Fortress 14

CHAPTER 4

The farm was some miles away from the encampment but they could make it there in good time.

Imo lovingly ran her hand through the mane of hair growing along the brown neck of the mutated horse. A pale white horn grew on its forehead.

"Philip's worried", she began," the farm's an important source of food and other resources. Losing it must be hard on him".

"Yeah right. He was this close to biting my head off when I suggested we take this task.", Aiden said.

" Why did I even bother asking? You never consider other people. You only think about yourself. If only you'd listened to me during our previous mission casualties would have been avoided. But no. You just had to have it your way."

"Where did you get that idea from?"

"You broke our line trying to save Tom and at the end of the day you didn't save him but endangered us all", she screamed. " This is not a world where you can be soft", she finished calmly.

Aiden opened his mouth to make a retort but stopped. He knew he was the reason why there had been so many deaths that day.

The ride continued in silence until the loud clapping sound of an aircraft tore through the forest.

"What are they doing here?", Aiden yelled to get his message across.

A sleek silver plane ripped its way through the serene blue sky. Its body was streamlined and glinted brightly in the sun. Its trajectory was aimed downwards. Imo's brow wrinkled as she gazed at the aircraft rapidly hurtling downwards. She had just opened her mouth to speak when a loud boom ripped through the air a few seconds after the aircraft exploded while still in the sky.

A large dark cloud stained the once blue sky.

" What's going on?", Aiden asked, genuinely confused.

Imo was deep in thought. {Why is the plane here? Why did the plane blow up in midair? Did someone betray the Fortress? Was it one of the spies Philip had occasionally mentioned?} She pondered through all the possibilities.

"Hey! Imo!", Aiden yelled, not accustomed to being ignored. He reached out and tapped the small of her back.

" Touch me there again and I'll break your leg", she threatened before continuing," I have no idea why that's there, though I think someone must have sabotaged their aircraft. I don't see the people at fortress 14 being so clumsy as to forget the maintenance of their equipment and there wasn't any sign of a missile or projectile hitting the plane."

"Hmm. Did you get that much with just a glance? Must be nice having your gift", Aiden praised.

Imo simply nodded. {What is going on?} she wondered.

Pillars of black smoke rose from different sectors of the forest. One stood as the largest among the others.

" Let's head over there. The village comes later. We need to figure out what's going on. There is no way I'm going to believe that a person would sacrifice himself with a stupid notion that it's for the greater good. There must be a survivor, and that guy must be the reason for that plane blowing up", Imo instructed as she gave a nod towards the direction of the smoke.

"Guess no one is as stupid me then huh?", Aiden commented.

" Yes", Imo replied.

"That was a rhetorical question", Aiden said with a pained expression.

She gave her unicorn a light tap on its rear and it sped towards the plume of smoke. The wind was soft on her face as she raced past trees. Though it had taken months to piece together, they had drawn a map with safe routes to take on journeys. It was much easier to avoid the wandering chimeras and wild mutated animals that wandered the forest.

" It's one of the fortress' kites. The tail's been blown off", Imo said as they walked around the blackened hull of the aircraft. "We'll report this to Philip. Let's head to the town." She placed two fingers in her mouth and let out a whistle. Her ride cantered to her and she mounted it. Aiden quickly followed her example and they raced towards the town. The town wasn't far from the crash site. This had Imo worried. Everything wasn't adding up. Her knuckles lost color as she tightened her grasp on the reins. She urged her mount to go faster.

They broke through a clearing in the trees.

Their first fear hit them. The gates of the town(farm) were wide open.

"I can't see any sentries on the walls. What happened here?", Aiden said after scanning the length of the walls.

" You notice how quiet it is?", she asked, looking around. Her throat felt clogged with fear.

Something caught her eye when her gaze crossed the gate. She quickly came down her horse and dashed to where she knew the latch of the gate should have been.

"The lock's been broken", she said. It was more like a confirmation of her fear. She looked at Aiden, her heart screaming. " It looks like the gate was rammed through and... there is a faint trace of blood", she finished as she closed her eyes.

Aiden had known Imo for some time and knew she never expressed any form of emotion. Her fear was copied into him.

" There could still be survivors", he said as he raced to the first house.

"Aiden wait", she said as he threw the door of the suburban home wide open. The smell and sight both had him backing out to the road. His chest tightened.

" James. Martha and little Tim", he said, listing the names of the disemboweled trio that littered the floor. The back door was visibly broken and the slaughtered animals were within sight.

