A Queen's Gambit

"Again, thank you for giving me shelter. This incessant deluge will be the end of me. Now, what do I owe you?"

"Don't worry about it!" chuckled the scruffy, blonde haired youth. "Besides, it looks like the storm's finally breaking up. It's not often I get visitors, err, contact, at all really."

The kid couldn't have been over sixteen, yet here he was, carving out his daily existence all on his own. I pulled back my tangled, red hair, tucking it behind my ear. Standing to my feet, I peeked out of the narrow, arrow slit of a window past the derelict streets, out towards the distant blue haze of the bay. My jaw shifted in hesitation as I looked over my shoulder, somberly surveying the fortified apartment. He had used everything not bolted down to barricade the door. Poor soul even used his bed as a door bar, spending his nights on nothing but linoleum and linen.

"What do you-" I stopped myself.

"What's that?" he asked as he loudly scraped at a can reeking of fish.

My mouth held itself, unsure whether to continue or dismiss my proposition. After all, he was just a kid, but then again, he had survived this long. My clenched jaw eased up over my decision as I watched the blackened ceiling trickle tainted water from its engorged belly. Who was I to deny this boy a fresh start?

"What do you make of the M-Gas?" I uncomfortably exhaled.

"You mean Yellowstone?" he confirmed, raising his eyebrow.

"No, after the volcanic fallout. The mass deaths and supernatural happenings. What do you know?"

Michael's eyes searched the floor in front of his feet for answers. "Uh...they said that the massive ash cloud, as a result of the seismic attack, created a toxic atmosphere that killed nearly the entire population..."

"Until..." I pressed before Michael shrugged without further knowledge. "...until the Allies retaliated with M-Gas as a last ditch effort. This is why so many have perished. It is the M-Gas that distorts, empowers, and transforms. However, less than twenty percent survive the effects."

"I don't believe it." Michael frowned as he shifted uneasily. "Why would a country's leaders attack their own?"

"It was a final, desperate draft for a lost war."

A sickening noise erupted from the ceiling as the foul innards spewed a gelatinous, humanoid body onto the floor between us. Michael leapt to his feet in fright as the entity began to emit gurgling sounds like that of a drowning person retching their dying words.

"Fhhressh phleshhhhh ffogh pheegingh."

With terrifying speed and fluidity, the prone humanoid threw itself onto Michael, immediately forcing itself down his throat as he went into his death throes. Without pause, I flew out of the window and down the dilapidated fire escape. The drenched, flaky metal bit into my flesh as I splashed onto the pavement with difficulty. Wincing from the pain, I pulled my coat collar over my neck and continued on without looking back.

"I'm sorry, Michael. I became careless in your hospitality and in my comfort, you died."

My fingers ground deeply into my fist. With my other hand, I grasped the tarnished, heart shaped locket around my neck. I'm too close to allow anymore people to suffer, too close! With a vengeful determination, I marched towards the bayside area, leaving the forsaken cityscape behind.

At last, the bay docks came into view. I hurried to them, but a small gang of individuals intercepted my course. Eight in total, they surrounded me, each with visible intent of doing harm regardless of whether or not I cooperated with them. A hi-top haired, muscular man, who carried himself as their leader stepped forward to present their demands.

"I don't mean any harm or intrusion. I only wish to cross the bay." I quickly expressed.

"Easy, guy. I'm just congratulating you on your new promotion to our gang. My name is Deathblow and welcome to the family." he sneered.

"I'm not looking for trouble, please. I just need passage across the bay." I appealed, knowing very well my only two options at hand were to either be pressed into his gang or fight them.

"I didn't ask if you were looking for trouble. Last chance, ginger. Follow me or die."

Without time to reply, Deathblow lunged in, throwing all of his weight into his attack. Narrowly slipping around his fist, my form rushed inside of his guard as my counter struck his throat and lungs. His body shuddered and his eyes reddened as his knees hit the ground.

His breath faltered as he wheezed, "Wh...what are you?!"

"I have zero tolerance for dictators, no matter how localized. You have been checked by a queen."

"Mm...mercy." his hoarse voice gasped.

"You seek forgiveness as a result of your pain, not of your repentance. How many begged the same before you silenced them!" I hissed as his lungs blackened into char.

As sparks and smoke plume from a roaring fire, so I exited his burned body, my ashen form morphing back into my human aspect. The thugs around me now cowered, some of them turning to flee.

