Tales of Eve, The Operation.

Tales of Eve.
The Operation.

   He loved tiles. He could never figure why, but he just did. He loved them more than anything else that you could stick on the floors or walls. That's why he loved The Under Tunnels. All there was down here was cement and multicolored tiles. It was like being at the pools. He loved the pools too. Good memories always filled his head down here.
   The corridors were lined with door ways and open shops. Behind small counters stood merchants and cooks who were selling their wares and food to hungry under dwellers. The smell of all the food flowed through the corridors and gave The Under a very sweet smell.
   The corridors were lit by small openings in the roofs that let in light from the top. And at the center was a plaza where all the canals under here went to and all converged in a large pool and swirled around and emptied into more canals to flow all throughout The Under. The canals were all over the streets and corridors down here. They lined the sides of most of them.
   The water was always cool and pleasant and clean. The top dwellers made sure of that. They may have the sun, but it is always cool and wet down here. He liked that about the under tunnels. Often if the notion stuck him he would head the pools and take a dip, get a drink, a kebab maybe.
   Also they had green. Plants and vines and flowers lay all over the walls and the roof and the ground. They were lovely and always in bloom. They kept the air fresh. Often he would pick flowers for his girl. He knew just which ones she liked. There were so many though, all in different colours and shapes. He loved them all.  

   Gazt walked down one of these corridors with a smile on his face. He had a kebab in his hand and his other rested on the hilt of his sword. Children all around laughing and playing their games of hide and seek. Sometimes Gazt could be coaxed into playing with them, but not today. He was going somewhere today.
   Gazt had a meeting with Vela. They were going to discuss the next operation. He and Vela had been friends since he could remember. Not a single memory sat in his head that wasn't with Vela. The two had been inseparable since they had met. How and when they met though, no one even seemed to know, not even the two.
   Sin, Hale, and Wed, were sure to be there today too. He considered stopping by Faltze house, but decided against it. He and Faltze hadn't been on the best of terms in the past couple weeks. He thought that maybe after the op he would go and take him for a drink to cool the scene.

   "Gazt! Hey!" A voice called for him from behind.

  Gazt looked over his shoulder to see Hale with big smile on his face with a bottle in one hand and the other waving at him. Gazt smiled, "Hey!"

   "You heading to Vela's?"

   "Yeah, you?"

   "Yeah,"

   Hale was a girl who pretended to be a boy. He had done this due to all the torment paid to him due to his name, which was usually associated with boys. When she started binding her breasts and dressing like a man and referring to herself as a he, everyone just went with it. Ever since people just refer to her as a he.  
   Hale always put a smile on Gazt's due to her boyish appearance and attitude contrasting with fact that she was obviously a girl. Her voice and face gave it away. He did try hard to look the part though. He would smear dirt all over his face and never wore make up. But he was just too beautiful.

   "What are you drinking?" Gazt as Hale took another sip of his drink as they walked towards Vela's house.

   "Cypress Gin," He answered just before taking another swig.

   Cypress Gin, The favoured drink of most alcoholics down here. It was cheap and delicious, so it was perfect for the type of people down here. It usually came in clear glass bottles, but Hale was drinking his from his jade green bottle.
   The bottle had been in Hale's possession ever since his first day here. He had stolen it from a man named Xix. Neither of them could ever say his name properly.


   Vela's apartment was located in the northern section of The Under. Up a narrow stair case and you were in one of the three rooms of the small apartment. The main room was half a living room and the other was a kitchen. There was a bathroom to the right and a bedroom to the left. The bedroom only had enough space for a single twin sized mattress. The closet only had enough room for about 16 things. The walls were light blue with crashing waves painted on them. The living room was light blue shag carpet and the kitchen was shades of light blue tiles. Gazt loved Vela's apartment. It always made him feel nice and cool and relaxed.

   Vela and Wed were sitting on the couch that sat on the left wall opposite the kitchen. The couch was a three person blue leather couch. Wed was comfortably nestled into Vela's chest and was enjoying herself. Vela had his arm around Wed and his other held open a book, Super-Cannes by J. G. Ballard. Vela was almost always reading some book or another if one of his hands were free. He loved books.
   Vela heard the door down the stairs open with its familiar creak. He set his book down and Wed sat up straight, much to her displeasure. He began to clear off the table which had a couple glasses and plates scattered on it. As he delivered the last glass to the sink Hale came walk up the stairs raising his arms one holding his bottle and the other a sandwich.

   "Vela! Salutations my good friend!" Hale exclaimed in joy as he went to hug Vela.

   "Hey Hale," Vela hugged Hale, still holding the cups. "Is Gazt with you,"

   "Why is it always about Gazt with you," Hale leaned in close to whisper to Vela," You guys gay or something?"

   Vela pushed Hale away jokingly, "Oh shut up," Hale laughed and walked over to the couch.

