I let out a loud and painful shriek as I see Khalid fall to the ground. In an instant, I'm cradling him in my arms. I look up to see the Militia Leader standing in the doorway of his headquarters ten yards away with pistol outstretched. He could easily shoot me dead right here, but suddenly a wave of terror flashes across his face. I don't think I will ever know why he didn't pull the trigger on me, but perhaps it was because the look of sheer hatred on my blood-spattered face as the red firelight reflects off my wide and angry eyes makes him think that a demon straight from hell has now set her eyes on him.
He instantly retreats back inside the two-story building. I'm about to rush after him, but a painful cough from Khalid brings me back to the man I now hold in my arms. I fight back tears as I stare down at his face. A trickle of blood has started creeping from the corner of his mouth and instantly I know that the internal damage is beyond anything I can help with.
"It's gonna be alright," I say fighting back tears. "It's gonna be alright," I repeat in a soft and painful whisper.
"Olivia," he says to me in a voice totally devoid of fear or anger. "Yes, it will be." He reaches up and places his soft palm on my cheek. I can feel the blood from his hands mix with the tears. "You…." he says fighting through the pain, "You, have saved us."
"No, no I didn't do anything…" I say holding him even tighter. "You saved your people, Khalid, and they will tell this story to the children for many years to come…and I'll tell it to my child…just like you wanted."
He coughs again and even more blood pours from his mouth.
"I am sorry for the way I treated you earlier, Olivia. I now see that a warrior such as yourself…can be the greatest mother of all. Your strength will be passed to your children…"
"Khalid," I say now bawling uncontrollably. "Don't talk, you have to stay still." He just smiles even wider now and a wave of peace passes over his face like he sees something that I can't.
"I will pass on the lessons you have shown me to my father….and my wife and child. They're grow weary of waiting, and bid me to come and join them."
"No! Don't leave! The tribe needs you!" I shout at his face like a desperate child.
"Nonsense, you have taught us all that we needed to know..." Suddenly, I feel his hand grow limp and fall away from my face. He closes his eyes for the last time and one final word escapes his lips. "Asma…"
Then, he is gone. I slam my fist hard into the sand as the sadness inside turns to anger, and I shriek again like a banshee. A boiling wave of rage shoots through my limbs. It's a fire like I've never felt before and it brings back my strength. The tears have washed the horrible taste of Khalid's blood into my mouth and it only fuels the inferno. Before I can even realize what I'm doing, I'm on my feet and charging straight towards the door to the building.
I explode inside and see one of the two pirates who drug away the woman's body. The look of shock in his eyes reflects back what he must see…an unstoppable blood-soaked creature straight out of his nightmares. He tries futilely to raise his rifle, but I'm on him in instant. A powerful blow from my hatchet lands straight in his chest, collapsing his ribcage like it was made of twigs.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see another pirate appear from the back room. I grab the rifle out of the dead man's hands and squeeze the trigger, cutting the enemy down in a hail of merciless lead. I hear commotion as a final pirate rushes down the staircase in the corner of the room. I send my hatchet sailing and it crashes straight into his skull. Before he even hits the ground, I dash forward, rip my weapon out of his head, and continue running up the stairs.
I reach the top floor, still hidden in darkness. The satanic mix of fire and moonlight continues to stream in from the open door of the balcony. I don't know why I don't instantly take cover. The fire inside still burns and feels like impenetrable armor over my entire body.
"I know you're in here," I say with a quiet and deep fury. "There's no use in hiding."
I hear the sound of the gunshots and the bullets impacting the wall next to me. I roll forward and back onto my feet as the Militia Leader continues to fire wildly, hoping that one round will find its target. I dodge back and forth across the room until finally I hear the tell-tale click, click that lets me know he is empty.
"YOU'RE MINE NOW!" I shout as I charge straight towards the sound of the gunfire. A figure emerges from the darkness wielding what appears to be a machete. He hacks desperately away at the air, but I dodge each one of his wide strokes almost effortlessly.
I crouch down and slash my hatchet across his thigh. He lets out a yelp of pain, but I'm driven almost totally by blind anger at this point and foolishly open myself up hoping to land a deathblow. He hacks back with his machete and I manage to duck out of the way just in time to prevent being sliced in half, but not fast enough to prevent the tip of his blade from opening a two inch long gash in my left arm. I let out a wild scream of pain which causes him to press his attack.
His large frame charges forward and slams me into the wall. I manage to grasp at his hand wielding the machete with my injured arm, but his other fist closes in around my hatchet. We're locked together in a deadly stalemate. I can smell his disgusting breath quicken as he leans in close trying to see my face in the dim haze of smoke and moonlight. He knows he's fighting a female and I get the impression that this somehow excites him in a perverse way.
