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I, Kerensky
by Roguebaron |
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Sheriff’s Office,
Hogye, Engadine,
Melissa Theater, Lyran Alliance,
March 30, 3058
Five days was a very long period, especially if you sat in a 2-by-3 meter cell and did nothing. Sheriff Fercyn was hardly in his office, and when he was, he just stared at me with hate-filled eyes.. Mayor Megi visited me once in a while, but her focus was the safety of her people. Not even Cedro, the man I stood up for, bothered to come by. My only regular visitor was Nurse Lin. She came twice a day, in the morning before she went to the hospital, and in the evening after she was done with her chores. She was the only one that had not condemned my stunt against the CAMR, the stunt that ultimately put Hogye into peril.
Nurse Lin kept me up to date with what happened outside the bars. Since the Hunt Lance left Hogye, nolan’s activities had increased, which proved her statement that nolans were intelligent beings. I eavesdropped on a conversation between Megi and Fercyn discussing that, in the event of nolans attacking Hogye, all civilians should go the city hall. Fercyn would single-handedly defend the city hall with his battlemech, while several trained citizens wearing their Cutlass battlearmor would guard the building from the inside, in case the nolans broke through Fercyn’s defense. This plan was deemed best for everyone.
Sadly, everyone but me.
Tonight was the second time Nurse Lin did not visit me. I knew that the nolans had overwhelmed Hogye, and all citizens took refuge on the city hall. All night long, I heard shuffling sounds on the office roof. I knew that the nolans smelled my presence, and they were trying to get into the office. Nurse Lin always said that the nolans were intelligent and cunning predators, and if that was true, they must have been taking precautions. They must have known, scouted, or saw that this place was the home for the only battlemech left in Hogye, and they were no match against the battlemech.
I knew that Hogye citizens had taken refuge in the city hall, and nobody would fetch me. I knew that I was alone. In order to survive against the nolans, I had to exploit their weaknesses. But I had never seen a nolan before. So until I saw one, I decided to stay in the cell. This cell provided a strong defense for me while I observed the situation and determined the best action for my own sake.
The nolans sniffed the office all night long, and when dawn broke, they were sure that the mech would not return to its home. They were ready to make their move. I heard them receding from the roof methodically, then I heard nothing of them. It was quiet for about half an hour, and when the sun started to shine, I heard creaks from the door. Behind it, I saw two humanoid shadows, and I heard sharp breaths huffing from their orifices. Moments later the shadows moved cautiously into the room, and for the first time, I stood face to face with the natives of planet Engadine.
They were tall, easily twice as tall as me. They had three long, sharp talons on each hand. Their bodies were covered with thick sable hide. I could see their eyes on their squat head. They were black, cold, dark, but sparkling with intelligence. They scanned from side to side, making sure that I was the only one in the room, then they moved slowly toward me. I could hear mischievous growls from their short snouts, like they were taunting me.
I was scared. I felt my knees trembling and cold sweat beading at the back of my neck. But I knew I could not let my fear take control of my body. I had to find a strategy to exploit their weaknesses. The nolans were big and lanky, so I assumed they were slow and vulnerable to low blows. They had long arms and talons, which I suspected to be their primary weapons. They would swing their arms to cut me to pieces. Arm swinging, though powerful, was slow, which might give me time defend myself. I had no weapons to threaten them with. A vague memory twitched in my mind with the image of a campfire.
Fire.
As they approached the cell, I looked around to see if I could start a fire. My rudimentary bed was an excellent fuel. All I needed to have was a match or a zippo. Luckily, Sheriff Fercyn was a smoker. There were cigarettes and a lighter scattered on the table. Unfortunately they were out of my reach. I had to find a way to reach them before the nolans shredded me with their talons.
By this time, the nolans had reached the cell door. They smelled me, and they smelled my fear. They could not reach me inside the cell, so they banged the bars with their talons. I witnessed their impressive power with awe as the ceilings started to crumble. They jarred the bars again, and the bars screamed. Parts of the ceiling plummeted to the ground as the steel bars twisted under the assault of the two nolans. They were so close to me that I could feel their hot breaths. I could see trains of sharp teeth on their face as they hammered the bars.
