Chapter 20: Horrors of War

December 2, 2023 10:43 AM

Isabella cursed as she looked back at the cursed town. Even from here, about two hundred yards away, she could still feel its effects. That tingling sensation of fear, dread, and utter revulsion. However, her fear was being pushed down in favor of rage at the moment. It just HAD to sit right in the path she, and thus her scouts, had taken. A path that was now lost.

Isabella and Alice had debated on what to do after that. Alice suggested splitting up and one taking one side of the town while the other searched the other. Isabella was loathe to split up, however, for fear of Lutice showing up again or them missing something important.  Two sets of eyes were far better than one. Alice had relented and now they were going down the southern side of the town's edge looking for...something, anything.

The seconds seemed to drag on into minutes and the minutes to hours as her fear for her scouts only got worse. Every second they didn't find them only increased the likely hood of them being- no no she wouldn't think like that. They were still out here and still alive, she knew it. She wouldn't accept any other possibility, she couldn't accept any other.

Isabella looked up as Alice came into view over a small ridge. She waved Isabella over and Isabella's heart leaped up. Did she find them? Did she find a clue? Oh please PLEASE let her have found something!

Isabella hurried up the ridge, still being careful to watch each and every footstep till she reached the top to stand next to Alice.

"Did you find them?!" she asked almost having grabbed Alice in desperation for her to say yes. But Alice shook her head and then pointed off in the distance. Isabella's heart fell as she looked over to where Alice was pointing. Smoke was rising from over a hill about five hundred yards off to the south. The smoke was thin and wispy, but there was still no mistaking it.

"That fire is far too big to be made by the Resistance," Isabella said as her heart lightened again.

"But not for a fairy," Alice finished for her as Isabella smiled to herself. She tried not to get her hopes up too high, it was just smoke after all, but she wanted to believe so badly.

"Come on," she said to Alice as she began to make her way toward the smoke. Alice followed behind her without another word. Whether she was getting her hopes up or not, Isabella could not guess. Her face was as impassive as it always was.

It took them a few minutes to reach the hill and another few to climb up the still mostly snow-covered hill. Both of them slipped a number of times on the snowy forest, sending entire clumps of trees and snow tumbling down the side of the hill. Isabella stopped once to look at the mass of trees that her hands pulled up when she had put them down to steady her steps. Sometimes she couldn't imagine how anyone could become so crazy as to act like Lutice...and yet when she looked at the ten or so trees she held easily in her hand. When she easily crushed them like they were nothing more than rotten sticks and when she looked down to see the virtual avalanches just them moving up this hill was causing... How could one not go a little crazy with this much power?

By losing something they can never get back and learning just how helpless and weak they really are, she told herself. A lesson she may have to lea- NO no she...she wouldn't think like that. They were waiting for her just above this hill, they had to be!

Finally, Alice and Isabella crested the hill. Both were breathing a bit heavier than before and both had some dirt and snow clinging to their shoes and pants. Isabella looked down to where the smoke was coming from and felt her heart drop out of her chest. Below them was not a clearing with massive fire built, a fairy and two small scouts huddled around it for warmth like she had hoped. No, what was below them was...ruin, death, and the slowly burning remains of war.

An old abandoned garage lay at the bottom of the hill. The garage looked to have been made in secret and probably was hidden by trees and greenery in the area before. With the shrink disaster, however, its rusty metal siding and slowly rotting wood were clear to see, its roof covered by slowly melting snow. Inside the garage was what caught her eye, however. Inside was the crushed and slowly burning remains of a miniature town.

The building of the town were all either flattened or slowly burning away to nothing. The charred grass and dirt was covered in dried blood and boot prints of the attackers. Isabella was sure there were smushed figures amongst the wreckage, though they were too far away to make them out. This must have been what brought the Swords to this area, destroying this Resistance town.

"Nothing here, move on," Alice said as turned to leave. Isabella caught her by the shoulder and stopped her.

"No...I want to see," Isabella said as she began to head down the hill. Alice looked after her with a confused look, but followed nonetheless. Isabella knew she should get back to looking for her scouts and yet... And yet she couldn't stop seeing the last time she had been part of an attack like this. When she had felt that crunch and looked down...when everything had fallen apart.

She moved down the hill and stopped at the edge of the town. Up close, the devastation was even worse than she had thought. They area had been torn apart by stomping feet and bodies were littered everywhere. Isabella bent down to see better and gasped as she saw women and children among the dead. In fact...most of the dead were just that, kids, women, old men. Most were crushed into paste, their terror-filled looks stamped into the earth along with their bodies. Others had parts of their body crushed and looked to have either died from shock or simply bled to death. But what stood out most was the lack of weapons. Only three or four even had weapons near them and those weapons were just rifles and pistols, nothing that was dangerous to a giantess. These people were no threat to the Society, they didn't deserve to be butchered like this. There was no telling how the fire had started, but Isabella had a sick feeling it wasn't the Resistance...

"This was just plan butchery. These people barely had enough weapons to defend from shrunken people, much less full-sized people," Isabella said as he hand tightened into a fist. Killing Resistance members who might pose a threat to Atlanta was one thing, but to kill children...

"War is hell and demons reign," Alice said simply as she turned away from the sight, her face showing a hint of her own disgust. Isabella was about to stand and leave the ruin behind when movement caught her eye. A small piece of wood was still moving in the rubble of one of the wood houses. Isabella reached for the debris, but reconsidered when she realized her pinky finger was bigger than the pile. Trying to move it by hand would likely just crush whoever was under there. Instead, she lowered her head to the ground and drew in a breath. Her light blowing sent the debris flying back an inch or two, enough for the man underneath to crawl out and lay on the ground in relief.

The man was dressed in typical Resistance clothing of tattered cloth and fabric stitched together. However, he had no patch or any sigil on his clothing anywhere. He looked up as he whipped some blood out of his brown hair. He froze as he noticed her towering face sitting before him. Isabella was about to tell him to be calm, but never got the chance as he jumped to his feet. He grabbed a piece of wood and ran straight to her chin.

"MY DAUGHTER, GIVE BACK MY DAUGHTER! YOUR DAMN WINGED FREAK ISN'T TAKING MY DAUGHTER! YOU ALREADY TOOK MY WIFE WHY DO YOU WANT HER TOO?!?!" he screamed as he began to strike her with the piece of wood, though Isabella barely felt each impact. Isabella sat up a bit to get out of his reach and he tossed the piece of wood up at her, missing as she went to towering over him even on just her hands and knees. He cursed and swore at her for another second until he began to look around him. He scanned the area and the desolation like a man suddenly finding himself in a nightmare. The man shook his head in disbelief before falling to his knees.

"No...no no no no..." he began to say, too quite for Isabella to hear, but his lips made it obvious what he was saying.  He hung his head down to the ground and tears began to run down his cheek. Isabella looked away and tried to say something, but couldn't find the words. Instead she began to reach toward him. He noticed her hand moving and looked back up at her. His eyes were full of tears as he shook his head, a look of complete despair on his face.

His hands gripped a handgun that hung from his belt. He began to raise it up and Isabella let him. Let him get out his anger on her shield, it would not hurt her and he had every right to be angry. But the pistol didn't stop at her, it keeping going till it was pointed...

"NO!" Isabella yelled as her hand shot forward, but too late. The man fell back onto the ground, another corpse added to the mass all around him.  Isabella slammed her fist into the ground as she cursed herself. She should have realized what he was doing, should have stopped him, should have...

She stopped as a hand touched her shoulder. Alice was standing beside her and looked to have seen the whole thing.

"I know, Alice, he would have found another way even if I had stopped him," Isabella said. Alice nodded before offering a hand to Isabella. She took it and got back to her feet. The small town was now, well and truly, dead and there was nothing anyone could do for the dead. Isabella gave one last look over the sight before shaking her head in despair and heading back up the hill, Alice leading the way.

Isabella reached the top of the hill and was about to tell Alice that they should keep looking when a bit of static came in over her radio. She looked at Alice and saw her put a finger to her ear. She was hearing it too. Isabella quickly brought her wrist computer up and began to try and narrow down the signal. She didn't bother, however, as her wrist computer suddenly showed a locator beacon had been activated nearby, Aviel's locator beacon. She quickly pulled up where it was and looked around for it with her patch-HUD. She saw the indicator point to the North, past the... tainted unshrunken town. Isabella swore under her breath at having picked to go South around it.

"Aviel's locator beacon just went active, come on!' Isabella yelled as she took off running to go back around the area. As worried as she was, she knew trying to run straight through one of those areas was beyond suicidal. They had to go around it and quickly! If Aviel had risked turning her beacon on she had to be in real danger. And that meant Flonne and Sanders were too. Isabella didn't even look back to see if Alice was following as she put all her energy into moving as fast as possible.

She wasn't sure how long it took for her to reach the edge of the town, but she skirted it as close as she dared. She could feel the fear starting to come through her punishing pace and she moved away from the edge of the area. She couldn't afford to be affected by it now. The radio's static began to give way to voices, though too faint and distorted to make out. She pushed her legs even harder despite them screaming in protest. The cold air was burning her lungs and her face felt nearly frozen, but should would NOT stop. Not when she had finally found them!

Finally, the northern edge of the town came into view and Isabella flew past it and took off straight toward where the locator was coming from. The radio's distorted voices began to become understandable as she got closer.

"-ame thing stopping you from just blasting Flonne's face off when I drop my dagger," Aviel said to someone. Isabella didn't know what was happening, but that sounded bad. Really bad. She had to hurry, had to get there in time! Isabella wanted to tell her she was coming, but she didn't dare risk it. Her saying anything might cause Aviel more trouble than it solved.

 There was a long pause of silence over the radio as if someone was considering what Aviel said. Isabella didn't know whether she should hope whoever it was agreed with her or not.

"Fine, do it," a gravely, male voice said. The voice sounded as if coming from a good distance away from Aviel's radio. It was not Sanders voice or any voice Isabella recognized. It had to be a Resistance member, but what was he agreeing to let Aviel do? Dammit, if only she could ask Aviel...

The radio went silent for a second again before it suddenly exploded with the noise of rushing air. Isabella looked at her wrist unit and saw she was still a good 300 yards from where they were, but the beacon had moved upward. She cursed as she tried to go faster, but her legs refused to go any faster.

"FLONNE!" Aviel yelled in panic as another sudden gust of wind erupted in the radio. Dammit what was happening wh- Isabella's thoughts were interrupted as her HUD patch flashed a warning. She glanced over where its warning was and could just barely make out tiny red streaks flying up over a nearby hill. Rockets, Resistance rockets and they were coming from the same direction as Aviel's beacon! They were trying to escape from the Resistance!

Isabella rushed up the hill, her eyes locked onto the beacon on her patch. She crested the rise just in time to see a winged form dive down behind another hill a few yards in front of her. Another pair of rockets came flying past them, missing their mark. Isabella glanced over at where the rockets had come from and saw a small clearing that looked to have been made by something crushing the trees and brush there. The Resistance were still there, but she had more important matters than putting them down. Her scouts and fairy came first.

Isabella ran down the side of the hill, avoiding the clearing, and took off over the hill Flonne had vanished behind. She reached the top just in time to see Flonne still flying at top speed away from the clearing.

"FLONNE...STOP!" Isabella yelled through gasps for breath as she rushed after the fairy. She had pushed through her tiredness and pain, but it was becoming too great to simply ignore now. Flonne must not have heard as the fairy didn't slow. Isabella turned her radio on and tried that.

"Aviel..., tell Flonne.... to stop!" she ordered into the radio as she began to slow from exhaustion. There was silence on the radio for a second, save the wind, before Aviel spoke up.

"Flonne! FLONNE STOP! Isabella is here!" she yelled and Flonne slowed her flight to a hover. Flonne turned around and looked back at Isabella with a look of disbelief and relief on her face. Isabella slowed to a stop and nearly collapsed to the ground, completely out of breath, but keep her feet as she smiled at the fairy. Flonne's eyes misted over as she came flying back toward Isabella.

"ISABELLA!" she yelled as she approached. Flonne didn't stop till she had, practically, crashed into Isabella's cheek. The tiny fairy wrapped one of her arms partly around Isabella's face and buried her face into Isabella's cheek. Isabella reached up with her hand and hugged the fairy back as gently as she could as her eyes began to mist in joy and relief. She had found them and they were all save, thank God...

Isabella let Flonne cry into her cheek for a second before wrapping her fingers around her and pulling the still crying fairy away. Isabella looked down at the arm Flonne hadn't wrapped around her and saw the even tinier Aviel in Flonne's hand. Surprisingly, Aviel was smiling and looked just as happy to see Isabella as Flonne. It seemed, for now, her anger at not being allowed to advance was forgotten. Yet another thing to be grateful for.

That just left Sanders who was in Flonne's other hand. Only... that hand was empty... Isabella got a puzzled look.

"Where is Sanders?" she asked in confusion. Flonne's and Aviel's smiles faded almost immediately and with it all the joy Isabella had felt. No...no it couldn't...he couldn't...she wanted to deny it, but their faces said enough. No...

"He...when Flonne got hit by the Sword back during the fight he...he fell... right down into the middle of the fight..." Aviel answered before closing her eyes to fight back the tears. He was... he was gone... Sanders was gone... She had told his mother she would take care of him and now... She wanted to fall to her knees to just collapse in despair and... Flonne began to cry again, though not in joy this time.

"I'm so sorry, Isabella. I was supposed to protect him, but I lost my grip on him. Its...its my fault...I should have held him, I..." she tried to say more before breaking down into tears. Isabella looked down at Flonne and then Aviel. Aviel wasn't crying, but it was obvious she was on the verge of it. She...she couldn't break down, not when they needed her. She...she had to stay strong for those that were still here. Sanders wouldn't want her to break anyway, no he would have wanted her to keep going.

"Its not your fault Flonne. You did everything you could. Look at me, Flonne," she ordered as she lifted Flonne's head up to look at her, "This is not your fault. Sanders death was not and will never be your fault. The only people responsible for his death is Lutice and those other Swords, understand?" As Isabella said it, her anger began to flare, though she tried to hide it. Lutice.... Flonne sniffed and nodded half heartily. Aviel, however, tightened her fists and got a look of rage on her face.

"Those damn monsters. Those damn, murderous, psychotic FUCKERS! They don't deserve to wear that badge or any badge. All they deserve is a painful death! How...HOW DID THEY GET TO BE SWORDS AND I AM NOT?! DAMMIT!" she yelled in fury as she slammed her fists down on Flonne's finger. If it bothered Flonne to be hit, she didn't show it and, instead, just stared at Aviel.

Isabella felt the same rage beginning to come over her as well. She had tried to keep it down, but hearing Aviel had caused it to bubble over. It had been bad enough that Lutice had tried to hurt her scouts over some petty slight, but now...now she was responsible for the death of one of her scouts. Over nothing than her own damn ego! The bitch...The damn bitch..the damn DEAD BITCH!

Isabella let Flonne go as she heard Alice finally catch up with her. Alice was looking a bit out of breath, but was nowhere near as run down as Isabella had been. She stopped and got a confused look as she saw Isabella's look of rage.

"Sanders is dead," Isabella said flatly as her rage only got worse from saying it. Alice actually looked shocked for a brief second before it was replaced with a grim frown.

"Response?" Alice asked with a flat tone.

"Payback," Isabella said as she turned back to where the car was highlighted on her HUD patch. Neither Flonne or Aviel said anything as they began to trek back to the car. Isabella waited till they were within sight of the highway to try Gabriella on the radio.

"Gabriella, are you there?" she asked. There was a pause of silence for a second before her radio crackled back.

"Yeah, I'm here. You find them yet?" she asked.

"Yes. We found Flonne and Aviel. Sanders...Sanders is dead," she said causing her blood to boil again. She had to take a deep breath to keep from crying, but her rage seemed to be melting the tears before they reached her eyes.

"D-Dead?" Gabriella stammered out. The radio was silent for a long while before Isabella decided to break the silence.

"Gabriella, come back to the jeep. We are going back to base and having...words with Lutice and the others," Isabella said almost in a growl. Again the radio was silent for a second before Gabby answers.

"Words? Going to have more than words for them. I'll be there in five," Gabby answered, her rage obvious through her voice.

After a few more minutes of silent walking, Isabella and the rest arrived back at the jeep. Gabby was running down the highway only a few yards away as Isabella and Alice piled in. Alice took hold of Flonne who keep hold of Aviel as Gabby jumped into the back. None of them said a word as Isabella speed the jeep back to Atlanta.