Incarnate- Essence

by Thomas Harper

  Rocky grinned, “What makes you say that?”

  “Well,” Emma said, ticking things off on her fingers, “I’m smarter. I’m better looking. I’m better with a rifle. I’m nicer. More people like me. I can get laid easier. I can speak English better, even though it’s not my native tongue. I’m better at-”

  “Get laid easier?” Rocky said, feigning outrage, “that has nothing to do with your skill. You might be a butch looking chick, but you’re still a chick. A chick with enough looks everyone but César would kiss you on the lips right after you ate their asshole.”

  “Speaking from experience?” César asked, lifting an eyebrow.

  Rocky shrugged, “hell, I ain’t ashamed.”

  “It’s not my fault men are pigs,” Emma said.

  Manny clapped his hands together, the exoskeleton gloves clacking loudly, “I see a wager coming on here.”

  “And what would that be?” Emma asked.

  “A ‘get laid’ off,” Manny said, grinning, “see which of you two can get laid first before this march north is finished.”

  “Who the hell’s gonna wanna fuck out in the cold ass woods?” Rocky asked, “I mean, besides me.”

  “You’d be surprised how often people want to have sex in situations like this,” I chimed in.

  They all looked at me in surprise.

  “See, he knows,” Manny said, “people are down to fuck anywhere, anytime.”

  “But it’s still not fair,” Rocky said, “women can get laid whenever they want. The pussy is the key to that shit. That’s why gay dudes got it made.”

  “Exactly,” Manny said, “that’s why both of you have to get it on with a woman.”

  Rocky grinned wide at this, looking to Emma, “Now there’s a wager I wouldn’t mind losing.”

  “Please,” Emma said, “I’ve probably banged more chicks than you’ve ever even gotten a half-chub over.” She looked to Manny, “do we get to choose?”

  “Of course not,” Manny said, “that would be ridiculous. We need to get neutral parties for that.”

  Emma groaned, “And by neutral parties you mean…”

  “Victor! Pedro!” Manny called ahead to the two men, “come here a minute.”

  Pedro shrugged and stopped to wait for us, a smirk on his bearded face. Victor slowed down, looking over his shoulder impatiently.

  “Hey man, what have you gotten yourself into this time?” Pedro asked Rocky after we’d caught up.

  “Why do you assume it’s me?” Rocky asked.

  “It’s always you,” Victor said when we caught up with him, “I swear, if I hadn’t seen what you can actually do in the field, I’d think you were nothing but a fuckup.”

  Rocky grinned, “Coming from you Victor, I take that as a compliment.”

  “We have a very serious matter at hand here, guys,” Manny said, “Emma and Rocky have called each other’s masculinity and femininity into question. Yes, both of them. The challenge is for each of them to get laid before we’re done marching north.”

  “What if one of them dies and the other gets laid after that?” Pedro asked.

  “Doesn’t count,” Manny said.

  “Actually,” Emma said, “if I die and Rocky gets laid after that, I’ll allow that to count. But if he dies before I get laid, we’ll call it a draw.”

  “Damn man, now that’s confidence,” Pedro said, nodding.

  “Fine,” Manny said, “agreed. But what we need is for you two to choose their prey, er, partners. They both need to be women.”

  “I call Pedro chooses mine,” Rocky said.

  “Really?” Manny asked. A smirk spread across Pedro’s face. “You know he’ll choose you some fat, sloppy bitch.”

  “I know,” Rocky said, “I’m counting on that. It’ll make it easier for me.”

  “You poor fool,” César tsked, “the plan may have worked until you blurted it out.”

  “Fine,” Manny said, “Pedro will choose your…partner.” He looked to Victor. “You can choose Emma’s.”

  Without skipping a beat Victor pointed. “Her.”

  “The black chick with the bandana?” Emma asked.

  “Agent Brie from LoC Security,” Rocky nodded, “good choice. A solid eight. Care to explain?”

  Pedro laughed, “Victor is mad that she wasn’t scared of him. Wants to get her back by sicking Emma on her.”

