Slow Burn_Deep Darkness

by Stephen Landry

  It was midday. I and several other freelancers entered the dome from an underground shelter we had to drill through to get inside. An easy task but loud. We were already at our ready when we came into the sunlight of the city above. It was forgotten. Vines were growing up the sides of the domes side while trees had already began to break through the roads and hang out the windows of buildings. Accelerated growth. You could grown a twenty foot tree in less than two years if you altered it enough.

  Inside the dome we were ambushed not by the bandits and thugs we had been hired to kill but by animals. Mutilated saber tooth tigers, crocodiles the size of elephants and what I swear looked like a combination of a bear and a wolf the size of a two story building. Each of them wore a slave collar like the one I wore now, each with a different charge enough to keep the animals docile when around their human conditioners. We lost half our company before we even made our way to the bandits headquarters. We found a group of space pirates. A small ship with a cargo hull attached and several dozen animals already caged. The ones we killed had been released to patrol the area. Trained by the shock of their collars to never near the ship or the pirates. With the animals inside their cages the pirates were easy pray. All except one. A former Terran soldier named Kile. Kile went rogue after losing his wife while away on a mission. She had been in the wrong place wrong time. When he tried to get passage back to Earth he wasn't aloud. "Too much at stake," his commanding officer had told him before deploying him as a bodyguard for an envoy on Mars. He didn't get to bury her and that was when he went rogue. His envoy was attacked by a group of space pirates en route so he made a deal. In exchange for his services they would let him join their crew and take him to Earth. They agreed and from I heard after they even honored their arrangement making him a full time member and taking him to Earth whenever they had the resources. Always visiting his wives grave. It was a sad sob story. The kind you wouldn't want to live. All things have a price though. Kile paid his with a bullet to the back of the head. A shot from above by myself as I took a sniping position perched above their own ship. With his death the cages opened. The animals began tearing the place apart. Their collars were going off and on. We could have stood back and watched as they screamed in pain but we didn't. One after another we lured them into traps taking them out ending their suffering. In the end the zoo didn't pay us. We were suppose to save the animals not kill them. Each and every one of them had been worth a small fortune in genetic material dead or alive but alive they could have been studied and put on display. I wasn't too upset. Ending their suffering then was the least I could have done.

  I found a hole to dig into. Cillian had given me his rifle. Practically made me beg for it but it wasn't going to do him any good. A high powered M44. It was in better shape then the ones we had dug up inside the dropship. Clean with a lot more kinetic energy built up inside.

  When I was little I use to whistle all the time. Eventually I got so good at it I could whistle just about any song I heard. I use to play games on the battlefield whistling my favorite classic songs. Confused the hell out a few but most importantly it was loud enough that I could catch the attention of anyone and anything around me when I wanted. The wildlife of this world was no different. The rules were the same. I lured it away from the centipede with the air between my lips. When it was nearly over me I fired. I held down the trigger until my rifle was ready to overload. I could feel the heat brush against me in the cold air warming my face and my neck. The drake was down. It didn't stand a chance. Not alone. Not away from it's home. I wonder if that's what it's going to be like for us out here now. We have to be cautious. We can't investigate the strange sounds we hear for fear of death. We have to hide in the shadows. We have to ignore the sounds of music, of nature, of life. We have to be predators or else the world, this new world we live inside will eat us alive.

  It took me two and a half minutes to reach the centipede. The engine was already starting to roar. I could smell the exhaust in the air, the dripping of some exo fuel as I came close to the door. It opened and in front of me stood Cillian holding another M44 rifle. I already had mine slung over my side in a wolf sling. I reached for it but he took a shot behind me. The blast blew past my ear and everything began to ring aloud. Chel was screaming standing behind him. The words I couldn't make out but I could see the anger flush in her face. I stood there in shock. I thought we were on the same side. Betrayed I let him move closer and undo the clip at my waist and take the rifle away. Slowly the noise around me came back.

  "Miguel's been whispering in your ear?" he said as if asking me a very personal question.

