Destiny Sorrow

by Rod S. Galves

  “I needed people taking over the base and you are one of my best.” Sorom replied.

  “Yeah, right…”

  “Let's go Ratz,” said Willys picking him up with his mechanical arm. "There's no need to create intrigue for that.”

  Sorom approached Ratz looking at his eyes.

  “I created all this; this is my revolution. If the mission had gone wrong, I'd still have you here to continue it. If you don't like how I act, you can return to your CCC.”

  Ratz shut up and Willys pulled him away with a yellow smile.

  “Your group is very passionate,” said Evelin.

  “They're all crazy. The perfect people for that kind of work. Now come on, I'll show you the rooms.”

  They began to walk between ships, most of which seemed to be of civilian use. She noticed some of the military that they had just stolen from Laserfield's base and wondered what else they would have taken, but a bigger question took their mind.

  “Am I going to suffer some trouble for being daughter of a guardian?”

  “No more than the chaotic suffer day after day.” Sorom noticed that this was not the answer she wanted “Relax, no one will touch you.”

  Coming out of the large open space of the hangar they went to tighter metal corridors. Several doors came out of these corridors in rooms with makeshift beds.

  “This whole place has been reused,” Sorom explained, “so it can be a little confusing. The hangar is the common point that leads to all areas of the base, so you must go there whenever you want to go to another area.”

  He made it to the room where three people were meeting. Evelin recognized them from the battle against guardian Kylex. The big woman with a machine gun in her arm, the man with the sand-colored skin carrying swords and the lower man with one mechanic eye.

  “Tug,” Sorom said to the woman, “I'm going to leave this one with you, okay?”

  The woman approached taking the machine gun from her arm and replacing with mechanical prosthesis in the shape of a hand. She barely examined Evelin and smiled.

  “I'm Tugsten, but everyone calls me Tug. The second strongest of the chaotic!”

  “Hi...” Said Evelin insecure “What a random fact to present yourself.”

  “I am Jamin,” said the man with swords. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

  “They call me Sliger.” Spoke the last one cleaning his revolver.

  “I am Evelin.”

  “We know who you are,” Jamin said, “we are very happy to have joined our cause.”

  Evelin did not expect them to already have this information and she concluded that the news ran fast for the Chaos Agents.

  “I'm still not sure what I'm doing,” Evelin said.

  “If you're here, you're on the right track,” Tug continued. “We are very happy whenever a non-chaotic join the Agents. I'll get you a mattress.”

  “Also get some clothes,” said Sorom. “She didn't have time to pack.”

  The woman agreed and left the room, leaving the other two roommates tidying up the room.

  “Now let's go, Evelin; I have more to show you.”

  The two followed the corridor back to the hangar, where Sorom showed off the kitchen, which was much cleaner than Evelin expected.

  “The people here are different from what I imagined,” Evelin said.

  “I don't blame you. Most of the media and the government paint us as monsters. You'll see we're people like any other. There's a lot of bad people here too, like everywhere in the world.”

  At this time, a woman, accompanied by Norna, stopped Sorom. In her early forties, she had black skin with curly hair and was wearing a beret and overalls.

  “Sorom,” the woman called, “I don't want to give bad news, but even with today's pieces we don't have enough to finish Ringnug.”

  Evelin heard the woman's words curiously until Sorom interceded.

  “Let's not talk about our secret weapon in front of the recruit, okay?” Suggested Sorom. “This is Dice, our engineer. Dice, this is Evelin.”

  “So, you're also chaotic?” Asked Evelin.

  Dice raised his arm and the glyphs that appeared were not as red as he expected, but blue, and when translated, the words were “You will become a great ship engineer”.

  “Not everyone here has chaos for a destiny.” Norna said. Even though Evelin already had this information it was still strange for her. “Changing the subject: Evelin, how would you describe yourself in your piloting skills?”

  “I learned the basics in the army, but it wasn't my specialty.”

  Norna was disappointed with the answer.

  “Too bad, we're going to need more pilots if we're going to take down God.”

  “All right, guys,” said Sorom impatiently “I'm taking a tour at the moment. We have to make another attack later this month, so we'll have all the pieces for Ringnug, but we will talk about that later.”

  He pulled Evelin by the hand through the hangar to the next series of doors.

  “You really don't trust me, do you?” Asked Evelin.

  “And you blame me for that?”

  “No, but... I suppose I'm a prisoner now. You're not going to let me out or communicate with anyone.”

  Sorom sighed troubled.

  “Radiation prevents communications inside anyway and good luck if you want to walk through the radioactive desert out there, but I can't let you take one of our ships and risk you tell our location.”

  They went to a warehouse full of dust and cobwebs.

  “This is where we throw things that we don't think we're going to use. It's also where people come to cry when the crisis hits, there's nothing very important here, but it's good to know.”

  Evelin looked at the upset man.

  “So, I'm a prisoner.”

  “Did you accept the invitation of your own choice, what did you expect to happen? Would you know the location of our base and come out cheerful telling everyone?”

