by Jim Spencer
He stopped there and sighed, as if he couldn’t bear to remember the event. Arion didn’t need telling further and Cordell didn’t say. Instead he went on, ‘After that, I decided to read up on the history. As soon as I finished reading, the books were demolished and not entered into our historical archives. This only confirmed what I had been feeling for a while. Once that was done, I decided to dedicate my time to helping people. It’s probably only because of me that no tribesmen killed you when they saw me.’
‘They remembered you?’
Cordell nodded.
‘Father did mention he recognised you. You seemed to have a good rapport with him,’ Sana spoke,
‘We were young men back then. I suppose I was less of an asshole now.’
‘When did this happen?’ Arion asked.
‘About 40 years ago,’
‘Did you ever find his body?’ Sana asked.
He shook his head. They drove along in silence as they got to the edge of the border and saw a great steep downward hill, which used to be the ocean. This was their journey, and Arion knew, they were in ground zero of the nargus homeland.
*
The soldiers made their way across the terrain. A batTalion of civil country were in front of them. They began to slow their vehicles as they saw the six of them walking down the dangerous terrain. This was bad news for everyone. Elijah pressed a sensor he had in his hand, which everyone agreed would be used if danger was close by to them. He knew the message would be received by Ruto and he would be able to take action.
‘Let’s slow down,’ he told the rest. They raised their arms and waited for the vehicles to slow down. When they finally did, two soldiers came out of the vehicle. Marcel recognised him straight away as an old rival of his,
‘Well well well,’ he sneered at them, ‘If it isn’t the great betrayers of civil country.’
‘We’re not betrayers,’ Nicholas spoke
‘Oh yeah? What then, Cordell not protecting you no more?’
‘Cordell’s dead.’
‘Really?’ He seemed surprised, ‘I never thought he would go down that easy.’
‘Neither did we,’ Marcel spoke this time, ‘The fucking bastards backstabbed us.’
‘Hmmm. We’ll see about that.’
‘Well let’s face it. If we were defying you, why would we come up to you unarmed?’ Terence asked.
‘I don’t know. I’ve seen you guys be unarmed before and get out.’
‘Well, make your move then. Hell, I’ll even let you shoot me. At least I’ll be happy one of my own took me down rather than an enemy.’
This seemed to take an effect on the officer, who seemed to recede a little,
‘Ok then. We’ll bring you in,’ he ordered one of the cruisers to go back to civil country so they could face trial.
‘Fair enough,’ Patrick spoke.
‘Great, the village idiot can speak,’ the soldier mocked
‘Hey, I din’ no what the fuck were goin’ on, did I?’
‘No, you probably didn’t. Fair enough, bring them in.’
Against all odds, Patrick had given them the edge, they made their way into the carriage. Although deep down they knew a trial wasn’t going to happen, but as long as they were alone with these soldiers, that was all they needed.
*
A message came through on his sensor. He knew what needed to be done.
‘Get our troops together,’ Ruto ordered.
‘I’m not sure we have enough weapons.’
‘Our few weapons are far more superior. The GP-002 should do.’
‘How do you want to go about it?’
‘Let them come. We’ll face them all off. They’re not taking us out without a fight.’
His comrade sent a message via the same sensor to the mainframe computer that they were connected to. The sirens would sound and everyone would know what to do. Or so he hoped.
*
‘How far are we?’ Sana asked.
‘A good couple of day’s travelling by this vehicle,’ Cordell answered.
‘We’ll get there,’
‘There might be an issue,’ Cordell pointed out. They looked ahead and saw danger. An entire herd of nargus were gathered in front and the ground had suddenly become spongy.
‘What do you mean ‘spongy’’? Arion asked.
‘I mean, that we are driving on top of one of them, and I’ve got no idea how big it is.’
‘Shit. Stop the vehicle’
‘That’s not a good idea, Arion. We only have three weapons between us. Nowhere near enough to get rid of these creatures.’
‘Depends how we use it.’
‘What do you mean?’ Cordell asked.
‘Stop the vehicle.’
He stopped the vehicle and looked around. The Nargus in the distant seemed to be gliding in his direction. There was a certain majesty to their movement, almost hypnotic. He had to take his gaze away from their eyes, because he knew that could be dangerous. It was as if they were looking into the souls of men. It was no wonder that some people in the olden ages considered them to be Gods. He looked towards Arion.
‘So what’s the plan?’
‘You’ll see.’
‘I hope you know what you’re doing.’
Chapter 18
The vehicle was moving slowly from the outside. The truck was making its way back to civil country. As the glass pane above came into a distant view, a small patch of blood splattered on the screen. Inside the vehicle itself, mayhem brewed. The soldiers were in a war for power. Patrick and the others were already free of their handcuffs. How they had managed to do that no one knew, though there was a small pin shining in the distance.
As the final comrade fell, Nicholas took hold of the steering. He glided the vehicle forward and put it on auto drive. That would help to elude from any pursuing eyes.
‘That was easier than I thought,’ Elijah commented.
‘Now comes the hard part. How the hell are we going to get into civil country beyond the front gate?’ Terence asked.
