Chapter 9: Cold Reality

The three of them gathered any supplies they could from the house and the ones they already had, packed them into a rucksack and set out. The snow was falling heavier now, Asher shivering as the cold air embraced his skin. There was a blizzard happening outside the veil right now which was seeping inside causing many streets to pile up with snow. Asher and Sarah's lips were turning blue despite the warm coats they had found in the home and put on. They followed Elise as she led them to where they found her and then she began retracing her steps. As they walked Asher noticed that Elise was noticeably taller than him, which wasn't exactly saying much but still it bothered him. Asher was barely taller than his mother and seeing this tall beautiful woman towering over him made him feel a little insecure about his height, something he thought he had gotten over some time ago.

 The blizzard had concealed most of her footprints but she had left a trail of blood in the snow from when she was shot earlier, which was yet to be completely covered up by the new falling snow. They came to a stop in a large open area, with many dishevelled houses around it, clumsily placed about the street with no real coordination. Even by the Boundary standards this place was quite disorganised. Some of the houses looked like they were more recently built than others, leading Asher to believe that something must have happened here prior to the appearance of the veil. 

Maybe a blizzard hit them hard here? Sighing he turned to Sarah and Elise while he rubbed his hands together and shivered. "You'd think that this stupid veil would let sunlight in since it lets the snow in but no I guess that would just make things too enjoyable." He remarked hoping to get some sympathetic reply but instead Elise just laughed and Sarah called him a wuss.

What a terrible mix of personalities I've been forced to contend with. 

Elise was looking around curiously studying the area until she stopped at a peculiarly shaped mound of snow, she kneeled down beside it and brushed the snow aside with her hands. There under the snow pile was a young man, whose skull had been caved in by what must have been a considerably powerful blow. The man's whole skull must have been shattered from the impact based on the sorry soul's appearance. The site made Asher nervous about this group Elise had them chasing down. 

"You know him?" Asher asked. 

Elise stood back up and looked down at the body, a small frown formed onto her face. "Yeah he was one of the bastards that tried to kill me, but unluckily for him he was the nearest one to me when it happened." 

Asher gave her a nervous look. She had done this? Asher had come to the conclusion that she definitely was not ordinary after seeing how quickly her leg seemed to be healing. He could also tell she was in excellent physical condition and health from her appearance but even so… to cause this much damage to a person's skull without using an exoskeleton seemed unlikely. It would have taken similar strength to that of the enforcer robots that dealt with serious crimes in Elpis. Seeing this he suddenly felt much less at ease around the enchanting young woman. 

Just what kind of demon is she? 

Asher did not doubt that under piles of snow around them there were far more bodies. He was actually for the first time since they'd left the house a little happy about the blizzard, while it was making his face feel numb it also lessened the awful smell of the rotting corpses strewn throughout the streets.

"Do you know where they went?" Sarah asked Elise. 

"I have some idea, yeah." She replied solemnly. 

She began walking forward and Asher and Sarah trailed just behind her all on guard in case they were being watched by others. They walked forward for about twenty minutes or so, carefully making their ways through the jumbled Boundary streets. Asher could not see very far ahead but Elise seemed to be undeterred by the snowy fog in front of them as they continued on. 

"So what's the plan anyway?" Asher asked, looking at Elise. 

Elise glanced back over her shoulder at him and then scratched her head. "Em I was kinda hoping you would have one." 

A look of bewilderment appeared on Asher's pale face. "So you mean to tell me that we are walking towards a group of dangerous survivors that almost killed you might I add and we don't have a plan?" 

"Pretty much." Elise replied seemingly unbothered, turning around to look at him. 

Oh my god I'm gonna die. I am really going to die because of this idiot.

 Elise chuckled seeing his face. "Okay well only one of them has a gun as far as I know so the best way to deal with them is to split that person up from the rest. Once we take out the rest it will be easier to deal with them. So any suggestions on how one might go about that?"

Asher and Sarah stayed silent for a few seconds before Sarah said. "I can act as bait and lure the person with the gun out. If we assume they are taking shelter from the blizzard right now then they will send the person out with the gun to check out any potential threats that approach." 

"No way, too dangerous." Asher said, giving Sarah an agitated look. 

Elise looked at the two of them. "I think that's the best chance we have of taking them down if I'm being honest." 

