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My heart raced as I leapt over bodies and debris strewn across what used to be my home. My security drone, no longer with me, was likely snatched out of the air by the hissing, weapon-wielding, ravenous xenos. I had to be swift and smart lest they or the corrupted scions of evil capture me.
My orders were to deliver the information and sample safely to Shas’O’Kiv’rai’ka. They said I was their only hope: me, Carella Swallon, a child.
In the distance stood an undamaged building, a pillar of hope in the desolation. My gaze locked ahead; the skittering sounds of bugs and weapons firing followed me as I weaved out of death’s reach. Out of the corner of my eye, something green grabbed a pink-purple creature and tore its spindly legs off with a crack.
I raced up the stairs and into a room on the top floor near the rooftop exit. Panting, I punched the numbers on the keypad, and a small compartment opened. I was thankful I carried the sample instead of my drone. I closed it, then pressed a screen to recall my drone.
Boots crashed heavily on the stairs, accompanied by wheezing and coughing. The Corrupted Ones had found me.
The cold fingers of fear traced my spine, and goosebumps raised the hairs on my neck. This enemy was the better alternative to the never-tiring swarm, but it was no less formidable for a lone thirteen-year-old Gue’vesa’la.
I barricaded the door with an old dresser and leaned on the far wall, my weapon ready.
I hoped the obstacles would slow the approaching foe, especially considering its laboured breathing. It took one kick to send the dresser and door flying through the air, narrowly missing me.
Surprised, I turned my head away and raised my arms, protecting my face, but quickly recovered. I trained my pulse pistol on the sickly thing who should be dead but stood in rusted power armour fused into its skin.
As the corners of its mouth curled up, blood oozed from the new crevasses, tearing the paper-thin lips into a smile. I whimpered as the putrid stench of infection reached me. The foe stepped forward, blocking my exit.
‘Do you want to live?’ asked a hoarse female voice. She did not wait for my reply but took another step. My eyes grew wide. ‘You have something that can stop them, and I want it.’
As the slurred words left her lips, the click-clacking of a dozen xenos claws resounded in the plasteel building.
‘I have a proposition that will see us both come out of this alive and satisfied,’ said the heaving form standing at the wrong end of my shaky pulse pistol.
I squared my shoulders, stepped forward and spat in her face. She sighed and choked, unimpressed with my response.
I hoped she couldn’t see my fear with her milky brown eyes. I tried to calm myself as the once-woman scowled at me. My life depended on this proposition, and billions of lives depended on my decision. Either way, death would undoubtedly come for me today.
‘You can spit at me all you want, little girl, but that won’t make you less tasty to the roaches making their way here. You need me, and I need you. I have an exit. You need an exit,’ she spat and pointed at the window. ‘The bugs are almost here. Tick tock,’ she added. Some kind of goop fell to the floor as she moved. I couldn't help but purse my lips and scrunch my nose in disgust.
I kept my eyes trained on the devil who offered me a deal. I cautiously side-stepped to the window.
‘It’s simple. You hold the information; I won’t take it from you. If you want to live, then we have to work together. Heck, I’ll even offer you the gift if we survive, and I will not be offended if you refuse. You have my word. Right now, the more pressing issue is escaping,’ she slurred as she spoke.
I didn’t know if her word meant anything, considering she had clearly gone back on her word to the Emperor, but so had I when I joined the Tauva with my father.
She is my best chance of saving them all, I told myself.
‘Can you promise that whomever else we encounter won’t hurt me or take the information from me?’ I asked.
I saw a twinge of annoyance flash in her cloudy eyes. I knew then there was more to this deal than met the eye.
‘Yes,’ she answered begrudgingly, ‘but I want a copy of the data.’
I didn’t notice her approach the window as I glanced outside, but when I looked back, I was too close to fire my pulse pistol even if I wanted to. The Lesser-of-Two-Evils did not raise a hand against me. Waves of putrid decay hit me like a slap in the face, making my eyes water and bile rise in my throat. I forced it down.
‘I will recite the information verbally when you deliver me and the information safely,’ I promised.
The corrupted woman nodded, and she broke the window with a spike protruding from her shoulder. We jumped onto the requisitioned hovering Imperial vehicle as the roaches finally entered the room and fired their weapons at us.
+++
I stood alone in a sterile room with Shas’O’Kiv’rai’ka.
‘How much of this information did you give the corrupted Gue’la?’ asked the Fire Warrior.
‘I told her everything except the delivery system for the solution. It will take them some time to figure it out or find another way, but we have everything we need here to slow the hoard, and we can get more from the site,’ I said as a bead of sweat formed on my brow, or maybe a tear, trickled down my cheek. I swayed where I stood.
‘You did well, Gue’vesa’la Swallon. Go rest.’
‘Thank you, Shas’O.’
THE END