Inevitable

Episode 2- VEGA

I spit blood from my mouth as I pull my head out from the sand where I had fallen. The Ottarii loomed over me. It's gaping, bloody maw ready to pierce the flesh under my battle suit. As it lunges once more, I roll out of the way, this time managing to avoid getting pounded by it's gargantuan body, undulating with overdeveloped muscles. Pallid yellow eyes flare in annoyance as razor sharp teeth clamp around driftwood instead of me. I slide my granite dagger from my belt, and this time, when the creature lunges, I allow it to bite into my leather arm guard, then wrap my legs around its waist, gripping hard as I use my body weight to flip it onto its back. It snarls, trying to throw me. I flick my head back to avoid getting impaled on its tusks, and blindly stab it in the soft tissue of its stomach. The creature grunts, trying to throw me once more, but I hold fast until its jaw goes slack around my guard. I slump down next to it, panting heavily.

I hear laughter and a sarcastic, slow clapping behind me, and even in my exhaustion, annoyance bubbles in my belly.

"Good job Vega! You killed a baby Ottari— after it nearly took a chunk out of you."

"Shut the f**k up, Ares. I will kill you and I will enjoy it."

"Wasn't what you said last night."

Even with my eyes closed, I can see his s**t-eating grin and want to wipe it right off his stupid, smug face. Despite this, I feel my cheeks redden against my will.

"I'm Captain of the Sea Guard in my own right, because I earnt my post. You're only here because of Daddy." I know this is a sure way to get under his skin, and his silence is a sure sign that I've achieved this.

I am just about to relax when I feel a sudden weight on top of me. My eyes flick open to find Ares' green eyes glaring down as his strong hands wrap firmly around my wrists, pinning them at the top of my head.

"Am I wrong?" I challenge him, though I know it to be stupid.

"You're still yet to win against me, Captain. For all your corralling, it's clear who the superior combatant is."

"You never fight fair, sir."

"Is that so?" He traces a finger down my arm, and I shudder as he cups the breast beneath my suit, gently brushing my n****e beneath the fabric. I bring my leg up to wrap my ankle around his hip, and he smiles in response, before leaning down to kiss me. His tongue meets mine in a familiar dance that feels like hatred but tastes like a sickly sort of passion. I fight against his grip on my wrists, and in response he squeezes my breast until I cry out into his mouth.

"Lord Ares!? Captain Vega!?"

I spring away from Ares, wiping my mouth as I haul myself to my feet.

"We're here, Altair!" I call back to my 2IC, Atlair Renaux. He is a stocky young man, and though shorter than me, is capable of taking down two Ottari at once. However, Ares and I do not trust anyone with knowledge of our relationship. It could end my career on the Guard, which is the most prosperous (and well-compensated) job in all of Everton. It's taken me ten years of service to work my way up, and I'm not going to do anything to jeopardise it… except secretly meet with the Mayor's son in the caves outside the city wall, apparently.

Altair runs down the sand dune, holding his signature trident, several soldiers in tow. They all wear black, full body suits with blue tridents on the front and back. Altair and Ares however, have red, and my own is gold, representing our ranks.

"You're both alright?" Altair gives us a sceptical look, and I can see him making a mental note of the fact I'm covered in sand. I think he has suspected something between Ares and I since we were children fighting with wooden gladii, but he knows the danger of defying the mayor as well as we do. Ares' first girlfriend ended up lynched in the town square for all the good it did her. As much as I don't trust anyone for fear of ending up the same way, I know the schoolyard affection Altair bares me is enough to keep his suspicions internal.

"Yeah. I got caught off guard is all. They're getting sneakier." I take the cloth Altair gives me and use it to wipe the streak of blood from my nose. Then I brush past Ares and beeline for the base.

The base is built into the mountainside that surrounds Everton. Once, Everton was the highest mountain peak in the world. Now, it is the largest remaining land settlement, a coastal, tropical wasteland that a few rogue humans that survived the Flood turned into a town.

I was found as a baby, washed up on the beach in a liferaft, with nothing more than a blanket that had my name embroidered on it and a selection of pretty shells that I was chewing on. I got raised in the orphanage, which as you would expect after the natural disaster to end all natural disasters, was pretty full. It was Everton's early days, too, so food and resources were scarce. I learned pretty quickly to defend myself, and that the best way to stay fed was to beat the crap out of anyone and everyone else. Not that it made me popular with the Matron. I climb the stairs up the mountainside, but head to my apartment instead of the Base. I eyeball a tiny camera that hangs outside my door as I use my keyboard to access it.

If you haven't noticed already, the mayor is a bit of a d**k. And yes, the entire town is under surveillance for some reason. No one knows why. Some think it's because he's overprotective of Ares, hence the lynching, or maybe there's another reason. Much as I'll admit to liking Ares, he isn't exactly worth surveilling five-thousand people. Anyway, this camera is why we need to meet outside the walls. There's a cave system built deep into the rock that goes down into the bowels of the mountain. Some of it is beneath the flood-line, but somehow it stays dry. There are bones down there, too. Probably ancient people who died of exposure.

