Incarnate- Essence

by Thomas Harper

  Olivia tore the soldier’s helmet off. Breathing heavily, she stared into his eyes like fury herself. I followed after Álvarez, hearing the CSA soldier scream, only to have the sound get cut short with a sickening crunch.

  The CSA soldiers were outnumbered now, the six remaining all hiding behind a boulder further up the hill. The forty-eights and LoC Security agents spread out around both sides of the boulder, creeping up the hill, hiding behind trees as the soldiers shot from around the large rock.

  “We gotta charge ‘em before that UAV comes-” Rocky was cut off as the hum sounded to the south.

  Everyone spread out as a volley of bullets came spraying down from the hill. The explosion rattled the earth, but was far enough away I could take aim and fire my 30 mm as it swooped low, this time hitting something that caused it to keep coming down, slamming into the bottom of the hill into a shattering rooster tail of debris. Emma and Rocky leapt out of the way, dirt and wood splinters flinging forward as the wreckage tumbled past them.

  Bullets continued raining down from behind the boulder, one hitting my shoulder and another my shin as I fell to the frozen ground behind a tree, wood splintering off it.

  “They’re running back up the hill!” Manny shouted.

  “Nope,” Sachi said.

  Coming down the hill in front of them was Savita and Colonel Riviera, leading their units in an outflanking maneuver. The rest of us ran up the hill to meet them, surrounding the CSA soldiers, who all stopped to surrender. Everyone ceased firing, slowly approaching the six hostages.

  “Take off your suits,” Sachi demanded.

  “We’ll freeze,” a woman’s voice projected from one of them said.

  “You won’t freeze,” Sachi said, “take them off.”

  The six of them slowly obliged, taking off their helmets, gloves, and arm pieces. I couldn’t see her face, but I could tell Colonel Riviera was eyeing Sachi suspiciously. And I didn’t have to ask why.

  “What are you gonna do with us?” the woman, seemingly the unit commander, asked as she pulled off the chest piece.

  Álvarez walked up to the woman, pulling his knife out and grabbing her. She only managed a quick scream before he sliced the blade across her throat and let her drop to the ground, flailing about as she choked.

  “What the fuck?” the soldier who was still working on taking his chest piece off said, quickly grabbing for his helmet.

  He wasn’t fast enough, Olivia charged, slamming the shoulder spikes of her exo suit into his face, crushing his lower jaw. He groped at his mutilated face in panic, giving a muffled bellow as blood poured down the front of his loosened chest piece. Olivia grabbed his throat with her suited hand and crushed it, the fingers working through his flesh like it was a rotten tomato. Álvarez was already cutting another soldier’s throat as Emma, Victor, and Pedro finished off the others with their hands, crushing their throats and letting the limp bodies fall to the frozen forest floor before starting back down the hill.

  The LoC Security people stood and watched in stunned silence. When the soldier’s death throes were finished, Álvarez went about slicing the ears off his two victims for trophies, reciting his prayer to Santa Muerte as he did.

  I turned and started back down the hill, seeing Rosy with her visor up, gawking wide-eyed after me.

  If they didn’t think Sachi was a monster before, they do now.

  Chapter 56

  “We were ambushed on the road,” Major Forrester said as Doctor Taylor patched up the bullet wound in his stomach, parts of his exoskeleton lying around him, “UGVs came runnin’ out of the woods on both sides firin’ on us, and then UAVs hit us from the air. Most my people didn’t even have their exo suits on.”

  It was after midnight, the air so cold it hurt the skin even without a breeze. Survivors from the vehicle convoy had joined our camp. They were hungry and cold, not having been able to take much supplies with them after fleeing their vehicles several days before. Sachi and Colonel Riviera were there to hear from Forrester about what all had happened to them, both women occasionally eyeing each other suspiciously.

  “We had ‘bout twenty-three hundred came with us up the road,” Forrester said, wincing as the organic polymer was applied inside the gaping wound, the brunette woman from earlier there to help soak up the blood. “We musta lost at least a thousand when they attacked us on the road.” He coughed. “We fled intuh the woods. Lotta people got lost. Couldn’t find ‘em. Others died from exposure without proper clothin’ for this weather. An’ after bein’ attacked yesterday night, my count was about four hundred of us.”

