Aurora (The Exodus Trilogy)

by Andreas Christensen

  He saw Kim Leffard talking to Dean over by the well. Dean looked like he was on his way out again. While Thomas and Ben and a few other teams each scouted their designated area, mainly south of the Stronghold, Dean and his team still searched the north. It was paramount that they knew the land better than the soldiers, so Thomas was all for it, even though there were grumblings that they needed every armed body between here and the soldiers. Well, he concluded, they would always be short of manpower, but it wouldn’t matter. Knowing this land like the back of their hand would prove more valuable than manpower once this war dragged on. It was how guerrillas fought, and how they won.

  He didn’t envy Dean, leaving his woman so soon. They all knew the horrors Kim had seen back on the Trickler, and Thomas knew that even though she played tough, the sights must have made an impression. She had told them the story, made sure everyone knew the sacrifice Admiral Hamilton and his people had made. Just before that devastating moment, when the soldiers fired their awful weapons, the admiral had sent Kim and two others away, knowing that whatever happened to them needed to be told. Then the soldiers, led by Ramon Solis, of all people, had loosed their deadly poison upon the north bank and massacred every living thing in the area. While watching her companions die, she had stumbled onto Ben and a couple of other kids, who seemed eager to fight. Kim had talked them out of it, and together they had hurried north to report what they had seen.

  Thomas still had difficulty accepting the sort of cruelty that had taken place on the Trickler, but he’d been there a few days later, and seen it with his own eyes. In that moment, he realized that what had happened to the admiral would be the end waiting for them all, if they didn’t keep the soldiers away from here. The thought filled him with determination.

  Although the mood in the Stronghold was down at the moment, everyone seemed busy building something or another. It was still winter, and though they had a decent supply, they needed the greenhouse supplements soon. So getting a greenhouse up and running was the first priority for those not taking part in the patrols securing the area. Housing was another priority, and a few cabins were already in the making, proof that this would be the future settlement for the refugees from Port Hammer.

  Everyone had expected Admiral Hamilton to be their leader, to guide them through this struggle, and lead them toward independence from Fort Andrews or to some arrangement that would give them the freedom they all desired. Now that he was dead, that role had fallen on Major Hammer. Tina had proven herself capable since leading the refugees from Port Hammer, and besides, the fact that she had been the main force behind the abandoned town was evidence that she had what it took to be a leader. Nevertheless, Thomas got the impression she didn’t want that kind of leadership. That she would do her duty, and lead them through war, though she didn’t want this new role pushed on her by outside events. He sighed. They all had roles and tasks to fulfill that they hadn’t chosen. So what? The situation demanded that they embraced their roles, and did what was necessary. He had no doubt Tina would as well.

  Thomas looked around and smiled. Everyone seemed busy, and he had a good feeling about this place. Even before coming here, people had started calling it the Stronghold in the North, or simply the Stronghold. In time, Thomas thought it might even stick for a name. It truly was a stronghold, and he admired Dean for finding it, and under the tight pressure of the flight from Port Hammer, realizing that this would be the best possible spot. It was well hidden by the mountains, with only one entry point to the south, now being guarded by heavily armed men and women, who would see an enemy coming hours before they arrived. Mountains surrounded the Stronghold, and if they needed to, there were several escape routes leading further north. The mountains formed a valley that was much larger than the Stronghold itself, so there was room to expand, and a lake formed the focal point of several rivers leading water down from a glacier to the west. Another, wide river flowed complacently north from the lake, and Thomas thought it might lead all the way to the ocean. There was animal life here as well, and both rat monkeys and green deer had been spotted. One of the men had said there was a sizeable herd of green deer that would prove a nice supplement to their supplies as soon as they could get a hunt going. Thomas had never tasted its meat, but if it had any resemblance to deer back on Earth, it would be something to look forward to.

