15

Arthur knocked on the door, feeling nervous. When he heard a voice beckoning him to enter, he did so, and found Father Lucas hunched over a table, and six other men he did not know around him. Two of them had guns, and three were dressed in military garb.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s OK,” said Father Lucas. “I was hoping you would join us. This is Corporal Anderson and two of his men, The Jefferson brothers and Marcel Scacht. They will be joining their strength to ours, so we can exert God’s justice.”

Arthur looked at the men. The Corporal seemed like an old soldier. He had a face made for movies, with a dash of white hair neatly trimmed, and a jaw the size of Arthur’s chest. His two men were much younger, barely kids, and both had an excited face. Zealots, thought Arthur. The Jefferson brothers were the ones with guns. Arthur knew nothing about guns, but these made him uneasy. The seemed like short machine guns, and had been decorated and painted all over, with symbols that he had never seen under church roof. However, it was the unarmed man, Marcel, the one that scared him the most. His grin was too big. He was wearing a white t-shirt with stains over it, and had his hands in his pockets. He was looking straight at Father Lucas, and suddenly Arthur noticed that that was what unnerved him. All the rest had turned to look at him when he opened the door, Marcel never did.

“Ah, have you seen the TV?” Arthur asked.

“We’ve been slightly busy, Arthur, why don’t you give us the quick version?” asked Father Lucas.

“Well, this corporation is claiming sovereignty, and they’ve taken Chris Barnett as a refugee, claiming that he wasn’t safe here.”

“They’re right, he wasn’t,” said the Corporal.

Father Lucas frowned. “That’s bad news, we might need more men.”

“It doesn’t have to be bad news,” said the Corporal. “If they are doing what the kid has said, we will have many more by our side in just a few days. A secession is an act of war, and if it’s war they want, war they’ll have.”

“I’m pretty sure there must be another way,” said Arthur, his voice no more than a whisper.

“Yes, we can lose, and the world might be destroyed, that’s the other way, Arthur,” said Father Lucas.

Arthur left the room, shaken and scared. Whatever was going he wanted no part of it. He run to his room and started packing.

***

“Sorry, we’ll talk later,” said Chris. “Right now I want to spend some time with Dianne.” He shut the door, even though Avril didn’t seem to happy about it. He liked the reporter, but he needed Dianne first. It had been too long since he saw her, they had much to discuss, and she hadn’t seem very happy to find Chris in Avril’s room. He would give her her interview later, but right now...

“You look slimmer,” said Dianne’s voice behind him. He walked to the bed and knelt before her. He couldn’t say a word, but he managed to hold her cheeks with his hand. He was to confused to kiss her, but he dropped his head between her knees. She stroked his head, timidly at first.

“I’m sorry I hurt you, baby,” she whispered. “It was never my intention.”

“What was your intention then?” asked Chris.

“To make sure you were happy. I’ve had for a long time the impression that you were pulling away, that you didn’t want to be tied down and drag someone like me.”

“You were all I wanted, I woke up every morning because I had you,” muttered Chris.

“Then why didn’t you talk to me? Why did you keep me away?”

“I only spoke to you. I have no friends, no life worth speaking for. I was only waiting for our future together.”

“You almost lost the present because of the waiting.”

“I know, I know.”

She took his hands in hers.

“Chris...”

“Come and live with me, I’m sure we can find you a job somewhere.”

She smiled, tears started falling, and she wiped them.

“I wish that I could, but I have no idea how to handle this situation.”

“It’s easy, it’s just meant to be you and me, baby.”

“I mean, the desert, these people, the horrible thing that the preacher said on TV.”

“Oh, that I don’t know either. We will work something as we go on, together.”

She smiled, leaned forward and gave him a little kiss on the lips.

***

The next two weeks, Avril felt powerless, alone and frustrated as she had never been. Chris wouldn’t speak to her, because of Dianne. The Man In Black would only ask her to wait, when she approached him regarding her concerns about the writing of her book. She had even written an ending for it: And the the bitch queen appeared and made Chris into an blabbering zombiefied asshole. She was convinced it would never pass editing, though.

She wondered how much of what she was feeling was jealousy, and how much was stubbornness, she could find no friends or partners in the installation. The workers, all of whom dressed in black constantly, were friendly when she approached, but made no small talk, and always seemed in a hurry to get away to whatever it was that they were doing. Chris avoided her, and she couldn’t figure out why. Dianne was cold to her, as if she feared that Avril was some kind of rival.

