THE END

Chapter 18

He falls silent and sinks to the ground. I've never seen him so worked up. He's always cool and collected, no matter what danger we're in. But I realize he's right, as usual. We have no hope of help now.

"Neil..." I finally say, sitting beside him. "It's not your fault. You couldn't have known they would bomb Saturn. And hey, if they're really that cruel, it should only be more validation for you to blow them up. Now that you know they're really willing to do anything to win, it won't be as hard to make sure they lose." We had both been worried about the moral aspect of blowing up Mars, whether it was the right thing. But these people don't care about morals. Mars is filled with hardened ex-cons who will do anything to ensure that they succeed.

They've played themselves off as the civilized rulers of all the planets for so long, but now we know otherwise.

It's just us against them now.

After a few minutes of silence, Neil says grudgingly, "Dammit." and pulls himself off the ground to start working again. He works harder, faster, with renewed vigor and a fire in his eyes I hadn't seen in a while. He really wants to bring Mars down.

He wants to end this war for good.

.....................

Apparently Mars found out that they didn't kill us after all, because they're back the next day to fight again. But after three days of countless deaths and endless fighting, after three days of Neil working diligently, he suddenly cries out, "I think I've figured it out!"

"What?" I ask, taken by surprise.

"How to blow up mars from within. I can send a signal from here to Mars' core. It should be such a high pitched frequency that we can't hear it, but it'll mess with Mars' magnetics and trigger an explosion." He explains. "Plus, since we're in a Metal Head with its own magnetic power, the signal should be undetectable to Mars. They won't know it's been sent, and if they do, they won't know where it came from."

"Then do it!"

"Not yet..." He says. "I still don't know if I like the idea of blowing up the entire planet. Not because I'd feel bad killing them, I mean they've never showed remorse before when killing their own citizens. But because then there would only be 150 humans left. That's not enough. Plus it could backfire and mess with our magnetics, blowing us up too."

"Oh." I say. "Well, keep it as a last resort anyways. If we don't have any option but to wipe out the race."

"Yeah."

.....................

The next two days we join everyone else in the fighting, taking out as many Mars men as we can. We're focused solely on survival, not bothering with morals and ethics anymore. It's less important to me now whether or not I kill someone. What's more important is taking them out before they can kill me.

But on the third day, when we go out ready to fight as usual, the Mars men act differently than before. Instead of shooting at anything that moves, they march in unison, heading directly for us. We move out of the way but they change their course and come after us again. Eventually Neil and I are separated from the group and we end up literally sprinting away from them. The Mars men follow, but thankfully they're slower than us. It's deliberate though, like they know they'll catch us eventually, so why bother to waste their energy running? Where could we go that they wouldn't find us?

We make it to a Metal Head, although not our lair, and run inside. We slam the heavy door shut and I collapse on the ground. We both know exactly why the Mars men are targeting us in particular. "They must have found out." I say.

"How could they?" Neil asks frantically, barricading the door with anything he can get his hands on. "I didn't send out the signal yet, and if I had, the Metal Head would have made sure we were undetected."

"Did anything else give off a signal? Could another machine have been detected?" I ask as we make our way to the farthest corner to hide. We both know it's only a matter of time before the Mars men get through the door. We're sitting ducks.

"I don't know. I don't know..." Neil says as we pull supplies on top of us and all around us to protect us from the bullets we know will come. I hear gun shots outside and see indents in the thick door where the bullets almost made it through.

I'm reminded of that day back on Earth, so long ago. Neil and I were hiding in the corner of an old cellar, trying to go unnoticed so we wouldn't be evacuated. Dirt was everywhere, dust in the air, the sound of bombs blocking out everything else...

"What do you think they'll do when they find us?" I ask him, shaking myself out of the horrible memory.

"I don't know." He says again. "I mean we were planning to blow up Mars. That's the highest form of treason to the officials. If they follow their usual rules, we'll be killed on sight. I'm surprised we weren't shot as we ran here."

I look into his eyes and he pulls me close. The door is forced open, inch by agonizing inch.

I had hoped my last moments of life would have been spent better. There's still so much I want to do. There are so many things I wish I could say to Neil before we die, but I can't get a word out. I just hold him tighter and hope he knows what I mean without me having to say it.

The door is all the way open now. The room is light. I hear the marching start up again as the Mars men make their way to our corner. I feel the supplies ripped off, piles knocked over, until there's nothing between us and them.

I want to scream, I want to run, I want to fight back. But I can't do anything. There's nowhere to go.

One of the men raises his gun and aims directly at us. I close my eyes and pray that it'll be quick.