  “I'm not saying I'm leaving but knowing that I can leave when I want to reassure myself.”

  “Listen, I only accepted you here because Laserfield said you were disappointed in the world, too. If you don't want to kill God, no one's going to make you, but now you're going to have to wait here until it's all over.”

  “And what is your relationship with Laserfield?”

  “It's a story for another day. Now come with me, I'll show you something interesting.”

  Evelin followed him without much enthusiasm in another corridor, who had only one door at its end. As soon as the door opened, she saw the sun near the horizon and the mountain ranges outside. She immediately despaired at the amount of radiation that was surrounding her at the time.

  She turned to Sorom believing she was in a trap. But he was quiet. Only then did she notice the big glass dome.

  “It was not easy fixing it here.” Sorom said walking on top of thick iron beams. “This place was completely destroyed, letting the radiation in.”

  Evelin followed him and there were only partially destroyed iron beams to walk, which intimidated her into moving on. At least they seemed tough enough to hold them off.

  “This is my favorite place,” Sorom said looking at the horizon. "You can stay here thinking there's nothing wrong with the world.”

  The sun shone differently away from the pollution of the city and seeing it among the mountains before it set was really magnificent.

  “Evelin, I need to know,” said Sorom. “Will you fight for us? Break that chain on your arm that was decided by a supposed God-Computer, that no one knows for sure what it is?”

  Evelin did not respond at first, staring at the beautiful sun on the horizon.

  “I have several speeches prepared to convince people that fate is something stupid,” Sorom continued, “but what I want to know is if you are prepared for it.”

  Now Evelin turned to Sorom and noticed that his brown eyes demonstrated the same intensity of the sun. They were eyes determined to follow their
goal to the end.

  “I still need to know the methods you use and killing a child was not a good start for you. But I'm willing to see that story come true.”

  The man opened a smile so confident that Evelin believed he was able to take her anywhere.

  “Great! Now let's go, there's still a lot to do.”

  During the tour she met several more eccentric figures. A bearded, chubby man in sailor's clothes. A man as big as Tugsten with a tattoo imitating a tiger on his face. A skinny woman with a pink Mohican on her head who was accompanied by a blond man with neon piercings. Every new person Evelin saw was somehow surprised.

  Evelin and Sorom were now in an oval room full of computers, where the green-haired young man typed frantically.

  “Here we hold meetings,” Sorom explained. – In general, only the higher ups, then we pass the decisions to others.

  “Chief,” Dijo said, “we received a transmission from Gerreth. Do you want me to read it?”

  “Later, I'm still showing the place to Evelin.”

  “Transmission?” Asked Evelin “I thought there was no signal here.”

  Dijo turned his swivel chair from the direction of her.

  “And there isn’t. That's why we load the messages during missions and read when we're back at base.”

  “It is not the fastest or most efficient system,” Sorom said, “but it is the safest. And if we falter a little bit the whole plan can go down the drain.”

  “And what is the next step?” asked the young woman.

  “We wait. Everybody's going to be looking for us out there. We have to be quiet and wait for the right moment. But we're both going to do something without delay.”

  The girl looked suspiciously at him.

  “What?”

  “Let's go to the city. I understand you were raised getting brainwashed from the government. I'm going to give you proof that our side is right, so the doubts in your mind will end for good.”

  “Can you just go into town?” She asked dubious.

  “I can do a lot of things, now go to your room and see if Tug got things ready for you, I'm not going to babysit all day.”

  Evelin eventually accepted and left the oval room walking through his new home.

  Chaotic Life

  As the days passed, Evelin noticed that the chaos agents' lives were not so different from her army routine. They woke up early and everyone trained in the morning, even though they were less professional. What surprised her most was seeing her roommates playing dice with other agents.

  “Do you do that here too?”

  “What does it mean?” Asked Jamin “We play dice in exchange for favors and perks.”

  Evelin went to her pocket and felt one of the only objects he had brought from the military base, the die that Dom had given her.

  “Can I participate?” Asked Evelin. Promptly Tugsten gave her a floor space to sit on.

  “But I'm telling you that Sliger usually wins. I think he steals with that bizarre eye of his.”

  “I don't steal,” Sliger replied in a calm voice, “I just know how to play better than you.”

  They spent time playing and strangely Evelin felt at home. To the surprise of her colleagues, she proved to be a very capable player conquering various dice.

  “That was interesting,” said Evelin. “We will repeat when we have more dice to lose.”

  Tug started laughing and Sliger was disappointed. The three were older than the soldiers with whom she lived at the base, but Evelin felt the brotherhood that everyone had.

  With the passing of time more and more Evelin felt at ease until Sorom went to talk to her.

  He wore a beanie over his dreads, which loosely exceeded his shoulder. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, looking like a very different person from the one who attacked the army base.

  “Are you ready?” Asked the leader.

  “Are we going to the city?”

  “Yes. Do some shopping and show you another side of the story.”

  He took her to a van and picked up the shopping list on his tablet.

