Chapter Text
I hid behind the truck waiting for the soldiers to pace to the main building from where they wouldn't be able to see me. Between bobbing heads as they walked I could make out half of the vehicle I had to go on to. I definitely had to make a run for it.
The soldiers reached the building and the high security automatic door opened to let them in. It closed behind them leaving the yard almost empty. I looked to his left exposed side from where somebody could easily see me. Only a couple of soldiers were patrolling in the distance. This was my chance.
I stood up and ran as fast as I could, slightly bending over so none of them could see me. I looked around as I was running. One of them was now coming my direction.
"Dammit!" I swore under his breath and made a knee slide to the next vehicle, easily sliding under it.
I watched the man's feet as he paced past me without noticing me. I surely didn't have enough time. I moved under the vehicle and stuck my head out carefully. I couldn't risk getting out without making sure I wouldn't draw attention on myself. I lifted his hips and reached for my pocket. I grabbed the grenade and pulled it out, checking its weight in one hand and mentally calculating how far I would be able to throw it.
The distracting noise of the huge door sliding open caused my head to snap to its direction and my ears to perk up. A drove of soldiers threateningly walked out, moving towards the vehicles. I didn't have time for this shit.
Without taking a second to think about it twice I violently removed the clip from the grenade and my arm jerked upwards almost hitting the back of the vehicle and then forward throwing the grenade as far as the largest vehicle on the opposite array. The grenade crushed on its side tearing it to pieces with a powerful explosion and flames gracefully licked around at what was left of it.
I broke my stare from the mesmerizing view when the men started shouting and the noise of the sirens in the yard was loud enough to draw attention on the 'intrusion' and not on me. And as soon as I was on my feet I ran again, as fast as I could, to the vehicle down the array which was conveniently waiting with its door open. I jumped in and slid under the largest iron bench on the right trying to catch my breath.
"It-It worked!" I happily giggled quietly and pulled the black beanie off ruffling my bright red hair, grinning.
The trick with the grenade would cause the departure to be delayed for an hour or so but damn. It was worth it. Explosions are always fascinating. And, unless they spotted me here, they would never suspect me. People always take such destructive actions against the army and the government. Though, I guess, the government had no power anymore. The army has taken over everything.
However, I didn't belong in any gang against the army. I wasn't into that stuff. However, I wouldn't mind burning them all and dancing around the fire and unfortunately that was something only big gangs had the power to do. But being part of such groups required great responsibility, faith in their beliefs and obedience to their rules. F*ck their responsibilities and f*ck their beliefs and f*ck their rules. That's what I think and what many others would reject just for the safety of belonging in a team.
During the last three month the gangs, who don't secretly support the shitheads that run the entire world, made a shitload of damages to army facilities. Not that I'm against that; the contrary actually. I think the bastards deserve it after what they did to so many innocent people.
But am I amongst the innocent? I don't think so.
Let me first introduce myself, shall I?
I'm 947P in London, Region 4. Too long to memorize for someone who hasn't been through all this but I remember it because I have to leave with it. Every day. This is all people know about me. I used to have a real name though. And real numbers that meant something, that could define who I am. Or who I used to be, rather.
My real name is Matthew James Bellamy. I am 17 years old. I was born on 9th of June 2159 in Teignmouth, Devon, southeast England. Got infected on 27th of March 2176, almost two months ago.
I was one of the luckiest, being one of the last ones to get infected. You don't see how I can be lucky? Well, the first person infected with that bitch was found approximately five years ago, so, yeah, I guess I could consider myself lucky. Having to live with this thing in your system for so many years and then being killed by the army must be a real pain.
They had given a name to the virus back when the number of the victims was just negligible. During the first couple of years you had to say its name to have people understand what you were talking about. You don't need to do this anymore. You can simply say 'they're infected'. There's no way one is infected with anything more serious than this now.
Back then, when it started, nobody knew exactly what it was or how it could be cured or even whether it could be cured at all. It must have been three years after they stopped trying to find a cure, or it could be less; I can't remember anymore. But I can clearly remember the day when they announced that there wasn't a cure, all people infected doomed to the worst of fates. There wasn't hope anymore. For no one.
And that was what made people to not care anymore. I mean, what would you do if you knew you could die tomorrow?
Some would kill themselves, most of them without even waiting for the virus to get them. They needed to run away from it. I don't blame them. I would have done the same if I had allowed myself an option.
Some others would kill each other, even without the excuse of the uncontrollable anger the virus triggered. Only during 2172 two million people committed suicide, a million killed each other and another three and a half millions were killed by the virus or the army. After that year things seemed to have calmed down a bit but whoever wandered around the streets during that year would never be able to forget what they saw and neither will I.
Whatever the government thought, things had never truly calmed down – I guess they never will – anger was still boiling inside, waiting for the right moment to explode and once again take millions and millions of lives with it. As months went by and people slowly started to realize that government and army power could do nothing more than make them completely disappear of the face of the earth, they started fighting against them. People had started their own revolution with only their anger giving them the energy to continue as food supplies soon had run out. However, the lack of good timing and strategy let the army kill thousands of them in one night in every country. But they would still fight. Well, they were trying at least, right?
I could hear from outside the ship droves of people falling onto the fence around the camp, trying to break in and soldiers running around and barking commands against them. I laughed bitterly. Poor bastards. They didn't have a chance of getting in. Nor getting away.
The first bullets fell against them and the screams increased in volume, drowning the deadly moans of a couple of wounded people who miserably fell on the ground, nearing their death. They were smothered and suffocated under dozens of maddened feet that didn't seem to care. Animals.
