearing in the walls and glass shattering. I somehow managed to wrap myself around Jaina though I don’t remember doing it. Helanna was on her other side, the two of us forming a protective person barrier around the Nurse.

When the train car stopped it was on it’s side and I was bleeding lightly from far fewer cuts than I expected. “What the fuck was that?” I heard Helanna groan as she pulled herself up. She looked no worse for wear than I did. We helped Jaina up who had a few small bruises and was clearly terrified, but otherwise unharmed.

Helanna peeked, then stepped out of a hole torn in the roof and waved us to follow. Stepping out was like a fucking flashback to the first day I could remember. Several of the bodies of both our guards and the people attacking us were scattered around, along with a dead civilian. Some poor middle aged man that was probably just hiding in a neighboring cabin. It looked like the crash did it, his head was smashed like a melon.

“How did we survive that?” Jaina spoke, her vice shaking.

“A FAILURE I WILL SOON CORRECT.” a voice boomed from above, it was less like someone talking and more like the sounds of a roaring fire somehow forming words.

We looked up and I nearly pissed myself. It was an actual angel. I had a feeling that I’d not missed return to me. I felt completely baffled, angels are real? Of course they are, I knew that. Why does it look like that? That’s just what they look like, this kind anyway. You know that Esme. Angels are good and want to help people, don’t they? What? No, angels are just agents of the celestial plane. Less mindlessly destructive than demons and occasionally willing to aid mortals when causes align, but not our friends or allies in any respect. Why would I think otherwise?

It was nice to get some information about something I encountered for once without having to ask, but man I did not need the distraction of some weird internal argument with my own memories and knowledge. It nearly got me killed as his flaming spear drove into the ground where I’d been standing just a moment earlier, before I dodged almost entirely on instinct.

He landed and pulled the spear free. The angel was at least ten feet tall with mostly human features though his skin looked like metal still glowing from the forge. He had some kind of skirt of white and red fabric and no other clothing. Two enormous red wings glowing with heat spread from his back and his hair was just fire, like someone poured oil on his bald head and lit it.

His face was a mask of anger, all of it focused at me. “FACE YOUR END WITH SOME DIGNITY, ABOMINATION. EVEN A VILE BEING SUCH AS YOU SHOULD HAVE SOME SLIVER OF HONOR.”

“Oh this day is just absolute shit.” I said as I remembered the gun I was somehow miraculously still holding. Without hesitating I unloaded the thing at the angel. Two rounds hit and caused his glowing blood to pour out before he pulled his wings around to shield himself and I was out of ammo. “Oh fuck.” I muttered and leapt aside to avoid a swing of that enormous spear. I landed hard and rolled away from another stab just in time, the heat of the weapon searing my clothes and leaving my skin pink and sore without even touching me.

I tried to stand and run but I wobbled as my prosthetic slipped. The angel raised his weapon and prepared to end me while helpless but more shots rang out and he staggered forward. He twisted around and I looked where he did to see Helanna with one of the fallen soldiers’ rifles. He growled and rushed at her. But before I could do or say anything suddenly Jaina was there tugging on the straps of my metal leg, getting it in place and tight again.

“W-we need to run, H-Helanna said she’d distract it.” she stuttered while helping me up.

“No, I’m not leaving her with that thing.” and Jaina whimpered in fear. I didn’t get a chance to say more before I heard dozens of gunshots fill the air just as the angel reached the General. It looked like more of the other side’s soldiers had been elsewhere on the train and were just now reaching the thrown wreck.

It looked like seeing an angel attacking someone in an Uvtrayl uniform and with little other information they made the decision to unload into it rather than ask questions. He jerked and roared in pain as glowing bullet wounds tore across his body and I realized that right then was actually a good chance to do what Helanna said and run.

I didn’t think the angel would last with what looked like twenty or so soldiers blowing holes in him and Helanna would be way more likely to be okay with them than the glowing being. So I grit my teeth and turned to run.

“YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE JUDGMENT THIS DAY, ABOMINATION!” I turned to look just as He reached a hand towards me and the entire world turned bright. I felt the sensation of floating, of weightlessness and pure calm. A feeling I lost myself in. I closed my eyes and let go, the world drifting further and further away from my thoughts by the moment.