Chapter 3: Rebellion

We drove for hours, following the open road, almost devoid of traffic, passing through forest and field, not knowing what our destination might look like. Would we try to find a resistance homestead? How would be know where to look? They would be hidden from ADVENT, and they may just fire on us if they saw an ADVENT troop carrier approaching their gates. Contact XCOM? How? They would surely shoot Vi on sight even if I had a way to contact them, which I didn’t, and I couldn’t stand the thought of that. Where could a wanted human and a rogue viper seek refuge? Build a log cabin in the remote forest and live off the land? I was a goddamn factory worker, I couldn’t even put up a tent, never mind build a cabin and hunt enough food to feed us both, I couldn’t even guess at how many calories it took to sustain Vi, she was a monster.

Suddenly I noticed a glint in my rear view mirror, vehicles behind us. The road was empty besides us, and we hadn’t passed any settlements or towns, where had they come from? Panic rose in my belly, and Vi, sensing my distress, uncoiled and slithered to the front, poking her head into the cab and out of the passenger window to look back, her flexible hood blowing with the wind.

“Are they ADVENT?”

She looked at me, her expression was neutral.

“You don’t know?”

The vehicles were gaining, and we were already cruising at a respectable speed. Should I go faster? Try to outrun them? I didn’t actually know that they were gunning for us yet, but what else could they be doing on this empty road?

I decided to maintain my speed, hoping they would pass us. Vi did not protest, and just watched cautiously from the troop bay, staying out of sight. She still had her laser pistol if things got ugly, it wasn’t much but it was something. I considered putting the helmet back on, but these were not ADVENT vehicles, it might not have the desired effect. I kept my hands on the wheel as what was revealed to be a column of trucks drew closer. They were jeeps and SUVs, painted green and tan, their windshields and windows covered in mesh camouflage. One aging Toyota pickup had a god damned anti-aircraft gun bolted to the deck. They looked military, they must be rebels, it was the only explanation for their strange appearance and their distance from the city.

One truck matched speeds with us, a man wearing a scarf over his mouth pointed a rifle at us and gestured for me to pull over. I rolled down the window, showing him that I was human and waving, hoping to appear non-threatening. He seemed to speak to the driver, and they accelerated, pulling in front of us and braking so that we would slow. The rest of the column boxed us in, pushing us to the side of the road.

They wouldn’t kill me, my story would certainly endear me to rebels, but if they saw Vi who knew what they might do to her? I turned my head back to the troop bay, Vi looked nervous, she was coiled in a heap in the middle of the floor.

“Vi, stay there, don’t get out. Stay, Vi.” I gestured with my hand, trying to mime ‘keep down’.

I had to assume she understood. The wheels of the troop transport hit gravel, the stones impacting the undercarriage, and we came to a halt. The rebel vehicles stopped around us, keeping their distance, and soldiers exited to take cover behind them and point weapons at us.

“Get out of the truck!” Someone shouted.

I took a deep breath and opened the driver’s door, jumping to the ground with my hands raised.

“I’m not ADVENT!” I shouted back.

They talked amongst themselves for a few moments, noting my civilian attire and my lack of sidearms.

“Alright stranger, how did you come by that transport?” The man called from behind his jeep.

“We stole it!”

“We? You got someone else with you, boy?”

My stomach knotted with dread as I walked around to the back of the vehicle.

“Yeah, but don’t freak out, ok? Will you let me explain myself? Preferably not through shouting?”

One of the men walked from behind cover lowering his weapon, the others kept them trained on me. He wore tan clothing and an unkempt beard, a checkered scarf was hung around his neck.

“So why don’t you tell me how a civilian ended up all the way out here driving an ADVENT troop transport?”

I told our story to him, censored for brevity, and for decency. I explained to him how I had befriended this Viper, and how she had sprung me from jail, saving me from execution after my false imprisonment. He held his hand out, stopping me.

“Wait wait, you say you have a fucking Viper with you? In that transport?” He raised his weapon, alarmed.

“No, no, wait, listen to me, please, she’s my friend, more than that, my best friend, she saved my life, and she killed ADVENT to do it. She’s with me, if you kill her...” I trailed off, not wanting to exasperate the situation with threats that I probably couldn’t follow through on.

