“What?”
“You never like Kang Kong!”
“And so?”
“And so? He could suspect something.”
“Do you really think his small brain could achieve such a prowess?”
While Matilda was loving her big idiot Paul, she was impartial and could easily self-mocked herself. Her mother’s small consideration made her smile more than it annoyed her. Helena opened the cellar door and took the backpack where she had kept the NASA device and the container delivered by Victor in the most dramatic way. She took a rice loaf of bread and a few bars of caramelised crickets with Kang Kong that Matilda was loving so much and put them inside. She did the same with some caterpillar kibbles which were Tao’s main food.
“Here, put on a few spare clothes.”
“You must answer me, don’t you forget!” She reminded her mother, while grabbing the backpack.
At least, Paul’s apparition had calmed her down and had brought back the trust and connivance in their mother-daughter relationship. Helena took Matilda’s hand and quietly guided her toward the sofa where they sat peacefully, ready to face the events together as they had always done. Tao was desperately trying to jump on his master’s knees. Never missing a moment to cuddle him, she caught Tao in one hand and snuggled it near her belly. This gesture, usually so simple, reminded her how oppressing her deep desire to become a mother could sometimes be.
“Matilda? Matilda?” Her mother insisted.
“Uhh! Sorry, my mind was wandering.”
“No worry. Before to begin...”
“Don’t try to make me believe me some stupid things, be straight forward and direct.”
“My real name is Sophie Lecuyer, I was born in Paris in April 2019, right after the terrible atomic incident in Oslo. I’m a survivor of the great purge.”
“What? So you’re an atheist? A scientist?”
“Yes, if you want. I was renown in the world for cellular microbiology and human genetic.”
“But...”
“I know what you will tell me, Inosanto forbade every science which changes the living. But I wasn’t going to die for a stupid belief...”
“Be careful about what you will say!”
“I begrudge myself. I couldn’t dare teaching you the real history, science, philosophy. It was too dangerous. The only way to live peacefully was to blend in the people, and as I had succeeded in stealing a woman’s identity...”
“Helena Sroulevic?”
“Yes, this woman I found dead one day. I took her chip... I became this woman.”
“You could have surrendered yourself and made amend.”
“You didn’t see what I did. The Christ’s militiamen had shown no mercy. My friends, my colleagues, my teachers, my students... they all died because of the inquisition declared by Inosanto. You’ve no idea about the horrors this man is capable of. The greatest minds of this world have been eradicated from earth.”
“How can you say that? He acted for the common good, look around you, we’ve lands, friends, a house, evil has disappeared, we’ve enough to eat...”
“And the first plague, many people have died.”
“God is deciding!”
“Before Inosanto, we had hospitals and a powerful medicine, nobody was dying from a simple flu, most of the diseases had even been eradicated.”
“Nonsense!”
“No! The plague which killed 140 members of our community, it was smallpox. I didn’t get sick because I’ve been vaccinated when I was a child.”
“Vaccinated?”
“Yes, it’s a process to immunise people against some diseases.”
“I’ve never heard about this...”
“That’s the real problem. Inosanto doesn’t want science, he condemns it. He wants the population to depend on him, only him. And ignorance is the best weapon.”
“Where are the proofs of all this.”
“Destroyed! Burnt! Everything has been methodically destroyed by the Milicia Christi. Books, Internet servers, videos and audio materials... everything!”
“That’s an easy excuse.”
“Sweetheart, there are so many things you don’t know. I would love to tell you the great human history since the apparition of life on our beautiful planet, more than three billion years ago...”
“Oh my god, you’re totally insane! How can you tell such nonsense?” Matilda interrupted her quite curious.
“You prefer to believe a fake prophet instead of your mother, I’m not blaming you. Your ignorance and your devotion toward this monster is my fault as a mother.”
“Enough! I’ve heard enough!” Matilda was revolted.
