Chapter 8
Children
"Who are you, your mother or mine?" the reply came from Roman.
"There" He stated as the cutter got through.
"I'm sorry Ro, I really am" Roger said as he stood up, shaking Romans hand.
"What are you apologising for?" Roman asked. He turned to look behind him at the rubble where he had been hidden.
Roger whacked him over the head, sending him sprawled to the ground, unconscious.
"That" Roger replied, taking the cutter and the device, and then setting to work on his team.
Jackal eyed up the unconscious frame of Roman, who they were dragging with them.
"Why are we taking this guy again?" He asked.
"We're taking him to the Ship, and off of this place." Replied Roger, as he checked the corner.
"Two questions, one, why are we taking him? And two, isn't the ship kind of… broken?" Stated Ziizika, while defending the rear with the Magnum pistol they had scavenged from Romans pack.
"Okay, one he just saved our lives, we have a duty to repay that much and two I forgot to mention that the ship is still flyable, just a bit banged up, I activated the shield to the max before I crashed." Roger replied, dodging around a burnt out Vehicle, which had obviously not been abandoned before set alight.
Then the cityscape suddenly stopped. It broke into a large wheat field,
Ziizika stood in a yellow wheat field, children were playing in the grass, as a figure walked towards them, it turned towards her, and what she saw was a horribly burnt man, as his blistered and charred fingers reached towards Ziizika, and the sky turned from adoring blue, into hating red as the planet began to be glassed. The children began to scream as her vision began to blur.
"It's just over there, do you see it?" explained Roger, as he pointed towards an area from which smoke was billowing slowly.
Ziizika looked around herself; this was the place of her dreams.
She had dreamt of the glassing which had taken place, and the man who had come to warn the children.
There were survivors here.
"We can't leave, not yet" She stated.
"No? Why We're already at the ship, what's stopping us?" Boo-Boo asked, not sure of what had happened.
"Two things, one, the children, and two… uh, I can't figure how to say this but one of the H.U.N.T.E.R people has the activator. Without that I can't lower the shield and we can't get in."
"I understand sir but it was out of your hands… you had the dream too?" asked Jackal, Silence broke in,
"The guy with the burns, the Burners-" Roger cut in
"The children…"
"But really, this planet was glassed months ago, who could have survived that long? Where? Half the planet is inhabitable" Boo-Boo said, making a decent point.
"The sewer…" said Silence, watching as everyone else looked at him questioningly.
"What? Your dreams didn't go that far?"
"Uh, no, I got up to the burnt guy then woke up, what about you guys?" asked Roger, they all agreed.
"Okay, well here's how it goes"
Silence stood in a yellow wheat field, children were playing in the grass, as a figure walked towards them, it turned towards her, and what she saw was a man, , and the sky turned from adoring blue, into hating red as the planet began to be glassed. The man screamed something, and they all ducked, which was just as well, as an army began to land in the city which was not far from where they stood.
The man called out, and picked up one of the children, making them follow, towards the city. The children called out as a burner came overhead, sending a concentrated beam through the city block, which slid across the man. Silence watched as blistered and charred fingers reached towards him, begging for help, then the flames engulfed the man, but the children still stood, they had just been missed, and crawled into a sewer hatch…
"And that's my dream." Silence said, as he began to unconsciously move back towards the city. Roger, Boo-Boo and the rest followed closely.
They made it to the sewer, and saw the body of the horribly burnt man.
"There's something weird about this place, the Covenant burners literally melt anything. So why are the Buildings still standing around here? And why is he still here, shouldn't he be a puddle of Biomaterial?" Boo-Boo stated, as she removed the sewer grate.
"Oh god" said Jackal, as he ran to a bin, and threw up.
"Poor kids"
What had happened was the burner had boiled the water in the sewers, to the point where it attempted to evaporate. But it couldn't. So the air became thick with chemicals and the stuff you flush. The children were essentially boiled alive in superheated sewage. There were only bones to show that anyone was ever down there.
"We have to get out of here." Silence said.
"No, first we need to get the activator" Roger stated.
"Uh… sorry to spoil your parade but there's something you're forgetting" stated Jackal, as he turned to look at Roman.
"What should we do about the H.U.N.T.E.R guys?"
Alexia watched from a rooftop silently as Roger, Ziizika and Jackal pushed Roman along the road; Silence held the rear with the pistol but seemed unaware of Mia either.
Their movements surprised alexia; it seemed they weren't as smart as they were supposed to be.
"What's your plan Grey-Fox?" Alexia asked herself quietly, as she signalled for Sarah to take Silence first.
In five shots it was over. Three from Mia, who had been watching from the scope of a sniper on the adjacent rooftop, and two from Sarah who had carefully chosen a pile of debris near two large dumpsters.
The members of M.E.R.C seemed to fall to the ground in slow motion, blood oozing from their bullet wounds.