He considered for a moment, lowering his weapon.

“You know this whole thing sounds like a fucking honey trap to me, boy. I open that back door expecting your fictional friendly viper, and out pops a fucking juiced up Berserker who tears through us before we can put him down.”

I crossed my arms, frustrated.

“If that’s the way you feel then just let me keep driving, I don’t know where we’ll go, but I’m not risking her getting hurt for any reason. If there’s even one gun pointed at that truck I’m not opening the door, and she won’t come out unless I tell her to.”

“I could just shoot you, then she’d probably come out.” He replied, matter-of-factly.

I bristled, and he waved his hand dismissively.

“You said you were someone’s cousin? What did you say his name was? If he operates round these parts there’s a good chance I’d know him.”

“I didn’t, but his name is Harris, Tiberius Harris.”

The man turned and called back to the rebel vehicles.

“Harris, get your ass out here, this guy says he knows you!”

“I didn’t say that!” I protested, “I said he was my cousin.”

The man pointed his rifle at my chest.

“If you’re lying and he doesn’t recognize you, I’m putting a slug through your chest. Don’t make that face, kid, things are rough all around these days.”

I swallowed hard as what was supposedly Harris walked up to me.

“Don’t know him boss.”

“Wait!” I shouted. “Wait, wait, you ‘do’ know me! Before the war, twenty years ago, you were nineteen, I was about twelve, I was ... I am your cousin.” I wracked my brain trying to dredge up some memory, something that he might remember that would confirm my story. I tried to keep my voice level so as not to alarm Vi, if she were to come to my defense thinking I was in distress she would be cut down before I could wave her back inside.

Harris looked at me, his eyes skeptical through his balaclava.

“Come on man, you’re going to get me killed, think!”

“I do have cousins, I don’t remember all their names though, and I wouldn’t recognize one after twenty bloody years.” He replied.

“You may not remember me, but what about my sister? Tall, blonde, she would have been twenty when I last saw you. Her name was Cassie, huge rack, dressed like she wanted to give my dad a heart attack.”

Harris thought for a moment, then chuckled.

“Oh yeah, I remember that, what ever happened to her?”

“Dead, in the war.”

“That’s a shame.” He turned to the man who seemed to be in charge. “Guess he’s my cousin boss.”

I exhaled with a sigh of relief. Thank you Cassie, and by extension my father’s overbearing parenting.

“Well your story seems to check out, now let’s take a look at this Viper.”

We walked round to the back of the truck, and I put my hand on the door handle.

“Please, don’t point any guns at her.”

I placed myself between the men and the door, intending to block a clean shot with my body. I called to Vi.

“It’s ok Vi, you can come out, stay calm.”

I pulled the handle and opened the door slowly, it creaked on its hinges, and I beckoned to Vi, looking behind me to make sure nobody had their weapons raised.

I gestured for her to come to me, but slowly, she seemed to understand, and crawled over to me, poking her head out experimentally. The rebels recoiled, but did not fire their weapons, Vi looked nervous. I took her oversized, clawed hand in mine and led her out, being careful to stay between her and the guns.

“See? Harmless.”

The rebel leader appraised her, mild disgust in his eyes.

“I don’t know about harmless, I’ve seen what these things can do in the field, but I’ve never seen one let you hold its fucking hand.”

“I promise as long as nobody hurts me, she won’t harm anyone. She’s defected, she killed two guards to free me.”

One of the men walked up to the leader, a radio in his hand. His speech was muffled through a bandanna that was wrapped over his face.

“ADVENT chatter boss, they’re putting out an alert on someone driving a stolen troop transport, standard encoding.”

The leader eyed us skeptically, then thumbed the safety on his gun. Vi looked to me for support and I patted her arm, trying to reassure her.

“This is too fucking weird to be a set up, alright you weirdos, load up in the transport and follow us back to the homestead, we’ll destroy it when we get back so it can’t be traced, but that fucking thing,” he gestured to Vi, “won’t fit in any of our vehicles.”

“Ok, ok cool.”

“Sorry for scarin’ you, but we can’t be too careful. Spies everywhere these days.”

The men walked back and mounted their truck, and I motioned for Vi to get back inside the transport, then climbed in and turned to follow the convoy.

