The Earth After Rebirth

"There'll be a batch of newbies coming, that means we get to take out the old ones in the mines." Another set of new voices came in place of the other ones.

They counted the same five seconds, they waited because they wanted to be sure that it didn't suddenly change or that the distance fooled their eyes.

"Oh man, they smell so bad. I'll be sure not to eat before we deal with them."

"It doesn't really matter whether you eat or not. Smelling them will ruin your stomach for the next coming days."

Nikolai was grinding his teeth with these conversations. They didn't seem to feel bad about what they were doing at all, they were instead making fun of the people who had no choice but to do what they were allowed.

In that moment, he vowed to kill as many of them as possible. It was insane to think about the fact that there were people working as guards here but not a single one of them, not even one, leaked the news.

Remembering his own experience of slavery, his knuckles were snow white from clutching the two knives way too hard.

Sekani put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, a way to tell him to relax a little. He did his best to stay calm but he was failing miserably.

The rotation of the guards happened after every five seconds. They walked in threes, the mountain and wall was so stretched out that they couldn't be clustered in the same place at once.

This may have seem like a blessing for the intruders but killing or incapacitating three guards and hiding their bodies in a span of five seconds would prove challenging, impossible even and they had to do this quietly because any unknown noise would call forth a lot of these guards.

"Ready?" Sekani turned to Nikolai, he just asked that to be courteous he didn't expect an answer. He turned back, "let's go."

It was night but they could see as clear as day, there were torches all over the wall and they were still busy lighting them, there wasn't even electricity up here so they had to do it the old fashioned way.

They slid through the tiny gap under the massive gate and ran straight for the shadows ahead. There was a little hallway that was dark from every inch. But thanks to the contact lenses from Kismet Inc. they were able to see and they laid in wait.

It hadn't been two seconds since they hid in the dark that a group of three guards showed up in front of the hall.

Sekani didn't need to tell Nikolai to move, he knew time was of the essence. They had exactly five seconds to finish these three.

One was closer to the hall the others were a bit far. Sekani lunged at the two, he was so fast that it seemed he disappeared and appeared at their backs, holding the two of them with his biceps and snapping their necks, he quickly ran back to the hall with their bodies.

Everything happened so quick that they didn't have time to react or even yell for help.

The closest to the hall was not so lucky either. With both his knives, Nikolai slit his throat with both of them, he luckily fell forward, his body fell onto Nikolai who took several steps back into the darkness, the head was completely severed and it rolled into the dark hall.

Nikolai hasn't put the body down when they heard another set of footsteps. Walking towards them, he slowly put it in the ground, trying his best not to make a single noise.

Sekani was impressed with his ability to stomach such gore. It would seem he underestimated the boy, if only a little. Now he was vastly interested in his past. But now was not the time for that.

Two knives were thrown and appeared from the dark hall, Nikolai was running toward them getting ready to snatch the bodies. They didn't miss their mark, one had the knife sticking out of his neck, the other his head.

Sekani was already there for the third, he used the baton to completely shatter the man's chest and then his heart. He took two of the bodies back to the dark hall, while Nikolai took the one.

"This is bad, the blood will soon be noticed." Sekani let his concerns known.

"There's nothing we can do about that now."

He wasn't afraid to admit it but the kid was right. Worrying about things they could not change was a waste of precious time. For now, they only needed to continue with this plan that was working rather flawlessly.

The two of them continued to pick the guards off one by one. It was getting progressively harder to do it without getting spotted. The torches in the upper walls were almost all lit.

One thing that made them shake their heads was the fact that these guards weren't as cautious as they made themselves out to be. Maybe that was the reason a single gate was guarded by around fifty of them.

It was pathetic how bad they were at surprise attacks. It was obvious that humans would likely have the flight instinct kick in but it was as if they had a freeze instinct instead.

The moment the two rush out of the darkness their voices failed them, their bodies failed them making them easy pickings.

"How many was that now?" Nikolai asked almost out of breath.

"About twenty."

The tiring thing about this was the fact that they needed to hide the bodies immediately after killing them. This strategy was taking its toll on Nikolai.

Sekani took out yet another bottle of water and gave it to the him.

"You have to be strong. Just time your breaths perfectly, that way you'll be able to maximise your limited strength."

"Wilfred didn't teach us that." He took a swig and clicked his tongue.

"Wilfred didn't teach me anything."

They heard approaching footsteps and stopped talking to listen.

"Isn't it weird that we don't even hear the other guards?"

Just when that guard asked this question, there was a slow clap sounding from behind Nikolai and Sekani. From the depths of darkness.