CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Abe fell on his knees. “No…”
He bent his face into his hands, fingers clawing at his face as if he wanted to rip out his own eyes, a desire he felt more than ever, as if he hoped it would erase the image from his mind that was spread across Oddworld’s planty landscape – an image of pain and death that he knew he could not simply erase with pain.
“No. No. No…” He repeated the word over and over again, as if it could save him pain.
Behind him, he could hear one of the Mudokons – probably Ferg – trying valiantly not to be sick.
Footsteps moved up beside Abe, and he felt a hand on his shoulder. “This is not an easy thing for anyone to bear,” Jake said, even his voice trembling. “I don’t know how this was done.”
Abe opened his eyes again, but the scene was the same.
The entire Mudokon slave line lay dead on the ground, still with their hands tied behind their backs. Hundreds of Slig guards lay piled around them, guns still in their hands. Dried blood was all over the bodies, red and ugly. It looked as if someone had just come in and stabbed every single person repeatedly.
Abe knew there was only one being who could have done this so efficiently: the Bringer of Pain.
A wave of despair rolled up his body from his heart. He had failed again. All in a few days, he had failed his people again and again, resulting in the deaths of dozens of innocent beings. And this pain could be traced back through the Bringer of Pain to the one who had started this whole blasted thing: the Glukkon businessman Lord Fragg.
He closed his eyes again. “No, this can’t be happening.”
He almost expected to hear a voice saying “Abe, wake up, you’ve had a bad dream…” but all he got was Jake.
The old shaman sighed. “Abe, this is real. You can’t change what happened here; you can only avenge it.”
“Yeah.” Abe stood up again, clenching his fists. “You can count on me; I’m going to avenge their deaths.”
“By destroying Lord Fragg?” Jake guessed accurately.
Abe didn’t feel a need to answer. Instead, he turned in the direction from which they’d come, toward Fragg and his Slig army. He’d had the chance to kill Fragg earlier, but he’d passed up in favor of freeing the slaves first, and despite his best efforts, they’d been killed.
Now it was time to pay back that rotten Glukkon, in full.
“Abe – there’s a note over here!” Grunn called out.
Abe growled under his breath, but he turned and hurried toward his friend, pretending to be concerned about the stupid note. “What is it?”
Grunn held out the note, and Abe took it. He recognized the handwriting instantly, because it was again written in blood.
The Bringer of Pain will stop these killings if Abe kills the Glukkon leader, King Glok. Then I will reveal myself, and we can fight head-to-head.
Abe lowered the note, and his eyes narrowed. “He wants me to kill King Glok?” he spat. “Then I’ll kill King Glok!”
“Isn’t that a stupid idea?” Alf remarked, and Abe whirled around to face him.
“Say that again,” Abe growled.
Alf cowered behind Jake, covering his head with his hands. “Hey-hey-hey! Don’t hit me! I was just thinking, Why should we trust our enemy’s word? You’re playing right into his hands!”
“We don’t have much of a choice,” Abe said. “We have to trust him, and we get rid of a nuisance.”
Jake put that restraining hand on his shoulder again. “I understand, Abe. We set out for Mantin City immediately.”
* * *
|