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Then another gunshot rings out. Blood seeps out of his chest and he looks to where Renari shakily holds a gun. His once-friend is wounded, obviously not long for this world. But just long enough to take Karvex with him.
Karvex stumbles. I try to call out his name. He falls down right next to me as his eyes glaze over.
A sob forms in my chest but blood comes up instead.
As I feel myself fade away, one thought remains.
If I ever get another chance, I will do everything to protect this man.
And then, I fall into oblivion.
CHAPTER 13
REVNAN
There is a ringing in my ears, and the world keeps fading in and out of focus. That one was too close.
“Come on, we’ve gotta get out of here,” says Wilkes, grabbing my arm and dragging me over the rutted ground.
The force bomb has destroyed a nearby civic building. Countless innocent bystanders must have died in the attack.
“Help me.” The voice is barely a whisper. I look around and see, by some miracle, that there is a survivor. A human man. Our eyes lock, and he stretches out a bloodied hand toward me. “I’m stuck, I can’t move,” he says, his voice hoarse.
I look him over. He’s not stuck. His legs have been blown away. He’s lying in a pool of his own blood.
I look again at his face. His skin is dark, but as his lips pull back in a grimace I can see his gums are pure white from blood loss.
Time is of the essence if I’m to save this man. I take a step forward, my hand going out to meet his outstretched one. I can see the shadow of death crossing his face, and I am determined to save him, to pull him out from beneath death’s yoke.
Suddenly, his head explodes. I am sprayed with the gore of his destruction. I stare in incomprehension at his mutilated corpse. Slowly, I look around and into the eyes of Dagon, my commanding officer. He is holstering his gun. I stare incredulously at him.
“He was dead, anyway,” he says gruffly. “It was a mercy for him.”
I feel like I’ve been hit with a force cannon. My legs feel weak and barely keep me standing upright. “Yes, sir,” I say. Logic knows he’s right. We are way behind enemy lines and the guy really didn’t stand a chance, but my heart screams at the wrongness of it.
“Come on, get off the field before they send another one,” Dagon says as he turns and runs for cover.
I jog mutely after him. Nothing feels real anymore. Fuck this fucking war, what is it turning us into? I thought we were here to save the people, but our presence has caused the civilian deaths to multiply tenfold. Armstrong would be better off without us.
Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a soldier. I believed all the propaganda about the evils perpetrated by the Alliance. How we, as good loyal Odex boys and girls, should do our duty to the Coalition to help save countless people from the depravity of the Alliance scum.
I know better now. I have seen with my own eyes how wrong the flash ads were that depicted the happy smiling families welcoming the Coalition saviors into their towns and villages. The flash ads which played repeatedly between the kid's holo-vision programs and lit up every other billboard.
I’m sick of it. The mindless violence and bloodshed. All the statistics whose lives I have watched fade from their eyes. Men, women, children. Countless dead because two opposing superpowers want what they have.
We jog away from the field of destruction. The blast has annihilated our vehicles, so we scatter into the surrounding neighborhood. The skirmish follows us, and I can hear force bolts hitting buildings and homes from the district surrounding me.
Wilkes and I have found ourselves separated from our comrades. But that is fine. The protocol is to scatter and reconvene at the base if the mission goes south. Together we run down the deserted streets. The inhabitants have wisely dispersed or are hiding in their basements until the trouble has passed.
We arrive at an intersection. My comm-nav is telling me we should head left, but a glance in that direction shows the street is blocked with enemy soldiers.
“Fuck,” I say. “We’ll have to go around.”
“I think we can get through if we cut back this way,” Wilkes replies, zooming in on an area to our rear. The route is long, and it will take us into the night to return to the safety of the base. But at least we stand a chance of getting there alive.
“Lead on,” I reply, my heart already pounding with exertion.
We turn on our heels and run back the way we came.
