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Da Portal of Darkness Chapta 8 | |
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Da Portal Of Darkness Chapta 8 |
Sophie’s captors had hooded her before they took her into the tunnels that ran beneath the ork city, and someone, Rhia she guessed, had practically dragged her through the mazelike network of underground passageways. Unable to see, it was only the change in the way the tunnel floor felt beneath her bare feet when it stopped being bare earth and instead became brick and concrete that told her they had reached the point where the tunnels dug by gretchin met up with the passageways that had made up the sewer system beneath the city before the orks invaded, but that now only existed under Git Town. This confused Sophie, Hazug’s house was very close to Git Town, in fact warboss Kazkal Kromag had only given him the building because no other orks in his inner circle wanted to live so close to so many humans, but it took some time for her captors to get her there. That could only mean one thing, rather than heading straight for Git Town, they had taken her around its edge, taking her near to the river that connected the city with the ocean. “There are steps here,” Rhia said to Sophie suddenly, but not in time for her to avoid banging a toe against a hard stone step in front of her. Sophie cried out in pain, but the combination of the gag and hood muffled her cry. “Keep her quiet,” Hobbs hissed to Rhia, there could be people about, “Thayne’s men.” Rhia pressed Sophie’s own gun against her ribs. “Attract attention and you’ll be the first to die,” she said, “understand?” Unable to speak, Sophie just nodded, and Rhia continued to drag her up the steps. At the top of the steps the tunnel ended, and the group stepped into the open air. The coolness of the night shocked Sophie, who had only the towel around her to keep her warm, and she flinched. “Keep moving,” Rhia snapped, “we’re not there yet.” The way in which Sophie’s captors moved above ground changed dramatically, instead of keeping a steady walking pace they changed to sudden bursts of speed separated by pauses, calls of “It’s clear,” and “Move now,” indicating to her that they were checking to see whether they were being observed before advancing further towards wherever it was that they were taking her. “Who goes?” a voice called out from somewhere ahead. “Friends,” Droyle replied. “Password,” the voice called out. “Bolter,” Droyle answered. “Advance friends,” the mystery voice responded, and Sophie was dragged onwards again, “I thought you bringing back the missiles,” the voice added, this time from much closer, and Sophie guessed that her captor’s had now reached the sentry’s location. “Change of plan,” Droyle answered him, “Jaris is bringing them later.” Sophie felt the ground beneath her slope downwards as Rhia continued to drag her forwards, and the air changed again, indicating that she was being taken into another tunnel. But there was something familiar about this place, the ground beneath her feet was smooth unlike either the gretchin tunnels or the abandoned sewers, and even under her hood, Sophie could hear the faint sound of dripping water. The last time that Sophie had been in a place like this it had been a road tunnel underneath the river as it passed through the abandoned Imperial capital city to the north of here where she had lived with the Death Skulls who had owned her before Hazug. When the orks had taken over this city they had dismantled all of the bridges and used the material for more war machines, but it appeared that there was also a tunnel that they had never known about, one that the resistance was now using to get across the river to the part of the city where no-one else ever went. The cold night air hit Sophie again when they reached the far end of the tunnel and emerged back above ground. From there she was dragged through the streets of the supposedly abandoned region to the west of the river. “There are more steps here now,” Rhia said to her captive, this time giving her enough warning to avoid hurting herself. Sophie was lead into a building at the top of the steps, and as soon as they were inside she could hear the sound of people talking. There was nothing specific, and nothing addressed to her, instead it was the sound of many different conversations taking place as she was lead through the building. “Is he in?” she heard Droyle ask when there was a brief pause in her being dragged onwards. “Yes, and he’s expecting you, you’re late,” another voice said and Sophie felt Rhia pull her forwards again. “Ah mister Droyle,” a voice called out over the ambient noise, “How
nice of you to finally join us again. Perhaps you can tell me where mister
Jaris has got to and who you’ve brought to me instead of the weapons I
