Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (37 page)

I look around to see where Alex
has gone to, but he’s not in my view.  I am alone, left to confront my killers,
the ones fighting in the so called name of justice.  The game is over.  My
chance to be at liberty has slipped away from my fingers and now I stare down
the barrel of a gun.  I close my eyes and think about what I’ve done.  I
should’ve known my greedy ambitions weren’t worth it.  I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.

I feel my torso imploding and then
exploding.  It feels like an anchor has jammed into my stomach and ripped it
inside out.  Then it burns like I’m being branded, everywhere.  The pain is
excruciating and I feel the blood trickle from my stomach down to my leg.  I
smell the smoke emitting from my burning flesh.

I open my eyes and look down to
see a large wound encompass the front of me and I stumble backwards in a state
of shock.  I land ass first into the teleportation pod.  It’s a fitting way to
die.  I wanted to reach this stage so badly, risked life and limb, made
sacrifices I never thought I could make, and it looked like I was going to
spend my last moments here.  Karma indeed.

But I am not dead, yet.  Despite
the agony I feel mentally and physically, I’m still breathing, I’m still aware
of my surroundings.  I see the human, dog, and wolf approaching me, guns still
pointed straight in my direction.

“Don’t move,” the human says.

“Don’t worry,” I say, moving my
lips slowly.  “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Apollo, Fenrir, go look for the
other one, Alex.  We lost him in the firestorm with Tiago, he’s probably
hiding…”

A bright light hits my eye and it
appears to go through the human.  His head swings back and I see a cloud of
blood puff from his front cranium.  He falls to his knees and his back bends on
his legs awkwardly.  His arms collapse to his sides and the gun in his hands
plunges to the ground.  Finally, the back of his head slams on the floor.  His
eyes are still open, glazed over, but I’m sure he was already dead before he
hit the ground.

The wolf and dog look stunned and
even I’m bewildered by his sudden death.  It happens so fast, I don’t even have
time to think about what happened.

“Commander!”  The dog runs over to
his body to see if he is okay, but it’s useless.  He’s dead as a doorknob.  I
see his snout shaking and lips snarling, but his grief is interrupted by
someone’s presence.  He looks up and I look to the right where the dog is
staring.

Things now make so much sense. 
There I see Alex, smoking pistol in one hand, bomb in the other.  Suddenly, I
can’t help but jeer a little.  At least one of us might make it out alive.

November 17, 3040
4:47 AM

I’ve felt anger a few times in my
life, but never rage.  Rage is different from anger.  When you’re angry, you
become mad for brief moments.  Perhaps you do something you regret, but there’s
still something holding you back from going over the edge.

With rage, there’s nothing holding
you back.  No morals, no conscience, just raw emotion.  It blinds you.  The
moment that Commander Trevor died, that’s what I felt.  It was pure, it was
unbridled, it was personal.

Commander Trevor, a mentor, a
colleague, an idol, lies motionless on the floor.  Blood trickles down from the
hole in his cranium, his body bent in an uneasy position.  Just a minute ago,
he was barking orders while we were in the fight of our lives.  He was our main
support, I looked to him for guidance not only in this shootout, but in so many
other facets of my life.  He was the person I wanted to model myself after.  I
wanted to climb the ranks of the Dog Alliance and eventually become what he
was, a respected leader and model soldier.

He was also a good guy.  Sometimes
you have friends that aren’t truly your friends.  Dogs, humans, whomever, that
you call late in the night for advice and would be annoyed that you rang. 
Friends who tell you they’ll see you later, but you never hear from them
again.  Commander Trevor was far from this.  He was a great friend, honorable,
dependable, and caring.  When times got rough, or when I’d worry about an
upcoming mission, he was the guy I could call to make sure that things were
going to be okay.  It wouldn’t matter when I bothered him because it wasn’t a
bother at all.  They have that saying about how dogs can be loyal to humans. 
After meeting Simon, I know that it can work vice versa.

He was a leader through and
through.  Sure, he had moments of weakness, what human doesn’t, but there isn’t
anyone else I would have heading this mission.  He commanded the charge against
the enemy and he paid the ultimate price for it.  He didn’t die heroically, he
died from the shot of a coward, who killed him at the least suspecting moment.