  Maria had talked about their prospects here a few nights ago while sitting by the fire, talking for the first time since they both left Fort Andrews. She had said that the terrain close to the Stronghold looked like it could be cleared for farming. She knew such things, and he loved listening to her talk about soil nutrients, irrigation systems and, seed hardiness. He had no idea what most of it meant, he just liked to hear her voice. He had realized a while ago that he loved her, but still he couldn’t make himself tell her. But something in her voice, in the way she cocked her head and smiled at him, made him believe the feeling might actually be mutual. He didn’t dare dream though, not yet, not while things were as they were. Besides, she had enough on her mind. Thomas knew she had heard of her father’s role in the massacre. He had trouble believing it himself, as the Ramon Solis he knew was no war criminal, not someone you’d expect to unleash mass murder as he had that day on the Trickler. Thomas didn’t think Ramon could be responsible for that. Besides, there were other issues about which Havelar had kept his friend in the dark as well. Thomas knew the breeding part of the Human Expansion Program was something only a few were allowed to know about, and Ramon was not one of them. He didn’t think Ramon would have taken on the role of commanding the military detachment if he’d known how Havelar meant to use Maria and so many others to breed “perfect babies.” More likely, Ramon would have taken his wife and fled north to his daughter, aghast at his former friend’s lunacy.

  Maria had almost come to blows with Ben when he’d cursed her father’s name loudly and vowed revenge for what he’d done. It had taken Tina all her authority to make them go their separate ways. Afterward, he’d heard Tina give Ben a verbal lashing, telling him that Maria in no way had any responsibility for her father’s deeds, and that she would have no talk of revenge. They would have their justice sooner or later, but it would be just that — justice, not outright revenge.

  Thomas noticed Maria stayed mostly by herself, limiting her company to Tina, Kenneth, and Geena, and he thought she looked lonely. He wanted so badly to comfort her, to tell her that she was loved, that he wanted to hold her… He shook his head at his own foolishness. They had a war to win first. Then they would have to build their peace and plan for the future. Only then.

  BEN WATERS

  The column was moving slowly. The soldiers had abandoned the snowmobiles in the steep terrain, treading carefully uphill. Half an hour ago, one of them had moved too close to the edge of the path, making snow and gravel fall into thin air. That elicited muffled laughter by a few of the grunts before an officer snapped a reprimand that silenced them all. Except for the one who had almost fallen, none of them seemed nervous. After taking Port Hammer, they had no reason to be. They were armed to the teeth, and the force led by Admiral Hamilton had been slaughtered on the Trickler.

  Ben, Lisa, and Drew had been watching them since yesterday. The soldiers who had massacred the admiral and his defenders had split up into three columns to cover a larger area, but that also made them more vulnerable. Still, there were at least twenty-five just in this column, and although military habit kept them cautious, they had no reason to expect serious opposition any more. Ben looked over at Lisa cradling her weapon on his right, and grinned. The soldiers were in for a surprise.

  Ben was still disappointed they hadn’t made it in time. The poison gas had made it impossible to enter the killing ground on the north bank of the Trickler, so they had stayed up in the hills, to wait and observe. There they had stumbled onto Kim Leffard’s team, who had just escaped. Together, they had decided to head back to the Stronghold. The soldiers from Fort Andrews had already entered Port Hamme
r, to search and eventually torch it to the ground. Tina had had a few choice words with him when they returned, but he didn’t care. He was in it for real now, and her words had no effect on him, and so he had told her. After a heated argument, she finally agreed to let them scout the southern Rockies.

  The soldiers probably knew they were getting closer to the refugees from Port Hammer, and planned to surround them. Ben would have none of it. His new capabilities also sharpened his perception and reflexes, and he could see the moment they had been waiting for coming closer with every step the soldiers took. He had owed the admiral his life for allowing them on board the Exodus. Now he would have his revenge.

