by G J Ogden
There was silence, punctuated by the growl of the wind as it again whipped through the cracks in the walls. And then the silence was shattered by the sound of gunfire as the soldiers unloaded their weapons upon the rangers on the wall.
Summer ducked and pulled Elijah down as splinters of stone danced all around them. The noise was torrential, like a sudden thunderstorm, and Summer could do nothing but cower and wait for the barrage to end. Along the wall she saw two rangers spasm and contort as the bullets ripped through their bodies, then limply fall backwards off the wall and onto the dirt below. Suddenly, anger overwhelmed all of Summer’s other senses and emotions and she screamed. She rose and loosed arrow after arrow in a blur, but it was like trying to crack stone with a twig. Elijah shouted for her to get back down and clambered toward her, grasping at her tunic and trying to pull her to safety, but she was rooted to the spot like the old tree on the mound outside the walls.
The remaining rangers on the wall fell and Elijah finally managed to grab Summer’s belt, pulling her down with all his strength. She screamed at him, as if she herself was maddened, and struggled against his grip, trying again to stand and shoot. Elijah pinned her down with his body weight and held her there in spite of her frenzied demands to let go.
Then the gunfire stopped and was replaced by the rumble of the transport’s engines starting up again. The distraction was enough to allow Summer to shrug off Elijah’s hold and stand again, ready to shoot, but the soldiers had all disappeared back inside their black vehicles.
“Are they leaving?” wondered Elijah, peeking over the shattered wall.
“I think that’s wishful thinking,” said Summer
The transports completed their maneuver and then lined up, one behind the other, in a direct line with the gate.
“Summer, please don’t do anything foolish. We can’t possibly stop them; we have to find another way!”
“You’re in no position to criticize me about acting foolishly.”
The comment stung, especially coming from Summer, but he knew he had to get Summer to hear to him and so let it slide. “But we don’t have to fight in order to resist! Once they realize that Maria isn’t here, they’ll just leave. There’s no other reason they’ve come; they don’t care about us.”
Summer loosened her grip on the bow. Her instinct was always to hit back and fight, but Elijah was right, this was a fight they could not win. “Okay, Elijah, we’ll do it your way.”
Elijah smiled, but the smile quickly faded as the noise from the transports rose to a roar and they began to gain speed at an incredible rate.
“They’re going to smash through the gate!” shouted Elijah, grabbing Summer and running with her along the wall, away from the advancing transports. There was just time for Elijah to call out, “Run! Run!” to those in the settlement square, before the transports rammed through the propped-up gates ripping away chunks of the wall to either side. The shock of the impact rippled along the wall, cracking the mortar that bound the heavy stones together and causing them to collapse under their own immense weight. Elijah was dragged down, narrowly avoiding being buried under heavier stones, while Summer was flung into the square like a misfired arrow and landed in a heap of corpses that had been piled up, ready for burning. The bodies softened her fall, but not by much; she slumped to the bottom of the pile and blacked out; just another body in the stack.
The transports skidded to a halt, grinding deep grooves into the dense, sandy soil of the settlement square, and other than a few scratches and dents to their hardened exteriors, they were undamaged. The doors slid open and UEC soldiers filed out, weapons raised
“Hands on your heads and move to the center!” shouted Lieutenant Nurem. His voice, amplified through his visor, sounded dark and threatening. A ranger reached for his knife, and Nurem levelled his rifle at him and fired without issuing any further warning. The shot rang out crisply and echoed around the settlement square as the ranger fell forward, dead, blood oozing from the hole in the middle of his chest. “Into the center, now!” Nurem called out again, and this time there was no resistance. The other soldiers herded the remaining settlers together and formed a circle around them.
“Throw down your weapons!” Nurem commanded, and the rangers threw down their staffs, knives and bows, and fell to their knees, defeated. They had survived one nightmare, barely, and now faced a potentially even greater threat. Their willingness to fight and resist had crumbled, just like their walls.
Kurren exited the transport, still without his helmet, and moved into the center of circle, brushing past a helmeted soldier as if he were an annoying bush growing in his way. Nurem joined him, flanked by two other soldiers, and then flipped open his visor.