Suddenly, the image of the terrified young woman passes through my mind.
"Is this how close you were to her when you did those things?" I ask through my gritted teeth. "Did you feel powerful? Is it like how you feel when you make women and children starve?" A wave of confusion washes over his face and his grip on me loosens just enough for me to react. I whip my upper body forward and slam my forehead into his face with all my might. I feel his nose crush like eggshell and he recoils backward, screaming in pain.
I see stars from the impact, but shake it off and take stock of my target. The blinding pain from his broken nose has caused him to lose focus and he hacks at the empty air with his machete in senseless patterns. That's when I see my opportunity….
I roll forward underneath his defenses and stare up just in time to see him raise his weapon over his head for a final strike. I shoot upward and hack at his exposed wrist with my hatchet. His hand falls to the floor, still clutching the machete that clatters to the ground loudly against the exposed wood. He screams even louder and grips the bloody stump with his remaining hand. I'm immediately on my feet and kick hard right into his broken nose. He flies backward out the doors to the balcony, slamming against the railing and collapsing to his knees.
I shoot forward and instantly am on him. My left hand closes tight around his throat and the tip of my hatchet rests against the bottom of jaw. The razor sharp edge draws a trickle of blood. His eyes grow wide with fear as he realizes that he is a dead man. I slowly lean forward and lock my wild eyes directly on his. I want to be close enough so that he can smell Khalid's blood on my cheek.
"Do you understand a single word I'm saying?" I spit right into his face. The confused pleading in his expression does nothing to extinguish the inferno inside. "Well, I don't care." He gasps for air as my left hand starts to crush his windpipe. "My name is Command Sergeant Major Olivia Hightower of the United Districts of Panem Defenses. I have been sent here on a mission to destroy your threat to the local population and Europe, and that's exactly what I intend to do. Since I've been here, I've been blown up, shot at, and forced to watch children starve because of your greed and lack of a sheer thread of common decency. You forced me away from my husband and daughter, murdered my men, tried to enslave me, but what really pisses me off more than anything is…you just killed my brother."
I raise my hatchet over my head and with two quick flicks of my wrist, his head separates from his body. As the fire inside dies down from a raging roar to a quiet ember, I turn around and head downstairs. Khalid may have had the decency to care for the enemy dead, but I apparently still do not…
The first rays of dawn are just peaking over the eastern horizon when I emerge outside. The pirate camp is now deserted except for the crowd of Khalid's men who have now gathered around his corpse. I push my way to the front and see the fallen sheik, still smiling even in death. At that point, I completely lose all control and start to weep like a baby.
Suddenly, I sense someone in front of me. It is the older man who argued with me in the Council Tent. A part of me expects for him to chastise me, telling me that even through all of this I am still just a weak woman who cannot handle death, but what he does next is shocking. He simply raises his hand and lifts my chin so that our eyes meet. With the gentleness of a father consoling his child, he wipes the bloody tears from my face and says in broken English
"Shed no tears for him….for he…is in paradise." He points upward to the sky with a broad smile. Though the tears only slow instead of stopping completely, I feel a smile creep across my face as well. Somehow, deep down, I know he is right. For the first time, I know that somewhere, Khalid is finally reunited with his father and Asma, and is getting the chance to hold his son for the first time…
The image of tranquil peace in my mind is short lived. One of the other tribesmen is shouting something and pointing wildly toward the docks at the far end of the pirate base. The engines of the six gunboats have roared to life and the vessels are shooting away from land towards the open Mediterranean. It seems that not all of the pirates got away into the desert.
"No!" I scream as I realize that some of the enemy has escaped. No doubt, they will simply plunder vessels at sea until they have enough resources to start a new base and continue their reign of terror. I refuse to believe that all of this could be vain. That Khalid's tribe may still suffer the agony of these bandits even after his heroic death. My mind races now. I'm just about to run into the surf and try to swim after them when two attack hovercraft come screaming in from the west. I just make out the Mockingjay Seal of Panem on their wings when their twenty-five millimeter auto-cannons open fire on the pirate gunboats. All attempts to evade the attack are futile and within a few seconds, the fierce barrage of high explosive shells have turned the fleeing pirates into smoking hulks slowly sinking towards the bottom of the harbor.
Khalid's men erupt in wild cheers of celebration and I almost collapse in relief. I watch the hovercraft, their task complete, gracefully turn to the north and head back out to sea.
"Welcome to the party, Bixby," I think as I try to think of way to signal my position to them, but unfortunately, I don't have to think long. Less than two miles out, the hovercraft turn like nimble birds of prey readying for another kill. They line up in perfect formation for a strafing run on the pirate camp, and their deadly weapons are locked, loaded and pointed directly at us.