“What are you talking about?” asked Thebes as she took off her helmet and looked around. “You mean that was here? How can you tell?”
“Well, you’re the one mapping the place. How can you not tell?”
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to the exact location where we encountered the ratlings. Should I have?”
“Always remember where your enemy fell. But don’t worry about it. That’s why you brought me along. There’s something strange about these sewers. You said the ratlings might have rifted in, yet we aren’t on a ley line. Then we come back a couple hours later and not only are their bodies gone, someone also wiped down the walls. This doesn’t make any sense. Do you know of any sewer monsters that do shit like this?”
“First of all, I’m no practitioner of magic, but from what I know it is theoretically possible for a rift to open without a ley line; extremely unlikely, but possible. As for where the ratlings went, I haven’t a clue. I mean, I can think of a number of ways someone might do this, I just have no idea why, or how they accomplished it in such a short time. Anything large enough to eat all eight of them certainly couldn’t fit inside these sewers, at least not easily. And if eating them was the point, why go to the trouble to clean up after yourself?”
“You’re right, there’s something else going on around here. And I don’t like it one bit.”
“If you have any theories, I’m open to them. Otherwise, there’s no point in standing around here just talking about it. We still need to get to the ATV.”
“You’re right, Thebes. The best thing to do right now is to hustle our way out of here before we vanish like those ratlings.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. You’re on point.”
Rip proceeded back through the sewers. All kinds of things were going through his head right now, none of them good. He had tangled with his fair share of supernatural terrors and didn’t know what type of beast might want to play games with them like this. The Minions of Splugorth were crafty, but not the kind to clean up their messes so well. They were pretty far from the Federation of Magic, so he doubted that they were involved. And it wasn’t like the Shemarrians to travel this far inland, or to interest themselves in underground complexes like this. They preferred a face-to-face battle, just like Rip did. This smacked of mind tricks, and Rip did not like it when someone was trying to screw with his head. It made him very uneasy. However he was caught off guard when Thebes broke the silence again.
“Rip, can I ask you a question?”
“Uh, sure, I guess.”
“Back there in the cavern, when we were running away from the spider ‘bots, why did you consider leaving me behind?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I wasn’t gonna leave you behind. That would be stupid; you’re my meal ticket.”
“Don’t lie to me, Rip. I didn’t tell you this before because I didn’t think it necessary, but I’m a telepath. When you started running away and picked me up, there wasn’t much I could do to help in that situation. I certainly can’t run anywhere near as fast as you so I was a little bit panicked. I read your thoughts because I wanted to know if you believed we were going to make it. You thought about leaving me behind. The only reason you didn’t is because there were two of them, and you figured I would only distract one; that and the money, which you just mentioned. But it’s not like that makes me feel any better.”
Rip stood in silence for a few moments. He did feel a little bit ashamed of himself, more for his cowardice than anything else. Then again, he hadn’t survived this long because of his sense of charity. He had survived this long because he looked out for number one. Rifts Earth was a dangerous place to live, and sometimes he had to look the other way while others suffered. That was just reality. Of course, knowing Thebes was a psychic meant he had to watch what he was thinking from now on. That was going to be a huge pain in the ass.
“Look, I’m sorry for…”
“Don’t apologize when you don’t mean it,” Thebes interrupted him. “I get it okay. You’re a mercenary. You kill for a living. You don’t get attached to the people you work for. But if I’m paying you to protect me, godsdamnit you are gonna protect me! Is that clear?”
Rip looked down and nodded. He knew she was right. She had never pretended like this was going to be an easy mission. He knew the risks when he got involved. It wasn’t like him to throw innocents to the dogs just to save himself, no matter how much he valued his own hide. What did he have to lose anyway? Blood was pouring out his nose right now and he never got nosebleeds. Last Call was not too far away. He probably had a few months left, maybe less. He had had a good run. There was not any point wasting what little life he had left acting like a yellow-bellied fraidy-cat.
Thebes, apparently wanting a more definitive answer took a determined step forward. Even though Rip was over a foot taller than she was and twice as massive, she looked up to him with severity. “I said ‘Is that clear, soldier?’”
Rip furled his brow and grunted, “Yes, ma’am. Crystal.”
“Good. Now let’s get back to the ATV before it gets dark.”
