Chapter 12 - Chieftain vs us

Wong and I remained in our hidden spot mangled together like some star crossed lovers. How can I think with him blushing like a newlywed?

“We have to take that chieftain out. That will put the rest of them in disarray. May buy us couple of days” [Allen]

“Are you crazy? Take that thing with what? It looks like a cyclops. How are we two to take on that?” [Wong]

Winking at him I replied, “With our wits of course” [Allen]

Barely containing his anger, “Are you serious? We just barely outwitted our captors. How are we to outwit that thing?” [Wong]

“Can you be quiet and stop exclaiming at my remarks? I am working on it” [Allen]

I just needed him to shut up for my brain to think. He was simply feeding it more stuff distracting from the elephant in the room. Get it? Cos that thing is huge, like an elephant.

Few uneventful minutes pass by while I tried ‘willing’ whatever that was supposed to be mine. Nothing happened. I began to wonder whether the alien ball was just lying to get me do something stupid, which I normally wouldn’t. Like fighting that monstrosity.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Allen & His Mind Voice

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you sure you want to do this? Yes.

If you wait till they attack the store, you can use the time to sneak in, save at least Alvin and Camille. Or, I could just get killed or worse, let either of them get killed in the attack.

You don’t have to fight for those people. They haven’t done anything for you. They are my friends. Besides, Manager Wei has been kind enough to us, despite his ‘My kids are better than you’ personality.

I still think this is a very bad idea. Me too, but I got no choice.

Alrite, you are the boss. That I am.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wong, listen before you say anything”. Without waiting for his reply, I continued, “I am going to fight that thing”, ignoring the shock and shushing him from exclaiming loud again, “I know it’s not ideal, but one of us has to do it and you have a family”. I said, “Nothing you say will change my mind”, with a cold unwavering expression. [Allen]

“If you are going to fight, I can help too. I am the only one with a skill” [Wong]

We both knew that skill is totally useless against a cyclops. That’s what I am calling it. Or an Ogre. Yeah, Ogre is better.

“Your sentiment is appreciated, but I can’t risk both of us dying. At least one of us need to get out of here to warn the others. While I distract it, find a moment to escape out of here. Save my friends first”, I don’t care about the others. On second thought, two is better than one, “If you think you can take that Ogre while I distract, have a shot at it. But your first priority is to get out and warn others”. Argh, I don’t like second guessing myself.

My plan was to scavenge anything that could increase my chance of survival. I had found a couple of beer bottles, soda cans, beer cans, matches, cigarette butts, drug syringes, tubes, so far nothing I can use definitively. My lucky find were a couple of house-grade propane tanks with very little fuel left on them. Enough to say bam and not go boom or ka-boom. Wong had managed to dig out a couple of burners and few lighters which still contained lighter fluids. Lucky bastard. I scattered the beer bottles around the warehouse so I won’t be encumbered during the fight.

I also managed to find huge commercial grade propane cylinders which were completely empty. They are as good as a wall decoration, but I could find a way to use them. Pleased with my work, I went over my plan with Wong one last time. He gave me an expression of disapproval, but didn’t say anything; just nodded quietly. Alrite, he goes nothing

----------------------------------

The battle

---------------------------------

I threw a beer bottle right at the ogre’s face. It was slowly waking up from the disturbance. I threw another one and it looked around confused. I held my last bottle which I turned into a fire bomb using the lighter fluid and a piece of my cloth and shouted, “Yea, you dumb ugly fatty. Wakey wakey” [Allen]

The ogre finally realizing where the noise was coming from fixed its angry glare at me. It roared once more and got up holding its club. Oh god, please work.

“Hey big guy, look under”, and I pointed under its feet, unsure whether it actually understood what I meant. It was too angry to notice what I meant. Before it moved, I threw the fire bomb I held and it lit the propane tank which I placed under the Ogre while it was still sleeping and boom went the place. A significant amount of explosion, more than I expected, left the ogre more pissed off and dazed.

The explosion had charred both its legs since they were directly above the propane tanks. The fire spread over its clothes and burned in left arm while the ogre squirmed with its club in the right arm trying desperately to put off the fire.

The loud noise from the explosion had invited two smaller sized monsters, presumably from the ogre’s clan to investigate.

The two monsters saw their chieftain burning and ran towards the cause, me, with a battlecry. Totally planned. The Ogre was too furious to discern friend from foe and it slammed its club towards the two screaming. They fucking flew, holy cow, a good distance before being squashed into a pulp in the wall. I grabbed the spears, throwing one to Wong and keeping one for myself in case I needed it. A shield would have been better, but beggars can't be choosers.

“Wong, fucking get to safety now. We can’t take him together”, I had shouted my lungs off and ignored the Ogre, which by the way was no longer burning and making a beeline towards me.

I barely ducked the club which passed above me blowing a gust from where my body was just there. Fuck, fuck, too fast. I had no more time to check on Wong. My adrenaline kicked in and my mind focussed at nothing but the enemy in front of me, the club of death.

I rolled over to a spot where I had laid two bottles. I grabbed them and threw them one after the other before the ogre could turn. It has slow turn rate. I made a mental note to counter-attack when it missed its swing. The ogre turned towards me and swung its club again. I was out of its reach, however the blow was powerful enough to stumble me off my feet. Without waiting for me to get up, it raised its club overhead and smashed it directly at me with a deafening cry.