I couldn't breathe properly now, like I was suffocating too under this iron bench. I took a couple of deep breaths only to realize it wouldn't help either me or those trying to escape their miserable lives out there. I curled up on my side, hugging my knees tightly against my chest struggling to ignore the knot that had now formed in my guts. I pinched the bridge of my nose and shut my eyes, clenching, trying to hold tears back – I promised you I'll be strong – but I couldn't. I couldn't help but let a couple flow across my face as I struggled unsuccessfully to close my ears, to stop the noise from coming in, but unfortunately my hands were busy keeping me from falling apart.
A soldier barked a command that I couldn't clearly make out though I already knew what it was. A loud roar of an engine coming to life and then a sparkling sound like electricity passing through hundreds of bodies broke through the camp. Screams and moans came to join the loud rustling of fire and suddenly the rustling of the fence ceased replaced by the sharp smell of burning flesh.
I tried to take one breath but it hurt too much to breathe when I knew that some people out there couldn't anymore. I managed to inhale some short shaky breaths and let them out through my mouth. I had to calm down otherwise I would get myself killed. I promised I would come back.
"Pick up the bodies." ordered a voice as it came closer. A man now stood at the door of the ship and my ears perked up to pick up his words, lying completely still too scared to even breathe. "Come on. Come on! We're moving! C'mon!" he yelled. His heavy footsteps were followed by many more and twelve men jumped on the ship.
I pulled my cap on to cover my vibrant hair colour with shaky moves as they came to sit on the benches by the walls, their guns clinging together as they stirred. One went to drive and I let out a sigh of relief as quietly as I could. They hadn't noticed me, yet. However, I knew the next three hours were going to be rough.
When the virus started striking more and more victims many thought that it could be a great opportunity to make out the strong from the weak, the rich who could afford medicine to survive and the poor who couldn't.
However, governments weren't to be so naïve, so fair even. NASA started searching for a planet which could host us, though I'm sure the search had been done ages ago, years before it all started; it was all an inside job. And our new home was soon top topic for everyone everywhere. It was the spark of hope everybody was looking for, a great new beginning. You could see bright with hope faces everywhere, like there wasn't the fear of a new victim anymore, like the virus had never existed. Why? Just imagine why. With the discovery of a planet similar to Earth people could leave their problems behind, forget the damage the virus had caused and start anew. And the thought that after such a discovery a cure could be found had poisoned everyone's minds.
Why I say it was an inside job you ask? Well, I wouldn't say that some years ago but something never seemed quite right to me. Something always seemed to be wrong. And at the point I couldn't take all those lies anymore I started doing my own search and trying to keep track of the news we, average citizens, were allowed access to. I started looking for old archive about how Earth was before my parents were even born. It hadn't changed too much. It was just like now: no trees, extinct animals, poisoned humans.
"How many did we get today?" asked the one sitting just above me on the bench.
"Over 100! Isn't that insane!? It's even more than the last time!" I sighed and shut my eyes tightly to hold the sob that threatened to escape my throat. One hundred people were put out of their misery.
"People are just getting more and more crazy!" laughed one and I swallowed the urge to come out and spit in his f*cking face. They weren't going to make it easier for me, were they?
The engine of the ship roared and the ship rushed forward without a warning, forcing my body to slide to the back of the ship and turned on my back pressing my feet on the bottom of the bench above me to stop my body from hitting on the wall.
"Faggots" I mouthed when I noticed they hadn't even moved an inch. Why this all had to be so difficult for me?
"How many are being moved today?" asked a voice of a man who sounded older than the others.
"35 I think. They're the last."
"Out of 70?"
A man on the opposite bench nodded.
"Woah-ha!"
"They were all infected?"
"Nope. Only half of them." said another dude and I imagined him shrugging. My eyes widened in shock. I kind of knew what those people were up to but this? This was a whole new thing. A genocide. "They demanded from the base that today was the last drove to bring on and there weren't enough ships to take them." he said, his words mixed with the rustling of his weapons as he searched for something in his backpack.
"Well, they were gonna end up dead anyway." another man laughed and stood up to imitate the infected, staggering around and making weird noises, and everybody else cracked up laughing too. Morons.
I couldn't listen to this bullshit anymore. Just a bit more and I would try to kill them all until they killed me. That would be a pity. I pulled my cap farther down to cover my ears and pressed the side of my face hard on the dusty floor to muffle the voices. The noise of the engine made my head start aching but soon lulled me to sleep.
The engine suddenly stopped roaring and my eyes shot open as my heart started racing again. I raised my head just a bit from the floor and listened carefully to figure out what was going on. I heard the door sliding open and the soldiers jumped out on the alien ground. The door slid close again leaving me alone in the ship. I had approximately five minutes before they came to disinfect the ship. I had to get out fast.
I shifted around under the bench and pulled myself out as my legs frantically kicked the floor to push me up. I looked around and tiptoed fast to the exit. I pressed my ear to the metal door and listened carefully for a moment. I frowned. Nothing. All I could hear was just...silence. My instinct told me something was certainly wrong but my hands didn't give it a second thought as I pushed the button. The door slid open painfully slow and the sudden light dazzled me forcing me to squint. I blindly took a wary step forward and then I heard a loud click near my head followed by many others that seemed to be coming from just meters away from me in a semicircle.
I blinked, shocked, as five soldiers stood in a semicircle in front of me with their guns poised toward me while another one pressed the tip of his gun on the back of my head. I closed my eyes for a second and gulped, trying to ignore the sudden wave of nausea that settled in my stomach. I took a sharp deep breath in through my nose. The tip of the gun poked the back of my head again and my eyes opened reluctantly. I raised my arms to show surrender and noticed for the first time that I was shaking. I gulped again against the lump in my throat. Was that it?