Sound Proof
By Epsilon

Chapter 3
The Privilege of Life

It was deafeningly quiet as they slowly road to the surface. No one spoke. Silence, however, was very calm and relaxed. He liked the quiet, he could be alone in it; no one could bother him. Still, Silence didn't like the fact that no one was talking. Not even a whisper or a cough. They were just silent and miserable.

They finally reached the surface. Silence breathed in the fresh air. He enjoyed it more then the stale air in the tunnel. But then he smelt something odd in the air. It was the smell of charcoal and smoke. Silence turned to his left to see the town he had seen earlier a blaze. "Good God!" he muttered, and then he spotted the chimera that passed him earlier. It was destroying the town, spitting fire and smashing buildings with its massive claws. The town's people were helpless. He stopped the horses. All that could be heard were screams and the chimera's cry.

"Silence," a voice spoke. "What's wrong?"

Silence turned to Eco who was oblivious by the conflagration. "Do you NOT see the town on fire?"

Eco turned to the blaze. "Oh, my," she stopped herself. "They deserve it."

"They deserve it?!" Silence yelled. "How can you say that?!"

"They wouldn't care if it were us," she said scowling at the town. "Why should we care?"

"Because innocent people are being killed, that's why!!" He turned to the other mutants. They all looked at the town with hatred in there eyes. "You don't care?" Silence asked them. Some looked at him. Others continued to look at the city. "I said you don't care!" He stood up. "Yes, maybe they don't like use and they wouldn't let use live but you would just watch them die?" They looked at him with quizzical eyes.

"Why help them?!" one blooded women asked. "They, they killed my little girl! Because she was blooded!! In that very town! I watched her die!"

Silence stared at the women, then at the town. "I'm sorry for your daughter." He looked back to the mutants. "But everything has the right to live, a chance to breathe! Me, you, your daughter…" He looked to the city once more. "Even the people that are in that town have that right. Think of the children that will die if no one helps." He turned to them once more. "The aftermath of the chimera will include blooded people and in turn, they will be executed."

Silence turned toward the town and unsheathed his blade. The mutants looked at him. "Wait," Eco said. "They'll kill you. If you help they will kill you!"

Silence smiled. "Maybe." He closed his eyes and remembered the sniper. "I've had my close calls before; I don't plan on dying now." With that said, he raced off toward the burning town.

Eco and the others watched him run to the town… except for one man, a dragon blooded man who simple said, "If you can't bring yourself to help someone, even though they wouldn't do the same, maybe you do deserve to die." He then followed Silence to the town.

Silence reached the wall that surrounded the town and stopped. "How do I get over this?"

"Maybe I could help!" a male voice said from a distance.

Silence turned to see a man racing toward him. He wasn't sure if he was human or mutant. Then he saw that the man had large draconic wings. "Yah, seems that the humans don't like us and don't want use to come in the town! So they have erected this wall to keep use out!" Silence joked.

The man slowed as he reached him. "It will take too long to go around, we have to go over."

Silence looked at the man as he spread his wings. Silence laughed and said, "You know I've never flown before."

"Really." The man laughed and held out his hand.

He flapped his wings and large gusts of wind blew past Silence and sent his loose shirt jarring in different directions. They soon lifted off the ground and were half way up the wall when Silence spotted Eco rocketing toward him.

He had no time to say anything. Eco was already at the wall and didn't slow. "Hey!!" he yelled at the dragon-blooded man. "Get ready for more weight." The man looked down to see Eco running up the wall. Silence held out his free hand. Eco jumped for it and was then suspended in the air.

The man struggled to fly but eventually made it to the top. He was gasping while he talked. "You guys gasp are heavy!"

Eco looked at him angrily. "WELL!" she said. "Sorry for being so overweight!!"

Silence laughed to himself but the laughter immediately faded. He saw the horror of the chimera's assault on the town. Dead bodies lay motionless, charred and bloody. Silence clenched his fist with anger and remorse.

The three of them jumped down from the wall and landed with no recoil from the fall. They slowly made there way through the city. People were so busy putting out fires or tending to the wounded that they barely noticed them.

The chimera was nowhere in sight. "Help, me," a voice said. Silence looked beside him to see an old man with as deep gash in his side. He was breathing heavily. Silence and knelt down next to the man. He looked at the man's wounds and knew he could do nothing to help save him. "Please-help-me," the man cried. He then became silent; he said nothing else. Silence checked his pulse. Nothing.

"I'm sorry," Silence said.

"Ha-HAY!!" a voice cried out. "What are you doing?!" Silence turned to see a man with fear and anger in his eyes. The man looked to the corpse of the old man that died at Silences feet. "You, you killed him!! You killed him!!!" The man screamed and ran toward Silence and then he pulled out a knife and a giant claw crushed him. Silence looked up to see the chimera towering over him.

He jumped to his feet just before the beast spewed fire across the ground. He raced behind a building that was left standing; Eco and the man were close behind. "CRAP!!!! That was too close!"

"Do we have a plan to bring that monster down?" Eco asked.

"Hey," Silence said smiling. "Pound it till it's dead."