‘We could crash ourselves through, use the GP-002.’
‘Yeah, but we only have one of these,’ Marcel pointed out.
‘And when has that ever stopped us?’ Patrick asked.
‘I suppose never,’ Luke answered, one of the few occasions he ever spoke. They were closing in on civil country and about to declare open war on their own people. Exciting times, as Cordell would put it.
*
‘Does the mini-helipad still work?’ Arion asked.
‘Yes,’ Cordell answered, but it’s only designed for two.’
‘That’s ok. I can squeeze in,’ Sana answered.
‘Either way, not much choice. Put the weapon in the middle and point it east,’
‘Why east?’ Sana asked.
‘It’s the direction the Nargus are in,’ and he left it at that, with Sana’s somewhat confused expression. They made their way into the helipad, with Sana choosing to sit down on his lap. He couldn’t help but smile smugly as she sat there and even Cordell seemed to be enjoying what he saw.
‘Now now. Do I need to leave the room?’ He leered.
‘Come on, Cordell. You know it’s only because there’s no room,’ Arion tried to reason.
‘Oh yeah. I can see that,’ though he was still smiling. They opened the top hatch and made their way out of the trailer. As they came up, Arion noticed something. The spongy surface that they were on was only one of the tentacles of the Nargus closest to them. These were all adults. He had placed a remote detonator on the GP-002 to enable him to fire at them.
He had made a minor amendment however. In the console, he added a small piece of lithium. He was hoping his theory was correct. If it was, they had to get out of the way fast. The Nargus began to come close to them. As the helipad gained speed, they had no choice but to begin shooting. As more teenage Nargus began to drop like flies, others came in, swaying through the air like horrific birds with cat like eyes.
>
Cordell was in charge of the flying and Arion was simply aiming wildly wherever he could. The more he took down, the more came towards him. There were simply too many of them. But one thing happened then, which was unexpected. The adult Nargus, whom the vehicle was resting upon, moved.
At first it seemed a great distance away. But as it came up, they realised that it simply kept on rising towards them. They were about twenty metres in the air at this point, a surprisingly short pace to where they should have been. It was nowhere the distance it should have been, but they had no choice. Arion pressed the switch.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Cordell screamed at him.
‘We haven’t got a choice, Cordell.’
Below him as the giant Nargus aimed for them, the explosion happened from within the trailer. Just as he expected, the lithium within the Higgs Boson, created an implosion. They had a mere few seconds to get away. In that moment, as one of the Nargus’s limbs became unstable, it lashed at them with the other. However, with it falling, it was only able to scrape the edge, but it was enough to open one end of the helipad up. Arion’s leg was sticking out in the air as the implosion increased and came towards them at a dangerous pace. He had absolutely no idea if they were going to survive this.
‘Well kid. It was nice knowing you!’ Cordell screamed as the implosion finally hit them, forcing the helipad to shoot straight up in the air.
*
There were some soldiers in the distance. They were clearly from civil country. Ruto knew just from the way they were walking. He signalled to his dozen tribesmen to come forth. After a small plan, they handed the GP weapons to Ruto, who gave them to two other trusted people.
‘We’ll begin to take them out from behind,’ he began.
‘What about the women and children?’ one asked.
‘We will get to them eventually. We have to start somewhere. Work from the outside and come in. Aim for the heart on each one.’
‘And you only shoot once right?’ another one asked.
‘Yes, just like in training.’
‘I prefer knives,’ one said.
‘We don’t have time for knives, young one,’ Ruto reminded him.
‘Ok, let’s go.’
They went in three separate directions, with the fourth coming in behind the rest to take out any stragglers. As the army began to be taken down, more soldiers came out. The dozen were able to do in one moment what an entire would have taken days to do and with such precision it was frightening. There was now a whole new meaning to warfare. People would stand in place as one, two and sometimes up to six who were standing in line would be taken out by simply stopping their hearts on the spot.
The stragglers would come back and simply stab the heart, just in case someone decided to revive them. As the army was finally taken out, the final stragglers took over the vehicles to take out the last few. No one else was harmed except the ones who were harming. Eventually, the remaining soldiers were all gathered together.
‘What do we do with the bodies?’ one of the tribesmen asked.
‘Give them a burial,’ Ruto answered, which was the only thing he could give. He had no interest in making an example of anyone.
‘Ok people. You are what is left of the fleet that attacked my people. Who else is coming?’ He figured being direct was the best approach. Unfortunately, this didn’t work as no one bothered to answer him.
‘That’s fine,’ he continued, ignoring their contempt, ‘if you wish to leave and go home, then we will let you go.’
Again no one answered, but simply gave him defiant looks of pure hatred. This finally made Ruto snap,
‘No. What the hell is wrong with you people? I’m trying to talk to you in a humane manner and you can’t even give me the courtesy of answering me? Is this what your mothers taught you to be like?’
‘Better than what your mothers taught you,’ one finally answered,
‘Oh, you can speak. I was starting to think you were all deaf.’
‘We can hear you, village herder.’
