Flame

"You don't think Prescott'll really do it, right?"

I looked over to Cole as we hurried to reinforce the barricade. His concern was loud and clear on his face but the screaming people beyond the gate were louder, and I was more worried about them breaking through than nursing Cole's unease.

But I could take time to be nice.

"I'm sure it's just a scare tactic," I said. Truthfully, everyone was taking this Hammer of Dawn thing pretty seriously—people I hadn't seen in months were coming in by the shitload—but I was doubtful. Being a subterranean species, we should attack the Locust underground. What was an orbital laser going to do? But Cole was looking for reassurance, not my realistic shit. "Prescott is probably using this as a farce for something behind the scenes. Just watch—it'll all blow over in three minutes."

"Whatever you say, Damon."

"Well it's not like it's a power play. Prescott has total authority now and anyone crazy enough to challenge him under the Fortification Act deserves to burn in a satellite laser."

Three minutes left until the big show. Chairman Prescott was probably sitting in his office drinking coffee, watching as we tried to contain the press of thousands of civilians outside the gates. They were screaming as they pounded against the iron but we had already been ordered to turn them away. The city was filled to the brim and Emergency Management now struggled to place the spare bodies. Whatever Prescott thought, we didn't have the housing for a couple extra hundred civvies.

What was he even trying to do? I didn't trust politicians—who actually did?—but even Prescott couldn't be that much of a psychopath. There were still millions of people on Sera that couldn't reach Jacinto, maybe more than a thousand outside the gates. What we had in Jacinto was a handful of civilization, and if we burned everything else, how would we rebuild humanity?

If Prescott was really going through with it, I hoped he understood the cost.

I switched my ear-piece off receive-only as Cole stacked the last sandbag. "Control, this is Private Baird at the east gate. Fortifications complete. Anything else you need while we're out here?"

"Negative, Baird. All forces are to get to the nearest barracks immediately."

A Raven swooped over my head heading toward the northern end of the city; the deck was full with another batch of Gears. They were cutting it close.

"You sure there's nothing else to do? Any supplies we can unload or civvies to place?"

"Just get inside," the female voice barked. I wasn't sure which officer was on duty but I didn't envy any of them right then. It had to be hell in High Command trying to find every squad and organize before the shit possibly hit the fan.

I switched my radio again and gestured to Cole to wrap it up. "RTB, Cole, double time. They want everyone inside before the Hammer drops."

He finished settling the barricade and took one last look at the gate before jogging toward the eastern barracks. The civvies outside were screaming there was only a minute left. Would we really let them fry? I didn't believe it would happen, and Jacinto really was unable to accept anyone, so I was okay with leaving them out.

But what if it really happened? What if a huge fucking laser dropped from the sky at that very moment and destroyed everything? That helped me run a little faster, and I hoped the civilians were smart enough to bunker down somewhere.

Inside the barracks, it was as full as I'd ever seen it. Gears were clustered around either the radio or a window while officers shouted to stand back. How bright was this thing supposed to be? Would we even see it coming?

Cole motioned he was going toward the mess—he looked a little sick—and I joined the group by the window. Yeah, I was a little curious. Thirty seconds and counting.

Prescott wouldn't go through with it. The cost was too high for anyone's conscience. It might have a chance to wipe out the Locust, but with that many human lives on the line? No way. Prescott wasn't a monster.

The guy to my left kept checking his watch. "Ten seconds. Do you think they'll go through with it?"

"Prescott wouldn't set the world on fire, right? There's so many people still out there," someone replied. "They tried climbing over the gate. He wouldn't do that to the people who supported him."

Five. Four. Three.

Adrenaline pulsed through my body. This was a huge fucking risk. He wouldn't do it.

Two.

Shouldn't the atmosphere shift? Wasn't there a warm-up sequence to the laser?

One.

Everyone took a collective breath and waited. There was a split second of stillness and then … shit, I didn't know what I was looking at.

It sounded like a sandstorm raged outside, or maybe a tsunami was coming our way, but there was only a thick red beam glowing white hot in the center. Some Gears immediately turned away, covering their eyes; the barracks shook and others looked around for a grub hole. I strained to watch—the beam was bright enough to make my eyes water even from this distance—and tried to make sense of the situation.

I left those people out there. I left them to die. Prescott really went through with it—shit. Shit, shit, shit.

Suddenly there wasn't enough oxygen in the room. I stepped away from the group but couldn't feel my legs as they carried me toward Cole. He always had something ridiculous to say in any situation; he was an unflappable mountain. I needed him to tell me it was going to be okay, that the world wasn't going up in flames and humanity was dying right outside our walls.

He was still in the mess, hunched over a table with a steaming cup of something between his hands. "So we did it," he said quietly, not like him at all. "The COG dropped the Hammer on society and all those innocent people are gonna fry. It's not right, Damon. It's just not right."

"It … I'm sure—"

Just a handful of civilians. How do you explain yourself? What do you say? What will be left standing?

I passed Cole and ran for the bathroom.

Damn it, this shouldn't be happening. I don't care how many people were still outside the gate. I don't. I'm not supposed to care about anything—detached, cold, impenetrable. I didn't create the technology, I didn't give the order, I didn't push the button. But I had to turn all those people away. Prescott didn't have to face them personally.

I reached the toilet just as my legs collapsed and bowed over the bowl. The last faces I saw—a pissed off woman with a kid clinging to her neck, a man with a bag over his shoulder, a teenaged girl in tears, screaming to see her father—crawled behind my eyes and the bile rose instantly.

Lunch had tasted pretty damn good going down, but now it burned coming up.

A hand patted my back. "Cough it up, baby," Cole said. "Always knew there was a human inside you. Just get it all out, man. They're already talking about getting out there tomorrow to search for survivors."

My stomach flipped and I took a deep, steadying breath. "There won't be anything—anyone—left out there," I groaned. "Did you see that beam? It's final."

"Have some faith, Baird."

"Faith? How can you have faith with the whole goddamn planet burning?"

"Because if I don't believe this will end the war, all those people out there are dying for nothing. I'm not going to disrespect their sacrifice like that."

I couldn't say anything to that.

I sighed and flushed the toilet. The walls had stopped shaking so the beam must have moved on. I'd never seen something so horrifying. What did the civvies think seeing that thing coming towards them? Were they afraid or resigned? Did they try to run? Was it an instant death or did they burn as long as they could hold on?

I'd never had a fear of fire, but now our world had changed in one short minute. Sera would burn for days, maybe months, and I wasn't sure I could face the charred bodies. I'd have nightmares for weeks.

"It'll be all right, Baird," Cole said; he didn't sound like he believed it. "We're all in this together. We just gotta hope our chairman made the right choice."