"What would you know? You didn't even think to mention you didn't have a plan while we marched towards them." Asher said his frustration growing. "Look, the whole reason we are helping you in the first place is because you have answers that can help us survive, but what's the point if we all die in the process?" 

"Well have you got a better idea?" Elise asked in a calm yet serious tone. 

Asher remained silent for a while before replying. "No… not really. Realistically that is the best option but it will only work if I act as the distraction instead of Sarah." 

"No absolutely not, it's too dangerous and it was my idea so it should be me." Sarah said sternly as she glared at Asher. 

"Come on mam, don't be ridiculous. You know it's the better option. You're much better at this assassination stuff than I am plus let's be honest I have way more charisma than you, I mean they'd just shoot you on sight." Asher said cheerfully. Although Asher wanted to protect Sarah that was not the reason he wanted to be the decoy, what he said was true. She was better suited to sneakily taking the other members of the group out than he was. He also felt confident in his ability to talk his way out of most situations. 

Sarah gave him a grouchy look but seemed to understand that this was the best option while Elise was amused by Asher's reasoning, giving him a smile which still was too much for his poor heart to handle. The three continued on discussing the plan in more detail as they went until eventually through the thick fog Elise spotted them. They snuck behind a nearby house as Elise peeked her head around the corner for a moment before turning back to Sarah and Asher. "They are in a sort of police station but it's quite small compared to the one's in Elpis I must say, also someone is up top keeping a lookout but I don't think they will be able to see us unless we get closer thanks to the blizzard. Unfortunately they probably gathered up some more guns in there so maybe more of them are armed" She said with no hint of nervousness in her voice. 

"That's unlikely the police out here are never armed with guns, only electric batons." Asher replied. 

"Really?" Elise asked, sounding a little puzzled. 

"Not many people in the Boundary possess guns and even those that do would think twice before using them on an officer, not to mention regular bullets would have a hard time piercing through the material their uniforms are made from." 

Elise looked at him inquisitively. "How do you know so much about the Elpis police force and their uniforms?" 

Asher sighed thinking back to his time in Elpis Robotics. "I'm familiar with the polymer they used since we used it frequently at my old job." 

Sarah nodded to confirm what Asher said which was more than enough for Elise. She sighed before saying. "Wow so you're telling me I would have been bulletproof if I had just worn my uniform out here. Suppose that's what I get for trying to blend in." A devilish grin then appeared on Elises face. "So you guys ready?" 

Now that they were this close Asher suddenly felt much more anxious about the whole thing. Thankfully the death quota had been reached rather quickly today so they would not be expecting an attack but nevertheless he still felt uneasy. Looking at Elise and Sarah neither one seemed to be as nervous as him about their individual taks. If anything Sarah seemed more concerned about him than she did about herself. Elise and Sarah were going to circle the station from the right and the left, sneak in and try to take out as many as they could stealthily before anyone realised, while Asher had to approach the station as a lone survivor asking for help to try and draw the person with the gun out. 

Asher gulped. "Let's go. Oh and good luck." He turned to Elise and Sarah but Elise had already moved out of sight as she circled around using the blizzard as cover." "Fast." Asher thought to himself. He then looked at Sarah whose blonde hair had snowflakes resting on it, she nodded to him and went off. Asher then took a deep breath before walking out into the open and towards the station. It was about fifty metres away and he could only just make it out. 

What the hell, how could that crazy woman make out a person from back there and this building is huge, it's easily four times the size of my house. Asher continued walking closer. Well he knew it was much smaller than the stations in Elpis but for the Boundary standards this may as well have been a mansion. It was two stories, had four windows at the front which the cells could be seen through and it had a large metal door at the entrance. He was not spotted until he was about twenty metres away from the station. Seeing him, the woman on top of the building shot up and shouted at the people inside. Not soon after two figures exited and began approaching him, he was about ten metres away from the station and they walked up to him and stopped about a foot away from him. 

"Stop there," A young pale man with brown hair said. He was tall for someone in the Boundary… well taller than Asher anyway but that wasn't saying much considering most people were. He was also holding an electric baton. A middle aged woman stood beside him, also having brown hair. Asher could not help but notice how alike they looked. She held a pistol by her side, making Asher all the more anxious. 

Damn it! I was really hoping I'd only have to deal with one.

"Whoa whoa I… I don't want any trouble. Asher said, his voice trembling. 

My god I am a good actor, I mean that genuinely sounded real! 

"What are you doing out here? Are you alone?" The woman asked coldly. 