"I have no quarrel with any of you unless you choose to tyrannize the lives of others in these darkest of days. I wish to reach to the A.R.C. to bring healing to those living and dying in this chaos. You are free to join me or go your own way, but I go now to make the first step into restoring what is left of this wracked country."

The ragtag group fell in after my lead, each one boarding the ferry boat as we set out across the bay. An eerie, electrical storm flashed violently and silently overhead, illuminating the dark waters below. Each bright flash gave a glimpse of gargantuan, inky tentacles that lurked under the surface. Horror crept into our hearts, including my own, as I held the locket in hopes that it would somehow act as a charm granting safe passage.

"This thing is the fuel of nightmares. What is it?" one of the men asked in distress.

"It's a king. Rare entities that have all but lost their self-consciousness. It's best to leave them be." I cautioned.

"Aren't you a queen? Surely you are equal in ability to a king."

"Not by a longshot. These so-called titles are, in fact, classifications. What we can do certainly determines our status, but the differences both in capability and ability can range from a stone's throw to an abysmal chasm."

Landing on the western shore, we made our way to the Atmospheric Research Center. Everyone stood by in wait just as instructed. I was to take on the director as intended. There was no need to jeopardize their lives save the utmost need. The ominous clouds overhead began to swell once again, threatening to release another downpour. Swift as the wind, I ascended to the rooftop and into the ventilation, weaving in and through the ducts until I settled at the control room where a dozen technicians operated and monitored an array of machines and screens.

"Where is the director?" I burst into the room, sending the workers into a panic.

One man, graying and goateed, calmly rose from his seat. "That is quite an entrance, though a dramatic one at best."

"Where's the atmosphere infusor receptacle?" I demanded upon approaching the stoic director.

"You trespass into my facility with immediate demands. At least acquaint me with whom I am speaking?"

"I am Asher Morgan, Red Devils infantry division and a first generation product of your M-Gas. I am here to dispense a panacea so that the trauma which this biowarfare organization has brought can be reversed."

The director keenly watched as I stumbled upon the receptacle. My hand firmly grasped the locket and with a rapid jerk, the chain snapped free from my neck.

"World War 1? You unfortunate creature. Yet here you are eighty years later and looking young as ever! Welcome back home, soldier." The director smiled as he slowly advanced with arms folded behind his back.

"Home?!" I slammed the locket onto the console, stabbing my finger at him, "I died eighty years ago and ever since then, I've been nothing but a walking husk, living like a soulless vampire imprisoned in his eternal body!"

Consumed with fury and shrouded by ash, I charged him, but just before making contact, I struck an invisible wall that stunned me in place, forcing me to phase in and out of my human and burning ash forms. Unmoved by my ambush, the director looked upon me with utter contempt.

"Do you not think that I, too, suffered through the effects of that deadly cocktail?! Power gained produces subjugation, not servility!" he shouted as his aura hurled my body into an industrial dashboard, "Power gained produces supremacy, not sacrifice!"

Climbing off of the floor, I dragged the locket across the console, spilling its crystalline contents within the receptacle. My hand smashed the 'engage' command as I turned to square off again with my opponent.

"Try as you will," he seethed, "but know that you shall perish alone, having wasted all of your years in vain pursuit of your weak ideal."

My very flesh glowed red hot as I wiped the bloody froth from my mouth, the veins on my head engorged and pulsed as I cried at the top of my lungs, " You say power gained doesn't produce sacrifice?! I receive no personal gain from this! Sacrifice is what happens when power is given! All of those years weren't spent being consumed by revenge, they were spent aiding and amassing others who will unite to dismantle this and every A.R.C. for a better future!"

The metal room came alive as it warped and groaned under the intensifying waves of heat. With a mighty cry, my very essence filled the entirety of the room with a whirlwind of swirling flame. I condensed my soul fire around the director's protective field, but this time, his eyes displayed concern. I had held him in place long enough for the atmosphere infusor to complete its task and now, he realized that I had nothing else to lose. I unleashed my stored energy with a violent explosion that melted the facility's integrity, bringing it down with a thunderous crash upon itself.

Helpless, I lay amongst the rubble and slag, the cotton clouds above showered me with their blessing. The panacea had successfully infused with the large storm and was delivering its cure across the region. Charcoal gray streaks trailed across my face from each raindrop that met my withering skin. My vision blurred as my mind faded into memory. This was for my brothers, my family- all of those who I watched as they passed on without me, but now, now I can rest knowing that I had set in motion hope and change for the years to come.