  “I'm just going to see if anyone wants anything else. The last time I forgot to buy things for Dice we almost needed a new leader.”

  The girl was waiting in the van. Her casual clothes were old, but at least they were clean. When Sorom finally came back, he gave the girl a cap.

  “Use this, we don't want anyone to recognize a Simeht out there.”

  Sorom started the van and began flying it out, with Evelin in the passenger seat.

  “It's going to get a little stuffy, because the van has to be sealed until we get out of the radioactive zone.”

  The girl had several logistical questions to ask but decided to wait and maybe they would be answered naturally.

  They spent almost an hour wandering the desert until the level of radioactivity subsided. Them they found an old, abandoned road and started flying over there.

  “the radioactivity doesn’t’ get on the ships?” asked Evelin.

  “They do. We try to clean them well, but the levels are low on them and, according to the deadline I have, we will get out of that dump before any of our organisms suffer.”

  The girl felt impregnated, but accepted Sorom's response without further protests.

  They drove for another half hour until they reached a still-functional road. They were far enough away from the city to avoid congestion; however, they could already see other vehicles crossing.

  “I should have warned you before, but it's a long way,” Sorom said. “Measures necessary to avoid detection.”

  “It's okay. I really want to know how you're going to avoid guard inspections.”

  He gave Evelin a confident smile.

  “I've been doing this trip for a long time and I've never been caught.”

  A suspicious thought arose in Evelin's mind.

  “Why is the leader of the Chaos Agents the one who's going to shop?”

  Sorom stared at her with a proud smile.

  “Because I am a very good leader.”

  The girl didn't swallow the answer. More vehicles began to emerge leaving the road more congested as the city's silhouette emerged from afar.

  They saw a metal structure above the road, where each car was forced to pass underneath. Evelin was worried about what she saw.

  “This is a chaotic detector! They must have put it on account of your invasion! They will detect that you are a chaotic!”

  Despite Evelin's warning, the man had a confident smile.

  “I am prepared.”

  As they got closer to the turn of passing the detector, Evelin became more concerned.

  “If you have something to hide your destiny, the detectors will realize it too! They're meant to make no chaotic way through!”

  “I know what a chaotic detector is! Evelin, I'm not an amateur, trust me. No one knows my face and there's nothing to worry about my fate.”

  The van was scanned by the green light and a woman who saw the results raised her thumb in a positive sign. Sorom made the same signal to her and headed for the city.

  Evelin looked into his arm to see if he had any inhibitors more technological than she knew, but she didn't see anything, which made her come up with new ideas.

  “You have a normal destiny!” She accused “The leader of the chaotic has a destiny like the rest of the population!”

  Sorom no longer showed his smile.

  “I assure you; I do not have a destiny like yours.”

  She stopped to think and looked surprised at Sorom.

  “Is your destiny "Order"? Are you supposed to be a Guardian of the Order?”

  Now the smile returned accompanied by a long laugh.

  “As if, girl. Like my destiny is order.”

  Again, the confusion took Evelin's mind.

  “Show me your destiny, then.”

  “I have nothing to show. Who knows before I kill God, I don't tell you, but for all purposes, my destiny is chaos.”
<
br />   Evelin tried to think about the possibilities, yet each idea served to confuse the girl even more.

  She noticed that the city guard was more active, with several vehicles prowling around.

  “You don't usually do wrong things, do you?” Asked Sorom “I can see from your worried face that you are scared to death of getting caught.”

  “I am an army traitor and you the leader of the Chaos Agents, how can you be calm?”

  “Because it's better to be calm. You can smell someone who's worried about getting caught, act naturally and no one will come to bother us.”

  Evelin couldn't follow that order and just cheered for no guard to approach.

  Sorom drove the van to a part of the city with older and smaller buildings. People on the street wore old, makeshift clothes and most of them seemed shifty.

  “Obviously you would come to a place like this,” commented Evelin.

  “What kind of prejudice is that? You don't even know the place! You have to change that military mind there.”

  Sorom parked his car in what appeared to be an old supermarket. First Evelin thought the place was closed; however, he saw people going out shopping.

  “What is this place?”

  “This is Flora's market, but the place is Iguana Street. You know, not only those born with chaos are left on the margin of society. There are people with destinies who say they will commit crimes or that are dangerous to the rest of the population. Even though they ate only ten-year-old they are put in the sidelines until arrive in Iguana Street.

  The two got out of the car and headed towards the market.

  “Do the chaotic ones come here too?” asked Evelin.

  “I'm not going to say there's no chaotic ones here, but if they're found, they're sent to a CCC and the nearest one isn't comfortable at all.”

  They entered the market and a chubby old lady stood behind a counter.

  “Didi! It's good to see you.” said the lady.

  “Didi?” asked Evelin finding it funny.

  “Good afternoon Flora, could you get me some products?” Sorom spoke ignoring Evelin's question. He passed his finger on the tablet and Flora saw on her screen the list.

  “We do not have so much meat,” Flora replied, “not with quality that is. If you want that synthetic meat of theirs, we can deliver it.”