The Experiment

by Costanza, Christopher

  He looked extremely angry, there was no doubt in mind that he was looking for blood…

  Kayin was right… Somebody already noticed the soldier was missing. And by the way everyone was acting, I could see this wasn’t going to end well for the natives… I had a feeling our mistake would come with a great cost…

  I followed the soldier to the mine, and as soon as we got close I could see Kayin so I ran over to him.

  “Man, this isn’t good.”

  He said “I know, just be careful about what you say… Everyone’s really angry and looking for a fight. If they hear you sympathizing with them…”

  Suddenly, five shots rang out… Kayin and I looked at each other and took off running.

  “Don’t do anything Atlas, you could give us away!”

  By the time we made it to the edge of the crater at least ten more shots had been fired… I could see seven of the natives on the ground and a bunch of the soldiers were beating some of the others.

  They were screaming “Where is he!? Which one of you killed him!?”

  “Answer me monkey!”

  Then they killed two more… The shots rang out more like explosions in the giant crater, and lasted for what seemed like five seconds… None of them even ran, they just got on their knees, put their faces to the ground and started chanting.

  I got my gun and started to head down but Kayin grabbed my arm and stopped me.

  “You can’t Atlas… Neither one of us can do anything, the plan is too important… Remember what we’re doing!.. Now stop causing a scene. This won’t last long.”

  I angrily said “They don’t even understand what they’re saying… And what if they shot 3?”

  “Just shut up, there’s nothing we can do. The wrong person is going to notice you and hear what you’re saying!”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath…

  It was especially hard not to react this time. It wasn’t like being in the lab with Horus, or watching them collapse while working. This was different; it was directly our fault… I couldn’t stand the thought of our carelessness adding so many more natives to that pit today…

  All of them were still on their knees with their faces to the ground. The soldiers were walking around yelling at them and kicking them for not responding… Even though they didn’t know how to, or understand any of what they were saying… And all those men down there knew that.

  They were just being blatantly cruel and ignorant, like they’d been waiting for an excuse to do something like this. Some of the other soldiers standing around watching were even urging them to shoot more…

  And I kept looking for 3 but I couldn’t see him.

  Hopefully he was hiding…

  After a while they gave up searching the mine for the missing soldier, shot four more natives and started climbing out.

  One of the men standing near us said to another “Those things probably ate him… We should just kill all of them before we leave!”

  Then he ran over to the edge and fired a few more shots down into the mine as I watched in disbelief… Lucky for him I could see he didn’t hit any of them...

  The other responded “Yeah I know, we’re lucky they haven’t killed us in our sleep. They’re nothing but savage monkeys, not even human… I bet you’re right and they did eat him!”

  Kayin grabbed my arm again, even tighter than before and said “Atlas…”

  I took another deep breath and allowed myself to relax, I turned to Kayin… “I’m going to my post. I don’t want to see or hear anything else...”

  “Yeah me too… I’ll find you at the end of the day… Just contain your emotions, please Atlas. We’re so close to the end...”

  I had no idea people could be like this… There were strict laws against violence on Aeris. Besides the wars, the Capital only knows peace. I truly thought men like Horus, Neros, and those in control of the ACI only made up a small majority… Almost every day, I’m seeing things that suggest I’m very wrong…

  Maybe that kind of evil is in all of us… When I almost tortured Horus I could feel it coming over me but I held it back. I guess some people just can’t... Or choose not to…

  Groups of soldiers searched the area for the rest of the day. Luckily no one thought to start digging around in the pit of bodies. I’d like to think it’s because they don’t have the stomach to get up close and face what they’ve done…

  As the hours passed, I felt nothing but anger. Cassian continued to annoy me to no end and I almost snapped at him several times… I really didn’t mean to, but his mouth never stopped moving. And on more than a few occasions some of the other soldiers almost overhead things they shouldn’t have.

  Eventually I had to say something.

  “Cassian please stop talking about it so much… Those guys that just walked by could have heard you. It’s obvious a lot of them hate the natives. Don’t you understand what could happen if the wrong person overhears you?”

  As I expected… He looked insulted…

  “Fine man I just won’t talk at all…”

  In reality that’s exactly what I wanted…

  But I felt bad, so instead I said “Look, I’m sorry. I’m just getting nervous because we’re so close… One wrong move and it could all be over. And what happened earlier really has me on edge.”

  He sighed “I know me too… And you’re right, I’ll be more careful. I’m just excited about ending all of this… When something bad happens it’s nice to talk about the plan because it reminds me that it’s only a matter of time before I’ll get the chance to do something about it… You know?..”

  “Yeah, you’re right… I understand.”

  He really was a good guy… I felt bad that he annoyed me so much, I just couldn’t help it.

  All I could think about was getting 3 to the next site and carrying out the plan. Even the thought of waiting another day was torment. I don’t know if I’d be able to stand by and watch something like that again without acting…

  What I did know, is that Kayin and I had to make sure to be a lot more careful… Just one stupid mistake and we got at least 10 more natives killed…

  Just as the day before, when the sun started to set Gaius sounded the alarm to signal everyone to stop working.

