Chapter 79 - A New Reality

The morning was turning into day, as everyone who could spare the time sat down in the cave in a circle. In the middle of the circle Max sat in the middle, with Maverick in his lap, Christie and Brian at his sides. Every single eyeball was looking at the lizard prisoner sitting sullenly in the middle of the circle.

“You think the plan will work?” Brian muttered.

“Sure. I’ll start with the talking. You two just look menacing.”

“I don’t know if the broad is all that menacing. No offense.” Brian said and shrugged.

Christie’s smile twitched. She controlled herself and cocked an eyebrow. Then she got up and punched the lizard prisoner straight in the face. The lizard yowled and Christie started yelling obscenities at him until the lizard huddled up. Christie kicked at him until the prisoner cried for mercy.

Christie returned to her seat. The lizard wasn’t the only person shocked, everyone was dead quiet.

After a while Brian spoke. “Damn.”

“Next time you forget my name, it's you on the receiving end of my boot.”

Brian swallowed. “Noted.”

Max looked at them, trying to contain his amusement. Then he shook himself out of it and addressed his gun. “You ready, Mav?”

“Oh yeah,” Maverick said, all excitement and glee. “Let’s do this! Hey. Listen lizard-face. I know you understand me.”

The lizard simply looked impassively and suddenly forward.

“The cool thing about me knowing for certain that you understand me,” Maverick continued, his voice taking a sly undertone. “Is that I can threaten you. You think Christie here hurt you bad? How would you like an extra nostril?”

The lizard played tough, but he betrayed himself with a badly timed blink.

Max shrugged and got up and lodged [The Maverick] against the lizard’s nose. It alarmed the prisoner, who started pleading.

“Okay! I understand, please don’t hurt me!”

Max could feel Maverick’s mounting excitement. He went back into his sly, gleeful interrogation.

“Now that you’ve decided to be wise, I’ll start off by saying that if you lie or tell half-truths, I’ll know. I have a skill called [Lie Detection]. And if that happens, there’s pain for you. Understood?”

“What the hell are you?” The prisoner hissed.

“First question,” Maverick said, savoring every word. “What level was that [Trapper] who was leading your party?”

There was a sullen silence. The lizard regarded Max and his weapon carefully. “She was level 25.”

Instantly Max looked at Christie and nodded. She shot up and kicked the lizard in the face. The lizard groaned and fell backwards. Brian got up and hoisted him back to a sitting position.

“Why did you lie to us?” Maverick asked. The lizard snarled and said nothing.

He’s tougher to crack than we thought. I’d hate to use more violence than necessary. Still. I can’t blame him. He knows we are going to have to kill him.

*

It took a while. And It got ugly. Most of the folks who were intrigued at first found fast they had other things to attend to. Max stayed for the most of it. It was grim. Even Maverick exhausted his glee. But they did extract information. The prisoner told them where their settlement was, how many people were there, how many warriors, what were the average levels. To the great dismay of everyone listening, it seemed like the settlement of this prisoner was dealing in trade and cooperation with two other lizard camps. Max wondered how badly behind humans were. He could only hope people were collaborating somewhere else, because Joshua’s camp had no standing allies at the moment.

Eventually the questions ran dry. The prisoner was a mess that was hard to look at. Scales and teeth were scattered on the ground among blood. Brian was good at patient,  deliberate violence. Max thought grimly that they needed people like him. When they stopped asking questions, the prisoner’s gaze shifted. The fear and anger resigned from his face. Only a prideful sneer and a knowing look, expectant of death came to him.

Between ragged breaths the lizard delivered his final harrowing line. He looked at Max and smiled through his broken teeth. “You. You are the one who doomed your whole species. We were but ragged tribes fighting over prey. But you. After we got the bounty we realized that our existence is truly threatened. You united us, human. All the tribes converged. You made an undefeatable enemy, gunslinger.”

Max froze. He could feel Christie and Brian turn to look at him. Max only had eyes for the lizard. He looked back. There was pain in his expression, but through the pain shone a cruel mirth.

“I didn’t…” Max said, his eyes searching for words on the ground. “I didn’t choose any of this.”

For whatever reason, Maverick translated it to the lizard. Max sent a pulse of anger at the gun, who only shrugged through their bond.

“Nor did I choose to be captured and wrung for information,” the prisoner grinned through bloody teeth. “My tribe is large. And while I may have made their job of hunting you down more difficult, I can die with little shame. They will prevail despite my failure.”

The lizard’s grin grew almost maniacal. Max could only listen in horror and fascination. “But you, human. You have doomed your own race single-handedly. Ishkarassi are a bickering, warlike people. But we are powerful hunters, powerful warriors. The reason we wound up here, was because of our warlike nature. We almost destroyed each other. And we almost ended up doing the same again, with our tribal battles.”

“But with my advent…” Max muttered. “You united.”

“We have a collective mind, humans,” The lizard said, still donning the maniacal grin. “Like any advanced species, our thoughts and emotions are shared. But it is a murky water, rarely accessible.”

“And?” Max said quietly, wondering if the prisoner was lying.

“I have sensed it, as have my leaders,” the prisoner said. “All tribes have quit their internal strife, as did we. Your actions alone have united the most powerful warrior species

“Every mother of my glorious species lays two eggs. Two Ishkarassi are always born. Only one Ishkarassi is raised. We are warriors by nature. When united, there is no creature to challenge us.”

Max looked at the lizard darkly. “Yet, I came and destroyed your group of adventurers single-handedly.”

Maverick translated this, and the lizard prisoner spat a bloody glob on the ground. “A fluke gained by underhanded tactics.”

“You misunderstand us, lizard,” Max said. “Humans are not great warriors, like your people. Most of us are petty little cowards. But it was not a fluke that destroyed your expedition. For there is a spirit in us. The spirit of humanity. It will fight through any calamity, clinging to desperate hope.”

The lizard gave him a quizzical, suspicious look. Max continued. “While your people were the apex predators of your planet for millions of years, our history is very different. We were small creatures, prey creatures. We were hunted by cats and birds and yes… Snakes. Snakes like you. We survived you and conquered you a million years ago. You fight for conquest. Humans fight for the unquenchable will to live. Our creed is stronger, and just like you have lost today, your species will lose ultimately. Our right to exist is absolute. I’m done with the prisoner. Ask him what you will and kill him afterwards.”

With that, Max got up and turned, never casting a backwards glance at the lizard, who was stunned silent along with everyone else. He walked out of the cave and a gaggle of people followed him.

When he came outside the same dry air and the same faint sun greeted him. But the sun’s warmth was a little more potent, the dry air more nourishing. Max had left behind something in that cave. A doubt. His resolve galvanized in that moment. It became an absolute will to protect the human race. There was no second guessing, there was no moral gray area. He would see to it that humans won this sick game. Something shifted in his creed in that moment. It wasn’t about fighting for humanity’s right to exist. The right was absolute. Humans deserved to exist. They would exist. They had existed for millions of years before Max, and they would exist for millions of years to come. Now some of that responsibility lay on Max’s shoulders. He turned.

A concession of people looked at him. There was a clear reverence in his eyes. Everyone looked at him expectantly as if he had the answers. Max looked back at them with calm clarity. A lot of that responsibility lay on Max’s shoulders. And Max would bear it. He would protect these people.

THE END