The rebels led us off the road and down a dirt path into a forest, I was still apprehensive, I hoped that they wouldn’t give Vi any trouble, but this was the best outcome we could hope for, a stroke of luck, really. Prejudice was easier dealt with than a firing squad.

Eventually, after following the rough dirt trail for several miles we came into a clearing, the trees had been cut away in a wide area, and a defensive fence had been erected around the perimeter. A guard tower at the gate was manned by a sniper, I could see the glint of his scope reflecting the sun as he tracked our transport. These guys meant business, as the gate opened and the vehicles drove inside, I saw the interior, there were a dozen buildings set up mostly around the edges, these weren’t the makeshift tin shacks I had seen on television, these were real wooden buildings, built to last. They had a whole village going here, hidden away from prying eyes.

As we ground to a halt, soldiers from the rebel village approached the vehicle with their guns raised, and I hopped out of the driver’s seat, gesturing for Vi to wait, and tried to find the boss. He was exiting one of the SUVs, and I got his attention.

“Can you tell your men to chill out? They’re gonna scare my Viper.”

He called everyone together and relayed to them the situation, telling them to keep their weapons low. I’m sure he added a great big asterisk as soon as I was out of earshot, but it was to be expected.

Vi had never done anything like this before, and she didn’t speak English, I would have to handle this situation very carefully or she might become alarmed. I opened the door, and ushered her out slowly. She emerged, hesitant, and gazed around the compound, swiveling her head on her flexible neck. She drew attention, both curious and negative. Despite most of these people being soldiers, there were families here too, and Vi looked to me for guidance. I quietly removed her laser pistol and dropped it quietly into the truck, I didn’t need her walking around armed. I noticed the sniper in the guard tower was watching us like a hawk, his crosshair was probably trained on Vi’s head.

I took her by the hand and guided her towards the leader and a large group of maybe fifty people, they eyed her warily, most were armed. They looked like veterans, they must hate ADVENT with a passion.

I coughed, trying to draw their attention from the increasingly nervous alien.

“Er ... hi, this is my viper, you can call her Vi, she doesn’t speak English, but she’s friendly, she defected from ADVENT, she’s killed at least two troopers that I know of.”

I paused, waiting for nods of approval, or maybe a few hellos, but none came, so I continued.

“She broke me out of jail, they were going to execute me, we commandeered that transport back there. I wore a helmet and impersonated a ... trooper...” I trailed off. Tough crowd.

“Well I thought it was a cool story...” I muttered, deflated.

It occurred to me that Vi had probably fought as many humans as they had fought aliens, and their overt hostility would not make her integration any easier. I waved to the leader, and he walked over to me.

“So, what can I call you?”

“You can just call me boss.” He replied gruffly.

“Fair enough, boss. So ... can we get some orientation? Is there anything you need us to do? Somewhere we can go?”

“First thing I’m gonna do is call this in over the wire and let XCOM know we got a rogue viper, if what you’ve told me is true the eggheads will want to have a good look at her.”

“They won’t take her away?” I asked, a little too much worry creeping into my voice. Boss eyed me curiously.

“I don’t know why you two are so joined at the hip. If something is going on, I’ll get to the bottom of it, don’t assume you can abuse my hospitality. For the moment, you’re in luck, we have a free cabin, lost a guy at a roadblock the other night, nobody has claimed it yet, it’s yours for as long as you’re here.”

He tossed me a key, and pointed me to a small cabin at the far end of the compound, it looked like it had been built by hand.

He motioned to Vi, gesturing to his eyes, then to her, ‘I’m watching you’. Vi eyed him warily as he strode away to attend to his business. She glanced at me and rumbled unhappily.

“I know you don’t like this, but we don’t have a choice.”

I led her over to the cabin, the rebels watched her warily, families closed their doors as we passed, as if this were some medieval village and we had the black plague. I wanted to get Vi inside the cabin as quickly as possible and away from prying stares, I turned the key in the lock and it clunked heavily, the wooden door opening at an odd angle. It looked empty save for some basic furnishings, those of course were not hand crafted, they looked as if they had been recovered from various sources, I saw a school desk serving as a table in one corner, and a book shelf in a classical style with carved feet that looked out of place. The floorboards creaked under Vi’s weight, and they were uneven, apparently hand carved. Had the previous owner, or perhaps the community built this shack? It was such a jarring transition, coming from the pristine city of glass and plastic, to this quaint, rustic cabin.

