After Days - Chapter 12

Inhuman howls were all that Leon was capable of now, screaming required a kind of energy that he just didn’t have anymore. Icarus was relentless, clawing at his inner strength without any fluctuation in the pain it was causing.

The professors let their eyes soak in the sight of their work, the outcome of their research, though as time went on, they all but lost interest in the unearthly happenings before them. They instead found greater interest in looking over the stats, readings and simulations prepared across their monitors. Being the kind of men they were, and given the kind of work this was, they trusted more in the data than in what their eyes could see.

“Seems as though everything is going according to plan.” A deep but naturally dominant voice said, behind the professor who seemed to be orchestrating the others and, of course, was crouched over a large monitor.

“Quite. The results are most promising. But this zone is off limits to all but the Master General, so I mus-” His odd, whiny voice was silenced as he turned to shoo the man out of the dome. Instead of seeing a face however, he found himself looking down a narrow, lightless tunnel. It was only when he managed to focus through his deep glasses that he realised he was actually looking down the barrel of a pistol.

“We don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick. That boy, Leon, I need to know how much power you’ve managed to pull from him.” General Halsey said as his barrel hovered closer to the man’s skin.

Scientists were by no means battle hardened. They lived much of their life in the shadows, buried in their work, relying on their intellectual importance to keep them alive. The sight of a loaded gun was enough to set them on edge, so the cold kiss of one against their brow was enough to make them very cooperative.

The rest of the coated team jumped from their workstations to help, but with Dexter and Hudson ready to shoot, and Private Franklin armed, but still unsure of what he was supposed to be doing, they were forced to remain still.

The soldiers that had once filled the room at the beginning of Leon’s torture had gotten bored, returning to either their posts or their quarters. When you’ve seen a man scream for ten minutes, it isn’t likely to get exciting. Those few who had stayed behind as guards had been incapacitated, most due to broken necks.

The lead scientist weighed his options, and in doing so, found that he only had one choice. “So far, Icarus has taken energy equal to that of one hundred and twenty four lightning strikes.” He kept it in plain English, to complicate his answer would no doubt seal his fate.

“Is that energy enough to save the infants?” Halsey asked again, backing the man into the edge of his console, a bright light overhead blinding him.

“Only three of the eight.” He raised his hands. “But we should have enough within the hour to double that figure. Perfect result, right?” He loathed speaking so simply, though his intellect told him to stoop to the intruders level, maybe they’d feel a similarity and release himself and his team.

Halsey grinned with a wicked smile, genuinely pleased with the answer the man had given. But it was not the one he had been hoping for. “Quite perfect.” He agreed highly. Without the barrel so much as twitching, he drew a second pistol from his hip, aimed it toward the scientist beside him, and pulled the trigger.

A shining bullet drilled into the wall with a splatter of blood decorating its trail. The man he had shot slumped to his knees before doubling over, his nose breaking against the metal floor. Blood pooled under him as he lay, face down with his pelvis high in the air.

The General and Dexter shared that same disapproval as the corpse lay steady. Such an indecent way to die. To the two elite soldiers, dying anywhere else but the battlefield was a disgrace, but to fall in such an untidy manner, that was merely insulting.

One by one, Hudson and Dexter put the other scientists down, ripped flesh and dark blood littering the room. Even Private fired a shot, but it was so shaken that it missed and punched through a glass display. Only the lead scientist was left standing, the barrel still pressed against his skull. He had already given up any chance of survival, but he accepted it the way a coward would. Tears rolled down his pitted, aged cheeks while his lips trembled.

“Shut it down.” Halsey ordered, his eyes locked on the reflection of himself in the man’s glasses.

The man struggled to find his tongue, but when he did, it betrayed him. “I can’t.” The pistol twisted into his brow. “No-no-no I mean, I can’t do it by myself, it takes two people.”

“Just as well there are five of us here then.” Halsey waited for the man to do as he was instructed, but fear gripped him. Instead a quaking hand pointed towards the set of levers. It was so obvious that Halsey should have figured it out for himself.

