Purge of Prometheus (30 page)

Keryn rubbed her forehead in frustration.
 
“What’s to stop the Terran’s from just blowing all the bracelets remotely once we start the revolution?
 
We could be condemning every Lithid on the planet by doing this.”

“Keryn, I’m sorry,” Alcent replied, his voice soft and apologetic.
 
“I know your friend is a Lithid, but there’s nothing we can do.
 
Either we stop this revolt because of our personal feelings for our friends, which I won’t allow, or we drive forward and accept their deaths as collateral damage.”

She grimaced at Alcent’s word choices.
 
“Collateral damage” sounded so incredibly impersonal for someone as close to her as Penchant.
 
She pictured in her mind the hundreds of different faces he had assumed during their time together and couldn’t imagine him being gone from her life.

“I have to let him know,” she said finally, her own voice full of emotion.
 
“Even if I can’t warn them all, I owe it to him to let him know.”

Alcent nodded, understanding.
 
“Just be careful.
 
We’re going to be striking in less than five hours.
 
We can’t take the chance of being exposed now.”

Keryn and Adam collected their gear for the assault, sliding on their combat vests, collecting ammunition, and stowing their modified assault rifles beneath their jackets.
 
Glancing over her shoulder as they approached the exit to the building, Keryn lifted a hand to wave farewell.
 
In one of her many meaningless prayers to Gods she didn’t follow, she prayed that everything would go as planned in the morning.

The walk back to House 12 was slow.
 
Neither Keryn nor Adam said much, both lost in the thought of condemning their friend to death.
 
They paused outside the door, Keryn’s emotions a turmoil of both jubilation for the assault, remorse for their friend, and fear of failure.
 
Adam slid his hand into hers, his presence giving her strength.
 
Together, they opened the door and slipped into the interior darkness.
 
As he had been for the past two nights, Penchant stood stoic watch near the door, eager to hear the latest news.

With sorrow filled eyes, Keryn looked at the blank black oval of his face.
 
“Penchant, we need to talk.”

“No good news has ever come when a woman utters those words,” Penchant joked, his humor masking his own nervousness.

Keryn swallowed hard, trying to force down the emotion that threatened to spill forth.
 
During their walk to the house, she had practiced over and over again what she would say.
 
But now standing before him, she found it difficult to tell him that he was going to die.

Penchant nodded, as though reading her mind.
 
“Alcent can’t remove the bracelet, can he?”

“No,” Adam replied firmly behind her.
 
She was glad to have him there, since she wasn’t sure she could have spoken without betraying her own sadness.

“Which means that in four hours, no matter how successful your assault, the Terrans are going to remotely detonate all the Lithid’s bracelets and I’m going to die,” Penchant stated matter-of-factly.
 
He slammed his fist into his palm, a rare display of emotion.

Silence stretched between the trio; Keryn felt unsure of what words she could speak that wouldn’t sound completely hollow in light of Penchant dying.

“It’s just so senseless,” Penchant finally said, his anger rumbling through his gravelly voice.
 
“After all our training, all our fighting, this is it for me?
 
No blaze of glory?
 
No remarkable last words?
 
Nothing.
 
Tomorrow morning, I wake up and die.”

“I’m truly sorry,” Keryn whispered.

“Spare me,” Penchant said angrily, dismissing her with a wave of his hand.
 
“Go to bed.
 
I’m sure you both will need your rest before your big day tomorrow.”
 
Penchant slid down the wall until he was sitting, his knees pulled into his chest.
 
He turned his head away from them, effectively ending the conversation.

Moving away from the Lithid, Keryn and Adam moved gingerly over the rest of the sleeping forms until they had reached their area.
 
Adam placed his supplies cautiously on the ground, covering them from prying eyes with his long jacket and remaining clothes.
 
He gestured for Keryn to join him underneath the warm blanket, but she shook her head.
 
Instead, she assumed a seated pose similar to Penchant’s, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees.
 
Though she knew she needed rest, she found that between anticipation of battle and a yearning to console Penchant, sleep just wouldn’t come.

In the morning, the loudspeakers roared to life, announcing that it was time to report to the work groups.
 
Survivors shuffled from the houses, their eyes bleary and bodies exhausted from daily labor.
 
Keryn tried to catch up to Penchant as he left the house, but she couldn’t break through the sea of people.
 
Shortly thereafter, he disappeared from her view.
 
Both she and Adam kept their heads low as they moved to their designated position near one of the houses with a clear view of the awaiting Terran supervisors.

Spotlights flooded the street where the survivors gathered, awaiting their segregation into individual work groups and their daily march into the rubble fields.
 
Feeling her own nervousness, Keryn placed a comforting hand on the assault rifle under her long jacket and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath, willing her body to relax.

Get control of yourself
, the Voice growled in her ear.
 
If you’re going to be leading this revolution, you need to have a clear mind.

From in front of the gathered people, a Terran lifted a microphone to the thick black faceplate.
 
“Gather into your assigned groups and follow your designated supervisor to you work areas,” the Terran said, his muffled voice coming from behind the faceplate boomed over the loudspeakers.
 
The survivors had heard the similar speech every day for the past three weeks.
 
“Any deviation from your assigned group will result in summarized execution.
 
Any disobedience of the orders given by your supervisor will result in summarized execution.
 
