TRENCH

Nico And The Niners

October 18th, 3000
Msilaiv ecnuoned ew.
Tsae eurt daeh dna amed evael lliw uoy.
Sotidnab era ew.

East is up.
I'm fearless when I hear this on the low.
East is up.
I'm careless when I wear my rebel clothes.
East is up.
When Bishops come together, they will know that.
Dema don't control us, Dema don't control.
East is up.
They want to make you forget.
They want to make you forget.
Save your razor blades now, not yet.
Save your razor blades now, not yet.
I'm heavy, my jumpsuit is on steady.
I'm lighter when I'm lower, I'm higher when I'm heavy.
I'm so high, my jumpsuit takes me so high.
I'm flying from a fire, from Nico and the Niners.

I was woken from sleep by the sound of vultures, their ear-shattering screeches echoed across the barren mountains like lost banshees.
They had followed us all the way out here, their shadows were always cast upon us.
I looked around me, we had slept in the empty cabin by the railway.
Everyone was already outside, I could hear them talking.
I pulled myself up, morphing from fox, back to human.
I approached Josh.
"You should have woken me up" I yawned.
"It's alright" reassured Josh, "we haven't been waiting that long, might as well let you get your sleep in... You'll need it."
"Yes, you will." said skye, approaching us from behind, "What time will the Bishops be in the church?"
"The gatherings start at nine AM and are three houres each, there is an hour break in between each one, but the bishops don't leave the church, so they won't come back out until five PM." I replied.
I sensed that she was worried, I had never seen her this anxious before.
"We should get going now." she said, before turning away and heading back to lead us onward.

We traveled for about an hour or so before we could see Dema.
I had never seen it from the outside before, the day I escaped, I never looked back.
The city had a dark, looming presence.
An incredibly high wall stretched around the perimeter of the city.
The towers were even higher, it was beyond me how the bishops even manged to build somthing so big... They must have had help from SOMTHING... But what?
The black outlines of the towers looked like they could almost reach the clouds.
The closer we got to Dema, the more I began to feel an overwhelming sense of dread.
My heart felt like it was in my throat, and my stomach turned at the thought of the bishops.
Every step we took towards Dema just felt wrong, every bone in my body told me to turn back and never return.
But I'm a Bandito now.
We eventually arrived outside the Eastern door, it was ten AM.
The vultures circled Dema, descending on the city with thier dark, ferocious wings.
Sharik began to pull open the door.
He eventually manged to get a bent, metal rod, trough the side of the door, and it swung open.
We made our way down the steps and underneath Dema.
It was dark in the tunnel, so I set a torch alight for each person.
Nico was going to have to face real Fire.
We made our way down the dark passage, Sharik and skye in front, myself and Josh directly behind them, and everyone else behind us.
My bones shivered from being back inside Dema, and my sense of dread grew even stronger.
All of the doors that had been open the day I escaped were now locked.
Josh glanced at me, his hands were shaking like leaves.
"We'll be fine." I told him, but I'm not sure if I even believed that myself.

When we got to end of the corridor I looked around for a staircase that might lead us up to the Bishops towers.
We eventually found it, a winding stone staircase that looked as if it spiraled upwards forever.
We made our way to the top after over ten minutes of climbing, I was slightly out of breath, Josh wasn't.
We found ourselves in a dimly lit hallway.
All the floors and the walls were a dark stone, and it was somhow even colder than the underground.
There was a wooden door at the end of the hallway, and I manged to push it open easily.
It made a loud creaking sound as it struggled, it Cleary didn't get opened very often.
Nico's room was huge, bookshelves covered the walls, glass cabinets layed out in front of them, and a giant throne made from stone lay in the centre of the room.
"Damn this guy thinks highly of himself doesn't he." Josh whispered as everyone began searching the cabinets for an old Compass.
I walked out to the front of the room and peered out of the small circler window.
I had never viewed Dema from above before, it was perfectly semetrical, all the blocks of buildings laid out nealty.
The people who walked by the streets looked like zombies, made even worse by the fact I could now compare them to the Banditos.
I wanted to speak to them, get trough to them somhow and tell them how they were being deceived.
Before me stood the huge speakers that Nico would use to announce things like curfew and church time.
I switched the button on, not sure of what I was even going to say.
I just started talking.