  “Why he chose her doesn’t matter,” Manny said, “That’s why we got a neutral party. So he would choose someone for his own purposes rather than yours.” He looked to Rocky. “So, Pedro, who will you choose for Rocky?”

  Pedro had a devious grin on his face, practically rubbing his hands together, unsure of whether to come right out and say his choice or to savor the anticipation for a while.

  “You know, Rocky,” Pedro said, “I really do admire you as our company commander. You and I…we haven’t known each other that long, but we’ve been through some shit together and you know I got your back.”

  Rocky groaned knowingly, “Oh Christ, please don’t.”

  “I do this for your own good,” Pedro said, “you will bitch and moan and curse me about it now, but you’ll thank me later.”

  “Do I even have to ask?” Manny said.

  “No, but I’ll say it anyway,” Pedro said, “Just because her name tastes so good coming off my tongue. Olivia.” Everyone looked ahead to where Olivia was walking beside Benito, the two thick as thieves as they talked, not paying attention to what was going on fifty feet behind them.

  “Your white whale, my friend,” César nodded.

  “You can’t think of another animal to describe her?” Rocky asked. “Like a jaguar? Sleek and beautiful and fierce?”

  “What could be more majestic than a sperm whale?” César asked.

  “Quit bitching,” Emma said, “at least you’re looking to engage in something approaching heterosexual sex between two alleged heterosexuals. I gotta convert a straight bitch.”

  “That’s almost less fair,” Rocky said, “because you’re going to enjoy it so much.”

  Emma grinned, “You’re right. I will.”

  “No welching on the bet,” Manny said, “our neutral parties have spoken, and their word is bond.” He paused a moment, “and by the way, let’s keep it civil, okay? No raping your chosen partners. That would be unsportsmanlike.”

  “You’re a real piece of shit, Manny,” Emma said.

  He smirked, “I just wanted to make it perfectly clear.”

  Rocky sighed, “What’s clear is that-”

  A gunshot went off. People in the crowd let out frightened cries. The two forty-eights companies had their exo helmets on instantly, fanning out and bolting into defensive positions behind trees, taking cover from the road. I ran after Rocky, fumbling a moment with my helmet as I got behind a tree next to him. The LoC Security people were desperately trying to get everyone to stay calm and get further up the hill behind the defenders.

  “Right one, clear,” Benito said over the radio.

  “Right two, clear,” Olivia said.

  “Right three, clear,” a voice I didn’t recognize said. Álvarez.

  “Center one, clear,” Manny said.

  “Center two, clear,” Rocky said.

  “Center three-”

  “It’s all clear,” Sachi’s voice came over the radio, “Kind of…It was a false alarm, anyway.”

  “The hell happened?” Rocky asked, slowly coming out from behind his tree.

  “We…found the convoy,” Sachi said, “the one following that Forrester guy.”

  “What are they still doing here?” I asked.

  “They’re not,” she said, “There’s nobody here still alive.”

  It took another ten minutes to get everyone moving again and then another ten after that for the rearguard to catch up to where Sachi was there waiting. She stood down the hill near the road, helmet attached, on alert.

  The wreckage of vehicles lay scattered over the cratered pavement, pieces
of debris blown hundreds of feet off the road into the woods. Amongst the twisted metal, shattered glass, burnt tires, and shredded luggage was the occasional corpse strewn indiscriminately amongst the rubble – torn bodies still clutching guns along with children and the elderly. Bullet riddled cars had fled off into the forest, their front ends now wrapped around trees. Gaping craters in the pavement told the story of UAVs with rail guns. The scene stretched up the road as far as I could see.

  “Must’ve happened the day they took off from Cortez,” Sachi said over the radio when she saw her two rearguard companies approaching, the LoC Security people following timidly behind us.

  I prodded a piece of shorn metal with the boot of my exoskeleton. “Doesn’t seem like they were looking to take hostages.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Sachi said, taking off her helmet. Everyone else followed suit before she continued talking, “They meant to kill all of them. So far it doesn’t look like they did. Savita took a few people to run on ahead. Says there are bodies there, but not enough to account for all of them.”

