Thoughtless (191 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Slovin (View user info) at 2005-08-01 18:20:51 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
Frantic yelling from the lookouts managed to drown out the nighttime celebration. A crowd of villagers stood dumbstruck in the heavy rain, thunder roaring over the grassy plains around them, staring at the distant figure of an approaching shadow. One thought struck them all immediately: Never before had the Masckai come during a storm.
Ordered chaos gripped the crowd as the women and children loaded their wagons and sprinted for the caves. The men seized their spears, rope, and arrows and took careful aim from behind sacks of wheat and piles of stone. The solitary shadow grew closer; such an odd calm over its every motion they hadn't seen in a Thoughtless until now. Knuckles white on hardened wood, they waited for a lightening strike to reveal the face of their enemy, and whatever weapon of hell it may be carrying.
A bright flash and a crescendo of thunder brought them hope. They could still see its eyes.
"MASCKAI!" shouted their leader, the Elder Timofei. There was no response; it walked closer. He drew an arrow, and with shaking hands, aimed for its head. A moment later it stopped, then raised both hands outward, palms facing them.
Timofei hesitated, rain dripping down over his eyes. He motioned for the ropeman to prepare to restrain it. He carefully adjusted his aim and let the arrow fly.
A sickening crack hit the air as the sharpened tip of the arrow lodged itself into the figure's right shin, penetrating to the bone. It howled in pain and fell on one knee, grasping the arrow with both hands. The villagers rushed forward, whispering excitedly. "Not a Thoughtless," they repeated several times.
==========
It was dark and humid in the hut, the sound of raindrops tapping on stretched leather overhead resonating in their ears. The dim torchlight illuminated the man's blue-gray skin. "I am called Ivan," he said through his hood, taking a drink from a leather pouch inside his coat. "I have been hunting one."
His words hung in the air for several moments as the nurses cleaned his arrow wound and the rain faded into the distance. Timofei broke the silence. "You mean to hunt the things no living man has ever seen?"
Ivan was silent. He looked out the doorway into the tall grass. "I have seen it, Tïma, and I will kill it."
Timofei's face became dark as he scowled. He lowered his voice and spoke. "It will take you. It will send you back to fight us, and then it will leave you for dead, with no thoughts of your own. You wish this upon yourself, upon us?"
Ivan's face slipped into a grim smirk as he took another drink. He was about to respond when a piercing shriek cut through the village and ended their conversation - the storm was over.
==========
"Thoughtless!" they called out. "THOUGHTLESS!"
Once again a rush of sharpened wood, rope, and screaming children overtook the village. Their attacker was not approaching from the outside.
A large, strong, bald villager stumbled awkwardly out of a nearby hut and landed a heavy fist squarely into the face of an archer, crushing his nose and knocking him down. It was a fresh take, its eyes still present, but unblinking as a cloud of dust rose into them.
"We may not be able to keep this one," Timofei said sadly. "Dmitri was always our strongest." He drew an arrow.
Ivan said nothing. He pulled a wooden knife from his belt and a rope from the ground, and walked briskly forward.
"VANYA! IVAN, NO! VANYA!"
The Thoughtless turned to face him, two arrows lodged in its shoulder and another in its right arm. Its eyes were open, covered in dust and turning dark red. It lunged at him, teeth bared, arms ready to strangle him.
Ivan threw himself to the ground and rolled to the right - Dmitri's weight carried him too far and he ran past. Ivan jumped up and threw a knot around its left hand as it grunted and turned around, grabbing his neck with the right and holding tightly. Ivan winced, unable to breathe. He took his knife in the other hand and sliced the muscles in its hand at the wrist - its grip loosened as tendons snapped grotesquely. He wrapped the bleeding hand in the other end of the rope and pulled.
A strong kick in the back brought it to the ground as he continued hog-tying it tightly. It thrashed violently as they all backed up, Ivan finishing the knot and joining them. Timofei smiled. He was good at this.
After a few moments, it was still. The Masckai had left.
Ivan took a drink, and then spoke into the silence. "This was the one I've been looking for," he said, looking upward at the sky in all directions. "Most choose randomly. This one picks the strongest in the center of a group to cause the most damage." He paused, then added, "It knows I'm here."
Dmitri's wife rushed forward through the crowd of spearmen, sobbing into her hands as she reached him. "It's not too late... please, Timofei, we must help him... Please, it's not too late..." She collapsed against his bleeding arm.
It took three villagers to turn the man over. His eyes were now very dark red, completely dry and covered in dirt. They found a pulse - he was still alive... in a very deep sleep from which he would never recover. His mind suspended forever. Thoughtless, just like the countless villagers before him.
"Mercy," Timofei said shortly, and the word was echoed around the crowd. "NO!" shouted his wife urgently, tears streaming down her face as Timofei took up a spear. A group of villagers restrained her as he stepped forward, holding the spear in both hands, pointing it directly at Dmitri's chest. "May your soul be at peace," he said softly, and heaved down the spear into his heart.
==========
"We cannot let them do this," Ivan repeated loudly, his gray eyes scanning the crowd of villagers. "They will not leave us alone. They have destroyed entire villages without ever showing their face, save once." He paused. "I saw it. I saw it hiding in a tree nearby, watching the products of its destruction as my village burned to the ground, red eyes glowing like hot coals."
Excited murmurs filled the crowd. "Glowing red eyes?" He reached into his bag and pulled out a shining, metal arrow.
