A Work of Art

Mother Lode

The revelry in the vehicle fell silent at the other driver's announcement of their presence. Eden's foot remained on the gas, despite every atom of their being screaming at them to floor it or to stop. They took a deep, shaky breath. “Do I… uh…”

“Fuck that,” Seraphim retorted. “Reikas, gimme your gun. I'll handle this.” As Reikas reached for his pistol, his eyes glanced towards his driver. Eden's arm twitched slightly, jerking the car back and forth. Their knuckles turned white as they gripped the steering wheel. Eden took a few breaths to calm down, but when they opened their mouth to assure the others, only the feminine voice from the car behind left their lips.

“Thank you for graciously letting us borrow your cybernetics to communicate. Your best bet is to pull over. We don't need to make this more difficult than it needs.”

The group looked at each other, everyone's faces showing a varying level of fear and uncertainty. Eventually, Eden pulled the car off the side of the road, onto a patch of pebbles and dirt. Their pursuer followed suit, and the group finally stole a glance at the vehicle. None of them knew much about cars, although they could tell with the intricately painted yellow exterior and a lack of so much as a scratch, that it was owned by someone who was either obsessed with automobile maintenance or someone with money to burn. Stepping out of the car were four men, muscular and wearing black suits. A woman exited after them, her fair skin hiding beneath a simple black dress with transparent fabric on her shoulders and arms. Her face suggested she was no older than 25, but the lit cigarette between her fingers and the way she walked towards Eden's car gave an air of authority someone younger could simply not muster. She took one last inhale of her tobacco, tugging at her black and gold choker before puffing out a ring of smoke and tossing it to the side.

“Alright. Get out. All 6 of you.”

The 6 of them complied, slowly exiting and ensuring Duet and her child were between Seraphim and Alexandra. As they lined up, Duet's eyes watered.

“Please,” she barely managed to mutter. “Let us live our lives quietly. We don't want to be involved with all this. You know this, Diane.”

Diane scoffed. “Hmm. I suppose I could. And then let that little shit of yours grow up to steal my place as CEO of Avrim Inc, yeah?”

“Sairo has a name! Does he not even deserve his sister's respect?”

She rubbed her chin in thought in an over-the-top manner. “Hmm… nah.”

Reikas raised his hand. “Wait, hold on. I'm lost, what's going on?”

“Excuse me? Are you genuinely this stupid?” Diane laughed. “Duet’s lap dogs don’t even know who they’re working with! Well, let me break it down real simple for you. Those people are Avrims,” she said, stretching out each syllable too much, as if talking to a child. “I wanna be the leader of Avrim Inc. She and her kids get in the way of that. I want them gone. Do you understand?”

“Don't have to be so rude about it.” Reikas pouted. “Wait, how'd you even find out where we…”

“Oh, how did we know? That's the question of the hour, huh? If only we had a tracking device on their necks. One that we survey constantly, and where we know immediately if someone were to, say… break them?”

Reikas’ eyes grew in realization. Him stomping on those collar things essentially painted a huge red arrow pointing towards them. He didn't have to turn around to know Alexandra's expression of barely restrained rage.

“They said they were leaving!” shouted Eden. “What kind of sense does it make to threaten an elderly mom and her baby? The kid isn't even gonna remember any of this, we dont have to bring violence to these-” A hand pressed down hard on their shoulder. Eden turned and saw one of the men towering over them, their glare ensuring the silent message was sent. Diane ran a hand through her hair, slowly climbing back in her car.

“As much as I love spectating a good bloodbath, I have other matters to attend to. Kill them, boys.” She drove off in the opposite direction, the car’s engine almost silent as it shrink into the distance. The guards glanced at each other as the first man's grip on Eden's shoulder tightened. He was quickly shoved off by Seraphim as she positioned herself between the two.

“Don't fuckin’ touch ‘em.”

The guard responded by throwing a hard punch at Seraphim, hitting her square in the face. She stumbled back into Eden's arms, taking a moment to wipe the blood off her nose with the sleeve of her leather jacket. She spat out a mixture of saliva and blood, glaring at the man. With a sudden roar, Seraphim charged at him, knocking him to the ground. Her fists cracked with electricity as she straddled him, throwing anger-fueled punches at his face. The man attempted to raise his arms to block, and the guards began moving to intervene.

Duet backed away slowly as Alexandra unsheathed her rapier, blocking one from approaching. She threw out a feint, her attempts to track the man's movements with the sound of his footsteps made only marginally harder by the screams of agony and scent of burning flesh behind her. Before the fight could be truly extended, she gambled on a series of quick thrusts towards her best guess of his location. Sure enough, she was greeted with the ever familiar resistance of soft meat and the quiet schik of her blade perforating the man. She retracted it, wiping it off with her weighted cape.

As the other two fought, the third guard stood in front of Reikas and Eden. A stoic look on his face, he began reaching inside his suit for something. Reikas panicked. He always thought the idea of life flashing before your eyes was a silly trope and nothing else. And yet, here he stood, imagining his whole life in the blink of an eye. He didn't remember a single part of it. He didn't remember when he pulled out his own gun. He didn't remember shooting it, or watching the man fall over, clutching his abdomen. To him, it just… happened. Lowering his gun, he turned towards Eden. It took a moment for them to realize what just happened also, but eventually turned back towards Reikas with a small nod. He took a deep breath before returning the motion. The two of them, joined by Alexandra, turned back to watch Seraphim’s beatdown of a man who was most certainly no longer able to feel the anger behind her assault.

Before long, their attention returned to the final guard. He watched as they approached, and promptly raised his hands in the air.

“Woah, hey, easy there. I'm not trying to get killed. I'm with that kid.” He pointed towards Eden. “This whole shit is stupid. I don't get paid enough to die.”

Eden sighed. “So… can you do us a favor, then? Just… tell them we died. Or whatever you gotta do. We don't want to hurt more people than necessary.”

“I'll see what I can do. But uh, Diane's pretty tough. Try not to get on her radar any time soon.” He began slinking towards the trees, turning back around as he began to exit eyesight.

“We won't forget this.”

With that, he disappeared fully into the brush. The group took a moment to collect themselves before silently returning to the car.