Requiem (50 page)

There was
another door further down the hallway and a smaller one to the
left. The Cockroach was her only companion, lying sprawled out on
the floor.

She wondered
why one of their own guns on one of their own stations would kill
one of their own... what would you call them? Workers? There was no
other way to describe what the Cockroach did. It was work. And he
apparently enjoyed it.

He still held a
pistol in his hand. She almost wanted to throw something at him to
see if he was still alive. Death was always such a hard thing to
accept. She inched closer, keeping her eyes trained on the body. No
movement. No breathing. She heard footsteps trudging down the
length of the corridor. She froze. Half loaded with drugs and half
emptied of blood. The room was spinning. The footsteps were getting
closer.

Grab the gun
or play dead? Grab the gun or play dead? Grab the gun or play
dead?

The feet were
almost at the door.

Shit.

She half fell,
half lunged at the body and pried his fingers from the gun. The
grip was cold and wet. She placed her hand on the wall to try
steady herself and concentrated as hard as she could as she rose to
her feet. The blood rushed from her head. She struggled to control
her breathing. The door opened. A handful of soldiers came through.
The automated turret turned to face them but didn't fire. They
weren't NeoCorp, at least as far as she could tell.

They were
masked and heavily armoured. The man in front was slight but his
steps were heavy. She stepped away from the wall but her legs
wouldn't hold her. She leaned back against it. One of the soldiers
raised a gun at Seline. She closed her eyes, unable to move.

The man in
front raised his hand, gesturing for the other to lower the gun.
'Open your eyes, Seline.'

She opened
them.

'We've been
looking for you. You have information that we require.'

Seline
swallowed some of the blood that had collected in her mouth. '…
Yeah... I've been getting that a lot lately.'

'I am not here
to harm you. I only seek your co-operation.'

'You'll have to
try harder if you want me to believe you.'

'We know of
your circumstances, Seline. We do not believe that torture will
help anything.' He started towards her.

She levelled
the gun at him, shaking but aiming as best she could. She said
nothing.

'We seek the
same thing, you and I,' the man explained.

'I'm seeking a
way off this goddamn station.'

'We can provide
one.'

'I'm sure you
can.'

'Come with us,
Seline.'

Even behind a
gun she was powerless. 'Stop moving! Just... fucking stop
moving!'

'We have
business to discuss. You're coming with us.'

'I said stay
there!' She could barely hold the weight of the gun. She wasn't a
threat to anyone, not in this state.

'We don't have
time for this, Seline.'

She held the
gun to her own head. There was just enough blood loss that it
seemed like a good idea.

'Do you have
time now?' she said.

The man stopped
only metres away.

'I'm telling
you right now. There's no way I'm going with you,' said Seline.

He stood
motionless before slowly pulling the mask from his face as if he'd
worn it for so long it had become a part of him, like removing a
layer of skin. He held it in his hand. He looked so young, possibly
even younger than her. He spoke through dry, cracked lips. His eyes
were large, colourless and faded, betraying nothing of what lay
behind them.

'Come with me.
I can help you. I can take away your fear.'

'… What the
fuck are you talking about? Give me one good reason to trust
you.'

'I'm not here
to barter. We need that information.'

'I said give
me
a reason, your needs mean nothing to me.'

'I am giving
you a reason, Seline. You can become a part of the solution. By
helping me you help not only yourself but countless others.'

In the corner
of her blurred vision Seline could see one of the soldiers take a
step back from the rest of the group. The number seventeen was
written in red on the crest of the soldier's helmet. Seline focused
on what the man had said.

'I... I don't
understand. How would I be helping? Why is the blackbox so valuable
to you?' she asked.

'We know of
Icarus. We know what it can do and we know that you and the Yurrick
are trying to stop it but we know something that you do not – that
Humanity
needs
Icarus.'

'… What the
hell are you talking about?'

