The Painter: The Black

      The Painter: The Black
      By L. Vera
      doodle777.deviantart.com/
Comments: Please read The Red first. This is the third story of a three part series called The Painter.



        The Capital is the home of The Red Queen. Her kingdom is usually covered with lights and banners but tonight it is shrouded with dense black clouds. The remaining bright spotlights shone through the clouds like the sun tearing through clouds after a rainstorm.
        Marcus asks The Painter, "What is that?"
        The Painter grasps his neck and pretends to choke.
        Marcus suggests, "Poison, huh?"
        The Painter nods yes.
        The Painter reaches over to the glove compartment and pulls out his paint respirator and hands it to Marcus. He then makes a gesture with his hand to put it on his face. His paint respirator was modified to also be a simple gas mask.
        The Painter drives up to a crossroad about half a mile from the walls of The Capital. He turns south through a dense forest and there the road quickly becomes unpaved.
        Marcus looks out at the moon and wonders what how his sister is doing.
        The Painter stops the truck in front of an abandon cabin.
        "Where are we?" Marcus asks but The Painter was already walking down the rocky path towards the cabin.
        Marcus opens the door and jumps from the truck. He half runs over to the door of the cabin where The Painter has stopped to look towards the city. They could see the city walls over the tree tops. Behind the wall is a pillar that rose above the cityscape. At that moment the remaining spotlights blink out and the only light in the city came from the moon.
        The Painter runs inside the cabin and opens a large chest by the bed. He pulls out a large gray gas mask and a small sword. He then kneels down in front of Marcus and points to himself and then points to the city. He then points to Marcus and then the door that leads to the yard at the back of the cabin. The Painter gets up and leaves.
        Marcus, now alone, slowly walks up to the back door. There on the door hung a poster of The Red Queen. She is a dark skinned woman dressed in a long red flowing dress. She is beautiful and strong. She holds her right fist in defiant pose. The words "For Your Queen" were painted above her.
        Marcus opens the door and, under the moonlight sky, he sees hundreds of newly dug graves. The fresh graves span for at least half a mile.
        A large explosion shook the cabin and bellows through the city. The Painter is running as fast as his genetically engineered legs will let him towards The Queen's Pillar.
        As he arrives he sees what caused the explosion. The pillars doors were blown open.  The steel doors lie twisted on the floor. Many dead genetically engineered soldiers and Black Mask soldiers also lay on the floor. The Black Mask soldiers lie with their black robes twisted and torn. Their gas masks litter the floor.
        The hall was empty. The doors that lead to The Queen's throne room are closed. The Painter raps his knuckles on the door.
        "Who is it?" a man grunts from the other side.
        "Who is it? What kind of question…" The Queen asks confoundedly.
        The door cracks open. Then it closes fast.
        "It's The Painter," the man tells The Queen.
        "The mute one?" she asks the man. She screams through doors, "Painter, it is your duty to protect your Queen. "
        At that moment two canisters of black gas roll into the hall. Two figures appear at the entrance to the hall running towards The Painter.  The Painter easily takes both men down with a sweep of his leg and a couple of thrusts with his sword.
        Four more men stand at the entrance. Then four more join their group. The Painter hears the door to the throne room creak open and then shut again.
        "He's still alive. But now there are more in the hallway," The Painter hears the man tell The Queen.
        "Kill them all," The Queen responds.
        "The Painter too?"
        "Yes!" The Queen commanded.
        The Black Mask soldiers ran towards The Painter. The door creaks open again.
        Marcus walks towards the tower. He holds the mask to his face to keep it from falling off. The Painter led him to the field of buried bodies. His father must have been in one of those graves. How does The Painter know?
        One of the Red Queen's soldiers lies on the floor crawling. Marcus asks the man as he points towards the direction he had just came from,"Sir, the fields…"
        Marcus looks into his eyes and sees an emptiness slowly washing over his eyes. "The fields by The Painters cabin?" a cough breaks his speech. "They're just the left over parts. It takes four men to make one soldier." He slumped to the floor and with one final cough he dies.
        Marcus continues on and sees The Painter grasping his sides. The Black Mask soldiers lie dead around The Painter.
        "Red, My Dad. He's dead? Everyone that was taken... They are all dead?"  Marcus asks.
        The Painter nods yes.
        Marcus helps The Painter up. The Painter limps over to one of the Black Mask soldiers and reaches under his robe. He pulls a group of canisters out and walks over to the door that protects The Queen. He raises his foot up and kicks it.
        A muffled voice from behind the door says, "The lock is giving in. It's damaged from the explosion."
        With one more good kick The Painter pushes the doors open.  The doors swing back and the man is crawling on the ground with his hand against his stomach. He is gasping for air.
        The Painter walks towards The Queen. She is wearing a beautiful red robe. It was eloquently wrapped around her. Upon her brown face is a black gas mask.
        The Queen walks back and stumbles. "Get away from me!" she screams.
        The Painter tears off her mask, letting The Queen fall to the floor. He walks back towards the door and gives the mask to Marcus. He affectionately places his hand on his head and walks back into the room.
        The Painter closes the doors one at a time. He then looks at The Queen, frantically trying to stand, as he pulls the pin on each canister and tosses them around the room.
        "What are you doing? Trying to kill me!" she screams at him. She sees the man on the floor with his mask over his face. She runs over to him and grabs his mask. They frantically tear at each others hands till The Painter walks over to The Queen and pushes her with the heel his boot.
        The room fills with the Black Poison. The Painter looks around and sees the gas slowly painting the room black. It swirls up the walls and around the pillars. The throne fallen back into a heavy cloud. One canister still spins on the floor letting out a tornado of gaseous air and dirt. The room was soon pitch-black.
        Marcus opens the doors and, now with a better functioning gas mask, lets the poison out of the room. As the gas drifts out, The Queen lies motionless next to the man on the floor.
        The man gets up and uses The Painter to help steady himself. When all the poison leaves, he removes his mask. Marcus was standing at the doors staring at this man. For a moment he saw his father. The man who had coffee on his breathe as he kissed him before he went out to tend the fields. He saw the man who he begged to carry him even though his mother insisted that Marcus should walk. But he saw just as much of his father in the man as he saw in The Painter. He was someone else's father.
Marcus's father is dead.
        The Painter walks over to The Queen. "Is she dead?" Marcus asks.
        The Painter nods yes.