"What was I doing a while ago? What happened to me?" Casper's voice was resonating on his head, in a deep and ghostly tone.
At the same time he wondered if he was thinking about it, it seemed that the voice was talking individually with him as well. As if it was an identity apart from his own, but somehow connected.
"I don't know where I am now…"
"I don't know either." He retorted. "I have the feeling that you should know better than me, by the way."
"I think you're right. But the first things came first."
Casper tried to shrug, but he did not felt anything of his own body. He did not know even how he was talking. He could not move anything and lost all of his five senses. It was a different experience, that he felt to have had passed sometimes, but yet not sure.
"Things would be better if you keep lying on the ground, don't you think?" The voice asked, after some minutes of silence.
"If you know exactly what I am thinking about, why do you ask?" He questioned, getting annoyed.
"Because… think and do are pretty different things. Someone can reflect on something over and over again, nonstop; however, that thing will never come true if they don't do it properly."
"That's obvious." He thought to roll his eyes, but could not feel them, so he made a mental roll of eyes.
"But… this rule doesn't apply when you are weak, right? I mean, one can think, and act afterward, however, if they don't have the strength to accomplish their goals, what's the matter?"
Those words hit Casper's soul and made everything around him start to shake and degenerate.
"He is right…" Casper thought, unaware whether the man could hear him or not. "If you don't have strength, then everything is pointless in the end.
"One needs to be strong to struggle every day to reach his goals… and sometimes to make difficult decisions… Decisions that you can't afford not to do, because the world will not let you do so…"
"Survive!" He could hear his voice screaming. This time, it was not that identity.
"Survive!" He screamed, ripping his throat.
"Sometimes…" Ignoring the screams, he continued. "It's hard to choose…"
"Survive! Keep going and survive!"
"And there will be those people… who cannot dare to let themselves make an excuse because of their weakness. People who will need to make those decisions every time. People who don't have the strength inside them, but need to do it somehow.
"SURVIVE!!!"
…
Casper opened his eyes so hard that he thought that they would jump out of their sockets.
Soon, he found out that his back was burning in pain and he could not move at all, because they were paralyzed as well.
"Damn it! I feel like a seventy years old man…"
The worst part was his waist, which he could not rotate.
Casper then looked around, just to realize that he no longer was where he fainted before. It was an establishment that seemed to a marketplace, though the shelves and products were all over the ground. Shooting marks could be seen everywhere, blood as well.
At the same time he took note of his location, Casper also noticed that there was something really wrong. The marketplace had all his windows opened and the doors were made of glass as well, though it was broken. Anyways, the point was that the sunlight should have been able to enter the place.
If the sun had already settled, then the city's lights should be maintaining everything brighter. Also, there were the marketplace's lights as well.
But, even so, everything was pitch dark.
And not just the marketplace, but the streets on outside as well.
Screams of pain and shoots could still be heard everywhere, but now in a dark battlefield.
"Crap! I need to go out of here now! This blackout isn't a coincidence. It's part of their plan to invade the damn castle!"
Casper tried to get up, but the max he could do was to crouch, and it still cost a lot of pain and effort.
"I am too beat up to do anything by myself…" He thought, frustrated, and then punched the floor a couple of times, enraged.
"Best hour to me to be so worn out! Best freaking hour, huh!? Now everything will become a mess. My plan was destroyed…
"If it wasn't for that crap of a device, I would've had beat these guys to a pulp without a little scratch on me!"
The soldier wondered for how long those technologies would keep on his way. Just the thought made him punch the ground again.
He noticed someone walking calmly towards him. This person walked so silently that was unbelievable. Their feet seemed to slide through the floor.
Casper saw that their leg raised, and was about to defend, but the kick flew and crashed against his nose, making it bleed hard.
The person stepped on top of his hand, pressing it on the floor.
"If you want so much to lose your still usable hand, fine, I can do it for you. But it's a hassle that I saved your life just to end up ripping your hand, so…" She pressed her foot with more strength, nearly making him agonize in pain.
"No, fine, I am sorry, I will be quiet, okay?" He groaned. Casper was willing to fight, but he could not.
"That's good then." The woman that suddenly appeared, took her foot off Casper's hand and sat next to him, laying her back against the marketplace counter.
She was wearing one of those uniforms that the castle's guards wore. Even the rifle on her back and the pistol on the waist were the same. But she was not with a battle-ax. As per usual, the mask was there, with only her foxy eyes distinguished. He could notice that her skin had a beautiful chocolate color, looking at the points where the uniform did not cover. Her hair was curly and tied, probably to not get on her way while she was in the middle of a fight.
She seemed to be around twenty years older. Her body was well built, yet slender. She was just a few centimeters shorter than Casper.
The guard woman started to apply a strange oil on the wounds of her body, ignoring Casper's existence for a while. She seemed exhausted, a bit pale, her uniform was torn and full of blood. Details which Casper could not realize while his vision did not get used to the darkness.
After treating her wounds with the oil and cover them with a bandage, she started to analyze her equipment.
It took a while for Casper to say something.
