Sondranos: The Narrative of Leon Bishop (34 page)

“
Lancaster
was a great man, and he just needed to grow up before he could
realize what kind of man he was supposed to be,” she
concluded.

“
We cannot
simply lay down our weapons,” the Forgiven man said. “If we do,
then this other menace will attack.”

“
Then stay
armed. But don’t shoot. Let the troops come in; let them secure
this base. I promise, you will not regret it. If you fire,” Melanie
said, “You will never sleep soundly again.”

The Forgiven man turned to the
others. “We will spread the word not to fire unless fired upon,”
the Forgiven man said. He ordered the two by his side to spread out
and start telling the story. Kayt nodded, and watched as the crowd
dispersed.

When they were out of earshot,
Kayt leaned in close to Melanie. “What was that?”

“
A story my
Dad once told me,” she said. “Give or take a few
details.”

“
He was a
good man,” Kayt said. “No matter what Velric said.”

“
A good man
does not always make a good father,” she said.

“
I wish you’d
have gotten the chance to remember him the way you would have
liked,” Kayt set her hand on Melanie’s shoulder as they walked
towards another crowd. Along the way, they continued their private
discussion.

“
I don’t.
Then I’d be dead in Sondranos proper, working a meaningless job in
a place nobody will remember in twenty years’ time, save for the
memorial they might put up. And even then, they’d charge,” Melanie
smiled. It was a false smile, but Kayt returned it nonetheless.
“Because, as you can see, I would have been important enough to
require a cover charge.”

“
Preaching to
the choir,” Kayt said.

Melanie pulled Kayt’s chin up
to meet her eyes. “How are you doing?”

“
It wasn’t
just Lancaster that needed to grow up. I did too.”

“
Have
you?”

“
We’ll see.
Next time I fall in love with someone, we’ll see if it’s for the
right reasons – lust and change isn’t what I should have been
looking for,” she said. “Lancaster kept trying to tell me that. I
never loved him the way he did me, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t
right about me deserving better.”

“
Sounds good
to me.” Melanie cupped Kayt’s jaw in the palm of her hand. She took
a deep breath, arched her eyebrows, and looked over her shoulder.
“That story isn’t going to spread itself. You want to go left, and
I’ll go right?”

Kayt turned to the left, saw a
handful of Belovores trundling down the pavement towards the Hall,
and shook her head. “Better the other way around,” she said. “I’ll
meet you back here once we start hearing the story told to us. Oh,
and Melanie?”

Melanie staggered, and looked
back. “Yes?”

“
I’m sorry we
didn’t get to know you.”

At the time, they operated
under the hopes that the Belovores wouldn’t hear the story because
most of the Forgiven – save for Father Corin and Davion – seemed
compelled to silence around the Belovores. I’m certain the
Belovores would have neglected to listen anyway, as they seemed
infinitely more concerned with their own internal processes.

That is how stories travel;
whomever you tell them to, they will only reach the ears of those
who listen. In addition to Father Corin’s meaning and the
associations of the MacKinnon Commune of the Primary Divinity, the
Forgiven believed that they were never, and would never, be saved.
Their name was how they hoped to be classified in the afterlife.
Since they believed they were to never be saved in a religious
manner, then they would act without the same expectations of
commandments and requirements, and only through their inherent
morality.

The barracks
buzzed with noise
. The Forgiven had left
some of the crates against the empty door while they piled on their
robes inside their rooms and holstered the contents of the crates
over their shoulders. The rifles all looked the same. They might as
well have been right from a few of the gun shops down-town – mass
produced.

Davion, still reluctant, slowed
his steps as we got closer to the end of the hall. We’d passed the
spot where the rifle had fired and left an indentation. Davion
stopped just outside a familiar door which had been barred shut. A
thick wooden beam had been nailed to the outer frame, holding the
door in place. Davion touched it and shrugged his shoulders.

