Verba De Amentibus (Chapter 1)

recommended soundtrack: Avid by hiroyuki sawano

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{Twenty years after the surge}

Bullets whistled past my head, the bright tracer rounds cutting their way through the night sky. Distant explosions and muzzle flashes lit up the ruined cityscape around me. Buildings in the distance crumbled, the vibrations lightly jingling the clasps of my fatigues. Scrambled voices cut through my headset; screams, chanting, and the voice of my Scramble Interface Mechanism deciphering the data around me.

"Adjust six degrees west, their ghost is still exposed"

Although my partner couldn't see me, I nodded and from my position just inside a window ledge, I made the adjustments and quickly noted them in my notebook. The cold wood of a table pressed against my backside as I took my position. My rifle stock rested against the crook of my arm which in turn was held up by my left knee. I used my sleeve to wipe a bead of sweat off of my brow. If I missed it meant worse than death.

"Six degrees west confirmed," I said.

"Prepare for auditory assist."

I double-checked my SIM and braced myself. I would never get used to the effects that Ferra was able to bring into the world. I could hear her take a deep breath. Besides the chaos occurring around us, it was a still night with clouds barely concealing the moon. The stars that peeked through the cloud cover seemed to twinkle mockingly.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Yep."

"Then on my mark."

Breathing in, I let my finger rest on the trigger. The familiar curve was cold against the pad of my index.

"Mark."

Maybe it was because it was such a quiet night, but even through my SIM, the silenced round cut through the noise. A terrifying crack and hiss that in tandem with my partner's words were a deadly combination.

"[Freeze.]" She breathed.

Through my scope, I could see the ice rapidly envelop the distant shape that was my target. I didn't wait to see if my shot hit. I got up and ran. Concrete and wood shards sprayed around me as the enemy rounds buried themselves in the place I had been crouched just a second ago. The desk I had been perched on was quickly reduced to something that might give someone with trypophobia a small heart attack. The confirmation came from Ferra.

"Target neutralized."

The surroundings lit up by my HUD, the scene was almost eerie. As I jogged through the abandoned school, my footsteps echoed coldly through the halls. Small pieces of rock and paper crunching beneath my feet. Discarded pencils and old textbooks were stacked against the walls, chairs toppled as if an angry wind had blown through the quiet halls. The forgotten belongings of the past residents littered my vision.

"You ok?"

I checked my SIM's HUD to look for her vitals. Still going. It took a few seconds before she responded.

"Yeah, there are enemy drivers in the buildings around me. We got the last ghost."

"Do you need eyes?"

I exited the abandoned building and ran in the direction of a low corporate structure closer to, and slightly north of my partner's position. The glass windows glimmered faintly in the starlight, occasionally lit up by distant explosions. Vines crept up the sides like the earth was trying to reclaim the minerals that comprised the ugly structure.

"Yes, I'm sending you my coordinates. There are two drivers somewhere to my east."

"Got it."

Dashing up to the entrance, I drew my pistol, checked the inside of the building, and began running towards the back of the lobby. I leapt over the counter and dashed towards the stairwell. As I opened the door and stepped through, my foot knocked against something and I looked down. A sight not too uncommon met my eyes. A ghost, my counterpart, viscera and blood splayed about him. His SIM, or at least his version of it, was cracked, dim flickering lights radiating from the eyepieces. His dark, blood-covered hair protruded from the cracks in the SIM. Dark tendrils of wood and plant matter seemed to be sprouting from his sternum. His hand was still clenched around his rifle. What a way to go. I knelt and examined his ammo pouch finding nothing that worked with my armament.

"Aryth. Status update."

Ferra's words jolted me out of my examination.

"I'll be in position within a few seconds," I replied.

I began running up the stairs, eventually making it to the 5th story. I steadied my breathing before kicking the door open. Maybe it was my luck or maybe my opponents hadn't expected me, but as I opened the door, I was met with a rather mundane scene.

Before me, I saw two enemy drivers eating. One was female, the other more androgynous. They sat cross-legged across from each other, around a small military issue stove. The girl's back was to me and she seemed to be telling a story. However, I didn't spend a moment contemplating the image before me. Drivers were a threat. One that needed immediate neutralization. I fired. My bullet burrowed into the head of the girl.

The other driver cried out in a strange language, attempting to activate the collar that was their primary weapon. But acting fast, I jumped on them, using the butt of my pistol to break the collar. I grappled with the person, wrestling for a moment before I managed to pin them down,

"Don't move." I hissed, then into my mic; "One Enemy driver neutralized, one disarmed."

"Negative, two enemy drivers are still converging on my position."

"Shit!"

I slammed the butt of my pistol into the side of the remaining driver's temple and could see their bright blue eyes close as they lost consciousness. Slinging my rifle off my back, I moved over to a nearby window. I shattered the window with my fist, cursing as glass shards nicked my forearm.