‘What did you say?’ Ruto was getting angry now and it was beginning to show on his face. Anyone else would have whimpered on the spot, but this soldier seemed determined in his claim of superiority.
‘You heard me scumbag. You guys don’t know anything. The only reason you won today was because of this weapon that limp-dick scientist gave you.’
‘And how did we know you were in this village then?’ Ruto asked him.
‘Blind luck. You’re all the fucking same. I don’t want your mercy dickface. I’d rather be killed by you. I’ll die happily.’
‘That’s entirely up to you. I suppose I can do that.’
‘Oh, you can, can you? Look at you, with your calm demeanour, standing there keeping a simple monotone going on. Pretending to show to me that you’re merciful. You’re not merciful, ok? You don’t know what it is to live in a civilised society. You’re just third world poverty. You don’t know me, ok? So don’t try to speak to me as if you’re my equal. I do and say what I please. You fuckers will never be a part of society with your extremist, paedophilic ways. And no, I don’t care what you say. You’re all a bunch of paedophiles to me who marry your girls when they’re less than ten. So don’t come up to me with your bullshit monotone pretending to me that you’re some peace loving person, cause you’re not ok? So don’t even fucking try it!’
‘For a guy who doesn’t talk much, you have a lot of words to say’
‘Oh, I can go on for hours, mate’
‘You finished?’ Ruto asked him.
‘No I’m not finished. And let me tell you…’ the bullet struck his heart before he could finish the rest of his raging. Ruto had clearly heard enough. He didn’t even bother asking the rest, but simply shot them down on the spot. He was practically shaking from anger; the words have affected him so much.
So he was a paedophile was he? Had he lived in these conditions? So we were the extremists were we? And did he not notice that his army was attacking his people first, who at the time were completely unarmed? No of course he didn’t see that. One of the tribesmen came up to him and picked him up. He honestly couldn’t remember when he had fallen to the ground. He was also breathing heavily and tears were in his eyes, something which didn’t happen often.
But he couldn’t help it. He had spent an entire lifetime trying to make sure that there was a feeling of community and leadership and that everyone had a set of ground rules that they followed. He knew the rules for marriage were initially twelve a couple of hundred years ago, but at that point when tribe country had been created, there were only children, or very old people who were left. There was no one else, they had no choice. After about 50 years, the rules were changed to sixteen, and about fifty years ago, they were changed to eighteen. Although some were still married earlier, they were never allowed to consummate their marriage until then.
Everyone knew that. Had he simply been ignorant of the rules? Ruto honestly didn’t think so. It was pride that had gotten the better of him. And it was one thing that Ruto was seriously beginning to hate. If people didn’t have this one trait, then there would be fewer wars. Or better still, no wars. But someone had to suffer and someone had to have the big piece of the pie, just so they could show their pride to everyone. Maybe it was a simplistic way of thinking, or maybe it was all he had seen his entire life.
*
The half a dozen soldiers stood outside the entrance of the gate in civil country. The vehicle in front was still driving, no one questioned why there were six soldiers just randomly walking towards them. Then again, they were too preoccupied with the vehicle in front that was not slowing down. Armoured soldiers came through and tried to shoot it down. There precision shots were good, but slowing the vehicle down wasn’t the plan. As it stopped on the gate, the guards came forward and the explosions went off.
They simply used the weapons within the vehicle against them. As more batTalions came out, the GP-002 was shot by the
six, who took out the crew in no time and went forward to grab any weapons that they could. What pursued was a battle of intelligence against firepower. As they began to panic, the soldiers came forth and scattered, using the GP-002 at strategic point to take out commanders.
Once the commanders were taken out, in the minor commotion, shots were fired at the remaining soldiers and the GP-002 was fired also. Once they collected more weapons and took one of the internal vehicles, all the soldiers from within were taken out. After a battle that lasted less than ten minutes, but had many people dead, the soldiers came out of the protected vehicle and gathered the remaining soldiers who were there.
‘How many more batTalions are there?’ Nicholas asked.
‘We’re the last ones,’ one of them answered. He seemed fairly young, probably only recently drafted in.
‘What about the rest?’ Elijah asked this time.
‘There all civilians now.’
‘Call them out.’
‘Now?’
‘Ye,s now,’ Patrick shouted at him. They waited patiently as an announcement was made for all citizens to come out. As everyone gathered in the building, it was shocking to see that the entire population consisted of around 250000 people. Where were the rest of the people? Or was this truly all that was left of their civilisation?
‘It’s not all that’s left,’ one of the soldiers asked when interrogated. He eased off and asked him what had happened,
‘When you guys left, Atan drafted as much of the people he could into the army. Either you joined or you died. It’s been a horrific month. He seems to be hell bent on getting this ‘formula’ or something that one of you guys stole.’
‘We didn’t steal it. One of our scientists created a new element I suppose and Atan wanted to use it for a wrong cause. He disagreed and ran away. We helped him, so we are now the villains.’
‘This is gonna take some time,’ Patrick said to Terence once they heard the response from everyone.
‘Ok then, folks,’ Nicholas spoke on the microphone, ‘I’m going to have to sit down and tell you what has happened then. This is gonna be a long night.’