[shaman]

5) Reign of the Traitor

The natives were running up a hill behind the sligs to secure their villages. In their wake was a trail of twisted metal and splattered blood and some sligs were lying dead on the jungle floor.

“Thanks” Murphy Panted catching his breath and pushing aside the dead mudokon at his feet.

“Can’t be watchin’ your back all the time kid” Came the slig’s reply. “Hold on a second”. The slig’s walky – talky beeped and the voice of a glukkon sounded through it, telling them to move onward towards the native village.

“Yes sir.” The Slig said, and he signalled to the others to continue up the slope. With one last much needed breath of fresh air, Murphy followed them.

The rattle of gunfire had stopped now, clearly the Magog Cartel wanted the village captured and not destroyed; it was after all a strategic point. And obviously it was far more sporting to let the Mudokons fire at the sligs than have their own leaders do it.
The village had been totally sealed up, the metal walls were tall and lined with several native watchtowers, and a heavy wooden door plated with metal was the only way in. On the other side of the darkening clearing, Murphy saw the shadows of sligs assembling outside the village, concealing themselves in the trees.
One of the sligs made its way out of the trees, standing directly in front of the village gates like a mad creature, Murphy was just waiting for him to be cut down by fire from the natives.

The slig began to shout over the battlements at the Mudokons inside.

“You have one chance to surrender!” He yelled. “Open the gates and drop your weapons!”

The air was horridly dense with anxiety, Murphy held his breath; with any luck the rebels would surrender and stem the slaughter.
No answer.

The slig started again. “You will surrender or die-!“
At once, there was the sound of mudokons shouting from inside the town. Then suddenly an object flew up into the sky just above the gate, the slig paralysed with terror was so shocked he didn’t even bother to move before the spear hit him.
The other sligs bawled with anger as their fellow lay motionless in the ground with the large spear stuck in his chest. Murphy gave a sigh of regret as he saw a heavy weapons squad lining up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Murphy stood in the remains of the burning town. He was in its temple high above the rest of the area, where he was granted an excellent view of the gunfire whipping across the gutted houses.

Murphy looked at the dead mudokon at his feet, and then out onto the carnage taking place in the town. His heart sank, the expression on the mudokon’s cold, still face said it all.

“All they wanted was to be left alone”.

Murphy sighed deeply, he was going to leave the military as soon as he got the chance, now he saw the industrialists for the butchers they were.

“Murphy.”

Murphy whipped round and fired madly at the figure behind him, until his crossbow ran out of ammo and gave an audible click in his hand. Opening his eyes, Murphy was dumb – struck to see the mudokon was totally unhurt, a tall pale creature wearing a big – face mask. All the rounds Murphy had fired had frozen in the air a few feet from his target; as though the bolts were trapped in the grip of millions of invisible hands. The mudokon clicked his fingers and all at once, the unspent bolts fell onto the temple floor with an echoing ringing sound.

The mudokon shook his head. “That must have been embarrassing for you”...
Murphy froze, unable to believe what he had just seen.

“Who are you? What are you?!” Murphy yelled, he had heard some weird rumours about the old kingdom, but had always passed them off as superstitious nonsense, but to be standing in the presence of such a being was truly terrifying.

“My name is Toko” the mudokon replied. “Now let me ask you a question, why is it that a steef is totally fine with making money out of destroying other creature’s freedom?”
Murphy felt his heart sink, he gazed over to the destruction being wrought in the town below the temple, and realised further the kind of war crimes he had become party to, his crossbow fell from his hand onto the floor. Murphy would give anything at that moment to be able to turn back the time and right this monstrous wrong.
Toko sighed.
“You know Murphy”. He said looking at the dead mudokon at his feet “Steef are supposed to be one of the noblest species on Oddworld.”

“Shut up.” Murphy retorted through gritted teeth.
Toko seemed determined to push the matter. “You are a bit of a disgrace” He chuckled.
Murphy snapped, pulled out a tomahawk and ran at Toko.