asked you to retrieve.” “Let me see her,” the man who Droyle had addressed spoke, and Rhia pulled the hood away from Sophie’s head. The room to which she had been brought was lit by several electrical lights hung around the walls, and Sophie blinked as she got used to the relative brightness of them after being under the under for so long. Ahead of her, Sophie saw a white haired man sitting at a table, and from the way that other stood around him, including some with the look of bodyguards, she guessed that he was in charge here. “Well you are a pretty thing aren’t you,” the white haired man said, staring at Sophie, and she became very aware of the fact that she wore nothing but a towel. There was the sound of heavy footfalls from behind Sophie, and the white haired man looked past her and spoke again. “Ah Krixus, look what my men have brought me,” he said, pointing at Sophie. “Not the weapons they were sent for apparently,” a deep voice replied, “your man Jaris has failed us again. Perhaps that is why he fears to appear before me.” “Nonsense,” the white haired man said as if insulted by the accusation levelled against Jaris, “he has stayed behind to tell the ork that we will only let its pet go if it does what we want.” It was at this point that the owner of the deep voice walked in front of Sophie, and she saw in amazement why his footfalls were so heavy. The man was a giant, at least eight feet tall, and he wore an armoured suit that covered him from the neck down that had a pistol as massive as any she had seen an ork carry holstered at his waist. “Then Jaris is a fool Highbalt,” Krixus said, halting beside the white haired man and turning to stare at Sophie. Krixus’s face betrayed no emotion, and his eyes looked at Sophie as though they could see right through her. Highbalt on the other hand looked confused. “How so chaplain?” he asked, finally taking his leering gaze away from Sophie. “The ork will kill him,” Krixus answered, unlike Highbalt, he kept his attention focused on Sophie, “the creatures have no sentimentality for you to exploit.” “I disagree,” Rhia suddenly said, and there were looks of horror on the faces of some of those present. Even Rhia herself looked taken aback by what she had said. Clearly this Krixus was someone not to be challenged. “Then you are a fool too,” Krixus said, “and since you have betrayed the ork then it will kill you also at the first opportunity.” “Well if she’s not going to be any use to us we may as well kill her now,” Highbalt said, and he waved to one of his guards. The man raised his gun. “Wait,” Krixus called out, before the man could fire, “we need
someone expendable to complete our task. She will do.” Rhia and Hobbs began to drag Sophie out of the room, and as they did so Highbalt leant towards Krixus and she thought she heard him say, “I’m surprised to hear you speak of betrayal so negatively given your history Astartes.” The building to which Sophie had been taken had clearly been a hospital prior to the arrival of the orks, and the third floor had been dedicated to keeping the mentally ill securely locked away. Rhia and Hobbs shoved Sophie into a room which had every surface covered in a thick padding. Before they locked her in, Rhia released the bonds on Sophie’s wrists and tossed a blanket onto the floor. “Sleep tight,” she said as Sophie used her freed hands to pull out her gag, and then the door was shut. Alone in the darkened room, Sophie picked up the blanket and wrapped it around her self. Then she collected the fragments of animal hide that had been used to bind and gag her. She took them all to a corner where she sat down and tied the fragments together to form one long strip that she then wrapped around her body just beneath her arm pits. Then she tied it in place so that it held her towel against her. With what little ‘clothing’ she wore now more secure, Sophie curled up into a ball in her corner and wept. When Ratish got home he too shouted out as soon as he entered the hallway. “Master! Master where is ya! Ratish is ‘ere!” he yelled, and he began to search the building for Hazug. He found him in the armoury, loading rifle ammunition into a bag. “Master da gits is both gone!” Ratish said with glee as he rushed up to Hazug, jumping over the headless corpse of Jaris on the way, “Master wot’s wrong?” he added when Hazug said nothing to him in return. Hazug looked down at Ratish. “Go get ya gun grot, we is goin’ for a walk,” he said. “Where to master?” “Wherever ‘is mates took Sophie,” Hazug answered, pointing down at Jaris’s body. “Master killed da git?” Ratish asked. “’E was askin’ for it,” Hazug replied, “now get ya gun or stay ‘ere and clean dat up.” Ratish ran downstairs to the cupboard like space beneath the staircase where he lived and frantically rooted through his meagre belongings until he found his pistol and the bag of spare ammunition that Hazug allowed him to keep. “Ratish get ‘is gun master,” Ratish said to Hazug as the ork descended the stairs cradling his rifle and with a look of fury on his face. “Good, follow me den,” he said as he walked past Ratish and then went down the next set of stairs into the