Three days after his
friend, Stefan had been taken, Muller witnessed a further twenty-five
of his fellow humans taken away for ‘processing.’ He knew his chance of
freedom was gone. He had begrudgingly and finally resigned to his fate and prepared
for the end of his life. And yet now he would have to wait another day... In two hours time, he would hear the screams
from the death chamber, which obviously lay just a few metres beyond the edge of
the compound. Then there would be brief normality as people went about their
business, just as they had done for the last three to four weeks.
By dinner time, reality would strike again
as they realised that this could be their last meal; a growing feeling of
resignation, that built up as the evening turned to night and they took to
their beds. Sleep was not really on the agenda. When you knew you could be
in the last twenty-four hours of life, your body and mind rejected sleep, it
was an irrelevance and yet killing time by sleeping would have been the choice
of most of the remaining humans in the compound.
Dieter Muller woke from
a mild slumber at eight-fifteen am; just as he had done for the last three
mornings. He did not get up, there was no rush. Hey what shall I do today?, he thought. In an hours time, he would
know; was it today or did he have another twenty-four hours of life? He looked
around. Surprisingly, the compound was a hive of activity; people going about
their daily routines, some exercising, some washing, brushing their teeth. Why? What was the point...? I’ll brush my
teeth after they have called today’s sacrificial lambs.
After a few further
minutes of lying and thinking about nothing. He forced himself off the bed and
glanced at himself in the nearby mirror. Sixty-two
years of age and not going to make it to sixty-three. In today’s terms, still
young. Could have had another seventy or a eighty years left. He was still
physically fit and there was nothing wrong with his mental faculties. He
allowed his mind to wander further as he recalled his childhood memories, his
school, university, meeting his wife, marrying and of course his daughter; who now
was the most important person in his life; his wife having long since left him.
He thought about his business, for which he no longer cared. It had been part
of his life for so long and yet it seemed so irrelevant. He glanced at his
watch. 8. 57 Am. Where the hell did the
last three quarters of an hour go? This is it now... It is going to be today...
Dieter moved himself
into position in the recreation area, so he could see when the Kryl guards came
through the doors to the front. The exit doors to the left of the main door
were where the selected persons would shortly be led. A few seconds later, the two guards entered
the compound. Both guards moved into the crowd, purposefully heading to
their first intended target. The first one reached an elderly woman, he stood
in front of her and she sighed and resigned to her fate, followed the
guard towards the exit door, where she
was led through, before the guard turned back on his heals in search of his
next victim.
There was complete silence, as the guards
moved amongst the crowd. Each chosen person was confronted and led to the exit,
with the guards once again seeking out the next human. Philip Dubois was the
next person to be selected. The two
people he had been closest to, whilst entrapped within the compound had now
been taken.
The process was drawing to a close and Muller
was about to move back inside, resigned to another day of purgatory. But, then
he realised, the last guard had come back for his twenty-fifth victim and was
heading toward him. Today that person was Dieter Muller.
As the guard reached him, Muller raised his
head and remained still, a weak gesture of defiance. There was nothing he could
do now. His time had come; but he would make them work.... The guard gestured him
towards the exit, but still Muller stood his ground. After a few seconds
further, frozen in time, the guard produced a half metre long plasma stick,
charged with electricity; the threat of it being used sufficient to end
his last stand. He reluctantly moved forward through the compound and
through the exit door.
Muller entered the next room; a waiting room
with a door at either end and a bench seat running down each side. The condemned obviously sat here, whilst
they waited for their sentence to be carried out. Muller joined Philip
Dubois, who sat at the front end of the chamber; the end nearest the death
room, or so Muller assumed. The remaining guard carried on through and left the
room. They were alone.
It took a few minutes for the conversation to
start.
“Can anyone believe we are actually doing
this? We are about to give our lives because our government says that this is
acceptable?” The question came from the other end; a balding, but fresh faced
man, who looked too young to be over sixty.
“We are making the ultimate sacrifice to
protect our species going forward”. The reply from an older man, who sat in the
middle on the same side as Muller.
“Bollocks” The balding man responded. “We are
here, because Alpha and the ECG gave up on its own people. We could have
defeated this lot. We didn't even try... where was the land war?”
“You need to respect
the wishes of everyone in this room. This period is for self reflection. There
is no point harping on about what might have been.”
Now the whole group
joined in. The tension broken by an opportunity to let off their frustration as
the conversation became more heated. Several of the younger men stood up to
face up to their opposing number, before Dieter Muller intervened. He pulled
himself up onto the bench and stood and shouted louder than everyone else so
that no-one was in any doubt as to who they should be listening to.
“That’s enough.... That’s enough!! There are
two types of people here. Those who need to show their frustration and those
who need to spend time on their own, with their own thoughts... If you are the
latter; can I suggest you move to the back of this room?”
Muller gestured to the
corner away from the main pack. He was a leader of men and to stand up and take
charge seemed the most natural thing in the world, even in your last hour of
life
“I think you are in the minority, but we will
respect your position. It should be a bit quieter over there.”
Seven people moved to
the back of the room and Muller then turned his attention to the others. “If it’s
ok, with you I will step down now. Can I suggest if you want to say
something... that you put your hand up? I will act as chair if that is ok with
everyone?”
Muller stepped down and
the balding man raised his right hand.