Kurren’s PVSM vibrated, issuing another muted medical alert, but he simply reached down and cancelled it. “My name is General James Kurren,” he said, enjoying the sound of his voice booming around the central square of the settlement. “I now control whether you live or die. Keep that in mind as you answer my questions.”
Nurem was sweeping the barrel of his rifle from person to person, ready to shoot anyone who offered resistance, but the group was strangely silent. They all looked down, deflated, defeated, shoulders hunched. One or two of the rangers flicked their eyes over to look at their dead companion, but not one chanced to meet Kurren’s eyes.
Elijah had also been herded into the circle; he looked around for Summer, careful to keep his head low, but she was not among the others, and he felt suddenly very alone. He was afraid, even more so than when he had ventured outside the wall to rescue the fallen runner, and realized the maddened would reach him before he could get to safety, but without Summer, he felt it fell to him to make these invaders understand there was nothing here for them. He wished that Summer was here to speak up instead; he had always envied her fearlessness. He took a deep breath, lifted his head and addressed Kurren directly. “You should leave, Maria Salus is not here.”
Katie’s head was down, but she recognized Elijah’s voice like a mother hearing a new-born baby’s cries. “Elijah, what are you doing, be silent!” she urged, talking under her breath.
Kurren examined the young man who had spoken up. His insolence irritated him, but the mention of Maria Salus had reawakened the rage inside him that had been become contained during the journey to the settlement. He stepped closer and peered down at him. “I’m not sure I quite heard you, boy. What did you say?”
Elijah wanted to look down, and to apologize and slink back into the shadows, but he had committed now, so he held Kurren’s gaze, trembling. “I said that you should leave,” he said, and though his body was shaking, his voice did not. “We know you’re looking for the female pilot. She did come, but no-one knows where she went. So there is nothing for you here.”
Katie could stay silent no longer. “Elijah be quiet, please!”
Kurren’s eyes flicked across to the older woman and then back to Elijah. “Let me guess… mother?” A cruel smile curled his lips. The blood drained from Elijah’s face.
“Take her!” barked Kurren.
The two soldiers who had entered with Nurem sprang forward, each taking Katie by an arm, and dragged her out in front of the others.
“No!” Elijah cried, and scrambled forward, reaching to pull his mother away from the soldier’s grasp, but he was met with the butt of Nurem’s rifle slamming into the side of his head. He fell and his eyes darkened; for a moment he heard no sounds and saw only a dim and blurry image of his mother, being forced to her knees with the barrel of a rifle aimed at her head. He felt himself being hauled upright onto his knees and then the side of his face stung as Nurem slapped him. The blow roused him and his vision brightened, but in front of him now was the face of General Kurren.
“In case I was not clear the first time,” Kurren bellowed, “let me explain what happens to those who defy me,” and he drew his sidearm and placed it to Katie’s head.
“No, please no!” Elijah screamed. He buried his
head in his hands, unable to look, waiting for the gunshot he hoped would not come.
Kurren smiled, not from any cruel sense of pleasure, but a detached satisfaction at exerting his power and getting his own way. “Hold him!” he ordered.
Elijah was grabbed from behind and dragged out beside Katie. Nurem moved behind Elijah and seized a thick tuft of his hair, pulling his head back, while also pressing his knee into Elijah’s back, forcing him to look up. He saw his mother with the weapon pressed to her head and he almost vomited.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” he called to her, tears welling in his eyes. “It’ll be okay, don’t worry…”
“Not so brave now, are we boy?” Kurren said. “Now, do I have your obedience?”
Tears flowed down Elijah’s cheeks and fell onto his ranger’s tunic. “Yes, I’m sorry, please don’t hurt her!” he sobbed.
“Good,” said Kurren. “We are making some progress then. Release him.”
Nurem threw Elijah forward, forcing his face into the dirt. He scrambled to his feet, spitting out sand and gravel and held on to his mother. Both of them were shaking uncontrollably, faces wet with tears.