  “They were hoping we were with them,” I said, taking a few steps closer to the road.

  “Looks like they at least put up a fight,” someone said.

  I looked back, seeing agent Brie walking through the crowd of forty-eights. She was pointing to some wreckage up the road. I turned and zoomed in on it, seeing that it was in fact the wreckage of a UAV that had been shot down.

  “Hopefully they took more than the one,” Sachi said.

  “What the fuck was that gunshot then?” Rocky asked.

  Sachi let out a single laugh, “some guy got spooked. Shot off his rifle when he saw something on the road. Only managed to hurt his wrist doing it.”

  “There still might be survivors in there,” another LoC Security agent said.

  “Anyone injured would probably have succumb to the weather,” Olivia said.

  “But still…” he said.

  “What’s your name,” Sachi asked, looking back to the man.

  “Uh, Sullivan, sir,” he said, “er, ma’am. Agent Richard Sullivan of LoC Security.”

  I vaguely recognized agent Sullivan as one of the people who had come as backup during the raid of the human trafficker’s house. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with a boyish face and a faint scar he’d obtained from the raid, his blonde hair making tight ringlets over his head.

  “Who’s your superior?” she asked.

  He said nothing, turning to two other LoC Security agents. One was a square jawed man with a buzz cut who looked about forty years old and the other a thin faced man with an unkempt beard of dark hair who was maybe thirty.

  “I’m Major Justin Ellison,” the square jawed man said, stepping forward, “and this is Corporal Seth Roman,” he signaled to the bearded man, “we’re in command of the rearguard.”

  “Right,” Sachi said, “I imagine you might have a few clients that went with Forrester that you might want to search through the rubble for?”

  “We also have a sense of human decency,” Corporal Roman said.

  “Either way,” Sachi said, “you probably want to go looking for survivors?”

  “We are going to look for survivors,” Major Ellison said.

  “I wouldn’t dream of stopping you,” Sachi said, “but what do you plan on doing if you find somebody badly wounded?”

  “We don’t report to you,” Major Ellison said.

  Sachi shrugged, “I’m not giving orders. I think everyone is genuinely interested.”

  “We’ll report to Colonel Riviera,” Major Ellison said, “she can tell you what she wants at her own discretion.”

  “Fine,” Sachi said, “in fact, you can take a couple of my people if you want.”

  Major Ellison was taken aback, “I thought you were concerned with picking up wounded who might slow us down,” he said.

  “I am,” Sachi said, “but I’m equally as interested in salvaging some supplies and maybe getting a better idea of what all happened here.” She turned to me, “I’ll give you Eshe and Álvarez, if the company commander can spare them.”

  “I can,” Rocky said.

  I glanced to Álvarez and then looked back to Sachi. I could read the implied order in their expressions. We were to mercy kill any wounded survivors we came across before the LoC Security people could find them.

  As long as I get some quiet, I thought.

  Major Ellison took Corporal Roman and agent Sullivan along with him to walk the wreckage of the road, calling up Colonel Riviera to talk about it. I didn’t get much of the conversation, but ten minutes later Ellen Malloy joined with us, presumably to act as a medic.

  Álvarez and I walked behind the LoC Security people. The former Cartel assassin gave me a wide berth. I didn’t know if we were avoiding each other out of fear or just wanting to be left alone. He had his camouflage back on, the polymer plating of his suit vaguely mimicking the torn and twisted vehicles he walked by.

  The walk in the road was even more difficult than in the forest. Chunks of debris and occasional craters made every other footstep treacherous. And with Major Ellison often stopping to have Ellen examine bodies, it became even slower. The trail of people walking through the forest gradually pulled ahead, but that wasn’t what worried me. What worried me is how easy they were to spot. The footsteps on the frozen soil sounded like explosions in the quiet wilderness, their movement like a landing strip signaling every UAV in for the kill.

