Harald
“Harry, it’s me,” Harald heard but couldn’t make out the voice.
“Close it,” he heard another voice as he grasp for air, trying not to choke.
“No,” Harald said when he noticed Nena, his mothers head of security.
She grabbed him by the shoulder as she helped him sit up against the wall. He tried to shake free on her grasp, but her small hand held him still.
“Their gone,” he finally heard, and realized he had been pulled in tightly to her embrace.
“No, No, No,” he replied again, tears welling in his eyes.
“We have to go, we have to get you to safety,” Nena told him as she pulled back from him, and then stood.
“No,” Harald said again and pushed himself up off the floor. He tried to move towards the door to the great hall but was stopped by a single large hand. He tried to push it aside but he couldn’t. He struggled before the hand pushed him, and his balance was lost yet again, and he hit the floor with his ass.
“Damnit Hyrum,” Nena’s voice called out.
Harald looked up as Old Eye Hyrum looked down on him. He turned away from the robotic glaze. Next to him stood a second woman in the same uniform as Hyrum and Nena.
“Door wont hold long,” Iris spoke up. The woman had blood covering the side of her face.
“We have to go,” Hyrum said.
Harald stood, “We have to go back, we have to rescue my mom and dad. My brother and sisters.”
One Eye Hyrum looked pass Harald to Nena, refusing to acknowledge him. “We should knock him out, and carry him.”
“We got to go,” Iris said as well.
“What about us?” Quincey asked, and Harald was forced to look behind himself.
Quincey and his friends were huddled together. Quincey in front holding a butchers knife.
Nena stepped forward. The sounds of railgun fire had begun to die down. She dropped to one knee, and grabbed Harald by the shoulder.
“They are gone now.” She said sternly.
“No,” Harald said again, shaking his head. “Your wrong! My mother and father are great warrior. No.” He said, feeling the tears as they fell down his cheek.
“Look at me,” he heard Nena say, but refused.
“This isn’t a security door, we don’t have time for this,” Hyrum complained.
He felt Nena grab his face in her hand, and forced him to look back to Quincey and the kids.
“You are Lord Frost, Lord of these people,” she said. She pointed to the kids behind Quincey. “It is your duty to get them to safety,” she finished.
“Fuck sakes,” Hyrum grumbled.
Harald looked at the kids, his friends. He could see them huddled together around Quincey. Jae, Winnie, and Gwen. All of them. Most the faces looked at him, fear, dread, and tears in their faces. The sounds of sobbing came from them.
Harald tried to wipe the tears from his face, and then looked at Nena, and nodded.
“Good,” Nena said, and stood. “Listen to me and we will get everyone to safety.”
Harald nodded once again, but was unable to speak. Nena turned from him and walked away.
“Iris with me,” Nena said as she moved across the room. “Hyrum bring up the rear, and Quincey,” she said stopping. “Keep the kids in the middle, and keep the young lord close.”
The chef nodded, and then waved Harald towards him. “Come on young master,” he said.
Harald rushed forward, and embraced his friends for a moment. No one spoke, but Harald pushed back fresh tears.
“Come on, we need to reach the tunnels” Nena told them as she waved everyone close to her next to one of the doors leading out of the kitchen.
The kids stayed behind Quincey, and moved closer to the soldier. Harald pushed himself forward over the protests of Quincey. He felt his hand reach out and grab him, but shook it free.
Before he could reach Nena, she slipped out of the kitchen and into the hallway. She was followed closely by Iris. He reached the door, and stopped. He looked back, to Quincey and the kids. Locked together with hands and arms. Hyrum stood behind them, his head turned towards the closed door to the great hall.
He to where Nena and Iris disappeared into the west hall. He heard Quincey protest once again, but paid him no mind and followed after his mother’s bodyguard.
They were already moving down the hall when Harald stepped out to follow them. They each moved in the shadows against the walls, their pistols aimed at the ready. He watched as they stepped over two objects in the middle of the hallway, and then stop on the other side, bending down.
He stopped himself from moving when he noticed they were bodies. He knew that they were dead before Nena and Iris made it into the hall.
“Harald,” he heard Quincey whisper. He looked back. The group was close to him, a few meters away. Hyrum kept his back to them as they slowly walked.
He told himself to be brave. He turned back towards the bodies that Nena and Iris were crouched next to. He continued to walk down the hall. When he finally reached Nena she gave him a quick glance, but said nothing.
When Quincey arrived with the children, Nena finally looked away from him, and to the aging cook.
“Here,” Nena said, handing him a pistol from one of the dead guard. “Don’t point it at us.”
Harald reached down, and grabbed the pistol from the holster of the body closest him. His head was a bloody mess, where his face had once been, was a bloody hole. He could hear some of the kids mutter and try to stay quiet at the horror of the sight. It was one of Stonehill Hold’s guards he realized.
He looked back to Nen. She turned away without a word, and then moved again, continuing down the hall.
The sun had already gone done as it often did this time of year. Moonlight flowed through the windows, casting shadows where the inside lights didn’t light.
He clutched the pistol in his hand as they moved forward down the hall behind Nena and Iris. It felt heavier then the one his father would let him shoot on the range.
They made it down to the end, the sound of shoots going off in the distance. Each time it made someone jump. To their left Harald knew were the stairs to the basements, and upstairs. To the right the hall went back and linked up with the great hall.