'If what we
suspect is true then gaining access to your blackbox should give us
the information we need to control the Atlas Gates. And if we
control the Atlas Gates we can lead Icarus directly to Sol.'

'H- how could
you want such a thing?'

'I ask, how
could you not?'

He waited for
her to respond but she stared back at him in silence, a pained
expression on her face. She noticed the soldier, number seventeen,
take another step back.

He pressed on.
'You've seen what has become of our species. We are dirt under the
heel of our own boot. There are two choices for life on our planet:
the struggle and misery of the Insolvency or the ignorant tyranny
of NeoCorp. These choices are two sides of the same coin. They are
unsustainable in
every
sense of the word.'

'But, what
you're talking about... it's genocide, it's-' She shook her head,
trying to refocus her vision. The weight of each thought pressed
down on her shoulders. Her legs were on the verge of collapse.
'I... no... I can't be a part of this.' The gun she held to her own
head was slipping. She tried to tighten her hand again but couldn't
find the strength.

'The Warlord
offers you redemption and this is all you have to say for
yourself?' barked one of the other soldiers.

'You... you're
the Downfall Warlord?' Seline asked.

'A name given
not chosen,' said the Warlord.

'A name earned,
I'd say,' said Seventeen.

Seventeen
opened fire on the others. In rapid, short bursts, bullets cut into
the backs of the other two, they stumbled, dropped straight to the
floor. Before Seventeen could fire again, the Warlord yanked Seline
towards himself and slipped behind her. Seline's gun lay at her
feet.

The Warlord
looked over the shoulder of his new hostage towards Seventeen, who
was now pointing the gun at him.

'Trust: yet
another thing that has been stolen from this generation,' said the
Warlord.

Seventeen said
nothing.

'Tell me then,
is it my methods that you doubt?'

'No, it's your
sanity.' Seventeen removed her helmet.

Seline focused
on the face. It was old but not as old as she remembered.
'Abigail?' she asked.

'Good to see
you too, dear.'

'So, Abigail,
you work for the Yurrick?' asked the Warlord.

'No. They were
always a bit uppity for my liking. My presence here is a bit more
traditional. I'm here for Seline and I'm here for myself.'

'For yourself,
you say?'

'To balance the
books.'

'Ah, revenge,'
he said dryly. 'And you held such promise. I thought you understood
what it was I stood for.'

The smell of
stale sweat clung to the Warlord's skin. Seline fought against his
strength but he bent her arm behind her back and jammed it
upward.

'Try that
again, Seline and I will be forced to break it.'

'Don't try to
fight him, honey. He means what he says. Even if what he says is a
pile of self-righteous nonsense.'

'I am truly
disappointed, Abigail,' said the Warlord.

'Disappointed
that I'm not like you? Or disappointed that you weren't able to
figure out what I really was?'

'Please. If you
seek to insult my ego you'll have to dig a lot deeper than
that.'

'Just step to
the side. I'm sure a bullet can dig to the depth required.'

'I'm curious,
Abigail. For one such as you, the initiation into my group could
not have been easy. Maybe you can share your deeds with young
Seline here.'

'I'm not proud
of what I did but it was the only way.'

Abigail looked
into Seline's eyes. 'When I heard that NeoCorp had found you and
that the Warlord wanted you for himself I placed myself within his
group. I did what I had to do to make sure you wouldn't be harmed.
I'm sorry it took so long.'

'You don't do
yourself justice, Abigail. You see, Seline, despite Abigail's lack
of gumption when it comes to fulfilling what is the only moral
imperative left for humanity, she will, for the sake of petty
revenge, readily engage in murder.'

'At first I
thought you were just a nihilist but from where I'm standing
nihilism doesn't even begin to explain what you are,' said
Abigail.

'I am human.
And that is what scares you,' he said.

'You may be
human but your humanity died a long time ago. And since when did
the thoughts of the dead matter to the living?'

'Living? Is
that what you call this? Is that what you call this miserable state
of affairs? This isn't life, this is nothing more than survival and
tell me, what is the point of surviving without happiness?'

