Halfkinds: Survival and Superiority (Volume 1 - Contact)

  Chapter 32 - Fenrir Snow - Sunrise

  November 17, 3040 5:32 AM

  We've made it to 1523 Chakming Drive. It took about twenty minutes, of traversing through the dawn-lit Primm streets, but we are here.

  Apollo's gears have switched, he's in full rampage mode. The only thing that guides him is his blind fury. Tiago and Alex Lawton felt his wrath for killing the Commander, his teacher, his comrade. Now it seems that the dog is here to complete the job and finish his circle of revenge.

  He's made things personal. Any halfkinds left alive are no longer individuals to him, just enemies that need to be eliminated. He wants to get even. It's no longer about the mission, or the honor of duty for the United Species Alliance, it's about himself. Completing our mission will be his final parting gift to Trevor's corpse.

  I find myself in a mixed frame of mind concerning the events that have transpired. These halfkinds may have killed more than half my team and our fearless leader, but I can sympathize with their cause more than our own. If we had left them alone, if the order had never been made by the United Species Alliance, perhaps things could've ended peacefully. We didn't have to kill them, we could've co-existed. Instead, the order is the order and it's caused a lot of unnecessary bloodshed.

  We backed them into a corner and the only thing they can do is fight back. It's for their survival. Unlike the dog, for them it's been anything but personal. We are their faceless enemy. We are not victims, they are. We are the murderers, it's just that we murder in the name of our leaders.

  Things made themselves so clear during our raid on the Li station. With wrath coursing through his veins, Apollo brought out their vulnerabilities and exploited them in order to finish them off. He tricked Alex and rubbed Tiago's demise in his face. Trevor's death has completely transformed him into a dog on a mission, a relentless killing machine that now won't stop until his friend is avenged. There is no honor in that.

  I already had doubts about my role as an assassin for the Brotherhood of Wolves. Now I'm at the brink of quitting. I don't want to fail my colleagues, but as we get closer and closer to the end, things feel so wrong. These halfkinds aren't criminals or dangerous crime bosses, they're civilians.

  I think about Tiago's last words, dog and wolf and himself. What could he have possibly meant? The question leaves me confused and I thought about those last lines on our way here. I still haven't come up with an answer.

  We're at the porch and the front door is cracked open. The house is dilapidated, the paint, chipped and worn off. The inside looks vacant. Apollo has his scent booster on and gives the ground and air a sniff. He looks around and breathes the smells in deeply.

  "They're here," he whispers. "Their odor is everywhere around the premises and it's fresh. Alex was telling the truth. Let's proceed."

  "Let me go in first," I tell Apollo.

  "Be my guest."

  I nudge the door open with my nose and stick my head out. I look to the right and see nothing. I look to the left and see a cat halfkind with a giant stick that crashes down, right over my back. Crap.

  It hits me hard and I fall flat on my stomach. Luckily, my armor absorbs most of the impact, but it still hurts like hell. I roll around so my head faces the ceiling and I see the cat halfkind raise the stick again, preparing for another strike. He swings wildly downward, but I evade it and roll out of the way just in the nick of time. I recover and get back up to my feet.

  We stand face to face. He's lean, but toned. His face is an odd but appealing mixture of whiskers, hair, and a pink nose. His alluring yellow eyes narrow and look at me harshly. The stare down thickens the air with tension. Neither of us are willing to make a move, we stand there and gaze at each other cautiously.

  However, a move is made, but not by either of us. Apollo storms in and shoots at Isaac. A blast hits him in the arm and he falls to his side. He keels over, but Apollo continues his assault. He shoots another ball of energy and it hits him again in the arm. Now the cat halfkind is on the ground, doubled over.

  The adrenaline takes over his body and the cat halfkind gets up. But Apollo's attack is relentless. He shoots him again, now on his forearm, and he kneels on one knee, the other hand clutching his wounds. This time he stays down.

  "No!" Another voice creeps up behind me and I see his twin running towards him. She lunges and embraces her brother as he struggles to maintain his posture. Her body covers his completely.

  "Move over!" Apollo yells.

  She doesn't budge an inch.

  "Do it, Iris," her brother says. "He'll kill you if you don't."

  She reluctantly complies and stands to the side.

  "Now on your knees, hands behind your head," Apollo barks out.

  She's frightened and trembling. Tears are rolling down her eyes. She's about to cry hysterically at any moment. Iris Lawton slowly puts both knees on the ground and raises her hands behind her head.

  Apollo looks at Isaac Lawton. "You too."

  Isaac lowers his other knee and raises one arm behind his head.

  "I said both arms," Apollo demands.

  "I can't," he retorts, scowling over his injury. "You kind of shredded one."

  "Very well," Apollo says.

  I take a look at Isaac Lawton. He can barely open one eye from the pain shooting through his body. His teeth grind so hard they might crack. He inhales in air intensely with intermittent pants coming out here and there. Blood flows down his arm like a steady river flow. It empties in drips and stains the floor with dark, thick crimson circles.

  "So, you're going to kill us?" Isaac asks bluntly.

  Apollo isn't expecting the question and dwells before he answers. "Yes."

  "Why?"

  Apollo lowers his head, not knowing the answer. He struggles to understand the reasoning and all he can say is "Because we were told to."

  "So you always do what you're told? Even if you think what you're doing is wrong?" Isaac shoots back.

  Apollo doesn't hesitate this time. "I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing before taking on this task. I sympathized with your cause, I saw that we were the big bad hunters picking on the little guy. But, you know what I realized?"

  "What?" Isaac says dejectedly.

