Broken Worlds: A Class Collection of Dystopian Short Stories

Operation Sodom and Gomorrah

Operation Sodom and Gomorrah

"I can see you."

Violet froze at the voice. She was trying to escape to the back of her Western Society class without being noticed. Every cadet in the room was on their feet, infuriated by the film they were viewing on the screen at the front. She had hoped she could slip by unnoticed. But she had been seen.

Violet was halfway across the room. She slowly turned around. Now she was trapped between the white block wall and Sergeant Allen's deadly gaze. The only thing Allen hated more than cadets straggling in late was the Western world itself.

Violet had just come from a grueling afternoon run out in the desert heat. Her skin glistened with sweat, her hair stuck to her face, and her uniform pants had come untucked from her dusty, untied boots. Her gun, strapped to her belt, hung low and was in danger of slipping off. She was grasping her canvas backpack in her arms rather than wearing it.

The other cadets—some sweaty from physical training, some pumped from target practice, and all freshly bitter from the current lesson in Western Society—quieted down to see what would happen between Violet and Allen.

Allen approached Violet. "Hayes!" he barked, addressing her by her last name.

Violet set her bag down heavily on the nearest table. The metal table shuddered beneath it. She faced Allen again and stood at attention.

"Why have you dishonored your Academy and your Empire?" he demanded.

It was Sergeant Allen's classic question. Violet opened her mouth, but she didn't reply. Her eyes darted nervously around the room.

"Look me in the eyes and answer me!"

Seeming to grasp a particle of courage, Violet tossed her head back and met Silva's eyes. "It was never my intention to dishonor my Academy or my Empire," she said respectfully. "I was ordered to run five kilometers. I have just completed the run."

"Perhaps if you had run faster you could have participated in our discussion," Allen said. "It was quite interesting."

Violet glanced quickly at the film still playing on the screen.

"Do you know what that is, Hayes?" Allen asked.

"It appears to be the bombing of our Northern Air Base two months ago, sir."

"What is your view on the attack?"

"It was a response to our attack on Berlin."

"So, you believe it was justified?"

"Yes, sir."

Several cadets shouted at her in anger. Another bomb exploded on the screen, shattering the buildings below and sending up a plume of smoke. Violet swallowed and looked away from it.

"Your comrades lost parents in the bombing," Allen said. "Brothers. Sisters. Friends. And you believe it was justified?"

"Well...we killed civilians in Berlin, sir."

"How can we ever complete the Conquest without killing civilians?"

Violet was silent. The questions were becoming dangerous.

"Are you implying that Western civilian lives are worth the same as the lives of our own soldiers?" Allen inquired. "Are you implying that you side with the enemy?"

"No," Violet said quickly. "No, sir. I am not sure why I said that. It was a silly slip of the tongue."

"Silly slips of the tongue will not be tolerated," Allen said. "You may be protected by these four walls when you make mistakes such as this at the Academy, but anywhere else in the Empire that could get you killed. Do you understand?"