War in the City Chapter 6

IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Kialka thought a trip to Locom memorial park would do her some good after the day she had been having. It seemed like things could not get worse. That morning she had overslept and missed her breakfast, because she had to hurry as she was late for her meeting with the city planning committee. She arrived at the meeting late, only to sit there for three very boring hours. Then, just when she thought things were finally going to get better, she got a call at home informing her that her report for the city history commission would be needed two weeks earlier than they had expected. A walk in the park seemed like the perfect thing to calm her down.
Locom had been a hero in the fight to overthrow the monarchy. He had been a close personal friend of Bree's, and proved to be a valuable asset in the war. He was killed in one of the battles, and the memorial park had been created after the war in his honor. The park was approximately seven square kilometers.

Kialka was just about in the middle of the park, walking down one of the nature trials. The trail itself was fairly well beaten, and cut a nice path through the forest, but on both sides of it, plants grew so thickly that if one was to say there was ground underneath them, it would be a statement of pure faith. Trees grew overhead, but not nearly as many in number. They were relatively few in fact, and well dispersed. The artificial sunlight had no problem reaching the ground through the trees.

Although she had not completely forgotten her troubles, Kialka was beginning to feel a little bit better. She bent down to examine a pretty wild flower that caught her eye, then gently touched it with her hand, feeling the temptation to take the flower home with her, but ultimately deciding to leave it where it was. She had just stood up, when she heard the footsteps of someone arriving.

She looked in the direction of the sound, and saw the man rapidly approaching her. He was dressed in a police uniform, and was drenched in sweat. Kialka noted with surprise that a laser gun hung by his side. Police did not usually arm themselves.

As soon as the police officer reached her, he began talking rapidly, or trying to anyway, his words mixed with gasps for air. He didn't bother to identify himself, but Kialka noticed his name tag identified him as Murphy. "Ma'am don't ask me any questions. I don't have time to explain. The city is under attack by Harpies. Please get inside any building you can immediately."

The words seemed to bounce of Kialka, hitting her hard but not sinking in. "What are you talking about?"

"Please, ma'am, I don't have time to explain. Just get inside a building and you'll be all right."

"Under attack? How?"

"Ma'am!" The tone in Murphy's voice sufficiently replaced repeating his command.

"I understand," Kialka answered. Murphy simply nodded, and removed a hand held computer from his front pocket. He glanced at it quickly, then replaced it in his pocket. "If you'll excuse me, there are others I must warn. Hurry now, they'll be here any minute." With that, Murphy was off, running down the path again to warn others.

The news was so sudden, and so tremendous that it would blow anyone's mind, yet Kialka pieced together what she could from the little information she had. The city was under attack by the Harpies; that was all she had been told. Trying to figure out how and why would be useless right now.

A Harpy. What was a Harpy? The name sounded familiar to Kialka, and she raced through her mind to try and remember exactly what it was. After a couple minutes, it came to her. Those winged creatures she had heard about, the ones that attacked the Kalka project. Those were Harpies.

One question resolved, the next quickly entered Kialka's mind. Why hadn't she heard about this attack before. The answer came right on its heels. Locom park was created as a sanctuary from technology. It was a beautiful place, filled with plants and dirt, streams and small waterfalls, but no computers were in it. The rest of the city had been warned of the invasion in an instant, as the news must have been broadcast on every single monitor. As for Kialka, she and the rest in Locom park had not been warned at the same time, but had to be warned by Murphy instead.

Suddenly Kialka realized with horror, there were no buildings she could take shelter in at Locom park. There were no super elevators to take here out of the park either. There were no replicators to make laser guns or medicine balls. None of that was located in the park.

The decision was simple. She must get out of the park as quickly as she could. She turned and ran down the path the way she had come. She was about three and a half kilometers from any boarder of the park, but taking the winding path back would be at least another kilometer more. Nevertheless, Kialka did not dare get off the path, as she feared getting lost in the park. As she ran down the path, her blood froze as she heard a terrifying screech coming from not all that far away.
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"Much to be thankful for?" Cain could not believe his ears. "Brother Judas, this is the worst thing to happen to the city yet, and we've been through a lot in the past few years."

Judas appeared not to hear Cain at first, walking right up next to the window and looking out. Laser fire and explosions could be seen everywhere. "Terrible or not brother Cain, this is nothing more than sweet justice; justice we fully deserve. We are doing nothing more than reaping the fruits of what we have sown. How cruel ironic fate sometimes can be."

Jonz stepped up next to Judas, and Cain followed Jonz. "What do you mean?" Jonz asked.

"It was not that long ago that we rained down our laser fire on Marram," Judas answered. "Now Marram is bringing down laser fire on us. Once we sought to destroy Marram; now Marram is destroying us."

