The Legends of Mathio
By Bob Burlestein
Copyright (c) 2001 Bob Burlestein
Chapter 6
They went to the fire escape and pushed open the door. They ran into one guard in the stairwell. They dealt with him properly and threw him over the stairs.
They reached the bottom of the stairs. Mathio and his companion pushed open the door and waltzed inside. They both now had repeating plasma cannons with them. (They had stolen them from Arasmo’s troops.)
They opened fire on anyone who had a uniform. One of the guards aimed his gun at the old man and squeezed the trigger. The old man fell backward with blood spurting from the wound in his stomach. The old man gasped and sucked in air trying to talk.
Mathio ran to his side.” The old man managed the words: “Thank-thank you for na not letting me die in Arasmos’s prison. Tha-tha-.” The old man’s face hardened, and he died.
Mathio whipped around instantly holding the trigger, shooting everyone moving. Tears of rage and grief poured down his face. He stopped. Everyone one was dead, except one.
Mathio put a plasma bolt thru his leg. “Where is Arasmos?” ”In the closet, hiding.” Mathio thought about killing him, but he let him go. He walked over to the closet. He closed his hand around the knob, and then opened the door.
Arasmos jumped out and kicked Mathio in the face. Mathio fell back, swearing. He jump-kicked Arasmos. A
rasmos spun in the air and landed facedown on the ground. Mathio pulled his gun and pressed it against Arasmos’s cheek.
“You hateful bastard.” Arasmos spit on him. “Too bad you had to kill my troops. I had all the prisoners here killed very slowly and painfully.” Arasmos started laughing loudly.
Mathio pulled the trigger. Mathio walked to the garage. He found a glass box full of keys. He pulled his fist back and slammed it into the glass. He brought out the keys to a hovercraft. He walked over to the only hovercraft in the garage. He stepped in it and stuck the keys in the ignition and turned them.
The hovercraft started humming. Mathio raised it into the air, and sped away into the Darkness. He turned the hovercraft on automatic drive and slept.
When he woke up, he was in front of a shack on the beach. He sat up and yawned and remembered what had happened last night. He stood up and walked to the shack.
He yelled, “Is anyone here?” Someone came to the door and opened it.
“Yea whaddaya want? I was sleeping soundly.”
“ I need to find a portal. Do you know where one is?”
There was a loud yawn and then, “there is one in the woods. I can see blue smoke rise from the woods sometimes. But heed my warning, the woods is no picnic. I hear screams at night, I do.” He cleared his throat and said, “if you go, be careful.”
Mathio
got in his new hovercraft and drove north towards the woods.