  I told myself it was easier to spot them because I knew where to look, the same way it’s impossible not see an optical illusion for what it is after figuring it out. And there was certainly some truth to that, but even if they were half as easy to find…it was a wonder the CSA hadn’t come after us yet.

  Our small search party came to a stop again as Major Ellison and Ellen Malloy both bent down next to the body of a young a boy with half his face caked in dry blood.

  “He lived down the street from me,” Corporal Roman said, “this is fucking disgusting. This is what governments do. This is why anarcho-capitalism is the only peaceful way.”

  “Christ,” Ellison said, standing up, “are you really going to give us a fucking speech about anarchy now?”

  “Look at this place,” Roman said, “I can’t think of a better time to talk about ways of never letting something like this happen again. Nothing is more important at a time like this than making sure we don’t become like the monsters that did this.”

  “Become like this?” Ellison asked, “we don’t have the firepower even if we wanted to.”

  “I’m not talking about just the killing,” Roman said, “I’m talking about what causes the killing. What legitimizes it. We can’t let ourselves become another homicidal government like the CSA. Or the PRA. Or whoever else.”

  Ellison looked over to Álvarez and me, “you’re preaching to the wrong guy. It’s that bitch Sachi that’s trying to do that.”

  I glanced to Álvarez, but his expression remained neutral. Silence hung in the air for a moment as if Ellison awaited a response. When none came, he turned around and started walking again, his people following behind. Álvarez and I began moving again, too, staying a ways behind them. Ellen looked back over her shoulder, slowing down and waiting for me to catch up.

  There goes my peace and quiet, I thought as I stepped over a severed hand.

  “I don’t think we’re going to find anyone alive here,” Ellen said quietly when I caught up to her.

  “Then why are you here?” I asked.

  She said nothing for a few paces before speaking. “I needed to get away from all of those other people. When Colonel Riviera asked for a medic, I volunteered.”

  I grunted, but said nothing.

  “You were one of the people who was nice to Darren,” she said, “I wanted to thank you for that. He thought very highly of you.”

  “He would have changed his mind if he got to know me better,” I said.

  Ellen shot me a pained look.

>   “He deserved a lot worse,” I said.

  Ellen sighed, “he died saving Akira,” she said, spitting out Akira’s name like it was poison. “I would trade both of their lives for his back.”

  “Darren would’ve been the first to agree with me,” I said.

  “You’re right,” Ellen said, “he would. I bet Akira’s happy about what happened. Saved her and killed him. She always treated him like shit.”

  “He was shit,” I said, “are you going to blame Akira for how she treated him after what he did to her daughter?”

  Ellen clenched her jaw, once again looking as if she was trying to decide whether to say something or not. After a few paces she spoke.

  “Darren died a father,” she said, pausing for a few steps again before saying, “I had just found out I’m pregnant before going over to the border where he was stationed. I hadn’t had a chance to tell him.”

  I said nothing, both of us walking side-by-side for a time. I glanced over at Álvarez on the other side the street. He continued on as if not hearing any of this, although I was sure he had.

  “You’re right, though,” Ellen finally said, keeping her gaze on the debris strewn road, “I can’t deny that what he did was terrible. He knew that, too. We met at a group for people whose lives were affected by Shift.”

  “He told me about his father and wife,” I said.

  She nodded slowly, “I was a Shift addict myself for a while. My boyfriend and I both did just about every drug under the sun back before the cartels collapsed. My drug of choice was meth. He preferred heroine.”

  Ellen chuckled contemplatively as if nostalgic about the memory. “After the cartels fell, we switched to Shift like every other junky. Not long after that I ended up getting pregnant.” She rolled her eyes. “He wasn’t around anymore, but it wasn’t his anyway. I had been…prostituting myself. You know, to pay for everything. When my dealer found out he gave me a ‘generous offer’.” She scoffed at this. “Said I could get three hundred bucks worth of Shift for free every week throughout the pregnancy. That’s too good of a deal for an addict to pass up. The price was that he’d take the baby once he was born.”