Perceived Fate

Malum awoke to the sound of Jamesons voice.

His head hurt again, but this time Malum felt it was different from his usual headache. He was just tired, so he looked to see why his friend had woken him up.

“There he is.” Jameson said as he saw soul return to Malums eyes. With it he brought his friend into a hug and said, “Good to see you alive my friend.”

“I’m tired.” Malum said, as he rubbed his eyes.

“Yeah, I feel that mate but we can’t sleep here, can we?”

Malum looked around and realised the fact that it was indeed a terrible idea. He hadn’t even thought about the roaming demons.

“Fine, fine, I’ll get up.”

Malum groaned as he felt his body click back into activity. The pain wasn’t as bad as it was before but it was hardly much better.

“Pass me a water.” His throat was as dry as a desert.

Jameson passed him one as they both trudged over to see how Carl and the recruit had done. Honestly, Malum couldn’t care less if they lived or not.

He hardly knew them, but still it would lighten the load on himself and he wasn’t a bad guy so he wished to see them okay.

Eating one of the last food items he had, Malum and Jameson made their way towards the centre of their Section. The agreed upon meet-up spot for when they finished.

It didn’t take to long, and luckily Malum saw two figures in the distance closing in.

They went over to see Carl dragging a limp Horus. They quickened to see if they could help save him but getting closer they saw how little of him remained.

An arm was gone, and the stomach looked even worse.

Malum heard Jameson whisper, “Unlucky bastard.”

Thinking, Malum realised why he had said it. The only reason he wasn’t completely gone meant the wave had likely almost completely finished before he died.

Perhaps that could have even been himself if Jameson didn’t arrive at his sleeping body so quick.

They didn’t talk much. They were far to tired for that.

How they even had enough to carry the body, left Malum in surprise. He wasn’t a monster here and he realised that on his first day.

They moved as quick as they could to get back. The sun was still high and beat into them mercilessly.

`My tan is coming along nicely`, Malum thought to cheer himself up.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive back at base. They saw others as they came in through the door and it seemed 3 in a section was a good result.

Malum and Carl could now go to rest but Jameson, the poor sod, had to go and report on the battle. Carl gave short version of his side before he was sent off and Malum was already long gone.

Jameson walked into the admin building and he saw his friend sitting at the desk.

“Long day?” the brute asked.

“Easy work, but you still have to clearing up to do.” He grinned back.

The brute looked back before he said, “So am I clearing up after any of your lot. Your newbie didn’t die so I’ll give him that.”

“He did well in fact. Dumbass slept right after but I didn’t have to help once and you’ll be happy to hear that the lost fell before he could make any mess.”

Considering that was expected for vets to do after recruits even the Gorilla looked back at Malums information.

“Impressive, shame about the recruit but what can we do. Are u and your friend going to the city for your month?”

“Course we are! I’ve got pubs to show him round! And Davidson” They met each other eye, “Your free to join anytime.”

The Ape smiled, but rejected the offer. He stated to many teams had made a mess and so clearing up was going to take up to much of his time.

Jameson didn’t push and he was also exhausted so he thanked his friend and went back to his tent.

Inside, he placed down his prized sword and cleaned it before he fell asleep. Even when his eyes couldn’t stay open habits always died hard.

He looked at the cleaned blade and held it close with care. In his eyes, red blood slowly overcame his vision. The hut slowly fell into screams and mayhem as his mind fell into an abyss.

He snapped, his vision returned back to him and he returned the sword to his sheath.

The bed felt great, he just wished his dreams would let him rest.

Malum woke to his body feeling sore.

Pain ran through his neck, his legs, and especially his arms.

He opened his eyes to see the room around him. Seeing the wooden ceiling he assumed it was his own hut. His memories told him that was where he had dragged himself to.

Feeling immense hunger and thirst, he crawled from his bed towards the mess hall. He ate, drank, and returned to his sleep.

He awoke again, this time feeling far better than before. His mind actually flowed out clear thoughts and with it he could begin to plan out his actions.

First, he got more and water because his body was again in need of them. Out of the small cracks in his hut he saw the light of dawn and assumed he had slept for a day and bit. He tried to remember what the weather was like when he went for his snack but couldn’t remember anything but the food and water hitting his throat.