“I knew this day would come. I was hoping, I wouldn’t be here to see it. But it isn’t the time to weep. Sooner or later they will discover who I’m , if they haven’t yet.”
Matilda was swearing by herself.
“OK! OK! I can’t force you to believe the things I do. You can imagine what you want, even that the Earth is a sphere if you like. But nothing certifies they will discover your true identity. I will keep your secret, I promise. We don’t need to leave. I will do my best so God forgives me and you will see, you will get this grandson you’re dreaming so much about.”
“You don’t understand! It’s too late, I activated the beacon, they will arrive soon.”
“Who? You’re just speaking about them all the time! Them! Who are they?”
Tao abruptly escaped from Matilda’s arms. He started to groan toward the door. While Helena was getting ready to answer this final question, the synthetic voice of a drone resonated from outside.
“All occupants of the living unit K345, please immediately come outside for identification.”
“Oh, no!” Helena declared.
“Nothing more than a simple routine identification, mum!”
“Are you really this naive?” Her mother stroked her, while cautiously getting near the window to evaluate the situation.
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence!” Matilda insisted.
“Oh! Shit.”
“What’s happening again?”
“This is Paul with four militiamen of the Legatee’s personal guard. The bastard! He has reported us.”
“No, no, no, no, no! He couldn’t do that,” Matilda said surprise while looking over her mother’s shoulder.
One of the militiamen pushed Paul forward and forced him to kneel. A drone got closer to the house and started to scan him.
“Sophie Lecuyer, on behalf of Inosanto, our Saviour, you’ve ten seconds to surrender in order to be judged by the inquisition high court. Past this deadline, we will have to immediately execute your accomplice.”
“You see, this wasn’t him! This wasn’t my Paul!”
“Take your backpack and escape through the cellar trapdoor. You will still be able to hide between the stilts. As soon as I will be outside, run as far as you can from the back. They will find you with the beacon.”
They took a last look at the situation outside. The Legatee was making the cross sign over Paul’s head who remained knelt. A militiaman was holding him at gunpoint with a black rectangular weapon as long as an arm and almost eight inches wide. It was the first time Helena and Matilda were seeing one in reality and not on television. The metallic even electronic blast was short and explosive. Paul collapsed on the ground of weeds. Matilda yelled with all her strength but her mother clamped her in her arms to stifle the noise.
“They shouldn’t think you’re here. Run! Run sweetheart.”
Matilda straightened back and looked directly into her mother’s eyes. A tragic moment which seemed to be the last one.
“Promise me, you will make it through! Promise me, you won’t leave me!”
“I promise you! I love you sweetheart. It’s time to go.”
Meanwhile, the two drones stood in front of the door for the last warning.
“Sophie Lecuyer, in the name of the Almighty God and of its sole representative on Earth, Inosanto,
this is your last chance to come out. We will attack in ten seconds.”
“Go, sweetheart.”
Matilda hid in the cellar. She looked at her mother getting close to the door. Her mother glanced at her one last time whispering, “I love you.”
Escaping!
Matilda closed the cellar. She blocked Tao in the backpack, his paws lying on a few clothes and his head popping out between the flap and the edge. Then, she opened the small evacuation trapdoor leading under the house, and slowly slid inside, the eyes full of tears still picturing Paul lying dead in the garden, scared like hell the same treatment will happen to her mother. Once half her body was in the narrow space, she took the backpack then completely slid down and ended up lying under the circular slab of the house. From this unlikely place and despite the myriad of various weeds, she could guess her mother’s legs up to the knee, the dead body of her lover and the respective location of the four militiamen as well as the Legatee’s dress ceremonial hemline who was standing just two to three steps away from Helena. The continuous noise of the air condition system, three to six feet on her right, was low enough, so she could properly understand the discussion between her mother and the Legatee. She was just repeating again and again, “happy the one living for science and improving the world... and who will overcome darkness through science.” Then, following a metallic blast, Helena’s body collapsed next to Paul’s and after she heard the Legatee’s order to search the house, she suddenly realised her life would never be the same. She instantly covered her mouth to muffle the sound of her cry of despair. To conclude this moment, Tao started to bark. Despite being stuck in the bag with his head crushed against his master’s chest, and not being very impressive, it was enough to attract the militiamen’s attention who were already entering the house. Matilda hadn’t closed the trapdoor and she could hear the sound of the men closing in her direction. She mustered the courage to start crawling toward the opposite side of the house.