“
She is not
in an enviable position,” Davion said. “You would do well to leave
her be. She is not part of us.”

“
I’m not part
of you,” I said. “Now help me pry it open.”

“
You are
feeling conflicted. I know this,” he started. He placed his hands
on the board but didn’t pull. A Forgiven woman rushed past,
knocking into me. Davion was trying to convince me of his side, and
would so long as I listened; Ironic, considering I planned on doing
the same thing.

I nudged him closer to the
board. I set the rifle against my chest – the strap stung my neck
with coarse threads – and started pulling. Davion sighed and did
the same. The nail that had secured the door to the frame to the
board squealed as it came out.

“
Can you tell
me honestly that the Belovores will survive this?” Davion
asked.

“
No, keep
pulling.”

“
I am,”
Davion grunted, a second nail came loose. “I need to know. I have
been walking blindly all my life, between decision and indecision
for years, all because I know that the Belovores are simply
hurting. They are a dying breed, and will continue to die until
there are no more. How can I allow a creature merely blink out of
existence?”

“
It’s us or
them. We made it that way,” I said.

A third nail popped out. Two
more and the board would be free of the door, although, the door
was already starting to tremble beneath the force of my foot.

“
The human
race will go on far beyond this,” Davion said. “Sondranos will be
nothing more than a footnote. The Belovores only wish to
survive.”

I pulled harder, straining my
shoulder. A surge of red hot pain told me to stop, but I kept
pulling. I jerked again, and it popped loose. The board knocked
Davion back, hitting him in the chest, and sprawling him against a
crate sitting empty in the hallway. I dropped the board, fingered
the rifle and extended a hand to help him up. He eyed me with a
distant look: “Velric hoped his people would survive. He never
thought he was the last of his kind; he was just the last of his
kind on Sondranos. He knew what would happen if he stayed.
Unfortunately, the human race never gave them a realistic
chance.”

“
You’re
talking about Perry?”

“
Who
else?”

Since we were in a safe spot, I
pointed the rifle at Davion. “Tell me about him.”

Davion raised his voice and
pushed out his chest. The barrel of my rifle pressed into his skin.
“He was separated from his natural hive mind. For years he
suffered, and I couldn’t imagine doing the same. Mentally attached
to my own species, and then suddenly severed? Never.”

“
He’s
degraded,” I said.

“
He wept as
Belovores do, and then channelled that sadness into nostalgia for
the past,” Davion said. “Like most of us. Except he holds more
dominion over the Belovores than we do over our own
history.”

I took his words at face value,
and resolved that he didn’t know much more than that. What he’d
given, at least, was Davion’s side of Velric. The rest would
come.

I pushed open the door, which
clacked as the handle brokenly came apart from the frame. Inside,
Annalise sat on the bed. She’d been strapped to it. I was surprised
not to see a gag, but I was awed to see two large welts on the side
of her face. They’d beaten her.

“
Go away,”
Annalise said.

“
Are you…?” I
rushed over and inspected the strap on her wrists.

“
It’s nothing
I haven’t been part of before,” she tightened the strap by pulling
her arm up. She slid to the side to make sure I was watching. I
paused. I’d nearly forgotten that Annalise had taken the blow for
her. Kayt surely would have been killed if it had been her. The
strap was tied to the bedframe, with a lock preventing me from
getting at it. We were running out of time, so I pulled out the
rifle, told Annalise to turn around, and fired at the strap where
it let up from the bedframe. It severed, but not before the bolt
cut the leg of the bed in half, and sent the reverberating sound of
impact throughout the barracks. Annalise jumped to her feet,
wrapped the rest of the strap around her arm, and headed for the
door. Davion watched us. I would have expected him to
leave.

A Forgiven woman stopped just
shy of Davion, “I heard gunfire, is everything well? Isn’t this
room supposed to blockaded?”

“
It is,”
Davion began.

I brandished the rifle as I
jumped to the doorway, “But we have to bring the prisoner to
Velric. He’s asked us since time is running short.”

