Terran Oblivion

Chapter 6

Courtney Bernard

May 22, 2203

Port Au Prince - Montague Noire

5:25 PM

And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?' 

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The boy crumbled to the ground.

"Ceasefire!" Courtney shouted from behind the gatehouse. "The fuck! Why did you shoot?"

Simon stood over the corpse and fired another round into the body. "He pointed a gun at us. He was the enemy."

"A child!" Courtney gasped.

"He'd kill you without a second thought. He would and you know it. He'd kill us both and then give you to his friends and rape you so raw that you'd be begging for death. These kids are demons, there is nothing but evil inside of them."

"I know, but it's a kid! A child!  Can you show a hint of decency?  Fucking shit!  Keep them alive!"

This was unfathomable. Yes, the kid had a weapon, and yes the kid and his bands of roving gangs would indeed capture her and rape the shit out of her, but still, seeing it so viscerally in front of her jarred her to the core and Courtney had seen many terrible things in her life. Still, seeing Simon blow the head off of a drugged-out child with an AK-47 surprised and stunned even her, someone who thought she had learned to be desensitized a long time ago to the evils of this world. Her travels across the width and breadth of the world showed her the evil of man but this somehow felt different in a vile sort of way. Children should be playing games, worrying about school crushes, complaining about how bad the lunch was at the cafeteria, not holding guns, and being expected to kill! Or be killed for that matter!

Courtney looked to Robert for support. "Look, we can argue about the ethics of this shit after the mission is done, ok? Until then, we have to keep on moving and focus on our goal. Understood? Once we get home then we can chat."

Simon glared at her. "Agreed," he said.

"Fine," Courtney finally huffed, but none of it felt sincere. She took one last glance at the boy that Simon killed and her heart sank a little bit in her chest. By the legal standards of war it may have been a 'clean' kill but that didn't make it feel right.

Shake the thoughts out, do it, she thought, tapping her helmet with her right hand. I can focus on this later.

"Move towards the door," Robert said. "Archer, has there been any movement from the pad?"

Archer grunted. "None that I can see, and I have a full view of things."

"So the bastard is in there?"

"Yes."

Something didn't quite feel right about any of this. Courtney didn't quite know why, but deep in the confines of her brain, she felt a slight nagging itch, albeit this time she didn't feel a general direction to start heading towards in order to get rid of it. The first time in that small room she knew generally where to look to get the itch to go away and not return, but this time she just had no idea. If she closed her eyes and thought about it a little bit she could feel the coldness of a supermarket and smell all the fresh bread in the bakery, but those were just fleeting thoughts, barely things worth thinking about right now when on a mission. Why her brain thought this defied reason at the moment but she couldn't get it out of her mind.