Rip put out the light and engaged his thermal imager while Thebes put her helmet back on and switched on her nightvision headset. Rip led the rest of the way, taking directions from Thebes when necessary, but he had a pretty good sense of direction and remembered most of the turns. Finally, they came to the sewer exit. Rip hopped down the six foot descent and reached up to help Thebes down. She took his hand and he pulled her gently down so she would not trip on the mossy sludge that had built up over the years of drainage.
“I’m surprised the drainage system hasn’t been completely clogged after all these centuries,” Thebes noted.
“Yea, it does seem a little odd. Didn’t you say Blacksburg has been completely buried?”
“Well, leveled is probably a better way of putting it. During the Great Cataclysm enormous tidal waves miles high are rumored to have spread inland. It’s quite possible they got this far and washed away all signs of the city, leaving nothing but underground structures. Then there were also hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, blizzards, and all other kinds of crazy weather. No one living today seems to know exactly what it was like, but it must have been a nightmare for people living in that time.”
Rip was about to agree with her when he suddenly got the feeling that something was not right. The woods were too quiet. That, plus the amazing disappearing ratlings unsettled him greatly.
“Stay here, Thebes,” he whispered. “I’m going to go check on the ATV. Maybe it’s just my imagination but something seems wrong.”
“Okay, be careful.” Thebes pulled out her Wilk’s 320 laser pistol and squatted behind a nearby bush to take cover.
Rip withdrew his NG-57s carefully from their holsters and crawled carefully and quietly through the brush towards the ATV which they had parked about fifty yards away in a concealed area. When he got within visual range he couldn’t believe his eyes. The ATV was gone! Now Rip was certain something was up. Whatever devilry was causing these freakish incidents was really starting to get to him. He and Thebes were definitely in danger. He turned around and crawled back to Thebes as quickly as he could, making sure to check behind him regularly in case anyone was following him.
“The ATV is gone, Thebes,” he said, crawling out of the brush. Then, turning his head back towards her, he stated, “We’ve got a major problem…”
“Yea, we do.” Thebes didn’t let him finish. She was standing there with her arms on top of her head, surrounded by at least a dozen figures in dark grey full body armor holding rifles the likes of which Rip had never seen before. The unmistakable symbol of the Neemans was etched into the top left breast of each soldier’s armor.
“Well, you’re the one mapping the place. How can you not tell?”
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to the exact location where we encountered the ratlings. Should I have?”
“Always remember where your enemy fell. But don’t worry about it. That’s why you brought me along. There’s something strange about these sewers. You said the ratlings might have rifted in, yet we aren’t on a ley line. Then we come back a couple hours later and not only are their bodies gone, someone also wiped down the walls. This doesn’t make any sense. Do you know of any sewer monsters that do shit like this?”
“First of all, I’m no practitioner of magic, but from what I know it is theoretically possible for a rift to open without a ley line; extremely unlikely, but possible. As for where the ratlings went, I haven’t a clue. I mean, I can think of a number of ways someone might do this, I just have no idea why, or how they accomplished it in such a short time. Anything large enough to eat all eight of them certainly couldn’t fit inside these sewers, at least not easily. And if eating them was the point, why go to the trouble to clean up after yourself?”
“You’re right, there’s something else going on around here. And I don’t like it one bit.”
“If you have any theories, I’m open to them. Otherwise, there’s no point in standing around here just talking about it. We still need to get to the ATV.”
“You’re right, Thebes. The best thing to do right now is to hustle our way out of here before we vanish like those ratlings.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. You’re on point.”
Rip proceeded back through the sewers. All kinds of things were going through his head right now, none of them good. He had tangled with his fair share of supernatural terrors and didn’t know what type of beast might want to play games with them like this. The Minions of Splugorth were crafty, but not the kind to clean up their messes so well. They were pretty far from the Federation of Magic, so he doubted that they were involved. And it wasn’t like the Shemarrians to travel this far inland, or to interest themselves in underground complexes like this. They preferred a face-to-face battle, just like Rip did. This smacked of mind tricks, and Rip did not like it when someone was trying to screw with his head. It made him very uneasy. However he was caught off guard when Thebes broke the silence again.
“Rip, can I ask you a question?”
“Uh, sure, I guess.”
“Back there in the cavern, when we were running away from the spider ‘bots, why did you consider leaving me behind?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I wasn’t gonna leave you behind. That would be stupid; you’re my meal ticket.”