   "Yeah he's on his way he just stopped to pick something up from Riko,"



   Gazt stood leaning on one of the walls on the far left side of the plaza in the center of The Under. He slid a cherry cigarette into his mouth and then the pulled his silver and black lighter up to his mouth. He took a slow drag from the cig as he lit it.
   The Plaza was engraved with intricate patterns of canals. All the canals either flowed out to other parts of The Under or towards the large fountain in the center. A very polygonal shaped fountain covered in various colours of tiles much like the rest of The Under. The walls on the left and right side of the plaza were slanted so that they were easy to rest against and ever couple feet or so there would be a canal running down them or a ledge to sit on and admire the sight of the plaza. Above the plaza were fairly large openings which let in a lot of light, and swinging between these large crevasses were three large pendulums. The swung slowly side to side, vines and plants hanging from them. At the entrances to the plaza which were almost as long as the walls there were deep drops which led down to a waterway. These were railed, but sometimes children or teenagers would jump down into the waterways below for a swim.
   In their youth Gazt, Vela, Wed, and Faltze had jumped down into the waterways. The waterways were like water slides. Flowing rivers of pressure and twists and turns. The cement down there was smooth like ice so you would never receive any scrapes from colliding with it, maybe a bruise though. The waterways all led back to the plaza though and into the large whirlpool of which they jumped into. On the sides were ladders for anyone who jumped into to climb out.
   As Gazt was deep in thought of nostalgic memories of events long since passed, Riko walked up and leaned on the wall next to him and just silently waited for him to be noticed. Though he thought two minutes was a decent amount of time to be noticed and tapped Gazt's arm. He jumped at bit and looked over in slight shock at Riko. Riko smiled at him.

   "You were doing that thing again."

   "Oh, yeah. I was just remembering when me and the guys and Wed used to jump into the waterways."

   "It's been a while hasn't it?"

   "Yeah." Gazt stared off towards the fountain for a coupled second in melancholy thought. "You got what I asked for?"

   "One Reaker MK.2 handgun with modified silence, rail sight, laser sight and trigger guard." Riko pulled the gun from his satchel and handed it to Gazt. "Extended mag too, 34 rounds, fully automatic if you so choose,"

   "Who did the mods?"

   "Some kid Zio knows, Weld or something dumb like that,"

   Gazt holstered the gun and began to walk away, "Thanks Riko," He waved behind his back at Riko as he left the plaza.

   "No problem kid,"



   That familiar creek and soon Gazt was walking up the stairs again. Vela smiled as he saw his head rise over the top of the stairs. Gazt smiled back at him. They were all already there and already had the maps out and everything.

   "You guys didn't start without me did you?"

   "No, just getting things ready." Vela smiled at him.

   The gang was all here. Sin, Wed, Hale, Vela, and Gazt. They were a gang of thieves, and today they were planning a robbery of a man named Grant Herrison. He was a rich man and owned the top three floors of an apartment building in northern Waytown. The plan was as simple as it gets; break in through the roof, grab Grant, make him lead you to his safe on the top floor penthouse, steal all the best shit, shoot Grant, gone.

   It's always the simple plans that go wrong.



   Wed was bleeding bad and was going fast. Vela was in the middle of the room half his head eviscerated and spread across the floor in small chunks. Hale tried to stop Wed from bleeding so bad but the blood just kept leaking between his finger tips. The bullets were flying all over.
   There weren't supposed to be as many guards as there were. They hadn't planned for this. They were stuck on the second floor down. Vela had been the first to be hit. A large rifle shot blew most of his head apart. The next shot from the guards had hit Wed as she and Hale dived behind a small counter. They were in a kitchen area. Sin was still in the stairwell and would fire potshots off every now and then. Gazt had ducked inside a small pantry.

   "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," Wed just kept repeating.

   "You're gonna be fine, okay," Hale said through the tears," I can patch this up, just stay with me for a second,"

   "Hale, Hale," Wed stuggled to say.

   "What?" The tears streamed down his face.

   Wed slowly let a week smile slide across her face. "Burn them…To…" She coughed up a lot of blood and gagged and gasped. "Burn them…all down."

   Hale smiled and forced a laugh out through the crushing sadness and terror that filled him. "Just let me, deal with you first,"

   Sin sat with his back to the wall of the stairwell. He loaded his last magazine into his Matern SMG. He breathed in for a second and waited. He never thought he'd die again, let alone here.
   There was something about these guards that was different. Vela wasn't getting up. Vela had the power to regenerate from any damage. He would always come back. But, nothing was happening.

   Gazt looked out towards Hale and Wed. He could tell they knew. He looked over to the stairwell door. Sin knew too. There had always been stories of what happens if you are too die twice. But no one really knew. A demon hunter once described it to Gazt.
   You find yourself in a black void without a body or a voice or thoughts. You can perceive time and are aware that you still exist but cannot think or speak. You just sit and exist for the rest of eternity.
   The thought was horrifying to all three of them.