  Sachi cleared her throat, “Our count of your people joining us is about three fifty. We lost thirty-seven tonight. That means we’re at about nine hundred fifty total.”

  Forrester moaned in pain before continuing, “We shoulda stayed in Cortez.”

  “If they did this to us here,” Sachi said, “who knows what they might have done there.”

  Forrester looked to Riviera, “why the fuck’s this terrorist woman here, anyway?”

  “Saving your fucking ass,” Olivia cut in, “and sacrificing our own people to do it.”

  “Don’t talk to me ‘bout sacrifice, girl,” he said, “you heard how many people I lost in all this.”

  “That’s what they get for following you,” Olivia said.

  Forrester struggled a moment to try to get up, letting out another moan of pain and sinking back down before saying, “what’re you, like sixteen? Why don’t yuh run off ‘n do your nails and leave soldier’s work for the-”

  “Shut up,” Sachi said impatiently, glancing to Olivia, “both of you.” She looked back to Major Forrester, “how many people do you have with exos and what kind of weapons does everyone else have?”

  “Go ta hell, ya terrorist bitch.”

  “Just fucking answer her,” Colonel Riviera said, “Jesus Christ, look where the fuck we are.”

  “Five,” one of his suited people said, stepping forward. He had his helmet off, brown skin covered in bruises and scrapes, large nose crooked and broken, long black hair tucked into the neck of his exoskeleton. Everyone looked to him expectantly, Forrester with a disgusted look on his face. The man continued, “I’m agent Joaquin Yrid, from Liberty Protection. We still have Corporal Henry Wallace, agents Peter Stone, Francis Davis, and Stephanie Bowen with their exos.”

  “That’s not many,” Rocky said, looking to Sachi.

  “We’ll integrate you into our units,” Sachi said to Yrid.

  “That’s up to the major,” agent Yrid said, looking down at his wounded commander.

  “Like hell we will,” he said, “I ain’t givin’ command over tuh these savages.”

  Sachi looked to me, “you see how it is?” She shook her head and turned back to Forrester, “you’re in no condition to be commanding anyone.”

  “If it ain’t me, it goes to Corporal Wallace,” Forrester said, “but not you.” He turned to Colonel Riviera, “I’d give command over ta you before I gave it to them.”

  I sighed loudly, everyone looking to me.

  “Can we stop bickering about who gets to lead and just lead?” I said. “We’re all trying to get to the same goddamn place. Does it really matter whose ego we jerk off in the process?”

  “For fucks sake,” Forrester said, “how many goddamn kids are there in this terrorist group?”

  “Why don’t you shut your fucking mouth,” Olivia said, “before I tear your fucking throat out.”

  “You don’t have the balls, you little twat,” Forrester said, this time succeeding in sitting up, “shouldn’t you be busy posting selfies with the rest of your airhead friends?”

  Olivia lunged for the man, Rocky and Emma catching her and holding her back as she screamed at him. Forrester grinned, not knowing how close he really was to having his throat torn out.

  “Do whatever the fuck you want,” Sachi said, her voice low but forceful, “I really don’t fucking care who calls themselves the fucking leader. Hea
d back south if you want. I honestly just don’t fucking care anymore. But next time, nobody’s going to hold her back from reaching a hand down your fucking throat and pulling your fucking cock inside out.” At that she walked off, the other forty-eights following along.

  “I wouldn’t dismiss her warning,” I said to Forrester, and then looked up at Colonel Riviera, “some are quickly finding out how cheap a life can be.” I turned and walked away.

  The march continued early in the morning, taking off before the sun had even risen. There were groans and complaints about this, but everyone seemed fine with getting away from where we had been attacked. The bodies were buried in shallow graves, which had taken quite a few people the entire five hours we spent to do in the frozen ground.

  This time Sachi decided to stay in the rearguard. Colonel Riviera went back to the front along with Corporal Henry Wallace and Major Stanley Forrester, who fancied himself in charge.