I look at the culprit, a whopping,
enormous mass of creature and I see nothing but the enemy.  This waste of life
we call a halfkind is responsible for killing my best friend.  I will make him
pay dearly.  I will give him agonizing wound after wound, and it’s not until I
have him, and all his kind, begging for mercy that I will fire my final shot.

We gave them a chance to come
peacefully.  We tried that with Oscar, yet he wanted to rip Commander Trevor’s
head off.  We held back against Curtis and he blew our teammates out of the
sky.  We let our guard down against this freak.  No more holding back, it’s
time to recognize the enemy and take him down.

“You better stand back,” Alex
Lawton says to us as he holds a metal canister.  “This thing is like the one
Curtis had.  I activate it and all of us are gone, so stand the fuck back!”

He looks agitated and scared.  His
arm shakes, eyes blink furiously, and his snout twitches.  He took a coward’s
shot at Simon.  I see nothing but weakness in him, so I step closer.

“I said, get back!” he yells
frantically.

The gears in my helmet move a
little and a barrel sticks out.

“Fire,” I say softly.

A shot rings out of my head and
hits him directly on his shoulder.  His mouth opens wide and he roars out a
bellow that echoes through the station.  His canister drops harmlessly onto the
floor and I see his wound smoking, smoldering as pieces of red and black float
into the air.

“Ow, goddamnit!” he says.

“Fire,” I say again.

The shot hits him in his other
shoulder and his body twists in reaction.  He wobbles back a few feet, as if he
is going to fall, but his legs catch him before his knees buckle.  The gun he
has drops from his hand and falls to the floor.  It bounces for half a second
until it succumbs to its weight.

“Ugh,” he says.  He doesn’t react
as strongly to the second one.  The pain overloads his mind.

“Fire,” I say once more.

The shot careens forward and hits
him square on the knee.  His leg falls limply to the ground and causes him to
kneel over.  His arms are dull, unresponsive, and collapse to his side.  He
grits his teeth and clenches whatever he can as he tries to comprehend the
agony that shoots through his body.

“Fire,” I say again.

Another knee cap has been
demolished and blood bursts from it like a broken water balloon.  His legs give
in and he lands square on his ass.  He adjusts his body a bit.  The only thing
he can control is his back and he tries hard to keep it straight.  But it’s
pointless.

“Fire,” I say one last time.

This shot goes directly into his
chest, above his heart.  He instantly falls over backward, head on the ground,
looking straight up.  He’s still alive, but I’ve completely disabled him using
my pistol.  Like a surgeon, I’ve dissected my target using nothing but focus
and precision.  I don’t want to grant him a quick death.  I want him to feel
every shot piercing him, I want him to know that his demise will be painful.

Fenrir looks at me stunned, but
also inquisitively.

“He’s not going anywhere,” I say
to him.  “Keep your gun pointed at him, make sure he doesn’t do anything
funny.”

I walk over to where Tiago is
laying.  He’s still alive, but his wound and heavy breathing suggest he might
not last that long.  I don’t have much time to get my answers.

I stare him down and he does the
same.  His lips are tight, his eyes narrow and unfriendly.

“Where are the other two?” I ask
him.

He’s taken back by my question and
looks at me peculiarly.

“I don’t know… what you’re talking…
about,” he says.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” I say. 
“I know about the twins, I met them personally.  We had briefings on your whole
family before our mission.  They’re the only two left.  Where are they?”

He reacts with a hint of surprise,
but goes back to his stonewalled demeanor.

“I don’t know,” he says.  “They
left with… Oscar and I haven’t seen them… since.”

“Is that so?” I say.  “That’s too
bad.  I was going to offer you some medical help in exchange for the
information.  Your wounds are bad, but treatable.  With the right staff working
on you, you’ll survive.  Tell me where they are and I can guarantee that
they’ll be here in ten minutes.”

“You think… I can still… be
saved?  You do see what I see… right?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try. 
Cooperate and I might even throw in an order to release you.”

He looks at me hesitantly and
thinks carefully about my offer.  “You’re bluffing.  The second… I tell you…
you’ll kill me.”