"No I just… It's my mom. She collapsed and I need some help. I think she is dying but I don't know what's wrong so I ran to look for help and then I saw the person on the roof." Asher said this and as he did his eyes began to tear up and his trembling voice grew even meeker. He couldn't help but be impressed by himself. 

The man and woman looked at each other for a moment then turned back to him. "Your mother, where is she?" The woman asked. The man had a scowl on his face as he stared Asher down. 

"She is just back about ten minutes, please you've gotta help me. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do!" Asher said as he fell down to his knees and made his voice more frantic. The two looked down at Asher seemingly mulling over what to do. 

"Calm down , me and my son will come with you and bring your mother back with us. One of the members of our group has some medical experience so she may be able to help." The lady smiled at him warmly as she spoke, placing her gun in its holster by her side. 

This had surprised Asher, he had expected these people to be ruthless killers because of the state they found Elise in but they seemed rather pleasant to talk to. Asher was not fully sure she was telling the truth but she sounded sincere. Asher wondered whether or not he and Sarah had taken the wrong side. Well it was too late now to change his mind, the plan was already in motion. He looked up at her his eyes still watery. "Thank you so much I…" 

BANG!! 

Asher was interrupted by a crashing bang from inside the station. The pair looked away from Asher and back to the station for just a second but that was all he needed. Asher jumped upwards, pulling out a small knife from his pocket and lunged at the woman, she turned quickly reaching for the gun but she was too slow. Asher swung up with the knife and plunged it into the woman's eye. She screamed in pain and jumped backwards and clutched the knife currently lodged in her eye socket. Asher quickly took another knife from his pocket thrusting it at the young man's throat who was momentarily shocked by his mother being stabbed. He quickly snapped out of it, however, reacting to Asher's attack by using his hand as a shield. The blade pierced through his palm and got stuck, the man grimaced from the pain, his eyes suddenly burning with fury towards Asher. He swung the baton down trying to crush Asher's head but Asher let go of the knife and fell backwards narrowly avoiding the blow and landing on his ass. Looking up he realised instantly how bad his situation looked. The woman had pulled the knife out of her eye and her son was about to pull the knife from his palm. The woman who looked kind just a moment ago looked bloodthirsty as blood poured out of her damaged eye and onto the white snow. She reached down and pulled the pistol out and pointed it at Asher's head causing Asher's heart to sink, but then suddenly her hand was gone and then blood flew everywhere covering him and the young man. The woman's arm had been pulverised somehow. She screamed once again, this time gripping the stump of her arm that remained as she collapsed onto her knees continuing her cries of pain. Her son moved towards her, worry written all over his face but then just as suddenly his head exploded and his body crumpled to the ground. Asher was momentarily startled by what had just happened, he thought he was about to die not even five seconds ago. Looking up at the station he saw Elise standing on the roof waving at him. She was holding some black object in her hand that he couldn't fully make out through the fog. Asher stood up and yanked the knife from the man's hand and approached the woman. She had stopped screaming, now she just sat on her knees in silence staring at the body of her lifeless son, tears filling her eyes. As he approached she looked up at him with an expression of unimaginable grief written across her face. 

"Why?" She asked, sobbing as she did. 

Asher did not answer, rather he could not think of anything to say. He took a few more steps towards her before looking down at the woman who just moments ago had offered him help.

"I'm sorry." He said a hint of regret in his voice. He then kneeled down to her level and pierced her heart with the knife, killing her. He stood up looking down at the woman's body. He felt strange. With the others he had killed before he had to do it in order to survive but this… this was different. He had actively chosen to trick and kill someone, he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt as he looked at her. Was this really worth it? Was helping Elise right? Was she the bad person in this situation all along? He looked down at his hands which were covered in blood and thought about the look the woman had on her face as he looked at her son's lifeless body. He felt no pride in this battle they had won, all he felt was guilt and shame. Is that what's going to happen to us he wondered as he saw Sarah exit the station and approach him. 

Sarah had a worried look on her pale face, her hands had blood on them but besides that she looked fine. Asher sighed in relief seeing that she was okay and she did the same upon seeing him. She ran to him and hugged him. 

"Are you okay sweetie, you're not hurt anywhere?" Sarah asked as she continued to hug him but Asher did not respond. He was looking past her at Elise who was still standing on the roof of the station. Noticing Asher she gave him one of her dazzling smiles but this time all it did was make him feel uneasy.