I close my door, and shimmy out of my uniform, tossing it in a big wooden crate that I'll fill with soap and water later on to clean it. Along with the numerous other items I have yet to clean. I grab my robe off a hook on my bedroom door, and wrap myself up in it, letting my hair down from its military bun.

My home is excruciatingly simple. Even though I have one of the highest compensating jobs in the city, supplies are extremely expensive, and people die on a regular basis from mutant attacks, or malnutrition. It was worse when I was a kid, and I got used to putting other necessities aside in order to feed myself. Because of this, I’m bulky, especially in comparison to most women in the city, though in our society it is common for men to neglect their own nutrition in order to feed their wives and hopefully allow them to produce healthy babies. Still, most of us only menstruate a couple times a year. Food is scarce, and what we do have provides precious few nutrients.

I stride over to my kitchen, if one can call it that; a rickety wooden bench, a sink full of murky water, and a cabinet with a handful of cutlery and crockery. Underneath the sink, I keep my dried meat and pickled vegetables that make up the majority of my diet. The meat is Ottarii, as it’s the most common thing we have access to here. Goats and mountain lions still thrive in the ranges, but there are strict rules the Mayor enforced around their hunting, as we don’t want to hunt them to extinction when they are our most precious of resources. I bite into the salty meat, and stab at some pickled cabbage that I’ve heard called ‘sauerkraut’ before.

My door swings open, startling me.

“Okay, I feel like I’ve been really patient with you Vega, but I need the truth.” Altair pants, as if he ran all the way here. “What’s the deal with you and Ares?”

“First of all, close the damn door, idiot.” I hiss, giving him a look.

It takes him a second to realize, and then his face becomes bashful.

“Sorry,” he says, closing the door behind him.

“What’s it to you, anyway,” I ask, folding my arms.

“It’s just, we’ve been friends for so long, all three of us, really, but you and I since the orphanage, and I just feel like you guys don’t trust me, that’s all.” He walks over to my window, looking out on a view of the water with a somber gaze.

“It’s not that, Al.” I say, feeling like he’s being a drama queen, as usual.

“Oh, really? You guys aren’t not telling me because you feel like you’ll end up hanging off a tree if you do?”

I shrug. He isn’t exactly wrong, but still. We hadn’t told anyone, we didn’t want to take any further risks, let alone potentially put our friends in danger. The mayor wasn’t above torturing people, and I don’t think I’d forgive myself if any of my friends got hurt.

“I’m more concerned about what might happen to you, Al.” I say, dropping my tense posture. “The mayor isn’t the most ethical. It’s not that we don’t trust you, it’s that we don’t want to see you getting hurt.”

Altair looks back at me, his dark eyes understanding. “So there is something, then?”

I nod, not willing to even say it out loud. Altair nods, seeming to come to his own conclusions.

“I get it,” he says, before smirking. “But do tell, how well endowed is the mayor's golden boy.” He leans over on the bench, and I can’t help but laugh.

“As if I’d tell you.”

“If not me, then who? You don’t have anyone else to tell, girlypop.”

I laugh again, relenting and plopping myself down on my holey couch. Altair immediately relocates himself next to me, allowing me to rest my feet on his lap.

“I’m meeting him later tonight,” I say, biting my lip to keep from smiling.

Altair’s eyes widen as if scandalized by the concept.

“Where do you even meet? You can’t meet anywhere in the city or you’d be in ropes by morning.”

“In the tunnels under the city,” I explain. “They aren’t usually flooded, not like most people seem to think. I’ve never run into anyone down there either.”

“Other than lover boy,”

“Other than him,” I roll my eyes exasperatedly.

Altair reaches over to my uneven coffee table, snatching up the shells from the center.

“I always thought you got rid of these when we left the orphanage,” he raises a thick dark eyebrow at me.

“I tried. Something kept me holding onto them. I think maybe it’s just because they’re the only thing my parents left me. Other than the blanket, I suppose.”

“They’re shells, hon. You could just as easily have picked them up yourself.”

“They’re way too big for that, dumbass,” I tease, and Altair feigns offense.

“Well I’m gay and an orphan, ‘dumbass’, I don’t know anything about babies. You’re a woman, so it’s like, your whole thing, right?”

I chuckle, knowing he’s joking about the woman part. He had had my back against all the sexist pricks when I first started training with the Everton Sea Guard.

“Suck a d**k, Altair.” I stand up, walking across the room to my drawers and changing out of my bra and throwing on a tank top and some tight pants.

“I would love to, but it seems I’m not the one with a d**k appointment.”

“Touche.”