"You don't believe Marram will succeed, do you?" Cain asked.

Judas shook his head. "No, They don't have enough knowledge. We must use this situation to our advantage. This is the greatest opportunity ever, and it has fallen right into our lap. We must seize it quickly."

"What are you talking about?" Jonz asked.

"We will help Marram," Judas answered. "Then Marram will help us."
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The first screeches had come from off in the distance, and were very faint. Kialka speeded up her pace after hearing them. The Harpies came sooner than she thought; much sooner. Within five minutes after she had heard the first screech, the Harpies were already flying over her. The trail Kialka was on was heading West, the Harpies came from the North. Kialka ducked under a nearby tree as soon as she saw them approach. The first few were flying at so great a speed they didn't even notice her, even though the tree provided little coverage. The first wave flew over her, and Kialka breathed a sigh of relief underneath the tree. She stayed under the tree for a few minutes longer, trying to decide what to do. She was hearing screeches from all over now, many of them sounded quite close.

Hearing more screeches approach, Kialka looked back to the North. A second wave of Harpies were approaching, this group moving very slowly, and scanning every where with their eyes, constantly shooting at anything that looked even remotely like a Watcher. Kialka saw this group approaching, and knew they would find her. The tree wouldn't hide her, and the underbrush wasn't high enough to do any good. She couldn't run down the trail, but it would carry her West when she needed to get away from the Harpies as quickly as she could. Knowing it was only a matter of time before she was found anyway, Kialka bolted out from under the tree and ran South through the park. The Harpies, who were still about ten dekameters away, saw her and three of them took off in pursuit.

Kialka didn't dare turn around, but she heard the flapping of the wings and the sound of the Harpy bodies slicing through the air. They were gaining on her, rapidly. The thorn bushes cut through her pants and scrapped her legs, but Kialka didn't even feel it. The Harpies flew right above her briefly, about seven meters higher than her head, and laser fire fell close to her. Thankfully they didn't know the first thing about firing a laser gun, but Kialka knew she had to lose them immediately

Kialka saw a stream flowing a little to her left. She didn't remember seeing it before, and couldn't tell where it had come from, but that wasn't important now. She ran to the left to where the stream was and ran into it. The stream was about two meters wide, and not much higher than Kialka's ankles. Running down it she was able to go faster, as there weren't any bushes to slow her down. The Harpies were briefly left behind as Kialka suddenly sped up, but they soon accelerated to compensate. In no time at all they would be above her again. With strength she didn't know she had, Kialka began running even faster.

Suddenly, up ahead of her, Kialka saw that the ground just seemed to disappear, the stream with it, leaving blue sky instead of the plants next to it. She could tell it was a cliff, and a waterfall where the stream was. From her angle, she could not tell how far a drop it was, but she didn't have time to think about. Running at full speed, she leaped off the edge of the waterfall, fell down about ten meters, hit the ground with her feet, stumbled forward a few steps, then kept running.

One of the Harpies sped by her, clubbing her on the head with his laser gun as he flew by. The force of the blow snapped Kialka's head around, followed by her whole body as she fell down on her back. Before she could collect herself, the remaining two Harpies were standing beside her, their laser guns pointed right at her. One bent down and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her two her feet. The other pressed the barrel of his laser gun against her head. Kialka closed her eyes and waited for the end.
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"If Marram has control of the city," Judas continued, "It can then fulfill our dreams. It can make the goals of The Watchers Idealistic Nation a reality. Just think what we could do if we were in control of the city."

"Isn't that a little drastic?" Cain asked. "I mean, we can't just betray The Watchers like that. We can't turn against our own people to achieve our goals. There are other ways. Things are slowly moving towards our ideas."

"No they aren't," Judas countered. "The Kalka Project is the only thing remotely close to our idealism, and even it has proved to be a disaster. In all this time, it hasn't expanded one bit. Kalka is the only nation receiving its assistance. Once we have helped Marram gain power, we can give food to everyone. We can end our isolationism. We can make our presence known to all nations of Fabulae, keeping no secrets from them. We can make treaties with other nations, and keep an active role in the activities of the outside world, intervening where injustice is created. We can open our doors to the outside nations, letting any who choose become a Watcher. In the whole history of the city, Drusus has been the only non human Watcher. After Marram takes control, there will be Watchers of all species, humanoids, and non-humanoids. We can do this, and we must."

"Will the rest of WIN agree with you?" Cain asked, his voice indicating he thought they wouldn't.
"We will soon find out," Judas responded. "Come, time is short. We must vote immediately and find out how we stand."

"But not everyone is here," Cain objected.

"In these circumstances, to have everyone present would be impossible," Judas responded. "Those who are here will have to speak for those who are not."