"Confirm position," I said curtly.

Coordinates marked out Ferra's position, identifying her with a bright blue dot. Debris flew through the air around her silently as my SIM filtered out any distractions. I could see her crouched about three hundred feet away behind a steel support in a parking structure. It was another ugly mass of steel and concrete, with yellowing fluorescent lights that would flicker on and off occasionally. Ferra's collar glimmered teal as she began to make her standard combat preparations. Her combat suit's indicator began to change from a faint red into a more pronounced orange glow.

I scanned the windows of the nearby buildings searching for the telltale teal glow of the amplifier collars. I checked the windows of the stores at ground level and worked my way up from there.

There it was. Three stories up. A glint of movement, and then it was gone. I changed the elevation on my scope, jotted down the position and angle in my notebook, then took sight again.

"Contact two hundred thirty feet south by southeast of your position. I need you to get rid of the wall. I'm marking the obstacle." I said quietly.

"Two hundred thirty feet south by southeast confirmed."

And then she began to chant. A string of those deadly words of power, constructed in a way almost akin to poetry. Her voice faltered for a second, but she quickly regained her tempo. Spiderwebs of fractures and cracks began to appear in the wall behind which the enemy was sheltered. I rested my finger on my rifle's trigger once again, hoping that I would get lucky with this first shot. I was well within the enemies collar range. The wall began to fall and as I saw the teal glow, I squeezed the trigger. This time I watched to see if my shot hit its mark. It missed. Although not entirely. I could see pieces of metal and plastic fly away from the helmet-like headset. But that was good enough.

"Enemy auditory shielding is down. Get 'em."

Ferra began to chant again. My SIM began working overtime, its mechanical voice translating and filtering her deadly words. This time, rather than poetry, what came out of her mouth was more akin to the sort of thing our superstitious ancestors might chant in their earthen huts. Her voice felt savage, to the point where I could almost hear her vocal cords tearing themselves apart.

She spoke of pain, weakness, despair and unspeakable things. She urged the enemy to give in to the darkest thoughts. She urged the enemy to give up everything to the darkness. She also spoke of her own pain. The loss of countless friends and family. Somehow, her voice never faltered through the torrential pour of words. I had never heard the root words of power before then, and I knew instinctively that without the filter, I would have been driven insane. This was the real thing. This is what the past two decades of warfare had been based around.

The effect was instant. Through my scope, I could see the figure in the distance stand and walk towards the ledge. As she stood I caught a glimpse of the driver as their helmet cracked and shattered. Another girl, this one couldn't have been more than twelve. She teetered on the edge, standing amidst the broken glass and rubble. I pulled the trigger again. A blossom of blood sprouted from her SIM as her body fell back into the now decrepit building.

"Target neutralized." I was barely able to keep my voice stable. I panned my scope back to my partner.

"Understood. Do you have eyes on the other one?"

Shit. I began panning my scope again, blurred buildings and foliage streaking across my vision. There. I focused on a cluster of cement blocks where I had thought I'd seen a flash of movement. I waited. Nothing. I couldn't have been wrong, could I? I checked my SIM without changing my gaze. Unless it had been broken there was no way a driver could have messed with my head.

"Aryth…"

"I think I saw something..." I said not shifting my gaze.

"Aryth, they are here."

I panned back to her position. Across the floor from her stood the missing driver, or at least what was supposed to be them. A dark cloud enveloped a silhouette that stood tall against the flickering fluorescent lights that illuminated the room. They stood in the centre of the deserted lot, Swirling and shifting, it was as if a swarm of millions of gnats had designated the driver as the sole target of their fury. The cloud stepped forward, just behind a pillar to where I didn't have a clear shot. How did they know?

"Ferra, what is he doing?"

Then through Ferra's mic, I could hear them as they spoke. With a voice that sounded like razors and nails grinding against stone.

"[Silence...]"

And silence fell. It came like a cold tide. The gunshots and screams that had punctuated the night were now replaced by a cold nothing that enveloped the area. As if they were a spectre, the driver walked slowly towards Ferra. As they emerged from behind the pillar, I squeezed the trigger… and nothing happened. I fired again and again. But nothing. As the bullets attempted to find their target, the swarm came to meet them and as they made contact, the bullets evaporated. Specs of blue light and molten metal fell around the driver as they strode toward Ferra. It was as if they were simply taking a stroll.

I watched, horrified as Ferra desperately moved her mouth to counteract the menace that was approaching. But again, there was nothing. Tears began to appear in her suit as the enemy came within an arm's reach of her. I screamed a silent scream as what I now knew to metal shards slowly tore away the fabric and eventually the flesh from my partner's body. A thin mist of blood seemed to hang in the air, mixing with the cloud of metal shards to form a rust coloured image against the dull grey of the parking structure.