  “Savita isn’t going to push back against them?” I asked, walking beside Sachi behind everyone else.

  “I told her she can bicker with them if she wants,” Sachi said, gripping the exo helmet in her right hand, unkempt pixie haircut being held down against the breeze by several days worth of sweat and skin oils. “I imagine she doesn’t have any intention of doing so. She’s an effective leader in the field, but she knows her limitations.”

  “You’re hoping Forrester fails, aren’t you?”

  Sachi stayed quiet for a few paces, eyes fixed in front of her, before answering. “That depends what you mean by failing. I certainly don’t want everyone to die.”

  “That’s awfully empathetic of you,” I said.

  “I’m not the monster Forrester and Riviera think I am,” Sachi said, turning her head to look at me, “and I hope you of all people know I’m not that much of a monster, either.”

  I paused for a moment, considering whether or not to say what I wanted. “You also need their support.”

  “It would be easier for me to just fucking leave them all,” Sachi said, “just take my fucking people and run. That’d give Forrester and Riviera what they want, and then everyone would probably get fucking killed.”

  “I don’t mean now,” I said, looking down at the ground as I walked, seeing my exoskeleton boots crunching over dead pine needles, “I mean, you’re going to need their support if and when we get through this. You said yourself that you think people should listen to you.” I looked back up to Sachi. “But these people aren’t rallied to your cause yet. The only reason you gave up leadership is because you know that if Forrester fails and gets half of them killed, you can step in and take over and look like you were right all along.”

  “You’re making a lot of cynical assumptions about me,” Sachi said, not looking at me, “like that I want to take over the LoC and-”

  “You’re starting a conquest in Africa,” I said, “and fanning the flames of war elsewhere so that the Immortal Legion goes unopposed. Laura – your granddaughter from a previous life – you rescued to give Carlito her shares in Sovereign and then kept it a secret from her.”

  “When I found out what they were doing with the chemical in Africa,” Sachi said, “I knew it would be for her own protection not to know.”

  “She’s lying,” a woman’s voice said.

  I looked around, not seeing anyone with us. Evita…

  “I’m here with you,” Evita said.

  “Something wrong?” Sachi asked, furrowing her brow at me.

  “No,” I said, closing my eyes and trying to shake the voice from my head, “I’m fine. Is that really why you’re keeping Laura around? Because she’s your granddaughter?”

  Sachi stayed quiet for a few moments, listening to our exos crunch over the terrain, only unintelligible murmuring from the group reaching us. Finally, she said, “you have your imaginary friend, right?”

  “Evita?”

  “I’m not imaginary,” Evita said. “Can’t you hear me?”

  “Yeah,” Sachi said.

  “What does that have to do with Laura?” I asked.

  “Laura is the imaginary one,” Evita said, “You imagined that she could know you like I can. But I’m the one that’s forever. That’s why you broke up with her.”

  “Not what Laura is,” Sachi said, “but what she represents. She…is like a symbol. From a past life. From a terrible ordeal.”

  “A terrible ordeal?” I asked.

  “Laura’s father…my son,” Sachi said, exhaling slowly, “I was in Berlin in nineteen forty-five. I was only fifteen years into that life when the Soviets invaded. I’ve been in besieged cities before. I’ve been a part of sacks, raids, pillages, and sieges of all sorts, from both sides. But this…it was my welcome to a new type of war. I was raped by a drunken Soviet soldier during the sack of Berlin, and Laura’s father was the result of that. Laura is a memento from that occasion, because it was then that I realized the world was only going to get worse. It was then that I fully accepted why I’m here. Why I exist. I knew then that humans had the capability of causing great suffering, but also the capability of becoming great. All they need is a guardian, a guide, a leader, someone to show them the right direction for greatness.”

  “Sachi,” I said, “we are human. I’ve recently come to realize this. Nothing either of us do will change human nature. Giving them immortality. Giving them an ideology. It’ll all be ruined by human frailty. Whatever we are, we inhabit human minds. Minds not meant for this world.”