"Attention, citizens of Dema.
I am Clancy.
I am an escapee
I left Dema and now live outside the walls. We have come to send you a messge.
We are Banditos.
we denounce violism.
Dema does not control us.
You must leave Dema and head true East."

I could see the people on the streets turn their heads to listen to what I was saying.
I felt somone grab me from behind.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Sharik screamed, pulling me away from the speaker.
We heared the vultures outside begin to scream out their warnings.
The bishops were coming.
All sixteen of us bolted towards the door, but all nine of the bishops, as if by magic, had found their way to us and blocked our exit.
My mind turned to the compass.
I turned around and launched myself into the cabinets.
Nico followed me.
His tall, dark, towering frame made my blood run cold, and his red cloak ingulfed me as he grabbed me by the throat and lifted me in the air.
"you think I don't recognize those eyes of yours, escapee? It takes more then a yellow mask to stop me"
His voice echoed itself into my head, like an intrusive thought, and his cold, yellow eyes captured my own in a hypnotizing glare.
Was he seizing me?
Was that possible?
I couldn't tell, but whatever he was doing, he had somehow gotten inside my head, his thoughts become my own.
I felt utterly and absolutely violated.
A large brown wolf crashed trough our staring march.
It was Josh, he viciously tore at Nicos shoulders, attempting to tear off what he could only assume was Nicos flesh.
The blood that ran from Nicos vains was the blackest black I had ever seen.
Josh attacking Nico gave me enough time to Morph, and then I set Nico's entire book collection on fire, burned them just as he burned the books of my people.
The fire spread fast, and myself and Josh barely made it out before the giant wooden door was set alight.
The other Banditos had manged to get past the Bishops and escape the scene.
Myself and Josh followed suit.
We fled from the flames the way a desprete colony of ants would flee from an upcoming flood.
We gathered outside the walls, everyone was out of breath and extremely shaken.
Sharik and skye counted the survivors.
We had lost four, killed by either brutal bishop weapons or hell-flames.
Sharik was distraught, He felt the deaths of his freinds fell on his shoulders, no doubt.
He ran his hands trough his hair, his face full of sweat and smoke.
He turned to me and shouted right in my face.
"You stubid boy! You got us caught!"
I stepped back in shock, suddenly terrified of him.
"It's not his fault!" Skye pulled Sharik away from me, she was able to calm him down and get him breathing normally again.
"we might have failed this time" she announced, "but we are not the kind of people who give up."
"Our freinds died for nothing!" said one bandito who's face was covered in tears.
"I'm soryy to interrupt... But uhm... Or freinds did not die for nothing, and we didn't lose." said ruby as she pulled somthing from her pocket.
It was a Golden-yellow compass, with a pin that faced East instead of North.
She handed it to me as my eyes widened, it felt warm in my hands, as if my touch had suddenly brought it to life.
"oh my goodness..." sharik gasped, teary eyed, "It's the compass, we've done it, we've got the key... Oh well done ruby, well done!"
I attached the small gold chain that hung from the compass to the belt loops of my cargo pants, and slipped the compass into the pockets.
I was determined to not let it go Anywhere.
"You did it son." Sharik said to me, "we're going to save our people and then burn Dema to the ground."

We spent that night by the traintracks, the walk back had been bitter-sweet.
Victory, but at a high price.
A price none of us wanted to pay again.
I couldn't sleep, full of guilt about the lost lives, I knew it was my fault the bishops showed up, I shouldn't have made the announcement.
Regret festered in the pit of my stomach.
Josh came and sat beside me, watching as I examined the compass.
His company put me at ease.
"Thanks for uhm... Saving my life out there today." I told him.
"Of course Clancy, I care about you, you're my best freind, I'd put myself in danger every day to protect you."
"I care about you a lot too... And damn, Nicolas Bourbaki is going to have SOME SCAR."
Josh chuckled a little,"Yeah... That's probably the coolest thing I've ever done."
Josh's presence sent me to sleep eventually.
But the wicked can never truly rest.

What I say when I want to be enough.
What a beautiful day for making a break for it.
We'll find a way to pay for it.
Maybe from all the money we made, razor blade stores.
Rent a race horse, and force a sponsor.
And start a concert; a complete diversion.
Start a mob, and you can be quite certain.
We'll win but not everyone will get out.
No, no!
We'll win but not everyone will get out.
No, no!
We'll win but not everyone will get out.

Srenin eht dna ocin.
Erif.