With a twist of his head, the General had Private and Hudson pull the levers, disabling the machine and ending the backing noise of Leon wailing. All of the screens went dull as the information disappeared, leaving a simple desktop with the Celestia insignia. A simplified, coiled bird with a trident through its stomach, wrapped in a solid ring of colour.

“Why are you doing this? You’ve stained our salvation.” The scientist gained his courage as Halsey lowered the pistol, satisfied with the result.

“No, I’ve secured our future.” It was a simple enough answer, but a riddle to the man who had never seen battle. Without fully turning his head, Halsey aimed  lazily and fired once again, this time the round smashed through the scientist’s head, slicing through the bridge of his glassed. He fell to the ground in a heap, a dignified heap, but a heap all the same.

Private felt numb. What was he doing here helping these men? This was treason and he was part of it. He stepped back as the growing pool encroached on his boots. A hand slapped onto his shoulder and he flinched, but was too disorientated to react.

“This is justified you know, it may not seem it, but it is.” Dexter reassured as he saw the Private’s stiffened look. “Trust me, Franklin.”

Suddenly Halsey snapped both of his weapons at arm’s length, looking to Dexter, alert but perplexed.

“No.” Dexter chuckled. “Not Franklyn. The kid’s family name is Franklin. ‘I’ and ‘Y’ make a hell of a difference, my friend.”

Halsey swallowed the lump in his throat as he accepted that his only military superior had not been in the room the whole time. He slipped his pistols back into their holders, but Franklin could not ignore that he had left the safety off.

Private waited until the General had wandered further toward the prisoner before speaking. “This all seems a bit crazy, you know? We could be killed on the spot for what we just did.”

“You’re right, or maybe worse, they could drop us off in the middle of nowhere and let us survive however we could. But either of those is better than what would have happened if this had continued.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t expect you to. This is, what, your first post in Celestia? Maybe your father serves too?”

Franklin nodded.

“I’ve seen and done a lot, kid, seen things you haven’t dreamed of, and never want to either. The same goes for the General. He has met the Order, was deemed valuable enough to be included in their scheme. They’ll probably hunt him down for this, but in his eyes it’ll be worth it.”

“Sorry, but I still don’t-”

“The infants he was talking about, that wasn’t some code name for anything, it was literal. Kids, just kids who are doomed to die. The Order consists of both men and women, but they all share the same curse. No matter what they try, their offspring all die before they’re seven months old. Some die earlier, but none live longer.”

“So, that’s what this is all about? This war was just to save their…offspring?”

“Hell no! Jeez, this only came out a few years back, that’s how long Halsey’s been trying to catch the Tin-Man. How do you not know how this started?”

Private’s face scrunched with questions. But he had been warned that he wouldn’t understand.

“Long story short, kid, if we had let the scientists save those kids, the Order would have no need for Celestia at all, and we’d be left up shit creak without a paddle.”

Private was too young and too detached to understand the expression, but he could guess what was meant.

Across the room, Leon was gasping for air, but he didn’t know how, his mind a tattered wreck.

“So you’re the boy they found in London.” Halsey said with a smile, one of a rarely impressed nature. ‘He was just drained of most of his life and he can still breathe? He truly is special.’

Leon couldn’t respond, he could barely understand what was being said to him through the ringing pain in his head. Ironically, his mind finally felt separate from his body, though not in a way that was by his own choosing.

“I’ll give you a moment. I imagine that being ripped apart from the inside must be hard to come back from.”

“You think you’ll fare any better after being ripped apart from the outside?” Tessa quizzed from a small entrance to the back of the room. Her eye focused down the sights of a stolen Celestia rifle as the remainder of her squad poured in, lighting the other soldiers up with laser sights before Dexter could even reach for his hip.

“I knew you wouldn’t be far behind us. I just wasn’t expecting to be here this long.” Halsey said calmly as the red pointer danced over his eyes. “I’d hoped to have the boy out of here by now.”

Tessa buried the butt of rifle deeper into her shoulder as she steadier herself. “Allow me to save you the trouble. Leon is coming with me.”