"Silver," he said, holding it up for them to see, drawing loud gasps from the excited archers. "This is one of two forged from an object dropped by a Masckai during the attack on Errivek, the Siberian village. Its sister resides in the skin of the monster that attacked us tonight, the one I have been following since it destroyed my home using my friends and neighbors as puppets."
Sympathetic anger rose in the crowd as he paused for a drink. They had known such horrors - killing and maiming loved ones and friends with their own hands, people who would never return to them. Now, it seemed, they had hope of striking back at the phantoms that came in the night.
"Join me," he yelled, over the cheers from the crowd, "and retribution will be yours!"
==========
The rage and pride Ivan had instilled in the villagers overcame most of their reservations about hunting such an elusive prey, especially one that seemed to be more successful at hunting them. They were unsettled, however, by the specifics of his plan.
"We wait for the next attack," Ivan said.
Timofei's excited expression faded into a frown. "We must lose another before we can strike back?"
"It is the only way."
Murmurs rose from the other elders in the hut. It was clear they didn't like this idea at all. "Then what?" asked Timofei.
"We do what no one ever does. We ignore the Thoughtless."
Angry outbursts came at once. "Ignore it!" "What about our homes!" "You can't be serious!"
Ivan put up a hand to silence them. "We ignore it, and we turn our attention to the outside. Their influence is not long range, if there is an attacking Thoughtless there must be a Masckai near to the village."
There was an odd kind of silence as they thought about this. It seemed so simple they wondered why no one else had thought of it before. Timofei entertained the idea that someone had, and was killed shortly after. The real wonder was clearly how Ivan was still alive with this knowledge.
"Instruct the villagers to line the perimeter of the town at the next attack and watch the trees for glowing red orbs. I have ten silver arrows to be given to your best archers, and one for myself. Wood is not strong enough to break their skin."
The thought of a monster with skin thicker than the hard leather of the beasts they already hunted was unsettling. The villagers readied themselves for its inevitable return.
==========
Ignoring a large attacking villager turned out to be the greater challenge of the early night. Many were forced to run from their lookout positions as it chased them, but eventually it gave up and resigned itself to the destruction of their houses in the hope that they would return to fight. The villagers watched in despair, but kept searching for the Masckai they would bring to justice.
A young boy ran up to Ivan as fast as he could, then gave his message panting: "Timofei... Timofei sends word that they've spotted a pair of red eyes at the south end of the village. The archers are... are on their way." Ivan dismissed him and ran to where the boy indicated, drawing his bow and a silver arrow.
Ivan saw the frightening red eyes and knew it would be expecting an attack from the village. He positioned the archers around the tree, hidden behind small hills and rocks and in the tall grass, not telling them what he was about to do. He ran the long way around the tree's hill.
As he was about to lose sight of the eyes he noticed something. There was no shimmer of a silver arrow.
This was the wrong monster.
Ivan paused, then believed they would still benefit from the destruction of another Masckai anyway. Perhaps they could find further weaknesses. His hunt would have to be concluded at another time. He reached the back of the tree and crouched down, looking up the hill, ready to attack as he awaited Timofei's signal. He took a drink from his leather pouch. "This will be a great victory for the village," he thought to himself.
A booming crash from behind startled him. He jumped up and drew back his arrow. A heavy arm snapped outward and knocked it away from him, and as he fell backward he heard Timofei's signal, unable to join them. He stared upward at the glowing red orbs of the Masckai's eyes and saw the glistening silver arrow protruding from the side of its neck. It bent down to examine him as the fire from the burning village illuminated its face.
Its shining, metallic face.
As it stepped into the light, Ivan was barely able to contain his horror. It was a monster of metal.
It spoke in a voice of sharp music, producing a flat, monotonous voice. Never before had he heard such a sound.
"UEC DR 1050. Identify yourself." Its eyes flashed brighter. It was demanding a response.
"I am Ivan of Ranïv. I have come to kill you."
"You show no markings. You are the enemy. You will be controlled. Your treachery will be reported." Its eyes flashed blue for a moment, then back to red. It moved closer. "Advanced Argyria. You have ingested colloidal silver in ionized water. You have violated U.E.C. code 583, Avoidance of Psychic Military Subjugation via chemical shielding. You will be controlled."
The monster was speaking in its own secret language. Ivan slowly reached for his arrow.
The Masckai opened its mouth and breathed flames. Ivan screamed in agony as his blue-gray skin melted away, foul-smelling steam rising into the night. The monster's eyes flashed blue once more.
Ivan felt himself fade into darkness, unable to fight, or move.
He was suspended.
Thoughtless.
==========
[02.09.4023] - RoT: Dmitri: 471. Subject controlled. <-> UEC DR 1050 <->
[02.11.4023] - RPT: Previous reports confirmed. Rebel encampments have been destroyed with minimal damage to UEC DR robotic units. No signal received from UEC headquarters since 06.30.3412. Will continue mission in sector RUS06: "All humans showing no United Earth Confederation markings are enemies to be eliminated." <-> UEC DR 1050 <->
[02.11.4023] - RoT: Elder Timofei: 471. Subject controlled. <-> UEC DR 1168 <->
[02.11.4023] - RoT: Ivan of Ranïv: 583. Subject controlled. <-> UEC DR 1050 <->
User Reviews
Submitted by FunnyAsCancer (user info) at 2005-10-30 05:24:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment