Stranger In a Strange Land

Alec walked amongst the populace and knew he stuck out like a sore thumb from the moment he saw and smelled them.

They were dressed in faded and filthy rags, some more so than others. Although they all had one thing in common, they looked as dilapidated as the streets they walked on, the buildings they passed by. They smelt of decay as much as the streets.

The smell was pungent and shocked him to his core, he expected the citizens to have suffered under their tyrannical rulers, but not this. They looked dead already... Their bones visible under the loose skin that covered them; the majority of them wore hoods, which Alec quickly discovered hid the prevalent red and blue spots that covered their faces.

Alec wasn't a doctor but he knew the signs of scurvy when he saw it. They parted to clear his path as he advanced, but all shared together in their contempt for him.

He looked well fed, well cared for and that placed him under the spotlight.

He pulled his hood over his face and walked with haste to his target.

Some of the group followed.

Alec heard them and diverted his path to an alleyway. As he was half way down, more of the group blocked him from the other side.

He stood in the centre and waited, he knew what was coming. As much as he didn't want to fight them he would have to.

The leader of the group raised his enclosed fist and the mob charged from both sides at once, some held bricks, some iron pipes. Others clutched rusted knifes.

Alec stood his ground, tensed his fists and dodged the brick as it sailed towards at his face.

In a blurry few moments, three had attacked him and all three fell backwards as he broke noses, shattered bones and busted lips.

They continued to advance, one struck him in the ribs with the iron pipe and another almost stabbed him with the rusty knife.

Eventually, disheartened and enraged they retreated but Alec had more than his fair share of injuries himself. He held his cracked rib and cursed as he continued on his path to meet The Eye.

He stumbled out of the poor district and noticed a significant difference between the two zones. The people who walked these streets were less dirty and looked less like animals.

They still were on edge, but in this zone, it was due to the police presence.

Alec hid in a nearby alley and watched as some of the armed police harassed the citizens.

"This is what happens when you fail to pay us what is owed," snarled one of the cops who was clutching a automatic machine gun.

The citizen dropped to his knees and began to wail and beg for more time.

The cop slammed the rifle's butt into his nose and laughed as the man's face erupted in blood.

"Now choose!" The cop yelled and spittle flew.

Three women knelt sobbing across the street. Two more cops held them in their sights. One was clearly the mother, the others the daughters.

The man sobbed and began to rock back and forth on his knees.

The cop repeated himself this time his tone was colder.

"Choose, or I'll order my men to kill them all..."

The man stared, open-eyed in fear, his wife mouthed unspoken words to him and he nodded as tears cascaded down his face.

He bowed his head and spoke.

"Agatha..." he said, defeated, unable to raise his head from the sight of the cobbles.

The cop smiled in a sneer, signaled to his men, grabbed the man by the chin and raised his line of sight to watch.

The man resisted until the cop spoke again.

"Watch... How else will you learn the consequences?"

His men stood side by side and flicked off their safeties.

Agatha smiled at her husband and spoke.

"Don't react... think of our children."

Alec clenched his fists bone tight and had to resist the urge to intervene. This wasn't why he had come here. He had a mission... Instead he watched as they gunned Agatha down in a hail of bullets, listened to the wailing screams of rage from the husband. Watched the tears that cascaded down the children's cheeks.

And paid closer attention to the smiling cops. He used all this information to stoke the fire of his vengeance.

The cops left the streets and Alec had to fight against every instinct to follow them. He could slaughter them, but once they found the dead cops they'd know something was coming. He was coming.

Now wasn't the time...

Instead he remained braced against the wall and watched until the streets were once again empty.

He thought of Helen more and more, did she have to witness this often? Did she feel as he now felt? Helpless and enraged?

Did she think of him as he thought of her now?

He thought back to the letter she had written him.

"I should have fled with you... but I was too stubborn."

The bitterness to her voice haunted him.

After punching the wall until his knuckles bled, he continued his journey.

He avoided temptation along the way. Every cop he passed made his rage resurface, but the memory of Helen quietened him enough to persist.

Soon he was standing in the warehouse district and death walked a little closer to him.

Chasing the Dead

Alec remained in the shadows and systematically searched the area for the foundation that was marked. He had searched almost the length of the warehouse district and was starting to doubt the elders words.

