EarthFall

Chap 33 Alive, God damnit

No one said anything as Carson looked them over, one by one. They were all in pretty bad shape, except for Abel, that was. Except for his bloody, dirty exo-suit that had a gaping tear in the side of his abdomen, he looked none the worse for wear.

Tucker's face looked like a raccoon. He had two giant black eyes from when he wrecked the drill rig.

Cornelius was dirty with a capital D. And he still limped from a gash in his leg that Doc had spray sealed. When had he gotten that?"

Brianna's left thigh and a large spot on the back of her shoulder looked like it had 2nd degree burns from close calls with Phase blasts. Her long hair was burnt and split at the ends.

Carson... Carson just felt like shit. He put his hand to his face, wiped, and pulled back a bloody hand.

He sighed and pulled the lever on his rifle, turning the soft white glow of the upper chamber to a deeper red hue.

Everyone else followed suit, setting their rifles to lethal.

Doc saw them out. He said that he would get the children to the docking bay and hijack a ship, if he didn't hear back from them for any length of time longer than 10 minutes. That or he would die trying. So stay in contact, please. Were his words. He gave them a swift salute before retreating back inside to care for the children who needed it.

They walked by the handcuffed woman who had opened the door in the first place. The Canis didn't like her, but it hadn't broken her neck. They had all decided to leave her cuffed until future notice.

Carson looked up as they left the "support" facility at the giant dome. Between the lights and circles, he could see the red giant Jupiter spinning slowly. It seemed fitting to him, that the sky be filled with so much red right now. It fit his mood.

They swept through the facilities of that god forsaken satellite like a plague.

With no mercy.

It went on for hours.

The men always seemed to be dressed in comfortable robes of some kind. And the few women they came across were no better. Usually they ran at the sight of their bloody and torn exo-suits, but not always.

Brianna happened across one man who appeared to be forcing himself on a woman, right in plain view of all the garden to see. She wore the same outfit as the girl in "Support" wore. It looked something like a maid, or culinary staff member would wear. Or the Cleaners for a room for rent.

Carson had taken his head off with a clean shot to his neck. The woman screamed loudly as blood spouted over her unexpectedly.

Carson remembered one citizen woman holding an extravagantly beautiful drink in one hand, as she gave them a look of unbridled disgust.

"Just what the hell do you think your doing--"

Brianna had drilled a hole through her chest and kept moving.

One man had been completely unaware of their presence as they wandered through his house like ghosts. He watched something truly perverted. Cornelius took the top of his head off at point Blank. Then he shot the holo box before moving on.

They took turns.

There had been no children in the extravagant residences they visited, just adults. It was strange. Wrong.

Carson didn't know how many hundreds of people they killed before either the populace wised up and started hiding.

Doc would Comm them with updates periodically when they couldn't find anyone to hunt.