Harald watched as Nena poked her head around the corner, and then back in. She looked at Iris, and raised her hand showing four fingers, followed by other movements of her hand and wrist that he didn’t understand.
“Keep your eyes behind us,” Hyrum whispered as he passed by Quincey.
Hyrum took up position next to Nena, and Harald watched as the three of them looked at each other and nodded their heads, and then again. On the third time they moved. Nena and Iris ran across the tee section of the Hallway, and out of sight as Hyrum opened fire with pistol down the hall on unseen enemies.
Haralds eyes darted behind him on the sound of a door sliding open. He raised his pistol and pulled the trigger as someone stepped out.
The first shot hit the corner of the door, sparks exploding. The second shot went wide again, but forced the woman to shield her face. The third made contact with her chest. Harald could see blood fell out and land on the wall behind her.
The unknown enemy fell to the ground, and Harald continued to fire. Another blast ripped through the body, blood painting the floor. When the fifth and final blast hit it’s target, it no longer moved.
He stood there shaking, his pistol move wilding about. He looked to his side, Quincey was staring at him, mouth ajar. The others held themselves together, small shouts of fear escaping them. He felt a hand on his, pushing them down, and jerked towards them, and relaxed as much as one could at the sight of Nena.
She held his glaze for a moment before nodding behind her. “Quick,” she said. She kept her hand on his shoulder as they walked down the hall.
They rounded the corner to the left. Iris faced them as she looked down the hall behind them. Hyrum was busy wrapping some sort of medical device on his arm, blood running to his hand. Between them, three bodies lay on the floor, pools of blood coming from each body.
“Come on,” Nena said, and then descended the stairs. Her hand no longer on his shoulder, and pistol pushed in front of her. It was the stairs that Harald saw the fourth body, riddled with small holes, and blood pouring down the stone steps.
They continued their way down one flight of stairs, and then a second, and finally a third. Once on the third basement they pushed their way through the doors, and followed the hallway to the to the last room.
The family library filled the room. Harald had been in it many times. It was often used for school work by all the kids of Stonehill Hold. They made their way through the main library and into one of the back rooms filled with displays of objects from Isca’s past.
His father and mother had taken him down here once when he was young. They had showed him the hidden tunnels. Old mining tunnels from centuries ago, which had been converted to hidden passages when Stonehill Hold had been built.
Nena made her way over to an old object. She pushed it out of the way, which revealed a hidden keypad. Harald was thinking what the code was, and readied to tell her when she entered one herself.
One of the displays shifted and moved, and stairs filled the void. A large door blocked the way at the bottle. Nena walked down the stairs, and placed her hand on a scanner next to the door. The light blinked green, and slide upwards, granting access.
She motioned them forward, and Harald rushed down behind Iris, and tap tap of foot steps filled his ears behind him. It was dark inside, but small lights lined the floor, giving enough to see where they were going. When Hyrum made it inside, Nena slammed her fist against the wall, and the door slide shut.
Nena tapped the pad next to the door again. The sounds of the display moving back in position could be heard on the other side of the door. She didn’t linger, but moved next to another door which Harald had never been inside.
The door opened when Nena input the code, and motioned everyone to follow her as she walked in.
Harald was the first to follow her. The door led to what appeared to be a single room. Along the sides filled weapon racks and armour stands. Other supplies were laid out in the room, boxes full of items.
Nena pulled down several backpacks, and tossed them towards the kids. “Fill it with supplies,” she said. “Water, and food are what is most important,” she said pointing to one section of the wall with supplies.
Harald picked up several packs from the floor, and started to hand them out. He looked to Hyrum and Iris who were fitting themselves with Battle Armour.
“Hurry,” he head Nena say. “We don’t have alot of time.”
He grabbed a pack as Nena turned to grab her own armour, and made his way to the other kids. Prepackaged meals were being shoved into open bags. He grabbed a few, before moving onto another section.
A row of small knives filled it. He grabbed one, and placed it in his bag before grabbing battery packs for his stolen pistol. Next to the knives he saw different grenades. He looked over his shoulder and saw Nena getting into armour. Iris was looking down the sights of a rifle as Hyrum stepped next to him, and grabbed a techno-blade.
“Come here,” the old soldier said.
Harald stepped closer to him as he pulled a small vest off the wall. He knelt down and placed it over him. It was too large for him, and heavy, but he felt thankful. It wasn’t the power armour of the three guards, but a light armour.
Hyrum strapped the armour on him as best he could, but it still felt loose. “Here,” Hyrum said grabbing several more. “Help some of the other kids which can wear them.”
Harald nodded and grabbed them, and made his way over to the other. Seventeen, he thought to himself. There were seventeen of them. Was anyone else alive? Stonehill Hold was home to close to five hundred.
He helped several kids strap up as Hyrum brought more over. There were only a few who couldn’t fit them, but one of them was Gwen.
“Stay close to me,” he told her. Her face almost as red as her hair.
She didn’t say anything, few of them did. Most of them had their packs on already.
Harald finished gathering supplies into his pack before he slung it over his shoulders. It was heavy, but he could carry it, his mother or father would have been able too.
“Alright,” Nena said, forcing himself to turn. She stood with Hyrum, Iris and Quincey. The three of them looked like warriors in their armour. It looked like a second skin. Quincey looked out of place, his armour matching that of the kids, and too small in spots on him.
“Time to go. Everyone stay close to Quincey. No talking, no stopping.” Nena said, and then walked passed them and into the corridor they had just been in.
