Anti-Hero

Chapter Two

I stared, mouth open. How could he expect us to round up children like this? We’d done what we could, certainly, and his blasted soldiers had helped; though, they’d been more hindrance than help most of the time. 

His eyes narrowed as his gaze traveled over my body, and I felt the need to put on more clothes than my simple business skirt and red v-neck shirt. “You’re coming, too,” he finally ground out, voice pained. 

“What?” My voice squeaked, and I could have cursed myself. 

“Not my choice,” he said gruffly. “Orders. All the third gens, and you.” 

My brain was whirling as I watched a soldier carry off the body of the silvery haired girl. I couldn’t process this. What could they possibly want with me? They hated me. Or at least, I thought they did. Certainly the captain did. 

“You have a week,” he said, finally taking a step back, and I realized everything had been put back to rights. The children were removed from the room, and his soldiers were standing in a line in front of him. “Soldiers, I leave you with Ms. Harmon. She’ll see you to your next command unit.” 

He stepped out of the room, and I heard the whooshing sound of it closing before the latch clicked into place. 

“Well, freak, can we get out of here?” 

The voice snapped me out of my whirling thoughts, and I stared into the face of the soldier whose helmet was still in place. His face was broad and his nose was large. His eyes were a muddy brown color, and it appeared he was smirking at me. I glared at him in response. 

“Around here,” I replied evenly, glancing at him and the rest of the soldiers, “you’re the freaks. You may want to get some colored contacts and be a little less prone to label people. We tend to be all inclusive around here and your inferiority complexes won’t fit in.” 

His eyes narrowed, but I caught it, the faintest shimmer of something. I wasn’t sure what it was. Before I could piece it together, another soldier snapped, “Inferiority complexes? We’re not the children of walking diseases. You’ve got a lot of nerve thinking we have an inferiority complex, lady. We’re soldiers, and we serve our country. All you do is add to the problem.” 

I laughed. This was normal. I’d heard it before, and I would hear it from soldiers again, but I had to get it out of them before they came out of the game room. It was part of my job description, and not the part I enjoyed most. 

“Look, I may be the child of someone who had a disease and passed it onto me, but you are sorely mistaken if you think I don’t serve my country,” I told the soldier, my eyes narrowing at him. “You’d be lost without someone like me around to make sure your precious third gens don’t get to this room and end up more scarred than sane. The fact they won’t remember their lives before this is a blessing for them. They won’t have to remember the atrocious conditions you’ve left us to, and they won’t have to remember what happened to their parents or grandparents. So don’t lecture me about serving my country. I do more for it than you ever could by helping those children.” 

The words poured out easier than before. I’ve rehearsed them so many times they almost sound genuine, believable. I’ve had the conversation with so many friends it could be real. But it isn’t. It’s all for the benefit of this simple-minded soldier who thinks he knows more than I do. 

I looked around at the rest of the group. “Anyone else have any witty comments or sarcastic remarks to make?” No one moved. I nodded and said, “Good. In that case, here’s what you need to know before we leave this room. You won’t be among friends until you’re back with your bigoted command unit.” I held up a hand to stop a comment from one of the soldiers. “I don’t care if you want to say that’s unfair. You’re racist as much as anyone else on that side of the door,” I said, pointing firmly to the door they’d come from. “You won’t believe me unless you meet some of us and become friends with us, but you’re too poisoned against freaks like me to ever do anything like that.” My words were labored now, and I couldn’t help feeling the truth of what I was saying. The soldiers looked on, some shifting their weight from side to side, others looking bored. “Don’t mistake me, though. We’re just as racist. We don’t want anything to do with people on the other side of the wall because we’ve been caged. Would you want anything to do with your captors?” The soldiers stood there in shock, staring at me. “I didn’t think so,” I continued.