"b****y Chimeras got them", he announced as he turned to face Imo. He raced to the other homes and looked only to be confronted by the same gory results.

" Seems like the rumors Philip heard about the Fortress using a device to control the chimeras is true.  The town's too far out for a chimera attack of this force. Those bastards used here as their testing ground and were about leaving when they must have been sabotaged. Seems possible that someone among then got tired of the sickening s**t they were doing", Imo said, developing her theory. "Let's look for survivors. Someone must have made it", she suggested, strongly clutching onto hope.

They mounted their unicorns and covered the little town in their search for survivors. They exited through the gate at the other end of the town.

Imo's head was reeling with what she had seen when she noticed a cluster of footsteps that lead towards a certain direction.

" Hey, Look at that", she said as she pointed at the footsteps.

"What about it? Chimeras always move in packs", Aiden spat; still simmering in his rage.

" Yeah, but their packs are not usually this big", she informed.

She nudged her steed and headed in the direction of the footprints. Aiden followed with a sour look on his face.

They'd been riding for some minutes with Aiden occasionally letting out snide remarks about how worthless the idea was. Imo simply ignored him and kept going.

"The footprints are beginning to thin", Imo observed as they rode. She slowed down and dismounted then proceeded to check the branches and trees for any signs of scratches or stress. They continued their search but this time they were guided by claw marks on branches or trees.

" You hear that?", Imo asked, suddenly coming to a stop.

"I didn't hear anything", Aiden responded exasperatedly. " How long are we going to..."

"Move!", Imo yelled.

He didn't hesitate as he jumped off his mount, a breath before a Chimera crashed into it. Imo's unicorn fled amidst the chaos.

Imo drew her bow and nocked an arrow. She fired and nailed the Chimera on its shoulder as it jumped back. It let out a loud wail a few seconds before Imo planted an arrow through its forehead.

" You think any of them heard that?", Aiden asked.

Suddenly, a chorus of wails whipped through the forest.

"How many are there?", Aiden asked.

" You can stay and find out", she replied tersely.

She began running and he followed.

Aiden glanced back as five dropped down from the trees.

"Should I use it?", he asked as he placed a hand on his headphone.

" No don't. Your gift would still affect me even with my ears closed", she replied as she spun and shot an arrow in between the eyes of one of the Chimeras.

They kept running, with Imo repeatedly turning to take shots at the monsters.

They came across a vehicle that had been encroached by the forces of nature. Numerous plants grew both in and out. They quickly took cover behind it, placing the vehicle between them and the approaching Chimeras.

Imo took carefully calculated shots, downing Chimera after Chimera.

One evaded a shot from Imo and closed the distance to the car. It leaped onto the hood of the vehicle and made a grab for Imo's face. Aiden quickly unsheathed his 15-inch dagger and drove it beneath the jaw of the Chimera. It let out a gargled sound before it collapsed.

"If things continue this way, we won't make it", Imo informed.

" This must be Reya punishing me for the people I got killed in our last mission", Aiden said.

"I do not believe in gods", Imo announced as she nocked another arrow.

" So what do you think would get us out of this?"

"I'm working on it."

She really couldn't come up with any ideas. She was already occupied with the approaching enemies and was about to run out of arrows.

A wail, different from that of their attackers, rang through the forest. The Chimeras instantly stopped their charge and ran into the forest.

They took in deep breaths.

"Are they all gone?", Aiden asked.

" Looks like it. The alpha must have called for a retreat", she answered."We need to find those footprints or try retracing our steps", she suggested.

The only and major problem with that suggestion was that they couldn't find the path they'd taken. They roamed through the forest trying to use the light of the sun to determine their general location and direction.

"We can't keep this up. I'm really thirsty and we've been walking for what seems like hours", Aiden said.

" I know", Imo replied. She was tired and needed a nap. They hadn't seen any chimeras and that was already more luck than she had since she was a toddler.

"Seems we're leaving the forest", Aiden observed, the joy in his voice evident.

A few miles ahead was a break in the line of the trees. They stepped into a clearing that led to a huge metal door that had been embedded in the side of a cliff. Its surface was rough. They gazed at it dumbfounded.

{Has this been recorded yet?}, Imo wondered. She was sure she had never heard anything about a huge metal door out in the woods. There was no way it would be left untouched. It would've been melted and used to gain materials for other uses. They approached it warily.

A rumble began as the door groaned and creaked open. Imo nocked an arrow and Aiden readied his dagger.

" What's going on now?", he asked, exasperated.