Timelines Collide

Chapter 4: Lingering Reminders

How could it all go wrong so quickly? For once, I was relaxing or can I say having fun with my squad without having to worry about anything else. But as the king predicted, as death predicted, all those emotions came back like a snap of my fingers. 

Just like that, the Legion bots come in numbers. Just like that, I'm all alone, separated from the rest of my squad. And just like that, two of my friends are not just dead but died gruesomely. It all seemed to have happened with the sound of snapping fingers. Just like that.

My legs feel like jelly, running from hall to hall that seems forever endless. My dislocated shoulder rives the further and faster I run. We are all a triangle only held equally together by a joint diffidence to the pain.

Then I hear it, A soft but in my mind impactful scream that echoes throughout a hall, further down the line to the point where I can't tell where it started or where it will end. I know one thing though; the voice belongs to Joltxs. 

His voice is light but a thunder cracker when in pain. Even when the echoes fade away, my mind screams out his cries at maximum volume the further along I force myself to continue.

'You should have been there to protect him...why weren't you there?'

That's all my heart could ask me, and I couldn't give it an answer.

My legs rush to end both types of pain by throwing me into a utility closet. I make sure to close the door behind me as my body slowly crumbles to the floor behind it. The silence overshadows the area for a while for my shoulder to get a much-needed break, but not without pain soon following. 

The cracks my shoulder makes trying to put it back firmly into my socket are louder than any blaster bolt sliding in between a skull of metal or bone. Still, it does the job and I don't shed a tear; however, it still moans as I keep cranking it, making sure it stays in place.

I wanted my gasps for the air to be the loudest thing at that moment. Instead, I can't help but listen to the gut-wrenching sounds my hunters make, desperate to find their prey. I know all too well how they will search as my ears slowly rest on the cold metal door. To a sigh of relief, they are not in my hallway—but they are closer than I wish. My ears give all the visuals needed.

The bots always speak within their own robot language to one another, which makes them sound almost alien. It's no different as they shout to each other while stomping their feet on the concrete, opening doors to rooms, and kicking down boxes and crates. 

Their Lungers walk around, sniffing and wagging their tails into the wind for any fresh blood they might have slashed earlier. I know that Kactus will have his acolytes just swing their blades into the metal walls which screech at the touch.

 If my chest can't sink any further into my ribs, I am right. There isn't just one swinging blade, but three different pairs. Each one makes its unique sociopath symphony. One of their metal songs begins soon scratching at my ear, yet no stomps or growls accompany it.

This might be my only chance. I wait for their footsteps like a lion on the plains about to prey on a gazelle. Though my body shakes knowing that the tiniest mistake will have me end up like the majority of my men. My plan works without a hitch as I throw the acolyte's body into the closet just as mine once did. Unlike me, they spring up just as fast as they fell.

The acolyte who I see is not Kactus, has an oval-shaped helmet with fangs protruding underneath, and begins swinging their blade at me as if they are cutting airless bamboo. A few dodges in and I get a hold of their wrist, twisting it to what mine can allow. 

They grunt as the blade is dismissed from their hand. Immediately, I make sure to kick the blade further into the shadows before it can react. That leaves us to exchange many punches and jabs, trying to tear a hole in each other's defenses.