Abigail flexed
her fingers around the barrel of the rifle. 'That's enough. You can
talk that shit to me all you like but don't you dare put your
nonsense into her head.'

'How do you
know that all the people you've killed weren't happy?' asked
Seline.

'Seline. Don't
play his game.'

'Because I've
spent my whole life watching them,' said the Warlord. 'Because I
lived in the dirt with them. Because I
am
one of them.'

'And that gives
you the right to kill them?'

'Seline!'

'Yes. I kill
them out of mercy. I know how they suffer. But more importantly I
know why – something they have always refused to understand.'

'And how many
of them bought that? How many really believed that you were doing
what was right for them?'

'You know and I
know that
they
don't know any better. We have gotten to the
point where we simply continue to survive and nothing else. We've
been led to believe that life, no matter how miserable, is
preferable to death. I don't know when it began but we have slowly
accepted less and less of what life should be.'

'And you know
the answer do you? You know what life should be?'

'No. But I've
seen enough to know that it shouldn't be this.'

'Enough!' said
Abigail. 'You have fallen beyond saving. All you know is pain and
you assume we are all the same.'

'Please,
Abigail. You have seen what has become of humanity. As has Seline
here. I am the mirror and my pain is the reflection that our
species is too cowardly to confront.'

Seline couldn't
think of a response. She'd run out of words. Or perhaps it was just
the blood loss.

It shouldn't
be this.

'From every
defeat and misery I will grant relief. From every ounce of
suffering, longing, disease, and despair I will grant
salvation.'

'Death is not a
cure,' said Abigail.

'When a man has
been trapped in a coma for most of his life, when a man's body is
riddled with cancer with no chance of relief, when a man has become
too old to move, to eat, to drink – to live, then we grant him
death. That liberty is gifted him. When life has become terminal,
euthanasia is necessary.'

It shouldn't
be this.

'Ignore him,
Seline.'

'Why don't you
allow her to make up her own mind?'

'That's a
fucking delightful taste of irony considering that little speech
you just made.'

'I believe that
Seline possesses the intelligence to know what is best for
humanity. Despite what you think, I would much rather this be a
bloodless exchange. I wish no harm on Seline or anyone for that
matter.'

'There is
nothing bloodless about what you do. You're a fucking warlord for a
reason.'

'Who is the
real villain here, Abigail?' He gestured towards the bodies of his
comrades on the floor. 'Their deaths are a direct consequence of
your mindless vendetta and you wish to add my blood to your already
stained hands.'

Without
thinking about it Seline bit down as hard as she could on the
Warlord's arm. The sour taste of sweat at first, then the metallic
warmth of blood. After the short, sharp silence of the Warlord's
reaction came the sound of her own screaming as her arm was twisted
and wrenched further up her back. The bone was bending, threatening
to break under the pressure.

Abigail stepped
forward. 'Seline!'

Seline was
breathing heavily, on the verge of blacking out again.

'We cannot
spend too long discussing trivialities, Abigail, but tell me, have
you learned nothing from being with me all this time?'

'I've learned
that your insanity is truly beyond belief.'

'I see you're
beyond saving.'

'I gave up on
my redemption a long time ago. I'm sure you can figure out why. You
and your people killed my son, after all.'

'I have not
killed a soul without consideration for their welfare.'

'You didn't
even know my son so what considerations could you have possibly
made?'

'It takes an
extraordinarily weak person to be tempted by the whore song of
revenge,' he said to Abigail.

'And an even
weaker one to hide behind an innocent victim.'

'We're all
victims here, Abigail. The rules of the game dictate these methods.
Just one more reason why this game needs to end.'

'Let her
go.'

'You're only
giving me one option right now. I will not kill her to spite you
but I will kill her if it keeps the information she has from
falling into your hands. You will not interfere with my plans. Not
you, not the Yurrick, and certainly not NeoCorp.'