by T. Rudacille
***
“It has been brought to my attention that you all are not happy with the provisions that have been made.”
There was a noticeable shift in the tension that had been bounding through the crowd already. Those with whom we lived were now afraid of Don's wrath. Earlier, they had only been ready for the fight with the Bachums.
“It's alright,” Don held his hands up and closed his eyes for one dramatic moment, “I understand. If you may allow me to be candid for a minute, I will tell you that I need all of you. Because of that, your happiness is very important to me. When we return, revisions will be made.” Don's eyes found me in the crowd. He scowled for but one quick second. I smiled in satisfaction at him before he looked away.
“We are walking now into what might very well be the first and only fight with the Bachums. Adam has given us an advantage, though I cannot lie to all of you and say that this will be easy. We are going to have a hell of a time trying to take them all down. They have guns, grenades, and other weapons that Daniel Olivier made sure were on board. The Bachums have also aligned with the other natives.”
There was a gasp in the crowd and a sudden rustle of whispers.
“Nobody worry. They have not accepted their evolution. We have. We are stronger and faster. We're able to fight until the last breath with ease and precision. We have nothing to fear once we can get past the guns. Now, let me make this very clear...”
A change was coming over him. It was as sudden as the appearance of James at my side. The latter avoided my eyes when he grasped my hand. I stifled the urge to inquire where he had been.
The former raised his voice several octaves to an authoritative thunder. His eyes bugged and the desire for bloodshed that was already being whispered about in our group hit a crescendo in the face of his self-righteous energy.
“We are most like the natives who were already here! We are the ones who are supposed to live! Those people believe that they are above us! They believe that we have shunned God, and maybe we have. But we need to prove to them that they are not protected. We need to show them the wrath of red anarchy!”
“That's right!” A man behind me yelled.
“Bring them down!” A woman shrieked in the back of the group.
“They believe that we have aligned with the devil! They believe, in all their self-righteous Bible verse-spewing nonsense, that we are evil and undeserving of life! Well, we are going to show them that though they may follow their laws and beg for safety from God, we are unstoppable. We are not going to be swayed by fear! We are going to take our rightful place in this land!”
“YEAH!” Several men behind us yelled before throwing their fists into the air. I looked back at them in aggravation; they had startled me, and I did not appreciate it.
“They shot our people! They shot Angie, taking her away from her husband...” He beckoned to Angie's husband in the crowd, whose murderous need for revenge was justified. “…and their four children! He took Frank, who was loved greatly by his wife, by all of us! He was the first volunteer for the security detail! They took Perry, Hiroshi, Abdul, John, and Katie! They took our brothers and sisters!”
“KILL THEM!” A man in the back shouted. Roars of assent followed his bloodthirsty cry. Oh, the pot was bubbling now. Even I was beginning to mentally prepare for war. Even I was ready to make them suffer for those they had taken. Our house consisted of many people, all of whom had become close. One family's loss was everyone's loss. It was time to inflict the same pain on those in the Bachum camp. It was time to show them who truly was the superior race.
“They followed them through the gates of our home and would have killed us all, had our other brave family members not stopped them!” He beckoned to those of us who had dispatched the insurgency.
“They will know how seriously we take that offense. They call us freaks! They call us traitors to our kind! They say our powers make us unworthy of happiness! But we will show them today that they are the traitors! They are the ones unworthy of life! We will never let the Bachums forget that when you take from us, we take ten times more from you. Now, I ask you: Who will join me?!”
The explosion of noise was immediate. The men and women surrounding us were roaring their commitment to the cause. If James, Elijah, and I were fans of such pious shows of faith, we would have roared, too. We would have thrust our fists into the air to show our allegiance. The three of us certainly felt the same fury and were ready to inflict the same violence, though we would not show it. We stared straight ahead, our eyes burning brighter than the torches that lit the scene.
The time had finally come to stake our claim on this land.