cellar. “Dey must ‘ave used da tunnels,” Hazug explained to Ratish as the gretchin followed behind him, “dare aint no other way dat a bunch of armed humans could get through da city streets without bein’ shot, and dey ‘ad to take Sophie away without bein’ spotted an’ all,” and Hazug picked up a pair of lanterns from a table beside the door that lead to the gretchin tunnel network beyond. He passed one to Ratish and kept the other for himself, “Gis a light,” he said to Ratish who promptly tucked his gun into his belt and got out a flint with which he lit both lanterns. “Good,” Hazug said, “now lets go get Sophie back.” “Wot about da other git?” Ratish asked, “Aint we getting’ it back too?” “Rhia ‘elpin’ dem wot is causin’ all dis, we don’t want ‘er back.” “Ratish don’t want any gits back,” Ratish muttered as he followed Hazug into the tunnels, but his ork master ignored him. The trail left by Sophie and her abductors through the gretchin built tunnels was easy to follow, the bare dirt floor and moist air preserved footprints for long periods, and when all of the tracks in question were human, they were especially easy to pick out against the older gretchin tracks present. As Hazug had expected there were tracks running in two directions, the older one was made up entirely of humans wearing combat boots that lead towards the way into Hazug’s cellar, while the ones on top of these, indicating that they were fresher, also included a set in smaller shoes and one that was barefoot. Hazug guessed that the barefoot one was Sophie. “Which way is we ‘eadin’?” Hazug asked Ratish. Orks did not often use the tunnel network; it was instead a means for gretchin to be able to move rapidly about the city to run errands for their masters without getting squashed. As such, Hazug did not know exactly where this tunnel lead as it twisted and turned. “Towards da river master,” Ratish told him. “Wot, not into Git Town?” “No master, Git Town is very close to da door, and da tunnels change to dem stone git ones with da water down da middle of ‘em. We is goin’ along da edge of Git Town.” “’Ow far can we keep goin’ dis way den?” Hazug now asked. “All da way to da river master,” Ratish told him, “gretchin tried diggin’ further but got washed away.” As the tunnel drew closer to the river it became wetter and water could be seen dripping form the tunnel roof as it seeped in form the river. It became harder to pick out individual tracks here, any footprint that was made swiftly filled with water and identifying marks were washed away. But it was still possible to follow the trail of the group that had stolen Sophie form him, and Hazug continued to follow it. As Hazug followed the trail as it turned off down a side tunnel, he saw that the construction style change up ahead. Instead of bare dirt, all of the surfaces were lined with equally sized rectangular stones that fitted neatly together. Hazug recognised this immediately as being built by humans. “Well ‘ere we are den,” he said, “we is under Git Town now.” As Ratish had told Hazug, the human made tunnels all featured a shallow channel of water that ran down their centres. Of course no track could be left in this channel, but fortunately members of the group repeatedly stepped outside of the channel onto the stone walkways to either side of it, and so there was still a trail for Hazug to follow. A trail that led to a staircase built into a tunnel wall. “Get ready grot,” Hazug said, and he put his lantern down on the stone walkway and brought his rifle up to his shoulder. Copying his master, Ratish also set down his lantern and drew his gun. “Go!” Hazug shouted, and he ran up the stairs, keeping his weapon at the ready as he did so. Behind him Ratish followed closely, also pointing his gun ahead of him. The stairs ended when they reached the surface, and as Hazug emerged form the hole in the ground he halted and crouched down. Then, still keeping low he turned around full circle, looking for any sign of Sophie or her kidnappers. Though he did not crouch down, Ratish copied Hazug in turning around and looking in all directions, even though he had no idea what it was that he was supposed to be looking for. Seeing nothing, Hazug instead looked down at the ground around him. There he saw paving stones and concrete, but no tracks of any sort. The trail had ended. “Master, wot now?” Ratish asked, tugging at Hazug’s jacket, but Hazug said nothing, “Master?” Ratish repeated and Hazug turned to look at him. “We go ‘omen grot,” he said solemnly, “I can’t find no trail ‘ere. Sophie’s gone,” and he headed back down the stairs into the tunnel below. Ratish grinned, and then followed him. |
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Copyright Notice The Warhammer 40,000 universe is the intellectual property of Games Workshop Ltd. The fiction presented here is a derived work. It is completely unofficial and Games Workshop Ltd has not endorsed any of it. |
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