  "You aren't the little guy. You are the future. You represent a change and from what we've seen, change is dangerous. Much like yourselves."

  "Change? What are you talking about?" Isaac says in a perplexed tone.

  "I assume you know what the Event is?" Apollo says.

  Isaac thinks about Apollo's question in his head. After a few seconds it seems he's come to a conclusion.

  "That's what this is all about, you think we're going to blow up the world?" he yells. "Our little family? You think we're capable of that? You're delusional."

  "The humans who were against the Ark Project were also viewed as delusional, and they ended up being the ones who were right," Apollo says.

  "Yeah, and now you're free because of it."

  "The irony is not lost on me."

  "So, then we come along and you think we'll form some kind of secret society, one that will blow you up? That's the wave of destruction you speak of? Why? Because we're not like you, because we're abominations? Savages?"

  "I suppose," Apollo says quietly.

  "How do you respond to that? With more destruction. It doesn't matter if you're a dog, wolf, human, whatever. You all walk around and think you're civilized, that your new intelligence makes you better. But, inside, you're as savage as you were before the humans gave you the smarts. You just don't want to admit it."

  "Say what you say," Apollo responds apathetically.

  Isaac's voice quickly turns angry. "Don't kid yourself, you don't believe in any of the junk you're spewing. When you captured us, you and your human friend didn't want us killed. And now all of a sudden you're going to execute us like criminals? What happened? Your friend die or some
thing?"

  "Don't say anything about Commander Trevor!" Apollo says furiously. He speaks with anguish and raw emotion. "That human was killed because of your kind. He was my friend, my brother in arms. Is it personal? Perhaps, but don't even pretend that I don't know what you halfkinds are capable of. His death opened my eyes - I now see the damage your kind can do. I saw it in Tiago, that's why I killed him. All of you are so thirsty for freedom, you'll do anything for it. Our ancestors had that same thirst and we all know how that turned out."

  Isaac, a little astonished asks, "Is Tiago really dead?"

  "Yes," Apollo says.

  He shakes his head in disbelief and says, "Well, I'm sorry your friend died."

  "I don't believe anything you halfkinds say anymore."

  I look at Isaac and his face sours. He realizes that no matter what he says, nothing will help.

  "I should've killed you back in the sewer," Isaac says sorely.

  "Yeah, you should've," Apollo responds. "Fire."

  Just like the others, a comet of energy zips from his helmet and through Isaac's brain. He probably doesn't even have time to realize what has happened before he blacks out of consciousness and his head hits the floor.

  Immediately, Iris Lawton bursts into hysterics. She lunges at her brother, and picks up his body to place it on her knees. She grabs him tightly, holding on for dear life, and buries her head into his chest as tears pour out of her eyes.

  Iris then let's go of her grip slightly and rubs his face with the back of her hand, wiping the blood off his fur. She gazes into his soulless eyes and cries even harder as she places his limp head over her shoulder, clutching her dead brother's body like a mother and a newborn.

  I watch and I can't help but feel her pain. Her tears are the culmination of a lifelong struggle to be accepted, to have that one word that has been tossed around so much - freedom. And now she sits there, dead brother in her arms, the last of her kind, looking up at the barrel of a smoking gun.

  Apollo has it aimed directly at her head, but she doesn't feel fear, she doesn't feel anxiety, she only feels the grief of her loss.

  His helmet is armed, his shot ready to fire.

  "I'm sorry it had to end this way," Apollo says.

  "Fire."

  Iris Lawton sits there, still clutching her brother's body, in shock. Apollo turns around and looks at me, bewildered at what has happened. Blood trickles down his snout and he sniffs it. His legs start to shake and he strains his body to stay up. It's no use, though, because his legs give in to the weight and he collapses. He falls lifeless in a pool of his own blood.

  I snort the air and breathe in the smoke from the barrel on my helmet. He's the only kill I plan to make.

  Iris is still stunned and slowly sets her brother's corpse to the ground. She approaches me softly, curious yet reluctant.

  "Are you going to hurt me?" she asks me.

  "No."

  "Why? why did you do it?"

  I look at Apollo, blood still spilling from his head. I think about how in the blink of an eye he changed from easygoing suck up to a maniacal, cold blooded murderer. It was done all in the name of a human, his master. It is at this moment I realize what Tiago was trying to say.

  Dog and wolf, that's how it ended.

  "I did it because I call no one my master," I say.

  Iris is unsure of my words, but her reaction tells me she understands the subtle message in it.

  "Are Tiago and the others really dead?" she asks.

  "Yes," I say.

  "Then, I guess I was right all along."

  I don't know what she means, but it doesn't matter. She gets up and stands over her brother. Iris is the sole survivor in a family of eleven, possibly the only halfkind on Earth. She takes a few moments to soak up this information.

  I still see water coming from her eyes and she walks around the room, pacing slowly, peering at walls as if there's something to look at. I imagine that she's looking at faded memories in her mind, places and events that will only haunt her for the rest of her life. And as these thoughts consume her, she falls to the ground and weeps softly and tenderly.

  I approach her warily, unsure of how to react. But as I see the raw emotion pouring from her soul, I lose my inhibitions and nudge my head against hers as a sign of comfort.

  At first she scoots back, surprised by the gesture, but she looks at my eyes and sees that my intentions are genuine. She lets go of any fear and moves forward to give me a heartfelt hug. Her eyes bury into my body and I can feel her tears as she lets her emotions go.

  As she sits there, gripping my fur tightly, I look outside. Through the door, the sun stretches out over the horizon. The streaks of warmth hit my paws and warms my coat.

  I close my eyes to imprint this moment in my memories. I want to remember it as long as I can.