“I said SHUT UP!” He screamed and swung the weapon at Toko’s head. There was a
snap and a flash of pale blue light and Toko vanished, Murphy’s Tomahawk met the temple floor with a clash of metal on stone.
Seething with rage, Murphy looked around for Toko, shouting at him to reveal himself and calling him a coward.
“Where are you!?” He snarled. “WHERE?!”
And then he saw it, a shadow of a mudokon standing in the corner of the courtyard. Murphy threw his weapon at Toko, there was another flash and the tomahawk shattered into a million fragments of metal. Toko gave short song – like chant and suddenly, Murphy felt as though he had been set in cement, he could not move a muscle, as though his limbs were totally petrified. Toko strolled over to him casually.
“Right” He said. “I called you a disgrace because it’s creatures like you who are ensuring the death of this world, Look over there.”
Murphy tried to turn his head; but Toko gave a small gesture and Murphy span round to face the battle going on in the town below. Still unable to move, but able to speak, his used what control he had to talk to Toko.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?” Murphy sneered.
“Them”. Toko whispered in Murphy’s ear. “The war, before you industrialists came, this was a paradise. I remember it Murphy; I’ve lived long enough to know.”
Murphy began to cry with regret. “I was only doing my job!” He shouted.
“And look what happened”. Toko sighed “I don’t suppose you pay a moment of thought to those natives, those grubs and Mudokons who you send to slavery; so long as you have your pay check”.
Murphy tried to gather himself. “Are you going to kill me?”
Toko laughed. “You don’t deserve to live Murphy it’s true. But you’re needed, I’ve been sent to find you, and bring you to the capital – by force if necessary – so we can end this war.”
“That doesn’t make sense”! Murphy shouted over the noise of the ever approaching fire. “What can I do to end this?!”
“You have no choice” Toko snarled. “If you don’t come with me you will die!, Sligs are on their way into this temple.”
“The sligs are on MY side”! Murphy retorted. “They will kill YOU!”
Toko sniggered. “Within the hour, you will join with me Murphy, and fight for The Old Kingdom.”
Murphy heard Toko chant, there was another snap and the power of movement was returned to him. He couldn’t believe what had just happened; the rumours of supernatural activity in the old kingdom were true. And scared as he was, Murphy was forced to come to terms with the strange mud he had just met.
Murphy took a deep breath of humid air, then his heart gave a jolt; sure enough ... he heard the unmistakable voices of sligs climbing the temple steps.
“Murphy”! A slig yelled. “Thought we’d lost you ... Good work”!
“Yeah”. Murphy sighed.
“You’ve used all your ammo”. The slig continued upon spotting the bullets littering the temple floor. “Take this”, he handed Murphy his blitz packer.
“Thanks” Murphy replied. “Are you sure you won’t need it.”
The slig removed his mask and fanned his sweaty face. “Not now, we’ve won! The village is ours.”
Murphy sighed again, he was so glad it was over and he could hand in his notice in the next 24 hours. He didn’t know what he would do after but his heart told him he just had to leave, count his winnings and run for it.

“What about the surviving villagers?” Murphy enquired to the slig captain.

The sligs gave an evil cackle. “What villagers?”
Murphy’s heart had turned to stone and sank into his gut, he felt sick. He wanted to die at that moment, watching the slig walk off to join its rejoicing fellows. He couldn’t bear it any longer; the sligs knew there weren’t just fighters in the town, they knew of the old natives, the disabled ... the children. The thought of walking back through the gutted town totally sickened him ; this was the worst moment of Murphy’s entire life, watching the sligs cheering at the atrocity they had just committed stirred in Murphy a great anger, a thirst for vengeance against the creatures who had made him a monster, who had made him take part in mass murder. At that moment ... Murphy knew what he had to do... in doing so he would be a traitor, but that didn’t matter. As Murphy looked at the group of maybe thirty jubilant sligs whom he had once considered allies, a little voice in the back of his mind gave a whisper which echoed through Murphy with awful finality.

“Within the hour, you will join with me Murphy, and fight for The Old Kingdom.”

Murphy raised the blitz packer at the sligs and the world stopped, he heard the click as the slide was pulled back into firing position, one of the sligs turned to him, with a puzzled look upon its green face.

“Murphy”! It snapped ... “What are you doing”?

Murphy’s finger closed over the trigger. Then with a terrible noise ... the moment passed.