The Forgiven woman gave me no
attention, but looked to Davion for reassurance instead. He watched
me, noticed me perk the rifle at him, and nodded. The Forgiven
woman crossed herself and fled the opposite direction.

“
You
shouldn’t have bothered. The Belovores are fleeing underground. I
came to just as their lackeys were dragging me out, so I feigned
sleep as they held on to me. I waited and watched as maybe a dozen
Belovore disappeared down this little alleyway outside the
Hall.”

“
Why didn’t
you fight back?”

“
Would
you?”

“
That’s what
I’m doing now,” I raised the rifle.

“
Good, then
you can get people killed,” she said.

“
Underground.
That’s where Velric said he’d been living,” I said. “I’m betting
the rest of the Belovores are going there to hide until it’s time
to come out.”

“
What do you
expect me to do?”

I took a deep breath and
sighed. “I want you to stop feeling sorry for yourself, and help
me, Melanie, and Kayt stop this.”

“
It seems
like you’ve got enough help,” she motioned to Davion.

“
About that,”
I said. “Davion doesn’t seem to believe it himself. He’s not acting
consistent. One minute he goes into confession mode; the next he is
a servant to whatever he happens to believe.”

“
Sounds like
organized religion to me,” Annalise smirked.

“
I’d rather
you not discuss me as if I am not here,” Davion said.

I shook my head and pulled the
rifle strap off my shoulder. I handed it to Annalise. She refused
it and backed away. She may have lost what drove her to
suicide-by-Belovore, but I could still see her fear reflected. I
couldn’t help but consider that I looked the same. I slung the
rifle along my side, and we ushered Davion back out into the
courtyard.

Startling us, Kayt and Melanie
ran up as soon as we left the barracks. I almost jerked my gun
upwards, and the jolt caused my hand to strike towards the trigger.
Melanie held her pistol at her side and huffed.

“
The story is
spreading,” Kayt said.

“
What did you
say?” Annalise asked.

“
Where…?”
Melanie tried to ask, but her breath betrayed her.

“
We’ll talk
later,” Kayt bit back. “The troops are coming.”

“
Where…?”
Melanie tried again. Davion slunk towards her. I ordered him not to
move, but he was still a step closer to Melanie.

“
You’ve been
spreading stories?” Davion asked.

Kayt walked up to him, Annalise
grabbed her by the back of her shirt. Nothing more than you’ve been
doing, murderer.”

Annalise quickly let go and
stepped away. Indecision. I’d seen that in myself before. Once you
have that fear, you never lose it. You can only hope to control it.
“

“
I assure
you, Kayt,” Davion consoled. “I have only been doing what I believe
is right.”

“
Still,” Kayt
turned back to me. “Provided nobody fires their weapon, we
shouldn’t see any gunfire. If what we did works, they’ll be seeing
the troops as a potential rescue.”

“
You have
been spreading lies, and will only hasten the extinction of the
Belovores! The troops will slaughter them,” Davion said. None of us
gave him our attention. Davion coughed, over-exaggerating, leaned
forward, and pulled Melanie’s pistol. He shot her in the chest at
point blank range, and fired again. The gunshots echoed throughout
the commune grounds as the deathly silent morning was interrupted.
It was a second before the silence was filled with a voice yelling
to return fire. The top of the walls, the crow’s nest, and the
hutches surrounding the commune lit up with gunfire.

It had all
happened in
less than a second.

Melanie, startled, fell
backwards. An energy bullet has severed her throat, while another
hung just above her left breast. She scrambled for a moment like a
woman drowning in the air. Annalise and I rushed towards her while
Kayt looked on horror. I cradled her in my arms, I could feel her
gasping for air yet her chest never rose. The blood was warm, and
overtook the metallic smell of the Belovores with sweat and iron.
Annalise pressed her hands to Melanie’s chest and throat. The
slightest bit of pressure caused more blood to seep out.