Reliving the experience, Malum looked around the mess hall as he ate.

People were eating and chatting. Somehow even smiles were shown as they joked around.

If they were sad they certainly did well in hiding it. As far as Malum could see the whole experience had done nothing to them.

He thought to his friend and ate with haste. Jameson would want to see him and Malum missed having a friend to talk to so he began to speed eat everything on his plate.

“Woah there bud, don’t die to some lettuce else I’ll have trouble holding my laughter at your funeral.”

Malum looked around, his faced stuffed with greens.

“Ameson” He managed to muffle out as his brightened to see his friend.

He let Malum finish as before he spoke again.

“You slept for far to long. A whole 28 hours, not a record but you got close.”

“Sorry I was dead inside and what’s the record?”

“Well you could say its 17 years but coma’s aren’t counted so 52 would be the record in this Outpost.”

That was nearly double his sleep. “Was it a rookie?”

Jameson sat down as he explained, “No it was actually a veteran who covered his dead recruits shift. So 24 hours in a zone where your supposed to only do half that.”

“Damn!”

“Damn indeed, even I couldn’t do that. He did live though, and now he’s one our commanders now hold on as get some food.”

After he went and returned they continued to chat and soon the topic turned productive.

“So where are we going next?”

“The city we arrived in, Roosevelt. The carriage leaves tomorrow so now we have nothing really to do.”

“Talk to me about the city.” Getting a blank look he clarified, “Like its history, culture, people, industry. General stuff.”

“Well I’m no expert but I can do general. I have no idea how it started but it began its rise to prominence once spiritual ores were found in the mines close by. You know my sword, its made of that and its valuable enough for Kingdom to rise on it which our kingdom arguably did.

Culture, you’ve got miners there and loads of merchants. The whole smithing industry is pretty much located entirely in the city so there’s that.

My god, their tagline you will hear from every guard or knight who gets the chance, Chivalry comes before all. There like a religion I swear. Never start a conversation with them, they will go on and on and on...

Right, the other people are split into commoners, merchants and Nobles with each having a certain areas they congregate in. We can visit them all if you want but the Nobles hub will see us both broke in minutes if we plan to buy anything.

That’s about it. Everything else is just city stuff like its walls and stuff.”

Malum nodded along as remembered the mountain range around the city. It was beyond a gold mine considering the metallic gates and golden crest. Rich nobles were in a different league of wealth, good thing they only used it to flatter their own egos.

Malum and Jameson headed out to train as felt the sudden urge to punch something. Their muscles still ached so its wasn’t anything heavy but some light sparing didn’t hurt.

The headache he once felt had calmed considerably, instead he had gained a somewhat mystical ability to predict an opponent’s actions.

Having spared Jameson countless times during their travels, Malum already knew quiet well how he would attack but now those memories were shifted into action.

He saw how he would attack, his muscles, his smile, his balance, everything was telling him of his opponents next move. Acting on them caused Malum to land more hits then he usually would. Jameson noted it, and asked, “You’ve improved. You shift before I land my hits, it like you already know what I’m going to do.”

Malum smiled and the spare continued. It changed quickly as Jameson began to double bluff, or change his attack last minute. Malum could see those changes but in those split seconds he had before the first changed direction, he hadn’t the time to change his defence.

This was an enemy that could adapt to his strengths, and it was clear to see why Jameson was stronger than any demon Malum had ever faced.

After getting his payback Jameson let Malum up and gave him words of comfort.

“Better, that ability is something else. It does wonders for your strength but don’t rely on it too much. It was only a light spare but if you want to win them, get your body trained more and develop your technique.”

Malum thanked him as he rose. He then headed back with his Leader towards the huts. They split of before Malum forced himself back asleep.

He wasn’t tired, the sparing had been somewhat tiring but a light spare was exactly that, light. Still, it was better than sleeping on a carriage so Malum focused down onto his soul.

Here he stayed and tried his best to remove the senses around him. Finally left with nothing he managed to sooth his body and mind into a slumber.

The sun rose to the sound of Jameson on the door. He got up and dressed as he shouted down, “Wait a sec!”. When he was done he opened the door and after breakfast the travel back on the agenda.

Another drive with 40 sweaty men. All of which looked like barbarians with the amount of shown muscles. It couldn’t be that bad, right?