I lowered my posture and bent my legs to my chest, ready to make a hasty escape once the bars went down. My heart was pounding in my ears, racing with the nolan’s breath. As the nolans gave their final push, the bars collapsed, and I fired my muscles as hard as I could, keeping my posture low. The closest nolan swung its long arm, trying to catch me with its claws. The arm whooshed inches away from my face, and for a moment I thought the nolan got me. I slid on the floor, and as the nolans pivoted, I got up and quickly snatched the ligher from the table.
I realized now a fault in my plan. I had a lighter, but the bed was back in the cell, with the nolans between me and it. They started advancing toward me, and I could see their eyes full of rage and fury. I glanced behind me and saw the open door. I had a chance to escape!
But I did not turn.
Something burned at me from the inside. It was a carnal feeling, just like the one before I broke the Viper’s arm five days ago. I knew the odds were overwhelming, but something would not let me run from these two predators.
So I stripped my shirt and set it afire. The nolans stopped their advance, watching the cloth in my hand turning into a blazing rag. They knew the fire would hurt them. I realized I only had a moment or two, and then my advantage would be gone. So I had to act fast. I jumped toward them, and I flung my flaming shirt at one of the nolans. The tall beast swerved to the left to dodge the flame, but instead rammed the other nolan. They tripped on the bars, and together they tumbled onto the bed, the fireshirt still stuck on a hairy shoulder and blazing away. The bed held them for a second, then collapsed under their wait, the concussion of its impact on the floor stunning the creatures.
The shirt fell onto the ratty blanket, which quickly ignited. My brain was working at light speed as I scanned the room. Somehow I had missed the half full bottle of whiskey the sheriff had been working on the last few days. I grabbed it off the counter and whizzed it over the wiggling nolans and watched it smash into the wall, spraying their hairy bodies with fuel for the bonfire.
The room reverberated with agonizing cries as the two nolans writhed, flaming, trying to get up. But their big postures and erratic movements thwarted their attempt to get out of the fire quickly. As they squirmed, I quickly ran toward the cabinets, hoping to find some sort of weapon. There were only papers on the cabinet. I rummaged the drawer of the table, and I found a small, rusty pocketknife. It might not sharp enough to pierce the nolan’s skin, but it would sure enough burst an eyeball.
Meanwhile, the two nolans had finally risen. The fire was still burning somewhat but was more sputtering smoke and now ………..they were pissed!
Red blotches covered their upper bodies, the gooey sign of burn wounds. Their black eyes were flaming, just like the wall that started to burn. They picked up a fighting stance and extended their arm, showing off their foot-long nails. I stood still and waited for them to come to me.
One of the nolans lunged forward and swung at me. I ducked hard, almost touching my chin to the ground, letting the big long arm swerved inches away from my head. The other one joined in with a massive overhead swing. I jerked backward as hard as I could, and the three steel-hard talons sunk into the floor. I could not believe how sharp they were. But there was no time to admire this predator. The nolan was in a crouching position, exposing its upper body to me. I knew it was my time. I lunged forward and jammed my measly pocketknife into its right eye. The giant let out an excruciating roar while covering its right eye. Greenish fluid trickled in between its claws. It stumbled by the sheriff’s desk and careened to the ground, knocking out the cabinet on the wall.
The other one jumped at me at full speed. I flinched as hard as I could, but the tip of its claws gouged my bare chest. I felt chunks of flesh being ripped out of my body. I lost my balance and slouched to the floor. Three long wounds adorned my chest, which started to ooze blood. I felt a sting of pain running through my entire body. I bit my lips to ease the pain, but every move I made felt like a dozen knives on my chest. I slowly got up, and saw the nolan was already in position for the next attack. Its eyes twinkled with excitement. It knew I was hurt, and the smell of my blood gave it a boost to end this fight quickly so that it could feast on my flesh.
As I got up, I realized that the floor was covered almost entirely by paper from the knocked over cabinet. The other nolan, the one I blinded, managed to get up and now took the attack position, as if its punctured eye did not bother it a bit. For a moment I wondered why I took on these two savage beasts when I had a chance to escape. Did this have something to do with my past? If yes, then what was I before? What did I do for a living, that I moronically fought two nolans barehanded? These questions spun in my head while the nolans inched toward me.
The half-blinded nolan leapt forward and tried to clobber me. I mustered all energy to dodge that attack, and I jumped toward the tumbled desk. The other nolan followed suit with a mighty swing. I rolled to the side, and the sheriff’s desk flew to the wall, swept by the awesome power of the nolan. I quickly got up, and I realized that I was standing near the flaming bed. The fire had consumed the wall, and it was a matter of time before the entire building burnt to dust. Disregarding pain, I stripped the half-dusted bed cloth and hurled it toward the nolans. The flame incinerated the papers on the floor, and within seconds, the papers caught fire.