“Don’t lie to me, Rip. I didn’t tell you this before because I didn’t think it necessary, but I’m a telepath. When you started running away and picked me up, there wasn’t much I could do to help in that situation. I certainly can’t run anywhere near as fast as you so I was a little bit panicked. I read your thoughts because I wanted to know if you believed we were going to make it. You thought about leaving me behind. The only reason you didn’t is because there were two of them, and you figured I would only distract one; that and the money, which you just mentioned. But it’s not like that makes me feel any better.”
Rip stood in silence for a few moments. He did feel a little bit ashamed of himself, more for his cowardice than anything else. Then again, he hadn’t survived this long because of his sense of charity. He had survived this long because he looked out for number one. Rifts Earth was a dangerous place to live, and sometimes he had to look the other way while others suffered. That was just reality. Of course, knowing Thebes was a psychic meant he had to watch what he was thinking from now on. That was going to be a huge pain in the ass.
“Look, I’m sorry for…”
“Don’t apologize when you don’t mean it,” Thebes interrupted him. “I get it okay. You’re a mercenary. You kill for a living. You don’t get attached to the people you work for. But if I’m paying you to protect me, godsdamnit you are gonna protect me! Is that clear?”
Rip looked down and nodded. He knew she was right. She had never pretended like this was going to be an easy mission. He knew the risks when he got involved. It wasn’t like him to throw innocents to the dogs just to save himself, no matter how much he valued his own hide. What did he have to lose anyway? Blood was pouring out his nose right now and he never got nosebleeds. Last Call was not too far away. He probably had a few months left, maybe less. He had had a good run. There was not any point wasting what little life he had left acting like a yellow-bellied fraidy-cat.
Thebes, apparently wanting a more definitive answer took a determined step forward. Even though Rip was over a foot taller than she was and twice as massive, she looked up to him with severity. “I said ‘Is that clear, soldier?’”
Rip furled his brow and grunted, “Yes, ma’am. Crystal.”
“Good. Now let’s get back to the ATV before it gets dark.”
Rip put out the light and engaged his thermal imager while Thebes put her helmet back on and switched on her nightvision headset. Rip led the rest of the way, taking directions from Thebes when necessary, but he had a pretty good sense of direction and remembered most of the turns. Finally, they came to the sewer exit. Rip hopped down the six foot descent and reached up to help Thebes down. She took his hand and he pulled her gently down so she would not trip on the mossy sludge that had built up over the years of drainage.
“I’m surprised the drainage system hasn’t been completely clogged after all these centuries,” Thebes noted.
“Yea, it does seem a little odd. Didn’t you say Blacksburg has been completely buried?”
“Well, leveled is probably a better way of putting it. During the Great Cataclysm enormous tidal waves miles high are rumored to have spread inland. It’s quite possible they got this far and washed away all signs of the city, leaving nothing but underground structures. Then there were also hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, blizzards, and all other kinds of crazy weather. No one living today seems to know exactly what it was like, but it must have been a nightmare for people living in that time.”
Rip was about to agree with her when he suddenly got the feeling that something was not right. The woods were too quiet. That, plus the amazing disappearing ratlings unsettled him greatly.
“Stay here, Thebes,” he whispered. “I’m going to go check on the ATV. Maybe it’s just my imagination but something seems wrong.”
“Okay, be careful.” Thebes pulled out her Wilk’s 320 laser pistol and squatted behind a nearby bush to take cover.
Rip withdrew his NG-57s carefully from their holsters and crawled carefully and quietly through the brush towards the ATV which they had parked about fifty yards away in a concealed area. When he got within visual range he couldn’t believe his eyes. The ATV was gone! Now Rip was certain something was up. Whatever devilry was causing these freakish incidents was really starting to get to him. He and Thebes were definitely in danger. He turned around and crawled back to Thebes as quickly as he could, making sure to check behind him regularly in case anyone was following him.
“The ATV is gone, Thebes,” he said, crawling out of the brush. Then, turning his head back towards her, he stated, “We’ve got a major problem…”
“Yea, we do.” Thebes didn’t let him finish. She was standing there with her arms on top of her head, surrounded by at least a dozen figures in dark grey full body armor holding rifles the likes of which Rip had never seen before. The unmistakable symbol of the Neemans was etched into the top left breast of each soldier’s armor.
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