Phenomenon

When Things Go Wrong

There's a short, muffled, scream, and I glance behind me.

"Penny!" Someone hisses, their voice barely a whispered whimper. The absolute horror is evident in their voice.

"Let me back there." I order Felix, who's directly behind me. I crawl by him (the Fernals' vents are wide but not tall, maybe eighteen inches tall tops), and push by everyone else to get to Penelope Winter, including her brother.

She's laying there in a pool of her own blood, eyes wide and pained. She's still breathing, but it's ragged, and she's staring up at the ceiling of the vent. "I-I couldn't..." Her friend, Mackenna Rudd, gives me a horrified and mournful look.

There's a slash across Penelope's throat, and multiple others across her stomach. I'm not entirely sure what happened, and I can't see Marc. Some sort of metal wall's popped up between us and the last three members of the group. Pretty soon it becomes obvious the wall's also cut Penelope in half horizontally. I pull on the comlink. "Marc, you okay back there?" I ask, For a heart-stopping moment, the only thing that comes through is pure static.

Then his voice comes through. There's muffled crying in the background. "Yeah. We're alive. Probably traumatized in Fierro's case, but alive." He admits. "I'm sitting between Fierro and Jackson and...you know." He takes a shuddery breath, and I know immediately not to ask about what happened. I glance back at Penelope. She's very obviously dead by now, her eyes staring up at the ceiling blankly and without any of their famous light. I close my eyes for a second.

"Head back to base. Leave her there." I sigh after a moment, having a difficult time forcing the words out but knowing that we cannot risk bringing her body back. It's too likely for the Fernals to find her blood leading them back to the base, and there's no way I'm going to risk over two thousand people's lives for the sake of one corpse. Keep it down. You need to be strong for everyone else. Especially for Oliver.

The sheer horror and vulgarity of the situation hits me.

Oliver is just a freshman, a couple years older than his sister.

Penelope was ten. She was a fifth grader.

And now she's dead.

I take another deep breath, the stench of blood hitting my nose. I have to fight down a wave of nausea, and I turn and crawl back to the front. I keep leading everyone else in silence. From the look on Oliver's face as I pass him, he knows full well what just happened to his sister.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We run into another problem while setting up the incendiary bombs. A young Fernal decides to break from the patrol route and just happens to come across us. Of course, I take point and attack immediately. Oliver joins me, wrapping his infamous garrote around the Fernal's neck and holding it tight as I lunge and ram my blade in between the Fernal's jaw and neck. His eyes are narrowed and reddish, and it's obvious he's been fighting back tears for a while now. The Fernal lets out a choking noise and crumples, eyes rolling back into his head and collapses to the ground. Oliver and I dart out from under his body(he's roughly the size of a six month old giraffe, so he's pretty big for an adolescent, but his horns aren't defined well enough for him to be an adult). "Charges set?" I demand, glancing over my shoulder. One of the other cadets, Winona Tyler, finishes typing something into the keypad.

"Let's go." She stands up, looking much older than a freshman. Her black hair hangs in a thick fishtail braid over one shoulder, and her narrowed brown eyes indicate she's determined to finish this up and get revenge on the Fernals.

"Not so fast." Another voice announces from the doorway. I scowl at one of the first Fernals I'd ever met.

"Cala."