by Chaim, Moran
“We're already doing that…what else?”
“Give people guns,” I said.
“Out of the question.”
The muffled explosions sounded louder and nearer.
“You want it to be like twenty years ago? The people MUST defend themselves.”
“President Padma we need you here, now!”
A loud alarm sounded.
“This is a security announcement, please remain in your beds and close the doors.”
The people of the crowd ran away amok. Padma's face was white. She went inside and closed the door. I looked at Shanta for a clue.
“We've been breached.”
Before I managed to say anything else shots rang out from below, so we ran downstairs. In the main street people were screaming and trying to run for cover, pushing each other and falling over. But the shots didn't stop. We followed the noise and I finally saw two men with guns shooting at people. They were dressed in something that looked like a cactus suit but lighter, like it was made out of shiny silk. They looked like they had gas masks on, at least from what I could tell since they were facing the opposite direction. I aimed my gun at them and shot two bullets, one in each of their heads. They collapsed. The dead bodies of the city’s guards were strewn out in front of them, and there was blood everywhere. The room went silent for a second as people didn't understand who was firing at whom.
Then the chaos rose again.
“Doctors! Where are the doctors?!” Someone shouted.
I took a quick look, and there were about twenty dead bodies on the ground, and even more wounded. Then the smoke started rolling in. It burned. It was tear gas being piped in from the AC system.
“Shanta, they’re trying to scare us out.”
I coughed, and my eyes and nose ran. My vision blurred.
“Tell them to ask for whoever shot a gun in the simulation to report to the ammo room. Go!”
Shanta, Dev and Toya ran back to where we came from. I hoped she could convince her mom to listen.
The AC fans stopped and then started to work in reserve direction, sucking the tear gas out. I heard more gunshots from two different directions, then explosions.
I started running in the direction of the explosions, and then realized the zip lines on the ceiling could get me there faster. I grabbed a handle. A line on the floor became red and I swung through the main street and raised my gun. Four Purists came into my field of view. They were breaking down doors and shooting everyone inside the rooms. I shot them while swinging by. Blood splattered everywhere. I swung all the way around; take the Purists by surprise and shooting them in the back. The magazine ran empty.
People started carrying the wounded to the clinic. More tear gas poured in. The AC wasn't strong enough to suck everything out. I needed more ammo, so I went through the inner circle to the ammo room. Shanta, Dev and Toya were there handing guns to a crowd of kids. I looked at Shanta and she flashed a grin seeing that I was alive.
“How many guns do we have?” I asked Shanta.
“About a hundred.”
“That's all? What about magazines?”
She pointed at four crates of loaded magazines and more crates of bullets and empty magazines. It wasn't enough. I took five teens with me and showed them in which direction to load the bullet into the magazine.
“Don't stop until you can't push it down anymore. Load these as fast as you can.”
“All of you listen! We might not have another chance to reload, so listen carefully!”
All the teens looked at me with puppy eyes, young and innocent. Yet, full of adrenaline and hormones, ready to prove themselves.
“Save your bullets. Only one shot to the chest. When you aim, stay still and exhale.”
It didn't seem real at all but that's all we had; teenagers defending the underground city.
Purists were coming in by the dozens.
“I have an idea,” I said to Shanta, grabbing her by the hand. The teens would buy us the time.
“Where are we going?” She shouted.
“To the clinic, I need Viti's help.”
We ran like crazy. The sound of gunfire was constant by now. When we reached the door to the main street we kneeled and looked at each other.
“You can do it,” I said as we pushed the door and aimed at both directions.
Bullets whizzed past so we immediately closed the door.
“Shit shit shit.”
“Let's find another way,” she said.
I nodded.
She turned around but I kept my eyes on the door. She helped guide me as I walked backwards. Then the door cracked open and a grenade rolled in.
“GRENADE!” I shouted.
We ran past a corner and ducked behind it. The grenade exploded and the echo from the corridor made our ears ring. I lunged out from behind the corner, but there was no one there. Then the door opened and I shot a Purist right in the heart. Another one came through whom I shot in the head.
“Come!” I told Shanta but she didn’t listen. She was petrified.
I pulled her over and we went back again to the main street, stepping on the Purists' bodies. We took their gas masks and continued to the clinic. The clinic was guarded heavily by ten teenagers and two guards. They had turned the cryo cylinders into shields. I hoped those were thick enough.
They let us inside the clinic. It was chaotic. I only saw about eight doctors and there were more than fifty people stacked inside. Wounded people lay on the floor waiting for care. I went to Viti’s room. She was by now eight months pregnant. She was standing there trying to calm down another pregnant woman who’d been shot in the leg.
“Viti!”
“Roy! Are you hurt?”
“No I’m fine. I need your help.”
“Sure.” Her eyes lit up.
“Can you plug a laser gun inside the main street?”
“Technically yes…depends on the voltage.”
“Will it connect to the emergency zip line?”
She took a moment to calculate it all in her head.
“I can do it but it won’t shoot as strong as it normally shoots.”
“Laser shot to the head from 10 feet away isn’t strong enough?”
She smiled. “That would do.”