I rolled around again missing the club by a margin and poking it with my spear tip. Nothing happened, the spear didn’t even leave a mark on its body. My pondering ended as the asphalt beneath the club cracked and specks of broken debris flew around blinding me. Before I could figure out my next move, the club came sweeping the floor right at me. Crap. I blocked the club with the spear just in time to avoid a direct blow. The swing however was too powerful, splintering the spear shaft and threw me to the wall. I felt a few ribs cracking as I flew and crashed, leaving a significant crack in the wall. Coughing up blood, I struggled to gather myself before the next swing arrived.

A big hunk of meat moved through the dust and debris covering its face with a burnt arm. Its charred legs and burnt arms giving off an infuriated aura. It was mad. If I took another one of those hits, I am 100% dead.

Fear and panic brooded over me and my legs gave up, too shaken to support my body. I crawled towards the two propane cylinders I had arranged neatly near a gas burner. I straightened myself against the cylinders, ignited a lighter in my left hand and threatened to set fire to the cylinder, “Come get me now you dumb motherfucker” [Allen]

I figured, after the first explosion, the ogre would be cautious towards a second one, especially one twice as powerful. Only now, the cylinders are empty, but he doesn’t need know that. Our joust came to a standstill, neither me nor the him willing to break the armistice. Honestly, I didn’t have a plan after this point. I just hoped Wong would warn everyone and/or bring reinforcements. Did he get out safely?

Moments trickled down nonchalantly as blood dripped from my eyebrows blocking my already blurred vision. My body ached like it was hurting and bleeding from everywhere. My hands were too agitated to hold the lighter in place and I was pacing in and out of consciousness. Time to talk to my brain.

** Allen and his mind voice again **

You talk big to your friend and end up miserably after a single blow. Foolish choice to die for foolish people. I am not dying for those plebeians. I am doing this for my friends. Besides, that blow was like hit by a freight train. Me being alive is a miracle.

And what are they going to feel about this? I don’t care. I am simply trying to protect them my way.

You know we can actually win this situation right? No kidding. If I knew that, why would I be dying like a dog in a ditch.

You just have to remember, it’s ours if we will it. You and me both. I thought u were me and what is ours?

I am you, fool. Power is ours, if you will it. I think I am going crazy in my deathbed. Tell me how do I will this ‘power’?

You grab it with your hands, *silly*. If I only knew how, *giggle*.

Fucking shit, even my brain was mocking my disgraceful display of a fight.

** end of Allen and his mind voice **

The lighter went out as my shoulders finally collapsed; the pain from the blow too significant to bear. My eyelids drew closer gradually and darkness clouded my vision each passing moment. I struggled to keep myself awake, breathing rough and ragged, extending my life as long as possible hoping for some miracle to no avail. I could hear the Ogre walk triumphantly towards me, no longer fearing the spark or explosion. Is this the end? I die a virgin? That was the only worry filling my mind while I surrendered myself to the beyond.

My vision completely faded and I was standing alone in darkness, tired and dejected but alive nonetheless. A voice guided me towards two objects floating and radiating bright light. I walked shielding myself from the luminescence, they were the only source of light in an endless space of nothing. As I got closer the light dimmed out revealing two objects. These are mine.

One was a flintlock single chamber gun. Like the ones used in the 14th century movies or more recently in pirates of the caribbean. It fired a single lead ball and required a gazillion minutes to reload. Totally ineffective in combat unless your enemy sat twiddling with thumbs up his ass. The other was a can of soda. Great. It’s like the cosmos way of telling me ‘You don’t deserve a last meal, so here’s a soda’. What a pointless way of giving me two absolutely fucking useless items in a dark dream space.

A familiar sense urged me to quickly grab both and I obliged, only to wake up looking at an angry wound-licking ogre. The Ogre was shocked to see something that I was holding. What was I holding?

My lighter was replaced by the soda can and the flintlock gun laid near my other hand, which had collapsed earlier. What fresh hell is this?

The Ogre picked up speed while I dropped the soda can and grabbed the gun hurriedly. I hoped to shoot it despite knowing the bullet would only bounce off its tough skin. One last act of defiance. A gun is mightier than a can anyway.

I held it unsteadily and shot the charging Ogre, too big of a target to miss, bam motherfucker. A small dot of light travelled and hit the ogre somewhere in its body and imploded like an atom bomb. The explosion tore its belly and littered the room with flesh and blood, vaporizing everything from the knee up. An awkward silence passed and the club fell onto the charred knees walloped into a pool of blood and gore. I felt like Tom Hanks from Saving Private Ryan, the last moment where he shot a tank with a pistol and it blew up. Only, I was covered with gore and cakes of flesh and a flight blew up the tank. Bah, semantics

All my adrenaline drained, I watched a creature, not a human, walk wearing an expression of awe and relief too hard to tell and jaws gawking at the sight of the dead ogre. I managed to catch a glimpse of it moving towards me before passing out from bloodloss and exhaustion. The world went dark one final time and I wanted nothing more than to sleep. A single thought lingered in my mind.

Please don’t drink my soda.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------