It was on one of our missions to Poluim that it all started. Everyone knows Poluim. It's a city of peace and pleasure. But in November 2020, we saw Poluim without clothes. And she didn't look pretty. The city, though with a big mouth was quite now. Its silence as an assassin's. Its beautiful buildings, entirely empty. Poluim looked dead. Even its walls, they were all covered by cob webs. There was no form of movement except ours, and this didn't make any sense. We were ordered by Davis. Why will he lie?
“Call him. I think there has to be some kind of explanation to this .”
So I did just as Justice suggested. But he never picked . After hours of frustration, I heard my phone ring. "Davis, what the hell is going on?” I asked on the phone. “If you want us dead, all you have to do is ask.”
“I'm sorry." He said ."I had no option.Kill them ! Kill all of them”.
“ Who do you want dead that is living here?"
He didn't answer.
"Davis! " I yelled several times until I heard him. And guess what he said? Nothing . All I can recall is his scream after. It was so loud that it blacked me out.
"Max! Wake up! "
I remember hearing a voice sinking these words down the walls of my ear lobes. It was Justice and he was examining my eyes with some kind of torch like a scientist.
“You'll live." He concluded." Whatever it was, it's not as bad as our situation."
"And what's bad about our situation? "
" You mean he didn't say?"
" Say what ?"
"This is even worst than I thought".
"What are you talking about?"
" Davis. I mean don't you remember ? "
" Who is Davis? " I dived back into memory, thinking of people I use to know until I found him. " I know Davis. " I said to him. "We were just talking when ..."
" When what?"
"God, I think Davis is in trouble."
“If Davis is in trouble, then what do you call this place? …Paradise? Please." Justice said, laughing at me." Look around. We are the ones in trouble...”
And he was right. Our vehicles were no where in sight. Our food , no where in Poluim. Our weapons, stolen. “ What about my team?” I asked him.
“You don’t want to know. When I say gone, I mean everyone and everything. We are the only ones here.”
"That is where you are wrong", Joe revealed himself from his hideout- an old car in Poluim full of skulls.
“Joe?"
"In the bones and flesh."
"Where in poluim have you been?” I felt my fingers tapping on my hips , waiting for him to answer.
“Like he said, you don’t want to know."
And he was right . l wanted to slap the madness out of Joe when I saw two women with no clothes walk out from his hideout .
" I'm Alice. " The first said, waving her bra at me.
"Call me Judith.It's not my name but I like it". That's what the second said.
We discovered another surviver later on-John. So you see, loneliness was not our problem, food was. And our urge for it would have been our secret had Joe the brains to shut his mouth .
Being a man in charge of this team, I'd say Joe was like a man without purpose. While we were searching for food , all he found were questions to boil me up . Questions that have nothing to do with food like these ones:
"Why do I act different because of others? Am I the people I meet? Why do different people behave like me? Is nature something possible to change? Last night,he heard them call me good. Am I really?" I answered none of his useless questions.
"Who are we ? Deaf people ? " He said,finally deporting the patience I had from me.
That's why I punched him in the nose. Have you forgotten what happen in Zion? We sat next to death all because of Joe. He wouldn’t stop asking stupid questions. I lost an arm in that explosion. Look at my arm ! An AI device I’m suppose to use as a replacement? His nose, which was now broken and badly bleeding, served him right.
“Enough of this,” Justice said, separating the two of us.
“Whoever sent us here wants us dead. Don't make it easy for him ."
I pushed my chair aside , stood up in poise, looked each member in the eye to deliver what I hoped would be the light at the end of our tunnel, a piece of pride that will erode our fears, a picture with power that would inspire us. “Team", I begun. "I don't know the enemy we are up against, but when I take a look at our uniform, I call into memory our past, our hard training, the voices of dead soldiers, our families, the conscience that guides our actions, the truth we create about ourselves, the spirit that lives within us and most importantly our unique mission, the ambition that unites us. We are not cowards. We may be humans, groomed by our experiences and fears; but our identity is more than these, it’s the ideal self we hold on to when the odds are against us, the self that never changes no matter our cicumstance. We choose to survive where many have died. We choose to face our enemies even if we are blind. It’s not our successes or failures that define us. It’s our intentions. So believe with me when I say we intent to survive."
"We intent to survive", they all chanted.