It smelled good though, I appreciated that.

Vi’s head scraped the ceiling and she had to duck to avoid awkward, protruding rafters. She shot me a questioning glance.

“You’ll have to get used to it.”

It had two inward facing windows, who knew where the glass might have come from, I closed the ragged, moth-eaten curtains on the compound and sat on the bed, the mattress was beat, but it was better than the concrete cot in my cell. There was only one bed, did they expect Vi to sleep on the floor like some kind of pet? She whined unhappily, she was insecure, it made sense, but I wanted to reassure her, we were in no immediate danger. I shifted my weight to one end of the bed and patted the space next to me. Vi slithered over and perched on her ‘butt’, her long tail winding away into the cabin, taking up most of the floor. I noticed there was no kitchen or bathroom, those must be communal.

Her hood drooped, she reminded me of an Orca at Seaworld, I reached up and massaged her hood, running my fingers over its fleshy surface. She leaned into my shoulder, expelling air discontentedly.

“We did it Vi, we got out. Against all odds we’re alive.”

She didn’t understand me, no matter, I could show her my gratitude in other ways.

I ran my fingertips under her hood, seeking out the sensitive zone where it joined her neck, and traced my fingers along the contour. She sighed again, less miserably this time.

I grasped her hands, and held them in mine, she looked at me curiously.

“We have each other, that’s the most important thing, I’d rather be on the run with you, than safe and comfortable, but alone.” She had no clue what I was saying, but she understood inflections, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures. I tried to think of some way to express myself, to help her see the brighter side of our situation, but eventually I just settled on a hug, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her smooth body towards me, my face pressing into her chest, unavoidable due to our height difference.

After a moment I felt her reciprocate, and I knew that on some level she understood what her help had meant to me, and how much I valued her companionship. I felt her dull claws find my head, and stroke my hair slowly, the comforting scent of her bust filled my nose and I felt myself relaxing.

We may not able to communicate verbally, but we made up for it with an encyclopedic knowledge of each other’s bodies and mannerisms, honed through months of late night encounters.

I knew how to relieve her stress and make her relax.

I ran my finger along her ‘thigh’, pressing into its fatty surface and finding the taut muscle underneath, I made my way up to her genital slit and teased its tightly closed lips, almost invisible to the untrained eye. The tip of her tail flicked expectantly, and I traced my finger up the center, eliciting a shiver. Sensing that she wanted me to continue, I pushed my finger deeper, it passed through into her rapidly moistening folds of silky flesh. I could feel the tension in her muscles, she needed this, and so did I. I used my forefingers to split the puffy lips open, her white underbelly giving way to rosy, pink flesh, then pushed my finger gently into her vagina. She was getting wetter, I teased the opening a little more, trying to get her juices flowing, bringing my mouth down to meet her hardening clitoris.

She grunted as I played my wet tongue over its surface, sucking it between my lips and pressing it gently, and her tunnel accepted my finger, her now slippery hole contracting around it, trying to pull it deeper.

“I owe you, let me take care of it.” I said, pushing her gently down onto the bed so that she lay on her back, I sank to the floor on my knees, resting on her squashy lap, and continued my invasive probing. I went slowly, building her arousal over time, like blowing up a balloon she would eventually pop, and hopefully release all of her tension along with it. She lay back, compliant, breathing heavily as I mouthed and licked, pulling apart her layered folds with my fingers in order to expose as much of her engorged protrusion as possible.

She began to squirm under me, her long, chubby tail moving rhythmically and pressing against my erection. She lay with her arms stretched above her head, the weight of her heavy breasts deforming them as they hung to her sides, the firm tissue underneath just enough to retain their shape. She rolled her wide hips gently, the protruding pelvic bone casting a shadow in the low light from a solitary, naked bulb hanging from a rafter. My eyes lingered on her abs as she flexed them, firm bundles of muscle protruding from under her silky belly, glistening with beads of sweat.