Terrestrial Undead

Chapter 27

003 walked through the streets of Sect 4 with purpose towards the docks. Airship 11 was docking today, bringing with it weaponry vital to the Order, and it had to be stopped.
003 was going back.
They signed in with the key inside the stolen workers overalls they and Juju had taken for the gas heist and got in the elevator, heart knocking against their rib cage as the doors shuddered open on the rusty monster that 003 once called home.
They had to slip on before the weapons were offloaded, so they clambered up one of the moors and set about planting an explosive when their thoughts drifted, as they often did, to Faith. Stomach bubbling, they paused; if they just set the explosive and left, people would die. Innocent people, they could hear her saying. She wasn't wrong.
003 sighed. They couldn't do that. It would be risky, but they would have to pull the evacuation alarm; that way, when the bomb detonated, nobody would be hurt.
Only an ex- air person would have been able to get back onto the airship with such ease. 003 knew the ins and outs of it like nobody else, having worked on it for a significant chunk of their lifetime. They felt a small pang of regret at having to blow the damned thing up before a pain crashed through the back of their skull, sending them into the ground. They saw a baton swinging through the air, and then nothing.

003 came to in chains so heavy they couldn't lift their shackled arms or legs. A familiar face swam before theirs, emptying the contents of their churning stomach.
"you..."
"You call me Captain," snarled Captain 11, "until I get what I want. It takes a lot to get off my airship, I'll give you that. But I knew one of you would be back today for the weaponry, traitorous thrives that you are.
You have one chance at this. Where are the other traitors, and where are the vampire scum?"
003 didn't answer, and the baton came down across their face again. The Captain turned away.
"No matter. If you won't answer, I'll use you to get someone who will. Unit 004 was always a favourite of yours, wasn't she?"
003's groggy head snapped up.
"I'll never tell you where she is, so you might as well kill me now."
"No need for that," the Captain said gently. "I wish it never came to this, 003. You've hurt me terribly, but we are still family. Airship family, don't you remember?"
003 spat in her face. No words seemed to sum up what they were feeling; how could this woman say that after all she'd done?
The baton came down again with a crack.
"004 will come," Captain 11 growled, "because she is an air person. without you to influence her, she will come, and she will show you the true glory of His Majesty's Air Brigade."
She turned her meaty mass to face the door and called for someone to enter.
"Have an announcement posted throughout the sect that Unit 004 0f Airship 11 is to present at the docks before 12pm tomorrow, at which time Unit 003 will be executed."

003 didn't sleep for a minute that night, but rather silently willed Faith not to turn herself in. At 11am the next day, they were led onto the docks to wait with a crossbow pointed at their head.
003's stomach turned to lead as they watched the gears on the elevator shaft whirr into motion as someone below operated them, and sure enough, Faith— blind and battered, but standing with her chin held aloft— strode across the threshold to face 003, Captain 11 and the executioners.
"Because of what the Gaze did to me, I can't see you, but I know you're there. What do you want?"
The Captain lurched forward.
"My dear daughter. Only for you to come home."
It was the first time 003 had heard the Captain refer to one of the air people as her child. It sounded even more absurd now that 003 knew it was an outright lie, and they glowed with pride as Faith spoke with bitterness.
"I'm not your daughter. I know everything. We were taken from the ground, our families were most likely killed, and you brainwashed us into thinking the airship was our home. I know that, so why do you want me back?"
"That is precisely why I want you back," Captain 11 crooned, approaching slowly with her hands spread. "You have learned about the Kingdom. You see why I couldn't tell you myself, don't you? It is my duty as a captain never to let you know myself. I swore an oath. It is you who have to find out for yourselves, and you have, like every other Captain before you."
003 struggled as Faith paused, bemused.
"Don't listen, Faith! Go, get away, you know they're lying!"
"Ah," the Captain said, turning to 003 and back again. "Faith. A beautiful name. The man who gave it to you is here too, my dear. Your Father."
The priest stepped forward.
"Faith," he cried, "My dear child! I have been looking for you every second those accursed Gaze took you away! I thought you a traitor at first, I'll admit, but what else was I to think? But you didn't run, you went through all the suffering you did, and the Order will never forget your loyalty.
You will have all you ever wanted, my child, I promise. Only listen. It is your destiny within the Kingdom."
"You have always proven yourself to be the stuff of Captains. Isn't that what you always wanted? You have outgrown your unit status, 004. Before, I had no choice but to Punish you for helping the other two traitors, but I see now that the olive branch must be extended for the good of the Kingdom. I have the order here, my dear. By order of his Majesty Himself, you are to be the next Captain of Airship 11."
Faith took the golden paper the Captain held aloft. 003 watched, desperately hoping this was all part of some elaborate escape plan. Faith wouldn't give into this kind of temptation, surely?
She looked from the Captain, to the Priest, to 003, and spoke at length.
"I'll come with you under one condition: You let 003 go, now."
"No!" 003 began to struggle again, aghast. "You don't have to do this, Faith, please!"
But the guards were already hauling them away into the elevator. The last they saw of Faith was her walking towards the airship between Captain 11 and Priest 4.