"What happened outside? Where are the lights?" If such a futuristic city did not have lights, or even torches, to enlighten the streets at night, he would just keep sitting on the floor and give up that damn of a city.
She looked to Casper with caution, suspecting him. She held her pistol tightly, and made sure that he knew she did it. After a while, she answered.
"They probably messed up with one of the city's Energy towers. That means that the midwest region is out of energy. Out there, the civilians are still in a fierce battle with my comrades, but we have the disadvantage of course."
"By 'they', do you mean the citizens?"
The guard woman sighed, averting her eyes.
"Sorta." Was all she bothered in answer.
"When do the reinforcements will arrive?"
"When the Energy tower come back to life and start to lit all the city again." She said, slowly. "The reinforcements will never take a single step into here while it doesn't happen."
"Why? Every second that we pass waiting for them here, our chances of winning decrease." Casper said it most objectively and logically. He could become desperate and stressed, but it was not a practical way of action. After all, he could yell as much as he wanted, however, the guards would still be stuck and the civil war would continue.
Even the guard seemed amazed seeing the coldness and logicality showed by Casper.
"Without energy, 70% or so of the city don't work. This region became a dead zone." The soldier could see between the lines she said.
"Your weapons need to be energized, right? They work based on electricity after all."
"It's not electricity exactly. But it's a type of energy very similar and with the same nature, but more powerful. And as you could see, if the devices are linked with the energy towers, they can be energized in a long distance."
"Yeah, I realized it. I was just confirming. Well, now I have a plausible reason for them to don't step in here. It would be just a pathetic suicide."
"You're very clever." She admitted.
"Yes, I am. But this isn't enough." Casper stood up, feeling a huge amount of pain, and even grimacing in agony.
"If you don't keep quiet I'll break your bones." She gave him a look full of killing intent.
"Why do you saved me?"
"Why do you don't even ask my name or who I am?" She snapped.
"Because it's not practical. I know you are from the castle's guard, that's enough information." That behavior was not usual for Casper. His personality was far from cold and rude. But, while in that sort of situation, dealing with a probably dangerous stranger, he needed to be cautious.
The woman narrowed her eyes. She was not upset or angry at all. She was testing Casper to see how far he could go, and how smarter he was. In truth, she was looking at him the same way a scientist would do with a new interesting subject.
"I saved you because you're strange, and the Jarls need to know about your existence."
"Strange in what way?"
She did not answer his question.
"My codename is Sionnach, you can refer to me as Nach only. My real name doesn't matter. 'Guard of the castle' is a rude way to address us. We are known as Ridire."
"Last question: why are you telling me all of this stuff? If I am so strange, you don't know which side I am on in this situation, right? Now I know your weapons won't work, so I can kill you any time."
Nach approached him, looking at him from top to bottom with disdain.
"With this crap of a body that you have now?"
"Yes." He looked her straight in the eyes.
Sionnach did not show it, but she felt like he was a hell of a guy. That stare nearly made her falter and shiver. That much confidence was not normal for a human being.
Again, she needed to answer but was willing to put him in his place before.
She gave him a hard body blow to the liver. When he bent down, arching his back, she grabbed his collar and headbutted him hard enough to nearly make Casper faint again.
"A piece of scumbag like you shouldn't be talking as if we were on the same level. Respect me, and lick my feet if I demand it, then you will keep alive for the time being."
Casper was kneeling on the ground, not knowing if he pressed his head with his hands to stop it to ache or hug his own belly to soften the pain on his liver.
"Also, I told you all of this information because knowledge isn't for free. So, now, you are indebted to me. Hence you will help me with something."
Casper remained silent, bearing his pain.
"My comrades are dying out there to keep the civilians in control and to guard the castle. My group got annihilated by a bunch of crazy people. I am alone, and can't count on the others. So, you will help me to turn out the table in our favor."
Casper just murmured a yes.
"If we can reach the Energy tower, we will be able to fix it and return the power to all the midwest, allowing the Ridire to fight back and the reinforcements to arrive. I can't do it by myself, so you will be with me."
The soldier got up quickly, looking at her dissatisfied. Anyways, he knew that accept that plan was more beneficial to him than she imagined since he decided to help the Ridire from the start.
"Ok… We can do as you please for now."
"Great."
"One more thing…"
"What is it now?" She was getting annoyed again.
"You know what they are planning, right? Because I know."
"We are thinking the same thing? I wonder… But you will not say it to me right?"
"No."
"Yes, I would bet my life on it. Now, if you have this information, I and all my comrades are sort of dancing on the palm of your hand, right?"
"Yes."
"Hahaha, you get smarter every second I talk with you. Well, then, let's play this boring game for now. But, anyway, if this is a really decisive information that makes us dance on your palm, then it's a dangerous and alarming situation…" She thought for a while, then smiled with her eyes; Casper could even feel the grinning forming behind her mask.
"I. Wonder. What. It. Is…?"
She turned her back, adjusting her equipment and getting ready to go outside.
"Maybe I am not the only clever one here…" Casper thought, narrowing at her and missing his knife as never before