When he finally found what he was looking for, he reached out to touch the open eye that was carved into the support concrete beam.

So, this was it. The place The Eye would meet him. This was where he would get the answers he desperately required. Through violence if necessary. His sister worshipped The Eye, she had since the beginning, when they crawled out of whatever hole they called home and began to speak out against the usurpers. But Alec wasn't fooled. Alec hated him, her, them, whatever. Always had. He knew what The Eye really was. Fool's Gold.

A beacon of light inside the darkness. Alec liked the darkness, he realized people fought harder if they knew they were about to die. Hope made anyone who worked with The Eye weak.

That was why his sister had died... She was weak from following false hope.

Alec caressed the lining of the open eye with his fingers and stopped abruptly.

Someone was watching him.

"I know you're there..." Alec spoke.

A laughter filled the chamber, it seemed to move from pillar to pillar and rebound around the basement until finally the voice was but a whisper in his ear.

"Alec..."

Both Helen's voice and scent playfully rendered him helpless. He spun on his feet and stared at the darkness.

Once more the laughter moved around the chamber.

Alec clenched his fists and ground his teeth with rage.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Alec moved fast and took a swing at them, but once more the chamber was barren of all but shadow.

"Stop playing games and reveal yourself!" Alec screamed.

The laughter subsided and a woman dressed in black dropped from above, landed silently beside him and swiped his feet from under him. She rolled on top of him and Alec felt the cold steel of a knife tease his throat.

He tried to see any defining features, but the woman was only shadow beneath her hood.

Alec quelled his anger and tried to speak.

"..."

The woman snarled and dug the steel deeper into his throat, just enough to draw blood.

"Be silent and listen Alec..."

Alec's eyes widened. At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him, but again Helens voice floated playfully to his ears.

Alec nodded and let the woman speak.

The steel that pressed into his flesh withdrew enough for him to move his neck without slicing it on the serrated steel.

"The Eye will meet you if you pass their test..."

"What test???" He croaked still unnerved by the woman's voice.

He heard the woman laugh. Even that chuckle was reminiscent of his sister.

"Catch me and I will take you to The Eye..."

Alec laughed but abruptly stopped as she moved the dagger closer to his throat.

"I accept..." He said, bemused. The woman laughed, tossed the dagger in to the air and rolled from him.

Alec heard it spin through the air and stared up dumbstruck before finally his survival instincts kicked back in. He rolled and heard the dagger strike the concrete that he lay on not a nanosecond before.

He looked around the basement and once again saw nothing but shadow. The woman appeared from the very darkness that his eyes were trained on and he couldn't explain it in the slightest.

She bowed in front of him and flipped backwards to once more disappear into the shadows.

Alec cursed and ran for the exit to the basement and once more saw her beside the thick steel door. She laughed and taunted him in his sister's voice.

"Try to keep up Alec..."

With that she raced up the stairs gracefully and leapt into the clear starry night, her black robes trailed behind her like a cape.

Alec shook his head and charged up the stairs after her with a smile on his face. She was cocky, arrogant, and didn't know him from Adam...

She was a fool.

Alec made it out into the clear starlight not two seconds after her and immediately saw her running across the metallic rooftop of the warehouse in the distance.

"How the hell did she get that far?"

He saw the layout of the land and planned a route to cut her off as he charged to keep up. He didn't see them watching from the shadows.

He followed from below, barely out of breath, watched her shadow and sped up. He knew the path she was going to take, and smiled as he heard the clanks of metal as she charged down the fire escape.

Within seconds he was directly beneath it and waited.

The clanks continued and abruptly stopped. The streets were silent and Alec gazed up in both confusion and irritation.

That's when he saw it drop. A black glove floated down to the ground towards Alec. He caught it and looked around in confusion and then felt her collide into him from above.

The wind was knocked from him, she once more sat on top of him and laughed. She placed the glove back over her pale skin, rolled off him and fled down the nearest alley.

Alec watched her as she ran into the dark and hazily pulled himself to his feet. This bitch was starting to get on his nerves.

He raced after her into the alley, she was toying with him and he'd make her pay for that.

The SWAT team followed shortly after. They moved silently and communicated in hand signals. The murderous look in their eyes did all the talking for them.

They checked their magazines and advanced into the darkness.