  "You know the answer," I said quietly trying to motion towards my collar.

  "I know the answer," he said lowering the rifle and handing me a pair of handcuffs.

  Slowly I put them on. With both my hands down I make my way inside the centipede. The inside is small much like an elongated tank with gears and holos spread out across the walls. I couldn't imagine one person being able to memorize all the different gauges and gadgets that surrounded me. There was no window to the outside only a small monitor that acted like a radar. It looked analog. Cillian sat me down next to Chel who was crying.

  "We spoke to Reynolds, Sect-17 is inside the colony. Several attacks have already occurred with one cell above on the Erebus and another here on the ground. The other two ships, the Aelita and the Tritan and have reported nothing. It seems our communications have been either suspended somehow or damaged, Reynolds has ordered me to bring you in for questioning, I'm sorry," Cillian said staring forward towards the small radar screen. He said it in a whisper. He knew I was a slave, a puppet being played. He had enough time now to figure out my objective and why I was here on the planet and not either still on the Erebus or asleep in stasis. Cillian clutched the body of his rifle in his hand keeping his fingers close to the trigger. I knew he wasn't going to shot me, not if he didn't have to and probably not even if Reynolds ordered him too but as long as I was breathing I was a threat. My body, my mind, even without anything near I was a living weapon. Cillian knew that I would do whatever it takes to survive.

  "Don't let them take you, I'll kill you now if I have to," the voice whispered.

  Log - 32

  Why do I tell you stories about my past? Small stories about insignificant characters like Kile or insignificant events? Even this story, my own, this slow burn unfolding into an inferno around me. Insignificant. Just as far away from you as the moon. Why does it matter? It does. All of it matters. Every story. Every moment. Every breath. Every fucking thing you feel. My story is only one of hundreds of thousands, millions that get told day after day in small pieces. Stories spelled out in short sentences. 'She was a girl that set fire to the new world, or she was the girl that killed so and so, she was the lover, the fighter, the brave, the hero, the villain. She was a martyr, she was a sacrifice, she was the best damn thing that ever happened to me, she was a whore,' what is to one person and what is to another, all the little stories, the little words that people use to sum up entire individuals entire cultures, entire religions, entire species. Stories we as human beings have fought and died for to honor, to protect, to erase. Stories of one person pieced together tell a biography but if you take a hundred stories no matter how small and tie them together you get a web, an anthology, a universe. This is how we create worlds. This is how we create understanding.

  Kile was a pirate, a bad man who was doing something for selfish reasons but before that he was a hero with a wife whom he loved. He was fighting for a world he believed in for people he vowed to protect. Kile was a hero that died in a dump. A job I didn't even get paid for. Even after his death. After he was gone buried in the red sands of Mars with no grave there was no one left to leave roses at his wives tombstone on Earth. Did that mean he didn't matter? Was he always so meaningless. Even now that the entire world is lost. Billions of stories erased. Do we no longer matter? If we want to preserve what makes us human then yes it does.
All of it. Every little piece the good and the bad. The human species should have fought back against the Skrav but we were afraid and for that we have lost our greatest gift. We have only to fight and survive for the future, for a better world.

  The only difference between his story and mine were that I began mine by telling you I'm an sociopath, I've accepted I'm a piece of shit that doesn't deserve to live. If I die here then nothing is lost. I've seen things, done things, all so that I might breath just a little bit longer. Cillian and Chel, the two of them have a future. Together the two of them are a part of the solution, saviors and all they have to do is breed. Thirty seconds is all I would need to end their story. If I survive and they don't the world will grow colder but how can I put a value on life. Theirs or my own. Why should their lives matter more then mine. I'v spent most of my life being selfish. Why stop now. No. I can't. Their story has to continue. Chel, Cillian, they are more then just flesh. They are the same as I am and they share a bond. Chel even shared that with me for a moment and Cillian, he's never been a bad person. Even when things got bad he always took the high ground. There has to be a way to do this without killing them.

  "I'm escaping," I said.

