Rolling Chamber

Part 3 of 3

"God, I so hate those North Corelians!" sighed Scarlet on the helicopter ride back to Shinra HQ. McKinley was piloting. "I just can't believe how long it took for them to make a decision. And for what? Why does President Shinra even want North Corel?!? Dirtiest fuckin' place on earth…"

Scarlet, I guess, was letting out some steam. Maybe she was on the rag, I dunno. McKinley still looked expressionless. He can really keep a stone face under all kinds of circumstances. I was getting uncomfortable since I didn't know what I was supposed to do when Scarlet got like this.

***

5 Days Later…

***

This past week has really been a blessing. Ever since we got the Mako Reactor built here, things have been great. Myrna recovered from that terminal illness, we're getting so many more things done since the miners have switched to all kinds of jobs, I'm even on good terms with Dyne again. The only problem was that Dyne was still bummed out about losing the coal mines.

At the time, Dyne and I had left Gongaga a day ago after talking with them to see if there was anything we needed to be aware of about the Mako Reactor. They haven't seen any flaws over there yet, so we could only assume things would be okay. We'd been gone for two days now. It was a long trip to from Gongaga and back, but we were almost home.

***

I'd been training with McKinley and Vazquez every day since that meeting with the North Corelians. They taught me how to handle the grenade, and all types of weapons that the Shinra uses. Phelps had cooled down and hasn't tried to kill me lately, but he was still pretty cold to me. I still hadn't talked to Scarlet about the night that I felt someone screwing with my pants, but since it hasn't happened anymore, I'd decided to let sleeping dogs sleep, or however that one saying went.

"Scarlet wants to see us," said Phelps after returning to the barracks.

"About time," I said. She hasn't gone anywhere that required bodyguards in a while, and I was getting pretty bored with the training.

All four of us went over to Scarlet's office. She looked like she was panicking, something I've never seen from her.

"…What the fuck does that mean?!?" said Scarlet, talking into her cell phone. "…What the hell are we gonna do about this? …I don't really…I don't…I don't fucking care about them, but what if the press finds out about this?!? …And it isn't my fault, damnit! …All right, fine Rufus, you do that. I'll take care of my things, and you take care of things on the flipside."

She finished the…well, the conversation, for lack of a better word…with whoever that was. She turned to us with a glint of malice in her eyes.

"All right, I know it's been a while, but I need some guards today."

"How many?" asked McKinley.

"All of you," said Scarlet, bluntly. "The Corel Reactor blew up. They sent Hojo down there to see what happened. Turns out we were missing a few nuts and bolts. Some very crucial nuts and bolts. We can't let the media find out about this, or we'll lose many lucrative clients. We'll be getting some special help today. Heidegger decided to lend me some of his soldiers for this sensitive situation. You all will need to kill anyone and everyone who survived the explosion. We have to make it seem like a rebel faction within North Corel blew the reactor up, and we're just the good folks cleaning up the mess. No one will know the truth about this."

My stomach was turning inside me. This just wasn't right. I didn't want to kill any innocent folk, filthy or not. I really didn't want to go through with this, but I also didn't want to be the first to object since I was still the new guy.

"Yes, ma'am," said the other three.

"Harlan…something wrong?" asked Scarlet.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, no. Nothing's wrong," I said, without much enthusiasm.

"All right, then," said Scarlet. "Let's go."

I asked McKinley about whether he thought this was morally wrong or not. His response?

"Welcome to Shinra."

We met up with five other soldiers that Heidegger let Scarlet borrow. We took two helicopters, one for us, one for them. But when we landed at North Corel, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was a whole lotta smoke coming from where the Corel Reactor was supposed to be, and fire all around it. There was a slew of houses on fire, and even some people, too. Heidegger's boys were equipped with flame throwers to make it look like a bigger explosion than it already was. McKinley, Vazquez and Phelps got out of the helicopter without any hesitation and ran into the battlefield of Shinra's making. Since they didn't even have a hint of objection, I decided I had to say something.

"Scarlet, wait," I said, grabbing her arm. "Isn't there another way? I mean, without having to kill so many innocent folk?"

