Twell and the Rebellion (25 page)

Again, there was silence
while
my thoughts tossed around in
confusion like waves on a stormy lake. Didn’t he know the truth
himself? Hadn’t he asked himself how all of those prisoners really
could have died? Or was his belief in our perfect society so total
he truly couldn’t see the dark cracks of truth slowly emerging in
our natures, even when it was right in front of him?

“If we must take a life in
order to save our own, then it will be so.” The trainer’s voice was
devoid of any relish. “But if it brings you satisfaction, then I
fear for your souls, because it makes you no different from our
enemy.” The truth of his words sobered the mood and after a moment,
he continued. “If we lust for revenge, for blood as they do, are we
not just as bad, just as corrupt? Where does it end? What is right
and who is wrong?”

“
But they’re the ones
who’ve declared another war!” Shanna cried, her fierce eyes
blazing. “We have every right to fight back.”

“Yes, but what are you
fighting for?” The trainer looked Shanna in the eye. “For our
freedom or for the extinction of another race?”

“
For both,” Shanna replied
without a beat. “Both would suit me nicely.”

“I understand your anger,”
the trainer replied calmly. “But I warn you now, you cannot let
your heart overtake your head in this war. If you can’t control
your emotions, you will lose your focus and almost certainly lose
your life.”

I looked at the faces
around me, stricken with conflict. He was right. We had to focus on
the task. Letting our fear and anger get the better of us would be
weakness. This was how the Abwarzians had survived so long without
their own water resources, because they knew how to put aside their
feelings in order to survive. Until I’d seen the first girl, back
in the caves, I hadn’t believed they had any emotions. The memory
of her frightened expression was forever etched into my mind. For
the first time, I clearly understood their desperation for water
was a survival instinct that overcame any other part of them, and I
wondered who we would become if we were in the same
position.

Shanna argued no further,
but she stood there with her arms crossed, looking so tense and
unhappy, I almost felt bad for her. However, there was no time to
worry about Shanna’s feelings. Satisfied he’d made his point, the
trainer directed each pair to a particular numbered point of the
course. From there we would move through a circuit until reaching
the end. We walked there in silence, and it was such a relief, I
released the muscles in my stomach I hadn’t even realized I’d been
clenching. It was so refreshing to have a guy
not
talking at me,
trying to influence me in one way or other for a change. I had
seriously underappreciated Talon until this point in
time.

Positioning ourselves at the
point of the course we were designated, we began to warm up. I
closed my eyes, slowly releasing all the nagging dark thoughts
crowding my mind. It had been hard to do, when I’d first begun
training, but now it was easier, despite the increase of burdens on
my mind. I basically told my thoughts to shut-the-heck-up, because
there was no room for them when I needed to focus my powers. When
my mind was cleared, my powers awakened. They thrummed almost
happily, as if they’d been waiting impatiently for use. It felt
tingly, building to a warm hum that gathered momentum inside my
mind, waiting to be directed at something. I looked over at Talon
and he smiled back knowingly. I knew he was as eager to train and
it felt good.

The siren sounded,
an
indicator to begin. I snapped into
full alert as every muscle in my body coiled, ready for defence. We
moved towards the buildings as instructed, Talon covering the
terrain on the right while I scanned the left. As we crept forward,
I almost forgot it wasn’t real. Unease prickled over my skin and I
took long slow breaths to calm myself as I took my gun from my
holster. I held it stiffly, arms raised in front of me, ready for
any sudden movements. I still nearly jumped out of my skin when the
first hologram appeared. The image of a snarling Abwarzian man
popped up a foot away from Talon, so dimensional it looked almost
real. My heat thumped in fright as it moved forward towards Talon,
a fire-gun gripped in its transparent white hands.

“
Watch out!” I shrieked.
Talon leapt back in alarm and I fired my tagger without hesitation.
The current travelled through the man’s temple and out the other
side. Then he disappeared just as suddenly as he had
appeared.

