by Jim Miesner
“None of this is necessary. You win,” Sam said. “We surrender.”
“You made it a lot farther than anyone expected,” said a voice from the ship.
Footsteps clinked against the metal ramp. He was dressed in the same brown uniform he had worn earlier. He stopped at the top of the ramp with a smile on his face, bags under his eyes and the sun reflecting off his scalp. He scanned the horizon before he took the next couple of steps.
“This has been quite the adventure, hasn’t it, Samantha? I didn’t think you would be this difficult to retrieve. Almost made me look like a fool.”
He took his time walking up to her. She could tell he wanted this moment to last as long as possible. He was a bloodhound who had found his fox, and he wanted to savor it. When he finally reached her, he crouched down next to her and smiled as she held Jenny. “Was it worth all of this trouble?” he asked.
“You tell me.”
He rubbed his fingers together. “I am really looking forward to not wearing this damn thing anymore.” He hit his arm, and a suit appeared around him. “I feel like I’m a greenhorn back in the services again.”
He raised two fingers in the air and motioned a man over. One jogged toward them as the others tried to fill the space he left.
“Take the girl.”
The guard put his hands underneath Jenny and Sam held on tighter as he tried to lift her up. Jenny groaned.
“Wait,” Sam said. “Let me carry her.”
Card looked at her, then at the guard and nodded. The guard backed off and let go before Card spun around and stared at Daniel. “That one, too.”
The man that had tried to lift Jenny jogged over to Daniel. His feet shifted in the sand as he slung him over his shoulder.
“No. This was just about Jenny and I. You got what you wanted. Leave him alone. Please.”
Card raised an eyebrow and smiled. “You know what the problem is with you? Why you never fit?”
“Please don’t do this…”
“You’re an idealist. The problem with idealists is they miss the forest for the trees.”
“Don't take him, please. He’s innocent.”
Card scoffed. “There is no such thing as innocent. We’re all the bad guy in someone’s story.”
Suddenly two of the men broke from the circle and moved into the bushes behind them. They disappeared into the leaves before shots rang out. Shouts followed the shots, followed then by metal pounding against metal before something shattered. Card spun around toward the commotion.
Silence hung in the air for a half second, as everyone tried to piece together what had happened. In the chaos, two of the drones drew closer to the bushes before a shot rang out again and then one of the drones wasn’t there anymore. A shattered circuit board and a single propeller were the only discernible pieces left among a scattered stream of plastic rubble that rained down to the ground. The other drone lit up and moved two feet before it disappeared as well and metal mulch littered the ground underneath it.
The men tightened their circle around the ships as the drones in the air moved around in a frantic scramble. They reminded Sam of bees whose hive had been disturbed.
“Leave them alone,” called John from the bushes, “We have you surrounded.”
Jenny stirred.
“Impossible,” said Card. “We reconned the area. Come out of the bushes or we’ll remove you by force.”
A shot landed right at Card’s feet and kicked sand up into his face. He jerked his body around and fell into the sand. Then looked at his men for support but no one moved from the circle.
“Let them go or the next one won’t miss.”
The councilman jerked his head around to Sam with wild eyes before he ran behind her, using her as a shield. Sam tried to move, but he grabbed her arm and Jenny’s. Sam had never seen someone go from a position of power to a scared little child so fast. If it had been any other situation, she would have laughed.
“What are you waiting for? Light those bushes up,” he said.
The guard closest to the drone wreckage turned to the others and then back to Card. “Uh, sir. Two of our men are in there.”
“They’re acceptable losses. Fire on those bushes.”
“Sir, protocol says.”
“I don’t give any feces what protocol says!” A vein bulged from his forehead. “I was just shot at by a Cro-Magnon.”
“Sir. It’s against the code of-”
“Screw it. Forget it. I’ll do it. If you need something done right.”
He tried to pull Sam and Jenny along but Sam resisted. Finally, he pushed her aside and ran. Another shot landed in the sand again causing him to trip over his own feet. He got up, ran straight for a ship, and sprinted up the ramp like a scared little boy.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” John yelled. “Leave the children and there doesn’t have to be any bloodshed today.”
The helmets of the men turned to each other in the absence of their leader, and then back at the bushes where the shards of drone littered the ground. They relaxed their posture and seemed to consider the proposition before a drone dropped out of its frantic flight next to them. It looked like it would fly right into one of them and a man jumped out of the way before it jerked to a stop. A moment later it shot out another red hologram. This time it was Card. His face filled with outrage.
“If any of you steps out of line you will be court-martialed and left out here to die. That is the penalty for treason. That is the code. Do any of you wish to break it?”
One by one the soldiers straightened their postures and looked straight ahead. None of them daring to defy the threat.
“That’s what I thought,” Card said.
He slammed his hand down on something and the hologram disappeared, right before a large compartment opened on the bottom of the drone. It shot out a long stream of fire at the ground. Some men had to have felt the heat but still, none moved as it spun around toward the bushes.
“Stop!” Sam yelled.
