The Abyss of Time

Chapter Fifty Eight

     Simon followed the seven soldiers across the colony, keeping a distance behind them to avoid notice. They were all armed with rifles and grenades and, in their present mood, he thought they'd be more than likely to just shoot him, blaming him, quite rightly, for their present troubles. Strangely, they didn't seem to be heading anywhere. There was nothing ahead of them but an empty area of cleared ground with a large hill of loose soil beside it.

     The truth revealed itself as he grew closer. There was a slope leading down to a sunken door that had to be the entrance to an underground bunker. One of several. There were several hills of loose soil around the colony, now that he knew what to look for. Each one formed by the digging out of a large series of underground chambers.

     The soldiers hammered on the door. There was an exchange with someone inside and then it opened and the soldiers hurried inside. The door slammed closed again and Simon ran forward, desperate for the safety that lay within. He hammered on the door and a small hatch opened at eye level.

     "Who is it?" the man inside demanded. "Are you human?"

     "Yes," Simon replied. "Please let me in."

     The door opened and the man stood aside to let him in, but then his eyes widened as he recognised Simon's prison tunic. "It's you! The traitor!"

     "Please!" Simon begged. "Please let me in."

     He tried to squeeze past the man but other men came forward to stop him. There was no airlock, he saw. Just a simple door into a large chamber containing more than a hundred people wearing oxygen masks. From somewhere came the sound of a baby crying and a pair of children play fighting. Pretending to be soldiers mowing down hordes of cyborgs with their imaginary guns. Nobody else was speaking. They were all too terrified as they waited to see whether the enemy would break into their final refuge.

     "Get out," the doorkeeper told Simon. "Go back to your friends." He grabbed Simon and began physically manhandling the former engineer back through the door. From outside came a flash of light and the explosive sound of another enemy bolt hitting something. Simon fought with the doorkeeper, but the soldiers who'd just entered came to help, some aiming their weapons at him while others grabbed his arms. Together they wrestled him back through the door and threw him roughly to the ground outside it.

     "Get lost," one of the soldiers told him. "Don't come back."

      "What are you doing in there?" Simon demanded. "Why aren't you out there fighting?"

     The soldier's eyes widened with shame and fear and he kicked Simon roughly in the ribs. "Shut up!" he said, although he glanced behind himself at the civilians, sitting with their backs against the bare metal walls as they watched the interplay. "Just shut the fuck up." He gave Simon another kick and then grabbed the door to close it.

     "You can't just leave him out there," said a female voice, loud with outrage and indignation. "He'll die."

     "Good riddance," the soldier told her. "They should have put a bullet in his brain months ago."

     The woman came forward to confront him and Simon felt a surge of hope to see that it was Lucy Miller. "Just let him in," she demanded. "He doesn't have a suicide chip. If the cyborgs get him they'll turn him into a zombie."

     "All the more reason to kill him now." The soldier drew his sidearm and aimed it at Simon, who shrank back in terror.

     Lucy grabbed the soldier's arm, though. "If you do that, who's the real monster? You or him?"