Keeper Hunter

With a cautious haste I followed the route of the Palkkasir. Ahead was the main brewery, a multistoried building. In front was a garden area with a lawn surrounded by flowerbeds and a hedge. Picnic tables were scattered across the lawn. It looked deceptively peaceful. The brewery itself was an imposing concrete structure with high arched windows. I knew that from the holo they were false. The windows were only for show and didn’t actually do anything except soften the lines of the hard concrete walls. A set of broad steps led up to a reception area double doors fronting it, the walls either side plastered with advertising hoarding. A second set of steps led to a second smaller door marked ‘employees only’. It was edged with a metal stair rail shiny with years of use.

There should only be cleaning staff and guards occupying the building at this hour. Well that was the hope. I edged around the garden towards the ‘employee entrance’ noticing that the door was open. I drew a deep breath it had to be a trap. The sudden sound of gunfire had me dropping top the floor. I briefly wondered if my delay had the rest of the team jumping the gun.

Out of the door a figure staggered out clutching her chest. I recognised the Palkkasir I’d encountered earlier. She stumbled down the steps and sat on the bottom step her hand on her chest her back against the stair rail bloody trickling between her fingers. I drew my weapon, half crouching half running I headed over to the Palkkasir. All chances of a quiet entrance had been blown out of the window. I approached with caution unsure what to expect. I could see the Palkkasir’s wound was mortal. She hadn’t long left I felt guilty that my team might have done this.

“Silver!” the Palkkasir grasped out her hand on her chest. Blood was leaking staining her uniform.

“Who did this to you?” I prayed it hadn’t been my team.

“We tried…” her words stumbled out.

“Tried what?” ‘Surrender’, thoughts twirled though my mind.

“To leave!” the Palkkasir stuttered.

In part I wondered if it was my team. Yet there was that doubt even the most rabid Valkyrie wouldn’t have attacked if they’d been trying to leave. “Who did?”

The Palkkasir shuddered, pain clear on her face. “The Humans.” She weakly gestured to her empty holster.

I had assumed she’d lost her weapon in the brewery somewhere. Her next words chilled me to the bone.

“Gave us broken guns. Called us a useless waste of flesh.”

Beyond the chill in my bone was a simmering anger. Palkkasir fumbled in her pocket and produced a small hand carved wooden doll. The detail was good as almost as good as the mural in the Hall of Elders. She pressed it into my hands.

“Take this to my daughter.”

I couldn’t say no remembering Solstrid an obligation I still had to fulfil. “Yes,” I promised without hesitation. I might be only a vaihdokas but a promise was a promise.

“Silver?” she pleaded.

I halted I was reaching for medical pack. I couldn’t save her but I could make her comfortable in the time she had left. “I have some pain killers?”

She waved them off. “Will I lie in the embrace of the Mother of All?”

The best I could say was. “The Mother will accept and comfort you.”

“I was Thrira a wood carver by trade. Please take my soul home…”

That was it she was dead I’d have to weep for her later but I was on a time limit. I looked at her body and said. “I will.”

Nothing more could be done here. I had a job to do the others were relying on me. There was a trail of blood up the steps into the building. With my weapon drawn I entered the building through the open door. I was in a large room the wall adorned with all sorts of holo posters mostly about the brewery. A second door was off to the side and the blood trail continued through there. Beyond the door was a corridor with three doors. Two were to locker rooms one marked female the other marked male.

I ignored them the blood trail led to the third door. The door slid open to my touch revealing the brewery floor. It was a vast space with stainless machines and conveyer belts. Above the machines were a number of gantries. A set of steel stairs led to the floor, which was gleaming, with water. The blood trail mixed with the wetness on the floor and number of boot prints. I could see in my mind’s eye Thrira staggering determined to leave under her own steam. The anger in my blood surged. She might have been Palkkasir but she trusted me enough with her soul.

Between two huge machines I had no idea of what they did I found another body. A human male this time in a Security uniform his neck twisted at an impossible angle and blood all around him as if he’d been trying fight off his attacker. I guessed he had got in Thrira’s way. I pulled up my holo map on my comms the blood was going in the same direction I wanted to go. Somewhere in this maze were the stairs to the control room. The next corpse was that of a man he was face down in water a hole in the back of his head. He was dressed in some sort of blue plastic overall and synth rubber boots. One of the cleaners who had got caught in the crossfire although I doubted that it was Thrira that had killed him. She had said she’d been given a broked gun. I crossed the floor encountering more corpses some Human others Palkkasir. I wondered why the alarms weren’t sounding with all the fighting someone should have sounded an alarm. The eerie stillness of the place was giving me the creeps. Unless I reasoned it was a silent alarm even then this place should have been swarming with guards. It was inordinately still the only sounds were the creak of machines cooling and the incessant drip of water.

I continued on finding another Valkyrie she didn’t have the tattoo on her cheek. She looked too young to be wearing a Security uniform but other than that she had the typical Valkyrie features. Long blonde hair in a bun, blue eyes and pale skin. She had been hit several times but was alive. Relief surged through me I didn’t want to find the corpse of a Valkyrie so young. In her hands was a bent length pipe slick with blood, I was sure as sure could be that it wasn’t hers?

“Be at peace Big Sister,” I said as I stepped into view. I had my hand with my bracelet stretched out.

“A Silver!” The Valkyrie stated shock mixed with pain. Her words sounding as if I was a myth.

“Let me patch you up.” I reached into my pack for a stimpack. I administered the painkiller I was going to give to Thrira. I could have done better with my blood although I doubted she’d let me do that.

“Mother this hurts,” the Valkyrie said.

“It will,” I replied.

The Valkyrie gave me an odd look. “You’re all kinds of fun for what I’d been told a Silver acts like?”

I was confused by her words but I had a job to do. “Can you make it to the entrance the way is clear?”

“Sure,” she grunted making it a lie.

“Just take it easy and if you see anyone with clothes like mine just surrender. Tell them you’ve seen me.”

The Valkyrie gripped her bent pipe harder doubt strong in her pain filled eyes. “I’m a little low on the trust thing at the moment. Will they let me?”

“Yes!” I said as firmly as I can.

She nodded slowly as I helped her up.

“Go with the grace of the Mother.”

“Mother?” The Valkyrie stared at me confused.

I stared back just as confused. “Are you not an Exile?” I had to admit she looked too young to be one.

“My Mother says she is, my dad is Human.”

I looked carefully at her she did look pure Valkyrie then I would have sworn blind that Miri was a pure Human. “I’m vaihdokas. I have the blood but not the looks.”

She straightened her face going paler than it was.

“Be careful,” I admonished her. “Just get out of here in one piece.”

“If don’t make it I’m Hessie Carson. Please let my mother know?”

“I’m Gwen Hunter and you will survive!” I said to her sharply. “I’m counting on you to live I need you to gather the names of those sisters who have fallen.”

“Why?”

“So I can return their souls to Alfheimir.”

“And mine?” Hessie asked.

“Will be going there but not for a long time,” I said to her sternly. “It is your right no matter where you were born.”

Hessie looked away for a moment. “Mum’s always yearning to go back but she made a home here.”

I was aware I was wasting time but I felt this was important. Thrira’s soul was burning a hole in my pocket. “Go now and when you see your mother ask her to teach you about the Mother of All.”

I watched Hessie move off she was still in pain. I worried about her I wanted her to live, I wanted her to see her home. The realist part of me said that was an impossible dream.