  The soldiers were less than sixty meters away, and Ben took aim at the officer who had reprimanded the grunt just a moment earlier. Dean Johnson had given him an AMR-17B, with a folding stock and a shorter barrel than the more common military-issue AMR-17 that the soldiers carried. It wasn’t much use for long-range shooting, but in the tight confines of this terrain, the weapon was perfect. Ben, Lisa, and Drew were about ten meters higher up, but the wooded terrain hid them well. It would prove less useful for cover once the shooting started, so they relied heavily on surprise and speed. It seemed they still had the element of surprise on their side, and the parasite or whatever it was gave them all the speed they could dream of. He saw Lisa lightly touching the trigger on her rifle, and when he turned to his left, Drew had his rifle up as well, aimed at the rear of the column, as was their plan. Ben inhaled deeply and held his breath for a couple of seconds to steady his aim. His pulse felt almost slow, with none of the adrenaline-induced nervousness he’d experienced the last time he saw combat. He squeezed his finger slowly, almost without thinking, feeling the light resistance of the trigger giving way. He saw the head of the officer explode, and he moved his aim slightly and fired his second and third rounds even before the soldiers managed to react. He was at one with his rifle and didn’t even hear the shouts and screams from below. He picked off another, and another, before he finally emptied the magazine into the column in a long burst. Then he rolled back, ejected the magazine, and inserted another. He took the rifle in his right hand, and drew a long hunting knife from its holster to carry in his left. He took a few steps to the left, then jumped through the brush, screaming at the top of his lungs. He ran forward squeezing off shots into the column. In his peripheral vision, he saw Lisa and Drew had also stepped forward, firing as they went. He sped up and stood face to face with a stunned soldier, who never reacted as Ben plunged the knife into his stomach, crushing his nose with his own forehead. The blood splattered him, making him look even more ferocious. His own blood surged through his veins, heightening his every sense, but he wasn’t nervous. He wanted to kill. There was nothing he’d rather do than kill every one of the soldiers, and it looked as though he would get his wish. He threw away his empty rifle and used his knife, hacking and slashing away at the panicked soldiers. Every time one of them managed to get his weapon up, Ben would duck, as if he knew where the shots would go. He was invincible, nothing could touch him. He probably could have killed them all by himself, but with Lisa and Drew, things just went more quickly.

  “Ben! Ben! They’re all dead!” he heard Drew’s voice fading in. He stopped himself, keeping his grip on the knife, knuckles white, as he stood there over the dead bodies. Then he looked around. There was no one left. For just a split second, he felt an overwhelming urge to turn on Drew, interrupting him like that. Whatever that was, he suppressed it quickly, and then he slowly seemed to come to himself again. It was as if someone else had done the killing. He shook it off, but still he felt almost scared...of himself.

  “Hey look!” Lisa whispered, pointing to a bush a few steps away, close to where the officer had stood when Ben shot him. Something was moving. They all walked over, wary. As they came closer, someone, a man, peered out, eyes wide and face dirty. He’d probably buried it in the snow and dirt, trying to escape the reality of the slaughter.

  “Please, d… don’t…” he said, before Lisa planted a boot on his shoulder, pushing him backwards

  “Scum…” she said, eyes narrowing as she tightened her grip on her newly reloaded weapon.

  “Wait!” Drew said.

  “It’s Ramon Solis!” Drew carefully pushed the barrel of Lisa’s gun away from the man.

  “We’ll bring him back to the Stronghold. Let Tina decide what to do about him.” Ben pushed Drew aside and spat in the man’s face.

  “So you had to kill them all, did you?” When the man didn’t answer, he smiled briefly.

  “Doesn’t matter, really. You’re a war criminal. You’ll die for it,” he said, turning away, as Drew and Lisa hoisted him to his feet to take him away.

  RAMON SOLIS

  Ramon was afraid and tired. He was sitting alone in the darkness, just a thin sliver of light getting through the cracks between the sturdy logs. There was no chance of escape, and frankly he had no desire to attempt it either. He’d been here for at least two weeks, since being captured by those kids. They scared him. The blood lust he’d seen, especially in the oldest, was like nothing he’d expected. And the way they moved, their unnatural strength… As if they were on some kind of drug, only he didn’t think they were. The longer he thought about it, the more convinced he was that it had something to do with the fact that none of them were wearing facemasks. They were breathing the air of Aurora, and somehow that must have given them these abilities. When he thought about it, he almost removed his own mask, but then he thought of how out of control they had been. He was lucky to be alive, and if it hadn’t been for the other boy, he’d surely never have been captured alive and brought here.