Kurren was not paying attention to the reunion, however. The corpse of a maddened creature lying just inside the circle had distracted his attention. He examined the cadaver with morbid curiosity, studying its elongated face, mottled gray skin and glassy black eyes, which looked blankly up into the orange sky. He turned the creature’s face from side to side with the toe of his boot; he knew he should feel repulsed by it, even scared of it, but he felt nothing. To him, it was merely a thing. Then he turned to Elijah, and though his face was partially buried in his mother’s shoulder, he was also watching, terrified of what Kurren might do next.
“So, you fought these... things,” Kurren said with a hint of admiration, his powerful voice electrifying the space between them like lightning connecting sky to ground. He then kicked the creature as if testing to see if it were still alive. “In many ways, these are our own creation.” He observed the creature for several seconds longer, and then slowly stepped nearer to Elijah. With each thud of Kurren’s boots on the hard dirt surface, Elijah’s pulse rose higher and higher. “But, as fierce as this enemy is, it does not care about living or dying,” said Kurren, adopting a strange, almost scholarly tone. “It is just a creature of instinct. It doesn’t crave victory over defeat. It desires nothing; cares for nothing. It will not exploit your weaknesses. It will not torture you to extract information. It will not kill your family in order to get what it wants.” Kurren paused and then dealt a powerful kick to the ranger’s shoulder, separating him from his mother, who crumpled to the dirt at Kurren’s feet. He raised his weapon to her head. “But I will,” and then he fired.
Elijah cried out as the shot echoed around the walls of the settlement, and the lifeless body of his mother slumped to the dirt, blood pouring from her skull. He clawed across the dirt to reach her again, and Kurren let him, watching impassively as the young ranger wept uncontrollably, screaming incomprehensible words into the dead woman’s ears while shaking her in a desperate bid to revive her. He then hugged her tightly and rocked back and forth, all under the watchful gaze of General James Kurren, who felt nothing, except satisfaction that his supreme authority had been established.
From across the settlement square, Elijah’s cries penetrated Summer’s unconscious mind as she lay in the dirt at the foot of the pile of corpses. She came to her senses, and pushed herself up, still only vaguely aware of her surroundings, and unaware that Katie lay dead on the ground nearby. She rubbed her eyes and was fuzzily aware of the throng of activity in the center of the settlement grounds. Slowly, awareness began to return, and her senses came back into sharper focus. It was then she saw Elijah, holding someone close and rocking steadily. Suddenly, she remembered the soldiers, and the transports ramming the gate, and fear and adrenalin surged throughout her body, accelerating her thoughts and reflexes. She jumped up and sprinted towards Elijah, pushing through the outer circle of soldiers before any of them could react, springing forward like the string of a bow. And then she stopped as suddenly as an arrow thudding into a tree, as she saw the limp, bloodied body of Katie in Elijah’s arms.
“Not so fast, red hair,” said Kurren, twisting the barrel of the weapon in her direction.
Summer did not see the weapon; she only saw the blood. “No!” she screamed. “No! You bastard, why?!” She surged towards Kurren, but she had not seen Nurem, who stepped between them and thumped his rifle into her ribs. She staggered back, holding her side, and then glared murderously at Nurem, who now had the barrel of the rifle aimed at her head.
“Temper, temper, red hair,” said Kurren, mocking her.
Summer drew a knife from her belt, and instantly a dozen rifles were raised against her in near-perfect synchronization; the clatter of armored gloves striking metal hung in the air. But Summer didn’t care; she was going to gut this man, even if she died doing it.
“Summer, don’t!” sobbed Elijah. “He’ll kill you!”
“Hold!” Kurren called out, raising a hand. The command came just in time, and Nurem released the pressure on his trigger. Had a strong gust of wind blown across his hand a second earlier, he would have already fired.
“Your name is Summer?” queried Kurren.
“What of it, you murdering swine?”
Kurren smiled and lowered his weapon. “Congratulations, red hair, you’ll be pleased to hear that you’ve just become too valuable to kill.”
Kurren now had the collateral he needed to flush out Maria and get his revenge. He would trade the red-head for Maria Salus, knowing that his enemy would not let the partner of the planetsider be killed in front of his eyes, if she could prevent it. Her compassion would again be her weakness and her downfall, he thought, smugly.