Her only entertainment had been watching news, and following what the world was saying about them. She saw how a faction of the army, led by Corporal Anderson had been promoting a military action against the desert enclosure, the corporate country. The first time he heard him, she was scared, but as time passed it was obvious that the man was some kind on nutjob who no one took seriously. She saw the line of Seekers that was growing through the limits of the country, all worshiping Chris as a Harbinger Of Everything Good, and they made her as sick as they always did. She saw the religious freaks who were caught daily trying to sneak in and assassinating the Avatar Of Evil.

At least, she had the comfort of being in the eye of the storm, where everything was calm for the moment.

And then, five days before the 12th of December, before the end of the world, there was a knock at her door. She was bathing at the time, so she grabbed the bath robe that she favored and opened the door, expecting anyone. Anyone except Chris.

“May I come in?” he asked.

“Where’s your better half?” she asked, regretting immediately her passive-aggressive tone.

“She’s sleeping, I wanted to talk to you, but I really don’t want her knowing.”

“Why?”

“Because she wouldn’t like what I have to say.”

Avril moved out of the way, and let him walk into the room. She went into the bathroom to dry herself and get dressed.

“Do you want anything to drink?”

“Coffee, please.”

“Well, you know the machine, serve yourself.”

She dried her hair as well as she could, and let the robe fall to the floor. She was going to get a t-shirt and jeans, but saw Chris peeking, and decided to use the silk robe. She rather have him distracted by lust that moping.

She walked out of the bathroom still brushing her hair. Chris looked at her with eyes full of doubt, for a minute, she felt sorry for him.

“You wanted to talk?”

“I... I’m not sure where to start.”

“The beginning is usually a good point.”

He concentrated on his coffee cup.

“I met Dianne when I was fourteen, and she was twelve. We grew together since then, playing on the same streets, sharing the same toys...”

“So, you come to a woman’s room at midnight to speak about the love off your life sleeping next room? You sure know how to please a lady.” She knew she was being aggressive, but after being in the sidelines for two weeks, she was weary and not ready to forgive him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and she knew it was true, which only made her feel worse. “It’s just, Dianne said she had broken up with me because it would make me happy.”

“It obviously didn’t.”

“That’s the problem: I’m not sure anymore, maybe she was right.”

She hadn’t expected this. She felt silent.

“It’s not that she doesn’t make me happy, she does... I’m just not sure if it is the right kind of happy.”

“There’s no right kind of happy, Chris, there’s happy and... not happy.”

“There is. There’s the kind of happy that helps you become a better person, that allows you to make people around you happy, and then there’s mindless happiness. Being happy at the expense of others, and the kind of happiness that drives you into a rut. There’s drug happy, it might feel good, but it’s bad for you.”

She was speechless again, worried about what he was trying to say.

“When Dianne broke up with me, my first reaction was to live,” he said. “Well, actually, I got blind drunk first, but I decided right then to start living again, to find someone to love, to recover all lost time by doing everything I had wanted to do and couldn’t. That shouldn’t be the reaction to a breakup.”

“Chris...” she said, and stopped, realizing she still didn’t know what to say.

“Now I’m sorry for her. She is trying too hard, she is helping me. She wants to give me back my desire to live, but it’s just not there anymore.”

She grew stiff.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean maybe that priest was right, maybe it’s best for everyone if I just kill myself.”

Before any of the two could figure out what had happened, she had slapped him. Her hand burned, she had hit him really hard. She could see the mark of her fingers in his face, and he had a look of confusion, and fear.

“Chris, never ever talk to me about suicide. I... I was hurt already by someone thinking they were doing the right thing. It never works. It’s never the solution.”

“I... I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

She tried to calm down, but her heart wouldn’t slow.

“It’s OK, you couldn’t know.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“No.”

And then, suddenly, the alarm broke off.

***

The situation had quickly grown out of control. This was meant to be a fast and clean operation, according to Corporal Anderson, but they had never expected such resistance from the General Dynamics people. They wanted to threaten them, maybe shake them a little so they would release Chris Barnett, but after laying siege they had received a message: “If the siege is not broken in the next twenty minutes, this will be considered an act of war and appropriate measures will be taken.” They had all laughed, so safe in their knowledge that this was already won, and then, twenty minutes and not one second more, one of the Jefferson’s head had exploded. They had close to two thousand men, and at least fifty tanks, but they hadn’t still been able to take down one single corporate and they had already lost too many. And then, those fanatics that were worshipping the Devil had turned on them, as they had expected, but had been far more deadly than anything they had expected. Most of them had been armed, and trained. Father Lucas suspected that General Dynamics had being preparing an army just for this.