  "Elyse, please don't, we have orders," Cillian said.

  "I'm escaping and there is nothing you can do about it because in thirty seconds I'm breaking free of these chains as you turn your back, drop your gun and the two of you fall to the ground. The door beside me is going to open and I'm going to jump out. I'll survive and the two of you are going to report to Reynolds that I'm dead," I said it all clear as day. I was already free of my cuffs. All I had to do was wait to see if Cillian understood there was no other way.

  The door beside me opens.

  My cuffs fall to the ground just as Cillian grabs Chel and the two stumble forward.

  He lets go of his rifle and it slides towards me.

  A voice whispers, "kill them now or I kill you," in my ear as I pick up the rifle and prepare myself to jump out of the centipede which is moving at around 40 MPH.

  "Not this time," I whisper.

  I jump and roll. It hurts like hell. The rifle falls from my hand undamaged and nearby. The centipede continues on ahead. By the time I'm on my feet it's far enough away I can barely make it out. I'm alone again but this time we are all alive.

  Log - 33

  "For a freelancer you sure are making a lot of life saving decisions? Didn't think you cared so much for the world but I guess now that there are so few of us your feelings have changed, maybe I should make an example of you, kill you now and forget our deal, forget about you and leave the heavy hitting to my men," Miguel said.

  "If you could do that you would have killed me as I jumped, you need me, you need me to do what you can't," I said.

  "Well played, you've gotten very good at this game, I'll contact you again when you reach the colony. Relay-13 will be your point of entry. I have men there that will help you get inside, lead you right to Reynolds after your cleaned up. You have 24 hours. Word is that something is coming, possibly a Skrav recon vessel sited at the edge of the system but no one is for sure, either way they may be abandoning this futile effort and if they do getting back to the Erebus is going to cause some problems if we don't make our move fast," he said with distress in his voice. As unsure as he was with his words I knew even his bid for power could be culled. Fear. The one thing we all had in common. The reason we were running in the first place. The Skrav were on their way.

  It took me seven hours to reach the Relay. Staving. Dehydrated. I thought I was looking at a mirage. The colony walls were massive. Thirty feet high build from the ground up by autons that monitored different areas around the clock. It was a fortress. The colony itself was designed in a circle with Reynolds and dropships in the center. Outside the center ring cargo containers were broken down into research labs, markets, shelters. Outside that the land was going to be used for farming. Terraformed with greenhouse labs to grow food and raise what little livestock we had still onboard. Clones and creatures grown to save us all from starving to death. Everything and everything a small colony needed to prosper. Once the first colony was established it would build outwards with several colonies set up several miles apart. If not for the Skrav we could actually call this home. Maybe Miguel was wrong. Maybe the ship that was detected was something else. Too many maybes and not enough food and water. I was ready to collapse. So far lady luck had been on my side so maybe Miguel's men would at least give me a good last meal. I imagined real steak and potatoes, noodles, sushi, and a side dish of custard. I could eat myself to death. That wouldn't be a bad way to go out. Better then my collar going off or a bullet to the back of my skull. I would die free with a stomach full. Not to mention the mess they would have to clean up after. Hell of a way to get revenge.

  Relay-19 was just outside the wall. A small bunker with a massive antennae on top of it. It was one of twenty two built inside and outside the colony for communication between the ground and the Trinity. Surrounding the Relay was a trench. I could hear rifle fire from where I was. Just on the other side a dropship with several of the Erebus security forces were dropping down. Miguel's men were under attack. I moved lower to the ground. If Reynold's men wiped out Miguel's here then I would be lost, stuck outside the walls forever. My instincts took over. I prayed that neither Cillian or Chel were among them as I fired. I knew I was fighting for the wrong side but I had come too far to quit now. A rocket launched from the top of the bunker. The dropship twisted and spiraled into the ground in a large explosion. They probably heard that on the other side of the colony. My ears were ringing. I could smell the burning flesh in the air. As the smoke cleared Miguel's men approached me with their rifles drawn.

