Horror Days- Chapter 13
Day 9 (Petrin)
The group of people was walking towards the building Phil had said was the headquarters of the man responsible for the attempt at killing them. Tom and Phil were in the front with Riken on Tom's shoulders. They were two minutes out of the building and from the outside it looked like it had been bombed.
"I want to know everything you know." Tom said to Phil.
"These are not natural disasters." Phil started off. "Many many years ago, our planet was beginning to get overpopulated. To solve it, one Erinson decided that a way to make it look innocent would be to create storms of great magnitude to kill off some people."
"So this whole thing is some guy's sick idea of population control?" Tom asked annoyed. "You have three moons, why not populate them?"
"At the time, the Erinson believed that it would cost too much to build colonies on the moons." Phil answered. "Since then, a secret government branch broke off from that decision. They control when, where, and of what magnitude the storm will be. All Erinsons after that man have no clue about what is truly going on. We're heading to the headquarters of the new man in charge of that branch of government right now."
"Do you think we could get past their defenses?" Tom asked.
"Yes. They don't expect our arrival." Phil replied. "There has never been a rebellion, so they aren't that well prepared."
"How do you know they don't know of our arrival?" Tom questioned.
"And that brings us to the second part of our discussion." Phil responded. "Mr. Paris, I am a reporter. I was told soon before your arrival of the storms. They told me because they thought it would be interesting to document the troubles that would happen to you. They thought of you as a story and would later air it to the population showing of the dangers."
"WHAT?" Tom yelled. "You used me as a story?"
"You must understand, Mr. Paris, I have to live in the shadow of descendants of famous reporters." Phil said starting to beg.
"Oh, I understand, alright." Tom replied. "You think that my life is just a story to put up on your stupid ass news channel. When people find out that you walked with me, they will give you respect. Tell me, how the hell are you supposed to report this back to your channel? They can't go on your own word."
"That's what these are for." Phil answered, as touched the inside of his ear that was closest to Tom. Phil pulled out a little button, once he pushed it; two golf ball cameras came from two buildings. They came towards Phil and Tom held out his hands to grab them both. "They both capture video. They've been following us since the beginning. They're able to see through anything, so they've been easily hidden. And they've been streaming the video to the building that we're going to. But I stopped the video streaming right before I went into that building to save you."
"Save me?" Tom asked still holding the videos. "You're pushing it, Phil."
"I have other news to tell you." Phil said. "This you will definitely not like. To make sure the video cameras could hear you, we had to take apart your commbadge to insert a microphone. We made it so you could still communicate with our species, but…the commbadge doesn't transmit a signal. If any shuttles or Voyager herself were scanning for you, they haven't been able to detect you."
Tom stared at Phil for a moment. He took Riken off his shoulders and gave him to a woman that was walking behind them.
"Which way do we continue?" Tom asked Phil with his jaw clenched tight.
"Straight for awhile." Phil answered.
Tom turned around to the crowd. "Break time!" Tom yelled out. Then he looked at Riken. "Stay with this woman for a moment, will ya?" He asked smiling. Riken nodded.
Tom grabbed Phil and took him towards a house that was deserted. Once they got in, Tom made sure there was no one there. Thankfully there wasn't, but it was obvious people had stripped the place clean of everything. Tom looked back at Phil. He gave Phil the video cameras back and told him to hold them. Tom then grabbed Phil and pushed him up against a wall. He held Phil in place for a moment or two.
"I am trying to keep some self-restraint here, but it's very hard." Tom said angrily. "You are the reason I am here. YOU are the reason that I am away from my family. And I hope you know how angry I am knowing now that I have an even lesser chance of getting home."
"I unde-" Phil started, but Tom hit him against the wall.
"No, see, you don't understand." Tom answered still angry. "You will never understand what it's like to know that you will never see your wife, your friends, or your baby being born at all. So stop saying you do!" Tom paused for a moment. "Do you remember how I said that people have to get me very angry to kill?"
Phil nodded. Tom pulled out the weapon he had gotten from the military officer. He put it up under Phil's head.
"You just pissed me off enough." Tom continued. It was quiet for a moment or two. "I have no problem pulling this trigger and blowing your brains out right this moment." Tom stopped to let that sink in. "But, I'm smart enough to know that I need you to take us to the headquarters of that man so this never happens again. So I won't kill you…now." Tom let Phil go so he could stand up by himself. But Tom came closer and whispered in Phil's ear. "But if you make one wrong move, I will kill you."
With that, the two returned to the group. Tom looked at the crowd. He started to tell them about what their Erinson a long time ago had decided on them. Tom told them everything except about Phil, how he knew, and the reporting idea. The crowd was astonished and even angrier. Tom grabbed one of the cameras from Phil's hands.
"Who is a doctor, here?" Tom called out.
"I am!" A man replied. He walked towards Tom and Phil. "My name is Locke Penter, I'm a doctor. Who is hurt?"
"No one's hurt." Tom responded. He held up the camera. "Is this safe for me to eat?"
"What?" Locke asked.
"If I eat this, will it not give me any problems?" Tom replied.
"I don't know much about your species' physiology." Locke answered. "But, if you do consume it I suggest you get it out within four hours. The body can't digest that and it might be dangerous to other internal organs."
"If I get you the tools, could you get it out?" Tom asked.
"With the right ones, yes." Penter responded.
"Good." Tom said. He looked at Phil. "Tell me when we are within one block of the building."
"Why are you going to eat it?" Phil asked. The two turned around and the group continued to walk towards the enemy's lair.
"Because you are going to get me into that head guy's room." Tom answered. "And then he and I are going to have a little heart to heart talk."
(Petrin-the Relief Center, at 1200 hours)
The Delta Flyer landed next to the building they were told where Tom Paris' ashes were. There were only puddles of water now on the ground. The group, consisting of Commander Chakotay, B'Elanna Torres, Harry Kim, Captain Janeway, and Ambassador Nils Orin walked out of the shuttle. They looked around at the sight in front of them. It looked like a war zone. Window's looked like they had been blasted out and from the outside it looked like there had been some sort of battle inside.
They mostly split up and walked in and around the building. A battle definitely occurred here. There were seven dead military officers on the ground in the main room. All were dead from weapon's fire. There was no one else. No bodies were around at the so called 'morgue'. There was a room that B'Elanna found with a computer. She looked through some of the entries. All were of people of different kinds; it even had who these people were related to. She then found Tom's report. There was something about it that just didn't seem right to her.
The Captain and the others began to look it over. They all felt there was something wrong about this place, but had no evidence to base on what went on. The group returned to the Delta Flyer with the computer that B'Elanna had taken from the room.
"So, what are we going to do, now?" Harry asked.
"We're going to look over the entries from the computer." Janeway replied. "Let's get back to the ship, I don't want whatever caused this to come back and get us."
Chakotay and Orin agreed. Chakotay piloted the Flyer back to Voyager. There were no incidents now with the atmosphere since the weather was clear. It seemed that the system was working now and hopefully there would be no further incidents. B'Elanna had been quiet throughout the whole mission. It was hard to decipher what she was thinking about exactly, but they all knew it had to do with her husband and if she was ever going to see him again.