He jumped into the tank, where Anderson was shouting and cursing.

“We’ve been tricked, we might lose this, Father, we need to turn around.”

“We can’t!” he screamed. “We’ve only got five days left, we need to kill him now, who’s on the tank to our left?”

“That’s Marcel.”

“Let’s ram this things into the complex. We need to find him.”

“We have no idea what’s inside, we can’t do that, it’s suicide.”

“Remember, Anderson, God’s on our side, we cannot loose this one!”

The radio went live.

“He’s right,” said Marcel, “for God and country!”

They saw the tank gaining speed. It was headed directly towards the complex and they saw it ran over two Seekers that had been firing at them a few seconds earlier.

“This is crazy,” said Corporal Anderson, but he started behind Marcel’s tank all the same. Father Lucas looked at the tactical display and saw that at least four other tanks were following them. He smiled.

“God bless us all.”

***

When Chris ran into the hallway, he saw Dianne looking at him.

“What were you doing in her room?” she asked.

Avril came after him, with her robe flapping behind her. Chris noticed the way Dianne looked at her and didn’t like it at all.

“What is going on?” said Avril.

“I have no idea!” he screamed. The doors were opening, and the hallway was getting flooded with people who looked startled, scared or afraid. He noticed there was an awful lot of kids. He had seen many of this people through the complex, wives and husbands and children of the men who worked for General Dynamics. They never spoke to him, but he had seen some of them speaking behind his back. Right now, however, everyone was looking at him, even Dianne and Avril.

“Get back to your rooms!” he screamed. “It’s probably safer there!”

Then, a voice echoed over the complex.

“The complex is under attack, but the situation is under control. I repeat, the situation is under control. Please proceed to your nearest underground bunker as indicated by the safety lights at your disposal until safety is restored.”

People started moving towards the light, going past Chris, Avril and Dianne. Dianne looked at Chris for a long time, with a look he couldn’t recognize, but that he felt was full of disappointment. The three of them started walking with the rest without saying another word. They reached a flight of stairs going down that none of them had seen yet, and Avril took them straight away. Dianne touched his sleeve, gently, and he turned to look at her.

“Why were you in her room?”

“Dianne, this is not...”

“I need to know, Chris, and I need to know now.”

He felt a sense of dismay that made him scared, and he felt smaller than he had ever felt. He raised his hand to touch her cheek, but she pulled away.

And then, suddenly, there was a deep rumble that made the floor tremble. He saw cracks appearing on the wall, and grabbed Dianne. He tried to pull her into the stairs, but she struggled and freed herself. He turned to hold her again and felt her slapping him even harder than Avril had five minutes ago. The rumble grew, and suddenly the wall caved in. Chris and Dianne looked at the mess, and saw a battered and damaged tank crash into the wall of the hallway. Chris noticed how time froze, and he started running towards the stairs. Dianne followed him this time, just a few inches behind.

Chris didn’t dare looking back, but he heard a loud bang, followed by a crazy laugh, and suddenly his ringing ears were full of shooting sounds. He ducked into the stairs, and rolled into a ball, stopping as soon as she could. He composed himself and turned to watch for Dianne, she was falling as he had, just behind him, and he readied himself to catch her but something wasn’t quite right. He spread his arms and got her falling body and was crushed by the impact. He started falling again and noticed something wet, sticky and hot dripping over him. He tried to hold her head, but found jagged edges and wet hair instead of her skull. He looked at her and saw the hole were he was holding her, the disfigured head and the blood that covered her back.

He was unable to react, unable to breathe, and felt like he was falling again, but he was kneeling on the stairs. The shooting had ended, but there was a man looking at him from the top of the stairs, with a smoking rifle in his hands. The man grinned, and it was the worst kind of grin that Chris had never seen. He aimed at him with slow, controlled movements, and with all the cold blood of a child pulling a spider’s legs.

Chris was unable to scream, as his lungs felt empty. He cradled the dead weight he was holding in his arms, trying with all his might to grant her the life he didn’t want. He wanted to ask the man to do it, he was ready for it.

And then, with no apparent reason, the man eyes went white and he fell to the floor.

Chris waited for a second, unable to understand anything, until at the top of the stairs, the man in black appeared. He stood over the lifeless killer and looked at Chris, who was still holding Dianne’s lifeless corpse.

And then, the man in black smiled. “Everything will be alright, Chris,” he said as the doors were closing with a bang.