“Be quiet Tao,” she whispered while wiggling to escape the narrow space.
While she was reaching the edge of the slab and pushing to get out, she heard one militiaman telling the ones who remained outside.
“She has escaped through the cellar!”
Standing quickly, she ran as fast as she could, holding her backpack on her chest so she wouldn’t risk losing Tao who was trying frantically to escape by gnawing at the string closing it.
“Be quiet Tao, calm down, everything will be all right!”
Was she speaking to Tao or to herself? Whatever, she was already between the neighbourhood houses, sometimes taking a look behind her to assess her lead over the drones and the militiamen. After running less than 50 yards, she heard the atomic engine specific hiss of the autonomous response units closing on her. While she turned back to assess their position, she saw a militiaman jumping from her house roof and peacefully landing thirteen feet below. She had no chance to escape, she knew it. The forest edge was just thirty yards away when a drone blocked her way.
“Stop escaping immediately or we will have to shoot you.”
Despite her athletic skills, her lead over the militiamen wouldn’t be enough so she had time to reach the dense tropical forest. Would knowing every corner of it be enough to hope escaping these superhumen? What would she do once the vegetation would obstruct her pace?
Cornered, Matilda took a few more steps forwards, analysing her choices, looking, on one side, at the two self-confident militiamen calmly walking toward her and, on the other, at the drones blocking her way to the forest. The Legatee was following from a distance, without rushing, quite peacefully. A cruel smile was illuminating his face, which normally showed no expression, already enjoying his victory. The closest militiaman aimed his weapon toward her, then, suddenly, his sidekick and he turned their gaze, looking up toward the forest, scared and impatient to fight. Matilda turned back to fully understand the situation. A fighting aircraft, a mix of a plane and a helicopter, just appeared so close to the top of the trees, which they bend like common bamboos under the pressure of the atomic reactors of the huge machine. It tilted toward the drones that hadn’t reacted yet and without any warning, spread them with a volley of huge calibre bullets. A shower of cartridges dropped on the small clearing while the badly impacted drones crashed on the ground like flies. Rooted by fear, Matilda was looking for as little comfort as she could by hugging Tao in the crook of her neck. He was still gnawing on the string, hoping to escape the terrible prison the backpack was. Matilda prayed for God’s help the best she could. The aircraft was starting to lower its altitude while shooting heavily at the militiamen. The Legatee was cautiously looking at the scene, letting his men taking care of the situation without intervening. Matilda couldn’t realise what was happening. God’s soldiers, as the broadcaster of the state television news sometime called them, managed to avoid the shots thanks to tremendous acrobatic moves. In one impulse, the militiaman closest to her moved at least thirty feet on the side, avoiding some terrible bullets in his legs. The second one wasn’t as lucky. The shooter in the war machine was anticipating the escaping moves and caught him in flight, tearing off a few appendages and half of his skull. The first God’s soldier, knowing his weapon was useless against such a war device, tried to get closer to enter through the lateral door from where one of the two shooters was easily handling the machine gun. Two other militiamen, just arriving on the battlefield, were already attracting the invader’s attention. The first one seized this opportunity to try to reach the keelson of the cockpit in a perfectly calculated jump to neutralise its occupant. He was pushing to go fifty feet forward closer to his target, while a man wearing an armoured exoskeleton from the old world, appeared on the edge of the aircraft with a crossbow that the simple existence would raise questions for many contemporary historians. In less than a second, the handsome badly shaven gashed soldier with long grey hair like the Christ aimed his weapon toward the militiaman and shot a thin hardened steel quarrel which reached its target almost instantly. The powerless militiaman was shot in the neck with full force. The impact force changed the trajectory of his lifeless body, which heavily dropped on the forest edge. On the other battlefront, the last two militiamen were facing the same resistance while the worried Legatee still didn’t want to intervene. One of them tried to shoot toward the aircraft turbines so his brother in arms could catch Matilda to use her as a human shield. No success. He had forgotten the Militarised Response Units had been designed to withstand even drone shots. Even if this aircraft seemed to have seen a lot of flights and battles and even if its structure wasn’t great, comfortably protected behind the machine gun armour, the sniper as old and badly shaven as his brother in arms, wasn’t fooled. Matilda came around. Having never witnessed violence, and having never hurt even a single cricket, she was now standing in the middle of a slaughter. The surprising warrior with his biblical hair yelled to her.