Any one not working to their fullest capability while in their work area will result in…”

His speech was cut short as another booming voice roared through the crowd, interrupting the oft-rehearsed presentation.
 
The crowd turned in search of the new speaker as he began.

“Listen to me,” came a gravelly yell, the voice carrying clearly through the quiet crowd.
 
“I have lived under the yoke of Terran occupation for three weeks and I have no intention of doing so any longer!”

The Terran squad commander motioned for his men to move forward, and they began pushing through the crowd in search of the speaker.

“They killed us when they dropped bombs,” the voice continued.
 
“Those who died in the explosion were lucky, for they died as free men and women.
 
For the rest of us, the Terrans figured they would kill us a little slower.
 
Many succumbed and died in the fields.
 
But I ask you to look around at one another.
 
Look into the faces of the man or woman standing next to you.
 
Their eyes are already dead.
 
Your soul has already died, though your body is not smart enough to follow suit and collapse into the snow.
 
If you’re content to live as a zombie, shuffling and slaving for masters that want nothing more than your spirit eternally crushed, then save them the time and build yourself a casket within these pristine fields of white snow.
 
Dig it deep.
 
Bury yourself beneath the white powder and let the freezing cold finally do what you don’t have the courage to do yourself.”

“Ignore him,” the Terran squad commander announced over the loudspeaker.
 
“Spreading propaganda will result in summarized execution.”

The guards angrily shoved through the throngs of people, hunting crazily for the speaker, who remained elusive.
 
The Terrans spread out, hoping to canvas the entire crowd in case the speaker continued.
 
And continue he did.

“For some of us, however, we don’t have the same chance that you all do.
 
For some of us, we are constantly reminded of our impending death by the bracelet callously strapped to our wrists.
 
Our deaths are not our own, but are controlled at the whim of a
Terran
.”
 
The voice said the word with venom.
 
“We Lithids are proud, and we will not succumb to your tyranny!”

A scream erupted from the center of the crowd.
 
The survivors parted in a circle around two figures.
 
One, a Terran guard, slid slowly to the ground, carefully trying to hold entrails that poured from his abdomen.
 
Beside him, a Lithid stood proudly, his hand dripping with the red blood and gore that he ripped from the guard’s stomach.

“My name is Penchant,” the Lithid cried from the center of the circle, “and I am proud!
 
And if I’m going to die today, I’ll do it by
my
terms.
 
Join me my brethren.
 
Stand against the Terran occupation and let us not die as slaves, but die in a blaze of glory!”

Keryn watched in stunned silence, much like the rest of the crowd.
 
Penchant’s skin rippled and wavered as he grew to monstrous proportions.
 
His skin grew metallic spikes as his claws elongated.
 
As his body stretched taller, growing over eight feet, a snout elongated from his face.
 
Snarling, Penchant revealed multiple rows of razor sharp teeth.
 
Howling into the illuminated street, the Lithid stood like a nightmare brought to life, snarling and frothing as it searched for another Terran to kill.

“Kill… kill that creature,” the Terran squad commander screamed into the microphone, the fear evident in his voice.
 
Reaching to his waist, he fumbled with a device.
 
Finally pulling it free, he held aloft a detonator, the red button on top glowing madly.

Keryn dropped into a crouch, pulling her rifle free and aiming through her scope toward the Terran holding the detonator.
 
The sights danced as she tried to brace the rifle with hands that shook with both surprise and excitement.
 

Please
, the Voice cooed,
allow me
.

Taking a deep breath, she squeezed the trigger.
 
As the single gunshot echoed through the crowd, everyone turned to locate the shooter.
 
The loudspeakers echoed the Terran’s scream as his hand disappeared in a spray of blood, the detonator falling harmlessly to the ground.

“Rise up my brothers!” Penchant yelled.
 
“Rise up and bring down the Terran invaders!”

Throughout the crowd, screams exploded as the Lithids throughout the crowd turned and attacked their oppressors.
 
The cries of pain and gurgling death cries rolled over the throngs of people in waves, spreading their infectious revolutionary attitudes.
 
Within minutes, the thick snow was painted with strands and sprays of red blood and the crowd, fed both from the rise up of the Lithids and the excited yells of the revolutionaries positioned throughout, cheered wildly.

“Follow me,” Penchant howled as he pushed his way through the crowd.
 
Others quickly joined his towering form, as fellow Lithids transformed into nightmarish beasts and moved to the front of the crowd.
 
Turning, he raised his clawed fists into the air.
 
“Death to the Terrans!”

The rest of the crowd picked up his war chant as they surged forward, the few smart enough to collect the fallen Terran weapons moving behind the Lithid monstrosities.
 
The whole group stormed toward the fields and the Terran barracks beyond.

Keryn reached into her vest and removed her radio.
 
“We’re moving; all units take your positions and prepare for battle.”

Adam placed his hand on her arm as she went to leave.
 
“I wish I could be there with you, fighting on the front lines.”

She smiled and placed a hand over his.
 
“I know you do.
 
But you have your own mission to complete.”
 
As she moved into position behind the crowd, she glanced over her shoulder.
 
“That whole thing with Penchant is pretty crazy, huh?”

“I guess he got his blaze of glory and his famous last words after all,” he yelled back as he turned and disappeared onto the side streets.