"Why? You scared?"

"I'm not scared of anything," I replied. "I just think this is going over the line. I have morals, not a lot, but the ones that I got, I don't cross."

"What do you think you're doing? Trying to do the right thing?"

She pulled me closer to her and planted her lips on mine. She was licking my lips, and I slowly opened my mouth for her. She broke the kiss just as I started feeling her up.

"Now do you see why destroying this place isn't so bad?" she said, with a wicked smile. "I'll give you more later, if you just do me this one favor."

This girl was evil. She was truly, evil incarnate. She knew what she had, and how to use it. At this point, I had no doubt in my mind that Scarlet was the one who was messing with my pants a week ago.

"Y-You're crazy," I blurted out.

"Is that a yes?" she asked.

"…I guess it is," I said, looking down at the ground.

"Good boy," she said, patting me on the head. "Now go join the others."

I sighed, and ran into the chaos. I ran past two of Heidegger's soldiers setting fire to the houses. I put on my gas mask to block out the smoke. All of the soldiers were killing people, shooting them, setting them on fire…it was vicious. I ran inside one of the houses that weren't burned down yet to look for any survivors that needed to be unsurvived, so to speak. Just my luck, inside was a woman holding her baby. There was no way I could take a baby's life. Maybe the woman's, but I just couldn't kill a baby.

"P-Please…don't hurt us," cried the woman. "My baby's barely 2 months old! Stay away! Please!"

I stood there, thinking a while. I didn't want to break my morals, but I also really wanted to nail Scarlet. The woman getting down on her knees begging me to spare their lives wasn't helping me concentrate any. But I finally made my decision.

I shot the woman in the chest and grabbed the baby next to her. Some of the blood splattered off the woman and onto the baby. I wiped the blood off the best I could with my hands. I gave the baby my gas mask since I knew it wouldn't last long under all the smoke. I put my cap over face so that I could get through the smoke, myself. Most of the soldiers around me were looking at me funny since I was running away from Corel. I knew I couldn't get the baby out of town since Scarlet would catch me so I left it just outside where there wasn't so much smoke. By the time I finished that, Vazquez found me and told me to go see Scarlet. She said she needed some protection.

***

Me and Dyne just finished gettin' through Mt. Corel and were headin' back to town.

"Barret, let's just jog the rest of the way home. It's not too far now."

"Man, I'm tired. I'm'a take sweet time gettin' back."

"All right, fine, we'll walk it--"

We noticed the Village Headman Jacob Farber runnin' up to us on the railroad tracks, flailin' his arms all over the place. Me and Dyne started runnin' up to him and he told what was wrong.

"Ah, oh thank God, I…found you guys," he said, completely out of breath, sweat drippin' all over him. He was holdin' his side, so I guess he had a stomach cramp. "You gotta come quick! Corel's on fire!"

"What you talkin' about?" I asked him. "How'd that happen?"

"That…that God forsaken reactor blew, and now the town's on fire! You gotta hurry and help us!" said Headman Farber.

Dyne and I jumped off the tracks and ran up to the cliff where we could see North Corel. There was a huge fire blazing all over town. Nothin' but smoke in the air above it. I started shakin'. I felt weak. There was no way anyone could've survived that thing.

***

McKinley, Vazquez, Phelps and I met up with each other where Scarlet had told us to meet. They all looked pretty bruised and dirty. But Phelps looked like hell. He was bloody and limping, a lot like the time I threw him into one of Shinra's neon sign.

"What happened to you?" asked Scarlet, her face cringing.

"Ghuh…"

"He got a couple of chairs smashed over him," said Vazquez, vouching for Phelps. "He also got trapped in a burning house because of one of Heidegger's stupid ass soldiers. Had to run through a wall of fire to escape. One of the townsfolk had a gun and the bullet just grazed his cheek. Looks fractured. The guy's in pretty bad condition."

I felt pretty small right then. Phelps had gone through all that, and all I did was run around.

"You look pretty clean, Harlan," said Scarlet. "Did you even go to Corel?"