It was too late though. The line of flame poured out over the bushes John was in. There was a single blast from the weapon before Sam watched him run out. His whole right arm, upper torso, and hair were engulfed in flames as he tore across the beach and dove into the waist-deep water.
He thrashed around until the flames were out and then he stopped moving. For a second Sam thought he was dead before he rose back out of the water. His beard and hair had melted together in some spots and singed off in others. His eyebrows were gone, his face and neck were red, and it looked like clothing hung loose on his right arm before Sam realized it was his own skin. He was cooked. Still, he didn't even shed a tear or make a sound.
One guard rushed over and picked up the weapon he had left behind as two others dragged their men out of the bushes. The bushes were already down to a smoking crackle and their men had fared much better than John. The combination of their armor and their proximity to the ground had saved them.
The councilman’s drone wobbled in the air from side to side as his footsteps clanked back down the ramp again. He still held the controller in his hands as he made his way back to the beach with a smug smile on his face.
“That was not wise,” he said. His courage returning now, he was back to his old self. “Not wise at all.”
He walked within thirty feet of John and stopped. His courage wasn’t that strong, apparently. Holding his finger over one button he licked his lips.
“I should have known this would happen. It’s my fault for being too lenient. If you give a dog a long leash, he’s going to test it.”
Sam stepped toward John with Jenny still in her arms until she felt two hands on her shoulders pull her back.
“Let go of me,” she yelled and pulled against them until she fell in the sand with Jenny.
“Stop!” she heard Card yell.
She thought it was her he was talking to but when she looked up, John was bursting forth with all of his energy. His legs pumped out of th
e water as he ran toward the councilman. He made three strides before the first dart glanced off his cheek, four before the second hit his shoulder, six before the third pierced his neck, and seven before the fourth found its place side by side with the third in his neck. He stopped and wobbled there on his feet like a slight wind would knock him over, but he didn’t go down. Card’s eyes were as wide as ever as he hit the button again, and again and again. After the seventh dart found its way to his chin John looked at Sam one last time. A strange smile came over his face until he fell back into the water and floated there.
The councilman stood there quivering with his finger on the button as if John was about to rise back up again. He looked down at the controller in his hands, then at his own chest and brushed off the sand, a reminder of his embarrassing little mad scramble. He threw aside the controller and waded up to his waist, where John floated. Staring at his body he pressed it down and let go as it floated back to the surface.
“Leave him alone,” Sam shouted as she leaned forward and the men tightened their grip on her shoulders.
He glanced at his men then back to Sam. There wasn’t any anger in his eyes, they were cold and dead now, calculating.
“I want you to see this, Samantha.”
He threw his legs over John’s waist and straddled him as Samantha struggled against the men that held her back. Hesitating a moment, he pressed a hand to John’s chest. The water rose over his ears and up to his cheeks. He stopped just short of his nostrils. A smile crept across his face and then John disappeared below the surface.
If there was a struggle Sam couldn’t see it from her vantage point as she dropped Jenny into the sand and finally pulled herself loose from the guards.
“Stop it!” Sam screamed. She ran toward Card.
She made it five steps before she felt her legs go out from under her, a guard tackling her. Glancing up she saw Card as he looked back at her with John still held under the water.
“Interfere Samantha, and we’ll do this to all of them. Every last one. This is the only thing they know. The only thing they understand is pain.”
He pressed John down further and Sam watched as his arms and legs twitched below the surface, then stopped. Card held him what felt like forever before he pushed John’s body away from him and out into the lake.
“Shows over. Take her, the girl and the boy,” he said. “Put all three on separate ships.” He looked back at Marlena and Emmanuel. “Leave those animals for the vultures.”
“You monster!”
Card walked up to her. “If it was up to me, I would leave you out here to die.”
One of the guards swung Daniel’s limp body onto their shoulder.
“He’s nothing to you. Don’t do this. Spare him.”
Card walked up to the guard, and a smile curled across his lips. Reaching out he pulled the necklace off Daniel and put it in his own pocket, before he nodded for him to carry on. He walked back to Sam. “I told you, Samantha. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.”
He looked down at a small sand mound. Cocking his head, he kicked it aside to reveal the satchel. He grabbed it and opened it to reveal the medicine inside before he shook his head and made a tsk-tsk sound.
“Idealist,” he said before dropping the bag onto a rock and bringing his foot down several times with a series of crunches.
Sam watched as the liquids merged together to form an odd brown. “No,” she yelled and tried to reach it, but hands tightened around her shoulders and dragged her backwards.
“How can you follow him?” she said to one. “How can you let him do that?”
The mirrored helmet of one guard looked at her and then straight ahead as they pulled her up the ramp. The hydraulic lift closed behind them and the last thing Sam saw before it did, was John’s body. It floated in the lake with his arms straight out at his sides in the glimmering water.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
A hard shove pushed Sam off her feet as she tumbled onto a tiny cot attached to the wall. She was the last cell in a row of five. Each one composed of a metal wall with a cot attached and three other walls made of what looked like transparent blue plexiglass. Each one big enough to hold the two-foot by five-foot bed, if you could call it a bed, and not much else. The one Sam sat on felt like a piece of steel wrapped in three layers of felt. ABCs lined the top of each cell in a failed attempt to make it homey.