As the nolans retreated in panic, I spotted a loose bar from the jail that was knocked down by the predators. One of the edges was already glowing red from extended exposure to fire. I picked it up, and I brought the battle to the nolans. I drove the hot steel bar into the gut of one nolan. The bar went cleanly into the belly, and exited at the back, close to the vertebrae. The nolan bellowed horrifically, then swerved its arm to ward me off. I sidestepped to the right, and its claws jammed into the floor. The beast yanked its arms up, and two of its talons broke. The talons were about a foot long, so even after breaking halfway, they were still impressively long. And they were sharper than any blades I had ever seen.
Now I had their weapons.
I picked up one of the broken talons and quickly stabbed it into the nolan’s belly. The talon went in without much resistance. Then I made a curve, slicing half of the nolan’s abdomen. A glob of innards burst out of the wound, spilling into the floor. The nolan cried a long perilous scream as it went down to its knees, trying to stop its guts from spilling out of its body. But the more it moved, the more entrails it lost.
The half-blinded nolan stood in awe, watching its kin struggling with its bowels. This gave me a chance to attack. I swung to the back and stabbed the back of its feet, slicing its achilles tendons. It screamed and dropped to the floor, wailing and writhing to get rid of the fire. Kneeling, its head was as high as my shoulder, so I swung the talon at its neck. But its neck was almost as big as my body. I only cut off half of its neck. Green fluid jetted out of the wound, and the nolan thrashed uncontrollably, flinging its limbs in every direction. But it quickly lost its power and crashed to the floor, breathing erratically for several moments, then stopping altogether.
By that time, the sheriff’s office had set ablaze. Smoke obscured my vision, and the heat had made my head spin. I knew it would crumble any minute, so I had to work quickly. I cut the remaining neck of the half-blinded nolan, then approached the other one. It was still alive, swimming on its own body fluid, gasping for air, watching me come with a look of defeat in its eyes. I ended its misery by cutting off its head. Then I took both of my trophies and headed out into the street.
The cold air outside gave me another sting at my chest. For the first time in 5 days, I was out again, and it was the first time I saw what happened. The town was virtually empty. I did not see a single human, only dark shadows that were nolans. In the distance stood Fercyn’s Commando, loitering about the city hall where the entire population of Hogye stayed. The nolans kept the distance far enough from the mech’s longest weapon.
The moment I stepped out of the burning office, Hogye stirred to life. The nolans smelled my blood, and started to box me from all direction. I knew I did not have a chance against a horde of these ravenous creatures, but I might have something to destroy their morale. I halted and waited until the nolans got closer. I counted no less than three dozen nolans coming toward me. I could hear their rasping breaths. When they reached 5 meters from my position, I hurled the two nolan heads to the ground in front of me.
As I hoped, the nolans stopped their advances. They looked at me with wonder, awe, and respect. Yes, respect. I could see it clearly in their eyes. They stood still for some time, then retreated methodically into the jungle near the town, leaving me alone with the two heads.
I was tired, hurt, and cold. My torso was soaked with blood. My vision started to tunnel down, and I careened to the ground. Torn between consciousness and oblivion, I felt several hands grabbed me and covered my body with cloth. I could hear the voice of Dr. Kim and Nurse Lin. I did not know if it was my hallucination, but next thing I knew, I was inside the city hall, lying on a warm bedding on a table. A myriad of people gathered around me, including Mayor Megi, Dr. Kim, Nurse Lin, and Cedro.
“How messed up am I?” I whispered.
“Very much,” Dr. Kim replied, “but not enough to kill you. You’ll get up before you know it.”
“The nolans?”
“Gone,” Nurse Lin said. “They’ve given us another day.”
“We must maintain the momentum,” I mumbled while trying to get up. “We have to strike them before they can regroup and find…”
“You’ve done enough for today,” Megi said, pushing me back to the table. “No one has killed two nolans… barehanded. You’ve set a standard on how we have to fight for ourselves, Parker. But let’s leave that for tomorrow. You need rest.”
I could not agree with her more. After staying alert all night and battling the beasts in the morning, I felt my body did not have energy left. I surrendered to the comfort of sleep. |
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