“I’m a dog of my word.  It won’t
happen,” I say.

“Why do you want them… anyway?”

I pause and think about Simon. 
“Because my commander died before he could complete his mission.  I intend to
finish it for him.  Besides, during my run in with the twins, they beat me. 
Let’s just say I think they’re dangerous, especially since they have an older
brother like you.”

He shakes his head cautiously. 
“No, you’re wrong… they aren’t dangerous.  And I don’t care what you offer.  You
can throw me a tablet… with an order from the United Species Alliance that
would guarantee my freedom… that I’ll never be persecuted again… and I would
throw it back at you if it meant ratting out… the twins.  I’ve done a lot these
past few days… done some horrible things… but this is where I draw the line.”

“You betrayed the others.  What’s
one more?”

“They’re different.  The ones I
gave up were useless… incompetent.  The twins are special.  I’d tear up a
million… of your petty contracts.”

“Really?” I ask.  “Freedom is a
valuable thing you know.  Us dogs, wolves, animals as a whole, we’ve spent
hundreds of years trying to grasp it from the clutches of humans, and through
much sacrifice, struggle, and opportunity we got it.  I’m offering it to you
for a much lower price.  Don’t you want that?”

Tiago lets out a light chuckle.

“I do.  But I don’t… trust you.”

“That’s too bad.”

I arm the barrel in my helmet
straight at his head.

“No, wait!” someone yells.  Alex
Lawton’s head is lifts up, grimaces, and looks straight at me.  “I’ll take that
deal.”

Tiago looks over and, at first,
doesn’t seem appalled by the betrayal.  It’s almost as if he thinks it’s a
joke, that Alex would never do anything so out of line.  From his face, I can
tell Tiago doesn’t believe the words.

“I want to live, I want to be left
alone in peace,” Alex adds on, his face showing nothing but truth.

I don’t sense that he is
bluffing.  And as Tiago figures out the situation more and more, he doesn’t
either.  A few seconds ago, he looked confident and skeptical in his brother,
but now he looks upset and flabbergasted.

“No, Alex… don’t,” he warns him. 
“You can’t… trust them.”

Alex shakes his head.  “My wounds
hurt, but they can heal with the right treatment.  If I don’t get it, I’m
dead.  Also, I can be free if I take the offer.  I have nothing to lose.”

“And the twins?” he says
desperately.

“I don’t think they’re as special
as you do.  You’ve revered them for years and I never understood why.  It’s
your weakness and you’ve taught me that weaknesses should be disposed of.  I’m
sorry, brother, I’m done taking orders from you.”

“But they’re your… brother and
sister,” Tiago says sadly.

“I care as much about them as I do
for the others that have died,” Alex muses.  “To me, they’re another sacrifice
so I can live.”

A heartbroken Tiago shakes his
head in disbelief.  “Where did you learn… such treachery?”

Alex looks squarely at his
brother.  “From the best.”

Tiago doesn’t respond, just looks
up at the ceiling despondently and remains quiet.

“So,” I say, “where are they?”

Alex closes his eyes and musters
the strength to say it.  “They’re back where this all started, back on the
corner house on Chakming Drive.”

“Thank you,” I say.  I think of
Commander Trevor.  “Fire.”

The blast speeds through my helmet
and through Alex’s skull.  His head blows backward fiercely and the shot
vibrates the rest of his body, swaying it up and down on the ground for a
second until it finally stops and he lies motionless.

I then turn my attention back to
Tiago. He doesn’t look startled at the events that just transpired, only
disappointed.  He sees the barrel on my helmet adjust and knows what’s coming
for him.

He looks at me and he looks at
Fenrir.  He closes his eyes and says, “I am no dog… I am no wolf… I am only
myself.  I am… free.”

“Fire.”

I take a final shot and it screams
out of my helmet into Tiago’s heart.  He grimaces a tad bit, but with his last
ounce of energy, he tilts his head backward in peace and smiles.

I walk away from him and past
Fenrir, who has kept the same dismayed expression throughout both killings.  He
doesn’t say a word, just looks at me with careful eyes.

“C’mon,” I say.  “We have work to
do.”