We walked as fast as we could with a pregnant woman on board. Two more kids escorted us through the inner corridors of the city. The kids were close to Viti, helping her walk. I was at the front and Shanta held up the rear. We reached the gunroom and locked the door behind us. Viti immediately got to work. There was a functional gun on the table. Viti tore the lid from the gun and started pulling some wires and electric boards. She worked so fast. She cut away some plugs. Then she was left with two exposed wires and a loose electric circuit in her hand.
“Let’s go,” she said.
“I don’t remember where I left the zip line,” I said.
“Don’t worry.”
I was again in the front and Shanta again in the rear. One boy carried the laser gun and the other helped Viti. We reached the main street. It smelled like drying blood and burned flesh. Shot were fired every few seconds. Screams of pain pierced our ears. Shanta approached the wall and pressed on a button, and the handle for the zip line came flying in.
“Open the box,” Viti said, grabbing the handle.
I took the end of a gun and busted opened the handle’s electric box.
“See the red and black wires? Expose them right in the middle. Don’t touch anything else.”
I was taller than she was so I had to do it myself. She handed me the cutter and I trusted her I that wouldn’t get electrocuted.
“Good, now attach it with this one,” she said, handing me the laser gun’s exposed wire. I crossed all three wire ends together.
Shots were fired at us and we all ducked to the floor. Viti Landed on her belly and screeched in pain. I shot back but there was no one standing there. The boy who held the laser gun had been shot in the chest. His blood was
all over the floor. And then they came back, so Shanta, the other kid and I fired back. We took down five of them. I looked at Viti. She was terrified. She stood up and her belly was all red.
“Is it my blood?” She asked, panicked.
“I don’t know,” I answered and I looked at the floor in order to trace the blood from the boy’s chest to her stomach. But it was indeed hers. They had shot her right in the belly.
She burst into tears. She became hysterical.
“Take her to the clinic!” I ordered Shanta and the kid.
Shanta grabbed her by the hand, and so did the boy.
“No!” Viti cried in terror.
“I can do it. Go!”
Shanta and the kid took Viti to the clinic.
I was alone.
My eyes were wet, and my hands were bloody. I lost grip of the laser gun twice before I held it high enough to reach the other wire. The black wire was slippery and I couldn’t expose it because I had no grip. Bullets whizzed all around me. There was a Purist taking cover behind the street’s curve. I dropped to the floor again and fired back. I ran out of ammo so I took the gun off the dead kid. Shots bounced off the laser gun cover. I hoped it wasn’t damaged. I shot back and killed another Purist. I wiped my hands on my clothes and stood up again, balancing the laser gun between my shoulder and my cheek. I was finally able to close the circuit. The lights on the gun blinked. I could see it was only loading to a fourth of the energy capacity, but that would have to do. I held the gun under my right armpit and the electric board underneath it in my hand. I grabbed the handle and I swung forward through the main street. I aimed for the guys in silk, and they didn’t even see me coming. And when they did it was too late, because I’d already scorched a hole in their chests. The gun loaded quickly because it only used a fourth of its capacity, yet since I fired it so close to my targets it caused severe damage.
I killed almost ten Purists when I lost grip. I fell onto the floor and the laser gun banged on my head. I immediately got my shit together and switched hands. My head was bleeding. I held the Laser gun under my left armpit and grabbed the handles with the right. I was exhausted and shaking and blood dripped into my eyes. I completed another semi-circle and killed about twenty more Purists. By now, the street was filled with bodies of both Purists and Knaan citizens.
Things started quieting down. At one point I didn’t hear a gunshot for over a minute. I disconnected the laser gun and hid it behind a simulation bed of the nearest room. I took a gun that was on the floor, and checked to see if it had bullets left. It did. I went into the clinic. There were only four guarding it now. Shanta was one of them.
“Viti?” I asked.
“The baby,” she said, and I could see the tears in her eyes.
“We killed her baby!” she screamed and I held her tight. I didn’t know what to do.
She looked at me and saw my head wound.
“Inside…,” She said, sobbing.
We went inside. It was more chaotic than when I’d left. We could barely move. I hoped more people had come to the clinic looking for a place to hide, instead of being wounded. Dr. Ashish came to look at me.
“Press here,” he said to Shanta. She pressed my wound with a bandage. And he went to get something.
“Did you see Bahomi at all?” I asked her.
“One of the teens said there was one group fighting outside.”
“Toya and Dev?”
Ashish came back and stitched my head.
“I don't know.” She burst in tears again.
My eyes started to wet and I wiped them. Ashish finished and left to tend to other people.
“We need to find Bahomi. This isn’t over yet.”
“Yeah,” she said.
Suddenly the lights went out. Everyone screamed in panic.
“This is president Padma speaking.” She sounded choked up over the PA system. “The Nature Purification Organization has captured me and the security team.”
The screams intensified.
“They control the city. We are now their hostages. Their leader promised me that no harm will be done to us if we all cooperate and do as they say. Please evacuate the city in an orderly fashion.”
“We need to get to her,” Shanta said.