“Thank you... I think we can all agree to
behave now. I feel maybe we should be acting in some way here. Look at us. Most
of us are still fit and healthy. We can take on a couple of Kryl guards, maybe
even kill them and hey, if we die in the process, surely that is a more
honourable way to die.”
Several responses came at once and Muller raised
his voice once again.
“One at a time please.”
A second man raised his
hand and Muller acknowledged him.
“Have you ever been hit by one of those plasma
sticks. I was caught by one over a week ago
and it still hurts like hell now. We have no weapons. We don’t stand a
chance against them.”
The bald man raised his
hand again and spoke without delegated authority.
“The plasma sting will not hurt you tomorrow
that is for sure... Would you prefer we did nothing?”
Another man stood up and raised his hand, but
his reply was drowned out by a sea of voices as once again, Muller was forced
to intervene.
“Gentlemen... Please. We do not have long...”
Now it was time for him to have his say. “Have you considered what impact our
little revolution might have? How many
others have revolted briefly before eventually succumbing to their deaths? We
know, because we have heard that the Kryl can make this long and painful for
us, if they wish. For all we know they may have thrown us into here, hoping
that an argument spills over, so that the decision to deal us a long and
painful death is an easy one. I don’t know about you guys, but I sure as hell
do not want to be dying slowly over the next week.”
Muller sat down and
nobody replied. There was muted acceptance that he was correct. To resist now
could sentence them all to an even more painful death. Gradually all the
protagonists began to make way and sat down. Muller waited until the last man
had sat, before he took himself back to his spot next to Philip Dubois, who
curiously had stayed quiet during the whole process. Now it was his turn to
speak.
“I think we have all made our points and we
all now agree that action is futile. I suggest we take what little time we have
left for ourselves.”
Thirty-five minutes
later, the doors to the next chamber opened and two Kryl guards stepped inside.
The doors were now held in an open position and Muller could see what lay
ahead. A large rectangular shaped room, with a transparent partition segregating the humans from the slowly filling auditorium. Already over a
hundred Kryl had gathered. It seemed that their deaths would fulfil both the
feeding and the entertainment for these Kryl. He looked on in disbelief and
immediately hated every single one of them.
Now the guards stood to one side and gestured
for the humans to enter the chamber. Within thirty seconds all twenty-five
humans had moved into the new room, their brief resistance now over. Total acceptance
had taken control.
Muller moved right to the end of the chamber
and stood transfixed as the now full Kryl auditorium stared back at him.
Satisfied that there work was now done, the Kryl guards stepped back inside the
waiting room and the door shut.
Several moments passed before anything
happened... A mild tingling sensation in the back of Muller’s neck indicated the process may well have started. He looked ahead and could see that the
majority of Kryl had their eyes closed; obviously deep in concentration. He
looked to his left and saw several of the older humans begin to sway, unsteady
on their feet. They would not last long, he thought.
Now there was a dull ache streaming up from
the middle of his back to his neck. Something
was definitely going on here. He looked across again, as he heard a thump.
One of the elderly woman had just fallen to the floor. No-one helped her. They were all
concentrating on their own fate. Another
thud and then another as two more people collapsed. Jake could feel it in his
legs now, a dull ache spreading through his muscles.
The pain in his neck
had started to intensify and he found himself wincing as the each new wave of
pain hit him. He looked up at the Kryl audience. They remained passive, no
noise, just concentration. They were slowly killing him.
Two, three and then
four more people collapsed. From the corner of his eye, he could see the first
woman to fall, was now sobbing. There was a trickle of blood running from her
ear and her eyes were bloodshot. Now, there was screaming... high pitched
screaming from man and women alike.
He was definitely in trouble now. He felt
weakness crawling at his body. His eyesight was beginning to fail and his mouth
was dry, dry as sandpaper. The screaming had intensified now. Most of his
fellow humans had fallen to the floor. They were all dying. And yet, his mind
felt as lucid as ever; almost as if the failure of his other senses, and his
motor neurone functions had freed his brain. Images flashed past of memories
long since lost. Was this his life
flashing before him, before he died?
Another glance across,
only five people now stood standing. Looking down he saw the woman, who was now
quite clearly dead, blood oozing from her mouth, nose and ears and a huge
crack, exposing her skull at the top of her forehead. The screaming had died
down now, replaced by whimpering and sobbing from those who remained conscious
enough to notice the pain. Muller needed to hang on. This was not a competition
and yet as leader of this motley crew, he wanted to be the last to fall. This
last great challenge was all he had left.
He was the last man standing. All twenty-four
of his companions had now fallen and now there was silence as he felt a warm
liquid run down the side of his neck. And yet he still stood. He would not
fall. He would stand forever if only metaphorically. His legs finally gave way
and he too fell to the floor and huddled in a foetal position, no longer able
to control the pain.
His mind still raged,
but his thoughts became softer, more emotional. He thought of his family, his
daughter, even his ex-wife. Would they be
ok? He was sure they would. By now, they would be moving on with life already. And
yet, his final thoughts were not of his family. His mind focussed on blind
hatred for the Kryl. He felt everything
begin to close in now. The pain had gone, he could no longer move, and
paralysis had taken over as his organs began to shut down. He felt his heart
beat, slower and slower and then nothing as finally a dark mist began to cloud
his mind. This was it. He had nothing left and it was all over.
