======En Garde======


[CW: burning alive]

It pulses on; you can’t avoid; that thrum again; it’s cutting through; your every thought; at least it means; there’s someone there; you’re not alone; but ‘twould be nice; for just a glimpse; to have some peace; you stagger through; a quiet wince; and then, and then; just one step more; you hit the switch--

It still echoes in your mind, your right eye restless, but the feeling quickly fades. It seemed worse in proximity to your stolen part from the tower; lucky, then, that you removed it. Luckier that the Sanctuary was within range.

Zephyr’s final blessings of fortune cling to you. Thirty-nine dead out of a hundred. The Bastion can’t afford to lose those kinds of numbers, barely hanging on as it is.

The last few hours have been a frenetic stitching of wires and switches, turning the fence into a buzzing skein of potentiality. Eddy’s welding gloves don’t quite fit, but you’re not risking another burn as you tentatively redirect some of the power from the generator into the Bastion’s new nervous system.

You tense as you flick the switch again; the ripples not so horrible; but everpresent nonetheless; you blink and breathe to steel yourself.

Emerging, Loosha’s standing near; you nod, she pulls the lever down. One section of the fence sparks up; a buzz, the grass begins to smoke; the smell is acrid in the air; but Loosha frowns in discontent. She throws a stick to meet the wire; it bounces off and steams a tad; but lacks the scorches you desire. They march back in to boost the pow’r; and you are left alone outside.

You stare into those humming links; they stare right back in unison; a touch did scarcely bruise the wood; a soldier built would surely live. A step towards, your arm responds; a nervous twitch yet something more; those sparks do glint with mem’ries lost; another step, it’s near reveal’d. A hand -- it’s yours -- makes slow ascent; it shakes -- you shake -- but does not err; the pizzicato threads do sting; and in their tune, awakening--

//A feeling most familiar; that current coursing through your nerves; a flash of half a face shines bright; you call but she does not call back; a tear, a grief, you can perceive; a final choice you can’t prevent; it is done. It is gone. It dies.//

//A surge, the churning replaced by rising passion, your knuckles gripping tight -- too tight -- to the linkage, a barrage of feeling, too quick and tall to process, yet over it all -- a loss too great to remember, a war which does not feel won, a figure once vital now vanished.// **It shifts, your vision blurring back the other way, to bodies running, through the forest, a chain link fence coming into view, faster and faster, the moment of collision approaching with overwhelming alacrity--**

**And fire, endless fire, the bitter smoke rising, a beacon or a tombstone, floods of red subsuming every history, pages curling, ink dissolving in the flames, and they burn and they burn and--**

Loosha stands over you, face full of panic which turns to unbridled relief as you stir. Her scolding fades into the background as you examine your hand, which bears another, nastier burn (just as the luridity of your cheek has begun to fade).

The drumming in your head is gone, the full power of the generator now channelled through the fence. With you as the unwitting test subject. Loosha examines the burn with a look of concern, but also approval. Apparently she shut the power off after only a fraction of a second (you were yelling, she says) so the zombies should struggle.

No time to test further. Before you can reach the infirmary, the shout of “zombie!” goes out.  Loosha scrambles past you to the generator while you run for your gun. You can feel the crackle as the first body slams into the fence. You take your position in time to see the second, a starved shell of a figure, skin quickly webbing with burn marks before it collapses. And then another. And another. The smell is thick in the air.

A scream from across the Bastion, and you hope that zombies can scream.

They look like they can, with mouths agape, red eyes boring into you. A couple begin to climb, but searing flesh does not hold and they burn.

And how they burn.


{[]}{{tag>writeup3 gm_ben complete}}