“
Did I get it?” I panted
as I reached Talon’s side.

“
Yeah, but I don’t know if
that means it’s gone,” Talon replied, his head whipping around
warily.

“
Let’s keep going,” I
urged. Sticking close together, we broke into a jog, stumbling over
the uneven ground as the mist swallowed our feet. It was a surreal
sensation and I felt beads of nervous sweat breaking out on my
forehead, clinging to my long fringe as I impatiently pushed it
back from my face.

“
Twell, get down!”
Grabbing my arm, Talon hit the dirt, dragging me with him at the
same moment a line of flames whooshed over my head. I looked up and
saw the flames move over me, but feeling no heat, I quickly
realized they were artificial as well. Regardless, I threw myself
flat into the dust then rolled out from under the flames, as though
they were real. In one swift motion I sprang up, throwing my hands
towards the source of the fire, as though my palms were the
conductors of my powers. The flames reared back and I was able to
see their source coming from one of the buildings. In the windows
of the building, the ghostly faces of half a dozen Abwarzians gazed
out at us, their black eyes glittered inhumanly. Even though I knew
they weren’t real, the hair on my arms stood up as a shiver of fear
shuddered through me.

“
Let’s go!” I yelled at
Talon. He was right on my heels as I ran at the building, forcing
the flames back as I pressed in closer. The flames covered the
front of the buildings in a wall of fire, yet there was no smoke
and no aroma of burning materials or flesh…not as it had been at
S3. When I reached the entrance to the first building, the faces in
the windows evaporated and the flames disappeared.

“Stand back,” Talon
warned
. I jumped out of the way as he
moved up to the door, his eyes intent and focused. After a moment,
the door flew backwards into the building with such force it blew
my hair right out of its fresh braid. I moved in front of Talon,
giving him a chance to recollect his powers as I cautiously entered
the building.

Inside, it was dark, quiet and
filled with dust. Silt clogged the air, making it hard to see. I
covered my mouth with my sleeve and squinted through the gloom,
trying to make out the objects in the room. Neither of us had time
to react to the figures. They loomed up out of the darkest corner
of the room like ghosts, appearing all around us. Then they
advanced in unison, trapping us in the middle. Lifting their guns,
they filled the room with new flames.

I froze, watching in
wonder as the flames touched my skin. They lit me up, making me
glow red and orange with the illusion of being on fire. I stared
dazedly through the flames at the images of our enemies and saw
their eyes were narrowed and cold, just like the Abwarzian man who
had died at the hands of his own weapon. I’d seen them look afraid
and I’d seen them with faces full of hatred. I’d seen them look
just like us, and I stood momentarily confounded, my thoughts
burning with more realism than the fire around me. Maybe
they
were
just like us, and our leaders had deceived our people just
as much as their leaders had fed them lies about
us.
 

Then the flames were being
forced back a
nd Talon was shouting at me.
Snapping out of it, I launched forward, my mind thrumming with a
surge of power. Back to back with Talon, I shot at the holograms
while my mind held back the flames. They circled us in a roaring
ring of fire, weaving in and out of reach as we swiped and lunged.
One minute they were right in front of us, only to disappear just
as suddenly and then emerge somewhere else. I fired wildly, my
desperation mounting. How were we supposed to overcome these
things? They were un-killable.

Striking at one with my
bare hand
it went straight through, while
the image actually snarled, baring its teeth at me. I leapt back in
illogical fright as it advanced, feeling my body begin to seize up
with panic as I pushed my mind to keep fighting. Then I realized
what we needed to do. The Abwarzians were not gifted like us. Nor
were they as physically strong, or as large a population, although
with their forced reproduction laws, they were starting to catch
up. Without weapons, they had no power. It didn’t have to end in
killing. We only had to disarm them in order to defeat
them.

“
Shut the flames down!” I
yelled to Talon. “The holograms are a distraction!”