"I did," I said. "But…I wasn't in there as long as the others."

"Ah…yes, well there are a few strays that managed to get past you soldiers so I need you to go kill them. Follow the railroad tracks leading out of Corel and you'll find them."

***

They were all lost in the fire. My wife, my friends, relatives, all gone in a puff of smoke.

"God…no," I said, almost in a trance. "Oh, Lord…MYRNA!"

"Come on, they just might still be alive," assured the Headman.

"Yeah, Barret," Dyne said, as he put his hand on my shoulder. "We can't waste time here."

"A-All right," I said. "We gotta hurry."

The Headman was about to turn around, when a group of soldiers shot him with their rifles. They were standing on the railroad tracks we just got off of.

"Fuck!" said Dyne. "Shinra! Move, Barret!"

Dyne ran to a small opening under the tracks. I was just about to, but the Shinras started shootin' at me.

I was dodging 'em the best I could. I don't know how I didn't get hit since there was so many bullets comin' at me. Maybe it was because I wanted to hold on to life for Myrna. If she was still alive, I didn't wanna leave her a widow. I jumped out of the way of the gunfire and over to where Dyne was hidin'.

"All right," said Dyne. "They know where we are, so we're just gonna have to gun it. Let's try to run along that cliff area over there. It's our best chance of gettin' out of here alive."

Dyne pointed ahead, to the path along the cliff. He ran fast, but the Shinras were prepared for us to run where we did. They started shootin' at Dyne and he tripped and fell. I caught Dyne's hand right before he fell off the edge of the cliff. Their eyes were trained on us, but I tried to be strong for Dyne.

"Dyne, we gonna make it. Just hang on."

"Oh, God," gulped Dyne. "That's a big drop."

"Don't look down! Just work with me!"

***

They were dead. The black guy holding onto the white guy's hand. Phelps was trying to shoot at their hands to break their link, but he was too badly injured to get a good shot.

"You call that shooting?!?" screamed Scarlet, in disgust. She kicked Phelps off of the tracks with her heel and Phelps hit the dirt head first. I heard a loud, sickening crack come from his head. Phelps was screaming in pain since his landing caused his neck to break. That was brutal. He was a prick, but even he didn't deserve all the pain he'd gone through that day.

Everything started slowing down at this moment, like a freakish slow-motion replay at the end of a game. I could remember everything right down to the smallest detail. McKinley positioned the linked hands into the crosshairs. The trigger was pulled back. His eyes lit at the loud sound of the gunfire. The shells were flying out of the gun. The ammo was rolling through the chamber.

The bullets flew into the dirt surrounding their linked hands. Dirt was flying. The bullets hit their target. Blood was flying. They hit their hands and the black guy let go. The white guy fell to his death, screaming in pain. There was a lot of blood coming from the black guy's hand.

***

"Arrrrggggghhhhhhh!" I screamed. The Shinras shot my hand off with their rifles. There was blood all over where my hand used to be and I dropped Dyne out of the pain. But I couldn't sit around whinin', or they woulda killed me right then and there. When I got hit by those bullets, I fell down on the ground and played dead. They bought the act and ran off.

***

It wasn't fair. It really wasn't. North Corel didn't do anything wrong, but Shinra had to come in and wreck their lives. I was disgusted with what happened that day. I didn't realize what really went down in Shinra. I heard the rumors, but I always thought those people were just paranoid. That didn't stop me from refusing Scarlet's offer, though. We had sex in her office after the mission, but I still couldn't get rid of the guilt. I left Shinra's ranks the next morning. I went back to the farm life in Gongaga. It was still boring, but at least it was honest work. I couldn't even hold my head up when I walked past people. It took me a while to recover from that time, but there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about all the mistakes I made, all the things I should've done.

