Everything was destroyed. They said everything would be better after the war, but for two years nothing had been done: the once beautiful, prosperous city was reduced to rubble. Einar walked through the empty streets and observed starving children run around in desperate search for food. No one had enough food after the long war. The politicians allowed greed and power to overrule the needs of the people.
Einar slipped into the shadows as an automaton walked by on mangled limbs, searching for people who were out past curfew.
After the automaton had passed, Einar continued walking to his little hideout. His home had been destroyed in the war; so many homes had been destroyed causing the outskirts of the city to search for alternative forms of shelter.
The bodies that littered the streets right after the war were gone, either turned to mush or were eaten by the hungry survivors. Now, in the dead of winter, fresh corpses were cold from starvation or freezing to death. Winter was always the worst time of the year. Everyone died in winter.
Einar pushed aside a broken fence and slipped into the narrow opening of a wall. Everything was quiet except for the whirring of a radio. That’s when the realization set in, Einar didn’t have a radio.
When he turned around to run out of the small hole in the wall he called home, cold metal fingers wrapped around his arm. Einar whipped around to face three automatons that were controlled by the emperor. Unlike the automatons that patrol the streets, these were in pristine condition with faces that looked so human they were terrifying.
“D-d-do not try to struggle,” an automaton said, their voice box breaking up.
“Let me go! I have done nothing wrong!” Einar tried to plead.
“You were out past curfew and t-t-there have b-b-been whispers of rebel assistance,” the automaton replied. Einar trained his face to show confusion instead of fear at those words.
“Rebels! Why would anyone help the rebels? I’m just a factory worker!” Einar shouted.
“T-the rebels would have trained you to not get caught. We will s-see how much loyalty you can hold onto,” the automaton said as they dragged Einar through the rubble-filled streets.
Einar’s feet slipped over small rocks in the road. The castle looked down on him as its giant frame loomed over everything. They stopped at the entrance of the castle gate; maybe it was all a joke, a way to scare people into compliance. One of the automatons produced a syringe with a foggy liquid within.
“What is that?” Einar asked. The last thing he remembered was the syringe at his neck before everything went dark.
_______________
He sat in a dark room, bound to the cold, hard floor, hearing gears whirring as automatons came closer. The air felt heavy, as if it was leaving the room as Einar sat there. He wasn’t able to scream anymore. Sticky blood covered the floor and his clothes, but he couldn’t see anything around him. When he was getting weak, one form of torture stopped but would switch to another just as fast.
“Where are the rebels?” an automaton asked. Its voice echoed around the room, making it impossible to determine where it was. The dark was the worst part of the torture. Pain felt worse when you couldn’t brace yourself; it was the cruelest punishment.
“I don’t know anything about rebels,” Einar gasped out. A blazing pain went up his side from an electrical shock.
“You will give us the information we require one way or another,” the voice whirred again. Another shock went through Einar’s body, shutting it down for the day. The dark and endless void would protect him until he awoke again.
_______________
Einar couldn’t sit up anymore. Even if he wasn’t bound to the floor, he could not move his body anymore. The automatons had run their course, and Einar could only feel vague whispers of pain when they tried to get information out of him. He didn’t know how long he had been bound to this floor, and the only thing that kept him sane was imagining the darkness surrounding him, trying to protect him. He didn’t know why he still held the information he had away. He could stop the pain if he just told them, but his mind wouldn’t let him. An outline of a person always came to mind when he was close to breaking. He didn’t know who it was; all he knew was that he needed to protect them, whoever they were.
Sounds filled the hall outside the cell Einar had been in for he didn’t know how long; these sounds were different from what he had become accustomed to, and the whirs of machinery weren’t getting closer. Outside the cell, he heard the clatter of automatons falling to the ground. There were shouts, and candlelight flooded under the cell door. Einar lifted his head from the sticky, blood-soaked ground. His cheek was stiff with dried blood. Dried blood covered his entire body.
His cell door opened, letting light fill the room for the first time since he had been placed here. He cowered away from the light; it hurt his eyes to see the soft orange glow after all his time in pitch black.
“Einar?” a familiar voice called. “Einar, look at me, please.” Einar looked back at the opened door, but when his eyes met the light, he shut his eyes. His senses had improved in the dark. He heard the person the voice belonged to moving closer to him.
“What have they done to you?” the voice asked again. Einar opened his eyes when he felt a warm, calloused hand on his cheek. The voice’s body was blocking the light from reaching his eyes. He saw tears in the person’s eyes.
“The light hurts,” Einar managed to get out.
“I know, but you’ll have to trust me to get you out of here. Do you know who I am?”
“The … outline in my brain stopping me from … making the pain stop.”
“You haven’t told them anything?” the voice asked with a mix of relief and concern. Einar shook his head. That was the only movement his body would allow him to make. His body trembled from the electric shocks.
“Can you move?” Einar shook his head again at the question. The person nodded before producing a small kit from one of the endless pockets on their clothes. They moved behind him and began fiddling with the chains that had Einar bound.
“Do you know my name?” the voice asked.
“Should I?”
“I would hope so; we have been courting for years. They really did a number on you, didn’t they?”
“What is your name?”
“Winter, Winter Rose.” The memories rushed back like a slap to the face. Einar remembered everything: why he was here, why he didn’t tell the automatons anything, what the rebels wanted to accomplish, everything. The chains slipped off of him, and as soon as he could move from where he was chained, he wrapped his arms around Winter.
“I remember, I remember all of it.”
“Let’s get you out of here.”
_______________
They were moving through the castle slowly. Einar could move, but just barely; the rebels seemed to have assumed that would be the case and had many people around the castle keeping watch so they could all get out.
“Why did you come for me?” Einar asked as Winter helped him through the castle.
“Isn’t it obvious? Because I love you,” Winter replied, flashing a smile at Einar. “We’re going to have to be careful up here; I couldn’t risk placing anyone in the open, so this section will be unpredictable.” Einar sped up his pace as much as he could. Winter scooped him up into her arms to make their pace through this part of the castle faster. They got through with no problem.
“We’re almost home free,” Winter said, flashing that smile again. The smile fell as fast as it had appeared.
“Winter?” Einar asked. Winter set Einar down and leaned against the wall.
“Looks like you are going to have to go on without me,” Winter said as blood seeped out of her mouth with each word.
“What?” Einar asked. Winter reached behind themself and pulled a dagger covered in blood from out of her back. She undid the buttons on her jacket, showing a blossom of blood on her shirt. The blade had pierced through her stomach.
“No, I need you! Everyone needs you!” Einar pleaded, seeing Winter’s eyes glaze over. She stopped moving.
“Einar, we need to go,” a rebel said.
“We can’t leave her!”
“We have to. You were the mission. Winter wanted you to lead,” the rebel said. Rebels placed fists over their hearts, pledging loyalty to Einar. He looked back at Winter’s body and placed one last kiss on her forehead before nodding to the rebels and following them to freedom.