Realizing I was right,
Talon searched for the source of the fire, moving away from me to
one side of the room, while I moved the other way. Immediately, an
Abwarzian woman popped up in front of me, hatred shining
unmistakably in her pitch black eyes. Shuddering, I moved forward
until I walked right through her, as if she were a ghost. With a
blood-curdling screech, she evaporated around me. In the corner of
the room, I finally saw the thin black tube pumping in the fake
fire and I ran at it with purpose.

Just before I reached it,
another hologram popped up in front of me and I stopped dead. A
small boy, pale, undernourished, and barely reaching my knees
blocked the way, taking me off guard. He was crying, actually
producing a high-pitched wail that pierced my heart, his expression
so pitiful I wavered. I had definitely not been prepared for
children in this scenario. Obviously, that was the point, because
he was simply a decoy, a weak spot in my defences.

We would never involve
Comain children in our war. We would hide them safely away in our
underground bunkers that could fit a whole city. The Abwarzians,
however, wouldn’t hesitate to use their young as bait and I’d
fallen for it in an instant. The moment I hesitated, staring into
his hollow pleading eyes, another hologram rose up at my side.
Larger than a usual Abwarzian man, his expression was anything but
pitiful as he pointed his gun and fired at my face. I screamed,
dropping to my knees as I covered my eyes. Of course, there was no
pain, no real flames burning my flesh, but it was too late. In an
instant, everything in the room evaporated. The holograms, the
fire, even the dark of the room disappeared to be replaced by the
dazzling light. The voice of the trainer cut through the room from
an overhead speaker.

“
You are disqualified for
this round. Please leave the course now.”

I looked at Talon and saw the
disappointment on his face.

“
I’m sorry,” I uttered in
dismay. “He just seemed so real.”

“
Don’t be sorry.” Walking
over to me Talon offered his hand, helping me to my feet. “It’s a
good thing to know your weaknesses. Next time we’ll be more
prepared.”

I nodded, but as we walked from
the course, I couldn’t help but ask myself what exactly it was that
I should be prepared for. I would expect children to be used as a
decoy for sure. But then what? Was I supposed to charge on through
without regard for the life of the child? Was it a weakness to want
to protect a child no matter its race?

I felt consumed with
unease as we stepped out of the dome, deflated as the adrenalin
died down and my heartbeat slowed to normal. One by one others
trudged out after completing or failing. There were no whoops of
victory, no triumph in defeat; only faces tight with stress as they
realized not only were we facing physical harm, but moral
dilemma.

Then Shanna came stomping out of
the dome, her face like a thundercloud. Marching straight up to the
trainer until she was toe to toe with him, her body language
screamed obscenities before she even spoke. I almost laughed at the
sight of her making up for lack of height with spunk. But then she
opened her mouth and let him have it.

“Don’t be
barbarians
you say! Don’t be like
them
!” she hissed. “Then what do
you do? Throw their creepy offspring at us so we have no choice but
to sacrifice them! What do you want from us?”

“I want you to step back
and remember your
place,
cadet!” the trainer barked
back.

Shanna flinched only
slightly. Her shoulders were heaving; her jaw clenching so tight it
shook. Throwing her CDA into the sand she took off, heading
straight for the exit.

“Stop right
there
!” the officer commanded. Shanna
froze, her back stiff as she pivoted around again. She gave him her
best death glare, the one that normally reduced her peers to pale
squirming wrecks. But the officer was unaffected and angrily
beckoned her with his hand. Fists clenched she stomped back,
glaring reproachfully at him with eyes full of rage…and tears. I
couldn’t believe it. Shanna Zane, Ms Tough Stuff, actually on the
verge of crying? It seemed the grim reality of our path ahead had
finally hit a raw nerve with her. Clearly, she wasn’t used to such
moral conflicts and wasn’t dealing with it very well at all.
Publicly. The glee I’d kept reserved for such a moment melted away
at the naked vulnerability etched over her face.