The man who pushed her grunted and slammed the cell door shut. He and one other still wore their full suits while the two men that John had humiliated, looked around the room dazed. One sat on the floor with his shattered mirrored helmet tucked under one arm and an ice pack pressed against his swollen eye. His lip was mushy pulp where blood lined the rim of it and he seemed to stare off at nothing in particular. His friend leaned next to the wall with the same vacant expression as he held an ice pack against the top of his head and coughed. His helmet was nowhere to be seen.
“Why aren’t they in cells?” the man who pushed Sam asked.
“Jefferies and Macdonald?” asked the other guard who was about a foot shorter.
“They were exposed, weren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“Then they need to be quarantined until their contaminant levels are neutralized.”
“Yeah. Of course. I was just about to. You heard it, guys. Into the cages,” the shorter one said and helped them to their feet.
The men each shuffled themselves into a cell and then the plexiglass slid closed behind them.
“Take a rest, boys. You’ve earned it,” said the shorter one.
“Health scan commencing,” said the computer twice as the men laid down on the beds and a red line slid down their bodies. The red line blinked at the foot of Sam’s bed, too.
“Please lie flat to commence health scan,” the computer said.
“Need any help with her?” the shorter guard asked.
“No. I think I got this under control,” said the other and patted his hip.
“Hah. Okay. Just take it easy. Remember she’s still one of us.”
The taller one turned back to Sam. “You wouldn’t know it.”
Then the other guard laughed, pushed a button on the wall and a set of doors slid open. He walked through them and as they closed behind, a spray of liquid blasted over him. The window steamed up and his blurry shape receded. It seemed like forever since she had been a part of that life, but it wasn’t more than forty-eight hours ago.
The computer prompted her again, “Please lie flat to commence health scan.”
“Lie on the bed so the scan can start,” said the man outside her cell.
Sam stared at him.
“Vital signs stable,” said the computer as a red line reached the end of each man’s body. “Injuries minor. Now detecting contaminant levels. Please remain still.”
A blue line replaced the red and slid the other way over their bodies, at about half the speed. One guard lay on his side with his knees hugging his chest, while the other was on his back with his legs bent and feet braced against the cell wall. Carved into the blue glass wall that separated him and Sam were the words, Liam was h... Whoever Liam was had never finished the last part.
“What happened to you?” asked the man in the cell nearest to her. His lip curled and it must have hurt because his hand went to it as he sucked air through his teeth.
“She thinks she’s one of them,” said the other man hugging his knees.
The other pulled his fingers away from his lip to see their tips stained with blood.
“Please lie flat to commence health scan,” said the computer.
The man in the mirrored helmet outside her cell walked closer. “I will only ask you this one more time. Lie flat on the bed.”
Sam got to her feet and crossed her arms. He stared as he reached for a cylinder on his belt. She knew what it was before he even drew it. Being a citizen of the Covenant, it was the only thing he could use on her other than a stun wand or a needle. Either
of them would have been more humane, but she knew he had a chip on his shoulder and something to prove the moment he shoved her.
“Don’t do it,” one man said, as he sat up and covered his mouth but it was too late.
Whipping it out of the little holster, he sprayed it into a small circle of air holes on the front of her cell. Specks of wet hit her cheeks. It burned her eyes, stung her nose and took away her breath. She hacked and dropped to her knees before doubling over on the floor and gagging. She heard the other men in the cells cough and follow suit. When she peeked through the slits of her eyes, she could see one writhing in his bunk. He grabbed his throat while the other lay on the floor. Drool rolled off his tongue into a puddle, his eyes shut tight.
The man in the mirrored helmet turned and pulled straps out of a drawer behind him as Sam tried to match the agony of each man. She gagged louder and curled into a ball.
“Sorry,” said the mirrored helmet to the others. “Couldn’t give her any warning.”
“You won't get the onion spray again if you lie down on your bunk and stay there. Deal?”
Sam continued to heave, paused and then shook her head side to side.
“Stop,” coughed one man. “Not… again.”
She heard another hiss of spray and the sound of one man vomiting before the door slid open, and boots clunked against the tile. She opened the slits of her eyes just in time to watch a foot reel back and slam into her chest with a crack. Sam gasped, but it was like trying to breathe in a vacuum. A hand dug into her armpit and pulled her to her feet. A sharp pain tore through her side.
The man brought his mirrored helmet up next to her face. She could see her own reflection, the dirt, blood, and anguish. It reminded her of the faces that turned her stomach when they had first ridden through that market only a day ago. Filth and pain all twisted up into a grotesque caricature.
“I’ve heard stories about people like you, but I figured they were just stories. I can’t believe I’m looking at one now. You’re a disgrace to everything. You’re worse than a chewer.”