  He squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to think about what had happened back on the Trickler. Ramon hadn’t slept a full night since, and he often woke up screaming in the night. The things he saw after pleading with Admiral Hamilton to back down had devastated him. He never knew about the gas. When he got no reply from his last offer of surrender, that mean-looking soldier, Major Carroll, had taken charge and ordered the special weapons brought out. Major Carroll had looked smug as the soldiers loaded the rockets onto the launchers, but he’d said nothing. Only after they had shelled the north bank, had he told Ramon. Ramon had been furious, but by then, he was too deeply entrenched to do anything. Besides, the north bank had gone completely quiet. They had waited until the next day before crossing the Trickler, to let the deadly vapors fade away. The sight that had met them had been awful, and even some of the soldiers looked sickened by it. He’d cursed Carroll, but the major had simply dismissed him. It was then he fully realized that he had no say in anything. He was completely shut out from all decision-making, and Havelar had simply used him as a tool. Still, he’d been part of it, and now he would face the consequences.

  It wasn’t just the gas, or his own role in Havelar’s deranged schemes he’d become aware of in the last couple of weeks. He’d had several conversations with both Tina Hammer, as well as Thomas Dunn, who had proven to be a spy of sorts, working from within the administration until the last minute. It seemed Tina trusted him enough to have let him into her circle. Through these conversations, he’d learned of Havelar’s nukes, which hadn’t really surprised him. What had shocked him to the core though, was when Thomas Dunn explained to him the real extent of the Human Expansion Program, the plans involving his daughter among others. Thomas told him that Havelar meant to create a core of elite super humans, bred from crossing the best genes available, in order to speed up evolution. Ramon had been shocked to hear of it, especially since his own daughter was to be one of the breeding stock.

  Thinking of Maria always calmed him. She had visited him twice, and it had been good to see her again. She still saw him as a father, not a war criminal, and treated him as such. He was under no illusions as to his fate. He would face severe punishment, but Maria gave him hope that one day, there might be reconciliation.

  A week ago, he’d had a visit from Kenneth Taylor,
the psychologist, who apparently had brought Maria to Port Hammer after she’d witnessed the shooting inside Andrews. Initially, Ramon had been wary of the shrink, still believing to some extent that his daughter had been coerced along. Then, as he slowly realized that Maria had been afraid, and rightfully so, he had to pay attention and change quite a few of his preconceptions. And as he learned that Dr. Taylor had simply helped her escape those who would harm her, he finally warmed to the older man. Kenneth Taylor struck him as an extremely intelligent man, while harder than first impressions made it seem. Taylor seemed cool-headed, rational, but with a distinct sense of fairness. Nothing seemed more important to the black-bearded professor than seeking out the truth and gaining an understanding of the motivations, both Ramon’s and Havelar’s. While the others, except Maria of course, seemed to quickly make up their minds about Ramon and his role back on the Trickler, Taylor seemed open to hearing his version in detail, and genuinely interested in Ramon’s thoughts on the situation.

  Sitting there alone in the darkness was slowly making him slide deeper and deeper into depression. He had failed. Not that he cared even slightly about his mission; serving Havelar was the furthest thing from his mind right now. And to be honest with himself, it had been for some time. Taking command of the soldiers had had nothing to do with that, though bringing unity to Aurora had been a motivation of sorts. But there were other, more important issues he cared about. His deepest failure was toward his wife and his daughter. Isabella was all alone in Fort Andrews now. Who knew what she thought or what she would be told. And his daughter… Nothing he could do would change the fact that he had sided with those who would hurt her, use her in some deranged breeding program. Thinking about it made him shiver. He’d read about the Nazis in school, ancient history of course, but he recalled reading about something similar back then.