The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (137 page)

             
Alright, genetic mutation. Show me what I can do,
I thought just as a man got close enough for me to strike.

             
I stretched my arm out, spun in a circle and heard the sickening slash of skin as the knife cut through the charging man's
throat. I felt the warm spray of blood on my arm as I slammed my hand onto the ground to stop my body from spinning anymore. Without looking, I threw the knife sideways;  I heard another man's bones cracking around the serrated blade after it forcefully en
tered his chest cavity. My head jerked in my second victim's direction before my legs carried me to him. He was falling forward, grasping his chest. In a blur of movement, I ripped the knife from his chest, placed my hands on his shoulders, and propelled m
yself into a flip through the air before landing on my feet.

             
Two younger men were facing me. In them, I sensed no darkness. I saw no evil in their hearts as I had seen inside of the others I had just killed. They stared at me in horror, trembling, awaitin
g my move. The guns in their hands rattled as they shook. They never raised them.

             
“Go home, gentlemen.” I whispered after taking a much needed deep breath.

             
They looked at me, looked at each other, and then turned to run. Two gunshots rang out behind me a
nd I looked down at myself; they were loud enough that I knew they had been made by a sufficiently large shotgun. If I had been shot, the bullets would have blown open a hole in my abdomen, given the close proximity of the shooter.

             
But I was not the wound
ed party; the two boys who had run were. They had fallen to the ground, their top halves messes of blood and flesh. I will admit that I felt an unimaginably strong surge of pain through my body at seeing such innocent creatures taken so cruelly before what
could ever rightfully be their time. As the despair assuaged, outrage took its place. I knew exactly who stood behind me, wielding that gun. Only he would feel the need to carry such a large weapon, for he would not accept nature's power.

             
Rich Bachum tur
ned the muzzle of the shotgun so that it was pointed at me. I understood suddenly why Adam showed and perhaps felt no fear. He wished to die an honorable death. I would never fall to my knees, sniveling and pleading like a coward. I would not shed a tear.
I would not attempt to forge a deal. I would die the same way I had always lived: in defiance of cowardice.

             
“At last we meet, Mr. Bachum.”

             
“Do not say my name, you disgusting freak!” He shouted and I frowned in revulsion when a large wad of spit flew fro
m his mouth as he spoke.

             
“I can sense that I have been living in your mind rent-free.”

             
“You were raised well! You're from Earth! You...” He took a step towards me, “vile...” Another step and he raised the shotgun so that it was aligned with my head, “
who
re
!”

             
I expected him to fire after he was finished that particular sentiment. However, his shaking hands just held the gun even more firmly.

             
“Ooh...” I sang with a grin and chuckle, “
vile!
An honorable choice of words, Mr. Bachum.”

             
“What did I just say?!
I do not want to hear my name coming from your disgusting mouth!”

             
“Pull the trigger, Mr. Bachum.” I ordered softly, tauntingly.

             
“I am warning you!”

             
“Are you a big enough man to do it, Mr. Bachum?”

             
I took a step towards him, my grin widening as I reali
zed that I already knew the pathetic answer to the question I had just posed. He could not pull the trigger. In my heart, I felt nothing but pride and audacity. In his, I felt great fear.

             
“You stand above others because you know all.” My tone dripped
condescension and sarcasm, which I’m sure does not surprise you at this point. “Yet, you stand now before just little old me,” I held my arms out to the side, “and you're speechless. You're motionless. You know not what to do. You're terrified because you'
ve never killed a woman. You've beaten them and degraded them terribly but can you willingly kill one? No, your lapdogs do that for you.”

             
“You don't know what I'm thinking.”

             
“Your mind is screaming.” I spun my hands beside my head to mime the churning
stream of thoughts that were pouring from his mind. “I can hear everything.”

             
“You're crazy!” He bellowed furiously but his voice cracked on the last word. I covered my mouth to suppress the giggle that took hold of me. “You're lying! You can’t hear me!”

             
“If I don't do this, she'll kill Mary.”

             
“If I don't do this, she'll kill Mary.” I repeated and my grin widened as his frown deepened.

             
“How is she doing that?!”

             
“How is she doing that?!” I shouted up at the sky. I was acting quite manically, I admit...

             
“Oh my God, the devil is real. He has her! Oh, dear God...”

             
“Oh, dear God! Oh, dear God! Oh, dear God!” I shouted, all evidence of whimsy extinguishing each time I said those words until I was snarling them at him viciously. Now, only that painful, famili
ar rage stood firmly in my chest to spur me to further action. “Just because I don't believe in your warped perception of God does not mean I'm in line with the devil, Mr. Bachum!” I was walking towards him now, willing him to put his finger on the trigger
. I could end him. Sure, if Rich fell, the war would not end. But Tyre would be short an arm; he would be amputated and vulnerable to our attack. Adam's city was burning around me. I could hear the screams of his people as they scrambled for the city limit
s. When I closed my eyes briefly, I saw men, women and children running in terror and disappearing through the wall into the darkness of the forest. I saw others belonging to Tyre pulling back a thick golden string on the back of a large, glass, circular b
owl poised towards the sky. The sun darkened overhead as one of its rays was sucked into the bowl. One of his men turned the device so that it would fire into one of the crowds of screaming, terrified people. I opened my eyes just as a fire more powerful t
han any that could erupt from a man-made bomb consumed them.