  I said “Well, I think Kayin has to head to another site to oversee some maintenance, I’ll probably tag along. I wanna get around and see as much of the planet as I can anyway… It was good to meet you guys.”

  We all shook hands and Cassian said “Good to meet you too Atlas. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

  “Yeah we’ll probably end up back at this site in a few weeks or something like that. You know he has to move around a lot… Well, I’ll see you guys later.”

  I walked back as fast as I could without looking suspicious. I just wanted to find Kayin, get 3 and leave. He could still be in danger. The soldiers might decide to question them again. I could tell that a lot of them weren’t satisfied with what already happened… They were still looking for more revenge…

  When I found Kayin he was waiting in line for food.

  “Hey you ready to go?”

  “Atlas, relax, eat something.”

  I wanted to say “No let’s just go” but he was right… So I said “Ok” and got in line behind him.

  “Hey, plus I’d rather let it get just a little bit darker out.”

  He coughed… Then he started to get this funny look on his face, accompanied by a weird smile…

  “So what’s going on with you and Sara?”

  I didn’t expect that… “Uh, what do you mean?”

  He laughed and punched me in the arm. He was a lot bigger and definitely stronger than I was, it actually pushed me back a little.

  “You know what I mean; I see how you two act around each other. What’s the deal?”

  I didn’t really feel like telling him all about it, but he was my friend and he asked so…

  “You see her a lot more than I do. She ne
ver mentioned anything about the side effects of the stasis?”

  I could tell by the blank look on his face that he had no idea what I was talking about. Guess I’d have to explain it now…

  “We met shortly before we were put into stasis. So basically we were fresh in each other’s thoughts and it caused our subconscious minds to think about each other while we slept… Now we have some kind of emotional attachment…”

  He looked totally confused “… What?.. That’s pretty crazy Atlas…”

  “I know it sounds strange but that’s what happened… When we woke up it was like we’d been apart for years. We actually missed each other. I still have all these emotions that don’t belong. It’s like I’ve known her my whole life.”

  He laughed “Yeah well it sounds like it happened because you liked each other from the moment you met… Ever think of that?”

  “We considered it… We’ve talked about things. We just both agreed it’s better to stay strangers for now. We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other later.”

  “Yeah I guess that’s the best idea. Wouldn’t want to put her in danger.”

  I responded “Exactly…”

  By the time it was our turn and we choked down the nutrition bars, it was almost dark enough to leave. When I looked up I could see the moon just barely shining through the clouds… It was perfect for what we had to do.

  As soon as we got a chance, we snuck past everyone and quietly made our way towards the mine.

  When we were about 20 yards away I started to hear yelling. I looked at Kayin and I could tell he heard it too.

  He said “Be careful, it sounds like there’s more than one of them. And we can’t kill anyone else. They’ll know something is going on and more of natives will end up dead.”

  We slowly approached the edge and looked down.

  There were two soldiers beating one of the natives and we could see a few more cowering around them. The rest of the natives just kept their distance and stayed down in silence.

  Kayin said “It sounds like they’ve been drinking; I hope this doesn’t get out of hand…”

  I looked over at him “It’s already out of hand…”

  “I know Atlas but we can’t do anything. We just have to wait for them to leave.”

  I wanted to just look away but I didn’t… I wanted to see what these men did to them. Just as it did with Horus, remembering their actions would give me strength when I needed it the most.

  They continued kicking them around and yelling at them for quite some time… It looked like they had beaten one of them to death. Either that or he was just unconscious… And as usual, I had to sit there and do nothing. Just like all the time I spent with Horus in his lab…

  Eventually they lost steam and started climbing out of the mine… I wanted to kill them right then, I even had a perfect vantage point. They’d both be dead before they could even react… But Kayin was right. It would just lead to more of the soldiers doing the same thing…

  I turned to Kayin “Should we go down and look for 3?”

  “No, it’ll scare and confuse them even more. He knows we’ll be up here waiting for him. If he doesn’t show in an hour we’ll go in for a closer look… I have a feeling he’s clever enough to avoid getting killed though.”

  When I looked back down into the mine I could see that one native holding a torch had climbed on top of a large rock. It looked like he was talking to all of them.

  “Kayin, look! That has to be 3.”

  “Yeah you’re right… Who else would be doing that...”

  I let out a sigh of relief “I guess he’s trying to calm them down.”

  We couldn’t hear what he was saying but it didn’t take long. After a few minutes he jumped down and started making his way to the top of the mine. He was coming up on the opposite side so we made our way around.

  As soon as I saw 3 I said “I’m glad you’re ok, we were worried about you.”

  He scoffed “You mean worried about the plan?”

  “I’m sorry 3… You know we wanted to do something…”

  “Nevermind… I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just go… They’ll be waiting for your people to show up. I told them 3 days.”