“Drop the knife, girl, or you friend down there will be the next to receive a bullet in the head.”
Summer glanced across at Elijah, holding his dead mother; she let out a cry of fury and frustration, and then threw down the knife at Kurren’s feet.
“Don’t be angry, red hair,” said Kurren, stepping closer and then reaching out and letting Summer’s long red hair fall through his fingers. “Once I get Salus, you and the rest of this pathetic band will be spared. That is until I return again to claim this planet.”
Summer slapped Kurren’s hand away, and was again struck in the side by Nurem. She fell to her knees, coughing through labored breaths.
“Stay down, girl,” said Nurem looming over her, with the barrel of his rifle inches from Summer’s head.
Summer grabbed the rifle and pulled Nurem off balance, and then before he could recover, she rose up and kicked him hard in the groin. Nurem cried out in agony and collapsed in a heap, but the victory was transient as Summer was struck to the head and knocked onto her back. An anonymous, masked soldier aimed down at her, looking to Kurren for instructions, but the General just grinned and waved for him to stand down.
“Finally, someone with true backbone,” Kurren said, though it did not sound like a compliment. “But you’ll do what I want in the end, red hair.”
Summer got to her knees and spat blood onto the dirt. Her body ached in more places than she could count, but she was too full of anger to feel much pain. She stood tall again in front of Kurren, and wiped blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. “I don’t care what you want,” she said, staring into the general’s murky, narrow eyes, “you will rot and die on this desolate planet before I ever help you!”
Kurren lashed Summer across the face with his pistol; she tasted blood again and felt a tooth resting on her tongue, but this time she did not fall. She spat out the tooth and a mouthful of blood, which landed on Kurren’s boot, where the tooth lay like a maggot emerging from dead flesh. “Is that the best you’ve got?” she sneered, making sure to say it loud enough for the other soldiers to hear. “With such weakness, it’s no wonder your wife left you.”
Kurr
en’s face twisted and he pressed the weapon to Summer’s chest, adding pressure to the trigger. Kurren had become emotionally indifferent to anything but the need to kill Maria Salus, but this girl’s goading insult had awakened a new wrath inside him.
Summer was aware of Elijah pleading for her to stop, but she was deaf to his cries. She would rather die than help Kurren. She would not bend to his will but if she was to die at his hand, she would do it spitting in his face. “Do it, you coward!” she urged. “Do it!”
“She’s pregnant!” Elijah shouted through anguished sobs. “She’s carrying Ethan’s child. If you kill her, you’ll never get what you want from Maria!”
Summer’s face burned and she forced her eyes shut. Damn it, Elijah, you should have let him kill me…
Elijah had only found out by accident, catching the end of a conversation between her and Katie a few weeks ago. Besides Ethan, Katie was the only person that Summer would confide in. It had been clear from the tone of the conversation that Summer was scared, and this shocked Elijah more than the news of the baby, because nothing scared Summer. Not roamers, not the maddened, not even death. She was a raw power of nature that could not be tamed. So when the door opened and it was obvious that Elijah had overheard the conversation, Summer had sworn him to secrecy.
Kurren had heard Elijah’s words, but still he added pressure to the trigger. He desperately wanted to kill this woman, but the mention of Maria Salus had given him pause. If he killed Summer, he could lose his chance for vengeance. He lowered the weapon and stepped back.
“I still won’t help you,” said Summer, “and you’ll be forced to kill me, and my unborn child. Not that such an act would trouble a pitiful bully like you.”
Kurren’s eye twitched and he again fought back the urge to shoot her. She was right, it made no difference that she was with child; it was just another pathetic life that clung to existence on this festering rock like a virus. They were all a disease, no better than the genetically deformed, and in time, he would cleanse the whole rotten planet of them, like curing an infection. But for now he needed her alive, at least until he’d taken his revenge against Salus, and then he would kill her, and relish in the act. In the meantime, however, he could not stand for her impudence. The men needed to see that no-one could stand in his way without suffering consequences.