“What are you waiting for to board? Silly girl!” He told her with a castling voice.
On one side, forty-year-old men coming from nowhere, having no education and acting like bullies, on the other, the Legatee and his super powerful watch dogs. Between a life of fugitive and an obvious death, the choice was easily made. Despite the roar of the infernal machine being strangely muffled, the power of the reactors was creating such an air displacement that Matilda hardly got nearer.
“Go down a little bit more!” The rebel yelled to the cockpit.
“Covering fire!” The sniper yelled while shooting in the chest of the last militiaman, still fighting as much as he could, to block him.
Feeling her backpack sliding away, Matilda tightened her grip on it close to her chest. Tao’s furs and ears, who was still gnawing on the links imprisoning him in the small luggage, were literally tackled by the aircraft turbulence.
Strangely, the Legatee was just quietly observing the last member of his personal guard who couldn’t find a single way to get closer to catch the young girl. While Matilda was stre
tching her hand to get her saviour’s, the string maintaining the bag closed broke because of the last bites of the small animal. Tao magically landed on the edge of the aircraft lateral door while Matilda was looking at the precious content spread at her feet in the weeds. The glass container with its aluminium shell reflecting the sun ray wasn’t going unnoticed. The Legatee immediately spotted the item.
“Oh! No!” Matilda declared.
She spontaneously let the rebel’s hand go. At the same time, the Legatee opened his arms widely to get completely rid of this conventional toga, while a kind of light armour covering each of his body limps and two long swords attached on the side of his tights appeared. He knelt, one knee on the ground, the other as a support in front of him, looked in the rebels’ direction and with a very stunning impulse, jumped toward them. The young rebel, whose physical abilities were strengthened by his exoskeleton, jumped on the ground to catch Matilda, who, somehow, managed to put back all the items lying on the ground in her backpack.
“We don’t have time to take care of your wardrobe, pretty!” The man wearing the exoskeleton told her, annoyed by the young woman’s inconsistency.
The sniper aimed his machine gun on the Legatee.
“There is no chance he can reach us!” He mumbled.
“Shoot him, goddamnit!” His chief ordered him, while jumping inside the aircraft, still holding the young woman under his elbow.
“He won’t manage it.” The sniper was trying to convince himself while the Legatee was already halfway to the aircraft, almost sixty feet over the ground.
“Fuck! Shoot!” His brother in arms added while warily staring at him.
He pressed the machine gun trigger as hard as he could to spread bullet to catch the Legatee in the air. The Legatee drew his swords and in a perfect move linked the two handles to create a single weapon with two blades he used to deviate all the bullets going toward him. Matilda, who was taken aback by the scene, was remembering the community rumours concerning Inosanto’s right hand, who had many terrifying nicknames. Paul was speaking about God’s knight or God’s armed wing. While she never took him seriously, she had to honourably make amend. The sniper kept shooting, even if he had to use all his ammunition, while the handsome stranger who was leading the operation was yelling to the pilot to get away as fast as possible.
Escaping Page 5