   Hale finished apply the styptic to the gunshot wound on the side of Wed's waist. The bleeding was under control now but they would need to get to someone who knew how to deal with wounds like this soon.

   "Gazt! We need an out!" Hale shouted over the gun fire.

   Gazt didn't know what to do. The only way out wasn't close enough to get to with out getting shot to shit. Then he looked down at his feet and a thought entered his head. He wondered how thick the floor boards were.

   "Hale! Throw me the shotgun!"

   Hale grabbed the empty shotgun sitting next to him. He knew it was empty and looked over at Gazt with confusion. "It's empty!"

   "I know! Just throw it over here!"

   Hale threw the shotgun over to Gazt and he caught it. He began to smash the stock into the floor with as much force as he could muster. Hale smiled as he smashed the floor. She thought it was a good idea.

   "Hale," Wed struggled to get the name out.

   "Yeah?"

   "Light…Light them up," With that Wed faded out.

   Hale stared at Wed. She wasn't there anymore she was gone. The tears kept coming and they wouldn't stop now. But her sadness turned right to anger. She was going to light them up alright. They burn tonight. Wed was Hale's oldest friend and they had to pay for every year.
   They had met when Hale was still a her. She had given Hale flowers and said she though she was pretty. She was the first one to accept Hale as a man. She had never slipped up when referring to him.  She had been his first girlfriend. She had always pulled her out of every jam.
   Hale slammed her fist into the ground. Fuck you, the one time it's up to me to help her, and you fuck me over. She slammed her fist again. Fuck you, you're a monster. The tears were hard now and her teeth were clenched. You take and take and take, you're fucking heartless. She didn't want to go. I won't let you win, I give myself up, it's my choice you fuck, not yours.
   Hale shot up from the counter and threw her hands out towards the guards shooting at them. Flames erupted from her hands and bathed the guards in crimson fire. She got four of them before the last two shredded her down with gunfire. She slammed against counter and slid down to the floor, blood flowing down her body. They had torn her bindings and she was a girl again. This is how she wanted to go, the same way she came in.
   Gazt looked over horrified as Hale sat against the counter bleeding to death. She coughed and gagged as blood filled her mouth and throat. One of the bullets had stuck her square in the neck and every couple seconds a small spray of blood would shoot out.
   Sin heard her go down. He came running out from the stairwell with his gun blazing. He hit on of the other gunmen but the last one got him right in the gut. He flew down to the ground hard as blood began to empty from his gut. He crawled his way over to Hale.
   Gazt could stand it. He grabbed the Reaker from his holster and dashed out from the cupboard firing at the last guard. He hit the guard in the chest twice and once in the arm. The guard was wearing a vest, the shot to the arm made him drop his gun. Gazt tackled him to the ground and began to slam the grip of his handgun into his face. Again and again he brought the gun down hard right onto his nose. With each hit the man's nose began to get worse and worse. Slowly the nose began to cease to exist. The he was hitting bone. Then the skull gave way and he was smashing muscle, The flood flowed like rivers from the man's head. Gazt didn't stop,
   Sin crawled up to Hale. He grabbed her leg and pulled himself onto her lap and looked up at her. She tried to stop her neck from bleeding.

   "I like you,"

   "But…I'm…A guy," Hale was barely audible through the blood and choking.

   "I don't care," Sin smiled. "I still liked you,"

   Hale smiled down at Sin. She bent over and kissed him and faded out. She toppled over and Sin sat next to her with tears in his eyes. He was going out.
   Gazt sat on the man and looked at the crevasse that used to be his face. The void of blood and bone that used to be a person. He stood slowly and then staggered to the ground. He had been hit in the chest. He struggled to stand and staggered over to the counter and looked at them laying there. They were all gone.


   He stumbled and fell through the empty night streets. He had to make it back to The Under, he had to. Have, to swim, just on last time. He was sure he would die here in the streets and his body would be thrown out of the city. He made sure to shoot each of the guards in the head with their own guns, or at least he hoped that's what caused this. The night was so cold, or maybe he was cold, he couldn't tell. He just didn't want to die here.
   He fell down the stairs leading into The Under. He lay at the bottom of the stairwell bleeding. You have to get up. Get up damn it. You have to make it to the plaza. He staggered to his feet slowly. He was going out fast, faster than he wanted. He was going as fast as he could and as he staggered down the corridors leaning against the walls for support he left a long strand of deep red along the walls.
   It felt like years but he was finally at the plaza. He sat on the edge leading down into the waterways. He slipped his head under the rail and waited. He looked down into the black swirling whirlpool of the waterway's entrance. He smiled. One last swim for you guys.

























































   He slipped down and faded out.