             
It had taken exactly one second to see all that I had seen. My power was growing stronger.

             
“This is a win-win for both of us, Rich.” I told him softly. “If we live, we live another day. If we d
ie, well...” I smiled and shook my head slightly as I studied his face. “One of us will know the truth about Him, won't we?”

             
“You know nothing of Him! If you did, you would not align with Adam! You would not allow yourself to be twisted into some filthy c
reature from this world! You don't deserve a minute of life if you think that all of this is right!”

             
I realized suddenly that all the men that had surrounded us were dead. Tyre had run off when he realized that he was the only target left for Adam to dise
mbowel. I was staring down the business end of a shotgun that was being pointed at me by a deranged, fanatical lunatic and yet Adam had not stepped in to intervene. Perhaps he was allowing me to handle the situation on my own. I appreciated his belief in m
e. I appreciated his willingness to let me dispatch the threat that stood so firmly and tremulously before me alone.

             
No. I realized that something was not right.

             
I reached forward and grabbed the muzzle of the gun. With a quick, powerful jerk of my arm,
I was able to pull it from Rich's grasp and send him down onto his knees. He looked up at me, willing me to shoot him. Only after being martyred in this “holy” war would he earn his place at God's side. His ignorance and his blind devotion to that phantom
version of God brought about the strangest feeling in me: pity.

             
“We find ourselves at a standstill, Rich.” I told him as I put the gun over my shoulder. “I will not shoot you because I will not spoil you with a death you and your despicable wife would be
proud of. Goodbye for now. I know next time you will not hesitate.”

             
Like the contemptible coward he was, he ran. Later, I knew Tyre would make him pay for not killing me. Rich knew of the consequences and still, he did not fight me. I turned back to watch
him disappear from view, knowing that he and I would meet again, knowing that I would be the one to kill him or vice-versa. Either way, only one of us would end the other.

             
“Adam?” I asked as I turned around. Amongst the pile of bodies, I could not see hi
m. My exhaustion seemed to have intensified. My legs dragged as I walked through the carnage. I struggled to raise them when I had to step over the fallen men.

             
“Adam?!” I asked again, too tired to suppress the fear for him that was so evident in my voice.

             
“Here.”

             
His voice was barely audible, even in the silence. In it, I heard his pain. I forced my tired body to move quickly, knowing he was hurt badly. I did not want to imagine, even for a moment, that he might die. While his personality and his actions
antagonized me to no end, sometimes purposely, I couldn't stand to lose someone else, even the man who from the moment I met him, had stirred a great, raging storm of conflicting emotions inside of me.

             
“Hey...” I whispered gently before kneeling beside h
im. As soon as I had steadied myself, I pressed my hand to the wound in his stomach. His warm blood streamed over my hand, saturating my skin with the darkest red I had ever seen.

             
“It's fatal, Brynna.”

             
“Stop it.” I ordered firmly. “Come on. We need to le
ave. Before he left, Rich thought about the others and bringing them back here to finish us off. I also saw more fire from the harness. We need to go.”

             
“
You
need to go. There is no help for me.” He told me in a tone firm enough to rival my own yet still d
isplaying his weak and pained state. An explosion of empathy overtook me and I knew then that I could not leave him.

             
“My city will burn. It is my duty and my humblest privilege to stay and burn with it.”

             
“This is like the captain going down with the ship
.” I told him. “Though it is very honorable, you are far too important to die now. Think about your dear friend Don. He would be lost without you. Now, get up.”

             
“I cannot walk. It is fatal, Brynna. You must go.”

             
“Stop saying that.” I took his arm and
wrapped it around my neck. “On three, okay? One, two, three!” I pulled him forward and he moved his feet back, turning his body to rise onto his knees. The pain had to have been tremendous, unimaginable... Still, he did not make a sound.

             
“I must stay.” He
gasped out. “I must stay here to die, Brynna. This is my city.”

             
We were both on our knees facing one another. My face was very close to his. As my empathy grew for him, I did something unexpected: I closed the space between us and planted a quick, warm k
iss on his cheek.

             
“I know. But this is your world, also. It is overrun by the Bachums, their people, and their message that is a perversion on all we know and believe. We can only save Purissimus with your help, Adam.”

             
His rough hand came up to grasp my
cheek. The scorching heat between us had nothing to do with the building that had just collapsed beside us in an almighty explosion of fire and debris. His eyes
hypnotized me into a beautifully tranquil space that erased all fear and pain. Stranger even is
the fact that I could see a similar lull in his eyes as he gazed into mine.

             
I shook my head back and forth rapidly and frowned slightly.

             
“Alright, we need to get you on your feet. One, two, three...”

             
He did emit one almost inaudible groan of pain when
I pulled him even harder. My hand was pressed over the one of his that was covering the wound. Once I had successfully gotten him onto his feet, he stumbled into me, nearly knocking both of us back to the ground. I dug my heels into the blood-soaked earth
and slid backwards in the soggy moisture for one unsure minute. Then, my strength registered finitely in my arms and torso and I was able to hold him, despite his great mass.