  "Elyse? We've been expecting you, what you say we grab you something to eat," said an older tall man with a long grey beard. He had cybernetic implants on the right side of his forehead and long grey hair tied back with a blue bandana. They lowered their rifles and led me inside, "by the way I almost forgot welcome to Athens," he smiled.

  Log - 34

  Athens, the name of our new colony. Named for one of the most powerful civilizations in the ancient world. The older man was named Abraham and as far as terrorists went he wasn't that bad. He gave me new clothes, food. He never once tried to take my rifle away. He treated me like I was an equal though I knew he was hiding his true face. Like Miguel this man was once an insurrectionist, a part of Section 17.

  "As you know we've begun our attack, both here on the ground and on the ships. We're winning Elyse but we still haven't been able to get to Reynolds. Miguel here says that the two of you were very close once long ago and that you are the key to our salvation. The key to saving our people, saving humanity from the Suns heresy," Abraham said.

  "Heresy? Saving the people? You know Miguel is a terrorist right, when I WAS close to Reynolds I put people like him in the ground, monsters that use any means necessary to hurt innocent lives and bring down civilization," I said.

  "What civilization? Seventeen was and has been trying to prevent the exodus for years, centuries, we grew out of a splinter group of the Suns of Sol, the shadow society that had been creating ships and planning this run for years, Reynolds and the rest are a stain, they want to change the human race, augment them and live forever and they don't care how it happens, just look at what they let happen, billions dead because of them, because of the world you once swore to serve," he said stressing about every other word. He wasn't angry but he spoke to me as if I was a child in need of some discipline.

  "And you think by killing Reynolds you'll save humanity, you think this," pointing towards the collar, "is humane? That forcing others to die for your cause, for all the innocent blood you've spilled that justifies the end," I finished. I was practically screaming. Others were staring at me.

  "I'm sorry for what you have had to go through, all of us, all of us are soiled. All of us are rotten, all of us are sworn for torment in hell bu
t we give our lives so that the rest of humanity, what is left of us does not wither, does not have to repeat the same mistakes we have made," he said calmly, "if I could trust you, if you came to our side I would remove the collar, I would even let you kill me should you manage to make right of this world by our side but trust is earned not granted," he finished.

  "That goes both ways," I said.

  "Very well, follow me, I will show you," he said standing up and motioning for me to do the same. I held my rifle closer to my hip. If this was a trap I wasn't going to die without a fight. I didn't trust Abraham and I didn't care if he trusted me. Not a second did I believe that he would remove my collar.

  In front of me stood a small EMP and a cutting tool capable of ripping the collar off in just a few seconds. The EMP would give me more time then needed to be free.

  "With this I could make you whole again but only if you came to our side, you are our savior, it is your destiny to be here, follow me," Abraham said continuing to lead me away from the EMP and into another room inside the Relay.

  The walls were aligned with holos and digital scripts, weapons from world war one and two, weapons from the resource wars, Skrav artifacts, images from the first invasion, blueprints of all the Earth ships including prototypes for the the Trinity and a 4th, 5th, and 6th, fleets. When the images stopped the room lit with a blue hue and there in front of me was a sword. A Skrav sword. Used during the first invasion to kill a Skrav called Scar. Abraham picked up the sword and handed it to me. It was light. It felt like it formed to my hand as I looked it over. "I want you to use this, we have a prisoner, the dropship that attacked us when you arrived was not the first, this man, he is one of Reynold's elite," said Abraham leading me and the sword together towards a prison cell. "Miguel says you may know this man and that if you end him we will free you, whether you join us or not, we will free you and gift you this sword. After that you will have to make a choice, the Skrav are coming for this world and you will have to decide who's side you are on but it will be your choice just as I and the others here, unlike Miguel, believe it should have always been," he finished leading me inside a dark room and closing the door behind me. I had the Skrav sword, my rifle, two weapons to choose from as the room began to glow red. The prisoner before me was tied to a chair, their body had been beat, their head covered in a damp cloth still wet from water boarding. I removed the cloth and saw...