She grabbed my arm but I was exhausted. Bloody. It was over. They won. We weren't prepared. It wasn’t enough.
“We need to help her!” She screamed. “Get up soldier!”
“It’s pointless…we’re outnumbered…we failed…”
“Help me save her!”
She grabbed me and put a gun in my hand. I staggered to my feet and followed her out. Then the PA system was turned on again.
“I’m sorry I failed you, my children.”
Then we heard a gunshot.
“NO!” Shanta screamed in tears.
The AC stopped. Tear gas flowed in again. We both put on our gas masks. People started running outside. The eye windows were all foggy and I couldn’t see Shanta.
“Stop, don’t go there,” I shouted at the people. “It’s a trap,”
I shouted but no one could hear me through the masks. It was pointless to try and save everyone. I held Shanta while she cried. Then a large metal grinding sound filled the main street and a strange light filled the space around us.
“They’re opening the main door,” I said to Shanta with a shattered voice.
“They’re…leading them…out.”
Then I broke into tears, my mask became foggy and I couldn’t see anything. They’d killed Viti’s kid, Padma was dead and the Purists were winning. There was nothing else to do. We failed. I failed. I didn’t train them well enough, I wasn’t a leader. I shouldn’t have come back to shower, I shouldn’t have told Isaac anything, I shouldn’t have fallen in love with Shanta. I shouldn’t have gone out with Bahomi, I shouldn’t have wanted to fit in. If I’d become a storyteller none of this would have happened. I killed Viti’s kid by asking her to help us, and now all the people are running out to their death.
I was breathing heavy inside the mask and holding Shanta. She was shivering. And then Isaac’s mantra arose in my mind: “I shall grow old and die, all the people I love will fade away, everything is changing, and everything is connected.” And then I just let go. There was nothing for me to achieve anymore, I will die one day anyway. I’d lost the people I loved anyway—so I failed them too—everything was already changing in front of me, and everything was connected and I just couldn’t control it all by myself.
When everything was gone and I had reached rock bottom, there was nothing else left but Knaan’s people. I could still try to save them. Nothing else mattered anymore, not my life, not my parents, not Padma’s, not Viti’s, not Shanta’s, Toya’s, Dev’s or Bahomi’s. I could still try to save the people. And if I die trying it won’t matter because I already died once and I will die again. I felt my body getting energetic again, my strength returning. Shanta noticed it and sat next to me.
“Follow me,” I said and grabbed Shanta by the hand. She felt so tired and heavy. We had to walk through the current of people. They were trying to escape the gas, not knowing they were being led to their deaths.
We walked to the water corridor where Bahomi had led me before. The air was cool. The gas hadn’t gotten there so we took off our gas masks, gasping for fresh air. We were thirsty and tired and hurting.
“What are we going to do?” She asked me.
“I have an idea but we have to go outside.”
We kept walking for another minute until we reached the hatch. Bahomi was lying there next to a pile of dead Purists. He was badly hurt. Gunshot to the stomach. He sat in a pool of blood holding his gun.
“I guarded the hatch,” he said smiling, “I killed so many of them.”
Shanta looked at him with disgust.
“Take me to the clinic, please.”
Her face contorted, and she raised her gun. I wasn’t fast enough to stop what was about to happen.
“This
is your fault,” Shanta said, and shot him in the head. His brains splattered onto the wall and all over Shanta’s face and clothes.
“And this is for my mom.”
She then spat on his corpse and started crying. I controlled a gag reflex. She was scary and powerful and I had nothing to say. But this wasn’t over yet. We put on the cactus suits that were stashed there and went out the hatch to plan ahead.
Chapter 17
The sun was setting and more people poured out of the city's smoking mouth. There stood thousands of people in white overalls, pale and skinny. The useless army of the numb, without a home and without a leader.
We snuck around in our cactus suits.
“My brothers are still there, and so are my friends,” said Shanta.
“So are Isaac and his wife, and Viti and her husband. I hope they are alive.”
“What's your plan?” She asked.
“The Purists can just kill them all right there, but they haven’t.”
One of the Purists stood up on a boulder. He looked like a healthy, built version of Knaan people. Like he escaped and got a tan and grew stubble. It took me a second to realize he is the same Purist leader from the video twenty years ago. Purist soldiers surrounded the crowd and aimed directly at the people. Each Purist was wearing the same thin cactus suit. Other Purist soldiers pulled random people from the first line and took them up the hill in front of the crowd.
“Your city is ours,” he shouted. His voice was carried away to a distance with no trees to stop it. “Your technology is useless, you are useless, and your president is dead.”
There was a loud commotion in the crowd. He raised his hand and one of the soldiers shot an old man who'd been carried away to the hill. The crowd went completely quiet.
“Do not say a word. Disobey me and we'll shoot another one of yours. If you wish to survive do exactly as I say.” He paused and looked at the crowd. He must have felt like a god.
“If you're an energy, water or food technician, raise your hand.”
No one lifted a finger. He raised his hand again and a woman was shot. Her body rolled down the hill. Next in line was a teenage boy.
“If you are a water, energy or food technician raise your hand.”
Hands lifted.