***

That day, I swore revenge on Shinra. I wanted to kill them all, with every ounce of my life. I'd get them back for destroyin' my town. They wouldn't get away with what they did that day…

After the Shinra guards split, I got up lookin' for survivors. Thank God, there was a lot more than I thought that lived the attack. Most of them ran into the Village Headman's secret basement under his house. But they wasn't happy when they saw me. All the people who agreed to the Mako plan was dead. All except me. So they all blamed me for the whole mess. And I couldn't disagree with 'em. I just felt so guilty about fallin' for Shinra's lies. They didn't respect me anymore. They whispered behind my back and they always stared at me like I was an outsider or somethin'. I could tell I wasn't welcome no more.

But when I left, I found Dyne and Eleanor's baby, Marlene, on the outskirts of town. I didn't know how she got there and I still don't, to this day. She had some dried blood over her, but luckily, it wasn't her own. She even had a gas mask on, so I knew that someone was watchin' out for her. I didn't know who, but I wish I could pay 'em back. Without Marlene, I probably would've ended up killin' myself since there was no point to my life anymore. But I had to go on, I had to take care of Marlene. I don't know how I'd get through life nowadays. Marlene is pretty much all I live for. I wouldn't let Dyne and Eleanor down.

***

Barret Wallace stood up. It had been one year after the devastation that had hit his hometown, North Corel. It felt good for Barret to reminisce about memories past, even the painful ones. He never wanted to forget what happened that year ago to preserve the memory of his friends and family. But he wished he could do the reminiscing where the dead were buried, North Corel. But the townsfolk wouldn't allow it. They would never let him return. So he had to take his prayers to the next best place, Bermuda. Bermuda was a garden located near the chocobo stables and the Midgar desert. It was a place of prayer for people who had lost their loved ones and couldn't give a proper burial because their bodies could never be found. Bermuda was a frequently visited place since there were so many who dared to challenge to Midgar Zolom and failed.

After Barret wiped the tears away from his eyes, he looked to his side and saw a man kneeling on the ground a few feet away from him. His face was buried in the garden and he was murmuring something about Corel. Barret was curious about this, and approached the man.

"Hey, you okay there?" asked Barret.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," replied the man. "I just need to be alone."

"What's your name," asked Barret.

"My name? It's Shawn, why do you ask?"

"Well, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you say somethin' about North Corel and I thought I might'a known you since that's my hometown."

Shawn wiped his face from a tissue and got up. He had sleek black hair, with a black trench coat on. And for the first time, he actually looked at Barret.

"Y-You're from…Corel?

"Yeah," said Barret. "If you don't mind, can I ask who you were prayin' for? I might know 'em."

"Well, actually--" Shawn started, but he noticed Barret had a bionic, metal hand and his eyes widened.

"What's wrong? Ain't you ever seen a brotha with a bionic hand?" said Barret, jokingly.

Shawn took a closer look at Barret's face. He recognized him as one of the townspeople of North Corel. The one who got his hand shot by Shawn's buddy, McKinley. They left him for dead that day, but somehow, he managed to survive.

(My God), he thought to himself. (This man was from Corel. I never had the courage to go back to that town and tell them how sorry I was for helping Shinra kill so many people. But maybe now, I can try to redeem myself, just a little.)

"Tell you what," said Shawn. "Why don't I buy you a free lunch. I know the guy who owns the chocobo stables up north and since we're both North Corel natives, I figure I should do something for you."

"Really?" asked Barret, surprised by Shawn's hospitality. "Uh…sure, why not."

Barret took his 1 year-old daughter, Marlene, with her. They talked on the way to the chocobo stables. They talked about their life, what they'd gone through, their hate for Shinra. But Shawn was careful to not talk about his short stint in the Shinra Army. When they got to the stables, the owner gave them some free chicken to eat for lunch. They ate for a while, Shawn was down to his last chicken wing and soon, the two would have to part ways.

"All right," said Barret. "I think you've avoided this question long enough. Who were you prayin' for back at Bermuda?"

Shawn sighed. "Well…I did some pretty bad things…and I was praying for the families of the lives I'd…messed with."

"How long ago did it happen?"

"…About a year ago."

"You still feel guilty about it?"

Shawn opened his mouth to say yes. But then he started thinking about the question before he responded. Finally, he came to his answer.

"No."

The End