Tales from Éden - Who is Edmundo Montenegro?

Chapter 01 - We Are Different

Hello, welcome, I will post new chapters every week, I hope to have your presence and I await your opinion in the comments. Good reading.

                                                                                                                                                                The author

In the quiet neighborhood of Ogue, a noble region of the city of Hazun, the capital of the kingdom of Pallas, on a street full of imposing mansions, lived a seemingly ordinary family who that night were happily dining around a plentiful table. It was a couple and their two daughters who were chatting and exchanging pleasantries. They seemed happy, unaware that a cruel fate awaited them.

The first to fall was the father, hit by a precise shot to the head, blood splashed onto the face of one of the children, the second shot was fired before the husband fell, in the direction of the wife who did not even have time to understand what was happening.

A young woman wearing military uniform entered through the second-floor window and aimed at the youngest child, shooting without blinking. Her older sister threw herself in front of her and took the shot in her place, falling covered in blood while the youngest cried in despair. The young soldier did not understand why she had acted so badly. She had killed so many times that it had become commonplace, but this time something was different. She hesitated and lowered her gun, but was startled when two shots hit the girls' heads, ending their lives.

She quickly looked in the direction of the shots, another soldier on the stairs signaled for them to flee the scene before they were seen.

The young woman followed him without saying anything.

***

Hours later, resting in the forest, the soldier stared at the fire, wondering why she hesitated, what had happened differently? She was no inexperienced rookie, why had she acted that way?

A young soldier sat down next to her, holding a plate with the corpse of a squirrel, and began to disembowel it. It was the same one that had finished killing the little girls in the mansion. His name was Jack, and the young woman had known him forever. He worked quickly and firmly, and in a few seconds he had impaled his prey and taken it to the fire to roast.

The young woman looked at him and asked:

- Is there any difference to you?

Without even looking at her, Jack replied:

– Of course, this is food! That is work! - The young woman smiled intimately as always he knew what it was about without anyone needing to say - We do not eat humans.

The warrior took a deep breath and continued asking her colleague:

- We kill animals to eat, and why do we kill humans?

- Because of some stupid philosophy of Pallas.

- You mean: Homeland, Goddess and squad?

- That's right, - he confirmed, stirring the roast.

- If it doesn't matter, why do you kill?

- Because I was trained for it. I don't know any other life.

- You can be honest! Our general isn't here! - he urged the young woman.

- Okay! - he said, taking a deep breath - I love the challenge! When my life is at stake, victory tastes better.

- Do you like the lament of the children of those whose lives are extinguished before your eyes? - she asked, shocked

- Ulala!!! What a sentence! - Jack mocked - I don't know if I understand what you meant, but I'll try to answer anyway, I don't care about your children, nor do I care who I'm killing? All that matters is the level of challenge they'll give me before they die.

- Jennifer remained silent, digesting what she had just heard.

- You know, I love it when they have children and they swear revenge.

-What do you do?

-I'll try my luck and let them live. If the mission isn't to kill them, of course...

-And if it is? - she continued.

-I may not be as obsessed with the organization's mantra as you are, but a mission given is a mission accomplished!

-Aren't you afraid I'll report you?

-About what? - he asked, not understanding.

-Don't you consider country, goddess and squadron as a philosophy of life? - she joked.

-No, they already know! - Jack said with a sneer - As long as I'm killing in their name, they don't care! Besides, I know you wouldn't report me.

-How can you be sure? - she asked, surprised.

- You're very smart! You know you'd have the same fate as those children...

- You speak as if we weren't only 12 years old.

- Age is a state of mind, I already consider myself an adult.

Silence fell over them. After a few seconds, he commented:

- Be happy, Jennifer! You did well despite your disadvantage.

- Disadvantage?

- Exactly - he confirmed, removing the roast and dividing it into two plates.

- What disadvantage are you talking about? - she asked irritably.

- Are you asking seriously or joking with me? - he asked, but before she could answer he continued - I think you're serious, I'll explain then.

- We were taken from our mothers before we were weaned, subjected to training that even adults would have difficulty enduring. We have little free time, which I spend reading my books, you playing cards, but we cannot escape the reality of our lives - the boy rambled - we were equipped differently by nature thousands of years ago, and no training can change that, especially when we received the same training.

In silence, the young woman meditated on what her colleague had said. The soldier handed her one of the plates and continued calmly.

- You are a woman, I am a man, with less effort I develop my muscles because I was born to hunt and protect, but you have the gift of motherhood, and you were developed to care for and educate your offspring, you are at a disadvantage!

The girl could not speak trying to understand her colleague's reasoning.

- I noticed, you have changed! These days you must have bled, so your hormones are making you... with the lack of a suitable word sensitive, that's why you hesitated - concluded the boy.

- How can you seem more sensitive than me? - Jennifer asked in surprise.

- I read a lot, I know a lot of things, and I've learned to pretend to be sincere - he explained.

- If I ordered you to kill me, would you kill me?

- That wouldn't happen, you're the second best soldier we have, the best of your kind - he praised.

- If I were asked to kill me slowly - she insisted.

- I wouldn't obey.

- Jennifer lowered her head and remained silent for a few seconds.

- Do you need context? - he asked.

- Yes, please.

- I wouldn't kill you slowly because I wouldn't run the risk of you escaping and then trying to kill me - the soldier explained - you're too dangerous to be underestimated, so I'd kill you very quickly, maybe a shot to the head to...

- Jennifer interrupted, horrified by her partner's coldness.

- Oh! Never mind! Jake! This conversation is getting uncomfortable!

- You started it... - Jake said, devouring his dinner with gusto.