  “Then what the fuck do you think we should do?” she asked, “sit back and watch it all go to shit? Maybe you’re right about us being human – I disagree, but for the sake of argument, say we are. You and I both know that we still have a perspective nobody else does, and working together, you and I can be more effective than any mortal human being ever could.”

  “Don’t you think you took the wrong message away from your experience in Berlin?” I asked, “that was an example of people rallying behind a single mind and paying the ultimate price for it. Both the Nazis and the communists.”

  “The problem is that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, all these people were mortal,” Sachi said, “they had flawed ideologies, flawed methodologies, and self-serving egos, because they couldn’t see shit the way you and I can.”

  “So, what you’re doing is to everyone’s benefit,” I said, “you’re confident you have none of those shortcomings?”

  “You’re going to drive her away from you,” Evita said, “but at least you’ll have me.”

  “I probably have some,” Sachi said, “but that’s why I might need you to balance me out. That’s why you and I have to work together.”

  I sighed, “You’re right. We do. At least right now we do.”

  Sachi forced a smile, “you’re right, too. A certain part of me does want Forrester to fail. More than that, I expect him to.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I expect he’ll try to avoid doing what he thinks I would do.”

  “People will die to prove a point,” I said.

  “People will die so others will realize that point,” Sachi said.

  “I wonder who will die first,” Evita said.

  “I bet Austin Ganz dies first,” I responded to her.

  Sachi looked to me with an eyebrow raised, “and I thought I was supposed to be the callous one. Who’s Austin Ganz?”

  I shook my head, “one of the refugees. He went running into battle with guns blazing like a maniac, right after getting on the nerves of Rocky’s company.”

  Sachi laughed, “I’ll take you up on that bet. Put my money on Scott Hardy.”

  “Scott Hardy?” I asked, “that drunk that fired his gun at the cars?”

  “Yep,” Sachi said, grinning, “I’m surprised that guy hasn’t died already.”

  I laughed, “if we bet on them, they’ll probably live the whole way through.”

  “Well, then we’re doing them a favor,” Sachi laughed, “want to put a hundred crypto on it?”
/>   “Hell, might as well,” I said, “I thought about calling this the Mountain March, but now maybe I’ll call it the Wagering Walk.”

  “You sure are a fan of alliteration,” Sachi said.

  I shrugged, “it works.”

  “Whether the propaganda works or not is what’s important isn’t it?” Evita asked, “so if Sachi is the second coming of Hitler, then that would make you her Goebbels then?”

  “That’s not all that matters,” I said.

  “Beg pardon?” Sachi asked.

  A gunshot echoed through the woods. People hollered. Sachi ran forward to join in a defensive formation, throwing her helmet on. I tried putting mine on, dropping it to the ground as another gunshot went off, bending down to pick it up. I grabbed it and bent back up straight, finding a woman standing beside me. I looked over, but she wasn’t there, the sound of Evita’s laughter in my head, fading.

  A bullet struck me in the back, bouncing off the exo suit. I turned, the helmet going lopsided, not clamped down. I aimed the 30 mm, firing a shot at nobody before reaching up to clamp the helmet on.

  “The road’s clear,” Rocky said.

  “Where are they?” Emma asked.

  “I don’t see anyone,” Manny said.

  Everyone stood quiet, no more shots going off, the only sound coming from a crying child. Nobody said anything for several minutes until Sachi said we should get moving again.

  “We can’t go until we find out what that was,” Forrester said over the radio.

  “We need to keep moving,” Sachi said.

  “That might bring us into a trap,” Forrester said.

  “Staying here might be a trap,” Sachi said, “there’s no way of knowing yet.”

  “Are you still trying to give orders around here?” Forrester asked.

  “She’s right,” Riviera said, “we have to keep moving.”

  “Christ, you too?” Forrester asked, “fine, but I want everyone to move further up the hill.”

  “Fine,” Sachi said.

  The refugees started moving again, slower this time. Cautious. We didn’t walk for more than fifteen minutes before more sparse gunshots went off, seeming to come from every direction, the crowd crying out in fear, looking for some place to take cover, finding none. The forty-eights got into defensive positions, LoC Security trying to control the panic, the four Liberty Protection people running off into the woods in the direction of one of the gunshots.