“I don’t mean to be cynical. But after dumping my questions, how do you call this a plan?" Joe asked, diluting my glory deliberately .
“You want a plan? Here!” I angrily said, offering him a lacer gun. That must have shocked the devil hidden in him. No one knew I had guns. “Any one else in doubt? " I asked. But there was none." These weapons should be your skin, your clothes and your protection. " I said, offering each member a lacer gun.
“I’ll keep an eye on the women." Joe proposed, laughing."You can watch the men."
The next morning, when I counted all my faces, I realised one was missing- Joe's. He left behind a bag, his gun, a bottle of water and a knife. Joe needed these things. So why would he leave without them .I was confused.
Outside the hotel where I stood, I heard a "pep" sound coming from a door . " Everybody out now." I cautioned, quickly running from the hotel .It was a bomb and it exploded our shelter into a thousand pieces.
Who would put a bomb in a peaceful city like Podium? We all wondered, watching the hotel burn as if it was a part of us.
“How could he do this to us?” Justice cried.
“Like I said, it's our intentions that defines us. It's not what we do. ”
We grouped ourselves in two in search of Joe . It was during this search that I noticed an unread message sent by Davis.
They are not their names we can change ours, they are not their actions , we can imitate others, they are not their culture, we can learn , but who can change his soul? Not even I.
And the interesting thing about this message was when it was sent.Before Davis called . Davis only texts when he is in trouble . Things didn't add up . One other thing that didn't add up was where we accidently found Joe as we were searching .He was still asleep, lying in an old bus, butt naked and alive .
From street to street , we roamed till we found a room empty of skeletons , empty of webs, a room we called ours .
I was half asleep in there, when I heard some funny noises outside. When I was out, something rush across the building . “Did anyone see that?" No one did.
It crossed over once again. This time into a tiny hole , and knowing there was no way out , I ordered Joe to fire it out. I don't know if joe was blind or if his disappearance affected his memory, but he almost shot me instead."What is wrong with you ? I quickly grabbed the weapon from him.
"Sorry."
Then I shot the creature stuck in a corner myself . It screamed and that was it.
“ Do you think it’s dead?"
I expanded the tiny hole to find out. And it was. It was a dead dog. Some kind of gas gradually ascended from its body in the air.
"What do you think that is?"
Most of them thought it was just a blue gas that could move like a living thing. But Justice called it a dendritch, a creature from Mars that is capable of dwelling in any living thing, after killing its body and displacing its soul.
"It kills you and pretends to be you ." He added, "This explains life here . Everything is dead because of them. I hope that's the last of them because they can be any of us ".
"What?"
When we were up the next morning, three of us were gone. I couldn't find John ,Alice and Joe . The only one I saw was Justice. " Where is everybody ? " I asked him . But he had no idea.
In an isolated building full of skeletons, that was where we found Alice . Next to her was the body of Judith. She was murdered too. Their bodies were naked and their heads were off, lying next to skulls.
"What is going on ?" I pointed my gun at Justice.
" I didn't do it ! "he said. "But I think I know who did. "
So I followed him to an alien ship he claimed he discovered. It was an abode full of bulbs , most of which were off.
"There is probably three of them ." He said, after counting the bulbs that were on. As soon as we heard footsteps, we hid behind the ship. You won't believe who we saw approaching it. The man I lost an arm to, Joe and the last person I found, John. How did they know about the ship? And what were they doing in it? I peeped through an opening in the ship to see. They put their hands on the bulbs we saw and suddenly two of them lit up. It looked like they were drawing energy from them .
"Mess mess. " Justice signaled me, jumping quickly out of his hide out . I got up and pushed John down knowing what he meant ,struggling with him until I shot him. The next shot I heard was one that killed Joe. I high- fived Justice and together we destroyed the rest of the energy bulbs. However, whatever was glowing in it continue to burn. They were like three balls of fireflies glowing down on the floor before us. Gradually, two of them lost their glow. Then I saw two dendritchs, drifting slowly from the dead bodies behind us ,dissapearing into space.
"Why is this one still glowing?" I asked , examining the last light. When I looked behind me Justice had his gun pointed at me. I'm not one of them, I assured him.
"Then who is the last dendritch?"
" Think about everything." I said to Justice. "Why do you think he sent us? "