  Kayin stayed quiet. I was going to say something else but I decided not to… It wouldn’t help anything and he deserved to be angry after everything that happened today…

  On the way to the next site we all remained completely silent… Neither one of us could manage to think of something to say to 3. I guess there really wasn’t anything we could say… It was hard to even look at him.

  I didn’t want to know what he was thinking about us… He probably knew it was our fault, because we weren’t cautious enough…

  What seemed like 20 minutes went by until 3 got up and walked to the front of the ship.

  He leaned over and said. “Look… I know this isn’t your fault. I didn’t mean to suggest that you don’t care about us. I know you do… I know a lot of your people do and that you aren’t all bad…”

  He looked at us for a moment. “I just wanted to say that.”

  I looked at 3 and nodded, Kayin said “Thanks 3… We really needed to hear that.”

  He smiled “That’s why I said it… We have a lot of work to do. You two simpletons already keep coming within inches of getting us caught. Can’t have you distracted because you’re moping around.”

  Kayin said “Way to ruin a nice moment hairball...”

  3 replied “You know me” smiled even bigger, and sat back down.

  I turned to Kayin “Hey is there any way I could stick with you this time?”

  I really didn’t want to guard the mine again… or possibly have to deal with another guy like Cassian.

  “Yeah sure I guess so… I’ll tell people you’re my assistant. Just try not to say too much so people don’t figure out you’re clueless…”

  I laughed “Yeah sure, I’ll just do whatever you say.”

  Kayin turned back “Hey 3! Come back up here!”

  “Since it’s the middle of the night I’m going to land about a mile away from the mine so we can just sneak you in… No one has to know this time… Atlas and I will just come back to the ship, wait until morning and check in.”

  3 responded “Yeah that sounds logical to me… Why wait until morning and make them aware of me?..

  Finally you two are starting to use your brains… It helps a lot doesn’t it?”

  “… Just go get strapped in, I’m about to land again. I’ll do my best to take it easy and even though I would love to see you getting thrown around the ship again – we need you…”

  3 let out an obviously fake laugh to mock Kayin.

  “Like I’d ever forget about your 3rd rate flying abilities…”

  I said “I better brace up too, my knees still hurt from last time…”

  Kayin shot me a dirty look and we got ready to land.

  If anything, his landing may have actually been worse… But I leaned forward and put my hands on the console to steady myself. If my knees took another hit like that I’d probably be limping.

  When it was over 3 yelled up “That was even rougher than last time!.. Please explain how you can practice something and actually get worse at it!?”

  Kayin yelled back “Shut up! I’m still learning!.. “

  Then he turned to me and shrugged “It’s harder than it looks…”

  I heard 3 say something under his breath… At least he was kind of trying not to aggravate Kayin… I guess it would be annoying to be some kind of super genius and have to deal with people like us…

  When we stepped off the ship I said “There aren’t clouds covering the moon anymore, you can see pretty far into the distance tonight. We have to pay attention and take it slow.”

  Kayin landed the ship in a clearing in the middle of a heavily wooded area so we had to make our way through a forest. It was the first time I’d ever been in such a place… The moonlight coming through t
he trees gave it all such a surreal visual effect. All the leaves shimmered as they waved in the breeze sweeping through the forest… It was more like a lucid dream than reality…

  In my lifetime no citizens ever left the Capital. It had small zones of greenery and contained remnants of the wildlife Aeris once had, but nothing natural like this… I don’t know why but I felt like I was in a very special place. I genuinely hoped once we restore the atmosphere on Aeris, that one day, the future generations will be able to experience nature like this…

  3 started to say something and Kayin stopped him.

  In a low voice he said “We have to be careful out here. There are these big brown animals, 3 times the size of a man… Apparently five of our guys have been killed by them. We’ve been told to shoot on sight.”

  3 said “Oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about. They’re extremely dangerous and excellent hunters. You usually won’t know one’s around until it’s too late…”

  Kayin said “Exactly… So we need to be quiet and tread softly… And most importantly listen for any noises; there could be many creatures able to kill us on this planet. And like 3 said, they’re silent hunters.”

  So much for the amazement of the forest… Supposedly I could be killed at any moment…

  Since we had to try and make as little noise as possible, it took quite some time to finally make it to the site.

  When we got to the tree line, Kayin told us to stop. “Ok 3, the mine is all the way to the right. All the soldiers should be sleeping or at least preoccupied and nowhere near it.”

  3 calmly started heading away “Yeah, yeah, I got it… get in, don’t be seen. I’ll make sure we’re ready to move on by tomorrow night. Just try not to be so careless… Maybe you won’t have to kill any of the soldiers and cause a scene this time…”

  Kayin snapped back “Hey! At least I wasn’t standing there waving a torch around! That’s probably why he saw us!”

  3 just kept walking; he didn’t even look back… I don’t know if it was because he knew Kayin was probably right or if he assumed we were followed and didn’t care to argue about it.

  Either way, it was a mistake that had severe consequences for the natives and we couldn’t let it happen again.